Neil MacGregor Quotes

Would Alexander, madman as he was, have been so much a madman, had it not been for Homer?

Greece has got something like 1,400 islands. There is so much of Greece you can't know even if you're Greek. It's sprinkled out all around the edge of the Aegean, all over the place. It's already a secret place wherever you go, even if it's somewhere huge like Athens or Corinth. The place enchanted me.

The birthplace of 'Western' civilization is generally agreed to be Greece, and its birth date is generally agreed to be some time during the 6th century B.C.E. Obviously, there is not one single dramatic moment that definitively started the whole thing.

I think the Swedish Academy wished to manifest its solidarity with the living spirit of Greece today.

I'm a proud Greek. I carry my Hellenism like a badge of merit.

I lived in Greece for about four years of my life, and living there had a huge impact on my life growing up. My father was very much adamant that we would learn about our culture. It's a very rich culture to be a part of since it has such a great history behind it. I definitely carry that in my job, and I am very passionate.

Creation stories, so central in the religions of the Middle East, play a surprisingly marginal part in Greek myth. The Greeks had nothing to set alongside the resounding 'In the beginning' in the book of Genesis, where one eternal God creates the universe out of nothing.

Greece is the most magical place on Earth.

In the world over, the very name of our country is immediately associated with the Parthenon.

I love Greek mythology, I love gladiators, I love war stuff.

I know a little about Greek mythology. It's not that far away from the Nordic mythology.

Few nations have been so poor as to have but one god. Gods were made so easily, and the raw material cost so little, that generally the god market was fairly glutted and heaven crammed with these phantoms.

I grew up being very interested in Greek mythology because my mum read to my sister and I.

We read Greek and Norse mythology until it came out of our ears. And the Bible.

A heroic nature is very Greek.

'Sanctus' deals with creation myths in every culture. It fascinates me that all cultures, evolving independently, have similar models of mankind's origins, of a Greater Being, of the flood, and so on. It's amazing how they crop up time and time again.

Greece – the mother of all democracies

The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black, the Thracians that theirs have light blue eyes and red hair.

There are two great centers of Hellenism. Athens is the capital of the Kingdom. Constantinople is the great capital, the City, the dream and hope of all Greeks.

That period of history has always fascinated me - Greek history, Greek mythology.

My Greek relatives I think probably are vampires.

It is great to be Greek, because I have one of the best heritages in the world.

I love Greece. It's really cool in the summer.

Greece was a muse. It inspired creativity in magical ways that I can't even begin to understand or explain.

Mythology is the crop which the Old World bore before its soil was exhausted.