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Quote by Neal Ascherson

“I'm always interested in debunking myths if they are untrue. But it's also important to identify myths and how they function, what value they may have.”

Quote by Neal Ascherson

Author

Neal Ascherson is a renowned British journalist known for his in-depth reporting on the history of Eastern and Central Europe. His writing style is characterized by its nuanced observations and profound insights, covering political and social changes in countries from Poland to Russia. more

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“The way that words mutate reminds me of fashions in music. The word--the note--is a constant. But the setting and chord in which it occurs alters with the mood of a nation from major to minor, from the assertive to the mournful and foreboding.”

Way Nations Fashion Majors Constant Notes Mood Setting Settings Minors Chords Assertive Foreboding

Book:Games with Shadows

Source: Games with Shadows

“History--the product, not the raw material--is a bottle with a label. For many years now, the emphasis of historical discussion has been laid upon the label (its iconography, its target-group of customers) and upon the interesting problems of manufacturing bottle-glass. The contents, on the other hand, are tasted in a knowing, perfunctory way and then spat out again. Only amateurs swallow them.”

“Broadly speaking, most people lived their lives in a kind of unwilling conformity. The thing was that they were offered, as time went by, various kinds of freedom, most of which were sort of dummy freedoms somehow.”

People Kind Various Conformity Unwilling Dummy

Author:Neal Ascherson

“There are many kinds of revelation. But the most powerful is the vision which transcends the mental boundary between life and non-life, and Scotland is a place where this sort of revelation often approaches. Staring into a Scottish landscape, I have often asked myself why--in spite of all appearances--bracken, rocks, man and sea are at some level one.”

Men Kind Levels Powerful Vision Sea Rocks Approach Appearance Boundaries Landscape Staring Revelations Spite Most Powerful Scotland Scottish

Book:Stone Voices: The Search For Scotland

Source: Stone Voices: The Search For Scotland

“When Tony Benn became a minister in the 1960s -- and I think this must be apocryphal -- he had a huge map of Britain hung upside down in his office, so the channel was at the top and Scotland was at the bottom and, apparently, he said, "This is how we need to look at this country, with the money and the power draining by force of gravity out of the south east." That was a great idea. I rather liked him for that. I don't know if it's actually true or not.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Needs Looks Said Ideas Country Force Huge Office South Bottom East Ministers Britain Maps Gravity Hung Scotland 1960s Great Idea Upside Down Draining

Author:Neal Ascherson

“Who should regulate the media? Who should control the press? The commentariat agonises, as if the choice was between state control through some autocratic press law or a new Press Complaints Commission redecorated with false teeth. But there is another way. Let journalists regulate themselves.... Let's have a little democracy in the media. Even in the Murdoch papers, the number of journalists who are irretrievably lawless and callous is quite small. Most of the disasters at the News of the World happened because its editors treated their staff in the style of Muammar Gaddafi.”

“Well, if there is a spectrum between ethnic and civic forms of nationalism, which is a rather schematic way of looking at it, all nationalism contains elements of both, but Scotland is very far on the civic end of the spectrum. That is partly because nobody has ever been stupid enough to say that Scotland is an ethnicity in a genetic sense. A kingdom of Scotland existed long before anybody talked of a Scottish people. So that is one thing we have been spared.”

People Ifs Way Wells Long Has Beens Ends Enough Form One Thing Stupid Elements Kingdoms Nationalism Scotland Spectrum Civics Scottish Ethnicity

Author:Neal Ascherson

“Men are apt to mistake the strength of their feeling for the strength of their argument. The heated mind resents the chill touch and relentless scrutiny of logic.”

Men Mind Feelings Mistake Argument Logic Math Reasoning Chill Relentless Resent Scrutiny Reason And Logic

Author:William E. Gladstone

“I think England has been in the long-term damaged by Britishness.”

Thinking Long Has Beens Term England Long Term

Author:Neal Ascherson

“But the people did get it. They had lost something -- not exactly their fear, but their patience. Suddenly it seemed unbearable to go on accepting these systems, these portly little idiots in their blue suits, for another year, and then for another day, another hour. That special sort of impatience is the power-surge of revolution.”

People Years Littles Lost Hours Accepting Special Revolution Goes On Blue Suits Idiot Unbearable Impatience Another Day Another Year

Author:Neal Ascherson