There comes a time in the history of nations when their peoples must become fully reconciled to their past if they are to go forward with confidence to embrace their future.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past.
History shows that nations are more fragile than their citizens think. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time.
One faces the future with one's past.
In history, the moments during which reason and reconciliation prevail are short and fleeting.
An accurate knowledge of the past of a country is necessary for everyone who would understand its present, and who desires to judge of its future.
Future peace, prosperity and confidence depend not just on ourselves but on the success of all nations. Hence, we are all partners, no matter what our backgrounds, cultures, faiths and histories.
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.
Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it.
They spend their time looking forward to the past.
In every era, there are only one or two moments when nations come together and reach agreements that make history, because they change the course of history.