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Leonardo is the Hamlet of art history whom each of us must recreate for himself.

— Kenneth Clark Leonardo da Vinci (1939)

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History

More quotes by Kenneth Clark

In time of war all countries behave equally badly, because the power of action is handed over to stupid and obstinate men.

The Other Half: A Self Portrait (1977)

It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs.

Civilisation (1969)

Heroes do not easily tolerate the company of other heroes.

Civilisation (1969)

Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process.

Civilisation (1969)

One musn't overrate the culture of what used to be called "top people" before the wars. They had charming manners, but they were as ignorant as swans.

Civilisation (1969)

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A generation which ignores history has no past —and no future.

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love (1973)

History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

James Joyce Ulysses (1922)

If we don’t care about our past we can’t have very much hope for our future.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past, — so good night!

Thomas Jefferson

Attribution

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