Switzerland Best Quotes

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When you're dealing with Switzerland, Mr. Allon, it's best to keep one thing in mind. Switzerland is not a real country. It's a business, and it's run like a business. It's a business that is constantly in a defensive posture. It's been that way for seven hundred years.
Daniel Silva (The English Assassin (Gabriel Allon, #2))
We’re going to stop this preposterous obsession with economic growth at the cost of all else. Great economic success doesn’t produce national happiness. It produces Republicans and Switzerland. So we’re going to concentrate on just being lovely and pleasant and civilized. We’re going to have the best schools and hospitals, the most comfortable public transportation, the liveliest arts, the most useful and well-stocked libraries, the grandest parks, the cleanest streets, the most enlightened social policies. In short, we’re going to be like Sweden, but with less herring and better jokes.
Bill Bryson (The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island)
On April 1st, 1957, a BBC news program ended with a three minute segment about a Spaghetti farm in Switzerland. In the segment, spaghetti (not being a popular dish in England at the time) was said to grow on trees. Many people believed the report and called the BBC to ask how to grow their own spaghetti tree. The response: "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.
BBC
Pubs have always been the heart of Irish social life, but when the smoking ban came in, a lot of people moved to drinking at home. The ban doesn't bother me, although I'm confused by the idea that you shouldn't go into a pub and do anything that might be bad for you, but the level of obedience does. To the Irish, rules always used to count as challenges—see who can come up with the best way round this one—and this sudden switch to sheep mode makes me worry that we're turning into someone else, possibly Switzerland.
Tana French (The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2))
She thought about Switzerland. Where a smile will give you away as an American. Where what isn't taboo is de rigueur. Cold, efficient Switzerland. where the woman are comely and the men are well groomed and everyone wears a determined face. Switzerland. The roof of Europe. Glacier carved. Most beautiful where it is most uninhabitable. Switzerland with its twenty-six shipshape cantons. Industrious Switzerland. Novartis. Rolex. Nestlé. Swatch. So often was Zürich ranked as one of the world's best cities. She thought about that, then conceded that if she hadn't been so sad the last nine years she might have seen it.
Jill Alexander Essbaum
I would like to see a government that said: "We're going to stop this preposterous obsession with economic growth at the expense of all else. Great economic success doesn't produce national happiness. It produces Republicans and Switzerland. So we're going to concentrate on being lovely and pleasant and civilized. We're going to have the best schools and hospitals, the most comfortable public transportation, the liveliest arts, the most useful and well-stocked libraries, the cleanest streets, the most enlightened social policies. In short, we're going to be like Sweden, but with less herring and better jokes." Wouldn't that be delightful? But of course it will never happen.
Bill Bryson
May I tell you what I would like to see? I would like to see a government that said: “We’re going to stop this preposterous obsession with economic growth at the cost of all else. Great economic success doesn’t produce national happiness. It produces Republicans and Switzerland. So we’re going to concentrate on just being lovely and pleasant and civilized. We’re going to have the best schools and hospitals, the most comfortable public transportation, the liveliest arts, the most useful and well-stocked libraries, the grandest parks, the cleanest streets, the most enlightened social policies. In short, we’re going to be like Sweden, but with less herring and better jokes.” Wouldn’t that be delightful? But of course it will never happen. —
Bill Bryson (The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island)
LIVE FROM THE PASTA FARMS, THIS HAS BEEN AL DENTE: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired a documentary on its new show Panorama about Spaghetti growers in Switzerland-- on April 1, 1957. The joke broadcast showed Swiss spaghetti farmers picking fresh spaghetti from 'spaghetti trees' and preparing the spaghetti for market. It also mentioned that the pasta farmers had a bumper crop partly because of the 'virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.' Soon after the broadcast, the BBC received phone calls from viewers eager to know if spaghetti really grew on trees and how they might grow a spaghetti tree of their own. To the last question, the BBC reportedly replied that they should 'place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.
Leland Gregory (Stupid History: Tales of Stupidity, Strangeness, and Mythconceptions Throughout the Ages)
It was through this viewer that he got his first reply from Tralfamadore. The reply was written on Earth in huge stones on a plain in what is now England. The ruins of the reply still stand, and are known as Stonehenge. The meaning of Stonehenge in Tralfamadorian, when viewed from above, is: "Replacement part being rushed with all possible speed." Stonehenge wasn't the only message old Salo had received. There had been four others, all of them written on Earth. The Great Wall of China means in Tralfamadorian, when viewed from above: "Be patient. We haven't forgotten about you." The Golden House of the Roman Emperor Nero meant: "We are doing the best we can." The meaning of the Moscow Kremlin when it was first walled was: "You will be on your way before you know it." The meaning of the Palace of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, is: "Pack up your things and be ready to leave on short notice.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
conservatives (or conservative nationalists) who became Nazis out of what Hermann Rauschning calls “the best of motives.” Rauschning joined the party in the early 1930s and became the Nazi mayor of the city of Danzig, believing in “the eternal values of the nation” and “a political order rooted in the nation.” He had a personal relationship with Hitler but soon discovered that his aims for Germany were not the Nazis’ aims, and in 1934 he left the party and fled to Switzerland. National Socialism, he had concluded, was not a conservative movement but a revolutionary one, “the destroyer of all order and all the things of the mind.” The only thing it understood was force and it held to no beliefs other than the acquisition of power and then more power. Rauschning was prescient enough to see that there was nothing to prevent the unscrupulous, nihilistic Hitler from forming an alliance with his supposed archenemy, Stalin. In a widely read book, The Revolution of Nihilism, published in 1938, he issued a warning that many did not wish to hear. The West, he said, had to prepare for “a clear, open, absolutely unflinching struggle” against the Nazis. For “nothing, not even the threat of world war, will deter them from their course.” Then
Barry Gewen (The Inevitability of Tragedy: Henry Kissinger and His World)
The turning-point [in Klosters, Switzerland in 1988] At the Aids hospice last week [July 1991] with Mrs Bush was another stepping stone for me. I had always wanted to hug people in hospital beds. This particular man who was so ill started crying when I sat on his bed and he held my hand and I thought ‘Diana, do it, just do it,’ and I gave him an enormous hug and it was just so touching because he clung to me and he cried. Wonderful! It made him laugh, that’s all right. On the other side of room, a very young man, who I can only describe as beautiful, lying in his bed, told me he was going to die about Christmas and his lover, a man sitting in a chair, much older than him, was crying his eyes out so I put my hand out to him and said: ‘It’s not supposed to be easy, all this. You’ve got a lot of anger in you, haven’t you?’ He said: ‘Yes. Why him not me?’ I said: ‘Isn’t it extraordinary, wherever I go it’s always those like you, sitting in a chair, who have to go through such hell whereas those who accept they are going to die are calm?’ He said: ‘I didn’t know that happened,’ and I said: ‘Well, it does, you’re not the only one. It’s wonderful that you’re actually by his bed. You’ll learn so much from watching your friend.’ He was crying his eyes out and clung on to my hand and I felt so comfortable in there. I just hated being taken away. All sorts of people have come into my life--elderly people, spiritual people, acupuncturists, all these people came in after I finished my bulimia. When I go into the Palace for a garden party or summit meeting dinner I am a very different person. I conform to what’s expected of me. They can’t find fault with me when I’m in their presence. I do as I’m expected. What they say behind my back is none of my business, but I come back here and I know when I turn my light off at night I did my best.
