The historical profession is nowhere famous for its tolerance, but there are not many countries where historians can expect to pay for their opinions with penal servitude or the firing squad.
Norman DaviesRead
Transience is one of the fundamental characteristics both of the human condition and of the political order.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the impermanence of both human life and political structures.
Norman Davies highlights the concept of transience, suggesting that both human existence and the systems of governance we create are inherently temporary. This reflection on the fleeting nature of life and politics encourages us to recognize and accept change as an inevitable aspect of our reality.
Themes
TransienceImpermanenceHuman ConditionPoliticsChange
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the nature of life, I would quote this to highlight the necessity of adaptation.
More from Norman Davies
All quotes βNowadays, it is no longer possible to maintain that the Nazi-Soviet pact of 23 August 1939 was a fiction invented by bourgeois-imperialist enemies. Everyone has seen the film clips of Herr Ribbentrop landing in Moscow, and of Stalin smiling broadly as Ribbentrop and Molotov signed up side by side.
Norman DaviesRead
Why are some things remembered and others forgotten? That is the theme I want to pursue about the Second World War.
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Our mental maps are distorted by who are the 'winners' of history and who are the powers of today.
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One might have thought that 70 years was time enough to work out what really happened in 1939. It isn't the case. Misunderstandings and misinformation abound.
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I wanted to produce a book that would demonstrate not only the rich diversity of people who answered to Anders's command but also the extraordinary variety of their experiences and emotions: from death to despair, fear and longings and eventually to hope.
Norman DaviesRead
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We're children. We're supposed to be childish.
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What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.
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