Quotes about fat
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Anthony Burgess photo

“…the British. Haughty, white, fat, ugly, by no means sympathique, cold…”

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer

Fiction, The Enemy in the Blanket (1958)

Horace photo

“As for me, when you want a good laugh, you will find me in fine state… fat and sleek, a true hog of Epicurus' herd.”
Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises, cum ridere voles Epicuri de grege porcum.

Book I, epistle iv, lines 15–16
Epistles (c. 20 BC and 14 BC)

Bernard Cornwell photo
Camille Paglia photo
John Updike photo
Margaret Cho photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“What I see is teeming cohesion, contained dispersal…. For him, to sculpt is to take the fat off space.”

On Alberto Giacometti’s work, Situations, in Braziller (1965)

Thaddeus Stevens photo
Washington Irving photo

“Who ever hears of fat men heading a riot, or herding together in turbulent mobs? — No — no, ‘tis your lean, hungry men who are continually worrying society, and setting the whole community by the ears.”

Washington Irving (1783–1859) writer, historian and diplomat from the United States

Book III, ch. 2 This derives from a statement by William Shakespeare in the play Julius Caesar where Caesar declares:
Knickerbocker's History of New York http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13042 (1809)

William Saroyan photo
Ned Kelly photo
Joel Fuhrman photo
Daisy Ashford photo
Jack Vance photo
Amy Schumer photo

“I'm the last person he called that night. I wonder, how many girls didn't answer before he got to fat freshman me? Am I in his phone as Schumer? Probably. But I was here, and I wanted to be held and touched and felt desired, despite everything. I wanted to be with him. I imagined us on campus together, holding hands, proving, "Look! I am lovable! And this cool older guy likes me!"”

Amy Schumer (1981) American comedian and actor

I can't be the troll doll I'm afraid I've become.
Ms. Foundation for Women’s Gloria Awards and Gala [Vulture, http://www.vulture.com/2014/05/read-amy-schumers-ms-gala-speech.html, May 2014, Read Amy Schumer’s Powerful Speech About Confidence, Jennifer, Vineyard]

Bem Cavalgar photo
"Weird Al" Yankovic photo

“I sued Taco Bell
'Cause I ate half a million Chalupas
And I got fat!
I sued Panasonic
They never said I shouldn't use their microwave
To dry off my cat!”

"Weird Al" Yankovic (1959) American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist

"I'll Sue Ya", Straight Outta Lynwood (2006).
Song lyrics

Michael Greger photo

“[Compared to cow's milk] soy milk is only deficient in blood pus, antibiotics, artery-clogging fat, and cholesterol.”

Michael Greger (1972) American physician, author, and vegan health activist

Quoted in Jeffrey M. Masson, The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food https://books.google.it/books?id=-LeUV2wr2BoC&pg=PA0 (Norton & Company, 2009), p. 194.

Maneka Gandhi photo

“It is so naturally high in fat that it leads to obesity, the cause of all modern disease. Ayurveda actually lists milk as one of the five white poisons.”

Maneka Gandhi (1956) Indian politician and activist

On drinking milk, as quoted in "Ayurveda actually lists milk as one of the five white poisons" http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/apr/11inter.htm, Rediff (12 April 2000)
1991-2000

Jonathan Stroud photo
Joseph Beuys photo

“Fat' traverses the path from a chaotically dispersed, undirected energy form to a form. Then it appears in the famous fat corner.... now [a wedge of fat in the angle between seat and back of the wooden old Chair, Beuys used in the fat-sculpture, like 'Stuhl mit Fett' (Fet Chair), 1964] intersects the human body in the region that houses certain emotional forces”

Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) German visual artist

Beuys laughed, and so did everyone else of the public
In a public debate at the Kunstring (Artcircle) Folkwang in Essen, 1972; (Stachelhaus 1991, p. 71); as quoted in Joseph Beuys and the Celtic Wor(l)d: A Language of Healing, Victoria Walters, LIT Verlag Münster, 2012, p. 29
1970's

Dave Eggers photo
Sylvia Plath photo
Benjamin Spock photo

“We used to think of cow's milk as a nearly perfect food. However, over the past several years, researchers have found new information that has caused many of us to change our opinion. This has provoked a lot of understandable controversy, but I have come to believe that cow's milk is not necessary for children. First, it turns out that the fat in cow's milk is not the kind of fat ("essential fatty acids") needed for brain development. Instead, milk fat is too rich in the saturated fats that promote artery blockages. Also, cow's milk can make it harder for a child to stay in iron balance. Milk is extremely low in iron and slows down iron absorption. It can also cause subtle blood loss in the digestive tract that causes the child to lose iron. … Some children have sensitivities to milk proteins, which show up as ear problems, respiratory problems, or skin conditions. Milk also has traces of antibiotics, estrogens, and other things a child does not need. There is, of course, nothing wrong with human breast milk — it is perfect for infants. For older children, there are many good soy and rice milk products and even nondairy "ice creams" that are well worth trying. If you are using cow's milk in your family, I would encourage you to give these alternatives a try.”

