Levant Quotes & Sayings

I never read bad reviews about myself, because my friends invariably tell me about them. — Oscar Levant

I've changed, I'm nice to people and I'm not so self-centered. What I'm trying to do now is think of the other person. The only trouble is, I've found that the other person thinks only of himself. — Oscar Levant

This Levantine spirit developed gradually in Beirut after the Industrial Revolution, as the burgeoning Lebanese silk trade and the invention of the steamboat combined to bring men and women of America and Western Europe in large numbers to the Levant. These settlers from the West were Catholic and Protestant missionaries, diplomats, and merchants, Jewish traders, travelers and physicians; and they brought with them Western commerce, manners, and ideas and, most of all, a certain genteel, open, tolerant attitude toward life and toward other cultures. Their mores and manners were gradually imitated by elite elements of the local native populations, who made a highly intelligent blend of these Western ideas with their own indigenous Arabic, Greek, and Turkish cultures, which had their own traditions of tolerance. "To be a Levantine," wrote Hourani, "is to live in two worlds or more at once, without belonging to either." In — Thomas L. Friedman

Iraq, for the first time, gives al Qaeda and its allies contiguous safe-haven territory to train and launch attacks into the Levant. First into Jordan and Syria, and then into Lebanon, and virtually and ultimately into Israel and probably Egypt too. It also gives them haven to eventually work their way toward Turkey and into the Arabian Peninsula. — Michael Scheuer

[Madame Nhu was] the Sandra Dee of South Vietnam. If I were cast on a desert island with her, I would quickly make friends with the natives. — Oscar Levant

Do not confuse McGuinty's belief system with a true faith. It is a superstition, the tenets of which are capable of being scientifically disproven. — Ezra Levant

Underneath this flabby exterior is an enormous lack of character. — Oscar Levant

I'm going to memorize your name and throw my head away. — Oscar Levant

Once Dwight Eisenhower makes up his mind, he's full of indecision. — Oscar Levant

The only non-believer I encountered was Oscar Levant who wouldn't visit Disneyland because he said he had his own hallucinations. — Jack Paar

Freedom of speech trumps political correctness. I would say our magazine would publish an anti-Semitic or Holocaust denying cartoon if it meant Jews around the world were rioting because of it and burning embassies because of a cartoon. We would want to show our readers what all the fuss was about. — Ezra Levant

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. — Oscar Levant

Marriage is a triumph of habit over hate. — Oscar Levant

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Oscar Levant that a miracle can't fix. — Alexander Woollcott

On Ira Gershwin:
I remember when he was given the manuscript of a novel written by a woman friend who had hopes of having it published. To his astonishment it turned out to be the dirtiest, most pornographic book he had ever read. When the lady mentioned that she intended to use a nom de plume, Ira suggested she call herself Henrietta Miller. — Oscar Levant

As politicians weigh courses of action against their political agendas the death toll weighs heavy on the conscience of the world. The once vibrant Syrian streets are now haunted by the souls of the innocent and the historic monuments that told of an unrivalled Arab civilisation no longer stand tall. — Aysha Taryam

What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left. — Oscar Levant

I don't like to play the piano. It makes me too attractive. — Oscar Levant

A politician is a man who will double cross that bridge when he comes to it. — Oscar Levant

It's not what you are, it's what you don't become that hurts. — Oscar Levant

I'm a study of a man in chaos in search of frenzy. — Oscar Levant

So little time and so little to do. — Oscar Levant

Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you'll find the real tinsel underneath. — Oscar Levant

Happiness isn't something you experience, it's something you remember. — Oscar Levant

Debbie Reynolds is as wistful as an iron foundry. — Oscar Levant

I envy people who drink - at least they know what to blame everything on. — Oscar Levant

In some situations I was difficult, in odd moments impossible, in rare moments loathsome, but at my best unapproachably great. — Oscar Levant

I have no trouble with y enemies. But my god damn friends ... they are the ones that keep me walking the floors at night. — Oscar Levant

