Ken Burns Quotes

History is a heavy thing everywhere.

History lets you know exactly where you are today. And if you pay attention to it, it gives you a broad perspective of everyone. You can relate it to pretty much any time.

You cannot not know history.

I believe that patterns tend to repeat themselves and there are connections between the past and the present. There is the old proverb that reads, 'You can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been'. For me, history is like that. When you take history and combine it with myth, then you get mystery.

I'm inspired by history, different periods.

We can't afford to deny our past in a bid to be empowered. But what we can do is contextualize the past.

I don't have a strong interest in history.

Most of us get our history through story.

A poem I write is not just about me; it is about national identity, not just regional but national, the history of people in relation to other people. I reach for these outward stories to make sense of my own life, and how my story intersects with a larger public history.

I love history, doesn't matter what era, I'm fascinated.

I see the great continuities in New Zealand history as being decency and common sense and up until now when we've confronted these things we've been able to talk them through, and I'm sure we will with this issue as well.

History must not be treated as something set off by itself.

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

History is written not only for posterity but by posterity as well.

We learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are.

History is the essence of innumerable biographies.

A nation builds museums to understand its own history and to have its history understood by others, to create a common space and language to address collectively what is too difficult to process individually.

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

Without understanding your history, you can't get a perspective about the present.

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.

I feel like history is about going and discovering the great human stories that just are every bit as relevant as anything that's going on today.

Without knowing your own history, you are doomed to repeat it.

My work as a whole is about excavating and shining a light on pieces of history that not only need to be seen and heard, but that can also add to the conversation about what's going on now.

I like history because you can't really progress without knowing what comes before you, so I think it's super fascinating.

I grew up loving history.