Best Geneva Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“As no generation of men can hope to complete the high edifice, as engineering skills are constantly growing, there is time to spare. More and more energies are diverted to the erection and embellishment of the workers’ housing. Fierce broils occur between different nations assembled on the site. ‘Added to which was the fact that already the second or third generation recognized the meaninglessness, the futility (die Sinnlosigkeit) of building a Tower unto Heaven—but all had become too involved with each other to quit the city.”

United Nations Futility Geneva Tower Of Babel Global Government

Book:After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation

Source: After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation

“Of all the towns in the world, Geneva seems to be the place where people could come closest to happiness”

Geneva

Author:Jorge Luis Borges

“Yo caminaba por las calles de Ginebra mirándolo todo con recelo, como si de cada esquina fuera a salir el mounstro. La ciudad, como el mismo Borges decía, parece no darse cuenta cabal de que existe, y está en un país que parece pesar sobre el mundo sin sobresaltos, pero es en realidad una ciudad fantástica en un país que, más allá de sus cavernas de lingotes y de su manía de tasar el tiempo en relojes, ha engrendrado cismas y revoluciones, convulsiones del arte y cataclismos de la fe, cerebros iluminados por tempestades eléctricas y obras que significaron la aniquilación de cánones y estéticas. Me dije que esa ciudad que se finge tan serena y tan clásica, esa ciudad de relojes y de lingotes de oro, ocultaba detrás de la máscara su rostro verdadero de pesadillas y de cismas, y que eso la hacía más atractiva.”

Switzerland Geneva Borges Ginebra Suiza

Book:El año del verano que nunca llegó

Source: El año del verano que nunca llegó

“Y mientras aguardaba al mounstro concluí que Suiza era el país perfecto para las pesadillas de Füssli y para la chispa incendiaria de Rousseau, para la sonrisa regicida de Voltaire, para los laberintos espaciales de Joyce y para los laberintos mentales de Borges; que en cada rincón de aquellas montañas parece posible la rosa que resurge de la ceniza en las manos de Paracelso.”

Switzerland Geneva Borges Voltaire Rousseau Füssli Genova

Book:El año del verano que nunca llegó

Source: El año del verano que nunca llegó

“Applying different standards to al Qaeda does not abandon Geneva, but only recognizes that the U.S. faces a stateless enemy never contemplated by the Conventions.”

Doe Different Faces Enemy Standards Abandon Als Conventions Al Qaeda Geneva Geneva Convention

Author:John Yoo

“Human rights advocates, for example, claim that the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners is of a piece with President Bush's 2002 decision to deny al Qaeda and Taliban fighters the legal status of POWs under the Geneva Conventions.”

“It is also worth asking whether the strict limitations of Geneva make sense in a war against terrorists.”

War Asking Terrorist Limitation Make Sense Strict Geneva

Author:John Yoo

“Nonetheless, Article 5 makes clear that if an Iraqi civilian who is not a member of the armed forces, has engaged in attacks on Coalition forces, the Geneva Convention permits the use of more coercive interrogation approaches to prevent future attacks.”

Ifs Use Force Clear Members Approach Engaged Permit Articles Conventions Civilians Coalitions Armed Forces Interrogation Geneva Geneva Convention

Author:John Yoo

“Under the Geneva Convention, for example, a POW is required only to provide name, rank, and serial number and cannot receive any benefits for cooperating.”

Names Numbers Example Benefits Conventions Serials Geneva Pow Cooperating Geneva Convention

Author:John Yoo

“I really enjoy sailing on Lake Geneva because I can just look at the shore and see my wife having a barbecue with the kids.”

Looks I Can Kids Enjoy Wife My Wife Lakes Shore Sailing Because I Can Barbecue Geneva

Author:Ernesto Bertarelli

“What's happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is one of the grossest violations of human rights under the Geneva Conventions that we have record of. It is simply monstrous.”

Humans Records Rights Happened Prison Human Rights Iraq Conventions Violation Monstrous Geneva Abu Ghraib Geneva Convention Violation Of Human Rights

Author:Carlos Fuentes

“It's my greatest success. Women did not vote in Italy until 1946. A good friend and I put together a group of women to protest this. I was very young, just a girl. We went to the Viminale [home of the Ministry of the Interior] and spoke to the chair of the ministry board. Thanks to our initiative, we got the bureaucracy rolling on giving women the right to vote. I have to thank my father for this. He was in Geneva at the League of Nations, and women voted there. He thought it was absurd that women didn't vote in his country yet.”

“I believe international work is a heavy task, but that it is nevertheless indispensable to go through an apprenticeship in it, at the cost of many efforts and also of a real spirit of sacrifice: however imperfect it may be, the work of Geneva has a grandeur that deserves our support.”

