The only difference between a winner and a loser is a winner plays until he wins
Note that there was no claim for these attacks [on 911]. There were no demands. There were no statements. It was a silent piece of terror.
Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate.
Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient—dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.
History is written by those who win and those who dominate.
The sense of Islam as a threatening Other - with Muslims depicted as fanatical, violent, lustful, irrational - develops during the colonial period in what I called Orientalism. The study of the Other has a lot to do with the control and dominance of Europe and the West generally in the Islamic world. And it has persisted because it's based very, very deeply in religious roots, where Islam is seen as a kind of competitor of Christianity.
Part of the main plan of imperialism. . . is that we will give you your history, we will write it for you, we will re-order the past. . . What's more truly frightening is the defacement, the mutilation, and ultimately the eradication of history in order to create. . . an order that is favorable to the United States.
An immigration violation should not give the government license to rip up the rule book. By restricting judicial oversight and blocking public scrutiny, the government has exercised virtually unchecked power over those it has detained.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
I believe every person has the ability to achieve something important, and with that in mind I regard everyone as special.
Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.