Quotes about cause
page 27

Halldór Laxness photo

“There's a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire -
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.”

Shel Silverstein (1930–1999) American poet, cartoonist, and children's writer

Bear In There http://faculty.weber.edu/chansen/humanweb/projects/MeghanUng/bearinthere.htm

“I support the effort of government to bring about reconciliation and unity but this cannot be achieved through a Bill that has caused so much opposition, division and confusion in the country.”

Petero Mataca (1933–2014) Catholic archbishop

Statement to the media, 23 June 2005 http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=23578, on the government's proposal to establish a Reconciliation and Unity Commission (excerpts)

Muhammad photo

“In the name of God, I put my trust in God. O God, I seek refuge in Thee lest I stray or be led astray or cause injustice or suffer injustice or do wrong or have wrong done to me!”

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

Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 2, Number 67b.
Sunni Hadith

John Gray photo
Amartya Sen photo
Vyasa photo
Mao Zedong photo
Barry Boehm photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“I am most anxious that in dealing with matters which every Member knows are extremely delicate matters, I should not use any phrase or expression which would cause offence to our friends and Allies on the Continent or across the Atlantic Ocean.”

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

Speaking on inter-Allied debts in the House of Commons (December 10, 1924); reported in Parliamentary Debates (Commons) (1925), 5th series, vol. 179, col. 259.
Early career years (1898–1929)

Jones Very photo
Bill Engvall photo
Rāmabhadrācārya photo
Eddie Izzard photo
Kathy Griffin photo
Grigoriy Ordzhonikidze photo
Robert Owen photo
John Danforth photo
Gustave Flaubert photo

“Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times. (8 September 1871)”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Correspondence, Letters to George Sand

Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron Kenyon photo
Thomas Moore photo

“Alas! how light a cause may move
Dissension between hearts that love!
Hearts that the world in vain had tried,
And sorrow but more closely tied;
That stood the storm when waves were rough,
Yet in a sunny hour fall off,
Like ships that have gone down at sea
When heaven was all tranquillity.”

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

Lalla Rookh http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/lallarookh/index.html (1817), Part IX: The Light of the Harem

Alanis Morissette photo
Ron White photo
Kent Hovind photo
Rebecca West photo
"Weird Al" Yankovic photo

“I sued Taco Bell
'Cause I ate half a million Chalupas
And I got fat!
I sued Panasonic
They never said I shouldn't use their microwave
To dry off my cat!”

"Weird Al" Yankovic (1959) American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist

"I'll Sue Ya", Straight Outta Lynwood (2006).
Song lyrics

Warren Buffett photo
Sophie Monk photo

“If you are going to take your clothes off for something, it better be a good cause.”

Sophie Monk (1979) Australian actor and singer

"Sophie Monk Poses Nude to Promote Vegetarianism", PETA (22 October 2007) https://www.peta.org/features/sophie-monk-vegetarian/.

Immortal Technique photo

“And they might even have a black president but he’s useless, Cause he does not control the economy stupid”

Immortal Technique (1978) American rapper and activist

The 3rd World
Albums, The 3rd World (2008)

Nisargadatta Maharaj photo
Bruce Springsteen photo
Larry the Cable Guy photo

“I had a buddy of mine call up the other day, all upset 'cause he slept with his third cousin. And I'm like, "Man, if it upsets you that much, quit countin' them!"”

Larry the Cable Guy (1963) American stand-up comedian, actor, country music artist, voice artist

Morning Constitutions (2007)

Gautama Buddha photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Tina Fey photo
P. W. Botha photo

“With the with­drawal of Britain east of the Suez and the consequent vacuum caused in the Middle East, and the stocking of arsenals in some African states by Russia and China, the dangers threatening South Africa today are greater than ever before.”

P. W. Botha (1916–2006) South African prime minister

As Minister of Defence, speaking in Pretoria on 1 April 1968, Die Burger, http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/extract-speech-made-heilbron-16-august-1968 2 April 1968

Kurt Waldheim photo
Elton John photo
Jean de La Bruyère photo
Charles James Fox photo
Lyndon B. Johnson photo

“The challenge of the next half century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our American civilization….
The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning.
The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where leisure is a welcome chance to build and reflect, not a feared cause of boredom and restlessness. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community.
It is a place where man can renew contact with nature. It is a place which honors creation for its own sake and for what it adds to the understanding of the race. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.
But most of all, the Great Society is not a safe harbor, a resting place, a final objective, a finished work. It is a challenge constantly renewed, beckoning us toward a destiny where the meaning of our lives matches the marvelous products of our labor.”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

Remarks at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (May 22, 1964). Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963–64, book 1, p. 704.
1960s

Muhammad photo

“Narrated Abu Musa: A man came to the Prophet and asked, "A man fights for war booty; another fights for fame and a third fights for showing off; which of them fights in Allah's Cause?" The Prophet said, "He who fights that Allah's Word (i. e. Islam) should be superior, fights in Allah's Cause."”

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

Chain of transmission: Sulayman ibn Harb ⟶ Shu'ba ⟶ Amr ⟶ Abu Wael ⟶ Abu Musa note: Note 1: the translation was published by the Islamic University of Madinah and many have associated the university with the Wahhabi Salafi ideology, and have stated it has exported Salafi-inclined theologians around the world. The chain of transmission are not present in the translation and the content inside parentheses are commentaries by the translator not present in the Arabic text. note: Note 2: "Allah's Word" (Arabic: كَلِمَةُ اللَّهِ; kalimat Allāh) could refer to the concept of the logos. The word "aleulya" (الْعُلْيَا) can also be translated as "highest". note: Sunni Hadith
Original: (ar) حَدَّثَنَا سُلَيْمَانُ بْنُ حَرْبٍ، حَدَّثَنَا شُعْبَةُ، عَنْ عَمْرٍو، عَنْ أَبِي وَائِلٍ، عَنْ أَبِي مُوسَى ـ رضى الله عنه ـ قَالَ جَاءَ رَجُلٌ إِلَى النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقَالَ الرَّجُلُ يُقَاتِلُ لِلْمَغْنَمِ، وَالرَّجُلُ يُقَاتِلُ لِلذِّكْرِ، وَالرَّجُلُ يُقَاتِلُ لِيُرَى مَكَانُهُ، فَمَنْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ قَالَ ‏ "‏ مَنْ قَاتَلَ لِتَكُونَ كَلِمَةُ اللَّهِ هِيَ الْعُلْيَا فَهُوَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ‏"‏‏.‏
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari, compiled by Muhammad al-Bukhari. Translated into English by Muhammad Muhsin Khan in The Translation of the Meanings Of Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, Number 65 https://archive.org/stream/nabeel_Vol1_201703/Vol%204#page/n120/mode/1up, 1971. The Arabic text used for this work is from Fath Al-Bari, a multi-volume commentary on the Sunni hadith collection Sahih al-Bukhari, composed by Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani in the 15th century, published by the Egyptian Press of Mustafa Al-Babi Al-Halabi in 1959.

Mr. T photo
Heath Ledger photo
Robert Hunter (author) photo
Valentine Blacker photo
James Boswell photo

“What can he mean by coming among us? He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.”

Spoken by Samuel Foote about a "law-Lord" (1783)
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)

Stanley Baldwin photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Muammar Gaddafi photo
David Horowitz photo
Aron Ra photo

“[Religion] is literally a delusion, but one caused by conditioning rather than pathology. There are a number of studies showing a negative correlation of faith as debilitating certain areas of the brain. So religion can lead to, conceal, or even encourage mental disorders without actually being one itself.”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

Patheos, Anti-theist Answers to Christian Questions http://www.patheos.com/blogs/reasonadvocates/2015/11/22/anti-theist-answers-to-christian-questions/ (November 22, 2015)

Mark Manson photo

“People hold on to arbitrary certainties and try to enforce them on others, often violently, in the name of some made-up righteous cause.”

Mark Manson (1984) American writer and blogger

Source: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016), Chapter 9, “...And Then You Die” (p. 207)

Paul Carus photo
George Wither photo

“Shall I, wasting in despair,
Die because a woman’s fair?
Or make pale my cheeks with care,
’Cause another’s rosy are?
Be she fairer than the day,
Or the flowery meads in May,
If she be not so to me,
What care I how fair she be?”

George Wither (1588–1667) English poet

The Shepherd's Resolution; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "If she undervalue me, What care I how fair she be?", Sir Walter Raleigh, Poem.

John Millington Synge photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

“I think the women, therefore, must be concerned with these values, and I return to my statement that if a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

Remarks at Fourth Annual Republican Women's National Conference (6 March 1956) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=10746
1950s

Alex Salmond photo

“We must tackle the causes of personal debt, and not just the consequences.”

Alex Salmond (1954) Scottish National Party politician and former First Minister of Scotland

Citizens Advice Bureaux (August 15, 2007)

Robert Seymour Bridges photo
Moby photo

“Mainly the fact that I love animals and don’t want to be involved in anything that causes or contributes to animal suffering. Also, I never really liked meat that much, unless it neither looked [n]or tasted like meat. Like taco filling. But, mainly because I love animals and don’t want them to suffer. Death is unavoidable, suffering is avoidable.”

