“I wish Europe would let Russia annihilate Turkey a little--not much, but enough to make it difficult to find the place again without a divining-rod or a diving-bell.”

— Mark Twain , book The Innocents Abroad

Source: The Innocents Abroad (1869), Ch. 42

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 28, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I wish Europe would let Russia annihilate Turkey a little--not much, but enough to make it difficult to find the place …" by Mark Twain?

Mark Twain 637

American author and humorist 1835–1910

Joan Mitchell (1925–1992) American painter

Tape number two, side A
1975 - 1992, Oral history interview with Joan Mitchell, 1986

“Europe is the smallest continent. It is not really even a continent—just a subcontinental annexe to Asia. The whole of Europe (excluding Russia and Turkey) comprises just five and a half million square kilometers: less than two thirds the area of Brazil, not much more than half the size of China or the US. It is dwarfed by Russia, which covers seventeen million square kilometers. But in the intensity of its internal differences and contrasts, Europe is unique.”

Tony Judt book Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945

Preface & Acknowledgements
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (2005)

“How did I know that someday — at college, in Europe, somewhere, anywhere — the bell jar, with its stifling distortions, wouldn’t descend again?”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch. 20

“Does the cosmos contain keys for opening my diving bell? A subway line with no terminus? A currency strong enough to buy my freedom back? We must keep looking.”

Jean-Dominique Bauby book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Source: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

“Turkeys are intelligent, social, curious, and sometimes even funny. I wish people were more like turkeys sometimes. … We're going to have a special celebration for turkeys this November, where we're going to hang out with turkeys, we're not going to eat them, we're just going to kind of chill, hang out, talk with the turkeys, eat a little veggies.”

Biz Stone (1974) American blogger; co-founder of Twitter

“Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone talks about turkeys and Farm Sanctuary” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmemxjLriUI, ad for Farm Sanctuary (18 October 2011), reported in “Twitter founder Biz Stone likes turkeys, wishes people were more like them” https://venturebeat.com/2011/11/12/biz-stone-likes-turkeys/, in VentureBeat.com (12 November 2011).

“Turkey is a secular and democratic state. This is all the more reason to make Turkey feel welcome in Europe… This is something I feel very strongly and very passionately about. Together I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels.”

David Cameron (1966) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

"Turkey must be welcome in EU, insists Cameron" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-must-be-welcome-in-eu-insists-cameron-2036190.html, The Independent, (27th July 2010)
2010s, A speech about Turkey's EU membership process

“I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart is riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Source: The Diary of Adam and Eve

“Charlton Heston: "Yes indeed I can (…). Kuwait, Bahrain, Turkey, Russia, uh… Iran."”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

1990s

“Yes, this is Europe. The Europe that did not respond to the Serb shelling of Dubrovnik. Or the three-year siege of Sarajevo. The Europe that let Bosnia die.
A new definition of Europe: the place where tragedies don't take place. Wars, genocides — that happened here once, but no longer. It's something that happens in Africa. (Or places in Europe that are not "really" Europe. That is, the Balkans.) Again, perhaps I exaggerate. But having spent a good part of three years, from 1993 to 1996, in Sarajevo, it does not seem to me like an exaggeration at all.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

"Why Are We In Kosovo?" inThe New York Times Magazine http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E1DA163DF931A35756C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all (2 May 1999)

“They made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment, their souls would leave them.”

Bartolomé de las Casas (1474–1566) Spanish Dominican friar, historian, and social reformer

History of the Indies (1561)

“I wish Europe would let Russia annihilate Turkey a little--not much, but enough to make it difficult to find the place again without a divining-rod or a diving-bell.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Mark Twain 637

Related quotes

Related topics