European History Quotes

“At one point, approximately halfway through her remarks, Merkel stated in German something about ‘being able to greet the president of the United States of America, Barack Obama,’ and an overly ambitious Obama, who perhaps thought that was his cue, headed toward the podium.  Perhaps catching the president’s movement out of the corner of her eye, Merkel thought quickly, and without even looking up from her notes, she told the excited American president, in English, ‘Not yet, dear Mr. President, dear Barack Obama.’ Obama sheepishly returned to his seat to allow the chancellor to finish her speech.”
― Claudia Clark, Dear Barack: The Extraordinary Partnership of Barack Obama and Angela Merkel

“Then, in an unusual moment, she grew emotional, which left little doubt about the level of profound respect and admiration Merkel had for her American colleague:
‘So eight years are coming to a close.  This is the last visit of (President) Barack Obama to our country…I am very glad that he chose Germany as one of the stopovers on this trip…Thank you for the reliable friendship and partnership you demonstrated in very difficult hours of our relationship. So let me again pay tribute to what we’ve been able to achieve, to what we discussed, to what we were able to bring about in difficult hours.”
― Claudia Clark, Dear Barack: The Extraordinary Partnership of Barack Obama and Angela Merkel

“In her usual manner, Merkel spoke in German. It is worth pointing out, however, that before the translator had an opportunity to convert her statements to English, Obama gave the chancellor and the press a big smile, saying, ‘I think what she said was good. I’m teasing.’ The laughter in the room drowned out the sounds of the cameras clicking and flashing, with Merkel’s giggle and smile among the loudest.”
― Claudia Clark, Dear Barack: The Extraordinary Partnership of Barack Obama and Angela Merkel

“All night long Alec sat in his chair in his pyjamas and dressing gown, socks on his feet to keep out the cold, a cigarette in his fingers with a long ash hovering over a half-full ashtray. He attempted to go to bed but the incident with Father Joe kept his mind in turmoil. This girl, well, woman now – she would be around thirty – was a mystery during the war. She was kidnapped, it was thought, from her school, the day the Germans entered Paris. Her uncle, Sir Jason Barrett MP, was in England; her step-parents were somewhere else in France, on holiday, and found they could not get back; and Charlotte was being cared for by a Swedish couple, a nanny or housekeeper and her chauffeur husband.
Was Charlotte actually Freya? What had this baron fellow to do with Freya, apart from marrying her? Had she been a prostitute? And what was the old cleric babbling on about “finding her and protecting her”? From whom?”
― Hugo Woolley, The Wasp Trap

“There have been two great narcotics in European civilisation: Christianity and alcohol.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“As libertines we seek to find and provide pleasures for others before pleasing ourselves. Libertines are never boorish, profane or blasphemous. We seek to lessen any cause for offence while maximizing pleasure. After our liaisons, our return is eagerly anticipated, and our departure is mourned. For most men the reverse is the case. In a world where most men are barely on before they are off again, we take the time and the care to be gentle lovers and build the sighs and the panting of true delight.”
― Harry F. MacDonald, Casanova and the Devil's Doorbell

“I admire the Queen greatly,” Casanova confided in me. “She can tie a man up by his thumbs, discuss philosophy with Diderot and Voltaire, and plot and scheme like a Dutch diplomat. She has voracious appetites, uses exquisite French scents, is kind to animals, fences like a Hungarian hussar, recreates herself on a white silk swing in a room full of mirrors, and gives afternoon tea parties for society ladies. Useful horsewoman, too.”
― Harry F. MacDonald, Casanova and the Devil's Doorbell

“We also discussed whether these videos in some way contributed to a sense of European superiority, as if police forces in Europe were not endemically racist.

Which they are, Bobbi said.

Yeah I don't think the expression is "American cops are bastards," said Nick.”
― Sally Rooney, 2 Book Collection Set: Conversations with Friends, Normal People

“It was the fate of Europe to be always a battleground. Differences in race, in religion, in political genius and social ideals, seemed always, in the atmosphere of our mother continent, to be invitations to contest by battle.”
― Calvin Coolidge

“Why would a semi-nude woman walking down the street — and the society around her — have a problem with a woman wearing a hijab? Because, deep down, both she and society are aware: silently, countless eyes are undressing her, treating her as a sexual object, looking at her as a showpiece of sex. It's not just about religion. It's a matter of an inferiority complex — something that, somewhere deep inside, feels like a quiet shame imposed on her dignity by her own choice of clothing and fashion. And so, for the sake of self-satisfaction, they want to snatch the hijab from another woman — a woman who chose the hijab just as another chooses semi-nude fashion. The woman in hijab pays the price for refusing to participate in the shame society and fashion tries to impose on her.”
― Mohammed Zaki Ansari, "Zaki's Gift Of Love"

“It is simply not enough to know that English politicians and armies won the battle for eastern America—we already knew that. What we need to take into account, now that history is more than past politics, is that in cultural attraction and educational sophistication the English were decidedly inferior to their French and Indian rivals, who lost what they did for other reasons.”
― James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America

