Quotes about people
page 91

“Straight people. Why can't they control themselves?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Alec Lightwood, pg. 533
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

“Call me a schoolmarm, but few things make me angrier than people not taking good care of library materials.”

Tim Gunn (1953) American actor and fashion consultant

Source: Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work

“We hear a lot about identity theft when someone takes your wallet and pretends to be you and uses your credit cards. But the more serious identity theft is to get swallowed up in other people's definition of you.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

Source: The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life's Most Difficult Problems

“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.”

Robin Hobb book Fool's Fate

Source: Fool's Fate

Home, Family

“Never worry about being obsessive. I like obsessive people. Obsessive people make great art”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Art

“I love humanity but I hate people.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

Love, Hate

“Don’t give people what they want, give them what they need.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

“There is no religion without love,
and people may talk as much as
they like about their religion, but
if it does not teach them to be good
and kind to man and beast,
it is all a sham.”

Anna Sewell book Black Beauty

Source: Black Beauty (1877), Ch. XIII, p. 66

Love, Religion

“I may not be the most likable person in the world, but I try not to upset people.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

World, Personality

“People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didn't believe in that. Tomorrow wasn't getting ready for them. It didn't even know they were there.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

“The way to secure liberty is to place it in the people's hands, that is, to give them the power at all times to defend it in the legislature and in the courts of justice.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Justice, Way, Time

“How do people go to sleep? I'm afraid I've lost the knack.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Sleep

“There are two kinds of people in this world. The kind who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don't.”

Ann Brashares The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Source: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

World

“All around the dining hall, you can feel the rejuvenating effect that a good meal can bring on. The way it can make people kinder, funnier, more optimistic, and remind them it's not a mistake to go on living. It's better than any medicine.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Way, Feeling

“That if you could acquire enough, accomplish enough, you’d never want to own or do another thing. That if you could eat or sleep enough, you’d never need more. That if enough people loved you, you’d stop needing love.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

Love, Sleep

“A long time ago I learned not to explain things to people. It misleads them into thinking they're entitled to know everything I do.”

Lisa Kleypas book Dreaming of You

Source: Dreaming of You

Thinking, Learning, Time

“You ever notice that people who believe in creationism look really unevolved? Eyes real close together, big furry hands and feet. "I believe God created me in one day." Yeah, looks like he rushed it.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Arizona Bay (1997)

God

“Grown people know that they do not always know the way of things, and even if they think they know, they do not know where and how they got the proof.”

Zora Neale Hurston book Dust Tracks on a Road

Source: Dust Tracks on a Road

Way, Thinking

“He understands why people hold hands: he’d always thought it was about possessiveness, saying. But it’s about maintaining contact. It is about speaking without words. It is aboutand.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Understanding

“Accidents don't happen to people who take accidents as a personal insult.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

Personality

“I think the easiest people to fool are ourselves. Fooling ourselves may even be a necessary precondition for fooling others.”

Iain Banks book The Bridge

Source: The Bridge

Fools, Thinking

“Nothing that we despise in other men is inherently absent from ourselves. We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or don't do, and more in light of what they suffer.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Men, Light, Suffering, Learning

“I loved being in my own head so much, it was getting harder and harder being with other people.”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Source: Anybody Out There?

Love

“I am jealous of anyone who can make other people care so much.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“Colleges typically did not tell you that ninety percent of your education came after you hung the parchment on the wall. People might ask for a rebate.”

Tom Clancy book The Teeth of the Tiger

Source: The Teeth of the Tiger

Education

“People learn twenty-five percent from their teacher, twenty-five percent from listening to themselves, twenty-five percent from their friends, and twenty-five percent from time.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: The Witch Of Portobello

Learning, Teachers, Time

“When I die, nieces, I want to be cremated, my ashes taken up in a bush plane and sprinkled onto the people in town below. Let them think my body is snowflakes, sticking in their hair and on their shoulders like dandruff.”

Joseph Boyden book Through Black Spruce

Source: Through Black Spruce

Thinking

“On the surface, we're polar opposites. Under the skin, though, we're the same: people think they know what they're getting, and they're always wrong.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Thinking

“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”

Sigmund Freud book Civilization and Its Discontents

Source: Civilization and Its Discontents

Freedom

“Most people go through life using up half their energy trying to protect a dignity they never had”

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter

Life

“Stupidity is like bumping into a wall all the time. After a while you get tired of it and try to look the situation over and see if there’s a doorway somewhere. I think most people eventually do look for the doorway and stop bumping into the wall”

Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) American author and polymath

Stupidity, Thinking, Time

“People want to see the car crash instead of the race. But, when you're the one in the car that's crashing, it's not much fun. I'm enjoying the race.”

Nikki Sixx (1958) American musician

Source: The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star

Cars

“That's something I've noticed about food: whenever there's a crisis if you can get people to eating normally things get better.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Food

“I haven't got the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.”

David Sedaris Naked

Source: Naked (1997)

Idea, Change

“I am older at twenty than a lot of people who have died.”

William Faulkner book Absalom, Absalom!

Source: Absalom, Absalom!

Sad

“Yes, the Gorgon has dried your tears.'
Well, she has opened my eyes too; it's a delusion to say she blinds people. What she does is the contrary-she fastens their eyelids open, so they're never again in the blessed darkness.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

Tear

“People cannot win against their loneliness because loneliness is this world’s worst kind of pain.”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

Pain, World, Loneliness

“People will do amazing things to ensure their survival.”

Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer

Source: The Hob's Bargain

“Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that -- well, lucky you.”

Philip Roth (1933–2018) American novelist

Forgetting

“You are where you are and what you are because of yourself, nothing else. Nature is neutral. Nature doesn't care. If you do what other successful people do, you will enjoy the same results and rewards that they do. And if you don't, you won't.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Source: Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals

Nature, Success

“I look out the window and I see the lights and the skyline and the people on the street rushing around looking for action, love, and the world's greatest chocolate chip cookie, and my heart does a little dance.”

Nora Ephron book Heartburn

Source: Heartburn

Love, World, Light, Heart

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution http://www.constitution.org/rc/rat_va_05.htm (6 June 1788) Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention on the Control of the Military (16 June 1788); published in The History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788, with some account by eminent Virginians of that era who were members of that body (1890), Vol. I, p. 130 (Hugh Blair Grigsby et al, editors, ) 1780s Context: Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism. If we go over the whole history of ancient and modern republics, we shall find their destruction to have generally resulted from those causes.

Freedom

“When a glass sits on a table here, people don't wonder if it's half filled or half empty. They just hope it's good beer.”

Sherman Alexie book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)

Hope, Beer

“People with virtue must speak out; People who speak are not all virtuous.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“The real loneliness is living among all these kind people who only ask one to pretend!”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

Loneliness

“… treat people with understanding when you can, and fake it when you can't
until you do understand.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Understanding

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

"A Few Pages of Notes," http://books.google.com/books?id=hXVHAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Democracy+is+the+theory+that+the+common+people+know+what+they+want+and+deserve+to+get+it+good+and+hard%22&pg=PA435#v=onepage The Smart Set (January 1915); later published in A Little Book in C major http://books.google.com/books?id=EAJbAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Democracy+is+the+theory+that+the+common+people+know+what+they+want+and+deserve+to+get+it+good+and+hard%22&pg=PA19#v=onepage (1916), and A Mencken Crestomathy (1949) 1910s Source: A Little Book in C Major

Democracy

“Never ask people. Not about your work. Don't you know what you want? How can you stand it, not to know?”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“It’s the people you hold closest who have the most power to make you bleed.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

“Being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. Theyto be vapid and lazy and vain… and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities.”

Scott Westerfeld book Pretties

Source: Pretties

Nature, Parting, Personality, Selfishness

“That's what the world is like: people talk as if they knew everything, but ifyou dare to ask a question, they don't know anything.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

World, Question

“The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil.”

Daniel Webster (1782–1852) Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of Sta…

Source: The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster: Diplomatic Papers and Miscellaneous Letters

Evil

“Sometimes it just happens - to the wrong people at the wrong time.”

Judith McNaught book Whitney, My Love

Source: Whitney, My Love

Time

“Judging oneself to be inferior to other people was one of the worst acts of pride because it was the most destructive way of being different.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Way

“There are two kinds of people in the world, observers and non-observers…”

John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America

World

“It's not what people do to you, but what they mean, that hurts.”

E.M. Forster book The Longest Journey

Source: The Longest Journey

Hurt

“Above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you very much at your own reckoning.”

