
To a Voice of America journalist in Berlin during a European tour, 3 September 1984, as cited in Venture into the Exterior: Through Europe With P.W. Botha, John Scott, 1984
The Tale of Taleisin
To a Voice of America journalist in Berlin during a European tour, 3 September 1984, as cited in Venture into the Exterior: Through Europe With P.W. Botha, John Scott, 1984
Universal Hall (2003)
Source: "I've Lived Here Before" (co-written with Liam Ó Maonlaí)
Ratification of the Israel–Palestinian Interim Agreement Speech in the Knesset (5 October 1995)
“They were men who were here before us. We must build again.”
By the Waters of Babylon (1937)
Context: It is better the truth should come little by little. I have learned that, being a priest. Perhaps, in the old days, they ate knowledge too fast.
Nevertheless, we make a beginning. it is not for the metal alone we go to the Dead Places now — there are the books and the writings. They are hard to learn. And the magic tools are broken — but we can look at them and wonder. At least, we make a beginning. And, when I am chief priest we shall go beyond the great river. We shall go to the Place of the Gods — the place newyork — not one man but a company. We shall look for the images of the gods and find the god ASHING and the others — the gods Lincoln and Biltmore and Moses. But they were men who built the city, not gods or demons. They were men. I remember the dead man's face. They were men who were here before us. We must build again.
“I am that shadow on the threshold
defending my remnant peace.”
Poem without a Hero (1963)
Context: Dread. Bottomless dread...
I am that shadow on the threshold
defending my remnant peace.
Weaving the Web (1999)
Context: At CERN there was a credo meant to avoid unnecessary labors, it said that when acquiring new technology: Buy, Don't Build. There were several commercial hypertext editors and I thought we could just add some internet code, so that the hypertext documents could then be sent over the internet. I thought the companies engaged in the then fringe field of hypertext would immediately grasp the possibilities of the web. Unfortunately, their reaction was quite the opposite... it seemed that explaining the vision of the web was exceedingly difficult without a web browser in hand, people had to be able to grasp the web in full, which meant imagining a whole world populated with websites and browsers. It was a lot to ask. Despite the buy don't build credo I came to the conclusion that I was going to have to create the web on my own.
Diary entry (18 June 1974), quoted from Against the Tide. Diaries 1973-1976 (London: Hutchinson, 1989), p. 180, p. 182
1970s
“And the moral high ground is a lovely place,” Marwick said, as if he were agreeing. “It won’t stop a missile, though.”
Source: Cibola Burn (2014), Chapter 15 (p. 156)