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.
Margaret MacmillanRead
I'm interested in the balance between big currents in history - the economies, the ideologies, social structures, and so on - and the decisions that people have to make. At the heart of all these great decisions to go to war, there are human beings who have to say, 'Yes, let's do it,' or 'No, we won't do it.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the interplay between historical forces and individual human choices in significant events like war.
Margaret Macmillan highlights the crucial relationship between large historical trends and the personal decisions of individuals within those contexts. She points out that while grand forces such as economies and ideologies shape history, it ultimately comes down to individual people making pivotal choices that can lead to monumental outcomes, like the decision to go to war or to seek peace.
Themes
HistoryDecisionsHumanityWarIdeologiesEconomies
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the human cost of political decisions, this quote would illustrate the personal responsibility behind historical events.
More from Margaret Macmillan
All quotes →Climate change respects no borders.
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War is a crucial, deeply ingrained part of human history. It has to be understood.
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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.
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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.
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If we don't take responsibility for each other, it seems to me the future is going to be even bleaker.
Margaret MacmillanRead
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