Ken Burns Quotes

I'm interested in history, in trying to relate the past to the present and to understand how people thought about their problems and pleasures.

The history of the past interests us only in so far as it illuminates the history of the present.

It would be well if, in studying the past, we could always bear in mind the problems of the present

I enjoy the act of research. I'm researching as a means to an end, but I literally just enjoy reading about how people lived in the past and understanding it better.

I like stories. I like to figure out how history ties to the present.

We cannot leave history entirely to nonclinical observers and to professional historians.

While writing books about the past, I think about the present. It's not intentional, but somehow my books end up being written under the sign of a political mood.

An accurate knowledge of the past of a country is necessary for everyone who would understand its present, and who desires to judge of its future.

A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.

Learning from the past helps to ensure that mistakes are not repeated.

It may be enough to study history in all its nuance and ambiguity for its own sake. But there is no country free of the need to find new ways of reading the past as an inspiring way of thinking about everything else, including the present.

I look to historians for their power to illuminate not just the invisible lineaments of the present, but also that which is not present. What are the roads that were not taken that most shape our own time?

The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.

There is nothing more dangerous than mislearning the lessons of history.

Trying to recreate for people the ways in which the past was similar to the present is an important part of what a historian has to do, and what a student of foreign policy has to do.

History is not ancestral memory or collective tradition. It is what people learned from priests, schoolmasters, the writers of history books, and the compilers of magazine articles and TV programs.

Falsehoods which we spurn to-day Were the truths of long ago.

The context of history proved invaluable.

There's power in turning to the past to illuminate the current state of things.

I think a lot of times, the historical piece is often a way to comment on the present.

I was very interested in history, but I also thought, you know, history is not that interesting sometimes, and it can feel a bit medicinal.

Our interest in history always reflects our own times.

The present enables us to understand the past, not the other way round.

Our history is a passion for me. I feel that we leave out so much information and huge gaps in the American story and it makes it hard for people to really understand that we are all intricately related as Americans. So I am attracted to historically based projects because we entertain and learn something at the same time. I just love that combination.

Learning history is easy; learning its lessons seems almost impossibly difficult.