Small Nations Quotes

• Small nations are like indecently dressed women. They tempt the evil-minded.

  Julius Nyerere

  Women, Evil, Nations

  333 Copy quote

• The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.

  Stanley Kubrick

  History, Political, Humour

  In Guardian 5 June 1963

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• The whole basis of the United Nations is the right of all nations–great or small–to have weight, to have a vote, to be attended to, to be a part of the twentieth century.

  Adlai E. Stevenson

  Political, Weight, Politics

  "The Bolton Embarrassment" by John Nichols, www.thenation.com. August 1, 2005.

  16 Copy quote

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• But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts

  Woodrow Wilson

  Heart, Fighting

  Address to Joint Session of Congress asking for declaration of war, 2 Apr. 1917

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• We shall fight for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Peace, Fighting, Safety

  Woodrow Wilson, Ronald J. Pestritto (2005). “Woodrow Wilson: The Essential Political Writings”, p.257, Lexington Books

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• The right is more precious than peace.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Military

  Address to Joint Session of Congress asking for declaration of war, 2 Apr. 1917

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• A small nation can fight a superpower with determination and dedication.

  Velupillai Prabhakaran

  Determination, Fighting, Dedication

  75 Copy quote

• There are perfectly good independent small nations.

  David Attenborough

  Independent, Perfectly Good, Nations

  4 Copy quote

• We shall always be a small minority in the world, but, when a small nation accomplishes something with its limited means, what it achieves has an immense and exceptional value, like the widow's mite. It is a deliberate and discerning love of a nation that appeals to me, not the indiscriminate love that assumes everything to be right because it bears a national label. Love of one's own nation should not entail non-love of other nations. Institutions by themselves are not enough.

  Tomas Garrigue Masaryk

  Mean, Patriotism, World

  59 Copy quote

• However much we may sympathize with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbor, we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in a war simply on her account. If we have to fight it must be on larger issues than that.

  Neville Chamberlain

  Powerful, Military, War

  "Deal or dud: How will history judge Iran agreement?" by Tim Lister, www.cnn.com. November 25, 2013.

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• Could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone not for one year or two, but for several hundred years against aggression; that endured spoliations, famines, massacres in endless succession; that was clubbed many times into insensibility, but that each time on returning [to] consciousness took up the fight anew; a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul?

  Eamon de Valera

  Heart, Fighting, Years

  40 Copy quote

• We must break out of this mindset in Australia that we are a small nation on the other side of the world from the main, great Western nations. Australia is the twelfth largest economy in the world. We are a not insignificant player in commerce, in geopolitics and we must be in culture as well and we are.

  George Brandis

  Player, Australia, Culture

  Source: www.abc.net.au

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• But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own Governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Heart, Fighting, Rights

  War Message, delivered 2 April 1917

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• Every Cuban has a house to live in, no matter how meager. That house is provided by government. Every Cuban who gets sick can go to a doctor or a hospital and get medical attention while 45 million Americans don't have medical insurance. Every Cuban can get education from the kindergarten through college and they don't have to pay. What is Castro doing that we might benefit from-if we are not too arrogant and falsely proud to see what he is doing in a small nation and what we have not been able to do or not been willing to do in the greatest nation on the earth?

  Louis Farrakhan

  College, Doctors, Government

  38 Copy quote

• The H-bomb rather favors small nations that doesn't as yet possess it; they feel slightly more free to jostle other nations, having discovered that a country can stick its tongue out quite far these days without provoking war, so horrible are war's consequences.

  E. B. White

  Country, War, Bombs

  4 Copy quote

• Keeping small nations enslaved because of the deals between the great nations or because of any pragmatic considerations that might have been there are totally unacceptable.

  Mikhail Saakashvili

  Might, Consideration, Deals

  "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer", www.edition.cnn.com. May 8, 2005.

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• Before peace between the nations, we have to find peace inside that small nation which is our own being.

  B.K.S. Iyengar

  Peace, India, Nations

  B. K. S. Iyengar (2016). “Sparks of Divinity: The Teachings of B. K. S. Iyengar”, p.45, Shambhala Publications

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• The Jews are the most hateful and the most shameful of the small nations.

  Reginald McKenna

  Hateful, Jew, Shameful

  16 Copy quote

• The day of small nations has passed away; the day of Empires has come.

  Joseph Chamberlain

  Empires, Passed Away, Nations

  Speech at Birmingham, 12 May 1904, in 'The Times' 13 May 1904

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• Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.

  Winston Churchill

  Scotland, Greek, Earth

  42 Copy quote

• For me, the most ironic token of [the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that Apollo 11 took to the moon. It reads, ‘We came in peace for all Mankind.’ As the United States was dropping seven and a half megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity. We would harm no one on a lifeless rock.

  Carl Sagan

  Moon, Rocks, Humanity

  16 Copy quote

• There's a lot of exaggerated talk about CAFTA, but it's actually a fairly routine trade agreement. Although it involves fairly small nations, they're still more important trade partners than places like Australia or many other larger nations.

  Ernest Istook

  Agreement, Australia, Important

  4 Copy quote

• War has become a luxury that only small nations can afford.

  Hannah Arendt

  Peace, War, Women

  8 Copy quote