“Oil is a tangible commodity, so there is a global market. The fact that we may need less may affect the global price because we're big consumers: we probably take about a quarter of global demand. But if suddenly, let's just use a crazy example, fighting in the Middle East led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and no oil could get out through the Strait of Hormuz, well that would affect China, India, Europe, it will affect the whole global economy. It will affect us, too, then.” IfsNeedsWellsMayWholeFactsUseBigsFightingEconomyCrazyMiddleExampleDemandEuropeIndiaChinaOilEastConsumersQuartersMiddle EastCommodityTangibleClosureGlobal Economy Author:Thomas Friedman
“The Middle East would always be an important trading partner in just a market sense, like America is a big market for us, Asia is a big market, Europe is a big market. You are going to have hundreds of millions of consumers there, from just a standard market point of view, from a very narrow American point of view.” ImportantBigsAmericaViewsMillionsMiddleStandardsEuropePoint Of ViewEastPartnersConsumersMiddle EastAsiaTradingTrading Partners Author:Thomas Friedman
“I do not support Putin against Europe. This is a caricature. I support a federalist Ukraine. The EU poured fuel on the fire by proposing an economic partnership to a country known to look half to the East and half to the West.” LooksCountryHalfKnownSupportFireEconomicEuropeWestEastFuelPartnershipPutinUkraineCaricaturesFederalist Author:Marine Le Pen
“The First World War, and especially the latest one, largely swept away what was left in Europe of feudalism and of feudal landlords, especially in Poland, Hungary, and the South East generally.” WorldFirstsWarLeftEuropeSouthEastWar Of The WorldsPolandLandlordSwept AwayFirst World WarHungaryFeudalism Book:Beyond Nationalism: The Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch Source: Beyond Nationalism: The Social Thought of Emily Greene Balch
“Imagine - four years you could have spent travelling around Europe meeting people, or going to the Far East of Africa or India, meeting people, exchanging ideas, reading all you wanted to anyway, and instead I wasted it at Roosevelt.” PeopleYearsIdeasWantedReadingFourImagineJourneyEuropeIndiaMeetingsEastFour YearsExchangingExchanging Ideas Author:Shel Silverstein
“The greatest question of our time is not communism vs. individualism, not Europe vs. America, not even the East vs. the West; it is whether men can bear to live without God.” MenAmericaBearsEuropeWestEastCommunismOur TimeIndividualismWithout God Author:Will Durant
“Suicidal violence is not the exclusive property of the Muslim world. Suicide bombings were a tactic of nationalist struggles in 19th-century Europe and Russia, the far east during the second world war and the Vietnam war, and in modern Sri Lanka.” WorldWarStruggleViolenceModernCenturyEuropeSuicidePropertyEastRussiaWar Of The WorldsVietnamSuicidalTacticsExclusiveVietnam War19th CenturyBombingSecond World WarMuslim WorldSri Lanka Author:James Buchan
“The desert could not be claimed or owned — it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names before Canterbury existed, long before battles and treaties quilted Europe and the East ... All of us, even those with European homes and children in the distance, wished to remove the clothing of our countries. It was a place of faith. We disappeared into landscape.” ChildrenLongCountryHomeNamesGivenPiecesWindBattleHundredEuropeStonesDistanceEastOur CountryDesertLandscapeRemoveClothingsShiftingTreatiesCanterbury Author:Michael Ondaatje
“At the bidding of a Peter the Hermit millions of men hurled themselves against the East; the words of an hallucinated enthusiast such as Mahomet created a force capable of triumphing over the Graeco-Roman world; an obscure monk like Luther bathed Europe in blood. The voice of a Galileo or a Newton will never have the least echo among the masses. The inventors of genius hasten the march of civilization. The fanatics and the hallucinated create history.” MenWorldForceVoiceHistoryMillionsBloodGeniusCivilizationMassCapableEuropeEastMarchPeterEchoesObscureMonkLutherInventorFanaticsNewtonHermitsBidding Author:Gustave Le Bon
“Rivers are inherently interesting. They mold landscapes, create fertile deltas, provide trade routes, a source for food and water; a place to wash and play; civilizations emerged next to rivers in China, India, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. They sustain life and bring death and destruction. They are ferocious at times; gentle at times. They are placid and mean. They trigger conflict and delineate boundaries. Rivers are the stuff of metaphor and fable, painting and poetry. Rivers unite and divide - a thread that runs from source to exhausted release.” MeanPlayRunningNextStuffWaterInterestingMiddlePaintingSourceCivilizationConflictEuropeRiversDestructionIndiaTradeEnvironmentalMetaphorChinaEastBoundariesReleaseLandscapeGentleDividesMiddle EastThreadExhaustedRoutesTriggersMoldFablesFertilePlacidDeltaPainting And Poetry Author:Edward Gargan
“Under the guidance of the Reich, Europe would speedily have become unified. Once the Jewish poison had been eradicated, unification would have been an easy matter. France and Italy, each defeated in turn at an interval of a few months by the two Germanic Powers, would have been well out of it. Both would have had to renounce their inappropriate aspirations to greatness. At the same time they would have had to renounce their pretensions in North Africa and the Near East; and that would have allowed Europe to pursue a bold policy of friendship towards Islam.” WellsHas BeensTwoMatterTurnsNationsEasyPolicyGreatnessMonthsEuropeIslamEastPursueFranceGuidanceAspirationPoisonDefeatedIntervalsInappropriateRenouncePretensionUnifiedFebruaryUnificationNorth Africa Author:Adolf Hitler
“I did have an occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them, they were of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from east to west over Europe.” TwoDifferentEuropeWestSizeEastFlyingFlightObservationFighterOccasionsUfoFormationTwo DaysFlying Saucers Author:Gordon Cooper
“You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe. If you look at the entire NATO Europe today, the center of gravity is shifting to the east. And there are a lot of new members. And if you just take the list of all the members of NATO and all of those who have been invited in recently -- what is it? Twenty-six, something like that? -- you're right. Germany has been a problem, and France has been a problem.” IfsThinkingLooksHas BeensProblemTodayMembersSixEuropeTwentiesEastListsFranceGermanyGravityInvitedShiftingNatoCenter Of Gravity Author:Donald Rumsfeld