William J. Duiker Quotes
I first became interested in Ho Chi Minh in 1964-1965 while I was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in South Vietnam as a foreign service officer with the Department of State. The government in Saigon was at the point of collapse and the [Lyndon] Johnson administration was preparing to send U.S. combat troops to prevent a communist victory there. I became convinced that the U.S. effort would not succeed because of the lack of conviction in the Saigon government compared to the discipline and sense of self-sacrifice among the Viet Cong.
Quotes to Explore
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Right now, I'm at the top of the world in my game so my focus isn't on when I'm going to end. My focus is on playing the best tennis that I can, and there is no end to that.
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I have always been a generous and enthusiastic reader.
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Before my son was born, I use to tell people that I was looking forward to no longer being the star of my own movie; then Harry came along, and it was like, 'Whoa, I'm really not!'
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We have to change the kind of free trade deals we sign. We would have to change the absolutely central role of frenetic consumption in our culture. We would have to change the role of money in politics and our political system.
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Without a doubt, I'd love to do Broadway. I actually can't wait to get back to musical theater.
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Rand Paul does not like being compared to his father Ron any more than sons named Bush like to dance in their father's shadow, but the crucial difference is that while the Bushes all hail from the relative mainstream of the GOP, the Pauls have an ideological tributary virtually to themselves.
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I hate celebrities.
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I am deeply aware of the dimension of luck. It's so important to be prepared to receive it, but it is a major factor. There's no question.
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Ironically, I'm a really crap liar, even though I do it for a living. I give away too much, somehow. I can't lie!
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I read recently that the problem with stereotypes isn't that they are inaccurate, but that they're incomplete. And this captures perfectly what I think about contemporary African literature. The problem isn't that it's inaccurate, it's that it's incomplete.
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I spent my whole childhood watching open-wheel racing. I spent years going to England and racing open wheel, coming back and racing open wheel. It's been my world for 20 years and beyond that. For almost my whole life, I've been watching it. I watch it and I think I know how to do it.
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Part of our job as storytellers is to show people pockets of the world that they don't know. The more we understand, the more we don't judge.
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I have never gotten a B in my life. I would honestly be mortified if I got a B. I'm so academically driven.
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Since my first dive in a deep-diving submersible, when I went down and turned out the lights and saw the fireworks displays, I've been a bioluminescence junky. But I would come back from those dives and try to share the experience with words, and they were totally inadequate to the task. I needed some way to share the experience directly.
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Risk analysis can cater to any sort of hazard, but their profession owes its existence to a relatively narrow band of possible dangers.
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It is not a coincidence that Fusion middleware and applications have the same name. We knew what we needed it to be.
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To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.
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What do you know? Haven't you heard of suspension of disbelief?
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There aren't a lot of Portuguese models, so everyone always expects me to be Brazilian because of my features, sometimes even American, as I have a slight American accent when I speak English.
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I don't need Hollywood. With or without them, I'll be fine. But I'll admit it would be nice to have them on board.
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The U.S. never lost a battle against North Vietnam, but it lost the war.
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The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not yet see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied.
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Success is not a matter of mastering subtle, sophisticated theory but rather of embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence.
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I first became interested in Ho Chi Minh in 1964-1965 while I was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in South Vietnam as a foreign service officer with the Department of State. The government in Saigon was at the point of collapse and the [Lyndon] Johnson administration was preparing to send U.S. combat troops to prevent a communist victory there. I became convinced that the U.S. effort would not succeed because of the lack of conviction in the Saigon government compared to the discipline and sense of self-sacrifice among the Viet Cong.
