George Takei Quotes

Look at the United States today. We have made mistakes in the past. We have had shortcomings. We shall make mistakes in the future and fall short of our own best hopes.

If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future.

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

We have become aware of the responsibility for our attitude towards the dark pages in our history. We have understood that bad service is done to the nation by those who are impelling to renounce that past.

A great nation does not hide its history. It faces its flaws and corrects them.

Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.

We cannot get by Auschwitz. We should not even try, as great as the temptation is, because Auschwitz belongs to us, is branded into our history, and - to our benefit! - has made possible an insight that could be summarized as, 'Now we finally know ourselves.'

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

As Members of Congress and people of conscience, we must work to overcome the indifference and distortions of history, and ensure that future generations know what happened.

Literature becomes the living memory of a nation.

It is part of my responsibility as a bridge builder to speak the truth about what's great about America, what we've done right, and what our less glorious moments. And many people feel that the Iraq adventure, for example, has been one of our less glorious moments.

If someone like my father chooses to criticise Israeli policies, it's not because he is a self-hating Jew, but because he is not prepared to live in a state of self-denial.

A generation without history is a generation that not only loses a nation's memory but loses a sense of what it's like to be inside a human skin.

It is easier to criticize than to correct our past errors.

My countrymen, I have given proofs that I am one most anxious for liberties for our country, and I am still desirous of them. But I place as a prior condition the education of the people, that by means of instruction and industry our country may have an individuality of its own and make itself worthy of these liberties.

American politicians who dwell on American exceptionalism only dishonor us by suggesting we play dumb to our past.

Any nation that forgets its past cannot have a future.

We must protect our history - because we are doomed to repeat it if we don't understand it and work towards a more perfect union.

I don't believe we can run from our history. We need to embrace it and learn from it and be a better state and a better country.

We must turn the page on the dark parts of our history.

Germans have an understanding of history and cannot allow themselves to forget it. It may be a curse, but in some ways, it's a blessing. It makes them cautious.

It's incumbent on all of us to remember our history and not repeat our past sins.

We must not repeat the same mistakes, or commit the same cruelties that were done in the past.

History is with us until we learn from the suffering of the past.

For history is to the nation as memory is to the individual.