Learning from the past is freedom from the tyranny of the present

“A grasp of history is essential for Americans of the center who struggle to decide how much weight to assign a religious consideration in a public matter. To fail to consult the past consigns us to what might be called tyranny of the present-the mistaken idea that the crises of our own time are unprecedented and that we have to solve them without experience to guide us. Subject to such tyranny, we are more likely to take a narrow simplistic view, or to let our passions get the better of our reason. If we know, however, how those who came before us found the ways and means to surmount the difficulties of their age, we stand a far better chance of acting in the moment with perspective and measured judgment.”

-Charles Kimball