Watling Street Quotes

“Really it’s vanity to claim that land is your personal property. In a few hundred years you’ll be forgotten and the land will have shrugged you off as if nothing has happened.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“word noosphere, which refers to the world of human thought. It is the end product of a hierarchy of earthly spheres. At the bottom of these is the geosphere, the physical inanimate world of rock, ocean and mineral. From the geosphere arises the biosphere, the world of all living things. The biosphere moves and evolves faster than the geosphere, and can also change it. The noosphere, in turn, arises from the biosphere. This sphere is the realm of thought, and contains all our myth, history, science, law, religion and culture. It is more fluid and changeable than the biosphere, and it can also affect it. For example, men and women in the UK are on average 4.3 inches taller than they were a hundred years ago, due to changes in our understanding of health and nutrition. This understanding resides in the noosphere, so the noosphere in this example has physically altered the biosphere.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“That is probably the single phrase that a lot of Jerusalem rests upon: the persistent illusion of transience. The buildings that we love have been pulled down, the people that we loved have gone, you don’t get anything decent on a Saturday night on the telly any more, they don’t make Spangles . . . all of this roster of loss that is our lives, it doesn’t matter. It’s all fine. It’s all back down the road. You’ll probably be experiencing it again, and again, because there’s nowhere else for your consciousness to go. ‘This means that you should never do anything that you can’t live with eternally, which I think is a good rule for life. It also means that Heaven and Hell exist. They’re just not places that are elsewhere. They are here now. They are your life.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“National identity is like a rainbow; it only exists at a distance. We’ve all glimpsed it, out there on the horizon, so we think it is something real and concrete when it is used to push our buttons. Yet when we approach it to nail down the details of what it really is, it becomes vague and uncertain, then evaporates.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“We are seeking a better sense of national identity. Not one that is imposed on us by the state, monarchy or military, but one which bubbles naturally out of the land - an identity that is welcoming, not insular; magical rather than boorish; creative rather than triumphant. It is out there, waiting for us, and if we head out of the front door and follow that road, we will find it. It is an identity fit for those who would live nowhere else in the world, but who wince at jingoism and flag-waving. It should not make anyone proud to be British; it should make them delighted to be British.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“A third of the UK is owned by 1,200 aristocrats and their families. Thirty-six thousand people, or 0.6 per cent of the population, own half of the rural land in England. Despite the widely held belief that Britain is ‘full’ and that it is in danger of being ‘concreted over’, only 6 per cent of the UK’s land use is classed as urban, with 94 per cent rural.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“The idea that there is just this single moment and beyond that, absolute nothingness, yeah, I suppose that could be what it is, but it doesn’t feel like that is what it is. Whereas I think the idea of a solid space–time continuum, with only our consciousness moving, is very satisfying. It means that every moment exists always.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“Bond’s codename, ‘007’, it is said, is taken from the number of the coach which ran from London to Dover via Canterbury. The 007 coach is now operated by National Express but still runs along the same route with the same number.”
― John Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past

“We are seeking a better sense of national identity. Not one that is imposed on us by the state, monarchy or military, but one which bubbles naturally out of the land - an identity that is welcoming, not insular; magical rather than boorish; creative rather than triumphant. It is out there, waiting for us, and if we head out of the front door and follow that road, we will find it. It is an identity fit for those who would live nowhere else in the world, but who wince at jingoism and flag-waving. It should not make anyone proud to be British; it should make them delighted to be British.”
― J.M.R. Higgs, Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past