Quotes about time
page 83

Adelaide Anne Procter photo
Lewis Mumford photo
Courtney Love photo
Dashiell Hammett photo
Rousas John Rushdoony photo
Robert Graves photo
Jeremy Corbyn photo

“This is my sixth attempt to introduce the Bill with the support of hon. Members and pensioner organisations all over Britain…Many statistics show the condition of elderly people. When the Social Security Act 1988 abolished supplementary benefit and what went with it, 30 per cent. of Britain's retired population were living on or below supplementary benefit levels. Despite the Government's claim that many elderly people are quite wealthy, at that time only 39 per cent. lived more than 140 per cent. above the level of supplementary benefit. In other words, at least 60 per cent. of Britain's elderly people live at a poor level, and 30 per cent. of them live below the poverty line. That is a scandal and the House should draw attention to it and enact my Bill to improve that situation…The Bill is a seven-point plan which, if carried into law, would change the face of Britain and eliminate poverty among the elderly… Britain is the seventh richest country in the world. It is a disgrace that so many elderly people die alone and in misery through hypothermia, not for lack of resources to provide for them, but for the lack of political will to distribute those resources to ensure that pensioners are well cared for and can live in decency in their retirement.”

Jeremy Corbyn (1949) British Labour Party politician

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1989/jan/18/elimination-of-poverty-in-retirement in the House of Commons (18 January 1989).
1980s

Lloyd Kaufman photo
Chris Cornell photo
Neal Stephenson photo
Wolfgang Pauli photo

“When I was young, I thought I was the best formalist of my time. I thought I was a revolutionary. When the big problems would come, I would solve them and write about them. The big problems came and passed by, others solved them and wrote about them. I was a classicist and not a revolutionary.”

Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958) Austrian physicist, Nobel prize winner

As quoted in Faust in Copenhagen (2007) by Gino Segrè, p. 130.5, which cites The Historical Development of Quantum Theory (1982) by Jagdish Mehra and Helmut Rechenberg, vol 1 of 4, p. xxiv, and Inward Bound (1986) by Abraham Pais, p. 186

Caldwell Esselstyn photo
Arthur C. Clarke photo
Bill Hicks photo

“Since it's not considered polite, and surely not politically-correct to come out and actually say that greed gets wonderful things done, let me go through a few of the millions of examples of the benefits of people trying to get more for themselves. There's probably widespread agreement that it's a wonderful thing that most of us own cars. Is there anyone who believes that the reason we have cars is because Detroit assembly line workers care about us? It's also wonderful that Texas cattle ranchers make the sacrifices of time and effort caring for steer so that New Yorkers can have beef on their supermarket shelves. It is also wonderful that Idaho potato growers arise early to do back-breaking work in the hot sun to ensure that New Yorkers also have potatoes on their supermarket shelves. Again, is there anyone who believes that ranchers and potato growers, who make these sacrifices, do so because they care about New Yorkers? They might hate New Yorkers. New Yorkers have beef and potatoes because Texas cattle ranchers and Idaho potato growers care about themselves and they want more for themselves. How much steak and potatoes would New Yorkers have if it all depended on human love and kindness? I would feel sorry for New Yorkers. Thinking this way bothers some people because they are more concerned with the motives behind a set of actions rather than the results. This is what Adam Smith, the father of economics, meant in The Wealth of Nations when he said, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interests."”

Walter E. Williams (1936) American economist, commentator, and academic

2010s, Markets, Governments, and the Common Good

Joseph Gordon-Levitt photo

“Actually I've thanked you a lot of times so now I'm thanking you again.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (1981) American actor, director, producer, and writer

The Regularity, 2012-04-25, #68 http://www.hitrecord.org/records/745164

John Calvin photo
Jacob Bronowski photo

“The Principle of Uncertainty is a bad name. In science, or outside of it, we are not uncertain; our knowledge is merely confined, within a certain tolerance. We should call it the Principle of Tolerance. And I propose that name in two senses. First, in the engineering sense: Science has progressed, step by step, the most successful enterprise in the ascent of man, because it has understood that the exchange of information between man and nature, and man and man, can only take place with a certain tolerance. But second, I also use the word, passionately, about the real world. All knowledge – all information between human beings – can only be exchanged within a play of tolerance. And that is true whether the exchange is in science, or in literature, or in religion, or in politics, or in any form of thought that aspires to dogma. It's a major tragedy of my lifetime and yours that scientists were refining, to the most exquisite precision, the Principle of Tolerance – and turning their backs on the fact that all around them, tolerance was crashing to the ground beyond repair. The Principle of Uncertainty or, in my phrase, the Principle of Tolerance, fixed once for all the realization that all knowledge is limited. It is an irony of history that at the very time when this was being worked out, there should rise, under Hitler in Germany and other tyrants elsewhere, a counter-conception: a principle of monstrous certainty. When the future looks back on the 1930's, it will think of them as a crucial confrontation of culture as I have been expounding it – the ascent of man against the throwback to the despots' belief that they have absolute certainty.”

Episode 11: "Knowledge or Certainty"
The Ascent of Man (1973)

Robert Erskine Childers photo
Lois McMaster Bujold photo
Victor Villaseñor photo

“It was from this day on that I began to notice a real difference between our vaqueros on the ranch from Mexico and the gringo cowboys. The American cowboys always seemed so ready to act rough and tough, wanting to “break” the horse, cow, or goat or anything else. Where, on the other hand, our vaqueros—who used the word “amanzar,” meaning to make “tame,” for dealing with horses—had a whole different attitude towards everything. To “break” a horse, for the cowboys, actually, really meant to take a green, untrained horse and rope him, knock him down, saddle him while he fought to get loose, then mount him as he got up on all four legs, and ride the living hell out of the horse until you tired him out, taught him who was boss, and “broke” his spirit. To “amanzar” a horse, on the other hand, was a whole other approach that took weeks of grooming, petting, and leading the green horse around in the afternoon with a couple of well-trained horses. Then, after about a month, you began to put a saddle on the horse and tie him up in shade in the afternoon for a couple of hours until, finally, the saddle felt like just a natural part of him. Then, and only then, did a person finally mount the horse, petting and sweet-talking him the whole time, and once more the green horse was taken on a walk between two well-trained horses.”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Burro Genius: A Memoir (2004)

Ayn Rand photo
Henry Ford photo
Paul Klee photo

“.. I thought I had come into the clear in art when for the first time I was able to apply an abstract style to nature.”

Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter

Paul Klee, in an autobiographical text for Wilhelm Hausenstein, 1919; as quoted in 'Klee & Kandinsky', 2015 exhibition text, Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau Munich, 2015-2016 https://www.zpk.org/en/exhibitions/review_0/2015/klee-kandinsky-969.html
1916 - 1920

Charles Darwin photo
Rosa Luxemburg photo
Robert Crumb photo

“I knew I was weird by the time I was four. I knew I wasn't like other boys. I knew I was more fearful. I didn't like the rough and tumble most boys were into. I knew I was a sissy.”

Robert Crumb (1943) American cartoonist

"Simon Hattenston talks to Robert Crumb" http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/mar/07/robertcrumb.comics, The Guardian, 7 March 2005.

Maddox photo

“General Grievous," a bad guy so sinister, his very name stands for PAIN AND SUFFERING. Nice job assholes… Why not just call all your characters "Evil" and "Bad" next time?”

Maddox (1978) American internet writer

Star Wars Episode III: a steaming pile of Sith http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=episode3
The Best Page in the Universe

Eugene V. Debs photo
Harrington Emerson photo

“The schedule is a moral contract or agreement with the men as to a particular machine operation, rate of wages and time. Any change in men [etc. ] calls for a new schedule.”

Harrington Emerson (1853–1931) American efficiency engineer and business theorist

Harrington Emerson, as cited in: Horace Bookwalter Drury (1918) Scientific Management: A History and Criticism http://archive.org/stream/scientificmanag00druruoft#page/140/mode/2up. p. 142

Pentti Linkola photo
James Dobson photo

“DOBSON: Not to that degree, no. There's a lot — you know I'm not an expert on this subject. I told you that last time we were here, and so I can just give you my impressions about it. And there are very, very violent people within the Islamic faith. There are also some that are not violent.”

James Dobson (1936) Evangelical Christian psychologist, author, and radio broadcaster.

Exchange between Larry King and James Dobson http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0209/18/lkl.00.htmlon CNN's Larry King Live Aired September 18, 2002 - 21:00 ET
2002

John Marshall photo
Elton John photo

“And I guess that's why they call it the blues.
Time on my hands could be time spent with you,
Laughing like children, living like lovers,
Rolling like thunder under the covers.
And I guess that's why they call it the blues.”

Elton John (1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist

I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
Song lyrics, Too Low for Zero (1983)

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“Men and women are not virtuous by law. Law itself does not of itself create virtue, nor is it the foundation or fountain of love. Law should protect virtue, and law should protect the wife, if she has kept her contract, and the man, if he has fulfilled his. But the death of love is the end of marriage. Love is natural. Back of all ceremony burns and will forever burn the sacred flame. There has been no time in the world's history when that torch was extinguished. In all ages, in all climes, among all people, there has been true, pure, and unselfish love.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

The Writings of Robert G. Ingersoll (1900), Dresden Edition, publishing house: C.P. Farrell, chapter: Is Divorce Wrong (1889), page 426 http://books.google.de/books?id=MOjuNv04TUcC&pg=PA426&lpg=PA426&dq=Love+is+natural.+Back+of+all+ceremony+burns+and+will+forever+burn+the+sacred+flame.+There+has+been+no+time+in+the+world's+history+when+that+torch+was+extinguished.+In+all+ages,+in+all+climes,+among+all+people,+there+has+been+true,+pure,+and+unselfish+love.&source=bl&ots=7Shzo7cSUF&sig=ZHs4Bs7Z_AvZF4UG-emVhGR2gTM&hl=de&sa=X&ei=6rP7UdGNI8iFtAbe64GIDw&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Love%20is%20natural.%20Back%20of%20all%20ceremony%20burns%20and%20will%20forever%20burn%20the%20sacred%20flame.%20There%20has%20been%20no%20time%20in%20the%20world's%20history%20when%20that%20torch%20was%20extinguished.%20In%20all%20ages%2C%20in%20all%20climes%2C%20among%20all%20people%2C%20there%20has%20been%20true%2C%20pure%2C%20and%20unselfish%20love.&f=false

Martin Landau photo
Gore Vidal photo
Bill Evans photo

“As the painter needs his framework of parchment, the improvising musical group needs its framework in time.”

Bill Evans (1929–1980) American jazz pianist

Kind of blue liner notes.

Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802) photo
Ann Coulter photo
Michael Jordan photo
Chiaki Kuriyama photo

“I've been playing these schoolgirl roles in all my movies. Every time I went to the set, it felt like I was going to school.”

Chiaki Kuriyama (1984) Japanese actress and singer

Complex Magazine (February/March 2004)

George W. Bush photo
Vernor Vinge photo

“If there be only hours, at least learn what there is time to learn.”

Source: A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), Chapter 41 (p. 580).

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Rudolf Höss photo

“Not justified - but Himmler told me that if the Jews were not exterminated at that time, then the German people would be exterminated for all time by the Jews.”

Rudolf Höss (1901–1947) German war criminal, commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp

To Leon Goldensohn, April 8, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

George W. Bush photo
Hans Reichenbach photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“A day may be a destiny; for life
Lives in but little— but that little teems
With some one chance, the balance of all time”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

(1837 1) (Vol. 49) Three Extracts from the Diary of a Week.
The Monthly Magazine

Leo Tolstoy photo
Tsunetomo Yamamoto photo
Garth Brooks photo

“Cause what she's doin' now is tearin' me apart,
Fillin' up my mind and emptyin' my heart.
I can hear her call each time the cold wind blows,
And I wonder if she knows…what she's doin' now.”

Garth Brooks (1962) American country music artist

What She's Doing Now, written by Pat Alger and G. Brooks.
Song lyrics, Ropin' the Wind (1991)

Nathanael Greene photo
Bode Miller photo
Christopher Hitchens photo

“If you examine the record of the so-called the anti-war movement in this country and imagine what would have happened had its counsel been listened to over the last 15 and more years, you would have a world in which the following would be the case:Saddam Hussein would be the owner and occupier of Kuwait, he would have succeeded in the annexation, not merely the invasion, but the abolition of an Arab and Muslim state that was a member of the Arab League and of the United Nations. And with these resources as we now know because he lost that war, he was attempting to equip himself with the most terrifying arsenal that it was possible for him to lay his hands on. That's one consequence of anti-war politics, that's what would have happened.In the meanwhile, Slobodan Milošević would have made Bosnia part of a greater Serbia, and Kosovo would have been ethnically cleansed and also annexed. The Taliban would be still in power in Afghanistan if the anti-war movement had been listened to, and al-Qaeda would still be their guests. And Saddam Hussein, with his crime family, would still be privately holding ownership over a terrorized people in a state that's been most aptly described as a concentration camp above ground and a mass grave underneath it.Now if I had that record politically, I would be extremely modest, I wouldn't be demanding explanations from those of us who said it's about time that we stop this continual capitulation to dictatorship, to racism, to aggression and to totalitarian ideology. That we will not allow to be appeased in Iraq, the failures in Rwanda, and in Bosnia, and in Afghanistan, and elsewhere. And we take pride in having taken that position, and we take pride in our Iraqi and Kurdish friends who are conducting this struggle, on our behalves I should say.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Christopher Hitchens vs. George Galloway debate http://www.seixon.com/blog/archives/2005/09/galloway_vs_hit.html, New York City (2005-09-14): On the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2000s, 2005

Bernard Cornwell photo
Robert LeFevre photo
Ellen Kushner photo
William Gibson photo
Will Cuppy photo

“He [Khufu] had discovered the fact that if you tell somebody to do something, nine times out of ten he will do it.”

