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.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
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 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.
Equally, we require a collective past - hence the endless reinterpretations of history, frequently to suit the perceptions of the present.
We must respect the past, and mistrust the present, if we wish to provide for the safety of the future.
We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgement on the past.
It is only education and understanding of the past that teaches us not to repeat history.
Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being.
History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.
History is with us until we learn from the suffering of the past.
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.