“Statues to great men are made of the stones thrown at them in their lifetime.”
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Jean Cocteau 123
French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager … 1889–1963Related quotes
“I’ve built my house with the stones you’ve thrown.”
Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)
“Reforms are made, important ones' but the status of women relative to men does not change.”
Source: Intercourse (1987), Chapter 7
Context: Life can be better for women - economic and political conditions improved - and at the same time the status of women can remain resistant, in deed impervious, to change: so far in history this is precisely the paradigm for social change as it relates to the conditions of women. Reforms are made, important ones' but the status of women relative to men does not change. Women are still less significant, have less privacy, less integrity, less self-determination. This means that women have less freedom.
“Oh! how near are genius and madness! Men imprison them and chain them, or raise statues to them.”
“I have the ability to pick stones thrown at me to build a staircase to climb up.”
Quoted from Lok Sabha Election Results 2019: Rise and rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi https://indianexpress.com/article/india/narendra-modi-lok-sabha-elections-2019-result-bjp-congress-seats-counting-5745459/
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it”
Lincoln Hall Speech (1879)
Context: Too many misinterpretations have been made; too many misunderstandings have come up between the white men and the Indians. If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian he can live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect all rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.
Source: The Myth of Male Power (1993), Part IV: Where do we go from here, p. 357.
“Before Man made us citizens, great Nature made us men.”
"On the Capture of Certain Fugitive Slaves Near Washington" (1845)