# Quote — V. S. Naipaul, The Enigma of Arrival

> Men need history; it helps them to have an idea of who they are. But history, like sanctity, can reside in the heart; it is enough that there is something there.

- Author: [V. S. Naipaul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/v-s-naipaul.md)
- Book: [The Enigma of Arrival](https://www.leafyquotes.com/v-s-naipaul/the-enigma-of-arrival.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/V._S._Naipaul#The_Enigma_of_Arrival_(1987)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/v-s-naipaul/the-enigma-of-arrival/men-need-history

## More from this book

> I also bought a copy of The New York Times, the previous day's issue of which I had seen the previous day in Puerto Rico. I was interested in newspapers and knew this paper to be one of the foremost in the world. But to read a newspaper for the first time is like coming into a film that has been on for an hour. Newspapers are like serials. To understand them you have to take knowledge to them; the knowledge that serves best is the knowledge provided by the newspaper itself. It made me feel a stranger, that paper.

p. 115 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/v-s-naipaul/the-enigma-of-arrival/i-also-bought.md)