It's great fun being an academic because you have a certain licence to be a bit of a joker. Mary Beard More Quotes by Mary Beard More Quotes From Mary Beard It doesn’t much matter what line of argument you take as a woman. If you venture into traditional male territory, the abuse comes anyway. It’s not what you say that prompts it - Mary Beard abusemaleslines Action without study is fatal. Mary Beard studyaction Fame is fickle. If the media turn against me, I will just have more time in the library. Not bad as a fate. Mary Beard libraryfatemedia If being a decent soul is being maternal, then fine. I'll call it human. Mary Beard decentfinesoul There's a difference between what I would like to have been and what I would have been. I always fantasized about being a reforming judge or prison governor (I think that the UK penal system is a disgrace) - but it's fantasy. Mary Beard differencesjudgingthinking Beard's secret is always to be slightly on the edge but to pull back from disaster at the last minute. Mary Beard backalwaysbearddisaster Fate has it in for me to be an exhibit: that funny old lady from the telly. Mary Beard ladymefatefunny There is no way, absolutely no way, that I would want people to stop reading the 'Odyssey.' But I want them to read it with their eyes open. To notice it and then to think what it says about us. Mary Beard eyesthinkreadingpeople I think you have to realize that most ancient warfare is really kind of hit and run, honestly. You go and you bash down the walls of some enemy 50 miles away and you take some slaves, you take some cattle, probably a bit of cash too, and then you say goodbye and go home and you probably do the same thing next year - or try to, or they do it to you. Mary Beard thinkyouhomegoodbye People who exploit others come to spend an enormous amount of energy wondering about and justifying that exploitation. Mary Beard wonderingothersenergypeople At 16, I got into local-education archaeology classes - you got to go to summer digs. It allowed me to be both intellectual and a bad girl with a wicked social life every evening! Mary Beard meyougirllife We lived in the schoolhouse of the village school in Church Preen, in deepest Shropshire, and my mum was the schoolmistress. She taught the juniors, and one other teacher taught the infants. I went there from the age of three, no doubt as a form of childcare. Mary Beard villageageteacherschool If women are not perceived to be fully within the structures of power, surely it is power that we need to redefine rather than women? Mary Beard women-areneedwomenpower The building blocks of discrimination tend to be similar wherever you find them. Mary Beard findyoudiscriminationbuilding No women in ancient Rome ever had the vote. Mary Beard ancientromewomenvote Gender is a key marker of power and powerlessness. Most of the structures of how our world works are biased in terms of men. Mary Beard genderpowermenworld Classics isn't about the ancient world. It's partly about the ancient world, but it's about our conversation. It's how we try to talk to antiquity. Mary Beard talktryconversationworld A lot of people will always say, 'I really know nothing about the ancient world.' But there's lots and lots of things people know. Partly, they've been encouraged to think they're ignorant about it. In some ways, the job to do is show people that they know much more than they'd like to admit. Mary Beard jobthinkpeopleworld You don't overturn x-thousand years of patriarchy in a generation. Mary Beard generationyoupatriarchyyears Roman military tactics were much over-rated. All the clever ones had the same idea, which was to go round the back. Mary Beard backgomilitaryclever
