Footsteps

Vacillation (IV)

My fiftieth year had come and gone,
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book and empty cup,
On the marble table-cup.

While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seems, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).

"The European powers had long followed the practice of maintaining permanent resident embassies and consulates, in the Islamic lands as elsewhere. The Islamic governments did not. It was the normal practice of Muslim sovereigns to send an ambassador to a foreign ruler when there was something to say, and to bring him home when he had said it."
Bernard Lewis, "What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response", Oxford Press, p. 26

“On the Christian side there was a similar difference in attitude to the three major Asian civilizations, and for obvious reasons. Neither Indians nor Chinese ruled the Christian holy land, nor had they conquered Spain, captured Constantinople, or besieged Vienna. Neither Hindus nor Buddhists nor yet Confucians had ever dismissed the version of God’s word to replace them. There were special difficulties in the long encounter between Islam and Christendom that were not present in the encounters between either of these civilizations and the remoter civilizations of Asia.”
Bernard Lewis, “What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response”, Oxford Press, p. 37

“The difference between Middle Eastern and Western economic approaches can be seen even in their distinctive forms of corruption, from which neither society is exempt. In the West, one makes money in the market, and uses it to buy or influence power. In the East, one seizes power, and uses it to make money. Morally there is no difference between the two, but their impact on the economy and on the polity is very different.”
Bernard Lewis, “What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response”, Oxford Press, p. 63