Quotes about herring
page 89

Isaac Asimov photo

“To be sure, the Bible contains the direct words of God. How do we know? The Moral Majority says so. How do they know? They say they know and to doubt it makes you an agent of the Devil or, worse, a Lbr-l Dm-cr-t. And what does the Bible textbook say? Well, among other things it says the earth was created in 4004 BC (Not actually, but a Moral Majority type figured that out three and a half centuries ago, and his word is also accepted as inspired.) The sun was created three days later. The first male was molded out of dirt, and the first female was molded, some time later, out of his rib. As far as the end of the universe is concerned, the Book of Revelation (6:13-14) says: "And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind." … Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthinking among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes. I personally resent it bitterly.”

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

"The Blind Who Would Lead", essay in The Roving Mind (1983); as quoted in Canadian Atheists Newsletter (1994)
General sources

Donald J. Trump photo

“I think the best person in her [Clinton's] campaign is mainstream media.”

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

2010s, 2016, September, First presidential debate (September 26, 2016)

“The well-served customer…is an appreciating asset. Every small act on her or his behalf ups the odds of repeat business, add-on business, and priceless word-of-mouth referral.”

Tom Peters (1942) American writer on business management practices

January 4, 2016
Tom Peters Daily, Weekly Quote

Colin Wilson photo
Charles Darwin photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“…freedom is never granted. It is earned by each generation… in the face of tyranny, cruelty, oppression, extremism, sometimes there is only one choice. When the world looks to America, America looks to you, and you never let her down… I have never lost faith in America's essential goodness and greatness… I have 35 years of experience, fighting for real change… the American people and our American military cannot want freedom and stability for the Iraqis more than they want it for themselves… we should have stayed focused on wiping out the Taliban and finding, killing, capturing bin Laden and his chief lieutenants… I also made a full commitment to martial American power, resources and values in the global fight against these terrorists. That begins with ensuring that America does have the world's strongest and smartest military force. We've begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Al Anbar province, it's working… We can't be fighting the last war. We have to be preparing to fight the new war… We've got to be prepared to maintain the best fighting force in the world. I propose increasing the size of our Army by 80,000 soldiers, balancing the legacy systems with newer programs to help us keep our technological edge… I'm fighting for a Cold War medal for everyone who served our country during the Cold War, because you were on the front lines of battling communism. Well, now we're on the front lines of battling terrorism, extremism, and we have to win. Our commitment to freedom, to tolerance, to economic opportunity has inspired people around the world… American values are not just about America, but they speak to the human dignity, the God-given spark that resides in each and every person across the world… We are a good and great nation.”

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

Remarks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Kansas City, Missouri, August 20, 2007 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/08/21/clinton-iraq-tactics-wo_n_61272.html
Presidential campaign (January 20, 2007 – 2008)

Lois McMaster Bujold photo
Niall Ferguson photo
Michael Swanwick photo

“Nowadays, when an artist discovers 'the sky,' it's like a bride who has never done any housework raving about her first vacuum cleaner. It's just not news." (Yet she confessed that the experience prompted her to deviate from a more controlled linear style and work freely with lively, confrontational colors directly influenced by the Southwest)”

Elaine de Kooning (1918–1989) American painter

as quoted on Portrait of the Art world - A Century of art News, Photographs http://www.npg.si.edu/cexh/artnews/edekooning.htm], referring to the photo of w:Rudolph Burckhardt's Gelatin silver print, 1960 (printed 2002), Published December 1960; Estate of Rudolph Burckhardt; courtesy Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York City
Quote, after Elaine de Kooning was returned to New York from her teaching at the University of New Mexico [her studio was full of energetic paintings of bullfights in Juárez, Mexico, and of the expansive western landscape when Burckhardt portrayed her there.]
1972 - 1989

“Meantime her sire was shuddering at the cruel news that reached his ear: the doom of his house, the mourning, his daughter's crafty flight.”
Interea patrias saevus venit horror ad aures fata domus luctumque ferens fraudemque fugamque virginis.

Source: Argonautica, Book VIII, Lines 134–136

William Ewart Gladstone photo
Harry Chapin photo
Ambrose Bierce photo

“Woman would be more charming if one could fall into her arms without falling into her hands.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Epigrams

“Where the light is, and each thing clear,
Separate from all others, standing in its place,
I drink the time and touch whatever's near, And hope for day when the whole world has that face:
For what assures her present every year?
In dark accidents the mind's sufficient grace.”