Will Cuppy (1884–1949) American writer

The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950), Part I: It Seems There Were Two Egyptians, Cheops, or Khufu

Fetty Wap photo
Rod Serling photo

“One of the symptoms of a declining social order is that its members have to give most of their time to politics, rather than to the real tasks of economic production, in an attempt to patch up the cracks already appearing from the 'inner contradictions' of such a system.”

Bernard Crick (1929–2008) British political theorist and democratic socialist

Source: In Defence Of Politics (Second Edition) – 1981, Chapter 5, A Defence Of Politics Against Technology, p. 94.

George William Curtis photo
William Trufant Foster photo
Koenraad Elst photo
Jorge Luis Borges photo

“I tried mescaline and cocaine in my youth, but I immediately switched to mint candy, which was more stimulating. I am not interested in drugs if they produce the same effects as alcohol. A drunkard is evidently ridiculous. I have been drunk some times, and I remember them as horrible experiences for me and everyone else.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

En mi juventud probé la mescalina y la cocaína pero enseguida me pasé a los pastillas de menta que me parecieron más estimulantes. Si las drogas producen el mismo efecto que el alcohol, no me interesan. Un borracho es evidentemente ridículo. He estado borracho algunas veces y lo recuerdo como una experiencia muy desagradable para los demás y para mí.
As quoted in Borges, El palabrista (1999) by Estebán Peicovich, p. 53

Ronald Fisher photo
Samuel Pepys photo
MS Dhoni photo
Ernest Mandel photo
Baldur von Schirach photo

“Faust, the Ninth Symphony, and the will of Adolf Hitler are eternal youth and know neither time nor transience.”

Baldur von Schirach (1907–1974) German Nazi leader convicted of crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg trial

Quoted in "The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership" - Page 221 - by Joachim C. Fest - History - 1999

Jeremy Corbyn photo
Jayant Narlikar photo
Tom Petty photo

“You know, sometimes, I don't know why,
But this old town just seems so hopeless.
I ain't really sure, but it seems I remember the good times
Were just a little bit more in focus.”

Tom Petty (1950–2017) American musician

Here Comes My Girl, written with Mike Campbell
Lyrics, Damn The Torpedoes (1979)

Walter Cronkite photo
Paul Nurse photo
Olivier Blanchard photo
Slavoj Žižek photo
Bob Dylan photo

“How many times can a man turn his head pretending he just doesn't see?”

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

Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Blowin' in the Wind

F. Anstey photo
Richard Huelsenbeck photo
Gordon B. Hinckley photo

“The Angel of Death came to David's room,
He said, "Friend, it's time to go."”

The Angel of Death Came to David's Room.
It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright (2009)

Ann Coulter photo

“My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building.”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

Deliberately provocative remark, as quoted in "Coultergeist" by George Gurley at The Observer (25 August 2002) http://www.observer.com/node/37827, the interviewer then told her that she should be careful, and she agreed: "You’re right, after 9/11 I shouldn’t say that." Later, in "An Interview With Ann Coulter" by John Hawkins (26 June 2003) http://rightwingnews.com/interviews/anncoulter.php, she also stated:
: McVeigh quote. Of course I regret it. I should have added, "after everyone had left the building except the editors and reporters."
2002

Jeffrey D. Sachs photo
John Ogilby photo

“Mean time the Queen wounded with deep desire,
Bleeds inward, and consumes in hidden Fire.”

John Ogilby (1600–1676) Scottish academic

The Works of Publius Virgilius Maro (2nd ed. 1654), Virgil's Æneis

Barry Boehm photo
Herman Cain photo
Adolf Hitler photo
Thomas Gainsborough photo

“Dear Jackson, -.. First and most unfortunately, I have been four times after Bach, and have never laid eyes on him.... but surely I shall catch Bach soon to get you an answer to your letter..”

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) English portrait and landscape painter

Quote from Gainsborough's letter to his friend & composer William Jackson of Exeter, from Pall Mall, 25 Jan. 1777; as cited in Thomas Gainsborough, by William T, Whitley https://ia800204.us.archive.org/6/items/thomasgainsborou00whitrich/thomasgainsborou00whitrich.pdf; New York, Charles Scribner's Sons – London, Smith, Elder & Co, Sept. 1915, p. 388
1770 - 1788