“They missed the chance to learn that “savage” and “civilized” are relative terms without objective authority or content, that “men call that barbarism” which simply is “not common to them”. Such a lesson was badly needed in that fiercely intolerant age, as it still is in our own more subtly and intolerant one.”
― James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America

“The blind faith that they were God’s “chosen people” prevented them from recognizing the tragic hubris in their national compulsion to “reduce” the natives to less than they were. Born of pride, the European philosophy of conversion spawned the triple terrors of cultural arrogance, dogmatism, and intolerance on a grand scale.”
― James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America

“Up to 95 percent of the original Native American population, estimated at roughly twenty million people, disappeared after the invasion of European colonizers. While there was direct violence toward Native Americans, many of these deaths can be attributed to the introduction of smallpox. Smallpox is a virus that is spread when one comes into contact with infected bodily fluids or contaminated objects such as clothing or blankets. The virus then finds its way into a person's lymphatic system. Within days of infection, large, painful pustules begin to erupt over the victim's skin.

In school curriculums, this has often been taught as an unfortunate tragedy, an accidental side effect of trade, and therefore a reason to claim that the Europeans did not commit genocide. However, in recent years, many historians have recognized that the spreading of smallpox was an early form of biological warfare, one which was understood and used without mercy from at least the mid-1700s. Noted conversations among army officials include letters discussing the idea of "sending the Small Pox among those disaffected tribes" and using "every stratagem to reduce them." Another official, Henry Bouquet, wrote a letter that told his subordinates to "try to Innoculate [sic] the Indians, by means of Blankets, as well as to Try Every other Method, that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race." They followed through on their plan, giving two blankets and a handkerchief from a Smallpox Hospital alongside other gifts to seal an agreement of friendship between the local Native tribes and the men at Fort Pitt, located in what is now western Pennsylvania.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“No one wanted to use the word 'murder' then, using instead words more apt to talking about a pest problem than a human race. Even today the United States still has not officially recognized genocide in its history.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“Even today the United States still has not officially recognized genocide in its history.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“I wanted to devour this woman's dignity. Congratulations for what exactly? For having a family who made it through genocide? For being part of the slim population of surviving Native Americans post-colonization? An anger simmered in my throat, begging to be let loose on this stupid woman who was there to simply enjoy her vacation. How dare she remain blissfully unaware of the modern existence of Native Americans when all she had seen were movies making us look like history? As mad as I was, I knew it wasn't her fault and I couldn't muster up the energy to boil my anger into a response.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“I would nod along for the sake of peace but in
truth some part of me always rebelled. Why did he think it so important for me to know that Beethoven dedicated a sonata to a mulatto violinist, or that Shakespeare’s dark lady really was dark, or that Queen Victoria had deigned to raise a child of Africa, “bright as any white girl?” I did not want to rely on each European fact having its African shadow, as if without the scaffolding of the European fact everything African might turn to dust in my hands. It gave me no pleasure to see that sweet-faced girl dressed like one of Victoria’s own children, frozen in a formal photograph, with a new kind of cord round her neck. I always wanted life—movement.”
― Zadie Smith, Swing Time

“History shows that changes in sovereignity and state borders as a result of conflicts, as well as the rise and fall of political regimes in different parts of the planet, often forcibly divide local populations and/or artificially modify the names of places. At all latitudes, such measures arise from the political need to impose apparent homogeneity of culture and language, according to the model of the nation-State that does not tolerate exceptions to the supremacy of its founding values.”
― Giuseppe De Vergottini, Topographical Names and Protection of Linguistic Minorities

“هر چه زندگی سیاسی اش جذاب تر می شود، کاترین نیاز بیشتری احساس می کند به اینکه گاه به گاه از آن فرار کند تا با چند دوست صمیمی و نزدیک خود را در میان دیوارهایی بیابد که پوشیده از زیبایی شکل ها و رنگ هاست. قطعا ذوق هنری اون چندان قابل اعتماد نیست- خودش نیز بدان معترف است- اما همه ی سلاطین بزرگ که او تحسینشان می کند، لویی چهاردهم در رأس آنها کم و بیش، کلکسیونر بوده اند. وانگهی، او دوست دارد آثار هنری را به دست بیاورد، جمع کند و مالک شود و می گوید:(( این عشق به هنر نیست، حرص است. من دوست دار هنر نیستم، من آزمندم.))”
― Henri Troyat, Catherine the Great

“هر وقت پیاده به کلیسا و یا به سنا می رود، عده ی درخواست کنندگان در مسیرش چنان افزایش می یابد که روزی اون در میان دیواری زنده محصور می شود. پلیس می خواهد با شلاق مداخله کند ولی امپراتریس بازوانش را می گشاید تا از ملتش حمایت کند. این حرکت نمادین جمعیت را به گریه می اندازد.”
― Henri Troyat, Catherine the Great

“کاترین نمی داند چه کشور غریبی است این روسیه! در اینجا افسانه بیش از واقعیت وزن و اعتبار دارد. برای سلطنت بر این ملت نامعقول بایستی گاهی علیه موجودات زنده و گاهی علیه اشباح جنگید!


پ ن : واقعا یکی از بهترین راه های شناخت خصایص یه ملت خوندن تاریخ و ادبیاتشونه.”
― Henri Troyat, Catherine the Great

“نخستین اشعه ی روز همیشه او را آماده برای پذیرفتن خوشبختی و کار می یابد، که اولی بدون دومی برایش میسر نیست.”
― Henri Troyat, Catherine the Great

“کاترین اگر با زیبایی خود همه ی زنان دربار را تحت الشعاع قرار نمی دهد، با وسعت اطلاعات و فرهنگ و با شیرینی و گیرایی صحبت هایش به راحتی بر همه ی آنان تسلط دارد. لرد بوکینگهام، سفیر جدید انگلستان اقرار می کند که در زمینه ی تفکر و اندیشه بین او و هموطنانش گودالی عمیق وجود دارد. او در گزارشی به دربار سنت جیمز می نویسد:(( بر اساس همه ی مشاهدات و ملاحظات من، امپراتریس با استعدادها، آموخته ها و فهم و شعورش از همه ی مردم این کشور بالاتر و والاتر است).)”
― Henri Troyat, Catherine the Great

“کاترین اگر با زیبایی خود همه ی زنان دربار را تحت الشعاع قرار نمی دهد، با وسعت اطلاعات و فرهنگ و با شیرینی و گیرایی صحبت هایش به راحتی بر همه ی آنها تسلط دارد. لرد بوکینگهام، سفیر جدید انگلستان اقرار می کند که در زمینه ی تفکر و اندیشه بین او و هموطنانش گودالی عمیق وجود دارد. او در گزارشی به دربار سنت جیمز می نویسد:(( بر اساس همه ی مشاهدات و ملاحظات من،امپراتریس با استعدادها، آموخته ها و فهم و شعورش از همه ی مردم این کشور بالاتر و والاتر است.))”
― Henri Troyat, Catherine the Great

“ناپلئون هر دفعه که به ((وادی صیادان)) می رفت، کنار رودخانه کوچک زیر درخت می ایستاد و گاهی سر بلند می کرد و آسمان آبی را می نگریست. چون در آسمان وادی صدایی شنیده نمی شد ناپلئون اسم آن را ((وادی سکوت)) گذاشته بود و یک روز در آن وادی به لاسکاس گفت در تمام مدتی که من در اروپا بودم به فکر نیفتادم که از مشاهده ی آسمان آبی لذت ببرم و اینک در اینجا می فهمم که آسمان آبی، از مناظر زیبای طبیعت است.”
― Ralph Korngold, خاطراتی از یک امپراطور

“در دوره ی سلطنت ناپلئون در کشور فرانسه و سایر کشورهای اروپا صدها کتاب چاپ شد که روی جلد تمام آنها نوشته شده بود تقدیم به امپراتور ناپلئون و علتش این بود که می دانستند ناپلئون اهل فضل و کتاب خوان است و قدر کتاب خود را می داند”
― Ralph Korngold, خاطراتی از یک امپراطور

“ناپلئون هر دفعه که به ((وادی صیادان)) می رفت، کنار رودخانه ی کوچک زیر درخت می ایستاد و گاهی سر بلند می کرد و آسمان آبی را می نگریست. چون در آسمان وادی صدایی شنیده نمی شد ناپلئون اسم آن را ((وادی سکوت)) گذاشته بود و یک روز در آن وادی به لاسکاس گفت در تمام مدتی که من در اروپا بودم به فکر نیفتادم که از مشاهده ی آسمان آبی لذت ببرم و اینک در اینجا می فهمم که آسمان آبی، از مناظر زیبای طبیعت است”
― Ralph Korngold, The Last Years of Napoleon: His Captivity on St. Helena

“یکی از مایوس کننده ترین مسائل در قرن بیستم این بود که معلوم شد تحصیل اجباری و پیشرفت تکنولوژیکی و پیشرفت دانش و فرهنگ به هیچ روی منجر به بهتر شدن آدم ها یا محتاط تر و مهربان ترشدنشان آن گونه که در قرن نوزدهم سخت بدان باور داشتند، نمی شود، و عده ی کثیری از قاتل ها و آدمکش ها و عاملان کشتارهای دسته جمعی اتفاقا عاشق هنر هستند و به اپرا گوش می دهند و به نمایشگاه ها می روند و شعر می سرایند و علوم انسانی و طب می خوانند.”
― Patrik Ouředník, Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century

“حفظ خاطره ی یک واقعه به خودی خود ضامن این نیست که آن واقعه تکرار نشود.”
― Patrik Ouředník, Europeana: A Brief History of the Twentieth Century