Quotes about hell
page 10

Wilt Chamberlain photo
Leo Tolstoy photo

“If only people freed themselves from their beliefs in all kinds of Ormuzds, Brahmas, Sabbaoths, and their incarnation as Krishnas and Christs, from beliefs in Paradises and Hells, in reincarnations and resurrections, from belief in the interference of the Gods in the external affairs of the universe, and above all, if they freed themselves from belief in the infallibility of all the various Vedas, Bibles, Gospels, Tripitakas, Korans, and the like, and also freed themselves from blind belief in a variety of scientific teachings about infinitely small atoms and molecules and in all the infinitely great and infinitely remote worlds, their movements and origin, as well as from faith in the infallibility of the scientific law to which humanity is at present subjected: the historic law, the economic laws, the law of struggle and survival, and so on, — if people only freed themselves from this terrible accumulation of futile exercises of our lower capacities of mind and memory called the "Sciences", and from the innumerable divisions of all sorts of histories, anthropologies, homiletics, bacteriologics, jurisprudences, cosmographies, strategies — their name is legion — and freed themselves from all this harmful, stupefying ballast — the simple law of love, natural to man, accessible to all and solving all questions and perplexities, would of itself become clear and obligatory.”

Source: A Letter to a Hindu (1908), VI

Brigham Young photo
Bruce Springsteen photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“We are in hell and I will have my turn!”

Inès warns Garcin and Estelle not to make love in her presence, Act 1, sc. 5
No Exit (1944)

Erik Naggum photo

“Gotos aren't damnable to begin with. If you aren't smart enough to distinguish what's bad about some gotos from all gotos, goto hell.”

Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer

Re: destroying CLOS objects http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/bb32931876c3a7cd (Usenet article).
Usenet articles, Miscellaneous

“The mouth of hell is full of good resolutions.”

Stefano Guazzo (1530–1593) Italian writer

La bocca dell'Inferno e piena di buone volontà.
Del Conoscimento di se stesso, p. 492.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 339.

Huldrych Zwingli photo

“Grace and peace from God to you, respected, honoured, wise clement, gracious and beloved Masters: An exceedingly unfortunate affair has happened to me, in that I have been publicly accused before your worships of having reviled you in unseemly words and, be it said with all respect, of having called you heretics, my gracious rulers of the State. I am so far from applying this name to you, that I should as soon think of calling heaven hell. For all my life I have thought and spoken of you in terms of praise and honour, gentlemen of Abtzell, as I do to-day, and, as God favours me, shall do to the end of my days. But it happened not long ago when I was preaching against the Catabaptists that I used these words: 'The Catabaptists are now doing so much mischief to the upright citizens of Abtzell and are showing so great insolence, that nothing could be more infamous. You see, gentle sirs, with what modesty I grieved on your account, because the turbulent Catabaptists caused you so much trouble. Indeed I suspect that the Catabaptists are the very people who have set this sermon against me in circulation among you, for they do many of those things which do not become true Christians. Therefore, gentle and wise sirs, I beg most earnestly that you will have me exculpated before the whole community, and, if occasion arise, that you will have this letter read in public assembly. Sirs, I assure you in the name of God our Saviour, in these perilous times you have never been our of my thoughts and my solicitious anxiety; and if in any way I shall be able to serve you I will spare no pains to do so. In addition to the fact that I never use such terms even against my enemies, let me say that it never entered my mind to apply such insulting epithets to you, pious and wise sirs. Sufficient of this. May God preserve you in safety, and may He put a curb on these unbridled falsehoods which are being scattered everywhere, which is an evidence of some great peril - and may He hold your worships and the whole state in the true faith of Christ@ Take this letter of mine in good part, for I could not suffer that so base a falsehood against me should lie uncontradicted.”

Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, and founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches

Letter to Abtzell February 12, 1526 (vi., 473), ibid, p.250-251

Carlos Drummond de Andrade photo

“When I was born, one of those twisted
angels who live in the shadows said:
"Carlos, get ready to be a misfit in life!"
(…)
My God, why have you forsaken me
if you knew that I wasn't God,
if you knew that I was weak.
World so large, world so wide,
if my name were Clyde,
it would be a rhyme but not an answer.
World so wide, world so large,
my heart's even larger.
I shouldn't tell you,
but this moon
but this brandy
make me sentimental as hell.”

Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902–1987) Brazilian poet

Quando nasci, um anjo torto
Desses que vivem na sombra
Disse: Vai Carlos! Ser gauche na vida.
(...)
Meu Deus, por que me abandonastes
se sabias que eu não era Deus,
se sabias que eu era fraco.
Mundo mundo vasto mundo,
se eu me chamasse Raimundo
seria uma rima, não seria uma solução.
Mundo mundo vasto mundo,
mais vasto é meu coração.
Eu não devia te dizer
mas essa lua
mas esse conhaque
botam a gente comovido como o diabo.
"Poema de sete faces" ["Seven-sided Poem"]
Alguma Poesia [Some Poetry] (1930)

Gore Vidal photo
Bruce Springsteen photo
Mohammad Khatami photo

“In response on the motives of suicide bombers, he said that, Those who put others through hell will never go to heaven.”

Mohammad Khatami (1943) Iranian prominent reformist politician, scholar and shiite faqih.

In response on the motives of suicide bombers in a speech at Harvard University http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091100315.html 11 September 2006)
Attributed

Babe Ruth photo

“What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Anyway, I had a better year than he did.”

Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player

Oft-cited but likely apocryphal variation on Ruth's defense of his Hoover-exceeding salary demands (structurally similar, albeit in bolder, considerably more streamlined fashion, to the contemporaneously reported Ruth quote of January 7, 1930—see above); as quoted in Babe Ruth: The Big Moments of the Big Fellow http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/12/28/better-year/#return-note-10331-1 (1947) by Tom Meany, p. 139, and reproduced shortly thereafter in several book reviews, most notably an informal review http://www.mediafire.com/view/720jdsq5hh19ar1/Daley%2C%20Arthur.%20Sports%20of%20the%20Times—Something%20About%20the%20Babe.%20The%20New%20York%20Times.%20December%2016%2C%201947.jpg by New York Times columnist Arthur Daley, who would go on to resurrect the quote, with slightly altered wordings, in at least four subsequent columns, including one in August 1948 http://www.mediafire.com/view/yz5mp5zi41v3xln/Daley%2C%20Arthur.%20Sports%20of%20the%20Times—Still%20More%20on%20the%20Babe.%20The%20New%20York%20Times.%20August%2019%2C%201948.jpg and in April 1951 http://www.mediafire.com/view/h3p6wvqdso308pk/Daley%2C%20Arthur.%20Carry%20a%20Bat%20Who%2C%20a%20Ball%20Player%20The%20New%20York%20Times.%20April%2015%2C%201951.%20Section%20VI%2C%20Page%2017..jpg.
Unsourced variants: Hey, I had a better year than he did.
Why not, I had a better year than he did.
I know, but I had a better year than Hoover.

Kofi Annan photo

“The report [by a UN commission on Darfur] demonstrates beyond all doubt that the last two years have been little short of hell on earth for our fellow human beings in Darfur.”

Kofi Annan (1938–2018) 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations

Annan urges action to end 'hell on earth' in Darfur (17 February 2005) http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-02/17/content_417132.htm

Jefferson Davis photo
John Tillotson photo

“With what reason canst thou expect that thy children should follow thy good instructions, when thou thyself givest them an ill example? Thou dost but as it were beckon to them with thy head, and shew them the way to heaven by thy good counsel, but thou takest them by the hand and leadest them in the way to hell by thy contrary example.”

John Tillotson (1630–1694) Archbishop of Canterbury

Sermon 62: On the Education of Children, in The Works of Dr. John Tillotson (1772) edited by Thomas Birch, Vol 3, p. 197; this is more commonly quoted as modernized and paraphrased by John Charles Ryle, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool (1880–1900): "To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is but a beckoning to them with the head to show them the way to heaven, while we take them by the hand and lead them in the way to hell."

Vasily Chuikov photo

“The heavy casualties, the constant retreat, the shortage of food and munitions, the difficulty of receiving reinforcements… all this had a very bad effect on morale. Many longed to get across the Volga, to escape the hell of Stalingrad.”

Vasily Chuikov (1900–1982) Soviet military commander

Quoted in "Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army" - Page 174 - by Catherine Merridale - History - 2007

John Steinbeck photo

“You ain't worth a greased lack pin to ram you into hell.”

Source: Of Mice and Men (1937), Ch. 6, p. 101

Tadeusz Kościuszko photo
Peter Sunde photo

“How the hell did they think this was going to be something else than EPIC FAIL for the prosecution? We’re winning so hard.”

Peter Sunde (1978) Swedish activist and computer expert

February 2009 Copyright Infringement Trial http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-trial-first-day-in-court/

Audrey Hepburn photo

“I'm half-Irish, half-Dutch, and I was born in Belgium. If I was a dog, I'd be in a hell of a mess!”

Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) British actress

Source: Audrey Hepburn (2002), p. 46

James Thurber photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Neal Stephenson photo
Radovan Karadžić photo

“This, what you are doing, is not good. This is the path that you want to take Bosnia and Herzegovina on, the same highway of hell and death that Slovenia and Croatia went on. Don't think that you won't take Bosnia and Herzegovina into hell, and the Muslim people maybe into extinction. Because the Muslim people cannot defend themselves if there is war here.”

Radovan Karadžić (1945) former Bosnian Serb politician; convicted war criminal

Radovan Karadžić speaking at the Bosnian parliament, on the night of 14–15 October 1991, in a charged atmosphere in a debate whether to declare the republic "sovereign", which would mean that republic's laws would take precedence over Yugoslav ones. (The term "Muslim people" refers to the people known as Bosniaks. http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=l8266&PHPSESSID=qdefjq44dcqjbdtlt1aci1kvl4)
Variant translation: "You want to take Bosnia and Herzegovina down the same highway to hell and suffering that Slovenia and Croatia are travelling. Do not think that you will not lead Bosnia and Herzegovina into hell, and do not think that you will not perhaps lead the Muslim people into annihilation, because the Muslims cannot defend themselves if there is war – How will you prevent everyone from being killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina?"
1990s

Will Eisner photo

“Dialogue in Hell:
First Dialogue”

Will Eisner (1917–2005) American cartoonist

The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (10/2/2005)
Variant: Dialogue in Hell:
Twentieth Dialogue

Andrew Sullivan photo
Conor Oberst photo

“There is no Hell when you die
so don't look so worried”

Conor Oberst (1980) American musician

Light Pollution
Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (2005)

Ray Comfort photo
Kathy Griffin photo
Edward Young photo

“Time flies, death urges, knells call, Heaven invites,
Hell threatens.”

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 292.

Werner Herzog photo
James Anthony Froude photo
Ray Comfort photo

“Come hell or high water, there's no frigging way I'm going to let one ovary bring the government down.”

Carolyn Parrish (1946) Canadian politician

As quoted in "Martin Liberals' fate rests with lone MP" https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/martin-liberals-fate-rests-with-lone-mp/article20422060/ (19 May 2005), The Globe and Mail

Clive Staples Lewis photo
Warren Farrell photo
Thomas Jefferson photo
Pat Conroy photo
Peter Gabriel photo
Christopher Pitt photo
Emily St. John Mandel photo

“Hell is other actors,” Kirsten said. “Also ex-boyfriends.”

Source: Station Eleven (2014), Chapter 10 (p. 49)

John McCain photo

“I can only express satisfaction that the Dear Leader is joining the likes of Gaddafi, bin Laden, Hitler, and Stalin in a warm corner of hell.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075987/Kim-Jong-Il-dead-North-Korea-dictator-gone-join-Gaddafi-Bin-Laden-Hitler.html#ixzz2K6XX84Tov (19 December 2011), on the death of Kim Jong-il.
2010s, 2011

Neal Boortz photo
Tad Williams photo

“It was impossible to see warfare as anything other than what Morgenes had once termed it: a kind of hell on earth that impatient mankind had arranged so it would not have to wait for the afterlife.”

Tad Williams (1957) novelist

Source: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, To Green Angel Tower (1993), Part 1, Chapter 12, “Raven’s Dance” (p. 392).

Michael Shea photo

“On the September 26, 2008 broadcast of CNN's "Situation Room", while sitting next to Wolf Blitzer, Cafferty directly highlighted Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's abysmal interview performance with Katie Couric earlier in the week. Cafferty stated, prior to playing a particularly embarrassing segment of the interview in which Palin stumbles across a murky, confused, ambiguous answer to Couric's query regarding the pending economic bailout package, "There's a reason the McCain campaign keeps Sarah Palin away from the press." After the clip's conclusion, he then went on to say, "…Did you get that? If John McCain wins, this woman will be one 72 year-old's heartbeat away from being president of the United States, and if that doesn't scare the Hell out of you, it should…I'm 65 and have been covering politics as you have [addressing Blitzer] for a long time, and that is one of the most pathetic pieces of tape I have ever seen for someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in this country. That's all I have to say." Blitzer responded in a light-hearted, seemingly forced defense of Palin, stating, "Yeah, but she's cramming a lot of information…" Cafferty interrupted, "There's no excuse for that. She's supposed to know a little bit of this, you know. Don't make excuses for her - that's pathetic."”

Jack Cafferty (1942) American journalist

Blitzer replied, "It was not her best answer. I agree with you on that," and the segment came to a close.
[CNN, Jack Cafferty on Sarah Palin, 26 September 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8__aXxXPVc]
2008

Tina Fey photo
John Wesley photo

“I desire to have both heaven and hell ever in my eye, while I stand on this isthmus of life, between two boundless oceans.”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Letter to Charles Wesley
General sources

“Has the Republic of Korea ever been more obviously unloved than in this year of "Hell Chosun?"”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, Still the Unloved Republic (December 2016)

Gavin Douglas photo
John Wentworth photo

“You damned fools. You can either vote for me for mayor or you can go to hell.”

John Wentworth (1815–1888) American newspaper editor and politician

Quoted in Chicago Magazine, June 2006 http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/June-2006/The-Perfect-Mayor/

Thomas Carlyle photo
Hugo Chávez photo
Tryon Edwards photo

“Hell is truth seen too late — duty neglected in its season.”

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) American theologian

Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 225.

Teresa Heinz Kerry photo

“They want four more years of hell.”

Teresa Heinz Kerry (1938) Portuguese–American businesswoman, widow of Sen. H. John Heinz III and wife of Secretary of State John Kerry

Dan Balz, "Heinz Kerry Has Retort for Bush Fans" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35665-2004Aug2.html, washingtonpost.com (2004-08-03)
From a campaign rally speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2004-08-02) after a Bush supporter chanted "Four more years!" on a bullhorn.

Arsène Wenger photo

“In my job, you expect to suffer. That's why when I go to hell one day, it will be less painful for me than you, because I'm used to suffering.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

On Arsenal's summer, (2011) http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/14859401
Arsenal (1996–present)

Curtis Mayfield photo
Ed Miliband photo

“Am I tough enough? Hell yes I'm tough enough.”

Ed Miliband (1969) British politician

During an interview with Jeremy Paxman. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/general-election-2015-the-10-best-quotes-10230558.html
2015

Charles Taze Russell photo
Niall Ferguson photo
Mel Brooks photo

“President Skroob: What the hell, it works on Star Trek!”

Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer

Spaceballs

Michael Foot photo
Ray Comfort photo

“Interestingly, Islam acknowledges the reality of sin and hell, and the justice of God, but the hope it offers is that sinners can escape God’s justice if they do religious works. God will see these, and because of them, hopefully he will show mercy—but they won’t know for sure. Each person’s works will be weighed on the Day of Judgment and it will then be decided who is saved and who is not—based on whether they followed Islam, were sincere in repentance, and performed enough righteous deeds to outweigh their bad ones. So Islam believes you can earn God’s mercy by your own efforts. That’s like jumping out of the plane and believing that flapping your arms is going to counter the law of gravity and save you from a 10,000-foot drop. And there’s something else to consider. The Law of God shows us that the best of us is nothing but a wicked criminal, standing guilty and condemned before the throne of a perfect and holy Judge. When that is understood, then our “righteous deeds” are actually seen as an attempt to bribe the Judge of the Universe. The Bible says that because of our guilt, anything we offer God for our justification (our acquittal from His courtroom) is an abomination to Him, and only adds to our crimes. Islam, like the other religions, doesn’t solve your problem of having sinned against God and the reality of hell.”

Ray Comfort (1949) New Zealand-born Christian minister and evangelist

The Origin of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition (2009)

“Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell.”

Kyle Bass (1969) businessperson

BBC HARDTalk interview, 15 November 2011.

Elvis Costello photo

“Now I just don't know who to tell to go to hell
Who put the old devil in the distorted angel?”

Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter

Distorted Angel
Song lyrics, All This Useless Beauty (1996)

Muhammad photo
Bill O'Reilly photo

“Do the atheists in Wisconsin realize they're going to Hell? Did you ask them that?”

Bill O'Reilly (1949) American political commentator, television host and writer

2012-11-13
The O'Reilly Factor
Fox News
Television, quoted in * 2012-11-13
Fox's O'Reilly: "Do The Atheists In Wisconsin Realize They're Going To Hell?"
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/11/13/foxs-oreilly-do-the-atheists-in-wisconsin-reali/191365
regarding the moving of a nativity scene from a town hall in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania to a church because the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation threatened to sue

Julius Malema photo

“All white people who are voting DA, who are angry with what we are going to do in PE, who have insulted us since we announced this decision, and mobilised some of your people in the media, to insult us and say all of this, all of you combined can go to hell! We don't care about you. We don't care about you. We don’t care about White feelings.”

Julius Malema (1981) South African political activist

On 4 March 2018, at the launch of the EFF's election registration campaign, Standard Bank arena, Johannesburg. Has EFF’s Julius Malema Gone Too Far With Racist Remarks? https://www.sapeople.com/2018/03/05/has-effs-julius-malema-gone-too-far-with-racist-remarks/, SAPeople News (5 March 2018)

Zygmunt Bauman photo
Will Eisner photo
Ahmad Sirhindi photo

“Therefore, it is necessary that infidelity should be cursed in order to serve the faith (Islam). Cursing unbelief in the heart is the lesser way. The greater way is to curse it in the heart as well as with the body. In short, cursing means to nourish enmity towards enemies of the true faith, whether that enmity is harboured in the heart when there is fear of injury from them (infidels), or it is harboured in the heart as well as served with the body when there is no fear of injury from them.
In the opinion of this recluse, there is no greater way to obtain the blessings of Allah than to curse the enemies of the faith (be impatient with them). For Allah himself harbours enmity towards the infidels and infidelity…
Once I went to visit a sick man who was close to death. When I meditated on him, I saw that his heart was layered with darknesses. I intended to remove those darknesses. But he was not yet ready for it… When I meditated more deeply, I discovered that those darknesses had gathered due to his friendship with the infidels. They could not be dispersed easily. He had to suffer torments of hell before he could get purged of them…”

Ahmad Sirhindi (1564–1624) Indian philosopher

Maktubat-i-Imam Rabbani translated into Urdu by Maulana Muhammad Sa’id Ahmad Naqshbandi, Deoband, 1988, Volume III, pp. 660-63. These passages are from a long letter in which Ahmad Sirhindi answered a large number of questions from his disciples.
From his letters

Will Eisner photo
Sam Kinison photo
Philip K. Dick photo
Thomas Edison photo

“Hell! There ain't no rules around here! We are tryin' to accomplish somep'n!”

Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American inventor and businessman

Response received (after Edison spat on the floor and before he walked off) when M. A. Rosanoff joined the West Orange, New Jersey team in 1903 and humbly asked: “Mr. Edison, please tell me what laboratory rules you want me to observe.” M. A. Rosanoff’s quote appeared in Harper’s Monthly, September 1932, p. 24.
1900s
Variant: There ain´t no rules around here. We are trying to accomplish something.

