Quotes about weight training and exercise
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Michael Foot photo

“It is not necessary that every time he rises he should give his famous imitation of a semi-house-trained polecat.”

Michael Foot (1913–2010) British politician

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1978/mar/02/business-of-the-house in the House of Commons (2 March 1978), referring to Norman Tebbit
1970s

Warren Farrell photo

“Sex role training becomes divorce training.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: Why Men Are the Way They Are (1988), p. 136.

Gangubai Hangal photo
Vanna Bonta photo
Aneurin Bevan photo
Theodore Roszak photo
Aaron Judge photo

“We didn’t win the World Series. How are we satisfied with that? That’s what we want. That’s why we work, that’s why we train, that’s why we do everything in the offseason, the cage work. Everything is to get an opportunity to win a World Series. We came up short.”

Aaron Judge (1992) American baseball player

quoted by Newsday https://www.newsday.com/sports/aaron-judge-makes-spectacular-catch-but-falls-short-at-the-plate-in-yankees-game-7-loss-1.14574441

Edward O. Wilson photo
Haruki Murakami photo

“Customs and immigrations officials are trained to detect the unusual. In some countries they are especially alert to CIA officers”

John Stockwell (1937) American activist

In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story, "Kinshasa"; ISBN 0393057054

“Training, as practiced in much of corporate America, is an astonishing waste of resources.”

Tim Hurson (1946) Creativity theorist, author and speaker

Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking

Carl Panzram photo
Lionel Tertis photo

“The operative goals will be shaped by the dominant group, reflecting the imperatives of the particular task area that is most critical, their own background characteristics (distinctive perspectives based upon their training, career lines, and areas of competence) and the unofficial uses to which they put the organization for their own needs.”

Charles Perrow (1925–2019) American sociologist

Variant: The dominant group, reflecting the imperatives of the particular task that is most critical (to the organization), their own background characteristics (distinctive perspectives based on their training, career lines, and areas of competence) and the unofficial uses to which they put the organization for their own ends.
Source: 1960s, "The analysis of goals in complex organizations", 1961, p. 857

Amy Lowell photo
Joseph Strutt photo
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce photo
Henry Van Dyke photo
Larry Niven photo
Harry V. Jaffa photo

“Affirmative action, rightly understood, would justify a wide variety of outreach programs for those whose lives have been stultified by poverty, broken families, bad schools, and neighborhoods filled with drugs, crime and gangs. One can heartily commend a program for tutoring young blacks, or young whites, who had never had a genuine teacher in a real classroom. One cannot, however, commend a program of raising the grades of young blacks, but not young whites, without having raised their skills. And what possible justification can there be there for giving scholarship assistance to the child of a black middle-class family, while denying it to a poor white? Can one imagine a more crass disregard for the genuine meaning of the Equal Protection Clause? The priests of this new religion of 'affirmative action' are not without material interests. Hundreds of millions of corporate dollars are spent annually on 'sensitivity training'. Within the universities, centers for black, brown and women's (i. e., feminist) studies are being established, with vast amount of patronage bestowed upon them. Traditional courses in Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Shakespeare and the Bible continue to appear in the catalogs, but they are increasingly taught by 'deconstructionists', who have no interest in the texts, but only in subjective reactions to the texts.”

Harry V. Jaffa (1918–2015) American historian and collegiate professor

1990s, The Party of Lincoln vs. The Party of Bureaucrats (1996)

John Kennedy Toole photo
Amir Taheri photo
Hans Reichenbach photo
Robert Langlands photo

“We are on a runaway train headed over the climate cliff as we stoke the engine with more coal to increase its speed.”

John Bellamy Foster (1953) Sociology professor and Marxist writer

Interview with Left Voice (2017)

Joseph Strutt photo

“In each of the cathedral churches there was a bishop, or an archbishop of fools, elected; and in the churches immediately dependent upon the papal see a pope of fools. These mock pontiffs had usually a proper suit of ecclesiastics who attended upon them, and assisted at the divine service, most of them attired in ridiculous dresses resembling pantomimical players and buffoons; they were accompanied by large crowds of the laity, some being disguised with masks of a monstrous fashion, and others having their faces smutted; in one instance to frighten the beholders, and in the other to excite their laughter: and some, again, assuming the habits of females, practised all the wanton airs of the loosest and most abandoned of the sex. During the divine service this motley crowd were not contended with singing of indecent songs in the choir, but some of them ate, and drank, and played at dice upon the altar, by the side of the priest who celebrated the mass. After the service they put filth into the censers, and ran about the church, leaping, dancing, laughing, singing, breaking obscene jests, and exposing themselves in the most unseemly attitudes with shameless impudence. Another part of these ridiculous ceremonies was, to shave the precentor of fools upon a stage erected before the church, in the presence of the populace; and during the operation, he amused them with lewd and vulgar discourses, accompanied by actions equally reprehensible. The bishop, or the pope of fools, performed the divine service habited in the pontifical garments, and gave his benediction to the people before they quitted the church. He was afterwards seated in an open carriage, and drawn about to the different parts of the town, attended by a large train of ecclesiastics and laymen promiscuously mingled together; and many of the most profligate of the latter assumed clerical habits in order to give their impious fooleries the greater effect; they had also with them carts filled with ordure, which they threw occasionally upon the populace assembled to see the procession. These spectacles were always exhibited at Christmas-time, or near to it, but not confined to one particular day.”

Joseph Strutt (1749–1802) British engraver, artist, antiquary and writer

pg. 345
The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (1801), Festival of Fools

Nate Diaz photo
Robert Cheeke photo
William Shockley photo

“I am overwhelmed by an irresistible temptation to do my climb by moonlight and unroped. This is contrary to all my rock climbing teaching & does not mean poor training, but only a strong-headedness.”

William Shockley (1910–1989) American physicist and inventor

Memo to himself in 1947, regarding work on the transistor, as quoted in Broken Genius : The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age (2006) by Joel N. Shurkin, Ch. 7, p. 125.

Jeremy Corbyn photo
Honoré de Balzac photo

“Tyranny produces two results, exactly opposite in character, and which are symbolized in those two great types of the slave in classical times — Epictetus and Spartacus. The one is hatred with its evil train, the other meekness with its Christian graces.”

La tyrannie produit deux effets contraires dont les symboles existent dans deux grandes figures de l'esclavage antique: Epictète et Spartacus, la haine et ses sentiments mauvais, la résignation et ses tendresses chrétiennes.
Source: A Daughter of Eve (1839), Ch. 3: The Story of a Happy Woman.

Winston S. Churchill photo
Luther Burbank photo
Miyamoto Musashi photo
Brendan Brazier photo
George W. Bush photo
Paul Cézanne photo
Anthony Burgess photo
Cesare Pavese photo
Everett Dean Martin photo

“Is learning a venture in spiritual freedom that is humanism, or is it a routine process of animal training?”

Everett Dean Martin (1880–1941)

Source: The Meaning of a Liberal Education (1926), p. 27

Talib Kweli photo
Ralph Waldo Trine photo
Immortal Technique photo
Robert P. George photo
Rebecca Solnit photo
Richard Rumelt photo
Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan photo
Pranab Mukherjee photo
Bernard Cornwell photo
Camille Paglia photo
Frank Herbert photo

“Learning a language represents training in the delusions of that language.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

"Gowachin Aphorism"; p. 111
The Bureau of Sabotage series, Whipping Star (1969)

Sinclair Lewis photo
M. Balamuralikrishna photo

“It is only rigorous training and in depth study that make music mature into the realm of the classical.”

M. Balamuralikrishna (1930–2016) Carnatic vocalist, instrumentalist and playback singer

Source: Staff Reporter, Mangalampalli can't wait to come home http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/03/01/stories/2003030108610300.htm, The Hindu, 1 March 2003.

“During my nine days' stay at Dacca, I visited most of the riot-affected areas of the city and suburbs. … The news of the killing of hundreds of innocent Hindus in trains, on railway lines between Dacca and Narayanganj, and Dacca and Chittagong gave me the rudest shock. … I reached Barisal town and was astounded to know of the happenings in Barisal. In the District town, a number of Hindu houses were burnt and a large number of Hindus killed. I visited almost all riot-affected areas in the District. … At the Madhabpasha Zamindar's house, about 200 people were killed and 40 injured. A place, called Muladi, witnessed a dreadful hell. At Muladi Bandar alone, the number killed would total more than three hundred, as was reported to me by the local Muslims including some officers. I visited Muladi village also, where I found skeletons of dead bodies at some places. I found dogs and vultures eating corpses on he river-side. I got the information there that after the whole-scale killing of all adult males, all the young girls were distributed among the ringleaders of the miscreants. At a place called Kaibartakhali under P. S. Rajapur, 63 persons were killed. Hindu houses within a stone's throw distance from the said thana office were looted, burnt and inmates killed. All Hindu shops of Babuganj Bazar were looted and then burnt and a large number of Hindus were killed. From detailed information received, the conservative estimate of casualties was placed at 2,500 killed in the District of Barisal alone. Total casualties of Dacca and East Bengal riot were estimated to be in the neighbourhood of 10,000 killed. The lamentation of women and children who had lost their all including near and dear ones melted my heart. I only asked myself "What was coming to Pakistan in the name of Islam."”

Jogendra Nath Mandal (1904–1968) Pakistani politician

Excerpted from the resignation letter of J. N. Mandal, Minister for Law and Labour, Government of Pakistan, October 8, 1950. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Resignation_letter_of_Jogendra_Nath_Mandal https://biblio.wiki/wiki/Resignation_letter_of_Jogendra_Nath_Mandal

Annie Besant photo
Miyamoto Musashi photo
Neil deGrasse Tyson photo
Yasuji Okamura photo

“Yasuji Okamura, commander of the Japanese forces in China, had this to say about the Chinese Nationalist Army: "The center of resistance was neither the four hundred million Chinese civilians, nor the two million-strong ragtag army composed of local troops. Instead, it was the Central Army, led by the young officers of the Whampoa Military Academy, with Chiang Kai-shek at its nucleus. In numerous major battles, the Central Army not only was the main force engaged in combat, but also oversaw the local troops who were increasingly losing the will to fight. The Central Army kept the local troops from wavering. As seen, training by Whampoa was thorough, and it was impossible to resolve the China Incident peacefully with the existence of such an army.”

Yasuji Okamura (1884–1966) Japanese general

Source:《大本营陆军部.上》519页
Translated from Chinese text: 侵华日军司令官冈村宁次在1939年对国军抗日的评论,他说:"看来敌军抗日力量的中心不在于四亿中国民众,也不是以各类杂牌军混合而成的二百万军队,乃是以蒋介石为核心、以黄埔军校青年军官阶层为主体的中央军。在历次会战中,它不仅是主要的战斗原动力,同时还严厉监督着逐渐丧失战斗力意志而徘徊犹豫的地方杂牌军,使之不致离去而步调一致,因此不可忽视其威力。黄埔军校教育之彻底,由此可见......有此军队存在,要想和平解决事变,无异是缘木求鱼" (摘自《大本营陆军部.上》519页)。

“As enviable and unreachable as a face in a train window.”

Wilfrid Sheed (1930–2011) English-American novelist and essayist

"James Thurber: Men, Women, and Dogs," p. 228
The Good Word & Other Words (1978)

Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. photo

“Process-chart notes and information should be collected and set down in sketch form by a highly intelligent man, preferably with an engineering training and experience, but who need not necessarily have been previously familiar with the actual details of the processes. In fact, the unbiased eye of an intelligent and experienced process-chart maker usually brings better results than does the study of a less keen man with more special information regarding present practices of the processes. The mere act of investigating sufficiently to make the notes in good enough condition for the draftsman to copy invariably results in many ideas and suggestions for improvement, and all of these suggestions, good and bad, should be retained and filed together with the description of the process chart. These suggestions and proposed improvements must be later explained to others, such as boards of directors, managers and foremen, and for best results also to certain workmen and clerks who have special craft or process knowledge. To overcome the obstacles due to habit, worship of tradition and prejudice, the more intelligence shown by the process-chart recorder, the sooner hearty cooperation of all concerned will be secured. Anyone can make this form of process chart with no previous experience in making such charts, but the more experience one has in making them, the more certain standard combinations of operations, inspection and transporting can be transferred bodily to advantage to the charts of proposed processes.”

Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Sr. (1868–1924) American industrial engineer

Source: Process charts (1921), p. 5-6.

Yusuf Qaradawi photo
George Soros photo
James Braid photo
Ilana Mercer photo
Oriana Fallaci photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“You know, when the season is over a lot of guys go home and eat peanuts and drink beer and they show up in spring training with a big belly. I will go home and start working on my body right away. My right shoulder is not the way it is supposed to be. I'm not going to wait until spring training and hope it is all right. I will work on it when I get home.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Speaking during the 1971 World Series, as quoted in The Chicago Tribune by Bob Markus, reprinted in I'll Play These: From Ecstacy to Angst, A Sports Writer’s Journey https://books.google.com/books?id=sdzKAmeIoE8C&pg=PA219 (2011), p. 219
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

Johnny Cash photo
Nick Diaz photo

“Training and smoking pot like I should, instead of paying attention to other bullshit”

Nick Diaz (1983) American mixed martial artist

Diaz defending his hobby of smoking marijuana

Joanna MacGregor photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Bono photo

“An intellecutal tortoise racing with your bullet train.”

Bono (1960) Irish rock musician, singer of U2

Lyrics, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)

S.L.A. Marshall photo
Basil Rathbone photo

“That is the most wonderful training an actor can have. If you can speak Shakespeare, you can speak anything. And it gives you complete poise and grace of movement.”

Basil Rathbone (1892–1967) British actor

An Amiable Icicle https://thegreatbaz.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/an-amiable-icicle-1929/ (August 1929)

Frank Lampard photo
Margaret Mead photo
Peter Sloterdijk photo

“The evidence introduced for political pessimism; the criminal, the lunatic, and the asocial individual, in a word, the second-rate citizen —these are not by nature as one finds them now but have been made so by society. It is said that they have never had a chance to be as they would be according to their nature, but were forced into the situation in which they find themselves through poverty, coercion, and ignorance. They are victims of society.
This defense against political pessimism regarding human nature is at first convincing. It possesses the superiority of dialectical thinking over positivistic thinking. It transforms moral states and qualities into processes. Brutal people do not “exist,” only their brutalization; criminality does not “exist,” only criminalization; stupidity does not “exist,” only stupefaction; self-seeking does not “exist,” only training in egoism; there are no second-rate citizens, only victims of patronization. What political positivism takes to be nature is in reality falsified nature: the suppression of opportunity for human beings. Rousseau knew of two aids who could illustrate his point of view, two classes of human beings who lived before civilization and, consequently, before perversion: the noble savage and the child. Enlightenment literature develops two of its most intimate passions around these two figures: ethnology and pedagogy.”

Peter Sloterdijk (1947) German philosopher

(describing Rousseau’s philosophy) p. 55
Kritik der zynischen Vernunft [Critique of Cynical Reason] (1983)

Anthony Crosland photo
Peter Sloterdijk photo
S.L.A. Marshall photo

“Truly then, it is killing men with kindness not to insist upon physical standards during training which will give them maximum fitness for the extraordinary stresses of campaigning in war.”

S.L.A. Marshall (1900–1977) United States Army general and Military historian

The Aggressive Will. p. 174.
Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command (1947)

Miguel de Unamuno photo
Lloyd deMause photo
Tony Blair photo

“My message to Sinn Fein is clear. The settlement train is leaving. I want you on that train. But it is leaving anyway and I will not allow it to wait for you.”

Tony Blair (1953) former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

David McKittrick, "Blair offers a fresh start for Irish peace", The Independent, 17 May 1997, p. 1.
Speech at the Royal Ulster Agricultural Show, 16 May 1997.
1990s

Willie Mays photo
Conor McGregor photo
Wassily Kandinsky photo

“If until now colour and form were used as inner agents, it was mainly done subconsciously. The subordination of composition to geometrical form is no new idea (cf. the art of the Persians). Construction on a purely spiritual basis is a slow business, and at first seemingly blind and unmethodical. The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul, so that it can weigh colours in its own scale and thus become a determinant in artistic creation. If we begin at once to break the bonds that bind us to nature and to devote ourselves purely to combination of pure colour and independent form, we shall produce works that are mere geometric decoration, resembling something like a necktie or a carpet. Beauty of form and colour is no sufficient aim by itself, despite the assertions of pure aesthetes or even of naturalists obsessed with the idea of "beauty". It is because our painting is still at an elementary stage that we are so little able to be moved by wholly autonomous colour and form composition. The nerve vibrations are there (as we feel when confronted by applied art), but they get no farther than the nerves because the corresponding vibrations of the spirit which they call forth are weak. When we remember however, that spiritual experience is quickening, that positive science, the firmest basis of human thought is tottering, that dissolution of matter is imminent, we have reason to hope that the hour of pure composition is not far away. The first stage has arrived.”

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) Russian painter

Quote from Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky, Munich, 1912; as cited in Kandinsky, Frank Whitford, Paul Hamlyn Ltd, London 1967, p. 15
1910 - 1915

Alfred Binet photo
Conor Oberst photo
W. Edwards Deming photo