Beirut Quotes

• I was actually lost in Beirut on the way home.

  Kelly Preston

  Home, Way, Lost

  65 Copy quote

• Lebanon was at one time known as a nation that rose above sectarian hatred; Beirut was known as the Paris of the Middle East. All of that was blown apart by senseless religious wars, financed and exploited in part by those who sought power and wealth. If women had been in charge, would they have been more sensible? It's a theory.

  Roger Ebert

  Religious, War, Paris

  58 Copy quote

• To the stern student of affairs, Beirut is a phenomenon, beguiling perhaps, but quite, quite impossible.

  Jan Morris

  Students, Impossible, Affair

  Jan Morris (2011). “A Writer's World”, p.45, Faber & Faber

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• Hair is also a problem. I remember once, when I was reporting from Beirut at the height of the civil war, someone wrote in to the BBC complaining about my appearance.

  Kate Adie

  War, Hair, Complaining

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• People have the problem of denial. This is one of the things I learned in Lebanon. Everybody who left Beirut when the war started, including my parents, said, 'Oh, its temporary.' It lasted 17 years! People tend to underestimate the gravity of these situations. That's how they work.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  War, Years, People

  18 Copy quote

• You can learn all about the human condition from covering the crime beat in a big city - you don't need to go to Beirut for that - but a foreign correspondent begins to understand poverty from a different perspective.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Cities, Perspective, Poverty

  17 Copy quote

• I don't want to turn into one of those pathetic creatures who are always homesick, always saying I wish I were still in Beirut. I don't want to become like you, split between here and there. I know I'm not happy here, but why should I be unhappy in two countries?

  Hanan al-Shaykh

  Country, Two, Wish

  Hanan al-Shaykh (2013). “Beirut Blues”, p.366, Anchor

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• When I arrived in Beirut from Europe, I felt the oppressive, damp heat, saw the unkempt palm trees and smelt the Arabic coffee, the fruit stalls and the over-spiced meat. It was the beginning of the Orient. And when I flew back to Beirut from Iran, I could pick up the British papers, ask for a gin and tonic at any bar, choose a French, Italian, or German restaurant for dinner. It was the beginning of the West. All things to all people, the Lebanese rarely questioned their own identity.

  Robert Fisk

  Coffee, Italian, Iran

  Robert Fisk (2001). “Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War”, p.163, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Beirut is where I was born and raised.

  Reem Acra

  Born, Born And Raised, Raised

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• I'd known the people at Rolling Stone for a while. I'd gone to them with a piece I'd done on Beirut for Vanity Fair that Vanity Fair didn't want to publish, because they said I was making fun of death... This was Tina Brown.But they paid me for it. So I've got this big chunk of a piece, and Rolling Stone liked it, but they thought it was a little dated. But then they called me back and asked me to do a similar piece about the Turks and Caicos Islands, where the whole government had been arrested for dope smuggling. That was fun.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Fun, Dope, Islands

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.

  Iris Murdoch

  Life, Reality, Tasks

  In 'The Times' 15 April 1983 'Profile'

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• I'd spent thirty years visiting the Dalai Lama, and twenty years as a journalist going to difficult places, war zones and revolutions from North Korea to Haiti and Beirut to Sri Lanka, and the question came up: What does this man have to offer to this world which seems so torn up and so attached to conflict?

  Pico Iyer

  War, Men, Sri Lanka

  "Reflects On Thirty Years Traveling with Tibet’s Exiled Leader". Interview with Felicia M. Tomasko, layoga.com. April 26, 2008.

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• I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I've been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism. I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time.

  John McCain

  Strong, Jobs, Islamic

  The Republican Debate on Fox News Channel, www.nytimes.com. October 21, 2007.

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• There hasn't been a lot written about it in the Western media. But in the Arab world, and Western Asia as a whole, Baghdad was always known as a famously bookish, intellectual city. There's an old saying that Cairo writes, Beirut publishes, and Baghdad reads.

  Annia Ciezadlo

  Writing, Media, Cities

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• For me, diversity is not a value. Diversity is what you find in Northern Ireland. Diversity is Beirut. Diversity is brother killing brother. Where diversity is shared - where I share with you my difference - that can be valuable. But the simple fact that we are unlike each other is a terrifying notion. I have often found myself in foreign settings where I became suddenly aware that I was not like the people around me. That, to me, is not a pleasant discovery.

  Richard Rodriguez

  Brother, Simple, Differences

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• It's not Beirut or Bosnia.

  Carl Froch

  Motivation, Bosnia, Fighter

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• Who imagined that what I said upon my departure from Beirut would become a reality, when I said the volcano and typhoon which started in Beirut will not stop.

  Yasser Arafat

  Reality, Volcanoes, Departure

  Source: www.nybooks.com

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• The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.

  Mark Twain

  Happiness, Bullying, Laughter

  Mark Twain (2015). “Bite-Size Twain: Wit and Wisdom from the Literary Legend”, p.35, St. Martin's Press

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• We runnin around in thousand-dollar clown suits,
  Better get some boots when Lucifer turn your city to Beirut.

  Ras Kass

  Rap, Cities, Hip Hop

  Song: Soul On Ice

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• We may be unable to maintain even a semblance of order in our urban schools, which increasingly resemble happy hour in Beirut. But, hallelujah, we sure know how to protect kids from God.

  Don Feder

  Christian, Religious, School

  Don Feder (1993). “A Jewish conservative looks at pagan America”, Vital Issues Pr

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• In 1982, when Alexander Haig and [Ariel] Sharon put this plan to invade the south of Lebanon and Beirut, they imagined that in two or three or five days, they can demolish the PLO and destroy its infrastructure. What happened? The longest Arab - Israeli confrontation.

  Yasser Arafat

  Two, Lebanon, Three

  Source: www.nybooks.com

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• If you tell the truth, you don't need a long memory.

  Jesse Ventura

  Inspirational, Memories, Truth

  31 Copy quote

• When I look back on my childhood, I think of that short time in Beirut. I know that seeing the city collapse around me forced me to grasp something many people miss: the fragility of peace.

  Greg Kinnear

  Thinking, Cities, People

  24 Copy quote

• The wise traveler [to Beirut] will pack shirts or blouses with ample breast pockets. Reaching inside a jacket for your passport looks too much like going for the draw and puts armed men out of countinence

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Wise, Travel, Men

  P.J. O'Rourke (2012). “Holidays in Hell”, p.22, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• My memories of Kabul are vastly different than the way it is when I go there now. My memories are of the final years before everything changed. When I grew up in Kabul, it couldn't be mistaken for Beirut or Tehran, as it was still in a country that's essentially religious and conservative, but it was suprisingly progressive and liberal.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Country, Religious, Memories

  "For Afghanistan With Love". Interview with Ilana Teitelbaum, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 28, 2013.

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