Quotes about the world
page 36

Clive Staples Lewis photo
Zafar Mirzo photo

“America is the police department for a World Zionist government”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Revolution by Number

Zafar Mirzo photo
Ahmad Shah Massoud photo

“If we stop fighting, terrorism will spread all over the world.”

Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953–2001) Afghan military leader

As quoted in Massoud's Smile https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FBR8V8YWEAI9OWu?format=jpg, by Hiromi Nagakura

Alex Morgan photo

“When you have 12 teams in an Olympics in comparison to a World Cup where you have double that amount of teams, I think every single team is going to be difficult.”

Alex Morgan (1989) American soccer player

"‘Soccer Mom’ Alex Morgan Back And Looking For Gold In Tokyo" https://www.teamusa.org/News/2021/July/08/Soccer-Mom-Alex-Morgan-Back-And-Looking-For-Gold-In-Tokyo (July 8, 2021)

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Isaac of Nineveh photo
Jesus photo

“I have cast fire upon the world, and see, I am guarding it until it blazes.”

Jesus (-7–30 BC) Jewish preacher and religious leader, central figure of Christianity

10
Gnostic Gospels, Gospel of Thomas (c. 2nd century AD manuscript)

Indíra Gándhí photo

“The great need in the world today is for for nations to so define their national interest that it makes for greater harmony, greater equality and justice and greater stability in the world.”

Indíra Gándhí (1917–1984) Indian politician and Prime Minister

Source: 1980 to Roy Jenkins < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHk9zoG6PXw

Friedrich Schiller photo

“The world is narrow, broad the mind—
Thoughts dwell easily side by side
Things collide violently in space”

Act II, sc. ii
Wallenstein (1798), Part II - Wallensteins Tod (The Death of Wallenstein)

Zafar Mirzo photo
Mirza Masroor Ahmad photo
Mikhail Bakunin photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Karl Marx photo
Mark Twain photo

“Don't believe the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Misattributed
Source: Often attributed to Twain, but sourced to Robert J. Burdette, Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/06/world-owes/

Karl Marx photo

“Considering the optimistic turn taken by world trade AT THIS MOMENT…it is some consolation at least that the revolution has begun in Russia, for I regard the convocation of 'notables' to Petersburg as such a beginning. … [O]n the Continent revolution is imminent and will, moreover, instantly assume a socialist character.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Source: Letter to Friedrich Engels (8 October 1858), quoted in The Collected Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Volume 40. Letters 1856–59 (2010), pp. 346–347

Emmeline Pankhurst photo
Philipp Mainländer photo

“God died and His death was the life of the world.”

Philipp Mainländer (1841–1876) German poet and philosopher

Source: Philosophie der Erlösung, Erster Band (2014), Physik, § 38 ISBN 978-1494963262

Guy P. Harrison photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Rumi photo

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the World. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

https://twitter.com/wise_chimp/status/1488946174321205253?s=21

N. K. Jemisin photo

“When we say that “the world has ended,” remember—it is usually a lie. The planet is just fine.”

Prologue “me, when I was I” (p. 2)
The Stone Sky (2017)

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien photo

“I have learned that…
you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.
No matter how much I care, some people just don't care back.
It takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.
It's not what you have in your life, but who you have in your life that counts.
You can do something in an instant that will give you a heartache for life.
No matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides.
You should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.
We are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
There are people who love you dearly, but just don't know how to show it.
True friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. The same goes for true love.
Just because someone doesnt love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
Maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.
No matter how good a friend someone is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.
No matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.
Just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.
We don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.
You shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.
There are so many ways of falling and staying in love.
No matter how many friends you have, if you are their pillar, you will feel lonely and lost at the times you need them most.
The people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon.
Although the word "love" can have many different meanings, it loses value when overly used.
Love is not for me to keep, but to pass on to the next person I see.
There are people who love you dearly but just don't know how to show it.
Every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch-holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
I still have a lot to learn……”

Benedict Cumberbatch photo

“I don’t know if watching your own work is a good or bad thing. I don’t know how much I learn from it. Each individual circumstance holds its own world of singularities and peculiarities. But among that, you can go: “Oh yeah, I remember that was what I tried to do.””

Benedict Cumberbatch (1976) English actor and film producer

Sometimes it doesn’t fit with the cast or the energy of the scene or the beat of another character. But to sit down in the audience and go: “Oh my God, I think that was what I intended”, was great.
"Benedict Cumberbatch: ‘I loved not being a people-pleaser’" in The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/17/benedict-cumberbatch-i-loved-not-being-a-people-pleaser (17 December 2021)

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud photo

“Our country needs to go forward, not to go back. I promise to build a Somalia that is in harmony with itself and is in harmony with the world.”

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (1955) President of Somalia; PDP Chairman; educator; civic, academic, and political activist

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud (2022) cited in " Somalia Elects New President, but Terrorists Hold True Power https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/world/africa/somalia-election-president.html" on The New York Times, 15 May 2022.

Desiderius Erasmus photo
Kanye West photo
Kanye West photo
Catherine of Siena photo

“Preach the Truth as if you had a million voices. It is silence that kills the world.”

Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) Italian Dominican saint

quoted in [LifeSite, The heart of the Catholic Church's current crisis is the abandonment of law and doctrine - LifeSite, 2022-06-07, 2022-05-05, https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/the-heart-of-the-catholic-churchs-current-crisis-is-the-abandonment-of-law-and-doctrine/]
Variant versions:
I see the world is rotten because of silence … speak the truth in a million voices. It is silence that kills. (quoted at 0:23 of [Randall Terry, The Silence That Kills, 2022-06-07, 2020-10-19, 23:29, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql2ncPIgui0])
Original Italian: Oimé, non più tacere! Gridate con centomiglia di lingue. Veggo che, per lo tacere, el mondo è guasto, la Sposa di Cristo è impalidita ( Lettera 16, "A uno grande prelato" http://www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/it/eki.htm#q)
lit.: "O alas, be silent no more! Shout with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that, through silence, the world is broken, the Bride of Christ is impaled"

Pope Francis photo

“When we resort to violence ... we lose sight of why we are in the world and even end up committing senseless acts of cruelty. We see this in the folly of war, where Christ is crucified yet another time.”

Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church

"In the Palm Sunday Mass, Pope Francis pushes for peace in Ukraine" in NPR https://www.npr.org/2022/04/10/1091929949/palm-sunday-pope-francis-ukraine (10 April 2022)
2020s, 2022

Volodymyr Zelensky photo

“The world has already seen many war crimes. At different times. On different continents. But it is time to do everything possible to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of such evil on earth.”

Volodymyr Zelensky (1978) 6th President of Ukraine

2022, Make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of this evil on earth (3 April 2022)

Teal Swan photo
Pedro Fernando photo

“⁠The surrounding world is different for each of us, despite moving in a common world”

Pedro Fernando, Book Train To Save The World (2022) - (PAULO FERNANDO FAZENDA MANUEL)

Pope Francis photo
René Guénon photo
Abby Martin photo

“We need to strategize how we can live in a world beyond nukes, because there will never be peace as long as these weapons exist.”

Abby Martin (1984) American journalist

Interview https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/20/what-are-the-prospects-for-peace-an-interview-with-abby-martin/ with Counterpunch (2021)

Neale Donald Walsch photo
Neale Donald Walsch photo
Neale Donald Walsch photo
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien photo

“That there’s some good in this world. And it’s worth fighting for.”

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works

Context: Frodo : What are we holding on to, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for

Prevale photo

“Imperfections make us unique in the world.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Le imperfezioni ci rendono unici al mondo.
Source: prevale.net

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo
Mahatma Gandhi photo
Karen Marie Moning photo
Markus Zusak photo
William Goldman photo
Nicholas Sparks photo

“If we'd never met, I think I would have known my life wasn't complete. And I would have wandered the world in search of you, even if I didn't know who I was looking for”

Variant: If we'd never met, I think I would have known my life wasn't complete. And I would have wandered the world in search of you, even if I didn't know who I was looking for.
Source: The Longest Ride

Cassandra Clare photo
John Ruskin photo

“There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man's lawful prey.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

According to Ruskin scholar George P. Landow, there is no evidence that this quotation or its variants can be found in any of Ruskin's works.
[Landow, George P., A Ruskin Quotation?, VictorianWeb.org, 2007-07-27, http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ruskin/quotation.html, 2013-01-07]
Disputed

John Cheever photo
Jonathan Swift photo

“There are few, very few, that will own themselves in a mistake, though all the World sees them to be in downright nonsense.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

The Tatler No. 63 (September 1709)

Richard Bach photo
Jeff VanderMeer photo
Sylvia Plath photo

“Your body
Hurts me as the world hurts God”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer
Diana Gabaldon photo
Paulo Coelho photo

“Writing is one of the most solitary activities in the world.”

Source: The Zahir

William Gaddis photo
David Foster Wallace photo