C.W. Ceram > Quotes

“Archaeology, I found, comprehended all manner of excitement and achievement. Adventure is coupled with bookish toil. Romantic excursions go hand in hand with scholarly self-discipline and moderation. Explorations among the ruins of the remote past have carried curious men all over the face of the earth… Yet in truth, no science is more adventurous than archaeology, if adventure is thought of as a mixture of spirit and deed.”
― C. W. Ceram, Gods, Graves & Scholars: The Story of Archaeology

“Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple”
― C.W. Ceram

“Among many other things, genius implies the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple, and to recognize inclusive structural principals.”
― C.W. Ceram

“It is frightening to realize in full depth what it means to be a human being: that is, to realize that we are all embedded in the flux of generations, whose legacy of thought and feeling we irrevocably carry along with us. Most of us never become aware of the importance of this heritage that man alone of all mammals lugs forward through time. And seldom have we any notion how to make the most of our given burden.”
― C.W. Ceram, Gods, Graves & Scholars: The Story of Archaeology

“Immaginiamo di dover stabili¬re una precisa cronologia della storia occidentale rica¬vandola dalle iscrizioni dei nostri edifici pubblici, dai testi dei padri della Chiesa e dalle fiabe dei fratelli Grimm. Di fronte a un’impresa di questo genere si tro¬varono gli archeologi quando fecero i primi tentativi per ricostruire il corso della storia egizia e stabilire delle date.”
― C.W. Ceram

“And yet is not enthusiasm a necessary thing? How else still crippling doubts if not with the exuberance of the ever hopeful? Meanwhile”
― C.W. Ceram, Gods, Graves & Scholars: The Story of Archaeology