Benjamin Spock (1903–1998) American pediatrician and author of Baby and Child Care

Source: Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care (1945), Seventh edition (1998), p. 346

Ned Kelly photo

“There are worse things than being fat, and one of them is worrying about it all the time.”

Peg Bracken (1918–2007) American writer

But I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World! The pleasures and perils of an unseasoned traveler (1973)

Gautama Buddha photo
Fats Domino photo

“They call, they call me the fat man
'Cause I weight two hundred pounds
All the girls they love me
'Cause I know my way around.”

Fats Domino (1928–2017) American R&B musician

The Fat Man (1949) co-written with Dave Bartholomew

Benazir Bhutto photo

“No, I am not pregnant. I am fat. And, as the Prime Minister, its my right to be fat if I want to.”

Benazir Bhutto (1953–2007) 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan

When asked by a journalist if she was pregnant again, as quoted in "Benazir, the steely and vulnerable" by Lyse Doucet in BBC News (29 December 2007) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7163697.stm

Neal D. Barnard photo
John Bright photo

“The Corn Law is as great a robbery of the man who follows the plough as it is of him who minds the loom…If there be one view of the question which stimulates me to harder work in this cause than another, it is the fearful sufferings which I know to exist amongst the rural laborers in almost every part of this kingdom…And then a fat and sleek dean, a dignitary of the Church and a great philosopher, recommends for the consumption of the people—he did not read a paper about the supplies that were to be had in the great valley of the Mississippi—but he said that there were swede, turnip and mangel-wurzel; and the Hereditary Earl Marshal of England, if to out-Herod Herod himself, recommends hot water and a pinch of curry-powder. The people of England have not, even under thirty years of Corn Law influence, been sunk so low as to submit tamely to this insult and wrong. It is enough that a law should be passed to make your toil valueless, to make your skill and labor unavailing to procure for you a fair supply of the common necessaries of life—but when to this grievous iniquity they add the insult of telling you to go, like beasts that perish, to mangel-wurzel, or to something which even the beasts themselves cannot eat, then I believe the people of England will rise, and with one voice proclaim the downfall of this odious system.”

John Bright (1811–1889) British Radical and Liberal statesman

Speech at an Anti-Corn Law League meeting (summer 1843), quoted in G. M. Trevelyan, The Life of John Bright (London: Constable, 1913), pp. 93-94.
1840s

Anthony Burgess photo

“Long words, fat talk — they may tell us something about ourselves. Has the passion for fat in the language increased as self-confidence has waned?”

Russell Baker (1925–2019) writer and satirst from the United States

"American Fat" (p.46)
So This Is Depravity (1980)

Frank McCourt photo
Tom Jones photo

“Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry and Gene Vincent would be my five.”

Tom Jones (1940) Welsh singer

When asked "Which singers have the greatest voices of all time?"
Tom Jones on Sinatra's advice, Chuck Berry's lyrics and the style of Elvis Presley

Tommy Douglas photo

“It's the story of a place called Mouseland. Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election. Used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for the next four years afterwards too. Just like you and me. And every time on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats. Now if you think it strange that mice should elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for last 90 years and maybe you'll see that they weren't any stupider than we are. Now I'm not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows. They conducted their government with dignity. They passed good laws--that is, laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were good for cats weren't very good for mice. One of the laws said that mouseholes had to be big enough so a cat could get his paw in. Another law said that mice could only travel at certain speeds--so that a cat could get his breakfast without too much physical effort. All the laws were good laws. For cats. But, oh, they were hard on the mice. And life was getting harder and harder. And when the mice couldn't put up with it any more, they decided something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the black cats out. They put in the white cats. Now the white cats had put up a terrific campaign. They said: "All that Mouseland needs is more vision." They said:"The trouble with Mouseland is those round mouseholes we got. If you put us in we'll establish square mouseholes." And they did. And the square mouseholes were twice as big as the round mouseholes, and now the cat could get both his paws in. And life was tougher than ever. And when they couldn't take that anymore, they voted the white cats out and put the black ones in again. Then they went back to the white cats. Then to the black cats. They even tried half black cats and half white cats. And they called that coalition. They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them: they were cats that tried to make a noise like a mouse but ate like a cat. You see, my friends, the trouble wasn't with the colour of the cat. The trouble was that they were cats. And because they were cats, they naturally looked after cats instead of mice. Presently there came along one little mouse who had an idea. My friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea. And he said to the other mice, "Look fellows, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats? Why don't we elect a government made up of mice?" "Oh," they said, "he's a Bolshevik. Lock him up!"”

Tommy Douglas (1904–1986) Scottish-born Canadian politician

So they put him in jail. But I want to remind you: that you can lock up a mouse or a man but you can't lock up an idea!
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Digital+Archives/Politics/Parties+and+Leaders/Tommy+Douglas/ID/1409090169/?sort=MostPopular

Jesse Ventura photo

“Every fat person says it's not their fault, that they have gland trouble. You know which gland? The saliva gland. They can't push away from the table.”

Jesse Ventura (1951) American politician and former professional wrestler

Interview in Playboy (November 1999)

Ann Coulter photo
Liam Fox photo

“The ultimate compound return rate is acutely sensitive to fat tails.”

William Poundstone (1955) American writer

Part Six, Blowing Up, Survival Motive, p. 297
Fortune's Formula (2005)

Gerald Durrell photo
Jonathan Swift photo

“I have fed like a farmer: I shall grow as fat as a porpoise.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Polite Conversation (1738), Dialogue 2

Tobey Maguire photo

“I’ve been a vegetarian for 14 years now, and a lot of the time I avoid going to restaurants. I eat at home. … I’ve never had any desire to eat meat. In fact, when I was a kid I would have a really difficult time eating meat at all. It had to be the perfect bite, with no fat or gristle or bone or anything like that…. I don’t judge people who eat meat—that’s not for me to say—but the whole thing just sort of bums me out.”

Tobey Maguire (1975) actor from the United States

"Tobey Maguire - Web Exclusive", interview in Parade.com (1 April 2007) http://web.archive.org/web/20070930165114/http://www.parade.com/export/sites/default/articles/editions/2007/edition_04-01-2007/Tobey-Maguire. Quoted in "The Green Quote: Tobey Maguire Prefers To Eat At Home", in Ecorazzi.com (24 July 2008) http://www.ecorazzi.com/2008/07/24/the-green-quote-tobey-maguire-prefers-to-eat-at-home/.

Gaurav Sharma (author) photo

“I'm about as Nordic and Germanic looking as they come. It doesn't matter whther I'm skinny or fat. I'm just that way. So, there have been dates: for instance, the date that I first met Alex Acuna, Luis Conte, Alfredo Rey, Sr., Alfredo Rey, Jr., Cachao, the Cuban bass player. I mean, all of these people. The night I met them, on a recording date, I was there with a bunch of Cubans and I walked in, and at first, before we recorded the music, they were all standing around, hanging out. And of course I wanted to join, so I went over and started joining in. Now my Spanish certainly is not street Spanish, it's book-learned Spanish. And Cubans speak a patois all their own, and I could tell, when I first was speaking there, you know, they kept saying, "Well, he's speaking our language, but he certainly doesn't sound like us; he's still an outsider. Maybe not as much an outsider as he was before." And yet, what really happens is that, by the time we start playing, then I felt like somebody gives my visa a stamp. You know, on the passport. Because at that point, suddenly I start getting smiles from people, and different things, and that's an experience which happens over and over and over.”

Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

Radio interview, circa 1985, by Ben Sidran, as quoted in Talking Jazz With Ben Sidran, Volume 1: The Rhythm Section https://books.google.com/books?id=O3hZDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT461&lpg=PT461&dq=%22there's+no+way+you+can+cut+it+any+different%22&source=bl&ots=vkOwylF67i&sig=RdKDS4QiEbLIoTYKWEL4j103DPM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizzcm_38bRAhXF4yYKHWktCS8Q6AEIFDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false (1992, 2006, 2014)

John Dryden photo

“I am resolved to grow fat, and look young till forty.”

The Maiden Queen, Act iii, scene 1.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Nick Cave photo
Heinrich Müller photo

“You are a very interesting case, General. Do you know what fat file of evidence we have against you here?”

Heinrich Müller (1900–1945) German police official and head of the Gestapo

To General Walter Dornberger, 1944. Quoted in "Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny" - by Edward Crankshaw

Margaret Hughes photo

“I have been treated as a freak, rather like the fat lady at the circus.”

Margaret Hughes (1645–1719) British actress

On the reaction of male journalists to a female reporting cricket. Guardian obituary http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/feb/09/guardianobituaries.cricket

Nick Cave photo

“Nick the Stripper,
Hideous to the eye,
Hideous to the eye,
He's a fat little insect,
A fat little insect,
And oooooooh! Here we go again.”

Nick Cave (1957) Australian musician

Song lyrics, Prayers on Fire (1981), Nick the Stripper

George Herbert photo

“429. Hee that hath one hogge makes him fat; and hee that hath one sonne makes him a foole.”

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest

Jacula Prudentum (1651)

John Fante photo
Michael Shea photo
David Spade photo
Sylvia Plath photo
Stella Vine photo
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux photo

“There, take," says Justice, "take ye each a shell;
We thrive at Westminster on fools like you.
'T was a fat oyster! live in peace,—adieu.”

Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636–1711) French poet and critic

Tenez, voilà, dit-elle, à chacun une écaille.
Des sottises d'autrui nous vivons au palais :
Messieurs, l'huître était bonne. Adieu. Vivez en paix.
Epître ii, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919); translation by Alexander Pope, Verbatim from Boileau.

Kenji Miyazawa photo

“In spring I stopped eating the bodies of living things. Nonetheless, the other day I ate several slices of tuna sashimi as a form of magic to “undertake” my “communication” with “society.” I also stirred a cup of chawanmushi with a spoon. If the fish, while being eaten, had stood behind me and watched, what would he have thought? “I gave up my only life and this person is eating my body as if it were something distasteful.” “He’s eating me in anger.” “He’s eating me out of desperation.” “He’s thinking of me and, while quietly savoring my fat with his tongue, praying, ‘Fish, you will come with me as my companion some day, won’t you?’” “Damn! He’s eating my body!” Well, different fish would have had different thoughts. … Suppose I were the fish, and suppose that not only I were being eaten but my father were being eaten, my mother were being eaten, and my sister were also being eaten. And suppose I were behind the people eating us, watching. “Oh, look, that man has torn apart my sibling with chopsticks. Talking to the person next to him, he swallowed her, thinking nothing of it. Just a few minutes ago her body was lying there, cold. Now she must be disintegrating in a pitch-dark place under the influence of mysterious enzymes. Our entire family have given up our precious lives that we value, we’ve sacrificed them, but we haven’t won a thimbleful of pity from these people.””

Kenji Miyazawa (1896–1933) Japanese poet and author of children's literature

I must have been once a fish that was eaten.
Letter to Hosaka (May 1918); as quoted in Miyazawa Kenji: Selections, edited by Hiroaki Sato (University of California Press, 2007), pp. 12 https://books.google.it/books?id=D7IwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12-13.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh photo

“Well, you'll never fly in it, you're too fat to be an astronaut.”

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921) member of the British Royal Family, consort to Queen Elizabeth II

Said at the University of Salford to a 13-year-old aspiring astronaut, who was wishing to fly the NOVA rocket, as quoted in of the gaffe: Prince Philip’s top ten embarrassing moments" in The Daily Mirror (14 December 2009) http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-10s/2009/12/14/gift-of-the-gaffe-prince-philip-s-top-ten-embarrassing-moments-115875-21896895/"Gift
2000s

Michael Shea photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“Let's make a deal; if you promise not to get "personal" with me, I will promise not to show you as the crude, fat and obnoxious slob which everyone knows you are. Sincerely, Donald J. Trump.”

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

Letter to journalist Shannon Donnelly http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/lifestyles/before-twitter-name-calling-letter-from-donald-trump/KaGSV40cQnefESyXhe5CuN/, 1996
1990s

Margaret Cho photo
Joel Fuhrman photo
Charles Dickens photo
Joel Fuhrman photo
Larry the Cable Guy photo
Howard F. Lyman photo
Wesley Willis photo

“Before I got fat, I was slim / That was this time when I was eating McDonalds.”

Wesley Willis (1963–2003) American singer-songwriter

I'm Sorry That I Got Fat (I Will Slim Down)
Lyrics, Spookydisharmoniousconflicthellride (1996)

Robert Morley photo

“Fat men get knocked over by buses no earlier, nor later, than thin men. And I, for one, have buried most of my thin friends.”

Robert Morley (1908–1992) English actor

Explaining why he never tried to lose weight.
Toledo Blade, Aug 20, 1978 http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19780820&id=UDBPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=fgIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6371,746427

Christopher Hitchens photo

“Europeans think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they've taken as their own, as their representative American, someone (Michael Moore) who actually embodies all of those qualities.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Scarborough Country on MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5013506, (2004-05-18: On Michael Moore
2000s, 2004

Robert Sheckley photo
Harry Chapin photo
John Bunyan photo

“Every fat must stand upon its own bottom.”

Part I, Ch. VI : The Cross and the Contrast; comparable to: "Every tub must stand upon its bottom", Charles Macklin, The Man of the World, act i. sc. 2
The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), Part I

Ron Reagan photo
Alexander Blok photo

“Grip your gun like a man, brother!
Let's have a crack at Holy Russia,
Mother
Russia
with her big, fat arse!
Freedom, freedom! Down with the cross!”

The Twelve (1918); translation from Jon Stallworthy and Peter France (trans.) The Twelve, and Other Poems (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970) p. 146.

Emily Dickinson photo
James K. Morrow photo
David Lloyd George photo

“The Duke of Devonshire issues a circular applying for subscriptions to oppose this Bill, and he charges us with the robbery of God. Why, does he not know—of course he knows—that the very foundations of his fortune are laid deep in sacrilege, fortunes built out of desecrated shrines and pillaged altars…I say that charges of this kind brought against a whole people…ought not to be brought by those whose family trees are laden with the fruits of sacrilege. I am not complaining that ancestors of theirs did it, but they are still in the enjoyment of the same property, and they are subscribing out of that property to leaflets which attack us and call us thieves. What is their story? Look at the whole story of the pillage of the Reformation. They robbed the Catholic Church, they robbed the monasteries, they robbed the altars, they robbed the almshouses, they robbed the poor, and they robbed the dead. Then they come here when we are trying to seek, at any rate to recover some part of this pillaged property for the poor for whom it was originally given, and they venture, with hands dripping with the fat of sacrilege, to accuse us of robbery of God.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1912/may/16/second-reading-fourth-days-debate in the House of Commons (12 May 1912) on the Bill to disestablish the Anglican church in Wales
Chancellor of the Exchequer

Marion Nestle photo
Muhammad photo

“Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "May Allah curse the Jews, because Allah made fat illegal for them but they sold it and ate its price."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

[3, 34, 427]
Sunni Hadith

“Again, when Allaudin Khalji sacked Deogiri, hundreds of Sufis betook themselves to the South and established monasteries, to finance which fat sums were extracted from the local chiefs. Hajji Sayyid alias Sarwar Makhdum, Husam ad-Din, and several other Sufis took part in offensive wars openly, on account of which they were entitled Qattal (the great slayers) and Kuffar-bhanjan (destroyers of the Kafirs). Shaykh Jalal ad-Din Tabrizi demolished a large temple and constructed a Takiyah (khanqah) at Devatalla (Deva Mahal) in Bengal…. Mir Sayyid ‘Ali Hamadani (1314-1385) began to get Hindu temples demolished and the Hindus converted by reckless use of force throughout his sojourn in Kashmir… Thanks to the influence of Hamadani’s Sufi son Mir Muhammad (b. 1372), who stepped into his father’s shoes after the latter had left Kashmir after failing to pull on well with Qutb ad-Din, Sikandar (1389-1413), a liberal Sultan of Kashmir, turned into a ferocious Sultan for the Hindus and began to be known as Sikandar Butshikan (iconoclast), and his powerful Brahmana noble Suhabhatta embraced Islam under the name Sayf ad-Din and became a terror for the Brahmanas. Guided by the teachings of Mir Muhammad, Sikandar played havoc with the Hindus through Sayf ad-Din, destroyed their temples, undertook forcible conversions, and imposed Jizyah on them for the first time in Kashmir. Indeed, he out-Aurangzebed Aurangzeb in his Hindu-persecution-mania.”

Harsh Narain (1921–1995) Indian writer

Myths of Composite Culture and Equality of Religions (1990)