To interpret a text successfully is to understand not just w... - Quentin Skinner

"To interpret a text successfully is to understand not just what it says but what the author was doing in making those utterances at that moment."

Quentin Skinner Literature

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."

"The pen is mightier than the sword."

"Literature opens the mind to new worlds"

"The interesting thing about books is that they're made of words."

"Literature captures the essence of what it means to be human."