Quotes about building
page 27

J. Howard Moore photo
J. Howard Moore photo
J. Howard Moore photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Chris Hedges photo
Lewis Black photo

“There are people who believe that dinosaurs and men lived together, that they roamed the Earth at the same time. There are museums that children go to, in which they build dioramas to show them this. And what this is, purely and simply, is a clinical psychotic reaction. They are crazy. They are stone. Cold. Fuck. Nuts.”

Lewis Black (1948) American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor

I can't be kind about this, because these people are watching The Flinstones as if it were a documentary.
Red, White, and Screwed (2006)

Roy Jenkins photo
Roy Jenkins photo
Harold Wilson photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Hugo Chávez photo

“We have to strengthen ourselves, our will to do battle, our awareness. We have to build a new and better world.”

Hugo Chávez (1954–2013) 48th President of Venezuela

President Hugo Chavez's Speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Wednesday, September 20, 2006

William Quan Judge photo
Tulsi Gabbard photo
Michael Moorcock photo

“The albino reflected on the power of the human mind to build a fantasy and then defend it with complete determination as a reality.”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

Book 1, Chapter 2 “The Pearl at the Heart of the World” (p. 139)
The Elric Cycle, The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

Thomas Hobbes photo
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto photo
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto photo
Lala Lajpat Rai photo
Clement Attlee photo
Clement Attlee photo
Clement Attlee photo
Han Zheng photo
D.H. Lawrence photo
Salman Khan photo
Fidel Castro photo
Mikhail Kalinin photo

“The contingencies of the moment may justify the omission of certain conveniences in the building of temporary accommodations.”

Mikhail Kalinin (1875–1946) Soviet politician

Quoted in "From Ruins to Reconstruction: Urban Identity in Soviet Sevastopol After World War II" - 2009

David Ben-Gurion photo

“In Jerusalem, the United Nations (a truly United Nations) will build a Shrine of the Prophets to serve the federated union of all continents; this will be the seat of the Supreme Court of Mankind, to settle all controversies among the federated continents, as prophesied by Isaiah.”

David Ben-Gurion (1886–1973) Israeli politician, Zionist leader, prime minister of Israel

As quoted on Look magazine, and reproduced by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency http://www.jta.org/1962/01/04/archive/ben-gurion-foresees-gradual-democratization-of-the-soviet-union, 4 January 1962.

Kevin Plank photo

“Give it a chance, try to make it happen. This is our greatest asset as a nation and one that we have to continue to encourage. You don’t have to go broke, you don’t have to bet everything on it, but you can start one day at a time by taking a chance and seeing if you too can build a great company.”

Kevin Plank (1972) American entrepreneur and philanthropist

Social Growth Technologies Wins U-Maryland Cupid’s Cup Business Competition Under Armour’s Kevin Plank and BB&T Sponsor Fifth Annual Event https://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/news/social-growth-technologies-wins-u-maryland-cupids-cup-business-competition-under-armours-kevin, University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business (May 10, 2010)

Ayad Allawi photo
Frederick Douglass photo

“I hold that the Federal Government was never, in its essence, anything but an anti-slavery government. Abolish slavery tomorrow, and not a sentence or syllable of the Constitution need be altered. It was purposely so framed as to give no claim, no sanction to the claim, of property in a man. If in its origin slavery had any relation to the government, it was only as the scaffolding to the magnificent structure, to be removed as soon as the building was completed.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

As quoted in Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July https://books.google.com/books?id=-m2WBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT106&lpg=PT106&dq=%22scaffolding+to+the+magnificent+structure%22+douglass&source=bl&ots=KT4-pHUo5-&sig=ACfU3U21MIZj_niQo7pIGSxeO5vhEkXq4w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwim6fvM3I3iAhVqiOAKHWIqDK8Q6AEwB3oECAcQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22scaffolding%20to%20the%20magnificent%20structure%22%20douglass&f=false
1860s, Should the Negro Enlist in the Union Army? (1863)

Narendra Modi photo

“I have the ability to pick stones thrown at me to build a staircase to climb up.”

Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India

Quoted from Lok Sabha Election Results 2019: Rise and rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi https://indianexpress.com/article/india/narendra-modi-lok-sabha-elections-2019-result-bjp-congress-seats-counting-5745459/

David Lloyd George photo
Jeremy Corbyn photo

“Our economy is fragile so we must begin to rebuild it. Our duty now is to move forward in a calm and conciliatory manner to build a new relationship with Europe and build a Britain that works for everyone in every part of this country.”

