The talent of historians lies in their creating a true ensemble out of facts which are but half true.
Interpretation
Historians craft narratives from incomplete truths, highlighting their skill in interpretation.
This quote by Ernest Renan emphasizes the role of historians in shaping our understanding of the past. It suggests that while historical facts may be only partially accurate, it is the historian's talent and creativity that allow them to weave these fragments into a coherent and insightful narrative, thus contributing to our collective memory and knowledge of history.
In practice
This quote can be used in a history class to discuss the subjectivity of historical narratives.
None of the miracles with which ancient histories are filled, occurred under scientific conditions. Observation never once contradicted, teaches us that miracles occur only in periods and countries in which they are believed in and before persons disposed to believe in them.
Man makes holy what he believes as he makes beautiful what he loves.
Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.
When people complain of life, it is almost always because they have asked impossible things of it.
He whom God has touched will always be a being apart: he is, whatever he may do, a stranger among men; he is marked by a sign.
Let us remember that sorrow alone is the creator of great things.
From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines. Going where I list, my own master, total and absolute. Listening to others, and considering well what they say. Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating. Gently but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me.
Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.
We are built to live in the kingdom of God. It is our natural habitat.
Our individual life is brief, and perhaps the whole life of mankind will be brief if measured in astronomical scale
It is a maxim among these lawyers, that whatever hath been done before, may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice and the general reason of mankind.
Billy Pilgrim says that the Universe does not look like a lot of bright little dots to the creatures from Tralfamadore. The creatures can see where each star has been and where it is going, so that the heavens are filled with rarefied, luminous spaghetti. And Tralfamadorians don't see human beings as two-legged creatures, either. They see them as great millepedes - "with babies' legs at one end and old people's legs at the other," says Billy Pilgrim.
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