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Belgians Quotes

Browse 44 quotes about Belgians.

Belgians Quotes

“Courageous Belgian people, you have conquered decisively! Make sure now to take advantage of this victory, your enemies are dumbfounded, let us not lose a moment, let us unite around the provisional government that has been established thanks to you, do not doubt that the arsonists, who you have expelled from your capital in such a humiliating way, are already plotting new crimes. No more hesitating and sparing, we must chase away once and for all the murderers from our house who have worked here with fire and sword, raping and destroying. We must save our mothers, our wives, our children and our property; we must live as free men, or bury ourselves under a mountain of ashes. Let us be united dear compatriots, and we will be invincible, the true order, it is indispensable to preserve our independence. Long live Belgium!”

RevolutionBelgiumBrusselsBelgiansLouis De PotterBelgian PeopleBelgian RevolutionBrussels RevolutionSeptember DaysSeptember Revolution
Author:Louis De Potter
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“The anti-clericalism of some Belgians falsified history by attributing the low level of education to "the racism of the missionaries", while it was they who provided education and educated the African elite with the first university priest Stefano Kaoze in 1917”

EducationRacismColonialismCongoBelgiumBelgian CongoBelgiansMissionaries
Book:The Greatest Fake News of All Time: Leopold II, The Genius and Builder King of Lumumba
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“Congo reformers like Morel, much to the annoyance of Hochschild, advocated either German or British colonization of the area (Congo). Morel’s view, according to Hochschild, speaking ex cathedra from the hallowed seat of modern California, “seems surprising to us today” and was among his “faults” and “political limitations.” Quite the opposite. The moment the Belgians colonized the Congo in 1908, a miraculous improvement was noted on all fronts. Seeking to debunk colonialism, Hochschild’s book demonstrates the opposite. This is the first and biggest lie at the heart of King Leopold’s Ghost.”

ColonialismLeopold IiBelgiumAdam HochschildBelgiansLeopold S GhostBruce GilleyKing Leopold S GhostEdmund Dene Morel
Book:King Hochschild’s Hoax: An absurdly deceptive book on Congolese rubber production is better described as historical fiction.
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“To give just one example of what the inside of this world (largely upper-class and Oxbridge world of wealth, power, and privilege) looked like: Huxley sent the UNESCO documents to his close friend the English poet Stephen Spender. In his reply, from his regular retreat at the Chalet Waldegg in Gstaad, Switzerland, Spender says that he won't burden Huxley with his own views on human rights, since he doesn't have anything 'worth saying' on the topic, but then goes on to suggest that Huxley send the documents to some of his acquaintances. This curious list of the great and the good includes the psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers, the first and second president of Czechoslovakia, the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce, Isaiah Berlin, A.J. Ayer, and W.H. Auden. Spender even gives Huxley some advice about whom to avoid: 'I honestly don't think there are any outstanding Belgians.”

BelgiumOuchBelgians
Book:Letters to the Contrary: A Curated History of the UNESCO Human Rights Survey
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“Side by side ... the British and French peoples have advanced to rescue ... mankind from the foulest and most soul-destroying tyranny which has ever darkened and stained the pages of history. Behind them ... gather a group of shattered States and bludgeoned races: the Czechs, the Poles, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Dutch, the Belgians -- upon all of whom the long night of barbarism will descend, unbroken even by a star of hope, unless we conquer, as conquer we must; as conquer we shall.”

LongSoulStatesNightStarsSidesRaceBehindsGroupsMankindPagesBritishTyrannyConquerDestroyingRescueShatteredDutchBarbarismUnbrokenNorwegiansLong NightsBelgians
Author:Winston Churchill
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“Consider the death of Princess Diana. This accident involved an English citizen, with an Egyptian boyfriend, crashed in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian, who was drunk on Scotch whiskey, followed closely by Italian paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles, and finally treated with Brazilian medicines by an American doctor. In this case, even leaving aside the fame of the victims, a mere neighborhood canvass would hardly have completed the forensic picture, as it might have a generation before.”

