Albania

country in southeastern Europe

Albania (Albanian: Shqipëri/Shqipëria; Gheg Albanian: Shqipnia) is a country in southern Europe.

The Albanians have hacked their way through history, sword in hand ~ Enver Hoxha

Quotes

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By Albanians

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Alphabetized by author
  • The Albanians have hacked their way through history, sword in hand.
    • Enver Hoxha, as quoted in Peter R. Prifti (1978), Socialist Albania since 1944: Domestic and Foreign developments, page 9
  • The Albanian culture is elusive to me. I think this has to do with leaving the country at such an early age, as well as the country rediscovering her roots after many decades of repression. What I can say about the Albanian culture is what runs through my limbs and what carries my philosophy in life. There’s a condensed softness about the Albanian people, and I’ve witnessed examples of their hospitality that have been famously engraved in history for centuries. Maybe I’m soaking memories of my homeland in sentimental syrup that grows thicker and sweeter with time, but there is something truly noble about the Albanian people and their culture of purity and keeping promises.
  • I don't know what to say since I don't know what is happening there. I can say only one thing. My Albanian people are always in my heart. I pray very much to our Lord that His peace may come to our hearts, in our families and in all the world. I pray for Albania, that the Lord may help its leaders to see clearly because if they want to live in peace, they should love one another.
    • Mother Teresa, as quoted in Louis Zanga "Mother Teresa's visit to Albania", Radio Free Europe Research, (23 August 1989)

By non Albanians

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  • Morn dawns: and with it stern Albania's hills...
    Robed half in mist, bedewed with snowy rills.
  • I like the Albanians much; they are not all Turks; some tribes are Christians. But their religion makes little difference in their manner or conduct. They are esteemed the best troops in the Turkish service.
    • Lord Byron (1830), Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, page 161
  • They are strewn with the wreckage of dead Empires – past Powers – only the Albanian "goes on for ever."
    • Edith Durham (1909), High Albania, page 12
  • [Albania] is a country within sight of Italy, which is less known than the interior of America.
    • Edward Gibbon, as quoted by Faik Konitza (ca. 1960), Albania: The Rock Garden of Europe, page 12
  • A few days after our arrival in this village, Spiro Milio presented himself to Mavrocordato, with a corps of two hundred picked Chimariots, the most martial-looking men in the whole army. They are not to be distinguished from Albanians, their dress and language being perfectly similar; but though their religion is Greek, they do not understand one syllable of Greek.
    • J.Millingen (1831), Memoirs of the affairs of Greece, pages 208-209
  • Albania [is] a ridiculous country anyway that ought to be partitioned as soon as possible between Greece and Yugoslavia.
  • [The Albanians] seem to be rather backward and primitive people... they can be as faithful as a dog; that is one of the traits of the primitive. Our Chuvash were the same. The Russian tsars always used them for their bodyguards.
    • Joseph Stalin (1947), as quoted in Vladimit Dedjer (1954), Tito Speaks, page 312
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  •   Media related to Albania on Wikimedia Commons
  •   Encyclopedic article on Albania on Wikipedia
  •   Albania travel guide from Wikivoyage
  •   The dictionary definition of Albania on Wiktionary