Andrew Morton (Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words)
The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Oh, what a pleasure that was! Mollie Katzen's handwritten and illustrated recipes that recalled some glorious time in upstate New York when a girl with an appetite could work at a funky vegetarian restaurant and jot down some tasty favorites between shifts. That one had the Pumpkin Tureen soup that Margo had made so many times when she first got the book. She loved the cheesy onion soup served from a pumpkin with a hot dash of horseradish and rye croutons. And the Cardamom Coffee Cake, full of butter, real vanilla, and rich brown sugar, said to be a favorite at the restaurant, where Margo loved to imagine the patrons picking up extras to take back to their green, grassy, shady farmhouses dotted along winding country roads. Linda's Kitchen by Linda McCartney, Paul's first wife, the vegetarian cookbook that had initially spurred her yearlong attempt at vegetarianism (with cheese and eggs, thank you very much) right after college. Margo used to have to drag Calvin into such phases and had finally lured him in by saying that surely anything Paul would eat was good enough for them. Because of Linda's Kitchen, Margo had dived into the world of textured vegetable protein instead of meat, and tons of soups, including a very good watercress, which she never would have tried without Linda's inspiration. It had also inspired her to get a gorgeous, long marble-topped island for prep work. Sometimes she only cooked for the aesthetic pleasure of the gleaming marble topped with rustic pottery containing bright fresh veggies, chopped to perfection. Then Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells caught her eye, and she took it down. Some pages were stuck together from previous cooking nights, but the one she turned to, the most splattered of all, was the one for Onion Soup au Gratin, the recipe that had taught her the importance of cheese quality. No mozzarella or broken string cheeses with- maybe- a little lacy Swiss thrown on. And definitely none of the "fat-free" cheese that she'd tried in order to give Calvin a rich dish without the cholesterol. No, for this to be great, you needed a good, aged, nutty Gruyère from what you couldn't help but imagine as the green grassy Alps of Switzerland, where the cows grazed lazily under a cheerful children's-book blue sky with puffy white clouds. Good Gruyère was blocked into rind-covered rounds and aged in caves before being shipped fresh to the USA with a whisper of fairy-tale clouds still lingering over it. There was a cheese shop downtown that sold the best she'd ever had. She'd tried it one afternoon when she was avoiding returning home. A spunky girl in a visor and an apron had perked up as she walked by the counter, saying, "Cheese can change your life!" The charm of her youthful innocence would have been enough to be cheered by, but the sample she handed out really did it. The taste was beyond delicious. It was good alone, but it cried out for ham or turkey or a rich beefy broth with deep caramelized onions for soup.
Beth Harbison (The Cookbook Club: A Novel of Food and Friendship)
Mohnish Pabrai in the United States, Prem Watsa in Canada, Massimo Fuggetta in the United Kingdom, Guy Spier in Switzerland, François Badelon in France, Francisco García Paramés in Spain, Ciccio Azzollini in Italy, Jochen Wermuth in Russia, Rahul Saraogi in India, Christopher Swasbrook in New Zealand, and Shuhei Abe in Japan.
John Mihaljevic (The Manual of Ideas: The Proven Framework for Finding the Best Value Investments)
Wait. Her best friend slept with her husband, so she divorced him and married her best friend’s husband?” he asked.  “I guess they have rednecks in Switzerland too cause that’s some Jerry Springer stuff,
Marita Fowler (Fat Assassins)
With the false claim that the Germans murdered six million Jews, mostly in gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland during WWII, since the end of WWII, the world has been saturated with films, documentaries and books on the Holocaust. Anyone worldwide who dares to investigate the Jewish Holocaust claims, is branded an Anti-Semite and Holocaust Denier. In our democratic world, a person who is accused of a crime is deemed innocent until irrefutable evidence proves them guilty. What has happened to democracy in Germany, Poland, France and Switzerland where people accused of Holocaust Denial are not allowed to provide any evidence that would prove that they are not guilty? In the Middle Ages, people accused of being witches, were also allowed no defence and were burned at the stake. As burning at the stake and crucifiction is not allowed in today's world, the best that the Jewish leaders and holocaust promoters can achieve is incarceration where no one can hear claims backed by years of very thorough research. The Jewish success in blocking my book "The Answer Justice", their failed attempts to stop the book "Chutzpah" written by Norman Finkelstein whose mother and father were held in German concentration camps, the incarceration of revisionists Ernst Zundel and Germar Rudolf in Germany and David Irving in Austria: these are all desperate attempts to end what they call Holocaust Denial. The English historian David Irving was refused entry to Australia in 2003 at the behest of the Jewish community (representing only 0.4% of the Australian population) thus denying the right of the other 99.6% to hear what David Irving has to say. Proof of Jewish power was the blocking of the public viewing of David Irving's film. The Jewish owners of the building locked the film presentation out which resulted in the headline in the "Australian" newspaper of: " Outrage at Jewish bid to stop the film by David Irving called "The Search For Truth in History" . Sir Zelman Cowan who was Governor General of Australia and a man much reverred in the Jewish community, has stated in the Jewish Chronicle (London) that "The way to deal with people who claim the holocaust never happened, is to produce irrefutable evidence that it did happen". I agree 100% with Sir Zelman Cowan. I am quite certain that he and other Zionist Jewish (Ashkenazim) world leaders are aware that a United Nations or International forensic examination of the alleged gas chamber at No. 2 Crematorium at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, would irrefutably prove the truth to the world that xyclon B cyanide has never been used as alleged by world Jewry to kill Jews. In 1979 Professor W.D. Rubenstein stated: "If the Holocaust can be shown to be a Zionist myth, the strongest of all weapons in Israels's propaganda armory collapses. The Falsification of history by Zionist Jews in claiming the murder of six million Jews by Germany, constitutes the GREATEST ORGANISED CRIME that the world has known.
