Simon Schama Quotes

If you forget your history, you forget who you are.

We've got to know our history. We have to be able to bring our children to a place that they can be proud of.

Let us not suffer from a national amnesia that causes us to forget who and what we are.

I don't think the British carry a historical consciousness either.

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

Soon, nostalgia will be another name for Europe.

Without understanding your history, you can't get a perspective about the present.

The mark of a Scot of all classes [is that] he ... remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or bad; and there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the dead even to the twentieth generation.

I'm certainly proud to be Cuban American, and it's a fantastic opportunity for anybody - regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. It does carry a measure or pride to know where you're from and to know what your roots are.

Well, I'm Czech, but Polish, Czech, no matter, it's my name.

A people's relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother.

I'm about as Chinese as Herbert Hoover.

I worry about children not having a sense of any direct connection to the past.

Before doing 'Midnight's Children,' I didn't really have a chance to explore my Indian side. The Indian side of my heritage was always present, but it did not particularly define my identity. Being English was more an identity-defining status. I was born and brought up in London. Yes, my father is Parsi.

We've got to map all of our ancient history before it's gone because, let's face it, if we don't have a common heritage to share, something to get excited about, then what are we living for?

With each passing decade, history becomes less real for us, less immediate and essential to our way of life, and so, like 'green' nature, more of a commodity or an advertising gimmick.

I'm slowly feeling more Chinese and feel I should be more proud of being Chinese and appreciate where I've come from.

I think my attitudes about the past are very traditional. You can't ignore history; you can't escape it even if you want to. You might as well know where you come from, and you might as well know that everything has been done in some shape or form.

I've known where my heritage is from all along.

It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition.

In fact history does not belong to us; but we belong to it.

I have a sense that many Americans, especially those like me with European or foreign parents, feel they have to invent their families just as they have to invent themselves.

My heritage is English, so I'm proud to be back here.

I've always felt very English.

I'll never forget where I'm from, never forget my roots. It doesn't matter where I live. I'm English, simple as that.