Quotes about figure
page 5

Amy Sedaris photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Jim Butcher photo
David Levithan photo

“But you have to figure that if it’s too hard to hang on, then maybe you should let go.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

Roland Barthes photo
Rick Riordan photo
Richelle Mead photo

“You can figure out what the villain fears by his choice of weapons.”

Connie Brockway (1954) American writer

Source: The Bridal Season

Neal Shusterman photo
Jeannette Walls photo
Ray Bradbury photo

“It figures—it’s always either the butler or the resurrected mate.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night

George W. Bush photo

“I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office.”

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

Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008 http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/bushisms/2009/01/ws_greatest_hits.html http://www.msnbc.com/the-ed-show/how-will-you-remember-george-w-bush
2000s, 2008

Susan Elizabeth Phillips photo
Mike Mignola photo

“Lady, I was gonna cut you some slack, 'cause you're a major mythological figure… but now you've just gone nuts!”

Mike Mignola (1960) Comic creator

Source: Hellboy, Vol. 2: Wake the Devil

David Sedaris photo
Auguste Rodin photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Lawrence Lessig photo
Guity Novin photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Why should we make account of time, or of magnitude, or of figure? The soul knows how to play with them as a young child plays with graybeards and in churches.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), History

“Did you ever figure to be living in a time when your check is good, but the bank bounces?”

Robert Orben (1928) American magician and writer

Alison DaRosa (November 26, 1985) "Title: Alison DaRosa", Evening Tribune, Union-Tribune Publishing Co., p. B-1.
Attributed

Daniel Johns photo
Mahendra Chaudhry photo
Joe Trohman photo

“There’s a lot of spaz inside of me. I know people don’t want to see it throughout the day, so I figure, why not unleash it all onstage.”

Joe Trohman (1984) American musician

My Heart Will Always Be The B-Side To My Tongue (2004), Ultimate Guitar Interview (2008)

Jonah Goldberg photo

“Disenfranchisement is something the government does to you. It's not something you do to yourself. If you can't figure out how to fill in the ovals or punch the chads—and some minority of voters will always botch it—that doesn't mean your right to vote was rescinded. It means that you didn't take your right to vote seriously enough to pay attention to the instructions.”

Jonah Goldberg (1969) American political writer and pundit

( October 22, 2004 http://web.archive.org/web/20040421/www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200410221457.asp) http://web.archive.org/web/20040421/author.nationalreview.com/bio/?q=MjE5NQ==
2000s, 2004

Benoît Mandelbrot photo
Linus Torvalds photo
Don Cherry photo
Barbara Ehrenreich photo
Raymond Poincaré photo
Alexej von Jawlensky photo
Chris Cornell photo
Katherine Heigl photo

“I'm still figuring out who I am. But at least I know what I want.”

Katherine Heigl (1978) American actress and film producer

InStyle magazine (2009)

Edgar Rice Burroughs photo

“Tarzan of the Apes had decided to mark his evolution from the lower orders in every possible manner, and nothing seemed to him a more distinguishing badge of manhood than ornaments and clothing.
To this end, therefore, he collected the various arm and leg ornaments he had taken from the black warriors who had succumbed to his swift and silent noose, and donned them all after the way he had seen them worn.
About his neck hung the golden chain from which depended the diamond encrusted locket of his mother, the Lady Alice. At his back was a quiver of arrows slung from a leathern shoulder belt, another piece of loot from some vanquished black.
About his waist was a belt of tiny strips of rawhide fashioned by himself as a support for the home-made scabbard in which hung his father's hunting knife. The long bow which had been Kulonga's hung over his left shoulder.
The young Lord Greystoke was indeed a strange and war-like figure, his mass of black hair falling to his shoulders behind and cut with his hunting knife to a rude bang upon his forehead, that it might not fall before his eyes.
His straight and perfect figure, muscled as the best of the ancient Roman gladiators must have been muscled, and yet with the soft and sinuous curves of a Greek god, told at a glance the wondrous combination of enormous strength with suppleness and speed.”

Source: Tarzan of the Apes (1912), Ch. 13 : His Own Kind

Leszek Kolakowski photo
André Malraux photo

“Chanel, General De Gaulle and Picasso are the three most important figures of our time.”

André Malraux (1901–1976) French novelist, art theorist and politician

As quoted in Paris, Paris : Journey Into the City of Light‎ (2005) by David Downie, p. 87

R. C. Majumdar photo
Gore Vidal photo
Revilo P. Oliver photo
Eric Hargan photo
E.E. Cummings photo
Viktor Orbán photo

“By 2050 Egypt’s population will increase from 90 million to 138 million. The population of Nigeria will increase from 186 million to 390 million. Uganda’s population will rise from 38 million to 93 million, and Ethiopia’s from 102 to 228 million. It is János Martonyi who usually warns us – and how right he is – that projecting current trends into the future requires caution, because in history there are always events which can change their course. But as we cannot prepare for unforeseeable events in the future, common sense tells us that we must project these figures into the future, and we must prepare for them. They clearly show that the real pressure on our continent will come from Africa. Today we are talking about Syria, today we are talking about Libya; but in fact we must prepare for the population pressure coming from the region beyond Libya – and its magnitude will be far greater than anything we have experienced so far. This warns us that we must be steely in our determination. Border protection – particularly when we need to build a fence and detain people – is something which is difficult to justify in aesthetic terms, but believe me, you cannot protect the borders – and thus ourselves – with flowers and cuddly toys. We must face this fact.”

Viktor Orbán (1963) Hungarian politician, chairman of Fidesz

Tusnádfürdő speech http://www.kormany.hu/en/the-prime-minister/the-prime-minister-s-speeches/viktor-orban-s-presentation-at-the-27h-balvanyos-summer-open-university-and-student-camp, 26 July 2016

Mohamed Nasheed photo

“Even the figure of 40 is quite big for a country the size of the Maldives which has a population of just 3,50,000. Even one Maldivian becoming a terrorist and killing people is enough to shake our society.”

Mohamed Nasheed (1967) Maldivian politician, 4th president of the Maldives

On the threat of ISIS in the Maldives, quoted on TheHindu, "India, Maldives to finalise pact to fight Islamic State" http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-maldives-to-finalise-pact-to-fight-islamic-state/article8353075.ece, March 15, 2016.

Thomas Carlyle photo

“A witty statesman said, you might prove anything by figures.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Source: 1840s, Chartism (1840), Ch. 2, Statistics.

Vannevar Bush photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“From almost the first day they got into office, they (President Bush and Vice President Cheney) were trying to figure out how to get rid of Saddam Hussein. I’m not a psychiatrist – I don’t know all of the reasons behind their concern, some might say their obsession.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Town Hall speech http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/counterprogramming-clinton-in-new-hampshire/, Berlin, NH, as reported in The New York Times (10 February 2007)
Presidential campaign (January 20, 2007 – 2008)

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky photo
Hans Arp photo
Gwen John photo
Stuart A. Umpleby photo
Jozef Israëls photo

“As I hear, you are the possessors of one of my favorite paintings 'The children on the beach' and I can tell you that few pictures by me, have so much figures, busy in the subject. Therefore I mean that this picture is an unicum and I hope you will give it a good light and place in your gallery.”

Jozef Israëls (1824–1911) Dutch painter

Israels in his letter to Amercian art-sellers Moulton & Ricketts, 27 June 1910; as cited in Jozef Israëls, 1824 – 1911, ed. Dieuwertje Dekkers; Waanders, Zwolle 1999, p. 188
Quotes of Jozef Israels, after 1900

Max Beckmann photo
Irvin D. Yalom photo
Jay Leno photo

“Stephen Hawking is getting a divorce. That's scary. If the smartest guy in the world can't figure out women, we're screwed.”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

Monologue, 20 October 2006
The Tonight Show

Rick Warren photo
Alan Bennett photo
Menina Fortunato photo
Phillip Guston photo
Tom Clancy photo
Jane Espenson photo
Gene Simmons photo
Russell Brand photo
Honoré de Balzac photo

“Girls are apt to imagine noble and enchanting and totally imaginary figures in their own minds; they have fanciful extravagant ideas about men, and sentiment, and life; and then they innocently endow somebody or other with all the perfections for their daydreams, and put their trust in him.”

Les jeunes filles se créent souvent de nobles, de ravissantes images, des figures tout idéales, et se forgent des idées chimériques sur les hommes, sur les sentiments, sur le monde; puis elles attribuent innocemment à un caractère les perfections qu'elles ont rêvées, et s'y confient.
Source: A Woman of Thirty (1842), Ch. I: Early Mistakes.

Glenn Beck photo
Marianne von Werefkin photo
Marianne von Werefkin photo
Phillip Guston photo
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor photo
Cass Elliot photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Tom Clancy photo
Dan Piraro photo
Neil deGrasse Tyson photo
Neil Young photo

“According to a stagist conception of progressive history (which is usually blind to its implicit teleology), the work of figures like Foucault, Derrida and other cutting-edge French theorists is often intuitively affiliated with a form of profound and sophisticated critique that presumably far surpasses anything found in the socialist, Marxist or anarchist traditions. It is certainly true and merits emphasis that the Anglophone reception of French theory, as John McCumber has aptly pointed out, had important political implications as a pole of resistance to the false political neutrality, the safe technicalities of logic and language, or the direct ideological conformism operative in the McCarthy-supported traditions of Anglo-American philosophy. However, the theoretical practices of figures who turned their back on what Cornelius Castoriadis called the tradition of radical critique—meaning anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist resistance—surely contributed to the ideological drift away from transformative politics. According to the spy agency itself, post-Marxist French theory directly contributed to the CIA’s cultural program of coaxing the left toward the right, while discrediting anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism, thereby creating an intellectual environment in which their imperial projects could be pursued unhindered by serious critical scrutiny from the intelligentsia.”

Gabriel Rockhill (1972) philosopher

"The CIA reads French Theory: On the Intellectual Labor of Dismantling the Cultural Left" (2017)

Edwin Abbott Abbott photo
Vincent Van Gogh photo
Ron Paul photo

“Ron Paul: What's happening is, there's transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy. This comes about because of the monetary system that we have. When you inflate a currency or destroy a currency, the middle class gets wiped out. So the people who get to use the money first which is created by the Federal Reserve system benefit. So the money gravitates to the banks and to Wall Street. That's why you have more billionaires than ever before. Today, this country is in the middle of a recession for a lot of people… As long as we live beyond our means we are destined to live beneath our means. And we have lived beyond our means because we are financing a foreign policy that is so extravagant and beyond what we can control, as well as the spending here at home. And we're depending on the creation of money out of thin air, which is nothing more than debasement of the currency. It's counterfeit… So, if you want a healthy economy, you have to study monetary theory and figure out why it is that we're suffering. And everybody doesn't suffer equally, or this wouldn't be so bad. It's always the poor people -- those who are on retired incomes -- that suffer the most. But the politicians and those who get to use the money first, like the military industrial complex, they make a lot of money and they benefit from it.
John McCain: Everybody is paying taxes and wealth creates wealth. And the fact is that I would commend to your reading, Ron, "Wealth of Nations," because that's what this is all about. A vibrant economy creates wealth. People pay taxes. Revenues are at an all time high.”

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

GOP debate, Dearborn, Michigan, October 9, 2007 http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071009/NEWS02/71009073
2000s, 2006-2009

Ossip Zadkine photo
Arnold Schoenberg photo

“I believe that he (Strauss) will remain one of the characteristic and outstanding figures in musical history. Works like Salome, Elektra and Intermezzo, and others will not perish.”

Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) Austrian-American composer

Arnold Schoenberg, (1946); as quoted in A Schoenberg reader - Documents of a life, edited by Joseph Auner, Yale University Press 2003, page 316-17
1940s

George W. Bush photo
Andrew Sullivan photo
Enoch Powell photo

“So long as the figures 'now superseded' and the academic projections based upon them held sway, it was possible for politicians to shrug their shoulders. With so much of immediate and indisputable importance on their hands, why should they attend to what was forecast for the end of the century, when most of them would be not only out of office but dead and gone? … It was not for them to heed the cries of anguish from those of their own people who already saw their towns being changed, their native places turned into foreign lands, and themselves displaced as if by a systematic colonisation. For these the much vaunted compassion of the parties and politicians was not available: the parties and the politicians preferred to be busy making speeches on race relations; and if any of their number dared to tell them the truth, even less than the whole truth, about what was happening and what would happen here in England, they denounced them as racialist and turned them out of doors. They could feel safe; for they said in their hearts: 'If trouble comes, it will not be in our time; let the next generation see to it!' … The explosive which will blow us asunder is there and the fuse is burning, but the fuse is shorter than had been supposed. The transformation which I referred to earlier as being without even a remote parallel in our history, the occupation of the hearts of this metropolis and of towns and cities across England by a coloured population amounting to millions, this before long will be past denying. It is possible that the people of this country will, with good or ill grace, accept what they did not ask for, did not want and were not told of. My own judgment— it is a judgment which the politician has a duty to form to the best of his ability— I have not feared to give: it is— to use words I used two years and a half ago— that 'the people of England will not endure it'.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Speech to the Carshalton and Banstead Young Conservatives at Carshalton Hall (15 February 1971), from Still to Decide (Eliot Right Way Books, 1972), pp. 202-203.
1970s

Sean Spicer photo
Eugene Rotberg photo
Jean Dubuffet photo
Maynard James Keenan photo
William Stukeley photo

“This mighty wall of four score miles in length is only exceeded by the Chinese wall, which makes a considerable figure upon the terrestrial globe, and may be discerned at the moon.”

William Stukeley (1687–1765) English antiquarian

Private letter published in The Family Memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley (1887) Vol. 3, p. 142. (1754).

Mihira Bhoja I photo