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British Museum Quotes

“Museums of primitive art are filled with masks, figurines, bas-relief sculptures, all looted from all over the world and robbed of their meanings. For those who created them, life resided not in the object itself, but rather in the spirit that inspired it. A corpse, even one artistically entombed, is still a dead body. They are no longer works of art, but simply objects. They are beautiful, whereas they should be alive, From time immemorial, humans have sculpted to magnify their gods. There is a reason why some religions are against any depiction of their gods while others are committed to the practice. There is some form of highly human insolence in recreating the god that created you, and there is a risk of adoring the tangible representation in itself instead of the discarnate deity. That is what sculpture is: both a tribute and a challenge to the gods. Some spiritualities tolerate this ambivalence, others don't. Others yet use representations to further tighten control over their flock and guarantee their submissiveness. They select the artists and dictate the dogma they should represent. Sculpture is both the easiest and the most delicate of art forms. It is more than just hewing a form out of a compact block, or reproducing a model: you have to breathe life into It. That is not something you can learn or improvise. There is always some part of yourself that you infuse into the material. In our modern world, where art is a business like any other, techniques are taught, but the magic, on the other hand, is still a gift, midway between bliss and suffering.”

ArtBritish MuseumAfrican ArtColonial Theft
Book:Days Come and Go
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“Our goal here is to show that this, however popular, image is actually based on very, very biased accounts and therefore we should challenge it. The Nero story is about how we should approach information, how we should always approach our sources critically. This is relevant for Nero, it’s relevant for historians, archaeologists, it is relevant for everyday people living their everyday lives.”

HistoryRomeANeroBritish MuseumCoent RomeEmporer Nero
Book:Nero: The Man Behind the Myth
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“Carry on Up The Tower (The Sonnet) British museum is not a repository of relics, it's a time capsule of british barbarism. It's a classic case of cannibalism, narcissism, kleptomania and psychopathy combined in one. Tower of London is not a heritage site, it's the Bedlam of the british. The title of "heritage site" belongs to memories of pride, not primitives. Buckingham palace is not a noble home, it's the national zoo of England, where they coddle massacre 'n stagnation, with no civil initiative for atonement. Nobility of blood is nobility of the jungle, modern nobility involves substance of character, whose identity isn't anchored in transgressions, bloodline defines chimps, humans by behavior.”

BritishColonialismBritish EmpireBritish HistoryUnited KingdomColonial HistoryMassacreAbolish MonarchyBritish MuseumBritish Imperialism
Book:Brit Actually: Nursery Rhymes of Reparations
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“Jack and Jill (Colonial Sonnet) Jack and Jill once went up a hill, to pick the fabled golden fruit. So they trapped some blacks-n-browns, to serve them tireless hand and foot. Jack and Jill had a glorious dream, to make the world imperially great. So they bought some colored folks, to boss around from their noble bed. Jack and Jill were full of themselves, they nicked 'n nicked without repercussion. Like shameless filth then they sold tickets, exhibiting the spoils of their barbarism. Jack and Jill were textbook white trash, not the right idols of civilized society. You cannot unscrew their diabolical screwups, just have the decency to not repeat history.”

SlaveryGenocideColonialismGreat BritainBritish EmpireColonial HistoryMassacreBritish MuseumBritish ImperialismColonial America
Book:Brit Actually: Nursery Rhymes of Reparations
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“La desgracia de Adam Appleby era que, en cuanto despertaba del sueño, su conciencia se inundaba inmediatamente de todo aquello en lo que menos deseaba pensar. Tenía la impresión de que otros hombres se enfrentaban a cada nuevo amanecer con la mente y el corazón renovados, llenos de optimismo y decisión; o bien de que se arrastraban ganduleando durante la primera hora del día en un estado de bendito sopor, incapaces de pensar en nada, ni agradable ni desagradable. Pero, agazapados como arpías en torno a su cama, los pensamientos desagradables esperaban para asaltarle tan pronto como Adam parpadease y abriera los ojos. En aquel momento se veía obligado, como alguien que se ahoga, a examinar su vida entera, dividido entre lamentaciones por el pasado y miedos futuros.”

