Miltiadis Michalopoulos > Miltiadis's Quotes

“I did that,” says my memory. “I could not have done that,” says my pride, and remains inexorable. Eventually—the memory yields.”
― F. Nietzsche

“You are not what you think you are; but what you think, you are.”
― Norman Vincent Peale

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“In extending citizenship to people who had no direct territorial connections with the city of Rome, they broke the link, which most people in the classical world took for granted, between citizenship and a single city. In a systematic way that was then unparalleled, they made it possible not just to become Roman but also to be a citizen of two places at once: one’s home town and Rome.”
― Mary Beard, SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome

“There are times when a nation desires a king or a dictator; times of confusion and uncertainty when they go down on their knees to one man and beg him to accept absolute power over them.”
― Peter Green, The Sword of Pleasure

“Αυτό είναι η κόλαση, αφέντη, δύο άνθρωποι μαλωμένοι μες στο σκοτάδι.”
― Ισίδωρος Ζουργός, Σκηνές από τον βίο του Ματίας Αλμοσίνο

“I was born with a reading list I will never finish.”
― Maud Casey

“Only Europeans and their descendants remember guilt. So only Europeans and their descendants have continuously to atone for it.”
― Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
― Theodore Parker

“Allegations that Medieval Studies is somehow hostile to women, or that it suppresses female voices, don’t hold water: today the field is dominated by female academics. Claims that Medieval Studies professors are just as backstabbing and careerist as those in the rest of the academy, however, would appear to be true. For every Julian of Norwich, there is a Countess Mahaut of Artois.”
― Milo Yiannopoulos, Middle Rages: Why the Battle for Medieval Studies Matters to America

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.”
― Mark Twain

“L'Islam a rompu l'unité méditerranéenne que les invasions germaniques avaient laissé subsister.

C'est là le fait le plus essentiel qui se soit passé dans l'histoire européenne depuis les guerres puniques. C'est la fin de la tradition antique. C'est le commencement du Moyen  Age, au moment même où l'Europe était en voie de se byzantiniser.”
― Henri Pirenne

“I am free of all prejudice. I hate everyone equally. ”
― W.C. Fields

“One thing is certain—that there was an active circulation of money. We must repudiate the idea that the people of the Merovingian epoch lived under a system of natural economy.”
― Henri Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne

“The economic basis of the State did not correspond with the administrative character which Charlemagne had endeavoured to preserve. The economy of the State was based upon the great domain without commercial outlets. The landowners had no need of security, since they did not engage in commerce. Such a form of property is perfectly consistent with anarchy. Those who owned the soil had no need of the king.”
― Henri Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne

“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.”
― Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

“Political correctness is often the attempt to make sentimentality socially obligatory or legally enforceable.”
― Theodore Dalrymple, Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality

“Anything worth knowing cannot be understood by the human mind.”
― Woody Allen

“My brain? That's my second favorite organ.”
― Woody Allen

“I did not marry the first girl that I fell in love with, because there was a tremendous religious conflict, at the time.
She was an atheist, and I was an agnostic.”
― Woody Allen

“Having sex is like bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand.”
― woody allen

“Come on, Wendy, Al Qaeda could not have done this,” Musharraf said. “They’re in caves. They don’t have the technology to do something like this.” “General, frankly, I disagree. They did this with box cutters.” 8”
― Steve Coll, Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001-2016

“Hypocrisy, double standards, and "but nots" are the price of universalist pretensions. Democracy is promoted, but not if it brings Islamic fundamentalists to power; nonproliferation is preached for Iran and Iraq, but not for Israel; free trade is the elixir of economic growth, but not for agriculture; human rights are an issue for China, but not with Saudi Arabia; aggression against oil-owning Kuwaitis is massively repulsed, but not against non-oil-owning Bosnians. Double standards in practice are the unavoidable price of universal standards of principle.”
― Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

“In my opinion, the key internal element in Rome’s success or failure was the economic well-being of its taxpayers. This was because the empire relied for its security on a professional army, which in turn relied on adequate funding.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“A hung jury, however, suggests that any decline was not overwhelming; and, in common with most historians, I believe the empire was still very powerful at the end of the fourth century. Unfortunately, a series of disasters was soon to change things.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“The almost total disappearance of coinage from daily use in the post-Roman West is further powerful evidence of a remarkable change in levels of economic sophistication.”
― Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

“[...] τα πραγματα σπανε, και μερικες φορες επισκευαζονται, και στις περισσοτερες περιπτωσεις συνειδητοποιεις πως ο,τι κι αν χαλαει, η ζωη αναδιατασσεται για να αντισταθμισει την απωλεια σου, μερικες φορες θαυμασια.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“Αν ξαναρχόμουν στον κόσμο θα ερχόμουν μόνο για να κάνω έρωτα και να φύγω. Και για το μόνο που θα λυπηθώ όταν θα φύγω, θα ‘ναι για τον έρωτα που θα χάσω, για τα πρόσωπα που δεν θα γνωρίσω. Όλα τα άλλα είναι αστεία. Τέλειωσαν οι εποχές που ένας άνθρωπος μπορούσε ν’ αντικαταστήσει τον ερωτικό του σύντροφο με μια συμφωνία του Μπετόβεν. Αυτά ανήκουν στο 19ο αιώνα. Σήμερα, ένας άνθρωπος που προβαίνει σε τέτοιες αντικαταστάσεις είναι μάλλον ύποπτος ψυχολογικών διαταραχών και μιας νοημοσύνης η οποία ακουμπάει την παρανοϊκότητα.”
― Μάνος Χατζιδάκις

“Think and wonder, wonder and think.”
― Dr. Seuss

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet