Quotes about call
page 95

“Outcasts of war, misfits, rebellious souls,
Seekers of some vague kingdom in the stars —
They hide out in the hills and stir up trouble,
Call themselves prophets, too, and prophesy
That something new is coming to the world,
The Lord knows what! Well, it's a long time coming,
And, meanwhile, we're the wheat between the stones.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Innkeeper
Source: A Child is Born (1942)

War, World, Soul, Star

“I manifest no paranoia when I say that there has been in the Labour Party an element which has treated realism as treachery, regarded appeals to party unity as an excuse for suppression of liberties and scorned any emphasis on the importance of winning elections as a contaminating bacillus called 'electoralism.'”

Neil Kinnock (1942) British politician

Later life
Source: ‘Reforming the Labour Party’, Contemporary Record, Volume 8, Issue 3 (1994), p. 540

“But I will not... trouble you with what I have largely discoursed in the Sceptical Chymist, to call in question the grounds on which Chymists assert, that all mixt bodies are compounded of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. For it may suffice me now to tell you that, whatsoever they may be able to obtain from other bodies, it does not appear by Experience, which is the grand, if not the onely, Argument they rely on, that all mixt bodies that have Qualities consist of their tria prima, since they have not been able, that we know, truly, and without new Compositions, to resolve into those three, either Gold, or Silver, or Crystal, or Venetian Talck, or some other bodies, that I elsewhere name; & yet these bodies are endowed with divers Qualities, as the two former with Fusibleness and Malleability, and all of them with Weight and Fixity; so that in these and the like bodies, whence Chymisats have not made it yet appear, that their Salt, Sulphur and Mercury, can be truly and adequately separated, 'twill scarce be other than precarious to derive the malleableness, colour, and other Qualities of such bodies from those Principles.”

Robert Boyle (1627–1691) English natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor

Of the Imperfection of The Chymist's Doctrine of Qualities (1675)

Question, Appearance

“It is somewhat strange to me, that neither the Spagyrists themselves, nor yet their Adversaries, should have taken notice that Chymists have rather supposed than evinced, that the Analysis of bodies by fire, or even that at least some Analysis is the onely instrument of investigating what Ingredients mixt bodies are made up of, since in divers cases That may be discovered by Composition as well as by Resolution; as it may appear, that Vitriol consists of metalline parts (whether Martial, or Venereal, or both) associated by Coagulation with acid ones, one may, I say, discover this as well by making true Vitriol with Spirit (improperly called Oil) of Sulphur, or that of Salt, as by distilling or Resolving Vitriol by the fire.”

Robert Boyle (1627–1691) English natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor

Of the Imperfection of The Chymist's Doctrine of Qualities (1675)

Making love, Appearance, Parting

“May you be able to overclimb the obstacles custom, tradition, thoughtlessness, and habit have built up; may even such poor words as mine win you to the realization that there is no joy in life like the joy of discipleship, no so-called sacrifice that can be made which is not as the dross cast into the fire where gold comes out instead; oh! that in the hearts of even a few of you — one here and there scattered through this vast audience — the feeble words may light the eternal flame, and the passing movement caused by speech may grow into resolute will and a determined endeavor. Oh, then for you, too, in the near future there awaits the Finding of the Master, for you also who seek shall find; if you knock with the hammer of these Qualifications, surely the door shall swing open before you, that you may find Him, as I have been blessed enough to find Him, that you may know that service which is perfect freedom, that joy which is in the presence of the Master.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Initiation, The Perfecting of Man, 1923, p. 83

Life, Freedom, Light, Future

“Quickly or slowly, according as that probation is lived nobly or poorly, another summons comes to him, when the Master sees that he has gained to a considerable extent the Qualifications which are necessary, and needs a further fuller teaching in order that he may apply his knowledge more efficiently to life. Again he is called; again he sees his Master. And then the Master accepts him as disciple, no longer on probation, but accepted and approved; now his consciousness is to begin to blend with the consciousness of his Master, and he is to feel His presence more clearly.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Initiation, The Perfecting of Man (1923), p.63

Life, Feeling, Knowledge

“Now, one of the great facts which underlie the whole possibility of a Path of Human Perfecting, that I must take for granted throughout the lectures — for to deal with it as a matter for argument would lead us far away from our subject — one of the fundamental facts in Nature, is the fact of reincarnation. That means the gradual growth of man through many lives, through many experiences of the physical world, of the intermediate world, and also of the world called heaven. Evolution would be too short to enable a man to grow from imperfection to perfection, unless he had many opportunities, a long, long road to lead him upward.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Initiation, The Perfecting of Man (1923)

World, Nature, Perfection

“World Jewry has been, for sixteen years, despite our policy, an irreconcilable enemy of Fascism. In Italy our policy has led, in the Semitic elements, to what can today be called a true rush to board the ship.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

Speech held in Trieste (September 18, 1938) Source: Il discorso di Trieste, archivioluce, 2021-01-04 https://www.archivioluce.com/2019/09/18/il-discorso-di-trieste/,

