My Main Mistake Was To Have Made

Contrary To What Many Believed, My Father Was Kind And Tenderhearted, Especially Towards His Family. His Forbidding Sternness Seemed To Melt Into Love, Kindness, And Easy Familiarity When He Was With Us. Especially With Me, His Acknowledged Successor To The Throne, He Would Play Lightheartedly. When We Were Alone Together, He Would Sing Me Little Songs; I Don't Remember His Ever Doing This In Front Of Others, But When Only The Two Of Us Were There, He Would Often Sing To Me.

The Shah Regarded Politics As The Province Of Demagoguery, An Art In Which Only Charlatans Could Excel. He Had No Time For What He Saw As The Tedious Process Of Achieving Consensus Through Debate And Discussion And Tried To Justify His Solitary Exercise Of Power By Insisting It Was What Iran Needed To Catch Up With Lost Time. He Believed He Was More Patriotic Than Anyone Else And Needed No Advice On How Best To Promote And Protect The Highest Interests Of The Nation.

The World Petroleum Story Is One Of The Most Inhuman Known To Man: In It, Elementary Moral And Social Principles Are Jeered At. If Powerful Oil Trusts No Longer Despoil And Humiliate Our Country It Is Not Because These Predators Have Become Human, But Because We Have Won A Hard-fought Battle Which Has Been Going On Since The Beginning Of The Century.

Muslim Brothers Be Damned; They're Our Greatest Enemies. You Know Yourself That I'm A Muslim, Even A Fanatical Muslim. But That Does Nothing To Alter My Opinion Of The Arabs.

I Will Frankly Confess That I Was Convinced That God Had Ordained Me To Do Certain Things For The Service Of My Nation, Things That Perhaps Could Not Be Done By Anyone Else. In Whatever I Have Done And Whatever I Do In The Future, I Consider Myself As An Agent Of The Will Of God.