Quotes about front
page 11

Naomi Klein photo
George William Curtis photo

“The country does want rest, we all want rest. Our very civilization wants it — and we mean that it shall have it. It shall have rest — repose — refreshment of soul and re-invigoration of faculty. And that rest shall be of life and not of death. It shall not be a poison that pacifies restlessness in death, nor shall it be any kind of anodyne or patting or propping or bolstering — as if a man with a cancer in his breast would be well if he only said he was so and wore a clean shirt and kept his shoes tied. We want the rest of a real Union, not of a name, not of a great transparent sham, which good old gentlemen must coddle and pat and dandle, and declare wheedlingly is the dearest Union that ever was, SO it is; and naughty, ugly old fanatics shan't frighten the pretty precious — no, they sha'n't. Are we babies or men? This is not the Union our fathers framed — and when slavery says that it will tolerate a Union on condition that freedom holds its tongue and consents that the Constitution means first slavery at all costs and then liberty, if you can get it, it speaks plainly and manfully, and says what it means. There are not wanting men enough to fall on their knees and cry: 'Certainly, certainly, stay on those terms. Don't go out of the Union — please don't go out; we'll promise to take great care in future that you have everything you want. Hold our tongues? Certainly. These people who talk about liberty are only a few fanatics — they are tolerably educated, but most of 'em are crazy; we don't speak to them in the street; we don't ask them to dinner; really, they are of no account, and if you'll really consent to stay in the Union, we'll see if we can't turn Plymouth Rock into a lump of dough'. I don't believe the Southern gentlemen want to be fed on dough. I believe they see quite as clearly as we do that this is not the sentiment of the North, because they can read the election returns as well as we. The thoughtful men among them see and feel that there is a hearty abhorrence of slavery among us, and a hearty desire to prevent its increase and expansion, and a constantly deepening conviction that the two systems of society are incompatible. When they want to know the sentiment of the North, they do not open their ears to speeches, they open their eyes, and go and look in the ballot-box, and they see there a constantly growing resolution that the Union of the United States shall no longer be a pretty name for the extension of slavery and the subversion of the Constitution. Both parties stand front to front. Each claims that the other is aggressive, that its rights have been outraged, and that the Constitution is on its side. Who shall decide? Shall it be the Supreme Court? But that is only a co-ordinate branch of the government. Its right to decide is not mutually acknowledged. There is no universally recognized official expounder of the meaning of the Constitution. Such an instrument, written or unwritten, always means in a crisis what the people choose. The people of the United States will always interpret the Constitution for themselves, because that is the nature of popular governments, and because they have learned that judges are sometimes appointed to do partisan service.”

George William Curtis (1824–1892) American writer

1850s, The Present Aspect of the Slavery Question (1859)

Joanna Newsom photo
Pauli Hanhiniemi photo

“Mersu-humppa: The losers shut up seeing me park my Mercedes in front of the bar.”

Pauli Hanhiniemi (1964) Finnish musician and composer

From Hehkumo's album Muistoja tulevaisuudesta (Universal Music Oy 985921-1, 2006)

Murray Walker photo
Alison Becker photo
Daniel J. Boorstin photo

“The cities of Italy are now deluged with droves of these creatures [tour groups], for they never separate, and you see them, forty in number, pouring along a street with their director — now in front, now at the rear, circling them like a sheep dog — and really the process is as like herding as may be.”

Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American historian

Charles James Lever, Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men and Women and Other Things in General (Blackwood's Magazine, 1864-1865): "Continental Excursionists" [Adamant Media Corporation, 2001, ISBN 0-543-90729-5</small>], p. 243. Quoted by Boorstin in The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961) [Vintage edition, 1992, <small>ISBN 0-679-74180-1], Ch. 3: From Traveler to Tourist: The Lost Art of Travel, p. 88.
Misattributed

Bill McKibben photo
Dmitri Shostakovich photo
Benjamín Netanyahu photo
George Harrison photo

“You can be standing right in front of the truth and not necessarily see it, and people only get it when they’re ready to get it.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

The Beatles Anthology (2000), p. 267

Kent Hovind photo
Aleksandr Vasilevsky photo
Franz Marc photo
Dave Barry photo
T. E. Lawrence photo

“I have to confess that I felt rather proud
of the simple device of my suffocating cloud.
The Prospero of poisons, the Faustus of the front,
bringing mental magic to modern armament.”

Tony Harrison (1937) British writer

"Fritz Haber", line 5; from Square Rounds (London: Faber & Faber, 1992).
The title character of the poem was responsible for developing chlorine gas as a weapon of war.

Lal Bahadur Shastri photo
Charlie Sheen photo
Vladimir Putin photo

“Enemies are right in front of you, you are at war with them, then you make an armistice with them, and all is clear. A traitor must be destroyed, crushed.”

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

In 2001, speaking to journalist Aleksoi Venediktov, to whom he added “You know, Aleksei, you are not a traitor. You are an enemy.” David Remnick, “ Echo in the Dark http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/09/22/echo-in-the-dark,” in The New Yorker, September 22, 2008.
2006- 2010

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek photo

“[Nature] only give it you, when you carefully consider its majesty and greatness. Does it not present beautiful scenes in front of your eyes that impossibly could be described to you by somebody else?…. [scenes], which you can try to realize afterwards in your room on the canvas or panel.”

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803–1862) painter from the Northern Netherlands

translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek
(original Dutch, citaat van B.C. Koekkoek:) [de natuur] alleen schenkt u die bij eene aandachtige beschouwing harer majesteit en grootheid.. .Spreidt zij geene prachttaferelen voor uw oog ten toon, die onmogelijk een ander u zou kunnen beschrijven?. ..die gij naderhand op uwe kamer op het doek of paneel kunt trachten te verwezenlijken.
Quote of Koekkoek, 1841: in: Herinneringen aan en Mededeelingen van eenen Landschapschilder, as cited in 'Andreas Schelfhout Onsterfelijk schoon', p. 35 https://www.simonis-buunk.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/catalogus_schelfhout.pdf

Ben Carson photo

“If your priority is to look good in front of people, your life will take a different direction than if your priority is to use the talents that God has given you to make a positive difference in the world.”

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

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 118

Anthony Bourdain photo

“I do a lot of speaking engagements and sometimes I feel like I’m being paid to curse in front of people who haven’t heard it in a while.”

Anthony Bourdain (1956–2018) Chef and food writer

from a 2008 interview http://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/dining/anthony-bourdain-restaurants.html

Neil Patrick Harris photo
Semyon Timoshenko photo
Barbara Kingsolver photo
Angela Davis photo
Michael Savage photo
Temple Grandin photo

“If by some magic, autism had been eradicated from the face of the earth, then men would still be socializing in front of a wood fire at the entrance to a cave.”

Temple Grandin (1947) USA-american doctor of animal science, author, and autism activist

Grandin, Temple. Thinking in Pictures : My Life with Autism (Expanded Edition).Westminster, MD, USA: Knopf Publishing Group, 2006.

Donald J. Trump photo

“I said, who the hell wants to speak about politics when I'm in front of the boy scouts, right?”

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

2010s, 2017, July, 2017 National Scout Jamboree (July 24, 2017)

Ben Croshaw photo
Christopher Monckton photo
Simon Soloveychik photo
Yoshida Kenkō photo
Russell Brand photo
Lyndon LaRouche photo
Jimmy Wales photo

“It is pretty weird. A few years ago, I was just some guy sitting in front of the internet. Now I send an e-mail or edit an article and it makes headlines around the world … I used to be just a guy — now I'm Jimmy Wales.”

Jimmy Wales (1966) Wikipedia co-founder and American Internet entrepreneur

"Identity question for world's encyclopaedia", The Times (30 December 2005) http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article782970.ece?print=yes&randnum=1188516145101

Jalal Talabani photo

“Saddam was the creation of outsiders. He was created, strengthened, and kept by international force. He is like a man on a tree and the tree will be cut: he will fall down. The formation of a new front will inspire the Iraqi people to intensify the struggle, to give heart to people who before were faced with the whole world supporting Saddam.”

Jalal Talabani (1933–2017) Iraqi politician

Statement made as the then-General Secretary of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PKU), on Iraqi opposition leaders — reported in George D. Moffett III (September 20, 1990) "Iraqi Exiles Make a Try at Unity - Saddam's isolation spurs varied opponents to shelve differences and plot his overthrow", Christian Science Monitor, p. 4.

“Men put roadblocks in front of women as a way of hiding their inefficiencies.”

Bernadette Lahai (1960) Sierra Leonean politician

30% (Women and Politics in Sierra Leone), Anna Cady, 2018-06-18 https://vimeo.com/43595116,

Kage Baker photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“She [Clinton] walks in front of me, she walks in front of me, you know. And when she walked in front of me, believe me I wasn't impressed.”

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

2010s, 2016, October

David Silverman photo
Jane Addams photo
Taylor Swift photo
José Mourinho photo
Jacob Bronowski photo
Manu Chao photo

“They call me the disappeared
That who when he arrives he is already gone
Flying I come, flying I go
Hastily, hastily to a lost course
When they search for me I am never there
When they find me he is not actually me
The one they have in front
Because I already moved along

They call me the disappeared
Ghost that never is to be found
They call me the ungrateful
But this is not the truth
I carry in my body a pain
That don't let me breathe
I carry in my body a curse
That always brings me to walk on”

Manu Chao (1961) French Spanish singer, guitarist and record producer

Me llaman el desaparecido
Que cuando llega ya se ha ido
Volando vengo, volando voy
Deprisa, deprisa a rumbo perdido
Cuando me buscan nunca estoy
Cuando me encuentran yo no soy
El que está enfrente porque ya
Me fui corriendo más allá

Me dicen el desaparecido
Fantasma que nunca está
Me dicen el desagradecido
Pero esa no es la verdad
Yo llevo en el cuerpo un dolor
Que no me deja respirar
Llevo en el cuerpo una condena
Que siempre me echa a caminar
Desaparecido https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qew9cYR3t0g.
Clandestino (1998)

The Mother photo
Martin Amis photo
Hillary Clinton photo
Aron Ra photo
Aurangzeb photo

“27 January 1670: During this month of Ramzan abounding in miracles, the Emperor as the promoter of justice and overthrower of mischief, as a knower of truth and destroyer of oppression, as the zephyr of the garden of victory and the reviver of the faith of the Prophet, issued orders for the demolition of the temple situated in Mathura, famous as the Dehra of Kesho Rai. In a short time by the great exertions of his officers, the destruction of this strong foundation of infidelity was accomplished, and on its site a lofty mosque was built at the expenditure of a large sum. This temple of folly was built by that gross idiot Birsingh Deo Bundela. Before his accession to the throne, the Emperor Jahangir was displeased with Shaikh Abul Fazl. This infidel [Birsingh] became a royal favourite by slaying him [Abul Fazl], and after Jahangir’s accession was rewarded for this service with the permission to build the temple, which he did at an expense of thirty-three lakhs of rupees.
Praised be the august God of the faith of Islam, that in the auspicious reign of this destroyer of infidelity and turbulence [Aurangzeb], such a wonderful and seemingly impossible work was successfully accomplished. On seeing this instance of the strength of the Emperor’s faith and the grandeur of his devotion to God, the proud Rajas were stifled, and in amazement they stood like facing the wall. The idols, large and small, set with costly jewels, which had been set up in the temple, were brought to Agra, and buried under the steps of the mosque of the Begam Sahib, in order to be continually trodden upon. The name of Mathura was changed to Islamabad.
17 December 1679: Hafiz Muhammad Amin Khan reported that some of his servants had ascended the hill and found the other side of the pass also deserted; (evidently) the Rana had evacuated Udaipur and fled. On the 4th January/12th Zil. H., the Emperor encamped in the pass. Hasan ‘Ali Khan was sent in pursuit of the infidel. Prince Muhammad ‘Azam and Khan Jahan Bahadur were permitted to view Udaipur. Ruhullah Khan and Ekkataz Khan went to demolish the great temple in front of the Rana’s palace, which was one of the rarest buildings of the age and the chief cause of the destruction of life and property of the despised worshippers. Twenty machator Rajputs [who] were sitting in the temple, vowed to give up their lives; first one of them came out to fight, killed some and was then himself slain, then came out another and so on, until every one of the twenty perished, after killing a large number of the imperialists including the trusted slave, Ikhlas. The temple was found empty. The hewers broke the images.”

Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor

Saqi Mustad Khan, Maasir-i-Alamgiri, translated and annotated by Jadunath Sarkar, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, 1947, reprinted by Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, Delhi, 1986. quoted in Shourie, Arun (2014). Eminent historians: Their technology, their line, their fraud. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India : HarperCollins Publishers. Different translation: January, 1670. “In this month of Ramzan, the religious-minded Emperor ordered the demolition of the temple at Mathura known as the Dehra of Keshav Rai. His officers accomplished it in a short time. A grand mosque was built on its site at a vast expenditure. The temple had been built by Bir Singh Dev Bundela, at a cost of 33 lakhs of Rupees. Praised be the God of the great faith of Islam that in the auspicious reign- of this destroyer of infidelity and turbulence, such a marvellous and [seemingly] impossible feat was accomplished. On seeing this [instance of the] strength of the Emperor’s faith and the grandeur of his devotion to God, the Rajahs felt suffocated and they stood in amazement like statues facing the walls. The idols, large and small, set with costly jewels, which had been set up in the temple, were brought to Agra and buried under the steps of the mosque of Jahanara, to be trodden upon continually.”
Quotes from late medieval histories, 1670s

Ivan Illich photo
Clifford D. Simak photo

““You sound like a rugged individualist,” said Webster.
“You say that like you think it’s funny,” yapped the mayor.
“I do think it’s funny,” said Webster. “Funny, and tragic, that anyone should think that way today.”
“The world would be a lot better off with some rugged individualism,” snapped the mayor. “Look at the men who have gone places—”
“Meaning yourself?” asked Weber.
“You might take me, for example,” Carter agreed. “I worked hard. I took advantage of opportunity. I had some foresight. I did—”
“You mean you licked the correct boots and stepped in the proper faces,” said Webster. “You’re the shining example of the kind of people the world doesn’t want today. You positively smell musty, your ideas are so old. You’re the last of the politicians, Carter, just as I was the last of the Chamber of Commerce secretaries. Only you don’t know it yet. I did. I got out. Even when it cost me something, I got out, because I had to save my self-respect. Your kind of politics is dead. They are dead because any tinhorn with a loud mouth and a brassy front could gain power by appeal to mob psychology. And you haven’t got mob psychology any more. You can’t have mob psychology when people don’t give a damn what happens to a thing that’s dead already—a political system that broke down under its own weight.””

Source: City (1952), Chapter 1, “City” (pp. 34-35)

G. K. Chesterton photo

“If you know what a man's doing, get in front of him; but if you want to guess what he's doing keep behind him.”

The Innocence of Father Brown (1911) The Blue Cross
The Father Brown Mystery Series (1910 - 1927)

David Icke photo
S. Nambi Narayanan photo
John Kennedy Toole photo
Georges Bernanos photo
Hugh Laurie photo
Clarence Darrow photo

“I had grown tired of standing in the lean and lonely front line facing the greatest enemy that ever confronted man — public opinion.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

Source: The Story of My Life (1932), Ch. 27 "The Loeb-Leopold Tragedy", p. 232

Abdullah of Saudi Arabia photo

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is not a slave of colonial forces like you and others. … Do not indulge yourself in things you have no business with! The lie is before you and the grave is in front of you!”

Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (1924–2015) former King of Saudi Arabia

In reply to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the Arab League Summit in Egypt, 2 March 2003 when Abdullah was Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. هنيئاً لك أيها الوطن بهذه القيادة, جريدة الرياض, 2011/02/25, 2013-02-16 http://www.alriyadh.com/2011/02/25/article607898.html,

David Lloyd George photo
Jonathan Safran Foer photo
Robert Rauschenberg photo
Peter Thiel photo

“Gay marriage can’t be a partisan issue because as long as there are partisan issues or cultural issues in this country, you’ll have trench warfare like on the western front in World War I. You’ll have lots of carnage and no progress.”

Peter Thiel (1967) American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager

Source: At a 2010 fundraiser https://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2012/05/10/obama-minded-billionaires-mostly-quiet-on-same-sex-marriage/ for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (September 22, 2010)

Ralph Steadman photo
Theodore Dalrymple photo
Aron Ra photo
Mitsumasa Yonai photo

“History shows that whenever an emergency arises, our national spirit is most emphatically manifested to advance the prestige and fortune of the nation. It is incumbent upon us to leave no stone unturned in order to promote loyalty and bravery on the home front as well, and to replenish and demonstrate our nation's powers, for which are required the inculcation of the spirit of reverence for deities and respect for ancestors, the renovation of national education and the of the people's physical strength.”

Mitsumasa Yonai (1880–1948) Prime Minister of Japan

alternate version: History shows that, whenever an emergency arises, our national spirit is manifested most emphatically to advance the prestige and bring about the prosperity of the nation. Nor must we be negligent in any way in promoting a loyal and heroic spirit among the home-front population so that national strength may be augmented and given full play. For this purpose, such measures as the fostering of the spirit of piety and of honouring ancestors, the renovation of national education and the improvement of the people's physical strength.
Quoted in Nihon Gaiji Kyokai, Tokyo Gazette, p. 343. Also quoted in Daniel Clarence Holtom, Modern Japan and Shinto Nationalism (1963), p. 19.

Ken Ham photo

“Sadly, many Christians openly embrace big bang cosmology (that the universe essentially created itself) but argue that God is the one who started the process. But this means that God really didn’t do much and was distant from His creation, which is not the way the God of the Bible says He created (this idea also has many other problems as mentioned earlier). But what many of these Christians don’t realize is that the big bang is not just a story about the past—it’s also a story about the future. As this news article reminds us, when scientists start with the presupposition that nature is all that there is and time will eventually take its course on the universe, they are left with bleak predictions. And the prediction of those who believe in the big bang is that the universe will slowly run out of energy and, eventually, became “cold, dark, and desolate.” This does not match with the future described in God’s Word! So what do Christians who have accepted the big bang do? If they (as many do) embrace the secular scientists’ ideas about the past (i. e., the big bang cosmology), then will they also embrace the rest of the secularist belief concerning the heat death in the future? The Christians I’ve met who have compromised God’s Word with the big bang concerning origins don’t accept the rest of the big bang idea concerning the future. Frankly, they are so inconsistent! This highlights why Christians shouldn’t pick and choose which parts of the Bible they want to accept and which ones we will reinterpret to fit fallible man’s ideas. If so, then man is really being an authority over God! This is back-to-front! We need to believe all of God’s Word from the very beginning.”

Ken Ham (1951) Australian young Earth creationist

The Universe Is “Dying” and It’s Because of Sin https://answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2015/08/20/universe-dying-and-its-because-sin/, Around the World with Ken Ham (August 20, 2015)
Around the World with Ken Ham (May 2005 - Ongoing)

Michael Lewis photo
Sun Myung Moon photo
David Lynch photo

“Speaking in front of a large crowd is not pleasant. Once it gets rolling, it's okay. But beforehand, it's murder. I'm getting a lot better. The first interview I ever did was in 1972, I believe, and I couldn't speak. I couldn't speak one word. I only said, "I painted it black."”

David Lynch (1946) American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor

That was my one sentence. And so I have improved.
GreenCine interview (16 November 2005) http://www.greencine.com/article?action=view&articleID=254

Colin Wilson photo
Georg Brandes photo
Tyra Banks photo

“Smiles come naturally to me, but I started thinking of them as an art form at my command. I studied all the time. I looked at magazines, I'd practice in front of the mirror and I'd ask photographers about the best angles. I can now pull out a smile at will.”

Tyra Banks (1973) American model, author and television personality

Lynn Hirschberg (June 1, 2008) "Banksable" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/magazine/01tyra-t.html?ei=5124&en=6a5e98a9634a54f6&ex=1369972800&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&pagewanted=all, The New York Times, The New York Times Company.

Arthur Hugh Clough photo

“In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.”

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) English poet

Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth, st. 4.

Salvador Dalí photo
Richard Holbrooke photo
Peter Sloterdijk photo
George W. Bush photo
Josh Groban photo
Neal D. Barnard photo
András Petőcz photo
Albert Memmi photo
Piet Mondrian photo
Mona Charen photo
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan photo
Joanna MacGregor photo