Quotes about doing page 13
Grigori Rasputin (1869–1916) Russian mystic
As quoted in Rasputin: The Untold Story By Joseph T. Fuhrmann p.100
Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor
Press conference (June 1972) as quoted in Elvis — Word for Word : What He Said, Exactly As He Said It (1999), by Jerry Osborne, p. 208
Snoop Dogg (1971) American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor
"Drop It Like It's Hot", R&G: The Masterpiece (2004).
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, Remarks to the Kenyan People (July 2015)
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 173.
Daniel Radcliffe (1989) English actor
The Guardian - October 11, 2006 http://www.danradcliffe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23&Itemid=28
Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) French sociologist (1858-1917)
Source: Rules of Sociological Method, 1895, p. 3
Hasan al-Askari (846–874) Eleventh of the Twelve Imams
Majlisi, Bihārul Anwār, vol.78, p. 377
General
“There is no point to be alive if you can't do deadlift.”
Jón Páll Sigmarsson (1960–1993) Icelandic strongman
As quoted in Dhani Jones, Jonathan Grotenstein, The Sportsman (2011), p. 169
Jones & Grotenstein comment that this quote refers to Sigmarsson's "ability to lift enormous weights off the ground. Jón Páll was only 32 when he died of a heart attack brought on by - you guessed it - a deadlift."
Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011) Indian guru
As quoted in Sathyam Sivam Sundaram (The Life Story of Sathya Sai Baba) by N. Kasturi, Ch. XXVI : Holy Joy http://www.ineval.org/sai/Teachings/SathyamSivamSundaram/s1026.html
Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876) Russian revolutionary, philosopher, and theorist of collectivist anarchism
Variant translations:
A natural society, in the midst of which every man is born and outside of which he could never become a rational and free being, becomes humanized only in the measure that all men comprising it become, individually and collectively, free to an ever greater extent.
Note 1. To be personally free means for every man living in a social milieu not to surrender his thought or will to any authority but his own reason and his own understanding of justice; in a word, not to recognize any other truth but the one which he himself has arrived at, and not to submit to any other law but the one accepted by his own conscience. Such is the indispensable condition for the observance of human dignity, the incontestable right of man, the sign of his humanity.
To be free collectively means to live among free people and to be free by virtue of their freedom. As we have already pointed out, man cannot become a rational being, possessing a rational will, (and consequently he could not achieve individual freedom) apart from society and without its aid. Thus the freedom of everyone is the result of universal solidarity. But if we recognize this solidarity as the basis and condition of every individual freedom, it becomes evident that a man living among slaves, even in the capacity of their master, will necessarily become the slave of that state of slavery, and that only by emancipating himself from such slavery will he become free himself.
Thus, too, the freedom of all is essential to my freedom. And it follows that it would be fallacious to maintain that the freedom of all constitutes a limit for and a limitation upon my freedom, for that would be tantamount to the denial of such freedom. On the contrary, universal freedom represents the necessary affirmation and boundless expansion of individual freedom.
This passage was translated as Part III : The System of Anarchism , Ch. 13: Summation, Section VI, in The Political Philosophy of Bakunin : Scientific Anarchism (1953), compiled and edited by G. P. Maximoff
Man does not become man, nor does he achieve awareness or realization of his humanity, other than in society and in the collective movement of the whole society; he only shakes off the yoke of internal nature through collective or social labor... and without his material emancipation there can be no intellectual or moral emancipation for anyone... man in isolation can have no awareness of his liberty. Being free for man means being acknowledged, considered and treated as such by another man, and by all the men around him. Liberty is therefore a feature not of isolation but of interaction, not of exclusion but rather of connection... I myself am human and free only to the extent that I acknowledge the humanity and liberty of all my fellows... I am properly free when all the men and women about me are equally free. Far from being a limitation or a denial of my liberty, the liberty of another is its necessary condition and confirmation.
Man, Society, and Freedom (1871)
Context: The materialistic, realistic, and collectivist conception of freedom, as opposed to the idealistic, is this: Man becomes conscious of himself and his humanity only in society and only by the collective action of the whole society. He frees himself from the yoke of external nature only by collective and social labor, which alone can transform the earth into an abode favorable to the development of humanity. Without such material emancipation the intellectual and moral emancipation of the individual is impossible. He can emancipate himself from the yoke of his own nature, i. e. subordinate his instincts and the movements of his body to the conscious direction of his mind, the development of which is fostered only by education and training. But education and training are preeminently and exclusively social … hence the isolated individual cannot possibly become conscious of his freedom.
To be free … means to be acknowledged and treated as such by all his fellowmen. The liberty of every individual is only the reflection of his own humanity, or his human right through the conscience of all free men, his brothers and his equals.
I can feel free only in the presence of and in relationship with other men. In the presence of an inferior species of animal I am neither free nor a man, because this animal is incapable of conceiving and consequently recognizing my humanity. I am not myself free or human until or unless I recognize the freedom and humanity of all my fellowmen.
Only in respecting their human character do I respect my own....
I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
Tom Watson (1874–1956) American businessman
Attributed to Watson in: William G. Dickerson (1995) In search of the ultimate practice. p. 19.
“Whatever you do, crush the infamous thing, and love those who love you.”
Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher
Quoi que vous fassiez, écrasez l'infâme, et aimez qui vous aime.
Letter to Jean le Rond d'Alembert (28 November 1762); This was written in reference to crushing superstition, and the words "écrasez l'infâme" ("Crush the Infamy") became a motto strongly identified with Voltaire.
Citas
Sia (musician) (1975) Australian singer
She Wolf (Falling to Pieces), Nothing But the Beat 2.0 (2012). Cowritten with David Guetta, Chris Braide and Giorgio Tuinfort.
Songs
“We must all do theatre – to find out who we are, and to discover who we could become.”
Augusto Boal (1931–2009) Brazilian writer
Aesthetics of the Oppressed (2006)
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) Indian guru
Srimad Bhagavatam, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1999. Canto 2, Chapter 3, verse 11, purport. Vedabase http://www.vedabase.com/en/sb/2/3/11 <br class="br">Quotes from Books: Loving God, Quotes from Books: Regression of Science
Jacques de Molay (1243–1314) Grand Master of the Knights Templar
Quar nous navons volu ne volons le Temple mettre en aucune servitute se non tant come il hy affiert.
In one of his memoranda to Pope Clement V from the summer of 1306.
Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877) Confederate Army general
1870s, Speech before the Pole-Bearers Association (1875)
Chris Cornell (1964–2017) American singer-songwriter, musician
Talking about drugs, quoted in **
Audioslave Era
“We only do well the things we like doing.”
Colette (1873–1954) 1873-1954 French novelist: wrote Gigi
Prisons and Paradise (1932)
Taylor Swift (1989) American singer-songwriter
Teardrops on My Guitar, written by Taylor Swift and Liz Rose.
Song lyrics, Taylor Swift (2006)
Jeff Buckley (1966–1997) American singer, guitarist and songwriter
KCRW – Man In The Moon (January 4, 1994)
From Interviews
“We all know what to do, we just don’t know how to get re-elected after we’ve done it.”
Jean-Claude Juncker (1954) Luxembourgian politician
When talking about economic reforms. http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/publication_summary12588_en.htm&ved=0ahUKEwiBxefUmpXRAhVJjywKHZEnBBIQFggaMAA&usg=AFQjCNGP2YiE7cKXtbR9DsI71bR6q0OkGw (page 4 of the report). <br class="br">2007
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
We The Living (1936)
Source: We The Living Part One Chapter 6
Averroes (1126–1198) Medieval Arab scholar and philosopher
Attributed to Averroes in Voices of Islam: Voices of change (2007) by Vincent J. Cornell, p. 35
Ben Affleck (1972) American film actor, director and screenwriter
(from the video Ben Affleck wins Best Director at BAFTAs 2013, channel "Sony Pix", February 09, 2013.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer
Speech in Washington D.C., June 30, 1975; Solzhenitsyn: The Voice of Freedom http://www.archive.org/details/SolzhenitsynTheVoiceOfFreedom, p. 30.
“We do not consider patriotism desirable if it contradicts civilized behavior.”
Friedrich Dürrenmatt Romulus the Great
Romulus the Great, act I (1956)
Elliott Smith (1969–2003) American singer-songwriter
before playing "Between the Bars" at a concert in 1996. http://www.archive.org/details/esmith2006-09-25..flacf.
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–1938) Romanian politician
For My Legionaries: The Iron Guard (1936), Nation and Culture
“The only thing black people can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my music.”
Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor
Misattributed in "He wasn't my king" by Helen Kolawole http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/elvis/story/0,12333,774842,00.html in The Guardian (15 August 2002) apparently citing an unsourced anecdote, that has been debunked in Counterpunch (29 August 2002) http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn0829.html which cites an article in Jet magazine (1 August 1957):<br>"Tracing that rumored racial slur to its source was like running a gopher to earth", Jet wrote. Some said Presley had said it in in Boston, which Elvis had never visited. Some said it was on Edward Murrow's on which Elvis had never appeared. Jet sent Louie Robinson to the set of Jailhouse Rock "When asked if he ever made the remark, Missisissippi-born Elvis declared: 'I never said anything like that, and people who know me know I wouldn't have said it.'" <br class="br">More on this misattribution at Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/presley1.asp <br class="br">Misattributed
Chuck Close (1940–2021) American artist
Inside the Painter's Studio, Joe Fig, Princeton Architectural Press, 2009, p. 42
Andrea Dworkin book Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation
Source: Scapegoat: The Jews, Israel, and Women's Liberation (2000), p. 246.
“Avoid shame, but do not seek glory, — nothing so expensive as glory.”
Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman
Vol. I, ch. 4
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)
Justin Bieber (1994) Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor
First Step 2 Forever: My Story (2010), p. 177
Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer
Volume 3, Ch. 17
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)
Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888) French composer and pianist
jackgibbons.com http://www.jackgibbons.com/writings/alkanmyths.htm
Wangari Maathai (1940–2011) Kenyan environmental and political activist
Interview in TIME (10 October 2004)
Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) Jewish diarist
12 July 1942, p. 488-89
Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943
Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821) Savoyard philosopher, writer, lawyer, and diplomat
Les fausses opinions ressemblent à la fausse monnaie qui est frappée d'abord par de grands coupables et dépensée ensuite par d'honnêtes gens qui perpétuent le crime sans savoir ce qu'ils font.
Les soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg, Ch. I
Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) Feminist writer
"Take no prisoners" http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,220099,00.html, interview by Linda Grant, The Guardian (13 May 2000). <br class="br">About
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variously attributed also to Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain. The earliest known occurrence, and probable origin, is from a 1981 text from Narcotics Anonymous: "Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results." Cf. Rita Mae Brown#Misattributed.
Misattributed
Variant: Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister
On National-Socialism, Bolshevism & Democracy (September 10, 1938) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-goebbels-on-national-socialism-bolshevism-and-democracy <br class="br">1930s
Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Board of County Commissioners, Wabaunsee County, Kansas, v. Umbehr, 518 U.S. 668 http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=000&invol=U20028&friend=oyez, No. 94-1654 (1996, dissenting); decided June 28, 1996. <br class="br">1990s
Hans Urs Von Balthasar (1905–1988) Swedish Catholic theologian
First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr (1968)
“I haven't been like, "Is there a sword in that movie? All right, I'll do it!"”
Orlando Bloom (1977) British actor
Emily Blunt interview http://www.bluntreview.com/reviews/bloom.htm
Anton LaVey book The Satanic Bible
The Satanic Bible (1969)
“How long in woman lasts the fire of love,
If eye or touch do not relight it often.”
Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio
Canto VIII, lines 77–78 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio
“I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake.”
Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians
Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent From 1876 to 1912, New York: Avon Books, 1992, 22.
Adam Weishaupt (1748–1830) German philosopher and founder of the Order of Illuminati
"Greeting to the newly integrated illuminatos dirigentes", in Nachtrag von weitern Originalschriften vol. 2 (1787) p. 45.
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLc_MC7NQek&t=0s "2017 Personality 04/05: Heroic and Shamanic Initiations"
“If you are afraid of loneliness, do not marry.”
Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician
Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)
“Time moves and yet we do not notice it.”
Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio
Canto IV, line 9 (tr. Mandelbaum).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 175.
Hermann Göring (1893–1946) German politician and military leader
To Leon Goldensohn (15 March 1946)
The Nuremberg Interviews (2004)
Anthony Hopkins (1937) Welsh stage and television actor
Anthony Hopkins on the secret of his spooky success: ‘I like to act like a submarine’ https://herocomplex.latimes.com/uncategorized/anthony-hopkins-on-the-secret-of-his-spooky-success-i-like-to-act-like-a-submarine/ (February 11, 2010)
Rafael Nadal (1986) Spanish tennis player
http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/articles/2010-06-19/201006191276967412350.html?promo=sl_toparticles
Gertrude B. Elion (1918–1999) American biochemist and pharmacologist
Gertrude Elion https://www.famousscientists.org/gertrude-b-elion/
John Henry Newman (1801–1890) English cleric and cardinal
Tract 83 http://anglicanhistory.org/tracts/tract83.html (29 June 1838).
Lea Michele (1986) actress, singer
“Lea Michele: From Gleek to Do-Gooder,” interview with Shape (July 2012) http://www.shape.com/celebrities/interviews/lea-michele-gleek-do-gooder.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
1880s, 1884, Letter to Theo (Nuenen, Oct. 1884)
Context: I tell you, if one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm - but that's a lie, and you yourself used to call it that. That way lies stagnation, mediocrity.
Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don't know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, You can't do a thing. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerises some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of 'you can't' once and for all.
Life itself, too, is forever turning an infinitely vacant, dispiriting blank side towards man on which nothing appears, any more than it does on a blank canvas. But no matter how vacant and vain, how dead life may appear to be, the man of faith, of energy, of warmth, who knows something, will not be put off so easily. He wades in and does something and stays with it, in short, he violates, "defiles" - they say. Let them talk, those cold theologians.
“Sensations and thoughts do not belong to the "world of energy."”
Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist
Nature and the Greeks (1954)
Context: The observing mind is not a physical system, it cannot interact with any physical system. And it might be better to reserve the term "subject" for the observing mind. … For the subject, if anything, is the thing that senses and thinks. Sensations and thoughts do not belong to the "world of energy."
Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) American general and politician, 7th president of the United States
Response to request from a church organization of New York, on refusing to proclaim a national day of fasting and prayer, in relation to an outbreak of cholera. Correspondence 4:447 (1832); quoted in A Subaltern's Furlough : Descriptive of Scenes in Various Parts of the United States, Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia during the Summer and Autumn of 1832 (1833) by Edward Thomas Coke, Ch. 9, p. 145 http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtn:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbtn0265adiv14)) <br class="br">1830s <br class="br">Context: While I concur with the Synod in the efficacy of prayer, and in the hope that our country may be preserved from the attacks of pestilence "and that the judgments now abroad in the earth may be sanctified to the nations," I am constrained to decline the designation of any period or mode as proper for the public manifestation of this reliance. I could not do otherwise without transcending the limits prescribed by the Constitution for the President and without feeling that I might in some degree disturb the security which religion nowadays enjoys in this country in its complete separation from the political concerns of the General Government.
Mikhail Bakunin book God and the State
God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)
Context: Does it follow that I reject all authority? Far from me such a thought. In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or engineer. For such or such special knowledge I apply to such or such a savant. But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor the savant to impose his authority upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure. I do not content myself with consulting authority in any special branch; I consult several; I compare their opinions, and choose that which seems to me the soundest. But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person. Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings; it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, an instrument of the will and interests of others.
“Beggars do not work, it is said; but then, what is work?”
George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London
Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 31
Context: Beggars do not work, it is said; but then, what is work? A navvy works by swinging a pick. An accountant works by adding up figures. A beggar works by standing out of doors in all weathers and getting varicose veins, bronchitis etc. It is a trade like any other; quite useless, of course — but, then, many reputable trades are quite useless. And as a social type a beggar compares well with scores of others. He is honest compared with the sellers of most patent medicines, high-minded compared with a Sunday newspaper proprietor, amiable compared with a hire-purchase tout-in short, a parasite, but a fairly harmless parasite. He seldom extracts more than a bare living from the community, and, what should justify him according to our ethical ideas, he pays for it over and over in suffering.
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
As quoted in The Subconscious Diet : It's Not What You Put in Your Mouth; It Is What You Put in Your Mind (2005) by Hugh B. Sanders, p. 104 <!-- also quoted in The First Step : A Peek at the Real World (2006) by Gudmundur O. Sigurdarson, p. 41 -->
Context: Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting — in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard — reaching for the highest that is in us — becoming all that we can be. If we do our best, we are a success. Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.
Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing
Cassandra (1860)
Context: The great reformers of the world turn into the great misanthropists, if circumstances or organisation do not permit them to act. Christ, if He had been a woman, might have been nothing but a great complainer. Peace be with the misanthropists! They have made a step in progress; the next will make them great philanthropists; they are divided but by a line.
The next Christ will perhaps be a female Christ. But do we see one woman who looks like a female Christ? or even like "the messenger before" her "face", to go before her and prepare the hearts and minds for her?
To this will be answered that half the inmates of Bedlam begin in this way, by fancying that they are "the Christ."
People talk about imitating Christ, and imitate Him in the little trifling formal things, such as washing the feet, saying His prayer, and so on; but if anyone attempts the real imitation of Him, there are no bounds to the outcry with which the presumption of that person is condemned.
Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician
Source: The Montessori Method (1912), Ch. 5 : Discipline, p. 100.
Context: Let us picture to ourselves a clever and proficient workman, capable, not only of producing much and perfect work, but of giving advice in his workshop, because of his ability to control and direct the general activity of the environment in which he works. The man who is thus master of his environment will be able to smile before the anger of others, showing that great mastery of himself which comes from consciousness of his ability to do things. We should not, however, be in the least surprised to know that in his home this capable workman scolded his wife if the soup was not to his taste, or not ready at the appointed time. In his home, he is no longer the capable workman; the skilled workman here is the wife, who serves him and prepares his food for him. He is a serene and pleasant man where he is powerful through being efficient, but is domineering where he is served. Perhaps if he should learn how to prepare his soup he might become a perfect man! The man who, through his own efforts, is able to perform all the actions necessary for his comfort and development in life, conquers himself, and in doing so multiplies his abilities and perfects himself as an individual.
We must make of the future generation, powerful men, and by that we mean men who are independent and free.
“Democracy, republics: What do these words signify?”
Haile Selassie (1892–1975) Emperor of Ethiopia
Interview with Oriana Fallaci in The Chicago Tribune (24 June 1973).
Context: Democracy, republics: What do these words signify? What have they changed in the world? Have men become better, more loyal, kinder? Are the people happier? All goes on as before, as always. Illusions, illusions. Besides, one should consider the interest of a nation before subverting it with words. Democracy is necessary in some cases and We believe some African peoples might adopt it. But in other cases it is harmful, a mistake.
Henri Barbusse (1873–1935) French novelist
The Inferno (1917), Ch. XIV
Context: Once, bowed in the evening light, the dead man had said, "After my death, life will continue. Every detail in the world will continue to occupy the same place quietly. All the traces of my passing will die little by little, and the void I leave behind will be filled once more."
He was mistaken in saying so. He carried all the truth with him. Yet we, we saw him die. He was dead for us, but not for himself. I feel there is a fearfully difficult truth here which we must get, a formidable contradiction. But I hold on to the two ends of it, groping to find out what formless language will translate it. Something like this: "Every human being is the whole truth." I return to what I heard. We do not die since we are alone. It is the others who die. And this sentence, which comes to my lips tremulously, at once baleful and beaming with light, announces that death is a false god.
“We do not stray out of all words into the ever silent”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath
16 <br class="br"> The Gardener http://www.spiritualbee.com/love-poems-by-tagore/ (1915) <br class="br">Context: We do not stray out of all words into the ever silent;<br>We do not raise our hands to the void for things beyond hope.
Penn Jillette (1955) American magician
2010s, Penn Jillette Rapes All the Women He Wants To (2012)
Context: The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want? And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero. The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine. I don't want to do that. Right now, without any god, I don't want to jump across this table and strangle you. I have no desire to strangle you. I have no desire to flip you over and rape you.
Amelia Earhart book Last Flight
Letter to her husband George P. Putnam, on the eve of her last flight
Last Flight (1937)
Context: Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.
Sappho (-630–-570 BC) ancient Greek lyric poet
http://books.google.com/books?id=fwxgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Virginity+virginity+when+you+leave+me+where+do+you+go+I+am+gone+and+never+come+back+to+you+I+never+return%22&pg=PA57#v=onepage
Fragment 114 Voigt
The Willis Barnstone translations, Loss
Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War
Variant translation: "...the search for truth strains the patience of most people, who would rather believe the first things that come to hand." Translation by Paul Woodruff.
Book I, 1.20-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I