Quotes about going
page 18

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo

“It is Ill-manners to silence a Fool, and Cruelty to let him go on.”

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician

Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Moral Thoughts and Reflections

Gene Simmons photo

“The notion is that if you want to welcome me with open arms, I'm afraid you're also going to have to welcome me with open legs.”

Gene Simmons (1949) Israeli-born American rock bass guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, and actor

Fresh Air interview (February 4, 2002)

Ronald Reagan photo
Grace Slick photo
Noam Chomsky photo

“On May 27, the New York Times published one of the most incredible sentences I’ve ever seen. They ran an article about the Nixon-Kissinger interchanges. Kissinger fought very hard through the courts to try to prevent it, but the courts permitted it. You read through it, and you see the following statement embedded in it. Nixon at one point informs Kissinger, his right-hand Eichmann, that he wanted bombing of Cambodia. And Kissinger loyally transmits the order to the Pentagon to carry out "a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. Anything that flies on anything that moves." That is the most explicit call for what we call genocide when other people do it that I’ve ever seen in the historical record. Right at this moment there is a prosecution of Milošević going on in the international tribunal, and the prosecutors are kind of hampered because they can’t find direct orders, or a direct connection even, linking Milošević to any atrocities on the ground. Suppose they found a statement like this. Suppose a document came out from Milošević saying, "Reduce Kosovo to rubble. Anything that flies on anything that moves."”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

They would be overjoyed. The trial would be over. He would be sent away for multiple life sentences - if it was a U.S. trial, immediately the electric chair.
Interview by David Barsamian on Alternative Radio, June 11, 2004 http://www.isreview.org/issues/37/chomsky.shtml
Quotes 2000s, 2004

Matsushita Konosuke photo

“No matter how deep a study you make. What you really have to rely on is your own intuition and when it comes down to it, you really don't know what's going to happen until you do it.”

Matsushita Konosuke (1894–1989) Japanese businessman

Kōnosuke Matsushita in: Cherry blossoms and robotics, 1983; Cited in: John R. Schermerhorn (1993), Management for productivity, p. 170

George Washington photo

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s Liberty teeth and keystone under Independence. The church, the plow, the prairie wagon, and citizens’ firearms are indelibly related. From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. Every corner of this Land knows firearms and more than 99 99/100 per cent of them by their silence indicate they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference and they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good. When firearms go all goes, therefore we need them every hour.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

This is the conclusion to an article entitled "Older Ideas of Firearms" by C. S. Wheatley; it was published in the September 1926 issue of Hunter, Trader, Trapper (vol. 53, no. 3), p. 34. Wheatley had referred to George Washington's address to the second session of the first Congress immediately before this passage, which may have given rise to the mistaken attribution. See this piece http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/02/26/firearm/ at Quote Investigator
Misattributed

Barack Obama photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Billie Holiday photo

“I ain't good looking
And my hair ain't curls
But my mother she give me something
It's going to carry me through this world.”

Billie Holiday (1915–1959) American jazz singer and songwriter

Billie's Blues

Slash (musician) photo
Andrew Breitbart photo
Nicolas Sarkozy photo
Peter Blake photo

“Most artists go potty as they get older: dafter and madder as they get more celibate. So I am consciously going to do that.”

Peter Blake (1932) British artist

Charlotte Higgins, "It was 37 years ago today – and Sgt Pepper cover has still failed to pay", http://www.guardian.co.uk/thebeatles/story/0,,1230411,00.html The Guardian, 2004-06-03
Life

Sabine Baring-Gould photo

“Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!”

Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924) English hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist and eclectic scholar

Lyrics to Onward, Christian Soldiers (1871).

Noam Chomsky photo
Joseph Stalin photo

“Hitlers come and go, but Germany and the German people remain.”

Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

"The Order #55 of the National Commissar for the Defense" (23 February 1942) http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1942/420223a.html Stalin said this when the enemy had reached the gate of Moscow during World War II. He called on the people not to identify all Germans with the Nazis.
Stalin's speeches, writings and authorised interviews

Nick Drake photo

“Going to see the river man,
Going to tell him all I can
About the plan
For lilac time.
If he tells me all he knows
'Bout the way his river flows,
And all night shows
In summertime.”

Nick Drake (1948–1974) British singer-songwriter

River Man
Song lyrics, Five Leaves Left (1969)
Variant: Going to see the river man.
Going to tell him all I can
About the ban
On feeling free.If he tells me all he knows
About the way his river flows,
I don't suppose
It's meant for me.

Malcolm X photo
Tupac Shakur photo
Ayrton Senna photo
Jordan Peterson photo

“The notion that every single human being – regardless of their peculiarities and their strangenesses and sins and crimes and all of that – has something divine in them that needs to be regarded with respect, plays an integral role, at least an analgous role, in the creation of habitable order out of chaos. It's a magnificent, remarkable and crazy idea. Yet we developed it. And I do firmly believe that it sits at the base of our legal system. I think it is the cornerstone of our legal system. That's the notion that everyone is equal before God. That's such a strange idea. It's very difficult to understand how anybody could have ever come up with that idea, because the manifold differences between people are so obvious and so evident that you could say the natural way of viewing someone, or human beings, is in this extremely hierarchical manner where some people are contemptible and easily brushed off as pointless and pathological and without value whatsoever, and all the power accrues to a certain tiny aristocratic minority at the top. But if you look way that the idea of individual sovereignty developed, it is clear that it unfolded over thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years, where it became something that was fixed in the imagination that each individual had something of transcendent value about them. And, man, I can tell you – we dispense with that idea at our serious peril. And if you're going to take that idea seriously – and you do because you act it out, because otherwise you wouldn't be law-abiding citizens. It's shared by anyone who acts in a civilized manner. The question is, why in the world do you believe it? Assuming that you believe what you act out – which I think is a really good way of fundamentally defining belief.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Other

Henri Barbusse photo
Frank Zappa photo

“Classical musicians go to the conservatories, rock´n roll musicians go to the garages.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Interview at Swedish Radio, programme Nightflite (circus 1980) http://home.swipnet.se/bengt-jonsson/zappaint.htm#Bobby

Barack Obama photo

“How does America find its way in this new, global economy? What will our place in history be? Like so much of the American story, once again, we face a choice. Once again, there are those who believe that there isn’t much we can do about this as a nation. That the best idea is to give everyone one big refund on their government—divvy it up by individual portions, in the form of tax breaks, hand it out, and encourage everyone to use their share to go buy their own health care, their own retirement plan, their own child care, their own education, and so on. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it—Social Darwinism—every man or woman for him or herself. It’s a tempting idea, because it doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity. It allows us to say that those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford—tough luck. It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job—life isn’t fair. It let’s us say to the child who was born into poverty—pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life’s lottery, that we’re the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won’t be the chump who Donald Trump says: “You’re fired!” But there is a problem. It won’t work. It ignores our history. It ignores the fact that it’s been government research and investment that made the railways possible and the internet possible. It’s been the creation of a massive middle class, through decent wages and benefits and public schools that allowed us all to prosper. Our economic dependence depended on individual initiative. It depended on a belief in the free market; but it has also depended on our sense of mutual regard for each other, the idea that everybody has a stake in the country, that we’re all in it together and everybody’s got a shot at opportunity. That’s what’s produced our unrivaled political stability.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Knox College Commencement Address (4 June 2005)
2005

Jordan Peterson photo
Syd Barrett photo

“Well, I've got a colour telly, and a fridge. I've got some pork chops in the fridge, but the chops keep going off, so I have to keep buying more.”

Syd Barrett (1946–2006) English musician

In response to being asked by David Gilmour what he was up to lately during an unexpected reunion in 1975, as written in Nick Mason's Inside Out

Omar Bradley photo

“To those soldiers who must often have wondered WHY they were going where they did. Perhaps this will help answer their questions.”

Omar Bradley (1893–1981) United States Army field commander during World War II

Dedication
A Soldier's Story (1951)

George Washington photo
Pablo Picasso photo
Arthur Miller photo
Amy Goodman photo

“Going to where the silence is. That is the responsibility of a journalist: giving a voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken, and beaten down by the powerful.”

Amy Goodman (1957) American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author

The Exception to the Rulers written with David Goodman

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Barack Obama photo
Frederick Douglass photo
Francisco De Goya photo

“His Excellency Don José Palafox [famous Spanish general, who recaptured Zaragoza from the French army) called me to go to Zaragoza this week in order to see and examine the ruins of that city, with the intention that I should paint the glories of its inhabitants, something from which I cannot be excused because the glory of my native land [Goya was born in Zaragoza] interests me so much.”

Francisco De Goya (1746–1828) Spanish painter and printmaker (1746–1828)

letter c. 1809, to the Secretary of the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid; as quoted by Robert Hughes, in: Goya. Borzoi Book - Alfred Knopf, New York, 2003; p. 282 & note 13
Goya gave in this way his excuse he gave the Secretary of the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, explaining why he could not be at the inauguration of the portrait, Goya had made of king Ferdinand VII, recently
1800s

Sukirti Kandpal photo
Barack Obama photo

“Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complainin'. Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. We are going to press on. We have work to do.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Remarks to the Congressional Black Caucus on the 2012 election (24 September 2011) http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/associated-press-transcription-obama-cbc-speech-racist-173438340.html
2011

Eugene O'Neill photo
Robin Williams photo

“Is it rude to Twitter during sex? To go "omg, omg, wtf, zzz?"”

Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian

Is that rude?
Weapons of Self Destruction (2010)

Virginia Woolf photo
Willie Nelson photo

“I had gotten up to two, maybe three, packs (of cigarettes) a day. And my lungs were bothering me and I'd had pneumonia two or three times. And I was also smoking pot, and I decided, well, one of them's got to go. And so I took a pack of Chesterfields and took all the Chesterfields out, rolled up 20 big fat ones and put it in there, and I haven't smoked a cigarette since then”

Willie Nelson (1933) American country music singer-songwriter.

Willie Nelson: Road Rules And Deep Thoughts, NPR Staff, NPR.org, National Public Radio, November 18, 2012, November 18, 2012 http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=165223056,

Joe Strummer photo

“We got all the influences for it [Global a Go-Go] from Willesden High Road. When you go out for milk and cigarettes you go through three countries because all the shops and cafes are playing their own music, like going through hell.”

Joe Strummer (1952–2002) British musician, singer, actor and songwriter

About Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros' album Global a Go-Go (2001) and about the song writing process.
Strummer talks war and music (13 November 2001)

Claude Monet photo
P.G. Wodehouse photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Klaus Meine photo
Eugène Boudin photo

“I think I will go back to mahogany [wood, as layer for his paintings], the only stable wood, together with old oak. But mahogany is so heavy. And it has another drawback, it blackens even through the primers if they are not thick enough and applied in several coats.”

Eugène Boudin (1824–1898) French painter

Quote from Boudin's letter in 1894; as cited in 'Figures on the Beach in Trouville, 1869', by Anne-Marie Bergeret-Gourbin https://www.museothyssen.org/en/collection/artists/boudin-eugene/figures-beach-trouville, Museo Thyssen
Eighty percent of Boudin's beach scenes are painted on wood panels; in small formats, c. 30 x 45 cm
1880s - 1890s

Benjamin H. Freedman photo
Antonin Scalia photo

“Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles. He saved hundreds of thousands of lives, are you going to convict Jack Bauer? Say that criminal law is against him? 'You have the right to a jury trial?' Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so.”

Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Citing the television program 24 to support torture. Last Week Tonight http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/15/john-oliver-and-helen-mirren-take-the-u-s-and-24-s-jack-bauer-to-task-over-torture.html
2000s

Isa Genzken photo
Matthew Bellamy photo

“The differential between the bubble we live in — which is ‘ordinary life’ — and the reality out there is almost as heavy as what is being depicted in a film like ‘the Matrix’. It could make you puke to make that step towards finding out what’s really going on.”

Matthew Bellamy (1978) English singer-songwriter

Paul Branningan «We're months away from World War III» — p. 43 — Kerrang! (2006-11-10) http://www.musewiki.org/We're_months_away_from_World_War_III_(20061011_Kerrang_article)

Musa al-Kadhim photo
Ronald H. Coase photo
Barack Obama photo

“Our immediate task, however, is the critical work of confronting the economic crisis. As I've said, we've passed through an era of profound irresponsibility; now we cannot afford half-measures, and we cannot go back to the kind of risk-taking that leads to bubbles that inevitably bust. So we have a choice. We can shape our future, or let events shape it for us. And if we want to succeed, we can't fall back on the stale debates and old divides that won't move us forward.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Barack Obama: "The President's News Conference With Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the Untied Kingdom in London, England," April 1, 2009. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=85953&st=&st1=
2009

Mark Twain photo
Mike Shinoda photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Speech threatening to veto legislation raising taxes http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1985/31385b.htm (13 March 1985)
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)

Barack Obama photo
Tupac Shakur photo

“It's a constant man-ego-check going on in the streets, in this world.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

1990s, Ed Gordon interview (1994)

Jordan Peterson photo
L. S. Lowry photo

“I see lots of people everywhere, one lot going one way and the other lot going in the opposite way, as a rule.”

L. S. Lowry (1887–1976) British visual artist

Response in a letter to David Carr 9 Dec 1943 concerning his style L. S. Lowry - A Biography by Shelley Rhode Lowry Press 1999 ISBN 9781902970011.
Other

Ray Charles photo

“You better live every day like your last because one day you're going to be right.”

Ray Charles (1930–2004) American musician

As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul of Black Folk (2007) by Larry Chang and Roderick Terry, p. 365

Louis Armstrong photo

“The way they're treating my people in the South, the government can go to hell.”

Louis Armstrong (1901–1971) American jazz trumpeter, composer and singer

As quoted in The New York Times (19 September 1957)]

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa photo

“We were the Leopards, the Lions; those who'll take our place will be little jackals, hyenas; and the whole lot of us, Leopards, jackals, and sheep, we'll all go on thinking ourselves the salt of the earth.”

Noi fummo i Gattopardi, i Leoni; quelli che ci sostituiranno saranno gli sciacalletti, le iene; e tutti quanti Gattopardi, sciacalli e pecore, continueremo a crederci il sale della terra.
Page 152
Il Gattopardo (1958)

Livy photo

“Are you going to offer yourselves here to the weapons of the enemy, undefended, unavenged? Why is it then you have arms? And why have you undertaken an offensive war? You who are ever turbulent in peace, and laggard in war. What hopes have you in standing here? Do you expect that some god will protect you and bear you hence? A way is to be made with the sword. Come you, who wish to behold your homes, your parents, your wives, and your children; follow me in the way in which you shall see me lead you on. It is not a wall or rampart that blocks your path, but armed men like yourselves. Their equals in courage, you are their superiors by force of necessity, which is the last and greatest weapon.”
Vos telis hostium estis indefensi, inulti? quid igitur arma habetis, aut quid ultro bellum intulistis, in otio tumultuosi, in bello segnes? quid hic stantibus spei est? an deum aliquem protecturum uos rapturumque hinc putatis? ferro via facienda est. hac qua me praegressum uideritis, agite, qui uisuri domos parentes coniuges liberos estis, ite mecum. non murus nec uallum sed armati armatis obstant. virtute pares, necessitate, quae ultimum ac maximum telum est, superiores estis'.

Livy (-59–17 BC) Roman historian

Book IV, sec. 28
History of Rome

Barack Obama photo

“I've got two daughters, nine years old and six years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Town Hall Meeting in Johnstown, Pennsylvania (29 March 2008) http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0803/29/bb.01.html
2008

U.G. Krishnamurti photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“Approximately 80 percent of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation. So let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards for man-made sources.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Ronald Reagan, Sierra (10 September 1980)
1980s

Frank Zappa photo
Peter Hitchens photo
James Brown photo

“I'm going away tonight.”

James Brown (1933–2006) American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist

Last words as quoted by James Brown to Charles Bobbit, his longtime personal manager, just minutes before death on December 25 2006

Ben Kowalewicz photo
Barack Obama photo

“So we pulled up to this diner, where people told us that we could get some good pie. And I like pie. Do you like pie too? So, we go in there, and we say, "Oh, what kind of pie you got?' And they didn't have sweet potato pie, they didn't have pumpkin pie. They had some cream pies mostly, which is OK with me. So, I got some coconut cream pie. And Governor Strickland, he got lemon meringue pie.
So while we're waiting for our pie, the staff come and they want to take a picture with me because they say, you know, the owner of this dinner is a staunch die-hard Republican, so we want to kind of tease him a little bit by getting this picture with you. So we're taking this picture and suddenly the owner comes out with the pie. And he looks at me and I say, "Sir, I understand that you are a die-hard Republican." He says, "That's right." I said, "How's business?" He said, "Not so good." He said, "My customer, they can't afford to eat out anymore." I said, "Who's been in charge of the economy for the last eight years?" He said, "Republicans." I said, "You know, if you kept on hitting your head against a wall over and over again and it started to hurt, at some point would you stop hitting your head against the wall?"”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

He said, "You've got a point."
At a rally in Londonberry, New Hampshire (16 October 2008) http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0810/16/cnr.04.html
2008

Ludwig Wittgenstein photo

“If you want to go down deep you do not need to travel far; indeed, you don't have to leave your most immediate and familiar surroundings.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 50e

Martin Luther photo
Barack Obama photo
Frank Stella photo
Cato the Elder photo
Barack Obama photo

“There was a team that took that bullet out of the baby, 15 years ago. She's got a scar on her arm, always will, but she will survive. Just like America will survive. Just like black folks will survive. We won't forget where we came from. We won't forget what happened 19 months ago, or 15 years ago, or 300 years ago. We know who the head surgeon is, we're on the case, we're going to pull bullet after bullet out.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Hampton University, June 2007
referring to Jessica Evers http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/04/26/11408854-unborn-baby-shot-in-los-angeles-riots-im-still-here?lite, born with a bullet in her arm on during the Los Angeles riots
2007

Fernando Pessoa photo

“For the moment being, given that we live in society, the only duty of superior men is to reduce to a minimum their participation in the tribe's life. Not to read newspapers, or read them only to know about whatever unimportant and curious is going on.
[…] The supreme honorable state for a superior man is in not knowing who is the Head of State of his country, or if he lives under a monarchy or a republic.
All his attitude must be setting his soul so that the passing of things, of events doesn't bother him. If he doesn't do it he will have to take an interest in others in order to take care of himself.”

Ibid., p. 267
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Por enquanto, visto que vivemos em sociedade, o único dver dos superiores é reduzirem ao mínimo a sua participação na vida da tribo. Não ler jornais, ou lê-los só para saber o que de pouco importante ou curioso se passa.
[...] O supremo estado honroso para um homem superior é não saber quem é o chefe de Estado do seu país, ou se vive sob monarquia ou sob república.
Toda a sua atitude deve ser colocar-se a alma de modo que a passagem das coisas, dos acontecimentos não o incomode. Se o não fizer terá que se interessar pelos outros, para cuidar de si próprio.

Billy Graham (wrestler) photo
Martin Luther photo
Ian McDonald photo
Clarice Lispector photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Salman Khan photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
Carl R. Rogers photo

“It is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried.”

Carl R. Rogers (1902–1987) American psychologist

On Becoming a Person (1961)
Source: page 11

Paul Davies photo
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien photo
Saul Bellow photo
Oscar Wilde photo

“Anger and desire of vengeance are not going to be of much help to you in your administration.”

Nahj al-Balagha, Letter 53: An order to Malik Al-Ashtar

Malcolm X photo
Kurt Vonnegut photo
Michael Moore photo
Anthony de Mello photo
Jim Caviezel photo