Quotes about searching
page 11

George Carlin photo
John Marshall Harlan II photo
William G. Boykin photo
Yves Klein photo
Sergei Prokofiev photo

“The first was the classical line, which could be traced back to my early childhood and the Beethoven sonatas I heard my mother play. This line takes sometimes a neo-classical form (sonatas, concertos), sometimes imitates the 18th century classics (gavottes, the Classical symphony, partly the Sinfonietta). The second line, the modern trend, begins with that meeting with Taneyev when he reproached me for the “crudeness” of my harmonies. At first this took the form of a search for my own harmonic language, developing later into a search for a language in which to express powerful emotions (The Phantom, Despair, Diabolical Suggestion, Sarcasms, Scythian Suite, a few of the songs, op. 23, The Gambler, Seven, They Were Seven, the Quintet and the Second Symphony). Although this line covers harmonic language mainly, it also includes new departures in melody, orchestration and drama. The third line is toccata or the “motor” line traceable perhaps to Schumann’s Toccata which made such a powerful impression on me when I first heard it (Etudes, op. 2, Toccata, op. 11, Scherzo, op. 12, the Scherzo of the Second Concerto, the Toccata in the Fifth Concerto, and also the repetitive intensity of the melodic figures in the Scythian Suite, Pas d’acier[The Age of Steel], or passages in the Third Concerto). This line is perhaps the least important. The fourth line is lyrical; it appears first as a thoughtful and meditative mood, not always associated with the melody, or, at any rate, with the long melody (The Fairy-tale, op. 3, Dreams, Autumnal Sketch[Osenneye], Songs, op. 9, The Legend, op. 12), sometimes partly contained in the long melody (choruses on Balmont texts, beginning of the First Violin Concerto, songs to Akhmatova’s poems, Old Granny’s Tales[Tales of an Old Grandmother]). This line was not noticed until much later. For a long time I was given no credit for any lyrical gift whatsoever, and for want of encouragement it developed slowly. But as time went on I gave more and more attention to this aspect of my work. I should like to limit myself to these four “lines,” and to regard the fifth, “grotesque” line which some wish to ascribe to me, as simply a deviation from the other lines. In any case I strenuously object to the very word “grotesque” which has become hackneyed to the point of nausea. As a matter of fact the use of the French word “grotesque” in this sense is a distortion of the meaning. I would prefer my music to be described as “Scherzo-ish” in quality, or else by three words describing the various degrees of the Scherzo—whimsicality, laughter, mockery.”

Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) Ukrainian & Russian Soviet pianist and composer

Page 36-37; from his fragmentary Autobiography.
Sergei Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences (1960)

Slavoj Žižek photo
Garth Nix photo
Pappus of Alexandria photo
Matthew Arnold photo

“If one were searching for the best means to efface and kill in a whole nation the discipline of self-respect, the feeling for what is elevated, he could do no better than take the American newspapers.”

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools

Civilization in the United States (1888), p. 177

José Rizal photo
George Friedman photo

“Contemporary Europe is a search for an exit from hell.”

George Friedman (1949) American businessman and political scientist

Source: The Next Decade: Where We've Been ... And Where We're Going (2010), p. 142

Sathya Sai Baba photo

“I am all deities in one. You may endeavour your best for thousands of years and have all mankind with you in your search. But you cannot understand My Reality.”

Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011) Indian guru

US ed. of Kasturi's authorized biography Sathyam Sivam Sundaram Vol 3 page 315

John Horgan (journalist) photo
Robert Sheckley photo
Ippen photo

“With aversion for sect superiors and their pomp,
I have no wish for monk disciples;
Not in search of lay supporters,
I court the favor of no one.”

Ippen (1239–1289) Japanese Buddhist monk, founder of the Jishu school.

"Verse of Aspiration" (Chapter 3, p. 16).
No Abode: The Record of Ippen (1997)

Dave Eggers photo
Cat Stevens photo
Elie Wiesel photo

“Waking among the dead, one wondered if one was still alive. And yet real despair only seized us later. Afterwards. As we emerged from the nightmare and began to search for meaning.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)

Orson Scott Card photo
Suze Robertson photo

“Acquaintances, family, posing for me? - Oh no, please no acquaintances, no nephews or nieces… If I need them, I take models; am I searching for myself, tripping through the neighborhoods..”

Suze Robertson (1855–1922) Dutch painter

(version in original Dutch / origineel citaat van Suze Robertson:) Kennissen, familie voor mij poseeren? – O nee, alstublieft geen bekenden, geen neefjes of nichtjes.. .Als ik ze nodig heb, neem ik modellen; ga ik zelf zoeken, de buurtjes [buurten] afloopen..
p. 34
1900 - 1922, Onder de Menschen: Suze Robertson' (1912)

“Information science is concerned with every aspect of the chain of information transfer activities, but the heart of its interest is information search.”

Brian Campbell Vickery (1918–2009) British information theorist

B.C. Vickery (1997) "Metatheory and information science," Journal of Documentation, 53(5), p. 460.

“The Conquest of Joshua could not have been a primitive assault, because a civilized land like Canaan with well-fortified cities could easily have repulsed an attack that was militarily naïve. …Spies were sent to search out the land and lay the groundwork.”

Cyrus H. Gordon (1908–2001) American linguist

Source: The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations (1965 [1962]), Ch.VIII Further Observations on the Bible

André Malraux photo

“Our art culture makes no attempt to search the past for precedents, but transforms the entire past into a sequence of provisional responses to a problem that remains intact.”

André Malraux (1901–1976) French novelist, art theorist and politician

Part IV, Chapter VII
Les voix du silence [Voices of Silence] (1951)

Lee Smolin photo
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester photo
Robert Lynn Asprin photo
Johannes Tauler photo
Paul Morphy photo

“So still was he, that but for the searching intellect which glittered in his full dark eye, you might have taken him for a carven image as he pondered his moves. His bearing was mild and that of a refined gentleman, and he dealt the most crushing blows on his adversary with an almost womanly ease and grace.”

Paul Morphy (1837–1884) American chess player

Hugh Alexander Kennedy, quoted in The Westminster Papers: A Monthly Journal of Chess, Whist, Games of Skill and the Drama, Volume X https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Bs9eAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.RA1-PA40
About

“In complexity economics one is not searching out the truth; one is simply searching for a statistical fit that can be temporarily useful in our understanding of the economy.”

David Colander (1947) American economist

David Colander, Complexity and the History of Economic Thought, Routledge, London and New York, 2000, p. 6.
2000s

Rumi photo

“Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune:
every success depends upon focusing the heart.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

III, 2302-5
Jewels of Remembrance (1996)

Steven M. Greer photo
Lyubov Popova photo
Lee Smolin photo

“Unfortunately, so far… a truly background independent formulation of string theory has not been achieved… [It is] often called the search for M theory…”

Lee Smolin (1955) American cosmologist

"A perspective on the landscape problem" arXiv (Feb 15, 2012)

L. Frank Baum photo

“The scenery and costumes of 'The Wizard of Oz' were all made in New York — Mr. Mitchell was a New York favorite, but the author was undoubtedly a Chicagoan, and therefore a legitimate butt for the shafts of criticism. So the critics highly praised the Poppy scene, the Kansas cyclone, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, but declared the libretto was very bad and teemed with 'wild and woolly western puns and forced gags.' Now, all that I claim in the libretto of 'The Wizard of Oz' is the creation of the characters of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, the story of their search for brains and a heart, and the scenic effects of the Poppy Field and the cyclone. These were a part of my published fairy tale, as thousands of readers well know. I have published fifteen books of fairy tales, which may be found in all prominent public and school libraries, and they are entirely free, I believe, from the broad jokes the New York critics condemn in the extravaganza, and which, the New York people are now laughing over. In my original manuscript of the play were no 'gags' nor puns whatever. But Mr. Hamlin stated positively that no stage production could succeed without that accepted brand of humor, and as I knew I was wholly incompetent to write those 'comic paper side-splitters' I employed one of the foremost New York 'tinkerers' of plays to write into my manuscript these same jokes that are now declared 'wild and woolly' and 'smacking of Chicago humor.' If the New York critics only knew it, they are praising a Chicago author for the creation of the scenic effects and characters entirely new to the stage, and condemning a well-known New York dramatist for a brand of humor that is palpably peculiar to Puck and Judge. I am amused whenever a New York reviewer attacks the libretto of 'The Wizard of Oz' because it 'comes from Chicago.”

