33 Quotes by Hendrik Willem van Loon

The history of the world is the record of a man in quest of his daily bread and butter.

Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession - their ignorance.

Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession – their ignorance.

High in the North in a land called Svithjod there is a mountain. It is a hundred miles long and a hundred miles high and once every thousand years a little bird comes to this mountain to sharpen its beak. When the mountain has thus been worn away a single day of eternity will have passed.

For history is like life. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

The world is in dreadful need of men who will assume the new leadership – who will have the courage of their own visions and who will recognise clearly that we are only at the beginning of the voyage, and have to learn an entirely new system of seamanship.

The foundation for a new era was laid but yesterday. The human was given its first chance to become truly civilised when it took courage to question all things and made ‘knowledge and understanding’ the foundation upon which to create a more reasonable and sensible society of human beings.

History is the mighty Tower of Experience, which Time has built amidst the endless fields of bygone ages. It is no easy task to reach the top of this ancient structure and get the benefit of the full view. There is no elevator, but young feet are strong and it can be done.

Never worry about what may happen tomorrow, for in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, it won’t. And don’t take things too seriously, for very few things are worth it.