Top 25 Quotes by Simon Schama of 36 - Page 2

In the end, history, especially British history with its succession of thrilling illuminations, should be, as all her most accomplished narrators have promised, not just instruction but pleasure.

In the end, history, especially British history with its succession of thrilling illuminations, should be, as all her most accomplished narrators have promised, not just instruction but pleasure.

Simon Schama

Illumination, History, Narrators

Simon Schama (2000). “A History of Britain: At the edge of the world? 3000 BC-AD 1603”, Miramax

These men were very much in the minority, but of course, being the 'Elect', they expected to be in a minority - the party of redemption. In fact they glorified in the slightness of their numbers, the self-purifying troop of Gideon's army... stormtroopers in the front line of the Reformation.

Simon Schama

Party, Army, Men

In America, much foreign policy seems contrived to be an exercise in political theory with no attention to history whatsoever. Yet there's a great reverence for history - though it's history as thumb-sucking, security blanket-nibbling self-congratulation.

Simon Schama

Congratulations, Exercise, Self

From the days of the Founding Fathers, right to this (2008) election, how and where America fights to defend its freedom, has been the ultimate question in its politics. The one that triggers rage and sorrow; the one that asks is the price of blood too dear? Or, if it is to stay true to its convictions, does America have no coice but to put its lives on the line?

Simon Schama

Father, War, Fighting

We seem wired to grieve with greenery. Allowing the dead to dissolve into the earth, to become part of the cycle of the seasons, has, for millennia, held the promise of cheating mortality.

Simon Schama

Cheating, Grieving, Promise

Simon Schama (2004). “Hang-ups: Essays on Painting (mostly)”, BBC Books

DIY, cricket, automobile repair. I could study it for a lifetime and not produce a word on the carburettor.

Simon Schama

Diy, Study, Lifetime

"Simon Schama: 'I'm the inevitable old codger on the dancefloor'". Interview with Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. July 30, 2011.

Walking on camera is damn hard. It's a Jewish problem. The rangy stride across the blasted moor is not really a Jewish thing.

Simon Schama

Cameras, Problem, Moors

To collude in the minimisation of British history on the grounds of its imagined irrelevance to our rebranded national future, or from a suspicion that it does no more than recycle patriotic pieties unsuited to a global marketplace, would be an act of appallingly self-inflicted collective memory loss.

Simon Schama

Memories, Patriotic, Loss

Simon Schama (2000). “A History of Britain: At the edge of the world? 3000 BC-AD 1603”, Miramax

Charles was constitutionally incapable of being a constitutional monarch.

Simon Schama

History, British History, Incapable

At 11, 12 I thought I was clumsy, ugly, a mess, an unappealing person, but I did have the gift of the gab. I had the school record at Haberdashers for consecutive detentions for simply speaking out of turn.

Simon Schama

School, Records, Ugly

"Lunch with Mariella: Simon Schama". Interview with Mariella Frostrupv, www.theguardian.com. June 19, 2010.