Quotes about back
page 52

Ramsay MacDonald photo
John Gray photo
Heidi Klum photo

“When I won the competition, I had just been offered a job as a designer in Düsseldorf, so that’s probably what I’d be doing now. It can be fascinating to consider how your life might have turned out, like in the movie Sliding Doors, but I’m too busy to look back.”

Heidi Klum (1973) German model, television host, businesswoman, fashion designer, television producer, and actress

Discussing what she would have done if she didn't win a modeling contest at age 19. Quoted by Elisabeth Braw, Metro World News, Canada http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/entertainment/article/446299--talking-healthy-hearts-with-heidi-klum.

“Wong Shun Leung said that when you punch the head the brain hits the side of the skull. If the brain is against the side of the skull and a second hit follows, then damage and a knockout results because there is no cushioning possible. This is why Wing Chun has its rapid fire punches instead of the pull back approach.”

Wong Shun Leung (1935–1997) martial artist

Wong Shun Leung Comments on the Effect of a Punch
Punching
Source: Comments From Wong Shun Leung and Tsui Shan Ting, by Ray Van Raamsdonk http://www.springtimesong.com/wcqanda.htm

Jack McDevitt photo
Ron White photo

“She got convinced in her crazy head that I had sex with this girl in Columbus, Ohio…and I did, and I'll tell you why. When you enter into a monogamous relationship with somebody, you usually do it at a point in the relationship when you're having a lot of sex. So you're willing to sign the papers. "I'll only have sex with you, ever-ever-ever…ever." Well, if that person stops having sex altogether… why, you find yourself in quite a pickle. I'm a pretty good dog, but if you don't pet me every once in awhile, it's hard to keep me under the porch. I'm not as flexible as real dog. And I'll tell you what happened, too. I was in Columbus, Ohio, and I haven't been laid in three months. Three months! You can't go three months without having sex with me. I'll go have sex with somebody else. I know, I've seen me do it. I did a show one night. I came offstage, there's gorgeous woman, maybe 35, 40 years old, long black dress, slit up to her waist, GORGEOUS. Gimme a second. Just…And I walk off stage, she goes, "I thought you were hilarious. I wanna buy you a drink." I'm like, "I can't do that, I'm married." And she says, "I didn't ask if you wanna have sex, big boy. I asked if you wanna have a drink at my place."…Alright. Now, you know of that little guy that sits on your shoulder and reminds you of your prior commitments and your moral fortitude? I didn't hear a peep out of that guy. He hadn't been laid in 3 months either. He was speechless for like 20 minutes then he was like, "Suck her titty!"…"I was gonna!" I was having a 3-way with my conscience. Soon as the whole thing's over, he's back at his post, saying, "That was wrong, mister!" "Hey! 15 minutes ago, you were beating off on my shoulder, monkey boy!"”

Ron White (1956) American comedian

I hate him. He smokes pot. He burned a hole in my other jacket.
They Call Me Tater Salad

Nalo Hopkinson photo
Dinesh D'Souza photo
Adlai Stevenson photo

“Man is a strange animal. He generally cannot read the handwriting on the wall until his back is up against it.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

The 1957 Ford Almanac has the quote "It's too late to read the handwriting on the wall when your back's up against it", attributed to "Anon." The quote appeared in several variations afterwards, for instance in an essay by Meredith Thring in Nature Magazine in 1965. It began to be attributed without context to Stevenson in the 1970s. According to "Adlai Stevenson: His Life and Legacy" by Porter McKeever (p. 566), Stevenson made this remark "with increasing frequency in the final months of his life"; but Stevenson died in 1965 and this book does not give a precise reference. Absent better attestation, Stevenson either used the quote from elsewhere or the association with Stevenson is a mistake.
Misattributed

William Ewart Gladstone photo

“We must fall back upon the broad, the incorruptible power of national liberty; that we decline to recognise any class whatever, be they peers or be they gentry, be they what you like, as entitled to direct the destinies of this nation against the will of the nation.”

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom

Speech at Pathhead, Scotland (23 March 1880), quoted in Political Speeches in Scotland, March and April 1880 (Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot, 1880), p. 268.
1880s

Joe Biden photo
Tomas Kalnoky photo
Richard Walther Darré photo

“The concept of Blood and Soil gives us the moral right to take back as much land in the East as is necessary to establish a harmony between the body of our Volk and the geopolitical space.”

Richard Walther Darré (1895–1953) Nazi SS General

Quoted in "Ecofascism: Lessons from the German Experience" - Page 19 - by Janet Biehl, Peter Staudenmaier - 1995

Chris Rock photo
Michael Jordan photo
Kate Bush photo

“I want to smack but I hold back.
I only want to touch.
But I must stay and find a way
To stop before it gets too much!
All my barriers are going.
It's starting to show.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, Never for Ever (1980)

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali photo
Shahrukh Khan photo

“Making a movie has to be artistic. You have to look back and say, ‘I did this because I had fun.”

Shahrukh Khan (1965) Indian actor, producer and television personality

From interview with David Light

Margaret Thatcher photo

“We are not asking for a penny piece of Community money for Britain. What we are asking is for a very large amount of our own money back, over and above what we contribute to the Community, which is covered by our receipts from the Community.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Press Conference after Dublin European Council (30 November 1979) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/104180 when she was trying to renegotiate Britain's EEC budget contribution at the EEC Summit in Dublin. Often quoted as "I want my money back".
First term as Prime Minister

N. R. Narayana Murthy photo

“Our assets walk out of the door each evening. We have to make sure that they come back the next morning.”

N. R. Narayana Murthy (1946) Indian businessman

In Has Narayana Murthy's return at Infosys worked for the IT major?, 24 December 2013, 26 December 2013, Economic Times http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/27845971.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst,

P.G. Wodehouse photo
Robert T. Kiyosaki photo
Steve Lyons photo
Paul Krugman photo

“As Branko says, there was a time when Serbs and Croats seemed to get along fairly well, indeed intermarrying at a high rate. But could anyone now put Yugoslavia back together? At this rate, we’ll soon be asking the same question about America.”

Paul Krugman (1953) American economist

The New Climate Of Treason https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/the-new-climate-of-treason/ (July 14, 2017)
The Conscience of a Liberal blog

Edith Hamilton photo
Robert Patrick (playwright) photo
Swami Vivekananda photo
Abbas Kiarostami photo
Stephenie LaGrossa photo
Peter Greenaway photo
Courtney Love photo
Markiplier photo

“Get Back And Do Your Job'. How 'bout you go fornicate yourself with a rake?”

Markiplier (1989) American YouTuber and Internet personality

Video game commentary, SuperHOT prototype (September 15, 2013)

Ryū Murakami photo
Enoch Powell photo
Nathanael Greene photo
Garth Nix photo
Neil Young photo
Edsger W. Dijkstra photo
Thomas Sowell photo
Steve Scalise photo
James Jeans photo

“The human race, whose intelligence dates back only a single tick of the astronomical clock, could hardly hope to understand so soon what it all means.”

James Jeans (1877–1946) British mathematician and astronomer

Source: The Stars in their Courses (1931), p. 153.

Arthur Hugh Clough photo
Gloria Estefan photo

“Who is Gloria Estefan today? I'm very fulfilled as a woman. I've been able to have a wonderful family life, a fantastic career. I have a lot of good friends around me. My family has been my grounding point, and rooted me deeply to the earth... I'm very happy. I've done everything I ever wanted to do. The key to me was -- I told my husband when we were in our 20s -- I'm going to work really hard, so one day I won't have to work so hard. And to me what that was, was having choices. And I do have choices now -- and I have take full advantage of that. It's important for me now to be here for my little girl [Emily, age 12]. My son is full grown -- and I know have quickly that goes. So, I'm balancing being a mother -- which to me is the most important role I have on this earth -- and still being creative, writing -- which is what I love to do. So, I've been able to branch out into not just writing songs like you have heard through the years -- but writing children's books, writing a screenplay. But at my core that's what I am: a writer. And that's what I enjoy doing behind the scenes: writing the songs for albums, recording it. And that's why you have seen me take more of a back seat to being the center of attention, and being out on tour and doing that kind of thing. I've stepped up a lot of my charity work. This year, the five concerts I did were all for charity: different ones and my own foundation. So, that's becoming a bigger and bigger part of my life -- as I wanted it to be. And [I keep] just growing and evolving.”

Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada

iTunes interview (released June 2, 2007)
2007

Ivor Grattan-Guinness photo
Josh Billings photo
Andrew Kennedy Hutchison Boyd photo

“When I looked at the conduct of the whites who were called Christians, and saw them drunk, quarreling, and fighting, cheating the poor Indians, and acting as if there was no God, I was led to think there could be no truth in the white man's religion, and felt inclined to fall back again to my old superstitions.”

In Life and Journals of Kah-ke-wa-quo-nā-by: (Rev. Peter Jones,) Wesleyan Missionary http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Life_and_Journals_of_Keh-ke-wa-guo-n%C4%81-ba:_(Rev._Peter_Jones%2C)_Wesleyan_Missionary/Autobiography, quoted in: Rev. Ken Herfst Peter Jones - Sacred Feathers - and the Mississauga Indians http://www.frcna.org/messenger/Archive.ASP?Issue=200405&Article=1098711706 Free Reformed Churches of North America Messenger, May 2004.

A. R. Rahman photo
Alex Salmond photo
Daniel Levitin photo
Jonah Lehrer photo
Gottfried Helnwein photo
Carl Sagan photo
Norodom Sihanouk photo
Eric Cantona photo

“After his first training session in heaven, George Best, from his favourite right wing, turned the head of God who was filling in at left-back. I would love him to save me a place in his team - George Best that is, not God.”

Eric Cantona (1966) French actor and association football player

Quotes of the week, BBC News, 6 December 2005, 2007-04-18 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/funny_old_game/4498894.stm,

“Aurangzeb’s religious policy had created a division in the Indian society. Communal antagonisms resulted in communal riots at Banaras, Narnaul (1672) and Gujarat (1681) where Hindus, in retaliation, destroyed mosques. Temples were destroyed in Marwar after 1678 and in 1680-81, 235 temples were destroyed in Udaipur. Prince Bhim of Udaipur retaliated by attacking Ahmadnagar and demolishing many mosques, big and small, there. Similarly, there was opposition to destruction of temples in the Amber territory, which was friendly to the Mughals. Here religious fairs continued to be held and idols publicly worshipped even after the temples had been demolished.64 In the Deccan the same policy was pursued with the same reaction. In April 1694, the imperial censor had tried to prevent public idol worship in Jaisinghpura near Aurangabad. The Vairagi priests of the temple were arrested but were soon rescued by the Rajputs.65 Aurangzeb destroyed temples throughout the country. He destroyed the temples at Mayapur (Hardwar) and Ayodhya, but “all of them are thronged with worshippers, even those that are destroyed are still venerated by the Hindus and visited by the offering of alms.” Sometimes he was content with only closing down those temples that were built in the midst of entirely Hindu population, and his officers allowed the Hindus to take back their temples on payment of large sums of money. “In the South, where he spent the last twenty-seven years of his reign, Aurangzeb was usually content with leaving many Hindu temples standing… in the Deccan where the suppression of rebellion was not an easy matter… But the discontent occasioned by his orders could not be thus brought to an end.””

Hindu resistance to such vandalism year after year and decade after decade throughout the length and breadth of the country can rather be imagined than described.
Source: The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India (1992), Chapter 6

Frank McCourt photo
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo
Kenneth Grahame photo
Robert Hunter photo

“Oh no well I / been there before / and I ain't a comin back around / there no more / no I'm not”

Robert Hunter (1941–2019) American musician

"Alligator" (with Ron "Pigpen" McKernan)
Song lyrics, (1968)

Rick Perry photo

“I disagree with the concept that somehow or another we're going to pack up 10, to 12, to 15 million people and ship them back to the country of origin. That's not going to happen. So reality has to be part of our conversation. And then you need to have a strategy to deal with it. That is what I think we will have, but first you have to secure that border.”

Rick Perry (1950) 14th and current United States Secretary of Energy

2011-11-03T20:27
Perry supports work visas for illegal immigrants
Dana
Thompson
Houston Chronicle
http://blog.chron.com/rickperry/2011/11/perry-supports-work-visas-for-illegal-immigrants/
2011

Bel Kaufmanová photo
Alan Moore photo
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay photo

“It is your belief that you are being held back that holds you back.”

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 118

Robert Jordan photo
Harry Hill photo

“He went on Friends Reunited and Moses got back in touch with him. Thats how old he is!”

Harry Hill (1964) English comedian, doctor

Harry Hill's TV Burp

Abraham Cahan photo

“People always died in the most hidden places. They'd bleed to death, I guess. By the time their bodies were brought in, they're bloated, and they'd dig out the identification tags on some corpse's chest, maggots all over the place. And those aren't scenes which you want to report to your people back home. I mean, everybody would think it was their own son. I didn't have his name.”

Larry LeSueur (1909–2003) American journalist

All Things Considered, NPR, Washington, D.C.: February 6, 2003, transcript available at ProQuest: from Research Library Core. (Document ID: 351141181); excerpted from a 1994 concerning what LeSueur saw on D-Day at Normandy.

L. Frank Baum photo
Tommy Douglas photo

“It's the story of a place called Mouseland. Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election. Used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for the next four years afterwards too. Just like you and me. And every time on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats. Now if you think it strange that mice should elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for last 90 years and maybe you'll see that they weren't any stupider than we are. Now I'm not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows. They conducted their government with dignity. They passed good laws--that is, laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were good for cats weren't very good for mice. One of the laws said that mouseholes had to be big enough so a cat could get his paw in. Another law said that mice could only travel at certain speeds--so that a cat could get his breakfast without too much physical effort. All the laws were good laws. For cats. But, oh, they were hard on the mice. And life was getting harder and harder. And when the mice couldn't put up with it any more, they decided something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the black cats out. They put in the white cats. Now the white cats had put up a terrific campaign. They said: "All that Mouseland needs is more vision." They said:"The trouble with Mouseland is those round mouseholes we got. If you put us in we'll establish square mouseholes." And they did. And the square mouseholes were twice as big as the round mouseholes, and now the cat could get both his paws in. And life was tougher than ever. And when they couldn't take that anymore, they voted the white cats out and put the black ones in again. Then they went back to the white cats. Then to the black cats. They even tried half black cats and half white cats. And they called that coalition. They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them: they were cats that tried to make a noise like a mouse but ate like a cat. You see, my friends, the trouble wasn't with the colour of the cat. The trouble was that they were cats. And because they were cats, they naturally looked after cats instead of mice. Presently there came along one little mouse who had an idea. My friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea. And he said to the other mice, "Look fellows, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats? Why don't we elect a government made up of mice?" "Oh," they said, "he's a Bolshevik. Lock him up!"”

Tommy Douglas (1904–1986) Scottish-born Canadian politician

So they put him in jail. But I want to remind you: that you can lock up a mouse or a man but you can't lock up an idea!
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Digital+Archives/Politics/Parties+and+Leaders/Tommy+Douglas/ID/1409090169/?sort=MostPopular

Bobbejaan Schoepen photo
Tim Storey photo

“If you have a setback, Don’t take a step back- Get ready for a comeback!”

Tim Storey (1960) motivational speaker

Comeback & Beyond: How to Turn Your Setback into Your Comeback (2010)

Kent Hovind photo
William Foote Whyte photo
Harry Browne photo

“When will we learn that we can't allow our politicians to bully the world without someone bullying back eventually?”

Harry Browne (1933–2006) American politician and writer

“When Will We Learn?”, posted one day after 9/11, Antiwar.com, (Sept. 12, 2001).
2000s

Roberto Clemente photo

“I dedicate this hit to the fans in Pittsburgh. They have been wonderful. And to the people back in Puerto Rico, but especially to the fellow who pushed me to play baseball, Roberto Marin. He made me play. He carried me around looking for the man to sign me. […] I dedicate that hit to the person I owe most to in professional baseball, Roberto Marin.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Speaking with reporters, and later on the radio, about his 3,000th hit; as quoted, respectively, in "Roberto Gets 3,000th, Will Rest Till Playoffs" http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rXcqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TVMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4436,402538 by Bob Smizik, in The Pittsburgh Press (Sunday, October 1, 1972), p. D-1; and in Clemente! https://books.google.com/books?id=n-4qAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT14 (1973) by Kal Wagenheim, p. 23
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1972</big>

David Cameron photo

“I have also always believed that we have to confront big decisions, not duck them. That is why we delivered the first coalition government in 70 years, to bring our economy back from the brink.”

David Cameron (1966) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech delivered outside outside 10 Downing Street, announcing that he would resign as prime minister after British voters chose to leave the European Union in a referendum (June 24, 2016), see David Cameron's resignation speech in full http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/24/europe/david-cameron-full-resignation-speech/ (published by CNN)
2010s, 2016

Francis Escudero photo
Richard A. Posner photo

“Language, intelligence, and humor, along with art, generosity, and musical ability, are often described as human equivalents of the peacock’s tail. However, peacocks afford a poor analogy for the role of courtship displays in humans. Other animal models offer a better fit. In a number of nonhuman species — species as diverse as sea dragons and grebes — males and females engage in a mutual courtship “dance,” in which the two partners mirror one another’s movements. In Clark’s grebes and Western grebes, for instance, the pair bond ritual culminates in the famous courtship rush: The male and female swim side by side along the top of the water, with their wings back and their heads and necks in a stereotyped posture. If we want a nonhuman analogue for the role of creative intelligence or humor in human courtship, we should think not of ornamented peacocks displaying while drab females evaluate them. We should think instead of grebes engaged in their mating rush or sea dragons engaged in their synchronized mirror dance. Once we have one of these alternative images fixed in our minds, we can then add the proviso that there is a slight skew such that, in the early stages of courtship, men tend to display more vigorously and women tend to be choosier. However, this should be seen as a qualification to the primary message that intelligence, humor, and other forms of sexual display are part of the mutual courtship process in our species.”

Source: The Ape that Thought It Was a Peacock: Does Evolutionary Psychology Exaggerate Human Sex Differences? (2013), p. 160

Paul A. Samuelson photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“Progress is possible. I know because I've seen it in the lives of people across America who get knocked down and get right back up. And I know it from my own life.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), (July 28, 2016)

Peter Sloterdijk photo
Mitt Romney photo
Victor Villaseñor photo
Marjorie Dannenfelser photo