The history of the past interests us only in so far as it illuminates the history of the present.
The past isn't useful until its place in the present is found.
THE PRICE grew out of a need to reconfirm the power of the past, the seedbed of current reality, and the way to possibly reaffirm cause and effect in an insane world.
The history that lies inert in unread books does no work in the world …. our proper function is not to repeat the past but to make use of it
In my case, I write in the past because I'm not really part of the present. I have nothing valid to say about anything current, though I have something to say about what existed then.
No single conflict from the past can serve as a reliable model for struggles in the present.
There's a reason you can still read Thucydides, and it still makes sense to you thousands of years later.
Like the philosopher, the author views his task as one of establishing a clear connection between life and history, and of making the past bear fruit for the present and future.
History is not a blueprint for present practice.
History is weirdly dismissed as not having anything to do with the present moment.
