Adam Ferguson Quotes

Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts - the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.

In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.

The past could liberate or imprison - it creates a nation's character, provides the nourishment or the poison a people imbibe in their very marrow.

For a country is not merely a piece of earth; it is, above all, a compendium of social, cultural, and historical factors which begin to acquire sense and order through the process of writing.

A nation is a work of art and a work of time.

Any nation that forgets its past cannot have a future.

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

Mythology does not interest me. Nor does history. But the possible overlap between history and mythology excites me immensely.

Queen Victoria did not regard art, letters, or music as in any way springing from national character: they were something quite apart, elegant decorations resembling a scarf or a bracelet, and in no way expressive of the soul of the country.

A nation must be embraced, rehabilitated and expressed as a tangible sign of human creativity and as an integral element of mankind's heritage.

The history of ideas is littered with the corpses of those who have tried to define culture.

Internationalism on the other hand admits that spiritual achievements have their roots deep in national life; from this national consciousness art and literature derive their character and strength and on it even many of the humanistic sciences are firmly based.

Nations without a past are contradictions in terms. What makes a nation is the past, what justifies one nation against others is the past, and historians are the people who produce it.

The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.

Ever since childhood, I've been interested in history and myth. Not just the facts and figures of the past, but everything that contributes to shape our perception of an age: architecture, art, literature and so forth.

A poem I write is not just about me; it is about national identity, not just regional but national, the history of people in relation to other people. I reach for these outward stories to make sense of my own life, and how my story intersects with a larger public history.

American cinema tends to express a patriotic relationship to national identity on a regular basis.

Every country can be defined through their food, their music and their language. That's the soul of a country.

The biggest difference between England and America is that England has history, while America has geography.

I appear to be drawn to iconic characters and what they reflect back to our cultures.

If historians don't tell stories at the scales of creation myths, someone else will.

I don't have space to enter into the examples or the history of this, so I'm left with having to make the bold statement that culture is extinct.

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.

It may not be art, but it is history.

We have a national memory in this country of about 7 minutes.