Ian Buruma famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Anti-Americanism may indeed have grown fiercer than it was during the cold war. It is a common phenomenon that when the angels fail to deliver, the demons become more fearsome.
-- Ian Buruma

#War #Angel #May
Isherwood did not so much find himself in Berlin as reinvent himself; Isherwood became a fiction, a work of art.
-- Ian Buruma

#Art #Fiction #Berlin
The question, then, for Western companies, as much as for Western governments, is to decide whose side they are on: the Chinese officials who like to define their culture in a paternalistic, authoritarian way, or the large number of Chinese who have their own ideas about freedom.
-- Ian Buruma

#Government #Ideas #Numbers
To isolate the revolutionary ideologues and their killers we must gain the trust of the majority of Muslims. This can only happen if they are treated as equal citizens, not just in theory, and have access to decent education and jobs.
-- Ian Buruma

#Education #Jobs #Majority

War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life.
The God of Battles will throw the dice that decide...
This book has been a catalogue of mistakes by politicians, moral and practical disasters which led to wars, enslavement and wretchedness on a scale which no previous age could have dreaded or dreamed of.
The fairies break their dances And leave the printed lawn.
Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe, having surveyed a few boxes full of letters, diaries, bank statements and photographs, that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life.
If I care to listen to every criticism, let alone act on them, then this shop may as well be closed for all other businesses. I have learned to do my best, and if the end result is good then I do not care for any criticism, but if the end result is not good, then even the praise of ten angels would not make the difference.
I'm not lost for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.
The moment that any life, however good, stifles you, you may be sure it isn't your real life.
Joy and growth come from following our deepest impulses, however foolish they may seem to some, or dangerous, and even though the apparent outcome may be defeat.
The experience youâ€™ve had may be unwanted, may amount to nothing but damage and waste, but experience has substance, is factual, authoritative, lives on in your past and affects your present, whatever you attempt to do about it.

Ian Buruma famous quotes

You may also like: