I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the importance of understanding history to gain personal responsibility and insight into human conscience.
In this quote, Zbigniew Herbert emphasizes that his exploration of history is not solely for learning lessons but rather to engage with his own experiences by comparing them to those of others. This reflective practice allows him to cultivate a deeper sense of responsibility towards the collective moral state of humanity, suggesting that understanding our past can enhance our awareness and accountability in the present.
In practice
In a lecture discussing the importance of historical context in contemporary issues.
Inanimate objects are always correct and cannot, unfortunately, be reproached with anything. I have never observed a chair shift from one foot to another, or a bed rear on its hind legs. And tables, even when they are tired, will not dare to bend their knees. I suspect that objects do this from pedagogical considerations, to reprove us constantly for our instability.
Be courageous when the mind deceives you Be courageous In the final account only this is important
And if the City falls and one survives _x000D_ he shall carry the City within on the roads of exile _x000D_ he shall be the City
forgive me also that I didn't fight like Lord Byron for the happiness of captive peoples that I watched only risings of the moon and museums
We must reason in natural philosophy not from what we hope, or even expect, but from what we perceive.
If we don't accept the uncomfortable proposition that every perpetrator of virtually every act of evil in our history has been a human being like us, then we actually foreclose the possibility of understanding how we do this to one another and therefore make it impossible to figure out how we might prevent these things.
Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?
Liberty is a luxury of security; the free individual is a product and a mark of civilization.
It is to be remarked that a good many people are born curiously unfitted for the fate waiting them on this earth.
Peter Keating: "Do you always have to have a purpose? Do you always have to be so damn serious? Can't you ever do things without reason, just like everybody else? You're so serious, so old. Everything's important with you. Everything's great, significant in some way, every minute, even when you keep still. Can't you ever be comfortable-and unimportant?" | Howard Roark: "No."
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