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Education Quote by Abbas Araghchi

"You can hit buildings and facilities but not knowledge and will"

About this Quote

A diplomat’s line that reads like a warning label: you may demolish infrastructure, but you cannot bomb an idea into surrender. Araghchi’s phrasing splits the world into two targets - the tangible and the intangible - and then quietly asserts that modern power is often aimed at the wrong one. “Buildings and facilities” evokes the familiar choreography of airstrikes and “surgical” campaigns, the kind that promise strategic gains while producing TV-ready rubble. “Knowledge and will” is the counterweight: the capacities that survive the blast, relocate, and, in some cases, harden.

The intent is deterrent messaging without the escalation of threats. He’s signaling resilience to adversaries who rely on coercion through kinetic force, while also reassuring domestic and allied audiences that destruction will not equal capitulation. The subtext is sharper: attacks on physical sites may even be counterproductive, accelerating expertise, dispersing know-how, and strengthening political resolve. Knowledge is portable; will is contagious.

Context matters because Araghchi speaks from the long shadow of sanctions, sabotage claims, and recurring tensions around sovereign capability - especially in domains where “facilities” are treated as the story, while the trained people behind them are the real center of gravity. The line also reframes legitimacy: it nudges listeners to see strikes not as decisive action but as a kind of strategic misunderstanding, mistaking a scaffold for the building.

As diplomacy, it’s compact and calculated: not a vow of revenge, but a thesis about endurance - and a reminder that the hardest things to control are the ones you can’t put coordinates on.

Quote Details

TopicKnowledge
SourceInterview with Khabar Online (published on YouTube), as transcribed/quoted by Iran International, November 21, 2025
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Araghchi, Abbas. (2026, February 26). You can hit buildings and facilities but not knowledge and will. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-can-hit-buildings-and-facilities-but-not-185669/

Chicago Style
Araghchi, Abbas. "You can hit buildings and facilities but not knowledge and will." FixQuotes. February 26, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-can-hit-buildings-and-facilities-but-not-185669/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"You can hit buildings and facilities but not knowledge and will." FixQuotes, 26 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/you-can-hit-buildings-and-facilities-but-not-185669/. Accessed 26 Feb. 2026.

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You can hit buildings and facilities but not knowledge and will
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About the Author

Abbas Araghchi

Abbas Araghchi (born December 5, 1962) is a Diplomat from Iran.

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