James I. Robertson Jr. Quotes

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

Nothing is so retentive as a nation's memory.

Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it.

A lot of people may not read the history of their own country, but they carry on memories transmitted by previous generations. They're trying to achieve something, [they] have their mission and anger -- all this is fed by past experience of history.

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

A nation is the sum of its memories, and when those memories are allowed to die, it is less of a nation.

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

The past could liberate or imprison - it creates a nation's character, provides the nourishment or the poison a people imbibe in their very marrow.

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

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

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.

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

History is not the past. History is the present. We carry our history with us.

A people without a positive history is like a vehicle without an engine.

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

An accurate knowledge of the past of a country is necessary for everyone who would understand its present, and who desires to judge of its future.

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

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.

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

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

Happy is the nation without a history.

The lack of a sense of history is the damnation of the modern world.

History is a novel whose author is the people.

It is of the essence of traditions that they cover or conceal their humble foundations by erecting impressive edifices on them.