Stephen Kinzer famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

It is not far-fetched to draw a line from Operation Ajax through the Shah's repressive regime and the Islamic Revolution to the fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York.
-- Stephen Kinzer

#New York #Islamic #Ajax
The world has paid a heavy price for the lack of democracy in most of the Middle East. Operation Ajax [CIA code for the August 1953 coup] taught tyrants and aspiring tyrants there that the world's most powerful governments were willing to tolerate limitless oppression as long as oppressive regimes were friendly to the West and to Western oil companies. That helped tilt the political balance in a vast region away from freedom and toward dictatorship.
-- Stephen Kinzer

#Powerful #Tyrants #Oil
Throughout the twentieth century and into the beginning of the twenty-first, the United States repeatedly used its military power, and that of its clandestine services, to overthrow governments that refused to protect American interests. Each time, it cloaked its intervention in the rhetoric of national security and liberation. In most cases, however, it acted mainly for economic reasons-specifically to establish, promote and defend the right of Americans to do business around the world without interference.
-- Stephen Kinzer

#Military #Government #World
Alliances and partnerships produce stability when they reflect realities and interests.
-- Stephen Kinzer

#Reality #Alliances #Partnership
New media and mobile entertainment are revolutionizing the way people learn about the world.
-- Stephen Kinzer

#Media #People #Way
American press, like the press in many countries, acts like a cheerleader to our government rather than a critical observer. This is especially true, when it comes to foreign interventions. That means that when government leaders conclude that intervention in a foreign country is justified, the press rarely criticizes it. In fact, the press has been an enthusiastic cheerleader for many of our foreign interventions.
-- Stephen Kinzer

#Country #Mean #Government
I don't have any problem with the United States acting on behalf of its own interests. That's what big powers do; that's what all countries do. I would just like to see us analyze in a serious way what really is in our interest. Sometimes we intervene in foreign countries in ways that seem successful at first. In the end, however, we wind up with unpredicted consequences that make us regret those operations.
-- Stephen Kinzer

#Country #Regret #Successful

Ernest Hemingway was always uneasy in New York and liked being there less than in any other city he frequented.
In America, people think being South Asian is still kind of exotic. When you go outside New York and Chicago and L.A., there are people who have never tried Indian food... they've never even tasted it!
I was in New York, miserable because I was working supper clubs but I wasn't expressing myself. I was really unhappy with my life. I saw Max Roach again and he told me I didn't have to do things like that. He made me an honest woman on the stage. I have been performing in that tradition since. I feel that I'm a serious performer now whereas then I wanted to be but I didn't know how.
While General Howe with a Large Armament is advancing towards New York, our Congress resolved to Declare the United Colonies free and Independent States. A Declaration for this Purpose, I expect, will this day pass Congress...It is gone so far that we must now be a free independent State, or a Conquered Country.
You can always count on the New York Times to cut your legs off.
O you who complain to people about your misfortunes, what good will it do you to complain to creatures? They can bring you neither benefit nor harm. If you rely on them and associate partners with the Lord of the Truth, they will make you distant from Him, cause you to fall into His displeasure.
Disrespect earns the displeasure of the creator and the creation.
How often it is that a small action becomes great by its intention. And how often it is that a great action becomes small by its intention.
As to women, the Islamic faith has given women rights that are equal to or more than the rights given them in the Old Testament and the Bible.
Learn from the mistakes of others, and avoid being one whose mistakes are used as lessons by others.

Stephen Kinzer famous quotes

You may also like: