On the record
We can forgive the errors and sorrow for the faults of our great ones gone; we cannot afford to hide or forget their shortcomings.
Said by
Henry Cabot Lodge
Source
gutenberg.orgHenry Cabot Lodge: “We can forgive the errors and sorrow for the faults of our great ones gone; we cannot afford to hide or forget their…”
Editor's note · Context
Lodge reflects on the necessity of acknowledging the flaws of historical figures while still forgiving their errors.
Share
More from Henry Cabot Lodge
Some of them were the dreams of boyhood, from which he never departed, and which I have seen him carry out shyly and yet thoroughly and with intense personal satisfaction.
He was also--and this is very revealing and explanatory, too, of his vast popularity--a man of ideals.
The blood of some ancestral Scotch covenanter or of some Dutch reformed preacher facing the tyranny of Philip of Spain was in his veins, and with his large opportunities and his vast audiences he was always ready to appeal for justice and…
His ideal of public service was to be found in his life, and as his life drew to its close he had to meet his ideal of sacrifice face to face.