Commonplace Book: Why Philosophers Don't Succeed in Business and Politics

For [Viscount Halifax] always saw passing events, not in the point of view in which they commonly appear to one who bears a part in them, but in the point of view in which, after the lapse of many years, they appear to the philosophic historian. With such a turn of mind he could not long continue to act cordially with any body of men.

Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England