And in two centuries, human history became a parable of the weakness of human beings, the indifference of nature, the helplessness of man confronting Necessity.
To see him working on a digging was to see a man who had ceased to exist in the twentieth century, and who looked down on history like a golden eagle from some mountain peak.
History is composed of the smallest, often undetected mistakes.
History repeating itself, though in a more modest vein. Perhaps history has learned a lesson.
In fact, modern history begins, the age of defeat and neurosis.