Persia

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is the manifestation of true democracy in the region. The discourse of the Iranian nation is focused on respect for the rights of human beings and a quest for tranquility, peace, justice and development for all through monotheism."

"If all of you gather – and also invite your ancestors from hell – you will not be able to stop the Iranian nation."

"And dear as the wet diver to the eyes Of his pale wife who waits and weeps on shore, By sandy Bahrein, in the Persian Gulf, Plunging all day in the blue waves, at night, Having made up his tale of precious pearls, Rejoins her in their hut upon the sands— So dear to the pale Persians Rustum came."

"Iran is the country of the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich. The lot of the majority of people in Iran has not moved forward even an inch during the last fifty years of the Pahlavi dynasty's reign, though the seven-year-old middle-class boy of fifty years ago, namely, the present Shah of Iran, has grown to be one of the richest men on earth."

"The American people have the greatest respect and admiration for the Iranian people. Your Kings from Cyrus and Darius are known among those famous monarchs who have advanced the cause of humanity. Your scientists have contributed to the foundations on which we have built our industrial society. Your philosophers and poets have enriched the culture of the west."

"Where are your valiant warriors and your priests? Where are your hunting parties and your feasts? Where is that warlike mien, and where are those? Great armies that destroyed our country's foes? ... Count Iran as a ruin, as the lair of lions and leopards! Look now and despair!"

"Kaiumers first sat upon the throne of Persia, and was master of the world."

"Thy dawn, O Master of the world, thy dawn; The hour the lilies open on the lawn, The hour the grey wings pass beyond the mountains, The hour of silence, when we hear the fountains, The hour that dreams are brighter and winds colder, The hour that young love wakes on a white shoulder, O Master of the world, the Persian Dawn.That hour, O Master, shall be bright for thee: Thy merchants chase the morning down the sea, The braves who fight thy war unsheathe the sabre, The slaves who work thy mines are lashed to labour, For thee the waggons of the world are drawn— The ebony of night, the red of dawn!"

"Everything I learned about Iranians, I learned working in the pool room. I met a lot of liars, and I know Iranians are liars."

"بده ساقی می باقی که در جنت نخواهی یافت کنار آب رکن‌آباد و گلگشت مصلا را"

"One of the signs of Iran's underdevelopment is the culture of rumor and paranoia that attributes all ills to the manipulation of various demons and satans. And, of course, the long and rich history of British imperial intervention in Persia does provide some support for the notion. But you have no idea how deep is the primitive belief that it is the Anglo-Saxons—more than the CIA, more even than the Jews—who are the puppet masters of everything that happens in Iran."

"Persicos odi, puer, apparatus."

"The country’s air defense headquarters informs the honorable people of Iran that, despite previous warnings from the officials of the Islamic Republic to the criminal and illegal Israeli regime to refrain from any provocative actions, this illegitimate regime launched an attack early this morning on military sites in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan, and Ilam.The unified air defense system successfully intercepted and countered this aggressive action, though limited damage was incurred at some points, which is currently under investigation"

"Unhappy Persia, that in former age Hast been the seat of mighty conquerors."

"Foreign travellers in Iran, not only recently but in previous generations, have observed that some of our citizens habitually lie ... In our culture, steeped in history as we are, some liars actually try to explain and justify their behaviour by referring back to past national catastrophes. For example, they will tell you, when Mongol hordes overran the country, lying was the price to pay for personal survival; and that gave us the habit of mendacity. Whatever its merits as an historical explanation, this point of view certainly offers a pitifully weak justification for today's liars."

"I found that many Americans did not even know that a country named Iran existed, let alone what it was like. Even among the diplomatic corps and among well-educated people, there was a vagueness about who the Iranians were or what the culture was, a tendency to confuse Iran with Iraq or to mistakenly assume that Iran is an Arab country simply because it is an Islamic nation. This fuzziness about the world outside is unique to America; among the intelligensia of European countries, for example, there is generally a higher level of awareness and information regarding cultures other than their own."

"This scimitar That slew the Sophy and a Persian prince."

"I do not like the fashion of your garments. You’ll say they are Persian; but let them be changed."

"In Iran, the walls of homes are transparent and the halls of justice are opaque."

