Westerners Quotes

• This, I believe, is the great Western truth: that each of us is a completely unique creature and that, if we are ever to give any gift to the world, it will have to come out of our own experience and fulfillment of our own potentialities, not someone else's.

  Joseph Campbell

  Believe, Unique, Giving

  Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers (2011). “The Power of Myth”, p.186, Anchor

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• Istanbul, a universal beauty where poet and archeologist, diplomat and merchant, princess and sailor, northerner and westerner screams with same admiration. The whole world thinks that this city is the most beautiful place on earth.

  Edmondo De Amicis

  Beautiful, Princess, Thinking

  "Constantinople". Book by Edmondo De Amicis, 1877.

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• The “Vasco da Gama's era” ends in a nightmare in which men-Westerners and non-Westerners alike-are bewildered by this confusion and the old fancy of the apprenti sorcier becomes tragically actual.

  Carlo M. Cipolla

  Men, Confusion, Fancy

  Carlo M. Cipolla (1966). “Guns, sails and empires: technological innovation and the early phases of European expansion, 1400-1700”

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• Many Westerners forget that when the Prophet spoke of four wives as the maximum allowable number, he had in mind a reduction to four as compared to the number then often prevailing; moreover, Mohammed specified that a man should acquire more than one wife only if he could treat them all with equal justice - obviously a difficult feat for even the most diligent man to achieve. In effect, then, the Prophet curtailed the number of wives.

  Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

  Men, Numbers, Justice

  Mohammed Reza Pahlavi (Shah of Iran) (1962). “Maʼmūriyyat barȧ-yi vaṭanam”

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• The Jews caused us a great injustice, the greatest injustice. They have expelled our people, stolen our land, shed our brothers' blood, and are still shedding blood, and there should be no contact between them and us. We will not agree to meet with them until our problem with the Zionist entity and those Westerners and Christians who support them, is solved.

  Yusuf al-Qaradawi

  Christian, Brother, Blood

  "Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi against Including Jews in Dialogue between Religions". MEMRI TV, May 2004.

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• A youth with wings are the assurance of our nation's future. We must start to work right away and make progress so that; if one day Westerners leave their footprints on the moon, we shall place a Turkish one among those.

  Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

  Moon, Wings, Progress

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• Age is a limit we impose upon ourselves. You know, each time you Westerners celebrate your birthday you build another fence around your minds.

  Robert Riskin

  Mind, Age, Limits

  Robert Riskin, Patrick McGilligan (1997). “Six Screenplays”, p.551, Univ of California Press

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• I lived in Saudi Arabia in the late 1970s. It was, for a Westerner, pretty idyllic. There were the religious police; there were the rules; there were the prayer times. But it was as if we were existing in two separate universes. The Westerners were just allowed to get on with their way of life.

  Robert Lacey

  Religious, Prayer, Two

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• Political correctness is a major defect of the western ethos. Some Western countries have even passed blasphemy laws that would put you in legal hot waters if you say anything negative about Islam. This means that the truth about Islam cannot be said but Muslims are given total freedom to spread their religion with lies. Islam thrives were truth is suppressed. That is one reason that westerners convert to Islam. They are lied to. How do you expect a society to survive when truth is banned and lies are allowed?

  Ali Sina

  Country, Lying, Mean

  Source: myislam.dk

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• We are living in a culture that if you criticize immorality you could be branded as a "bigot". I am going to lose a lot of support just by saying this. I am not a politician and I am not running a popularity contest. My job is to defend our world from Islam. You asked why the westerners convert to Islam and I must tell the truth as I see it. If that offends anyone, let him be offended.

  Ali Sina

  Running, Jobs, Our World

  Source: myislam.dk

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• Metaphysical assertions, however, are statements of the psyche, and are therefore psychological. Whenever the Westerner hears the word “psychological,” it always sounds to him like “only psychological.

  Carl Jung

  Sound, Psychological, Metaphysical

  Carl Gustav Jung (1989). “The Collected Works of C. G. Jung: Psychology and religion”

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• Thai food ain't about simplicity. It's about the juggling of disparate elements to create a harmonious finish. Like a complex musical chord it's got to have a smooth surface but it doesn't matter what's happening underneath. Simplicity isn't the dictum here, at all. Some westerners think it's a jumble of flavours, but to a Thai that's important, it's the complexity they delight in.

  David

  Thinking, Simplicity, Musical

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• In Buddhism we don't really believe in sin and salvation as Westerners would define them. We believe in the limitless possibilities of the present and of future moments.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhist, Believe, Buddhism

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• The typical Westerner wishes to be the cause of as many changes as possible in his environment; the typical Chinaman wishes to enjoy as much and as delicately as possible.

  Bertrand Russell

  Wish, Typical, Causes

  Bertrand Russell (1922). “The problem of China”

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• They were the first Westerners. The spirit of the West, the modern spirit, is a Greek discovery; and the place of the Greeks is in the modern world.

  Edith Hamilton

  Discovery, Greek, World

  Edith Hamilton (1987). “The Greek way ; The Roman way”, Random House Value Pub

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• If Slumdog Millionaire projects India as a Third World, dirty-underbelly, developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations. It's just that the Slumdog Millionaire idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a Westerner, gets creative Golden Globe recognition. The other would perhaps not.

  Amitabh Bachchan

  Pain, Dirty, Ideas

  "Slumdogs who seek success". The Independent, News, p. 30, January 16, 2009.

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• The statements of certain western officials show that contrary to their absurd claims, westerners are disqualified, and impetuous, lacking any cultural background.

  Hamid-Reza Assefi

  Absurd, Certain, Claims

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• All I can say is that these cult stories are totally untrue, are without any foundation, and trade on a deep bias against Westerners who dare to embrace an Eastern belief-system.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Foundation, Stories

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• Westerners have aggressive problem-solving minds; Africans experience people.

  Kenneth Kaunda

  People, Mind, Problem

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• Like most people, most Westerners anyway, I have a sneaking suspicion I am immortal.

  Mary Cantwell

  People, Immortality, Suspicion

  Mary Cantwell (1995). “Manhattan, When I Was Young”, p.112, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Muslims, who have a completely different value system, come to the West, then they should accept that there are certain basic values in the West intrinsic to our culture. Just as I wouldn't suggest that any Westerner walk down the streets of Saudi Arabia in a bikini.

  John Cleese

  West, Bikinis, Arabia

  "'Satire Makes People Think'". Interview with Christoph Scheuermann and Barbara Supp, www.spiegel.de. March 30, 2015.

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• I just think you Westerners should take over this country if you are so smart.

  Pierre Trudeau

  Country, Smart, Thinking

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• The pirates are serving a purpose right now. They come from regions which have been completely ignored, and Westerners have tried to destroy these regions by their constant plundering of resources and by the illegal dumping of nuclear waste. The pirates really began in order to discourage these actions - initially. And then the business became lucrative.

  K'naan

  Order, Pirate, Nuclear

  "K’naan: Straight Outta Mogadishu". Interview with Eamon Kircher-Allen, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2009.

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• I am a Westerner. We're not going to change the West by going East. The East has a lot to teach us, but essentially it's like a mirror, saying, hey, can't you see what's here in your own religion, what are you, stupid?

  Matthew Fox

  Change, Stupid, Mirrors

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• The Dalai Lama, these days, encourages Westerners not to take up Buddhism, partly because he feels that our roots are deep in other traditions, and we should go deeper into our own traditions rather than just acquiring the surfaces of others.

  Pico Iyer

  Buddhism, Roots, Tradition

  Interview with Felicia M. Tomasko, layoga.com. April 26, 2008.

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