Martin Svoboda

@quick, member from April 4, 2011
Nelson Mandela photo

“I have never regarded any man as my superior, either in my life outside or inside prison.”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

Nelson Mandela on equaliy, From a letter to General Du Preez, Commissioner of Prisons, Written on Robben Island, Cape Town, South Africa (12 July 1976). Source: From Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations © 2010 by Nelson R. Mandela and The Nelson Mandela Foundation http://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/mini-site/selected-quotes
1970s

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Variant: Life can only be understood going backward, but must be lived going forward.

Luís de Camões photo

“Time changes, and our desires change. What we
believe—even what we are—is ever-
changing. The world is change, which forever
takes on new qualities.”

Luís de Camões (1524–1580) Portuguese poet

Selected Sonnets: A Bilingual Edition (2008), ed. William Baer, p. 70
Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Mudam-se os tempos, mudam-se as vontades

Robert Downey Jr. photo

“Listen, smile, agree, and then do whatever the fuck you were gonna do anyway”

Robert Downey Jr. (1965) American actor

Robert Downey Jr. on Inside The Actors Studio, quoting Judd Nelson, 2006-07-09

Gianni Agnelli photo

“Everything is on loan in life—everything.”

Gianni Agnelli (1921–2003) Italian businessman

Agnelli: The Rules of the Game, Vanity Fair (1991)

Sophia Loren photo
Sophia Loren photo
Sophia Loren photo
Sophia Loren photo

“My philosophy is that it's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe and not to explore at all.”

Sophia Loren (1934) Italian actress

As quoted in Sophia, Living and Loving: Her Own Story (1979) by A. E. Hotchner, p. 239.

Sophia Loren photo

“A woman's dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”

Sophia Loren (1934) Italian actress

Quoted on Good Morning, America ABC TV (10 August 1979).

Gabriel García Márquez photo

“A lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

[The Autumn of the Patriarch, 2006 [1976], HarperCollins, 978-0-06-088286-0, 254] translated from El Ontoño del Patriarica (1975) by Gregory Rabassa

Yoko Ono photo

“Each time we don't say what we wanna say, we're dying.”

Yoko Ono (1933) Japanese artist, author, and peace activist
Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Life is short, but the years are long.”

Part of the secret "call and response" codewords by which members of the long-lived Howard Families can identify others:
: Life is short.
But the years are long.
Not while the evil days come not.
Methuselah's Children (1958)

Paulo Coelho photo
Jacques-Yves Cousteau photo

“For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.”

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–1997) French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and …
Muhammad Ali photo

“If you even dream of beating me, you'd better wake up and apologize.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
Muhammad Ali photo

“What keeps me going is goals.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
Muhammad Ali photo