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The idea that a culture can preserve its originality by barricading itself against foreign influences is an old illusion that has always produced the opposite of the desired result. Isolation breeds sterility. It is the free circulation of cultural products and talents that allows each society to perpetuate and renew itself.

— Jean-François Revel Anti-Americanism (2003)

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More quotes by Jean-François Revel

Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.

Strangely, it is always America that is described as degenerate and 'fascist', while it is solely in Europe that actual dictatorships and totalitarian regimes spring up.

Europe's Anti-American Obsession (2003)

Democratic civilization is the first in history to blame itself because another power is working to destroy it.

How Democracies Perish (1983)

The strange thing is that it's always in Europe that dictatorships and totalitarian regimes spring up, yet it's always America that is "fascist".

Anti-Americanism (2003)

Anti-Americanism thus defined is less a popular prejudice than a parti pris of the political, cultural and religious elites.

Anti-Americanism (2003)

All Jean-François Revel quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Jean-François Revel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.