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The continent had to be discovered emotionally. It had to become a homeland and feel like home. The sense of overpowering space, the isolation, the warmth of summer, the garish light, the shiny-leafed trees, the birds and insects, the smell of air filled with dust, the strange silences, and the landscapes in all their oddness had to become familiar.

— Geoffrey Blainey A Land Half Won (1980)

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More quotes by Geoffrey Blainey

In a democracy, all voters are equal but not all are responsible. Compulsory voting ignores that elemental truth.

Innovation is usually not a gigantic step but a series of small jumps involving various enterprising people whose names are soon forgotten.

The Story of Australia's People: The Rise and Rise of a New Australia (2016)

Whether we like the idea or not, war has again and again been seen as the great auditor, the special testing time, of a nation's strength and fibre.

In economics, as in politics, no national reservoir can stand the strain when everyone is turning on the taps and few are bothering to see that the catchments to the reservoir are working.

Eye on Australia: Speeches and Essays of Geoffrey Blainey (1991)

Democracy is a freak condition in the world's history: civil liberties are not common liberties even today, and most people in the world have never possessed them.

The Great Seesaw: A New View of the Western World, 1750-2000 (1988)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Geoffrey Blainey (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.