Delmore Schwartz (1913–1966) American poet

"The Beautiful American Word, Sure" http://www.pbs.org/hollywoodpresents/collectedstories/writing/write_ds_poetry.html
Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge (1959)

Gustav Stresemann photo

“The conquest of Riga is of the greatest importance not only from the military, but also form the political point of view… Our military situation was never more glorious than it is at present. Meanwhile, there is also the U-boat war, which is taking its course. The destruction of enemy tonnage that was expected of it on the basis of official predictions, has not only been achieved, but partly exceeded by more than half…Time is working for us. Britain to-day is fighting the war with a watch in her hand, and it is in this that I see the fundamentally decisive effect of the U-boat weapon for us and the approach of peace…If we are to achieve anything through compromise and understanding, then the Government must not be forced to make any statements renouncing something from the outset. For this reason the tactics by which it has been and is still being tried to make the Government declare its disinterestedness in Belgium, are wrong. Even those who share the attitude of Herr Scheidemann ought to fight for the last stone in Belgium, in order to exploit to the utmost that which possession has made into a dead pledge…However, the fact that we are going to have peace—and, we hope, soon—will in my conviction be due, apart from our military achievements, to the effects of unrestricted U-boat warfare, of which I have repeatedly said before the Main Committee that while I reject the formula that it will force Britain to her knees, I believe as firmly in the formula that it will force Britain to the conference table.”

Gustav Stresemann (1878–1929) German politician, statesman, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Speech in the Reichstag (October 1917), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 121
1910s

Sadegh Hedayat photo
Paula Modersohn-Becker photo
Arundhati Roy photo
Neal Stephenson photo
Alan Moore photo
Glenn Beck photo

“If you go to Cass Sunstein, what net neutrality means is now if you go to FoxNews. com, you will have Arianna Huffington, a little box pop up with her showing that "Bill O'Reilly is wrong on this" or "here's an opposing view of Bill O'Reilly."”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

2010-12-2
The Glenn Beck Program
Premiere Radio Network
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/48783/
2010s, 2010

Frances Kellor photo
Harriet Harman photo

“Hague: I'd like to congratulate the Leader of the House on being the first female Labour member ever to answer Prime Minister's Questions. She must be proud, three decades on, to be following in the footsteps of Margaret Thatcher, who we on this side of the House and the Prime Minister so admire.
Harman: Well I thank him for his congratulations but I would ask him, why is he asking the questions today? Because he is not the Shadow Leader of the House - the Shadow Leader of the House is sitting next to him! Is this the situation in the modern Conservative Party; that women should be seen but not heard? And if I may, perhaps I could offer the Shadow Leader of the House a bit of sisterly advice: she should not let him get away with it!
Hague: Turning to domestic issues, I was going to be nice to the Rt. Hon. Lady - she has had a difficult week and she had to explain yesterday that she dresses in accordance with wherever she goes; she wears a helmet to a building site; wears Indian clothes to Indian parts of her constituency; presumably, when she goes to a Cabinet meeting, she dresses as a clown.
Harman: Well I would just start by saying that if I'm looking for advice on what to wear and what not to wear, the very last man I would look to for advice would be the man in the baseball cap!”

Harriet Harman (1950) British politician

During Prime Minister's Questions, 2 April 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AsiKI7uCog&feature=related, with Deputy Conservative Party Leader, William Hague

Dorothy Wordsworth photo
J. M. Barrie photo
Georgia O'Keeffe photo
William Makepeace Thackeray photo

“Although I enter not,
Yet round about the spot
Ofttimes I hover;
And near the sacred gate
With longing eyes I wait,
Expectant of her.”

Pendennis: At the Church Gate, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
The History of Pendennis (1848-1850)

Muhammad photo
Chris Rock photo
George William Russell photo

“Oh, I am so old, meseems
I am next of kin to Time,
The historian of her dreams
From the long forgotten prime.”

George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, and artistic painter

The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)

Anton Chekhov photo
Edith Wharton photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe photo

“Translators are like busy match-makers: they sing the praises of some half-veiled beauty, and extol her charms, and arouse an irresistible longing for the original.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German writer, artist, and politician

Maxim 426; translation by Bailey Saunders
Maxims and Reflections (1833)

Adam Gopnik photo
Nancy Grace photo
Simonides of Ceos photo

“We did not flinch but gave our lives to save Greece when her fate hung on a razor's edge.”