Anthony Trollope book The Small House at Allington

Source: The Small House at Allington (1864), Ch. 32

Life, Thinking

“How many people want to read about three disreputable pigs and a dopey wolf with a disposition towards house demolition?”

Jasper Fforde book The Big Over Easy

Source: The Big Over Easy

Wolf, Reading, Housing

“I wear a name tag to help people find me. It saves time when you're dealing with idiots.”

Eoin Colfer book And Another Thing...

Source: And Another Thing...

Time, Help

“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Happiness

“There are people I've yet to meet who are waiting for my path to intersect with theirs, so they can complete their own journeys. I don't know who or where they are, but I know for certain that they are waiting.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Walk

Waiting

“I've nothing against people who love truth. Apart from the fact that they make dull companions.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

Love, Truth

“The decision to kiss for the first time is the most crucial in any love story. It changes the relationship of two people much more strongly than even the final surrender; because this kiss already has within it that surrender.”

Emil Ludwig (1881–1948) German writer

Die Entscheidung, sich zum ersten Mal zu küssen, ist die wichtigste in jeder Liebesbeziehung. Es verändert die Beziehung von zwei Menschen wesentlich stärker als letzendlich die Kapitulation; denn dieser Kuss trägt die Kapitulation schon in sich.
Of Life and Love (2005), p. 29 [Über das Glück und die Liebe, 1940]

Love, Kiss, Decision, Change

“The contemporary thing in art and literature is the thing which doesn't make enough difference to the people of that generation so that they can accept it or reject it.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

"How Writing is Written," Choate Literary Magazine (February 1935)
How Writing Is Written: Previously Uncollected Writings, vol.II (1974)

Art, Literature

“I readily admit that the law which requires presumption or custom to be carried back for a period of nearly 700 years, is a bad and mischievous law, and one which is discreditable to us as a civilised and enlightened people, but such is the law; and while it so continues, I consider myself, in administering it, as bound to administer it as I find it; nor do I feel myself warranted in undermining or frittering it away by subtle fictions or artificial presumptions inconsistent with truth and fact.”

Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet (1802–1880) Lord Chief Justice

Bryant v. Foot (1867), 15 W. R. 425; S. C. L. R. 2 Q. B. Ca. 179.

Truth, Law, Feeling

“Look at a band like the Bravery. They're signed because we're a band," Flowers said. "I've heard rumors about [members of] that band being in a different kind of band, and how do you defend that? If you say, 'My heart really belongs to what I'm doing now,' but you used to be in a ska band. I can see the Strokes play or Franz Ferdinand play and it's real, and I haven't gotten that from the Bravery. I think people will see through them.”

Brandon Flowers (1981) American indie rock singer

"Killers' To-Do List: Lawsuit, Long-Form Video, Beef With The Bravery" (03/28/2005) from MTV.com http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1499151/20050328/killers_the.jhtml

Flowers, Thinking, Heart

“Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them.”

James D. Watson (1928) American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist.

As quoted in "Nobel Winner's Theories Raise Uproar in Berkeley", by Tom Abate, San Francisco Chronicle (13 November 2000) http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Nobel-Winner-s-Theories-Raise-Uproar-in-Berkeley-3236584.php

Feeling

“What music is more enchanting than the voices of young people, when you can't hear what they say?”

Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) British American-born writer

Age and Death
Afterthoughts (1931)

Music

“If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me … I was winning awards, getting raises, lecturing college classes, appearing on TV shows, and judging journalism contests. So how could I possibly agree with people like Noam Chomsky and Ben Bagdikian, who were claiming the system didn't work, that it was steered by powerful special interests and corporations, and existed to protect the power elite? And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been. The reason I'd enjoyed such smooth sailing for so long hadn't been, as I'd assumed, because I was careful and diligent and good at my job … The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress.”

Gary Webb (1955–2004) American investigative journalist

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of a Free Press.

Truth, Appearance

“These problems never seemed to baffle my grandfather nor cause him any anxiety; difficulties which in most people's eyes would have led to endless complications were disposed of by my grandfather almost without thinking, with the easy assurance of a sleepwalker who strolls along a ledge halfway down a hundred-foot precipice—yes, I am tempted to say with the same disregard for the laws of nature as a ghost passing through locked doors.”

Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author

Brekkukotsannáll (The Fish Can Sing) (1957)

Law, Nature, Problem, Thinking

“…he remembered being very happy. But things change. People change. Change was one of the inevitable laws of nature, exacting its toll on people's lives. Mistakes were made, regrets form, and all the was left were repercussions that made something as simple as rising from the bed seem almost laborious.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Travis Parker, Proloque, p. 3
2000s, The Choice (2007)

Happiness, Law, Nature, Change

“The “principal contradiction” refers to the idea that there is some original or primary form of oppression that gives rise to all the others. … Of course, there is really only one purpose for making such a claim: to persuade others to join you in your single-issue activist campaign, under the pretense that once your pet oppression is eliminated, all other forms of marginalization will subsequently fall by the wayside too. But the thing is, there is simply no evidence for a principal contradiction. … There is no primary contradiction, just lots of different hierarchies that people may or may not endorse.”

Julia Serano (1967) transsexual American writer, spoken-word performer, trans-bi activist, and biologist

Leftist Critiques of Identity Politics (2018)

Idea

“As we're fighting through the issues of the day, let's just keep in mind that we rise above the challenges of the day and understand that it's not just us and our constituents and the country, the United States, that's counting on us to be successful. People all around the world believe in freedom are counting on us as well, and we will deliver for them. That's why I am so honored to be back here in the House serving with you. God bless each and every one of you, and God bless the United States of America.”

Steve Scalise (1965) American politician

Speech to Congress https://www.c-span.org/video/?434564-1/us-house-passes-faa-funding-extension-264155 (September 28 2017)

God, World, Understanding, Freedom

“Were it not for Occam's Razor, which always demands simplicity, I'd be tempted to believe that human beings are more influenced by distant causes than immediate ones. This would especially be true of overeducated people, who are capable of thinking past the immediate, of becoming obsessed by the remote. It's the old stuff, the conflicts we've never come to terms with, that sneaks up on us, half forgotten, insisting upon action.”

Richard Russo book Straight Man

Source: Straight Man (1997), Ch. 2.

Thinking, Distant, Past

“Is this really true? If we take an average day in the life of the average man we seem to see very little evidence of concern with the sciences and the arts. The average man gets up, goes to work, eats his meals, reads the newspapers, watches television, goes to the cinema, goes to bed, sleeps, wakes up, starts all over again. Unless we happen to be professional scientists, laboratory experiments and formulae have ceased to have any meaning for most of us; unless we happen to be poets or painters or musicians—or teachers of literature, painting, and music—the arts seem to us to be only the concern of schoolchildren. And yet people have said, and people still say, that the great glories of our civilisation are the scientists and artists. Ancient Greece is remembered because of mathematicians like Euclid and Pythagoras, because of poets like Homer and dramatists like Sophocles. In two thousand years all our generals and politicians may be forgotten, but Einstein and Madame Curie and Bernard Shaw and Stravinsky will keep the memory of our age alive.”

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer

Non-Fiction, English Literature: A Survey for Students (1958, revised 1974)

Life, Age, Art, Music

“A million and a half of people spread over the Atlantic seaboard might be thought no great number; but it was a new thing in the world. …which had in fact been carefully noted by Benjamin Franklin in a pamphlet on The Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.—that within three-quarters of a century the population of the continental colonies had doubled every twenty-five years, whereas the population of Old England during a hundred years past had not doubled once and now stood at only some six and a half millions. …With these facts in mind, one might indeed say that a people with so much vitality and expansive power was abundantly able to pay taxes; but perhaps it was also a fair inference, if any one was disposed to press the matter, that unless it was so minded, such a people was already, or assuredly soon would be, equally able not to pay them.”

Carl L. Becker (1873–1945) American historian

The Eve of the Revolution (1918)

World, Past, Country

“The more clearly we express it that the whole weight of our future victories will lie on our enemies, the more, in my opinion, will it tend to shorten the war. We have covered a considerable distance towards peace. The Entente no longer has any possibility of beating us economically. Do they think they can beat us militarily, now that our position in the West has become better that it ever was? If the statesmen of the Entente wanted understanding, they ought to have taken advantage of the situation now, when the Reich Chancellor has offered them the hand of understanding. They are playing a wanton game with their misguided peoples. Let the example of Russia be a warning to them. Russia, which offered us the hand of understanding, could have obtained a good peace of understanding if she had not risked this peace through the arrogance of Trotsky. May this struggle bring us victory, but may it also bring the benefits of this victory for Germany's future.”

Gustav Stresemann (1878–1929) German politician, statesman, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

1910s, Speech in the Reichstag, 18 March 1918

War, Lie, Peace, Game

“The common people (live in) poverty so great and miserable that the life of the people can be depicted or accurately described only as the home of stark want and the dwelling place of bitter woe… their houses are built of mud with thatched roofs. Furniture there is little or none, except some earthenware pots to hold water and for cooking…”

Francisco Pelsaert (1591–1630) Dutch merchant, commander of the ship Batavia

Pelsaert, quoted from Lal, K. S. (1992). The legacy of Muslim rule in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan.
Jahangir’s India

Life, Home, Water, Housing

“I call upon the American people to affirm with me this American Promise -- that we have learned from the tragedy of that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty and justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action shall never again be repeated.”

Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)

1970s, Proclamation 4417 (1976)
Variant: I call upon the American people to affirm with me this American Promise -- that we have learned from the tragedy of that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty and justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action shall never again be repeated.

Justice, Error, Learning

“When people felt they had a right to seek out Christ before the torment, and in the fullness of his joy—it was too late; the cross had overcome Christ himself; it was Christ crucified that people continued to see and teach. And thus it is that religion came to plunge the world into gloom.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality (1964)

World, Religion, Joy, Christ

“Fearless people,
Careless needle.
Harsh words spoken,
And lives are broken.”

Seal (musician) (1963) British singer-songwriter

"Prayer For The Dying"
Seal (1994)

“Do not let your zeal for the cause of democracy deceive you as to the fact of the opaque ignorance in which the great bulk of the people of England are wrapt. If you write for the masses politically, and write soundly and honestly, they will not be able at present to appreciate you, and consequently will not support you…There is no remedy for all this but improved education. Such as the tail and the body are, such will be the character of the head. Nature does not produce such monsters as an ignorant or vicious community, and virtuous and wise leaders. In Scotland you are better off because you are better educated. The great body of the English peasants are not a jot advanced in intellect since the days of their Saxon ancestors. I hope you will join us in a cry for schoolmasters as a first step to Radicalism.”

Richard Cobden (1804–1865) English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman

Letter to W. Tait (17 August 1838), quoted in John Morley, The Life of Richard Cobden (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1905), p. 127.
1830s

Education, Hope, Democracy, Communication

“The voluntary free market is a sacred extension of life itself. The free market—it has not been unfettered for a very long time—is really a spontaneously synchronized order comprising trillions upon trillions of voluntary acts that individuals perform in order to make a living. Introduce government force and coercion into this rhythm and you get life-threatening arrhythmia. Under increasing state control, this marketplace - this magic, organic agora - starts to splutter, and people suffer.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

“Beck Breaks from the Pack,” http://www.ilanamercer.com/phprunner/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=546 WorldNetDaily.com, April 23, 2010. 2010s, 2010

Life, Suffering, Time

“I think it's something that dawns on you with the most ghastly, inexorable sense. I didn't suddenly wake up in my pram one day and say 'Yippee, I —', you know. But I think it just dawns on you, you know, slowly, that people are interested in one, and slowly you get the idea that you have a certain duty and responsibility.”

Charles, Prince of Wales (1948) son of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

"The Prince of Wales: Full text of replies in radio debut", The Times, 3 March 1969, p. 3.
Asked when he had first realised that he was heir to the throne, in a Radio interview with Jack di Manio broadcast on 1 March 1969. This was the first time the Prince had appeared on radio.
1960s

Idea, Thinking, Sense

“Jordan also takes seriously our moral obligations to others. Despite scarce resources, the people of Jordan have opened their arms to refugees fleeing regional violence. Jordan has taken in thousands of Iraqi Christians over the past year. This is in addition to giving shelter to 1.4 million Syrian refugees, which is 20 per cent of the population, over the past few years. This is more than the equivalent of France hosting the entire population of Belgium. My small country is now the world’s third-largest refugee host and I thank all of you who are helping us to uphold this global responsibility.”

Abdullah II of Jordan (1962) King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Address to the European Parliament (2015)

World, Past, Help, Country

“Because Wikipedia is a process, not a product, it replaces guarantees offered by institutions with probabilities supported by process: if enough people care enough about an article to read it, then enough people will care enough to improve it, and over time this will lead to a large enough body of good enough work to begin to take both availability and quality of articles for granted, and to integrate Wikipedia into daily use by millions.”

Clay Shirky (1964) American technology writer

Source: Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (2008), p. 139-140

Support, Time, Reading

“The first thing the average white Latin American player does when he comes to the States is associate with other whites. He doesn't want to be seen with Latin Negroes, even from his own country, because he's afraid people might think he's colored.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in “Roberto Clementeː Pounder from Puerto Rico” by John Devaney, in Baseball Stars of 1964 (1964), edited by Ray Robinson, p. 150
Other, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1964</big>

Color, Thinking, Country

“I stand, said Mr. Fox, upon this great principle. I say that the people of England have a right to control the executive power, by the interference of their representatives in this House of parliament. The right honourable gentleman [William Pitt] maintains the contrary. He is the cause of our political enmity.”

Charles James Fox (1749–1806) British Whig statesman

Speech in the House of Commons (27 February 1786), reprinted in J. Wright (ed.), The Speeches of the Rt. Hon. C. J. Fox in the House of Commons. Volume III (1815), p. 201.
1780s

Housing

“I grew up in a family where no one was in the entertainment business. So stand-up and acting were seen as something unrealistic. I always thought it was just people in L. A. and New York that became actors or comedians.”

Jim Gaffigan (1966) comedian, actor, author

Ed Will (April 28, 2006) "Your face sure is familiar. ...", The Denver Post, p. FF-09.

Family, Business

“The assertion that art may be good art and at the same time incomprehensible to a great number of people is extremely unjust, and its consequences are ruinous to art itself…it is the same as saying some kind of food is good but most people can't eat it.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

What is Art? (1897)

Food, Art, Time

“The young people will think that begging is okay and if you are finding difficulties you can just go on the streets and beg.”

Asenaca Caucau Fijian politician

Statement about beggars, 7 November 2005)

Thinking

“In these facts we discover the cause of the popular discontent and outbreaks which have so frequently threatened the stability of the British throne and the peace of the English people. As early as 1770 Lord Chatham said, 'By the end of this century, either the Parliament must be reformed from within, or it will be reformed with a vengeance from without.' The disastrous failure of Republicanism in France delayed the fulfillment of his prophecy; but when, in 1832, the people were on the verge of revolt, the government was reluctantly compelled to pass the celebrated Reform Bill, which has taken its place in English history beside Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights. It equalized the basis of representation, and extended the suffrage to the middle class; and though the property qualification practically excluded the workingman, a great step upward had been taken, a concession had been made which must be followed by others. The struggle is again going on. Its omens are not doubtful. The great storm through which American liberty has just passed gave a temporary triumph to the enemies of popular right in England. But our recent glorious triumph is the signal of disaster to tyranny, and victory for the people. The liberal party in England are jubilant, and will never rest until the ballot, that 'silent vindicator of liberty', is in the hand of the workingman, and the temple of English liberty rests on the broad foundation of popular suffrage. Let us learn from this, that suffrage and safety, like liberty and union, are one and inseparable.”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)

1860s, Oration at Ravenna, Ohio (1865)

Peace, History, Failure, Learning

“When the ceremony ended Anne and I stayed on the field to greet friends, many of whom had traveled to share the ceremony with us. In one respect it was a difficult day at the end of a difficult month. But in the broader view of life, it was a magical evening at the end of an incredible journey we shared. We walked back over to the quarters we would move out of a few days later, and found friends in the yard and almost every room. At one point I saw Mike Hall, Charlie Flynn, Shawn Lowery, and Casey Welch standing in the fading summer light. I thought of my father, of my first day at West Point, and of our cold Christmas Eve flight over Afghanistan seven months before. The final words of my last speech in uniform, spoken just an hour before were repeated in my mind: "If I had it to do over again, I'd do some things in my career differently, but not many. I believed in people, and I still believe in them. I trusted and I still trust. I cared and I still care. I wouldn't have it any other way… To the young leaders of today and tomorrow, it's a great life. Thank you."”

Stanley A. McChrystal (1954) American general

Closing words, p. 394
My Share Of The Task (2013)

Life, Way, Travel, Light

“I learned a long time ago never to press where there's something you want to know. Show little interest in the subject, never ask questions, don't make people start asking themselves why you want to know. That way, sooner or later, you'll find out.”

Warren Gulley (1922–2012) American military non-commissioned officer (NCO)

Breaking Cover https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0671245481 (1980), p. 25

Way, Question, Learning, Time

“…Do not think the war that we are waging is the Islamic State’s war alone. Rather, it is the Muslims’ war altogether. It is the war of every Muslim in every place, and the Islamic State is merely the spearhead in this war. It is but the war of the people of faith against the people of disbelief…”

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (1971–2019) leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

As quoted in "Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi resurfaces in audio urging supporters to join terror group", Independent (15 May 2015)
2014, 2015
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-resurfaces-in-audio-urging-supporters-to-join-terror-group-10251955.html

War, Faith, Thinking

“This is your country. These are your houses. These are your cultivated fields and gardens, and your memories lie here. You are not going to leave your country, are you, just because you live hard there or because you have been weighed down by the injustices and humiliation? It has never been typical of the Serbian and Montenegrin people to yield before obstacles and to become demoralized when facing a problem, when coming upon hard times.”

Slobodan Milošević (1941–2006) Yugoslavian and Serbian politician

Kosovo Polje Speech (24 April 1987)

Lie, Problem, Memory, Time

“Poverty Jet Set: A group of people given to chronic travelling at the expense of long-term job stability or a permenant residence. Tend to have doomed and extremely expensive phone call relationships with people named Serge or Ilyana. Tend to discuss frequent flyer programs at parties.”

Douglas Coupland (1961) Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and graphic designer

Definitions

Travel

“Well, I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And — I've learned quickly these past few days that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But — now here's a little news flash. Here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country.”

Sarah Palin (1964) American politician

[Alex Johnson, Palin fires back at media, ‘Washington elite’, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26525268/, MSNBC, 2008-09-04, 2008-09-04]
2008, 2008 Republican National Convention

Learning, Past, Country

“No! No! Gentlemen, no emotion for me. But, those of congratulation. I am happy. To die is the irreversible decree of him who made us. Then what joy to be able to meet death without dismay. This, thank God, is my case. The happiness of man is my wish, that happiness I deem inconsistent with slavery, and to avert so great an evil from an innocent people, I will gladly meet the British tomorrow, at any odds whatever.”

Johann de Kalb (1721–1780) American general

In August 1780, as quoted in "Death of Baron De Kalb" https://books.google.com/books?id=k2QAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA234&lpg=PA234&dq=%22I+thank+you+sir+for+your+generous+sympathy,+but+I+die+the+death+I+always+prayed+for:+the+death+of+a+soldier+fighting+for+the+rights+of+man%22&source=bl&ots=-93hJzoCYU&sig=tAag8ObQI-ZjiII56viczov02wM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VlYVVcuJI4KmNsazgYgL&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22I%20thank%20you%20sir%20for%20your%20generous%20sympathy%2C%20but%20I%20die%20the%20death%20I%20always%20prayed%20for%3A%20the%20death%20of%20a%20soldier%20fighting%20for%20the%20rights%20of%20man%22&f=false (1849), by Benjamin Franklin Ells, The Western Miscellany, Volume 1, p. 233. 1780s

Death, God, Happiness, Evil

“These are smart people;
They receive a mess from the east, and a good life from the west;
They never rush because only life rushes;
They are not interested in what awaits after tomorrow;
What is meant to be will come, and little of it depends on them;
When they are together they are in trouble, for this they do not like to be together often;
They rarely trust anyone, but it’s easiest to fool them with nice words;
They do not resemble heroes, but they are not easily scared with threats;
They pay attention to nothing, they care not of what happens around them;
And then out of nowhere suddenly everything interests them, they flip everything and look around;
Then they become sleepers again and do not like to remember what came to pass;
They are scared of change because it often brings evil;
They are easily fed up with a man, even if he does them good;Strange people;
They talk bad about you but love you, kiss you on the cheek but hate you;
Laugh at noble deeds but remember them;
They spend most of their life on spite and goodness;
And don’t know which is stronger when;
Evil, good, gentle, raw, unable to move on, stormy, open, hidden;
They are all this and everything in between;
And most importantly they are mine, and I am theirs;
And everything I’m saying; I’m saying about myself.”

Meša Selimović (1910–1982) Yugoslav-Bosnian writer

Poem

Love, Life, Hate, Fools

Quotes about people page 91

Related topics

Quotes about people
page 91