Since history is not an objective reality, but only an imaginative reconstruction of vanished events, the pattern that appears useful and agreeable to one generation is never entirely so to the next.

Carl Lotus Becker
Since history is not an objective reality, but only an...
Since history is not an objective reality, but only an...
Since history is not an objective reality, but only an...
Since history is not an objective reality, but only an...
About This Quote

The fact that history is not an objective reality, but only the subjective recollection of the past, and that what is accepted as history by one generation is not necessarily so by another, was made clear to Edmund Burke by the following anecdote:   A young man of the name of Campbell, then living in India, went to Oxford and attended a famous lectureship under Dr. Adam Smith. The professor took up the subject of Ancient Athens and proceeded to show how much more wealth and culture there was in Greece in the days of Pericles than ever there had been before or would be afterward. He was proceeding with his illustration when he paused and said: "But this is not so; we can show it.

Let us see what remains of Athens." So he took his tape-measure and measured the ruins and said: "There is none." "Then," said Campbell, "this is not so; we can show it. Let us go into that corner and measure that." And he did so. "There," said he, "there you see a piece of money; it is worth five pounds." "Yes," said Campbell; "but this is not so; we can show it.

Let us go into the street and measure a piece of money." And he did so. "There," said he, "there you see a book which you will find in every library in Europe. It is worth a hundred pounds." "Yes," said Campbell; "but this is not so; we can show it.

We have been everywhere over this city, from end to end—from sea to sea—and this is true."

Source: The Heavenly City Of The Eighteenth Century Philosophers

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More Quotes By Carl Lotus Becker
  1. Serious thinkers are few, and the world is ruled by crude ideas.

  2. Reason may be employed to support faith as well as to destroy it.

  3. Since history is not an objective reality, but only an imaginative reconstruction of vanished events, the pattern that appears useful and agreeable to one generation is never entirely so to the next.

  4. Reason is incompetent to answer any fundamental question about God, or morality, or the meaning of life.

  5. All historical writing, even the most honest, is unconsciously subjective, since every age is bound, in spite of itself, to make the dead perform whatever tricks it finds necessary for its own peace of mind.

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