Europe Quotes
101 quotes
"My experience in Amsterdam is that cyclists ride where the hell they like and aim in a state of rage at all pedestrians while ringing their bell loudly, the concept of avoiding people being foreign to them.My dream holiday would be a) a ticket to Amsterdam b) immunity from prosecution and c) a baseball bat."
"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.[Letter objecting to the use of government land for churches, 1803]"
"I regained my soul through literature after those times I'd lost it to wild-eyed gypsy girls on the European streets."
"The fact that a cloud from a minor volcanic eruption in Iceland—a small disturbance in the complex mechanism of life on the Earth—can bring to a standstill the aerial traffic over an entire continent is a reminder of how, with all its power to transform nature, humankind remains just another species on the planet Earth."
"Austria has always campaigned against the impunity of people in the highest positions of political responsibility and supports the effort for an effective international penal jurisdiction. At the same time Austria rejects the death penalty as a matter of principle and stands for its worldwide abolition. This applies without exception and cruelty of the committed crime. Saddam Hussein's guilt in oppressing his own people, the assassination of political enemies and innocent civilians is undoubtedly documented. However, Austria's stance against the death penalty also applies in this case."
"Czech Republic: The Czech Foreign Ministry has welcomed the execution of the former dictator of Iraq Saddam Hussein. In a statement the Ministry said his death was an important historic milestone and represented at least partial satisfaction for the families of Saddam's victims. In the short term his killing could cause instability in Iraq, but in the long term the end of the era of Saddam Hussein will move the country closer to stability and democracy, it said. Though the death penalty contradicts European values his execution should be looked at from the perspective of Iraq today, said the Foreign Ministry."
"Even if there are no doubts that Saddam Hussein is guilty of very serious crimes against humanity, very serious comments have been made about the court process in Iraq."
"Poland: "Justice has been meted out to a criminal who murdered thousands of people in Iraq (..)", "This should serve as a warning to all those who would like to follow in Saddam Hussein's footsteps." President Lech Kaczyński spokesman"
"All dictators must answer for their crimes, but I cannot support this kind of punishment, I am against the death penalty."
"I welcome the fact that Saddam Hussein has been tried by an Iraqi court for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people. He has now been held to account [...] The British government does not support the use of the death penalty, in Iraq or anywhere else [...] We have made our position very clear to the Iraqi authorities, but we respect their decision as that of a sovereign nation."
"I confess that Mrs. Thatcher was a model for me personally. She always applied the principles of law and economic liberalism, and that is how I, as a President who had to face the challenges of a post-communist country, will remember the legacy of Thatcherism."
"His Holiness Pope Francis was saddened to learn of the death of Baroness Margaret Thatcher. He recalls with appreciation the Christian values which underpinned her commitment to public service and to the promotion of freedom among the family of nations."
"To have been Great Britain’s first female Prime Minister means that Margaret Thatcher’s place in history is secure. She will be remembered as one of the most conviction-driven British Prime Ministers who drew on a scholarship that demanded markets without regulation. The policies of Mrs Thatcher’s Government in regard to Northern Ireland gave rise to considerable debate at the time. However, her key role in signing the Anglo-Irish Agreement will be recalled as a valuable early contribution to the search for peace and political stability. Lady Thatcher’s political career, its impact and legacy will be discussed and debated for many years. What is undeniable is that the strength of conviction in her beliefs was acknowledged by those who robustly opposed her, as well as by those who enthusiastically supported her."
"Our first meeting in 1984 marked the beginning of a relationship that was difficult sometimes, not always smooth, but serious and responsible from both sides. Gradually, human relations developed as well, they became more and more friendly. Eventually we were able to reach mutual understanding, and this contributed to changes in atmosphere between our country and the West, and to the end of the Cold War. Margaret Thatcher was a great politician. She will remain in our memory and in history."
"Throughout her public life, with the conservative beliefs that she fully assumed, she nurtured the influence of the United Kingdom and the defence of its interests. The relations she maintained with France were always frank and loyal. She knew how to build a constructive and fruitful dialogue with François Mitterrand. Together, they set about reinforcing the ties between our two countries. It was in that era that Mme. Thatcher gave the decisive push to the construction of the Channel tunnel."
"She was one of the most outstanding political personalities of the last quarter of the 20th century and I believe that with the passing of time, her name will not lose importance."
"She shaped modern Great Britain as few have before or since. She was one of the greatest leaders in World politics of her time. The freedom of the individual was at the centre of her beliefs so she recognised very early the power of the movements for freedom in Eastern Europe. And she supported them. I will never forget her contribution in overcoming Europe's partition and the end of the Cold War."
"Lady Thatcher was among those great personalities who, with her strong faith in democratic values, turned the course of history and led the way to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism. That, for all of us on the other side of the Iron Curtain, meant being free, to which Baroness Thatcher made an indisputable contribution. She strongly believed in everyone’s right to be free, in everyone’s right to have a choice."
"Thatcher was certainly one of the most colorful political figures of the modern world. I believe that we have lost a major politician, I'm sorry about this and would like to offer condolences on behalf of the Russian leadership to the British government and people... [Margaret Thatcher was] a pragmatic, tough and consistent person."
"She did a great deal for the world, along with Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Solidarity, she contributed to the demise of communism in Poland and central Europe."
"A collective insanity seemed to have seized the nation and turned them into something worse than beasts. The princess de Lamballe, Marie Antoinette's intimate friend, was literally torn to pieces; her head, breasts, and pudenda were paraded on pikes before the windows of the Temple, where the royal family was imprisoned, while a man boasted drunkenly at a cafe that he had eaten the princess' heart, which he probably had."
