# East and West

- Author: [Chris Patten](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-patten.md)
- Quotes: 5
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/chris-patten/east-and-west

## Quotes

> It is not unusual for electorates to want contradictory things, and politicians often make promises accordingly.

p. 34

> [O]n July 1, 1997, Hong Kong became the only example of decolonization deliberately accompanied by less democracy and a weaker protection of civil liberties. This was a cause for profound regret, especially for the departing colonial power. But it was China's doing and China's decision. I am pleased that Britain narrowly avoided complicity in the dishonourable act of denying the citizens of free Hong Kong what they had been promised in 1984.

p. 70

> No other place has quite the same blend of East and West, ancient and modern, spectacular and humdrum.

p. 10

> Asians...put more emphasis on order, stability, hierarchy, family and self-discipline than Westerners do.

p. 129

> As governor, I experienced the vitality of life in a booming and free Asian city, saw routinely the best and worst aspects of human nature, and was made to revisit some of the principles in which I have always believed but to which I had rarely given much thought previously. In the darker hours of occasionally fretful nights I found myself face to face with the moral dimensions of political action to a greater extent than ever before.