The essence of a nation is that all individuals have many things in common, and also that they have forgotten many things The original text: L'essence d'une nation est que tous les individus aient beaucoup de choses en commun, et aussi que tous aient oublié bien des choses. —Ernest Renan French philosopher and historian Ernest Renan in his famous 1882 Sorbonne lecture, Qu'est-ce qu'une nation? (What is a Nation?),
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51