A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.
People like to trace their ancestry.
A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.
The very concept of history implies the scholar and the reader. Without a generation of civilized people to study history, to preserve its records, to absorb its lessons and relate them to its own problems, history, too, would lose its meaning.
It is sometimes hard to grasp the difference between identifying with one's own roots, understanding people with other roots, and judging what is good or bad.
Roots is not just a saga of my family. It is the symbolic saga of a people.
The common people have no history: persecuted by the present, they cannot think of preserving the memory of the past.
A society that does not correctly interpret and appreciate its past cannot understand its present fortunes and adversities and can be caught unawares in a fast changing world.
People who make history know nothing about history. You can see that in the sort of history they make.
Roots are not in landscape or a country, or a people, they are inside you.