18 March 1861
You can't read any genuine history - as that of Herodotus or the Venerable Bede - without perceiving that our interest depends not on the subject but on the man, - on the manner in which he treats the subject and the importance he gives it. A feeble writer and without genius must have what he thinks a great theme, which we are already interested in through the accounts of others, but a genius - a Shakespeare, for instance - would make the history of his parish more interesting than another's history of the world.
~ H. D. Thoreau
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