Great Throughts Treasury

"It is, as we know, the victors who write the history, especially when only the victors know how to write."

"That’s what the museum is about: giving people their place in things."

"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."

"[The Persian Empire] left a dream of the Middle East as a unit, and a unit where people of different faiths could live together."