Brazil

This article is about the South American country. For the 1985 film, see Brazil (film).

Brazil is the largest country in South America, as well as the largest Portuguese-speaking country in the world.

Brazil has rediscovered itself, and this rediscovery is being expressed in its people's enthusiasm and their desire to mobilize to face the huge problems that lie ahead of us. ~ Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

In Brazil we have a saying, 'You're married, but you're not dead'. ~ Izabel Goulart

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · See also · External links

Quotes

Brazil is bigger than Europe, wilder than Africa, and weirder than Baffin Land. ~ Lawrence Durrell

Brazil, an intense dream. A vivid ray of love and hope descends to earth. ~ Osório Duque-Estrada

It is a subject for congratulation that the great Empire of Brazil has taken the initiatory step toward the abolition of slavery. Our relations with that Empire, always cordial, will naturally be made more so by this act. ~ Ulysses S. Grant

A

• The persistence into the twentieth century of a specific institutional pattern inimical to growth in Mexico and Latin America is well illustrated by the fact that, just as in the nineteenth century, the pattern generated economic stagnation and political instability, civil wars and coups, as groups struggled for the benefits of power. Díaz finally lost power to revolutionary forces in 1910. The Mexican Revolution was followed by others in Bolivia in 1952, Cuba in 1959, and Nicaragua in 1979. Meanwhile, sustained civil wars raged in Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru. Expropriation or the threat of expropriation of assets continued apace, with mass agrarian reforms (or attempted reforms) in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Peru, and Venezuela. Revolutions, expropriations, and political instability came along with military governments and various types of dictatorships. Though there was also a gradual drift toward greater political rights, it was only in the 1990s that most Latin American countries became democracies, and even then they remain mired in instability.
  • Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Poverty, and Prosperity (2012)

B

• We must not forget that the world needs to be fed. France and Germany, for example, use more than 50% of their territories for agriculture, while Brazil only uses 8% of its land for food production. 61% of our territory is preserved! Our policy is zero tolerance for crime, including environmental crimes. I reiterate that any initiative to help or support the preservation of the Amazon rainforest, or other biomes, must be treated in full respect of Brazilian sovereignty. We also reject attempts to instrumentalize environmental issues or indigenous policy in favor of foreign political and economic interests, especially those disguised as good intentions. We are ready to harness our full potential sustainably through partnerships and added value.
  • Jair Bolsonaro, Speech at the 74th UN General Assembly. Statement by Mr. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil. United Nations PaperSmart (24 September 2019).
• Brazil is safer and more welcoming today. We have just extended visa exemptions to countries such as the United States, Japan, Australia and Canada, and we are currently considering the adoption of similar measures for China and India, among others. With more safety and convenience, we want everyone to be able to visit Brazil, and particularly our Amazon rainforest, with all its vastness and natural beauty. The Amazon is not being destroyed nor consumed by fire, as the media is falsely portraying. Each one of you may check what I am saying. Do not hesitate to visit Brazil. It is way different than the country portrayed in many newspapers and television shows.
  • Jair Bolsonaro, Speech at the 74th UN General Assembly. Statement by Mr. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil. United Nations PaperSmart (24 September 2019).

C

• I've been impressed with the greatness of Brazil. I've seen the compatibility between your own people and ours—the origins of your country; the struggle for freedom against colonial rule; the courage, the tenacity, the dedication that was required in our country and yours to explore new frontiers, to carve out for ourselves a better life, a greater life, and a position of leadership throughout the whole world.
  • Jimmy Carter; Brasilia, Brazil Remarks Before the Brazilian Congress Online, The American Presidency Project; 30 March 1978

• Inflation is bad for growth—this has become one of the most widely accepted economic nostrums of our age. But see how you feel about it after digesting the following piece of information.
  During the 1960s and the 1970s, Brazil's average inflation rate was 42% a year. Despite this, Brazil was one of the fastest growing economies in the world for those two decades—its per capita income grew at 4.5% a year during this period. In contrast, between 1996 and 2005, during which time Brazil embraced the neo-liberal orthodoxy, especially in relation to macroeconomic policy, its inflation rate averaged a much lower 7.1% a year. But during this period, per capita income in Brazil grew at only 1.3% a year.
  If you are not entirely persuaded by the Brazilian case—understandable, given that hyperinflation went side by side with low growth in the 1980s and the early 1990s—how about this? During its 'miracle' years, when its economy was growing at 7% a year in per capita terms, Korea had inflation rates close to 20%-17.4% in the 1960s and 19.8% in the 1970s. These were rates higher than those found in several Latin American countries ... Are you still convinced that inflation is incompatible with economic success?
  • Ha-Joon Chang, Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008), Ch. 7: 'Mission impossible?; Can financial prudence go too far?', There is inflation and there is inflation, p. 149

• Brazil is my way to see the world. Being born in that country means: "you don't have a wall separating the physical reality from the magical reality."
  • Paulo Coelho, "Paulo Coelho: 'Today we are proud of being Brazilians'". CNN Interview, www.cnn.com. August 31, 2010.

