“The traveler from Europe edges into it like a tiny Jonah entering an inconceivably large whale, slipping past the straits of Belle Isle into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where five Canadian provinces surround him, for the most part invisible... to enter Canada is a matter of being silently swallowed by an alien continent.” MatterPastFiveTravelEuropeEdgesTinyInvisibleAliensCanadaSurroundContinentsTravelerEnteringWhalesProvincesSlippingJonahIsleBelle Book:The Stubborn Structure: Essays on Criticism and Society Source: The Stubborn Structure: Essays on Criticism and Society
“The West has not lived through totalitarianism, with a single ideology for 70 years.We are escaping from the burden of the past, and onlyafter we have done that will we be ready to integrate with Europeand Europe needs Russia.” NeedsYearsDonePastReadyEuropeWestBurdenRussiaIdeologyTotalitarianismEscapingIntegrating Author:Boris Yeltsin
“The school was nothing but reminiscence - of an Italian hill town, a French abbey, an English academy, the different sources improbably but convincingly melded into a fantasy about the classic sites of Europe as imagined by exiles from cold peripheral lands, nostalgia about somebody else's past.” DifferentSchoolPastFantasyLandSourceColdEuropeTownsNostalgiaHillsClassicItalianSiteExileAcademyAbbey Book:A Boy's Own Story: Picador Classic Source: A Boy's Own Story: Picador Classic
“In France, for instance, I'm told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past.” YearsMayDifferentPastMovingTermPartyEuropeSevenInstanceFranceShallowSeven Years Author:Mitt Romney
“What we've witnessed in the past 25 or 30 years is just incredible. We've birthed 30,000 or 40,000 restaurants. I used to go to Europe every year to get experience [and ideas]. I don't go to Europe anymore. I go to Oregon, I go to Washington, I go to Louisiana, I go to Little Rock, I go to Austin, I travel New York City. I don't go to Europe anymore.” YearsLittlesIdeasPastUsedCitiesRocksNew YorkEuropeIncrediblesRestaurantsNew York CityLouisianaAustinOregonLittle Rock Author:Geoffrey Zakarian
“If you live in Europe . . . things change . . . but continuity never seems to break. You don't have to throw the past away.” IfsSeemsPastBreakEuropeThings ChangeContinuityPast Away Book:Burger's Daughter Source: Burger's Daughter
“Europe is as fearful of Islam today as she has been in the past. She now knows that the strength of Islam (which in the past expressed that of the Arabs) has been reborn and has appeared in a new form: Arab nationalism.” KnowsHas BeensTodayPastFormEuropeIslamNationalismFearfulReborn Author:Michel Aflaq
“There is a structural difference between the way that Europe views Israel, and America views Israel. The European view is informed by the importance of colonialism in Europe's past. So for Europeans we are like Belgiums in the Congo, or the French in Alger, or the British in India. Strange interlopers in somebody else's land. But in fact, we [Israeli] have been here for 4,000 years. This is our ancestral homeland.” WayYearsHas BeensFactsAmericaPastDifferencesViewsLandStrangeEuropeIndiaImportanceIsraelBritishColonialismIsraeliHomelandCongo Author:Benjamin Netanyahu