“In politics continental Europe was infantile — horrifying. What America lacked, for all its political stability, was the capacity to enjoy intellectual pleasures as though they were sensual pleasures. This is what Europe offered, or was said to offer.”

— Saul Bellow

"My Paris" (1983), p. 235
It All Adds Up (1994)

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Saul Bellow 103

Canadian-born American writer 1915–2005

Tony Judt (1948–2010) British historian

Source: Thinking the Twentieth Century (2012), Ch. 2: London and Language: English Writer

“It's time to turn this debate around, drive out politics of despair and offer a vision for Britain in Europe.”

John McDonnell (1951) British politician (born 1951)

Source: John McDonnell criticises EU vote campaign 'negativity' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36310486 BBC News (17 May 2016)

“The Europeans are … making a choice that will inevitably give Europe more geopolitical clout—at the expense of American primacy. … And the impetus will come not just from Europe's new ambition, which will gather slowly, but also from America's domestic politics and its schizophrenic reaction to the rise of Europe.”

Charles A. Kupchan (1958) American university teacher

Source: The End of the American Era (2002), Chapter four: "The Rise of Europe"

“The majority of mankind and people who lack refinement conceive it to be pleasure, and hence they approve a life of sensual enjoyment.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I), Bk. 1, Chapter III

“The relative stability of the system is… largely determined by its capacity to adjust to the demands of the actors affected by changing political and environmental conditions.”

Robert Gilpin (1930–2018) Political scientist

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

“Stability is of huge significance to the future of our region. And I have to express great pleasure, and it is a huge potential and advantage that Serbia has, and that is that in Serbia there is political stability. On our part we will do everything to make a contribution to regional stability.”

Ivica Dačić (1966) Serbian politician

Source: "ΙΒΝΑ-Exclusive Interview-Ivica Dacic: Stability is of huge importance to the future of our region" in Independent Balkan News Agency https://balkaneu.com/ibna-exclusive-interview-ivica-dacic-stability-is-of-huge-importance-to-the-future-of-our-region/ (20 May 2017)

“The liberal tradition has its roots in the Enlightenment, that period in the eighteenth-century Europe when intellectuals and political leaders had a powerful sense that reason could be employed to make the world a better place.”

John Mearsheimer book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

Source: The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001), Chapter 1, Introduction, p. 15

“The vision for Europe needs to renew its commitment to true subsidiarity. Having structures of economic, political and social relationships that liberate subsidiarity will make accepting complexity more realistic. It seems to me that current debates about what Europe is have fallen into the trap of equating strength and unity with simplicity. As I have just said, the opposite seems to be true. Attempts to explain European structures and identity with a single overarching story have ended in failure because they have not allowed sufficient flexibility for these structures to be lived out below the continental level.”

Justin Welby (1956) British Anglican bishop; the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury

Address to the Catholic Institute of Paris (November 19, 2016)

“Europe is an economic giant, a political dwarf, and a military worm.”

Mark Eyskens (1933) Belgian politician

As quoted by Craig R. Whitney in WAR IN THE GULF: EUROPE; Gulf Fighting Shatters Europeans' Fragile Unity, The New York Times, January 25th, 1991. http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/25/world/war-in-the-gulf-europe-gulf-fighting-shatters-europeans-fragile-unity.html?pagewanted=1
This phrase was pronounced in January 1991, a few days before the beginning of Desert Storm, while Eyskens was the Foreign Minister of Belgium.

“In England, I get offered films. I don't get offers in America. People don't know what to do with me in America. And I've disappeared.”

Gillian Anderson (1968) American-British film, television and theatre actress, activist and writer

Associated Press (January 20, 2006) "American tragedy", Chicago Tribune RedEye Edition, Chicago Tribune, p. 52.
2000s

“In politics continental Europe was infantile — horrifying. What America lacked, for all its political stability, was the capacity to enjoy intellectual pleasures as though they were sensual pleasures. This is what Europe offered, or was said to offer.”

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Saul Bellow 103

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