“God alone knows the future, but only an historian can alter the past.”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Do you have more details about the quote "God alone knows the future, but only an historian can alter the past." by Ambrose Bierce?
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Ambrose Bierce 204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… 1842–1914

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“As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes.”

Historical Notes (p. 311)
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Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Context: As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes. Voices may reach us from it; but what they say to us is imbued with the obscurity of the matrix out of which they come; and, try as we may, we cannot always decipher them precisely in the clearer light of our own day.

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