John Hirst > Quotes

“May 1915. The Australians, who were about to go into action for the first time in trying circumstances, were cheerful, quiet and confident. There was no sign of nerves nor of excitement. As the moon waned, the boats were swung out, the Australians received their last instructions, and men who six months ago had been living peaceful civilian lives had begun to disembark on a strange and unknown shore in a strange land to attack an enemy of a different race. The boats had almost reached the beach, when a party of Turks, entrenched ashore, opened a terrible fusillade with rifles and a Maxim. Fortunately, the majority of the bullets went high. The Australians rose to the occasion. Not waiting for orders, or for the boats to reach the shore, they sprang into the sea, and, forming a sort of rough line, rushed at the enemy’s trenches. Their magazines were not charged, so they just went in with cold steel. It was over in a minute. The Turks in the first trench were either bayoneted or they ran away, and their Maxim was captured.”
― John Hirst, The Australians: Insiders and Outsiders on the National Character since 1770

“It is somewhat odd that those who are most opposed to tradition and fixed roles in European society hold up as a model Aboriginal society with its pre-programmed roles sanctioned by an unquestionable tradition.”
― John Hirst, Sense & Nonsense in Australian History

“Latin is the language of Romans.”
― John Hirst, The Shortest History of Europe

“Multiculturalists encourage vagueness about 'contributions' to give the impression of equal participation, as in the 'new age' school sports where every player in the team must handle the ball before a goal can be scored. If one were to compose a more precise ethnic history it would read something like this: The English, Irish and Scots were the founding population; they and their children established the Australian nation.”
― John Hirst, Sense & Nonsense in Australian History

“New South Wales did not begin as a penal colony; it is better to think of it beginning as a colony of convicts... Why wasn't early New South Wales a penal colony? The short answer is that British officials in 1786 could not conceive of such a beast: a society of wardens and prisoners designed for punishment and control, as the French ran much later on Devil's Island.”
― John Hirst, Australian History in Seven Questions

“If you want to know what it is to feel the ‘correct’ social world fizzle to nothing, you should come to Australia. It is a weird place. In the established sense, it is socially nil. Happy-go-lucky, don’t-you-bother, we’re-in-Australia. But also there seems to be no inside life of any sort: just a long lapse and drift. A rather fascinating indifference, a physical indifference to what we call soul or spirit. It’s really a weird show. The country has an extraordinary hoary, weird attraction. As you get used to it, it seems so old, as if it had missed all this Semite-Egyptian-Indo-European vast era of history, and was coal age, the age of great ferns and mosses. It hasn’t got a consciousness – just none – too far back. A strange effect it has on one. Often I hate it like poison, then again it fascinates me, and the spell of its indifference gets me. I can’t quite explain it: as if one resolved back almost to the plant kingdom, before souls, spirits and minds were grown at all: only quite a live, energetic body with a weird face.”
― John Hirst, The Australians: Insiders and Outsiders on the National Character since 1770

“When the Germans invaded the Roman Empire they did not intend to destroy it. They were coming for plunder, to get the best lands and to settle down and enjoy the good things of life. They were happy to acknowledge the emperor’s rule. But the trouble was that in the 400s so many Germans came, and took so much land, there was nothing left for the emperor to control. In effect the Roman Empire came to an end because there was nothing left to rule.”
― John Hirst, The Shortest History of Europe

“Geometry is a simple, elegant, logical system, very satisfying, and beautiful.”
― John Hirst, The Shortest History of Europe

“Much of what now passes for social science is concerned not to explain human differences but to explain them away.”
― John Hirst, Sense & Nonsense in Australian History

“تقسيم بولندا”
― John Hirst, ‫أوروبا: تاريخ وجيز‬

“Since Australia is an outgrowth of England, European civilisation is also the field of study for an intelligible history of Australia. This does not mean that every history of Australia has to begin with Charlemagne. It does mean that Australian history not set within European civilisation will convey a very poor understanding of Australian society.”
― John Hirst, Sense & Nonsense in Australian History

“إذا تم التساؤل عن كل شيء، فسيفقد الناس وجهتهم، لا يمكن العيش بالعقل وحده، يجب أن تكون هناك تقاليد، وعادات، ودين حتى يوجه الناس، ويجعل المجتمع ممكنًا.”
― John Hirst, ‫أوروبا: تاريخ وجيز‬

“İngiltere'de Protestanlık özgürlükle daha sıkı ilintiliydi çünkü İngiltere'nin düşmanları
-Fransa ve İspanya'nın mutlakıyetçi kralları- Katolik'ti ve
parlamentoyu atlatmaya çalışan İngiliz kralları ya Katolik'ti
veya Katolikliğe gerekli sertliği göstermeyen krallar olarak
görülüyorlardı. Parlamentoyu muhafaza etmekle Protestan
inancını muhafaza etmek aynı ülkü haline geldi.”
― John Hirst, Kısa Avrupa Tarihi

“Historians are meant to be able to explain things but when they come up against the big things — why, for example, in these little city-states there were minds so logical, so agile, so penetrating — they have no convincing explanation.”
― John Hirst, The Shortest History of Europe