“Some are born weird, some achieve it, others have weirdness thrust upon them.”
Dick Francis (1920–2010) English jockey and crime writer
Source: To the Hilt (1996)
“America was born modern; it did not have to achieve modernity, nor did it have modernity thrust upon it.”
Anthropology and Politics (1995)
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Ernest Gellner32
Czech anthropologist, philosopher and sociologist 1925–1995Related quotes
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.”
William Shakespeare Twelfth Night
Malvolio, Act II, scene v.
Variant: Some are born great, others achieve greatness.
Source: Twelfth Night (1601)
“Some men are born sodomites, some achieve sodomy, and some have sodomy thrust upon them…”
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist
Source: The Scented Garden Of Abdullah The Satirist Of Shiraz
Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) Italian painter and sculptor
as quoted in Futurism, ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 154.
1914 - 1916
Joseph Heller book Catch-22
Variant: Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity trust upon them.
Source: Catch-22 (1961)
Context: Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three.
Kage Baker book The Life of the World to Come
Source: The Life of the World to Come (2004), Chapter 11, “Christmas Meeting” (p. 181)
“… invisibility was one of Bengali modernity’s prerequisites and cardinal achievements.”
Amit Chaudhuri (1962) contemporary Indian-English novelist
citation needed
On Modernity
Hendrik Werkman (1882–1945) Dutch artist
version in original Dutch (origineel citaat van Hendrik Werkman, in het Nederlands): Voor mij zou het leven waardeloos zijn als er niet de moderne kunst was en als ik niet de mogelijkheid had om me daarin te uiten op welke manier dan ook, nu ik de wijze waarop ik mij kan uiten langzamerhand heb gevonden.
Quote of Werkman in his letter to August Henkels, June 1942, as cited by Doeke Sijens in H. N. Werkman - Leven & Werk - 1882-1945, ed. A. de Vries, J. van der Spek, D. Sijens, M. Jansen; WBooks, Groninger Museum / Stichting Werkman, 2015 (transl: Fons Heijnsbroek), p. 64
1940's