Quotes

Seal (musician) photo

“There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain, my power, my pleasure, my pain”

Seal (musician) (1963) British singer-songwriter

"Kiss from a Rose"
Seal (1994)

George Soros photo

“The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States. This is a harsh — indeed, for me, painful — thing to say, but unfortunately I am convinced it is true.”

George Soros (1930) Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Prologue, p. xvi
The Age of Fallibility (2006)
Context: The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States. This is a harsh — indeed, for me, painful — thing to say, but unfortunately I am convinced it is true. The United States continues to set the agenda for the world in spite of its loss of influence since 9/11, and the Bush administration is setting the wrong agenda. The Bush agenda is nationalistic: it emphasizes the use of force and ignores global problems whose solution requires international cooperation. The rest of the world dances to the tune the United States is playing, and if that continues too long we are in danger of destroying our civilization. Changing the attitude and policies of the United States remains my top priority.

Voltairine de Cleyre photo

“Ah, not to a blaze of light I go,
Nor shouts of a triumph train;
I go down to kiss the dregs of woe,
And drink up the Cup of Pain.”

Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) American anarchist writer and feminist

And Thou Too (1888)
Context: Ah, not to a blaze of light I go,
Nor shouts of a triumph train;
I go down to kiss the dregs of woe,
And drink up the Cup of Pain. And whether a scaffold or crucifix waits
'Neath the light of my silver star,
I know and I care not: I only know
I shall pause not though it be far.

Liam O'Flaherty photo
Bill Cosby photo

“Carol Burnett put it best when she described labor pains. She said, "Take your bottom lip, and pull it over your head."”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Himself (1983)

W. Somerset Maugham photo

“He had a bitter pain in his heart, for he knew that she was still a stranger to him and his hungry love was destined ever to remain unsatisfied.”

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British playwright, novelist, short story writer

"The pool", p. 127
Short Stories, Collected short stories 1

Alex Salmond photo

“Our national story has its full share of grief and pain as well as triumph and expectation. But through it all, hope remains and dreams do not die.”

Alex Salmond (1954) Scottish National Party politician and former First Minister of Scotland

Third Session of Parliament (June 30, 2007)

Yanni photo

“My father taught me that one of the most important abilities in life is to be able to take the pain and persevere, and for years this lesson had served me well.”

Yanni (1954) Greek pianist, keyboardist, composer, and music producer

Yanni in Words. Miramax Books. Co-author David Rensin

Alexandre Dumas, fils photo

“Men and women go to the theatre only to hear of love, and to take part in the pains or in the joys that it has caused. All the other interests of humanity remain at the door.”

Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824–1895) French writer and dramatist, son of the homonym writer and dramatist

Les hommes et les femmes ne se réunissent au théâtre que pour entendre parler de l'amour, et pour prendre part aux douleurs et aux joies qu'il cause. Tous les autres intérêts de l'humanité restent à la porte.
Preface to La Femme de Claude (Paris: Michel Lévy, 1873) p. xxxiii; translation from Henri Pène du Bois (trans. and ed.) French Maxims of the Stage (New York: Brentano's, 1894) p. 49.

“Although we cannot place all the blame for the dismal condition of LDCs on Keynesian economics, it bears a heavy responsibility for much of the pain and suffering in the Third World.”

Bruce Bartlett (1951) American historian

Bruce Bartlett, "Keynesian Policy and Development Economics" in Dissent on Keynes (1992).
1990s

Mark Knopfler photo

“Why worry? There should be laughter after pain.
There should be sunshine after rain.
These things have always been the same.
So why worry now?”

Mark Knopfler (1949) English guitarist

Why Worry
Song lyrics, Brothers in Arms (1985)

Thomas Moore photo

“Oh stay! oh stay!
Joy so seldom weaves a chain
Like this to-night, that oh 't is pain
To break its links so soon.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

Fly not yet.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Tomi Adeyemi photo

“The thing is that underneath we are all humans…Everyone has people they love and people they want to protect, everyone has things they are afraid of or that cause them pain.”

Tomi Adeyemi (1993) American author

On aiming to write multifaceted characters in “Meet Tomi Adeyemi: the politically-charged author you need to know about in 2019” https://www.harpersbazaar.com/uk/culture/culture-news/a26933188/tomi-adeyemi-interview/ in Harper’s Bazaar (2019 Mar 26)

Cherríe Moraga photo

“I keep wanting to repeat over and over and over again, the pain and shock of difference, the joy of commonness, the exhilaration of meeting through incredible odds against it.”

Cherríe Moraga (1952) American writer

This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Fourth Edition (2015)

John Locke photo

“He that would seriously set upon the search of truth, ought in the first place to prepare his mind with a love of it. For he that loves it not, will not take much pains to get it; nor be much concerned when he misses it.”

Book IV, Ch. 19 : Of Enthusiasm (Chapter added in the fourth edition).
Variant paraphrase, sometimes cited as a direct quote: One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant.
As paraphrased in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for our Time (1979) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 500; also in The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1994) by Carl Sagan, p. 64
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689)
Context: He that would seriously set upon the search of truth, ought in the first place to prepare his mind with a love of it. For he that loves it not, will not take much pains to get it; nor be much concerned when he misses it. There is nobody in the commonwealth of learning who does not profess himself a lover of truth: and there is not a rational creature that would not take it amiss to be thought otherwise of. And yet, for all this, one may truly say, that there are very few lovers of truth, for truth's sake, even amongst those who persuade themselves that they are so. How a man may know whether he be so in earnest, is worth inquiry: and I think there is one unerring mark of it, viz. The not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant. Whoever goes beyond this measure of assent, it is plain receives not the truth in the love of it; loves not truth for truth's sake, but for some other bye-end.

Jennifer Lopez photo

“I think as women, we have to do that all the time…We’re said to be the more fragile, sensitive gender, but I think the truth is that men are much more fragile and sensitive. And we have to be stronger and more conscious of not hurting fragile egos at times. So it’s a line you do have to tiptoe on all the time—especially as a strong, assertive woman, which can be off-putting to men who are not confident and secure on their own.”

Jennifer Lopez (1969) American singer and actress

On men actually being more fragile than women in “Jennifer Lopez on Feeling Lost After Her Divorce and Getting Her Second Act” https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/12/jennifer-lopez-movie-interview in Vanity Fair (2018 Dec 20)

Thomas Paine photo
N. R. Narayana Murthy photo
Yurii Andrukhovych photo