contrary to what many believed, my father was kind and tenderhearted, especially towards his family. His forbidding sternness seemed to melt into love, kindness, and easy familiarity when he was with us. Especially with me, his acknowledged successor to the throne, he would play lightheartedly. When we were alone together, he would sing me little songs; I don't remember his ever doing this in front of others, but when only the two of us were there, he would often sing to me.

A crown, a throne could not be based on the not too very solid foundation of blood.

They want liberalization! I'll give them liberalization. I'll loosen the screws until the Americans beg me to tighten them again.

Thank God we in Iran have neither the desire nor the need to suffer from democracy.

Nixon would like to consign us to to the level of the most backward countries in the whole Middle East. Why lower us to the standard of the Saudis rather than raising the Saudis to meet us?

He [the King of Morocco] spends half his time asleep and the rest of it buried between the legs of the fairer sex.

It would serve the Americans right if we emptied the prisons and let the subversives take power. They'd soon show Washington just how much they appreciate good old American values.