"The Persians ruled for a thousand years and did not need us Arabs even for a day. We have been ruling them for one or two centuries and cannot do without them for an hour."

"The discovery of Iran was only the first step toward a much greater surprise: I recognized that something stood behind Iran and its significance, something that linguistics has been occupied with for the last one hundred years without really getting anywhere: the Indo- German question."

"During the Sasanian period not only the Persian culture impacted the Roman culture considerably, but its influence reached as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India, and played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art. And then much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music as well as math, medicine, sciences and other subject matters was the transfer from the Sasanians to the Muslim world, through the efforts of Iranians."

"Persia consists of two parts: a desert with salt, and a desert without salt."

"When we turn our attention to a peaceful, civilized people, the Persians, we must—since it was actually their poetry that inspired this work—go back to the earliest period to be able to understand more recent times. It will always seem strange to the historians that no matter how many times a country has been conquered, subjugated and even destroyed by enemies, there is always a certain national core preserved in its character, and before you know it, there re-emerges a long-familiar native phenomenon. In this sense, it would be pleasant to learn about the most ancient Persians and quickly follow them up to the present day at an all the more free and steady pace."

"By the favor of Ahuramazda, this Gate of All Nations, I built. Much other good (construction) was built within this (city) Persepolis, which I built and which my father built. Whatever good construction is seen, all that by the favor of Ahuramazda we built."

"No city was more mischievous to the Greeks than the seat of the ancient kings of Persia (...)"

"Alexander described it to the Macedonians as the most hateful of the cities of Asia, and gave it over to his soldiers to plunder, all but the palaces. It was the richest city under the sun, and the private houses had been furnished with every sort of wealth over the years. The Macedonians raced into it, slaughtering all the men whom they met and plundering the residences; many of the houses belonged to the common people and were abundantly supplied with furniture and wearing apparel of every kind"

"The Macedonians were ashamed that so renowned a city had been destroyed by their king in a drunken revel; therefore the act was taken as earnest, and they forced themselves to believe that it was right that it should be wiped out in exactly that manner."

"When you see Persepolis for the first time as I did, facing Marvdasht, you are likely to be disappointed but once inside the ruins themselves you are overwhelmed by the still-proud soaring columns, and by the quality and the fresh state of the bas-relief carvings which are certainly among the finest in the history of the world’s art. But mostly you are transfixed by the sudden realization that all this happened 24 centuries ago, and that people from every nation in the known world of the time had stood in the same place and felt the same."

"Susa and the land of Anšan humbly saluted Inana like tiny mice. In the great mountain ranges, the teeming multitudes grovelled in the dust for her."

"Susa and the land of Anšan humbly saluted Inana like tiny mice. In the great mountain ranges, the teeming multitudes grovelled in the dust for her."

"The third important feature which developed in the early formative centuries of Islam relates to the heritage of Persia or cajam as the Arabs called it. Hindu or Buddhist India was not conquered until the thir­teenth century and parts of it remained outside of Muslim control until as late as the sixteenth century. Similarly, the Byzantine state was not fully conquered (by the Turks) before the mid-fifteenth century. But Persia was conquered in its entirety in the seventh century and by the eleventh century had already largely converted to Islam. It is not sur­prising therefore that of the three metropolitan classical traditions of In­dia, Greece and Persia it was Persia that resurfaced with an integral identity within the Islamic context.10 The Persian imperial tradition could not persist anywhere outside Islam and as a result a vigorous Per­sian resurgence occurred within it. From its Arab roots the Islamic con­quest state then shifted to a Persianized foundation."

"The assimilation of the secular categories of Greek philosophy, however, was no aim in itself but part of an obstinate attempt to rid Islam of the germs of the ancient Perso-Aramaic or Manichaean free-thinking, zandaqa, and its manifestations of moral cynicism which the Arabs called mujun.16 This conflict between the Arab and Persian traditions really went much deeper. The anti-Arab polemics of the Persian literati which became designated as the shucubTya movement introduced elements of a Welt­anschauung which never ceased to be disruptive in the eyes of the or­thodox."

"The heritage of Persia, while conflicting with the egalitarian sobriety of the pristine religion, was to become a decisive force in the formation of Islamic society; so much so that when in later centuries the Indians and the Greeks entered Islam it was no longer an Arab Islam but a Persian Islam that they entered."