British Museum1965David LodgeMuseo Británico
Book:The British Museum Is Falling Down
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“Adam había sacado la conclusión que, de todas las industrias del país, la reparación de vespas era la que representaba una mayor sobredemanda respecto a la oferta. En teoría, a quien se dispusiese a satisfacer esa demanda le esperaba una fortuna; pero en el fondo de su corazón Adam dudaba de que las vespas fuesen reparables, en el sentido normal del término; eran las mariposas de la carretera, organismos frágiles que tardaban mucho en ser fabricados y muy poco en morir.”

British Museum1965David LodgeMuseo BritánicoScooterVespa
Book:The British Museum Is Falling Down
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“Cambiando de postura en el sillín, Adam pensó que la forma en que su humilde vida seguía los moldes de la literatura tenía algo como de metempsicosis. ¿O quizá -se preguntó, hurgándose la nariz- era consecuencia de estudiar tan detenidamente las estructuras de las frases de los novelistas ingleses? Uno se había resignado a no tener ya un lenguaje privado, pero se aferraba melancólicamente a la ilusión de poseer los hechos de su vida.”

VidaLiteraturaBritish MuseumDavid LodgeMuseo BritánicoMetempsicosis
Book:The British Museum Is Falling Down
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“- Andiamo al British Museum. Detto fatto. Per non perderci, ci demmo appuntamento a mezzogiorno in Mesopotamia. Non è una cosa da tutti i giorni poter fissare un appuntamento in un posto del genere. In quel tipo di edifici, apprezzo ancora di più l’insieme che il dettaglio. Mi piace passeggiare, senza altra logica che il mio piacere, dall’antico Egitto alle Galapagos passando per Sumer. Ingozzarmi di tutta l’assiriologia mi rimarrebbe sullo stomaco, mentre piluccare qualche carattere cuneiforme a mo’ di aperitivo, rune come antipasto, la stele di Rosetta come piatto principale e delle mani a negativo preistoriche come dessert manda in estasi le mie papille. Quello che non sopporto, nei musei, è il passo lento e solenne che le persone si credono obbligate in cuor loro ad adottare. Quanto a me, mi sposto con passo ginnico, abbracciando con lo sguardo vaste prospettive: che si tratti di archeologia o di pittura impressionista, ho notato i vantaggi di questo metodo. Il primo è evitare l’atroce effetto guida turistica: “Ammirate la bonarietà dello sceicco el-Beled: non vi sembra di averlo incrociato ieri al mercato?” oppure: “Una controversia oppone la Grecia e il Regno Unito a proposito del fregio del Partenone.” Il secondo è concomitante al primo: rende impossibili i commenti all’uscita dal museo. I Bouvard e Pécuchet moderni devono chiudere il becco. Il terzo vantaggio, e non il meno importante per quanto mi riguarda, è che impedisce l’insorgere del terribile mal di schiena museale. Intorno a mezzogiorno, mi resi conto di essermi persa. Affrontai un responsabile in questi termini: – Mesopotamia, please. – Third floor, turn to the left – mi venne risposto nel modo più semplice possibile. E questa è la dimostrazione che ci si sbaglia nel ritenere la Mesopotamia tanto inaccessibile.”

ItalianoBritish MuseumMusei
Book:Pétronille
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“C’era forse un posto più noioso al mondo del British Museum? Se c’era, Will non voleva sapere quale. Vasi. Monete. Brocche. Intere sale piene di piatti. Secondo Will doveva esserci uno scopo per mettere in mostra delle cose, e il fatto che fossero vecchie non significava necessariamente che fossero interessanti. Solo perché erano sopravvissute al tempo, non significava che tu volessi guardarle”

ArchaeologyMuseumBritish MuseumMuseoArcheologia
Book:About a Boy
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“It seems to me one cannot sit down in that place [the Round Reading room of the British Museum] without a heart full of grateful reverence. I own to have said my grace at the table, and to have thanked Heaven for my English birthright, freely to partake of these beautiful books, and speak the truth I find there.”

HeartSaidBookSeemsBeautifulReadingSpeakHeavenRoomsGraceTablesGratefulRoundsBritishMuseumsReverenceSpeak The TruthBirthrightBritish MuseumBeautiful BooksReading Room
Author:William Makepeace Thackeray
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“I enter a whorehouse with the same interest as I do the British museum or the Metropolitan - in the same spirit of curiosity. Here are the works of man, here is an art of man, here is the eternal pursuit of gold and pleasure. I couldn't be more sincere. This doesn't mean that if I go to La Scala in Milan to hear Carmen I want to get up on the stage and participate. I do not. Neither do I always participate in a fine representative national whorehouse - but I must see it as a spectacle, an offering, a symptom of a nation.”

