Quotes about personality
page 51

Judith Sheindlin photo

“Don't be a wise guy in here, sir. There's only one wise person in here - and that's Byrd.”

Judith Sheindlin (1942) American lawyer, judge, television personality, and author

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37tcUYWijiw
Quotes from Judge Judy cases, Being funny

James Anthony Froude photo
Girolamo Cardano photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
John Calvin photo

“The aversion of the first Christians to the images, inspired by the Pagan simulachres, made room, during the centuries which followed the period of the persecutions, to a feeling of an entirely different kind, and the images gradually gained their favour. Reappearing at the end of the fourth and during the course of the fifth centuries, simply as emblems, they soon became images, in the true acceptation of this word; and the respect which was entertained by the Christians for the persons and ideas represented by those images, was afterwards converted into a real worship. Representations of the sufferings which the Christians had endured for the sake of their religion, were at first exhibited to the people in order to stimulate by such a sight the faith of the masses, always lukewarm and indifferent. With regard to the images of divine persons of entirely immaterial beings, it must be remarked, that they did not originate from the most spiritualised and pure doctrines of the Christian society, but were rejected by the severe orthodoxy of the primitive church. These simulachres appear to have been spread at first by the Gnostics,—i. e., by those Christian sects which adopted the most of the beliefs of Persia and India. Thus it was a Christianity which was not purified by its contact with the school of Plato,—a Christianity which entirely rejected the Mosaic tradition, in order to attach itself to the most strange and attractive myths of Persia and India,—that gave birth to the images.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Source: A Treatise of Relics (1549), p. 13

Narendra Modi photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
Jane Roberts photo
Lewis Pugh photo

“They have […] a split personality. One moment they’re your best mate, and next they are trying to drag you down to the bottom of the sea to drown you. […] It’s just astonishing.”

Lewis Pugh (1969) Environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swimmer

p 65, describing leopard seals off Antarctica
21 Yaks And A Speedo (2013)

Bob Dylan photo

“My songs always sound a lot better in person than they do on the record.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

The Rolling Stone Interview: Bob Dylan http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-talks-a-raw-and-extensive-first-rolling-stone-interview-19691129 (29 November 1969)

Guru Tegh Bahadur photo

“One who is not perturbed by misfortune, who is beyond comfort, attachment and fear, who considers gold as dust. He neither speaks ill of others nor feels elated by praise and shuns greed, attachments and arrogance. He is indifferent to ecstasy and tragedy, is not affected by honors or humiliations. He renounces expectations, greed. He is neither attached to the worldliness, nor lets senses and anger affect him. In such a person resides God.”

Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621–1675) The ninth Guru of Sikhism

Guru Tegh Bahadur, Sorath 633 (Translated by Gopal Singh), Tegh Bahadur (Translated by Gopal Singh) (2005). Mahalla nawan: compositions of Guru Tegh Bahādur-the ninth guru (from Sri Guru Granth Sahib): Bāṇī Gurū Tega Bahādara. Allied Publishers. pp. xxviii–xxxiii, 15–27. ISBN 978-81-7764-897-3.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“You can tell how uninteresting a person is by asking him whom he finds interesting.”

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 28

Beverly Sills photo
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi photo
Charles Darwin photo

“It is the vocation of each person to become unique.”

Sam Keen (1931) author, professor, and philosopher

Source: The Passionate Life (1983), p. 134

Jeremy Hardy photo

“The need to compile lists is a personality disorder, as is the need to assert the superiority of some things over other things.”

Jeremy Hardy (1961–2019) British comedian

Radio Times, 5-11 August 2006, referring to Film4's Fifty Greatest Films

John Knox photo

“But hereof be assured, that all is not lawful nor just that is statute by civil laws; neither yet is everything sin before God, which ungodly persons allege to be treason.”

John Knox (1514–1572) Scottish clergyman, writer and historian

John Knox pastoral, as quoted in The Breakers of the Yoke: Sketches and Studies of the Men ... by J. S. MacIntosh, p. 303

Juicy J photo
Friedrich Hayek photo
Roger Wolcott Sperry photo
Edward Bulwer-Lytton photo

“The easiest person to deceive is one’s own self.”

Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician

The Disowned (1828), Chapter xlii.

Isaac Asimov photo

“[In response to this question by Bill Moyers: What do you see happening to the idea of dignity to human species if this population growth continues at its present rate? ] "It's going to destroy it all. I use what I call my bathroom metaphor. If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom, go to the bathroom any time you want, and stay as long as you want to for whatever you need. And this to my way is ideal. And everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. It should be right there in the Constitution. But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up, you have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door, aren't you through yet, and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Interview by Bill Moyers on Bill Moyers' World Of Ideas (17 October 1988); transcript http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov1.pdf (page 6) - audio (20:12) http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/media_players/asimovwoi_audio.html
General sources

Charles Sumner photo

“With me, sir, there is no alternative. Painfully convinced of the unutterable wrongs and woes of slavery; profoundly believing that, according to the true spirit of the Constitution and the sentiments of the fathers, it can find no place under our National Government — that it is in every respect sectional, and in no respect national — that it is always and everywhere the creature and dependent of the States, and never anywhere the creature or dependent of the Nation, and that the Nation can never, by legislative or other act, impart to it any support, under the Constitution of the United States; with these convictions, I could not allow this session to reach its close, without making or seizing an- opportunity to declare myself openly against the usurpation, injustice, and cruelty, of the late enactment by Congress for the recovery of fugitive slaves. Full well I know, sir, the difficulties of this discussion, arising from prejudices of opinion and from adverse conclusions, strong and sincere as my own. Full well I know that I am in a small minority, with few here to whom I may look for sympathy or support. Full well I know that I must utter things unwelcome to many in this body, which I cannot do without pain. Full well I know that the institution of slavery in our country, which I now proceed to consider, is as sensitive as it is powerful — possessing a power to shake the whole land with a sensitiveness that shrinks and trembles at the touch. But, while these things may properly prompt me to caution and reserve, they cannot change my duty, or my determination to perform it. For this I willingly forget myself, and all personal consequences. The favor and good-will of my fellow-citizens, of my brethren of the Senate, sir, — grateful to me as it justly is — I am ready, if required, to sacrifice. All that I am or may be, I freely offer to this cause.”

Charles Sumner (1811–1874) American abolitionist and politician

"Freedom National, Slavery Sectional," speech in the Senate (July 27, 1852).

Guy Berryman photo

“We have very similar brains. But they come out in different personalities.”

Guy Berryman (1978) bassist

Chris Martin, on Berryman's reticence
Scaggs, Austin; Corbijn, Anton (2005-08-25), "COLDPLAY'S QUIET STORM". Rolling Stone. (981):40-46
About

Henry Cabot Lodge photo
Newton Lee photo
Robert Musil photo
Joseph Conrad photo

“My experience of the original Edison phonograph goes back to the period when it was first introduced into this country. In fact, I have good reason to believe that I was among the very first persons in London to make a vocal record, though I never received a copy of it, and if I did it got lost long ago. It must have been in 1881 or 1882, and the place where the deed was done was on the first floor of a shop in Hatton Garden, where I had been invited to listen to the wonderful new invention. To begin with, I heard pieces both in song and speech produced by the friction of a needle against a revolving cylinder, or spool, fixed in what looked like a musical box. It sounded to my ear like someone singing about half a mile away, or talking at the other end of a big hall; but the effect was rather pleasant, save for a peculiar nasal quality wholly due to the mechanism, though there was little of the scratching which later was a prominent feature of the flat disc. Recording for that primitive machine was a comparatively simple matter. I had to keep my mouth about six inches away from the horn and remember not to make my voice too loud if I wanted anything approximating to a clear reproduction; that was all. When it was played over to me and I heard my own voice for the first time, one or two friends who were present said that it sounded rather like mine; others declared that they would never have recognised it. I daresay both opinions were correct.”

Herman Klein (1856–1934) British musical critic journalist and singing teacher

The Gramophone magazine, December 1933

Tristan Tzara photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Camille Paglia photo
Gwynfor Evans photo
Sadao Araki photo

“If everyone gave a tenth of his worldly goods to the person he most admired, the rich would just get richer.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

David Lloyd George photo
Bhakti Tirtha Swami photo
George Bernard Shaw photo
John McAfee photo

“I think that it's when we step out of the road, step outside the box, become our own person and we walk fearlessly down paths other people wouldn't look at, that true progress comes. And sometimes true beauty as well.”

John McAfee (1945) American computer programmer and businessman

BBC News: "John McAfee: Addict, coder, runaway" https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24441931 (11 October 2013)

Gary Gygax photo

“I think a lot of what I was taught, gathered, and learned is worth keeping. Heritage and "wisdom" and simply personal family and local history enrich the one able to tap such information. As it is I wish I had garnered more from my grandparents and parents.”

Gary Gygax (1938–2008) American writer and game designer

"An Interview with Gary Gygax" by Christopher Smith at Lejendary Adventure http://www.lejendary.com/la/template.php?page=garygygax&style=blaze

Alfred Horsley Hinton photo
Brigham Young photo

“I wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for his daily encouragement.”

Ken Pavés American hairdresser

Jessica Simpson
Adato, Allison; Ingrassia, Lisa; Baker, K C. (2006-06-12), "The Mane Man". People. 65 (23):107-108
About

Naomi Klein photo
Maimónides photo
Jean-Baptiste Say photo

“With respect to the present time, there are few persons who unite the qualifications of good observers with a situation favourable for accurate observation.”

Jean-Baptiste Say (1767–1832) French economist and businessman

Source: A Treatise On Political Economy (Fourth Edition) (1832), Introduction, p. xix

Ken MacLeod photo
Ben Carson photo

“I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary, and it has become what is scientifically, politically correct.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

As quoted in "Ben Carson: Big Bang A Fairy Tale, Theory Of Evolution Encouraged By The Devil" http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/ben-carson-big-bang-a-fairy-tale-theory-of-evolution-encoura#.scwEnmYlG, Buzzfeed News (September 22, 2015)

Henry Flynt photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Thomas Hobbes photo
Johannes Bosboom photo

“The same year [1835] I made my debut at the Exposition in Rotterdam with [his painting] "the St. Janskerk in ’s Hertogenbosch, the interior", which immediately found a merchant... The approval by this, [and] the renewed appreciation I got in Felix 38, now concerning a 'church with incident sunlight', together with my personal characteristic tendency to reproduce the impressions which church buildings gave me, led me gradually to choose and prefer this genre [church-interiors], [and to visit] Belgium in '37 and repeatedly to return there, attracted by the abundance of study [many churches], that this country offered me..”

Johannes Bosboom (1817–1891) Dutch painter

citaat van Johannes Bosboom, in orogineel Nederlands: In hetzelfde jaar [1835] had ik op de Expositie te Rotterdam gedebuteerd met 'de St. Janskerk te 's Hertogenbosch van binnen', die terstond een kooper vond.. .De bijval hiermee behaald, [en] de hernieuwde bekrooning in Felix 38) nu voor eene 'kerk met inVallend zonlicht', gevoegd bij mijn bijzondere neiging om de indrukken weer te geven, die kerkgebouwen op mij maakten, leidde er mij gaandeweg toe dit genre [schilderijen van kerk-interieurs] bij voorkeur te kiezen; [en om] in '37 in Belgie te gaan bezoeken en herhaaldelijk daar weer te keeren, aangetrokken door den overvloed van studie [veel kerken], dien dat land mij aanbood..
Source: 1880's, Een en ander betrekkelijk mijn loopbaan als schilder, p. 11

Philip José Farmer photo

“Everybody should fear only one person, and that person should be himself.”

Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) American science fiction writer

First lines.
The Riverworld series, The Magic Labyrinth (1980)

Andreas Karlstadt photo
Sören Kierkegaard photo
Phillip Abbott Luce photo
Friedrich Engels photo

“What has caused confusion and misunderstanding about his Hinduism is the concept of sarva-dharma-samabhAva (equal regard for all religions) which he had developed after deep reflection. Christian and Muslim missionaries have interpreted it to mean that a Hindu can go aver to Christianity or Islam without suffering any spiritual loss. They are also using it as a shield against every critique of their closed and aggressive creeds. The new rulers of India, on the other hand, cite it in order to prop up the Nehruvian version of Secularism which is only a euphemism for anti-Hindu animus shared in common by Christians, Muslims, Marxists and those who are Hindus only by accident of birth. For Gandhiji, however, sarva-dharma-samabhAva was only a restatement of the age-old Hindu tradition of tolerance in matters of belief. Hinduism has always adjudged a man’s faith in terms of his AdhAra (receptivity) and adhikAra (aptitude). It has never prescribed a uniform system of belief or behavior for everyone because, according to it, different persons are in different stages of spiritual development and need different prescriptions for further progress. Everyone, says Hinduism, should be left alone to work out one’s own salvation through one’s own inner seeking and evolution. Any imposition of belief or behaviour from the outside is, therefore, a mechanical exercise which can only do injury to one’s spiritual growth. Preaching to those who have not invited it is nothing short of aggression born out of self-righteousness. That is why Gandhiji took a firm and uncompromising stand against proselytisation by preaching and gave no quarters to the Christian mission’s mercenary methods of spreading the gospel.”

Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist

History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)

Muhammad al-Taqi photo

“The honour of a person lies in his needlessness from the people.”

Muhammad al-Taqi (811–835) ninth of the Twelve Imams of Twelver Shi'ism

Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78, p. 365
General

Jesse Ventura photo
Diogenes Laërtius photo

“Diogenes said once to a person who was showing him a dial, "It is a very useful thing to save a man from being too late for supper."”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

Menedemus, 3.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 6: The Cynics

Alexander Hamilton photo
Muhammad photo
Dylan Moran photo
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola photo

“Thus we have reached the point, it is painful to recognize, where the only persons accounted wise are those who can reduce the pursuit of wisdom to a profitable traffic.”
Quin eo deventum est ut iam (proh dolor!) non existimentur sapientes nisi qui mercennarium faciunt studium sapientiae.

24. 155; translation by A. Robert Caponigri
Oration on the Dignity of Man (1496)

Klaus Kinski photo
Natacha Rambova photo

“A sensitive personality is like a great organ. Press the keys of discord and harshness comes forth. Play the keys of beauty and melody delight are given.”

Natacha Rambova (1897–1966) American film personality and fashion designer

On personality, p. 118
Photoplay: "Wedded and Parted" (December 1922)

Zbigniew Brzeziński photo
Muhammad photo

“Nothing is harder for Satan to bear than a person who recites the Qur’an by looking at the pages”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

of the Qur’an
Thawabul A’mal, Page 231
Shi'ite Hadith

Winston S. Churchill photo
Frederik Pohl photo
Steve Jobs photo

“I've seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you've gone through all that, the girl's got up and left! You're much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you're connected with about two feet of headphone cable.”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

When asked whether he was concerned over Microsoft Zune's wireless capability, as a product competing with Apple's iPod, as quoted in Newsweek (14 October 2006)
2000s

Timothy McVeigh photo
Titian photo

“[I wish]to engrave and distribute [the prints] for the benefit and knowledge and use of painters and sculptors and other knowledge-able persons.”

Titian (1488–1576) Italian painter

official document, 1567; as quoted by Bruce Kohl in Titian and Venetian Painting, 1450-1590; publishers Westview Press, 1999, p. 117
In 1567 Titian applied to the Venetian senate for a fifteen-year copyright privilege for engravings, made after his work. The Dutch artist Cornelis Cort produced prints after Titian's work, all made in collaboration, in 1555-56 and 1571-72
1541-1576

Alice A. Bailey photo
Glen Cook photo
Gary Johnson photo
Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrügge photo
Ilana Mercer photo

“A natural-rights libertarian values the life of the innocent individual. Only by protecting each individual's rights—life, liberty and property—can the government legitimately enhance the wealth of the collective. Only through fulfilling its night watchman role can government legitimately safeguard the wealth of the nation. For each individual, secure in his person and property, is then free to pursue economic prosperity, which redounds to the rest.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

Barcelona and Beyond: How Politicians & Policy Wonks Play God With Your Life http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/21/barcelona-and-beyond-how-politicians-wonks-play-god/, Daily Caller, August 21, 2017.
Barcelona and Beyond: How Politicians & Policy Wonks Play God With Your Life http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/08/barcelona_and_beyond_how_politicians_and_policy_wonks_play_god_with_your_life_.html,  American Thinker, August 20, 2017.
2010s, 2017

Marsden Hartley photo
David Yezzi photo

“The person who wrote the poem can tell you more about the poem than anyone else.”

David Yezzi (1966) American poet

Interview with Ernest Hibert (2006)

Wolfhart Pannenberg photo
Meagan Duhamel photo