Love consists in leaving the loved one space to be themselves while providing the security within which that self may flourish.
Tony JudtRead
History can show you that it was one pile of bad stuff after another. It can also show you that there's been tremendous progress in knowledge, behaviour, laws, civilisation. It cannot show you that there was a meaning behind it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
History is a collection of events that can be seen as either negative or positive progress, but it lacks intrinsic meaning.
In this quote, Tony Judt reflects on the dual nature of history, suggesting that while it can reveal a series of challenges and adversities, it also highlights significant progress in human understanding and civilization. However, he emphasizes that history does not inherently provide meaning to these events, inviting contemplation on the nature of progress and the interpretations we assign to the past.
Themes
HistoryProgressMeaningCivilizationKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a lecture about the interpretation of historical events.
More from Tony Judt
All quotes →If active or concerned citizens forfeit politics, they thereby abandon their society to its most mediocre and venal public servants
Tony JudtRead
Obviously a primary liberal conviction is that we should be tolerant of other peoples' convictions. But if we believe in something, we had better find ways to say so convincingly.
Tony JudtRead
Social democracy does not represent an ideal future; it does not even represent the ideal past.
Tony JudtRead
What I am against is false optimism: the notion either that things have to go well, or else that they tend to, or else that the default condition of historical trajectories is characteristically beneficial in the long-run.
Tony JudtRead
I'm not sure I've learned anything new about life; but I've had to think harder about death and what comes after for other people.
Tony JudtRead
Similar quotes
To cease from evil, to do good, and to purify the mind yourself, this is the teaching of all the Buddhas.
Gautama BuddhaRead
You know, who tells the stories of a culture really governs human behavior. It used to be the parent, the school, the church, the community. Now it's a handful of global conglomerates that have nothing to tell, but a great deal to sell.
George GerbnerRead
This so gnawed at him on some nights that he lay awake wondering just how many unknown and similarly inconsequential accidents and bits of happenstance were at this moment occurring or failing to occur in order to ensure he took his next breath, and the next.
Louise ErdrichRead
His vices were the vices of his time and culture, but his virtues transcended the milieu of his life.
Orson Scott CardRead
There is something precious in our being mysteries to ourselves, in our being unable ever to see through even the person who is closest to our heart and to reckon with him as though he were a logical proposition or a problem in accounting.
Rudolf BultmannRead
Even with the best intentions, you can have a nuclear war, a nuclear holocaust, through miscalculation, through accidents.
Mohamed ElbaradeiRead