Coups Quotes

• To finish a work? To finish a picture? What nonsense! To finish it means to be through with it, to kill it, to rid it of its soul, to give it its final blow the coup de grace for the painter as well as for the picture.

  Pablo Picasso

  Art, Mean, Blow

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• Most of wars or military coups or invasions are done in the name of democracy against democracy.

  Eduardo Galeano

  Military, War, Names

  "Eduardo Galeano, Chronicler of Latin America’s “Open Veins,” on His New Book 'Children of the Days'". Interview With Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. May 8, 2013.

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• To put on the garment of legitimacy is the first aim of every coup.

  Barbara Tuchman

  Firsts, Garments, Legitimacy

  Barbara W. Tuchman (2011). “A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century”, p.399, Random House

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• Not long ago, if you wanted to seize political power in a country you had merely to control the army and the police. Today it is only in the most backward countries that fascist generals, in carrying out a coup d'état, still use tanks. If a country has reached a high degree of industrialization the whole scene changes.... Today a country belongs to the person who controls communications.

  Umberto Eco

  Country, Communication, Army

  "Il costume di casa" (1973); as translated in "Travels in Hyperreality" (1986),

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• A military coup needs a sacrifice and courage that you can't find in an army without morale.

  Jalal Talabani

  Courage, Military, Army

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• Respecting the sovereignty means preventing coups, unconstitutional actions and illegitimate overthrowing of the legitimate government. All these things should be totally prevented.

  Vladimir Putin

  Mean, Government, Action

  Source: www.russianembassy.org

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• Respect for sovereignty means to not allow unconstitutional action and coup d'états, the removal of legitimate power.

  Vladimir Putin

  Mean, Action, Legitimate Power

  Source: www.cbsnews.com

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• I feel sure that coups d'état would go much better if there were seats, boxes, and stalls so that one could see what was happening and not miss anything.

  Edmond de Goncourt

  Funny, War, Missing

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• I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Country, War, Taken

  "Custodians of chaos" by Kurt Vonnegut, www.theguardian.com. January 20, 2006.

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• There is a frustration too, that at moments when there's not a coup, when there are not people in the streets, that the country disappears from people's consciousness.

  Edwidge Danticat

  Country, Frustration, People

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• In two years, there were 22 military coups d'etat, essentially in Africa and the third world. The coup d'etat of Algiers, in 1965, is what opened the path.

  Ahmed Ben Bella

  Military, Years, Two

  "For Ahmed Ben Bella, the liberation of the people in the South is still unachieved". Interview with Silvia Cattori, www.voltairenet.org. May 9, 2006.

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• Everywhere that the struggle for national freedom has triumphed, once the authorities agreed, there were military coups d'etat that overthrew their leaders. That is the result time and time again.

  Ahmed Ben Bella

  Military, Struggle, Leader

  "For Ahmed Ben Bella, the liberation of the people in the South is still unachieved". Interview with Silvia Cattori, www.voltairenet.org. May 9, 2006.

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• The challenge is to lend conviction even to the voices which advocate views I find personally abhorrent, whether they are political Islamists or officers justifying a coup.

  Orhan Pamuk

  Views, Voice, Political

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• The period that I could consider the most important in my literary work came about beginning with the Revolution, and in a certain way, developed as a consequence of the Revolution. But it was also a result of the counterrevolutionary coup of November 1975.

  Jose Saramago

  Important, Way, Revolution

  "Interview with Jose Saramago, Author of Blindness". Political Affairs Magazine Interview, www.politicalaffairs.net. March 2006.

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• It's a coup by the GOP to grab the governorship to California to make this place a safe haven for George W. Bush in 2004. It's incredible when you think about it. The recall cost the state $100 million

  Al Jardine

  Safe Haven, Thinking, California

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• A coup consists of the infiltration of a small but critical segment of the state apparatus, which is then used to displace the government from its control of the remainder.

  Edward Luttwak

  Government, Used, States

  Edward Luttwak (1979). “Coup D'etat: A Practical Handbook”, p.27, Harvard University Press

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• We had a couple of minor coups that made a big difference. We snared away from a competitor a correspondent already on the ground in Afghanistan. That was an enormous help to us, because there we were.

  Brit Hume

  Couple, Differences, Helping

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• Fiji had experienced the ordeal of two military coups.

  Kamisese Mara

  Military, Two, Fiji

  Report to President Ganilau, May 15, 1992.

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• It is ironic that a nation that has never experienced a coup d'etat should be so obsessed with the idea of conspiracy.

  Gore Vidal

  Ideas, Ironic, Conspiracy

  Gore Vidal (1968). “Sex, Death, and Money”

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• What happened in Russia in 1917 wasn't a revolution - it was a coup d'etat.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Russia, Revolution, Happened

  Margaret Thatcher, Iain Dale (1997). “As I said to Denis--: the Margaret Thatcher book of quotations”, Robson Book Ltd

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• My biggest disappointment was, of course, the coup attempts, ... The economy was proceeding very well, but in 1989 we had the most serious coup attempt and ... many of the investors who were set to come here had to tell me that they chose to go to other countries because of the uncertainty brought about by (the coup attempt.) If that had not happened, I'm sure our economy would just be booming today.

  Corazon Aquino

  Country, Disappointment, Today

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• The Washington Times wrote a story questioning the authenticity of some of the suggestions made about me in Silent Coup. But as a believer in the First Amendment, I believe they have more than a right to air their views.

  Bob Woodward

  Believe, Air, Views

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• I'm very disappointed by the mature-democracy countries. I was ousted by a coup d'etat.

  Thaksin Shinawatra

  Country, Democracy, Mature

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• There should be no romanticism that international public opinion or even international diplomatic and economic pressure can defeat a coup without determined and strong defense by the attacked society itself

  Gene Sharp

  Strong, Public Opinion, Defense

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• I was even accused of teaching the chimps how to fish for termites which I mean that would have been such a brilliant coup.

  Jane Goodall

  Teaching, Mean, Brilliant

  "Jane Goodall on Bigfoot, Chimpanzees and Her Education". "Science Friday" with Ira Flatow, blankonblank.org. 2002.

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