Making History

"One of the hardest, and I think the most important, realities of history to convey to students or readers of books or viewers of television documentaries is that nothing ever had to happen the way it happened. Any great past event could have gone off in any number of different directions for any number of different reasons. We should understand that history was never on a track. It was never preordained that it would turn out as it did.

Very often we are taught history as if it were predetermined, and if that way of teaching begins early enough and is sustained through our education, we begin to think that it had to have happened as it did. We think that there had to have been a Revolutionary War, that there had to have been a Declaration of Independence, that there had to have been a Constitution, but never was that so. In history, chance plays a part again and again. Character counts over and over. Personality is often the determining factor in why things turn out the way they do.

Furthermore, nobody ever lived in the past. Jefferson, Adams, George Washington—they didn’t walk around saying, “Isn’t this fascinating living in the past? Aren’t we picturesque in our funny clothes?” They were living in the present, just as we do. The great difference is that it was their present, not ours. And just as we don’t know how things are going to turn out, they didn’t either."

--- David McCullough, "The Glorious Cause of America," given at Brigham Young University, Sep 27, 2005. 

Source: Wikipedia image

"Honestly, I do not know the secret to winning - Do everything that you can and Lady Luck will smile upon you."

--- Makoto Hasebe, Goethe, 2011.

Source: VfL Wolfsburg-Fussball Offizielle Seite

"Your future is as bright as your faith."

--- Thomas S. Monson, "Be of Good Cheer", Ensign, May 2009.

Taken at sunrise, Alishan, Taiwan, June 2009