In the stormy current of life characters are weights or floats which at one time make us glide along the bottom, and at another maintain us on the surface.
Hippolyte TaineRead
History is nothing but a problem of mechanics applied to psychology.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that understanding history requires an analysis of human behavior and decision-making processes.
Hippolyte Taine's quote posits that history can be interpreted as a series of mechanical processes influenced by psychological factors. It highlights the idea that the events of the past are not random but rather the result of human actions and choices, suggesting that to grasp historical developments, one must understand the mental and emotional states that drive these actions.
In practice
In a history class discussing the importance of understanding motivations behind historical events.
In the stormy current of life characters are weights or floats which at one time make us glide along the bottom, and at another maintain us on the surface.
The production of a work of art is determined by the material and intellectual climate in which a man lives and dies.
How can justice be attained when, in the expiation of an old wrong, another wrong is to be committed? No reasonable creature would conceive of the idea of obliterating ink stains with ink, or spots of oil with oil. Only blood must be washed out with blood.
They thought that it would be a disgrace to go forth as a group. Each entered the forest at a point that he himself had chosen, where it was darkest and there was no path. If there is a path it is someone else's path and you are not on the adventure.
This is the reality of nuclear weapons: they may trigger a world war; a war which, unlike previous ones, destroys all of civilization.
I do not Google myself, I do not read comments, and I barely look myself in the eye when I look in the mirror.
Men who have greatness within them don't go in for politics.
The basic Buddhist stand on the question of equality between the genders is age-old. At the highest tantric levels, at the highest esoteric level, you must respect women: every woman.
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