Skip to content

Europe taught that all great men are humanity's teachers.[...] America teaches that whoever succeeds in life should be your leader. Japan teaches that a man who has many friends is a man who has mastered life and such a man is a good man.

— Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Another quote →

Notes from Wikiquote

Originally published in Rumah Kaca , 1988

More quotes by Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Bravery for the sake of bravery is just as negative as acting arbitrarily for the sake of acting arbitrarily.They are both extravagances, nothing more.

All the powerful are the same. It's when they start talking that they feel greatness, and even more so when they're not listening to others.

[...] only old branches can be broken. The young ones bend with the storm. Only the stupid ones resist.

There must be a reason, some proper grounds to attack another party because that's the European way of thinking. Not like the Asian kings - they attacked other kingdoms giving no other reason than that they wanted to be stronger than others. Europe must have a reason, even if it's just made up and isn't really true, but there must be some excuse for the action.

All Pramoedya Ananta Toer quotes →

Attribution

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