Most humans recognize their ruin, but they carry on regardless.

Every generation is equidistant from God.

He who overcomes himself is divine. Most see their ruin before their eyes; but they go on into it.

It is striking how history, when resting on the memory of men, always touches the bounds of mythology.

You have reckoned that history ought to judge the past and to instruct the contemporary world as to the future. The present attempt does not yield to that high office. It will merely tell how it really was.

Most humans recognize their ruin, but they carry on regardless.

To history has been assigned the office of judging the past, of instructing the present for the benefit of future ages. To such high offices this work does not aspire. It wants only to show what actually [essentially?] happened (wie es eigentlich gewesen).