Quotes about brown
A collection of quotes on the topic of brown, black, blackness, likeness.
Quotes about brown
“God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.”
Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States
“I believe that all men, black, brown, and white, are brothers.”
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) American sociologist, historian, activist and writer
Oscar Wilde book The Canterville Ghost
Source: The Canterville Ghost http://www.planetmonk.com/wilde/savile/canterville.c1.html (1887)
Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer
On pop groups like N'Sync, as quoted in interview in TV Guide (1 November 2001)
Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer
On watching James Brown as a young child.
Televised Interview with Oprah Winfrey (1993)
“When I hear the word culture, I reach for my Browning!”
Hermann Göring (1893–1946) German politician and military leader
"When I hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver" was also is used in the 1981 Cannes Film Festival Award winner Mephisto spoken by a character known as "The General" in the English dubbed version.
Misattributed
Variant: "When I hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver." Often attributed to Göring, who might have used such lines, these statements are derived from those in the play Schlageter by Hanns Johst: "Wenn ich Kultur höre … entsichere ich meinen Browning!" [Whenever I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!] (Act 1, Scene 1) The play was first performed in April 1933 for Hitler's birthday. Reported as a misattribution in Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 36.
“Nobody looks good with brown lipstick on.”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer
Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In "Painting as a Pastime", first published in the Strand Magazine in two parts (December 1921/January 1922), cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 456 ISBN 1586486381
Early career years (1898–1929)
“One beach-colored.
One brown.
One Loved.
One Loved a Little Less.”
Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist
Cassandra Clare book City of Glass
Isabelle and Jace, pg. 534
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Glass (2009)
Context: "I think it's strawberry juice," Isabelle said. "Anyway, it's yummy. Jace?" She offered him the glass.
"I am a man," he told her, "and men do not consume pink beverages. Get thee gone, woman, and bring me something brown."
"Brown?" Isabelle made a face.
"Brown is a manly color."
“Nearly all black and brown skins are beautiful, but a beautiful white skin is rare.”
Mark Twain book Following the Equator
Source: Following the Equator (1897), Ch. XLI
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), p. 375
Wangari Maathai (1940–2011) Kenyan environmental and political activist
Nobel lecture http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2004/maathai-lecture.html (10 December 2004)
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation (1983)
Jules Verne book The Fur Country
Hobson constata, non sans une certaine appréhension, que les ours étaient nombreux sur cette partie du territoire. Il était rare, en effet, qu'un jour se passât sans qu'un couple de ces formidables carnassiers ne fût signalé. Bien des coups de fusil furent adressés à ces terribles visiteurs. Tantôt, c'était une bande de ces ours bruns qui sont fort communs sur toute la région de la Terre-Maudite, tantôt, une de ces familles d'ours polaires d'une taille gigantesque, que les premiers froids amèneraient sans doute en plus grand nombre aux environs du cap Bathurst. Et, en effet, dans les récits d'hivernage, on peut observer que les explorateurs ou les baleiniers sont plusieurs fois par jour exposés à la rencontre de ces carnassiers.
Source: The Fur Country, or Seventy Degrees North Latitude (1872), Ch. 14: Some Excursions
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
Text of a letter written following his Hajj (1964)
Little Richard (1932) American pianist, singer and songwriter
On Rolling Stone list on 100 Greatest Artists, 100 Greatest Artists | Little Richard | Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-artists-of-all-time-19691231/little-richard-20110420 <br class="br">Song lyrics, Others
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Give Us the Ballot (1957)
Context: We must not seek to use our emerging freedom and our growing power to do the same thing to the white minority that has been done to us for so many centuries. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man. We must not become victimized with a philosophy of black supremacy. God is not interested merely in freeing black men and brown men and yellow men, but God is interested in freeing the whole human race. We must work with determination to create a society, not where black men are superior and other men are inferior and vice versa, but a society in which all men will live together as brothers and respect the dignity and worth of human personality.
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2008, A More Perfect Union (March 2008)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Circulated in "A Coil of Rage" http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/coilofrage.asp, a 2011 mass e-mail attributing several fabricated quotations to Obama. <br class="br">Obama actually wrote, in Dreams from My Father, p. 220: <br class="br">Yes, I'd seen weakness in other men — Gramps and his disappointments, Lolo [my adoptive father] and his compromise. But these men had become object lessons for me, men I might love but never emulate, <span style="color:gray">white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.</span> <br class="br">Misattributed
“Meredith is a prose Browning, and so is Browning. He used poetry as a medium for writing in prose.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I
Smedley D. Butler (1881–1940) United States Marine Corps General, 2 time Medal of Honor recipient and activist
War is a racket (1935) <br class="br">Source: Common Sense, Vol. 4, No. 11 (November, 1935), p. 8. Quoted in 'I Might Have Given Al Capone a Few Hints' https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/10/opinion/l-i-might-have-given-al-capone-a-few-hints-023587.html, The New York Times, September 10, 1987.
Joanne K. Rowling (1965) British novelist, author of the Harry Potter series
Tweet https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/678888094339366914?lang=en quoted in " J.K. Rowling angry about black Hermione complaints https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/06/entertainment/jk-rowling-hermione-cursed-child/index.html" by Lisa Respers France, CNN (June 6, 2016) <br class="br">2010s
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Campaign address in Beaverton, Oregon (9 May 2008) http://www.barackobama.com/2008/05/09/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_63.php <br class="br">2008
Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter
Quote of Claude Monet (1909), as cited in: Sarah Walden (1985) The ravished image, or, How to ruin masterpieces by restoration, p. 67
1900 - 1920
Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist
Source: 1960s, Continuities in Cultural Evolution (1964), p. 338
Rupert Brooke (1887–1915) British poet
Sonnet http://books.google.com/books?id=SDgOAQAAMAAJ&q=&quot;Oh+Death+will+find+me+long+before+I+tire+Of+watching+you&quot;&pg=PA47#v=onepage (1908-1910)
“I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being, neither white, black, brown nor red.”
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
Interview http://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/int_pbert.htm for the Pierre Berton Show. Toronto, Ontario, (19 January 1965) <br class="br">Attributed <br class="br">Context: I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being, neither white, black, brown nor red. When you are dealing with humanity as one family, there's no question of integration or intermarriage. It's just one human being marrying another human being, or one human being living around and with another human being.
“I told my dentist my teeth are going yellow. He told me to wear a brown tie. ”
Rodney Dangerfield (1921–2004) American actor and comedian
Mark Twain book Roughing It
Chapter XLVIII, p. 344 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t0xp7k74t&view=1up&seq=364' (published 1872) <br class="br">Roughing It (1872)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, Address to Cornell College (1962)
Frank O'Hara book Meditations in an Emergency (book)
Source: Mayakovsky, st. 4, from Meditations in an Emergency (1957).
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)
Source: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems
Context: I grow old … I grow old...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
“Steampunk is nothing more than what happens when Goths discover brown.”
Charles Stross (1964) British science fiction writer and blogger
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Burns
Charles Portis book True Grit
Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 5, p. 78 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'
“Meyer, Stephenie. (2006). New Moon. Park Avenue, New York: Little, Brown and Company, 563..”
Stephenie Meyer (1973) American author
References
Variant: Meyer, Stephenie. (2005). Twilight. Park Avenue, New York: Little, Brown and Company, 498..
Robert Bork (1927–2012) American legal scholar
The Tempting of America (1990), page 82; on Brown v. Board of Education.
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
Regarding John Brown, as quoted in A Lecture On John Brown http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mfd&fileName=22/22002/22002page.db&recNum=9&tempFile=./temp/~ammem_rvc6&filecode=mfd&next_filecode=mfd&prev_filecode=mfd&itemnum=2&ndocs=32
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French artist
Quote from Degas' working notes; as quoted in The private lives of the Impressionists, Sue Roe, Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 34
quotes, undated
Daniel Kahneman (1934) Israeli-American psychologist
Nobel Prize Autobiographical Information http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2002/kahneman-bio.html (2002).
James Comey (1960) American lawyer and the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
2010s, Hard Truths: Law Enforcement (2015)
Dennis Skinner (1932) British politician
Speech http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199192/cmhansrd/1992-02-28/Debate-1.html in the House of Commons (28 February 1992) <br class="br">1990s
Edvard Munch (1863–1944) Norwegian painter and printmaker
a written note; as quoted in Edvard Much – behind the scream, Sue Prideaux; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 41
after 1930
Richard Rodríguez (1944) American journalist and essayist
Brown : The Last Discovery of America (2003)
Louis Nizer (1902–1994) American lawyer
And all of the noise and the clamor in the library ceased, and there was a hush in the library, for all of the books knew who the real master of the library was.
"Ministers of Justice", Address delivered at the Eighty-Second Annual Convention of the Tennessee Bar Association at Gatlinburg, June 5, 1963; published in 31 Tennessee Law Review 1 (Fall 1963), p. 19.
George Holyoake (1817–1906) British secularist, co-operator, and newspaper editor
This was Owen's aim, as far as human means might do it.
Memorial dedication (1902)
Hastings Banda (1898–1997) First president of Malawi
BBC Training "Interviews from hell" http://www.bbctraining.com/modules/2604/hell2.html. BBC INFAX http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infax/programme/SX+28015_9 <br class="br">BBC Interview, 21 June 1962
Richard Rodríguez (1944) American journalist and essayist
Brown : The Last Discovery of America (2003)
Umberto Boccioni (1882–1916) Italian painter and sculptor
As quoted in Futurism, ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 136.
1910, Manifesto of Futurist Painters,' April 1910
“You got a light, mac? No…but I've got a dark brown overcoat.”
Vivian Stanshall (1943–1995) English musician, artist and author
Big Shot
Others
“…modern poetry is necessarily obscure; if the reader can’t get it, let him eat Browning…”
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist
“Changes of Attitude and Rhetoric in Auden’s Poetry”, p. 149
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) English poet
Letter to Richard Watson Dixon (17 October 1881)
Letters, etc
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman (1961) British philosopher
Interview with Inside Politics, 4 February 2015 https://www.holyrood.com/articles/inside-politics/architect-blue-labour-interview-lord-glasman
Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer
Non-Fiction, Homage to QWERT YUIOP: Selected Journalism 1978-1985 (1986)
Thomas Pynchon book The Crying of Lot 49
Source: The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Chapter 1
Chris Eubank (1966) British former professional boxer
Eubanks new message to the new Prime Minster http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6679611.stm
Oscar Zeta Acosta book Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo
Source: Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1972), p. 54.