Quotes about head
page 41

Chris Martin photo
Mikhail Gorbachev photo
Ahdaf Soueif photo

“Maybe not a hydra because that’s really, really nasty. I think there was almost a false head: we ripped open the packaging and now we’re faced with the real thing that’s there in the box…”

Ahdaf Soueif (1950) Egyptian novelist

On the state of Egypt after the ousting of Mubarak in “INTERVIEW WITH AHDAF SOUEIF” http://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-ahdaf-soueif/ in The White Review (March 2012)

George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston photo

“Curzon is an intolerable person to do business with—pompous, dictatorial and outrageously conceited…. Really he is an intolerable person, pig-headed, pompous and vindictive too! Yet an able, strong man with it all.”

George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (1859–1925) British politician

Maurice Hankey's diary entry (12 May 1916), quoted in Stephen Roskill, Hankey, Man of Secrets: Volume I 1877-1919 (London: Collins, 1970), pp. 271-272.
About Curzon

David Foster Wallace photo
David Foster Wallace photo
Nicolás Maduro photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

“I am the rebel head of an establishment government.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Remark to a reception at 10 Downing Street (24 June 1980), quoted in Norman St John-Stevas, The Two Cities (London: Faber and Faber, 1984), p. 83
First term as Prime Minister

Charles Stross photo
Charles Stross photo
Don Cherry photo

“The Flames and Canucks, this one was the toughest series of all folks. No prisoners were taken in this one. Whoa! Are they hittin’? And they’re hittin’ to hurt, I’ll tell ya. Watch these beauty hits. You better keep your head up in this series I’ll tell ya!”

Don Cherry (1934) ice hockey coach, television commentator

In the "Flames-Canucks" segment (profiling the 1994 Western Conference Quarterfinal Series between the Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks) of the <i>Rock'Em Sock'Em Six</i> hockey highlights video.

Burkard Schliessmann photo
J. Howard Moore photo
J. Howard Moore photo
J. Howard Moore photo
J. Howard Moore photo
J. Howard Moore photo
Jack McDevitt photo
Henry David Thoreau photo
Joe Biden photo

“We have suppressed the black man for 300 years and the white man is now far ahead in the race for everything our society offers. In order to even the score, we must now give the black man a head start, or even hold the white man back, to even the race.’ I don’t buy that.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Quoted by Norman Solomon in Here Comes Joe Biden and It's Worse Than You Thought,Common Dreams, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/03/11/here-comes-joe-biden-and-its-worse-you-thought (11 March 2019)
2019

Jack Vance photo
Eldridge Cleaver photo
Peter Kropotkin photo

“I of course take a negative attitude about a great deal that is happening, and I have said so directly and frankly to many of those who stand at the head of government. They behave well towards me, and many things I asked were carried out. They even proposed that I should take part in their work, but I refused. As an anarchist, I cannot reconcile myself to any government.”

Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, scientist, revolutionary, economist, activist, geogr…

About the Bolshevik revolution, as quoted in Peter Kropotkin : From Prince to Rebel (1990) by George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumovic, p. 428

Robert E. Howard photo
Jair Bolsonaro photo

“Today, 14% of the Brazilian territory is demarcated as indigenous land, but we must understand that our natives are human beings, just like any of us. They want and deserve to enjoy the same rights as all of us. I want to make it clear: Brazil will not increase its already demarcated indigenous lands to 20%, as some Heads of State would like it to happen.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

Speech at the at the 74th UN General Assembly. Statement by Mr. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil http://statements.unmeetings.org/GA74/BR_EN.pdf. United Nations PaperSmart (24 September 2019).

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk photo

“Sovereignty and kingship are never decided by academic debate. They are seized by force. The Ottoman dynasty appropriated by force the government of the Turks, and reigned over them for six centuries. Now the Turkish nation has effectively gained possession of its sovereignty… This is an accomplished fact… If those assembled here … see the matter in its natural light, we shall all agree. Otherwise, facts will still prevail, but some heads may roll.”

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) Turkish army officer, revolutionary, and the first President of Turkey

Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate, 1922 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_the_Ottoman_sultanate; also quoted in Nutuk http://tr.wikisource.org/wiki/Nutuk/14._b%C3%B6l%C3%BCm/M%C3%BC%C5%9Fterek_Enc%C3%BCmen%27e_anlatt%C4%B1%C4%9F%C4%B1m_hakikat (1927) by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Arthur Schopenhauer photo
Henry Steel Olcott photo
Benjamin Creme photo
Toussaint Louverture photo
William T. Sherman photo

“At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville, the blacks may remain in their chosen or accustomed vocations; but on the islands, and in the settlements hereafter to be established no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside; and the sole and exclusive management of affairs will be left to the freed people themselves, subject only to the United States military authority, and the acts of Congress. By the laws of war, and orders of the President of the United States, the negro is free, and must be dealt with as such.”

William T. Sherman (1820–1891) American General, businessman, educator, and author.

He cannot be subjected to conscription, or forced military service, save by the written orders of the highest military authority of the department, under such regulations as the President or Congress may prescribe. Domestic servants, blacksmiths, carpenters, and other mechanics, will be free to select their own work and residence, but the young and able-bodied negroes must be encouraged to enlist as soldiers in the service of the United States, to contribute their share toward maintaining their own freedom, and securing their rights as citizens of the United States.
1860s, 1865, Special Field Order No. 15 (January 1865)

Benjamin Disraeli photo
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez photo
Lala Lajpat Rai photo

“There is one point more which has been troubling me very much of late and one which I want you to think carefully and that is the question of Hindu-Mohamedan unity. I have devoted most of my time during the last six months to the study of Muslim history and Muslim Law and I am inclined to think, it is neither possible nor practicable. Assuming and admitting the sincerity of the Mohamedan leaders in the Non-cooperation movement, I think their religion provides an effective bar to anything of the kind. You remember the conversation, I reported to you in Calcutta, which I had with Hakim Ajmalkhan and Dr. Kitchlew. There is no finer Mohamedan in Hindustan than Hakimsaheb but can any other Muslim leader override the Quran? I can only hope that my reading of Islamic Law is incorrect, and nothing would relieve me more than to be convinced that it is so. But if it is right then it comes to this that although we can unite against the British we cannot do so to rule Hindustan on British lines, we cannot do so to rule Hindustan on democratic lines. What is then the remedy? I am not afraid of seven crores in Hindustan but I think the seven crores of Hindustan plus the armed hosts of Afghanistan, Central Asia, Arabia, Mesopotamia and Turkey will be irresistible. I do honestly and sincerely believe in the necessity or desirability of Hindu-Muslim unity. I am also fully prepared to trust the Muslim leaders, but what about the injunctions of the Quran and Hadis? The leaders cannot override them. Are we then doomed? I hope not. I hope learned mind and wise head will find some way out of this difficulty.”

Lala Lajpat Rai (1865–1928) Indian author and politician

in B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1946)

Agatha Christie photo

“I have the little idea, my friend, that this is a crime very carefully planned and staged. It is a far-sighted, long-headed crime. It is not — how shall I express it?”

a Latin crime. It is a crime that shows traces of a cool, resourceful, deliberate brain — I think an Anglo-Saxon brain.
Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

Naomi Klein photo

“Thunberg and the many other amazing young organizers have been very clear that they do not want adults to pat them on the head and thank them for the hope infusion. They want us to join them and fight for the future alongside them. Because it is their right. And all of our duty.”

Naomi Klein (1970) Canadian author and activist

Greta Thunberg on the Climate Fight: If We Can Save the Banks, Then We Can Save the World, https://theintercept.com/2019/09/13/greta-thunberg-naomi-klein-climate/ The Intercept (13 September 2019)

Yuval Noah Harari photo
Poul Anderson photo

“It would annoy me less that we’re heading into a new puritanical era if the puritanism concerned itself about things that matter.”

Source: The Boat of a Million Years (1989), Chapter 18 “Judgment Day”, Section 3 (p. 330)

Gordon Brown photo
Henry Campbell-Bannerman photo
Eugene V. Debs photo
Hendrik Verwoerd photo
Leanne Wood photo

“First minister, last night you participated in the first major public debate on the future for Wales within the European Union. You went head-to-head with the voice of the far right. Do you think your performance helped or hindered the Welsh campaign on the EU?”

Leanne Wood (1971) Welsh Plaid Cymru politician

UKIP condemns Leanne Wood's 'far right' Farage jibe https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-35292163 BBC News (12 January 2016)
2016

Hugo Ball photo
Hannah Arendt photo

“In a head-on clash between violence and power, the outcome is hardly in doubt. Nowhere is the self-defeating factor in the victory of violence over power more evident than in the use of terror to maintain domination, about whose weird successes and eventual failures we know perhaps more than any generation before us. Violence can destroy power; it is utterly incapable of creating it.”

On the subject violence and power. Source: On Violence, published in 1970. As quoted by Scroll Staff (December 04, 2017): Ideas in literature: Ten things Hannah Arendt said that are eerily relevant in today’s political times https://web.archive.org/web/20191001213756/https://scroll.in/article/856549/ten-things-hannah-arendt-said-that-are-eerily-relevant-in-todays-political-times. In: Scroll.in. Archived from the original https://scroll.in/article/856549/ten-things-hannah-arendt-said-that-are-eerily-relevant-in-todays-political-times on October 1, 2019.

