Quotes about excuse
page 3

“When you abandon making choices, you enter the vast world of excuses.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

“Excuse me, Bane?" said Roderick Morgenstern. "Are you attending?"
"I'm so sorry," Magnus said politely. "Somebody incredibly attractive just came into the room, and I ceased to pay attention to a word you were saying.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale

“Victim fall in love with excuses”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life

Love

“She tried to remind herself that beauty was only skin deep, but that didn't offer any helpful excuses when she was berating herself for never knowing what to say to people. There was nothing more depressing than an ugly girl with no personality.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: Romancing Mister Bridgerton

People, Beauty, Girl, Help

“Olivia: You didn't even know I was there!
Harry: Excuse me, yes I did.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: What Happens in London

“The strong look for more strength, the weak for excuses.”

Margaret George book The Memoirs of Cleopatra

Source: The Memoirs of Cleopatra

Strong

“Not being able to do everything is no excuse for not doing everything you can.”

Ashleigh Brilliant (1933) American author and cartoonist

“As long as we have Netfix, Turner Classic Movies, Amazon, YouTube, and bookstores, there is no excuse ever to lack inspiration.”

Tim Gunn (1953) American actor and fashion consultant

Source: Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work

“No time is no excuse”

Jason Fried software entrepreneur

ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever

Time

“Love is a fire/It burns everyone/It disfigures everyone/It is the world's excuse for being ugly.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Love, World

“Excuse our appearances. We are taking apart yesterday, to make way for tomorrow”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Perfect Fifths

Way, Appearance

“Sometimes tradition and habit are just that, comfortable excuses to leave things be, even when they are unjust and unworthy. Sometimes--not often, but sometimes--the cranks and radicals turn out to be right. Sometimes Everyone is wrong.”

Matthew Scully (1959) American political writer and speechwriter

Source: Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy

“No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on the grounds that it was human nature.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

Nature

“That is the most common excuse, and the most foolish of all. Love has never prevented a man from following his dreams. If she truly loves you, she will want the best for you.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Warrior of the Light

Love, Dreams

“Now the tattoos," Zia announced.
"Brilliant!" I said.
"On your tongue," she added.
"Excuse me?”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Tattoo

“I won’t snatch, harm, or scare to death people with you or use checking up on you as an excuse to cause trouble. You’re worse than my mother, Rachel.”
“Mine, too,” Jenks muttered.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: White Witch, Black Curse

Death, People

“Excuse my mistakes, realize my limitations. Life is not easy as we know it on the earth.”

E.M. Forster book A Passage to India

Source: A Passage to India

Life

“You are not made of metaphors,
Not apologies, not excuses.”

Sarah Kay

“Excuse me?" I said, palms down on the Formica tabletop. "Coffee? I thought we came here for pie." "I don't eat the kind of pie they serve here." I felt a flash of heat go through my stomach. I knew firsthand the kind of pie Ranger liked.”

Janet Evanovich book To the Nines

Source: To the Nines

Coffee

“And of course I'm a chauvinist, but it isn't my fault."
"It isn't?"
"No, Jack was born first and I share his genes. I can't help it if he infected me inside the womb."
Briony burst out laughing. "I should have known that would be your excuse.”

Christine Feehan book Conspiracy Game

Source: Conspiracy Game

Help

“Angel raised her hand. "Excuse me. What does LTC stand for?" She blinked innocently.
"Loving Tender Care?"Gazzy suggested. If our instructor had had lasers for eyes, he would have sliced Gazzy in half.
"Lieutenant colonel," he sputtered.”

James Patterson book Maximum Ride

Source: Max

Love, Angels

“Are you the cursed kid Nemesis mentioned?" Leo asked. "But you're a girl."
"You're a girl," said the girl.
"Excuse me?”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Girl

“Sorry excuses for hunters and friends. Both of us.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.”

William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) American journalist

"To the Public", No. 1 (1 January 1831) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2928t.html The Liberator (1831 - 1866) Context: I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

“You could have said ‘Excuse me.’ (Zarek)
I’m not talking to you. (Astrid)
Love you, too, babe. (Zarek)
You really are an animal, aren’t you? (Astrid)
Woof, woof. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Love, Animals

“We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

Failure

“Girls will get together just to get together. Guys need an activity as an excuse. Otherwise it’s too homo for them to handle.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Sloppy Firsts

Guy, Girl

“Sometimes I wish I had a terrible childhood, so that at least I'd have an excuse.”

