Edward Said — "The intellectual is someone who is always questioning, always doubting, always c…"

"It is quite common to hear high officials in Washington and elsewhere speak of changing the map of the Middle East, as if ancient societies and myriad peoples can be shaken up like so many peanuts in …"

"The Orient is not an inert fact of nature. It is not merely 'there,' as the Occident is. It is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that have given it reality…"

"Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires."

"The intellectual must be a skeptic, not a believer."

"Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between 'the Orient' and (most of the time) 'the Occident.'"