Quotes about conversion
page 8

Arthur Conan Doyle photo
George Carlin photo
Agatha Christie photo
Frank Chodorov photo
William Cowper photo
John Danforth photo
Margaret Sanger photo
Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji photo
Alex Salmond photo
Dawn Butler photo

“We must finally see an end to cruel and inhumane conversion therapies, which have been allowed to spread fear and hatred in our society for far too long.”

Dawn Butler (1969) British politician

As quoted in Gay conversion therapy should be made illegal in LGBT action plan, Labour tells Theresa May https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-theresa-may-gay-conversion-therapy-lgbt-action-plan-theresa-may-a8425581.html (2 July 2018) by Ashley Cowburn, The Independent.

John Flavel photo

“The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God and after conversion to keep it with Him.”

John Flavel (1627–1691) English Presbyterian clergyman

A Saint Indeed

Imre Kertész photo
Miguel de Unamuno photo
Sarah Grimké photo
Marc Maron photo
Lindsay Lohan photo
John Fletcher photo
Michael McIntyre photo
Qutb al-Din Aibak photo

“Qutb-ud-Din, whose reputation for destroying temples was almost as great as that of Muhammad, in the latter part of the twelfth century and early years of the thirteenth, must have frequently resorted to force as an incentive to conversion. One instance may be noted: when he approached Koil (Aligarh) in A. D. 1194, ' those of the garrison who were wise and acute were converted to Islam, but the others were slain with the sword.”

Qutb al-Din Aibak (1150–1210) Turkic peoples king of Northwest India

Dr. Murray Titus quoted from B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1946) (Alternative translation: “those of the garrison who were wise and acute were converted to Islam, but those who stood by their ancient faith were slain with the sword”. Lal, K. S. (1990). Indian muslims: Who are they. Original quote is from Hasan Nizami, Taj-ul-Maasir, E.D. https://archive.org/stream/cu31924073036729#page/n237/mode/2up/)

John of St. Samson photo

“The more a person strives after God, the more earnest he will become--the les he will converse with men.”

John of St. Samson (1571–1636)

From, Light on Carmel: An Anthology from the Works of Brother John of Saint Samson, O.Carm.

Anastas Mikoyan photo
John Hall photo
Adolphe Quetelet photo
Walter Dill Scott photo
D. V. Gundappa photo
Edmund Burke photo
Emma Thompson photo

“Four a. m., having just returned from an evening at the Golden Spheres, which despite the inconveniences of heat, noise and overcrowding was not without its pleasures. Thankfully, there were no dogs and no children. The gowns were middling. There was a good deal of shouting and behavior verging on the profligate, however, people were very free with their compliments and I made several new acquaintances. There was Lindsay Doran of Mirage, wherever that might be, who is largely responsible for my presence here, an enchanting companion about whom too much good cannot be said. Mr. Ang Lee, of foreign extraction, who most unexpectedly appeared to understand me better than I understand myself. Mr. James Shamis, a most copiously erudite person and Miss Kate Winslet, beautiful in both countenance and spirit. Mr. Pat Doyle, a composer and a Scot, who displayed the kind of wild behaviour one has learned to expect from that race. Mr. Mark Kenton, an energetic person with a ready smile who, as I understand it, owes me a great deal of money. [Breaks character, smiles. ] TRUE!! [Back in character. ] Miss Lisa Henson of Columbia, a lovely girl and Mr. Garrett Wiggin, a lovely boy. I attempted to converse with Mr. Sydney Pollack, but his charms and wisdom are so generally pleasing, that it proved impossible to get within ten feet of him. The room was full of interesting activity until 11 p. m. when it emptied rather suddenly. The lateness of the hour is due, therefore, not to the dance, but to the waiting in a long line for a horseless carriage of unconscionable size. The modern world has clearly done nothing for transport.”

