Dutch Quotes

“...the curious Dutch classification gedogen, which means 'technically illegal but officially tolerated.”
― Russell Shorto, Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City

“De rede biedt ons vele mogelijkheden tegelijk. De intuïtie kiest daaruit feilloos de beste. Wanneer je dit onthoudt kun je je niet meer vergissen en zul je altijd de juiste keuze maken.”
― Arthur Japin, Een schitterend gebrek

“And although it was in a hospital that she lay and I sat next to her—it is always that eternal poetry of Christmas night with the infant in the stable, as the old Dutch painters conceived it and MIllet and Breton—a light in the darkness, the brightness in the middle of a dark night. And so I hung a large etching after Rembrandt over it, the two women by the cradle, one of them reading from the Bible by candlelight, while the great shadows cast a deep chiaroscuro over the whole room.”
― Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

“Een avontuur was niet voor lafaards, maar voor dapperlingen!”
― Leen Lefebre, Soraia, kind van de zee (ZOMER)

“Met Tomas voelde elk tankstation als Parijs, maar zonder hem voelde alles als vastzitten in de lift met de verkeerde mensen”
― Arjen van Veelen, Aantekeningen over het verplaatsen van obelisken

“Het viel haar best zwaar, maar het verleden mocht haar heden gewoonweg niet stelen, tòch?”
― Leen Lefebre, Soraia, kind van de zee (ZOMER)

“One would expect Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, who is said to have studied history, to know better and act better, but he too rejects all advice and criticism and runs around obliviously in a coach plastered with pictures of his grandmother abusing her captives, including women and children. You might imagine the bigoted Donald Trump to be riding a coach like that in a mock presidential parade in his dreams, but certainly not a twenty first century Dutch royal. I wonder if he ever considered how their Calvinist pomposity affected the psyche of black and white children.”
― Mawuena Addo, Roses in the Rainbow

“Verliefd worden moet je eigenlijk met je ogen dicht doen". - Andy Warhol

Helemaal mee eens. Dan hoef je degene die je leven heeft verwoest niet steeds voor je te zien.”
― Kayla Cagan, Piper Perish

“Komop, Soraia! pepte zij zichzelf op. Jij alleen kan jouw held zijn!”
― Leen Lefebre, Soraia, kind van de zee (ZOMER)

“When Alice was younger, her father had fashioned a rough mask from evergreen needles and lake grass glued to a rotten shell of pine bark, shed like a skin. He secured it to the end of their canoe with heavy yellow cord, telling Alice their ancient Dutch relatives believed water fairies lived in the figureheads of ships, protecting the vessels and their sailors from all manner of ills- storms, narrow and treacherous passageways, fevers, and bad luck. Kaboutermannekes he called them. If the ship ran aground, or even worse, if it sank, the Kaboutermannekes would guide the seafarers' souls to the Land of the Dead. Without a water fairy to guide him, a sailor's soul would be lost at sea forever.”
― Tracy Guzeman, The Gravity of Birds

“Bigotry will always find a way where people are kept in a bubble of ignorance.”
― Mawuena Addo

“There is hardly any other country that got as filthy rich through human trafficking and slave trade as the Netherlands.”
― Mawuena Addo, Roses in the Rainbow

“Did you know that even 50 years after all other countries had abolished slavery, the Netherlands refused to?”
― Mawuena Addo, Roses in the Rainbow

“Just as the Netherlands was the last country to abolish slavery, they are still the last one opulently celebrating racism; the English had to force the Dutch to abolish slavery in the late 19th century and now the US and the UN are forcing them to stop celebrating bigotry in the 21st century”
― Mawuena Addo, Roses in the Rainbow

“MUSEUMS OF INFAMY
A dynasty that thrived on
And blatantly celebrates
Racism and anti-Semitism
Belongs not to the 21st century
But the throes of history
In the museums of infamy
Under the banner ‘House of Orange”
― Mawuena Addo

“In 1978 zip or postcodes were introduced in the Netherlands; they consist of four numbers followed by a space and then to capital letters and are replaced before the name of the town... they referred to the city block in a given street in which the house occurs and thus the Dutch postal code book is the size of a telephone book.”
― Bruce Donaldson, Dutch: A Comprehensive Grammar

“¨Everything is ordinary to us until we get know its history. We start to see things differently when we do get a glimpse of its past¨”
― Jan Prins, Dutch Stories: of his most famous region

“We moeten afscheid nemen zoveel mogelijk beperken in ons leven. Anders neem je het leven en het toeval niet serieus.”
― Thomas Verbogt, Als de winter voorbij is

“Zal de waarheid zegevieren in dit geval?
'De waarheid komt altijd boven' is het gezegde maar is dat ook wel zo?”
― Kimberly Reich

“Aurelio had de zwartste blik aan het hof doch zijn ziel was blank.”
― Leen Lefebre, Soraia, kind van de zee (ZOMER)

“Er restte haar nu geen andere weg meer, dan die naar huis.”
― Leen Lefebre, Soraia, kind van de zee (ZOMER)

“Die lippen raakten, de lijven voelden, hun zielen beroerden en hun harten zouden altijd hetzelfde ritme slaan vanaf dit moment.”
― Leen Lefebre, Soraia, kind van de zee (ZOMER)

“Zon en zee werden zo vurige krachten op papier.”
― Leen Lefebre, Soraia, kind van de zee (ZOMER)

“Iedereen is samen maar samen is niet iedereen.”
― Giovannie de Sadeleer

“Thus I am in Holland, the kingdom of things, great principality of objects. In Dutch, schoen means beautiful and at the same time clean, as if neatness was raised to the dignity of a virtue.”
― Zbigniew Herbert, Still Life with a Bridle: Essays and Apocryphas

“Hij vulde evengoed een gat in ons hart dat speciaal voor hem was gegraven.”
― Peter Middendorp, Jij bent van mij

“The life cord became thin filament, and the heaven cord a rope, by the times the camps were liberated. But I don't think many focused on heaven; too much of hell had been lived to allow for God's grace and heaven.”
― Janneke Jobsis Brown, Following Shadows

“Je hoofd is rond,' zei mijn oma vroeger, 'zodat je denken van richting kan veranderen.”
― Daphne Deckers, Sterrenstof

“My husband and son are at the movies, and the hellhounds, appropriately named Duvel (Duch/Belgian dialect for ''devil'') and Hexe (German for ''witch''), are in the backyard for the evening. Only the cat, Vegas (I know, right? Totally doesn't fit the theme, but she came with the name) is running around the house, She gives the newcomers a bored look before heading to the bedroom to get white fur all over my pillow. What grows on Vegas does not stay on Vegas.”
― Larissa Ione, Dining with Angels: Bits & Bites from the Demonica Universe

“De mensheid is de kunst van het vrijen zonder een vijand te maken”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar