Quote Of The Day: Plutarch On History

“So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history, when, on the one hand, those who afterwards write it find long periods of time intercepting their view, and, on the other hand, the contemporary records of any actions and lives, partly through envy and ill-will, partly through favour and flattery, pervert and distort the truth.”

Plutarch, on Pericles, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, The Dryden Translation, in Great Books of the Western World, Vol. 13 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1992), p. 129