An apology offered and, equally important, received is a step towards reconciliation and, sometimes, recompense. Without that process, hurts can rankle and fester and erupt into their own hatreds and wrongdoings.
The Great War was nobody's fault - or everybody's.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that the causes of the Great War were either too complex to blame on a single party or were a collective failure of many.
Margaret Macmillan's quote reflects on the Great War, highlighting the intricate web of events, decisions, and failures from various countries that led to catastrophic outcomes. It emphasizes the idea that sometimes, in large-scale conflicts, accountability is diffused among many actors, making it difficult to pinpoint a single source of blame, suggesting a collective complicity in the tragedy that unfolded.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the complexities of international relations following major conflicts.
More from Margaret Macmillan
All quotes βClimate change respects no borders.
War is a crucial, deeply ingrained part of human history. It has to be understood.
There was that argument that if we had more women in positions of authority, the world would be a nicer place. And then we got Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Indira Gandhi. When women become acclimatised to war, they can become every bit as ruthless as men.
Theodore Roosevelt's policy to build a two-ocean navy confirmed that the old-style isolationism of the founders had not survived the modern, increasingly globalized world.
If we don't take responsibility for each other, it seems to me the future is going to be even bleaker.
Similar quotes
It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.
I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.
Just by my home is an entrance to the sewers they used in the Warsaw uprising. I grew up knowing people died down there. Warsaw was once a battleground; then it became a morgue. It's a city littered with ghosts. And that never left me.
Open your refrigerator door, and you summon forth more light than the total amount enjoyed by most households in the 18th century. The world at night, for much of history, was a very dark place indeed.
So prominent was the Jewish role in the foreign commerce of Europe that those nations that received the Jews gained and the countries that excluded them lost in the volume of international trade.
History will tell you that borders are not inevitable, they hardly existed at the end of the 19th century.