history Quotes

The British constitution has always been puzzling and always will be.

We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding what is impossible to keep.

For 2,500 years, India has never invaded anybody.

I was in high school when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru unfurled India's flag in New Delhi.

Half of my library are old books because I like seeing how people thought about their world at their time. So that I don't get bigheaded about something we just discovered and I can be humble about where we might go next. Because you can see who got stuff right and most of the people who got stuff wrong.

The history of exploration across nations and across time is not one where nations said, 'Let's explore because it's fun.' It was, 'Let's explore so that we can claim lands for our country, so that we can open up new trade routes; let's explore so we can become more powerful.'

As an American, I grew up in an era where we led the world in everything. Everything!

The history of exploration has never been driven by exploration. But Columbus himself was a discoverer. So was Magellan. But the people who wrote checks were not. They had other motivations.

If the only time you think of me as a scientist is during Black History Month, then I must not be doing my job as a scientist.

If you only think of me during Black History Month, I must be failing as an educator and as an astrophysicist.