Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Neal Ascherson

Quote by Neal Ascherson

“It was a real revolution. But with one missing feature. That is the feeling in a people that "We have done it once, and if the new lot let us down, we can do it again!" It was that proud, menacing confidence which made the French revolution special. But it's not around in 21st-century Europe. After 1989, the people handed over liberty to the experts. Will they ever want it back?”

Quote by Neal Ascherson

Create image

Author

Neal Ascherson
Neal Ascherson

Neal Ascherson is a renowned British journalist known for his in-depth reporting on the history of Eastern and Central Europe. His writing style is characterized by its nuanced observations and profound insights, covering political and social changes in countries from Poland to Russia. more

You May Also Like

“In Moscow, dim and green under the summer rain, columns of armour were waiting in the side-roads off the long avenue from Vnukovo airport. Tanks from the Taman Division stood beneath the dripping trees around Moscow University with their field kitchens and command trucks. This was not a new sight to me: the Soviet tanks had rested like that beneath the trees of the parks in Prague, late in another August twenty-three years before. Now they had invaded and crushed one more country -- their own.”

YearsLongCountryThreeWaitingSidesTreeFieldsLateSummerRainSightTwentiesGreenUniversityCommandKitchenParksDivisionSovietThree YearsTruckAirportsAvenuesTanksCrushedColumnsAugustMoscowDrippingArmourPragueSummer Rain
Author:Neal Ascherson
Create image

“English stupidity is an organism so primitive that it is apparently impossible to kill off. It reminds me of Physarum Polycephalum, the gigantic slime mould recently bred by scientists at Bonn. Bright yellow and about two millimetres thick, this monocellular creature--neither plant nor animal--grew to a size of 10 square yards before the scientists took fright and froze it. It can smell its favourite food, and move towards it at a speed of up to two centimetres an hour. This favourite food is porridge.”

TwoMovingHoursAnimalImpossibleGrewCreaturesScientistPlantSizeSmellStupiditySpeedSquaresYellowThickFavouritePrimitiveOrganismsYardsFrightMouldSlimePorridge
Author:Neal Ascherson
Create image

“We wish to continue in following up the legacy of the Second Vatican Council whose wise regulations have still to be led to their fulfilment, being careful that a push, generous perhaps, but unduly timed, does not detract from the content and meaning of the council, and on the other hand being careful and reined and timid efforts do not slow up the magnificent drive of renewal and of life.”

DoeStillsHandsWishEffortWiseCarefulFollowingLegacyGenerousRegulationMagnificentCouncilRenewalFulfilment
Author:Pope John Paul I
Create image

“The man who has given himself to his country loves it better; the man who has fought for his friend honors him more; the man who has labored for his community values more highly the interests he has sought to conserve; the man who has wrought and planned and endured for the accomplishment of God's plan in the world sees the greatness of it, the divinity and glory of it, and is himself more perfectly assimilated to it.”

MenWorldCountryValuesGivenInterestCommunityPlansGreatnessHe ManHonorGloryAccomplishmentDivinityGod's PlanCountry Love
Author:Richard Salter Storrs
Create image