Carl Sandburg Quotes

Tradition is a very powerful force.

I think the history and the past we have is just an energy we've built up to do what we do now.

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?

Whole generations have forgotten history.

History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals.

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.

Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books but lives in our very blood?

History is information. Memory is part of your identity.

If we lose our culture, we lose our memory.

A people without a history is like the wind over buffalo grass.

For we know when a nation goes down and never comes back, when a society or a civilization perishes, one condition may always be found. They forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what brought them along.

If a country forgets where it came from, how will its people know who they are?

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.

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

I hope that memory is valued - that we do not lose memory.

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

A society is defined as much by how it comes to terms with its past as by its attitude toward the future: its memories are no less revealing than its aims.

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

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.

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

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.

The lack of a sense of history is the damnation of the modern world.

Nothing is so retentive as a nation's memory.

Any nation that forgets its past cannot have a future.

History is a heavy thing everywhere.