Quotes about problems

„in English: I do not consider myself a musician, rather a radar ready to pick up the symphonies coming from the sky. It's been like that since I was four years old and I hope it will continue forever. When I compose, any ingredient can be good, the problem lies in the proportions that must be harmonized. It's like the work of architects, you never invent anything.“

—  Vangelis Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock, and orchestral music 1943

1989

„It doesn’t surprise me to learn that there is bias and sexism everywhere, just like there are problems of racism and homophobia stemming from the whole notion that we’re arranged in a hierarchy, that we’re ranked rather than linked.“

—  Gloria Steinem American feminist and journalist 1934

The Humanist interview (2012)
Context: It doesn’t surprise me to learn that there is bias and sexism everywhere, just like there are problems of racism and homophobia stemming from the whole notion that we’re arranged in a hierarchy, that we’re ranked rather than linked. I think we’ve learned that we have to contend with these divisions everywhere.

„As civilization develops, we become more preoccupied with human life, and less conscious of our relation to non-human nature. Literature reflects this, and the more advanced the civilization, the more literature seems to concern itself with purely human problems and conflicts. The gods and heroes of the old myths fade away and give place to people like ourselves.“

—  Northrop Frye Canadian literary critic and literary theorist 1912 - 1991

"Quotes", The Educated Imagination (1963), Talk 2: The Singing School

„I don't have a drinking problem ‘cept when I can't get a drink.“

—  Tom Waits American singer-songwriter and actor 1949

"Bad Liver and a Broken Heart", Small Change (1976).

„Our love affair ended in tears but a deep bond grew out of it, and that's something nobody can take away from us. It's unreachable … All my lovers ask me why they can't replace her, but it's simply impossible.
I don't feel jealous of her lovers because. of course, she has a life to lead, and so do I. Basically, I try to make sure she's happy with whoever she's with and she tries to do the same for me.
We look after each other and that's a wonderful form of love. I might have all the problems in the world, but I have Mary and that gets me through.“

—  Freddie Mercury British singer, songwriter and record producer 1946 - 1991

On his relationship with Mary Austin, as quoted in "Rock On Freddie" (1985).

„I like people to go away from a Queen show feeling fully entertained, having had a good time. I think Queen songs are pure escapism, like going to see a good film - after that, they can go away and say that was great, and go back to their problems. I don't want to change the world with our music. There are no hidden messages in our songs, except for some of Brian's.“

—  Freddie Mercury British singer, songwriter and record producer 1946 - 1991

"The Man Who Would Be Queen" in Melody Maker (2 May 1981).

„I finally faced the fact that it isn`t a crime not having friends. Being alone means you have fewer problems.“

—  Whitney Houston American singer, actress, model, and record producer 1963 - 2012

„This is the criminal left that belongs not in a dormitory, but in a penitentiary. The criminal left is not a problem to be solved by the Department of Philosophy or the Department of English—it is a problem for the Department of Justice…. Black or white, the criminal left is interested in power. It is not interested in promoting the renewal and reforms that make democracy work; it is interested in promoting those collisions and conflict that tear democracy apart.“

—  Spiro Agnew 39th Vice President of the United States 1918 - 1996

Speech at a Florida Republican dinner, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (April 28, 1970); reported in Collected Speeches of Spiro Agnew (1971), p. 135.

„I believe in love at first sight. You want that connection, and then you want some problems.“

—  Keanu Reeves Canadian actor, director, producer and musician 1964

„Demon’s Souls wasn’t doing well,” he says. “The project had problems and the team had been unable to create a compelling prototype. But when I heard it was a fantasy-action role-playing game, I was excited. I figured if I could find a way to take control of the game, I could turn it into anything I wanted. Best of all, if my ideas failed, nobody would care – it was already a failure.“

—  Hidetaka Miyazaki Japanese video game director 1974

Bloodborne creator Hidetaka Miyazaki: ‘I didn’t have a dream. I wasn’t ambitious' https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/31/bloodborne-dark-souls-creator-hidetaka-miyazaki-interview (March 31, 2015)

„I regard the people as a great being, inspired by a single idea. This is my problem. I strove to solve it in this opera.“

—  Modest Mussorgsky Russian composer 1839 - 1881

MS dedication to Boris Godunov, January 21, 1874. http://www.bklynnews.com/BklynRadio/boris%20godunov-1.htm

„I think that little by little I'll be able to solve my problems and survive.“

—  Frida Kahlo Mexican painter 1907 - 1954

„She won't go quietly, that's the problem. I'll fight to the end, because I believe that I have a role to fulfill, and I've got two children to bring up.“

—  Diana, Princess of Wales First wife of Charles, Prince of Wales 1961 - 1997

Interview with Martin Bashir on BBC Panorama (20 November 1995)

„I learnt to see philosophical systems in the context of the social milieu which produced them. I therefore learnt to look for social contention in philosophical systems. It is of course possible to see the history of philosophy in diverse ways, each way of seeing it being in fact an illumination of the type of problem dealt with in this branch of human thought. It is possible, for instance, to look upon philosophy as a series of abstract systems. When philosophy is so seen, even moral philosophers, with regrettable coyness, say that their preoccupation has nothing to do with life. They say that their concern is not to name moral principles or to improve anybody's character, but narrowly to elucidate the meaning of terms used in ethical discourse, and to determine the status of moral principles and ru1es, as regards the obligation which they impose upon us. When philosophy is regarded in the light of a series of abstract systems, it can be said to concern itself with two fundamental questions: first, the question 'what there is'; second, the question how 'what there is' may be explained. The answer to the first question has a number of aspects. It lays down a minimum number of general under which every item in the world can and must be brought. It does this without naming the items themselves, without furnishing us with an inventory, a roll-call of the items, the objects in the world. It specifies, not particu1ar objects, but the basic types of object. The answer further implies a certain reductionism; for in naming only a few basic types as exhausting all objects in the world, it brings object directly under one of the basic types.“

—  Kwame Nkrumah Pan Africanist and First Prime Minister and President of Ghana 1909 - 1972

Source: Consciencism (1964), Philosophy In Retrospect, pp. 5-6.

„The problem is that everybody treats teenagers like they're stupid.“

—  Johnny Depp American actor, film producer, and musician 1963

„The real problem in speech is not precise language. The problem is clear language.“

—  Richard Feynman American theoretical physicist 1918 - 1988

" New Textbooks for the "New" Mathematics http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/2362/1/feynman.pdf", Engineering and Science volume 28, number 6 (March 1965) p. 9-15 at p. 14
Paraphrased as "Precise language is not the problem. Clear language is the problem."
Context: The real problem in speech is not precise language. The problem is clear language. The desire is to have the idea clearly communicated to the other person. It is only necessary to be precise when there is some doubt as to the meaning of a phrase, and then the precision should be put in the place where the doubt exists. It is really quite impossible to say anything with absolute precision, unless that thing is so abstracted from the real world as to not represent any real thing.Pure mathematics is just such an abstraction from the real world, and pure mathematics does have a special precise language for dealing with its own special and technical subjects. But this precise language is not precise in any sense if you deal with real objects of the world, and it is only pedantic and quite confusing to use it unless there are some special subtleties which have to be carefully distinguished.

„All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.“

—  Tom Watson American businessman 1874 - 1956

Actually a remark by Nicholas Murray Butler.
Quoted by Watson in comments about "Think" and attributed to Nicholas Murray Butler - IBM Archives: Comments on "THINK" - Transcript https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/multimedia/think_trans.html
Misattributed
Source: American Dental Association (1959) The Journal of the American Dental Association. Vol 59. p. 289.

„If you show people the problems and you show people the solutions they will be moved to act.“

—  Bill Gates American business magnate and philanthropist 1955

At Live8 (2 July 2005) as reported in BBC News (4 July 2005) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/technology/4648003.stm
2000s

„Ask yourself what “problem” you have right now, not next year, tomorrow, or five minutes from now. What is wrong with this moment?“

—  Eckhart Tolle, book The Power of Now

The Power of Now (1997)