Quotes by Bernard Lewis

About Bernard Lewis:

Bernard Lewis is a British-American historian specializing in oriental studies. He is also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. Lewis' expertise is in the history of Islam and the interaction between Islam and the West. He is also noted in academic circles for his works on the history of the Ottoman Empire.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

As Osama bin Laden puts it: "In this final phase of the ongoing struggle, the world of the infidels was divided between two superpowers--the United States and the Soviet Union. Now we have defeated and destroyed the more difficult and the more danger...

Bernard Lewis

I do not dye my hair black so as to be young again and sin again but because people dye their clothes black in mourning, so I have dyed my hair black, mourning for my old age. -

Bernard Lewis

One grey hair appeared on my head I plucked it out with my hand. It answered me: "You have prevailed against me alone - What will you do when my army comes after me?" -

Bernard Lewis

I have no time in the world but the time in which I am and that lasts a moment and passes like a cloud. -

Bernard Lewis

One female who knows what to do is better than a thousand males who don't. -

Bernard Lewis

Your life is a sum of counted breaths. With each breath that passes a part of life is lost. That which gives life brings death every moment nearer, and your caravan is led by one who will not jest with you. -

Bernard Lewis

War begins like a pretty girl with whom every man wants to flirt and ends like an ugly old woman whose visitors suffer and weep -

Bernard Lewis

America is harmless as an enemy but treacherous as a friend.

Bernard Lewis

In 1940, we knew who we were, we knew who the enemy was, we knew the dangers and the issues," he told me when I pressed him for a reading of the struggle against Islamic radicalism. "In our island, we knew we would prevail, that the Americans would b...

Bernard Lewis

Author Bio

  • NameBernard Lewis
  • DescriptionBritish-American historian
  • BornMay 31, 1916
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionHistorian
  • AwardsNational Humanities Medal