Without history we are the prisoners of the accident of where and when we were born.
Donald KaganRead
Throughout the human experience people have read history because they felt that it was a pleasure and that it was in some way instructive. The profession of professor of history has taken it in a very different direction.
Interpretation
History provides pleasure and knowledge, but its academic study can diverge from this enjoyment.
In this quote, Donald Kagan highlights the dual nature of history as both an enjoyable and instructive subject. While many individuals engage with history out of a natural curiosity and appreciation for the stories it tells, the academic study of history can sometimes become overly focused on methodologies and theories, distancing it from the pleasurable experience that many readers seek.
In practice
This quote could be used in an academic lecture to discuss the purpose of studying history.
Without history we are the prisoners of the accident of where and when we were born.
I can see that you are a true historian because you really always ought to ask that question about anybody at a different place or a different time: What's the same and what's different?
War has been more common than peace, and extended periods of peace have been rare in a world divided into multiple states
All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an equal opportunity to develop our talent.
I'm not comfortable being preachy, but more people need to start spending as much time in the library as they do on the basketball court.
You can't really be scientifically literate if you don't understand evolution. And you can't be an educated member of society if you don't understand science.
What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.
Sometimes it seems the only accomplishment my education ever bestowed on me was the ability to think in quotations.
A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns more from them than he teaches them. He who learns nothing from his disciples is, in my opinion, worthless. Whenever I talk with someone I learn from him. I take from him more than I give him.
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