Will Eisner photo
John Lancaster Spalding photo
Firuz Shah Tughlaq photo

“The idol, Jwalamukhi, much worshipped by the infidels, was situated on the road to Nagarkot Some of the infidels have reported that Sultan Firoz went specially to see this idol and held a golden umbrella over it. But the author was informed by his respected father, who was in the Sultans retinue, that the infidels slandered the Sultan, who was a religious, God-fearing man, who, during the whole forty years of his reign, paid strict obedience to the law, and that such an action was impossible. The fact is, that when he went to see the idol, all the rais, ranas and zamindars who accompanied him were summoned into his presence, when he addressed them, saying, O fools and weak-minded, how can ye pray to and worship this stone, for our holy law tells us that those who oppose the decrees of our religion, will go to hell? The Sultan held the idol in the deepest detestation, but the infidels, in the blindness of their delusion, have made this false statement against him. Other infidels have said that Sultan Muhammad Shah bin Tughlik Shah held an umbrella over the same idol, but this is also a lie; and good Muhammadans should pay no heed to such statements. These two Sultans were sovereigns especially chosen by the Almighty from among the faithful, and in the whole course of their reigns, wherever they took an idol temple they broke and destroyed it; how, then, can such assertions be true? The infidels must certainly have lied!”

Firuz Shah Tughlaq (1309–1388) Tughluq sultan

Nagarkot Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) . Tarikh-i-Firuz Shahi, Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, 8 Volumes, Allahabad Reprint, 1964. Elliot and Dowson. Vol. III, p. 318 ff

Samuel Butler photo

“Heaven is the work of the best and kindest men and women. Hell is the work of prigs, pedants and professional truth-tellers. The world is an attempt to make the best of both.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Heaven and Hell
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912), Part II - Elementary Morality

Bill Hicks photo
Victor Villaseñor photo

“It was from this day on that I began to notice a real difference between our vaqueros on the ranch from Mexico and the gringo cowboys. The American cowboys always seemed so ready to act rough and tough, wanting to “break” the horse, cow, or goat or anything else. Where, on the other hand, our vaqueros—who used the word “amanzar,” meaning to make “tame,” for dealing with horses—had a whole different attitude towards everything. To “break” a horse, for the cowboys, actually, really meant to take a green, untrained horse and rope him, knock him down, saddle him while he fought to get loose, then mount him as he got up on all four legs, and ride the living hell out of the horse until you tired him out, taught him who was boss, and “broke” his spirit. To “amanzar” a horse, on the other hand, was a whole other approach that took weeks of grooming, petting, and leading the green horse around in the afternoon with a couple of well-trained horses. Then, after about a month, you began to put a saddle on the horse and tie him up in shade in the afternoon for a couple of hours until, finally, the saddle felt like just a natural part of him. Then, and only then, did a person finally mount the horse, petting and sweet-talking him the whole time, and once more the green horse was taken on a walk between two well-trained horses.”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Burro Genius: A Memoir (2004)

Bernard Cornwell photo
Jeremy Taylor photo
John Milton photo

“Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell,
And devilish machinations come to nought.”

Book I: Lines 72-73
Paradise Regained (1671)

Zell Miller photo

“I say bomb the hell out of them. If there's collateral damage, so be it. They certainly found our civilians to be expendable.”

Zell Miller (1932–2018) Politician and United States Marine Corps officer

Speech on Senate floor shorty after attacks against U.S. on September 11, 2001. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B04E4DC1038F930A2575AC0A9679C8B63; (at end of video http://youtube.com/watch?v=WZvt1tmRImU).

Albert Einstein photo

“Nuclear power is a hell of a way to boil water.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Commonly quoted on the internet, this quote is actually from Karl Grossman, via his 1980 book Cover Up: What You are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power (p. 155; freely available online via its publisher http://www.thepermanentpress.com/p-354-cover-up.aspx; see PDF page 187).
Misattributed

George D. Herron photo
Christopher Pitt photo
Ippen photo
Charles Barkley photo

“You know it's gone to hell, when the best rapper out there is a white guy and the best golfer is a black guy.”

Charles Barkley (1963) American basketball player

Interview in the New York Post in October 2000.
Notes: Although Barkley popularised the phrase, it was likely first used several months earlier http://www.snopes.com/quotes/chrisrock.asp by Chris Rock.

Will Eisner photo
Ursula K. Le Guin photo