Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" One of the great things about history is that it sort of isn't a done deal - ever. The historical texts and the historical evidence that you use is always somehow giving you different answers because you're asking it different questions. "

Mary Beard

Giving

History

Questions

Related Quotes:

" It wasn't until I got to Cambridge that I discovered active discrimination against women. "

" If being a decent soul is being maternal, then fine. "

" I would summarise my politics very simply as the maverick left and proud. "

" One person's barbarity is another person's civilisation. "

" I have always hated fancy dress parties. "

" People who exploit others come to spend an enormous amount of energy wondering about and justifying that exploitation. "

" The web is democratising and also the voice of people who don't think they have another outlet. And that voice can be punitive. "

" I think, when I was 25, nobody in the world knew who I was. "

" I receive something we might euphemistically call an 'inappropriately hostile' response - that is to say, more than fair criticism or even fair anger - every time I speak on radio or television. "

" All religions throughout history have been concerned about - and have sometimes fought over - what it means to represent God, and they have found elegant, intriguing, and awkward ways to confront that dilemma. "

" When I am making a TV show, I am looking for engagement, not admiration. "

" 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. "

" If talking about arts means being pretentious, a bit like being a wine critic, then I don't feel comfy with that. You can get a lot from paintings without getting mystical about brush strokes. "

" It's great fun being an academic because you have a certain licence to be a bit of a joker. "

" Democracy requires information. Plato knew that informed decision-making requires knowledge. "

" One of its most powerful weapons has always been 'barbarity': 'we' know that 'we' are civilised by contrasting ourselves with those we deem to be un-civilised, with those who do not - or cannot be trusted to - share our values. "

" I have lots of heroes and heroines, mostly unsung and including my husband. "

" You can hardly be a classicist and not be interested in theatre. "

" I'm actually in a tradition of classicists with a big public face who like sounding off. "

Mary Beard

Big

Face

" The reason why the British theatrical tradition is world-leading in Greek drama is because there is a flourishing tradition of people rethinking Greek tragedy. "

" Roman military tactics were much over-rated. All the clever ones had the same idea, which was to go round the back. "

Mary Beard

Clever

Back

" I do not think that the lives of women of my generation, as a class, were blighted by the way the power differentials between men and women operated. We wanted to change those power differentials; we also had a good time. "

" You have to do what you feel comfortable with. "

" Greek myths, early Roman history, is configured around violence against women. And I think we need to get in there, get our hands dirty, face it, and see why and how it was. "

" What I find very interesting is, we're not enthralled by the ancient world, and we've escaped all kinds of ancient preconceptions and assumptions and prejudices. But, nevertheless, we still make that connection between authoritative speech and male speech. "

" The building blocks of discrimination tend to be similar wherever you find them. "

" My day job is working on Roman history and ancient Roman history. "

" I think you have to realize that most ancient warfare is really kind of hit and run, honestly. You go and you bash down the walls of some enemy 50 miles away and you take some slaves, you take some cattle, probably a bit of cash too, and then you say goodbye and go home and you probably do the same thing next year - or try to, or they do it to you. "

" If women are not perceived to be fully within the structures of power, surely it is power that we need to redefine rather than women? "

" 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. "