M. H. Abrams Quotes
When I was a graduate student, the leading spirits at Harvard were interested in the history of ideas.
Quotes to Explore
-
History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.
-
I'm resigned to the fact that the corseted history of America is not as exciting as that of Britain.
-
In life, a lot of great ideas sound insane or absurd at first.
-
If you love things or ideas or people that contradict each other, you have to be prepared to fight for every square inch of intellectual real estate you occupy.
-
Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included.
-
It is well known that my husband and Lady Thatcher enjoyed a very special relationship as leaders of their respective countries during one of the most difficult and pivotal periods in modern history. Ronnie and Margaret were political soul mates, committed to freedom and resolved to end Communism.
-
I think that every so-called history book and film biography should be prefaced by the statement that what follows is the author's rendition of events and circumstances.
-
When you challenge other people's ideas of who or how you should be, they may try to diminish and disgrace you. It can happen in small ways in hidden places, or in big ways on a world stage. You can spend a lifetime resenting the tests, angry about the slights and the injustices. Or, you can rise above it.
-
I think one's history and past is important at a certain time in your life, especially as an artist, just to try to hone in on that.
-
I believe that we must maintain pride in the knowledge that the actions we take, based on our own decisions and choices as individuals, link directly to the magnificent challenge of transforming human history.
-
Creativity is generating ideas that are novel and useful. I define originals as people who go beyond dreaming up the ideas and take initiative to make their visions a reality.
-
The history of liberty has largely been the history of the observance of procedural safeguards.
-
Radical thought has inspired many of the great political and social reform movements in American history, from ending slavery to establishing the minimum wage.
-
History is the heavy traffic that prevents us from crossing the road. We wait, more or less patiently, for it to pause, so that we can get to the liquor store or the laundromat or the burger bar.
-
There is resistance to change. There's a resistance to ideas.
-
When historians of early America turned from the pursuit of past politics, they devised a category known in the academy as 'social and intellectual history.' In it, they stuffed nearly everything except politics on the assumption, which the anthropologists assured them was correct, that it would all fit together. Somehow it did not.
-
My company Independent Ideas worked with Gucci on a special edition Fiat 500.
-
Scientists and academics in particular focus on detail and the minutiae. When they talk to each other, they usually don't focus on the broad ideas; they don't focus on social interconnectedness. They focus on the task that they're doing.
-
Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.
-
I realized I have an appetite for stunts. I learned how to do them myself.
-
To go from chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in the Kansas Legislature to one of 50 on the Appropriations Committee and one of 435 in the whole House, it is more difficult to directly impact policy here.
-
History will eventually depict as legitimate the efforts of the Iraqi resistance to destabilise and defeat the American occupation forces and their imposed Iraqi collaborationist government.
-
When I was in elementary school, I used to write letters to myself. I'd write letters and go 'Dear Kristen-at-16-years-old, happy birthday. I hope you're doing something.'
-
When I was a graduate student, the leading spirits at Harvard were interested in the history of ideas.