Believe May Real Spirit I Believe Effort Support Sacrifice Cost Deserve Tasks International Heavy Imperfect Nevertheless Indispensable Grandeur Apprenticeship Geneva

Author:Marie Curie

“I haven't decided if he deserved to eat bread made out of sticks or live in a rancid puddle, probably because I haven't made up my mind whether anyone deserves such treatment, though I suspect that the day a person gives up on the Geneva Conventions is the day a person gives up on the human race.”

Ifs Giving Mind Humans Persons Made Race Havens Giving Up Deserve Decided Sticks Bread Human Race Treatment Suspects Conventions Puddles Geneva Geneva Convention

Book:Assassination Vacation

Source: Assassination Vacation

“The United States of course wants to follow the highest standards of conduct with regard to enemy combatants who follow the rules of war. It should and does follow the Geneva Conventions scrupulously when fighting the armed forces of other nations that have signed the Geneva Conventions or follow their principles.”

Want Should Doe War States Fighting Courses Force Nations United Enemy Principles United States Highest Standards Regard Conventions Armed Forces Geneva Geneva Convention

Author:John Yoo

“I think they clearly do not fit within the prescriptions of the Geneva Convention. It's hard for me to see how members of al Qaeda could be considered prisoners of war.”

Thinking War Hard Fit Members Als Prisoner Conventions Prescriptions Al Qaeda Geneva Prisoner Of War Geneva Convention

Author:Eric Holder

“On one occasion, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons and myself were due to appear at the Sarajevo film festival and were turned off a UN plane on orders from Geneva. We had to get local journalists to transport the films in for us. I tell you this only to demonstrate that festivals can be a lifeline. But, after all the difficulties I'd had in getting there, in 1996 I found myself being flown in on a four-seater RAF plane as an official guest, endorsed by the British Embassy. Ironically, the film I was to present was Mission: Impossible.”

“If you suspend the Geneva Conventions, give the green light to anything that will get intelligence, round up thousands all over the globe with reckless disregard for guilt or innocence, you are effectively and knowingly issuing orders to seize innocent people and torture them. Any president who decides to do that and then says it was not his intention to do that is a fraud or a fool.”

People Ifs Giving Light Order President Fool Green Guilt Intention Rounds Innocent Innocence Torture Fraud Conventions Globes Reckless Disregard Geneva Green Lights Geneva Convention

Author:Andrew Sullivan

“Ada came from Lwów. She was a very good looking girl who was studying mathematics at the University of Geneva. For a few years I had an off-and-on romance with her.”

Years Romance Girl Study Mathematics University Very Good Looking Good Geneva Ada Studying Mathematics

Author:Stanislaw Ulam

“No principle of general law is more universally acknowledged, than the perfect equality of nations. Russia and Geneva have equal rights. It results from this equality, that no one can rightfully impose a rule on another....As no nation can prescribe a rule for others, none can make a law of nations.”

Law Nations Perfect Results Principles Rights Equal Russia Equal Rights Geneva

Author:John Marshall

“FRYING-PAN, n. One part of the penal apparatus employed in that punitive institution, a woman's kitchen. The frying-pan was invented by Calvin, and by him used in cooking span-long infants that had died without baptism; and observing one day the horrible torment of a tramp who had incautiously pulled a fried babe from the waste-dump and devoured it, it occurred to the great divine to rob death of its terrors by introducing the frying-pan into every household in Geneva. Thence it spread to all corners of the world, and has been of invaluable assistance in the propagation of his sombre faith.”

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

“Well, Congress gave us a billion dollars to dig the hole, this gigantic hole. Bigger, much bigger than the hole in Geneva, Switzerland. Then they canceled the machine and gave us a second billion dollars to fill up the hole. Two billion dollars to dig a hole and fill it up. That is the wisdom of the United States Congress and it really makes you wonder: Is there intelligent life on the Earth? Certainly not in the United States Congress.”

Wells Two States Earth United Wonder United States Machines Bigger Intelligent Dollars Congress Billions Holes Switzerland Geneva Intelligent Life

Author:Michio Kaku

“Frankly, we doubt the veracity and seriousness of the United States in regard to achieving results that would be acceptable to both sides in Geneva.”

States Would Be Sides United Results United States Doubt Achieve Regard Acceptable Both Sides Seriousness Geneva Veracity

Author:Dmitriy Ustinov

“I believe the United States of America must remain a standard bearer in the conduct of war. That is what makes us different from those whom we fight. That is a source of our strength. That is why I prohibited torture. That is why I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed. And that is why I have reaffirmed America's commitment to abide by the Geneva conventions. We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend.”

