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Westerners Quotes

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Westerners Quotes

“Perhaps Westerners are in a better position to practice true renunciation than uneducated Orientals because most Western people, by the time they come to the Dharma, have led a pretty full worldly life with lots of sensual pleasures, money and lots of toys to play with. They have seen that the path of accumulation of worldly treasure does not lead to happiness or contentment. That's why they come to the Dharma.”

PeopleDoePlayPleasurePracticePathPositionWesternTreasureSensualContentmentToysWorldlyAccumulationDharmaRenunciationUneducatedWorldly LifeWesternersSensual Pleasure
Author:Tenzin Palmo
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“When I'm wandering around the Himalayas, most of the people that I see are Westerners from Germany, California, or the Netherlands, who are wearing sandals, Indian smocks, and are in search of enlightenment, antiquity, peace, and all the things they can't get in the west. Most of the people they meet are Nepali villagers in Lee jeans, Reeboks, and Madonna T-shirts who are looking for the paradise that they associate with Los Angeles - a paradise of material prosperity and abundance.”

PeopleMaterialsEnlightenmentWestProsperityWanderIndianCaliforniaShirtsGermanyParadiseAbundanceLos AngelesAssociatesJeansT ShirtAntiquityWesternersSandalsNetherlandsHimalayasWandering Around
Author:Pico Iyer
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“In seminary he had been taught that God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them only listen to and follow sacred Scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God's voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerner's access to God was mediated and controlled by the intelligentsia. Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book.”

BookWantedCoursesVoiceTaughtCommunicationAuthorityPaperDirectSacredBoxesIntellectAccessScriptureEducatedControlledWesternersSeminaryUncivilizedShack BookSacred ScriptureDirect CommunicationCommunication With God
Author:William P. Young
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“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion […] but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.”

WorldIdeasWarFactsPoliticalReligionValuesWinningForgetViolenceWestTyrannyOrganizedTyrantsAntiwarAcademicColonialismSuperiorityWestern CultureWesternersAnti-americanWorld DominationClash Of CivilizationsMoral Superiority
Book:The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
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“So many indigenous people have said to me that the fundamental difference between Western and indigenous ways of being is that even the most open-minded westerners generally view listening to the natural world as a metaphor, as opposed to the way the world really is. Trees and rocks and rivers really do have things to say to us.”

PeopleWorldWaySaidNaturalDifferencesViewsTreeRocksListeningRiversFundamentalsWesternMetaphorIndigenousNatural WorldOpen MindedIndigenous PeopleWesterners
Book:What We Leave Behind
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“Sejal had not thought of her home, or of India as a whole, as cool. She was dimly aware, however, of a white Westerner habit of wearing other cultures like T-shirts—the sticker bindis on club kids, sindoor in the hair of an unmarried pop star, Hindi characters inked carelessly on tight tank tops and pale flesh. She knew Americans liked to flash a little Indian or Japanese or African. They were always looking for a little pepper to put in their dish.”

LittlesWholeCharacterHomeKidsCultureStarsWhiteHairHabitIndiaClubsPopsFleshIndianShirtsFlashPaleDishesT ShirtTanksPeppersHindiOther CulturesPop StarsUnmarriedStickerWesternersTank Tops
Author:Adam Rex
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“The fact is that Chinese parents can do things that would seem unimaginable-even legally actionable-to Westerners. Chinese mothers can say to their daughters, "Hey fatty-lose some weight." By contrast, Western parents have to tiptoe around the issue, talking in terms of "health" and never ever mentioning the f-word, and their kids still end up in therapy for eating disorders and negative self image.”

