David Amsden Quotes

Museums are good things, places to look and absorb and learn.

A nation creates itself not just with what it remembers, but with what it forgets.

The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or woman.

A nation is a historical group of men of recognizable cohesion, held together by a common enemy.

History is a novel whose author is the people.

I think documentaries are the greatest way to educate an entire generation that doesn't often look back to learn anything about the history that provided a safe haven for so many of us today.

When history is erased, people's moral values are also erased.

Countries under foreign command quickly forget their history, their past, their tradition, their national symbols, their way of living, often their own literary language.

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?

But we cannot rely on memorials and museums alone. We can tell ourselves we will never forget and we likely won't. But we need to make sure that we teach history to those who never had the opportunity to remember in the first place.

I think people in general have neglected to learn about history.

There comes a time in the history of nations when their peoples must become fully reconciled to their past if they are to go forward with confidence to embrace their future.

Most of us get our history through story.

People have to identify with their own stories, with their own lives, so a movie belongs to a country and to a culture. Sometimes we can share, but it's very rare.

History isn’t just what happened before we came on the scene. We are a part of history..

A nation’s attitude toward its own history is like a window into its own soul.

We have a national memory in this country of about 7 minutes.

A nation is a work of art and a work of time.

A nation is the totality of people who speak the same language.

Nationalism is spiritual and all-embracing, in the sense that it opens its arms to and spreads its wings over all those who have shared with the Arabs their history and have lived in the environment of their language and culture for generations, so that they have become Arab in thought and feeling. There is no fear that nationalism will clash with religion, for, like religion, it flows from the heart and issues from the will of God; they walk arm in arm, supporting each other, especially when religion represents the genius of the nationality and is in harmony with its nature.

Happy is the nation without a history.

History is a table around which we can still sit and have a civil discourse.

Indian nationalism is the nationalism of an idea, the idea of an ever-ever land, emerging from an ancient civilization, shaped by a shared history, sustained by pluralist democracy.

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

I don't think it's such a bad idea that people learn the same history in school. I think it tends to ground people and give them something to respond to and react against.