Jimmy Fallon (1974) American TV Personality

Childhood

“Not everyone has a sob story, Charlie, and even if they do, it's no excuse.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“The sad thing is, people don't want to believe that the person they're in love with is out of his mind, drinking and using, so if you give them even half an excuse, they're going to want to believe it.”

Anthony Kiedis book Scar Tissue

Source: Scar Tissue

Love, People, Sadness, Drink

“For like a poisonous breath over the fields, like a mass of locusts over Egypt, so the swarm of excuses is a general plaque, a ruinous infection among men, that eats off the sprouts of the Eternal.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Men

“(The baby sneezed. Wulf jumped as fire shot out of its nostrils and almost singed his leg.)
Excuse me. I almost made Dark-Hunter barbecue, which would be really sad ‘cause I ain’t got no barbecue sauce with me. (Simi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Kiss of the Night

Sadness, Singing, Baby

“Hope and reality lie in inverse proportions, inside the walls of a hospital… Doubt is like dye. Once is spreads into the fabric of excuses you've woven, you'll never get rid of the stain.”

Jodi Picoult book Lone Wolf

Source: Lone Wolf

Lie, Hope, Reality

“Excuse me? You're a lady?"
"I bought a title on the Internet. I own one square inch of Scotland. And you're changing the subject.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Change

“The Lord does not forgive excuses, He forgives sin.”

Rick Joyner (1949) Evangelical minister

Forgiveness

“When you don’t choose, you excuse.”

James Altucher (1968) American hedge fund manager, entrepreneur, and author

The Choose Yourself Guide To Wealth

“Iorek Byrnison: Can is not the same as must.
Lyra Silvertongue: But if you must and you can, then there's no excuse.”

Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass

Source: The Amber Spyglass

“What is past is past. never go back. Not for excuses. Not for justification, not for happiness. You are what you are, the world is what it is.”

Mario Puzo book The Last Don

Source: The Last Don

Happiness, World, Past

“There will never be a good time, financially, to get married, unless you're Shaq or Ray Romano. But somehow people manage. If your man is using money as an excuse not to marry you, it's your relationship that's insecure, not his bank account.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

Money, People, Time

“The trick is not how much pain you feel--but how much joy you feel. Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Life, Pain, Feeling, Joy

“Because it gives him and excuse to be around her--without making it look like he gave in first. That way, he can still seem manly."

"That's ridiculous." Especially the part about Christian being manly.

"Guys do ridiculous things for love.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Love, Way, Guy, Parting

“I see you're trying to distract me from the real point here," Magnus said instead. "You had a birthday - a perfect excuse for me to throw one of my famous parties - and you didn't even tell me about it?”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Saving Raphael Santiago

Birthday, Perfection

“I tried to think of something to say. Excuse me? Hello? Marry me? Anything would have done.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Thinking

“What are clouds, but an excuse for the sky? What is life, but an escape from death?”

James Clavell book Shōgun

Yabu-san's death poem after being ordered to commit seppuku.
Shōgun (1975)

Life, Death

“He was very much a man of moods, possibly owing to what is styled the artistic temperment. I have never seen, myself, why the possession of artistic ability should be supposed to excuse a man from a decent exercise of self-control.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

Exercises, Mood

“If God exists, I hope he has a good excuse.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

God, Hope

“Destiny is for losers. It's just a lame excuse for letting things happen to you instead of making them happen.”

Cecily von Ziegesar (1970) American writer

Source: I Like It Like That

“There is no excuse for anyone to write fiction for public consumption unless he has been called to do so by the presence of a gift. It is the nature of fiction not to be good for much unless it is good in itself.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

Nature

“Man has no right to kill his brother, it is no excuse that he does so in uniform. He only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

Article 19 "Declaration of Rights" http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/PShelley/declarat.html (1812)

“Starved for affection, terrified of abandonment, I began to wonder if sex was really just an excuse to look deeply into another human being's eyes.”