StillsEndsSelfFactsSeemsKidsMotherParentTermCan DoLosesTalkingIssuesEatingDaughterNegativeWeightWesternHeyChineseTherapyDisorderContrastEating DisorderUnimaginableWesternersTiptoesFatty
Book:Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
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“Consider it this way: what would you say if a blond homecoming queen fell in love with a short Japanese businessman? He treats her cruelly, then goes home for three years, during which time she prays to his picture and turns down marriage from a young Kennedy. Then, when she learns he has remarried, she kills herself. Now I believe you should consider this girl to be a deranged idiot, correct? But because it's an Oriental who kills herself for a Westerner–ah!–you find it beautiful.”

IfsWayShouldYearsBelieveHomeBeautifulYoungTurnsGirlThreeI BelievePrayingTreatsIdiotQueensThree YearsBusinessmanThis GirlHomecomingWesternersDerangedHomecoming Queen
Author:David Henry Hwang
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“Westerners often laud their children as 'talented' or 'gifted', while Asian parents highlight the importance of hard work. And in fact, research performed by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck has found that the way parents offer approval affects the way children perform, even the way they feel about themselves.”

WayFeelsChildrenHardFactsFoundParentHard WorkOffersResearchImportanceApprovalGiftedAsianPsychologistHighlightsCarolsWesternersStanford
Author:Amy Chua
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“This is the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a large house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together– black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu– a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace.”

WorldIdeasProblemTogetherCultureHousePoliticsBlackInterestWhiteMankindCatholicJewBlack And WhiteProtestantsWesternersGentiles
Book:In a Single Garment of Destiny
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“In the West we have a tendency to be profit-oriented, where everything is measured according to the results and we get caught up in being more and more active to generate results. In the East-especially in India-I find that people are more content to just be, to just sit around under a banyan tree for half a day chatting to each other. We Westerners would probably call that wasting time. But there is value to it. Being with someone, listening without a clock and without anticipation of results, teaches us about love. The success of love is in the loving-it is not in the result of loving.”

PeopleTimeValuesLove IsResultsHalfTeachTreeListeningIndiaWestCaughtProfitActiveEastTendenciesClockWasting TimeAnticipationCaught UpWesternersChatting
Book:A Simple Path-Open Market
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“Hindus and Westerners alike see in the meat-eating taboos of India a triumph of morals over appetite. This is a dangerous misrepresentation of cultural processes. Hindu vegetarianism was a victory not of spirit over matter but of reproductive over productive forces.”

MatterSpiritForceProcessMoralDangerousVictoryEatingIndiaTriumphMeatProductiveAppetiteVegetarianismTabooWesternersMisrepresentationMeat Eating
Book:Cannibals and Kings: Origins of Cultures
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“Americans and other Westerners who want their families to enjoy the blessings of life in a free society should understand that the life we've led since 1945 in the Western world is very rare in human history. Our children are unlikely to enjoy anything so placid, and may well spend their adult years in an ugly and savage world unless we decide that who and what we are is worth defending.”

WorldWantShouldYearsHumansWellsMayChildrenEnjoyBlessingAdultsOur ChildrenWesternUglySavagesUnlikelyHuman HistoryFree SocietyWestern WorldWesternersPlacid
Book:America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It
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“It is recorded how towards the end of the eighteenth century a Muslim visitor to England was taken to see the House of Commons at work. He later wrote of his astonishment at finding the that the British Parliament actually made laws and fixed punishments for their infraction - because unlike Muslims the English had not accepted a divine law revealed from heaven and therefore had to resort to such unsatisfactory expedients. Muslims still understand the expression 'the rule of law' very differently than do most Westerners.”

MadeStillsEndsLawHouseHeavenTakenCenturyDivineExpressionFindingsEnglandBritishAcceptedPunishmentFixedParliamentResortsRule Of LawVisitorsAstonishmentWesternersHouse Of CommonsDivine LawBritish Parliament
Author:Margaret Thatcher
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“The argument now that the spread of pop culture and consumer goods around the world represents the triumph of Western civilization trivializes Western culture. The essence of Western civilization is the Magna Carta, not the Magna Mac. The fact that non-Westerners may bite into the latter has no implications for their accepting the former.”

WorldMayFactsCultureAcceptingCivilizationArgumentEssenceWesternSpreadPopsAround The WorldFormerConsumersTriumphLatterGoodsBitesPop CultureImplicationsMacsWestern CivilizationWestern CultureWesternersClash Of CivilizationsMagna Carta
Book:The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
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“With few exceptions, democracy has not brought good government to new developing countries. What Asians value may not necessarily be what Americans or Europeans value. Westerners value the freedoms and liberties of the individual. As an Asian of Chinese cultural backround, my values are for a government which is honest, effective and efficient.”

MayCountryGovernmentAmericaPoliticalValuesCultureIndividualFreedomLibertyDemocracyHonestHonestyEuropeDevelopingChineseMinistersExceptionEfficientAsianAmerican CultureEffectivenessFreedom And LibertyDemocracies HaveWestern CultureCultural DifferencesDeveloping CountriesWesterners
Author:Lee Kuan Yew
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“Human beings by nature want happiness and do not want suffering. With that feeling everyone tries to achieve happiness and tries to get rid of suffering, and everyone has the basic right to do this. In this way, all here are the same, whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, Easterner or Westerner, believer or non-believer, and within believers whether Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and so on. Basically, from the viewpoint of real human value we are all the same.”

WayWantTryingHumansRealFeelingsChristianSufferingValuesHuman BeingsPoorRichAchieveBelieverEducatedBuddhistViewpointsUneducatedHuman ValuesRich Or PoorWesternersReal HumanNon Believer
Author:Dalai Lama
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“There are all these new books out there portraying Asian mothers as scheming, callous, overdriven people indifferent to their kids' true interests. For their part, many Chinese secretly believe that they care more about their children and are willing to sacrifice much more for them than Westerners, who seem perfectly content to let their children turn out badly. I think it's a misunderstanding on both sides. All decent parents want to do what's best for their children. The Chinese just have a totally different idea of how to do that.”

PeopleThinkingWantBelieveChildrenBookIdeasDifferentSeemsCareKidsMotherTurnsParentSidesInterestSacrificeWillingChineseDecentIndifferentBoth SidesMisunderstandingAsianNew BooksPortrayingWesternersCallousDifferent Ideas
Author:Amy Chua
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“I created 'The Westerner' because of anger - anger at never-miss sheriffs, always-right marshalls, whitewashed gunfighters ... anger at TV's quick-draw tin gods who stand behind a tin star or ten cents' worth of righteous anger and justify their skill and slaughter with a self-conscious grin or a minute's worth of bad philosophy.”

SelfPhilosophyStarsBehindsMinutesMissingTvsTenSkillsDrawsConsciousJustifyRighteousCentsSelf ConsciousSlaughterTinWesternersSheriffsRighteous Anger
Author:Sam Peckinpah
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“How strange that excision – female circumcision, with several languages using the same term for both kinds of mutilation – of little girls should revolt the westerner but excite no disapproval when it is performed on little boys. Consensus on the point seems absolute. But ask your interlocutor to think about the validity of this surgical procedure, which consists of removing a healthy part of a nonconsenting child’s body on nonmedical grounds – the legal definition of… mutilation.”

ThinkingShouldKindChildrenLittlesBodySeemsGirlAsksLanguageTermBoysStrangeHealthyFemaleAbsolutesDefinitionsConsensusProceduresRevoltLittle BoysValidityDisapprovalWesternersMutilationCircumcision
Author:Michel Onfray
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“Westerners think that all that is negative and positive is only caused from outside of themselves. They materialize and externalize their experiences, never understanding the connection between outer and inner phenomena or interdependent phenomena, looking for explanations only from objects through nihilist habit instead of from the subjective experience of their own minds.”

ThinkingMindUnderstandingObjectsHabitNegativeConnectionsExplanationSubjectiveWesternersNihilistNegative And Positive
Author:Thinley Norbu
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