Jeremy Corbyn (1949) British Labour Party politician

David Cameron to Jeremy Corbyn: For heaven's sake, go https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36663181 BBC News (29 June 2016)
2010s, 2016

Michael Gove photo
Ta-Nehisi Coates photo

“Mitch McConnell… does not want to be responsible for enslavement that happened 150 years ago, but, yet and still, wants the right to operate his business or operate his career in a building that was built by enslaved people.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates (1975) writer, journalist, and educator

Ta-Nehisi Coates: Reparations Are Not Just About Slavery But Also Centuries of Theft & Racial Terror, Democracy Now (20 June 2019)

Ta-Nehisi Coates photo
Mark Kirk photo

“I have spent my life building bridges and tearing down barriers — not building walls. That’s why I find Donald Trump’s belief that an American-born judge of Mexican descent is incapable of fairly presiding over his case is not only dead wrong, it is un-American. As the Presidential campaign progressed, I was hoping the rhetoric would tone down and reflect a campaign that was inclusive, thoughtful and principled. While I oppose the Democratic nominee, Donald Trump’s latest statements, in context with past attacks on Hispanics, women and the disabled like me, make it certain that I cannot and will not support my party’s nominee for President regardless of the political impact on my candidacy or the Republican Party. It is absolutely essential that we are guided by a commander-in-chief with a responsible and proper temperament, discretion and judgment. Our President must be fit to command the most powerful military the world has ever seen, including an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons. After much consideration, I have concluded that Donald Trump has not demonstrated the temperament necessary to assume the greatest office in the world.”

Mark Kirk (1959) former U.S. junior senator from Illinois

As quoted in Sen. Mark Kirk withdraws support for Trump https://web.archive.org/web/20160608015204/http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/sen-mark-kirk-withdraws-support-for-trump/ by Lynn Sweet, 7 June 2016, Chicago Sun-Times.

Leanne Wood photo
Theresa May photo

“But the message is clear to all - this House has spoken and now is not the time to obstruct the democratically expressed wishes of the British people. It is time to get on with leaving the European Union and building an independent, self-governing, global Britain.”

Theresa May (1956) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Theresa May: Don't obstruct voters over Brexit https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38879249 BBC News (6 February 2017)
2010s, On Brexit

Erich Ludendorff photo
Johann Gottfried Herder photo

“Should there not be manifest progress and development but in a higher sense than people have imagined it? … No one is in his age alone, he builds on the preceding one, this becomes nothing but the foundation of the future, wants to be nothing but that — this is what we are told by the analogy in nature, God’s speaking exemplary model in all works! Manifestly so in the human species!”

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic

"This Too a Philosophy of History for the Formation of Humanity" ["Auch eine Philosophie zur Geschichte der Menscheit"] (1774), as translated by Michael N. Forster, in Johann Gottlieb von Herder: Philosophical Writings (2002), edited by Michael N. Forster, p. 299

J. M. Barrie photo
Mary Robinson photo

“It is a huge honour to take up the role as Chair of The Elders at such a critical moment for peace, justice and human rights worldwide. Building on the powerful legacies of Archbishop Tutu and Kofi Annan, I am confident that our group’s voice can both be heard by leaders and amplify grassroots activists fighting for their rights.”

Mary Robinson (1944) Former President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

Mary Robinson appointed new Chair of The Elders, https://www.theelders.org/news/mary-robinson-appointed-new-chair-elders (1 November 2018)

W.E.B. Du Bois photo
Nicolas Chamfort photo

“Society is not, as is commonly supposed, the development of nature, but rather her dismantling and entire recasting. It is a second building made from the ruins of the first.”

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer

La Société n'est pas, comme on le croit d'ordinaire, le développement de la Nature, mais bien sa décomposition et sa refonte entière. C'est un second édifice, bâti avec les décombres du premier.
Maximes et Pensées, #8
Reflections, #8

Shulgi photo

“In order that the ruler and the general manager can build everything for you concerning the fortress, carry out this work on the fortress now. The reputation of this fortress shall not be diminished.”

About the fortress Igi-hursaja.
Correspondence of the Kings of Ur, Letter from Shulgi to Puzur-Shulgi about work on the fortress Igi-hursanga http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section3/tr3108.htm

Shulgi photo

“The orders are rigorous: you should not neglect your work load. They are to proceed with the building work by night and in the heat of noon. You will not be sleeping during the night or in the heat of noon!”

Correspondence of the Kings of Ur, Letter from Shulgi to Puzur-Shulgi about work on the fortress Igi-hursanga http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section3/tr3108.htm

“When reading, writing and translating, it is important to have a way of keeping track of what you have absorbed and learned, so that you can build on it and acquire richer resources for the future. When reading, read actively and critically.”

John Minford (1946) New Zealand sinologist

Jot down interesting expressions, forceful adjectives, little turns of phrase, that strike you as effective, as things you might one day be able to use yourself—in both languages.
Public Lecture (2018)

Alastair Reynolds photo

“Haven’t you ever heard of morale-building?”