Douglas Coupland book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture

Generation X (1991)
Source: Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture

Sex

“He bumped into a pay phone and said, 'Excuse me, miss,' on our way in," said Julian.

"It's polite to apologize," said Mark with the same small voice.

"Not to inanimate objects.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Way

“My guys, my colleagues didn't stand up with me. And I can't make any excuse for them. Had we shown any amount of solidarity, if the superstars had stood up and said 'We're with Curt Flood,' if the superstars had walked into the courtroom in New York and made their presence known, I think that the owners would have gotten the message very clearly and given me a chance to win that case.”

Curt Flood (1938–1997) baseball player

In an interview from Ken Burns' 1994 documentary Baseball
Source: http://books.google.ca/books?id=gROuoggesCoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22The+Business+of+Baseball#PPA162,M1

Guy, Thinking, Chance

“Your job is being a professor and researcher: That's one hell of a good excuse for some of the brain-damages of Minix.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

Post to comp.os.minix newsgroup, 1992-01-29, Torvalds, Linus, 2006-08-28 http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1992Jan29.231426.20469%40klaava.Helsinki.FI, To Andrew Tanenbaum (author of Minix) during the Tanenbaum-Torvalds debate. 1990s, 1991-94

Hell

“It is to be hoped that such legislation may be another step toward the great consummation to be reached, when no man shall be permitted, directly or indirectly, under any guise, excuse, or form of law, to hold his fellow-man in bondage. I am of opinion also that it is the duty of the United States, as contributing toward that end, and required by the spirit of the age in which we live, to provide by suitable legislation that no citizen of the United States shall hold slaves as property in any other country or be interested therein.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

1870s, Seventh State of the Union Address (1875)
Context: I am happy to announce the passage of an act by the General Cortes of Portugal, proclaimed since the adjournment of Congress, for the abolition of servitude in the Portuguese colonies. It is to be hoped that such legislation may be another step toward the great consummation to be reached, when no man shall be permitted, directly or indirectly, under any guise, excuse, or form of law, to hold his fellow-man in bondage. I am of opinion also that it is the duty of the United States, as contributing toward that end, and required by the spirit of the age in which we live, to provide by suitable legislation that no citizen of the United States shall hold slaves as property in any other country or be interested therein.

Age, Law, Hope, Country

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry that Limbaugh is one sorry excuse for a human being.”

Alan Grayson (1958) American politician

AllHeadlineNews.com http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7014328782 &ndash;March 4, 2009. 2009, Regarding Rush Limbaugh

“Those that say that individuals are not capable of changing anything are only looking for excuses.”

Václav Havel (1936–2011) playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and 1st President of the Czech Republic

Vaclav Havel’s human rights legacy an inspiration http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/vaclav-havel-s-human-rights-legacy-inspiration-2011-12-21 Amnesty International (21 December 2011)]

Change

“Those without a chip will not be allowed in high security places like military installations, prisons, government buildings of all sorts and of course airports, subways, trains and later cars and trucks. Eventually, after some major planned crisis of course, it will become mandatory and anyone who does not take this chip will not only not be allowed to do those things, they will become “enemies of the state” for “disrupting the economy” or “threatening public security” or whatever phrase they can dream up to excuse arresting, imprisoning and eventually executing those who don't cooperate. Wars and civil unrest have always been great “cover” for implementing grabs for power.”

Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist

Source: What On Earth Is About To Happen… For Heaven’s Sake? (2013), pp. 140-141

War, Dreams, Cars, Training

“I'm tired of the excuses everybody uses
he's their kid I stay out of it,
but who gave you the right to do this?”

Natalie Merchant (1963) American singer-songwriter

Song lyrics, In My Tribe (1987), What's The Matter Here?

“Why, what is the matter with us? Are we going to palliate and excuse a palpable and flagrant outrage on the right of speech, by implying that only a particular description of persons should exercise that right? Are we, at such a time, when a great principle has been struck down, to quench the moral indignation which the deed excites, by casting reflections upon those on whose persons the outrage has been committed? After all the arguments for liberty to which Boston has listened for more than a quarter of a century, has she yet to learn that the time to assert a right is the time when the right itself is called in question, and that the men of all others to assert it are the men to whom the right has been denied?”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

1880s, Plea for Free Speech in Boston (1880)

Men, Exercises, Question, Learning

“The Arabs who were involved in 9/11 cooperated with the Zionists, actually. It was a cooperation. They gave them the perfect excuse to denounce all Arabs.”

James Abourezk (1931) United States Senator

Scapegoats yet again, The Washington Times, LLC., Victor Davis Hanson, 2008-10-13, September 15, 2007 http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/sep/15/scapegoats-yet-again/,

Perfection

“Books give us the ability to see things from different perspectives. They educate us, entertain us, force us to think upon certain issues. And reading a book or reading, in general, is an excuse for those who are less sociable like me for not socialising much. And guess what, it works most of the times.”

Gaurav Sharma (author) (1992) Author and novelist

Book Lovers Day (2018)

Books, Education, Thinking, Time

“For there have been some people, otherwise good and holy, who saw that intemperance and luxury time and again drive man to throw off all restraints unless he is curbed by the utmost severity. And in their desire to correct such a pernicious evil they have adopted the only method which they saw fit, namely to permit earthly blessings only insofar as they were an absolute necessity. This advice showed the best of intentions but was far too rigid. For they committed the very dangerous error of imposing on the consequence of others stricter rules than those laid down in the Word of the Lord. By restricting people within the demands of necessity, they meant abstinence from everything possible. On the other hand, there are many nowadays who seek a pretext to excuse intemperance in the use of the external things, and who desire to indulge the lusts of the flesh. Such people take for granted that liberty should not be restricted by any limitations at all; but to this we can never agree. We must grant, indeed, that it is not right or possible to bind the consciences of others with hard and fast rules.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Page 85.
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life (1551)

People, Error, Evil, Time

“A comic writer should of all others be the least excused for deviating from nature, since it may not be always so easy for a serious poet to meet with the great and the admirable; but life every where furnishes an accurate observer with the ridiculous.”

Henry Fielding book Joseph Andrews

Author's Preface
Joseph Andrews (1742)

Life, Nature

“A real failure does not need an excuse. It is an end in itself.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Four in America (1933)

Failure

“If there had been no Judas, Peter would be the great betrayer. It is only because he stands in the framework of a still greater betrayal that we find a thousand excuses for him and for the faults of the Church continuing and occurring over and over again.”

Adrienne von Speyr (1902–1967) Swiss doctor and mystic

Source: The Passion from Within (1981), p. 79

Betrayal

“I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can be heard on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up America to the lightning scorn of moral indignation. In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. It is righteousness that exalteth a nation while sin is a reproach to any people.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

Speech, "Love of God, Love of Man, Love of Country" http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=535, Syracuse, New York (September 24, 1847) 1840s, Love of God, Love of Man, Love of Country (1847)

People, Feeling, Lovers, Country

“Responsible human beings must be concerned about our surroundings and what we will pass on to future generations. However, to use climate change as an excuse not to develop our God-given resources makes little sense.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

"CARSON: Expanding our energy resources serves peace" http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/25/carson-energys-role-in-the-path-to-peace/, The Washington Times (March 25, 2014)

God, Sense, Change, Future

“Here's the clear "science:"When the male sperm and female egg join, a new and unique life form is created. At conception. Not at birth or viability, or when a lawyer says so. At conception this happens. John McCain got it right; Obama pled less scientific knowledge than a 5th grader.This life is either human or something else. Science irrefutably would declare that the life which is starting from that moment is human. It's not a stalk of broccoli, it's not a parrot, squirrel, or dolphin. It will never become a tree—it can only become a human. It has the entire DNA schedule that it will have for the rest of its life right then. In days it will begin to take on increasingly observable human characteristics and form, but at conception, it is biologically human.If this life is human, then the only issue left is whether this human life falls under the notion that it has a fundamental right of existence or not. If not, it is because we as a culture have decided that some human lives are simply not worth living. If we can decide that about an innocent and unborn baby, we can also decide it on the basis of less absolute criteria than that. If we make that choice (and this is all about "CHOICE," isn’t it?) then someone may decide that a terminally ill person is not a life worth living. Maybe a severely disabled child is a life not worth living; what about a person with a limited IQ? Say that's absurd—that an educated and enlightened society would never be so audacious as to begin to terminate life based on such arbitrary excuses? Maybe you haven't studied Nazi Germany, in which the murder of six million Jews was justified because of their religion and millions of others were murdered because of their politics. Germany was not a primitive, superstitious culture. It was one filled with the intelligentsia and enlightened.This is an important issue. It's why we can't trust Obama with America's future because he's not even sure which Americans are worth saving and which ones aren't. And it's why that for many of us, McCain's selection of a running mate really does matter. Because John McCain clearly is pro life, I will support and vote for him because Obama is not an option for me as a pro life person. I will be disappointed if McCain doesn't pick a true pro life person and realize that should that happen, he will lose many of the very people who supported me. I cannot expect all of you to vote for McCain if he chooses someone whose record isn't pro life. It will be a less than perfect decision for all of us—our only real choices are McCain and Obama; one will protect life and one won't. Some will argue for a 3rd party candidate and I respect that, but in political realities, that is essentially a vote for Obama and I can't go there.”

Mike Huckabee (1955) Arkansas politician

A Message from the Governor
HuckPAC
2008-08-23
http://www.huckpac.com/?Fuseaction=Blogs.View&Blog_id=1848&CommentPage=5
2011-03-01

Life, People, Education, Religion

“Speaking of the sanctions, they are not just a knee-jerk reaction on behalf of the United States or its allies to our position regarding the events and the coup in Ukraine, or even the so-called Crimean Spring. I’m sure that if these events had never happened – I want to point this out specifically for you as politicians sitting in this auditorium – if none of that had ever happened, they would have come up with some other excuse to try to contain Russia’s growing capabilities, affect our country in some way, or even take advantage of it. 4 December 2014, The Kremlin Moscow, http://eng.news.kremlin.ru/news/23341”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

On Ukraine

Jerk, Way, Spring, Country

“Don't you hate when people are late to work. And they always have the worst excuses. "Oh, I'm sorry I'm late, traffic." "Traffic, huh? How do you think I got here; helicoptered in!?"”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Here and Now

Hate, People, Thinking

“The shelter of excuses has a leaky roof.”

Ron Kaufman (1956) American author and consultant

Lift Me UP! Service With A Smile (2005)

“Beware not to use the future as an excuse to ignore living in the present.”

Neil Harbisson (1984) Catalan-Irish musician, artist and activist

As quoted in Serious Wonder (22 June 2015). "A conversation on cyborgism" http://www.seriouswonder.com/a-conversation-on-cyborgism-interview-with-u-k-cyborg-neil-harbisson/

Future

“I think that there is a whole lot turning upside down at rock radio -- not -- excuse me, talk radio particularly. Radio as we know it is pretty much changing completely. You know, the diversity of the taste of the folks that are watching the show right now is way more than what is available in the little Motorola in your car today. And where are the new personalities? Where is the new Stern, somebody who has that much impact? Where is the new.”

David Lee Roth (1954) Rock vocalist; lead singer with Van Halen

Neil Cavuto (June 16, 2006) "Interview with David Lee Roth", Share Your World With Neil Cavuto, Fox News Network.

Cars, Way, Thinking, Change

“I can see no excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of Nature's great progression, from the formless to the formed—from the inorganic to the organic—from blind force to conscious intellect and will.”

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist and comparative anatomist

Source: 1860s, Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863), Ch.1 (1884 edition) http://books.google.com/books?id=1Z9DGVKfXuQC p. 28 Context: The whole analogy of natural operations furnishes so complete and crushing an argument against the intervention of any but what are termed secondary causes, in the production of all the phenomena of the universe; that, in view of the intimate relations between Man and the rest of the living world; and between the forces exerted by the latter and all other forces, I can see no excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of Nature's great progression, from the formless to the formed—from the inorganic to the organic—from blind force to conscious intellect and will.

Nature

“Academic writing excuses itself from rhetorical care in the selfless service of some precise truth—and then deforms our only means for speaking truth.”

Mark D. Jordan (1953)

Christian Rhetoric: Scraps for a Manifesto

Truth

“You will always have some excuse not to live your life.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Haunted

Haunted (2005)

Life

“For too long, many nations, including my own, tolerated, even excused, oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability. Oppression became common, but stability never arrived. We must take a different approach. We must help the reformers of the Middle East as they work for freedom, and strive to build a community of peaceful, democratic nations.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2004, Speech to United Nations General Assembly (September 2004)

Peace, Communication, Freedom, Help

“Does he really want to step into the ring with best fighter of this era and embarrass himself? Being the coward that he is, I doubt he'll get in the ring. We'll see what his excuse will be this time… When I retire, I'll get Ricky Hatton to wash my clothes and cut my lawn and buckle my shoes.”

Floyd Mayweather Jr. (1977) American boxer

About Ricky Hatton, as quoted in BBC http://news2.thdo.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/6328555.stm.

Shoe, Time, Clothes

“Then there was the man who declared in court, he wasn't a person. "Excuse me, sir, why haven't you paid your taxes." "Well, as you can clearly see, I am not a person." "Well, you look like a person."”

Lewis Black (1948) American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor

"No it's all done with mirrors, trust me!"
Taxed Beyond Belief (2002)

Personality

“If we’re going to start calling out religious and political groups for extremism, we could start at home with Republicans. Too many of them spew animus. Too many foment sectarianism. Too many sit by, or make excuses, as others appeal to tribalism. If Obama were to treat them the way they say he should treat Islam — holding the entire faith accountable for its ugliest followers — they’d squeal nonstop about slander and demagogy. They’re lucky that’s not his style.”

William Saletan (1964) American journalist

" Go Ahead and Say It, Mr. President http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/02/barack_obama_should_name_the_enemy_it_s_the_republican_party.html", Slate (24 February 2015)

Faith, Way, Home

“[I]f a politician won't trust you, why should you trust him? If he's a man — and you're not — what does his lack of trust tell you about his real attitude toward women? If "he" happens to be a woman, what makes her so perverse that she's eager to render her fellow women helpless on the mean and seedy streets her policies helped create? Should you believe her when she says she wants to help you by imposing some infantile group health care program on you at the point of the kind of gun she doesn't want you to have?
On the other hand — or the other party — should you believe anything politicians say who claim they stand for freedom, but drag their feet and make excuses about repealing limits on your right to own and carry weapons? What does this tell you about their real motives for ignoring voters and ramming through one infantile group trade agreement after another with other countries?
Makes voting simpler, doesn't it? You don't have to study every issue — health care, international trade — all you have to do is use this X-ray machine, this Vulcan mind-meld, to get beyond their empty words and find out how politicians really feel. About you. And that, of course, is why they hate it.”

L. Neil Smith (1946) American writer

"Why Did it Have to be ... Guns?" (3 August 1999).

Women, Hate, Health, Feeling

“And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, "You know, this Russia thing, with Trump and Russia, is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election."”

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

Trump admitting in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/president-trump-this-russia-thing-is-a-made-up-story-941962819745 that annoyance at federal investigations was a motivation for firing FBI Director James Comey (11 May 2017) 2010s, 2017, May

“But if, through division in the ranks of those opposed to Mr. Lincoln, he should be elected, we have no excuse for dissolving the Union. The Union is worth more than Mr. Lincoln, and if the battle is to be fought for the Constitution, let us fight it in the Union and for the sake of the Union. With a majority of the people in favor of the Constitution, shall we desert the Government and leave it in the hands of the minority? A new obligation will be imposed upon us, to guard the Constitution and to see that no infraction of it is attempted or permitted. If Mr. Lincoln administers the Government in accordance with the Constitution, our rights must be respected. If he does not, the Constitution has provided a remedy.”

Sam Houston (1793–1863) nineteenth-century American statesman, politician, and soldier, namesake of Houston, Texas

1860s, Speech in Austin (1860)

People, Fight

“For some time now the impression has been growing upon me that everyone is dead. It happens when I speak to people. In the middle of a sentence it will come over me: yes, beyond a doubt this is death. There is little to do but groan and make an excuse and slip away as quickly as one can.”

