Asian Quotes: Inspiring Wisdom from the East

"We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves"

Lyndon B. Johnson, President

"They call upon us to supply American boys to do the job that Asian boys should do"

Lyndon B. Johnson, President

"Ancestor worship, or filial piety so characteristic of Asian cultures, for example, does not really resonate with Americans who favor children, not grandparents"

Alan Dundes, Educator

"I've been informed by both sides, jazz, western music, Asian music, African music, all sides, because I've been interested in the sound of the universe, and that sound is without limit"

Joseph Jarman, Musician

"For as long as the power of America's diversity is diminished by acts of discrimination and violence against people just because they are black, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, Muslim or gay, we still must overcome"

Ron Kind, Politician

"There is no way that we know what is going on between the African American and the Asian American. We don't understand what an Indigenous American is. We don't understand what a Latino American is"

Edward James Olmos, Actor

"No one tells every white person in this country how to be. No one tells every Hispanic, or Asian or Jewish person in this country how to be. There is no single definition of whiteness or single definition of blackness"

Montel Williams, Entertainer

"In many Asian households, to not go on to higher education, that's like a big no-no. I know my parents' discouragement was for my own protection, and I'm really close to them now, but they didn't understand that there is value in this. That's because they didn't know"

Sandra Oh, Actress

"The Singapore Open is the flagship event of the Asian Tour, it is a massive event and it is being played in a great place. I love coming here and it is good to be back"

Lee Westwood, Athlete

"Yeah, I'm sure there are stereotypes of Asian people"

James Iha, Musician

"In fact, it struck me when we invaded last year that if we did it without European and East Asian support, we were risking losing our alliance in Europe in exchange for Iraq, and that is a very undesirable exchange"

William Odom, Soldier

"A brief visit to Nepal started my insatiable love for Asian art"

Richard Ernst, Scientist

"The future for us is the foreseeable future. The South Asian, however, feels that it is perfectly realistic to think of a 'long time' in terms of thousands of years"

Edward T. Hall, Scientist

"When I made it, I still didn't wave the flag and say, Yeah go Asian people. I do want people to know that about me, but I always felt like at least musically, let me just do what I do and be the best at it. Which is what I'm doing right now"

Chad Hugo, Musician

"Being Asian in this business is something you have to consider, because sometimes people aren't as open. They'll say, I can't see you with a Caucasian person"

Lucy Liu, Actress

"In the final analysis, the whole cause of world revolution hinges on the revolutionary struggles of the Asian, African and Latin American people who make up the overwhelming majority of the world's population"

Lin Biao, Politician

"Our theme for this year's festivities, Dreams and Challenges of Asian Pacific Americans, speaks to the many generations of Asian Pacific Americans who worked hard to overcome economic hardship, racism and other barriers in their pursuit of the American dream"

Lucille Roybal-Allard

"We sincerely hope that south Asian countries will respect and live in amity with each other, and achieve common development, and that south Asia will enjoy peace, stability and prosperity"

Li Peng, Public Servant

"It says something about this new global economy that USA Today now reports every morning on the day's events in Asian markets"

Lawrence Summers, Economist

"The pains felt by Asian countries are our own pains. Disaster in Asia is nothing but ours as well"

Junichiro Koizumi, Statesman

"For the past few years, I was the more visible Asian performer, and I think it gave young girls a kind of role model showing it's possible to actually reach success doing movies"

Joan Chen, Actress

"I cook everything. I love Mediterranean cooking, I love Asian cooking. I do lots of Japanese noodles"

Ted Allen, Entertainer

"I majored in Chinese. I was never really good at Chinese but I really, really benefited from having been exposed to Asian philosophy early in my life"

Martha Beck, Author

"In view of China's growing military strength and intentions, the best way to safeguard Asia's permanent peace and prosperity is to have all Asian countries join forces with other democratic countries in the world to form a global community of democracies"

Jim Costa, Politician

"My parents kept the best aspects of the Asian culture, and they Americanized the family. My mother was a great example for me. She was a working mother with a good career"

Andrea Jung, Businessman

"I had lived in Fukuoka during the mid 1990s, and I was a volunteer with the Fukuoka Asian Film Festival"

John Foster, Architect

"So in Asia I want to make - I want to succeed to make a model of what success, practicing democracy, and market economy. Then that will give a good influence over Asian countries"

Kim Dae Jung, Leader

"The Asian nation's oil demand is expected to grow this year by 800,000 barrels per day and represents more than one-third of the total growth in global demand, according to the Energy Information Agency"

Gary Miller, Politician

"They were concerned about the racial issue. They thought it was not a safe issue to go Asian, unfortunately"

Lucy Liu, Actress

"I'd heard a lot of Asian people were rooting for me, but I had no idea. I was stunned. They were... impassioned, especially compared to Japan. I couldn't even have anticipated that kind of welcome"

Ayumi Hamasaki, Musician

"For years, I looked to Bruce Lee as a mentor as being a Chinese and Asian man living in this country"

Donnie Yen, Actor

"The Sixth Sense is not a good white film. Insomnia is not a good white film. They're just good films. So why we can't we have good films that happen to have black people, or Asian, or Latino, or any other minority group in them?"

Eriq La Salle, Actor

"I'm not trying to disrespect anybody by saying this - I'm not sure I feel any interaction with Asian America in any collective sense. - It's like, when you're telling me this right now, my reaction is, Really? Asian America knows about me?"

Chad Hugo, Musician

"For me, I'm just trying to be the best at what I do. I'll wave an Asian American flag if I get that opportunity. I'm not hiding or trying to discredit my background or anything, I just haven't had the opportunity"

Chad Hugo, Musician

"The Indian economy grew at 5.5 percent, but if you look at the last 30 years - for example, 1960 to 1985 - the progress made by East Asian countries was phenomenal. In a single generation they had been able to transform the character of their economy. They were able to get rid of chronic poverty"

Manmohan Singh, Statesman

"No, I've heard over the years that it's nice for them to see somebody who's like, you know, a well-known successful musician who's Asian. I've heard it from a few musicians, too"

James Iha, Musician

"It's not like that often, I mean, I suppose out of a ratio of 10 fans maybe like 1 or 2 of 'em might be Asian, and maybe every second or third time they might bring up something that they're Asian and I'm Asian"

James Iha, Musician

"But, yeah, as far as Asian Americans go, I hope they know they can look at me and see that they can do music on their own, within a band or just on their own, and not feel like there's any barriers. I've never felt any particular barriers myself, being who I am"

James Iha, Musician

"Paradoxically, the people and state of Japan living on such moral props were not innocent but had been stained by their own past history of invading other Asian countries"

Kenzaburo Oe, Writer

"The direct investment of Japanese businesses to East Asian economies accelerates the reallocation of their production bases. Consequently, between Japan and the other East Asian countries, both exports and imports are growing substantially"

Toshihiko Fukui, Public Servant

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