Quotes about anyone
page 15

Anton Chekhov photo

“Neither I nor anyone else knows what a standard is. We all recognize a dishonorable act, but have no idea what honor is.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

Letter to A.N. Pleshcheev (April 9, 1889)
Letters

Sarah Kofman photo
Frank Bainimarama photo
Miguel de Unamuno photo
Revilo P. Oliver photo

“In 1945 I really believed that by the year 1952 no American could hear the name of Roosevelt without a shudder or utter it without a curse. You see; I was wrong. I was right about the inevitability of exposure. Like the bodies of the Polish officers who were butchered in Katyn Forest by the Bolsheviks (as we knew at the time), many of the Roosevelt regime's secret crimes were exposed to the light of day. The exposures were neither so rapid or so complete as I anticipated, but their aggregate is far more than should have been needed for the anticipated reaction. Only about 80 per cent of the secret of Pearl Harbor has thus far become known, but that 80 per cent should in itself be enough to nauseate a healthy man. Of course I do not know, and I may not even suspect, the full extent of the treason of that incredible administration. But I should guess that at least half of it has been disclosed in print somewhere: not necessarily in well-known sources, but in books and articles in various languages, including publications that the international conspiracy tries to keep from the public, and not necessarily in the form of direct testimony, but at least in the form of evidence from which any thinking man can draw the proper and inescapable deductions. The information is there for those who will seek it, and enough of it is fairly well known, fairly widely known, especially the Pearl Harbor story, to suggest to anyone seriously interested in the preservation of his country that he should learn more. But the reaction never occurred. And even today the commonly used six-cent postage stamp bears the bloated and sneering visage of the Great War Criminal, and one hears little protest from the public.”

Revilo P. Oliver (1908–1994) American philologist

"What We Owe Our Parasites", speech (June 1968); Free Speech magazine (October and November 1995)
1960s

Laura Bush photo

“I also want to encourage anyone who has been affected by hurricane Ka, uh, Karina…”

Laura Bush (1946) First Lady of the United States from 2001 to 2009

Misremembering the name of the hurricane that had struck New Orleans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPk-pMMPA_I

Antonin Scalia photo

“The outcome of today's case will doubtless be heralded as a triumph of judicial statesmanship. It is not that, unless it is statesmanlike needlessly to prolong this Court's self-awarded sovereignty over a field where it has little proper business, since the answers to most of the cruel questions posed are political, and not juridical -- a sovereignty which therefore quite properly, but to the great damage of the Court, makes it the object of the sort of organized public pressure that political institutions in a democracy ought to receive. […] Ordinarily, speaking no more broadly than is absolutely required avoids throwing settled law into confusion; doing so today preserves a chaos that is evident to anyone who can read and count. Alone sufficient to justify a broad holding is the fact that our retaining control, through Roe, of what I believe to be, and many of our citizens recognize to be, a political issue, continuously distorts the public perception of the role of this Court. We can now look forward to at least another Term with carts full of mail from the public, and streets full of demonstrators, urging us -- their unelected and life-tenured judges who have been awarded those extraordinary, undemocratic characteristics precisely in order that we might follow the law despite the popular will -- to follow the popular will. Indeed, I expect we can look forward to even more of that than before, given our indecisive decision today. […] It was an arguable question today whether [Section] 188.029 of the Missouri law contravened this Court’s understanding of Roe v. Wade, and I would have examined Roe rather than examining the contravention. […] Of the four courses we might have chosen today -- to reaffirm Roe, to overrule it explicitly, to overrule it sub silentio, or to avoid the question -- the last is the least responsible. On the question of the constitutionality of [Section] 188.029, I concur in the judgment of the Court and strongly dissent from the manner in which it has been reached.”

Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment), 492 U.S. 490 https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/492/490#writing-USSC_CR_0492_0490_ZC1, No. 88-605 ; decided July 3, 1989
1980s

“Sing the song in your heart and don't ever let anyone shut you up!”

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 122

Jair Bolsonaro photo

“What debt [of slavery]? I never enslaved anyone in my life. Look, if you really look at history, the Portuguese didn’t even step foot in Africa. The blacks themselves turned over the slaves.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

In an interview on TV Cultura https://www.poder360.com.br/eleicoes/bolsonaro-sobre-ditadura-ferida-que-precisa-ser-cicatrizada-esquece/ on 30 July 2018. Bolsonaro Says Black Brazilians Aren’t Owed Anything Over Slavery https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-31/brazil-candidate-bolsonaro-minimizes-slavery-praises-trump. Bloomberg (31 July 2018).

Elizabeth Warren photo

“Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone and who serves no one but himself, and that is just one of the many reasons he will never be president of the United States, unfortunately just like Hillary Clinton”

Elizabeth Warren (1949) 28th United States Senator from Massachusetts

Remarks to convention of the American Constitution Society in Washington June 9, 2016 Elizabeth Warren lashes out at Donald Trump: He is a 'thin-skinned, racist bully https://theweek.com/speedreads/629183/elizabeth-warren-lashes-donald-trump-thinskinned-racist-bully, by Catherine Garcia in The Week magazine online.
2016

Muhammad photo
Francis Crick photo
Anton Chekhov photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
Michael Vassar photo

“I taught at a school in Cincinnati with a 0% graduation rate and that was also interesting so I updated from thinking school was beneficial for other people but not beneficial to me, to thinking school was beneficial for maybe some people around the middle – at least some of the better schools – but not beneficial for the vast majority of people, to then actually reading the literature on education and on intelligence and academic accomplishment and symbolic manipulation and concluding "no, school isn't good for anyone". There might be a few schools that are good for people, like there's Blair and there's Stuyvesant and these schools may actually teach people, but school can better be seen as a vaccination program against knowledge than a process for instilling knowledge in people, and of course when a vaccination program messes up, occasionally people get sick and die of the mumps or smallpox or whatever. And when school messes up occasionally people get sick and educated and they lose biological fitness. And in either case the people in charge revise the program and try to make sure that doesn't happen again, but in the case of school they also use that as part of their positive branding and you know maintain a not-very-plausible story about it being intended to cause that effect while also working hard to make sure that doesn't happen again.”

Michael Vassar (1979) President of the Singularity Institute

In an interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cSG0p-uflA with Adam Ford, December 2012

Bel Kaufmanová photo
Muammar Gaddafi photo

“I call on the Libyan people, men and women, to go out into the squares and the streets in all the cities in their millions. … Go peacefully… be courageous, rise up, go to the streets, raise our green flags to the skies. … Don't be afraid of anyone. You are the people. You have right on your side. You are the rightful people of this land.”

Muammar Gaddafi (1942–2011) Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist

Audio message broadcast on the pro-Gaddafi Syrian Al Rai TV on 20 September 2011, as quoted in Libya conflict: Muammar Gaddafi urges mass protests http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15206478, BBC World News, 6 October 2011
Speeches

Max Brooks photo
John Maynard Keynes photo
Tony Blair photo

“i just need to say, to anyone reading this.. You are Important, You are loved, and You belong in this world, if you have over 5000 followers”

Dril Twitter user

[ Link to tweet https://twitter.com/dril/status/979141180318453762]
Tweets by year, 2018

John Banville photo
Eunice Kennedy Shriver photo
Dennis Prager photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

“It seems like cloud cuckoo land… If anyone is suggesting that I would go to Parliament and suggest the abolition of the pound sterling – no! … We have made it quite clear that we will not have a single currency imposed on us.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

To the media immediately after the EEC Rome summit meeting (28 October, 1990); as reported in A Conservative Coup: The Fall of Margaret Thatcher (1992) by Alan Watkins.
Third term as Prime Minister

Vanna Bonta photo
Saul Leiter photo
Gene Wolfe photo

“Does anyone know an effective way of keeping rabbits out of a garden that does not involve building a fence? I have tried that already, but the rabbit will not sit still long enough for me to get the fence all the way around him.”

Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer

"From a Chain letter to George R. R. Martin and Greg Benford", 10 July 1982; as published in Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

Elie Wiesel photo
Stanley Tookie Williams photo
Christopher Titus photo
Nikos Kazantzakis photo
Thomas Sowell photo
Jerzy Vetulani photo
Noam Chomsky photo

“Pull yourself together' is seldom said to anyone who can.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Tenzin Gyatso photo

“Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion.”

Tenzin Gyatso (1935) spiritual leader of Tibet

"Kindness and Compassion" p. 47.
The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness (1990)

Maxime Bernier photo
James Callaghan photo

“I'd have to lock the door of the paint room. He wouldn't allow anyone in. I was like a prisoner.”

Margaret Keane (1927) American artist

1999, Cited by Amy M. Spindler

Kane Hodder photo
Timothy Levitch photo
Quentin Crisp photo
Elaine Paige photo
Muhammad photo
Tim Berners-Lee photo
Harry V. Jaffa photo
Paul Reubens photo

“Does anyone come back from this? I don't know the answer to that, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let this destroy me.”

Paul Reubens (1952) American actor, writer, film producer, game show host, and comedian

2004 interview with Entertainment Weekly
2004 Child Porn Charges

John Steinbeck photo
Margaret Atwood photo
George Carlin photo
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick photo
Barrett Brown photo

“Anyone who dismisses out of hand evidence that U. S. intelligence agencies still do some of the things that they now brag about having done not too long ago is not a skeptic, but a fool.”

Barrett Brown (1981) American journalist, essayist and satirist

Huffington Post, "Wikileaks Blows Whistle; Most Miss the Point" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/barrett-brown/wikileaks-blows-whistle-o_b_525066.html, 7 April 2010.

R. A. Lafferty photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Mandell Creighton photo
C. N. R. Rao photo
Larry the Cable Guy photo
Lawrence Weiner photo

“What makes art interesting is the fact that anyone can realize it as soon as the idea has been formulated. That’s the point.”

Lawrence Weiner (1942) American artist

" Art Dictionary: Lawrence Weiner, A Sculptor of Language http://www.hatjecantz.de/lawrence-weiner-5098-1.html," at hatjecantz.de. 2012.

L. Ron Hubbard photo

“If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace.”

L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) American science fiction author, philosopher, cult leader, and the founder of the Church of Scientology

Dept. of Govt. Affairs (15 August 1960).
Scientology Policy Letters

Robert Hunter (author) photo
Ralph Klein photo

“There’s an old saying in politics: anyone dumb enough to run for the job probably is too stupid to have it.”

Ralph Klein (1942–2013) Canadian politician

Source: As quoted in "Ralph Klein’s most memorable quotes" http://globalnews.ca/news/439807/ralph-klein-was-a-sound-bite-gold-mine/, Global News

Alison Bechdel photo
James Cromwell photo

“Until men learn to celebrate and operate on the feminine aspect of themselves and stop the oppression of women, children, the environment, other species, we don’t have a world to live in. It’s not a world that anyone chooses to live in.”

James Cromwell (1940) American actor and producer

"Tribeca Film Festival Interview: John and James Cromwell of A .45 at 50th" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cynthia-ellis/tribeca-film-festival-int_b_561477.html by Cynthia Ellis, in HuffingtonPost.com (4 July 2010)

David Crystal photo
Nigel Cumberland photo

“True empathy is not about waiting to understand another person; it is about proactively seeking to do so. It takes effort to give another person your full time and attention; to ask others how they are feeling and if they coping well with things. And don’t overlook those closest to you. Never take anyone for granted. Avoid being too preoccupied to sit down and talk with your children, partners and colleagues.”

Nigel Cumberland (1967) British author and leadership coach

Your Job-Hunt Ltd – Advice from an Award-Winning Asian Headhunter (2003), Successful Recruitment in a Week (2012) https://books.google.ae/books?idp24GkAsgjGEC&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIGjAA#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, 100 Things Successful People Do: Little Exercises for Successful Living (2016) https://books.google.ae/books?idnu0lCwAAQBAJ&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIMjAE

Abu Musab Zarqawi photo

“When recalling historical experience, the testimony of ancient times, the proofs of the present reality, and the things that we are experiencing today, we begin to truly understand God's words: "They are the enemies; so beware of them. The curse of Allah be on them!" Ibn Taymiyyah was right in his description of these people when they repudiated the people of Islam. He said: This is why they cooperated with the infidels and the Tartars… They were the main cause of the invasion of Muslim countries by Genghis Khan… Some of them cooperated with the Tartars and Franks (European Crusaders)… some of them (Shiites) backed the Christians….. They (Shiites) harbor more evil and rancor against Muslims, big and small, devout and non-devout, than anyone else…. They enjoy repudiating and cursing Muslim leaders, especially the orthodox caliphs and the ulema (clerics). To them, anyone who does not believe in the infallible Imam (Al-Mahdi) is a nonbeliever in God and the prophet… whenever Christians and infidels triumphed over, it was a day of jubilation… This is the end of what Shaykh-al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said about them. It is as if he is living among us today, an eyewitness of what is taking place, and saying… They always support infidels, including Jews and Christians. They help them in killing Muslims.”

Abu Musab Zarqawi (1966–2006) Jordanian jihadist

Zarqawi Letter February 2004 Coalition Provisional Authority English translation of terrorist Musab al Zarqawi letter obtained by United States Government in Iraq https://2001-2009.state.gov/p/nea/rls/31694.htm, (April 6, 2004)

Piet Mondrian photo
William H. Gass photo
Philippe Kahn photo

“We’re operating a huge sleep experiment, worldwide, unlike anything anyone has ever done. We have 250 million nights of sleep in our database, and we’re using all the latest technologies to make sense of it.”

Philippe Kahn (1952) Entrepreneur, camera phone creator

Fortune, June 29th, 2015, regarding the focus that Fullpower Technologies has on gathering and understanding sleep data https://fortune.com/2015/06/29/sleep-data/.

Sarah Palin photo

“Lest anyone try to convince you that God should be separated from the state, our founding fathers, they were believers. And George Washington, he saw faith in God as basic to life.”

Sarah Palin (1964) American politician

to Women of Joy in Louisville, quoted in * 2010-04-21
Sarah Palin throws the God punch — again
Cathy Lynn
Grossman
Faith & Reason
USA Today
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/religion/post/2010/04/sarah-palin-christian-nation-god-founding-fathers/1
on separation of church and state
2014

Lyndon B. Johnson photo

“When anyone says he’s a country boy, put your hand on your wallet.”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

While Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said this (or a variation), it was not original to him. See barrypopik.com http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/when_anyone_says_hes_a_country_boy_you_better_put_your_hand_on_your_wallet and Texas, A Modern History: Revised Edition https://books.google.com/books?id=WQNo7e3jjysC&pg=PA215#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Misattributed

George W. Bush photo
Peter Sellers photo

“If I can't really find a way to live with myself, I can't expect anyone else to live with me.”

Peter Sellers (1925–1980) British film actor, comedian and singer

As quoted in The Hollywood Book of Extravagance: The Totally Infamous, Mostly Disastrous, and Always Compelling Excesses of America's Film and TV Idols (2007) by James Robert Parish, p. 95

Ai Weiwei photo
John Steinbeck photo
Keith Olbermann photo

“The world bursts at the seams with people ready to tell you you're not good enough. On occasion, some may be correct. But do not do their work for them. Seek any job; ask anyone out; pursue any goal. Don't take it personally when they say 'no”

Keith Olbermann (1959) American sports and political commentator

they may not be smart enough to say "yes."
" The Way I See It http://www.starbucks.com/retail/thewayiseeit_default.asp," Starbucks Coffee Cups (2005-02-01)

Timothy McVeigh photo
Jair Bolsonaro photo

“Preta, I’m not going to discuss promiscuity with anyone. I don't run that risk because my children are well educated and they don't live in a promiscuous environment such as is, unfortunately, yours.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

Responding to the singer Preta Gil after asked about what he would do if his son fell in love with a black woman on 28 March 2011 https://extra.globo.com/famosos/deputado-jair-bolsonaro-fala-da-promiscuidade-de-preta-gil-declara-que-seria-incapaz-de-amar-um-filho-homossexual-em-entrevista-1980933.html in an interview to the program CQC on Band. Brazil presidential candidate Bolsonaro's most controversial quotes https://www.yahoo.com/news/brazil-presidential-candidate-bolsonaros-most-controversial-quotes-012652084.html. Yahoo!, 29 September 2018.

Nicomachus photo

“Plato, too, at the end of the thirteenth book of the Laws, to which some give the title The Philosopher… adds: "Every diagram, system of numbers, every scheme of harmony, and every law of the movement of the stars, ought to appear one to him who studies rightly; and what we say will properly appear if one studies all things looking to one principle, for there will be seen to be one bond for all these things, and if anyone attempts philosophy in any other way he must call on Fortune to assist him. For there is never a path without these… The one who has attained all these things in the way I describe, him I for my part call wisest, and this I maintain through thick and thin." For it is clear that these studies are like ladders and bridges that carry our minds from things apprehended by sense and opinion to those comprehended by the mind and understanding, and from those material, physical things, our foster-brethren known to us from childhood, to the things with which we are unacquainted, foreign to our senses, but in their immateriality and eternity more akin to our souls, and above all to the reason which is in our souls.”

Nicomachus (60–120) Ancient Greek mathematician

Footnote<!--3, p.185-->: The Epinomis, from which Nicomachus here quotes 991 D ff., is now recognized as not genuinely Platonic. Nicomachus doubtless cited the passage from memory, for he does not give it exactly...
Nicomachus of Gerasa: Introduction to Arithmetic (1926)

Ernst Kaltenbrunner photo

“I am thought of as another Himmler. I'm not. The papers make me out as a criminal. I never killed anyone.”

Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903–1946) Austrian-born senior official of Nazi Germany executed for war crimes

To Leon Goldensohn, 4/8/46, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

John Cage photo
Kabir photo

“I've burned my own house down, the torch is in my hand.
Now I'll burn down the house of anyone who wants to follow me.”

Kabir (1440–1518) Indian mystic poet

The Bijak of Kabir (1983;2002) as translated by Linda Hess and Shukdeo Singh.
Bijak

Nathan Lane photo

“There isn't anyone else like Nathan. He is able to express more in a look or a word than most actors I've ever worked with.”

Nathan Lane (1956) American actor

Victor Garber — reported in Maureen Dezell (October 19, 2003) "Nathan Lane Goes Beyond Broadway", The Boston Globe, p. N1.
About

Enda Kenny photo

“If there's anyone out there who still doubts that Ireland is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our ancestors is alive in our time, who still questions our capacity to restore ourselves, reinvent ourselves and prosper, today is your answer.”

Enda Kenny (1951) Irish Fine Gael politician and Taoiseach

Introducing Barack Obama in College Green, he later denied plagiarism despite 36 of his first 48 words being the exact same as an earlier speech by Obama. Irish Central http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Enda-Kenny-denies-plagiarizing-Barack-Obama-speech-from-2008-122512474.html
2010s

Susannah Constantine photo

“Posh does not equal style. Really, God, that's just ridiculous. Posh equals tradition. Anyone can achieve style. It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from.”

Susannah Constantine (1962) British fashion designer and journalist

As quoted in "Mammary mia!" by Vicky Allan in The Sunday Herald http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20020908/ai_n12578387/pg_1 (8 September 2002)

Fred Rogers photo

“Well, what is essential about you? And who are those who have helped you become the person that you are? Anyone who has ever graduated from a college, anyone who has ever been able to sustain a good work, has had at least one person and often many who have believed in him or her. We just don't get to be competent human beings without a lot of different investments from others.”

Fred Rogers (1928–2003) American television personality

Commencement Address at Dartmouth College June 9th, 2002 http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2002/june/060902c.html and Commencement Address at Middlebury College May, 2001 http://web.archive.org/web/20030906163501/http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/pubaff/general_info/addresses/Fred_Rogers_2001.htm

Poul Anderson photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

“I am still at the crease, though the bowling has been pretty hostile of late. And in case anyone doubted it, can I assure you there will be no ducking the bouncers, no stonewalling, no playing for time. The bowling's going to get hit all round the ground. That is my style.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Lord Mayor's Banquet at Guildhall (12 November 1990) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108241
Third term as Prime Minister

Richard Bartle photo

“If anyone samples this for a hardcore techno dance track I shall expect a royalty.”

Richard Bartle (1960) British writer

From Richard Bartle's website http://mud.co.uk/richard/rabartle.wav.

Alastair Reynolds photo
Hillary Clinton photo