“I would much prefer to be a judge than a coal miner because of the absence of falling coal.”
"Sitting on the Bench" (1961)
Beyond the Fringe (1960 - 1966)
Context: I could have been a Judge, but I never had the Latin for the judgin'. I never had it, so I'd had it, as far as being a judge was concerned... I would much prefer to be a judge than a coal miner because of the absence of falling coal.
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Peter Cook 45
British architect 1937–1995Related quotes

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart http://www.cc.com/video-clips/svsqnx/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-joe-biden ()
2000s, 2004

[2007-04-20, Romney's Energy Gaffe, Ryan Sager, The New York Sun, http://www.nysun.com/national/romneys-energy-gaffe/52883/]
2007 campaign for Republican nomination for United States President

CNN Democratic Presidential Town Hall http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/may/10/context-hillary-clintons-comments-about-coal-jobs/ in Columbus, Ohio (13 March 2016)
Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016)

Wealth
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)

“I was seed again.
I was fern in the swamp.
I was coal.”
A Tree Telling of Orpheus (1968)
Context: Fire he sang,
that trees fear, and I, a tree, rejoiced in its flames.
New buds broke forth from me though it was full summer.
As though his lyre (now I knew its name)
were both frost and fire, its chords flamed
up to the crown of me.
I was seed again.
I was fern in the swamp.
I was coal.

Daily Herald, 25 May 1945
Speech at Blackpool, 24 May 1945.
1940s

As quoted in All Our Relations Native Struggle For Land & Life (1999), pg.101