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Spaniards Quotes

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Spaniards Quotes

“And if I am not mistaken here is the secret of the greatness that was Spain. In Spain it is men that are the poems, the pictures and the buildings. Men are its philosophies. They lived, these Spaniards of the Golden Age; they felt and did; they did not think. Life was what they sought and found, life in its turmoil, its fervour and its variety. Passion was the seed that brought them forth and passion was the flower they bore. But passion alone cannot give rise to a great art. In the arts the Spaniards invented nothing. They did little in any of those they practised, but give a local colour to a virtuosity they borrowed from abroad. Their literature, as I have ventured to remark, was not of the highest rank; they were taught to paint by foreign masters, but, inapt pupils, gave birth to one painter only of the very first class; they owed their architecture to the Moors, the French and the Italians, and the works themselves produced were best when they departed least from their patterns. Their preeminence was great, but it lay in another direction: it was a preeminence of character. In this I think they have been surpassed by none and equalled only by the ancient Romans. It looks as though all the energy, all the originality, of this vigorous race had been disposed to one end and one end only, the creation of man. It is not in art that they excelled, they excelled in what is greater than art--in man. But it is thought that has the last word.”

ArtCharacterLiteratureThoughtSpaniardsCreation Of ManThe Last WordThe Golden AgeAncient Romans
Book:Don Fernando
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“Two militiamen on leave, whom I had met my first week at the front, came in to see a wounded friend and recognized me. They were kids of about eighteen. They stood awkwardly beside my bed, trying to think of something to say, and then, as a way of demonstrating that they were sorry I was wounded, suddenly took all the tobacco out of their pockets, gave it to me, and fled before I could give it back. How typically Spanish! I discovered afterwards that you could not buy tobacco anywhere in the town and what they had given me was a week's ration.”

WarSpaniardsSpanish People
Book:Homage to Catalonia
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“Another of the great civilizations, the Aztecs, raised a breed of hairless chihuahuas especially for eating. When the Conquistadors arrived and found dog on the menu, they were of the same opinion as Mademoiselle, that this was evidence of the worst form of barbarism. They, the Spaniards, used dogs as befits civilized and Christian men - to hunt down fugitive Indians and tear them to pieces.”

DogsChristiansSpaniardsAztecsConquistador
Book:The Decadent Cookbook
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“Attorney General John Ashcroft has earned himself a remarkable distinction as the Torquemada of American law. Tomás de Torquemada...was largely responsible for...[the] torture and the burning of heretics — Muslims in particular. Now, of course, I am not accusing the Attorney General of pulling out anyone's fingernails or burning people at the stake (at least I don't know of any such cases). But one does get the sense these days that the old Spaniard's spirit is comfortably at home in Ashcroft's Department of Justice.”

PeopleKnowsDoeHomeLawSpiritCoursesJusticeCasesParticularResponsibleBurningThese DaysTortureDepartmentDistinctionRemarkableStakesTomsPullingAttorneyHereticFingernailsAccusingSpaniardsAmerican Law
Author:Walter Cronkite
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“The monk, the inquisitor, and the Jesuit were lords of Spain,- sovereigns of her sovereign, for they had formed the dark and narrow mind of that tyrannical recluse. They had formed the minds of her people, quenched in blood every spark of rising heresy, and given over a noble nation to a bigotry blind and inexorable as the doom of fate. Linked with pride, ambition, avarice, every passion of a rich, strong nature, potent for good and ill, it made the Spaniard of that day a scourge as dire as ever fell on man.”

PeopleMenMindMadePassionStrongGivenNationsDarkLordRichFateBloodPrideAmbitionBlindIllNobleRisingBigotrySparksSovereignLinkedSpainMonkDoomHeresyAvariceInexorableScourgeRecluseJesuitSpaniardsNarrow Minds
Book:The Works of Francis Parkman
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“When America was first made known to Europe, the part assumed by France on the borders of that new world was peculiar, and is little recognized. While the Spaniard roamed sea and land, burning for achievement, red-hot with bigotry and avarice, and while England, with soberer steps and a less dazzling result, followed in the path of discovery and gold-hunting, it was from France that those barbarous shores first learned to serve the ends of peaceful commercial industry.”

