Quotes about loss
page 9

Olaudah Equiano photo
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. photo
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey photo
Alfred P. Sloan photo
Nayef Al-Rodhan photo
Syed Ahmed Khan photo
Charles Babbage photo

“It is difficult to estimate the misery inflicted upon thousands of persons, and the absolute pecuniary penalty imposed upon multitudes of intellectual workers by the loss of their time, destroyed by organ-grinders and other similar nuisances.”

Charles Babbage (1791–1871) mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable c…

Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864), ch. 26 "Street Nuisances"
Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)

Osama bin Laden photo
Tryon Edwards photo

“Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another – too often ending in the loss of both.”

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) American theologian

Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 80.

Ernest Bramah photo
Omar Bradley photo
Bob Beatty photo

“It's been a long time since we ended a season with a loss. You find out whether you want to spit that taste out of your mouth or swallow it again.”

Bob Beatty (1955) American-football player (1955-)

Source: After 6-6 season, lots of changes at Trinity, The Courier-Journal, Frakes, Jason, 6 August 2014, 7 May 2017 http://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/preps/kentucky/2014/08/16/trinity-football-made-changes-worked-harder-season/14158875/,

Georgy Zhukov photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo
Murasaki Shikibu photo
Rudolf Clausius photo
Washington Irving photo

“I am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories.”

Washington Irving (1783–1859) writer, historian and diplomat from the United States

Tales of a Traveler http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13514, To the Reader http://books.google.com/books?id=6R0GAAAAQAAJ&q=%22I+am+always+at+a+loss+to+know+how+much+to+believe+of+my+own+stories%22&pg=PR13#v=onepage (1824).

Eric Hobsbawm photo
Rajiv Gandhi photo
Terry McAuliffe photo
Ali al-Rida photo
Harry Harrison photo
E.L. Doctorow photo
Vera Farmiga photo
Bayard Taylor photo
Thomas Little Heath photo
Warren Farrell photo
Marshall McLuhan photo

“[On Jimmy Carter] "Huck Finn. Loss of identity drives people to nostalgia. Electronic man has no physical body, so he puts nostalgia in its place."”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Brand, Stewart. "McLuhan's last words". New Scientist, 29 Jan 1981.
1980s

Bruce Sterling photo
Joseph Chamberlain photo
Richard Ford photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

“We were depending on considerable assistance from the insurrectionists in France. Throughout France the Free French had been of inestimable value in the campaign. … Without their great assistance the liberation of France and the defeat of the enemy in Western Europe would have consumed a much longer time and meant greater losses to ourselves.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

As quoted in "What Americans forget about French resistance" http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/06/opinions/kaiser-ve-day-french-resistance/index.html (7 May 2015), by Charles Kaiser, Cable News Network, Atlanta, Georgia.

Mani Madhava Chakyar photo

“"The eyes of Kudiyattam has closed forever…the great lineage of Sanskrit theatre is adversely hit by the loss of this genious"
- K. P. Narayana Pisharoty (Kutiyattam scholar) in 1990, on the death of Guru Mani Madhava Chakiar.”

Mani Madhava Chakyar (1899–1990) Indian actor

Abhinaya and Netrābhinaya
Source: Arya Madhavan, Kudiyattam Theatre and the Actor's Consciousness, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010, p. 79

Hesiod photo

“Diligence increaseth the fruit of toil. A dilatory man wrestles with losses.”

Source: Works and Days (c. 700 BC), line 412.

Leigh Hunt photo

“If you are ever at a loss to support a flagging conversation, introduce the subject of eating.”

Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) English critic, essayist, poet and writer

Table-talk: To which are Added Imaginary Conversations of Pope and Swift

Robert F. Kennedy photo

“Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”

Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy

Speech at the University of Kansas at Lawrence http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/RFK-Speeches/Remarks-of-Robert-F-Kennedy-at-the-University-of-Kansas-March-18-1968.aspx (18 March 1968)

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Alan Hirsch photo

“If we could be freed from our aversion to loss, our whole outlook on risk would change.”

Alan Hirsch (1959) South African missionary

Source: The Faith of Leap (2011), p. 136

Pete Stark photo

“Aside from the wisdom of going to war as Bush wants, I am troubled by who pays for his capricious adventure into world domination. The administration admits to a cost of around $200 billion! Now, wealthy individuals won't pay. They've got big tax cuts already. Corporations won't pay. They'll cook the books and move overseas and then send their contributions to the Republicans. Rich kids won't pay. Their daddies will get them deferments as Big George did for George W. Well then, who will pay? School kids will pay. There'll be no money to keep them from being left behind -- way behind. Seniors will pay. They'll pay big time as the Republicans privatize Social Security and rob the Trust Fund to pay for the capricious war. Medicare will be curtailed and drugs will be more unaffordable. And there won't be any money for a drug benefit because Bush will spend it all on the war. Working folks will pay through loss of job security and bargaining rights. Our grandchildren will pay through the degradation of our air and water quality. And the entire nation will pay as Bush continues to destroy civil rights, women's rights and religious freedom in a rush to phony patriotism and to courting the messianic Pharisees of the religious right.”

Pete Stark (1931–2020) American politician

Statement on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, October 8, 2002, in opposition to the resolution authorizing military force against Iraq

Norman Mailer photo
Geoff Dyer photo

“The more you covet something, the more certain it is that you’ll lose it, and the more devastating the loss will be when it happens—which it will.”

Geoff Dyer (1958) English writer

Source: Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It (1993), p. 216

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Walter Model photo

“Every minute that we lose will cost us great losses later that we will not be able to afford. We must push forward now, otherwise we risk everything. Hurry yourself with the technical aspects, a lot of time has already been lost.”

Walter Model (1891–1945) German field marshal

To Major Kratzenberg on 3 July 1942, The Battle of Smolensk. Quoted in "Generalfeldmarschall Model Biographie" - Page 93 - by Walter Göriltz - 2012

Kanō Jigorō photo
Peter Jennings photo

“To ignore social costs because they require an evaluation by society… and to leave social losses out of account because they are 'external' and 'non-economic' in character, would be equivalent to attributing no or ‘zero’ value to all social damages which is no less arbitrary and subjective a judgement than any positive or negative evaluation of social costs.”

Karl William Kapp (1910–1976) American economist

Source: Social Costs of Business Enterprise, 1963, p. 12. Cited in: M. Rangone & S. Solari (2012) "Southern European capitalism and the social costs of business enterprise". in: Studi e Note di Economia, Anno XVII, n. 1-2012, pp. 3-28

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Jimmy Carter photo

“I guess my biggest failure was not getting reelected. [The loss taught me] not to ever let American hostages be held for 444 days in a foreign country without extracting them. I did the best I could, but I failed.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Interview with Big Think, in reference to the 1980 presidential election, and the Iran hostage crisis, December 14, 2010.
[Carter: Biggest failure was '80 loss, Politico, Politico, December 14, 2010, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46375.html]
Post-Presidency

Nathanael Greene photo
David Crystal photo
William Grey Walter photo

“Economic responsibility goes with military strength and an undue share in the costs of peacekeeping. Free riders are perhaps more noticeable in this area than in the economy, where a number of rules in trade, capital movements, payments and the like have been evolved and accepted as legitimate. Free ridership means that disproportionate costs must be borne by responsible nations, which must on occasion take care of the international or system interest at some expense in falling short of immediate goals. This is a departure from the hard­ nosed school of international relations in political science, represented especially perhaps by Hans Morgenthau and Henry Kissinger, who believe that national interest and the balance of power constitute a stable system. Leadership, moreover, had overtones of the white man's burden, father knows best, the patronizing attitude of the lady of the manor with her Christmas baskets. The requirement, moreover, is for active, and not merely passive responsibility of the German—Japanese variety. With free riders, and the virtually certain emergency of thrusting newcomers, passivity is a recipe for disarray. The danger for world stability is the weakness of the dollar, the loss of dedication of the United States to the international system's interest, and the absence of candidates to fill the resultant vacua.”

Charles P. Kindleberger (1910–2003) American economic historian

"Economic Responsibility", The Second Fred Hirsch Memorial Lecture, Warwick University, 6 March 1980, republished in Comparative Political Economy: A Retrospective (2003)

Bill Clinton photo

“The loss of trust is paralyzing.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

Presidential Leadership speech http://www.c-span.org/video/?326958-1/presidents-clinton-george-w-bush-leadership (9 July 2015).
2010s

Derren Brown photo

“There are three things I noticed about being thirty-three: Failing memory, hair loss and failing memory.”

Derren Brown (1971) British illusionist

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Trick of the Mind (2004–2006)

Karl Dönitz photo

“Our losses…have reached an intolerable level. The enemy air force played a decisive role in inflicting these high losses.”

Karl Dönitz (1891–1980) President of Germany; admiral in command of German submarine forces during World War II

May 24, 1943, quoted in "A Time for Courage: The Royal Air Force in the European War, 1939-1945" - Page 449 - by John Terraine - History - 1985.

Herbert Marcuse photo

“In the most advanced areas of this civilization, the social controls have been introjected to the point where even individual protest is affected at its roots. The intellectual and emotional refusal “to go along” appears neurotic and impotent. This is the socio-psychological aspect of the political event that marks the contemporary period: the passing of the historical forces which, at the preceding stage of industrial society, seemed to represent the possibility of new forms of existence. But the term “introjection” perhaps no longer describes the way in which the individual by himself reproduces and perpetuates the external controls exercised by his society. Introjection suggests a variety of relatively spontaneous processes by which a Self (Ego) transposes the “outer” into the “inner.” Thus introjection implies the existence of an inner dimension distinguished from and even antagonistic to the external exigencies—an individual consciousness and an individual unconscious apart from public opinion and behavior. The idea of “inner freedom” here has its reality: it designates the private space in which man may become and remain “himself.” Today this private space has been invaded and whittled down by technological reality. Mass production and mass distribution claim the entire individual, and industrial psychology has long since ceased to be confined to the factory. The manifold processes of introjection seem to be ossified in almost mechanical reactions. The result is, not adjustment but mimesis: an immediate identification of the individual with his society and, through it, with the society as a whole. This immediate, automatic identification (which may have been characteristic of primitive forms of association) reappears in high industrial civilization; its new “immediacy,” however, is the product of a sophisticated, scientific management and organization. In this process, the “inner” dimension of the mind in which opposition to the status quo can take root is whittled down. The loss of this dimension, in which the power of negative thinking—the critical power of Reason—is at home, is the ideological counterpart to the very material process in which advanced industrial society silences and reconciles the opposition. The impact of progress turns Reason into submission to the facts of life, and to the dynamic capability of producing more and bigger facts of the same sort of life. The efficiency of the system blunts the individuals' recognition that it contains no facts which do not communicate the repressive power of the whole. If the individuals find themselves in the things which shape their life, they do so, not by giving, but by accepting the law of things—not the law of physics but the law of their society.”

Source: One-Dimensional Man (1964), pp. 9-11

Saddam Hussein photo

“Ironically, it is often our zeal to protect our faith that leads to its loss.”

The Divine Commodity: Discovering A Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (2009, Zondervan)

David Weber photo
Christopher Hitchens photo

“That phrase, "loss of innocence," has become stale with overuse and diminishing returns; no other culture is so addicted to this narcissistic impression of itself as having any innocence to lose in the first place.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

"The Road to West Egg" (2000).
2000s, 2000, Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere (2000)

“The anguish of loss may be redeemed, but can never be mediated.”

Source: Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958), Chapter Seven, Kierkegard, p. 138

Eric R. Kandel photo
Ahmad Sirhindi photo

“Islam and infidelity (kufr) contradict one another. To establish the one means eradicating the other, the coming together of these contradictories being impossible. Therefore, Allah has commanded his Prophet to wage war (jihad) against the infidels, and be harsh with them. The glory is Islam consists in the humiliation and degradation of infidels and infidelity. He who honours the infidels, insults Islam. Honouring (the infidels) does not mean that they are accorded dignity, and made to sit in high places. It means allowing them to be in our company, to sit with them, and talk to them. They should be kept away like dogs. If there is some worldly purpose or work which depends upon them, and cannot be served without their help, they may be contacted while keeping in mind all the time that they are not worthy of respect. The best course according to Islam is that they should not be contacted even for worldly purposes. Allah has proclaimed in his Holy Word (Quran) that they are his and his Prophet’s enemies. And mixing with these enemies of Allah and his Prophet or showing affection for them, is one of the greatest crimes…
…The abolition of jizyah in Hindustan is a result of friendship which (Hindus) have acquired with the rulers of this land… What right have the rulers to stop exacting jizyah? Allah himself has commanded imposition of jizyah for their (infidels’) humiliation and degradation. What is required is their disgrace, and the prestige and power of Muslims. The slaughter of non-Muslims means gain for Islam… To consult them (the kafirs) and then act according to their advice means honouring the enemies (of Islam), which is strictly forbidden…
The prayer (=goodwill) of these enemies of Islam is false and fruitless. It should never be called for because it can only add to their numbers. If the infidels pray, they will surely seek the intercession of their idols, which is taking things too far… A wise man has said that unless you become a maniac (diwanah) you cannot attain Islam. The state of this mania means going beyond considerations of profit and loss. Whatever one gains in the service of Islam should suffice…”

Ahmad Sirhindi (1564–1624) Indian philosopher

Maktubat-i-Imam Rabbani translated into Urdu by Maulana Muhammad Sa’id Ahmad Naqshbandi, Deoband, 1988, Volume I, p.388 ff.This letter was written to Shaikh Farid alias Nawab Murtaza Khan who was opposed to Akbar’s religious policy, and who supported Jahangir’s accession after taking from the latter a promise that Islam will be upheld in the new reign.
From his letters

Joyce Carol Oates photo
Henry Taylor photo

“To avoid whipsaw losses, stop trading.”

Ed Seykota (1946) American commodities trader

Source: Covel, Michael W., Trend Following: How Great Traders Make Millions in Up or Down Markets, FT Press (2007), page 59, ISBN 0-13-613718-0

“The elements of good trading are cutting losses, cutting losses, and cutting losses.”

Ed Seykota (1946) American commodities trader

Source: Jenks, Philip, (Editor) 500 of the Most Witty, Acerbic and Erudite Things Ever Said About Money, Harriman House (December 2002), ISBN 1897597223 Read it here http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1897597223&id=lERXBvyeeQ0C&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=seykota&sig=K97S8hGKxQmB6w7x79enj9tEGw4

Corey Feldman photo
Ahmed Shah Durrani photo

“Next morning the sun revealed a horrid spectacle on the vast plain south of PAnipat. On the actual field of the combat thirty-one distinct heaps of the slain were counted, the number of bodies in each ranging from 500 upwards to 1000 and in four up to 1500 a rough total of 28,000. In addition to these, the ditch round the Maratha camp was full of dead bodies, partly the victims of disease and famine during the long siege and partly wounded men who had crawled out of the fighting to die there. West and south of PAnipat city, the jungle and the road in the line of MarAtha retreat were littered with the remains of those who had fallen unresisting in the relentless DurrAni pursuit or from hunger and exhaustion. Their number - probably three-fourths non-combatants and one-fourth soldiers - could not have been far short of the vast total of those slain in the battlefield. 'The hundreds who lay down wounded, perished from the severity of the cold.'….
'After the havoc of combat followed massacre in cold blood. Several hundreds of MarAthas had hidden themselves in the hostile city of PAnipat through folly or helplessness; and these were hunted out next day and put to the sword. According to one plausible account, the sons of Abdus Samad Khan and Mian Qutb received the DurrAni king's permission to avenge their father's death by an indiscriminate massacre of the MarAthas for one day, and in this way nearly nine thousand men perished; these were evidently non-combatants. The eyewitness Kashiraj Pandit thus describes the scene: 'Every Durrani soldier brought away a hundred or two of prisoners and slew them in the outskirts of their camp, crying out, When I started from our country, my mother, father, sister and wife told me to slay so may kafirs for their sake after we had gained the victory in this holy war, so that the religious merit of this act [of infidel slaying] might accrue to them. In this way, thousands of soldiers and other persons were massacred. In the Shah's camp, except the quarters of himself and his nobles, every tent had a heap of severed heads before it. One may say that it was verily doomsday for the MarAtha people.'….
The booty captured within the entrenchment was beyond calculation and the regiments of Khans [i. e. 8000 troopers of AbdAli clansmen] did not, as far as possible, allow other troops like the IrAnis and the TurAnis to share in the plunder; they took possession of everything themselves, but sold to the Indian soldiers handsome Brahman women for one tuman and good horses for two tumans each.' The Deccani prisoners, male and female reduced to slavery by the victorious army numbered 22,000, many of them being the sons and other relatives of the sardArs or middle class men. Among them 'rose-limbed slave girls' are mentioned.' Besides these 22,000 unhappy captives, some four hundred officers and 6000 men fled for refuge to ShujA-ud-daulah's camp, and were sent back to the Deccan with monetary help by that nawab, at the request of his Hindu officers. The total loss of the MarAthas after the battle is put at 50,000 horses, captured either by the AfghAn army or the villagers along the route of flight, two hundred thousand draught cattle, some thousands of camels, five hundred elephants, besides cash and jewellery. 'Every trooper of the Shah brought away ten, and sometimes twenty camels laden with money. The captured horses were beyond count but none of them was of value; they came like droves of sheep in their thousands.”

Ahmed Shah Durrani (1722–1772) founder of the Durrani Empire, considered founder of the state of Afghanistan

Jadunath Sarkar, Fall of the Mughal Empire, Volume II, Fourth Edition, New Delhi, 1991, p.210-11

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“If books were sold as software and online recordings are, they would have this legalese up front:
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Jef Raskin (1943–2005) American computer scientist

"If Books Were Sold as Software" http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&dateissued=20040818#11200, NewsScan.com (18 August 2004)
If Books Were Sold as Software (2004)

Denis Diderot photo
John Muir photo

“Brought into right relationship with the wilderness … he would see that his appropriation of earth's resources beyond his personal needs would only bring imbalance and beget ultimate loss and poverty for all.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

This statement is not by Muir, but by his biographer Linnie Marsh Wolfe, in Son of the Wilderness: The Life of John Muir (1945) page 188.
Misattributed

Niall Ferguson photo
Claude Lévi-Strauss photo
Robert Hunter (author) photo

“To continue in poverty for any long period means in the end the loss of the power of doing work, and to be unable to work means in the end pauperism.”

Robert Hunter (author) (1874–1942) American sociologist, author, golf course architect

Source: Poverty (1912), p. 7

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