Quotes about babe
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James Brown photo

“Come here sister… Papa's in the swing.
He ain't too hip… about that new breed babe.
He ain't no drag,
Papa's got a brand new bag.”

James Brown (1933–2006) American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag' (1965)
Song lyrics

Bill Engvall photo
Curtis Mayfield photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Martin Farquhar Tupper photo
Henry Miller photo
Hank Aaron photo

“I'm not trying to make anyone forget the Babe; but only to remember Hank Aaron.”

Hank Aaron (1934) Retired American baseball player

When asked how he felt breaking Babe Ruth's record of 714 home runs, as quoted in "I Just Want People to Remember Hank Aaron" by Tom Saladino (AP), in The Mexia Daily News (July 27, 1974)

Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Bob Seger photo
Bob Dylan photo

“It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If you don't know by now”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Compare: "It ain't no use to sit and sigh now, darlin." Paul Clayton, Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons (When I'm Gone).
Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

Daniel Tosh photo
John Muir photo
William Wordsworth photo

“Thou, while thy babes around thee cling,
Shalt show us how divine a thing
A Woman may be made.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

To a Young Lady, st. 2 (1805).

Samuel McChord Crothers photo

“We sometimes speak of stubborn facts. Nonsense! A fact is a mere babe when compared with a stubborn theory.”

Samuel McChord Crothers (1857–1927) American minister

Source: The Gentle Reader (1903), p. 277

Vitruvius photo
Yvette Cooper photo
Moe Berg photo

“Maybe I’m not in the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame like so many of my baseball buddies, but I’m happy I had the chance to play pro ball and am especially proud of my contributions to my country. Perhaps I could not hit like Babe Ruth, but I spoke more languages than he did.”

Moe Berg (1902–1972) baseball player, spy

As quoted by Cia.gov https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2013-featured-story-archive/moe-berg.html prior to his death in (1972)

“What did it matter, Babe Ruth or Jersey Joe Stripp? If vector analysis was beyond me, I could still watch a ball game.”

Roger Kahn (1927–2020) American baseball writer

Source: The Boys Of Summer, Chapter 1, The Trolley Car That Ran By Ebbets Field, p. 19

Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Babe Ruth photo

“I am through—through with the pests and the good-time guys. Between them and a few crooks I have thrown away more than a quarter of a million dollars. I have been a Babe—and a Boob. I'm through.”

Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player

As quoted and paraphrased in "I Have Been a Babe and a Boob" by Joe Winkworth, in Collier's (October 31, 1925), p. 15
Context: "I am through—through with the pests and the good-time guys. Between them and a few crooks I have thrown away more than a quarter of a million dollars. I have been a Babe—and a Boob. I'm through." [Ruth] confesses he faces either oblivion or the hard task of complete reformation. [He] realizes that he must make good all over again. "I am going to do it," he said. "I was going to be the exception, the popular hero who could do as he pleased. But all those people were right. Babe and Boob—that was me all over. Now, though, I know that if I am to wind up sitting pretty on the world I've got to face the facts and admit I have been the sappiest of saps. All right, I admit it. I haven't any desire to kid myself."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“Here and there a cotter's babe is royal—born by right divine;
Here and there my lord is lower than his oxen or his swine.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

Stanza 63
Locksley Hall Sixty Years After (1886)

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“Everywhere pain, disease and death—death that does not wait for bent forms and gray hairs, but clutches babes and happy youths. Death that takes the mother from her helpless, dimpled child—death that fills the world with grief and tears. How can the orthodox Christian explain these things?”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Why I Am an Agnostic (1896)
Context: What can be more frightful than a world at-war? Every leaf a battle-field—every flower a Golgotha—in every drop of water pursuit, capture and death. Under every piece of bark, life lying in wait for life. On every blade of grass, something that kills,—something that suffers. Everywhere the strong living on the weak—the superior on the inferior. Everywhere the weak, the insignificant, living on the strong—the inferior on the superior—the highest food for the lowest—man sacrificed for the sake of microbes. Murder universal. Everywhere pain, disease and death—death that does not wait for bent forms and gray hairs, but clutches babes and happy youths. Death that takes the mother from her helpless, dimpled child—death that fills the world with grief and tears. How can the orthodox Christian explain these things?

Francois Rabelais photo

“As soon as he was born, he cried not as other babes use to do, Miez, miez, miez, miez, but with a high, sturdy, and big voice shouted about, Some drink, some drink, some drink, as inviting all the world to drink with him.”

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 6 : How Gargantua was born in a strange manner.
Context: As soon as he was born, he cried not as other babes use to do, Miez, miez, miez, miez, but with a high, sturdy, and big voice shouted about, Some drink, some drink, some drink, as inviting all the world to drink with him. The noise hereof was so extremely great, that it was heard in both the countries at once of Beauce and Bibarois. I doubt me, that you do not thoroughly believe the truth of this strange nativity. Though you believe it not, I care not much: but an honest man, and of good judgment, believeth still what is told him, and that which he finds written.

Bob Dylan photo

“But goodbye's too good a word, babe
So I'll just say fare thee well”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Compare: "So I'm walkin' down that long, lonesome road..." Paul Clayton, Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons (When I'm Gone).
Song lyrics, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Context: I'm walkin' down that long, lonesome road, babe
Where I'm bound, I can't tell
But goodbye's too good a word, babe
So I'll just say fare thee well

George William Curtis photo

“Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, and West Virginia, which forbid an entire class of their citizens to vote upon equal qualifications with others. And why? Because the party of hostility to human rights, which is 'conservative' in this growing, aspiring, expanding country, exactly as sheet-iron swaddling-clothes are conservative of a new-born babe, pursued by the pitiless logic of the sublime American principle and driven from one absurdity to another, now claims that ours is 'a white man's government'. Oh, no! Gentlemen, you may wish to make it so, but it was not made so. The false history of Judge Taney was promptly corrected from Judge Taney's bench by Justice Curtis”

George William Curtis (1824–1892) American writer

1860s, The Good Fight (1865)
Context: But the spirit of caste, if naturally more malignant in a region where personal slavery has been abolished against the will of the dominant class, is not confined to it. We are apt to draw the line geographically, but it will not run so. They may be sad goats on the other side of the line, but we sheep may find an occasional speck in our virtuous wool. 'Caste must be maintained', say the governors and legislatures of Mississippi and Louisiana and Alabama and North and South Carolina and Georgia.' 'Amen', says Connecticut, 'that is a political wooden nutmeg for this market'. 'Amen', says New York, which prefers to pour political power into a foreign white whiskey-skin rather than into a native sound and serviceable vessel of a darker hue. 'Amen', says Indiana, which asks her colored children to fight and die for her upon the battle-field, and refuses by her laws to permit the survivors to return to their homes. 'Amen', say Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, and West Virginia, which forbid an entire class of their citizens to vote upon equal qualifications with others. And why? Because the party of hostility to human rights, which is 'conservative' in this growing, aspiring, expanding country, exactly as sheet-iron swaddling-clothes are conservative of a new-born babe, pursued by the pitiless logic of the sublime American principle and driven from one absurdity to another, now claims that ours is 'a white man's government'. Oh, no! Gentlemen, you may wish to make it so, but it was not made so. The false history of Judge Taney was promptly corrected from Judge Taney's bench by Justice Curtis.

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“Love is the only bow on Life's dark cloud. It is the morning and the evening star. It shines upon the babe, and sheds its radiance on the quiet tomb. It is the mother of art, inspirer of poet, patriot and philosopher. It is the air and light of every heart — builder of every home, kindler of every fire on every hearth.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Orthodoxy (1884).
Context: Love is the only bow on Life's dark cloud. It is the morning and the evening star. It shines upon the babe, and sheds its radiance on the quiet tomb. It is the mother of art, inspirer of poet, patriot and philosopher. It is the air and light of every heart — builder of every home, kindler of every fire on every hearth. It was the first to dream of immortality. It fills the world with melody — for music is the voice of love. Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to Joy, and makes royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods.

