America creates myths by focusing a lot of energy on its history and using it - - not always, but sometimes - for constructive purposes. Bernard-Henri Levy More Quotes by Bernard-Henri Levy More Quotes From Bernard-Henri Levy The euro is a great achievement. It's a symbolic achievement. But, the European constitution was a missed opportunity. Bernard-Henri Levy constitutionachievementopportunity The conservatives want to revolutionize the world all at once. And that's a dangerous proposal. Bernard-Henri Levy proposalwantworld Even if it doesn't sound like it at first, that's an identity that Europe can go out into the world with and take a leading role. Bernard-Henri Levy identitysoundeurope I really like the United State, its relationship to space and time, its interest in mobility, its cosmopolitanism. Bernard-Henri Levy time-and-spaceinterest In general, Europeans need to get a wider perspective on the problem of Islamism. Even if the Israel-Palestine question were solved - and I think and hope that one day soon it will be - this wouldn't stop one person from becoming a terrorist. Bernard-Henri Levy perspectiveisraelthinking When you believe in what you are doing, when you are seeking justice for the killing of Daniel Pearl, when you want to alert public opinion to the plight of the massacred people of Darfur, or in the recently martyred former Soviet republic Georgia, it makes more sense to use the media than to work in silence. Bernard-Henri Levy justicebelievepeople I work even when I am on vacation. You know that line by Stéphane Mallarmé, "All earthly existence must ultimately be contained in a book"? I am the kind of person who finds life interesting only if it is translated into writing, if it is parsed into words. Bernard-Henri Levy vacationwritingbook You can be horrified by the state of the prisons, the misery in certain neighborhoods of its cities, or their level of poverty. Anti-Americanism, by which I mean a hatred for America as such-its transformation into a metaphysical category, which incarnates all the evil in the world-is one of fascism's favorite themes. Look at writer and political theorist Charles Maurras in France. The philosopher Martin Heidegger in Germany. The radical Islamists of today! Bernard-Henri Levy politicalevilmean It's true that in France there is always this ridiculous complex about money. Money is cursed, shameful, money disqualifies you . . . In America, even though it is a Protestant country, it's the opposite. Bernard-Henri Levy shamefulridiculouscountry France is a country where thinking is supposed to be furtive, invisible, almost clandestine. France is a country of cliques and sects. Bernard-Henri Levy invisiblecountrythinking Each time a Palestinian or an Israeli dies, it is terrible. But they have the right to have a funeral, to be buried, to have a place in the memory of the survivors. And then you have these other places - Darfur, Rwanda, even Colombia - where the dead have no faces and literally cannot be counted. Theirs are minuscule lives moving toward imperceptible deaths. For me, it is the essence of tragedy. Bernard-Henri Levy funeralmemoriesmoving
