Karl Lagerfeld Quotes

Just as the British subject loves England despite her faults, so we must insist that all Germans who were part of the old Germany and helped shape her, recognize the greatness and worthiness of present-day Germany.

I had studied Irish history. I had read speeches from the dock. I had tried to fuse the vivid past of my nation with the lost spaces of my childhood. I had learned the battles, the ballads, the defeats. It never occurred to me that eventually the power and insistence of a national tradition would offer me only a new way of not belonging.

When people ask me where I am from I never say, 'Serbia.' I always say, 'I come from a country that no longer exists.'

We made no inquiries about India or about the families people had left behind. When our ways of thinking had changed, and we wished to know, it was too late. I know nothing of the people on my father's side; I know only that some of them came from Nepal.

When a country loses its identity, it no longer knows what it is or where it comes from and what its real worth is. So it dissolves.

It took me many years to understand that my identity is more Israeli than Jewish.

The French no longer respect their language, because they no longer love themselves, and, no longer loving themselves, they no longer love what was the instrument of their glory - their language.

I have become aware on my travels that when a country loses the connection between its history and its traditional dress, something truly precious is lost.

My ancestors come from a part of southern China where most villages can trace their roots back at least a thousand years or even more. However, as a typical American, I have lived in four cities and moved at least seven times.

The homeland affects you directly: it affects your body; it affects the collective mind and the collective heart and the collective spirit.

I have long been convinced that my artistic ideal stands or falls with Germany. Only the Germany that we love and desire can help us achieve that ideal.

I'm English and love England. Whenever I'm there, I'm always seeing the present but feeling its past.

I belong in America more than South Africa. I can't remember the feeling of living there anymore. It's like it was in another life. That's sad in a way. It is my country. It's where I grew up. You don't know what it's like to have these negative feelings about your homeland. There are roots you can't escape.

Even though I'm very Westernized as an individual and very Canadian, I guess I've lost some of my Chinese culture.

I don't know whether it is fortunate or unfortunate, but I have no such thing as national pride. I don't feel proud that I am Iranian. I happen to be who I am.

Somebody said that I am the last American living the tragedy of Europe.

This happens to a lot of kids from different backgrounds - they lose a lot of their parents' and grandparents' teachings, language and culture because they have to deal with another language and culture 24/7. By the time I was 44, I was terrible at Spanish. I was always intimidated whenever I had to speak it.

I've always been an outsider. Even in London. If I returned to Scotland, I'd feel a complete foreigner.

Whenever you move, I think you lose your history.

The beginning of Canadian cultural nationalism was not 'Am I really that oppressed?' but 'Am I really that boring?'

I feel like the people from Iceland have a different relationship with their country than other places. Most Icelandic people are really proud to be from there, and we don't have embarrassments like World War II where we were cruel to other people.

It's in your DNA to be a Filipino; how can you just turn your back on it?

The conviction of our Ukrainian nation is embedded in the pages of its history.

We are not America. We are Afghanistan.

I'm a product of Russian culture, but I never felt it was my country.