Accomplished Quote by Simon Schama

“In the end, history, especially British history with its succession of thrilling illuminations, should be, as all her most accomplished narrators have promised, not just instruction but pleasure.” quote by Simon Schama — Download Open image

“In the end, history, especially British history with its succession of thrilling illuminations, should be, as all her most accomplished narrators have promised, not just instruction but pleasure.”

Simon Schama

About This Quote

Source Book: Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, 1979

History should entertain as well as educate, offering pleasure alongside instruction.

In simple terms: History can be fun and instructive.

Key Takeaway

Seek enjoyment in learning history.

Themes

history education pleasure narrative culture

Mood

engaging thoughtful

Type

educational inspirational

When to use this quote

teaching
museum tours
reading historical fiction
documentary viewing

Key Concepts

historical storytelling public engagement

Questions to Reflect On

How can we balance enjoyment with factual accuracy?
What makes historical narratives compelling?

A Different Perspective

Pleasure may conflict with rigorous analysis.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 3.7 out of 5 (9 ratings)

Accomplished Accomplished Narrators Adventure British British history Ends History History Especially Illumination Instruction Narrators Narrators Promised Pleasure Should Succession Succession Thrilling Thrilling Thrilling Illuminations

More by Simon Schama

Histories never conclude; they just pause their prose. Their stories are, if they are truthful, untidy affairs, resistant to windings-up and sortings-out. They beat…

Simon Schama

Image

The difficulty with poetry is that it doesn't have the life that Shakespeare or Jane Austen have beyond the page. You can't make a…

Simon Schama

Image

Taxation, the very thing that had triggered the British civil wars, would do so again, this time in America. The taxes may have been…

Simon Schama

Image

Anyone can write an academic piece directed at other academics. To write something that delivers an argument and a gripping storyline to someone's granny…

Simon Schama

Image

In its Greek origins, historia meant inquiry, and from Thucydides onwards, the past has been studied to understand its connections with the present.

Simon Schama

Image

Jewish history turns out not to be an either/or story - as in, either pure Judaism detached from its surroundings or else assimilation -…

Simon Schama

Image

Growing up in Britain as a rather loose Jew, the two things that didn't belong together were freedom and religious intensity. In America, they…

Simon Schama

Image

From 1789, perhaps even before that, it had been the willingness of politicians to exploit either the threat or the fact of violence that…

Simon Schama

Image

The default mode of modern writing about art is to despise any notion of singularity as so much overheated genius-fetishism.

Simon Schama

Image

The synagogues of late antiquity and the early medieval period were built around imagery: imagery of remembering the Temple, but also of the celestial…

Simon Schama

Image

At 11, 12, I thought I was clumsy, ugly, a mess, an unappealing person, but I did have the gift of the gab. I…

Simon Schama

Image

We seem wired to grieve with greenery. Allowing the dead to dissolve into the earth, to become part of the cycle of the seasons,…

Simon Schama

Image

The older I get, the more I want to do. It beats death, decay or golf in unfortunate trousers. Peace and quiet depress me.

Simon Schama

Image

The Elephantine papyri - written as some of the books of the Bible are being written - is true social and legal documentation, and…

Simon Schama

Image

“The second Lateran Council of 1139 had attempted, optimistically, to ban the use of the crossbow by Christians against fellow Christians. But no warlord…

Simon Schama

Image

Explore all 109 Simon Schama quotes

More Accomplished quotes

I never believed in trying to do anything. Whatever I set out to do I found I had already accomplished.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Image

This is, for an accomplished Latino, an accomplished African American, an accomplished anyone who disproves stereotypes, it's a constant battle in your life.

Sonia Sotomayor

Image

When you have accomplished your goal simply walk away. This is the path way to Heaven.

Laozi

Image

... even the most sublimely accomplished non-stop talker can't consistently please.

J. D. Salinger

Image

[U]nless oppressed groups stick together, and on alliances of self interest rather than do-goodism; nothing can be accomplished in the long run to dismantle…

Shulamith Firestone

Image

Alas, you don't need monsters for monstrous deeds to be accomplished.

Zygmunt Bauman

Image

Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he…

Jorge Luis Borges

Image

I'm proud of what I've accomplished and that is empowering.

Violet Chachki

Image

We do not know today whether we are busy or idle. In times when we thought ourselves indolent, we have afterwards discovered that much…

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image

I don't know Beyoncé, but I have the impression that she's sincere, that she really is a feminist and wanted to put the word…

Gloria Steinem

Image

The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labour is immense.

Arnold Bennett

Image

With Epcot Center, the Disney corporation has accomplished something I didn't think possible in today's world. They have created a land of make-believe that's…

Anonymous

Image

Listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act could harm bear conservation efforts by eliminating revenues from the carefully-regulated sport hunting of polar…

Amy Ridenour