Alexander McClelland
There are six countries in the developed world with “echo boom” generations larger than the generation of their parents, the baby boomers. In rough order of demographic strength, they are Israel, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and New Zealand. The next global boom, between 2020 and 2037, will be dominated by the stronger demographic and urbanization trends in the emerging countries, and these few “winners” in the developed world will also be the best places to invest.
Harry S. Dent (Zero Hour: Turn the Greatest Political and Financial Upheaval in Modern History to Your Advantage)
Orson Welles summed it up best in The Third Man. ‘In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
Dave Trott (One Plus One Equals Three: A Masterclass in Creative Thinking)
In 1956 a rather delicate assignment came my way. I visited Switzerland at the invitation of Nestle but with a very specific brief from the Ministry of Industries, Government of India. Industries and Commerce Minister, Manubhai Shah, wanted me to ask the executives at Nestle what they were up to in our country. Under the excuse of producing condensed milk, they were importing not just milk powder, but also sugar and the tin plate for the cans! On my arrival at the airport at Nestle’s headquarters at Vevey, a Nestle car, about a mile long, was waiting to whisk me off to the best hotel in town where they put me up. I met with Kreeber, one of their two managing directors, and some other officers. The discussions turned pretty heated. I told them that my government had given them a licence to set up a plant in India so that they would produce condensed milk from Indian milk, not from imported ingredients. The Managing Director told me that it was not possible to produce condensed milk from buffalo milk, which was available in India. I said to him, ‘If you don’t know how to make it, come to me. I will teach you because I believe we can make it out of buffalo milk. I know it is more complicated than making it from cow’s milk and there are problems, but they are not insurmountable problems.’ When I assured them that it could be done, they said that their experts would have to come and set up their plant. Then they wanted the entire share capital in their hands. In those days government allowed only 49 per cent share capital to foreigners; 51 per cent had to be Indian. Kreeber said they could not agree to that. So I showed them a way out of that too. I said that 49 per cent could be with Nestle Alimentana and 51 per cent could be owned by Nestle India and in this way the entire project could stay in their hands. I was, in fact, facilitating their entry here. Ultimately, the Director agreed to set up a plant in India. At this point I told him that they could bring in any number of foreign experts they liked but my government hoped that, in five years, Indians who would be trained for the purpose would replace these experts. Kreeber’s response to this was that the production of condensed milk was an extremely delicate procedure and they ‘could not leave it to the natives to make’. At this, I lost my temper. Getting to my feet, I thumped the table loudly and said: ‘Please remember that you are speaking to a damned “native”. If you are suggesting that even after five years of training, the “natives” are not fit to occupy any position of authority in Nestle you are insulting my country. My country knows how to do without you.’ And I stormed out of the meeting – which I hope was what any self-respecting Indian would have done.
Verghese Kurien (I Too Had a Dream)
In 1929, Einstein, who had once lived in Switzerland, wrote: When I came to Germany fifteen years ago I discovered for the first time that I was a Jew; and I owe this discovery more to Gentiles than to Jews…. I saw worthy Jews basely caricatured, and the sight made my heart bleed. I saw how schools, comic papers, and innumerable other forces of the Gentile majority undermined the confidence of even the best of my fellow Jews, and felt that this could not be allowed to continue.4
Phyllis Goldstein (A Convenient Hatred: The History of Antisemitism)
Chinese clients used to talk only about prices and vintages, not what was in the bottle. Now the important thing is not how much money you have but how you express it in wine knowledge.” Tim Weiland, former general manager of the exclusive Aman at Summer Palace in the emperor’s onetime retreat in Beijing, suggests that the image of China’s wealthy class as crass nouveau riche—mixing expensive Bordeaux with Coca-Cola, for example—is entirely out of date. “The nouveaux riches of ten years ago are now the old rich,” he says. “They have homes in Switzerland and Aspen, they’re incredibly sophisticated and well traveled—much more well traveled than I am—and they know their wines.
Andrew McCarthy (The Best American Travel Writing 2015 (The Best American Series))
In the case of Gruyère, Switzerland’s rarest grade, Le Gruyère Premier Cru, is one of the most critically acclaimed cheeses on earth: it is the only one ever to win Best Cheese at the prestigious World Cheese Awards in London four different times.
Larry Olmsted (Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don't Know What You're Eating and What You Can Do About It)
But the secret of Japan's success is simple - laissez faire. The Emperor may have initiated his capitalist Restoration in 1868, but after 1884 it became State policy to leave industry to its own devices. Having germinated it, the Japanese government understood that capitalism runs best unfettered. This is ironic, since the popular perception abroad has been that Japan has prospered because of MITI’s direction of the economy, whereas the reality is that since 1884 Japan's government has seen itself as the servant of industry, anxious to tax it and its customers as lightly as possible. A 1988 survey by the British Central Statistical Office showed that Japan was one of the three most lightly-taxed industrialised countries, the other two being the USA and Switzerland. Those three countries' governments only sequester 32-35 per cent of GNP compared to the British State's 44 per cent, the West German's 45 per cent, and the French 52 per cent.
Terence Kealey (The Economic Laws of Scientific Research)
Why You Should Build a Personal Epidermis Care and attention Ritual One of the most important points that anyone should learn found in personal life is how to properly look after their pores and skin. Our skin is normally the major organ and is definitely linked to our important organs in our human body. For this motive only, we should twin the treatment it requirements for a much better lifestyle. The very best approach of undertaking this is certainly to build a good personal pores and skin care habit - the one which you can absolutely implement for your long-term pores and skin goals. Why is this important? For one, we all have numerous skin area types and we also live in different circumstances. What performs for one person may not work that very well to another. It is normally as well certainly not about how precisely high-priced your goods will be. No subject how wonderful your epidermis treatment products will be, your epidermis is definitely not really heading to start looking the approach you prefer it to if you don’t commit to employing it regularly. Even if you possess all the know-how about skin area attention and makeup products, it calls for dedication to in fact execute what you find out. Building the personal pores and skin care and handling ritual is as well significant because if you simply stick to what you find upon others, it is certainly not really heading to get a personal encounter and it won’t signify a thing regardless. When you follow your personal skin area care and attention habit, it is certainly so many easier to do it in the long lasting. This is normally because you professionally decided to carry out it and it is normally something you are going to easily familiarize yourself. Little one else can create a good good personal pores and skin good care guide for yourself other than you. You know your epidermis and you professionally know what it necessities. You simply need to religiously follow your epidermis attention guidebook and carry out your skincare habit. In no time, you can accomplish some skin area goal that you have definitely wished.
myswisscosmetics.com
Why You Should Build a Personal Epidermis Good care Ritual One of the most crucial issues that anyone should learn in existence is how to properly manage their epidermis. Our epidermis is normally the greatest organ and is linked to our important organs in our human body. For this factor together, we should increase the attention it necessities for a better life. The very best method of performing this is usually to build a great personal epidermis health care practice - one which you can absolutely undertake for your long-term pores and skin goals. Why is this important? For one, we all have numerous skin area types and we also live in various conditions. What works for one person may not function that well to another. It is usually as well not about how high-priced your products happen to be. No subject how great your skin care and attention products happen to be, your skin is normally certainly not heading to glance the method you prefer it to if you don’t commit to applying it constantly. Even if you possess all the understanding about skin care and products, it can take dedication to essentially execute what you find out. Establishing the personal skin caution routine is likewise crucial since if perhaps you simply carry out what you find in others, it is certainly not heading to become a personal experience and it will not signify a thing anyhow. When you adhere to your personal epidermis good care routine, it is normally hence many easier to do it in the long lasting. This is normally because you in person opted to carry out it and it is normally something you are heading to quickly familiarize yourself. An absense of one else may create a good great personal pores and skin good care guideline for yourself other than you. You find out your pores and skin and you in person know very well what it necessities. You just need to religiously follow your epidermis care and attention lead and carry out your anti aging practice. In no period, you can gain some skin area aim that you possess generally required.
myswisscosmetics.com
How to Get the Best Facial Wash for Men People alike wish to keep their epidermis fresh and clean. But also for quite a long time, it's hard for us men to look for a good facial wash that's formulated for our skin. Most skincare brands often have products only formulated for girls. Thankfully, gone were those days and there are extra products specially made for guys that will be out in your skin care market. And that means you no longer need to worry about not finding a skin care item that you'll require. Men's epidermis has its needs which explains why it is important that we use a facial rinse or any other skincare product that's made especially for our skin. Here's how to find the best facial wash for guys. 1. Find out your skin layer type first. Let me give you, know your skin type as each skin type has different needs. A facial rinse for oily skin might not exactly work that very well on dry skin hence before getting one, ensure that this facial clean is formulated for your skin layer type. 2. Determine if it can address your current skincare needs. There are different sorts of facial wash and each individual you have different functions based on what your skin needs. Some facial clean helps increase hydration while others are created for acne. Additionally, there are cleansers that dual as skincare for shaving due to the fact shaving is a major part of man's skincare routine. 3. Search for its ingredients. What makes something a powerful is its materials. Be sure that the facial clean you are getting contains all the substances that you'll require for your skin. Also, discover a facial wash that contains things that optimize cellular renewal as it restores your skin's pure processes and facilitates it heal better.
myswisscosmetics.com
How to Come across the very best Facial Wash for Men Women and men alike wish to keep their epidermis fresh and tidy. But for a long time, it's hard for all of us men to discover a good facial rinse that's formulated for our skin. Most skincare brands frequently have products simply formulated for girls. Thankfully, gone were those days and there are extra products specially designed for guys that happen to be out in your skin care market. Which means you no longer need to worry about not finding a skincare item that you'll require. Men's epidermis has its needs which explains why it is crucial that people use a facial wash or any other skincare product that's made especially for our skin. Here's where to find the very best facial wash for men. 1. Know your skin type first. Before anything else, know your skin layer type as each skin type has different needs. A facial rinse for oily skin might not exactly work that well on dry skin hence before getting one, be sure that this facial rinse is formulated for your skin layer type. 2. Determine if it could address your current skincare needs. There are different sorts of facial wash and just about every you have different functions according to what the skin needs. Some facial wash helps boost hydration while some are created for acne. There are also cleansers that double as skincare for shaving due to the fact shaving is a large component of man's skincare routine. 3. Search for its ingredients. What makes something a powerful is its materials. Be sure that the facial rinse you're getting contains all the substances that you'll require for your skin layer. Also, find a facial wash that contains ingredients that optimize cellular renewal since it restores your skin's pure processes and facilitates it heal better.
myswisscosmetics.com
yass that’s right me and Switzerland the best evah
Rachel Vail (Well, That Was Awkward)
The “where-to-be-born” index, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, claims Switzerland is the best country to be born in. For good reasons. The country is ranked second in global competitiveness, first in patent filings per person, second in human development and first in trust in government. It does this with the seventh-highest share of renewable energy as a percentage of total energy.
R. James Breiding (Swiss Made: The Untold Story Behind Switzerland’s Success)
What’s the best part about living in Switzerland? No idea, but the flag is a big plus!
Joe King (Jokes: 6 books in 1: The Ultimate Collection of Funny Jokes and Stories for Adults)
But I have often notices that Westerners have an inborn tendency to minimize or ridicule whatever Persians do--not because it is badly done, but simply because they are exasperated by the pride of the Persian who boasts that what he has done is "the best in the world." They do not see that among Asiatics this attitude is the inevitable reaction to the condescension with which Westerners brought their mechanical progress to the East as if it were a revealed religion capable of healing all ills.
