countries quotes

Ireland is one of the few countriesperhaps the lastwhere the boundaries between politics and art have never been fixed.

- George Dangerfield
  The Strange Death of Liberal England.

Among the smaller islands there is one of fair size that is now called the Isle of Man† There was a great controversy in antiquity concerning the question: to which of the two countries should the island properly belong? Eventually, however, the matter was settled. All agreed that since it allowed poisonous reptiles to live in it, it should belong to Britain.

-Gerald of Wales also called Giraldus Cambrensis
  The History and Topography of Ireland, pt.2 (translated by John  J O'Meara,1951).

If some countries have too much history, we have too much geography.

-William Lyon Mackenzie King
   Address to the House of Commons, Ottawa,18  Jun.

Securitycan only be obtained bya scheme by whichthe nations of Europe and outside agree together that all will guarantee each, and each will guarantee all. The purposes ofthewar will be attained ifthereisa League of Nations with an absolute and decisive veto upon any mere aggression, and consideration of any legitimate claims that any of the countries engaged in the war may be able to make good.

- Hastings Bernard Lees-Smith
  House of Commons, 21 Oct.

The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believe that what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium.What a very feware acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of barbarism.

- Primo Levi
  Other People's Trades,'News from the Sky' (translated by Raymond Rosenthal,1989).

In other countries, art and literature are left to a lot of shabby bums living in attics and feeding on booze and spaghetti, but in America the successful writer or picture-painter is indistinguishable from any other decent business man.

- (Harry) Sinclair Lewis
  Babbitt, ch.14.

In an English ship, they say, it is poor grub, poor pay, and easy work; in an American ship, good grub, good pay, and hard work. And this is applicable to the working populations of both countries.

-Vince(ntThomas) Lombardi
  The People of the Abyss, ch.20.

Countries that have soldiers in charge seem, more often than not, to be the ones where democracy is but a flickering candle sitting in an open window with a forecast of rain.

- Lewis W MacKenzie
  Letter about his retirement, in The Globe and Mail, 21  Jan.

   Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. they have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!

- Karl Heinrich Marx
  The Communist Manifesto (with Friedrich Engels, translated by Samuel Moore,1888), closing words. This translation was approved by Engels, but the phrase is also known as'Workers of the world, unite'. The literal translation of the German is'Proletarians of all lands, unite.'

Music is the great cheer-up in the language of all countries.

- Clifford Odets
  Mr Bonaparte. Golden Boy, act1, sc.2. Special Assistant to President Kennedy.

The books one reads in childhood, and perhaps most of all the bad and good bad books, create in one's mind a sort of false map of the world, a series of fabulous countries into which one can retreat at odd moments throughout the rest of life, and which in some cases can even survive a visit to the real countries which they are supposed to represent.

- George pseudonym of  Eric Arthur Blair Orwell
  'Riding Down from Bangor'.

He disdains all things above his reach, and preferreth all countries before his own.

- SirThomas Overbury
  'An  Affected Traveller', collected in Miscellaneous Works.

It isnot to be understood that the natural price of labour, estimated even in food and necessaries, is absolutely fixed and constant.It varies at different times in thesame countryand very materially differs in different countries. It essentially depends on the habits and customs of the people.

- David Ricardo
  Principles of Political Economy andTaxation.

When peace has been broken anywhere, the peace of all countries is in danger.

- Franklin D(elano) Roosevelt
  Radio broadcast, 3 Sep.

England and America are two countries divided by a common language.

- George Bernard Shaw
Attributed.

In a country that is economically backward, the proletariat can take power earlier than in countries where capitalism is advanced.

- Leon originally Lev Davidovich Bronstein Trotsky
The Permanent Revolution.