Moby (1965) Activist, American musician, DJ and photographer

On what inspired him to go vegan, from an " Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1x3ol1/i_am_musician_dj_photographer_and_director_moby/; as quoted in "Vegan Veteran Moby Reveals on Reddit Why He Eschews Eating Animals", in Ecorazzi (6 February 2014) http://www.ecorazzi.com/2014/02/06/vegan-veteran-moby-reveals-on-reddit-why-he-eschews-eating-animals/

John Bright photo

“I am for "peace, retrenchment, and reform" — the watchword of the great Liberal party 30 years ago. Whosoever may abandon the cause I shall never pronounce another Shibboleth, but as long as the old flag floats in the air I shall be found a steadfast soldier in the foremost ranks”

John Bright (1811–1889) British Radical and Liberal statesman

Speech (28 April 1859); this phrase was first used by William IV in his speech from the Throne for the Whig government of Earl Grey (17 November 1830), quoted in The Times (29 April 1859), p. 6.
1850s

Christopher Monckton photo

“Communists, socialists and fascists everywhere, from Mr. Obama upward, have taken to the global warming cause like a quack to colored water. Just about every word they utter on this subject is a falsehood calculated to deceive, or—in plain English—a lie.”

Christopher Monckton (1952) British public speaker and hereditary peer

Leftists are immoral: Pray for them http://www.wnd.com/2013/12/leftists-are-immoral-pray-for-them/ WorldNetDaily, December 24, 2013.

George Holmes Howison photo
Maneka Gandhi photo

“It is so naturally high in fat that it leads to obesity, the cause of all modern disease. Ayurveda actually lists milk as one of the five white poisons.”

Maneka Gandhi (1956) Indian politician and activist

On drinking milk, as quoted in "Ayurveda actually lists milk as one of the five white poisons" http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/apr/11inter.htm, Rediff (12 April 2000)
1991-2000

Mike Rosen photo
Bill Hicks photo
Niccolo Machiavelli photo

“Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.”

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 14; translated by W. K. Marriot

Michael Moorcock photo

“One can act too much in the cause of self-preservation and experience nothing fresh as a result.”

Source: The War Hound and the World's Pain (1981), Chapter 2 (p. 25)

Thaddeus Stevens photo
Nisargadatta Maharaj photo
Mohammed VI of Morocco photo

“Dear citizens, We have gained more backing for our foremost cause from the international community thanks to a better understanding of the circumstances and considerations underpinning the issue of our territorial integrity. As a result, there is growing support for our judicious autonomy initiative.”

Mohammed VI of Morocco (1963) King of Morocco

Original French:Cher peuple, Le capital sympathie dont jouit notre première cause à l'international, s'est accru grâce à une bonne appréciation des tenants et des aboutissants de la question de notre intégrité territoriale. Cette évolution trouve son illustration dans le soutien grandissant apporté à notre initiative judicieuse, en l'occurrence notre proposition d'autonomie.
Televised speech–30 July 2013 http://www.maroc.ma/en/royal-speeches/full-text-royal-speech-delivered-tuesday-occasion-throne-day

Gertrude Stein photo
Giosuè Carducci photo
John F. Kennedy photo

“And as Americans know from our history on our own old frontier, gun battles are caused by outlaws, and not by officers of the peace.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1961, Berlin Crisis speech

Pete Doherty photo
Susan B. Anthony photo

“Even, under such circumstances, a commoner of England, tried before a jury of Lords, would have far less cause to complain than should I, a woman, tried before a jury of men.”

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist

An Account of the Proceedings on the Trial of Susan B. Anthony on the Charge of Illegal Voting] (1874)
Trial on the charge of illegal voting (1874)

Pope John Paul II photo
Benjamin Spock photo

“We used to think of cow's milk as a nearly perfect food. However, over the past several years, researchers have found new information that has caused many of us to change our opinion. This has provoked a lot of understandable controversy, but I have come to believe that cow's milk is not necessary for children. First, it turns out that the fat in cow's milk is not the kind of fat ("essential fatty acids") needed for brain development. Instead, milk fat is too rich in the saturated fats that promote artery blockages. Also, cow's milk can make it harder for a child to stay in iron balance. Milk is extremely low in iron and slows down iron absorption. It can also cause subtle blood loss in the digestive tract that causes the child to lose iron. … Some children have sensitivities to milk proteins, which show up as ear problems, respiratory problems, or skin conditions. Milk also has traces of antibiotics, estrogens, and other things a child does not need. There is, of course, nothing wrong with human breast milk — it is perfect for infants. For older children, there are many good soy and rice milk products and even nondairy "ice creams" that are well worth trying. If you are using cow's milk in your family, I would encourage you to give these alternatives a try.”

Benjamin Spock (1903–1998) American pediatrician and author of Baby and Child Care

Source: Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care (1945), Seventh edition (1998), p. 346

Anastas Mikoyan photo
George Santayana photo

“To know how just a cause we have for grieving is already a consolation.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress (1905-1906), Vol. IV, Reason in Art

Ayn Rand photo
James Monroe photo
N. K. Jemisin photo
T. E. Lawrence photo
Sam Harris photo