Robert Hewison Quotes

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

We must teach our people the greatness of China's historical culture. In our educational program we must stress Chinese history and geography so that all may know and appreciate China's civilization of five thousand years and the far-flung boundaries of our ancient race. This will engender a greater faith in our own future.

The classics should be set in students’ minds so that they become the genes of Chinese national culture.

We're Americans. It's a culture. We should defend that culture, and we should reinforce that culture.

People looked up to us for our values and leadership. But today, they laugh as we are busy debating whether one of the seven wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal, was actually built by Indians.

La Scala is easily one of the top 10 symbols of Italy's cultural excellence. That makes it vital to our global image. Closing it would send a message to the rest of the world that Italy doesn't care.

Culture is just a shambling zombie that repeats what it did in life; bits of it drop off, and it doesn't appear to notice.

I have become aware on my travels that when a country loses the connection between its history and its traditional dress, something truly precious is lost.

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?

The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.

Considered now as a possession, one may define culture as the residuum of a large body of useless knowledge that has been well and truly forgotten.

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.

Preserving tradition has become a nice hobby, like stamp collecting.

As our language wanes and dies, the golden legends of the far-off centuries fade and pass away. No one sees their influence upon culture; no one sees their educational power.

A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.

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

America was based on a poetic vision. What will happen when it loses its poetry?

In these confused times, the role of classical music is at the very core of the struggle to reassert cultural and ethical values that have always characterized our country and for which we have traditionally been honored and respected outside our shores.

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.

Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.

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.

Americans' great and secret fear is that America may turn out to be a phenomenon rather than a civilization.

This awareness instills a fierce desire to protect that heritage and - in doing so - to educate Americans in the meaning and importance of our pivotal documents.

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.