Roméo Dallaire · 562 pages
Rating: (9.1K votes)
“I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists and therefore I know there is a God.”
― Roméo Dallaire, quote from Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
“Many signs point to the fact that the youth of the Third World will no longer tolerate living in circumstances that give them no hope for the future. From the young boys I met in the demobilization camps in Sierra Leone to the suicide bombers of Palestine and Chechnya, to the young terrorists who fly planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, we can no longer afford to ignore them. We have to take concrete steps to remove the causes of their rage, or we have to be prepared to suffer the consequences.”
― Roméo Dallaire, quote from Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
“If I decide to make a career in the army, he said, I would never be rich, but I would live one of the most satisfying lives there was to be had. Then
he warned me that satisfaction would come at a great cost to me and any family I might have. I should never expected to be thanked; a soldier, if he was going to be content, had to understand that no civilian, no government,
sometimes not even the army itself, would recognize the true nature of the scarifies he made.”
― Roméo Dallaire, quote from Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
“I have often been criticized for being an 'emotional' leader, for not being macho enough, but even during this early stage in my career, I believed that the magic of command lies in openness, in being both sympathetic to the troops and at the same time being apart, in always projecting supreme confidence in my own ability and in theirs to accomplish whatever task is set for us.”
― Roméo Dallaire, quote from Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
“The global village is deteriorating at a rapid pace, and in the children of the world the result is rage. It is the rage I saw in the eyes of the teenage Interahamwe militiamen in Rwanda, it is the rage I sensed in the hearts of the children of Sierra Leone, it is the rage I felt in crowds of ordinary civilians in Rwanda, and it is the rage that resulted in September 11. Human beings who have no rights, no security, no future, no hope and no means to survive are a desperate group who will do desperate things to take what they believe they need and deserve.”
― Roméo Dallaire, quote from Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
“I was on the ground, I was in command, I had been given the mission, and I took the decision.”
― Roméo Dallaire, quote from Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
“Still, at its heart the Rwandan story is the story of the failure of humanity to heed a call for help from an endangered people.
The international community, of which the UN is only a symbol, failed to move beyond self-interest for the sake of Rwanda. While most nations agreed that something should be done they all had an excuses why they should not be the ones to do it. As a result, the UN was denied the political will and material mean to prevent the tragedy.”
― Roméo Dallaire, quote from Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
“Still, I did not regret for a moment leaving the bright lights of Manhattan behind in favour of night skies so dark the stars seemed close enough to be street lights. In the recycled cabin air of the long flight back, I physically longed for Rwanda, its rich red earth, the smell of its wood fires and its vibrant humanity.”
― Roméo Dallaire, quote from Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
“The people of Rwanda were not an insignificant black mass living in abject poverty in a place of no consequence. They were individuals like myself, like my family, with every right and expectation of any human who is a member of our tortured race. I was determined to persevere.”
― Roméo Dallaire, quote from Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
Roméo Dallaire
Born place: in Denekamp, Netherlands
Born date June 25, 1946
See more on GoodReads
“I gave Paul a withering look but the truth was I was curious as hell. First of all, to find out what Sullivan wanted. And second, to see what a teacher's room looked like. I'd always sort of figured they came out during the day to teach classes and then got stored in shoe boxes under someone's bed until they were needed again. (James)”
― Maggie Stiefvater, quote from Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie
“At first, being with Sebastian was like being in the middle of the best dream I'd ever had - but now it mostly feels exhausting. I'm up one minute and down the next; questioning what I say and do. Even questioning my sanity.”
― Candace Bushnell, quote from The Carrie Diaries
“All this was very loose guessing, and I don't pretend it was ingenious or scientific. I wasn't any kind of Sherlock Holmes. But I have always fancied I had a kind of instinct about questions like this. I don't know if I can explain myself, but I used to use my brains as far as they went, and after they came to a blank wall I guessed, and I usually found my guesses pretty right.”
― John Buchan, quote from The 39 Steps
“All things are Nothing to Me”
― Max Stirner, quote from The Ego and Its Own
“راقبت هذا المشهد الغريب بفضول نهم وقلق متلهف حتى أني نسيت بلواي تماماَ وهزمني شعور بالشفقة عميق نفذ إلى شغاف قلبي. لقد أبكتني ضحكاتهم”
― Victor Hugo, quote from The Last Day of a Condemned Man
The Princess Bride:...
Astrophysics for Peo...
A Time to Dance
Northern Lights
Destination Anywhere
The Death and Life o...BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
