“I was born ambitious, I suppose I shall die ambitious. I can no more change it than the colour of my eyes.”
Russell Harty Plus, ITV (1973), excerpted in "Odd Man Out", BBC TV profile by Michael Cockerell transmitted on 11 November 1995
1970s
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Enoch Powell 155
British politician 1912–1998Related quotes
“I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American!”
Speech (July 17, 1850); reported in Edward Everett, ed., The Works of Daniel Webster (1851), p. 437
“I was born a Hindu because I had no control over this, but I shall not die a Hindu.”
Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination (2010)
Through A Glass, Darkly (1918)
Context: So as through a glass, and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises,
Many names, but always me. And I see not in my blindness
What the objects were I wrought,
But as God rules o'er our bickerings
It was through His will I fought. So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more.
Speech in Saltaire, Yorkshire (25 February 1974), quoted in Simon Heffer, Like the Roman. The Life of Enoch Powell (Phoenix, 1999), p. 709
1970s
“I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive.”
Cf. Richard Dawkins (2003), A Devil's Chaplain: «There is more than just grandeur in this view of life, bleak and cold though it can seem from under the security blanket of ignorance. There is deep refreshment to be had from standing up and facing straight into the strong keen wind of understanding: Yeats's 'Winds that blow through the starry ways'.»
1920s, What I Believe (1925)
Source: Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects
Context: Religion, since it has its source in terror, has dignified certain kinds of fear and made people think them not disgraceful. In this it has done mankind a great disservice: all fear is bad. I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Many a man has borne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about man's place in the world. Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigour, and the great spaces have a splendour of their own.