Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician
Listen to the Lion
Song lyrics, Saint Dominic's Preview (1972)
Second term as Prime Minister <br class="br">Source: Radio Interview for BBC Radio 3 (17 December 1985) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105934
Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician
Listen to the Lion
Song lyrics, Saint Dominic's Preview (1972)
“From Hallaj, I learned to hunt lions, but I became something hungrier than a lion.”
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
"Hallaj" Ch. 11 : Union
Disputed, The Essential Rumi (1995)
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Speech to the National Press Club (19 September 1975) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/102770 <br class="br">Leader of the Opposition <br class="br">Context: In every generation there comes a moment to choose, and for too long we've chosen the soft option. And it's brought us pretty low. There are some signs now that our people are prepared to make the tough choice and to follow the harder road. We're still the same people that have fought for freedom, and won, and the spirit of adventure, the inventiveness, the determination are still strands in our character. We may suffer from a British sickness now, but we have a British constitution and it's still sound, and we have British hearts and a British will to win through. I believe in Britain. I believe in the British people. I believe in our future.
“I only want Lions in my regiment.”
José de San Martín (1778–1850) Argentine general and independence leader
Solo quiero Leones en mi regimiento.
As quoted in San Martín, The Liberator (1971) by J. C. J. Metford, p. 33
“Being the lion in the lute
Before the lion locked in stone.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet
The Man With the Blue Guitar (1937)
Context: That I may reduce the monster to
Myself, and then may be myself
In face of the monster, be more than part
Of it, more than the monstrous player of
One of its monstrous lutes, not be
Alone, but reduce the monster and be,
Two things, the two together as one,
And play of the monster and of myself,
Or better not of myself at all,
But of that as its intelligence,
Being the lion in the lute
Before the lion locked in stone.
“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”
Alexander the Great (-356–-323 BC) King of Macedon
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Speech in Westminster Hall (30 November 1954), quoted in The Times (1 December 1954), p. 11
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Ricardo Sanchez (1953) United States Army Lieutenant General
Reporters and editors luncheon address (2007)
“You tamed the lion in my cage but it just wasn't enough to change my heart”
Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Idiot Wind
“I know an Englishman,
Being flattered, is a lamb; threatened, a lion.”
George Chapman (1559–1634) English dramatist, poet, and translator
Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany (1654), Act I, scene ii, lines 208–209. Attributed, probably falsely, to Chapman. Perhaps by George Peele.
Disputed