Edward Elgar (1857–1934) English composer
Elgar's programme note to the Enigma Variations, quoted in Simon Mundy Elgar (London: Omnibus Press, [1980] 2001) p. 64.
undated quotes, M.C. Escher Foundation
Variant: I walk around in mysteries. Each time, youngsters say: you make Op-art too. I don't know what that is, Op-art. This work I have been making for the past thirty years.
Edward Elgar (1857–1934) English composer
Elgar's programme note to the Enigma Variations, quoted in Simon Mundy Elgar (London: Omnibus Press, [1980] 2001) p. 64.
John D. Barrow (1952–2020) British scientist
New Theories of Everything (2007)
Context: Scanning the past millennia of human achievement reveals just how much has been achieved during the last three hundred years since Newton set in motion the effective mathematization of Nature. We found that the world is curiously adapted to a simple mathematical description. It is enigma enough that the world is described by mathematics; but by simple mathematics, of the sort that a few years energetic study now produces familiarity with, this is an enigma within an enigma.<!--Ch. 1, p. 2
Robert Fludd (1574–1637) British mathematician and astrologer
Robert Fludd, cited in: Waite (1887, p. 291)
David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger
As quoted in this interview http://www.theuncool.com/journalism/david-bowie-playboy-magazine/ in Playboy magazine (September 1976)
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher
Truth, Power, Self : An Interview with Michel Foucault (25 October 1982)
James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish novelist and poet
Joyce's reply for a request for a plan of Ulysses, as quoted in James Joyce (1959) by Richard Ellmann
Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War
BBC broadcast (“The Russian Enigma”), London, October 1, 1939 ( partial text http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/RusnEnig.html, transcript of the "First Month of War" speech https://ww2memories.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/churchills-ww2-speech-to-the-nation-october-1939/). <br class="br">The Second World War (1939–1945) <br class="br">Context: I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.
“I'm a conundrum. Or an enigma. I forget which.”
James A. Owen book The Shadow Dragons
Source: The Shadow Dragons