History — “an intelligible story of how men’s actions produce results other than those they intended.
Historian J.G.A. Pocock
“Often it does seem such a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.”
Mark Twain
“Mankind has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars, and so on — while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.”
Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy