Quotes about horses
page 9

“If we would return to the shaggy condition of primitive ages, we need only acquire an environment which will favor from age to age those whose peripheries retain to the intensest extent the hirsute tendency. If the disparities between the sexual tastes of male and female would be leveled or inverted, the conditions which have caused the existing disparity must be reversed. The horse exposed to a fad for dwarfs would, in the course of ages, the length of time depending on the pitch of discrimination, be dwindled to its fox-like proportions of eocene times. In an environment requiring courage, foxes would either disappear or grow heroic. Serpents could be rendered as loving as doves by a procedure no more laborious than that by which they have been made vindictive. And beardless aesthetes may become philosophers as easily as have men.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), Race Culture, pp. 208–209

Courage, Time, Dependency, Age

“It is not possible, and it never will be possible, to organize all the beings occupying space into one immense confederacy. This would be ideal, but from the inexorable nature of things it can never be. The denizens of the sea depths can not correlate with the inhabitants of the clouds. The lion can not fraternize with the lamb, nor the hawk with the sparrow. The natures of beings have been evolved thru war, and they are in large part irredeemably antagonistic. But the approximation, if honest, may be more successful than is supposed, and may include many species not human. The bird may contribute his song and plumage, the sheep his fleece, the horse, the ox, the elephant, and the camel their strength or speed, the cow and the fowl their secretions, the dog his fidelity, and man his art. The ultimate and ideal aggregation of the living universe will not be a pan-American union nor a Euro-American league, nor even an aggregation whose spirit is embodied in a parliament of man, but the widest and most consummate possible Confederation of the Consciousnesses.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), The Social Ideal, pp. 161–163

Success, War, Dogs, Speed

“The stars of heaven never looked down on a more pitiful sight than that of a horse, after having drudged faithfully all his days in the service of his lord, cast out in his helpless old age to wander and perish.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: Better-World Philosophy: A Sociological Synthesis (1899), The Preponderance of Egoism, pp. 128–129

Star, Age

“That horse had better win. I saw George get on the plane with an automatic.”

Mickey Mantle (1931–1995) Professional baseball player

On George Steinbrenner's Kentucky Derby entry, Eternal Prince; as quoted in "Baseball Has a Double Standard for Beer Companies" https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/519946294/ The Capital Times (May 4, 1985)

“Common sense might suggest that here was a striking example of a refutable hypothesis that had in fact been refuted. Indo-European scholars should have scrapped all their historical reconstructions and started again from scratch. But that is not what happened. Vested interests and academic posts were involved. Almost without exception the scholars in question managed to persuade themselves that despite appearances the theories of the philologists and the hard evidence of archeology could be made to fit together. The trick was to think of the horse-riding Aryans as conquerors of the cities of the Indus civilization in the same way that the Spanish conquistadores were conquerors of the cities of Mexico and Peru or the Israelites of the Exodus were conquerors of Jericho. The lowly Dasa of the Rig Veda, who had previously been thought of as primitive savages, were now reconstructed as members of a high civilization.”

Edmund Leach (1910–1989) British anthropologist

Sir Edmund Leach. "Aryan invasions over four millennia. In Culture through Time, Anthropological Approaches, edited by E. Ohnuki-Tierney, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1990, pp. 227-245.

Question, Thinking, Appearance, Sense

“Training of bulls, bears, horses, and other animals, for the purpose of baiting them with dogs, was certainly practiced by the jugglers; and this vicious pastime has the sanction of high antiquity. Fitz-Stephen, who lived in the reign of Henry II, tells us that, in the forenoon of every holiday, during the winter season, the young Londoners were amused with boars opposed to each other in battle, or with bulls and full-grown bears baited by dogs. This author makes no mention of horses; and I believe the baiting of these noble and useful animals was never a general practice: it was, however, no doubt, partially performed…Asses also were treated with the same inhumanity; but probably the poor beasts did not afford sufficient sport in the tormenting, and therefore were seldom brought forward as the objects of this barbarous diversion.”

Joseph Strutt (1749–1802) British engraver, artist, antiquary and writer

pg. 256
The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801), Public entertainment

Sport, Dogs, Holiday, Season

“When beasts went together in companies, there was said to be a pride of lions; a lepe of leopards; an herd of harts, of bucks, and of all sorts of deer; a bevy of roes; a sloth of bears; a singular of boars; a sownder of wild swine; a dryft of tame swine; a route of wolves; a harras of horses; a rag of colts; a stud of mares; a pace of asses; a baren of mules, a team of oxen; a drove of kine; a flock of sheep; a tribe of goats; a sculk of foxes; a cete of badgers; a richess of martins; a fesynes of ferrets; a huske or a down of hares; a nest of rabbits; a clower of cats, and a kendel of young cats; a shrewdness of apes; and a labour of moles.”

Joseph Strutt (1749–1802) British engraver, artist, antiquary and writer

pg. 22
The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801), Collective nouns

Cats, Swine

“His favourite car, the copper blue 180D Mercedes Benz, was in his possession till he breathed his last. A person with varied interests, he had to his credit several trophies won as an amateur horse rider at various places in the country.”

Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1922–2013) Maharaja of Travancore

The New Indian Express, in “An Avid Shutterbug, Driving Enthusiast, Sanskrit Scholar (17 December 2013)”

Personality, Cars, Country

“He had varied interests including photography, sports and motoring. He has won trophies as an amateur horse rider and has even played table hockey, tennis, football and polo.”

Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1922–2013) Maharaja of Travancore

Sangeetha Seshagiri, in "Marthanda Varma, Titular Head of Travancore Royal Family, Passes Away (16 December 2013)"

Sport, Football, Hockey

“He never discriminated between us children. He got us to learn horse riding. He always used to take us out shooting when hunting was still allowed. My first experience was a tiger hunt when I was 14-year old. We went to Omkar, a favourite hunting place of my father which lies between Begur and Kakanakote forest range. I shot a spotted deer with Daddy’s supervision.”

Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar (1919–1974) Indian writer

My daddy, His Highness, the Maharaja of Mysore

Children, Learning

“For children, father is a luxurious item, - just like beans for the horse…. but mother is everything for the child. The child cannot bear separation from his mother even for a minute.”

Premchand (1880–1936) Hindi writer

In his novel Ghar Jamai quoted in page= 92.
Portrayal of Women in Premchands Stories A Critique

Children

“Left home in company with John Dixon to attend the internment of George Stephenson at Chesterfield. I fear he died an unbeliever. When I reflect on my first acquaintance with him and the resulting consequences my mind seems lost in doubt as to the beneficial results — that humanity has been benefited in the diminished use of horses and by the lessened cruelty to them, that much ease, safety, speed, and lessened expense in travelling is obtained, but as to the results and effects of all that railways had led my dear family into, being in any sense beneficial is uncertain.”

George Stephenson (1781–1848) English civil engineer and mechanical engineer

Edward Pease, diary entry (1846-08-16)

Home, Family, Speed, Sense

“An unusual event occurred in the seventh. Greengrass tripled over the head of Willie Mays. To a Giant fan this is like tripling over the Empire State building. Willie galloped after the drive but his horse ran second as the ball descended a few inches beyond his reach, a step or two away from the centerfield fence.”

Willie Mays (1931) Baseball player

Bob Cooke: “Giants Down Reds, 6-1, Lead by 3,” The New York Herald Tribune (July 31, 1954), p. 11

“We’d have a motherfucking shitload of dogs! Horses. Peacocks. Oh to live among peacocks. I’d seen them once in person and they defied so many laws of color and gravity that they had to be made geniuses waiting to take over everything.”

Dave Eggers (1970) memoirist, novelist, short story writer, editor, publisher

You Shall Know Our Velocity! (2002)

Waiting, Law, Personality, Dogs

“A keyhole speech is very simple, especially mine. First it states the issues. An issue is just a difference of opinion, which is why we put erasers on horse races. And as I always say, as long as we have issues, we can’t have everything.”

Gracie Allen (1902–1964) American actress and comedienne

Second, the speech goes on to attack the present administration and show how it has ruined the country. Then it goes on to attack the other candidates and show how they’ll keep it ruined, and generally builds up a warm and friendly atmosphere.
Source: How to Become President (1940), Ch. 5 : Issues and how to pick them

“He who talks too much says "Good morning" to horses!”

Luiz Carlos Alborghetti (1945–2009) Italian-Brazilian radio commenter, showman and political figure

Original: (pt) Quem fala demais dá "bom-dia" a cavalo!

“Long story, but the point is that if you hear hoofbeats in the distance, your first guess is that they’re horses, not zebras. And you’re hearing hoofbeats and jumping straight to unicorns.”
“So what are you saying?”

Daniel Abraham (1969) speculative fiction writer from the United States

“I’m saying let’s go see if we can find some horses or zebras before we start a unicorn hunt.”
Source: Nemesis Games (2015), Chapter 8 (p. 86)

“Bring forth the horse!”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

the horse was brought; In truth, he was a noble steed, A Tartar of the Ukraine breed, Who look'd as though the speed of thought Were in his limbs. Mazeppa http://readytogoebooks.com/MZP21.htm (1819), stanza 9.

“The promise in Her smile, shames the mountains tall. She can bring the sun to shine, tell the rain to fall.”

Townes Van Zandt (1944–1997) singer-songwriter

Colorado girl

Feeling, Smile, World, Sun

“Pancho was a bandit boys
His horse was fast as polished steel
Wore his gun outside his pants
For all the honest world to feel
Pancho met his match you know
On the deserts down in Mexico
Nobody heard his dying words
That's the way it goes
All the federales say
They could have had him any day
They only let him hang around
Out of kindness I suppose”

Townes Van Zandt (1944–1997) singer-songwriter

Pancho and Lefty (1972)

Boy, Way, World, Feeling

“This age proclaims the sovereignty of the citizen, and the inviolability of life; it crowns the people, and consecrates man. In art, it possesses all varieties of genius,—writers, orators, poets, historians, publicists, philosophers, painters, sculptors, musicians; majesty, grace, power, force, splendour, colour, form, style; it renews its strength in the real and in the ideal, and bears in its hand the two thunderbolts, the true and the beautiful. In science it accomplishes unheard-of miracles; it makes of cotton salt petre, of steam a horse, of the voltaic battery a workman, of the electric fluid a messenger, of the sun a painter; it waters itself with subterranean streams, pending the time when it shall warm itself with the central fire; it opens upon the two infinites those two windows, the telescope upon the infinitely great, the microscope upon the infinitely little, and it finds stars in the first abyss, and insects in the second, which prove to it the existence of God... It annihilates time, it annihilates space, it annihilates suffering; it writes a letter from Paris to London, and has an answer in ten minutes; it cuts off a man's leg, the man sings and smiles.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Conclusion, Part Second, II
Napoleon the Little (1852)

Singing, God, Time, Sun

“Too many misinterpretations have been made; too many misunderstandings have come up between the white men and the Indians. If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect all rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.”

Chief Joseph (1840–1904) Nez Percé Chieftain

Lincoln Hall Speech (1879)

Peace, Chance, Law, People

“Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of 'emergency.'”

Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st President of the United States of America

It was the tactic of Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini. In the collectivist sweep over a dozen minor countries of Europe, it was the cry of men striving to get on horseback. And 'emergency' became the justification of the subsequent steps. This technique of creating emergency is the greatest achievement that demagoguery attains... The invasion of New Deal Collectivism was introduced by this same Trojan horse.

p. 357
The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression, 1929-1941 (1952)

“Love and devotion, deep as any ocean
don't play by anybody's rules
With your carousel of horses
and your unforeseen forces,
you're running with the caravan of fools
Caravan of fools, caravan of fools
You're running with the caravan of fools”

John Prine (1946–2020) American country singer/songwriter

Caravan of Fools (co-written with Dan Auerbach and Pat McLaughlin)
Song lyrics, The Tree of Forgiveness (2018)

Love, Making love, Fools

“A bad-tempered man will never make a good-tempered horse.”

Anna Sewell book Black Beauty

Black Beauty (1877), Ch. VII, p. 36

Making love, Bad luck

“Well, it seems to me it might be better if the colleges had race horses. The jockeys could wear the school colors and they could ride the races, and the horses wouldn't have to pass the entrance examinations.”

Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) philosopher and university president

Congressional Testimony on Football

School, Color

“..drivers, docker and skippers.. ..at the canal the whole day they are loading peat and every horse stands still for half an hour [his time for sketching].”

Jan Mankes (1889–1920) Dutch painter

translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek

(original Dutch: citaat van Jan Mankes, in het Nederlands:) ..voerlui, sjouwerslui en schippers.. ..aan het kanaal wordt permanent turf geladen en elk paard staat een half uur stil [tijd voor schetsen].

Quote, c. 1910, in Jan Mankes - kunstbeschouwingen van Albert Plasschaert & Just Havelaar; publisher J.A.A.M. van Es, Wassenaar, 1927; as cited by Susan van den Berg, in 'Tableau Fine Arts Magazine', 29e Jaargang, nummer 1, Feb/March 2007, p. 76

Jan is describing the activities at the canal the Schoterlandsche Compagnonsvaart (in De Knijpe); this was the daily view from the living-room of his parental home when Jan was 20 years.
1909 - 1914

Time

“I guess I shoulda closed my eyes
When U drove me 2 the place
Where your horses run free.
'Cuz I felt a little ill
When I saw all the pictures
Of the jockeys that were there before me.”

Prince (1958–2016) American pop, songwriter, musician and actor

Song lyrics, 1999 (1982)

“To wear away the time, we learn to play chess,
In thousands, horses and infantry chase each other.
Move quickly into action, in attack or in retreat.
Talent and swift feet give us the upper hand.”

Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam

"Learning to Play Chess"
1950's

Time, Learning

“School system teach you to ride a horse while in real life we have to ride a car.”

Christian Canlubo (2002) Filipino Internet Entrepreneur

Source: Christian Canlubo https://en.everybodywiki.com/Christian_Canlubo| Christian Canlubo profile on EverybodyWiki Christian Canlubo expressed his belief that the school system is too slow.

School, Life, Cars

“I think there's a Trojan horse lurking in the weeds, ready to pull a fast one on the American people, and I simply am not going to let that happen.”

George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American politician, 41st President of the United States

Remarks to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, August 6, 1992

Thinking, People

“An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously — their urge for immortality. The temples are built and brought down around him, continuously and contiguously, from Troy to the fields of Flanders. If there is any meaning in any of it, it is in what survives as art, yes even in the celebration of tyrants, yes even in the celebration of nonentities. What now of the Trojan War if it had been passed over by the artist's touch? Dust. A forgotten expedition prompted by Greek merchants looking for new markets. A minor redistribution of broken pots. But it is we who stand enriched, by a tale of heroes, of a golden apple, a wooden horse, a face that launched a thousand ships — and above all, of Ulysses, the wanderer, the most human, the most complete of all heroes — husband, father, son, lover, farmer, soldier, pacifist, politician, inventor and adventurer.”

Tom Stoppard Travesties

Joyce, Act I
Stoppard called this "the most important" speech in the play
Source: Travesties (1974)

War, Art, Relation ships, Lovers

“I stumbled, slipped... and all was gone
That I had gained. Once more I lay
Before the long bright Hell of ice.
And still the light was far away.
There was red mist before my eyes
Or I could tell you how I went
Across the swaying firmament,
A glittering torture of cold stars,
And how I fought in Titan wars...
And died... and lived again upon
The rack... and how the horses strain
When their red task is nearly done. . .
I only know that there was Pain,
Infinite and eternal Pain.
And that I fell — and rose again.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage

Pain, Hell, Light, War

“I say that we put all our money upon the wrong horse. ... My own conviction is strong that, unless some very essential reforms in the conduct of the government are adopted, the doom of the Turkish Empire cannot be very long postponed.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Source: Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1897/jan/19/address-in-answer-to-her-majestys-most#column_29 in the House of Lords (19 January 1897), expressing regret for Britain's support of the Ottoman Empire in the Crimean War

Money, Strong

“55 years ago today, we were beaten, tear gassed, and trampled by horses. I thought I saw death. I thought I was going to die. I don't know how I made it back, but I know we cannot rest. We cannot become weary. We must keep pushing and pulling and find a way to get in the way.”

John Lewis (civil rights leader) (1940) American politician and civil rights leader

Source: Twitter https://twitter.com/repjohnlewis/status/1236392740717543424, (7 March 2020)

Way, Death, Tear

“You can lead a horse to Harvard but you can’t make him think.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)

Thinking, Making love

“My English name is Bowinn Ma, but in Chinese, it’s Ma Bo Wen. Ma literally translates as “horse,” which is the family name, and Bo Wen literally translates to “plentiful script.” But what it means can be roughly translated as “ocean of knowledge” or “broad scholar.””

Bowinn Ma (1985) Canadian politician

It means someone who has a broad understanding of many things and someone who has the wisdom to use this knowledge in a good way. It represents what my parents and grandparents had hoped I would become as an adult. In English, my name is just a name, a series of sounds used to identify me. But in my traditional language, those two simple syllables are a culmination of all of the hopes and dreams that my family have had of me since my birth — aspirations that could never truly be translated properly across cultures in as succinct a way.
British Columbia Legislative Hansard, March 12, 2018: INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
Meaning of Name

Family, Knowledge

“Thick smoke like a herd of black horses was rising over the massive building and being blown around by the wind.”

Ismail Kadare book Chronicle in Stone

Ismail Kadare, Chronicle in Stone

“As long as man feels that he is the most important thing in the world, he cannot really appreciate the world around him. He is like a horse with blinders; all he sees is himself, apart from everything else.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Journey to Ixtlan" (Chapter 8)

World, Feeling

“Notwithstanding my grandmother's long and faithful service to her owners, not one of her children escaped the auction block. These God-breathing machines are no more, in the sight of their masters, than the cotton they plant, or the horses they tend.”

Harriet Jacobs book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Source: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (1861), p. 16

God, Children, Faith

“Muhammad carried arms, helmets, and spears. He led a hundred horses, appointing Bahir to be in charge of the weapons and Maslamah to be in charge of the horses. When the Quraysh received word of this, it frightened them.”

Al-Tabari (839–923) influential Persian scholar, historian and exegete of the Qur'an

Source: Al-Tabari, Vol. 8, p. 138

“A small snake does not make nearby frogs, chickens and ducks feel threatened. But when it grows to be a python, even nearby pigs, oxen, horses and goats feel a threat to their survival.”

Feng Shih-kuan (1945) Taiwanese politician

Feng Shih-kuan (2017) cited in " Once formidable, Taiwan’s military now overshadowed by China’s https://www.todayonline.com/world/once-formidable-taiwans-military-now-overshadowed-chinas" on Today Online, 4 November 2017.

Feeling

“I suppose the talisman you gave me will keep people from noticing a full-grown horse?”

Barbara Hambly (1951) American fiction writer

“I’m not sure,” he said, gladly accepting the offer of a straight line. “It might keep them from noticing half of it but then the rest would be awfully conspicuous.”
Source: The Rainbow Abyss (1991), Chapter 9 (p. 145)

People

“Unfortunately, growing up with a zero-sum perspective is like a horse wearing blinders – it limits the field of view for opportunity.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

Future Proofing You (2021)

“You try to do the best with what you've got and ignore everything else. That's why horses get blinders in horse racing: You look at the horse next to you, and you lose a step.”

Jimmy Iovine (1953) American music executive

“I never liked horses, but after this scene, I hate them. I hate them, they are nasty animals, and I hate cows. Cows are evil. Cows are absolutely evil, I tell you. They look, like, inoffensive, but they're perverted creatures, and so are horses, they are absolutely evil motherfuckers.”

Guillermo del Toro (1964) Mexican film director

Pan's Labyrinth DVD director's commentary

Hate, Animals, Evil

“Material culture including “a cult of the horse” moves from the eastern slopes of the Urals to Central Asia, but: “There is no evidence that they reached India.””

Elena Efimovna Kuzmina (1931–2013) Russian archaeologist

Elena Kuzmina, Origin of the Indo-Iranians (Brill, Leiden). quoted in Elst, Koenraad (2018), p.452. Still no trace of an Aryan invasion: A collection on Indo-European origins.

“AN ANGRY ARMY COUNCIL
By ‘J. L’

The Constitution was enacted
Much to de Valera’s pride
However on the Army Council
Its dissatisfaction did not hide

From the published organs
To the gunmen on the run
They spread the message of their leaders
To each and everyone

In West Cork there is Tom Barry
A recent chief-of-staff
Who believes Republican ambitions
Have just been cut in half

Meanwhile we’ve our three Seans
Russell, Mitchell, and MacBride
Dwindling in numbers
It’s too late to pick a side

Russell’s talking to the Germans
MacBride fights in the courts
While Mitchell’s on the racecourse
Good horses he reports

An angry army council
Is fuming to the core
Feeling betrayed by the government
For not doing more”