"[B]inary opposites fit nicely the formulation of history as written, but they do little to capture the messy, inchoate reality of history as lived."

--

Source : Ira Berlin (2009). “Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America”, p.5, Harvard University Press

Ira Berlin

#Reality Quotes #Opposites Quotes #History Quotes

“People can undergo a sudden change of thinking and loyalties under threat of death or intense social pressure and isolation from friends and family.”
“It take 15,000 casualties to train a major general.”
“I was married for 36 years but now I'm free.”
“Eureka! Eureka! Supposed to have been his cry, jumping naked from his bath and running in the streets, excited by a discovery about water displacement to solve a problem about the purity of a gold crown.”
“I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”

Source : Three Men in a Boat ch. 15 (1889)
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
“You don't have conversations with microprocessors. You tell them what to do, then helplessly watch the disaster when they take you literally!”
“We are all experts in our own little niches.”

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