A Quote by Philip Jason on history, death, past, and future

the true history of the world is the history of things dying. what we learn from studying it is that all things die. there are many ways to pretend that this is not the case by making things seem more important than they actually are. it is the job of historians to enjoy doing this. all day long, dedicated historians find ways to cancel out the intrusion of death into all the circumstances that collectively constitute the great extended histories that they look to for clues with which to understand the future. because the future is a product of life and history is a recollection of death, they find nothing useful. but, it keeps them busy until they die.