Walker Percy book The Moviegoer

The Moviegoer (1961)

Death, People, Time, Dead

“The fact is that I used the word, and no context can excuse it. I failed to exemplify my own standards and those of my party. I apologise for any offence this may have caused, particularly to the Lumumba family.”

Enda Kenny (1951) Irish Fine Gael politician and Taoiseach

Apology for the above joke, as quoted in "Fury at Kenny 'joke' spreads" http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/sep/15/world.race (14 September 2002), The Observer 2000s

Family

“One strange act, which was precursor of many such in Chinese history, may be noted. The Chinese Repository, XI, 68o, records: 'Sept. 3. A party of British officers and others acting the barbarian in right good earnest visited the porcelain tower. They went (so the Abbots testified) with hatchets and chisels and hammers and cut off and carried away large masses doing no inconsiderable damage.' A Chinese observer of this desecration noted that `the English barbarians frequently ascended the pagoda… took away several glazed tiles, which is indeed detestable in the extreme'. William Dallas Barnard even excuses this act of desecration as 'a not unnatural desire to possess specimens or relics'. This inveterate tendency to desecrate and destroy was repeated again and again in European relations with China, in the Summer Palace in 1860, in Tientsin in 1870, and in Peking itself in 1900.”

K. M. Panikkar (1895–1963) Indian diplomat, academic and historian

Panikkar, K. M. (1953). Asia and Western dominance, a survey of the Vasco da Gama epoch of Asian history, 1498-1945, by K.M. Panikkar. London: G. Allen and Unwin.
Asia and Western Dominance: a survey of the Vasco Da Gama epoch of Asian history, 1498–1945

History, Summer

“I like to think of myself as the ultimate anti-postmodernist post-modernist. Notwithstanding the unusual narrative or visual devices that appear in many of the films, what have kept me going for the three years of investigating [for The Thin Blue Line, was the belief that there answers to questions such as, Adams did it, didn't he? Or Harris did it, didn't he? That it's not just up for grabs. Today, I believe there's a kind of frisson of ambiguity. People think that ambiguity is somehow wonderful in its own right, an excuse for failing to investigate. What can I say? I think this view is wrong. At best, misguided. Maybe even reprehensible.”

Errol Morris (1948) American filmmaker and writer

Source: The Anti-Post-Modern Post-Modernist http://errolmorris.com/content/lecture/theantipost.html

People, Question, Thinking, Appearance

“On the September 26, 2008 broadcast of CNN's "Situation Room", while sitting next to Wolf Blitzer, Cafferty directly highlighted Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's abysmal interview performance with Katie Couric earlier in the week. Cafferty stated, prior to playing a particularly embarrassing segment of the interview in which Palin stumbles across a murky, confused, ambiguous answer to Couric's query regarding the pending economic bailout package, "There's a reason the McCain campaign keeps Sarah Palin away from the press." After the clip's conclusion, he then went on to say, "…Did you get that? If John McCain wins, this woman will be one 72 year-old's heartbeat away from being president of the United States, and if that doesn't scare the Hell out of you, it should…I'm 65 and have been covering politics as you have [addressing Blitzer] for a long time, and that is one of the most pathetic pieces of tape I have ever seen for someone aspiring to one of the highest offices in this country. That's all I have to say." Blitzer responded in a light-hearted, seemingly forced defense of Palin, stating, "Yeah, but she's cramming a lot of information…" Cafferty interrupted, "There's no excuse for that. She's supposed to know a little bit of this, you know. Don't make excuses for her - that's pathetic."”

Jack Cafferty (1942) American journalist

Blitzer replied, "It was not her best answer. I agree with you on that," and the segment came to a close.
[CNN, Jack Cafferty on Sarah Palin, 26 September 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8__aXxXPVc]
2008

Hell, Light, Wolf, Time

“The only excuse that America can ever have for the assertion of her physical force is that she asserts it in behalf of the interests of humanity.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

Speech http://books.google.com/books?id=5jIwAAAAYAAJ&q=%22The+only+excuse+that+America+can+ever+have+for+the+assertion+of+her+physical+force+is+that+she+asserts+it+in+behalf+of+the+interests+of+humanity%22&pg=PA23#v=onepage to the Daughters of the American Revolution at Memorial Continental Hall in Washington, D.C. on April 17, 1916 1910s