Babe Ruth photo

“I was going to be the exception, the popular hero who could do as he pleased. But all those people were right. Babe and Boob—that was me all over. Now, though, I know that if I am to wind up sitting pretty on the world I've got to face the facts and admit I have been the sappiest of saps. All right, I admit it. I haven't any desire to kid myself.”

Babe Ruth (1895–1948) American baseball player

As quoted and paraphrased in "I Have Been a Babe and a Boob" by Joe Winkworth, in Collier's (October 31, 1925), p. 15
Context: "I am through—through with the pests and the good-time guys. Between them and a few crooks I have thrown away more than a quarter of a million dollars. I have been a Babe—and a Boob. I'm through." [Ruth] confesses he faces either oblivion or the hard task of complete reformation. [He] realizes that he must make good all over again. "I am going to do it," he said. "I was going to be the exception, the popular hero who could do as he pleased. But all those people were right. Babe and Boob—that was me all over. Now, though, I know that if I am to wind up sitting pretty on the world I've got to face the facts and admit I have been the sappiest of saps. All right, I admit it. I haven't any desire to kid myself."

J. Howard Moore photo
J. Howard Moore photo

“Kinship is universal. The orders, families, species, and races of the animal kingdom are the branches of a gigantic arbour. Every individual is a cell, every species is a tissue, and every order is an organ in the great surging, suffering, palpitating process. Man is simply one portion of the immense enterprise. He is as veritably an animal as the insect that drinks its little fill from his veins, the ox he goads, or the wild-fox that flees before his bellowings. Man is not a god, nor in any imminent danger of becoming one. He is not a celestial star-babe dropped down among mundane matters for a time and endowed with wing possibilities and the anatomy of a deity. He is a mammal of the order of primates, not so lamentable when we think of the hyena and the serpent, but an exceedingly discouraging vertebrate compared with what he ought to be. He has come up from the worm and the quadruped. His relatives dwell on the prairies and in the fields, forests, and waves. He shares the honours and partakes of the infirmities of all his kindred. He walks on his hind-limbs like the ape; he eats herbage and suckles his young like the ox; he slays his fellows and fills himself with their blood like the crocodile and the tiger; he grows old and dies, and turns to banqueting worms, like all that come from the elemental loins. He cannot exceed the winds like the hound, nor dissolve his image in the mid-day blue like the eagle. He has not the courage of the gorilla, the magnificence of the steed, nor the plaintive innocence of the ring-dove. Poor, pitiful, glory-hunting hideful! Born into a universe which he creates when he comes into it, and clinging, like all his kindred, to a clod that knows him not, he drives on in the preposterous storm of the atoms, as helpless to fashion his fate as the sleet that pelts him, and lost absolutely in the somnambulism of his own being.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

"Conclusion", p. 101
The Universal Kinship (1906), The Physical Kinship

J. Howard Moore photo
Henry Steel Olcott photo
Janis Joplin photo

“Oh! But it don't make no difference, babe, hey,
And I know that I could always try.
Theres a fire inside everyone of us,
You'd better need it now,
I got to hold it, yeah,
I better use it till the day I die.”

Janis Joplin (1943–1970) American singer and songwriter

"Kozmic Blues", co-written with Gabriel Mekler
I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969)

Janis Joplin photo

“Don't expect any answers, dear,
For I know that they don't come with age, no, no.
Well, ain't never gonna love you any better, babe.
And I'm never gonna love you right,
So you'd better take it now, and right now.”

Janis Joplin (1943–1970) American singer and songwriter

"Kozmic Blues", co-written with Gabriel Mekler
I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969)

William Lloyd Garrison photo
J. Howard Moore photo
Taylor Swift photo

“This ain't for the best.
My reputation's never been worse, so
You must like me for me.
We can't make any promises Now can we, babe.
But you can make me a drink.”

Taylor Swift (1989) American singer-songwriter

Delicate, written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, and Shellback
Song lyrics, Reputaion (2017)