Quotes from The Rape of Nanking

Iris Chang ·  290 pages

Rating: (19K votes)


“As the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice.”
― Iris Chang, quote from The Rape of Nanking


“Almost all people have this potential for evil, which would be unleashed only under certain dangerous social circumstances.”
― Iris Chang, quote from The Rape of Nanking


“The Rape of Nanking did not penetrate the world consciousness in the same manner as the Holocaust or Hiroshima because the victims themselves had remained silent.”
― Iris Chang, quote from The Rape of Nanking


“Looking back upon millennia of history, it appears clear that no race or culture has monopoly on wartime cruelty. The veneer of civilization seems to be exceedingly thin – one that can be easily stripped away, especially by the stresses of war.”
― Iris Chang, quote from The Rape of Nanking


“The heroic efforts of the Americans and Europeans during this period are so numerous (their diaries run for thousands of pages) that it is impossible to narrate all of their deeds here.”
― Iris Chang, quote from The Rape of Nanking



“In 1996 I began an investigation into the life of John Rabe and eventually unearthed thousands of pages of diaries that he and other Nazis kept during the Rape. These diaries led me to conclude that John Rabe was “the Oskar Schindler of China.”
― Iris Chang, quote from The Rape of Nanking


“Perhaps the most fascinating character to emerge from the history of the Rape of Nanking is the German businessman John Rabe. To most of the Chinese in the city, he was a hero, “the living Buddha of Nanking,” the legendary head of the International Safety Zone who saved hundreds of thousands of Chinese lives.”
― Iris Chang, quote from The Rape of Nanking


About the author

Iris Chang
Born place: in Princeton, New Jersey, The United States
Born date March 28, 1968
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Yes. My mother, for one. As a child I loved her, despite knowing so little about her. But now, knowing everything she has done, how stubborn she can be, how blind, how strong, how clever…knowing her as a woman, I love her so much more.”
― Meljean Brook, quote from Riveted


“went to the cross eight months before His”
― Colleen McCullough, quote from The Touch


“Boon and Watt had the bad—or perhaps good—fortune to come of age during one of rock’s most abject periods. “That Seventies stuff, the Journey, Boston, Foreigner stuff, it was lame,” Watt says. “If it weren’t for those type of bands we never would have had the nerve to be a band. But I guess you need bad things to make good things. It’s like with farming—if you want to grow a good crop, you need a lot of manure.”
― Michael Azerrad, quote from Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991


“Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.”
― Brené Brown, quote from Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead


“I’ve had four serious boyfriends in my life.”
He growled.
“What is wrong?”
“Love is forever.” He gave her a disgusted look. “You have no idea what real love is, Joy.”
― Laurann Dohner, quote from Moon


Interesting books

Little Fires Everywhere
(134.7K)
Little Fires Everywh...
by Celeste Ng
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl
(6.2K)
The Astonishing Adve...
by Barry Lyga
The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour
(1.1K)
Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos
(14.5K)
Parallel Worlds: A J...
by Michio Kaku
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
(16.7K)
Genius: The Life and...
by James Gleick
Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By
(2.1K)
Doctor Who: The Sile...
by Dan Abnett

About BookQuoters

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.