Brussels Quotes

“The European Union has a lot in common with the Congo Free State. Both share the same flag, both are headquartered in the Leopold district of Brussels and both were sold to the public as great humanitarian projects.”
― Jesaja Senones

“But experience isn't something you go and get--it's a gift, and the only prerequisite for receiving it is that you be open to it. A closed soul can have the most immense adventures, go through a civil war or a trip to the moon, and have nothing to show for all that "experience;" whereas the open soul can do wonders with nothing. I invite you to meditate on a pair of sisters, Emily and Charlotte. Their life experience was an isolated vicarage in a small, dreary English village, a couple of bad years at a girls' school, another year or two in Brussels, which is surely the dullest city in all Europe, and a lot of housework. Out of that seething Mmass of raw, brutal, gutsy Experience they made two of the greatest novels ever written: Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. ...

They knew their own souls, they knew their own minds and hearts; it was not a knowledge lightly or easily gained.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction

“I undertook the Congo project in the interest of Civilization and for the good of Belgium.”
― Leopold II

“We prefer freedom with poverty to wealth with tyranny.”
― Patrice Lumumba

“Courageous Belgian people, you have conquered decisively! Make sure now to take advantage of this victory, your enemies are dumbfounded, let us not lose a moment, let us unite around the provisional government that has been established thanks to you, do not doubt that the arsonists, who you have expelled from your capital in such a humiliating way, are already plotting new crimes. No more hesitating and sparing, we must chase away once and for all the murderers from our house who have worked here with fire and sword, raping and destroying. We must save our mothers, our wives, our children and our property; we must live as free men, or bury ourselves under a mountain of ashes. Let us be united dear compatriots, and we will be invincible, the true order, it is indispensable to preserve our independence. Long live Belgium!”
― Louis De Potter

“If God gives me a long life and allows me to carry out my task, then Brussels will become a city of exceptional category.”
― Leopold II

“I am generous and about to make a multi-million dollar sacrifice to beautify my capital. It will cost me three to four years of wages, but I wish my life here on earth to leave many traces.”
― Leopold II

“Dear Minister, please let me know how many men are actually available in Hainaut, Ghent and Brussels, please also inform me of any measures that will allow you to remain in control of the situation if necessary, I wish you the assurance, dear minister, of my total devotion.”
― Leopold II

“I will instruct the minister of war to strengthen the Gendarmerie in Brussels, to recognize the addresses and customs of the demagogues and to try to find out what is coming up, I am told that the demonstrations which are only intended as intimidation and as preparation in an unguarded moment are able to turn into something else, once they have everyone on the street they will attack the government, what measure have you taken to face such a surprise attack? Do the regiments have been ordered to march on their own accord to the Rue de la Loi and the Boulvard, where in the summer it is more difficult to summon soldiers, will they be more satisfied now, working in the open air is now impossible, if I were you I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to summon them, the responsibility is too great, you are not protected from an incident, and you will have to face a formidable riot, all yours.”
― Leopold II

“The powers of the time had first rushed to the city of the most powerful man in the world, the German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. But five years later, they came to Leopold II. In 1890, Brussels became the capital of colonizing Europe. The city held an anti-slavery conference, to strengthen Berlin-1885 and "to put an end to the Negro Slave Trade by land as well as by sea, and to improve the moral and material conditions of the natives". It was, in accordance with the mentalities of the time, a proclamation of "fundamental rights of populations", starting with the most basic: the right to life. Berlin-1885 had already expressed similar rights in the search for " the preservation of the native tribes, and to care for the improvement of the conditions of their moral and material well-being, and to help in suppressing slavery, and especially the slave trade". The Treaty of Brussels-1890 was also contracted "in the name of God Almighty". It ordered to put an end to the crimes and devastation of the slavers and to provide the benefits of peace and civilization on the continent.”
― Marcel Yabili, The Greatest Fake News of All Time: Leopold II, The Genius and Builder King of Lumumba

“Oh, by the way, while I was having a glass of your delicious gueuze beer, I spotted a crook…”
― Georges Simenon, The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien

“Cinemas always go way up in my estimation if their bar stocks interesting beers like Texels Skuumkoppe rather than just the big mass-market brands.”
― David Kintore, Silver Screen Cities Amsterdam & Brussels

“In Brussels between 1909 and 1914, Louis Mascré sculpted away for Belgium’s Royal Academy of Science, creating a plaster cranium, a mother and child, the upper body of an elder. At a time when Belgium was brutalizing the Congo, the country’s Royal Academy compared Africans to apes and also depicted Neanderthals as simian rather than caveman-like.”
― Stefanos Geroulanos, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins