Historical Momentum Quotes

Life cannot be destroyed for good, neithercan history be brought entirely to a halt. A secret streamlet trickles on beneath the heavy lid of inertia and pseudo-events, slowly and inconspicuously undercutting it. It may be a long process, but one day it must happen: the lid will no longer hold and will start to crack. This is the moment when something once more begins visibly to happen, something truly new and uniquesomething truly historical, in the sense that history again demands to be heard.

Why do people resist [engines, bridges, and cities] so? They are symbols and products of the imagination, which is the force that ensures justice and historical momentum in an imperfect world, because without imagination we would not have the wherewithal to challenge certainty, and we could never rise above ourselves.

History doesn't crawl; it leaps.

An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.

Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.

There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.

... the decades looked on and didn't notice her passing. They stared from their fixed mounts across at each other and didn't see revolution striding between them, on her way to destiny.

Revolutions never go backward.

Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out.