What is history? Any thoughts, Webster?''History is the lies of the victors, ' I replied, a little too quickly.' Yes, I was rather afraid you'd say that. Well, as long as you remember that it is also the self-delusions of the defeated....'Finn?''"History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation." (quoting Patrick Lagrange) Julian Barnes
About This Quote

The quote by Webster Finn is a quote that was popularized by the movie "The Matrix". In the movie, this quote was popularized as a cry from Neo, referring to the "real world". The quote is generally used to describe the lack of information available to humans and how it limits how we can understand the world around us.

Source: The Sense Of An Ending

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More Quotes By Julian Barnes
  1. How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the...
  2. Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books. Books make sense of life. The only problem is that the lives they make...
  3. Later on in life, you expect a bit of rest, don't you? You think you deserve it. I did, anyway. But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life's business.
  4. Though why should we expect age to mellow us? If it isn't life's business to reward merit, why should it be life's business to give us warm, comfortable feelings towards its end? What possible evolutionary purpose could nostalgia serve?
  5. It's the best way of telling the truth; it's a process of producing grand, beautiful, well-ordered lies that tell more truth than any assemblage of facts. Beyond that … [it's] delight in, and play with, language; also, a curiously intimate way of communicating with people...
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