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🇪🇪 Estonia /Culture & Society

UNO AINSOO: Perhaps It Is Time to Start Telling the Truth

From Postimees · () Estonian

Translated from Estonian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Opinion Named sources Context piece
  • Uno Ainsoo argues that excessive praise of the dead can distort history.
  • He says honest assessments of criminals, dictators and people with destructive habits preserve history’s lessons.
  • The column cites the Latin maxim “De mortuis nil nisi verum,” meaning “Of the dead, nothing but the truth.”

“Of the dead, nothing but the truth.” The Latin maxim, “De mortuis nil nisi verum,” has long expressed the idea that history loses its lessons when the dead receive only blind praise.

Uno Ainsoo writes that ancient philosophers and historians understood the danger of presenting criminals, dictators or people with bad habits as wholly admirable after their deaths. Such praise, he argues, distorts the historical record.

Of the dead, nothing but the truth.

· Ancient Latin maximThe column uses the maxim to argue against blind praise of the dead.

The column also attributes a similar thought to Voltaire: “Before the living, we owe respect; to the dead, we owe only the truth.”

Before the living, we owe respect; to the dead, we owe only the truth.

· Voltaire, attribution in the columnThe quotation reinforces the article’s argument for honest historical judgment.
About this summary

Originally published by Postimees in Estonian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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