Malcolm X Quotes

The greatest guarantee for the preservation of a person’s identity is language and faith, and all Armenians must carry these two values.

Language also encodes our past. We want to know who we are. To know who we are, we have to know who we used to be. Consequently, our literature, written in the past, anchors us in that past.

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

I think history is inextricably linked to identity. If you don't know your history, if you don't know your family, who are you?

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?

It takes an endless amount of history to make even a little tradition.

I understand people want to hold on to their roots.

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.

A deep meaning resides in old customs.

Stories are one of the means by which a culture preserves its identity.

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

I think that our comfort is in our history.

I think everyone is kind of an immigrant somehow, and I wasn't raised in an American society at home. My household was a Jamaican household, so I got all my traditions, all my roots and culture intact, so I'm able to support both countries.

We should not ignore or isolate our roots, no matter where we stay.

I always had my roots in the past.

I know that everything essential and great originated from the fact that the human being had a homeland and was rooted in tradition.

I am so proud to be from New Orleans and to be one of those people who had been displaced. I wasn't there during that time, but that's where I come from, that kind of poverty, and I'm very, very proud of that because it's given me my history.

Each of us has been designed for one of two immortal functions, as either a storyteller or as a cross-legged listener to tales of wonder, love, and daring. When we cease to tell or listen, then we no longer exist as a people.

A language is not just words. It's a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is. It's all embodied in a language.

It is important for all of us to appreciate where we come from and how that history has really shaped us in ways that we might not understand.

A people's relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother.

We've got to know our history. We have to be able to bring our children to a place that they can be proud of.

I love my heritage!

In my view, you can't go to the future if you haven't come from the past.

Think about what there is to learn from your heritage, good and bad, and about what you want to cultivate and not cultivate.