"You alone in Europe are not ancient oh ChristianityThe most modern European is you Pope Pius XAnd you whom the windows observe shame keeps youFrom entering a church and confessing this morningYou read the prospectuses the catalogues the billboards that sing aloudThat's the poetry this morning and for the prose there are the newspapersThere are the 25 centime serials full of murder mysteriesPortraits of great men and a thousand different headlines("Zone")"
"Asia is an entertainment, Europe is a dream, America is an imprisonment and Rest is a nightmare."
"That's my point: if you own thirty or more books, or you are reading any book at this moment, you may protest all you want, but you were born on the wrong continent."
"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act which deprived a whole nation of arms as the blackest."
"Indeed, a parallel history of Europe could be written which viewed family life and regular work as the essential Continental motor of civilization. Then war and revolution would need to be seen by historians as startling, sick departures from that norm of a kind that require serious explanation, rather than viewing periods of gentle introversy as mere tiresome interludes before the next thrill-packed bloodbath."
Simon Winder, Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History
"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for cent"
"The European reaction to Obama is a European delusion."
"For present-day politicians there are only political points to be made from such statements, and the larger the sin the larger the outrage, the larger the apology and the larger the potential political gain for sorrow expressed. Through such statements political leaders can gain the benefits of magnanimity without the stain of involvement: the person making the apology had done nothing wrong and all the people who could have received the apology are dead."
Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam
"We are a pluralist civilisation because we allow mosques to be built in our countries, and we are not going to stop simply because Christian missionaries are thrown into prison in Kabul. If we did so, we, too, would become Taliban."
"The 'Renaissance' West Butchered the Rest.If I had to choose between an erudite Aristotle and an unknown ‘soulless’ black slave I would choose the latter. The ascendancy of the West was on a heap of bodies of slaves and trampled humanity through colonization"
"Venice, it's temples and palaces did seem like fabrics of enchantment piled to heaven."
"All our ancestors were murdered, murderers, complicit to murder, or combating murder."
"Technology has become the West’s main prop to its claims of inherent superiority over the non-West, and the reason why the non-West should adopt Western culture. If advanced technology is particular to Western culture, then it is only by Westernizing that the non-West can obtain it. This argument collapses if Western technology can be adopted in isolation from the broader culture, or if other cultures can generate significant technology independently."
Peter A. Lorge, The Asian Military Revolution: From Gunpowder to the Bomb
"... the very appearance of the word ‘‘oriental’’ as a serious geographic or cultural term triggers alarm bells for any American academic. The late Edward Said’s Orientalism argued that the word ‘‘oriental’’ is a fundamentally pejorative term for certain parts of the non-Western world, not only indicating that they are inferior but also justifying Western colonization or domination of them."
Peter A. Lorge, The Asian Military Revolution: From Gunpowder to the Bomb
"China failed to maintain its technological lead, and a similar failure throughout Asia to take advantage of the early exposure to that head start transformed precocity into a false dawn. Perversely, Asian improvements and adaptations of current (twentieth- to twenty-first-century) Western-developed technology are taken as further signs of lack of creativity."
Peter A. Lorge, The Asian Military Revolution: From Gunpowder to the Bomb
"History is not always pessimistic for if World War II Europe has taught us anything it is that the rebuilding of cities is possible and the mending of a nation’s spirit can be achieved."
"The socioeconomic impact of such a minor outburst is due to our technological development (air travel)—a century ago, such an eruption would have passed unnoticed. Technological development makes us more independent from nature. At the same time, at a different level, it makes us more dependent on nature’s whims."
"Even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man. Science has liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the American example has kindled feelings of right in the people."
"Sexual frenzy is our compensation for the tedious moments we must suffer in the passage of life. 'Nothing in excess,' professed the ancient Greeks. Why if I spend half the month in healthy scholarship and pleasant sleep, shouldn't I be allowed the other half to howl at the moon and pillage the groins of Europe's great beauties?"
"I think that the behavior of M. Alexis Tsípras is a chance for the European Union to question itself about what is wrong about the Europe of Euro, and to measure the human sufferings caused by a policy that is first and foremost monetarily driven and is wrong. In a just and democratic society, the citizen and his rights are center stage, not the economy."
"By seeing how small the world is, I realize how capable I am. I can conquer anything. Anywhere. Anyone."
"You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed with sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafes."
"To be the mistress of a married man is to have the better role. Do you realize? His dirty shirt, his disgusting underwear, his daily ironing, his bad breath, his hemorrhoid attacks, his fuss, not to mention his bad moods, and his tantrums. Well all that is for his wife. When a married man comes to his mistress... he's always bleached and ironed, his teeth sparkle, his breath is like perfume, he's in a good mood, he's full of conversation, he is there to have a good time with you."
"Dead. Supposedly Suicide. That's how they'll kill Michael too. Make it look like a suicide or an accident of some sort."
H.C. Deboard, The Great Wall of Silence: The Silent Political Takeover of the United States
"Europe, the land of easy mathematics where he who works adds up and he who retires subtracts. The land where the economy gets to stagger all over the continent."
"Men wiser and more learned than I have discerned in history a plot, a rhythm, a predetermined pattern. These harmonies are concealed from me. I can see only one emergency following upon another as wave follows upon wave, only one great fact with respect to which, since it is unique, there can be no generalizations; only one safe rule for the historian: that he should recognize in the development of human destinies the play of the contingent and the unforeseen."
"If you're not creating, you're disintegrating."
"Let's stop kidding ourselves that Greek debt is the Euro's key problem. With Greece gone, who's next ?"
"The English seem to relish unsystematic learning of this kind, in the same manner that they embarked upon "Grand Tours" of Europe in pursuit of a peripatetic scholarship."
Peter Ackroyd, Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination
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