Historical Figures Quotes

“When depicting Asian people in movies, books, and television or as historical figures, it's more important to humanize them and give them all of the dimensions of humanity, and that includes sexuality. Ascribe the human the full range of human qualities.”

“I was in a number of school plays, one in particular, when I was 13 or 14, entitled 'Illusions.' It was put together by one of the teachers, and was about famous historical figures. I had to do the Martin Luther King 'I have a dream' speech, and some black women in the audience were clapping and crying and whooping.”

“Epilepsy is a disease in the shadows. Patients are often reluctant to admit their condition - even to close family, friends or co-workers - because there's still a great deal of stigma and mystery surrounding the disease that plagued such historical figures as Julius Caesar, Edgar Allan Poe and Lewis Carroll.”

“Statues and murals depicting historical figures, and even Jesus Christ himself, are being targeted by angry mobs of individuals looking to rewrite history.”

“The success of 'Rome' was in making the history accessible and giving viewers everyman characters through which they can connect to historical figures. It stops the story from being too remote.”

“'Hamilton' and 'Shuffle Along' are closely connected because the ensembles are all friends, and they both deal with historical figures and the impact they've made on American life.”

“If we look too closely at many historical figures, we won't like what we see.”

“I love quotes, I love learning from people of the past, sports figures, historical figures, whoever.”

“The United States is a country founded on the ideal of freedom and equality, values later underlined by key historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King.”

“Archival and published history does not always record personal relationships of historical figures, so characters must be invented to allow the subject to reveal their interior realm through intimate interaction.”

“I find historical figures in general very tricky because you feel at times that you're serving two masters. Not only the arc and wonderful writing that comes with the show, but also the history of a person's life.”

“I loved the fact that Peabody was a teacher and that he would take Sherman on these incredible adventures to meet these crazy characters. And I got introduced to these historical figures. As a kid, you're like, 'This must be important.' And you can laugh at the silliness of it.”

“In the first few pages, Kundera discusses several abstract historical figures: Robespierre, Nietzsche, Hitler. For Eunice's sake, I wanted him to get to the plot, to introduce actual "living" characters - I recalled this was a love story - and to leave the world of ideas behind. Here we were, two people lying in bed, Eunice's worried head propped on my collarbone, and I wanted us to feel something in common. I wanted this complex language, this surge of intellect, to be processed into love. Isn't that how they used to do it a century ago, people reading poetry to one another?”

“I have a bee in my bonnet as to how few black historical figures one sees on film; incredible stories, stories from which we are living the legacy and which just don't get made.”

“There are certain historical figures of such importance that we need to know everything about them, which is why books about Napoleon, Lincoln, Julius Caesar, Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth I, and the great religious founders continue to proliferate; these lives require constant reevaluation and interpretation.”

“When I was seven years old, I fell in love with a series published by Bobbs-Merrill called 'The Childhood of Famous Americans.' In it, historical figures like Clara Barton, Nancy Hanks, Elias Howe, Patrick Henry, and dozens more came to life for me as children.”

“Think of any great man or woman. How can you separate them from the years in which they lived? You can't. Their greatness lies in their response to that moment.”

“There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.”

“Political history is not the only way to approach historical figures.”

“For 'The Grace of Kings,' I read Han Dynasty historical records in Classical Chinese, which allowed me to get a sense of the complexity of the politics and the 'surprisingly modern' reactions of the historical figures to recurrent problems of state administration.”