When a documentary filmmaker, working in the style that I do, suggests that there has been a shooting ratio of 40 hours to every one hour of finished film, that doesn't mean that the other 39 are bad.
Ken BurnsRead
History isn't really about the past - settling old scores. It's about defining the present and who we are.
Interpretation
What this quote means
History helps us understand our current identity rather than just focusing on past events.
This quote emphasizes that history's true value lies not in merely recounting past events or revisiting grievances, but in shaping our understanding of the present and informing our identity. Ken Burns suggests that understanding where we come from allows us to define who we are today, encouraging us to learn from history to better navigate our present lives.
Themes
HistoryIdentityPresentUnderstandingSelf
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a history class to emphasize the importance of learning from past events.
More from Ken Burns
All quotes βI record all of my music with authentic instruments in a studio before we start editing, doing many, many versions. The music shapes the film as we edit so it has an organic relationship to the content.
Ken BurnsRead
Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being.
Ken BurnsRead
It is the great arrogance of the present to forget the intelligence of the past
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In most films music is brought in at the end, after the picture is more or less locked, to amplify the emotions the filmmaker wants you to feel.
Ken BurnsRead
Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.
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Similar quotes
This above all makes history useful and desirable; it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.
LivyRead
Let Indian history be set side by side with Europe history with what there is of the latter century by century and let us see whether India need blush at the comparison.
Annie BesantRead
Our prime minister could embrace and forgive the people who killed our beloved sons and fathers, and so he should, but he could not, would not, apologise to the Aboriginal people for 200 years of murder and abuse. The battle against the Turks, he said in Gallipoli, was our history, our tradition. The war against the Aboriginals, he had already said at home, had happened long ago. The battle had made us; the war that won the continent was best forgotten
Peter CareyRead
This was the first Memorial Day [Monday, May 1st, 1865]. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is Black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.
David W. BlightRead
The eyes of all America are upon us, as we play our part posterity will bless or curse us.
Henry KnoxRead
Use it, enjoy it, but always handle history with care.
Margaret MacmillanRead