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Belgium Quotes

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Belgium Quotes

“Take a serious look at yourself. Ask yourself questions about your mood, the way you view the world and people, think about your mistakes and the dangers they unleash. Today the character of a person determines whether he can exercise influence and authority, far more than all the minds on this earth. As you know, this is all the more true in Belgium, and Belgians want to see in their leader the qualities they will never want from themselves. (Leopold I In a letter to his son Prince Leopold II)”

HistoryLeopold IiBelgiumLeopold I
Author:Leopold I
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“You can find it on almost any tree. As we made our way through the forest, it was literally raining rubber juice. Our clothes were full of it. The Congo has so many tributaries that a well-organized company can easily extract a few tons of rubber per year here. You only have to sail up such a river and the branches with rubber hang almost up to your ship. (In a Letter to King Leopold II of the Belgians)”

CongoLeopold IiBelgiumCongo Free StateBelgian CongoHenry Morton Stanly
Author:Henry M. Stanley
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“These expeditions respond to an extraordinarily civilizing Christian idea: to abolish slavery in Africa, to dispel the darkness that still reigns in part of the world, to get to know the resources that seem gigantic, in short, pouring out the treasures of civilization, that's it. purpose of this modern crusade worthy of our era.”

ExplorationCongoLeopold IiBelgiumCongo Free StateLeopold Ii Of BelgiumHenry Morton StanleyScramble For AfricaEuropean ExpansionLivingstone
Author:Leopold II
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“It is not about Belgian colonies. It is about establishing a new state that is as large as possible and about its governance. It should be clear that in this project there can be no question of granting the Negroes the slightest form of political power. That would be ridiculous. The whites, who lead the posts, have all the power.”

CongoLeopold IiBelgiumCongo Free StateBelgian CongoBelgian ColonialismBelgian Colonial EmpireLeopold Ii Ofbelgium
Author:Leopold II
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“On July 31, 1950, I accepted to hand over the royal powers to my son. It was my will to renounce the throne for good as soon as it turned out that all Belgians would have united themselves around Prince Baudouin. I now establish that this unanimity has been achieved. The last words I wish to say as king of the Belgians will strongly indicate that the future of the fatherland depends on your national solidarity, I swear to agree to you, God protect Belgium and our Congo.”

BelgiumLeopold IiiKing Leopold IiiRoyal QuestionLeopold Iii Of BelgiumPrince Baudouin
Author:Leopold III
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“With the sort of power these new processes granted them, the members of the brotherhood were in the perfect position to seize power. In any other country, a massive, bloody war would have ensued. Horrors would have stalked the land, unholy amalgamations of flesh would have fought on the fields, and the nights would have new, unspeakable terrors. Fortunately, this is Belgium we're talking about.”

PowerHorrorMonstersBrotherhoodBelgiumHorrorsGraftersThe Checquy Files
Book:The Rook
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“As Wilson mourned his wife, German forces in Belgium entered quiet towns and villages, took civilian hostages, and executed them to discourage resistances. In the town of Dinant, German soldiers shot 612 men, women, and children. The American press called such atrocities acts of "frightfulness," the word then used to describe what later generations would call terrorism. On August 25, German forces bean an assault on the Belgian city of Louvain, the "Oxford of Belgium," a university town that was home to an important library. Three days of shelling and murder left 209 civilians dead, 1,100 buildings incinerated, and the library destroyed, along with its 230,000 books, priceless manuscripts, and artifacts. The assault was deemed an affront to just to Belgium but to the world. Wilson, a past president of Princeton University, "felt deeply the destruction of Louvain," according to his friend, Colonel House; the president feared "the war would throw the world back three or four centuries.”

BelgiumWorld War 1
Book:Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
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“The Y Not had a waitress named Shirley who was the most disagreeable person I have ever met. Whatever you ordered, she would look at you as if you had asked to borrow her car to take her daughter to Tijuana for a filthy weekend. ‘You want what?’ she would say. ‘A pork tenderloin and onion rings,’ you would repeat apologetically. ‘Please, Shirley. If it’s not too much trouble. When you get a minute.’ Shirley would stare at you for up to five minutes, as if memorizing your features for the police report, then scrawl your order on a pad and shout out to the cook in that curious dopey lingo they always used in diners, ‘Two loose stools and a dead dog’s schlong,’ or whatever. In a Hollywood movie Shirley would have been played by Marjorie Main. She would have been gruff and bossy, but you would have seen in an instant that inside her ample bosom there beat a heart of pure gold. If you unexpectedly gave her a birthday present she would blush and say, ‘Aw, ya shouldana oughtana done it, ya big palooka.’ If you gave Shirley a birthday present she would just say, ‘What the fuck's this?' Shirley, alas, didn’t have a heart of gold.”

BelgiumWaitress
Book:Neither here nor there: travels in Europe
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“La quantité de critiques reçues concernant tout sujet est inversement proportionnelle à la valeur exacte du sujet”

PoliticsFreedomHistoryDemocracyEuropeRoyaltyMonarchyBelgium
Book:Histoire Philosophique, Politique Et Critique Du Christianisme Et Des ℗eglises Chr℗etiennes: Depuis J℗esus Jusqu'au 19. Silecle, Volume 7...
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“Appartenir à une patrie, c'est aussi s'engager pour le siècle où l'on y vit (source: émission sur la Russie sur Arte le 28/02/2012). Nos démocraties ne valent que par les hommes qui les servent. Elles ne sont donc jamais parfaites mais elles reposent sur un socle inamovible. Le passé renforce le présent et les pas hésitants qui conduisent à ce présent trouvent le chemin de l'avenir. TELL ME WHO YOUR FRIENDS ARE AND I WILL TELL YOU WHO YOU ARE”

PoliticsFreedomHistoryDemocracyEuropeRoyaltyMonarchyBelgium
Book:Louis de Potter. Révolutionnaire Belge en 1830.
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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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“Heel dit land acteert, dit schijtgat van Europa, en al het volk dat zich erin wentelt en keert: het is een kolonie vol komedianten, het schmiert dat het een aard heeft, niet in staat tot wezenlijk contact, het verstopt zich in het voetlicht van de schone schijn en de dure restaurantrekening en het dwangmatig gewauwel over het slechte weer en over de files en de hondendrollen van de buurman, het lijdt aan overacting in de politiek en in het wielerleven – maar voor de ware ik heeft het geen volledige tekst meegekregen, nog altijd niet, ook ik niet, we zijn nog altijd boerenpummels in een te prijzig kostuum en geen andere replieken dan de boerse vloek of de geladen stilte of de rode kop van schaamte. En als die niet volstaan, improviseren we snel een platte grol, een ontwijkend vuile mop, een grappig accent, een hoog stemmetje. Nog altijd de bezielers van een middeleeuwse klucht, “De Sotternie van Nu Noch”. Typetjes, waar je mensen verwacht.”

BelgiumBelgië
Book:Sprakeloos
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“[I believe in] the throne...parliamentary institutions...private enterprise and individual opinion against the socialization of the state...equity in the distribution of public burdens and strict maintenance of public faith with the creditors of the state [and] a fresh guarantee of peace by an alliance with France and...Belgium for the defence of our common interests against unprovoked attack.”

BelieveStatesIndividualI BelieveInterestCommonOpinionInstitutionsBurdenI Believe InFranceGuaranteesEnterpriseThronesStrictDistributionEquityDefenceAlliancesMaintenanceBelgiumCreditorsParliamentaryCommon InterestsSocializationPrivate Enterprise
Author:Austen Chamberlain
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“God has chosen little nations as the vessels by which He carries His choicest wines to the lips of humanity to rejoice their hearts, to exalt their vision, to strengthen their faith, and if we had stood by when two little nations [Belgium and Serbia] were being crushed and broken by the brutal hands of barbarians, our shame would have rung down the everlasting ages.”

IfsHeartLittlesTwoWarHandsAgeHumanityNationsVisionBrokenShameWineLipsChosenCarrieRejoiceBrutalEverlastingVesselCrushedBarbariansBelgiumSerbia
Author:David Lloyd George
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“There are ... other business societies - England, Holland, Belgium and France, for instance. But ours [the United States] is the only culture now extant in which business so completely dominates the national scene that sports, crime, sex, death, philanthropy and Easter Sunday are money-making propositions.”

StatesCultureSexSportsUnitedUnited StatesCrimeSceneEnglandInstanceFranceMaking MoneySundayPhilanthropyEasterPropositionsBelgiumHollandEaster Sunday
Book:The Folks at Home
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“After a short period spent in Brussels as a guest of a neurological institute, I returned to Turin on the verge of the invasion of Belgium by the German army, Spring 1940, to join my family. The two alternatives left then to us were either to emigrate to the United States, or to pursue some activity that needed neither support nor connection with the outside Aryan world where we lived. My family chose this second alternative. I then decided to build a small research unit at home and installed it in my bedroom.”

WorldTwoStatesHomeLeftUnitedUnited StatesSupportNeededPeriodsActivitySpringResearchMy FamilyConnectionsDecidedArmyPursueAlternativesGuestsBedroomUnitsAutobiographyInvasionInstituteVergeBelgiumBrussels
Author:Rita Levi-Montalcini
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“Remember back then we thought about al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and a few other places? well, we've seen al Qaeda metastasize. It is now a global scourge. And you have the ascendancy of ISIL. The combination of those two groups -- their appeal to the lone wolfs and we see them acting in Belgium and in France and in Canada and the United States so the threat factors and the nature of the threats are far more complicated and far more serious today than on September 12, 2001.”

WellsTwoStatesTodayRememberNatureUnitedActingUnited StatesGroupsSeriousThreatComplicatedFactorsFranceAppealsCombinationCanadaAlsAfghanistanSeptemberPakistanAl QaedaLoneBelgiumScourgeIsilLone WolfAscendancyCanada And The United States
Author:Tom Ridge
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“There was a sound of revelry by night, And Belgium's capital had gathered then Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men. A thousand hearts beat happily; and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again, And all went merry as a marriage bell. But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!”

MenHeartEyeNightSoundThousandBeatsFairsBraveryBraveStrikesRisingBellsLampsMerryBrave ManBelgiumChivalryHeart BeatHushHer BeautyVoluptuousRevelry
Book:Byron: Selected Poetry and Prose
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