Personality
Superior, probably, both intellectually and morally to his great rival Nubar, he lacked the latter's broad statesmanship as well as his pliability. Riyad's standpoint was that of the benevolent autocrat; he believed that the Egyptians were not fitted for self-government and must be treated like children, protected from ill-treatment by others and prevented from injuring themselves. In 1889 he was made an honorary GCMG. A worthy tribute to Riyad was paid by Lord Cromer in his farewell speech at Cairo on 4 May 1907.
- Little or no courage is now required on the part of a young Egyptian who poses as a reformer, but it was not always so. Ismail Pasha had some very drastic methods of dealing with those who did not bow before him. Nevertheless, some thirty years ago Riaz Pasha stood forth boldly to protest against the maladministration that then prevailed in Egypt. He was not afraid to bell the cat.
Read more about this topic: Riyad Pasha
Famous quotes containing the word personality:
“Talent alone can not make a writer. There must be a man behind the book; a personality which by birth and quality is pledged to the doctrines there set forth, and which exists to see and state things so, and not otherwise; holding things because they are things.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Unable to create a meaningful life for itself, the personality takes its own revenge: from the lower depths comes a regressive form of spontaneity: raw animality forms a counterpoise to the meaningless stimuli and the vicarious life to which the ordinary man is conditioned. Getting spiritual nourishment from this chaos of events, sensations, and devious interpretations is the equivalent of trying to pick through a garbage pile for food.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“It is in our interests to let the police and their employers go on believing that the Underground is a conspiracy, because it increases their paranoia and their inability to deal with what is really happening. As long as they look for ringleaders and documents they will miss their mark, which is that proportion of every personality which belongs in the Underground.”
—Germaine Greer (b. 1939)