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Quote by Antonia Fraser

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Marie Antoinette: The Journey

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Antonia Fraser
Antonia Fraser

Antonia Fraser is a renowned British historian and author, known for her in-depth research into British history. Her works span from the Tudor to the Stuart periods, with her studies on Mary, Queen of Scots being particularly notable. more

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“On the 5th of October, in pouring rain, some 6,000 working women, fishwives, cleaners, marketstall holders, and prostitutes, marched on Versailles. Their ostensible reason was a rumor that at a welcome banquet given for the Flanders Regiment, newly arrived at the palace, the tricolor cockade had been trampled underfoot (...) armed with scythes, pikes, and any other weapons they could lay their hands on, they marched straight to the National Assembly, shouting their slogans and screaming for bread (...) In the early hours of the next day, the king and queen were awakened by furious shouts of, "mort à la femme Autrichienne", death to the Austrian woman.”

Marie Antoinette
Book:France: A History: from Gaul to de Gaulle
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“What was happening was a maniacal assault on the inhabitants of the Paris prisons, with some of the royal family’s most beloved attendants still incarcerated in the La Force. These included the Marquise de Tourzel and Pauline-and that hate figure so often in obscene popular publications, the lesbian paramour of the “Infamous Antoinette”, the Princesse de Lamballe.”

Marie Antoinette
Book:Marie Antoinette: The Journey
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“Imagine an Englishman, a Frenchman, a Chinese and an Indonesian all looking at a cup. The Englishman says, ‘That is a cup.’ The French-man answers, ‘No it’s not. It’s a tasse.’ Then the Chinese comments, ‘You are both wrong. It’s a pei.’ Finally the Indonesian man laughs at the others and says ‘What fools you are. It’s a cawan.’ Then the Englishman get a dictionary and shows it to the others saying, ‘I can prove that it is a cup. My dictionary says so.’ ‘Then your dictionary is wrong,’ says the Frenchman, ‘because my dictionary clearly says it is a tasse.’ The Chinese scoffs; ‘My dictionary says it’s a pei and my dictionary is thousands of years older than yours so it must be right. And besides, more people speak Chinese than any other language, so it must be a pei.’ While they are squabbling and arguing with each other, a another man comes up, drinks from the cup and then says to the others, ‘Whether you call it a cup, a tasse, a pei or a cawan, the purpose of the cup is to hold water so that it can be drunk. Stop arguing and drink, stop squabbling and refresh your thirst.’ This is the Buddhist attitude to other religions.”

ReligionBuddhismToleranceBuddhistBuddhaComparative Religion
Book:Good Question Good Answer
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