Baruch Spinoza photo

“The shortcoming thus acknowledged to attach to the content turns out at the same time to be a shortcoming in respect of form. Spinoza puts substance at the head of his system, and defines it to be the unity of thought and extension, without demonstrating how he gets to this distinction, or how he traces it back to the unity of substance. The further treatment of the subject proceeds in what is called the mathematical method. Definitions and axioms are first laid down: after them comes a series of theorems, which are proved by an analytical reduction of them to these unproved postulates. Although the system of Spinoza, and that even by those who altogether reject its contents and results, is praised for the strict sequence of its method, such unqualified praise of the form is as little justified as an unqualified rejection of the content. The defect of the content is that the form is not known as immanent in it, and therefore only approaches it as an outer and subjective form. As intuitively accepted by Spinoza without a previous mediation by dialectic, Substance, as the universal negative power, is as it were a dark shapeless abyss which engulfs all definite content as radically null, and produces from itself nothing that has a positive subsistence of its own.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences: The Logic
G - L, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Alexander Herzen photo
Johann Gottlieb Fichte photo

“The fundamental maxim of those who stand at the head of this Age, and therefore the principle of the Age, is this,—to accept nothing as really existing or obligatory, but that which they can understand and clearly comprehend.”

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) German philosopher

With regard to this fundamental principle, as we have now declared and adopted it without farther definition or limitation, this third Age is precisely similar to that which is to follow it, the fourth, or age of Reason as Science,—and by virtue of this similarity prepares the way for it. Before the tribunal of Science, too, nothing is accepted but the Conceivable. Only in the application of the principle there is this difference between the two Ages,—that the third, which we shall shortly name that of Empty Freedom, makes its fixed and previously acquired conceptions the measure of existence; while the fourth—that of Science—on the contrary, makes existence the measure, not of its acquired, but of its desiderated beliefs.
Source: The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806), p. 19

Eoin Colfer photo
Hou You-yi photo

“The head of a campaign office is just a title.”

Hou You-yi (1957) Taiwanese politician

Hou You-yi (2019) cited in " New Taipei City not to hold Double Ten flag ceremony http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2019/10/09/2003723650" on Taipei Times, 9 October 2019.

Zhang Zhijun photo

“As the head of Taiwan Affairs Office, this (first visit of him to Taiwan) is very important to me, especially when most of my colleagues have visited Taiwan before.”

Zhang Zhijun (1953) Chinese politician

Zhang Zhijun (2014) cited in " Top mainland Chinese official Zhang Zhijun arrives in Taipei to sound out public https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1541249/top-mainland-chinese-official-zhang-zhijun-arrives-taipei-sound-out" on South China Morning Post, 27 June 2014.

Marcus Orelias photo
Alex Salmond photo
Zail Singh photo

“Had he as supreme commander resigned at that time, there would have been chaos and Sikhs would have suffered immensely. It was because of his decision that Sikhs could become army heads and PM now.”

Zail Singh (1916–1994) Indian politician and former President of India

Giani Zail Singh's daughter [Dr. Gurdeep Kaur] says PM, govt ignored his pleas for help

K. R. Narayanan photo

“When he stood in queues to vote in general elections, a few people criticised this practice, saying that a head of state should not be seen taking sides in an election. But the overwhelming response was that the President had done a service to democracy.”

K. R. Narayanan (1920–2005) 9th Vice President and the 10th President of India

Venkitesh Ramakrishnan in: Citizen President K.R. Narayanan, 1920-2005. http://www.frontline.in/navigation/type=static&page=flonnet&rdurl=fl2224/stories/20051202005012500.htm, Frontline

Rene Balcer photo

“Just how far up your ass is your head?!”

Rene Balcer (1954) screenwriter, producer and director

DA Jack McCoy in the Law & Order episode Rubber Room.
Law & Order

Rajiv Gandhi photo

“As Rajiv Gandhi was going past me, I got a thought in my head. I thought of how India was helping the terrorists with money, arms and military training. As these thoughts came into my head, when Gandhi was about two or three feet away from me. Yes, I felt an emotion. I despised the Indian Prime Minister. I aimed a blow with my rifle at Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi�s back, below the shoulder.”

Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) sixth Prime Minister of India

Wijemuni Vijitha Rohana, the person who attacked Rajiv Gandhi Colombo, in Rohana: Courage of his convictions (29 July 2007) http://www.nation.lk/2007/07/29/special5.htmVijitha
In Rohana: Courage of his convictions http://www.nation.lk/2007/07/29/special5.htmVijitha

Victor Villaseñor photo
Victor Villaseñor photo
Victor Villaseñor photo
Mukesh Ambani photo
Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV photo

“Happily, His Highness is to-day ruling wisely a contented people and it is sufficient to say that I found in him a kind and considerate Chief and a loyal friend. On young shoulders he carried a head of extraordinary maturity which was, however, no bar to a boyish and whole-hearted enjoyment of manly sports as well as of the simple pleasures of life.”

Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV (1884–1940) King of Mysore

Sir Evan Machonochie in his book “Life in the Indian Civil Service. Modern_Mysore, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Open University, 26 November 2013, archive.org, 198 http://archive.org/stream/modernmysore035292mbp/modernmysore035292mbp_djvu.txt,
From Modern Mysore

Jussi Halla-aho photo

“I am throughly confused as to why muslims have such a great desire to inflict pain on those who are in a weaker position, such as animals, children and women. I think this pattern is pretty clear. Why do muslims jump around ululating with their dicks hard whenever heads get chopped off or someone gets whipped?”

Jussi Halla-aho (1971) Finnish Slavic linguist, blogger and a politician

Jussi Halla-aho (2005), published in the blog Scripta Mietteitä kansainvaelluksesta http://www.halla-aho.com/scripta/mietteita_kansainvaelluksesta.html, April 20, 2005
2005-09

Victor Klemperer photo

“Never - never in my whole life - has my head spun as much from a book as it did with Rosenberg’s Myth.”

Not because his writings were exceptionally profound, difficult to comprehend or emotionally overwhelming, but because Clemens hammered on my head with the book for minutes on end. (Clemens and Weser were the principal torturers of the Jews in Dresden, and they were generally differentiated as the Hitter and the Spitter.) ‘How dare a Jewish pig like you presume to read a book of this kind?’ Clemens yelled. To him it seemed like the desecration of a consecrated wafer. ‘How dare you have a book here from the lending library?’ Only the fact that the volume had demonstrably been borrowed in the name of my Aryan wife, and, moreover, that the sheet of notes which accompanied it was torn up without being deciphered, saved me at the time from the concentration camp.
Source: LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii (The Language of the Third Reich) (1947), p. 12.

“In these letters to Ridley, Hunters Gonzo style began to rear its head. One of the characteristics of the style Hunter developed was his preoccupation of getting the story.”

William McKeen (1954) American academic

In fact, getting the story became the story. His writing could be classified as metajournalism, journalism about the process of journalism.
Source: Outlaw Journalist (2008), Chapter 5, Observer, p. 73

Sadegh Hedayat photo
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury photo
China Miéville photo
Adam Goldstein photo

“I just can’t wrap my head around it – I don’t want to believe it’s real – and nothing I can say will serve his memory any justice right now. I’m just f-ng sad sad.”

Adam Goldstein (1973–2009) American DJ

Samantha Ronson, club DJ DJ AM’s Friends Pay Tribute http://www.showbizspy.com/article/191155/dj-ams-friends-pay-tribute.html.

Willie Mays photo
Paul Scholes photo

“For me, Paul Scholes has been the best midfield player in the Premier League. By a mile. He has the lot. He scores and creates goals, he can pass the ball, he can head it, and rounds all this off with a competitive streak.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/my-all-time-xi-alan-shearer-1505383
Alan Shearer

William the Silent photo

“You are staking your own head by trusting the King. Never will I so stake mine, for he has deceived me too often. His favourite maxim is, haereticis non est servanda fides.”

William the Silent (1533–1584) stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, leader of the Dutch Revolt

I am now bald and Calvinist and in that faith will I die.
William to a supporter of the King, as quoted in William the Silent (1897) by Frederic Harrison, p. 92

Klaus Barbie photo
Fabio Cannavaro photo

“Cannavaro has that unmistakable presence as a leader and in my impression, is exactly like that tough and cool-headed defense he shows on the pitch.”

Fabio Cannavaro (1973) Italian footballer

Iker Casillas, when asked to describe Cannavaro after joining Real Madrid http://www.cannaddicted.com/English/Fabio/Quotes.htm

Roberto Durán photo

“He’s good inside, very good, strong physically. The one thing that surprised me the most was his quickness. And his defensive ability. He moves his head a lot, feints a lot. He’s not an easy man to hit.”

Roberto Durán (1951) Panamanian boxer

Carlos Palomino, 16 June 1980, after his defeat by Duran http://coxscorner.tripod.com/duran.html
About Durán

Ali Meshkini photo

“Although he had a top position in the Islamic Republic as the head of the Leadership Assembly of Experts, he always lived a humble life.”

