The footnote would seem to be the smallest detail in a work of history. Yet it carries a large burden of responsibility, testifying to the validity of the work, the integrity (and the humility) of the historian, and to the dignity of the discipline.
Interpretation
Footnotes may appear insignificant, but they hold great importance in supporting historical work.
Gertrude Himmelfarb emphasizes that, although footnotes are often considered trivial details in historical writing, they play a crucial role in validating the information presented, showcasing the historian's integrity, and upholding the respectability of history as a discipline. This observation highlights the importance of thoroughness and humility in scholarly work.
In practice
During a lecture about historiography, one might cite this quote to emphasize the importance of proper sourcing.
As liberty of thought is absolute, so is liberty of speech, which is 'inseparable' from the liberty of thought. Liberty of speech, moreover, is essential not only for its own sake but for the sake of truth, which requires absolute liberty for the utterance of unpopular and even demonstrably false opinions.
Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own.
Let it not be a beautiful face,' I thought, 'but to make up for that, let it be a noble, an expressive, and, above all, an extremely intelligent one.
I found I could extinguish all human hope from my soul.
Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, that when we grasp it - in a decade, a century, or a millennium - we will all say to each other, how could it have been otherwise? How could we have been so stupid?
The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.
My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing,' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.