PROBABLY THE VAST majority of people who have made history did not know they were doing it at the time. First of all, they may not have lived long enough to see the impact of their actions.

SOMETIMES WHERE YOU say something is important to what you say. “Let’s go somewhere else and discuss this,” a person might say if their surroundings do not seem appropriate for what they need to discuss.

The dove returned to him at eventide, and behold it had plucked an olive leaf in its mouth; so Noah knew that the water had abated from upon the earth. (Bereishis 8:11)

God said, “Let My spirit not quarrel forever concerning man, because he is also flesh, and his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.” (Bereishis 6:3)

And this is the blessing with which Moshe, the man of God, blessed the Children of Israel [just] before his death. (Devarim 33:1)