In honor of the astonishing ignorance of the fools waging the Iran war, a few words from a historian:

[RockRaven]

"The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself and your country both examples and warnings: fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through, to avoid."

And regarding the historian's own work, words emphasized by me sadly relevant to our moment:

"I would have the reader trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first, the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them."


I don't know whether I am more comforted (there is nothing new under the sun) or more frustrated (things change but stay the same) that these words are 2000 years old yet here we are still. The historian in question: Titus Livius, aka Livy.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Just out of curiosity ... did you read Daniel Boorstin's trio of books, The Discoverers, The Creators, The Seekers ?

I've been trying to find a quote which I think was in The Discoverers, but not sure -- It's a weary lament to the effect that everything that can be done has been done, there is nothing new under the sun, nothing to look forward to .... written by an Egyptian priest(?) or philosopher(?) something like 26 centuries BC ... I wanted to make a poster of it, but have never been able to find it again.

Just a shot in the dark -- don't go to too much trouble !

[RockRaven]

2. I have not read Boorstin, so I am not able to help directly.

One tip I can think of for searching for book quotes on the internet, however, is to include "goodreads" amongst your search terms (i.e. author name, book name, keywords, etc). There are all sorts of pages of selected quotes that people have posted on that site.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Thanks, occasionally I try a search again, hoping something will have magically changed.

There is a possibility I read it in another book I read at about the same time, but I can't imagine which one. I flipped through the first few chapters of "The Discoverers" and couldn't find it. Next plan: see if books are at archive.org, so I can search digitally.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Isn't that from the bible? One of the prophets. Ecclesiastes or something? nt

[eppur_se_muova]

5. The central phrase "nothing new under the Sun" is, yes. This was a broader complaint ... and so odd ...

from the point of view of someone who has watched how the 20th Century -- which opened with horseless carriages and closed with pilotless drones -- has changed just about every aspect of life for the majority of people.

I have a dramatic Space-Age photo that I'd like to put on the same poster with that quote, for over-the-top irony.