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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Quotes

1919–1980 Iran

Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi (Persian: محمدرضا شاه پهلوی, pronounced [mohæmmæd-rezɒː-ʃɒːh-e pæhlæviː]) (26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980) was the Shah of the Imperial State of Iran from 1941 until he was deposed in 1979 by the Islamic Revolution. He died in exile in Egypt.

Iran
Monarchs

Also known as: Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi

Random Mohammad Reza Pahlavi quote

55 quotes

Better that he take risks than that he ends up a shrinking violet like Ahmad Shah Qajar.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

What's happened recently in Pakistan, India and Kuwait only goes to show that it's futile to imitate Western democracy. They've ended up exactly where they started.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

Let the dog bark; the moon shall beam on.

Attributed Gholam R. Afkhami (2009)

The great powers claim that whatever they possess is theirs by right, but whatever we, the smaller countries possess is negotiable.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

Pride comes before a fall- although in [Henry Kissinger's] case it's more conceit than pride.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

To be first in the Middle East is not enough. We must raise ourselves to the level of a great world power.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

It would serve the Americans right if we emptied the prisons and let the subversives take power. They'd soon show Washington just how much they appreciate good old American values.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

Who on earth do the Americans suppose their allies are amongst the Arab world? Even Saudi Arabia they seem to regard as nothing more than a reservoir of oil and money.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

Nixon is a strong leader with a good grasp of the world's problems. He knows that the only way to argue with the communists is from a position of strength.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

How can you hope to build up a nation by fragmenting its politics into opposing camps? Whatever one group builds, the other will endeavour to destroy.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

We may be delighted to see Israel putting the Arabs in their place, but we have repeatedly condemned their occupation of Arab territory.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

Soviet propaganda is remarkably effective and the Americans are even more remarkably stupid.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

Ashraf, keep this gun with you, and if troops enter Tehran and try to take us, fire a few shots and then take your own life. I'll do the same.

Attributed Ashraf Pahlavi (1980)

I want the standard of living in Iran in ten years' time to be exactly on a level with that in Europe today. In twenty years' time we shall be ahead of the United States.

Attributed Marvin Zonis (1991)

This criticism is ridiculous. The twenty-five hundreth anniversary celebration cost me less than the inauguration of each new president of the United States.

Attributed Gérard de Villiers (1975)

If [the British] have the fucking audacity to advise me ever again, I shall fuck them so rigid that they'll think twice before crossing my path in future.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

They want liberalization! I'll give them liberalization. I'll loosen the screws until the Americans beg me to tighten them again.

Attributed Marvin Zonis (1991)

Muslim brothers be damned; they're our greatest enemies. You know yourself that I'm a Muslim, even a fanatical Muslim. But that does nothing to alter my opinion of the Arabs.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

Nixon would like to consign us to to the level of the most backward countries in the whole Middle East. Why lower us to the standard of the Saudis rather than raising the Saudis to meet us?

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

I have learned by experience that a tragic end awaits anyone who dares cross swords with me; Nasser is no more, John and Robert Kennedy died at the hands of assassins, their brother Edward has been disgraced, Krushchev was toppled, the list is endless.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.