World, Relation ships

“When men tell us that the great religious teachers are neuropaths, that Buddha, Christ, S. Francis, are neuropaths, then we are inclined to cast our lot with the abnormal few, rather than with the normal many. We know what they were. They were men who saw far more and knew far more than we; what matters it whether we call their brains normal or abnormal? In these men's consciousness is a ray of the Divine splendour; as Browning says: Through such souls alone God, stooping, shows sufficient of Hill Light For us in the dark to rise by. And if in those cases the brain change from a normal to an abnormal state, then humanity must ever remain thankful to abnormality. That was the first answer which may be made to this statement of Lombroso, and you find a man like Dr. Maudsley, the famous doctor, asking whether there is any law that nature shall use only for her purposes what we call the perfect brains? May it not be that for her higher performances she needs brains which are different from the ordinary, the normal brains of man?”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Essays and Addresses, Vol. III- Evolution and Occultism (1913)

Men, God, Law, Soul

“[W]e understand that if the child were to give in to the overpowering character of reality and experience he would not be able to act with the kind of equanimity we need in our non-instinctive world. So one of the first things a child has to do is to learn to “abandon ecstasy,” to do without awe, to leave fear and trembling behind. Only then can he act with a certain oblivious self-confidence, when he has naturalized his world. We say “naturalized” but we mean unnaturalized, falsified, with the truth obscured, the despair of the human condition hidden, a despair that the child glimpses in his night terrors and daytime phobias and neuroses. This despair he avoids by building defenses; and these defenses allow him to feel a basic sense of self-worth, of meaningfulness, of power. They allow him to feel that he controls his life and his death, that he really does live and act as a willful and free individual, that he has a unique and self-fashioned identity, that he is somebody—not just a trembling accident germinated on a hothouse planet that Carlyle for all time called a “hall of doom.””

Ernest Becker book The Denial of Death

We called one’s life style a vital lie, and now we can understand better why we said it was vital: it is a necessary and basic dishonesty about oneself and one’s whole situation. This revelation is what the Freudian revolution in thought really ends up in and is the basic reason that we still strain against Freud We don’t want to admit that we arerevelation is what the Freudian revolution in thought really ends up in and is the basic reason that we still strain against Freud. We don’t want to admit that we are fundamentally dishonest about reality, that we do not really control our own lives. We don’t want to admit that we do not stand alone, that we always rely on something that transcends us, some system of ideas and powers in which we are embedded and which support us. This power is not always obvious. It need not be overtly a god or openly a stronger person, but it can be the power of an all-absorbing activity, a passion, a dedication to a game, a way of life, that like a comfortable web keeps a person buoyed up and ignorant of himself, of the fact that he does not rest on his own center. All of us are driven to be supported in a self-forgetful way, ignorant of what energies we really draw on, of the kind of lie we have fashioned in order to live securely and serenely. Augustine was a master analyst of this, as were Kierkegaard, Scheler, and Tillich in our day. They saw that man could strut and boast all he wanted, but that he really drew his “courage to be” from a god, a string of sexual conquests, a Big Brother, a flag, the proletariat, and the fetish of money and the size of a bank balance.
Human Character as a Vital Lie
The Denial of Death (1973)

Life, Death, Truth, World

“When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before the white man came, an Indian said simply, "Ours."”

Vine Deloria Jr. (1933–2005) American writer

As quoted in "Vine Deloria Jr." by Melissa Lorenz EMuseum @ Minnesota State University, Mankato (2008) https://web.archive.org/web/20080925082716/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/history/mncultures/vinedeloriajr.htm

“War means fighting. The business of the soldier is to fight. Armies are not called out to dig trenches, to throw up breastworks, to live in camps, but to find the enemy and strike him; to invade his country, and do him all possible damage in the shortest possible time. This will involve great destruction of life and property while it lasts; but such a war will of necessity be of brief continuance, and so would be an economy of life and property in the end. To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure all the fruits of victory is the secret of successful war.”

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general

As quoted in Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War (1904) by George Francis Robert Henderson http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12233, Ch. 25 : The Soldier and the Man, p. 481 Q him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow…]]

Life, War, Secret, Business

“[T]ogether we shall write an American story of hope, not fear. Of unity, not division. Of light, not darkness. A story of decency and dignity, love and healing, greatness and goodness.May this be the story that guides us, the story that inspires us, and the story that tells ages yet to come that we answered the call of history, we met the moment. Democracy and hope, truth and justice, did not die on our watch, but thrived, that America secured liberty at home and stood once again as a beacon to the world. That is what we owe our forebears, one another, and generations to follow.So, with purpose and resolve, we turn to those tasked of our time, sustained by faith, driven by conviction, and devoted to one another and the country we love with all our hearts. May God bless America and may God protect our troops. Thank you, America.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, January, Presidential Inaugural Address (2021)

Love, God, Truth, Age

“We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation,
in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful
will emerge battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light.
If only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

Amanda Gorman The Hill We Climb

The Hill We Climb (2020)

People, Beauty, Light, Country

“I discovered the existence of an underground... This underground only occasionally intermingles in part with the worlds of business, science, politics, academia, and the so-called arts... it definitely...infiltrates all of Western civilization.... one thing is usually certain: members of this underground who are respected in their communities don't talk about the interest or beliefs that qualify them for membership unless they know you too are in the club. They have learned from experience that to be outspoken brings censure —from their ministers, customers, employers, or even friends... They are found in all walks of life: scientists, psychiatrists, physicians, housewives, college students, businessmen, teenagers, and at least a few ministers in formal religions... They gather in small groups, quietly and often semi-secretly... usually discuss affairs of the underground only with other members... All are to some degree emotionally and intellectually dedicated to a cause. Finally, the underground has its own literature, language, technology, and to some extent demigods.”

Robert Monroe (1915–1995) American founder of The Monroe Institute

Journeys Out of the Body (1971), Chapter 2. Search and Research

Life, World, Religion, Art

“South of Oklahoma, east of New Mexico,
West of Louisiana, where all them Cajuns go
We gotta a little place called Texas
Where the women grow on trees
There right there for the pickin'
Just as easy as a man could please You'd better run take hold
You're gonna get young 'fore ya get old
Them Texas women is Texas gold
Kisses that are sweeter than cactus”

Willis Allan Ramsey (1951) American singer-songwriter

Northeast Texas Women

Women, Kiss, Tree

“Wish I was a millionaire
I'd play rock music and grow long hair
Tell you boys
about a new Rolls-Royce Pretty women would call on me
I'd give ‘em all the third degree
Give ‘em satin sheets
To keep ‘em off the streetsHallelujah, let me sock it to ya
Praise the Lord...”

Willis Allan Ramsey (1951) American singer-songwriter

Satin sheets

Women, Music, Boy

“...the great Book of Genesis—a marvellous cup filled with the “wine” of the esoteric knowledge of the Sanctuaries of ancient days. Temples of the Ageless Wisdom exist to-day, even if less easily discoverable, and in them are to be found the selfsame teachings, laws, successions, Initiations and radiations of the light of Truth. World changes are not reflected in the Mysteries, which are repositories and conveyors of eternal and unchanging Ideas. A sack of corn containing a silver cup awaits every Benjamin who finds himself called by a Hierophant (Joseph) from the “famine-stricken” outer world to the “storehouse” from which an elder brother (a Master) Who has already attained will, in prodigal abundance, supply a gift of the golden grain of eternal verities.”

Geoffrey Hodson (1886–1983) New Zealand occultist

The Hidden Wisdom In The Holy Bible (1963), Volume III

Wisdom, Truth, Books, World

“So from the age of 10, I became anorexic, and then bulimic, and then stayed that way for about 20 years, until one day I just said, "Hey, what if this is it? What if this is just what I look like and nothing I do changes that? So how much time would I save if I stopped taking that extra second every time I look in the mirror to call myself a big fat fuck? How much time would I save if I just let myself walk by a plate-glass window without sucking in my gut and throwing back my shoulders? How much time would I save?"”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

And it turns out I save about 97 minutes a week. I can take a pottery class.
From Her Tours and CDs, The Notorious C.H.O. Tour

Age, Way, Change, Time

“I call special attention to the fact that it is only our universal suicide which would prove a panacea for all the ills our ' flesh is heir to j individual suicides can do little or no good, save to the individuals themselves; Thus true philosophers may rationally and generously deny themselves the luxury of self-murder, because their death must leave the human average still worse than it is; and, besides, death’s coming is so certain and (at farthest) so near, that it is scarcely worth while to put one’s self out of breath hastening to meet him.”

James Thomson (B.V.) (1834–1882) Scottish writer (1834-1882)

"The Speedy Extinction of Evil and Misery", part VII, p. 91
Essays and Phantasies (1881)

Death, Suicide, Universe, Self-confidence

“Of true benevolence, its charms divine,
With other motives to call forth its power,
And its grand triumphs, multiplied beyond
All former bounds, in this its golden age,
Humbly I sing, awed by the holy theme;
A theme exalted, though as yet unsung,
In beauty rich, of inspiration full,
And worthy of a nobler harp than that
From which heroic strains sublimely sound.”

Carlos Wilcox (1794–1827) American poet

Remains of the Rev. Carlos Wilcox: with a memoir of his life (1828), p. 99 https://archive.org/details/remainsofrevcarl00wilc/page/100/mode/2up Poetry

Age, Beauty, Motivation, Singing

“It is our weakness that calls forth the grace of God. You show your weakness, He gives us strength.”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

Source: Movie The Two Popes, Pope Benedict as Anthony Hopkins

God

“Taking the time to get to know those you are called to serve, both the priests as well as the people, make sure that they know that you love them and you are there to serve them and be with them.”

Gregory Parkes (1964) Roman Catholic bishop

Source: Bishop brothers; Stephen and Gregory Parkes to become 1 of 11 sibling-bishops in U.S Catholic history https://www.fox13news.com/news/bishop-brothers-stephen-and-gregory-parkes-to-become-1-of-11-sibling-bishops-in-u-s-catholic-history (August 30, 2020)

Love, People, Making love, Time

“We cannot call up an army of peace but we can call up a spiritual army to implore peace, so that the fact that one day of peace is better than years of war will penetrate peoples’ consciences.”

Eduardo Martínez Somalo (1927–2021) cardinal of the Catholic Church

Cardinal Martinez reiterates Pope’s call for peace https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal_martinez_reiterates_popes_call_for_peace (August 9, 2006)

War, People, Peace

“I was born in 1948. I can’t recall a world before television…Initially there was nothing on it but “snow,” and then the nightly advent of a targetlike device called “the test pattern,” which people actually gathered to watch.
I imagine that the World Wide Web and its modest wonders are no more than the test pattern for whatever the twenty-first century will regard as its equivalent medium.”

William Gibson book Distrust That Particular Flavor

"The Net Is a Waste of Time," The New York Times Magazine, July 14, 1996.
Distrust That Particular Flavor (2012)

People, World, Imagination

“We know very well that we are only allowed to go on eating our dinner, to finish seeing the new play, or to enjoy to the end the ball, the Christmas fete, the promenade, the races or, the hunt, thanks to the policeman's revolver or the soldier's rifle, which will shoot down the famished outcast who has been robbed of his share, and who looks round the corner with covetous eyes at our pleasures, ready to interrupt them instantly, were not policeman and soldier there prepared to run up at our first call for help.”

Leo Tolstoy The Kingdom of God Is Within You

Source: The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894), Chapter XII, Conclusion—Repent Ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

Pleasure, Help, Christmas

“I know—as we all do—very little of the practice and the spoken and written doctrine of former times on the subject of non-resistance to evil. I knew what had been said on the subject by the fathers of the Church—Origen, Tertullian, and others—I knew too of the existence of some so-called sects of Mennonites, Herrnhuters, and Quakers, who do not allow a Christian the use of weapons, and do not enter military service; but I knew little of what had been done by these so-called sects toward expounding the question.”

Leo Tolstoy The Kingdom of God Is Within You

Preface
The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894)

Question, Evil, Time

“We simply don’t do optimism or pessimism, we do logistics. That is our calling and duty, neither to stir up false hope nor dash incipient possibility. To work with what we have to achieve what we can, neither over nor understating it. So stating it straight, I don’t know what the outcome of the election will be with the single exception I guess that we will not be talking of a National Government after it. There is still the enormous extent to which the Irish people “trust” the devil they know, and there are as yet insurmountable difficulties for a new party to make revolutionary progress through a corrupted structure.”

Justin Barrett (1971) Irish activist

New Year Message 2020 https://nationalparty.ie/new-year-message-2020/ (January 1, 2020)

People, Making love, Hope, Optimism

“This world taught woman nothing skillful and then said her work was valueless. It permitted her no opinions and said she did not know how to think. It forbade her to speak in public, and said the sex had no orators. It denied her the schools, and said the sex had no genius. It robbed her of every vestige of responsibility & then called her weak.”

Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947) American social reformer, suffragist (1859-1947)

From a 1902 speech as president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association quoted in "The Wings of Dawn" by Louise Scarmato (2013)

World, School, Sex, Thinking

“What’s a call girl?”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

asked Tej, her brows crimping in puzzlement.
“Uh…” Ivan sought a translation. “Like a Betan licensed practical sexuality therapist, only without the licensed and the therapy parts.”
Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 11 (p. 229)

Girl

“It is impossible for me to express my loathing and horror of the practice men have of killing things for pastime so-called 'hunting,' or 'sport. No one but a barbarian can engage in such pursuits, or can look upon them or know of them without pain and indignation. It makes me want to fight and cry whenever I think of them. And when I see men engaged in such execrable activities (the crippling, killing, and terrifying of whole communities of innocent and happy beings, shooting them down in cold blood, and with hellish enthusiasm), my feeling is that I must stop them at all hazards. And there have been times, when I have come upon men engaged in these fiendish doings, when I would have shot them down if I had been armed, the enormity of their crimes has come over me with such vividness and power.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: The New Ethics (1907), The Perils of Over-population, pp. 157–158

Men, Pain, Happiness, Making love

“There’s never been an act done since the beginning, from a kid stealing candy to a dictator committing genocide, that the person doing it didn’t think he was fully justified. That’s a mental trick called rationalizing, and it’s done the human race more harm than anything else you can name.”

Leigh Brackett book The Long Tomorrow

Source: The Long Tomorrow (1955), Chapter 14

Thinking, Personality

“Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call ‘life’ was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

Timothy Ferriss book Tools of Titans

Life, People, Learning, Change

“They fled precipitately, some of them with what we may call an exquisite ignominy,—in terror of the treadmill or worse.”

Thomas Carlyle book Latter-Day Pamphlets

1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), The Present Time (February 1, 1850)

“Another force driving progressive evolution is the so-called "arms-race."”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

Prey animals evolve faster running speeds because predators do. Consequently predators have to evolve even faster running speeds, and so on, in an escalating spiral. Such arms races probably account for the spectacularly advanced engineering of eyes, ears, brains, bat "radar" and all the other high-tech weaponry that animals display.
The Evolutionary Future of Man (1993)

“I think everyone should go on my diet. It's called the Fuck It Diet.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

Basically what it is, is if I want to eat something but it has a lot of fat or carbs, I just take a moment, and I go within, and I say "Fuck it" and I eat it. You have to do it 6 times a day. It works really well with the Fuck That Shit Exercise Program.
From Her Tours and CDs, Revolution Tour

Thinking

“Generally a chef's book is like a calling card or a portfolio to display their personal work.”

Sally Schneider American journalist

Books, Personality

“All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling."”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come.
Speech to the Third Army (1944)

Men, Bitch

“The strengthening of behavior which results from reinforcement is appropriately called "conditioning."”

B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) American behaviorist

In operant conditioning we "strengthen" an operant in the sense of making a response more probable or, in actual fact, more frequent.
Science and Human Behavior (1953)

Behavior

“Why are all reflections lovelier than what we call the reality?”

George MacDonald book Phantastes

not so grand or so strong, it may be, but always lovelier?
Phantastes (1858)

Reality

“Comrades, I've voyaged long and far on sea and soul,
my eyes have seen disease, gods, ghosts, and men, and yet
in no land have I seen a more false, murderous siren
than that wind-headed, babbling, blind bitch-hound called Hope!”

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer

Odysseus, Book X, line 892
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)

Men, God, Disease, Hope

“All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called “facts.””

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician

They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

“I come from a world of conservative Christian thought. I've absorbed Christianity with my mother's milk. So it must be obvious that certain… archetypes, aren't they called?”

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish filmmaker

stick in one's mind, and that certain lines, certain courses of events, certain ways of behaving, become adequate symbols for what goes on in the Christian system of ideas. … I keep myself supplied with my own angels and demons...
Torsten Manns interview.
Bergman on Bergman (1970)

World

“I love art, and I love history, but it is living art and living history that I love... It is in the interest of living art and living history that I oppose so-called restoration. What history can there be in a building bedaubed with ornament, which cannot at the best be anything but a hopeless and lifeless imitation of the hope and vigour of the earlier world?”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

"The History of Pattern-Designing" lecture (1882) The Collected Works of William Morris (1910 - 1915) Vol. 22

Love, World, Making love, Hope

“My friends, a new day has dawned on Ontario! A day of opportunity, a day of prosperity and a day of growth. We’re going to turn this province around, so our children and their children will always be proud to call Ontario home. We will make sure Ontario is the greatest place on Earth to live, to do business and to raise a family. And we will make Ontario once again the engine of Canada.”

Doug Ford (1964) 26th Premier of Ontario

Victory speech the night of the 2018 Ontario general election https://www.macleans.ca/politics/doug-fords-victory-speech-ontario-is-open-for-business-full-transcript/ (7 June 2018) 2018

Children, Making love, Family, Home

“When we, as individuals, take from our neighbors what they won’t voluntarily give—at gunpoint, if necessary—we call it theft. When majorities take from minorities what they won’t voluntarily give—at gunpoint, if necessary—we call it taxation.”

Mary Ruwart (1949) American scientist and libertarian activist

Source: Healing Our World: The Compassion of Libertarianism, (2015), p. 21

“Either there is or there is not a mechanism for enforcing human rights. If there is not, it would seem that calling them 'rights' simply means that we think it would (morally) be a good idea if they were enforced, although, of course, they are not. A 'human right' is an inherently vacuous conception, and to speak of 'human rights' is a kind of puffery or white magic.”

Raymond Geuss (1946) British philosopher

Pg 144
History and Illusion in Politics (2001)

Idea, Thinking

“I do not believe that the real life of this nation is to be found either in great luxury hotels and the petty gossip of so-called fashionable suburbs, or in the officialdom of the organised masses. It is to be found in the homes of people who are nameless and unadvertised, and who, whatever their individual religious conviction or dogma, see in their children their greatest contribution to the immortality of their race. The home is the foundation of sanity and sobriety; it is the indispensable condition of continuity; its health determines the health of society as a whole.”

Robert Menzies (1894–1978) Australian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia

Radio talk, 22 May, 1942
Wilderness Years (1941-1949)

Life, Children, People, Health

“Our devotees must rediscover that being Christians in the Holy Land is a call. So we must not fall into the temptation, induced by our being few, to live segregated into a religious and cultural ghetto. Let’s get out of the ghetto.”

William Hanna Shomali (1950) auxiliary bishop of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem

‘Get out of the ghetto,’ new auxiliary bishop of Jerusalem urges Christians https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/19813/get-out-of-the-ghetto-new-auxiliary-bishop-of-jerusalem-urges-christians (May 27, 2010)

“The bitter, yet merciful, lesson which death teaches us is to distinguish the gold from the tinsel, the true values from the worthless chaff.
The terrible events of life are great eye-openers. They force us to learn that which it is wholesome for us to know, but which habitually we try to ignore — namely, that really we have no claim on a long life ; that we are each of us liable to be called off at any moment, and that the main point is not how long we live, but with what meaning we fill the short allotted span — for short it is at best.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Life and Destiny (1913)

Life, Death, Learning

“Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.”

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German poet, playwright, theatre director

"From a German War Primer"

Men, Country

“I’m trying to do what’s right, whether or not that measures up with what men call honorable. There’s a gap between those, you know?”

Brent Weeks book The Way of Shadows

Source: The Way of Shadows (2008), Chapter 32 (p. 277)

Men

“Sometimes in our activist and production-oriented American society and culture we succumb to pragmatism looking at the Christian life and our sharing in the apostolic mission of the Church as a matter being able to “do” things for Christ, the Church or others. In fact, the Christian life is a gift and a call to truth and love given to us by God. It is first a matter of "being," of simply existing as a person created by God and redeemed by him in Christ. We live out this truth and love in specific ways according to our age, talents, and unique vocation. At no point are the sacraments about what we have done or promise to do for God. They are God's free gift of grace to us. At the same time, these gifts of love entail an obligation to bear witness to God's love in word and deed by our collaboration in freedom with the grace given.”

Álvaro Corrada del Río (1942) Puerto Rican Catholic bishop

Pastoral Reflection on the Sacrament of Confirmation http://www.americancatholicpress.org/Bishop_Corrada_Pastoral_Reflecton%20_on_Confirmation.html (October 7, 2005)

Love, Life, God, Truth

“When you have a Ph. D., you call them hypotheses, not guesses.”

Gregory Benford (1941) Science fiction author and astrophysicist

Source: Short fiction, Vortex, p. 107

“We don't deliberately desire to scare anybody - we design our creatures to fit in harmony with the story and, of course, our forte is the grotesque. That's why our films were classified so many times as horror films, which they weren't. I would call a war film a horror film because in those you see guts split and people being slaughtered, but our films deal with fantasy and are more theatrical than realistic.”

Ray Harryhausen (1920–2013) American animator

Harryhausen on Horror

War, People, Time

“There is a romance with the people of God. To know that you're building up the Kingdom of God, you who have been called and been given that grace, Jesus Christ is working through you in a very special way. I can’t save anybody personally, but I can through the Church through that I serve.”

Daniel Patrick Reilly (1928) Roman Catholic bishop

Bishop Daniel P. Reilly https://vimeo.com/273945657 (2008)

God, People, Way, Christ

“I think the whole movement of #MeToo is not just calling out the sexual harassers, which is really important, but also crying out that we want equal pay, equal representation, equal opportunities, and that we want to see more female directors and photographers.”

Jamie Chung (1983) American actress

As quoted in "#MeToo not just about calling out sexual harassers" in The Korea Times (31 March 2018) http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2018/04/398_245997.html?utm_source=dable

Thinking, Cry

“I feel blessed and grateful to serve in a double calling as a priest and Navy chaplain. Not everyone is called to my life, but according to my way of thinking, had I not been there, these sailors and Marines would not have been able to receive the sacraments that we Catholics believe are so important. That is why I encourage our priests and seminarians with an interest to consider a life as a military chaplain. Some will find they really enjoy it.”

Joseph L. Coffey (1960) American Roman Catholic priest, former Navy chaplain and bishop

Serving “a double calling” as a priest and Navy chaplain https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/07/12/serving-a-double-calling-as-a-priest-and-navy-chaplain/ (July 12, 2020)

Life, Way, Feeling, Thinking

“Tremble all ye oppressors of the world! Take warning all ye supporters of slavish governments, and slavish hierarchies! Call no more (absurdly and wickedly) REFORMATION, innovation. You cannot now hold the world in darkness. Struggle no longer against increasing light and liberality. Restore to mankind their rights; and consent to the correction of abuses, before they and you are destroyed together.”

Richard Price (1721–1791) Welsh nonconformist preacher and radical

Source: A Discourse on the Love of Our Country (1789), pp. 50–51

World, Support, Light

“The centre of all our efforts in caring for the sick must be the person himself or herself. Our attention must be directed to each person at this particular moment of their journey of life. In our modern world, and even within our health system, we face the danger of depersonalisation. Too easily, we can focus on procedures and techniques, on the task at hand and the hoped-for outcome. The challenge is to remain focused on the particular person before us, on their physical well-being and also on their emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. It is their particular fears and hopes, struggles and frailties that we are called to receive and to carry with them.”

Albert LeGatt (1953) Catholic bishop

World Day of the Sick https://www.archsaintboniface.ca/media/Archeveque-Archbishop/World-Day-of-the-Sick-2015_1.pdf (February 11, 2015)

Life, Health, World, Fear

“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a "battlespace" that our uniformed military is called upon to "dominate."”

James Mattis (1950) 26th and current United States Secretary of Defense; United States Marine Corps general

At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part.
In Union There Is Strength (2020)

Thinking

“The Crown used to call a Parliament annually, but there was not an annual election. These words, annuo parliamento, relate to the time of their meeting, and not their election.”

Giles Rooke (1743–1808) British judge (1743-1808)

Trial of Redhead alias Yorke (1795), 25 How. St. Tr. 1081.

Time

“I've grown up with racism my entire life. I've been bullied, sent to the hospital, beat up, I've been called a Chink and a Gook. Every single racial slur an Asian person can be called, I've been called it.”

Arden Cho (1985) Korean-American actress and singer

As quoted in "‘I’ve Been Called A Chink and a Gook’ – Arden Cho Opens Up About Racism" in Resonate (9 August 2017) https://www.weareresonate.com/2017/08/ive-called-chink-gook-arden-cho-opens-racism/

Life, Personality

“I define friendship as a bond that transcends all barriers. When you are ready to expect anything and everything from friends, good, bad or ugly... that's what I call true friendship.”

Harbhajan Singh (1980) Indian cricketer

Friendship, For Friend

“The Universal Zulu Nation stands to acknowledge wisdom, understanding, freedom, justice, and equality, peace, unity, love, and having fun, work, overcoming the negative through the positive, science, mathematics, faith, facts, and the wonders of God, whether we call him Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, or Jah.”

Afrika Bambaataa (1957) American DJ, record producer and activist

Love, Wisdom, God, Peace

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

People, Powerful

“Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

Wisdom

“Each man has his own vocation; his talent is his call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“It is not, you know, that you lie well, cousin. It’s merely that no one is foolhardy enough to call you on it. This may have given you an inflated idea of your skill at dissimulation.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book The Hallowed Hunt

Source: World of the Five Gods series, The Hallowed Hunt (2005), Chapter 8 (p. 136)

Lie, Idea

“First of all one has to answer the question of why the painful experiences that man must undergo are called "trials."”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

We would reply that these experiences are trials in relation to our faith, which indicates that with regard to troubling or painful experiences we have duties resulting from our human vocation; in other words, we must prove our faith in relation to God and in relation to ourselves. In relation to God, by our intelligence, our sense of the absolute, and thus our sense of relativities and proportions; and in relation to ourselves, by our character, our resignation to destiny, our gratitude. There are in fact two ways to overcome the traces that evil, or more precisely suffering, leaves in the soul: these are, firstly, our awareness of the Sovereign Good, which coincides with our hope to the extent that this awareness penetrates us; and secondly, our acceptance of what, in religious language, is called the "will of God"; and assuredly it is a great victory over oneself to accept a destiny because it is God's will and for no other reason.
[2003, Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism, World Wisdom, 215, 978-0-94153227-3]
Spiritual life, Trials

Pain, Question

“To be a famous woman is to constantly have every part of your body and soul subjected to endless critique. You know, if you're one pound overweight they call you "fatty."”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

If you're one pound underweight they say you have an eating disorder. And if you're exactly the right weight? They call you a fatty with an eating disorder! J.K. Rowling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gDKbT_l2us, published 2021-01-26 ContraPoints

Soul, Parting

“There’s a rule I used to call The Niven Rule but which I just now have decided to call the Rusting Bridges rule. It came to me after reading Niven’s “All The Bridges Rusting.””

James Nicoll (1961) Canadian fiction reviewer

In this story, humans have by the early 21st century explored the Solar System and sent not just one but two crewed ships to Alpha Centauri … despite which the characters moan endlessly about the dire state of the space program. “Eyes of Amber” would be another example of the Rusting Bridges [Rule]: No matter how much the space program you actually have has achieved, whether it’s first contact with aliens or trips to nearby stars, it can never have achieved as much as the space programs you can imagine would have achieved in its place, given that imaginary programs aren’t limited by issues of politics, funding, or engineering. Review of “Eyes of Amber”, by Joan D. Vinge (as anthologized in New Women of Wonder, edited by Pamela Sargent http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/yet-more-sf-about-women-by-women, 2015 2010s

Reading

“When I was a little boy, (when I was just a boy)
And the devil would call my name (when I was just a boy)
I'd say "Now who do,
Who do you think you're fooling?"”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Loves Me Like a Rock
Song lyrics, There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973)

Fools, Boy, Thinking

“Money, first and foremost, is a medium of communication, conveying the information we call 'price.”

L. Neil Smith (1946) American writer

Government control of the money supply is censorship, a violation of the First Amendment. Inflation is a lie.
"Some New Tactical Reflections".

Money, Communication

“I don't believe God would give you something that you wouldn't be able to use for his glory," Carrol said. I don't believe you have to compromise who you are as a person in order to do what God has called you to do.”

Madeline Carroll (1996) American actress

Source: 'I Can Only Imagine' Breakout Star Madeline Carroll: 'God has Plans for the Gifts He Gives Us' https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2018/march/i-can-only-imagine-breakout-star-madeline-carroll-god-has-plans-for-the-gifts-he-gives-us (March 27, 2018)

God, Personality

“God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.”

Frank Borman (1928) NASA astronaut

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth. Last lines of the Apollo 8 Genesis reading, and adding his own closing to the message from Apollo 8 crew, as they celebrated becoming the first humans to enter lunar orbit, Christmas Eve (24 December 1968) http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo8_xmas.html

God, Water, Sea

“Lecco is a country that I would call one of the most beautiful in the world.”

Alessandro Manzoni (1785–1873) Italian poet and novelist

Original: (it) Lecco è Un paese che chiamerei uno dei più belli al mondo.

