WIST Quotations

Beard, Charles -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I am convinced that the world is not a mere bog in which men and women trample themselves and die. Something magnificent is taking place here amidst the cruelties and tragedies, and the supreme challenge to intelligence is that of making the noblest and best in our curious heritage prevail.

Charles Beard (1874–1948) American historian
(Attributed)

In Will Durant, On the Meaning of Life (1932)

Beard, Charles -- Address, American Political Science Assoc., St. Louis, Missouri (29 Dec 1926)

Dave — Tue, 03 May 2011 13:54:04 +0000

Let us put aside resolutely that great fright, tenderly and without malice, daring to be wrong in something important rather than right in some meticulous banality, fearing no evil while the mind is free to search, imagine, and conclude, inviting our countrymen to try other instruments than coercion and suppression in the effort to meet destiny with triumph, genially suspecting that no creed yet calendared in the annals of politics mirrors the doomful possibilities of infinity.

Charles Beard (1874–1948) American historian
Address, American Political Science Assoc., St. Louis, Missouri (29 Dec 1926)

Reprinted as "Time, Technology, and the Creative Spirit in Political Science," The American Political Science Review, (February 1927)

Beard, Charles -- Summary of human history, in reply to George S. Counts

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad with power;
The mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small;
The bee fertilizes the flower it robs;
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Charles Beard (1874–1948) American historian
Summary of human history, in reply to George S. Counts

See also Euripides, George Herbert.