Khouri had asked.
“Heard of it,” Volyova said. “Don’t happen to agree with it. Would you rather be happy and dead, or scared and alive?”
Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 19 (p. 381).

Richard Arkwright photo

“The manufacture of yarn being at length full established, the demand for it became too great for the patentees to supply, and then they sold licenses very extensively, so that at least 60,000 l. has been expended in consequence of such grants. Mr. Arkwright and his partners have expended upwards of 30,000/. in buildings and machinery in Derbyshire, and above 4,000 /. in Manchester; and they have lost not less than 5,000 l. or 6.000 l.”

Richard Arkwright (1732–1792) textile entrepreneur; developer of the cotton mill

by injuries from mobs, and from fire. The saving of labour by this machinery is several hundred thousands per annum, and yet trade is so greatly increased, that many more people are employed, and can earn a comfortable maintenance, than were employed before. The same inventions maybe applied with equal advantage to prepare and spin wool.
The case, 1782

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed photo
Anish Kapoor photo

“A drunken party animal of a building and ultimately a celebration of the people of London.”

Anish Kapoor (1954) British contemporary artist of Indian birth

By Jonathan Jones.
Open thread: With the Orbit Olympic sculpture, is there too much public art?

Indra Nooyi photo
Mukesh Ambani photo
Gerrit Blaauw photo
Willie Mays photo
Gordon B. Hinckley photo

“There is nothing as energizing, as confidence-building, as sustaining as the power of love.”

How substantial is its influence on the human mind and heart! How great and magnificent is its power in overcoming fear and doubt, worry and discouragement!
Standing for Something: Ten Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes, Times Books. ISBN 0-8129-3317-6. (2000).

Russell Brand photo
James Burke (science historian) photo

“Karnak was the first great statement of what technology could do with unlimited manpower and the approval of the gods. Ironically, the modern equivalent lies, again, in the desert. This time, the nomads also settled by a river… a river of oil. But what had took the pharaohs 4,000 years to build took the Kuwaitis 4,000 days.”

James Burke (science historian) (1936) British broadcaster, science historian, author, and television producer

What's happened in Kuwait, the change from a nomadic existence to being able to buy and use everything modern technology has to offer has come in much less than one generation. Kuwait represents the immense power of technology used in a way most of us have never experienced, because we've lived with the kind of change it can bring for more than a hundred years. Here it's been focused. Change has been instant and total. Kuwait has suddenly become like New York, or any other of the great urban islands on technology, totally dependent on that technology. Like them, without it, Kuwait would return to the desert.
Connections (1979), 1 - The Trigger Effect

Immortal Technique photo
Prem Rawat photo
Harlan Ellison photo
Kamisese Mara photo

“Above all there is our fixed joint determination to build a strong and united Fiji, rich in diversity and pampered with tolerance, goodwill and understanding.”

Kamisese Mara (1920–2004) President of Fiji

(Attributed to Mara by his successor as President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, 10 October 2005).
Independence Day address, 10 October 1970.

Rajiv Gandhi photo
Thurgood Marshall photo
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck photo
Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck photo
Viktor Orbán photo

“Is it possible to successfully reject migration, to protect families, to defend Christian culture, to announce a programme of national unification and nation building, and to create an order of Christian freedom? Is it possible in all this to survive against the full force of an international headwind, and indeed to make it succeed?”

Viktor Orbán (1963) Hungarian politician, chairman of Fidesz

Tusnádfürdő speech https://www.kormany.hu/en/the-prime-minister/the-prime-minister-s-speeches/prime-minister-viktor-orban-s-speech-at-the-30th-balvanyos-summer-open-university-and-student-camp, 27 July 2019

Cory Doctorow photo

“We don't need to build more prisons! We must build more graveyards!”

Luiz Carlos Alborghetti (1945–2009) Italian-Brazilian radio commenter, showman and political figure

Original: (pt) Não precisamos construir mais cadeias! Temos de construir mais cemitérios!
Original: (pt) Source: [9 December 2009, Morre Luiz Carlos Alborghetti, dono do bordão 'bandido bom é bandido morto', https://extra.globo.com/tv-e-lazer/morre-luiz-carlos-alborghetti-dono-do-bordao-bandido-bom-bandido-morto-209786.html, Portuguese, Extra, Editora Globo S/A, 31 March 2019]

Steve Jobs photo
Robert Frost photo

“'I can repeat the very words you were saying:
"Three foggy mornings and one rainy day
Will rot the best birch fence a man can build."”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Think of it, talk like that at such a time!
What had how long it takes a birch to rot
To do with what was in the darkened parlor?
You couldn't care! The nearest friends can go
With anyone to death, comes so far short
They might as well not try to go at all.
Home Burial (1915)

Joseph Goebbels photo
Dana Arnold photo

“If style is anything more than formal analysis or a description of the ornamentation of a building it must surely offer or represent a specific set of ideals from the moment of its production.”

Dana Arnold (1961) Middlessex uni prof

Source: Reading Architectural History (2002), Ch. 3 : On classical ground : Histories of style

Christopher Poole photo

“I can’t wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company”

Christopher Poole (1988) American Internet entrepreneur, founder of 4chan

Source: 7 March 2016 https://variety.com/2016/digital/news/google-hires-4chan-founder-chris-poole-moot-1201724308/

Raewyn Connell photo
Paul Kruger photo

“Search in your past for what is good and beautiful. Build your future from there.”

Paul Kruger (1825–1904) President of the South African Republic

From his last letter. As reported in: They Made this Land Donker, 1981, p. 164

Dana Arnold photo
T.S. Eliot photo
Ralph Nader photo
Dana Arnold photo
Dana Arnold photo
Dana Arnold photo
Dana Arnold photo
Dana Arnold photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“Beyond our normal twenty-year outlook period, we recently attempted a forecast of the CO2 [carbon dioxide] build-up. We assumed different growth rates at different times, but with an average growth rate in fossil fuel use of about one percent per year starting today, our estimate is that the doubling of atmospheric CO2 levels might occur sometime late in the 21st century. That includes the impact of a synfuels industry. Assuming the greenhouse effect occurs, rising CO2 concentrations may begin to induce climactic changes around the middle of the 21st century.”

Edward E. David Jr. (1925–2017) American engineer

Keynote address at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory on the Palisades, New York campus of Columbia University (October 26, 1982) ( Inventing the Future: Energy and the CO2 "Greenhouse Effect", October 26, 1982, December 22, 2018, Exxon, w:Edward E. David Jr., Edward E., David Jr. http://www.climatefiles.com/exxonmobil/inventing-future-energy-co2-greenhouse-effect/,)

Marilu Henner photo

“When we participate actively in our lives and open our senses to all the stimuli around us, we build memories that can be retrieved and enjoyed the rest of our lives.”

Marilu Henner (1952) American actress

Total Memory Makeover (2012), p. 23 https://books.google.it/books?id=LCPiLFodRHMC&pg=PA4023.

Ron Paul photo

“What is most dangerous is that although this virus will eventually disappear, the assault on our civil liberties is not likely to be reversed. From this point on, whenever local officials, county officials, state governors, or federal bureaucrats decide there is sufficient reason to suspend the Constitution they will not hesitate to do so. Anyone who challenges the suspension of the Constitution “for our own good” will be labeled “unpatriotic” and perhaps even reported to the authorities. We have already seen hotlines springing up across the country for Americans to report other Americans who dare venture outside to enjoy the sun and build up their vitamin D protection against the coronavirus. The government is justified in cancelling the Constitution, we are told, because we are in an emergency situation caused by the Covid-19 virus. But do people forget that the Constitution itself was written and adopted while we were in an “emergency situation”? Did the framers of the Constitution fail to add an 11th Amendment to the Bill of Rights saying, “oh by the way, none of this counts if we get sick?””

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

Of course not! Those who wrote our Constitution understood that these rights are not granted by the government, but rather by our Creator. Thus it was never a question as to when or under what conditions they could be suspended: the government had no authority to suspend them at all because it did not grant them in the first place.
2020, End the Shutdown; It’s Time for Resurrection!

Herbert Hoover photo

“American life is builded, and can alone survive, upon . . . [the] fundamental philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen centuries ago.”

Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st President of the United States of America

“Radio Address to the Nation on Unemployment Relief,” American Presidency Project, October 18, 1931

Alfred de Zayas photo
Joanna Trollope photo

“A combination of a desire to communicate, and a passionate belief in the power of story to build up relationships, to shape us. People-watching. But also being aware of situations that are currently preoccupying people. Codes of conduct change, but what the human heart wants really doesn’t.”

Joanna Trollope (1943) British writer

On what stirs her to write in “Interview with Joanna Trollope” https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/writers/advice/41/a-writers-toolkit/interviews-with-authors/interview-with-joanna-trollope in Writers & Artists

Warren Buffett photo

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

As quoted in Corporate Survival: The Critical Importance of Sustainability Risk Management (2005) by Dan Robert Anderson, p. 138

“An Entrepreneur knows how to build a business from multiple failures.”

Akshay Makadiya (1993) an Entrepreneur and Founder of RankLane

In a speech given on 12 March 2013, at the Google Business Groups https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Business_Groups, Rajkot.

Mel Gibson photo