World, Beauty, Country

“Everybody calls me Mr. President. It's true. It's a funny thing.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Quoted by * 2019-07-17
Analysis: The 51 most outrageous lines from Donald Trump's NC rally
Chris Cillizza
WLOS.com
https://wlos.com/news/local/analysis-the-51-most-outrageous-lines-from-donald-trumps-nc-rally
2019, July 2019

“I do not yet know God's plan, but I hope that his grace will accompany me to carry out the project for which God has chosen and called me.”

Khalid Rehmat (1968) Pakistani Catholic apostolic vicariate

The new Vicar Apostolic of Quetta places his office under the protection of Our Lady http://www.fides.org/en/news/69326-ASIA_PAKISTAN_The_new_Vicar_Apostolic_of_Quetta_places_his_office_under_the_protection_of_Our_Lady (4 January 2021)

God, Hope

“There's one that I remember so dearly, it's called the Three Character Classics. The first phrase goes... 'People at birth are inherently good.'”

Chloé Zhao (1982) Chinese film director, screenwriter, and film producer

Those six letters had such a great impact on me when I was a kid, and I still truly believe them today.
2021 Academy Award acceptance speech

People, Birth

“Most people live in a half-dream all their lives and call it reality.”

John Steinbeck book The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights

Appendix, letter to Elizabeth Otis (25 July 1959)
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights (1976)

People, Dreams, Reality

“I wish I was a little bit taller
I wish I was a baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good, I would call her
I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat, and a six four Impala.”

Skee-Lo (1973) American rapper

"I Wish"
I Wish, 1995

Girl

“Excessive jealousy is the alibi of someone who does not give enough value to the one who calls love.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) L'eccessiva gelosia è l'alibi di chi non dà abbastanza valore a colui che chiama amore.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Jealousy

“Dare to call it madness only if you felt part of it.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Abbiate il coraggio di chiamarla follia solo se vi sentiste parte di essa.
Source: prevale.net

Parting, Madness

“All of this extremely important has already been given to you: it's called life. Make good use.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Tutto ciò di estremamente importante ti è stato già donato: si chiama vita. Fanne buon uso. Source: From the radio show Memories http://www.m2o.it/special/memories-reloaded/ conducted by Prevale

Life

“Aware that in every competition there are bound to be winners and losers, we wish to call on all stakeholders to exhibit maturity in accepting both defeat and victory. In this way, reactions to any of the two conditions would be measured, modest and charitable towards one another.”

Philip Naameh (1948) Ghanaian Catholic archbishop

GCBC APPEAL FOR CALM https://www.cbcgha.org/index.php/2020/12/16/gcbc-appeal-for-calm/ (December 16, 2020)

Way, Victory

“Ask that merchant in human flesh what property is. He will tell you, pointing to the long bier that he calls a ship and in which he has herded and shackled men who still appear to be alive: “Those are my property; I bought them at so much a head.””

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Question that nobleman, who has lands and ships or who thinks that the world has been turned upside down since he has had none, and he will give you a similar view of property.
Condemning the defense of Slavery, Galleys and Serfdom as property
On Property (24 April 1793)

Men, Appearance

“As a result of the great choice of the people, I have been given the honoured responsibility of presiding over the new administration of the republic. I am very grateful to each and every one of you; with your support, I promise to follow this great call to duty.”

Roh Moo-hyun (1946–2009) 9th President of the Republic of Korea

Excerpts from inaugural address (25 February 2003)

People, Support

“Governments of developing countries sometimes proposed projects that did not directly benefit the population, but did benefit the government; the so-called 'white elephants.'”

Mark Eyskens (1933) Belgian politician

For example, they wanted to build highways and build large buildings, while we thought it was better to focus on good education. Development cooperation not only helps others, but also ourselves http://www.wereldmissiehulp.be/eyskens/

Country

“No tyranny can exist without police powers to enforce the ruler's "laws" and punish rebels or free thinkers. The enforcers are called soldiers when sent to other countries and police when operating inside a country. But their function is the same.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Focus Fourteen

Law, Country

“The so-called global economy was not a permanent institution, […] but a set of transient circumstances peculiar to a certain time: the Indian summer of the fossil fuel era.”

James Howard Kunstler book The Long Emergency

Source: The Long Emergency (2005), Chapter 1, p. 12.

Time, Summer

“Of all the arts, music makes the most direct appeal to the emotions and to those shadowy, but real portions of our being called the imagination and the soul. Emotion is as indispensible to music as love to religion.”

Walter Raymond Spalding (1865–1962) American music pedagogue and author

Page 3 https://books.google.com/books?id=pQARAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA3. Music: An Art and a Language (1920), Preliminary Considerations (Ch. I)

Love, Religion, Art, Music

“Campaigns are normally very, very social. Politics is absolutely a team sport. And doing all of these campaign activities from separate homes and not being able to gather … it’s far more challenging to feed off each other's energy, even on the Zoom call.”

Bowinn Ma (1985) Canadian politician

North Shore News https://www.nsnews.com/news/north-van-lonsdale-incumbent-ma-not-making-any-predictions-1.24226696, North Shore News: North Van-Lonsdale incumbent Ma not making any predictions, October 24, 2020

Home, Sport