Basques Quotes

• I realised that the political context had got worse since the 2010 World Cup. I tried to ignore it but I wanted, as a national coach - you may call this Utopia - to make Catalans and Basques feel good about supporting a Spanish side... to unite even the most sectarian and nationalist.

  Vicente del Bosque

  Feel Good, Political, May

  "Vicente del Bosque: Putting regional tensions aside has united Spain" by Jimmy Burns, www.theguardian.com. September 7, 2012.

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• A life without friends means death without company. (Adiskidegabeko bizita, auzogabeko heriotza.) —BASQUE PROVERB

  Craig Johnson

  Mean, Company, Without Friends

  Craig Johnson (2007). “Death Without Company: A Walt Longmire Mystery”, p.9, Penguin

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• Basque is one of the world's more alarming languages. Only a handful of adult foreigners, they say, have ever managed to learn it. The Devil tried once and mastered only three words - profanities, I assume.

  Jan Morris

  Devil, Adults, Three

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• The force of universalism is in you Basques, not in the Spanish state.

  Slavoj Žižek

  States, Force, Universalism

  ARGIA Interview, June 27, 2010.

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• There is a dreamlike quality to the 1936 Basque government, the fulfillment of a historic longing that was to be crushed only nine months later in carnage the scale of which had never before been seen on earth.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Government, Quality, Earth

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• In spite of muzzling the press, imprisoning thousands, and engaging in torture, kidnapping and murder, the Socialist government was still vulnerable to the accusation of being "soft on Basques.

  Mark Kurlansky

  Socialist Government, Murder, Vulnerable

  Mark Kurlansky (2010). “The Basque History of the World”, p.294, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• Castilian Spanish-speaking Spain is big, but is bigger in addition with Catalonian-speaking Spain, Galician-speaking Spain and Basque-speaking Spain. Democratic Spain, Constitutional Spain, can not be separated from diversity and the respect to the citizenship.

  Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero

  Diversity, Spain, Citizenship

  Speech in the French National Assembly, March 2005.

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• Basque and Celt. Criminals and barbarians. I didn't think there could be a more primitive pairing of genes.

  Karen Marie Moning

  Thinking, Criminals, Barbarians

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• In the twelfth century the Basque fishermen of Biarritz used to hunt whales with deadly efficiency. When the whales sensibly moved away, the Basques chased them further and further, with the consequence that the fishermen of Biarritz discovered America before Columbus did. This is a matter for local pride but on a larger view it is not quite so stunning, since with the possible exception of the Swiss everybody discovered America before Columbus did.

  Clive James

  Pride, Views, Whales

  Clive James (1985). “Flying Visits”

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• When I'm scared - and I'm always scared when I have to face an audience, when I have to read a review, when I publish a book...then, I think of my grandfather. My grandfather was this strong, tough Basque who would never bend....What would he do? Well, he would go ahead, close his eyes, and drive forward. You do it and the spirit that is within you....is there.

  Isabel Allende

  Strong, Book, Eye

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• If you go back a century in Europe, all over the place people were speaking different languages. There were dozens of languages in France and Italy, and they're all called French [and Italian], but they were not mutually comprehensible. They were different languages. And they have mostly disappeared in the last century or so. Some are being preserved, like Welsh, some are being revived, like Basque or Catelan to some extent. There are plenty of people in Europe who can't talk to their grandmother because they talk a different language.

  Noam Chomsky

  Grandmother, Italian, Europe

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

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• In Europe there's kind of a reaction to the European Union, kind of a move towards some kind of regionalization. It's more advanced in some regions than others, like in Spain for example. Catelan was repressed under Franco. People spoke it, but not publicly. It's now the language of Catelonia. The Basque language is being revived, not just the language but the culture, the folk music and everything else. So you're getting more diverse societies, and it's happening in Britain as well.

  Noam Chomsky

  Moving, Europe, Diverse Society

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

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