James Nachtwey Quotes

The history of mankind is the history of ideas.

History is the key to everything: politics, religion, even fashion.

If you look at the history of other movements, whether Civil Rights or environmental rights, these are all decades-long undertakings.

You have to look at history as an evolution of society.

History is nothing but the actions of men in pursuit of their ends.

Each generation confronts new problems, encounters new facts, and tells our history somewhat differently.

Things are politics for a long time before they become history.

The historical method is often deemed conservative, because it traces the gradual and stately growth of our venerable institutions; but it may exercise a precisely opposite influence by showing the gross injustice which was blindly perpetrated during this growth.

Throughout history, we have only moved forward when society has distinguished between traditional values and valueless traditions.

The history of mankind is the history of ideas.

People resemble still more the time in which they live, than they resemble their fathers.

The history of mankind is the history of ideas. For it is ideas, theories, and doctrines that guide human action, determine the ultimate ends men aim at, and the choice of the means employed for the attainment of these ends.

History is the product of vast, amorphous and indecipherable social movements.

In a living civilization there is always an element of unrest, for sensitiveness to ideas means curiosity, adventure, change. Civilized order survives on its merits and is transformed by its power of recognizing its imperfections.

I had the naive, simplistic idea that producers and writers and artists of the time helped in a minuscule way to change the mind-set of America.

When politics is too slow, change has to come from culture.

The early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the Church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles o popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.

The perpetual stream of human nature is formed into ever-changing shallows, eddies, falls and pools by the land over which it passes. Perhaps the only real value of history lies in considering this endlessly varied play between the essence and the accidents.

Look at the 18th century. There was a lot more freedom going on.

Man is the child of customs, not the child of his ancestors.

We must not forget that all great revolutions and reformations would look mean and meagre if examined in detail as they occurred at the time.

Cultural transformation announces itself in sputtering fits and starts, sparked here and there by minor incidents, warmed by new ideas that may smolder for decades. In many different places, at different times, the kindling is laid for the real conflagration-the one that will consume the old landmarks and alter the landscape forever.

History is moving pretty quickly these days, and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.

The Supreme Court said nothing about silliness, but I suspect it may play more of a role than one might suppose. People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust... Probably the first slave ship, with Negroes lying in chains on its decks, seemed commonsensical to the owners who operated it and to the planters who patronized it. But such a vessel would not be in the realm of common sense today. The only sense that is common, in the long run, is the sense of change.

Because one of the properties of music is to entertain and to, I don't mean this lightly, distract us from the things that pull us down. Music should be not only a source for political ideas but also a source of hope.