“Nietzsche inveighs against every sort of historical optimism; but he energetically repudiates the ordinary pessimism, which is the result of degenerate or enfeebled instincts of decadence. He preaches with youthful enthusiasm the triumph of a tragic culture, introduced by an intrepid rising generation, in which the spirit of ancient Greece might be born again. He rejects the pessimism of Schopenhauer, for he already abhors all renunciation; but he seeks a pessimism of healthiness, one derived from strength, from exuberant power, and he believes he has found it in the Greeks.” BelieveMightSpiritCultureFoundBornResultsGenerationsOrdinaryOptimismHistoricalInstinctAncientEnthusiasmTriumphGreekRisingTragicRejectsPessimismGreeceBorn AgainRenunciationDegeneratesDecadenceAncient Greece Author:Georg Brandes
“As we have come to understand the psychology of evil, we have realized that such transformations of human character are not as rare as we would like to believe. Historical inquiry and behavioral science have demonstrated the "banality of evil" -- that is, under certain conditions and social pressures, ordinary people can commit acts that would otherwise be unthinkable.” PeopleBelieveHumansCharacterCertainEvilSocialPsychologyConditionsOrdinaryTransformationPressureHistoricalCommitInquiryOrdinary PeopleUnthinkableBanalitySocial Pressure Author:Philip Zimbardo
“The two basic maxims of the so-called historical criticism are the postulate of the common and the axiom of the ordinary. Postulate of the common: everything really great, good, and beautiful, is improbable, since it is extraordinary and therefore at least suspect. Axiom of the ordinary: our conditions and environment must have existed everywhere, for they are really so natural.” TwoBeautifulNaturalCommonHistoryEnvironmentConditionsOrdinaryCriticismHistoricalExtraordinarySuspectsReally GreatMaximsAxiomsImprobable Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
“An inert historical fact is any fact about a perfectly ordinary arrangement of matter in the world at some point in the past that is no longer discernible, a fact that has left no footprints at all in the world today.” WorldMatterFactsTodayPastLeftOrdinaryHistoricalArrangementsWorld TodayFootprintHistorical Facts Book:Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking Source: Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking
“You can't play history and you can't play historical characters. You just have to reduce it to the ordinary.” PlayCharacterOrdinaryHistorical Author:Lorraine Toussaint
“There is no need for historical research. The war didn't take place a thousand years ago. Over a million Iranians served at one time or another in the war fronts and most of them are living ordinary lives today and are available for interviews. These stories are largely unknown in Iran and when I tell them to my friends or students they usually laugh.” NeedsYearsWarStoriesTodayMillionsLaughingFrontsStudentsThousandResearchOrdinaryMy FriendsYears AgoHistoricalAvailableInterviewsIranOne TimeThousand YearsLive For TodayOrdinary LifeHistorical Research Author:Mohammad Marandi
“The truth is that History, with its imposing capital H, is simply the amalgamation of many quotidian lives lived in very ordinary ways. History is always personal. If you read Holocaust survivor or American slavery survivor narratives, you realize all too well that these great Historical moments were personal to someone at some time.” IfsWayWellsMomentsRealizingTruth IsOrdinarySlaveryHistoricalNarrativeSurvivorHolocaustImposingAmerican SlaveryHolocaust SurvivorAmalgamationGreat Historical Author:Chris Abani
“If Christians were Christians, there would be no anti-Semitism. Jesus was a Jew. There is nothing that the ordinary Christian so dislikes to remember as this awkward historical fact.” IfsFactsWould BeChristianRememberJesusJusticeDiversityOrdinarySocial JusticeHistoricalJewDislikeAwkwardAnti SemitismHistorical Facts Author:John Haynes Holmes