History is how we have learnt to think about ourselves. It's not as though the Greeks and Romans are static entities out there to be discovered and translated. We make them speak, we talk to them, and they inform what we say.
Mary BeardRead
It's a bit naff, but there is something exciting about pulling a bit of pottery out of the ground that's 2,000 years old.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Discovering ancient pottery is thrilling as it connects us to history.
The quote reflects the excitement and wonder that comes from unearthing artifacts from the past, particularly pottery that is thousands of years old. This act of excavation brings history to life, allowing us to engage with the world as it once was and appreciate the craftsmanship and culture of ancient civilizations.
Themes
PotteryHistoryExcavationArtifactsAncient
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a lecture on archaeology at a university.
More from Mary Beard
All quotes βI don't think that we are completely dominated by what we have inherited from the past, but it is the case that as far back as you can go - just to Homer, but also to the literature of Rome, the literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance - what you will find is that women's voices are not taken seriously.
Mary BeardRead
What politicians do is they never get the rhetoric wrong, and the price they pay is they don't speak the truth as they see it. Now, I will speak truth as I see it, and sometimes I don't get the rhetoric right. I think that's a fair trade-off.
Mary BeardRead
I'd quite like to be in Caligula's court - living in the back room somewhere and just being able to observe.
Mary BeardRead
Whatever you say about popular culture, people like people who know things, who are experts, and it doesn't particularly matter what they look like.
Mary BeardRead
There is no way, absolutely no way, that I would want people to stop reading the 'Odyssey.' But I want them to read it with their eyes open. To notice it and then to think what it says about us.
Mary BeardRead
Similar quotes
It's a shame how a lot of actors use theater as a stepping stone to film and television work; I think it shouldn't be treated that way. Maybe it's narcissism or something. I think we should always go back to it. I try and do a play a year, and I think that's really helped me.
Peter DinklageRead
Realism should only be the means of expression of religious genius... or, at the other extreme, the artistic expressions of monkeys which are quite satisfied with mere imitation. In fact, art is never realistic though sometimes it is tempted to be. To be really realistic a description would have to be endless.
Albert CamusRead
Poetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have.
John MasefieldRead
I was an awful critic. I operated on the assumption that there was an absolute scale of values against which art could be measured. I didn't trust my own subjective responses.
Tom StoppardRead
Every artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands. The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative.
Paul RobesonRead
I'd like to be for cinema what Shakespeare was for theatre, Marx for politics and Freud for psychology: someone after whom nothing is as it used to be.
Rainer Werner FassbinderRead