Nous, l'Europe Quotes

“The two centuries before us were nothing but striving, fever, onslaught, and revolution. The centuries before us were ogres, devouring courage and genius, whole lives at a time. And here we are, With these words handed down to us: “Nation,” “Equality,” “Freedom,” And we contemplate them wearily. For we have long become citizens of boredom.”
― Laurent Gaudé, Our Europe: Banquet of Nations

“We know man’s inhumanity to man, We know the abyss, We have been swallowed by its depth.”
― Laurent Gaudé, Our Europe: Banquet of Nations

“The old generals cannot believe their eyes. Unkempt young people, Boys dressed like girls, Girls showing their legs Are defying them, singing, no longer afraid.”
― Laurent Gaudé, Our Europe: Banquet of Nations

“The train, that was Europe’s pride and glory, Becomes the emblem of its destruction. A rail network in Europe that subsumed entire populations and gassed them.”
― Laurent Gaudé, Our Europe: Banquet of Nations

“The miles you covered, The seas you crossed, To end up at the great feast of war. Europe invited the entire world to its suicide And in the end, killed all the guests.”
― Laurent Gaudé, Our Europe: Banquet of Nations

“They are all there, in Berlin in 1885: French, Italians, British, Spanish, Belgians, Danes, Dutch, Portuguese, Russians, Norwegians, Ottomans, Americans, and Austro-Hungarians Staring at a huge dish: Africa. Bigger than their eyes, their mouths, their bellies, But that doesn’t matter, They eat for more than themselves, They eat for their children and grandchildren. They eat for at least a century of colonization.”
― Laurent Gaudé, Our Europe: Banquet of Nations

“What we eat makes us what we are And for centuries we have eaten the world. Our countries have run the race For raw materials. To be the seller, not the buyer, The one to choose, not to submit.”
― Laurent Gaudé, Our Europe: Banquet of Nations

“We are the children of the monstrous expansion of cities, They become a world, They become light, a stage, And unspeakable slums.”
― Laurent Gaudé, Our Europe: Banquet of Nations