Brian Ferneyhough Quotes

No society lies nearer to the cyclonic path of the forces of world change than the United States, and few societies are more intellectually aware of the nature of the issues that have to be faced.

Since 1948 I have spent every single day thinking how the economic and political worlds have changed.

Extreme nationalism and Bolshevism have broken up the old world, a new world is in the making. It is literally true that old things are passing away; all things may become new, granted we have wise, unselfish, and determined guides.

After the end of the Cold War, we have the obligation to help these Eastern European countries to enjoy the same kinds of benefits that we enjoyed 50 years ago.

I don't put any dates on these things. I don't say what is going to happen in one year, five years, ten years, but I am confident that the trend toward freedom in the Communist world is a basic truth.

Much of the history of the 21st century, for good or ill, will be written in Asia.

There are times, perhaps once every thirty years, when there is a sea-change in politics. It then does not matter what you say or what you do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of.

The duty of an American churchman in China is not simply introducing new ideas into the country, but modifying its industrial, social, and political life and institutions. Missionaries are the pioneers of trade and commerce. Civilization, learning, instruction breed new wants which commerce supplies.

Brexit has really broken a taboo. The Brits have shown us that you can leave the European Union, and you can come out better.

Africa, and Zambia in particular, drifted away from the West for a long time, and we have to reconcile.

China's reform and opening-up programme and Europe's integration process have both contributed significantly to global peace, development, and prosperity. China firmly supports the integration of Europe and regards the E.U. as a strategic partner that deserves our confidence.

Until the last great war, a general expectation of material improvement was an idea peculiar to Western man. Now war and its aftermath have made economic and social progress a political imperative in every quarter of the globe.

I think Europe is going in the right direction and we shouldn't be set back.

In the modern world, those who are weak will get unambiguous advice from foreign visitors which way to go and what policy course to pursue.

The Berlin Wall wasn't the only barrier to fall after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Traditional barriers to the flow of money, trade, people and ideas also fell.

I can remember when I first went into the Himalayan area way back in 1951. Money, for instance, was not important at all to the local people. But now, finance has become just as important to them as it is to us, and this is a change maybe not for the better.

My instinct as a philosopher is that we are effectively approaching a multicentric world, which means we need to ask new, and for the traditional left, unpleasant questions.

Our relations with the other powers of Europe have experienced no essential change since the last session.

It is a mystery why any Americans would support the concept of the EU.

The energy of the Kennedy years was completely compelling... I had a sense of a generous society eager to change the world. Idealism was very contagious. So that's why I went to America. I didn't intend to stay.

In international relations, in foreign policy, a great deal has to do with historical circumstances, a great deal has to do with the sense and perception of people.

Poles finished communism, and Great Britain profited significantly from this.

You know, this idea of going around the world imposing democracy by growing a middle-class, a trading merchant class that is independent of your faith, is a good notion, but we're all partially different - it's no good imposing systems on people that it doesn't suit.

It is time we in Scotland put England in its proper place and instead of our leaning on England and taking inspiration from her, we should lean and turn to Europe, for it is there our future prosperity lies.

To be influential in tomorrow's world, to defend our values and our development model, France needs Europe and Europe needs France.