Quotation of the Week 6
History… is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.
(Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)
Love of History | Quotation of the Week 6
Dr. Constantina Katsari is a comparative historian that specialises on ancient and modern history. She looks at current events with a critical eye and brings forward direct comparisons with similar historical events.
If Gibbon means what appears in history books, rather than what actually happened, he has a point. The same goes for newspapers. They are full of people’s wrongdoings and of what has gone wrong by accident. But there is a bright side. The everyday is uninteresting. Therefore newspapers and history books record the exceptional. Therefore our crimes, follies and misfortunes are the exception. The species has, on the whole, done exceptionally well.