1894 quotes by historians for you to enjoy

Every religion implies that it treats the problem of being and nonbeing, life and death. Their languages are different, but they speak about the same things. Mircea Eliade

Life Death Religion Problem Speak Every Life And Death About Implies Same Same Things Being Different Languages Things Treats

Creation stories, so central in the religions of the Middle East, play a surprisingly marginal part in Greek myth. The Greeks had nothing to set alongside the resounding 'In the beginning' in the book of Genesis, where one eternal God creates the universe out of nothing. Neil MacGregor

God Book Myth Beginning Nothing Creation Universe Resounding East Out Religions Had Part Genesis Alongside Surprisingly Greek Greeks Middle Where Middle East Stories In The Beginning Central Eternal Creates Play Marginal Set

The things we make have one supreme quality - they live longer than us. We perish, they survive; we have one life, they have many lives, and in each life they can mean different things. Which means that, while we all have one biography, they have many. Neil MacGregor

Hardest of all for Europeans to negotiate are traditional African religions, whose transactions with unseen powers are central to the running of life in many areas, the main weapon in the struggle against the forces of evil. Neil MacGregor

The spread of Viking bling is a good indication of the spread of its culture. Neil MacGregor

Good Culture Indication Spread

In a very literal way, of course, Shakespeare did change the course of history: when it didn't fit the plot he had in mind, he simply rewrote it. His English histories play fast and loose with chronology and fact to achieve the desired dramatic effect, re-ordering history even as it was then understood. Neil MacGregor

History Change Achieve Mind Chronology Dramatic Way Plot Shakespeare Fact Had He Simply Course Loose Understood His Effect Fit Histories Very Did Literal Then English Even Fast Play Desired

Thanks to the unprecedented reach of British navigation, London in the early 18th century was not just the emporium of the world, it was the first place in which it was possible to assemble artifacts from around the world and allow people to study them. Neil MacGregor

The distinction between a gallery and a museum is enormous. The gallery is about looking at a thing of beauty; the purpose of the activity is an aesthetic response. The museum is actually about the object that lets you get into somebody else's life. Neil MacGregor

London theatre is different: it is a commercial theatre that brings the whole of society into one place. And Shakespeare grasped, better than anyone else, what it means to engage the entire audience. Neil MacGregor

Theatre Better Society Else London Entire Shakespeare Audience Commercial Than Different Anyone Anyone Else Place Engage Means Grasped Whole Brings

If you are born in 1564, your dislocation from your parents' experience is very profound. You are the first generation who will have had all your religious experience in English, the first to have a countryman circumnavigate the globe. All the power and economic structures of the world are changing around you. Neil MacGregor

You Generation Experience World Will Parents Power First Changing Religious Religious Experience Born Structures Economic Had First Generation Globe Around Very Dislocation Your English Who Profound

There aren't many people who really put their life on the line for human freedom. Niall Ferguson

Life Freedom People Put Line Human Human Freedom Really Who Many

It's all very well for us to sit here in the West with our high incomes and cushy lives, and say it's immoral to violate the sovereignty of another state. But if the effect of that is to bring people in that country economic and political freedom, to raise their standard of living, to increase their life expectancy, then don't rule it out. Niall Ferguson

Life Freedom People Political Country Sit Living Increase State Our Rule Say Out High Immoral Life Expectancy Economic Well Another West Political Freedom Effect Very Expectancy Sovereignty Then Us Standard Incomes Lives Violate Bring Here Raise

It's great to see countries like China and India lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty by essentially copying Western ways of doing things. Niall Ferguson

The great thing about behavioural psychology and economics is that they help us to see that there are actually pretty good reasons why human beings swing from greed to fear, and why we're not really calculating machines or utility-maximisers. Niall Ferguson

Good Great Fear Economics Greed Machines See Pretty Pretty Good About Calculating Great Thing Behavioural Human Human Beings Psychology Us Really Help Reasons Beings Swing Why Actually Thing

The whole point about historians is that we are really communing with the dead. It's very restful - because you read. There's some sociopathic problem that makes me prefer it to human interaction. Niall Ferguson

Me You Problem Restful Some About Point Dead Read Because Makes Historians Very Human Interaction Prefer Really Whole

Through pure accident of birth, I've managed to stay relatively youthful. Niall Ferguson

Pure Accident Birth Relatively Stay Through Youthful

The real point of me isn't that I'm good looking. It's that I'm clever. I've got a brain! I would rather be called a highly intelligent historian than a gorgeous pouting one. Niall Ferguson

Good Me Gorgeous Looking Clever Would Rather Point Good-Looking Highly Got Real Brain Historian Intelligent Than

The debate that I'm interested in having is with seriously smart people about how we design institutions in the 21st century that will genuinely address problems of poverty and educational underachievement. Niall Ferguson

People Smart Debate Problems Seriously Will Poverty Design Address About Having Smart People Institutions Genuinely How Educational Interested Century

Ask me not, 'Are you rightwing,' but ask me 'Are you a committed believer in individual freedom, the values of the enlightenment?' Then, yeah, if being rightwing means believing Adam Smith was right, both in the 'Wealth of Nations' and the 'Theory of Moral Sentiments,' then I'm rightwing. Niall Ferguson

Freedom Me You Wealth Values Moral Both Individual Individual Freedom Smith Yeah Committed Nations Being Ask Then Sentiments Means Theory Believer Believing Right Adam Enlightenment

If being rightwing is thinking that Karl Marx's doctrine was a catastrophe for humanity, then I'm rightwing. Niall Ferguson

Humanity Thinking Marx Catastrophe Doctrine Being Then Karl

As a teacher, my strategy is to encourage questioning. I'm the least authoritarian professor you'll ever meet. Niall Ferguson

Teacher You Strategy Meet Least Encourage Questioning Authoritarian Ever Professor

Risk models are a substitute for historical knowledge, because they tend to work with just three years' worth of data. But three years is not a long time in financial history. Niall Ferguson

Work Time Knowledge History Financial Worth Three Long Long Time Data Risk Tend Because Years Historical Models Just Substitute

Quotes by Historians