Quotes about brother
page 8

B.K.S. Iyengar photo
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi photo
William Morley Punshon photo
Owen Wilson photo
Wesley Willis photo

“My mother smokes that crack like a cigar / She had a good time at it / She jacks my brother for dope money / She does this by threatening him with a Smith and Wesson”

Wesley Willis (1963–2003) American singer-songwriter

My Mother Smokes Crack Rocks
Lyrics, Solo
Variant: "I smoke my crack pipe everyday / I have a good time at it / I jack my mother for dope money / I do it by threatening her life with a semi-automatic" - I Smoke Weed

Jeb Bush photo

“You know what? As it relates to my brother, there is one thing I know for sure: he kept us safe.”

Jeb Bush (1953) American politician, former Governor of Florida

GOP Presidential Debate, FOX News, , quoted in [2015-09-16, Jeb Cites 9/11 Rubble in Claiming George W. Bush Kept America Safe, Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate, http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/09/16/jeb_bush_9_11_rubble_video_says_brother_kept_america_safe.html]
2015

Prem Rawat photo

“In this world, the question has already been asked. The world has already started to face the problems, the problems which are vital for the human race. There is no need to discuss the problems, but I would like to present my opinion. In the midst of all this, I still sincerely think that this Knowledge, the Knowledge of God, the Knowledge of our Creator, is our solution. Many people might not think so, and carry a completely different opinion, but my opinion is that since man came on this planet earth, he has always been taking from it. Remember, this planet Earth is not infinite, it is finite, and though it has a lot to give, it is limited. Maybe now we can somehow manage to stagger along, cutting our standards of living, cutting gas, reducing the speed limit more, but the next very terrifying question is What about the future? I think this Knowledge which I have to offer this world, free of charge, is the answer. For if everybody can understand that everybody is a brother and sister, and this world is a gift, not a human-owned planet, and have the true understanding of such, we'll definitely bring peace, tranquillity, love and Grace, which we need so badly. I urge this world to try. I do not claim to be God, but do claim I can establish peace on this Earth by our Lord's Grace, and everyone's joint effort.”

Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader

Proclamation for 1975, signed Sant Ji Maharaj the name by which Prem Rawat was known at that time. Divine Times (Vol.4 Issue.1, February 1, 1975)
1970s

Winston S. Churchill photo
Dave Eggers photo

“I am sorry Chris is late this morning. I could make something up about an appointment or a sickness, but the fact is that we woke up late. Go figure
Best,
Brother of Toph.”

Dave Eggers (1970) memoirist, novelist, short story writer, editor, publisher

A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius (2000)

Dana Gioia photo

“There're so many young guys, you know — young Americans and, yes, young men everywhere — a whole generation of people younger than me who have grown up feeling inadequate as men because they haven't been able to fight in a war and find out whether they are brave or not. Because it is in an effort to prove this bravery that we fight — in wars or in bars — whereas if a man were truly brave he wouldn't have to be always proving it to himself. So therefore I am forced to consider bravery suspect, and ridiculous, and dangerous. Because if there are enough young men like that who feel strongly enough about it, they can almost bring on a war, even when none of them want it, and are in fact struggling against having one. (And as far as modern war is concerned I am a pacifist. Hell, it isn't even war anymore, as far as that goes. It's an industry, a big business complex.) And it's a ridiculous thing because this bravery myth is something those young men should be able to laugh at. Of course the older men like me, their big brothers, and uncles, and maybe even their fathers, we don't help them any. Even those of us who don't openly brag. Because all the time we are talking about how scared we were in the war, we are implying tacitly that we were brave enough to stay. Whereas in actual fact we stayed because we were afraid of being laughed at, or thrown in jail, or shot, as far as that goes.”

James Jones (1921–1977) American author

The Paris Review interview (1958)

Henry Adams photo
Robert Jordan photo
James Frey photo
Hsing Yun photo

“Nepotism. My brother’s son, André Fischer, was the drummer in the band Rufus, with Chaka Khan. Apparently, the arrangements I made for their early records were appreciated, so in the following years I was hired almost exclusively by black artists. I am surprised that my arrangements are now considered one of the prerequisites for a hit album. People feel that they make a song sound almost classical.”

Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

On how a white American of German extraction became the orchestral 'sweetener' of choice for R&B artists, as quoted in "Clare Fischer: The Best Kept Secret in Jazz" http://www.artistinterviews.eu/?page_id=5&parent_id=22/

Glen Cook photo
Little Richard photo
G. K. Chesterton photo
Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Thomas Moore photo

“Row, brothers, row, the stream runs fast,
The rapids are near, and the daylight's past.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

A Canadian Boat-Song.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Jay Leiderman photo

“This type of thing opens up the doors for Big Brother to come flying in…”

Jay Leiderman (1971) lawyer

On police searching cell phones: Jay Leiderman, Diaz's attorney who originally filed the motion to suppress at trial, called the high court decision “weak” and a “scary one” because it relies on older U.S. Supreme Court cases that have not kept up with today’s modern technology where cell phones and smart phones can hold tens of thousands of pieces of information. http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/jan/04/states-high-court-rules-police-can-conduct-cell/

Stanley Holloway photo

“Up rode the Duke on a loverly white 'orse,
To find out the cause of the bother,
He looked at the musket and then at Old Sam,
And he talked to Old Sam like a brother”

Stanley Holloway (1890–1982) English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist

Sam, Sam, Pick Oop Tha' Musket

Nelson Mandela photo
Muhammad photo

“Malik related to me from Abdullah ibn Dinar from Abdullah ibn Umar that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "If a man says to his muslim brother, 'O kafir!'”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

it is true about one of them."
Muwatta of Imam Malik, Speech, hadith 1 http://ahadith.co.uk/permalink-hadith-4899
Sunni Hadith
Variant: Malik related to me from 'Abdullah ibn Dinar from 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "If a man says to his Muslim brother, 'O unbeliever!' it is true about one of them."

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen photo
John Boyle O'Reilly photo

“Doubt is brother-devil to Despair.”

John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–1890) Irish-born poet and novelist

Prometheus.

Herman Cain photo
Neil Diamond photo

“It's Love, Brother Love, say
Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show.
Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies.
And ev'ryone goes, 'cause everyone knows
Brother Love's show.”

Neil Diamond (1941) American singer-songwriter

Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show
Song lyrics, Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show (1969)

Richard Rodríguez photo
Vincent Van Gogh photo
Colette Dowling photo
Gloria Estefan photo
David Ben-Gurion photo

“Brother, even by my mother's dust, I charge you,
Do not betray me to your mirth or hate.”

John Ford (dramatist) (1586–1639) dramatist

Act I, sc. iii.
Tis Pity She's a Whore (1629-33?)

Steven Chu photo

“I'm the least-educated person in my immediate family. My two other brothers have multiple advanced degrees, and I only have one. […] Actually, now that I've got a Nobel Prize, I feel equal.”

Steven Chu (1948) American physicist, former United States Secretary of Energy, Nobel laureate

Interview by Spencer Michels, The NewsHour, PBS, 2 May 2007 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june07/climatechange_05-02.html

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner photo
Helen Nearing photo
James Branch Cabell photo

“Hey, my masters, lords and brothers, ye that till the fields of rhyme,
Are ye deaf ye will not hearken to the clamor of your time?”

James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) American author

"Auctorial Induction"
The Certain Hour (1916)

Mitt Romney photo

“You Olympians, however, know you didn't get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

Speech at the Opening Ceremonies at the 2002 Winter Olympics, quoted in [Montanaro, Domenico, "Romney to Olympians: 'You didn't get here solely on your own'", NBC News, July 23, 2012, http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/23/12904508-romney-to-olympians-you-didnt-get-here-solely-on-your-own?lite, 2012-07-24]
2002 Winter Olympics

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“4853. The Wrath of Brothers, is fierce and devilish.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Bruce Springsteen photo

“I catch him when he's strayin' like any brother would.
Man turns his back on his family well he just ain't no good.”

Bruce Springsteen (1949) American singer and songwriter

"Highway Patrolman"
Song lyrics, Nebraska (1982)

“Medea quickly turned aside, covering her eyes with her veil so as not to see her brother's blood spilt.”

Source: Argonautica (3rd century BC), Book IV. Homeward Bound, Lines 465–467; the murder of Absyrtus.

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Maggie Stiefvater photo

“He was brother to a liar and brother to an angel, son of a dream and son of a dreamer.”

Maggie Stiefvater (1981) American writer

About Ronan
The Raven Cycle Series, The Dream Thieves (2013)

Hafez al-Assad photo

“Death a thousand times to the hired Muslim Brothers, Death a thousand times to the Muslim Brothers, the criminal Brothers, the corrupt Brothers.”

Hafez al-Assad (1930–2000) former president of Syria

[Robert Fisk: Freedom, democracy and human rights in Syria, Robert Fisk, THE INDEPENDENT, 16 September 2010, http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-freedom-democracy-and-human-rights-in-syria-2080463.html]

John C. Wright photo
Will Eisner photo

“Reporter: The “Protocols” trial is on today. I’ve been assigned to report on it for my paper.
Reporter 2: What’s your hurry Carl? The Jewish community’s lawyer is trying to show the damage done by the “Protocols of Zion” book.
Lawyer: Your honor, we have demonstrated that the “Protocols” is ‘’’smut…’’’ I would conclude by exhibiting evidence of its influence on public opinion as a fraud.
Judge: You may proceed!
Lawyer: Since its first publication in Russia by Dr. Nilus in 1905, four printings have been distributed there!
In 1919, type script copies were distributed to delegated at the Versailles peace conference by white Russians.
In England Victor Marsden translated the “protocols” into English in 1922.
In 1920, the first polish language edition was brought into the United States and South America by Polish immigrants.
In 1921, the first Arabic and the first Italian copies appeared!
In 1921, “The Times” of London published its famous expose of this false document!
And because of his fame, Henry Ford’s work deserves recounting.
Lawyer: In 1920, Henry ford the American auto magnate, bought a small newspaper, the “Dearborn Independent.” He began a series, “The International Jew,” made up of borrowings from the “Protocols of the Elders on Zion.”
Later, in 1922, it was published in sxteen language for a world-wide distribution. It sold over a ‘’’half million’’’ copies in America alone!
Reporter: Actually, Ford recanted in 1926 when he was threatened with a libel suit.

Reporter 2: Really?
Reporter 3: What did he say?
Reporter: He said in part, “…To my great regret I learn that in the ‘Dearborn Independent’ there appeared articles which induced the Jews to regard me as their enemy promoting anti-Semitism!”
HE WENT ON TO SAY, “…I am…mortified that this Journal…is giving currency to ‘The Protocols of the wise men of Zion,’ which I learn to be gross forgeries…I deem it my duty…to make amends for the wrong done to the Jews as fellow men and brothers by asking their forgiveness.
HE GOES ON BY RECITING SOME OF THE MORE “evil ingredients” in the “Protocols” AND HE REFERS TO IT AS AN “infamous forgery.”
Reporter 3: DID HIS APOLOGY CHANGE ANYTHING?? HENRY FORD WAS FAMOUS the world over…his apology must have had influence!
Reporter: Not very much. In fact publication increased all over the globe.
Reporter 3: Look! Here I have two French translations of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” that were published in ‘’’France,’’’ dated 1934. Later they had many printings!
Judge: …I hope to see the day when nobody will be able to understand why otherwise sane and reasonable men should torment their brains for fourteen days over the authenticity or fabrication of the “Protocols of Zion”’’’…I regard the “protocols” as ridiculous nonsense!
Reporter: Good news! …judge Meyer found against the Nazis and imposed a fine on them…

Publisher: We will publish the judge’s decision!
Reporter: This should put an end to the “Protocols” at last!”

Will Eisner (1917–2005) American cartoonist

Source: The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (10/2/2005), pp. 102-107

Nelson Mandela photo

“In Natal, apartheid is a deadly cancer in our midst, setting house against house, and eating away at the precious ties that bound us together. This strife among ourselves wastes our energy and destroys our unity. My message to those of you involved in this battle of brother against brother is this: take your guns, your knives, and your pangas, and throw them into the sea! Close down the death factories. End this war now!”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

Speech to a Rally, Durban (25 February 1990); Republished in: J. C. Buthelezi. Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Nelson Mandela: An Ecological Study http://books.google.com/books?id=dy_aBlwBYacC&pg=PA340, (2002), p. 340
1990s

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Harun Yahya photo
Cassandra Clare photo

“If you flinch from it, you give it power over you. Take it, and cut your brother's throat with it, and take back the honor of your blood.”

Diana Wrayburn, to Clary Fray, about the Morgenstern sword Heosphoros, pg. 146
The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

Roger Ebert photo
Edward Lucie-Smith photo
Howard Thurman photo

“Community cannot feed for long on itself; it can only flourish where always the boundaries are giving way to the coming of others from beyond them — unknown and undiscovered brothers.”

Howard Thurman (1899–1981) American writer

The Search For Common Ground : An Inquiry Into The Basis Of Man's Experience Of Community (1971), p. 104

Stanley Baldwin photo

“There is no doubt that to-day feeling in totalitarian countries is, or they would like it to be, one of contempt for democracy. Whether it is the feeling of the fox which has lost its brush for his brother who has not I do not know, but it exists. Coupled with that is the idea that a democracy qua democracy must be a kind of decadent country in which there is no order, where industrial trouble is the order of the day, and where the people can never keep to a fixed purpose. There is a great deal that is ridiculous in that, but it is a dangerous belief for any country to have of another. There is in the world another feeling. I think you will find this in America, in France, and throughout all our Dominions. It is a sympathy with, and an admiration for, this country in the way she came through the great storm, the blizzard, some years ago, and the way in which she is progressing, as they believe, with so little industrial strife. They feel that that is a great thing which marks off our country from other countries to-day. Except for those who love industrial strife for its own sake, and they are but a few, it indeed is the greatest testimony to my mind that democracy is really functioning when her children can see her through these difficulties, some of which are very real, and settle them—a far harder thing than to fight.”

Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1937/may/05/supply in the House of Commons (5 May 1937).
1937

“Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?”

Yip Harburg (1896–1981) American song lyricist

"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" (1931), performed as part of the play New Americana (1932) - Charlie Palloy version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsJGagKWrds - Bing Crosby version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eih67rlGNhU - Tom Waits version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVE72Ae82Tw

Robert Burns photo

“Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Tho' they may gang a kennin wrang,
To step aside is human.”

Robert Burns (1759–1796) Scottish poet and lyricist

Address to the Unco Guid, st. 7 (1787)

Raymond Chandler photo
Al Sharpton photo

“There is a systemic and methodical strategy to eliminate our people from doing business off 125th Street. I want to make it clear … that we will not stand by and allow them to move this brother so that some white interloper can expand his business.”

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

On the Freddy's Fashion Mart incident, as quoted in National Review (20 March 2000) http://www.nationalreview.com/20Mar00/nordlinger032000.html.

Khaled Mashal photo
Nate Diaz photo
Rosey Grier photo
Ayn Rand photo

“Now, here is Jesus' point: he is not only the culmination of the project, but the project itself, God made brother, offering us to become siblings, but vulnerable to fratricide.”

James Alison (1959) Christian theologian, priest

Source: Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay (2001), "Jesus' fraternal relocation of God", p. 73.

Phillip Abbott Luce photo
Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma photo
Max Heindel photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“I must say that when my Southern Christian Leadership Conference began its work in Birmingham, we encountered numerous Negro church reactions that had to be overcome. Negro ministers were among other Negro leaders who felt they were being pulled into something that they had not helped to organize. This is almost always a problem. Negro community unity was the first requisite if our goals were to be realized. I talked with many groups, including one group of 200 ministers, my theme to them being that a minister cannot preach the glories of heaven while ignoring social conditions in his own community that cause men an earthly hell. I stressed that the Negro minister had particular freedom and independence to provide strong, firm leadership, and I asked how the Negro would ever gain freedom without his minister's guidance, support and inspiration. These ministers finally decided to entrust our movement with their support, and as a result, the role of the Negro church today, by and large, is a glorious example in the history of Christendom. For never in Christian history, within a Christian country, have Christian churches been on the receiving end of such naked brutality and violence as we are witnessing here in America today. Not since the days of the Christians in the catacombs has God's house, as a symbol, weathered such attack as the Negro churches.
I shall never forget the grief and bitterness I felt on that terrible September morning when a bomb blew out the lives of those four little, innocent girls sitting in their Sunday-school class in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. I think of how a woman cried out, crunching through broken glass, "My God, we're not even safe in church!" I think of how that explosion blew the face of Jesus Christ from a stained-glass window. It was symbolic of how sin and evil had blotted out the life of Christ. I can remember thinking that if men were this bestial, was it all worth it? Was there any hope? Was there any way out?… time has healed the wounds -- and buoyed me with the inspiration of another moment which I shall never forget: when I saw with my own eyes over 3000 young Negro boys and girls, totally unarmed, leave Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church to march to a prayer meeting -- ready to pit nothing but the power of their bodies and souls against Bull Connor's police dogs, clubs and fire hoses. When they refused Connor's bellowed order to turn back, he whirled and shouted to his men to turn on the hoses. It was one of the most fantastic events of the Birmingham story that these Negroes, many of them on their knees, stared, unafraid and unmoving, at Connor's men with the hose nozzles in their hands. Then, slowly the Negroes stood up and advanced, and Connor's men fell back as though hypnotized, as the Negroes marched on past to hold their prayer meeting. I saw there, I felt there, for the first time, the pride and the power of nonviolence.
Another time I will never forget was one Saturday night, late, when my brother telephoned me in Atlanta from Birmingham -- that city which some call "Bombingham" -- which I had just left. He told me that a bomb had wrecked his home, and that another bomb, positioned to exert its maximum force upon the motel room in which I had been staying, had injured several people. My brother described the terror in the streets as Negroes, furious at the bombings, fought whites. Then, behind his voice, I heard a rising chorus of beautiful singing: "We shall overcome."”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Tears came into my eyes that at such a tragic moment, my race still could sing its hope and faith.
Interview in Playboy (January 1965) https://web.archive.org/web/20080706183244/http://www.playboy.com/arts-entertainment/features/mlk/04.html
1960s

Kunti photo
Hilaire Belloc photo
Enoch Powell photo
Bernice King photo
Robert Burns photo

“Affliction's sons are brothers in distress;
A brother to relieve,—how exquisite the bliss!”

Robert Burns (1759–1796) Scottish poet and lyricist

A Winter Night.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Richard Roxburgh photo
Sherman Alexie photo
Pope John Paul II photo

“Dear brothers and sisters, we are all still grieved after the death of our most beloved John Paul I. And now the eminent cardinals have called a new bishop of Rome. They have called him from a far country… far, but always near through the communion of faith and in the Christian tradition. (…) I don't know if I can make myself clear in your… in our Italian language. If I make a mistake, you will correct me.”

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) 264th Pope of the Catholic Church, saint

Carissimi fratelli e sorelle, siamo ancora tutti addolorati dopo la morte del nostro amatissimo Papa Giovanni Paolo I. Ed ecco che gli Eminentissimi Cardinali hanno chiamato un nuovo vescovo di Roma. Lo hanno chiamato da un paese lontano... lontano, ma sempre così vicino per la comunione nella fede e nella tradizione cristiana. (...) Non so se posso bene spiegarmi nella vostra... nostra lingua italiana. Se mi sbaglio mi correggerete.
the pope intentionally mispronounced the Italian word correggerete, "you will correct".
First address to the faithful in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City, on 16 October 1978
Source: Libreria Editrice Vaticana http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/1978/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19781016_primo-saluto_it.html (Italian)

Richard Henry Dana Jr. photo
Kate Bush photo

“I'll kiss the ground.
I'll tell my mother,
I'll tell my father,
I'll tell my loved one,
I'll tell my brothers
How much I love them.”

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

Song lyrics, Hounds of Love (1985), The Ninth Wave

Sarah Doudney photo

“But the waiting time, my brothers,
Is the hardest time of all.”

Sarah Doudney (1841–1926) English novelist and poet

Psalms of Life: The Hardest Time of All.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning photo

“Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
Ere the sorrow comes with years?
They are leaning their young heads against their mothers—
And that cannot stop their tears.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

The Cry of the Children http://www.webterrace.com/browning/The%20Cry%20Of%20The%20Children.htm, st. 1 (1844).

Abd al-Karim Qasim photo
Pierce Brosnan photo
Mobutu Sésé Seko photo

“Between a brother and a friend, the choice is clear.”

Mobutu Sésé Seko (1930–1997) President of Zaïre

Mobutu announcing the break in diplomatic relations between Zaire and Israel at the United Nations Security Council, November 4, 1973. Young and Turner, p. 138

Toni Morrison photo
Ayman al-Zawahiri photo

“We have endured a lot of harm from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his brothers, and we preferred to respond with as little as possible, out of our concern to extinguish the fire of sedition. But Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his brothers did not leave us a choice, for they have demanded that all the mujahideen reject their confirmed pledges of allegiance, and to pledge allegiance to them for what they claim of a caliphate.”

Ayman al-Zawahiri (1951) Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and leader of al-Qaeda

As quoted in "Al Qaeda 'declares war' on ISIS as 9/11 terror group boss blasts rival for declaring himself leader of all Muslims" http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/al-qaeda-declares-war-isis-6422015, The Mirror (11 September 2015)

Angus Scrimm photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
Gloria Estefan photo
Tim McGraw photo
Edgar Guest photo
Ivan Turgenev photo

“"What is Bazarov?" Arkady smiled. "Would you like me to tell you, uncle, what he really is?""Please do, nephew.""He is a nihilist!""What?" asked Nikolai Petrovich, while Pavel Petrovich lifted his knife in the air with a small piece of butter on the tip and remained motionless."He is a nihilist," repeated Arkady."A nihilist," said Nikolai Petrovich. "That comes from the Latin nihil, nothing, as far as I can judge; the word must mean a man who… who recognizes nothing?""Say — who respects nothing," interposed Pavel Petrovich and lowered his knife with the butter on it."Who regards everything from the critical point of view," said Arkady."Isn't that exactly the same thing?" asked Pavel Petrovich."No, it's not the same thing. A nihilist is a person who does not bow down to any authority, who does not accept any principle on faith, however much that principle may be revered.""Well, and is that good?" asked Pavel Petrovich. "That depends, uncle dear. For some it is good, for others very bad.""Indeed. Well, I see that's not in our line. We old-fashioned people think that without principles, taken as you say on faith, one can't take a step or even breathe. Vous avez changé tout cela; may God grant you health and a general's rank, and we shall be content to look on and admire your… what was the name?""Nihilists," said Arkady, pronouncing very distinctly."Yes, there used to be Hegelists and now there are nihilists. We shall see how you will manage to exist in the empty airless void; and now ring, please, brother Nikolai, it's time for me to drink my cocoa."”

Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883) Russian writer

Source: Father and Sons (1862), Ch. 5.

George Sarton photo
Charles Lamb photo
Oliver Cowdery photo