Steven Biko Quotes

A people without a history is like the wind over buffalo grass.

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?

Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.

A nation's life is about as long as its reverential memory.

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

Happy is the nation without a history.

History is a novel whose author is the people.

Nothing is so retentive as a nation's memory.

No people can live in the past - not even in its own past. But if it no longer has a link with its history, it must of necessity perish. Persia, crowded with hardship and glory, ordeals and hopes. With the help of the Almighty, the lessons of the past constitute the best guide for the citizens of the future.

Any nation that forgets its past cannot have a future.

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

I think the history and the past we have is just an energy we've built up to do what we do now.

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.

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

Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being.

All the things that are part of your heritage make you British - that makes this country what it is. It's part of your history. And here, unlike America, it's still living history.

History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals.

When a tradition gathers enough strength to go on for centuries, you don't just turn it off one day.

A nation that forgets its past can function no better than an individual with amnesia.

Museums are managers of consciousness. They give us an interpretation of history, of how to view the world and locate ourselves in it. They are, if you want to put it in positive terms, great educational institutions. If you want to put it in negative terms, they are propaganda machines.

Malcolm was a firm believer in the value and importance of our heritage. He believed that we have valuable and distinct cultural traditions which need to be institutionalized so that they can be passed on to our heirs.

A concerted effort to preserve our heritage is a vital link to our cultural, educational, aesthetic, inspirational, and economic legacies - all of the things that quite literally make us who we are.

History is information. Memory is part of your identity.

If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.

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