L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) Children's writer, editor, journalist, screenwriter

Letter to "Music and the Drama", The Chicago Record-Herald (3 February 1903)
Letters and essays

Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

“[…]a person stops searching for information and knowledge of one’s self, ignorance sets in.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Russell Brand photo
Bruno Schulz photo

“Be sure of the fact before you lose time in searching for a cause.”

James Burgh (1714–1775) British politician

The Dignity of Human Nature (1754)

`Abdu'l-Bahá photo

“Love is the mystery of divine revelations!
Love is the effulgent manifestation!
Love is the spiritual fulfillment!
Love is the breath of the Holy Spirit inspired into the human spirit!
Love is the cause of the manifestation of the Truth (God) in the phenomenal world!
Love is the necessary tie proceeding from the realities of things through divine creation!
Love is the means of the most great happiness in both the material and spiritual worlds!
Love is a light of guidance in the dark night!
Love is the bond between the Creator and the creature in the inner world!
Love is the cause of development to every enlightened man!
Love is the greatest law in this vast universe of God!
Love is the one law which causeth and controleth order among the existing atoms!
Love is the universal magnetic power between the planets and stars shining in the loft firmament!
Love is the cause of unfoldment to a searching mind, of the secrets deposited in the universe by the Infinite!
Love is the spirit of life in the bountiful body of the world!
Love is the cause of the civilization of nations in this mortal world!
Love is the highest honor to every righteous nation!
The people who are confirmed therein are indeed glorified by the Supreme Concourse, the angels of heaven and the dwellers of the Kingdom of El-Abha! But if the hearts of the people become devoid of the Divine Grace — the Love of God — they wander in the desert of ignorance, descend to the depths of ruin and fall to the abyss of despair where there is no refuge! They are like insects living in the lowest plane.
O beloved of God! Be ye the manifestations of God and the lamps of guidance throughout all regions shining with the light of love and union!
How beautiful the effulgence of this light!”

`Abdu'l-Bahá (1844–1921) Son of Bahá'u'lláh and leader of the Bahá'í Faith

“O thou who art attracted by the Fragrances of God!…” in Tablets of Abdul-Baha Abbas (1909), p. 730 http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/TAB/tab-573.html

Nasreddin photo
Iamblichus photo
Bryan Adams photo

“Akbar abolished Jiziyah in 1564. In all probability many of his 'devout' officers in far off regions, did not care to enforce this anti-Islamic measure. Therefore, ten years later he once again issued orders for its abolition. Badaoni tells us that it was customary "to search out and kill heretics" (Shias), let alone non-Muslims as late as 1574. Hemu's father, when captured, was offered his life if he turned Muslim. Abdun Nabi executed a Brahman for blasphemy on the complaint of a Qazi. Husain Khan, the governor of Lahore (died 983H/ 1575-76) ordered Hindus to stick patches on their shoulders so that no Muslim could be put to the indignity of showing them honour by mistake, nor did he allow Hindus to saddle their horses. Jihad was practised as usual, massacre at Chittor was done in true Jihadist spirit. "The Akbar Nama, the Ain-i-Akbari and Badaoni are all agreed that prior to 1593, some Hindus had been converted to Islam forcibly." In 1581 some Portuguese captives at Surat were offered their lives if they turned Muslim. Even iconoclastic zeal did not disappear under Akbar. Kangra was invaded in 1572-73, and even though Birbal was in joint command, the umbrella of the Goddess was riddled with arrows, 200 cows were killed and Muslim soldiers threw their shoes full of blood at the walls and doors of the temple. A Mughal officer, Bayazid, converted a Hindu temple into a Muslim school. Jain idols in Gujarat could not escape vandalism. "Such seem to have been and continued to be the popular prejudices against the Hindus", under Akbar and his successors as per the obligations of the Shariat and practice of Sunnah, writes S. R. Sharma.”

