Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same.
Interpretation
The perception of current events often differs from how they are viewed in retrospect.
This quote by Condoleezza Rice emphasizes the gap between contemporary interpretation of events and their historical significance. It suggests that while news headlines capture the immediacy and novelty of current happenings, a deeper understanding and judgment come with time, allowing for a more nuanced evaluation that can differ significantly from initial reactions and opinions.
In practice
In a discussion about media bias, one might say, 'As Condoleezza Rice wisely noted, today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same.'
I think my father thought I might be president of the United States. I think he would've been satisfied with secretary of state. I'm a foreign policy person and to have a chance to serve my country as the nation's chief diplomat at a time of peril and consequence, that was enough.
What the United States has done is to be open to people who are fleeing tyranny, who are fleeing danger, but we have done it in a very careful way that has worked for us.
For the United States, supporting international development is more than just an expression of our compassion. It is a vital investment in the free, prosperous, and peaceful international order that fundamentally serves our national interest.
Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same. If you are too attentive to the former, you will most certainly not do the hard work of securing the latter.
Does anybody think these people were just sitting around drinking tea?
Let me let you in on a little secret. There is no such thing as an international community. There are self-maximizing, self-interested states that will push their interests as far as possible.
The tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible.
There are two things that have always haunted me: the brutality of the European traders and the stories I've heard about Africans selling other Africans into slavery.
I think that often in the United States we're very blind to the ways that history lives in the present.
History is the queen of the humanities. It teaches wisdom and humility, and it tells us how things change through time.
I was 10 years old when my father was assassinated in 1968. Then, I had some sense of the sacrifices and hardships required of the families of a leader who was constantly in the news.
The memory of the Second World War hangs over Europe, an inescapable and irresistible point of reference. Historical parallels are usually misleading and dangerous.
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