WorldFirstsLittlesMadeEndsAmericaResultsKnownStepsPathSeaLandIndustryAchievementDiscoveryEuropeRedGoldEnglandHotPeacefulBurningFranceBordersBigotryShorePeculiarNew WorldHuntingAvariceDazzlingSpaniardsRed Hot
Book:France and England in North America: Pioneers of France in the New World. The Jesuits of North America in the seventeenth century. La Salle and the discovery of the Great West. The old régime in Canada
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“The impossibility of keeping Englishmen sober ashore was a constant source of complaint, It was the great weakness of 16th century English infantrymen, whose performance when sober was admired even by the Spaniards. Already it was true, as it was to be for centuries, that many saw and despised the drunken sailor ashore, but few knew and admired him at his work afloat.”

SawsCenturySourceWeaknessPerformancesConstantComplaintsSoberImpossibilityEnglishmenSailorDespisedSpaniardsInfantryman
Author:Nicholas Rodger
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“Christianity ... has produced the iniquities of the Inquisition, the egotism and celibacy of the monasteries, the fury of religious wars, the ferocity of the Hussite, of the Catholic, of the Puritan, of the Spaniard, of the Irish Orangeman and of the Irish Papist; it has divided families, alienated friends, lighted the torch of civil war, and borne the virgin and the greybeard to the burning pile, broken delicate limbs upon the wheel and wrung the souls and bodies of innocent creatures on the rack; all this it has done, and done in the name of God.”

WarSoulDoneBodyReligionNamesReligiousChristianityBrokenCreaturesCatholicInnocentBurningCivil WarWheelsDividedDelicateVirginsLimbsFuryEgotismTorchesPuritanCelibacyRacksInquisitionIniquityMonasteriesSoul And BodyFerocitySpaniardsReligious Wars
Author:Ouida
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“... when the Spaniards persecuted heretics they may have been crude, but they were not being unreasonable or unpractical. They were at least wiser than the people of to-day who pretend that it does not matter what a man believes, as who should say that the flavour and digestibility of a pudding will have nothing to do with its ingredients.”

PeopleMenShouldBelieveMayDoeHas BeensIdeasMatterIngredientsWiserHeresyCrudeUnreasonableHereticPersecutedPuddingFlavourSpaniardsSpanish Inquisition
Book:The strange necessity: essays by Rebecca West
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“And when the relics of humanity left among the Spaniards induced them to forbid their lawyers to set foot in America, what must they have thought of jurisprudence? May it not be said that they thought, by this single expedient, to make reparation for all the outrages they had committed against the unhappy Indians?”

MaySaidAmericaHumanityLeftFeetCommittedLawyerUnhappyOutrageRelicsReparationsSpaniardsJurisprudence
Book:WHAT IS MOB MENTALITY? - 8 Essential Books on Crowd Psychology: Psychology of Revolution, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Instincts of the Herd, The Social Contract, A Moving-Picture of Democracy...
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“We all have to accept accusations that we ignored the refugee crisis for far too long. The first time that I referred to the Mediterranean Sea as Europe's cemetery was in October 2013, when hundreds of people drowned off Lampedusa. Italians, Maltese, Greeks and Spaniards have been pleading for help for years. But nobody cared.”

PeopleYearsFirstsLongHas BeensHelpingAcceptingSeaFirst TimeEuropeCrisisGreekIgnoredRefugeeOctoberCemeteryAccusationPleadingNobody CaresRefugee CrisisSpaniardsMediterranean Sea
Author:Martin Schulz
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“The Latin American Left, the criollos, direct descendents of Spaniards, they don't want to accept that they are the whites of Latin America. They don't want to talk about race. The discussion for them is based on class struggle, rich against poor, but doesn't offer the possibility of a dialogue about racial questions.”