Ali Meshkini (1922–2007) Iranian ayatollah

Imam Khamenei, IR Leader expresses condolences on Meshkini demise, The Office of the Supreme Leader, 31/07/2007, 2007-08-06 http://www.leader.ir/langs/EN/index.php?p=news&id=3586,

Doug Stanhope photo
Cormac McCarthy photo
Steven Gerrard photo

“Steven Gerrard was awesome today. We were just laughing in the dressing room that at one stage we thought he was heading his own crosses in.”

Steven Gerrard (1980) English footballer

Gareth Southgate on Gerrard after a Premiership game between Middlesbrough and Liverpool in 2005. Peter Gill. "Lordy, It's The Quotes Of The Week", Football365.com, August 16, 2005 (article offline; cache http://web.archive.org/web/20051028201926/http://www.football365.com/features/interviews/story_159958.shtml).

Zach Galifianakis photo

“You shaved your head for V For Vendetta. Did you also shave your V for Vagina? (to Natalie Portman).”

Zach Galifianakis (1969) American actor and comedian

Between Two Ferns (2008-2011)

Jeff Buckley photo

“He quite clearly had his feet on the ground and his head and his imagination was flying way, way out there, beyond, beyond.”

Jeff Buckley (1966–1997) American singer, guitarist and songwriter

Jimmy Page – Guitarist from Led Zeppelin/The Yardbirds/solo from the BBC Documentary "Everybody Here Wants You"

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël photo

“Danger is like wine, it goes to your head.”

Bk. 12, ch. 2
Corinne (1807)

Roger Federer photo

“The best way to beat him would be to hit him over the head with a racquet. Roger could win the Grand Slam if he keeps playing the way he is and, if he does that, it will equate to the two Grand Slams that I won because standards are much higher these days.”

Roger Federer (1981) Swiss tennis player

Rod Laver, speaking ahead of the 2007 Australian Open final against Fernando Gonzalez. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/6306913.stm

Bill Bryson photo

“Bryson. You’ve got three kinds of chromosomes: X, Y and fuck-head.”

Katz
Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe (1991)

Elizabeth Bibesco photo

“A brilliant woman whose perpetual wit made my head swim.”

Elizabeth Bibesco (1897–1945) writer, actress; Romanian princess

David Low

Madonna photo

“This is a historical evening. This is fucking important evening… We are lucky to be sharing it with each other. This is the beginning of a whole new world. Open your fucking head!”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Don’t cry for her, Vegas, Las Vegas Sun, 2008-11-07 http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/nov/07/dont-cry-her-vegas/,
Madonna Onstage in San Diego on election night, congratulated President-elect Barack Obama before a giant projected backdrop of an Obama campaign poster that read, “WE WON.” It ended with Madonna getting the crowd to chant “We are one!”

Will Cuppy photo
Julio Cortázar photo
Julio Cortázar photo
David Ogilvy photo
Teal Swan photo
Salvador Dalí photo

“Just now I'm painting a beautiful woman, smiling, burnt to a crisp, with feathers of all colors, held up by a small die of burning marble; the die is in turn held up by a little puff of smoke, churned and quite; in the sky there are asses with parrot-heads, grasses and beach sand, all about to explode, all clean, incredible objective..”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Quote in Dali's letter to his art-friend Lorca, 1927; as quoted in Surrealism and the Spanish Civil War, Robin Adèle Greeley, p. 67
Dali is striving then for a rational approach of his paintings; he is very probably referring to his painting, he made earlier in 1927: ' Little Ashes' https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Little_Ashes.jpg
Quotes of Salvador Dali, 1920 - 1930

Richard Dawkins photo

“Don’t ever be lazy enough, defeatist enough, cowardly enough to say “I don't understand it so it must be a miracle - it must be supernatural - God did it”. Say instead, that it’s a puzzle, it’s strange, it’s a challenge that we should rise to. Whether we rise to the challenge by questioning the truth of the observation, or by expanding our science in new and exciting directions - the proper and brave response to any such challenge is to tackle it head-on. And until we've found a proper answer to the mystery, it's perfectly ok simply to say “this is something we don't yet understand - but we're working on it.””

It's the only honest thing to do. Miracles, magic and myths, they can be fun. Everybody likes a good story. Myths are fun, as long as you don't confuse them with the truth. The real truth has a magic of its own. The truth is more magical, in the best and most exciting sense of the word, than any myth or made-up mystery or miracle. Science has its own magic - the magic of reality.
Duke University, 01/03/2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYcOoqxuroI&t=54m51s
The Magic Of Reality (2012)