Legend of the Galactic Heroes (TV Series)

With determination and ambition (1991)

Nozomu Sasaki: Julian Mintz

Quotes 

• Yang Wen-li : An army is an institution for violence, and there are two kinds of violence.

  Julian Mintz : Good violence and bad violence?

  Yang Wen-li : o, not quite. Violence to control and oppress, and violence as a means of liberation. You know what we call a national army is fundamentally the former example. It is a pity, but history does not lie. When those in power confront popular opposition, there are not many examples of the army siding with the people. Far from it, in the past in country after country, the army itself evolved into a power structure and came to control the people with violence.

• Yang Wen-li : Listen, Julian, for as long as human history goes on, the past will continue to accumulate. History is not just records of the past. It is also proof that civilisation has advanced to the present. Our present civilisation is the result of our past. Understand?

  Julian Mintz : Yes.

  Yang Wen-li : In the long flow of time, living things know nothing of their ancestors, except for the genes they have inherited. Only humans have history. Having a history differentiates humans from all other living species. That is why I wanted to be a historian. The only reason I am in this sad state is because I made the wrong first move.

  Julian Mintz : But if there were no people making history, there would be nothing for historians to study.