Margaret MacMillan Quotes

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.

I find a tremendous receptivity among the public for the subject matter of, 'Where did we come from and how did we get here?' People are thirsty and hungry for information on our origins. I feel a responsibility as a major figure in the area... to convey to the public the knowledge of human origins in a way that is understandable to them.

Too many people take New York for granted. The primary reason is that history is not taught. That's outrageous in a city where the past is still visible.

Although I write to entertain, and try to keep my work free of didacticism, I do have a rather passionate belief in our need to be connected to - and to learn from - history.

I think documentaries are the greatest way to educate an entire generation that doesn't often look back to learn anything about the history that provided a safe haven for so many of us today.

I like historical pieces. History was my favorite subject in school, it was the only subject I excelled in. I love the idea of history and the idea that we may have the opportunity to learn from our past mistakes.

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.

I think I was interested in history without knowing it and that became very clear when I arrived in France. Everything that I was really interested in was there, but I knew nothing, no education, no art education, no education beyond high school. It was extremely overwhelming and it still is.

I believe that patterns tend to repeat themselves and there are connections between the past and the present. There is the old proverb that reads, 'You can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been'. For me, history is like that. When you take history and combine it with myth, then you get mystery.

People don't know the past, even though we live in literate societies, because they don't trust the sources of the past.

But we cannot rely on memorials and museums alone. We can tell ourselves we will never forget and we likely won't. But we need to make sure that we teach history to those who never had the opportunity to remember in the first place.

Without an understanding of history, we are politically, culturally and socially impoverished. If we sacrifice history to economic pressures or to budget cuts, we will lose a part of who we are.

I think you can learn from history.

I think people in general have neglected to learn about history.

No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read.

Most of us get our history through story.

I don't think you should ever run from history. You should learn from it and embrace it.

The task of understanding the past is neverending.

Making history whole is about uncovering secrets.

The history that lies inert in unread books does no work in the world …. our proper function is not to repeat the past but to make use of it

There can be no dedication to Canada's future without a knowledge of its past.

You can’t just wave a magic wand and make our history go away..

History is not the past. History is the present. We carry our history with us.

Histories are to educate so that we understand better for ourselves and for motivation.

Americans are in vital need of the instruction that historians can provide.