Quotes about going
page 93

Tim Powers photo

“It wasn’t fair, but fairness was something you had to go get; it wasn’t delivered like the mail.”

Source: Last Call (1992), Chapter 8 (p. 77)

Sean O`Casey photo
David Cameron photo
Martin Rushent photo
Rajendra Prasad photo
Daljit Nagra photo
Edna St. Vincent Millay photo
Mahathir bin Mohamad photo

“What concerns me right now is that with the actions of Dr Mahathir, who is a lauded statesman and a beloved international icon, the country could become unstable, driving away foreign investors from this nation at the same time. As a former Prime Minister, he should be more understanding of what democracy is, which cannot be achieved the way Dr Mahathir is going about it now.”

Mahathir bin Mohamad (1925) Prime Minister of Malaysia

Malaysia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Anifah Aman said in a statement on Saturday (Mar 5) that he was both surprised and disappointed with Dr Mahathir, quoted on Channel News Asia, "Dr Mahathir movement will be bad for country: Malaysia Foreign Affairs Minister" http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/dr-mahathir-movement-will/2575782.html, March 5, 2016.

Elton John photo

“Spare your heart, save your soul.
Don't drag your love across the coals.
Find your feet and your fortune can be told.
Release, relax, let go,
And hey now let's recover your soul.”

Elton John (1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist

Recover Your Soul
Song lyrics, The Big Picture (1997)

Ann Coulter photo
Laurell K. Hamilton photo
Wilfred Thesiger photo

“I had felt the lure of the unexplored, the compulsion to go where others had not been.”

Wilfred Thesiger (1910–2003) British explorer

Source: The Life Of My Choice (1987), p. 95.

Donald J. Trump photo

“My goal is always again to bring people together. But if I'm forced to fight for something I really care about, I will never, ever back down and our country will never, ever back down. Thank you. I've fought for my family. I've fought for my business. I've fought for my employees. And now, I'm going to fight for you, the American people like nobody has ever fought before.”

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

Victory speech after winning New Jersey and other states Tuesday night (7 June 2016) – TIME transcript http://time.com/4360872/donald-trump-new-jersey-victory-speech-transcript/
2010s, 2016, June

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston photo

“…he thinks that peace is, of all things, the best, and that war is, of all things, the worst. Now, Sir, I happen to be of opinion that there are things for which peace may be advantageously sacrificed, and that there are calamities which a nation may endure which are far worse than war. This has been the opinion of men in all ages whose conduct has been admired by their contemporaries, and has obtained for them the approbation of posterity. The hon. Member, however, reduces everything to the question of pounds, shillings, and pence, and I verily believe that if this country were threatened with an immediate invasion likely to end in its conquest, the hon. Member would sit down, take a piece of paper, and would put on one side of the account the contributions which his Government would require from him for the defence of the liberty and independence of the country, and he would put on the other the probable contributions which the general of the invading army might levy upon Manchester, and if he found that, on balancing the account, it would be cheaper to be conquered than to be laid under contribution for defence, he would give his vote against going to war for the liberties and independence of the country, rather than bear his share in the expenditure which it would entail.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1854/mar/31/war-with-russia-the-queens-message in the House of Commons on the debate on war with Russia (31 March 1854).
1850s

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

Hendrik Werkman photo

“I have applied for a pass and I am going to travel through Western Europe for 5 days. [I] start in Cologne and will probably end in Paris. Who cares. In Cologne there is a large exhibition of German painters [especially Die Brücke-artists]. Jan W. [= Jan Wiegers, who knew Kirchner very well since 1920] has been there and animated so much that I'm going there for a while.... it seems that Jan wants to come with me. He was so enthusiastic that I suspect to be able to note him as my traveling companion.”

