Quotes about base
page 5

James Mattis photo

“In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are, if you cannot create harmony—even vicious harmony—on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete. We have got to have officers who can create harmony across all those lines.”

James Mattis (1950) 26th and current United States Secretary of Defense; United States Marine Corps general

At the May 2010 JFCOM Conference Ares blog, Aviation Week (June 2010) http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3ae790de68-06df-40d7-99bd-1297ed2bbeab&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest

James Wilks photo
William H. McNeill photo
Dinesh D'Souza photo

“This is our turn at the wheel, and history will judge us based on how we handle it. Decline is a choice, but so is liberty.”

Dinesh D'Souza (1961) Indian-American political commentator, filmmaker, author

Source: Books, America: Imagine a World without Her (2014), Ch. 16

Marcus Aurelius photo

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Ancient Rome

No printed sources exist for this prior to 2009, and this seems to have been an attribution which arose on the internet, as indicated by web searches and rationales provided at "Marcus Aurelius and source checking" at Three Shouts on a Hilltop (14 June 2011) http://threeshoutsonahilltop.blogspot.com/2011/06/marcus-aurelius-and-source-checking.html
This quote may be a paraphrase of Meditations, Book II:
Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.
But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil;
but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of Providence?
But Gods there are, undoubtedly, and they regard human affairs; and have put it wholly in our power, that we should not fall into what is truly evil
Misattributed

Amir Taheri photo

“[Islamic terrorism] is different from all other forms of terrorism in at least three important respects. First, it rejects all the contemporary ideologies in their various forms; it sees itself as the total outsider with no option but to take control or to fall, gun in hand. It cannot even enter into talks with other terrorist movements which may, in some specific cases at least, share its tactical objectives. Considering itself as an expression of Islamic revival - which must, by definition, lead to the conquest of the entire globe by the True Faith - it bases all its actions on the dictum that the end justifies the means… The second characteristic that distinguishes the Islamic version from other forms of terrorism is that it is clearly conceived and conducted as a form of Holy War which can only end when total victory has been achieved. The term 'low-intensity warfare' has often been used to describe terrorism, but it applies more specifically to the Islamic kind, which does not seek negotiations, give-and-take, the securing of specific concessions or even the mere seizure of political power within a certain number of countries… The third specific characteristic of Islamic terrorism is that it forms the basis of a whole theory of both individual conduct and of state policy. To kill the enemies of Allah and to offer the infidels the choice between converting to Islam or being put to death is the duty of every individual believer as well as the supreme - if not the sole - task of the Islamic state.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

Holy Terror: The inside story of Islamic terrorism (1987)

Plutarch photo
Andrei Gromyko photo
Carlos Zambrano photo

“If you walk somebody, you just have to get the next hitter out. You can't be frustrated about walks or who is on base. If you've got good stuff that night, you're good enough to get the next hitter out.”

Carlos Zambrano (1981) Venezuelan baseball pitcher

Duncan, Chris, Chi Cubs 3, Houston 0 http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=260814118, Yahoo! Sports, Retrieved on June 16, 2007
2006

William Irwin Thompson photo
Mikhail Gorbachev photo

“We desperately need to recognise that we are the guests, not the masters, of nature and adopt a new paradigm for development, based on the costs and benefits to all people, and bound by the limits of nature herself rather than the limits of technology and consumerism.”

Mikhail Gorbachev (1931) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

As quoted in Planet Savers : 301 Extraordinary Environmentalists (2008) by Kevin Desmond, p. 248
1990s

Pat Condell photo

“My name is Patrick, and I'm a biped carbon-based life form. In my spare time I enjoy walking upright and being warm-blooded, and I'm a Scorpio.* I live here … on planet Earth, a piece of rock orbiting a giant fireball in the middle of nowhere. I feel I belong here.”

Pat Condell (1949) Stand-up comedian, writer, and Internet personality

"About Me" https://web.archive.org/web/20160106103115/http://www.patcondell.net/about-me/; footnote:
I like to think I'm a Scorpio, though actually I'm on the cusp of Scorpio and Sagittarius. However, I pledged my allegiance to Scorpio years ago, like you do when you live in a city with two football teams; you've got to pick one, and I picked Scorpio because it sounded better. In truth I have no idea what birth sign I am, and I don't care. But I do have a Scorpio t-shirt because I think it's important to have an identity, however false and pointless.

“We live in a universe that is always happy to give you whatever your intent-based reality demands.”

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 116

Hugh Blair photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“I judge people based on their capability, honesty, and merit.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

"Trump towers" https://books.google.com/books?id=smMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA23&dq=%22Trump%20towers%22, interview with Paul Alexander, The Advocate (15 February 2000), p. 23
2000s

Tjalling Koopmans photo

“Econometrics may be defined as the quantitative analysis of actual economic phenomena based on the concurrent development of theory and observation, related by appropriate methods of inference.”

Tjalling Koopmans (1910–1985) Dutch American economist

Paul Samuelson, Tjalling Koopmans, and Richard Stone. "Report of the evaluative committee for Econometrica." Econometrica- journal of the Econometric Society. (1954): 141-146.

Alfred de Zayas photo

“This new declaration which emphasizes the necessity of global disarmament is based on the purposes and principles of the United Nations, in particular the prohibition of the threat and use of force, and on the obligation to negotiate disputes in conformity with the UN Charter. It is a strong and positive example for the entire world.”

Alfred de Zayas (1947) American United Nations official

CELAC / Zone of Peace: “A key step to countering the globalization of militarism” – UN Expert http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14215&LangID=E.
2014

“Conventional nudes based on classical originals could bear no burden of thought or inner life without losing their formal completeness.”

Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) Art historian, broadcaster and museum director

Source: The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form (1951), Ch. VIII: The Alternative Convention

Noam Chomsky photo
Georg Brandes photo
Andrew Sullivan photo
Ruth Bader Ginsburg photo
Francis Escudero photo

“Senator Grace and I will establish a Government with Heart through a detailed platform for each agency, which will be based on their yearly budget.”

Francis Escudero (1969) Filipino politician

2015, Speech: Declaration as Vice Presidential Candidate

Allen C. Guelzo photo
Mickey Spillane photo
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi photo

“God's enemies from the Jews, Christians, atheists, Shiites, apostates and all of the world's infidels have dedicated their media, money, army and munitions to fight Muslims and jihadists in the State of Nineveh after they witnessed it become one of the bases of Islam and one of its minarets under the Caliphate.”

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (1971–2019) leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

Audio message as quoted in ISIS leader releases rare audio message as Iraqi troops enter Mosul by Euan McKirdy, CNN (November 3 2016)
Attributed
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/02/middleeast/al-baghdadi-audio-mosul/

A. James Gregor photo
David Brin photo

“All legends must be based on lies, Gordon realized. We exaggerate, and even come to believe the tales, after a while.”

Source: The Postman (1985), Section 3, “Cincinnatus”, Chapter 18 (p. 298)

Ehud Olmert photo
Amir Taheri photo

“When I asked Bhutto what he thought of Assad, he described the Syrian leader as “The Levanter.” Knowing that, like himself, I was a keen reader of thrillers, the Pakistani Prime Minister knew that I would get the message. However, it was only months later when, having read Eric Ambler’s 1972 novel The Levanter that I understood Bhutto’s one-word pen portrayal of Hafez Al-Assad. In The Levanter the hero, or anti-hero if you prefer, is a British businessman who, having lived in Syria for years, has almost “gone native” and become a man of uncertain identity. He is a bit of this and a bit of that, and a bit of everything else, in a region that is a mosaic of minorities. He doesn’t believe in anything and is loyal to no one. He could be your friend in the morning but betray you in the evening. He has only two goals in life: to survive and to make money… Today, Bashar Al-Assad is playing the role of the son of the Levanter, offering his services to any would-be buyer through interviews with whoever passes through the corner of Damascus where he is hiding. At first glance, the Levanter may appear attractive to those engaged in sordid games. In the end, however, the Levanter must betray his existing paymaster in order to begin serving a new one. Four years ago, Bashar switched to the Tehran-Moscow axis and is now trying to switch back to the Tel-Aviv-Washington one that he and his father served for decades. However, if the story has one lesson to teach, it is that the Levanter is always the source of the problem, rather than part of the solution. ISIS is there because almost half a century of repression by the Assads produced the conditions for its emergence. What is needed is a policy based on the truth of the situation in which both Assad and ISIS are parts of the same problem.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

Opinion: Like Father, Like Son http://www.aawsat.net/2015/02/article55341622/opinion-like-father-like-son, Ashraq Al-Awsat (February 20, 2015).

Alex Salmond photo

“I have long been a supporter of the quality of faith-based education in this country - and a particular admirer of the contribution of Scotland's Catholic schools.”

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

Cardinal Winning Lecture (February 2, 2008)

Ingrid Newkirk photo

“If anyone did that, I absolutely apologize. … Because everything we do is based at adults. We're asking adults be responsible. You were telling me about giving your children meat and milk. They're going to be to grow up to be tubs of lard. They're getting heart attacks.”

Ingrid Newkirk (1949) British-American activist

Interview on CNN's Crossfire http://www.animalrights.net/archives/year/2002/000094.html (2002); in response to Tucker Carlson's description of a PETA member campaigning directly to his four-year-old son outside a circus.
2002

William Trufant Foster photo
Sam Harris photo

“As a general matter, I believe we should be very slow to make conclusions about the nature of the cosmos based upon inner experience – no matter how profound these experiences seem.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Sam Harris, Drugs and the Meaning of Life http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/drugs-and-the-meaning-of-life/ (5 July 2011)
2010s

John Tyndall photo
Mike Huckabee photo

“Here's the clear "science:"When the male sperm and female egg join, a new and unique life form is created. At conception. Not at birth or viability, or when a lawyer says so. At conception this happens. John McCain got it right; Obama pled less scientific knowledge than a 5th grader.This life is either human or something else. Science irrefutably would declare that the life which is starting from that moment is human. It's not a stalk of broccoli, it's not a parrot, squirrel, or dolphin. It will never become a tree—it can only become a human. It has the entire DNA schedule that it will have for the rest of its life right then. In days it will begin to take on increasingly observable human characteristics and form, but at conception, it is biologically human.If this life is human, then the only issue left is whether this human life falls under the notion that it has a fundamental right of existence or not. If not, it is because we as a culture have decided that some human lives are simply not worth living. If we can decide that about an innocent and unborn baby, we can also decide it on the basis of less absolute criteria than that. If we make that choice (and this is all about "CHOICE," isn’t it?) then someone may decide that a terminally ill person is not a life worth living. Maybe a severely disabled child is a life not worth living; what about a person with a limited IQ? Say that's absurd—that an educated and enlightened society would never be so audacious as to begin to terminate life based on such arbitrary excuses? Maybe you haven't studied Nazi Germany, in which the murder of six million Jews was justified because of their religion and millions of others were murdered because of their politics. Germany was not a primitive, superstitious culture. It was one filled with the intelligentsia and enlightened.This is an important issue. It's why we can't trust Obama with America's future because he's not even sure which Americans are worth saving and which ones aren't. And it's why that for many of us, McCain's selection of a running mate really does matter. Because John McCain clearly is pro life, I will support and vote for him because Obama is not an option for me as a pro life person. I will be disappointed if McCain doesn't pick a true pro life person and realize that should that happen, he will lose many of the very people who supported me. I cannot expect all of you to vote for McCain if he chooses someone whose record isn't pro life. It will be a less than perfect decision for all of us—our only real choices are McCain and Obama; one will protect life and one won't. Some will argue for a 3rd party candidate and I respect that, but in political realities, that is essentially a vote for Obama and I can't go there.”

Mike Huckabee (1955) Arkansas politician

A Message from the Governor
HuckPAC
2008-08-23
http://www.huckpac.com/?Fuseaction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=1848&CommentPage=5
2011-03-01

Mao Zedong photo
Ben Stein photo

“My feeling is that Darwinism is only at best a partial solution, and an extremely dangerous partial solution. I would say, based on the little I know, Darwinism explains microevolution within species quite well. As to its broader consequence and implications, I don't think it explains individual species evolution at all well.”

Ben Stein (1944) actor, writer, commentator, lawyer, teacher, humorist

Science and Society: March 2008, ABC Science and Society: Ben Stein Holds Court, 31 March 2008, 2008-04-18 http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2008/03/index.html,

Walter Benjamin photo
Francis Escudero photo
Jusuf Kalla photo
Alan Charles Kors photo
Melanie Phillips photo
Edward Jenks photo

“It is true, that a Law of Contract based on causae will always be an arbitrary and inelastic law; but it is a kind of law with which some great nations are satisfied at the present day.”

Edward Jenks (1861–1939) British legal scholar

Source: A Short History Of The English Law (First Edition) (1912), Chapter V, The Law Of Chattels, p. 66

El Lissitsky photo
Heather Brooke photo
David Attenborough photo
Sri Aurobindo photo
Clifford D. Simak photo
Viktor Orbán photo

“Naturally, when considering the whole issue of who will live in Europe, one could argue that this problem will be solved by successful integration. The reality, however, is that we’re not aware of any examples of successful integration… In countering arguments for successful integration, we must also point out that if people with diverging goals find themselves in the same system or country, it won’t lead to integration, but to chaos. It’s obvious that the culture of migrants contrasts dramatically with European culture. Opposing ideologies and values cannot be simultaneously upheld, as they are mutually exclusive. To give you the most obvious example, the European people think it desirable for men and women to be equal, while for the Muslim community this idea is unacceptable, as in their culture the relationship between men and women is seen in terms of a hierarchical order. These two concepts cannot be upheld at the same time. It’s only a question of time before one or the other prevails. Of course one could also argue that communities coming to us from different cultures can be re-educated. But we must see – and Bishop Tőkés also spoke about this – that now the Muslim communities coming to Europe see their own culture, their own faith, their own lifestyles and their own principles as stronger and more valuable than ours. So, whether we like it or not, in terms of respect for life, optimism, commitment, the subordination of individual interests and ideals, today Muslim communities are stronger than Christian communities. Why would anyone want to adopt a culture that appears to be weaker than their own strong culture? They won’t, and they never will! Therefore re-education and integration based on re-education cannot succeed.”

Viktor Orbán (1963) Hungarian politician, chairman of Fidesz
Lizzie Deignan photo
Alexander McCall Smith photo
Confucius photo
William Faulkner photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“You know, Nellie, when I was young I would run on fly balls hit to the outfield. I'd go around second base and I suddenly realize the ball is going to be caught. Sometimes I would run across the infield and never re-touch second base. Sometimes the umpires wouldn't notice if the players wouldn't. I didn't know how to run the bases well the first couple of years.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Speaking with Nellie King in 1967 or later; as quoted by King in "Frustration in the Fifties" https://books.google.com/books?id=03XsO25A3I8C&pg=PA60&dq=%22As+Nellie+King+recalls,+Clemente+occasionally%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi63oCQjcfNAhWEOyYKHUvbBrMQ6AEIFDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false, from Roberto Clemente: The Great One (1998) by Bruce Markusen, pp. 60-61
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1967</big>

Derek Walcott photo
Amit Shah photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
Ben Croshaw photo
Ziaur Rahman photo

“To the Non-Proliferation Treaty, was based on a firm conviction that there can be peace only through the elimination of all nuclear weapons, moved towards the limitation of nuclear armaments and other weapons of mass destruction, are important steps in creating an atmosphere of trust and the relaxation of tensions.”

Ziaur Rahman (1936–1981) President of Bangladesh

Ziaur Rahman's speech in the United Nations Security Council.
Ziaur Rahman in the United Nations - YouTube, 2012-05-30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QASYSWMbDtg,

Aldous Huxley photo

“Of course I base my characters partly on the people I know—one can’t escape it—but fictional characters are oversimplified; they’re much less complex than the people one knows.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Interview http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4698/the-art-of-fiction-no-24-aldous-huxley, The Paris Review (1960)

Gustave de Molinari photo
Jerry Coyne photo
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner photo
Frederick Douglass photo
Hermann Hesse photo
Huldrych Zwingli photo

“Grace and peace from God to you, respected, honoured, wise clement, gracious and beloved Masters: An exceedingly unfortunate affair has happened to me, in that I have been publicly accused before your worships of having reviled you in unseemly words and, be it said with all respect, of having called you heretics, my gracious rulers of the State. I am so far from applying this name to you, that I should as soon think of calling heaven hell. For all my life I have thought and spoken of you in terms of praise and honour, gentlemen of Abtzell, as I do to-day, and, as God favours me, shall do to the end of my days. But it happened not long ago when I was preaching against the Catabaptists that I used these words: 'The Catabaptists are now doing so much mischief to the upright citizens of Abtzell and are showing so great insolence, that nothing could be more infamous. You see, gentle sirs, with what modesty I grieved on your account, because the turbulent Catabaptists caused you so much trouble. Indeed I suspect that the Catabaptists are the very people who have set this sermon against me in circulation among you, for they do many of those things which do not become true Christians. Therefore, gentle and wise sirs, I beg most earnestly that you will have me exculpated before the whole community, and, if occasion arise, that you will have this letter read in public assembly. Sirs, I assure you in the name of God our Saviour, in these perilous times you have never been our of my thoughts and my solicitious anxiety; and if in any way I shall be able to serve you I will spare no pains to do so. In addition to the fact that I never use such terms even against my enemies, let me say that it never entered my mind to apply such insulting epithets to you, pious and wise sirs. Sufficient of this. May God preserve you in safety, and may He put a curb on these unbridled falsehoods which are being scattered everywhere, which is an evidence of some great peril - and may He hold your worships and the whole state in the true faith of Christ@ Take this letter of mine in good part, for I could not suffer that so base a falsehood against me should lie uncontradicted.”

Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland, and founder of the Swiss Reformed Churches

Letter to Abtzell February 12, 1526 (vi., 473), ibid, p.250-251

Roger Ebert photo
Robert Mugabe photo

“Stay with us, please remain in this country and constitute a nation based on national unity.”

Robert Mugabe (1924–2019) former President of Zimbabwe

BBC News 'On This Day' http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/27/newsid_2506000/2506219.stm
A plea to the white population of Zimbabwe in a speech at a ZANU-PF rally, 27 January 1980.
1980s

El Greco photo
Robert Rauschenberg photo
Charles Leadbeater photo
Georg Brandes photo
Wesley Clark photo

“Nothing could be a more serious violation of public trust than to consciously make a war based on false claims.”

Wesley Clark (1944) American general and former Democratic Party presidential candidate

Conference of Military Reporters and Editors (October 2003)

Paul Ryan photo
Theresa May photo
Andrew Dickson White photo
Ossip Zadkine photo
Carrie Fisher photo
Robin Williams photo
Max Scheler photo
Jiddu Krishnamurti photo
Richard Stallman photo

“Dutch pedophiles have formed a political party to campaign for legalization.
I am skeptical of the claim that voluntarily pedophilia harms children. The arguments that it causes harm seem to be based on cases which aren't voluntary, which are then stretched by parents who are horrified by the idea that their little baby is maturing.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

"Dutch paedophiles form political party" (5 June 2006) https://www.stallman.org/archives/2006-may-aug.html#05%20June%202006%20%28Dutch%20paedophiles%20form%20political%20party%29
2000s

Merrill McPeak photo

“Trump is unexpectedly increasing my enthusiasm for Hillary. What he is saying is not based on facts: it's based on immaturity, bad judgment and ignorance, and I think it's going to be hard for people in uniform who are thoughtful about this, to vote for him.”

Merrill McPeak (1936) United States Air Force general

As quoted in "What Does the Military Think of Donald Trump?" https://www.yahoo.com/news/does-military-think-donald-trump-204408128.html (15 June 2016), Time
2016

Vasily Zaytsev photo