IfsMenWantMeanArtWisdomSpiritNationsInterestPleasureStageFineEternalGoldCuriosityBritishPursuitGet UpAustraliaSincereMuseumsOfferingRepresentativesSymptomsMilanMetropolitanBritish Museum
Author:Errol Flynn
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“We have a hieroglyphical inscription in the British Museum as early as the reign of Sevechus of the eighth century before the Christian era, showing that the doctrine of Trinity in Unity already formed part of their religion and that ... the three gods only made one person.”

PersonsMadeChristianThreeAtheismCenturyUnityBritishPositive AtheismDoctrineErasMuseumsReignTrinityInscriptionsBritish Museum
Book:Egyptian mythology and Egyptian Christianity, with their influence on the opinions of modern Christendom
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“Yesterday I visited the British Museum; an exceedingly tiresome affair. It quite crushes a person to see so much at once; and I wandered from hall to hall with a weary and heavy heart. The present is burdened too much with the past.”

HeartPersonsPastToo MuchAffairHeavyBritishYesterdayCrushHallsMuseumsWearyTiresomeBritish MuseumHeavy Heart
Book:Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of
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“Great works of art can be produced in barbarous societies - in fact the very narrowness of primitive society gives their ornamental art a peculiar concentration and vitality. At some time in the ninth century one could have looked down the Seine and seen the prow of a Viking ship coming up the river. Looked at today in the British Museum, it is a powerful work of art; but to the mother of a family trying to settle down in her little hut, it would have seemed less agreeable - as menacing to her civilisation as the periscope of a nuclear submarine.”

GivingTryingLittlesArtFactsTodayMotherPowerfulCenturyRiversBritishNuclearShipsSettlingConcentrationWorks Of ArtMuseumsPeculiarPrimitiveVitalityGreat WorkCivilisationSettling DownVikingsHutsSubmarinesBritish Museum
Author:Kenneth Clark
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“You must get into the habit of looking intensely at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning, syllable by syllable-nay, letter by letter... you might read all the books in the British Museum (if you could live long enough) and remain an utterly "illiterate," undeducated person; but if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by letter, - that is to say, with real accuracy- you are for evermore in some measure an educated person.”

IfsPersonsLongBookRealEnoughMightHabitTenPagesLettersBritishEducatedMuseumsGood BookAccuracyIlliterateSyllablesEvermoreEducated PersonBritish Museum
Book:The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from His Writings
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“In my experience, Cupid's arrows rarely strike two people with the same definition of cleanliness. One partner usually feels like he or she is being asked to live in a furniture exhibit in the British Museum. The other partner remains convinced that he or she is forced to contend with the human version of Hurricane Gilbert.”

PeopleFeelsHumansTwoRemainsDefinitionsBritishConvincedStrikesPartnersVersionsMuseumsFurnitureArrowsHurricanesExhibitsCleanlinessCupidBritish Museum
Author:Margo Kaufman
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“I’m curious about things that people aren’t supposed to see—so, for example, I liked going to the British Museum, but I would like it better if I could go into all the offices and storage rooms, I want to look in all the drawers and—discover stuff. And I want to know about people. I mean, I know it’s probably kind of rude but I want to know why you have all these boxes and what’s in them and why all your windows are papered over and how long it’s been that way and how do you feel when you wash things and why don’t you do something about it?”

PeopleIfsKnowsWayWantFeelsLooksKindMeanLongStuffRoomsExampleOfficeWindowBoxesBritishCuriousIf I CouldMuseumsRudeDrawersStorageBritish Museum
Book:Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel
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“If I let my fingers wander idly over the keys of a typewriter it might happen that my screed made an intelligible sentence. If an army of monkeys were strumming on typewriters they might write all the books in the British Museum. The chance of their doing so is decidedly more favourable than the chance of the molecules returning to one half of the vessel.”

IfsWritingMadeBookMightHappensChanceHalfKeysArmyFingersBritishSentencesWanderMuseumsMonkeysVesselMoleculesTypewritersOne HalfBritish MuseumStrumming
Author:Arthur Eddington
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