“The colleges of Edinburgh and Geneva as seminaries of science, are considered as the two eyes of Europe. While Great Britain and America give the preference to the former, all other countries give it to the latter.”

Giving Two Country Eye America College Europe Former Britain Latter Other Countries Preference Great Britain Edinburgh Geneva Britain And America

Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson

Source: The writings of Thomas Jefferson

“A Clock stopped-- Not the Mantel's-- Geneva's farthest skill Can't put the puppet bowing-- That just now dangled still”

Stills Skills Clock Machinery Puppets Geneva

Book:Dickinson

Source: Dickinson

“Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about how my government functions and what its impact is in the world. I realised that I was part of something that was doing far more harm than good.”

World Government Saws Function Impact Terrorism Harm I Realized Disillusioned Geneva

Author:Edward Snowden

“In 1958, I was a delegate to the Atoms for Peace conference in Geneva.”

Atoms Conferences Delegates Geneva

Book:Neutrinos and Other Matters: Selected Works of Frederick Reines

Source: Neutrinos and Other Matters: Selected Works of Frederick Reines

“Competition is warfare. Mostly it is played by prescribed rules--there is a sort of Geneva Convention for competition--but it's thorough and often brutal.”

Competition Conventions Brutal Warfare Thorough Geneva Geneva Convention

Author:Andy Grove

“The vote on the Peacekeeper is also a vote on Geneva. Rejecting the Peacekeeper will knock the legs out from under the negotiating table. (On importance of the MX missile)”

Vote Importance Tables Legs Missiles Rejecting Negotiating Geneva Peacekeepers

Author:Ronald Reagan

“When I was playing junior football when I was a kid, we were the Geneva Giants, so it was kind of embedded in me to be a Giants fan.”

Kind Kids Fans Football Giants Juniors Embedded Geneva

Author:Travie McCoy

“The left, of course, will say Carson doesn't believe in the Geneva Convention, Carson doesn't believe in fighting stupid wars. And - and what we have to remember is we want to utilize the tremendous intellect that we have in the military to win wars.”

Want Believe War Remember Fighting Courses Winning Left Military Stupid Intellect Conventions Geneva Geneva Convention

Author:Benjamin Carson

“Many argue that Christianity is "different" from other religions - that it is primarily about love of one's fellow man. The Crusades, The Inquisition, Calvin's Geneva all prove that this is not the case. These events were pre-eminently about obedience to authority.”

Men Different Christianity Cases Atheism Events Prove Authority Fellows Positive Atheism Arguing Obedience Fellow Man Crusades Inquisition Geneva Obedience To Authority

Author:Andrew Bernstein

“I love Switzerland. It's so clean and cool. We don't get much snow where I live so I get real excited in Lausanne and Geneva. I'd like to buy a house there when I'm older and settle down. It's all so cute that it looks like a movie set.”

Looks Real House Clean Excited Snow Settling Cute Get Real Settling Down Switzerland Movie Sets Geneva

Author:Michael Jackson

“Eisenhower managed to begin the Vietnam war by not following his normal instinct of staying out of mischief. In his memoirs, he tells us why we didn't honor the Geneva accords and hold elections in Vietnam: because some 80 percent of the country would have voted for Ho Chi Minh. This is very candid. The sort of thing one might have found in Stalin'smemoirs, had he not made ghosts even of ghosts.”

Made War Country Might Found Honor Normal Percent Election Instinct Following Ghost Memoir Staying Vietnam Accord Vietnam War Mischief Candid Geneva

Author:Gore Vidal

“I cannot imagine how any diplomat, or any dramatist, could improve on (Ronald Reagan's) words to Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva summit: 'Let me tell you why it is we distrust you.' Those words are candid and tough and they cannot have been easy to hear. But they are also a clear invitation to a new beginning and a new relationship that would be rooted in trust.”

Has Beens Would Be Easy Clear Imagine Tough Let Me Rooted Distrust New Beginnings Invitations Summit Diplomats Candid New Relationship Geneva Gorbachev

Author:Margaret Thatcher

“Those who say [Joseph] Padilla should get a civilian trial are essentially saying that if you reject the rules of civilized nations, like those inscribed in the Geneva Convention, you therefore deserve to be treated better, not worse, than those rules require.”

Ifs Should Nations Deserve Trials Treated Rejects Civilized Conventions Civilians Geneva Civilized Nations Geneva Convention

Author:Jonah Goldberg

“There's a War Crimes Act in the United States passed by a Republican Congress in 1996, which says that grave breaches of the Geneva Convention are subject to the death penalty. And that doesn't mean the soldier that committed them - that means the commanders.”

Mean War States United United States Subjects Crime Republican Soldier Congress Committed Graves Conventions Penalties Death Penalty Commanders Breach War Crimes Geneva Geneva Convention

Author:Noam Chomsky

“If you are going to kill the families of terrorists, realize that there's something called the Geneva Convention we're going to have to pull out of. It would defy every norm that is America.”

Ifs America Realizing Terrorist Conventions Norm Geneva Geneva Convention

Author:Rand Paul

“Al Qaeda is not a nation-state and it has not signed the Geneva Conventions. It shows no desire to obey the laws of war; if anything it directly violates them by disguising themselves as civilians and attacking purely civilian targets to cause massive casualties.”

Ifs War States Shows Law Desire Nations Causes Target Massive Als Conventions Attacking Civilians Al Qaeda Casualties Geneva Geneva Convention

Author:John Yoo

“But in Afghanistan, the general rule was that since you were fighting the Taliban, which was not a lawful government force, the Geneva Conventions did not apply. And that led to a lot of excesses in Afghanistan, excesses like Abu Ghraib that were already well-publicized.”

Wells Government Fighting Force Afghanistan Excess Conventions Taliban Geneva Abu Ghraib Geneva Convention

Author:Yaroslav Trofimov

“Saying that I am talking out of both sides of my mouth just proves my very point. Politicians would bypass real social issues by referring to my grandfather, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood, or to my brother, currently chairman of the Islamic Centre in Geneva.”

“Anything less than total candor was bullshit. I owed that to my readers, I owed that to myself, and I owed that most specifically to my mother. I've had some thrilling moments in my 18-year literary career to this point, and nothing comes close to giving Geneva Hilliker Ellroy, the farm girl from Tunnel City, Wisconsin, to the world.”

World Giving Years Moments Mother Girl Cities Careers Reader Farms Bullshit Thrilling Tunnels Candor Wisconsin Geneva Farm Girl

Author:James Ellroy

“The right place for the League of Nations is not Geneva or the Hague, Ascher Ginsberg has dreamed of a Temple on Mount Zion where the representatives of all nations should dedicate a Temple of Eternal Peace. Only when all peoples of the earth shall go to THIS temple as pilgrims is eternal peace to become a fact.”

Should Facts Earth Nations Eternal Jew League Temples Representatives Right Place Pilgrim Geneva Ginsberg Zion League Of Nations Eternal Peace

Author:Ahad Ha'am

“We have to create a process which has legitimacy for the people of Syria. And we have to have a process where the Russians and the Iranians and the neighbors - all of them, Saudis, Turks, Qataris, a very complicated brew - that you have to bring them together and they can find agreement. That's the fundamental premise of the Geneva Communique that you will have, by mutual consent, a process of transition.”

People Together Process Fundamentals Complicated Neighbor Agreement Mutual Transition Syria Consent Premises Saudis Legitimacy Geneva

Author:John F. Kerry

“Finally, in 1954 [Ho Chi Minh] agreed to the Geneva Agreement, which divided the country temporarily into two zones, in the hope that national elections might unify the country under his leadership.”

Two Country Might Election Zone Agreement Divided Geneva

Author:William J. Duiker

“The U.S. directed the war against South Vietnam. There was a political settlement in 1954. But in the late '50's the United States organized an internal repression in South Vietnam, not using its troops, but using the local apparatus it was constructing. This was a very significant and very effective campaign of violence and terrorism against the Vietminh - which was the communist-led nationalist force that fought the French. And the Vietminh at that time was adhering to the Geneva Accords, hoping that the political settlement would work out in South Vietnam.”

“Those who remember Washington's cold war culture in the 1980s will recall the shocked reactions to Reagan's intervention. People interested in foreign policy were astonished when in 1985 he met alone at Geneva - alone, not a single strategic thinker at his elbow! - with the Soviet Communist master Gorbachev.”

People War Remember Culture Policy Masters Cold Mets Reactions Communist Thinker Soviet Foreign Policy Recalls Cold War Shocked Intervention Strategic Elbows Geneva Gorbachev

Author:Russell Baker

“If we say the Geneva Convention is obsolete, then what do others who have our soldiers say?”

Ifs Soldier Conventions Obsolete Geneva Geneva Convention

Author:Charles Schumer

“Had the United States and the United Kingdom gone on alone to capture Baghdad, under the provisions of the Geneva and Hague conventions we would have been considered occupying powers and therefore would have been responsible for all the costs of maintaining or restoring government, education and other services for the people of Iraq.”

Source: It Doesn't Take a Hero: The Autobiography of General Norman Schwarzkopf

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Geneva Quotes