"History, insofar as it accustoms human beings to comprehend the whole of the past and to hasten forward with its conclusions into the far future, conceals the boundaries of birth and death, which enclose the life of the human being so narrowly and oppressively, and with a kind of optical illusion, expands his short existence into endless space, leading the individual imperceptibly over into humanity."

Source: Robert David MacDonald, Friedrich Schiller (2005). “Schiller: Volume Two”, p.285, Oberon Books