The Shared Patio (2005)
Context: Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is really worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person's face as you pass them on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It's okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.
“Praise is the shipwreck of historians.”
The Study of History (1895)
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John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton 112
British politician and historian 1834–1902Related quotes
“David Irving is not just a Fascist historian. He is also a great historian of Fascism.”
"Hitler's Ghost" http://www.fpp.co.uk/StMartinsPress/Hitchens0696.html, Vanity Fair (June 1996)
1990s
“Usually we only praise to be praised.”
On ne loue d'ordinaire que pour être loué.
Maxim 146.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
“Historian — An unsuccessful novelist.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
“The historian is a reversed prophet.”
Der Historiker ist ein rückwärtsgekehrter Prophet.
Athenäum, I, 2, 20: Fragmente
Athenäum (1798 - 1800)
“He who praises everybody praises nobody.”
Johnson's Works (1787), vol. XI, p. 216; This set included the Life of Samuel Johnson by Sir John Hawkins
“Some condemnations praise; some praise damns.”
Il y a des reproches qui louent et des louanges qui médisent.
Maxim 148.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
“The refusal of praise is only the wish to be praised twice.”
Le refus des louanges est un désir d'être loué deux fois.
Maxim 149.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
Memories of President Lincoln, 14
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)