Neil MacGregor > Quotes

“It is, as we know, the victors who write the history, especially when only the victors know how to write.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“And the more you look at the history of Homo sapiens, it’s all about movement, right from the very first time they decided to leave Africa. It is this restlessness which seems a very significant factor in the way the planet was settled by humans. It does seem that we are not settled. We think we are, but we are still looking for somewhere else where something is better – where it’s warmer, it’s more pleasant. Maybe there is an element, a spiritual element, of hope in this – that you are going to find somewhere that is wonderful. It’s the search for paradise, the search for the perfect land – maybe that’s at the bottom of it all, all the time.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“In Germany, for a long time, the purpose of history was to ensure it could never happen again.” —MICHAEL STÜRMER”
― Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of a Nation

“Hope as the defining human quality – an encouraging thought. What stands out for me in our journey so far of nearly two million years is the constant human striving to do things better, to make tools that are not only more efficient but also more beautiful, to explore not just environments but ideas, to struggle towards something not yet experienced.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“Napoleon famously said that, to understand a man, you need to understand the world when he was twenty years old.”
― Neil MacGregor, Shakespeare's Restless World: Portrait of an Era

“if Americans are one nation under God, the Germans are one nation under Goethe.”
― Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of a Nation

“It was in fact the British who first produced Beetles after the end of the Second World War, for their occupation forces.”
― Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of a Nation

“Elizabethan Twitter feed; they carried news quickly, spread it widely, and their relationship to the truth was similarly easy-going.”
― Neil MacGregor, Shakespeare's Restless World: Portrait of an Era

“Johnstoune’s copy of the First Folio is now in Meisei University in Tokyo, but I can read it in London on my smartphone.”
― Neil MacGregor, Shakespeare's Restless World: Portrait of an Era

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
― Neil MacGregor, Shakespeare's Restless World: Portrait of an Era

“As so often, how you read history depends on where you're reading it from.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“What does a great empire do when faced with imminent invasion and destruction? It can rearm at home and seek allies abroad; but more cunningly it can revisit its history to forge a myth that will unite the people and carry them through to victory, a myth that will demonstrate to everyone that their country has been specially chosen by history to uphold justice and righteousness.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“Ward je in dieser Laun’ ein Weib gefreit?’: ‘Was ever woman in this humour wooed?”
― Neil MacGregor, Shakespeare's Restless World: Portrait of an Era

“After his death, Augustus was declared a god by the Senate, to be worshipped by the Romans. His titles Augustus and Caesar were adopted by every subsequent emperor, and the month of Sextilius was officially renamed August in his honour.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“Seventeenth-century Europe was still largely illiterate – even in the cities no more than a third of people could read – so prints with images and just a few key words were the most effective means of mass communication. Even today we all know a well-crafted cartoon can be lethal in public debate.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“That idea of the state as a ship and its ruler as the helmsman or captain is a very old one in European culture. It is frequently used by Cicero, and indeed our word ‘governor’ comes from the Latin for ‘helmsman’ – gubernator. Even more enticingly, the root of gubernator is the Greek kubernetes, which is also the origin of our word ‘cybernetics’; so the notions of ruling, steering and robotics all coincide in our language – and in this galleon.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“The Rhind Papyrus teaches you all you need to know for a dazzling administrative career.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“Gold was the attribute of the great Inca sun god and represented his generative powers – gold was described as the ‘sweat of the Sun’, while silver was the ‘tears of the Moon’.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“The icon is like a pair of spectacles which you put on to see heaven . . . Orthodox Christianity believes very strongly that you and I can meet the godhead, that we can almost become like gods. It's that extraordinary, frightening statement that Western Christianity is very shy of. - Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of History of the Church at Oxford University”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“La muerte representa tan solo una división en el seno de la comunidad, no el límite de ésta.”
― Neil MacGregor, Living with the Gods: On Beliefs and Peoples

“Lots of animals, particularly apes, use objects; but what sets us apart from them is that we make tools before we need them, and once we have used them we keep them to use again.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“if he acted straightaway, he could prevent his fiancée from being ‘resettled’. He must marry her at once:”
― Neil MacGregor, Shakespeare's Restless World: Portrait of an Era

“Astonishingly, at least to a non-German, the issue arose again at the reunification of 1990.”
― Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of a Nation

“Bavaria made the adoption of the Beer Purity Law a condition of its joining the new German Empire.”
― Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of a Nation

“1945 nearly eight million Germans had been killed or were missing,”
― Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of a Nation

“Brandenburg Beer War,” fought out in the courts, lasted for ten years—all over a black beer brewed in the former GDR that contained sugar, something forbidden by the Purity Law.”
― Neil MacGregor, Germany: Memories of a Nation

“Ashoka's political and moral philosophy, as he expressed it in his imperial inscriptions, initiated a tradition of religious tolerance, non-violent debate and a commitment to the idea of happiness which has animated Indian political philosophy ever since. But - and it's a big but - his benevolent empire scarcely outlived him. And that leaves us with the uncomfortable question of whether such high ideals can survive the realities of political power. Nevertheless, this was a ruler who really did change the way that his subjects and their successors thought.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“Como se sabe, son los vencedores quienes escriben la historia (...) aquellos cuyas sociedades son conquistadas o destruidas, a menudo solo disponen de sus objetos para contar su historia.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“El hombre racional no puede dejar de luchar contra la irracionalidad bruta. Esta deshumanización del enemigo lleva a una senda peligrosa, pero constituye un magnífico grito de guerra cuando se libra un conflicto bélico. Si se pretende mantener a raya el caos. dice el mensaje, la razón tendrá que luchar una y otra vez contra la sinrazón.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects

“. . . what societies deem allowable as pleasure is constantly and unpredictably negotiated.”
― Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects