Quotes about life and people
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„I offer this gift to my God, I dedicate this gift to Him. Only this remains to me as my treasure. I gave up everything else at the command of the Spirit. I gave all that I had to obtain the pearl of great price. Only in words do I master it, as a servant of the Word. I would never intentionally wish to disdain this wealth. I esteem it, I set value by it, I am comforted by it more than others are comforted by all the treasures of the world. It is the companion of all my life, a good counselor and converser; a guide on the way to Heaven and a fervent co-ascetic.“
— Gregory of Nazianzus Christian saint, bishop, and theologian 329 - 389
Concerning his literary gift
Source: "St. Gregory the Theologian the Archbishop of Constantinople" https://oca.org/saints/lives/2014/01/25/100298-st-gregory-the-theologian-the-archbishop-of-constantinople
„Without criticising the liberal model, we cannot repair its faults or go beyond it. But please note that this book could have been written only when people are still relatively free to think what they like and to express themselves as they wish. If you value this book, you should also value the freedom of expression.“
— Yuval Noah Harari Israeli historian 1976
21 Lessons for the 21st Century
„There is something about spending Christmas alone, naked, sitting by the Christmas tree gripping a shotgun, that lets you know your life is spinning dangerously outta control.“
— Nikki Sixx, The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star
„While I loved being first lady, my eight years with that title were the most difficult years of my life.“
— Nancy Reagan, My Turn
My Turn (1989), Context: In 1981, when Ronnie and I moved to Washington, I never dreamed that our eight years there would be a time of so much emotion. But life in the White House is magnified: The highs were higher than I expected, and the lows were much lower.
While I loved being first lady, my eight years with that title were the most difficult years of my life. Both of my parents died while Ronnie was president, and my husband and I were both operated on for cancer. Before we had even settled in, Ronnie was shot and almost killed. Then there was the pressure of living under the intense scrutiny of the media, and the frustration of frequently being misunderstood. Everything I did or said seemed to generate controversy, and it often seemed that you couldn’t open a newspaper without seeing a story about me — my husband and me, my children and me, Donald Regan and me, and so on.
I don’t think I was as bad, or as extreme in my power or my weakness, as I was depicted — especially during the first year, when people thought I was overly concerned with trivialities, and the final year, when some of the same people were convinced I was running the show.
In many ways, I think I served as a lightning rod; and in any case, I came to realize that while Ronald Reagan was an extremely popular president, some people didn’t like his wife very much. Something about me, or the image people had of me, just seemed to rub them the wrong way.
Foreword
„The institution of a leisure class has emerged gradually during the transition from primitive savagery to barbarism; or more precisely, during the transition from a peaceable to a consistently warlike habit of life.“
— Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class
The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), p. 5
„Q: People think you are very hostile to men.
A: I am.
Q: Doesn't that worry you?
A: From what you said, it worries them.“
— Andrea Dworkin Feminist writer 1946 - 2005
Nervous Interview http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/WarZoneChaptIIA.html (1979). Dworkin wrote both the questions and the answers
„The use of the sea and air is common to all; neither can a title to the ocean belong to any people or private persons, forasmuch as neither nature nor public use and custom permit any possession thereof.“
— Elizabeth I of England Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until 1603 1533 - 1603
To the Spanish Ambassador (1580).
„People may not like to meet bandits, especially on a dark night, but a taste for reading about them seems to be universal.“
— Eric Hobsbawm British academic historian and Marxist historiographer 1917 - 2012
Bandits (1969), Preface to Pantheon Edition
„Democracy is a con game. It’s a word invented to placate people to make them accept a given institution. All institutions sing, ‘We are free.’ The minute you hear ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’, watch out… because in a truly free nation, no one has to tell you you’re free.“
— Jacque Fresco American futurist and self-described social engineer 1916 - 2017
„I'm not concerned with body building; I'm just trying to make people normal human beings.“
— Joseph Pilates German inventor of pilates 1883 - 1967
„Unfortunately, goodness and honor are rather the exception than the rule among exceptional men, not to speak of geniuses.“
— Cesare Lombroso Italian criminologist 1835 - 1909
Die Welt (1909); also in A Treasury of Jewish Quotations (1985) by Joseph L. Baron.
„The real reason people are conservatives is that they are attached to the things that they love, and want to preserve them from abuse and decay. They are attached to their family, their friends, their religion, and their immediate environment. They have made a lifelong distinction between the things that nourish and the things that threaten their security and peace of mind.“
— Roger Scruton English philosopher 1944
"Conservatism and the Conservatory," https://www.nationalreview.com/nrd/articles/427945/conservatism-and-conservatory, National Review (December 2015).
„The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.“
— Howard Thurman American writer 1899 - 1981
Context: When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.
"The Work of Christmas" in The Mood of Christmas & Other Celebrations (1985)
