Meaning and History Quotes

“A historian can never claim to have the last word on anything as he is limited by his sources and further so by his viewpoint.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures

“If we cannot agree on what was important yesterday, what more on events that happened a hundred or three hundred years ago? The point here is that history is open ended and we cannot be sure about the past. So why study history? Because it teaches us to see the connections between events. Knowing how and why a certain event happened is helpful because in many cases people separated by time and place can sometimes be in similar situations. They can be mentally contemporaneous without knowing it. History gives us hindsight.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures

“Rizal's greatest misfortune is being national hero of the Philippines.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures

“We make Rizal in our own image and likeness. Our image of Rizal is usually formed or deformed in school through numerous biographies with flattering titles.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures

“Even a quick reading of Rizal's trial will prove that those who take Constantino's works uncritically are likewise guilty of "Veneration Without Understanding." Since there is so much fiction and faction in history it is always essential to return to the sources.”
― Ambeth Ocampo, Meaning and History: The Rizal Lectures