Quotes about blood
page 16

Tertullian photo

“We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.”
Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis christianorum.

Apologeticus, 50, s. 13
Often quoted as ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.’
Variant translation: As often as we are mown down by you, the more we grow in numbers; the blood of the Christians is the seed. Another common translation is "The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of Christians."
Apologeticus pro Christianis

Charles Taze Russell photo
Algernon Charles Swinburne photo

“Not with dreams, but with blood and with iron,
Shall a nation be moulded at last.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic

A Word for the Country.
Undated

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk photo

“We did not win the war with prayers, but with the blood of our soldiers.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) Turkish army officer, revolutionary, and the first President of Turkey

Explaining his dismissal of the imam assigned to the Turkish Grand National Assembly; as quoted in Ataturk : An Intellectual Biography (2011) by M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, p. 145 http://books.google.com/books?id=dNFhZzug6tMC&pg=PA145

Karen Blixen photo
Bartolomeo Vanzetti photo

“I did not spittel a drop of blood, or steal a cent in all my life.”

Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888–1927) Italian American anarchist executed by Massachusetts

Letter to Mrs.Glendower Evans http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/SaccoV/van-charlestown.html (22 July 1921)

Mao Zedong photo

“We the Chinese nation have the spirit to fight the enemy to the last drop of our blood, the determination to recover our lost territory by our own efforts, and the ability to stand on our own feet in the family of nations.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

“On Tactics Against Japanese Imperialism” (December 27, 1935)

Neville Chamberlain photo
Thomas Jefferson photo
L. Ron Hubbard photo
Oliver Wendell Holmes photo
Leopold Infeld photo
Octavio Paz photo

“War, dreadful war, and Tiber flood
I see incarnadined with blood.”

John Conington (1825–1869) British classical scholar

Source: Translations, The Aeneid of Virgil (1866), Book VI, p. 189

Nikos Kazantzakis photo
Claude McKay photo
Alexandros Panagoulis photo

“A match as a pen
Blood on the floor as ink
The forgotten gauze cover as paper
But what should I write?
I might just manage my address.
This ink is strange; it clots.
I write you from a prison
in Greece.”

Alexandros Panagoulis (1939–1976) Greek politician and poet

My Address, written in Military Prisons of Bogiati, 5 June 1971 – After beating.
Poetry, Vi scrivo da un carcere in Grecia (I write you from a prison in Greece) (1974)

Plutarch photo
Washington Irving photo

“His [the author's] renown has been purchased, not by deeds of violence and blood, but by the diligent dispensation of pleasure.”

"The Westminster Abbey [The Poets' Corner]".
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820)

Jean Paul Sartre photo
John Galt (novelist) photo

“The sword is the key of heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer: whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven, and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim.”

John Galt (novelist) (1779–1839) British writer

Attributed to Muhammad, as quoted in The Wandering Jew (1820), p. 262 https://books.google.com/books?id=IARgAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA262&dq=The+sword+is+the+key+of+heaven+and+hell;+a+drop+of+blood+shed+in+the+cause+of+Allah,+a+night+spent+in+arms,+is+of+more+avail+than+two+months+of+fasting+or+prayer:+whosoever+falls+in+battle,+his+sins+are+forgiven&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxyNix_-bcAhUaTY8KHT2oB74Q6AEIWTAJ#v=onepage&q=The%20sword%20is%20the%20key%20of%20heaven%20and%20hell%3B%20a%20drop%20of%20blood%20shed%20in%20the%20cause%20of%20Allah%2C%20a%20night%20spent%20in%20arms%2C%20is%20of%20more%20avail%20than%20two%20months%20of%20fasting%20or%20prayer%3A%20whosoever%20falls%20in%20battle%2C%20his%20sins%20are%20forgiven&f=false

John Fante photo
GG Allin photo
Thomas Fuller photo

“Though blood be the best sauce for victory, yet must it not be more than the meat.”

Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) English churchman and historian

The History of the Holy War (1639), Book I, Ch. 24.

John Lothrop Motley photo

“Local self-government…is the life-blood of liberty.”

The Rise of the Dutch Republic (1856; New York: Harper, 1861) vol. 3, part 6, ch. 1, p. 416.

Ray Comfort photo
Zainab Salbi photo
John Frusciante photo

“I guide my fate
And what it's good for
There's no telling
It's blood
It's a flood”

John Frusciante (1970) American guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer

The Slaughter
Lyrics, Shadows Collide with People (2004)

“The Brahmans who were custodians of the idols and idol-houses, and “teachers of the infidels”, also received their share of attention from the soldiers of Allãh. Our citations contain only stray references to the Brahmans because they have been compiled primarily with reference to the destruction of temples. Even so, they provide the broad contours of another chapter in the history of medieval India, a chapter which has yet to be brought out in full. The Brahmans are referred to as magicians by some Islamic invaders and massacred straight away. Elsewhere, the Hindus who are not totally defeated and want to surrender on some terms, are made to sign a treaty saying that the Brahmans will be expelled from the temples. The holy cities of the Hindus were “the nests of the Brahmans” who had to be slaughtered before or after the destruction of temples, so that these places were “cleansed” completely of “kufr” and made fit as “abodes of Islam”. Amîr Khusrû describes with great glee how the heads of Brahmans “danced from their necks and fell to the ground at their feet”, along with those of the other “infidels” whom Malik Kãfûr had slaughtered during the sack of the temples at Chidambaram. Fîrûz Shãh Tughlaq got bags full of cow’s flesh tied round the necks of Brahmans and had them paraded through his army camp at Kangra. Muhmûd Shãh II Bahmanî bestowed on himself the honour of being a ghãzî, simply because he had killed in cold blood the helpless BrãhmaNa priests of the local temple after Hindu warriors had died fighting in defence of the fort at Kondapalli. The present-day progressives, leftists and dalits whose main plank is anti-Brahminism have no reason to feel innovative about their ideology. Anti-Brahminism in India is as old a the advent of Islam. Our present-day Brahmin-baiters are no more than ideological descendants of the Islamic invaders. Hindus will do well to remember Mahatma Gandhi’s deep reflection--“if Brahmanism does not revive, Hinduism must perish.””

Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist

Hindu Temples – What Happened to Them, Volume II (1993)

Chief Seattle photo
Enoch Powell photo

“As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see "the River Tiber foaming with much blood."”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Alluding to Virgil's report of the Sybil's prophesy, from the Aeneid, Book 6, line 87: "Et Thybrim multo spumantem sanguine cerno." This is one of the concluding lines that gave the speech its common title.
The 'Rivers of Blood' speech

Octavio Paz photo

“time in an allegory of itself imparts to us lessons of wisdom which the moment they are formulated are immediately destroyed by the merest flickers of light or shadow which are nothing more than time in its incarnations and disincarnations which are the phrases that I am writing on this paper and that disappears as I read them:
they are not the sensations, the perceptions, the mental images, and the thoughts which flare up and die away here, now, as I write or as I read what I write: they are not what I see or what I have seen, they are the reverse of what is seen and of the power of sight—but they are not the invisible: they are the unsaid residuum;
they are not the other side of reality but, rather, the other side of language, what we have on the tip of our tongue that vanishes before it is said, the other side that cannot be named because it is the opposite of a name:
what is not said is not this or that which we leave unsaid, nor is it neither-this-nor-that: it is not the tree that I say I see but the sensation that I feel on sensing that I see it at the moment when I am just about to say that I see it, an insubstantial but real conjunction of vibrations and sounds and meanings that on being combined suggest the configuration of a green-bronze-black-woody-leafy-sonorous-silent presence;
no, it is not that either, if it is not a name it surely cannot be the description of a name or the description of the sensation of the name or the name of the sensation:
a tree is not the name tree, nor is it the sensation of tree: it is the sensation of a perception of tree that dies away at the very moment of the perception of the sensation of tree;
names, as we already know, are empty, but what we did not know, or if we did know, had forgotten, is that sensations are perceptions of sensations that die away, sensations that vanish on becoming perceptions, since if they were not perceptions, how would we know that they are sensations?;
sensations that are not perceptions are not sensations, perceptions that are not names—what are they?
if you didn’t know it before, you know now: everything is empty;
and the moment I say everything-is-empty, I am aware that I am falling into a trap: if everything is empty, this everything-is-empty is empty too;
no, it is full, full to overflowing, everything-is-empty is replete with itself, what we touch and see and taste and smell and think, the realities that we invent and the realities that touch us, look at us, hear us, and invent us, everything that we weave and unweave and everything that weaves and unweaves us, momentary appearances and disappearances, each one different and unique, is always the same full reality, always the same fabric that is woven as it is unwoven: even total emptiness and utter privation are plenitude (perhaps they are the apogee, the acme, the consummation and the calm of plenitude), everything is full to the brim, everything is real, all these invented realities and all these very real inventions are full of themselves, each and every one of them, replete with their own reality;
and the moment I say this, they empty themselves: things empty themselves and names fill themselves, they are no longer empty, names are plethoras, they are donors, they are full to bursting with blood, milk, semen, sap, they are swollen with minutes, hours, centuries, pregnant with meanings and significations and signals, they are the secret signs that time makes to itself, names suck the marrow from things, things die on this page but names increase and multiply, things die in order that names may live:”

Octavio Paz (1914–1998) Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature

Source: The Monkey Grammarian (1974), Ch. 9

Felix Frankfurter photo
Peter Gabriel photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia photo

“In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war.”

Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (1924–2015) former King of Saudi Arabia

Saudi: US Iraq presence illegal http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6505803.stm 29 March 2007.

Paramahansa Yogananda photo
Jewel photo

“the greatest
Grace
we can aspire to
is the strength
to see the wounded
walk with the forgotten
and pull ourselves
from the screaming
blood of our losses
to fight on
undaunted
all the more”

Jewel (1974) American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, actress, and poet

"I Say to You Idols"
A Night Without Armor (1998)

Haj Amin al-Husseini photo

“Arise, o sons of Arabia. Fight for your sacred rights. Slaughter Jews wherever you find them. Their spilled blood pleases Allah, our history and religion. That will save our honor.”

Haj Amin al-Husseini (1895–1974) Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader

Voices of Palestine http://frontpagemag.com/2011/frontpagemag-com/voices-of-palestine-haj-amin-al-husseini/
Alleged quotes

Daniel Dennett photo

“A faith, like a species, must evolve or go extinct when the environment changes. It is not a gentle process in either case. … It's nice to have grizzly bears and wolves living in the wild. They are no longer a menace; we can peacefully co-exist, with a little wisdom. The same policy can be discerned in our political tolerance, in religious freedom. You are free to preserve or create any religious creed you wish, so long as it does not become a public menace. We're all on the Earth together, and we have to learn some accommodation. … The message is clear: those who will not accommodate, who will not temper, who insist on keeping only the purest and wildest strain of their heritage alive, we will be obliged, reluctantly, to cage or disarm, and we will do our best to disable the memes they fight for. Slavery is beyond the pale. Child abuse is beyond the pale. Discrimination is beyond the pale. The pronouncing of death sentences on those who blaspheme against a religion (complete with bounties or reward for those who carry them out) is beyond the pale. It is not civilized, and it is owed no more respect in the name of religious freedom than any other incitement to cold-blooded murder. … That is — or, rather, ought to be, the message of multiculturalism, not the patronizing and subtly racist hypertolerance that "respects" vicious and ignorant doctrines when they are propounded by officials of non-European states and religions.”

Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

“There is no other science where judgements are tested in blood and answered in the servitude of the defeated, where the acknowledged authority is the leader who has won or who instills confidence that he can win.”

Bernard Brodie (1910–1978) American nuclear strategist

As quoted in "Military air power : the CADRE digest of air power opinions and thoughts", compiled by Charles M. Westenhoff

Brigham Young photo

“Now take a person in this congregation who has knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom of our God and our Father and being exalted, one who knows and understands the principles of eternal life, and sees the beauty and excellency of the eternities before him compared with the vain and foolish things of the world, and suppose that he is taken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin he knows will deprive him of the exaltation he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin, and be saved and exalted with the Gods, is there a man or woman in this house but would say, 'shed my blood that I might be saved and exalted with the Gods?' All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood?… I have known a great many men who have left this Church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled, it would have been better for them. The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid this principle's being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force.”

Brigham Young (1801–1877) Latter Day Saint movement leader

Journal of Discourses, 4:219 (February. 8, 1857)
Brigham Young describes the doctrine of Blood Atonement
1850s

Adolf Eichmann photo
Laura Antoniou photo
Baldur von Schirach photo

“In the presence of this blood banner which represents our Führer, I swear to devote all my energies and my strength to the saviour of our country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God.”

Baldur von Schirach (1907–1974) German Nazi leader convicted of crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg trial

An oath written by Schirach about Hitler. Quoted in "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany" - Page 253 - by William Lawrence Shirer - Germany - 1990

Hemu photo
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton photo
Oliver Cowdery photo

“BE IT KNOWN unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unto whom this work shall come: That we, through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, which is a record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, their brethren, and also of the people of Jared, who came from the tower of which hath been spoken. And we also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true. And we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true. And it is marvelous in our eyes. Nevertheless, the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment-seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen. OLIVER COWDERY DAVID WHITMER MARTIN HARRIS”

Oliver Cowdery (1806–1850) American Mormon leader

Book of Mormon, 1830 Edition, p. 585 (1830).

Al Sharpton photo

“We built pyramids before Donald Trump even knew what architecture was. We taught philosophy and astrology [sic] and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it…Do some cracker come and tell you, ‘Well my mother and father blood go back to the Mayflower,’ you better hold your pocket. That ain’t nothing to be proud of, that means their forefathers was crooks.”

Al Sharpton (1954) American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and television/radio talk show host

Speech at Kean College (1994), transcribed in The Forward (December 1995), as quoted in Foolish Words : The Most Stupid Words Ever Spoken (2003) by Laura Ward, p. 192.

Edmund Burke photo
Julius Streicher photo
E.M. Forster photo
George Grosz photo
Eduard Shevardnadze photo

“It is time to realize that neither socialism, nor friendship, nor good-neighborliness, nor respect can be produced by bayonets, tanks or blood.”

Eduard Shevardnadze (1928–2014) Georgian politician and diplomat

As quoted in North Atlantic Assembly Political Committee Report (1990), p. 7.

Jesse Ventura photo
John of Patmos photo
Ignatius Sancho photo
William the Silent photo
Subhas Chandra Bose photo

“Another Palestinian Mass Murder Attack… An attempted kidnapping and mass murder attack by Palestinian terrorists — killing civilians in cold blood… Two Israeli civilians and seven Palestinians were killed…”

Charles Foster Johnson (1953) American musician

April 9, 2008 http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=29562_Another_Palestinian_Mass_Murder_Attack&only

Henry Adams photo
Gardiner Spring photo
Arnold Schwarzenegger photo

“She maybe is Puerto Rican or the same thing as Cuban. I mean, they are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) actor, businessman and politician of Austrian-American heritage

Commenting on Bonnie Garcia during a staff meeting (8 September 2006), as quoted in The Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-govmeeting-mp3,0,1874429.mp3file (2006).
2000s

Mohamed Morsi photo
Madhuri Dixit photo
John Ralston Saul photo
Michelle Pfeiffer photo
Narada Maha Thera photo
James Hamilton photo
Edward Young photo

“The blood will follow where the knife is driven,
The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear.”

Edward Young (1683–1765) English poet

The Revenge, Act V, sc. ii.

Elton John photo

“You're the son of your father,
Try a little bit harder.
Do for me as he would do for you.
With blood and water bricks and mortar,
He built for you a home.
You're the son of your father,
So treat me as your own.”

Elton John (1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist

Son of Your Father
Song lyrics, Tumbleweed Connection (1970)

Charles Lamb photo

“Severe and saintly righteousness
Composed the clear white bridal dress;
Jesus, the Son of Heaven's high King
Bought with his blood the marriage ring”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

A Vision Of Repentance, as quoted in Works of Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb.

Rick Santorum photo

“We say to Mom that you tell us the wrong name, and we'll bring that guy in and we'll do a blood test and that's not Dad, you lose your welfare benefits. You lose your welfare benefits… Not till you tell us another name, but till we find out who Dad is, we establish it.”

Rick Santorum (1958) American politician

New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania event, , quoted in * 2012-03-18
Rick Santorum To Single Mothers: Government Paternity Tests Or No Welfare
Jason
Cherkis
The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/rick-santorum-single-mothers-unwed-moms_n_1333302.html

Marguerite Bourgeoys photo
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu photo
Thomas Jefferson photo
Elizabeth Prentiss photo
Walter Scott photo
Chief Seattle photo
Frederick II of Prussia photo
Stephenie Meyer photo
Florbela Espanca photo

“To be a poet is to be taller, to be bigger
Than men! It is to bite as if you’re kissing!
It is to give alms, although you are a beggar like
King of the Realm where only pain is missing!It is to have a thousand desires for splendor
And do not even know what we want!
It is to have inside yourself a flaming star,
It is to have the condor’s mighty claw and wing!It is to be hungry, to be thirsty of Infinity!
By helmet, golden and satin mornings…
It is to condense the world into one lonely cry!And it is loving you, thus, hopelessly…
And it is you being soul, and blood, and life in me
And tell it singing to everyone!”

Florbela Espanca (1894–1930) Portuguese poet

Ser poeta é ser mais alto, é ser maior
Do que os homens! Morder como quem beija!
É ser mendigo e dar como quem seja
Rei do Reino de Áquem e de Além Dor!<p>É ter de mil desejos o esplendor
E não saber sequer que se deseja!
É ter cá dentro um astro que flameja,
É ter garras e asas de condor!<p>É ter fome, é ter sede de Infinito!
Por elmo, as manhas de oiro e de cetim...
É condensar o mundo num só grito!<p>E é amar-te, assim, perdidamente...
É seres alma, e sangue, e vida em mim
E dizê-lo cantando a toda a gente!
Quoted in Citações e Pensamentos de Florbela Espanca (2012), p. 163
Translated http://emocaoeeuforia.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/beautiful-flower-flor-bela/ by Isabel Teles
The Flowering Heath (1931), "Perdidamente"

Patrick Fitzgerald photo

“Let me then ask your next question: Well, why is this a leak investigation that doesn't result in a charge? I've been trying to think about how to explain this, so let me try. I know baseball analogies are the fad these days. Let me try something.If you saw a baseball game and you saw a pitcher wind up and throw a fastball and hit a batter right smack in the head, and it really, really hurt them, you'd want to know why the pitcher did that. And you'd wonder whether or not the person just reared back and decided, "I've got bad blood with this batter. He hit two home runs off me. I'm just going to hit him in the head as hard as I can."You also might wonder whether or not the pitcher just let go of the ball or his foot slipped, and he had no idea to throw the ball anywhere near the batter's head. And there's lots of shades of gray in between.You might learn that you wanted to hit the batter in the back and it hit him in the head because he moved. You might want to throw it under his chin, but it ended up hitting him on the head.And what you'd want to do is have as much information as you could. You'd want to know: What happened in the dugout? Was this guy complaining about the person he threw at? Did he talk to anyone else? What was he thinking? How does he react? All those things you'd want to know.And then you'd make a decision as to whether this person should be banned from baseball, whether they should be suspended, whether you should do nothing at all and just say, "Hey, the person threw a bad pitch. Get over it."In this case, it's a lot more serious than baseball. And the damage wasn't to one person. It wasn't just Valerie Wilson. It was done to all of us.And as you sit back, you want to learn: Why was this information going out? Why were people taking this information about Valerie Wilson and giving it to reporters? Why did Mr. Libby say what he did? Why did he tell Judith Miller three times? Why did he tell the press secretary on Monday? Why did he tell Mr. Cooper? And was this something where he intended to cause whatever damage was caused?Or did they intend to do something else and where are the shades of gray?And what we have when someone charges obstruction of justice, the umpire gets sand thrown in his eyes. He's trying to figure what happened and somebody blocked their view.”

Patrick Fitzgerald (1960) American lawyer

Fitzgerald News Conference from the Washington Post (October 28, 2005)

Ned Kelly photo
Gebran Tueni photo
Ernest Howard Crosby photo

“If judge and jury had to hang the prisoner themselves in cold blood, there would be fewer executions; if we each had to butcher our own meat, there would be a great increase in the number of vegetarians.”

Ernest Howard Crosby (1856–1907) American politician

Tolstoy and His Message (New York: Funk and Wagnall's Company, 1904), p. 53 https://archive.org/stream/tolstoyhismessa00cros#page/52.

John Buchan photo
Iain Banks photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“Blood doubly unites us, for we share the same blood and we have spilled blood.”

Orestes to Electra, Act 2
The Flies (1943)

Judas Iscariot photo

“I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.”

Judas Iscariot one of the twelve original apostles of Jesus Christ, known for betrayal of Jesus

Matthew 27:4 KJV

Christopher Titus photo
Nikos Kazantzakis photo