To understand virtue, we must ask not what virtue is, but wh... - Quentin Skinner

"To understand virtue, we must ask not what virtue is, but what speakers and writers were doing when they praised or condemned virtuous action."

Quentin Skinner Knowledge

Historian Philosopher British Born 1940 (age 86)

More from Quentin Skinner

"The past is not dead; it is not even past."

"Ideas have consequences, and the historian's task is to trace them."

"We must understand the languages in which the past speaks to us."

"The study of history is the study of human possibility."

"We're not just after treasure. We're preserving history."

"The mind is humanity's greatest tool."

"A tidy room reflects a tidy mind."

"You can learn a lot about a person by how they keep their space."