Louis Leakey Quotes

We want to excite the world about what's out there. But we don't want them to say, 'Oh, there are lots of sites in Egypt - let's loot.'

The Elgin Marbles were supposed to be on the Parthenon. For many works of art, a museum is an artificial setting - a zoo, not a natural habitat.

Georgia is not just a European country, but one of the most ancient European countries.

We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, having no notion of the beautiful structures of which they were once a part.

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?

I've been waiting over 40 years to come to Cyprus, and it has not disappointed - the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Crossroads of Civilization, and, I might add, a genuine strategic partner to the United States of America.

I spent most of the '60s, when I was starting to try to write novels, living and working in Greece and Turkey. These are countries where the ancient past is interfused with the daily present, and I remember being struck with wonder at the constant sense of continuity and connection, the reminders that lie in wait for you at every turn.

Africa has a time-honored and brilliant civilization.

Persia is 7,000 years old and will fight to survive.

Saddam Hussein was fascinated by ancient Babylon and Assyria. He made money available to protect and develop the great archaeological sites. The great achievements of Mesopotamian civilisation were pressed into the service of the Ba'athist regime.

Any period is fascinating: the more ancient, the better.

From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.

Before the Greeks were the Tamils. The Tamils are one of the oldest civilizations that's still surviving.

There is no nation in the world greater, older or more honorable than the Turkish nation, nor has one been seen in the history of humanity.

The nations which have put mankind and posterity in their debt have been small States—Israel, Athens, Florence, Elizabethan England.

Rome is one enormous mausoleum. There, the Past lies visibly stretched upon his bier. There is no today or tomorrow in Rome; it is perpetual yesterday.

I must say I have a personal love affair with India, with its civilisation, its culture.

I want the Dead Sea, like Masada, to be part of UNESCO's world heritage.

I adore the classical pieces of our culture. The Greek and Roman are still inside and everywhere; it's impossible to disconnect.

Pompeii is an extraordinary place to be because it was preserved exactly as it was. There are many other sites. If you visit any other antiquity-type sites throughout the world, they're very damaged with what's gone on over the centuries since they were abandoned. But this one was just, like, sealed, so you're looking at rock surfaces and the carving of letters and names in the stones looks like it was done yesterday.

To penetrate into Italy is like a most fascinating act of self-discovery-back, back down the old ways of time. Strange and wonderful chords awake in us, and vibrate again after many hundreds of years of complete forgetfulness.

Archaeology is not only the hand maid of history, it is also the conservator of art.

Greece appears to be the fountain of knowledge; Rome of elegance

Jerusalem is a port city on the shore of eternity.

I'm a big history buff so to walk the streets...the ancient world like that was pretty astounding.