62 Quotes by Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

هـیـچ مـلـتـی نـمـی‌تـوانـد تـنـهـا بـه خـاطـر گـذشـتـه خـود زنـدگـی کـنـد و بـدون گـذشـتـه خـود نـیـز نـمـی‌تـوانـد پـایـدار بـمـانـد. مـلـتـی کـه بـه گـذشـتـه خـود وابـسـتـه و دلـبـسـتـه نـبـاشـد، الـزامـاً از صـحـنـه روزگـار نـاپـدیـد خـواهـد شـد.

Shah is a kind of magic word with the Persian people.

Let me tell you quite bluntly that this king business has given me personally nothing but headaches.

My main mistake was to have made an ancient people advance by forced marches toward independence, health, culture, affluence, comfort.

My advisers built a wall between myself and my people. I didn't realize what was happening. When I woke up, I had lost my people.

When you think I've been wounded by a good five bullets, one in the face, one in the shoulder, one in the head, two in the body, and that the last one stuck in the barrel because the trigger jammed... You have to believe in miracles. I've had so many air disasters, and yet I've always come out unscathed - thanks to a miracle while by God and the prophets.

I calculated the amount of time I spent with my father during my entire life... the total amount of time I had with him, if you add up the hours, was about two months. My father was a busy man... we had very few opportunities to really sit down and talk as father and son.

I did not share the enthusiasm of certain politicians for the National Front leader, it was because I had noticed, in the past, some strange contradictions between Mossadeq's declared ends and his actions. Officially he defended nationalist anti-colonialism and was the most intransigent patriot who declared that no concessions or advantages should be granted to foreign powers. He described his doctrine as a "negative balance" and in fact his greatest failing was that he was negative.

Henry Kissinger is possessed of a truly superior intelligence, in addition to which he has two qualities which, unfortunately, many great men lack: he is able to listen and he has a very subtle sense of humour.