"I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities"
About this Quote
The line’s power comes from how unfashionably it frames education as an “advantage” rather than a credential. McCullough isn’t praising a major; he’s praising a set of habits: attention to language, an ear for motive, comfort with ambiguity, the ability to place today’s dramas inside longer arcs of cause and consequence. That skillset is the historian’s toolkit, but it’s also a civic toolkit. The subtext is that democracies don’t just need trained workers; they need trained readers - people who can recognize propaganda, spot sloppy analogies, and resist the cheap thrill of certainty.
Context matters: McCullough rose as a public-facing historian in an era of STEM triumphalism, when budget lines and career talk often pushed students toward “practical” paths. His thanks carries an implicit warning that a society which treats the humanities as a luxury will eventually pay for that bargain elsewhere: in thinner public memory, louder demagogues, and a politics allergic to complexity. The modesty of “I just thank...” is part of the strategy - he smuggles a defense of humanistic education inside a personal, disarming benediction.
Quote Details
| Topic | Gratitude |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
McCullough, David. (2026, January 17). I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-just-thank-my-father-and-mother-my-lucky-stars-66068/
Chicago Style
McCullough, David. "I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-just-thank-my-father-and-mother-my-lucky-stars-66068/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-just-thank-my-father-and-mother-my-lucky-stars-66068/. Accessed 9 Feb. 2026.
