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Oriana Fallaci

Oriana Fallaci Books

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“Niente ferisce, avvelena, ammala, quanto la delusione. Perché la delusione è un dolore che deriva sempre da una speranza svanita, una sconfitta che nasce sempre da una fiducia tradita cioè dal voltafaccia di qualcuno o qualcosa in cui credevamo. E a subirla ti senti ingannato, beffato, umiliato. La vittima d’una ingiustizia che non t’aspettavi, d’un fallimento che non meritavi. Ti senti anche offeso, ridicolo, sicché a volte cerchi la vendetta. Scelta che può dare un po’ di sollievo, ammettiamolo, ma che di rado s’accompagna alla gioia e che spesso costa più del perdono.”

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Book:Un cappello pieno di ciliege
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“Whoever believes in the myth of ‘peaceful coexistence that marked the relationships between the conquered and the conquerors’ should reread the stories of the burned convents and monasteries, of the profaned churches, of the raped nuns, of the Christian or Jewish women abducted to be locked away in their harems. He should ponder on the crucifixions of Cordoba, the hangings of Granada, the beheadings of Toledo and Barcelona, of Seville and Zamora. (The beheadings of Seville, ordered by Mutamid: the king who used those severed heads, heads of Jews and Christians, to adorn his palace). Invoking the name of Jesus meant instant execution. Crucifixion, of course, or decapitation or hanging or impalement. Ringing a bell, the same. Wearing green, the colour of Islam, also. And when a Muslim passed by, every Jew and Christian was obliged to step aside. To bow. And mind to the Jew or the Christian who dared react to the insults of a Muslim. As for the much-flaunted detail that the infidel-dogs were not obliged to convert to Islam, not even encouraged to do so, do you know why they were not? Because those who converted to Islam did not pay taxes. Those who refused, on the contrary, did.”

CrucifixionCoexistenceSevilleGranadaCrusadersCordobaMutamid
Book:The Force of Reason
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“Il Passato mi incuriosisce più del Futuro e non mi stancherò mai di sostenere che il Futuro è un’ipotesi, una congettura, una supposizione, cioè una non realtà. Tutt’al più, una speranza alla quale tentiamo di dar corpo coi sogni e le fantasie. Il Passato invece è una certezza, una concretezza, una realtà stabilita. Una scuola dalla quale non si prescinde perché, se non si conosce il Passato, non si capisce il Presente e non si può tentare d’influenzare il Futuro coi sogni e le fantasie. E poi ogni aspetto sopravvisuto al passato è prezioso perchè porta in sè un’illusione di eternità. Perchè rappresenta una vittoria sul Tempo che logora e appasisce e uccide, una sconfitta della Morte.”

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Author:Oriana Fallaci
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“But to deny fate is arrogance, to declare that we are the sole shapers of our existence is madness;if you deny fate life becomes the series of missed opportunities, a regret for what never was and could have been, a remorse of what was not done and could have been done, and the present is wasted, twisted into another missed oppurtunity.”

IfsHas BeensDoneOpportunityExistenceFateRegretMadnessSeriesDenyArroganceSoleRemorseCould Have BeenTwistedMissed OpportunityOppurtunity
Author:Oriana Fallaci
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“Hearing him speak is so fun, reassuring I dare say. You can say all you like about Sihanouk: that he's an atrocious liar, a madman, a fraud, a swashbuckler, an international blot. You may think that, but you cannot deny how in this age in which the political arena seems to generate only dull, obtuse and boring characters with no imagination, he's a kind of miracle.”

ThinkingKindMayCharacterSeemsAgePoliticalSpeakFunImaginationMiracleInternationalDareBoringDenyHearingDullLiarsFraudArenaMadmenReassuring
Author:Oriana Fallaci
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“Journalism is an extraordinary and terrible privilege. Not by chance, if you are aware of it, does it consume you with a hundred feelings of inadequacy. Not by chance, when I find myself going through an event or an important encounter, does it seize me like anguish, a fear of not having enough eyes and enough ears and enough brains to look and listen and understand like a worm hidden in the wood of history.”

IfsLooksDoeImportantEnoughFeelingsEyeChanceBrainEventsTerribleHundredEarsExtraordinaryPrivilegeWoodsJournalismEncountersAnguishWormsInadequacyFeelings Of Inadequacy
Author:Oriana Fallaci
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“Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomen. To the same degree that I do not understand power, I do understand those who oppose power, who criticize power, who contest power, especially those who rebel against power imposed by brutality.”

PresidentLeaderPowerDegreesBelovedCriticizeRebelSovereignContestsHatefulBrutalityInhuman
Author:Oriana Fallaci
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“I met Indira Gandhi in her office in the government palace. The same office that had been her father's - large, cold and plain. She was sitting, small and slender, behind a bare desk. When I entered, she got up and came forward to give me her hand, then sat down again and cut the preliminaries short by fixing me with a gaze that meant: Go ahead with the first question, don't waste time, I really have no time to waste.”

GivingFirstsHandsGovernmentFatherBehindsCuttingColdMetsOfficeWasteSittingGive MeSatWasting TimeDesksPalacesFixingSlenderDon't Waste TimeNo Time To Waste
Author:Oriana Fallaci
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“Instead of learned young people we have donkeys with University degrees. Instead of future leaders we have mollusks with expensive blue jeans and phony revolutionaries with ski masks. And do you know what? Maybe this is another reason why our Moslem invaders have such an easy game.”

PeopleKnowsReasonYoungGamesEasyLeaderDegreesBlueUniversityReason WhyRevolutionaryExpensiveMaskDo You KnowJeansPhonySkisDonkeyInvadersFuture LeadersBlue JeansUniversity DegreesMollusks
Author:Oriana Fallaci
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“And yet, or just for this reason, it's so fascinating to be a woman. It's an adventure that takes such courage, a challenge that's never boring. You'll have so many things to engage you if you're born a woman. To begin with, you'll have to struggle to maintain that if God exists he might even be an old woman with white hair or a beautiful girl. Then you'll have to struggle to explain that it wasn't sin that was born on the day when Eve picked an apple, what was born that day was a splendid virtue called disobedience.”

IfsReasonMightBeautifulGirlBornChallengesSinWhiteStruggleVirtueAdventureHairBoringApplesFascinatingSplendidDisobedienceOld WomanGod ExistsBeautiful GirlWhite Hair
Author:Oriana Fallaci
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“I'll impose upon you the same arrogance that was imposed on me, and on my mother, my grandmother, my grandmother's mother: all the way back to the first human born of another human being, whether he liked it or not. Probably, if he or she had been allowed to choose, he would have been frightened and answered: No, I don't want to be born. But no one asked their opinion, and so they were born and lived and died after giving birth to another human being who was not asked to choose, and that one did likewise, for millions of years, right down to us.”

IfsWayWantGivingYearsFirstsHumansHas BeensMotherBornHuman BeingsOpinionMillionsBirthDiedArroganceGrandmotherFrightenedMy GrandmotherGiving Birth
Author:Oriana Fallaci
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