Quotes about back
A collection of quotes on the topic of back, going, likeness, doing.
Quotes about back
“If people talk behind your back, it's because you're ahead of them.”
Zayn Malik (1993) British singer
Yuzuru Hanyu (1994) Japanese figure skater (1994-)
Translation source: Yuzuru Hanyu – World Championships 2021 Post-SP Interview https://axelwithwings.com/2021/03/26/eng-translation-yuzuru-hanyu-world-championships-2021-post-sp-interview-210326/ by Axel with Wings, published 26 March 2021. (Retrieved 31 March 2021) <br class="br">Annotation: Hanyu had to perform his short program Let me entertain you by Robbie Williams in front of empty rinks due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was asked, what he wanted to express with that piece of music in particular. <br class="br">Other quotes, 2021 <br class="br">Original: (ja) 振り付け1つ1つに、今回はお客さんがいないのでなかなかコネクトすることは難しいですけれども、1つ1つにお客さんとつながるような振りが多くあるので、それもまたこのプログラムの魅力かなと思います。 <br class="br">Source: Part 1 of the interview after the men's short program at Worlds 2021, as quoted in an article https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2021/03/25/kiji/20210326s00079000182000c.html by Nippon Sports (Sponichi), published 26 March 2021. (Retrieved 31 March 2021)
“When you attack us, you will see our faces. Not our backs, but our faces.”
Volodymyr Zelensky (1978) 6th President of Ukraine
Context: But if we come under attack, if we face an attempt to take away our country, our freedom, our lives and the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. When you attack us, you will see our faces. Not our backs, but our faces.
“Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain.”
Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister
Jane Goodall (1934) British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist
Source: Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating
Jesse Owens (1913–1980) American track and field athlete
As quoted in "Owens pierced a myth" http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00016393.html (2005), by Larry Schwartz, ESPN SportsCentury
“If you're really a mean person you're going to come back as a fly and eat poop.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
As quoted in Monk Magazine (1992-10).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print
“It seems like every time you come up something happens to bring you back down.”
Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor
“I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Likely spurious quote, UNVERIFIED ATTRIBUTE - Quoted in The Lexington Observer & Reporter (16 June 1864)
1860s
Variant: I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.
“I get madder and madder on giving back what I feel.”
Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter
Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now
“To lead an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
“While I'm writing, I'm far away;
and when I come back, I've gone.”
Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet
“If you love me, don't you wait for me 'cause I'm never coming back”
E.M.S (1995) Nigerian rapper, singer and record producer
Hidden (2017)
50 Cent (1975) American rapper, actor, businessman, investor and television producer
I'm Supposed to Die Tonight
Song lyrics, The Massacre (2005)
Dwayne Johnson (1972) American actor and professional wrestler
The Rock's return to WWE Raw as host of WrestleMania XXVII (14 February, 2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8ejiG5-BtA&feature=related.
MF Doom (1971) hip hop artist from America
With DANGERDOOM, "Old School", The Mouse and the Mask (2005)
Sourced Lines
Serena Williams (1981) American tennis player
Serena Williams. She was asked what she thought about a TV commentator admiring slow-motion pictures of sister Venus' "posterior" http://news2.thdo.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7190961.stm
“Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back.”
Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997) First wife of Charles, Prince of Wales
The Guardian, December 9, 1995, p. 2
Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights
Source: Wuthering Heights
Context: I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death; and flung it back to me. People feel with their hearts, Ellen, and since he has destroyed mine, I have not power to feel for him.
“I've come too far, and I don't know how to get back.”
Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
As quoted in Musician (1993-10).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print
Lala Sukuna (1888–1958) Chief of Lau and civil servant in Fiji
1936 speeches to the Great Council of Chiefs
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party
As quoted in Albert Speer's diary entry for 26 December 1950 recalling a conversation with Hitler in January 1943, published in Spandau: The Secret Diary (2000), p. 167
1940s
Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter
Quote in Monet's letter to art-critic and his friend Gustave Geffroy, 22 June 1890; as cited in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 129
1890 - 1900
“What's the matter with all you people at the back, did you come here to see Gloria Estefan?”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
1993-11-27 at AT&T Bayfront Park Amphitheater, Miami, Florida
Stage banter
Freddie Mercury (1946–1991) British singer, songwriter and record producer
"The Man Who Would Be Queen" in Melody Maker (2 May 1981).
Millie Bobby Brown (2004) British actress
Source: "Meet ‘Stranger Things’ Breakout Millie Bobby Brown, aka Lucky Number Eleven" https://www.indiewire.com/2016/07/stranger-things-millie-bobby-brown-interview-eleven-11-netflix-season-2-1201707207/. IndieWire. (July 19, 2016).
Hamis Kiggundu (1984) Ugandan business magnate, Internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author
Quoted from his first book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Success_and_Failure_Based_on_Reason_and_Reality, "Success and Failure Based on Reason and Reality" https://www.amazon.co.uk/SUCCESS-FAILURE-BASED-REASON-REALITY/dp/9970983903/ on Amazon, P.104 (July 2018)
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author
Source: Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
“He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.”
José Rizal (1861–1896) Filipino writer, ophthalmologist, polyglot and nationalist
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author
Source: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
According to R. Ken Rasmussen in The Quotable Mark Twain (1998), this is most probably not Twain's.
Misattributed
“O lost,
And by the wind grieved,
Ghost,
Come back again.”
Thomas Wolfe book Look Homeward, Angel
Source: Look Homeward, Angel (1929), p. 3
Context: A stone, a leaf, an unfound door; of a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces. Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb we did not know our mother's face; from the prison of her flesh we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father's heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? O waste of loss, in the hot mazes, lost, among bright stars on this most weary unbright cinder, lost! Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When? O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.
Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet
Though this statement and a few other variants of it have been widely attributed to Herman Melville, it is actually a paraphrase of one found in a sermon of Henry Melvill, "Partaking in Other Men's Sins", St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury, England (12 June 1855), printed in Golden Lectures (1855) :
: There is not one of you whose actions do not operate on the actions of others—operate, we mean, in the way of example. He would be insignificant who could only destroy his own soul; but you are all, alas! of importance enough to help also to destroy the souls of others. ...Ye cannot live for yourselves; a thousand fibres connect you with your fellow-men, and along those fibres, as along sympathetic threads, run your actions as causes, and return to you as effects.
Misattributed
Alex Jones (1974) American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and filmmaker
Alex Jones: The "Justin Biebler" Rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDMB0KyhPN8, 21 February 2011. <br class="br">2011
“She'll come back as fire
burn all the liars
leave a blanket of ash on the ground”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle.
Song lyrics, In Utero (1993)
Jeff Tweedy (1967) musician
Interviewed in 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,65688,00.html
Ted Bundy book The Stranger Beside Me
Quoted by Bill Hagmaier. Rule, Ann (2009). The Stranger Beside Me (Paperback; updated 2009 ed.). New York: Pocket Books pages 380–96.
Jean-Claude Juncker (1954) Luxembourgian politician
referring to his colleagues in the European Council <br class="br">Jean-Claude Juncker, quoted by Dirk Von Kock 'Die Brüsseler Republik' http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-15317086.html in Der Spiegel (2000), then by Florian Eder 'Junckers Tricks in den langen Brüsseler Nächten' http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article112948572/Junckers-Tricks-in-den-langen-Bruesseler-Naechten.html in Die Welt (2012). <br class="br">1999
Amos Oz book A Tale of Love and Darkness
A Tale of Love and Darkness (2003). <br class="br">Quoted on U.S. radio program " Fresh Air http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4195061" (December 1, 2004).
Alfred Denning, Baron Denning (1899–1999) British judge
O'Reilly v. Mackman, [1983] 2 A.C. 238.
Judgments
Jan Hus (1369–1415) Czech linguist, religion writer, theologist, university educator and science writer
Last words before John Hus died singing, being martyred July 6, 1415
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920–1975) Bengali revolutionary, founder ("father") of Bangladesh
Speaking to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in Karachi in 1955 during a debate on whether to adopt the One Unit scheme in Pakistan and divide the country into two provinces- East and West Pakistan. http://www.albd.org/autoalbd/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=44 <br class="br">Quote, Other
H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author
Letter to Catherine L. Moore (7 February 1937), in Selected Letters V, 1934-1937 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, pp. 407-408
Non-Fiction, Letters
Babur (1483–1530) 1st Mughal Emperor
Babur writing about the battle against the Rajput Confederacy led by Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar. In Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, New Delhi reprint, 1979, pp. 547-572.
Dwayne Johnson (1972) American actor and professional wrestler
The Rock's return to WWE Raw as host of WrestleMania XXVII (14 February, 2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8ejiG5-BtA&feature=related.
James Brown (1933–2006) American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist
Brown, J. & Tucker, B. (2003). James Brown: The Godfather of Soul, p. 266. Thunder's Mouth Press: New York. ISBN 1-56025-388-6
John Galsworthy (1867–1933) English novelist and playwright
Vague Thoughts On Art (1911)
Context: Only out of stir and change is born new salvation. To deny that is to deny belief in man, to turn our backs on courage! It is well, indeed, that some should live in closed studies with the paintings and the books of yesterday — such devoted students serve Art in their own way. But the fresh-air world will ever want new forms. We shall not get them without faith enough to risk the old! The good will live, the bad will die; and tomorrow only can tell us which is which!
Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty
Translation by Lionel Giles
Source: The Art of War, Chapter XII · Attacking with Fire
“Painting has to get back to its original goal, examining the inner lives of human beings.”
Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947) French painter and printmaker
“I just didn’t want to see myself fall back. I don’t want to disappoint my coaches or my parents.”
Sunisa Lee (2003) American artistic gymnast; first Hmong American Olympic gold medalist
"You Can’t Stop Suni Lee" in Elle (29 July 2021) https://www.elle.com/culture/a36503849/suni-lee-olympics-gymnastics-tokyo/
“We're already taking back the Internet. With your help, we can take back the world.”
Jimmy Wales (1966) Wikipedia co-founder and American Internet entrepreneur
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Variant: I wish you would tell me your secret. To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

