We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have already made up our minds to do.

Margaret MacMillan
About This Quote

It is tempting to use history as a way to justify our current actions. For example, we can take our policy of apartheid and turn it into a justification for why we must not give the same rights and privileges in South Africa to all of the people in the country. But we can also do something else: we can tell ourselves that history has shown us the right way and justify not giving rights and privileges to all of the people in the country by saying that history has already proven that this is what is right. In other words, instead of making up our minds about what to do based on what we think history will say about it, we should be more honest about where our opinions come from.

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  1. We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have already made up our minds to do.
  2. In a secular world, which is what most of us in Europe and North America live in, history takes on the role of showing us good and evil, virtues and vices. Religion no longer plays as important a part as it once did in setting...
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