187 Quotes by Mary Beard

I'm actually in a tradition of classicists with a big public face who like sounding off.

You can hardly be a classicist and not be interested in theatre.

I knew that Trump was ghastly. I knew I'd vote for Hillary if I had a vote.

My mother took me to the British Museum aged five. I had thought people from the past weren't as good as we were, and then I saw the Elgin marbles. Suddenly, the world seemed more complicated.

It's great fun being an academic because you have a certain licence to be a bit of a joker.

I was really good at Latin at school, and because I was good at it, I got more interested and got better at it.

I think, when I was 25, nobody in the world knew who I was.

We make two mistakes about the ancient world. One is to assume they were better than us - that, for instance, the ancient Olympics didn't involve money-making. The opposite mistake, and just as common, is to think our Olympics are much more civilised than ancient sporting competitions. Neither is true.

The history of art is not just the history of artists; it is also the history of the people who viewed art. And that wider perspective can help us see some of the reasons why the art of the ancient world should still matter to us.