Much of the study of history is a matter of comparison, of relating what was happening in one area to what was happening elsewhere, and what had happened in the past. To view a period in isolation is to miss whatever message it has to offer.

Louis LAmour
About This Quote

When people study history, they are often looking for lessons to be learned. They are not only looking to find out what has happened in the past but they are also looking to learn from it. In this quote, historian William McNeill explains that the study of history is a matter of comparison, where one can see how events in one place relate to events in another place. In this way, the study of history is also a matter of prediction, for example, how something that happened in the past can affect something that might happen in the future.

Source: Education Of A Wandering Man

Some Similar Quotes
  1. It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being. - John Joseph Powell
  2. I have such a fear of finding another like myself, and such a desire to find one! I am so utterly lonely, but I also have such a fear that my isolation be broken through, and I no longer be the head and ruler of... - Unknown
  3. When you're socially awkward, you're isolated more than usual, and when you're isolated more than usual, your creativity is less compromised by what has already been said and done. All your hope in life starts to depend on your craft, so you try to perfect... - Criss Jami
  4. It's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing–they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that... - Stephen Fry
  5. Man was born for society. However little He may be attached to the World, He never can wholly forget it, or bear to be wholly forgotten by it. Disgusted at the guilt or absurdity of Mankind, the Misanthrope flies from it: He resolves to become... - Unknown
More Quotes By Louis LAmour
  1. Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.
  2. Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.
  3. I would not sit waiting for some vague tomorrow, nor for something to happen. One could wait a lifetime, and find nothing at the end of the waiting. I would begin here, I would make something happen.
  4. Books are precious things, but more than that, they are the strong backbone of civilization. They are the thread upon which it all hangs, and they can save us when all else is lost.
  5. It is brutal. Only I never could see the sense in having folks look at your tombstone and say, 'He was a man who didn't believe in violence, He's a good man... and dead.
Related Topics