Many in Hollywood viewed the public persona of the young Debbie Reynolds as demure and vulnerable to be a complete facade. Pianist Oscar Levant once quipped, "She's as wistful as an iron factory." — Elizabeth Taylor

It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view. — Oscar Levant

Once I make up my mind, I'm full of indecision. — Oscar Levant

the biggest perceived enemy of the U.S. is called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or alternatively the Islamic State of the Levant (ISIL). They are bent on taking over territory by means of terror. If the Western countries did not need the oil that these terrorists control, the money that ultimately funds their operations would dry up. They could no longer operate as a terrorist state, — Bill Nye

Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome. — Oscar Levant

A pun is the lowest form of humor - when you don't think of it first. — Oscar Levant

Pearl is a disease of oysters. Levant is a disease of Hollywood. — Kenneth Tynan

Self-pity - it's the only pity that counts. — Oscar Levant

Ballet is the fairies baseball. — Oscar Levant

The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too. — Oscar Levant

An epigram is only a wisecrack that's played at Carnegie Hall. — Oscar Levant

[ ... ] one must have known the Levant to be able to conceive how readily persons intelligent and otherwise respectable will prefer a lie to the truth, when the slightest advantage is to be gained by the use of a falsehood. — George Perkins Marsh

When I was young I looked like Al Capone, but I lacked his compassion. — Oscar Levant

I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin. — Oscar Levant

Fame in this country is a religion that demands human sacrifice, a religion to which I do not wish to belong. You start to take yourself so seriously - I saw it happening to me, after I had written my first book at the age of 23. I'd give lectures or seminars, people would tell me how amazingly great I was, and sooner or later, you believe them. You end up exactly with what Oscar Levant said to George Gershwin: "Tell me, George, if you had it to do all over again, would you still fall in love with yourself?" After — Ken Wilber

I never watch the Dinah Shore show- I'm a diabetic. — Oscar Levant

When I can't sleep, I read a book by Steve Allen. — Oscar Levant

I'm controversial. My friends either dislike me or hate me — Oscar Levant

George, if you had to do it all over, would you fall in love with yourself again? — Oscar Levant

Now that Marilyn Monroe is kosher, Arthur Miller can eat her. — Oscar Levant

I am no more humble than my talents require. — Oscar Levant

I don't drink. I don't like it. It makes me feel good. — Oscar Levant

And if our goal as moral citizens is to make the world a better place, then there is only once choice: to pump as much oil as we possibly can out of Fort McMurray. Pump and steam and dig and drill and get that oil out of the sand in any and every way we can. Every drop of oil from Alberta is one less drop from some fascist theocracy, or some brutal warlord; one less cent into the treasuries of Russia's secret police and al-Qaeda's murderers. — Ezra Levant

You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow. (Oscar trying to talk his way out of a speeding ticket) — Oscar Levant

First I brush my teeth and then I sharpen my tongue. — Oscar Levant

My last picture for Warners was Romance on the High Seas. It was Doris Day's first picture; that was before she became a virgin. — Oscar Levant

I'm a concert pianist, that's a pretentious way of saying I'm unemployed at the moment. — Oscar Levant

I could never have a mistress, because I couldn't bear to tell the story of my life all over again. — Oscar Levant

Behind the phony tinsel of Hollywood lies the real tinsel. — Oscar Levant

A conductor should reconcile himself to the realization that regardless of his approach or temperament the eventual result is the same-the orchestra will hate him. — Oscar Levant

I played an unsympathetic part
myself. — Oscar Levant

I was once thrown out of a mental hospital for depressing the other patients. — Oscar Levant

I think a lot of Bernstein - but not as much as he does. — Oscar Levant

I've just finished a series of Olivia Manning novels. She's best known for two trilogies: Balkan Trilogy and Levant Trilogy. The six novels are continuous and contain the same set of characters. They are based on Manning's experiences in Eastern Europe and Egypt during the Second World War. Each novel is a wonderful picture of the peculiar British expatriate culture and what was happening during the war. She's one of those brilliant women who write very well about domestic relationships. All the books are slim, and it's easy to gallop through them. — Sarah Waters