Hendrik Werkman (1882–1945) Dutch artist

version in original Dutch (origineel citaat van Hendrik Werkman, in het Nederlands): Ik heb een pas aangevraagd en ga West-Europa in 5 dagen afreizen. Begin in Keulen en eindig vermoedelijk in Parijs. Wie doet je wat. In Keulen is een groote tentoonstelling van Duitse schilders [met name van Die Brücke]. Jan W. [= nl:Jan Wiegers] is er geweest en animeerde zoodanig dat ik er even heen ga.. ..'t schijnt dat Jan met me mee wil. Hij was zo enthousiast dat ik vermoed hem als reisgezel te kunnen noteren.
Quote van Werkman, in his letter to Cor Spruit, 14 August, 1929; as cited in H. N. Werkman - Leven & Werk - 1882-1945, ed. A. de Vries, J. van der Spek, D. Sijens, M. Jansen; WBooks, Groninger Museum / Stichting Werkman, 2015 (transl: Fons Heijnsbroek), p. 110
After this trip Werkman made a series of prints from the Paris' metro: 'D-67' and 'D-69'
1920's

Sister Souljah photo
Karl Pilkington photo

“We came from the sea originally, now we're going back in it. Don't go in it, unless you're in a boat.”

Karl Pilkington (1972) English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer

Podcast Series 2 Episode 3
On Biology

Michelle Obama photo
Narendra Modi photo
Eric Clapton photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
Bryan Procter photo

“I ’m on the sea! I ’m on the sea!
I am where I would ever be,
With the blue above and the blue below,
And silence wheresoe’er I go.”

Bryan Procter (1787–1874) English poet

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

Charan Singh photo

“…quite a number of Congressmen are disguised as communists. They will go with Mrs Gandhi to the ultimate end. They have always been enemies of democracy. Behind-them is the Right CPI and behind it is Soviet Russia.”

Charan Singh (1902–1987) prime minister of India

His reaction to the closeness of communists to Mrs Gandhi
Profiles of Indian Prime Ministers

William Hague photo

“If you are going to be scientistic, you will have to be comfortable with a certain amount of nihilism.”

Alexander Rosenberg (1946) American philosopher

The Atheist's Guide to Reality (2011)

Margaret Cho photo
River Phoenix photo
Michael Madsen photo
John Fletcher photo
E. L. James photo
Madeleine Stowe photo
Ringo Starr photo
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo

“If countries were named after the words you first hear when you go there, England would have to be called Damn It.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

F 33
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook F (1776-1779)

Jonathan Ive photo

“Paying attention to what’s happened historically actually helps give you some faith that you are going to find a solution. Faith isn’t a surrogate for engineering competence, but it can certainly help fuel the belief that you’re going to find a solution. And that’s important.”

Jonathan Ive (1967) English designer and VP of Design at Apple

Time: "Apple Design Chief Jonathan Ive on the iPhone X: We Had to Solve ‘Extraordinarily Complex Problems’" http://time.com/5025887/apple-jony-ive-iphone-x/ (16 November 2017)

Mike McCormack photo

“You always think that if you're going to spend seven years on a book, it should be Gravity's Rainbow or Ulysses or something, but mine is just a 200-page book that took a long time.”

Mike McCormack (1965) Irish novelist and writer

McKeon, Belinda. Metaphysics gets a Mayo accent http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/metaphysics-gets-a-mayo-accent-1.441635, The Irish Times (13 May 2005)

Bram van Velde photo

“There's a perpetual duel going on between the world of the spirit and the world of things. Although the one only has meaning in relation to the other.”

Bram van Velde (1895–1981) Dutch painter

1960's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde' (1965 - 1969)

Paul Cézanne photo

“If I dared, I should say that your [ Camille Pissarro ] letter is imprinted with sadness. The picture business isn't going well; I fear that your morale may be colored a little grey, but I'm sure that it's only a passing phase… I imagine that you would be delighted with the country where I am now…. in ', who had talked to me about it. It's like a playing card. Red roofs against the blue sea. If the weather turns favorable perhaps I'll be able to finish them off.”

Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) French painter

Quote from Cezanne's letter to Camille Pissarro, from L'Estaque 2 July 1876, taken from Alex Danchev, The Letters of Paul Cézanne, 2013; as quoted in the 'Daily Beast' online, 13 Oct. 2013 https://www.thedailybeast.com/cezannes-letter-to-pissarro-picture-business-isnt-going-well
Quotes of Paul Cezanne, 1860s - 1870s

“It's like a vicious cycle. How the hell could you turn around and be a buyer with all of this stuff going on?”

Jack Baker Head of equities at Putnam Lovell Securities

[Meghan, Collins, http://money.cnn.com/2003/02/13/markets/markets_newyork/index.htm, Stocks get war whiplash, CNNMoney.com, February 13, 2003, 2007-05-22]

Sachin Tendulkar photo

“I have never thought where i will go, or forced any targets on myself.”

Sachin Tendulkar (1973) A former Indian cricketer from India and one of the greatest cricketers ever seen in the world

Hard work, commitment, perseverance and what not http://www.storypick.com/quotes-by-tendulkar/

Alastair Reynolds photo
Steve Martin photo

“The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need. My name in print. That really makes somebody. Things are going to start happening to me now!”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

As "Navin R. Johnson" in The Jerk (1979)

Nora Ephron photo
Mike Oldfield photo

“Why should I worry about dying? It's not going to happen in my lifetime!”

Raymond Smullyan (1919–2017) American mathematician

This Book Needs No Title (1986)

“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.

Colette Dowling photo
Basshunter photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Prem Rawat photo
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield photo

“There are some occasions in which a man must tell half his secret, in order to conceal the rest; but there is seldom one in which a man should tell all. Great skill is necessary to know how far to go, and where to stop.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) British statesman and man of letters

15 January 1753
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)

Lil Wayne photo

“Now watch me go retarded, yellow short bus.”

Lil Wayne (1982) American rapper, singer, record executive and businessman

Intro
2010s, Tha Carter IV (2011)

Dido photo

“I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be.”

Dido (1971) English singer-songwriter

White Flag
Song lyrics, Life for Rent (2003)

Chuck Berry photo
Isaac Asimov photo

“[In response to this question by Bill Moyers: What do you see happening to the idea of dignity to human species if this population growth continues at its present rate? ] "It's going to destroy it all. I use what I call my bathroom metaphor. If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom, go to the bathroom any time you want, and stay as long as you want to for whatever you need. And this to my way is ideal. And everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. It should be right there in the Constitution. But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up, you have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door, aren't you through yet, and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Interview by Bill Moyers on Bill Moyers' World Of Ideas (17 October 1988); transcript http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov1.pdf (page 6) - audio (20:12) http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/media_players/asimovwoi_audio.html
General sources

Phil Brooks photo
Tim Aker photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“I looked out, the field was, looked like million, million and a half people. They showed a field where there was practically nobody standing there. And they said, "Donald Trump did not draw well." I said, "It was almost raining!" The rain should've scared them away but God looked down and said we're not going to let it rain on your speech.”

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

Trump speaking at the CIA Headquarters about his inauguration crowd and the press coverage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMBqDN7-QLg, FOX 10 Phoenix (21 January 2017)
2010s, 2017, January

Nina Kiriki Hoffman photo

“Never rush into anything—unless into is the direction you want to go.”

Nina Kiriki Hoffman (1955) American writer

Source: The Thread That Binds the Bones (1993), Chapter 5 (p. 46)

Thomas Friedman photo

“I think we are in the end game. The next six to nine months are going to tell whether we can produce a decent outcome in Iraq.”

Thomas Friedman (1953) American journalist and author

Today, March 2, 2006
"The next … months" in Iraq

Phil Brooks photo

“I tried. I tried so hard to empathize with all of your weaknesses. I implored every single one of you to just say "no," and all my empathy got was for you to love Jeff Hardy that much more than you already did. But this will not deter me. I will stay the course; I still believe in teaching you people the difference between right and wrong. (Audience chants "Hardy!") Oh, obviously it's gonna be challenging, listening to you people, and by the looks of some of you, it's gonna be a big challenge. But just like any other challenge that's come down the pipe in my lifetime, I'm gonna meet that challenge head on like a man, just like I did last week. Let's take a look. (Recap of Punk's assault on Hardy) See, now I know why you people love Jeff Hardy so much. It's because you are all just like him; and, in turn, Jeff Hardy is just like all of you. The reality is, none of you have the strength to be straight-edge. (Audience resumes chant) You gravitate towards Jeff because it's the easy way out: it's easier to weak like Jeff, because you sure can't be strong like me. Oh, you can boo all you want. I know why you boo, you know why you boo. It's because I tell the truth. And the truth sometimes hurts, doesn't it? For instance, what does it say on your prescription bottle of pills? "Take one every four hours"? Well, don't tell me you people don't gobble four, six, eight at a time like they were Pez. That is drug abuse—I don't do that. I also don't smoke, and those who do are stupid. You gotta be stupid to not listen to the Surgeon General, especially when he prints the warning label on the package of smokes. You gotta be a fool. And we can talk about those funny cigarettes, and you obviously know what I'm talking about because you cheer, and that's utterly sad. That's pathetic. I…I can't even wrap my head around you people cheering, 'cause when you smoke those funny cigarettes, not only is that hazardous to your health, it's also illegal. So those who have taken a puff, not only are you poisoning yourself, you're also breaking the law, so the vast majority of everybody here in this arena is a criminal. I am not a criminal—I never have been, and I never will be. Now let's talk about alcohol. I've saved the best poison for last, see because this is a gateway drug. Don't tell me not a single one of you here has ever said, "I'm gonna go out for one drink," and one leads to two, and two drinks leads to three, and then it's a double of this, and a shot of that, and then your head winds up in the toilet, night in and night out. Congratulations, that is alcoholism. And in my book, if you even take one drink, you're an alcoholic. So I understand why you people love Jeff Hardy so much, I understand why Jeff loves you—it's because you're all weak. Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, you deserve better. This entire world deserves better. What you need is a leader. You need a strong leader who's gonna stand up in the face of adversity and just say "no."”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

You need a strong leader that's gonna carry the banner of the World Heavyweight Championship with honor, with pride, respect, dignity, integrity, and class. What you people need is a straight-edge World Heavyweight Champion. You need CM Punk.
August 7, 2009
Friday Night SmackDown

Alexander Maclaren photo

“If you would know Christ at all, you must go to Him as a sinful man, or you are shut out from Him altogether.”

Alexander Maclaren (1826–1910) British minister

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 153.

Henry Cabot Lodge photo
Michael Bloomberg photo
Lawrence Lessig photo
C. Rajagopalachari photo
Gioachino Rossini photo

“I take him [Beethoven] twice a week, Haydn four times, and Mozart every day. You will tell me that Beethoven is a Colossus who often gives you a dig in the ribs, whilst Mozart is always adorable; it is that the latter had the chance of going very young to Italy, at a time when they still sang well.”

Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) Italian composer

Je le prends deux fois par semaine, Haydn quatre fois et Mozart tous les jours. Vous me direz, Beethoven est un colosse, qui vous donne souvent des coups de poing dans les côtes, tandisque Mozart est toujours adorable. C'est que lui a eu la chance d'aller très jeune en Italie à un époque, où l'on chantait encore bien.
Alfred Christlieb Kalischer Beethoven und seine Zeitgenossen (1908) p. 83. Translation from Charlotte Moscheles (trans. A. D. Coleridge) Life of Moscheles (1873) vol. 2, p. 275.

Abul A'la Maududi photo
Rex Tillerson photo

“​The places I come from, we don’t deal with that kind of petty nonsense… I’m just not going to be part of this effort to divide this administration​.”

Rex Tillerson (1952) 69th United States Secretary of State

Remark about the "moron" remark. As quoted in [Flegenheimer, Matt, Oct. 4 2017, ‘Petty Nonsense’ of Washington: Tillerson Joins in Thrashing the Capital, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/us/politics/tillerson-trump-moron.html, New York Times, Mar. 20 2018]

Pat Condell photo

“When people are afraid of the truth they've got nowhere to turn. All they have at their disposal is censorship and denial. And Swedish politicians are so deep in denial you can only feel pity for them, because you know that in some dark chamber of their subconscious these wretched people know what a terrible thing they're doing, and they know that history is going to revile them and their entire generation for it. But they just can't face up to it. Psychologically, they are simply not big enough as people to acknowledge, let alone confront, the enormity of their mistake. They've backed themselves into an ideological corner where their only option now is to double down on the insanity and brazen it out until the bitter end, while criminalising anyone who draws attention to it. Whatever social upheaval it may cause, and whatever the cost to Sweden's women, mass Islamic immigration must continue. Any restriction would be an admission that there's a problem, and that would fatally undermine everything they're so desperately pretending to believe in… If you say there's a problem, you'll be treated as a criminal – which means that there are now two problems. One: the Swedish people have an aggressive social cancer growing in their midst; and two: they're not allowed to talk about it.”

Pat Condell (1949) Stand-up comedian, writer, and Internet personality

"Sweden Goes Insane" (19 May 2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_znVnOizU8
2014

Bob Seger photo

“That's why I'm going to Katmandu,
Up to the mountains where I'm going to.
If I ever get out of here,
That's what I'm gonna do.”

Bob Seger (1945) American singer-songwriter

Katmandu.
Song lyrics, Beautiful Loser (1975)

Nigella Lawson photo
Jessica Lynch photo
Todd Snider photo
Abby Stein photo

“You’re saying God is all made up, but okay, who cares? People say, “I can’t pray because I feel like I’m talking to myself.” The rabbi would say, “Pray! That’s so good. Go talk to yourself.””

Abby Stein (1991) Trans activist, speaker, and educator

Huffington Post, June 9, 2016 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/abby-stein-judaism_us_57574cbfe4b08f74f6c08963
2016

Emily Brontë photo
Toni Morrison photo
J. C. R. Licklider photo

“Present-day computers are designed primarily to solve preformulated problems or to process data according to predetermined procedures. The course of the computation may be conditional upon results obtained during the computation, but all the alternatives must be foreseen in advance. … The requirement for preformulation or predetermination is sometimes no great disadvantage. It is often said that programming for a computing machine forces one to think clearly, that it disciplines the thought process. If the user can think his problem through in advance, symbiotic association with a computing machine is not necessary.
However, many problems that can be thought through in advance are very difficult to think through in advance. They would be easier to solve, and they could be solved faster, through an intuitively guided trial-and-error procedure in which the computer cooperated, turning up flaws in the reasoning or revealing unexpected turns in the solution. Other problems simply cannot be formulated without computing-machine aid. … One of the main aims of man-computer symbiosis is to bring the computing machine effectively into the formulative parts of technical problems.
The other main aim is closely related. It is to bring computing machines effectively into processes of thinking that must go on in "real time," time that moves too fast to permit using computers in conventional ways. Imagine trying, for example, to direct a battle with the aid of a computer on such a schedule as this. You formulate your problem today. Tomorrow you spend with a programmer. Next week the computer devotes 5 minutes to assembling your program and 47 seconds to calculating the answer to your problem. You get a sheet of paper 20 feet long, full of numbers that, instead of providing a final solution, only suggest a tactic that should be explored by simulation. Obviously, the battle would be over before the second step in its planning was begun. To think in interaction with a computer in the same way that you think with a colleague whose competence supplements your own will require much tighter coupling between man and machine than is suggested by the example and than is possible today.”

Man-Computer Symbiosis, 1960

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge photo

“Breathe slumbrous music round me, sweet and slow,
To honied phrases set!
Into the land of dreams I long to go.
Bid me forget!”

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861–1907) British writer

Mandragora, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

David Ortiz photo

“We keep on fighting, we keep on playing. We won tonight and we're going to try to keep on winning.”

David Ortiz (1975) Dominican-American professional baseball player, designated hitter

On cue, Drew caps remarkable Sox rally, MLB.com, Ian Browne, October 17, 2008, 2008-12-26 http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20081016&content_id=3625822&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos,

Arshile Gorky photo

“I have to go away, but with regrets and with the firm intention to come back soon. I consider most sound I am an individual Gorky – and it is my individual feeling which counts for the most. Why? I do not know nor do I wish to know. I accept it as a fact, which does not need explanation.”

Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) Armenian-American painter

Source: 1930 - 1941, from 'Arshile Gorky, – Goats on the roof' (2009), p. 170: Gorky's quote in a letter to his future wife Agnes Magruder (Mougouch), 31 Mai 1941

Harry Blackmun photo
Amy Klobuchar photo

“So what's the cost of the culture of corruption? Of people giving breaks to the oil companies and giving giveaways and Christmas presents to the drug companies and the insurance companies? The cost is $90 billion a year. There you go. Quantifiable.”

Amy Klobuchar (1960) United States Senator from Minnesota

Quoted in [interview with Jonathan Singer, Conversation with MN-Sen Candidate Amy Klobuchar, MyDD, February 23 2006, http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/2/23/12158/1447, 2007-02-25]
2006

Hope Solo photo

“What I love about this team is the fact that you can feel the energy and trust - even after the defeat against Sweden. That's the really special thing about this group. Even when we were a player down and a goal behind in extra time, you sensed that something was going to happen. The team kept fighting. You can't teach that. It's a feeling - and we play with that feeling.”

Hope Solo (1981) American association football player

As quoted in "Brazil-USA Quotes: USA goalkeeper and Player of the Match Hope Solo" http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/matches/round=255995/match=300144440/quotes.html, fifa.com (July 10, 2011)
2010s

Ronald David Laing photo
Arnold Schwarzenegger photo
Colleen Fitzpatrick photo
Maimónides photo
August Macke photo

“It was the desire for living, vital expression.... which built Gothic cathedrals, which created Mozart sonatas. I believe it is going to stay that way for long time to come.”

August Macke (1887–1914) German painter of the expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter

In 'The New Program' (1914) - first appeared in Das neue Program, Kunst und Künstler 12. (March 1914)

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“.. Now there is in the South of Belgium, in Hainault, in the neighborhood of Mons.... a district called the Borinage, that has a peculiar population of laborers who work in the numerous coal mines... I should very much like to go there as an evangelist.... St. Paul was three years in Arabia before he began to preach..”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

In his letter to brother Theo, from Laeken, near Brussels, 15 Nov. 1878, (letter 126); as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, p. 18
1870s

Jahangir photo

“On the 24th of the same month I went to see the fort of Kangra, and gave an order that the Qazi, the Chief Justice (Mir'Adl), and other learned men of Islam should accompany me and carry out in the fort whatever was customary, according to the religion of Muhammad. Briefly, having traversed about one koss, I went up to the top of the fort, and by the grace of God, the call to prayer and the reading of the Khutba and the slaughter of a bullock which had not taken place from the commencement of the building of the fort till now, were carried out in my presence. I prostrated myself in thanksgiving for this great gift, which no king had hoped to receive, and ordered a lofty mosque to be built inside the fort' ….'After going round the fort I went to see the temple of Durga, which is known as Bhawan. A world has here wandered in the desert of error. Setting aside the infidels whose custom is the worship of idols, crowds of the people of Islam, traversing long distances, bring their offerings and pray to the black stone (image)' Some maintain that this stone, which is now a place of worship for the vile infidels, is not the stone which was there originally, but that a body of the people of Islam came and carried off the original stone, and threw it into the bottom of the river, with the intent that no one could get at it. For a long time the tumult of the infidels and idol-worshippers had died away in the world, till a lying brahman hid a stone for his own ends, and going to the Raja of the time said: 'I saw Durga in a dream, and she said to me: They have thrown me into a certain place: quickly go and take me up.”

Jahangir (1569–1627) 4th Mughal Emperor

The Raja, in the simplicity of his heart, and greedy for the offerings of gold that would come to him, accepted the tale of the brahman and sent a number of people with him, and brought that stone, and kept it in this place with honour, and started again the shop of error and misleading
Kangra (Himachal Pradesh) , Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, translated into English by Alexander Rogers, first published 1909-1914, New Delhi Reprint, 1978, Vol. II, pp. 223-25.

Spike Milligan photo

“Are you going to come along quietly, or am I going to have to use ear plugs?”

Spike Milligan (1918–2002) British-Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor

The Goon Show, Season 9, Episode 12: "The Call of the West" (January 20, 1959)
Alternative: "Are you going to come along quietly, or do you want musical accompaniment?"

Boyd K. Packer photo