Mohammad Reza Pahlavi: Trending quotes (page 2)

“I wanted to build up Iran while we still had oil and thus to guarantee the life of the country after our oil reserves were exhausted. Therein lay the solution. We had to move fast, we had no time to spare. Finally, it is unquestionable that the oil lobby contributed actively to my downfall.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 201
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On himself

Life , Time , Country

“It is a fact that throughout my reign, representatives of the Red Cross were allowed to visit the kingdom's prisons at liberty. Our penitentiaries were open to all official investigators. Every prisoner's lawyer knew the details of the charges against his client, and had time in which to prepare his defence and find the necessary witnesses. Finally, a condemned man had the right of appeal, after which I often excercised my right of pardon. It is no longer like this. The so-called "Islamic tribunals" are an insult to the elevated principles of the Koran.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 199
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On Islam and the Islamic Revolution

Time

“No doubt history will say that Eisenhower was a soldier. For my part, I will remember, above all, his goodness. He was a fundamentally good man who knew how to be loved by the Americans. I was fond of Ike.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 143
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On world leaders and statesmen

Love , History , Parting

“How can you hope to build up a nation by fragmenting its politics into opposing camps? Whatever one group builds, the other will endeavour to destroy.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Asadollah Alam (1991), The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1968-77, page 552
Attributed

Hope

“At no time during my reign were there more than 3,164 so-called political prisoners, most of whom were terrorists. Since February, it is certain that tens of thousands of men and women have been arrested and imprisoned under frequently inhumane conditions.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 198-199
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On Islam and the Islamic Revolution

Women , Men , Time

“As far as we are concerned, we are not the toys of any country, including the United States.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

From an appearance on Meet the Press in 1973, ‘Meet the Press’ transcript for Nov. 18, 2007 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21869109/page/6/,
Interviews

Country

“What do these feminists want? What do you want? You say equality. Oh! I don't want to seem rude, but …you're equal in the eyes of the law but not, excuse my saying so, in ability.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Oriana Fallaci (December 30, 1973), The Mystically Divine Shah of Iran (interview), Chicago Tribune
Interviews

Law

“I don’t deny I’m lonely. Deeply so. A king, when he doesn’t have to account to anyone for what he says and does, is inevitably very much alone. But I’m not entirely alone because I’m accompanied by a force that others can’t see. My mystical force. And the I get messages. Religious messages. I’m very, very religious. I believe in God, and I’ve always said that if God didn’t exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Oh, I feel so sorry for those poor souls who don’t have God. You can’t live without God. I’ve lived with God ever since the age of five. That is, since God gave me those visions.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Oriana Fallaci (December 30, 1973), The Mystically Divine Shah of Iran (interview), Chicago Tribune
Interviews

God , Age , Feeling , Soul

“It was always with great pleasure that I met the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie who had shown great patriotic energy in his resistance to Italy. Our conversations were frank and animated and I occasionally hazarded to suggest various reforms to him. I was a young student when I heard him unsuccessfully defend his country from the rostrum of the League of Nations at Geneva. The League of Nations was powerless and today the United Nations is no more effective. What has happened to Ethiopia?”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 145
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On world leaders and statesmen

Pleasure , Animals , Country

“All I can say is that women, when they govern, are much harsher than men. Much crueler. Much more bloodthirsty. I'm citing facts, not opinions. You're heartless when you have power. Think of Catherine de Medicis, Catherine of Russia, Elizabeth I of England. Not to mention Lucrezia Borgia, with her poisons and intrigues. You're schemers, you're evil. All of you.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Oriana Fallaci (December 30, 1973), The Mystically Divine Shah of Iran (interview), Chicago Tribune
Interviews

Women , Men , Thinking , Evil

“Yugoslavia is, with Iran, the only country which under difficult, not to say agonising, circumstances stood up to Joseph Stalin. It was not easy to unite ethnic groups or to modernize a country like Yugoslavia, and it must be acknowledged that Marshal Tito achieved something extraordinary. May God grant that his successors be as capable as he.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 146-147
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On world leaders and statesmen

God , Country

“Since the beginning of 1979, it has often been said that the Shiite religion, like the ephemeral French Republic of 1792 is "one and indivisible". Nothing could be further from the truth. Those in power do not represent the élite of the hierarchy. Narrow-minded and mediocre, they are as far removed as it is possible to be from the noble ideas of the Prophet. They are ignorant of essential political, economic and social realities of the day, but nonetheless they claim to legislate.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 205
Publications, The Shah's Story (1980), On Islam and the Islamic Revolution

Truth , Religion , Idea , Reality

“If I take a liking to someone, I need only the smallest shred of doubt to make me break it off. I am alone, but I don't feel alone… because God is up there. I know people sometimes make fun of me because I am religious, but I feel this profoundly. God is my only friend.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Gérard de Villiers (1975), The Imperial Shah: An Informal Biography, page 273
Attributed

God , People , Feeling

“I want the standard of living in Iran in ten years' time to be exactly on a level with that in Europe today. In twenty years' time we shall be ahead of the United States.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Marvin Zonis (1991), Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah, page 65
Attributed

Time

“Let the dog bark; the moon shall beam on.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Gholam R. Afkhami (2009) The life and times of the Shah, page 261
The 'dog' was a reference to Khomeini
Attributed

Dogs

“You've never produced a Michleangelo or a Bach. You've never even produced a great chef. And if you talk to me about opportunity, all I can say is, are you joking? Have you ever lacked the opportunity, to give history a great chef? You've produced nothing great, nothing!”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Oriana Fallaci (December 30, 1973), The Mystically Divine Shah of Iran (interview), Chicago Tribune
Interviews

History

“Ashraf, keep this gun with you, and if troops enter Tehran and try to take us, fire a few shots and then take your own life. I'll do the same.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Ashraf Pahlavi (1980), Faces in a Mirror, page 41
Stated to his twin sister during the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran
Attributed

Life

“A person who does not enter the new [Rastakhiz] party… is either an individual who belongs to an illegal organization, or is related to the outlaw Tudeh Party, or in other words is a traitor. Such an individual belongs in an Iranian prison, or if he desires, he can leave the country tomorrow… because he is not an Iranian, he has no nation, and his activities are illegal and punishable according to law.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Marvin Zonis (1991), Majestic Failure: The Fall of the Shah, page 75
Attributed

Law , Personality , Country

“I will frankly confess that I was convinced that God had ordained me to do certain things for the service of my nation, things that perhaps could not be done by anyone else. In whatever I have done and whatever I do in the future, I consider myself as an agent of the will of God.”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

Page 16
Publications, The White Revolution (1966)

God , Future

“The Times and the Guardian accuse us of operating a police-state. The BBC Persian programme has made similair allegations, saying that countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia should be denied access to Western military technology. What are the bloody fools on about? Do they seriously regard Iraq, or Algeria, or Libya as liberal regimes?”

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

As quoted in Asadollah Alam (1991), The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1968-77, page 490
Attributed

Fools , Time , Country