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Attributed quotes — Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

1919–1980 Iran

← All quotes by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

38 quotes

Thank God we in Iran have neither the desire nor the need to suffer from democracy.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

You approach the Mullahs as if they are normal people. They are not. You see them in your own image; you should not.

Attributed Gholam R. Afkhami (2009)

He [the King of Morocco] spends half his time asleep and the rest of it buried between the legs of the fairer sex.

Attributed Asadollah Alam (1991)

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)

Attribution

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