WantAmericaLeftPoorRaceAcceptingClassStruggleRichPossibilityOffersDirectDialogueDiscussionLatinLatin AmericaClass StruggleLatin AmericanSpaniards
Author:Bocafloja
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“It hit me that an Apache resistance would be a wonderful, you know, it would be a wonderful metaphor for Jewish-American soldiers to be using behind enemy lines against the Nazis because the Apache Indians... were able to fight off for decades both the Spaniards and the Mexicans and the U.S. Cavalry for years because of their - they were great guerrilla fighters. They were great resistance fighters. And one of their ways of winning battles was psychological battles.”

KnowsWayYearsWould BeAbleFightingWinningLinesBehindsEnemyWonderfulBattleSoldierMetaphorDecadesResistancePsychologicalFighterNaziAmerican SoldierGuerrillasSpaniardsCavalry
Author:Quentin Tarantino
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“The Mexico - United States border was always porous. People have been going and coming back since before the Spaniards arrived. Now we're seeing communities who have family members on the other side very frightened. I feel saddened for those families divided by violence. The whole border area is under siege.”

PeopleFeelsHas BeensStatesWholeSidesCommunityUnitedUnited StatesViolenceSeeingMembersAreasBordersFrightenedDividedMexicoComing BackFamily MembersSiegeSaddenedSpaniardsUnder SiegeI Feel Sad
Author:Sandra Cisneros
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“There was movement along the fringe of Chauncey's vision, and he snapped his head to the left. At first glance what appeared to be a large angel topping a nearby monument rose to full height. Neither stone nor marble, the boy had arms and legs. His torso was naked, his feet were bare, and peasant trousers hung low on his waist. He hopped down from the monument, the ends of his hair dripping rain. It slid down his face, which was dark as a Spaniard's.”

FirstsEndsFacesLeftDarkVisionBoysFeetMovementHairArmsLowsAngelRainStonesRoseLegsNakedHeightHungGlancesMonumentFringePeasantsMarbleTrousersDrippingArms And LegsToppingsSpaniardsTorso
Book:Hush, Hush
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“In the Spanish people there is a mixture of Gothic, Frankish and Moorish blood. One can speak of the Spaniard as one would speak of a brave anarchist. The Arabian epoch-the Arabs look down on the Turks as they do on dogs-was the most cultured, the most intellectual and in every way best and happiest epoch in Spanish history. It was followed by the period of the persecutions with its unceasing atrocities.”

PeopleWayLooksSpeakNationsBloodDogPeriodsIntellectualBravePersecutionMixturesGothicAnarchistAtrocitiesEpochArabianSpaniards
Book:Secret Conversations, 1941-1944
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“I have told you of the Spaniard who always put on his spectacles when about to eat cherries, that they might look bigger and more attempting. In like manner I made the most of my enjoyment s: and through I do not cast my cares away, I pack them in as little compass as I can, and carry them as conveniently as I can for myself, and never let them annoy others.”

LooksLittlesMadeI CanMightCareBiggerCastsAppearanceEnjoymentAnnoyingPacksCompassAttemptingCherriesSpectaclesSpaniards
Author:Robert Southey
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“In Spain in the meantime, Aristotelian scholar Juan Gines de Sepulveda was putting the impolitic moralizing of Las Casas into proper perspective for posterity: "Compare then the blessings enjoyed by Spaniards of prudence, genius, magnanimity, temperance, humanity, and religion with those of the little men [the Indians] in whom you will scarcely find even vestiges of humanity. . . . How can we doubt that these people - so uncivilized, so barbaric, contaminated with so many impieties and obscenities - have been justly conquered?"”

PeopleMenLittlesHas BeensHumanityDoubtPerspectiveGeniusBlessingEnjoyedCompareScholarSpainPrudencePosterityTemperanceLittle ManObscenityBarbaricJuanMagnanimitySpaniardsUncivilizedMoralizing
Author:Juan Gines de Sepulveda
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“The terrible thing is that the crowd that fills the street believes that the world will always be the same and that it is their duty to keep that huge machine running, day and night, forever. This is what comes of a Protestant morality, that I, as a (thank God) typical Spaniard, found unnerving.”

WorldBelieveRunningNightFoundForeverStreetsDutyHugeTerribleMoralityMachinesCrowdsThank GodTypicalTerrible ThingsHerdsDay And NightProtestantsSpaniards
Author:Federico Garcia Lorca
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