Quotes about drop
page 8

Robert Henry Thurston photo
John Ralston Saul photo
Yasunari Kawabata photo
J.M. DeMatteis photo
Mel Brooks photo

“Moses : God has given us these fifteen— (after dropping one of the tablets) Oy! Ten — ten commandments!”

Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer

History of the World, Part I

“Listen to me, skull!
Under your thin brittle boneplates
what black memories haunt you?
What do you want? What do you dream of? …
Is it your soul you think of,
flickering through frightful nights? …
Skull, I must have been raving mad
to smash you with my bare fist.
Scarlet blood thickens on my fingers,
plagues me to spew these rhymes, and still
my teeth want to tear you to pieces!
Like a raven I'll swallow even the sucked-out bones
to get a fresh taste of the past,
a drop from the torrent of months and years.”

Chế Lan Viên (1920–1989) Vietnamese writer

"Skull", in A Thousand Years of Vietnamese Poetry, ed. Nguyễn Ngọc Bích (Alfred A. Knopf, 1975), ISBN 978-0394494722, p. 166
Original in Vietnamese https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/che-lan-vien-to-a-skull/vietnamese/, and an English translation by Hai-Dang Phan https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/che-lan-vien-to-a-skull/, available at Asymptote.

“I'm not mad that you got mad when I got mad when you said I should go drop dead.”

Jonathan Larson (1960–1996) American composer and playwright

tick, tick... BOOM! (1990)

Richard Mead photo
Charles Bukowski photo

“I do not trust those who are above name-dropping. The suppression of small vices always exacts too high a toll.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Frances Kellor photo
Stanley A. McChrystal photo
Keith Richards photo

“As Adam said when his wife fell out of the tree—Eve’s dropping again.”

Section 24 (p. 71)
Venus Plus X (1960)

Mark Satin photo
Sueton photo

“No one was allowed to leave the theatre during his recitals, however pressing the reason. We read of women in the audience giving birth, and of men being so bored with listening and applauding that they furtively dropped down from the wall at the rear, since the gates were kept barred, or shammed dead and were carried away for burial.”
Cantante eo ne necessaria quidem causa excedere theatro licitum est. Itaque et enixae quaedam in spectaculis dicuntur et multi taedio audendi laudandique clausis oppidorum portis aut furtim desiluisse de muro aut morte simulata funere elati.

Of Nero's public performances in musical competitions.
Source: The Twelve Caesars, Nero, Ch. 23

S.M. Stirling photo

“The waxen line of the bowstrings struck their leather bracers with a light whapping sound … A man dropped from each end of the attackers' rough formation, with the flat punching smack of arrowheads striking flesh loud enough to hear.”

S.M. Stirling (1953) Canadian-American author, primarily of speculative fiction

The Sword of the Lady https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_the_Lady

Peter F. Drucker photo

“Wherever an impact can be eliminated by dropping the activity that causes it, this is therefore the best-indeed the only truly good-solution.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Source: 1960s - 1980s, MANAGEMENT: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1973), Part 1, p. 333

“Death!
Plop.
The barges down in the river flop.
Flop, plop,
Above, beneath.
From the slimy branches the grey drips drop…
To the oozy waters, that lounge and flop…
And my head shrieks--"Stop"
And my heart shrieks--"Die"…”

Theo Marzials (1850–1920) Anglo-French poet and eccentric

A Tragedy, reported by several critics to be the worst poem published in the English language. http://www.reedleycollege.edu/academic/Departments/CompLitComm/sbowie/Tragedy.htm.

Ben Jonson photo
Robert E. Howard photo
Johannes Tauler photo
River Phoenix photo
Johann Hari photo
Kent Hovind photo

“Technically, one drop of water would cover the planet, if you spread it really thin.”

Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist

Creation seminars (2003-2005), The Hovind theory

Herman Melville photo
Smokey Robinson photo
Will Cuppy photo
Ursula K. Le Guin photo
András Petőcz photo

“Those we loved, they’re dead.
Faces behind hands, shy
shawls dropped, modestly awry.
Those we love, they’re married.”

András Petőcz (1959) Hungarian writer

A BANAL POEM, SUBJECT: LOVE http://www.c3.hu/~mediumar/PETVERS1.HTM (1984).
András Petőcz: In Praise of the Sea (1999, ISBN 963 9101 51 6).
Poems

“Click. The spare camera was now focussed and working. The lead mare—Barb Nose's—saw the drop. She cut her stride and wheeled and ran along the dangerous edge. Barb Nose ran in the vanguard, protecting the rear, driving the foals ahead of him. Blaze Face had long since cut and run, taking his beaten stallion flesh off to be nursed, to wait for another day, another elder to challenge. The other mares expertly and instinctively followed the leader as she rimmed the mesa, heading for the foothills of the El Gatos. One foal, too, made the cut, on stick-like legs, frightened but blindly following. The second foal had truly been blinded by panic. He strode to the drop-off and never stopped. He was a wild horse, and he had to run, and now he would run free forever. Plunging headlong over the drop, body whirling, his legs still flailing, as he fell through the desert air and past the serrated rock walls of the mesa, he knew nothing of time. He knew nothing of the eons that had gone before him, building this mesa of bluff and sandstone and archean rock. He fell through layers of time, to timelessness, a living thing for so little time. Once a living work of art, now a broken artifact. One foal. Dead. Murdered by man. Murdered by time. The drumbeat of the earth was lessened by one horse's tiny hooves. And all of us were lessened by this new silence. Click.”

Arnold Hano (1922) American writer

From Running Wild, pp. 14-15
Other Topics

Richard Francis Burton photo
Emily Dickinson photo
Billy Joe Shaver photo
Vannevar Bush photo
Nelson Mandela photo
Tom Robbins photo
Ron Paul photo
John Muir photo

“In God's wildness lies the hope of the world — the great fresh, unblighted, unredeemed wilderness. The galling harness of civilization drops off, and wounds heal ere we are aware.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

July 1890, page 317
John of the Mountains, 1938

Phil Brooks photo

“Punk: Don't stop on account of me. [Starts singing "Happy Birthday" to Rey's daughter, who is scared]. Rey, you look scared, but I assure you I'm not out here to hurt you, and I'm not out here to hurt your family. In fact, I'm happy that we're all here – my family and yours. And today's a big day, we all need to celebrate the occasion, and it doesn't get any bigger that WrestleMania, Rey, so that's exactly why I wanna challenge you to a match at WrestleMania. I also wanna challenge you to a match tonight. And I don't mean later in the show, Rey. I mean now. I mean, as in, right now!
Rey: Come on Punk. This ain't the time
Punk: Don't be sad. Aaliyah, since it's your birthday, sweet, innocent little Aaliyah, I'll tell you what. As my birthday present to you, I'll let you shut your eyes while I reduce your daddy to tears and make him beg for my mercy. And Dominik. You're such… you're all grown up now, aren't you? We watched you grow up before our very eyes, but I don't think you ever heard your father squeal like a pig from somebody repeatedly stomping his surgically repaired knees, so it's okay if you plug your ears. And beautiful, voluptuous Angie. Now I'm sure you and your loving husband Rey have shared the best of times. But look at me. I promise you, after I do what I'm going to do to your husband, it will be the worst of times. So feel free to cup your hand over your mouth to muffle the screams. What's the matter, Rey? Don't you wanna fight me in front of your family? No? Are you afraid that your family's gonna watch you get hurt? You're a coward! I know it; deep down inside, Dominik knows it; your wife has always known; and now on her 9th birthday, your sweet innocent little Aaliyah knows it. All these people here know it, Rey, you're a coward! What's it gonna take? Huh, Rey? Where's Giant-Killer Rey Mysterio at? [Crowd chants "619"] Where's your 619, huh, Rey? Where's the ultimate underdog, Rey? Rey, where's your machismo? Where's your machismo, Rey?! I'll tell you where, Rey. Your machismo, your courage – you never had it. What's it gonna take, Rey? Huh? Rey, I'll even drop down to your level, Rey. [Gets down on his knees] Come on, Rey! So, you're turning me down? You won't fight me? What's it gonna take, Rey? [Gets up] What's it gonna take, Rey?! Not now?! Not now?! [Slaps Rey across the face] [Rey then walks away very frustrated with his family. ] Come on, Rey! Come on, now! There he is, ladies and gentlemen! There's your superhero!
Striker: He's got no alternative but to protect his family.
Punk: Watch him take his walk of shame! But one more thing, sweet little princess Aaliyah… [Sings "Happy Birthday" to her in a disturbing type way. ]”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

March 12, 2010
Friday Night SmackDown

Plutarch photo

“For water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.”

Moralia, Of the Training of Children

Sören Kierkegaard photo
Alan Moore photo

“If you wear black, then kindly, irritating strangers will touch your arm consolingly and inform you that the world keeps on turning.
They're right. It does.
However much you beg it to stop.
It turns and lets grenadine spill over the horizon, sends hard bars of gold through my window and I wake up and feel happy for three seconds and then I remember.
It turns and tips people out of their beds and into their cars, their offices, an avalanche of tiny men and women tumbling through life…
All trying not to think about what's waiting at the bottom.
Sometimes it turns and sends us reeling into each other's arms. We cling tight, excited and laughing, strangers thrown together on a moving funhouse floor.
Intoxicated by the motion we forget all the risks.
And then the world turns…
And somebody falls off…
And oh God it's such a long way down.
Numb with shock, we can only stand and watch as they fall away from us, gradually getting smaller…
Receding in our memories until they're no longer visible.
We gather in cemeteries, tense and silent as if for listening for the impact; the splash of a pebble dropped into a dark well, trying to measure its depth.
Trying to measure how far we have to fall.
No impact comes; no splash. The moment passes. The world turns and we turn away, getting on with our lives…
Wrapping ourselves in comforting banalities to keep us warm against the cold.
"Time's a great healer."
"At least it was quick.”

Alan Moore (1953) English writer primarily known for his work in comic books

"The world keeps turning.
Oh Alec—
Alec's dead."
Swamp Thing (1983–1987)

Andrew Marvell photo
David Foster Wallace photo
Common (rapper) photo
Edmund Waller photo

“To man, that was in th' evening made,
Stars gave the first delight;
Admiring, in the gloomy shade,
Those little drops of light.”

Edmund Waller (1606–1687) English poet and politician

An Apology for Having Loved Before (1664).
Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham (1857)

Viktor Schauberger photo

“The Upholder of the Cycles which supports the whole of Life, is water. In every drop of water dwells the Godhead, whom we all serve; there also dwells Life, the Soul of the "First" substance - Water - whose boundaries and banks are the capillaries that guide it and in which it circulates. More energy is encapsulated in every drop of good spring water than an average-sized PowerStation is presently able to produce.”

Viktor Schauberger (1885–1958) austrian philosopher and inventor

Callum Coats: Water Wizard
Variant: "The Upholder of the Cycles which supports the whole of Life, is water. In every drop of water dwells the Godhead, whom we all serve; there also dwells Life, the Soul of the "First" substance - Water - whose boundaries and banks are the capillaries that guide it and in which it circulates. More energy is encapsulated in every drop of good spring water than an average-sized PowerStation is presently able to produce."

Jeanette Winterson photo
Suze Robertson photo

“In Fall, October, November, I'm usually at work in Heeze, for interior studies. That is a beautiful, and the most quite time; the leaf of the trees [dropped! ], what gives in summer such a strong green light into the domestic interiors. It was in the lodging of the good Saskia [Ciska].... that I always got very special care.”

Suze Robertson (1855–1922) Dutch painter

(version in original Dutch / origineel citaat van Suze Robertson:) In 't najaar, october, November ben ik gemeenlijk in nl:Heeze aan 't werk, voor interieurstudies. Dat is een mooie, en de rustigste tijd; 't blad van de bomen [af!], waardoor zomers zoo'n groen licht in de binnenhuizen valt. In 't logement van de goede Saskia [Ciska].. ..ondervond ik dan altijd heel bizondere zorgen.
Source: 1900 - 1922, Onder de Menschen: Suze Robertson' (1912), p. 34

Eleanor Farjeon photo
Harriet Beecher Stowe photo
Timothy Leary photo
Heinrich Heine photo
Bartolomeo Vanzetti photo

“I did not spittel a drop of blood, or steal a cent in all my life.”

Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888–1927) Italian American anarchist executed by Massachusetts

Letter to Mrs.Glendower Evans http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/SaccoV/van-charlestown.html (22 July 1921)

Mao Zedong photo

“We the Chinese nation have the spirit to fight the enemy to the last drop of our blood, the determination to recover our lost territory by our own efforts, and the ability to stand on our own feet in the family of nations.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

“On Tactics Against Japanese Imperialism” (December 27, 1935)

Charles Stuart Calverley photo
Hans Urs Von Balthasar photo
Nikolai Gogol photo
John Milton photo

“When the gust hath blown his fill,
Ending on the rustling leaves
With minute drops from off the eaves.”

John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet

Source: Il Penseroso (1631), Line 128

Warren Farrell photo
Robert F. Kennedy photo
Marcus Tullius Cicero photo

“Does not, as fire dropped upon water is immediately extinguished and cooled, so, does not, I say, a false accusation, when brought in contact with a most pure and holy life, instantly fall and become extinguished?”
Nonne, ut ignis in aquam conjectus, continuo restinguitur et refrigeratur, sic refervens falsum crimen in purissimam et castissimam vitam collatum, statim concidit et extinguitur?

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Cicero, Pro Roscio Comodeo Oratio, 17; C.D. Yonge translation

John Galt (novelist) photo

“The sword is the key of heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer: whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven, and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim.”

John Galt (novelist) (1779–1839) British writer

Attributed to Muhammad, as quoted in The Wandering Jew (1820), p. 262 https://books.google.com/books?id=IARgAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA262&dq=The+sword+is+the+key+of+heaven+and+hell;+a+drop+of+blood+shed+in+the+cause+of+Allah,+a+night+spent+in+arms,+is+of+more+avail+than+two+months+of+fasting+or+prayer:+whosoever+falls+in+battle,+his+sins+are+forgiven&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjxyNix_-bcAhUaTY8KHT2oB74Q6AEIWTAJ#v=onepage&q=The%20sword%20is%20the%20key%20of%20heaven%20and%20hell%3B%20a%20drop%20of%20blood%20shed%20in%20the%20cause%20of%20Allah%2C%20a%20night%20spent%20in%20arms%2C%20is%20of%20more%20avail%20than%20two%20months%20of%20fasting%20or%20prayer%3A%20whosoever%20falls%20in%20battle%2C%20his%20sins%20are%20forgiven&f=false

Timothy Leary photo
Joe Biden photo

“When seagull droppings landed on my head at a campaign event at Bowers Beach two days before Election Day, I chose to read it as a sign of a coming success.”

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

Page 73
2000s, Promises to Keep (2008)

Otto Pfleiderer photo
Herbert A. Simon photo
Leigh Hunt photo
John Fante photo
Jerome David Salinger photo
Richard Dawkins photo
Jake LaMotta photo

“You couldn't drop me! You never dropped me.”

Jake LaMotta (1922–2017) American boxer

Words spoken to Sugar Ray Robinson after their sixth fight, 1951. http://www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=355

Philip Doddridge photo

“His goodness stands approved,
Unchanged from day to day;
I'll drop my burden at His feet,
And bear a song away.”

Philip Doddridge (1702–1751) English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 262.

Mike Huckabee photo
Rose Wilder Lane photo
Stevie Ray Vaughan photo
George Washington Plunkitt photo
George William Russell photo
Farrokh Tamimi photo
Thomas Boston photo

“Let the mantle of worldly enjoyments hang loose about you, that it may be easily dropped when death comes to carry you into another world.”

Thomas Boston (1676–1732) Scottish church leader, theologian and philosopher

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 207.
Secondary Sources

Albert Szent-Györgyi photo

“When I received the Nobel Prize, the only big lump sum of money I have ever seen, I had to do something with it. The easiest way to drop this hot potato was to invest it, to buy shares. I knew that World War II was coming and I was afraid that if I had shares which rise in case of war, I would wish for war. So I asked my agent to buy shares which go down in the event of war. This he did. I lost my money and saved my soul.”

Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893–1986) Hungarian biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1937

[Szent-Györgyi, Albert, The Crazy Ape: Written by a Biologist for the Young, 1970, 20-21, The Universal Library Crosset & Dunlap, A National General Company, New York, https://archive.org/details/isbn_0448002566, July 24, 2017, Internet Archive]

“They can't drop the charges without saying I haven't done anything wrong. And if they do that, I'm going to ask for my marijuana back.”

Brownie Mary (1922–1999) American medical cannabis activist

As quoted in Torgoff, Martin (2005). Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743230116. p. 443.

Anthony Trollope photo
Yukio Mishima photo
Marguerite Bourgeoys photo
Harry Chapin photo
David Lloyd George photo