Quote #21
Writers the most learned, the most accurate in details, and the soundest in tendency, frequently fall into a habit which can neither be cured nor pardoned - the habit of making history into the proof of their histories.
More from John Acton
- Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history.
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- Most of this, I suppose, is undisputed, and calls for no enlargement. But the weight of opinion is against me when I exhort you never to de…
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- Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral laws are written on the tablets of eternity.