“If I had my way, I would build a lethal chamber as big as the Crystal Palace, with a military band playing softly, and a Cinematograph working brightly; then I’d go out in the back streets and main streets and bring them in, all the sick, the halt, and the maimed; I would lead them gently, and they would smile me a weary thanks; and the band would softly bubble out the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’.”

Letter to Blanche Jennings (9 October 1908), Letters of D.H. Lawrence (1979), James T. Boulton, ed., as quoted in The Intellectuals and the Masses: Pride and Prejudice Among the Literary Intelligentsia, 1880-1939 (1992) by John Carey; also quoted in "Art for the Masses : The Death of Culture & the Culture of Death" http://www.touchstonemag.com/docs/issues/14.7docs/14-7pg22.html by Ralph McInery in Touchstone magazine (September 2001)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If I had my way, I would build a lethal chamber as big as the Crystal Palace, with a military band playing softly, and …" by D.H. Lawrence?
D.H. Lawrence photo
D.H. Lawrence 131
English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary crit… 1885–1930

Related quotes

William Saroyan photo

“The streets made me, and the streets stink, but I love them, for I was born in them out of flesh and I was born in them out of spirit.”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

The Bicycle Rider In Beverly Hills (1952)

Charles Bukowski photo
George Bernard Shaw photo

“A part of eugenic politics would finally land us in an extensive use of the lethal chamber. A great many people would have to be put out of existence simply because it wastes other people’s time to look after them.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Shaw’s Lecture to the London’s Eugenics Education Society, The Daily Express, (March 4, 1910), quoted in Modernism and the Culture of Efficiency: Ideology and Fiction, Evelyn Cobley, University of Toronto Press (2009) p. 159
1910s

Jair Bolsonaro photo

“If I were a cadet in the Agulhas Negras Military Academy and saw you on the street I would whistle at you.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

Interview to Ellen Page in March 2016. "Você foge a normalidade", diz Jair Bolsonaro a Ellen Page https://www.opovo.com.br/noticias/brasil/2016/03/voce-foge-a-normalidade-diz-jair-bolsonaro-a-ellen-page.html. O Povo (11 March 2016).

Joseph Smith, Jr. photo
Anne Lamott photo

“I smiled back at her. I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Variant: I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.
Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

John Dankworth photo
Frida Kahlo photo

“When I had a big band in the late 1960s, though, Warne and I were working quite a lot together. Warne would be turning time around, and dealing with cross-the-bar structures, and starting phrases in odd places—his intuition was really far out! He was one of the greatest players ever.”

Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

As quoted in Lee Konitz: Conversations on the Improviser's Art https://books.google.com/books?id=pc4CsgVHLw0C&pg=PA65&dq=%22When+I+had+a+big+band+in+the+late+1960s,+though%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAGoVChMIhfLixv_OxwIVBTU-Ch1hfAOh#v=onepage&q=%22When%20I%20had%20a%20big%20band%20in%20the%20late%201960s%2C%20though%22&f=false

Related topics