A Quote by Deborah Harkness

People think about history as all grand gestures or significant moments, but the most valuable lesson we can learn is the enduring legacy of the small, meaningful things in life.

Deborah Harkness

Quote Topics

About Enduring Gestures Grand History Learn Legacy Lesson Life Meaningful Meaningful Things Moments Most People Significant Significant Moments Small Things Things In Life Think Valuable

Quote Author

Deborah Harkness
American - Novelist
Born: 1965

I try not to think about legacy because it is all folly. If you study history, even recent history, you'll find many people who were quite significant in their time but are completely forgotten.

Steve Martin

Everything I've taken away from my father has been significant. So, I can't say that any one lesson is the most significant. By being around him, I learned that there is a purpose in life, and that if we are inspired to help people, we should do it.

Ziggy Marley

I think one of the most fascinating things you can do after you learn about your own people is to study something about the history and culture of other people.

Alex Haley

There may be significant things to learn about people by looking at what annoys them most.

Alain de Botton

The most romantic things are very small, kind gestures from people you love.

Douglas Booth

I feel history is more of a story than a lesson. I know this idea of presentism: this idea of constantly evoking the past to justify the present moment. A lot of people will tell you, "history is how we got here." And learning from the lessons of history. But that's imperfect. If you learn from history you can do things for all the wrong reasons.

Sarnath Banerjee

As actors, we have to be able to keep ourselves open to feel, and that's a life lesson I think many people don't get a chance to learn. In my personal life, I've learned to carry this lesson with me.

Betsy Landin

I never think of the word legacy. It doesn't mean anything. You do the right thing, in my judgment, and things will work out. That's what drives me. I'm not looking for legacy or history books or whatever. I know what we've done here has saved a significant number of lives. The burden is not on me. It's on the politicians who made the decisions to limit what we're doing. They're the ones who are going to pay a price, in my judgment, if crime significantly increases.

Raymond Kelly

In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all its moments-which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. Measurements of people's minute-by-minute levels of pleasure and pain miss this fundamental aspect of human existence. A seemingly happy life maybe empty. A seemingly difficult life may be devoted to a great cause. We have purposes larger than ourselves.

Atul Gawande

So often the most meaningful moments in our lives are those that we share with our families. Treasured memories are created by celebrating, sharing and embracing the moments of life with the people we love.

Sandra Magsamen

Collateral learning in the way of formation of enduring attitudes, of likes and dislikes, may be and often is much more important than the spelling lesson or lesson in geography or history that is learned.

John Dewey

One of the most special moments was when my husband and I renewed our vows for our 10th anniversary. It was super small with just us, our girls, and a couple of the people we wanted to be there the most. It was so meaningful.

Alyson Hannigan

There's a lot we should be able to learn from history. And yet history proves that we never do. In fact, the main lesson of history is that we never learn the lessons of history. This makes us look so stupid that few people care to read it. They'd rather not be reminded. Any good history book is mainly just a long list of mistakes, complete with names and dates. It's very embarrassing.