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Full Idea
The slowness of the events in the history of human beings is not suited to the human sense of time - and the subtlety and smallness of all growth defies human vision.
Gist of Idea
Our growth is too subtle to perceive, and long events are too slow for us to grasp
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1881-82 [1882], 15[41])
Book Ref
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Joyful Science, and 1881-82 fragments (v 6)', ed/tr. Del Caro,Adrian [Stanford 2023], p.488
A Reaction
The only way we can study history is by 'periods'. It is as if English history has its slate wiped clean in 1066, 1485, 1603 and 1689. All historians know that the reality of it all is totally beyond our grasp.
Related Idea
Idea 23873 Dividing history books into separate chapters is disastrous [Weil]