Weaving the Historical Narrative: the linearity of time

"Does the world really present itself to perception in the form of well-made stories, with central subjects, proper beginnings, middles, and ends, and a coherence that permits us to see "the end" in the very beginning? Or does it present itself more in the form that the annals and chronicles suggest, either as a mere sequence without beginning or end or as a sequence of beginnings that only terminate and never conclude?"

Ricoeur, P. (1980) Narrative Time, Critical Inquiry, 7(1), p. 174.