So in a sense, that little war in the Levant had a horrendous effect in terms of the stability of countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, over the long term. Because once again, it proved to Muslims that their governments couldn't protect them and would side with the enemy. — Michael Scheuer

Talent's like a baby. Wrap it up in wool and it goes to sleep. — Oscar Levant

There was shish-kabob for lunch, huge, savory hunks of spitted meat sizzling like the devil over charcoal after marinating seventy-two hours in a secret mixture Milo had stolen from a crooked trader in the Levant, served with Iranian rice and asparagus tips Parmesan, followed by cherries jubilee for dessert and then steaming cups of fresh coffee with Benedictine and brandy. — Joseph Heller

Once he makes up his mind, he's full of indecision. - On Dwight D. Eisenhower — Oscar Levant

There, in the Levantine crossroads between Europe, Africa, and Asia, the sovereign nation of Israel would exemplify what right looks like. — James Mikolajczyk

When I appeared before the draft board examiner during World War II, he asked me if I thought I could kill. "I don't know about strangers," I replied, "but friends, certainly." — Oscar Levant

Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I. — Oscar Levant

The famous statue of Christ the Redeemer that overlooks Rio de Janeiro is only 130 feet tall. McGuinty's eco-idols [Wind Turbines] will be three times that height, but will serve the same imposing purpose. — Ezra Levant

Have I come at a bad time?" she managed to say without guffawing. I believe I said something on the order of "argh," and compounded my embarrassment by trying to cover myself with the sweatpants I'd picked up off the floor. — Jeffrey Cohen

I meant of course the whole portentous scrimmage of sex itself, the act of penetration which could lead a man to despair for the sake of a creature with two breasts and le croissant as the picturesque Levant slang has it. — Lawrence Durrell

Until we are willing to question many of the specifics of the male sex role, including most of the seven norms and stereotypes that psychologist Robert Levant names in a listing of its chief constituents--'avoiding femininity, restrictive emotionality, seeking achievement and status, self-reliance, aggression, homophobia, and nonrelational attitudes toward sexuality'--we are going to deny men their full humanity. Feminist masculinity would have as its chief constituents integrity, self-love, emotional awareness, assertiveness, and relational skill, including the capacity to be empathic, autonomous, and connected. — Bell Hooks

For more than a millennium the eastern Mediterranean seaboard called Syria Libanensis, or Mount Lebanon, had been able to accommodate at least a dozen different sects, ethnicities, and beliefs - it worked like magic. The place resembled major cities of the eastern Mediterranean (called the Levant) more than it did the other parts in the interior of the Near East (it was easier to move by ship than by land through the mountainous terrain). The Levantine cities were mercantile in nature; people dealt with one another according to a clear protocol, preserving a peace conducive to commerce, and they socialized quite a bit across communities. This millennium of peace was interrupted only by small occasional friction within Moslem and Christian communities, rarely between Christians and Moslems. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

in the first recorded encounter between Sapiens and Neanderthals, the Neanderthals won. About 100,000 years ago, some Sapiens groups migrated north to the Levant, which was Neanderthal territory, but failed to secure a firm footing. — Yuval Noah Harari

The succession of cheerful, period musicals I made, plus Oscar Levant's widely publicized remark about my virginity, contributed to what has been called my "image", which is a word that baffles me. There never was any intent on my part either in my acting or in my private life to create any such thing as an image. — Doris Day

I'm a self-made man. Who else would help? — Oscar Levant

I've given up reading books. I find it takes my mind off myself. — Oscar Levant

There are two sides to every question: my side and the wrong side. — Oscar Levant

It is a perverse faith, in that it reveres the "environment" ahead of people who live in it. It is a most ascetic superstition, in that it demands we live less happily and less freely and with less prosperity - the opposite of, say, the Protestant work ethic that helped build Ontario. — Ezra Levant

There's nothing wrong with Oscar Levant - nothing a miracle won't cure. — Alexander Woollcott