Quotes about fall
page 19

L. Frank Baum photo

“If he suddenly falls in love with someone else, a husband may not start wanting a divorce; but if he suddenly makes a lot of money, he usually will.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Francesco Guicciardini photo

“He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short.”

Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540) Italian writer, historian and politician

L'imitazione del male supera sempre l'esempio; comme per il contrario, l'imitazione del bene è sempre inferiore.
Storia d' Italia (1537-1540)

Roderick Long photo
Simon Blackburn photo

“It can seem an amazing fact that laws of nature keep on holding, that the frame of nature does not fall apart.”

Simon Blackburn (1944) British academic philosopher

Source: Think (1999), Chapter Five, God, p. 162

Oscar Levant photo

“Tell me, George, if you had it to do all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?”

Oscar Levant (1906–1972) American comedian, composer, pianist and actor

Oscar Levant, as recounted by Levant in A Smattering of Ignorance (1940); quoted in "Books and Things" by Lewis Gannett, in The New York Herald Tribune (January 13, 1940), p. 11

David Sedaris photo
Halldór Laxness photo
Francis Bacon photo
John Fletcher photo

“Man is his own star, and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all light, all influence, all fate.
Nothing to him falls early, or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.”

Epilogue. Compare: "Every man hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular all his life long", Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, part i. sect. 2, memb. 1, subsect. 2.
The Honest Man's Fortune, (1613; published 1647)

Miyamoto Musashi photo
Statius photo

“More stars fall from the loosened sky.”
Pluraque laxato ceciderunt sidera caelo.

Source: Thebaid, Book X, Line 145

Josh Billings photo

“The hardest thing that enny man kan do iz tew fall down on the ice when it iz wet, and get up and praze the Lord.”

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist

Josh Billings: His Works, Complete (1873)

Bertolt Brecht photo

“The rain
Never falls upwards.
When the wound
Stops hurting
What hurts is
The scar.”

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German poet, playwright, theatre director

"Poems Belonging to a Reader for Those who Live in Cities" [Zum Lesebuch für Städtebewohner gehörige Gedichte] (1926-1927), poem 10, trans. Frank Jones in Poems, 1913-1956, p. 148
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)

Jack McDevitt photo

““The media have gone berserk.”
“The media always go berserk. A kid falls off a bike in Montana, they’re all over it. Until something else happens.””

Jack McDevitt (1935) American novelist, Short story writer

Source: Academy Series - Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, Odyssey (2006), Chapter 32 (p. 292)

Kent Hovind photo
Michael Johns photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Adrienne von Speyr photo
Lewis Mumford photo
Lindsey Graham photo

“I am running (for president) because I think the world is falling apart.”

Lindsey Graham (1955) United States Senator from South Carolina

As quoted in "Lindsey Graham announcing at CBS “This Morning” interview his presidential bid" https://www.yahoo.com/politics/lindsey-graham-i-am-running-because-the-world-is-119274762516.html (18 May 2015), by Dylan Stableford, "YAHOO Politics"
2010s

Carl David Anderson photo

“The atom can't be seen, yet its existence can be proved. And it is simple to prove that it can't ever be seen. It has to be studied by indirect evidence — and the technical difficulty has been compared to asking a man who has never seen a piano to describe a piano from the sound it would make falling downstairs in the dark.”

Carl David Anderson (1905–1991) American scientist

As quoted in Carl Anderson. Some notes about his life and work at Caltech. The first of a series of biographical sketches of Caltech faculty members. Engineering and Science, Vol. 15:1 (October 1951) http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechES:15.1.0

Christine O'Donnell photo

“I don't celebrate Halloween because of what it means. Because it is a Satanic holiday, it is a pagan holiday, and while people are going around getting free candy, people are falling victims to human sacrifices and things like that. That's the reality of what's going on on Halloween.”

Christine O'Donnell (1969) American Tea Party politician and former Republican Party candidate

1999-10-29
Television series
Politically Incorrect
ABC
2010-09-20
Profile: Christine O'Donnell, Delaware Senate candidate
BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11378369
2010-10-20
TV appearances

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Eric Hoffer photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Hans Arp photo

“the streams buck like rams in a tent
whips crack and from the hills come the crookedly combed
shadows of the shepherds.
black eggs and fools' bells fall from the trees.
thunder drums and kettledrums beat upon the ears of the donkeys.
wings brush against flowers.
fountains spring up in the eyes of the wild boar.”

Hans Arp (1886–1966) Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist

Dada poetry lines from his poem 'Der Vogel Selbdritt', Jean / Hans Arp - first published in 1920; as quoted in Gesammelte Gedichte I (transl. Herbert Read), p. 41
1910-20s

“You must make your choice whether to hold on to some thing which cannot save you, or let go, and fall into the hands of the Lord.”

Ichabod Spencer (1798–1854) American minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 53.

Oliver Cromwell photo
Josemaría Escrivá photo

“The higher a statue is raised, the harder and more dangerous the impact when it falls.”

Josemaría Escrivá (1902–1975) Spanish theologian

#269
The Furrow (1986)

Chanakya photo
Alan M. Dershowitz photo
Albert Einstein photo

“Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do — but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Jotted (in German) on the margins of a letter to him (1933), p. 56
Unsourced variants: Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love. / You can't blame gravity for falling in love.
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)

Louis-ferdinand Céline photo
Miguel de Unamuno photo
Alexander Pope photo

“A brave man struggling in the storms of fate,
And greatly falling with a falling state.
While Cato gives his little senate laws,
What bosom beats not in his country's cause?”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

Source: Prologue to Mr. Addison's Cato (1713), Line 21. Pope also uses the reference, "Like Cato, give his little Senate laws", in his Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1734), Prologue to Imitations of Horace.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“Even as the light that shifts and plays upon a lake, when Cynthia looks forth from heaven or the bright wheel of Phoebus in mid course passes by, so doth he shed a gleam upon the waters; he heeds not the shadow of the Nymph or her hair or the sound of her as she rises to embrace him. Greedily casting her arms about him, as he calls, alack! too late for help and utters the name of his mighty friend, she draws him down; for her strength is aided by his falling weight.”
Stagna vaga sic luce micant ubi Cynthia caelo prospicit aut medii transit rota candida Phoebi, tale iubar diffundit aquis: nil umbra comaeque turbavitque sonus surgentis ad oscula nymphae. illa avidas iniecta manus heu sera cientem auxilia et magni referentem nomen amici detrahit, adiutae prono nam pondere vires.

Source: Argonautica, Book III, Lines 558–564

Orson Scott Card photo
Bobby Robson photo
Emil M. Cioran photo
Clement Attlee photo
Dejan Stojanovic photo

“Unborn eternity does not die; existence is dying and falls asleep in the eternity beyond existence.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

“Eternity and Existence,” p. 31
The Sun Watches the Sun (1999), Sequence: “Skywalking”

William Winwood Reade photo
Antisthenes photo

“It is better to fall in with crows than with flatterers; for in the one case you are devoured when dead, in the other case while alive.”

Antisthenes (-444–-365 BC) Greek philosopher

§ 4
From Lives and Opinions of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laërtius

Frederick Douglass photo
Peggy Noonan photo
Francesco Petrarca photo

“One falls in love through fame.”

Canzone 53, st. 8
Il Canzoniere (c. 1351–1353), To Laura in Life

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Michele Bachmann photo
Iltutmish photo
Angela Merkel photo
Gerry Rafferty photo

“Well I don't know why I came here tonight.
I got the feeling that something ain't right.
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs.
Clowns to the left of me,
Jokers to the right, here I am,
Stuck in the middle with you.”

Gerry Rafferty (1947–2011) Scottish singer and songwriter

Stuck in the Middle with You, written with Joe Egan, from the Stealers Wheel album Stealers Wheel (1972).
Song lyrics, With Stealers Wheel

“There are those fallen who don’t get up so as not to fall again.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Voces (1943)

Karel Appel photo

“As an artist you have to fight and survive the wilderness to keep your creative freedom. Creativity is very fragile. It's like a leaf in the fall; it hangs and when it drops you don't know where it's drifting.”

Karel Appel (1921–2006) Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet

Source: Karel Appel – the complete sculptures,' (1990), p. 91 'Quotes', K. Appel (1989)

Seneca the Younger photo

“Toward good men God has the mind of a father, he cherishes for them a manly love, and he says, "Let them be harassed by toil, by suffering, by losses, in order that they may gather true strength." Bodies grown fat through sloth are weak, and not only labour, but even movement and their very weight cause them to break down. Unimpaired prosperity cannot withstand a single blow; but he who has struggled constantly with his ills becomes hardened through suffering; and yields to no misfortune; nay, even if he falls, he still fights upon his knees.”
Patrium deus habet adversus bonos viros animum et illos fortiter amat et "Operibus," inquit, "doloribus, damnis exagitentur, ut verum colligant robur." Languent per inertiam saginata nec labore tantum sed motu et ipso sui onere deficiunt. Non fert ullum ictum inlaesa felicitas; at cui assidua fuit cum incommodis suis rixa, callum per iniurias duxit nec ulli malo cedit sed etiam si cecidit de genu pugnat.

Patrium deus habet adversus bonos viros animum et illos fortiter amat et "Operibus," inquit, "doloribus, damnis exagitentur, ut verum colligant robur."
Languent per inertiam saginata nec labore tantum sed motu et ipso sui onere deficiunt. Non fert ullum ictum inlaesa felicitas; at cui assidua fuit cum incommodis suis rixa, callum per iniurias duxit nec ulli malo cedit sed etiam si cecidit de genu pugnat.
De Providentia (On Providence), 2.6; translation by John W. Basore
Moral Essays

Elton John photo
John of St. Samson photo

“Aspiration, practiced as a familiar, respectful and loving conversation with God, is such an excellent method, that, by means of it, one soon arrives at the summit of all perfection, and falls in love with Love.”

John of St. Samson (1571–1636)

From The Goad, the Flames, the Arrows and the Mirror of the love of God
Variant: Aspiration, practiced as a familiar, respectful and loving conversation with God, is such an excellent method, that, by means of it, one soon arrives at the summit of all perfection, and falls in love with Love.

Alfred von Waldersee photo

“Germany is the foundation for the mainstay for the whole of Europe, but if we become weak, the entire old world will fall apart.”

Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) Prussian Field Marshal

Waldersee in his diary c. 1886, quoted in John C. G. Röhl, The Kaiser and his court : Wilhelm II and the government of Germany

Thomas Carlyle photo
Bob Dylan photo

“Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet… Putting her in a wheel barrow and wheeling her down the street.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, The Essential Bob Dylan (2000), Things Have Changed (recorded 1999)

Bernard Mandeville photo
V. V. Giri photo
Verghese Kurien photo
Dante Gabriel Rossetti photo

“If God in his wisdom have brought close
The day when I must die,
That day by water or fire or air
My feet shall fall in the destined snare
Wherever my road may lie.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) English poet, illustrator, painter and translator

The King's Tragedy, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Kent Hovind photo
Lauren Duca photo

“It occurred to me how very tired I sometimes feel as an outspoken feminist. … Trolls are trying to silence women, and I've installed a fiery declaration within myself to never give in, but it's incredibly hard, and gets harder as my platform as a writer grows. What didn’t occur to me initially is that West has spent years in the trenches fighting this endless, thankless fight, and maybe she needs a goddamn break. I had this revelation again, much more profoundly and emotionally, about my own mother while watching Greta Gerwig’s new film, Lady Bird. … Often, my mother and I clashed when she denied me freedom, but only because she had been harmed by the dangers she knew lay ahead for her daughter. I did so many risky, awful things, and then lied to her about them, because I never felt I could be honest with her. I should have known she wasn’t judging me. I should have known that she had done it all before, that even though she wouldn’t have used the word "feminist" to describe herself at the time, mostly she just didn’t want me to have to be so very tired. … Walking home from Lady Bird on the kind of night that New York fall fantasies are made of, I resisted the urge to call my mother, because I thought I might cry until the universe ripped apart at the seams. But then I called her anyway. I sobbed as I told her I had no idea how impossibly hard she had been trying.”

Lauren Duca (1991) American journalist

Sexism, Remembered and Forgotten (November 17, 2017)

Jean Tinguely photo

“I wanted something ephemeral, that would pass like a falling star and, most importantly, that would be impossible for museums to reabsorb. I didn't want it to be 'museumised'. The work had to pass by, make people dream and talk, and that would be all, the next day nothing would be left, everything would go back to the garbage bins.”

Jean Tinguely (1925–1991) Swiss painter and sculptor

Quote of Tinguely in a radio interview (1982), as cited in: 'Violand-Hobi', Heidi G. Jean Tinguely: Life and Work (NY: Prestel, 1995), p. 36 ; Talking about his Homage to New York; Cited in: John D. Powell. (2009, p. 31).
Quotes, 1980's

Kent Hovind photo
Vladimir Lenin photo

“The train of history makes sharp turns and those who are not skilled riders fall off the train.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

As quoted in Dorothy Healey, California Red: A Life in the American Communist Party (1993), p. 81.
Attributions
Variant: "When the train of history makes a sharp turn, said Lenin, the passengers who do not have a good grip on their seats are thrown off." Whittaker Chambers, The Revolt of the Intellectuals, TIME magazine, January 6, 1941.

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen photo
Mark Tobey photo
Michael Halliday photo

“Ultimately, all addictions are the same. What distinguishes one from the other is only that some are visible and socially unacceptable, whereas others fall into cultural blind spots and get applauded. The latter are the addictions society seems to need in order to keep the system and economy going.”

Herb Goldberg (1937–2019) American psychologist

The Personal Journey of Masculinity: From Externalization to Disconnection to Oblivion, pp. 27–28
What Men Still Don't Know About Women, Relationships, and Love (2007)

Francis Galton photo
John Scalzi photo
Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone photo

“If the British public falls for this, I think it would be stark, staring bonkers.”

Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone (1907–2001) British judge, politician, life peer and Cabinet minister

"Tories to fight like fury, Party chairman says", The Times, 13 October 1964 (p. 12)
At a press conference on 12 October 1964 during the general election campaign, referring to the policies of the Labour Party.

James K. Morrow photo
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin photo

“We are like soldiers who fall during the assault which leads to peace.”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

The Divinisation of Our Activities, p. 85
The Divine Milieu (1960)

Alex Salmond photo
Jeffrey Tucker photo
Chuck Klosterman photo

“We all have the potential to fall in love a thousand times in our lifetime. It's easy. The first girl I ever loved was someone I knew in sixth grade. Her name was Missy; we talked about horses. The last girl I love will be someone I haven't even met yet, probably. They all count. But there are certain people you love who do something else; they define how you classify what love is supposed to feel like. These are the most important people in your life, and you'll meet maybe four or five of these people over the span of 80 years. But there's still one more tier to all this; there is always one person who you love who becomes that definition. It usually happens retrospectively, but it always happens eventually. This is the person who unknowingly sets the template for what you will always love about other people, even if some of those lovable qualities are self-destructive and unreasonable. You will remember having conversations with this person that never actually happened. You will recall sexual trysts with this person that never technically occurred. This is because the individual who embodies your personal definition of love does not really exist. The person is real, and the feelings are real--but you create the context. And context is everything. The person who defines your understanding of love is not inherently different than anyone else, and they're often just the person you happen to meet the first time you really, really want to love someone. But that person still wins. They win, and you lose. Because for the rest of your life, they will control how you feel about everyone else.”

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story (2005)

Wilhelm Liebknecht photo
Steven Erikson photo

“Play on, mortal. Every god falls at a mortal’s hands. Such is the only end to immortality.”

Source: Gardens of the Moon (1999), Chapter 7 (p. 208)

Mao Zedong photo

“If a man wants to succeed in his work, that is, to achieve the anticipated results, he must bring his ideas into correspondence with the laws of the objective external world; if they do not correspond, he will fail in his practice. After he fails, he draws his lessons, corrects his ideas to make them correspond to the laws of the external world, and can thus turn failure into success; this is what is meant by “failure is the mother of success” and “a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit.”

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

On Practice (1937)
Original: (zh-CN) 人们要想得到工作的胜利即得到预想的结果,一定要使自己的思想合于客观外界的规律性,如果不合,就会在实践中失败。人们经过失败之后,也就从失败取得教训,改正自己的思想使之适合于外界的规律性,人们就能变失败为胜利,所谓“失败者成功之母”,“吃一堑长一智”,就是这个道理。

Kaarlo Sarkia photo
Thomas Brooks photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo