Bernard Lewis Quotes
1916–2018 England
Bernard Lewis (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British historian specializing in oriental studies.
- England
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- Historians
- Non-fiction authors
Also known as: Lewis, B.
Random Bernard Lewis quote
8 quotes
The surest test of one's understanding of a text in another language is translating it into one's own.
The emergence of the new monarchies, in which one man could determine the politics and religion of the state, made assassination an effective as well as an acceptable weapon.
The overwhelming majority of classical theologians, jurists, and traditionalists [i.e., specialists in the hadith] . . . understood the obligation of jihad in a military sense.
In most Muslim countries Islam is still the ultimate criterion of group identity and loyalty. It is Islam which distinguishes between self and other, between insider and outsider, between brother and stranger.
[T]ruth is in its usual place, somewhere in the middle between the extremes.
The New Antisemitism (2006)
You know the expression "My country, right or wrong." Well, these days, Americans are apt to think, "My country, wrong."
[G]enerally speaking, Muslim tolerance of unbelievers was far better than anything available in Christendom, until the rise of secularism in the 17th century.
Islam: The Religion and the People (2008)
As medieval Christian man could only conceive of religion in terms of a trinity, so his modern descendant can only conceive of politics in terms of a theology or, as we now say, ideology, of left-wing and right-wing forces and factions.
The Return of Islam (1976)