MightCasesGenerationsCarCitizensInvolvedFameDoctorsVictimMedicineMereLeavingAccidentsDrivenDrivingTreatedDrunkNeighborhoodItalianEnginesPrincessGlobalizationRoyaltyTunnelsWhiskeyMotorcycleDutchEgyptianPaparazziScotchDianaCar AccidentForensicsBelgiansDrunk DrivingScotch WhiskeyCanvassing
Author:Mark Riebling
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“Even before 2007, this half of a small island was the richest football country on earth. In 2005-2006 the Premiership's total revenue was about £1.4bn, 40 per cent more than its nearest rival, Italy's Serie A. That was before take-off. Now foreign television channels are sending so much cash that the Premiership is expected to take in nearly £1.8bn this season. Even the team that finishes bottom of the table (Wigan might be a good bet) will get £26.8m from TV. That's more than all of Argentine or Belgian football put together.”

CountryMightEarthTogetherHalfTeamTelevisionFootballTvsSeasonsTablesBottomExpectedSoccerAnalysisIslandsCashCentsRevenueRivalsBelgiansWigan
Author:Simon Kuper
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“There have been many definitions of hell, but for the English the best definition is that it is the place where the Germans are the police, the Swedish are the comedians, the Italians are the defense force, Frenchmen dig the roads, the Belgians are the pop singers, the Spanish run the railways, the Turks cook the food, the Irish are the waiters, the Greeks run the government, and the common language is Dutch.”

Has BeensGovernmentRunningLanguageForceCommonHellPoliceDefinitionsPopsDefenseSingersCooksComedianGreekSarcasticDutchWaiterRailwaySwedishFrenchmenCommon LanguageBelgians
Author:David Frost
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“I think that Europe has to get its act together very quickly. The Belgian guy who's leading the negotiations against Brexit, he sees it as a whole chance to reboot Europe and reclaim the kind of social mission of Europe from all this corporate, bureaucratic, globalist stuff that has got into, building Europe for the people rather than the banks, again.”

PeopleThinkingKindWholeTogetherGuySocialStuffChanceBuildingEuropeMissionsCorporateNegotiationBelgians
Author:Irvine Welsh
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“I thought of a high school report I did on the Belgian artist Rene Magritte and a quote I once read from him, something about his favorite walk being the one he took around his own bedroom. He said that he never understood the need for people to travel because all the poetry and perspective you're ever going to get you already posses. Anais Nin had the same idea. We see the world as we are. So if it's the same brain we bring with us every time we open our eyes, what's the difference if we're looking at an island cove or a pocket watch?”

PeopleIfsWorldNeedsSaidIdeasEyeSchoolArtistDifferencesWalksBrainWatchesPerspectiveUnderstoodHigh SchoolIslandsReportsPocketsBedroomPosseBelgiansMagrittePocket WatchesSchool Reports
Author:Sloane Crosley
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“I would like travelers, especially American travelers, to travel in a way that broadens their perspective, because I think Americans tend to be some of the most ethnocentric people on the planet. It's not just Americans, it's the big countries. It's the biggest countries that tend to be ethnocentric or ugly. There are ugly Russians, ugly Germans, ugly Japanese and ugly Americans. You don't find ugly Belgians or ugly Bulgarians, they're just too small to think the world is their norm.”

PeopleThinkingWorldWayCountryBigsPlanetsPerspectiveUglyTravelerNormBelgiansBulgarians
Author:Rick Steves
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“It’s a Belgian beer, sweetie. Please tell me you’ve at least heard of it. (Blaine) Boy, I was born in Brussels and the last time I checked, this was my new homeland, America, not my birthplace. So you can either order an American-made beer or I’ll bring you water and you can sit there and act all superior until you puke, okay? (Aimee)”

MadeLastsAmericaOrderWaterBornBoysHeardPleaseOkaySuperiorsBeerLast TimeHomelandBrusselsBirthplacePukeBelgians
Author:Sherrilyn Kenyon
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“I'm just full of surprises." Watching her, he waved the wrapped bar from side to side. "You can have the candy if you sit on my lap." That sounds like something perverted old men say to young, stupid girls." I'm not old, and you're not stupid." He sat, patted his knee. "It's Belgian chocolate." Just because I'm sitting on your lap and eating your candy doesn't mean you can cop a feel," she said as she folded into his lap.”

IfsMenFeelsMeanSaidYoungGirlSoundSidesStupidEatingSittingSurpriseBarsKneesSatChocolateOld ManCopCandyLapLike SomethingNot StupidBelgiansStupid Girl
Author:Nora Roberts
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“With respect to the creation of the program, I introduced the bill in September 1945, immediately after the end of the war with Japan, in August of that year. A number of considerations, of course, entered into my decision to introduce the bill, growing from my own experience as a Rhodes scholar and the experiences our government had had with the first Word War debts, [Herbert] Hoover's efforts in establishing the Belgian-American Education Foundation after World War I, [and] the Boxer Rebellion indemnity.”

WorldYearsFirstsWarEndsGovernmentCoursesMy OwnDecisionNumbersEffortGrowingCreationProgramFoundationBillsEducationalDebtWar Of The WorldsConsiderationJapanRebellionScholarWorld War IIntroducingSeptemberAugustBoxersHooverAmerican EducationBelgians
Author:J. William Fulbright
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“We once discussed which were the cleanest troops in the trenches, taken by nationalities. We agreed on a descending-order like this: English and German Protestants; Northern Irish, Welsh and Canadians; Irish and German Catholics; Scots; Mohammedan Indians; Algerians; Portugese; Belgians; French. We put the Belgians and French there for spite; they could not have been dirtier than the Algerians and the Portugese.”

Has BeensWarOrderTakenCatholicSpiteTroopsNationalityProtestantsGreat WarTrenchesDescendingWelshScotsBelgians
Author:Robert Graves
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“In 1933-34, the Belgians conducted a census in order to issue ‘ethnic’ identity cards, which labelled every Rwandan as either Hutu (85%) of Tutsi (14%) or Twa (1%). The identity cards made it virtually impossible for Hutus to become Tutsis, and permitted the Belgians to perfect the administration of an apartheid system rooted in the myth of Tutsi superiority… Whatever Hutu and Tutsi identity may have stood for in the pre-colonial state no longer mattered; the Belgians had made ‘ethnicity’ the defining feature of Rwandan existence.”

MayMadeStatesOrderPerfectExistenceIssuesImpossibleIdentityMythCardsMade ItAdministrationFeaturesRootedSuperiorityDefiningApartheidEthnicityCensusBelgiansEthnic Identity
Author:Philip Gourevitch
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“Germany expected that at the most a day or so would see Belgian resistance broken and the dash on Paris begun. It was not safe to start such a forward rush with Belgium unconquered.”

HeartBrokenSafeExpectedResistanceParisGermanyBroken HeartBelgiumBroken PromisesBelgians
Book:Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights ...: Why America Entered the Conflict ...& a Thrilling Account of the Important Part Taken by the Negro in the Tragic Defeat of Germany ...
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“In other words, the problem of empire-building is essentially mystical. It must somehow foster the impression that a man is great in the degree that his nation is great; that a German as such is superior to a Belgian as such; an Englishman, to an Irishman; an American, to a Mexican: merely because the first-named countries are in each case more powerful than their comparatives. And people who have no individual stature whatever are willing to accept this poisonous nonsense because it gives them a sense of importance without the trouble of any personal effort.”

PeopleMenGivingFirstsCountryProblemIndividualNationsPowerfulEffortAcceptingCasesTroubleBuildingWillingDegreesImportanceImpressionSuperiorsNonsenseEmpiresMysticalMexicanEnglishmenStaturePoisonousIrishmenBelgians
Author:Felix Morley
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