Emma Thompson (1959) British actress and writer

Golden Globe Award Speech

Anthony Burgess photo
Stella Vine photo
Theodor Mommsen photo

“All the Hellenistic States had thus been completely subjected to the protectorate of Rome, and the whole empire of Alexander the Great had fallen to the Roman commonwealth just as if the city had inherited it from his heirs. From all sides kings and ambassadors flocked to Rome to congratulate her; they showed that fawning is never more abject than when kings are in the antechamber…w:Polybius dates from the battle of Pydna the full establishment of the universal empire of Rome. It was in fact the last battle in which a civilized state confronted Rome in the field on a footing of equality with her as a great power; all subsequent struggles were rebellions or wars with peoples beyond the pale of the Romano-Greek civilization -- with barbarians, as they were called. The whole civilized world thenceforth recognized in the Roman senate the supreme tribunal, whose commissions decided in the last resort between kings and nations; and to acquire its language and manners foreign princes and youths of quality resided in Rome. A clear and earnest attempt to get rid of this dominion was in reality made only once -- by the great Mithradates of Pontus. The battle of pydna, moreover, marks the last occasion on which the senate still adhered to the state-maxim that that they should, if possible, hold no possessions and maintain no garrisons beyond the Italian seas, but should keep the numerous states dependent on them in order by a mere political supremacy. The aim aim of their policy was that these states should neither decline into utter weakness and anarchy, as had nevertheless happened in Greece nor emerge out of their half-free position into complete independence, as Macedonia had attempted to do without success. No state was to be allowed to utterly perish, but no one was to be permitted to stand on its own resources… Indications of a change of system, and of an increasing disinclination on the part of Rome to tolerate by its side intermediate states even in such independence as was possible for them, were clearly given in the destruction of the Macedonian monarchy after the battle of Pydna, the more and more frequent and more unavoidable the intervention in the internal affairs of the petty Greek states through their misgovernment, and their political and social anarchy, the disarming of Macedonia, where the Northern forntier at any rate urgently required a defence different from that of mere posts; and, lastly, the introduction of the payment of land-tax to Rome from Macedonia and Illyria, were so many symptoms of the approaching conversion of the client states into subjects of Rome.”

Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist and writer

The Changing of the Relationship between Rome and Her Client-States
The History Of Rome, Volume 2. Chapter 10. "The Third Macedonian War" Translated by W.P.Dickson
The History of Rome - Volume 2

Elizabeth Rowe photo
Eric Holder photo
Théodore Rousseau photo

“I heard the voices of the trees; the surprises of their movements. Their varieties of form and even their peculiarity of attraction toward the light had suddenly revealed to me the language of the forest. All that world of flora lived as mutes, whose signs I divined, whose passions I discovered. I wished to converse with them and to be able to say to myself, through that other language, painting, that I had put my finger upon the secret of their grandeur.”

Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867) French painter (1812-1867)

quote from a talk between Th. Rousseau and Alfred Sensier, 1850's; as cited in Barbizon days, Millet-Corot-Rousseau-Barye by Charles Sprague Smith, A. Wessels Company, New York, July 1902, p. 147
Alfred Sensier frequently visited the studio of Th. Rousseau (and Millet) and wrote later a book about both artists
1851 - 1867

Billy Joel photo
Gerald Ford photo

“I cannot imagine any other country in the world where the opposition would seek, and the chief executive would allow, the dissemination of his most private and personal conversations with his staff, which, to be honest, do not exactly confer sainthood on anyone concerned.”

Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)

On the Nixon tapes, in a speech to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as quoted in The New York Times (4 May 1974)
1970s

“In America journalism is apt to be regarded as an extension of history: in Britain, as an extension of conversation.”

Anthony Sampson (1926–2004) British writer and journalist

Source: Anatomy of Britain Today (1965), Chapter 9.

Guy Debord photo

“I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”

Joan Chittister (1936) Roman Catholic nun, activist, writer and academic

interview with Bill Moyers, PBS, 2004, http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/archives/chittister_now_flash.html quoted in Catholic nun exposes the hypocrisy of ‘pro-life’ Republicans in one simple quote http://deadstate.org/catholic-nun-exposes-the-hypocrisy-of-pro-life-republicans-in-one-simple-quote/, Deadstate, July 30, 2015.

John F. Kerry photo
Patrick White photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Scott Adams photo

“My philosophy is that every phone conversation has a loser.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

"Phone", 2010-09-03, Scott Adams Blog, 2011-09-30 https://www.scottadamssays.com/2010/09/03/phone/,

François de La Rochefoucauld photo
Antonio Cocchi photo
Maggie Stiefvater photo
Fred Thompson photo
William Hazlitt photo

“Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

"On Wit and Humour"
Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819)

William Wordsworth photo
Homér photo
George Boole photo

“It is not of the essence of mathematics to be conversant with the ideas of number and quantity.”

George Boole (1815–1864) English mathematician, philosopher and logician

Source: 1850s, An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (1854), p. 12; Cited in: Alexander Bain (1870) Logic, p. 191

Gore Vidal photo
Fritz Leiber photo

“To understand why George fell for this story, one must remember his stifled romanticism, his sense of personal failure, his deep need to believe. The thing came to him like, or rather instead of, a religious conversion.”

Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction

“Time Fighter” (p. 67); originally published in Fantastic Universe, March 1957
Short Fiction, A Pail of Air (1964)

Daniel Handler photo
Carl Maria von Weber photo
Eugene Fama photo

“Firms that have a high BE/ME (a low stock price relative to book value) tend to have low earnings on assets. Conversely, low BE/ME (a high stock price relative to book value) is associated with persistently high earnings.”

Eugene Fama (1939) American economist and Nobel laureate in Economics

Source: Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds, 1993, p. 8

“That's conversation. I charge six bucks an hour for that.”

Valerie Solanas (1936–1988) American radical feminist and writer. Attempted to assassinate Andy Warhol.

"A Young Girl's Primer" (1966)

Corbin Bleu photo
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“He speaketh not; and yet there lies
A conversation in his eyes.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

The Hanging of the Crane.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Averroes photo
Rumi photo

“The place that Solomon made to worship in,
called the Far Mosque, is not built of earth
and water and stone, but of intention and wisdom
and mystical conversation and compassionate action.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

"The Far Mosque" in Ch. 17 : Solomon Poems, p. 191
Disputed, The Essential Rumi (1995)

George Macartney photo
Friedrich Hayek photo
Madonna photo
Rob Enderle photo

“I was recently at a meeting of analysts and vendors, and got into a conversation about Apple with one of the ex-Apple executives at the meeting. I got the sense that Tim Cook was hired because he was good at everything Jobs didn't like to do, and Phil Schiller was basically Jobs' internal fan club chairman. In other words, you really don't have a viable company without someone doing what Jobs did.”

Rob Enderle (1954) American financial analyst

No magic, no Apple: Cupertino's identity crisis in the fading afterglow of Jobs http://digitaltrends.com/opinion/no-magic-no-apple-cupertinos-identity-crisis-in-the-fading-afterglow-of-jobs in Digital Trends (10 August 2013)

Thomas Carlyle photo

“Man is not the creature and product of Mechanism; but, in a far truer sense, its creator and producer: it is the noble People that makes the noble Government; rather than conversely.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1820s, Signs of the Times (1829)

“Shitty things are always simple. Same as great things. Patrick Standish, in conversation.”

Kingsley Amis (1922–1995) English novelist, poet, critic, teacher

The speaker is Patrick Standish, copyrighting his own witticism.
Source: Difficulties with Girls (1988), Ch. 17, p. 248

Anthony Burgess photo
E.M. Forster photo

“The suspicion has to arrive that if a public conversation about acceleration is beginning, it’s just in time to be too late. The profound institutional crisis that makes the topic ‘hot’ has at its core an implosion of social decision-making capability.”

Nick Land (1962) British philosopher

"A Quick-and-Dirty Introduction to Accelerationism" https://jacobitemag.com/2017/05/25/a-quick-and-dirty-introduction-to-accelerationism/ (2017)

Maxine Waters photo

“I had a conversation here today with someone asked, ‘Well, what about Pence? If you are able to impeach, Pence will be worse. Well, I said, ‘Look, one at a time. You knock one down, and we’ll be ready for Pence. We’ll get him, too.”

Maxine Waters (1938) U.S. Representative from California

Mad Maxine Waters Brags That She Threatens Trump Supporters ‘All The Time’, Dailywire, 10 September 2018

Hans Reichenbach photo

“It is remarkable that this generalization of plane geometry to surface geometry is identical with that generalization of geometry which originated from the analysis of the axiom of parallels. …the construction of non-Euclidean geometries could have been equally well based upon the elimination of other axioms. It was perhaps due to an intuitive feeling for theoretical fruitfulness that the criticism always centered around the axiom of parallels. For in this way the axiomatic basis was created for that extension of geometry in which the metric appears as an independent variable. Once the significance of the metric as the characteristic feature of the plane has been recognized from the viewpoint of Gauss' plane theory, it is easy to point out, conversely, its connection with the axiom of parallels. The property of the straight line as being the shortest connection between two points can be transferred to curved surfaces, and leads to the concept of straightest line; on the surface of the sphere the great circles play the role of the shortest line of connection… analogous to that of the straight line on the plane. Yet while the great circles as "straight lines" share the most important property with those of the plane, they are distinct from the latter with respect to the axiom of the parallels: all great circles of the sphere intersect and therefore there are no parallels among these "straight lines". …If this idea is carried through, and all axioms are formulated on the understanding that by "straight lines" are meant the great circles of the sphere and by "plane" is meant the surface of the sphere, it turns out that this system of elements satisfies the system of axioms within two dimensions which is nearly identical in all of it statements with the axiomatic system of Euclidean geometry; the only exception is the formulation of the axiom of the parallels.”

Hans Reichenbach (1891–1953) American philosopher

The geometry of the spherical surface can be viewed as the realization of a two-dimensional non-Euclidean geometry: the denial of the axiom of the parallels singles out that generalization of geometry which occurs in the transition from the plane to the curve surface.
The Philosophy of Space and Time (1928, tr. 1957)

Charles Darwin photo

“I assume that cells, before their conversion into completely passive or "formed material," throw off minute granules or atoms, which circulate freely throughout the system, and when supplied with proper nutriment multiply by self-division, subsequently becoming developed into cells like those from which they were derived. These granules for the sake of distinctness may be called … gemmules. They are supposed to be transmitted from the parents to the offspring, and are generally developed in the generation which immediately succeeds, but are often transmitted in a dormant state during many generations and are then developed. Their development is supposed to depend on their union with other partially developed cells or gemmules which precede them in the regular course of growth. … Lastly, I assume that the gemmules in their dormant state have a mutual affinity for each other, leading to their aggregation either into buds or into the sexual elements. … These assumptions constitute the provisional hypothesis which I have called Pangenesis.”

volume II, chapter XXVII: "Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis", page 374 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=389&itemID=F877.2&viewtype=image
It is sometimes claimed that modern biologist are dogmatic "Darwinists" who uncritically accept all of Darwin's ideas. This is false: No one today accepts Darwin's hypothesis of gemmules and pangenesis.
The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868)

Edgar Degas photo

“What a delightful thing is the conversation of specialists! One understands absolutely nothing and it's charming.”

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French artist

Quoted in Degas' letter to Daniel Halévy, 31 Jan 1892, from Degas Letters, ed. Marcel Guerin, trans. Marguerite Kay (1947)
1876 - 1895

Sydney Smith photo

“Macaulay is like a book in breeches…He has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Vol. I, ch. 11
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)

Ze Frank photo
Charlie Beck photo

“This is a national issue, one that is important when we talk about police legitimacy. This is an important national conversation we need to have. When something happens in Missouri or the streets of New York City, it has an impact here. We are all tied together.”

Charlie Beck (1953) Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department

On controversial cases of police killing unarmed civilians — quoted in: [December 5, 2014, http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/government-and-politics/20141204/lapd-police-chief-charlie-beck-on-police-killings-this-is-an-important-national-conversation-we-need-to-have, LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck on police killings: ‘This is an important national conversation we need to have’, The Pasadena Star-News, December 4, 2014, Lauren Gold]

George Galloway photo
Grace Aguilar photo
Ilana Mercer photo
Thomas Brooks photo
Rebecca West photo

“There is no such thing as conversation. It is an illusion. There are intersecting monologues, that is all.”

Rebecca West (1892–1983) British feminist and author

The Harsh Voice: Four Short Novels (1935)

Aron Ra photo
Joseph Joubert photo
Rashi photo

“God knew where he was, but he asked so as to start a conversation with Adam and avoid startling him too much to reply.”

Rashi (1040–1105) French rabbi and commentator

Commenting on Gen. 3:9; why should an omniscient God ask "Where are you?"
Commentary on Genesis

Honoré de Balzac photo

“The man as he converses is the lover; silent, he is the husband.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

L’homme qui nous parle est l’amant, l’homme qui ne nous parle plus est le mari.
Part I, ch. VII.
Letters of Two Brides (1841-1842)

David Morrison photo
John Evelyn photo
Houston Stewart Chamberlain photo
Samuel Butler photo
Mohan Bhagwat photo

“Mother Teresa’s service would have been good. But it used to have one objective, to convert the person, who was being served, into a Christian. The question is not about conversion but if this is done in the name of service, then that service gets devalued.”

Mohan Bhagwat (1950) Indian activist

On Mother Teresa, as quoted in " Mother Teresa’s aim was conversion, says Bhagwat http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/mother-teresas-aim-was-conversion-says-bhagwat/article6926462.ece", The Hindu (24 February 2015)
2015-present

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