On how Madea was created
Interview with Oprah Winfrey
“According to Dickens, the first rule of human nature is self-preservation and when I forgive him for writing a character as pathetic as Oliver Twist, I'll thank him for the advice.”
Source: On the Jellicoe Road
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Melina Marchetta 204
Australian teen writer 1965Related quotes
Source: Personal Destinies: A Philosophy of Ethical Individualism (1976), p. 16
since it is at odds with itself, and since it does not tolerate any lasting principle within itself
Kant, Immanuel (1996), page 246
Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798)
“Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!”
Act II; sometimes paraphrased as: The customs of your tribe are not laws of nature.
1890s, Caesar and Cleopatra (1898)
Variant: Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
Context: THEODOTUS: Caesar: you are a stranger here, and not conversant with our laws. The kings and queens of Egypt may not marry except with their own royal blood. Ptolemy and Cleopatra are born king and consort just as they are born brother and sister.
BRITANNUS (shocked): Caesar: this is not proper.
THEODOTUS (outraged): How!
CAESAR (recovering his self-possession): Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
“Do not kill him! I forgive him my death.”
After an assassin had tried to kill him, he ordered his soldiers not to kill the assassin, 1581., as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 223