Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Confess Which Historical Quotes Give Them The Chills

People Confess Which Historical Quotes Give Them The Chills
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
Make us preferred on Google

History is littered with horror and fright.

And much of it is journaled and cataloged for our reading pleasure.

Which sometimes is reading that can leave one a bit on edge.

That's because some of our best long-dead wordsmiths left some serious echoes.

Now we all do love a good speech.

We're especially entranced when the speaker has that certain... "thing."

But once and awhile when you listen and really dig deep, they are less inspirational and more morbid


Redditor KeyWar8755 wanted to compare notes on the words we can't shake. They asked:

"What’s a quote from history that gives you chills?"

I always listen to famous serial killers. So I've long been tainted.

To the Sea

Season 3 Nbc GIF by ManifestGiphy

"'It is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated […] that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.'"

"General Sherman, from a letter sent in May of 1865 in the midst of his march to the sea."

TTTriplicate

Loss in Life

“'WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.'― Smedley Butler"

ayayaJAMMER

Shoot

"'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.' -- Dwight D. Eisenhower"

zyygh

Dirty

"'In Germany, the one who complains about the dirt is considered much more dangerous than the one making something dirty.' -Kurt Tucholsky"

"(Not an exact translation, the original quote is in German)"

EsszettOfficial

I'll Find You

looney tunes marco GIF by Looney Tunes World of MayhemGiphy

"Nobody believed Marco Polo’s stories about travelling through Asia, and on his deathbed someone asked him to admit he had made it all up. His response was 'I have not told half of what I have seen.' That always got my imagination going. I would have liked to have heard his stories straight from him."

mariam67

I've always wondered about Marco Polo's origins.

Dreams

Hungry Hanna Barbera GIF by Warner ArchiveGiphy

“'All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.' T. E. Lawrence"

Kravashera

Time to Die

"'I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die.' — Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner"

cisforcoffee

Send it All...

"'Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle… If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send another.' - Said by Josip Broz Tito to Joseph Stalin"

ChangKaiShek2

Death

“'I used to have five brothers, now I'm not even a brother' - Kevin Von Erich"

"His older brother died at the age of 6. His younger brother David died suddenly at 25. His three youngest brothers all killed themselves at 33, 23, and 21. Between 1984 and 1993 he went from having four younger brothers to not being a brother."

ToxicBanana69

Remember

Martin Luther King Jr Mlk GIF by IdentityGiphy

"'We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.' - Martin Luther King, Jr."

RecalledBurger

Power

"'We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or make it the last.' - John F. Kennedy"

VerdHorizon

Hard Truth

"'There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.' --Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"

thatsnotmyf**kinname

"Whew! The timing."

imheretoupvotes**t

"Seen too many once in a generation depressions and once in a hundred years extreme weather events."

Meritania

Pay Attention

"'A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.' Robert Heinlein"

underpressure65

"Here in Latin America we have a similar saying: 'Un pueblo sin memoria es un pueblo sin futuro.' Which means 'A nation without memories is a nation without a future.'"

Guilhermedidi

NOW!

gordon ramsay fox GIF by MasterChef JuniorGiphy

"'They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.' -Robert Heinlein"

Hob_O_Rarison

"Damn. I work in manufacturing and this hit me right in the paycheck."

XXPapaZombieXX

Take Notice

"'Why show anger to the world, as if the world would notice.'"

Wehfi

"I like this. Who said it?"

-Saltyz

"It's a double quotation. It's best known today as a quotation from the Meditations by Stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, but he was himself quoting from the Greek play Bellerophon by Euripedes."

contramundi

Bull Moose

"'Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose. But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I was going to make a long speech, and there is a bullet - there is where the bullet went through - and it probably saved me from it going into my heart. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best.' -Teddy Roosevelt"

herculesmeowlligan

Pay Up

“'It will cost what it will.' - Albert von Bredow"

"After receiving orders to charge the French infantry. Would become one of the last successful cavalry charges used in battle. More than half of them died in the charge."

KingOfWinteryIce

DONE

Proud Ides Of March GIF by Checkatrade.comGiphy

"'The die is cast - Ceasar'"

"He said that after sending Roman troops to the border of Italy and Callia which marked the beginning of a Civil War."

Lanxol

Franz

“'One day the Great European War will come out of some damn foolish thing in the Balkans.' - Otto Von Bismarck"

"Said in 1888, 26 years before Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo triggering World War One."

Superb-Possibility-9

These are some powerful words that have stood the test of time.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshot of Mike Pence; Donald Trump
C-SPAN; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Mike Pence Reveals Trump's Telling Response After Pence Offered His Prayers Following Jan. 6 Rift

Vice President Mike Pence told the audience during his appearance at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. that President Donald Trump rejected his offer of "praying" for him following their public rift in the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection.

Pence has long appeared to play both sides, on one hand condemning Trump for pushing the "Big Lie" that the 2020 election was fraudulent, while on the other accusing Democrats of not advocating for election integrity. But he has been out of Trump's good graces for years now since his decision to certify Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Keep ReadingShow less
Shailene Woodley attends the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California.
Monica Schipper/Getty Images

Shailene Woodley's Stylist For The Emmys Calls Out 'Super Rude And Mean' Comments About Actor's Look

Shailene Woodley has plenty going on right now, including her first Emmy win and an ex-fiancé suddenly sharing intimate details about their relationship. Yet somehow, the internet has decided her red carpet outfit is the situation requiring immediate attention.

Woodley attended Monday’s 78th Primetime Emmy Awards after already having a pretty good reason to celebrate. The 34-year-old won her first Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for playing Annie Clay in season 2 of Hulu’s Paradise at the Creative Arts Emmys on September 6.

Keep ReadingShow less
Jennifer Lopez
Marc Piasecki/WireImage

Minnesota Shoplifter's Mugshot Goes Viral After People Think She Looks A Lot Like Jennifer Lopez

BREAKING: Megastar Jennifer Lopez has been arrested for shoplifting in Minnesota—oh wait, it's just a woman who LOOKS like Jennifer Lopez.

But like, really, really looks like Jennifer Lopez. So much so her mugshot is going viral.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Maria Elvira Salazar; Donald Trump
@MaElviraSalazar/X; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

MAGA Florida Rep. Breaks With Trump To Call Out His Immigration Crackdown For Going 'Too Far' In Surprising Video

Florida Republican Representative Maria Elvira Salazar harshly criticized President Donald Trump over his immigration crackdown in a new campaign ad, though many critics aren't too sympathetic to her claim that MAGA voters feel "betrayed."

The video marks a striking departure for Salazar, long regarded as one of Trump’s allies in Congress. After endorsing his 2024 presidential bid and receiving his full support for her reelection campaign, Salazar has now emerged as a rare Republican voice openly criticizing the administration’s immigration approach.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

New Photos Of Trump On Air Force One Seemingly Reveal His Alarming Plans For The Kennedy Center

Viral photos of President Donald Trump have sparked alarm after they were captured by a Getty photographer, showing President Donald Trump looking at what appeared to be a posterboard presentation about the future of the Kennedy Center.

Only a small portion of the poster board could be seen, but the legible text suggested a connection to the Kennedy Center and included the word “DEMOLISH." The images were captured by Getty Images photographer Brendan Smialowski.

Keep ReadingShow less