You have reckoned that history ought to judge the past and to instruct the contemporary world as to the future. The present attempt does not yield to that high office. It will merely tell how it really was.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The past always seems somehow more golden, more serious, than the present. We tend to forget the partisanship of yesteryear, preferring to re-imagine our history as a sure and steady march toward greatness.
We must delve deep into history the better to engage a true dialogue of civilisations. Fear of the present can impose upon the past its own biased vision.
History is one of those marvelous and necessary illusions we have to deal with. It's one of the ways of dealing with our world with impossible generalities which we couldn't live without.
History is the interpretation of the significance that the past has for us.
We live in an era with no historical precedents. History is no longer useful as a tool in helping us understand current changes.
The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.
There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks. They fear the future, mistrust the present, and invoke the security of a comfortable past which, in fact, never existed.
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
The past has to inform the present.
History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.