Reinhard Bendix quotes:

Looking backward always presents an overdetermined depiction of fate; by this perspective we leave out of focus the possibilities of action which existed at the time.

Men make their own history; but they make it under given conditions, and they become entangled thereby in a fate which is in part the result of other men having made their own history earlier.

Reason is a necessary instrument, to be used for good or evil, but it has no moral qualities.