Neil Oliver > Quotes

“Only the rock lasts forever”
― Neil Oliver, A History Of Scotland

“The little logo that sits at the top of the screen of any ‘Bluetooth-enabled’ hardware () is actually a monogram created from the two runes that represent Harald’s initials”
― Neil Oliver, The Vikings: A New History

“The parable of the spider was not invented by Scott. There is a much older storytelling tradition, spanning many cultures, about their industry and perseverance. Spiders and caves come up again and again, often in tales to comfort children. One old fable has the holy family fleeing Herod’s men soon after Christ’s birth. They take shelter in a cave and a spider, understanding the importance of the child, spins a web across the cave mouth to make it look as if no one has entered in a long time. Overnight the strands are covered by glittering frost and by the time the soldiers arrive, the illusion is complete. Tinsel is hung on Christmas trees in memory of the crucial role played by another spider and another web.”
― Neil Oliver, A History Of Scotland

“Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: ‘For life in the present there is no death. Death is not an event in life. It is not a fact in the world.”
― Neil Oliver, The Vikings: A New History

“Ginger people! D'you know what they are? Our aborigines ... that's what! GINGERIGINES! Look at 'em ... they were 'ere first. All this is theirs!
Al Murray, Pub Landlord”
― Neil Oliver, A History of Ancient Britain

“The Vikings were never defeated; rather they allowed themselves to be assimilated.”
― Neil Oliver, The Vikings: A New History

“I was born on a storm-swept rock and hate the soft growth of sun-baked lands where there is no frost in men’s bones.’ Liam O Flaithearta     So,”
― Neil Oliver, A History Of Scotland

“A person might be forgiven for thinking that if we were a plant we would be some sort of smothering ivy, crawling across the face of the planet until our tendrils threatened to throttle the very life out of the place.”
― Neil Oliver, A History of Ancient Britain

“we can be sure that royal suffering was transferred down the hierarchy until the poorest folk ended up bearing the burden, as usual.”
― Neil Oliver, The Vikings: A New History

“In sixteenth-century Scotland, forgiveness and brotherly love were low on everyone’s agenda.”
― Neil Oliver, A History Of Scotland

“Just as the fingers of an old man’s hands at rest still curl inwards in memory of the time they spent balled into fists inside his mother’s womb, so our hands receive handaxes from half a million years ago as though those tools were made to fill the space left empty by all the years.”
― Neil Oliver, A History of Ancient Britain

“ancestors of the Vikings had learnt a vital lesson: whatever was missing at home could be obtained from the neighbours.”
― Neil Oliver, The Vikings: A New History

“Marie was a formidable woman and an able partner. A daughter of one of the most powerful families in Europe, she was also highly intelligent, politically astute and a shrewd operator in a world of men. James had chosen well.”
― Neil Oliver, A History Of Scotland

“This is what Britain has always done - Britain the island, the mountains, valleys, lochs, lakes, forests and coastline of the place; she accepts all comers but quietly transforms them, shapes them in her own image. Britain has had a history of making things British.”
― Neil Oliver, A History of Ancient Britain

“In so far as a story of the world can have a beginning, let it begin with Enheduanna , the first named poet.”
― neil oliver, The Story of the World in 100 Moments

“It is a landscape that has a great deal to teach about threats to the unwary and the temporary nature of all but the rock of the Earth.”
― Neil Oliver, The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places

“It is all around us now, in one God-forsaken territory after another. Blood sacrifice in the name of a better future. Only the dead like Tollund Man have seen the end of it. All we seem to have learned so far is that such killing never ends, never will.”
― Neil Oliver, Wisdom of the Ancients: Life lessons from our distant past

“The Vikings were a long time coming. The product of 8,000 years’ worth of lives lived — hunters, farmers and metal-workers; masters of boats, carved in stone and crafted from timber; traders in amber, furs and oil; warriors and kings;”
― Neil Oliver, The Vikings: A New History

“The notion of communion with a loved one, by eating of his body and drinking of his blood, may be much, much older than 2,000 years.”
― Neil Oliver, A History of Ancient Britain

“Instead of focusing so much on what more we would like, we should humbly be looking at what we have and trying to repay some fraction of the debt we owe for all that we have been gifted by the past. Rather than demanding someone or something else to make our lives easier still, we would do better each to shoulder some responsibility for the well-being of this astonishing place in which we live. It starts with having a look around – a proper look. It might even begin with picking some litter off a beach or tending a garden.”
― Neil Oliver, The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places

“It is a fine word indeed and a deeply pleasing notion. All of my associations with coorie come from childhood - being invited to feel welcome, safe and loved, close by the side of someone making just enough room. Coorie is good for the heart and the soul.”
― Neil Oliver