Ella K. Maillart (The Cruel Way: Switzerland to Afghanistan in a Ford, 1939)
I knew you forever and you were always old, soft white lady of my heart. Surely you would scold me for sitting up late, reading your letters, as if these foreign postmarks were meant for me. You posted them first in London, wearing furs and a new dress in the winter of eighteen-ninety. I read how London is dull on Lord Mayor's Day, where you guided past groups of robbers, the sad holes of Whitechapel, clutching your pocketbook, on the way to Jack the Ripper dissecting his famous bones. This Wednesday in Berlin, you say, you will go to a bazaar at Bismarck's house. And I see you as a young girl in a good world still, writing three generations before mine. I try to reach into your page and breathe it back… but life is a trick, life is a kitten in a sack. This is the sack of time your death vacates. How distant your are on your nickel-plated skates in the skating park in Berlin, gliding past me with your Count, while a military band plays a Strauss waltz. I loved you last, a pleated old lady with a crooked hand. Once you read Lohengrin and every goose hung high while you practiced castle life in Hanover. Tonight your letters reduce history to a guess. The count had a wife. You were the old maid aunt who lived with us. Tonight I read how the winter howled around the towers of Schloss Schwobber, how the tedious language grew in your jaw, how you loved the sound of the music of the rats tapping on the stone floors. When you were mine you wore an earphone. This is Wednesday, May 9th, near Lucerne, Switzerland, sixty-nine years ago. I learn your first climb up Mount San Salvatore; this is the rocky path, the hole in your shoes, the yankee girl, the iron interior of her sweet body. You let the Count choose your next climb. You went together, armed with alpine stocks, with ham sandwiches and seltzer wasser. You were not alarmed by the thick woods of briars and bushes, nor the rugged cliff, nor the first vertigo up over Lake Lucerne. The Count sweated with his coat off as you waded through top snow. He held your hand and kissed you. You rattled down on the train to catch a steam boat for home; or other postmarks: Paris, verona, Rome. This is Italy. You learn its mother tongue. I read how you walked on the Palatine among the ruins of the palace of the Caesars; alone in the Roman autumn, alone since July. When you were mine they wrapped you out of here with your best hat over your face. I cried because I was seventeen. I am older now. I read how your student ticket admitted you into the private chapel of the Vatican and how you cheered with the others, as we used to do on the fourth of July. One Wednesday in November you watched a balloon, painted like a silver abll, float up over the Forum, up over the lost emperors, to shiver its little modern cage in an occasional breeze. You worked your New England conscience out beside artisans, chestnut vendors and the devout. Tonight I will learn to love you twice; learn your first days, your mid-Victorian face. Tonight I will speak up and interrupt your letters, warning you that wars are coming, that the Count will die, that you will accept your America back to live like a prim thing on the farm in Maine. I tell you, you will come here, to the suburbs of Boston, to see the blue-nose world go drunk each night, to see the handsome children jitterbug, to feel your left ear close one Friday at Symphony. And I tell you, you will tip your boot feet out of that hall, rocking from its sour sound, out onto the crowded street, letting your spectacles fall and your hair net tangle as you stop passers-by to mumble your guilty love while your ears die.
Anne Sexton
One of the most revealing studies of the problem concerns a bird, the blue tit. The females of this species show all of the behaviour we have just described for women. Those lucky ones paired to genetically superior males with the best territories are totally faithful. Neighbouring females, paired to genetically inferior males, take every opportunity to seek infidelity with the superior males. They sneak into the better males' territories, solicit intercourse, then return unobserved to the partner they have just cheated. On average, about a third of young birds in a nest have not been sired by their mother's partner. Actual levels range from 0 per cent in the nests of the most favoured males to about 80 per cent in the nests of the least favoured ones. A surprisingly similar pattern is found in humans. On average, about 10 per cent of children are not sired by their supposed father. Some men, however, have a higher chance of being deceived in this way than others — and it is those of low wealth and status who fare worst. Actual figures range from 1 per cent in high-status areas of Switzerland and the USA, through 5-6 per cent for moderate-status males in Britain and the USA, to 10-30 per cent for lower-status males in Britain, France and the USA.
Robin Baker (Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles)