Quotes about breakfast
page 2

J. Edgar Hoover photo
Fred Shero photo

“When you have bacon and eggs for breakfast, the chicken makes a contribution, the pig makes a commitment.”

Fred Shero (1925–1990) Former ice hockey player and coach

Jackson, Jim, Walking Together Forever: The Broad Street Bullies, Then and Now

Amber Benson photo
Clarence Thomas photo
P. L. Travers photo
Marlon Brando photo
Edward Young photo

“For her own breakfast she'll project a scheme,
Nor take her tea without a strategem.”

Edward Young (1683–1765) English poet

Satire VI, l. 187.
Love of Fame (1725-1728)

John Green photo
Thomas Chandler Haliburton photo

“Everything has altered its dimensions, except the world we live in. The more we know of that, the smaller it seems. Time and distance have been abridged, remote countries have become accessible, and the antipodes are upon visiting terms. There is a reunion of the human race; and the family resemblance now that we begin to think alike, dress alike, and live alike, is very striking. The South Sea Islanders, and the inhabitants of China, import their fashions from Paris, and their fabrics from Manchester, while Rome and London supply missionaries to the ‘ends of the earth,’ to bring its inhabitants into ‘one fold, under one Shepherd.’ Who shall write a book of travels now? Livingstone has exhausted the subject. What field is there left for a future Munchausen? The far West and the far East have shaken hands and pirouetted together, and it is a matter of indifference whether you go to the moors in Scotland to shoot grouse, to South America to ride and alligator, or to Indian jungles to shoot tigers-there are the same facilities for reaching all, and steam will take you to either with the equal ease and rapidity. We have already talked with New York; and as soon as our speaking-trumpet is mended shall converse again. ‘To waft a sigh from Indus to the pole,’ is no longer a poetic phrase, but a plain matter of fact of daily occurrence. Men breakfast at home, and go fifty miles to their counting-houses, and when their work is done, return to dinner. They don’t go from London to the seaside, by way of change, once a year; but they live on the coast, and go to the city daily. The grand tour of our forefathers consisted in visiting the principle cities of Europe. It was a great effort, occupied a vast deal of time, cost a large sum of money, and was oftener attended with danger than advantage. It comprised what was then called, the world: whoever had performed it was said to have ‘seen the world,’ and all that it contained. The Grand Tour now means a voyage round the globe, and he who has not made it has seen nothing.”

Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865) Canadian-British politician, judge, and author

The Season-Ticket, An Evening at Cork 1860 p. 1-2.

Rand Paul photo
Helen Rowland photo

“Oh yes, there is a vast difference between the savage and the civilized man, but it is never apparent to their wives until after breakfast.”

Helen Rowland (1875–1950) American journalist

Cymbals and Kettle-drums
A Guide to Men (1922)

Roald Amundsen photo
Ben Croshaw photo
John Steinbeck photo
José Mourinho photo

“Maybe the guy drank red wine or beer with breakfast instead of milk. [After a Sheffield United fan threw a bottle at Frank Lampard]”

José Mourinho (1963) Portuguese association football player and manager

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/funny_old_game/7004282.stm
Chelsea FC

Sherman Alexie photo

“Thomas: Sometimes it's a good day to die, and sometimes it's a good day to have breakfast.”

Sherman Alexie (1966) Native American author and filmmaker

Smoke Signals (1998)

O. Henry photo
Larry the Cable Guy photo
William Joyce photo

“On this tragic day, the death of Adolf Hitler was reported - Admiral Dönitz takes over as his nominated successor. Reach Flensburg about 8. Have to drink wine for breakfast — as nothing else is available.”

William Joyce (1906–1946) British fascist and propaganda broadcaster

Peter Martland, "Lord Haw Haw: The English voice of Nazi Germany" (The National Archives, 2003), p. 301. UK National Archives KV 2/250/2, p. 55.
Diary entry, 1 May 1945.

Charles Bowen photo

“The only case in which I can conceive a person having breakfast over night is that he is not likely to have it next morning.”

Charles Bowen (1835–1894) English judge

Borthwick v. The Evening Post, Ltd. (1888), 58 L. T. Rep. (N. S.) 258.

Georgia O'Keeffe photo
Charles Stross photo
Anthony Trollope photo
Klaus Kinski photo
Valerie Jarrett photo

“Michelle was so mature beyond her years, so thoughtful and perceptive. She really prodded me about what the job would be like because she had lots of choices. I offered it to her on the spot, which was totally inappropriate because I should have talked to the mayor first. But I just knew she was really special.
Barack never grills. That's part of what is so effective about him: He puts you completely at ease, and the next thing you know he's asking more and more probing questions and gets you to open up and reflect a little bit. That night we talked about his childhood compared to my childhood and realized we both had rather…unusual childhoods.
Married in 1983, separated in 1987, and divorced in 1988. Enough said. He was a physician. He passed away. I want to say in about 1991.
We grew up together. We were friends since childhood. In a sense, he was the boy next door. I married without really appreciating how hard divorce would be.
I have to tell you: My daughter is in seventh heaven about me being in Vogue. Nothing else I have done has fazed her at all. But this! She's like, 'Oh, Mom. You don't understand. This is really big.'
I have never heard him yell, Ever. Not once in seventeen years. He's not a yeller.
Because my dad worked at the university, he could swing by and take Laura to school and pick her up from her first day of nursery school until the day she graduated from high school. They would often have breakfast and have these wonderful conversations.”

Valerie Jarrett (1956) Chicago lawyer, businesswoman, civic leader; senior advisor to U.S. Senator Barack Obama

September 2008 interview with Vogue https://web.archive.org/web/20080930190831/http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/2008_Oct_Valerie_Jarrett//

William James photo
James Thurber photo

“Once upon a sunny morning a man who sat in a breakfast nook looked up from his scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a golden horn quietly cropping the roses in the garden. The man went up to the bedroom where his wife was still asleep and woke her. "There's a unicorn in the garden," he said. "Eating roses." She opened one unfriendly eye and looked at him. "The unicorn is a mythical beast," she said, and turned her back on him. The man walked slowly downstairs and out into the garden. The unicorn was still there; he was now browsing among the tulips.”

"The Unicorn in the Garden", The New Yorker (31 October 1939); Fables for Our Time & Famous Poems Illustrated (1940). This is a fable where a man sees a Unicorn in his garden, and his wife reports the matter to have him taken away, to the "booby-hatch". Online text with illustration by Thurber http://english.glendale.cc.ca.us/unicorn1.html
From Fables for Our Time and Further Fables for Our Time

Jane Roberts photo
Thomas Wolfe 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

W. Somerset Maugham photo

“To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day.”

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British playwright, novelist, short story writer

Quoted in Somerset Maugham (1980) by Ted Morgan

Adi Da Samraj photo
Huey P. Newton photo
Henry Adams photo
George Saintsbury photo
Marshall McLuhan photo

“Gutenberg made all history available as classified data: the transportable book brought the world of the dead into the space of the gentlemen's library; the telegraph brought the entire world of the living to the workman's breakfast table.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1960s, Counterblast (1969), p. 15

P.G. Wodehouse photo
Doug Stanhope photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Omar Bradley photo
James Hudson Taylor photo
Francis Escudero photo

“Politics is not my end-all and be-all. I don't eat politics for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And when I sleep, I don't dream politics.”

Francis Escudero (1969) Filipino politician

Tita Valderama, "The Phenomenon of Chiz Escudero", Newsbreak, 2007 July-September, p. 21.
2007

Don Marquis photo
Alan Bennett photo
Sher Shah Suri photo

“…Upon this, Sher Shah turned again towards Kalinjar… The Raja of Kalinjar, Kirat Sing, did not come out to meet him. So he ordered the fort to be invested, and threw up mounds against it, and in a short time the mounds rose so high that they overtopped the fort. The men who were in the streets and houses were exposed, and the Afghans shot them with their arrows and muskets from off the mounds. The cause of this tedious mode of capturing the fort was this. Among the women of Raja Kirat Sing was a Patar slave-girl, that is a dancing-girl. The king had heard exceeding praise of her, and he considered how to get possession of her, for he feared lest if he stormed the fort, the Raja Kirat Sing would certainly make a jauhar, and would burn the girl…
“On Friday, the 9th of RabI’u-l awwal, 952 A. H., when one watch and two hours of the day was over, Sher Shah called for his breakfast, and ate with his ‘ulama and priests, without whom he never breakfasted. In the midst of breakfast, Shaikh NizAm said, ‘There is nothing equal to a religious war against the infidels. If you be slain you become a martyr, if you live you become a ghazi.’ When Sher Shah had finished eating his breakfast, he ordered Darya Khan to bring loaded shells, and went up to the top of a mound, and with his own hand shot off many arrows, and said, ‘Darya Khan comes not; he delays very long.’ But when they were at last brought, Sher Shah came down from the mound, and stood where they were placed. While the men were employed in discharging them, by the will of Allah Almighty, one shell full of gunpowder struck on the gate of the fort and broke, and came and fell where a great number of other shells were placed. Those which were loaded all began to explode. Shaikh Halil, Shaikh Nizam, and other learned men, and most of the others escaped and were not burnt, but they brought out Sher Shah partially burnt. A young princess who was standing by the rockets was burnt to death. When Sher Shah was carried into his tent, all his nobles assembled in darbAr; and he sent for ‘Isa Khan Hajib and Masnad Khan Kalkapur, the son-in-law of Isa Khan, and the paternal uncle of the author, to come into his tent, and ordered them to take the fort while he was yet alive. When ‘Isa Khan came out and told the chiefs that it was Sher Shah’s order that they should attack on every side and capture the fort, men came and swarmed out instantly on every side like ants and locusts; and by the time of afternoon prayers captured the fort, putting every one to the sword, and sending all the infidels to hell. About the hour of evening prayers, the intelligence of the victory reached Sher Shah, and marks of joy and pleasure appeared on his countenance. Raja Kirat Sing, with seventy men, remained in a house. Kutb Khan the whole night long watched the house in person lest the Raja should escape. Sher Shah said to his sons that none of his nobles need watch the house, so that the Raja escaped out of the house, and the labour and trouble of this long watching was lost. The next day at sunrise, however, they took the Raja alive…””

Sher Shah Suri (1486–1545) founder of Sur Empire in Northern India

Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi of Abbas Khan Sherwani in Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, Volume IV, pp. 407-09. Quoted in S.R.Goel, The Calcutta Quran Petition

Pierre Monteux photo

“Told, during the days of segregation in the US, that he couldn't be served as he was trying to take breakfast at a restaurant "for colored folk", he insisted: "But we are colored, my dear. We are pink."”

Pierre Monteux (1875–1964) French conductor

From Monteux, Fifi (1962). Everyone is Someone. New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy. OCLC 602036672, pp. 13–15

Rhodri Morgan photo

“To say it is a dog's breakfast is an insult to the pet food industry.”

Rhodri Morgan (1939–2017) British politician

James Landale, "Collected sayings of Morgan the mouth'", The Times, November 10, 1998, p. 8.
Comment on architectural plans for the National Assembly for Wales building.

John Muir photo

“If I were so time-poor as to have only one day to spend in Yosemite I should start at daybreak, say at three o'clock in midsummer, with a pocketful of any sort of dry breakfast stuff, for Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, the head of Illilouette Fall, Nevada Fall, the top of Liberty Cap, Vernal Fall and the wild boulder-choked River Cañon.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

The Yosemite http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/the_yosemite/ (1912), chapter 12: How Best to Spend One's Yosemite Time
Advice for visitors to Yosemite given by John Muir at age 74 years. Compare advice given by the 37-year-old Muir above.
1910s

Kris Kristofferson photo

“And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad
So I had one more for dessert
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt..”

Kris Kristofferson (1936) American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and film actor

Sunday Morning Comin' Down
Song lyrics, Kristofferson (1970)

Jane Austen photo
Conor McGregor photo

“Steaks every day for me. Steaks for breakfast. Steaks for lunch. Steaks for brunch. Grass-fed, massaged beef. All day long.”

Conor McGregor (1988) Irish mixed martial artist and boxer

"UFC 197 press conference" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75xAdA3uVeY (January 2016), Ultimate Fighting Championship, Zuffa, LLC
2010s, 2016

John Dos Passos photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“When I was younger I made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Reply to King George VI, on a cold morning at the airport. The King had asked if Churchill would take something to warm himself. As cited in Man of the Century (2002), Ramsden, Columbia University Press, p. 134 ISBN 0231131062
Post-war years (1945–1955)

Philip Roth photo
Mark Knopfler photo
John Fante photo
Alec Baldwin photo

“I was in love when I was married to Kim Basinger, I’m not ashamed to say. I used to wake up in the morning and just look at her and say 'What do you want for breakfast, baby? Special K with blueberries? Let me go get some.”

Alec Baldwin (1954) American actor, writer, producer, and comedian

As quoted in "Spice of Life: Blueberries meant to be enjoyed" in American Press (10 July 2012) http://www.americanpress.com/opinion/Spice-of-Life-7-11-12.

John Betjeman photo
Leopold Stokowski photo
James K. Morrow photo

“In physical pursuits Luli was considerably less passionate. Her idea of a good time in bed was breakfast.”

James K. Morrow (1947) (1947-) science fiction author

Source: The Wine of Violence (1981), Chapter 2 (p. 21)

P.G. Wodehouse photo
Konrad Lorenz photo
George S. Patton IV photo
Bono photo
Colin Wilson photo
P. J. O'Rourke photo
P. J. O'Rourke photo

“If Government half a century ago had provided us all with dinners and breakfasts, it would be the practice of our orators to-day to assume the impossibility of our providing for ourselves.”

Auberon Herbert (1838–1906) British politician

State Education: A Help or Hindrance?
Context: If must also be remembered that, unless men are left to their own resources, they do not know what is or what is not possible for them. If Government half a century ago had provided us all with dinners and breakfasts, it would be the practice of our orators to-day to assume the impossibility of our providing for ourselves.

Plutarch photo
Ramsay MacDonald photo

“All this humbug of curing unemployment by Exchequer grants is one of the most superficial and ill considered proposals that has ever been foisted upon the Party. There is no more Socialism in it than there was in the cup of tea that I had at breakfast this morning.”

Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937) British statesman; prime minister of the United Kingdom

Letter to Walton Newbold (2 June 1930), quoted in David Marquand, Ramsay MacDonald (Metro, 1997), p. 538
1930s

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“In Wilson’s scale of evaluations breakfast rated just after life itself and ahead of the chance of immortality.”

By His Bootstraps (p. 238)
Short fiction, Off the Main Sequence (2005)

José Mourinho photo

“Maybe the guy drank red wine or beer with breakfast instead of milk.”

José Mourinho (1963) Portuguese association football player and manager

After a Sheffield United fan threw a bottle at Frank Lampard
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/funny_old_game/7004282.stm
Chelsea FC

Peter F. Drucker photo

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

According to The Quote Investigator, this phrase first appeared on PIMA’s North American Papermaker: The Official Publication of the Paper Industry Management Association, in an article by Bill Moore and Jerry Rose. The year was 2000. Since then, the phrase has appeared many times. Peter Drucker died in 2005. The first time his name was associated to the citation was on 2011. Other occurrences and versions of the phrase can be found at https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/05/23/culture-eats/
Misattributed

Tom Stoppard photo

“Wake me up for breakfast, if I'm not dead.”

Turgenev
The Coast of Utopia: Salvage (2002)

Bashō Matsuo photo

“I am that one person
Who eats his breakfast,
Gazing at morning nothing.”

Bashō Matsuo (1644–1694) Japanese poet

Classical Japanese Database, Translation #174 http://carlsensei.com/classical/index.php/translation/view/174 (Translation: Reginald Horace Blyth)
Individual poems
Original: (ja) 朝顔に
我は飯食ふ
男かな
Original: (ja) asagao ni
ware wa meshi kû
otoko kana

Napoleon Hill photo
Nicolas Cage photo

“If I have my breakfast, then I can think, and that includes spiritual things, or whatever it is I want to do, meditate or read a book or watch a movie, and so I respect the food because that comes first for me. I think the movie shows the power of the experience that we all have with food.”

Nicolas Cage (1964) American actor

"Interview: Nicolas Cage digs deep about ‘Pig,’ his favorite and most underrated of his own movies, and the role he’d love to play" in Awards Watch https://awardswatch.com/interview-nicolas-cage-digs-deep-about-pig-his-favorite-and-most-underrated-of-his-own-movies-and-the-role-hed-love-to-play/ (14 January 2022)

Bill Maher photo