The best use of history is as an inoculation against radical expectations, and hence against embittering disappointments.
Interpretation
History teaches us to temper our expectations to avoid disappointment.
George Will's quote emphasizes the importance of learning from history in order to set realistic expectations for the future. By understanding past events and outcomes, individuals can avoid the pitfalls of radical expectations that can lead to disappointment and frustration when reality does not meet those expectations.
In practice
During a lecture on the importance of context in decision-making, one might use this quote to highlight the relevance of historical analysis.
The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.
The cultivation - even celebration - of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.
Correct thinkers think that 'baseball trivia' is an oxymoron: nothing about baseball is trivial.
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
The civil forfeiture law - if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law - is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
Actually, there is only one first question of government, and it is How should we live? or What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?
The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.
Be a mere assistant to your unconscious. Do only half the work. The rest will do itself.
There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.
I borrowed his brightness and used it to see my way, and then gradually, from the habit of looking at the world as he illuminated it, the light in my own mind rekindled.
In the eyes of the ego, self-esteem and humility are contradictory. In truth, they are one and the same.
While I am in this world, I am resolved that no vexation shall put me out of temper if I can possibly command myself. Even old age, which is making strides towards me, shall not prevail to make me peevish.
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