"We believe that the world we’ve inherited has an immense momentum; that actions taken in the past have bequeathed us the mix of constraints and possibilities within which we act today; that the stage onto which each generation walks has already been set, key characters introduced, major plots set in motion, and that while the next act has not been written, it’s likely to follow on, in undetermined ways, from the previous action. This is not to say that history repeats itself. Time is not a carousel on which we might, next time round, snatch the brass ring by being better prepared. Rather we see the past as flowing powerfully through the present and think that charting historical currents can enhance our ability to navigate them."
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace - I (probably) won’t be posting any more from this book, but FYI: I continue to enjoy reading it a whole bunch.
#New York #Quotes #Gotham #Burrows #Wallace