• “I want to find out who is supplying items to a government agency. Is there an easy way to find out?”
  The librarian folded his handkerchief into a square on his palm before he answered.
  “This is Brazil. There is no easy way to find out anything.”
  • Imraan Coovadia, A Spy in Time (2018), ISBN 978-1947856561, p. 154

D

• An utter humiliation for Brazil, just got worse! ... A devastated Brazil; a devastated nation.
  • Ian Darke, Brazil v. Germany (8 July 2014), 2014 FIFA World Cup.

• I've been actually visiting Brazil frequently for the last period, and Brazil is now on the cusp of some major breakthroughs with respect to racism. I think that they have the opportunity to choose whether to follow the example of the US and South Africa
  • Angela Davis, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement (2015)

• Brazil, an intense dream. A vivid ray of love and hope descends to earth.
  • Osório Duque-Estrada, "Brazilian National Anthem" (1909)

• Brazil is bigger than Europe, wilder than Africa, and weirder than Baffin Land.
  • Lawrence Durrell, Letter to Henry Miller, December 1948. In Durrell-Miller Letters, 1935-1980, p. 227.

G

• What is black in the United States is not what's black in Brazil.
  • Alan Goodman, as quoted in "Episode One: The Difference Between Us" (2003), Race: The Power of an Illusion, California Newsreel

• In Brazil we have a saying, 'You're married, but you're not dead'.
  • Izabel Goulart, to Conan O'Brien (February 2007) on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (28 February 2007)

• [T]he Brazilian mindset was forged by slavery above any other thing. Slavery existed, unchallenged, for a long time (about three or four centuries, depending on place) and laid deep roots. These roots are everywhere... So, considering all these impacting aspects, we can say, quite safely, that Brazil is still struggling to levae behing the heavy burden of slavery, that still hinders its progress towards the future.
  • Jose Geraldo Gouvea, "Did Brazil get over slavery?" (March 2015), Quora

• It is a subject for congratulation that the great Empire of Brazil has taken the initiatory step toward the abolition of slavery. Our relations with that Empire, always cordial, will naturally be made more so by this act. It is not too much to hope that the Government of Brazil may hereafter find it for its interest, as well as intrinsically right, to advance toward entire emancipation more rapidly than the present act contemplates.
  • Ulysses S. Grant, State of the Union Address (4 December 1871)

H

• We are also seeing a diffusion of power and competition at the nation state level. This competition comes not just from Russia and China, but also from emerging countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia, and the other ASEAN states. These states are also beginning to organize themselves into structures outside of and somewhat in competition.
  • Stephen J. Hadley, "America's Role In The World" (30 October 2014), Lowy Institute

• All of Brazil is crying right now.
  • Billy Haisley, "All of Brazil is Crying Right Now" (8 July 2014), Screamer

• Every fan in Brazil is crying right now.
  • Bill Hanstock, "Every Fan in Brazil is Crying Right Now" (8 July 2014), SBNation

• Max Payne: This place is great. Really comfortable. I'm just going to get settled in. Time to move on. Get on with my life. Yes , absolutely. Now , like I said, it was a long time ago. Let it go. Seriously. Definitely more my style than Panama or Hoboken, I guess. No. If I'm honest, I just got kind of bored of boozing.
  • Max Payne 3 (2012), written by Dan Houser

I

• The draft law [whereby is "any alteration, edition, suppression, addition, or adaptation to the texts of the Holy Bible" in the State of Pernambuco prohibited] is obviously unconstitutional, as it would ask secular judges to determine what books in the Bible are part of the canon and what translation is correct or otherwise. However, the very fact that a leading state legislator has proposed it confirms that religious intolerance is a serious problem in Brazil.
  • Massimo Introvigne, "Brazil: Law Introduced in Pernambuco Would Forbid “Altering” the Bible", Bitter Winter (June 10, 2023)

J

• Like many commodity dependent emerging markets, Brazil has imploded both economically and investment-wise over the past couple of years. I warned investors to bail out of the country back in September of 2012 as it was evident a huge bubble had formed. Things have become worse than I could have imagined and, given the state of things down south, it is hard to imagine things improving in 2016. The only question investors should be asking is, do the problems in Brazil and other emerging markets have the potential to cause problems here in 2016?
  • Bret Jensen, "Bye, Bye Brazil?" (22 December 2015), Seeking Alpha

• To live in Brazil sucks, but it is good.
  • Antônio Carlos Jobim, as quoted in "The Export of Brazilian Workers to the U.S.: From Work to Live to Live to Work" (March 2017), by Carlos Eduardo Siqueira, Brazilian Journal of Medicine and Human Health

• Brazil, I know is the possessor of a fine tradition of political freedom and stability, and of social and religious tolerance. It also has a rich cultural heritage, great natural resources, an already very substantial industrial base and internal market, and a highly talented people. The remarkable progress made in the last thirty years, with the creation in Brazil of the greatest industrial center in Latin America, provides solid ground for confidence that all the elements exist for an even more brilliant early future.
  • Lyndon B. Johnson; Exchange of Letters With President Goulart of Brazil Online, The American Presidency Project; 23 December 1963

K

• Violence has long been a fact of life in Brazil. Amnesty International reports that in 2004 there were 663 killings by officers in Sao Paulo state, and 983 in Rio de Janeiro State.
  • Steve Kingstone, "Brazilian's death was 'third-world error'" (25 July 2005), BBC News, United Kingdom: British Broadcasting Corporation

L

• Throughout my my career – which began in 1990 right when the press became unionized – the themes have generally been social-political issues: police brutality, state terrorism, corruption, political maneuvers…And not just in Brazil, the themes I tackle looking abroad include war, armed conflicts, and torture. I’ve also done a lot about the Brazilian military dictatorship.
  • Interview with Brasilwire (2017)

• Brazil has rediscovered itself, and this rediscovery is being expressed in its people's enthusiasm and their desire to mobilize to face the huge problems that lie ahead of us.
  • Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 'Dialogue with the President of Brazil on Global Governance' at the 'Annual Meeting 2003' of the World Economic Forum, January 26, 2003.

M

• Here in Brazil it's common for the police to act violently, especially against poor and black people.
  • Maria Luisa Mendonca, as quoted in "Brazilian's death was 'third-world error'" (25 July 2005), by Steve Kingstone, BBC News, United Kingdom: British Broadcasting Corporation

• What we are told of the inhabitants of Brazil, that they never die but of old age, is attributed to the tranquility and serenity of their climate; I rather attribute it to the tranquility and serenity of their souls, which are free from all passion, thought, or any absorbing and unpleasant labors. Those people spend their lives in an admirable simplicity and ignorance, without letters, without law, without king, without any manner of religion.
  • Michel de Montaigne, The Essays Of Montaigne, Volume I, p. 486.

N

• Slavery will remain for a long time as the chief national characteristic of Brazil. It spread throughout our vast lonely lands a huge softness [of mores]; its contact was the first to shape the virgin nature of the country, and it was the one recorded there. It [slavery] peopled it [Brazil] like a living natural religion, with its myths, legends and spells.
  • Joaquim Nabuco, as quoted in "Did Brazil get over slavery?" (March 2015), by Jose Geraldo Gouvea, Quora

• One of the biggest threats to biodiversity is the continued loss of virgin forests. Every year, an area of forest corresponding to the size of Hungary disappears. However, the rate of deforestation has fallen by 40 per cent since the 1990s, according to the FAO. Deforestation has ceased in rich countries. In the United States and Europe forested areas are increasing. In China and India, too, forests are now growing, suggesting that rising populations and economies do not have to cause overexploitation. Were it not for deforestation in seven countries – Brazil, Paraguay, Angola, Congo, Tanzania, Indonesia and Myanmar – the world’s forests would have grown in the 2010s. That is not much of a comfort, given the unique natural values lost with those forests. But it shows that the notion that we are experiencing a relentless global deforestation does not hold.
  • Johan Norberg, The Capitalist Manifesto: Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World (2023)

R

• By "Mongrel Complex" I mean the inferiority in which Brazilians put themselves, voluntarily, in comparison to the rest of the world. Brazilians are the reverse Narcissus, who spit in their own image. Here is the truth: we can't find personal or historical pretexts for self-esteem.
  • Nelson Rodrigues, as quoted in "O Complexo de Inferioridade do Brasileiro" (2007), by Humberto Mariotti, Instituto de Pesquisa BSP

• Writing in the 1950s, the playwright Nelson Rodrigues saw his countrymen as afflicted with a sense of inferiority, and he coined a phrase that Brazilians now use to describe it: "the mongrel complex". Brazil has always aspired to be taken seriously as a world power by the heavyweights, and so it pains Brazilians that world leaders could confuse their country with Bolivia, as Ronald Reagan once did, or dismiss a nation so large – it has 180 million people – as "not a serious country", as Charles de Gaulle did.
  • Larry Rohter, "If Brazil Wants to Scare the World, It's Succeeding" (16 November 2007), The New York Times

S

• Nobody would want to go in for a partnership with Brazil.
  • Guy Scott, interview with David Smith (2013)

T

• The history of Brazil in many respects parallels that of the United States. Both are nations which have carved civilizations out of the wilderness. Both have been endowed with great natural resources and both have been developed by people whose dominant motive is freedom.
  • Harry S. Truman; Remarks to the National Congress of Brazil, The American Presidency Project; 5 September 1947

Z

• Whereas our old world is more than ever ruled by the insane attempt to breed people racially pure, like race-horses and dogs, the Brazilian nation for centuries has been built upon the principle of a free and unsuppressed miscegenation… It is moving to see children of all colours – chocolate, milk, and coffee – come out of their schools arm-in-arm… There is no colour-bar, no segregation, no arrogant classification… for who here would boast of absolute racial purity?
  • Stefan Zweig, Brazil: Land of the Future (1941), p. 8. As quoted in "Zweig: The writer who dreamed of a world without borders", BBC, 22nd February 2017.

See also

• Americas
• Flag of Brazil

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Brazil on Wikipedia
• The dictionary definition of Brazil on Wiktionary
• Works related to Portal:Brazil on Wikisource
• Brazil travel guide from Wikivoyage