History is neither a prison nor a museum, nor is it a set of materials for self-congratulation.

Alasdair MacIntyre
About This Quote

History is not a prison and it is not a set of materials that we can put on display as if to say, “Look at all of the good things we have done!” Or, as if to say, “Look at all of the bad things we have done!” History is a story. And as our story goes along, some words become outdated. The idea of history itself is dated. It is a story that we tell ourselves to make sense of events that happened in the past.

And sometimes those words are too resonant with our own prejudices. They are used as a tool to construct a particular narrative about how we should think about a particular event or people in the past.

Source: A Short History Of Ethics: A History Of Moral Philosophy From The Homeric Age To The Twentieth Century

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