How do cultures differ from one another? Above all, in their customs. Tell me how you dress, how you act, what are your habits, which gods you honor, and I will tell you who you are. Man not only creates culture, he carries it around with him. Man is culture.

Literature seemed to be everything then. People looked to it for the strength to live, for guidance, for revelation.

When is a crisis reached? When questions arise that can't be answered.

in reference to Persepolis and all palaces, cities and temples of the past: could these wonders have come into being without that suffering? without the overseer's whip, the slave's fear, the ruler's vanity? was not the monumentality of past epochs created by that which is negative and evil in man?

Our salvation is in striving to achieve what we know we'll never achieve.

if reason ruled the world would history even exist?

Amin knew that neither West nor East would criticize him for fear that he would support the other side. He felt he was untouchable and he said so openly.