“The dreadful truth is that when people come to see their MP, they have run out of better ideas.”
"What's wrong with 40 Liverpool Road?", Daily Telegraph, 18 September 2003, p. 24.
2000s, 2003
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Boris Johnson119
British politician, historian and journalist 1964Related quotes
“How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be
When there's no help in truth!”
Sophocles (-496–-406 BC) ancient Greek tragedian
Variant: Wisdom is a curse when wisdom does nothing for the man who has it.
Source: Oedipus Rex, Line 316.
“Sometimes people run… to see if you'll come after them”
Ally Carter book Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover
Source: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover
Sheryll Murray (1956) British politician
Said in an interview with the Cornish Times. General election interviews: Sheryll Murray http://www.cornish-times.co.uk/article.cfm?id=110255&headline=General%20election%20interviews:%20Sheryll%20Murray&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2017 (6 June 2017) <br class="br">2017
Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist
Quoted in "Contexts" (1982) by Irena Klepfisz http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4569/the-art-of-fiction-no-29-katherine-anne-porter
Alfred Whitney Griswold (1906–1963) American historian
Essays on Education quoted in The New York Times (24 February 1959).
Variant ending: The source of better ideas is freedom. The surest path to wisdom is liberal education.
Context: Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
Quote in his letter to brother Theo, from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, May 1889; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, (letter 591), p 25 <br class="br">1880s, 1889
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer
Oui interview (1979)
Context: There’s no reason to assume that my idea of what‘s better would really be better. I resent it when other people try to inflict their ideas of betterness on me. I don’t think they know. And I can’t see any authority on the horizon that’s got any answers that seem worthwhile. Most of the things that are suggested are probably detrimental to your mental health.
Greta Thunberg book No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference
You Are Stealing Our Future: Greta Thunberg, 15, Condemns the World’s Inaction on Climate Change https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/13/you_are_stealing_our_future_greta, Democracy Now! (13 December 2018) <br class="br">Cited in No One is Too Small to Make a Difference, Penguin Books, 2019, pages 14-16 (ISBN 9780141991740). <br class="br">2018, "You are stealing our future" (December 2018)