आर्य परिवार की सभी सातों शाखाओं में समान रूप और समान अर्थ में आते हैं उन्हें - Friedrich Max Müller

यदि हम यहूदी या सेमेटिक धर्म के हैं, हमारा दर्शन ग्रीक है, हमारी राजनीति रोमन है और यदि हमारी नैतिकता सेक्सन है, तो यह मान लिया जाता है कि ग्रीकों, रोमनों के इतिहास का या ग्रीस से इटली तक और जर्मनी से लेकर इन द्वीपों तक की सभ्यता के प्रवाह का ज्ञान, उदार अर्थात ऐतिहासिक और विवेकपूर्ण शिक्षा का अनिवार्य तत्त्व है।

I maintain then that for a study of man, or, if you like, for a study of Aryan humanity, there is nothing in the world equal in importance with the Veda. I maintain that to everybody who cares for himself, for his ancestors, for his history, or for his intellectual development, a study of Vedic literature is indispensable; and that, as an element of liberal education, it is far more important and far more improving than the reigns of Babylonian and Persian kings.

I need hardly say that I agree with almost every word of my critics. I have repeatedly dwelt on the merely hypothetical character of the dates, which I have ventured to assign to first periods of Vedic literature. All I have claimed for them has been that they are minimum dates, and that the literary productions of each period which either still exist or which formerly existed could hardly be accounted for within shorter limits of time than those suggested. ... If now we ask as to how we can fix the dates of these periods, it is quite clear that we cannot hope to fix a terminum a qua [sic]. Whether the Vedic hymns were composed [in] 1000 or 2000 or 3000 years BC, no power on earth will ever determine.