Source: Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India (1999), ch. 2

Wassily Kandinsky photo
Dean Acheson photo
Lyndall Urwick photo
Walker Percy photo
Erik Naggum photo
Albert Einstein photo

“I once watched an angry Zairian official very nearly strip and search the person of a CIA GS 17 who had forgotten to speak politely”

John Stockwell (1937) American activist

GS 17 is a very high ranking CIA officer
In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story, "Kinshasa"; ISBN 0393057054

Gerhard Richter photo
David Lynch photo
Oscar Levant photo

“I'm a study of a man in chaos in search of frenzy.”

Oscar Levant (1906–1972) American comedian, composer, pianist and actor

As quoted in Time (5 May 1958).

Ernst von Glasersfeld photo
Josephine Butler photo
Herbert A. Simon photo

“Since my world picture approximates reality only crudely, I cannot aspire to optimize anything; at most, I can aim at satisficing. Searching for the best can only dissipate scarce cognitive resources; the best is the enemy of the good.”

Herbert A. Simon (1916–2001) American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist

p.361
Source: 1980s and later, Models of my life, 1991, p. 361; As cited in Ronald J. Baker (2010) Implementing Value Pricing: A Revolutionary Business Model for Professional Firms. p. 122.

“That's the cheapest camera you can buy and we've totally outgunned NASA and SETI (The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Totally outgunned them!”

James Gilliland (1952) American academic and author

James talking about the UFO he recorded using a camera, and comparing his recording to NASA's and SETI's.

André Maurois photo
Anne Morrow Lindbergh photo
Terry Brooks photo
Peter Gabriel photo
James Madison photo
Albert Einstein photo
Leonid Hurwicz photo
Aron Ra photo
George Will photo

“This is an age in which one cannot find common sense without a search warrant.”

George Will (1941) American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author

Column, May 9, 1996, "FDR's memorial hides character" http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1996-05-09/news/1996130096_1_memorial-felix-frankfurter-cigarette-holder at baltimoresun.com
1990s

Al-Biruni photo
Nancy Grace photo
Camille Paglia photo

“The Seventies theory explosion [i. e., Literary theory, deconstruction, etc. ] was a panic reaction by headlocked pedants unable to cope with the emotional and sensory flux of the Sixties. It was a desperate search for new authority, new dogma.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Source: Sex, Art and American Culture : New Essays (1992), Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders : Academe in the Hour of the Wolf, p. 218

“One who searches for a larger good in his good, loses his good.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Quien busca en su bien un bien mayor, pierde su bien.
Voces (1943)

Matthew Good photo

“Searching for those defects, talking like it's a reflex.”

Matthew Good (1971) Canadian singer-songwriter

Musical Works, Beautiful Midnight, Failing the Rorschach Test

Calvin Coolidge photo
Camille Paglia photo
Van Morrison photo
Bernard Cornwell photo
Jello Biafra photo
André Maurois photo
Oliver Goldsmith photo

“Vain, very vain, my weary search to find
That bliss which only centers in the mind.”

Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) Irish physician and writer

Source: The Traveller (1764), Line 423.

Albert Einstein photo
George Holmes Howison photo

“Art in its unblemished nature, like religion and the search for truth, is thus literally a sacrament. The artist's calling and genius are sacred, and the men of old spoke with strict accuracy when they called the poet holy, and directed that he be venerated as a prophet.”

George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) American philosopher

Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), The Art-Principle as Represented in Poetry, p.199-200

Naum Gabo photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Felix Frankfurter photo
Édouard Vuillard photo

“Nothing is important save the spiritual state that enables one to subjectify one's thoughts to a sensation and to think only of the sensation, all the while searching to express it.”

Édouard Vuillard (1868–1940) French painter

6 Sept 1890.
Private Journal - A collage of notes and images, sketches kept 1888-1895 & 1907 to 1940

John Perry Barlow photo