Quote by Julien Benda

I shall go further and say that even if an examination of the past could lead to any valid prediction concerning man's future, that prediction would be the contrary of reassuring.

I shall go further and say that even if an examination of th

Summary

This quote suggests that if we could analyze and understand the past well enough to make accurate predictions about the future, the outlook would be pessimistic rather than reassuring. The implication is that exploring history might not provide an optimistic perspective about what lies ahead for humanity. It implies a certain skepticism towards the idea that knowledge of the past can lead to hopeful predictions about the future, highlighting the inherent uncertainty and complexity of human existence.

Topics

By Julien Benda

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all

The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves.

Joseph Addison, "in the Spectato

Authors & Writing

Just as a new scientific discovery manifests something that

Just as a new scientific discovery manifests something that was already latent in the order of nature, and at the same time is logically related to the total structure of the existing science, so the new poem manifests something that was already latent in the order of words.

The undertaking of a new action brings new strength.

The undertaking of a new action brings new strength.

People who talk much say nothing.

People who talk much say nothing.

My inspiration was my mom. She's a great cook, and she still

My inspiration was my mom. She's a great cook, and she still cooks, and we still banter back and forth about cooking. Growing up in a mostly Portuguese community, food was important and the family table was extremely important. At a very young age I understood that.

The more he cast away the more he had.

The more he cast away the more he had.

It wasn't a good idea to work on 'Naked' in the first months

It wasn't a good idea to work on 'Naked' in the first months of a marriage. I was living apart from my wife in a flat overflowing with books I was reading for the part.

I would absolutely, definitely never sell my wedding picture

I would absolutely, definitely never sell my wedding pictures to a magazine. I'd like it to be a special day, not a photo shoot. And once you've done that, your marriage becomes everybody else's business.

Katherine Jenkins

This AIDS stuff is pretty scary. I hope I don't get it.

This AIDS stuff is pretty scary. I hope I don't get it.

Robert Mapplethorpe

They had no conversation together, no intercourse but what t

They had no conversation together, no intercourse but what the commonest civility required. Once so much to each other! Now nothing! There had been a time, when of all the large party now filling the drawing-room at Uppercross, they would have found it most difficult to cease to speak to one another. With the exception, perhaps, of Admiral and Mrs. Croft, who seemed particularly attached and happy, (Anne could allow no other exception even among the married couples) there could have been no two hearts so open, no tastes so simliar, no feelings so in unison, no countenances so beloved. Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become aquainted. It was a perpetual estrangement.

Romance Literature Classics

I hope the cooks who are working for me now are getting that

I hope the cooks who are working for me now are getting that kind of experience so they can use what they're learning now as a foundation for a great career.

The President to-night has a dream: He was in a party of pla

The President to-night has a dream: He was in a party of plain people, and, as it became known who he was, they began to comment on his appearance. One of them said: He is a very common-looking man. The President replied: The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them.

Abraham Lincoln