Simonides of Ceos (-556–-468 BC) Ancient Greek musician and poet

From the Cenotaph at the Isthmos

Bruno Schulz photo
Victor Davis Hanson photo
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“I know a maiden fair to see,
Take care!
She can both false and friendly be,
Beware! Beware!
Trust her not,
She is fooling thee.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

From the German (In Hyperion).
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

George Eliot photo
Christopher Titus photo
Russell Brand photo

““I believe in God,” says my nan, in a way that makes the idea of an omnipotent, unifying frequency of energy manifesting matter from pure consciousness sound like a chore. An unnecessary chore at that, like cleaning under the fridge. I tell her, plucky little seven-year-old that I was, that I don’t. This pisses her off. Her faith in God is not robust enough to withstand the casual blasphemy of an agnostic tot. “Who do you think made the world, then?” I remember her demanding as fiercely as Jeremy Paxman would later insist I provide an instant global infrastructure for a post-revolutionary utopia. “Builders,” I said, thinking on my feet. This flummoxed her and put her in a bad mood for the rest of the walk. If she’d hit back with “What about construction at a planetary or galactic level?” she’d’ve had me on the ropes. At that age I wouldn’t’ve been able to riposte with “an advanced species of extraterrestrials who we have been mistakenly ascribing divine attributes to due to our own technological limitations” or “a spontaneous cosmic combustion that contained at its genesis the code for all subsequent astronomical, chemical, and biological evolution.” I probably would’ve just cried. Anyway, I’m supposed to be explaining the power of forgiveness, not gloating about a conflict in the early eighties in which I fared well against an old lady. Since getting clean from drugs and alcohol I have been taught that I played a part in the manufacture of all the negative beliefs and experiences from my past and I certainly play a part in their maintenance. I now look at my nan in another way. As a human being just like me, trying to cope with her own flaws and challenges. Fearful of what would become of her sick daughter, confused by the grandchild born of a match that she was averse to. Alone and approaching the end of her life, with regret and lacking a functioning system of guidance and comfort. Trying her best. Taking on the responsibility of an unusual little boy with glib, atheistic tendencies, she still behaved dutifully. Perhaps this very conversation sparked in me the spirit of metaphysical inquiry that has led to the faith in God I now have.”

Revolution (2014)

Michael Moorcock photo

“You are martyred, as woman is ever martyred, particularly if she seeks her own power.”

Source: The City in the Autumn Stars (1986), Chapter 19 (p. 446)

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu photo
Friedrich List photo
Edward Young photo
John Tyler photo

“Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette—the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.”

John Tyler (1790–1862) American politician, 10th President of the United States (in office from 1841 to 1845)

Message to the House (18 December 1816).

“Meditation is the soul's perspective glass, whereby, in her long remove, she discerneth God, as if He were nearer at hand.”

Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English writer

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 406.

John Quincy Adams photo

“30th [June 1841]. Morning visit from John Ross, chief of the Cherokee Nation, with Vann and Benn, two others of the delegation. Ross had written to request an interview with me for them on my appointment as Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs. I was excused from that service at my own request, from a full conviction that its only result would be to keep a perpetual harrow upon my feelings, with a total impotence to render any useful service. The policy, from Washington to myself, of all the Presidents of the United States had been justice and kindness to the Indian tribes—to civilize and preserve them. With the Creeks and Cherokees it had been eminently successful. Its success was their misfortune. The States within whose borders their settlements were took the alarm, broke down all the treaties which had pledged the faith of the nation. Georgia extended her jurisdiction over them, took possession of their lands, houses, cattle, furniture, negroes, and drove them out from their own dwellings. All the Southern States supported Georgia in this utter prostration of faith and justice; and Andrew Jackson, by the simultaneous operation of fraudulent treaties and brutal force, consummated the work. The Florida War is one of the fruits of this policy, the conduct of which exhibits one (un)interrupted scene of the most profligate corruption. All resistance against this abomination is vain. It is among the heinous sins of this nation, for which I believe God will one day bring them to judgement—but as His own time and by His own means.”

John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)

Diary entry (30 June 1841)

Sunil Dutt photo

“I never knew there was a romance. The only thing I knew was that she came into my life. I was not concerned about her past. I know these questions arise. But I am concerned about the person who comes in my life; what matters from that day on is how true the person is to me. The past is nothing to me.”

Sunil Dutt (1929–2005) Hindi film actor

About his wife Nargis’s past love life. Nargis-Sunil Dutt: A real life romance, 20 October 2003, 6 December 2013, Rediff.com http://www.rediff.com/movies/2003/oct/20dutt.htm,
We all are one, whichever religion we belong to

G. K. Chesterton photo

“Into a slumber then I fell,
When fond imagination
Seemed to see, but could not tell
Her feature or her fashion.”

Anthony Munday (1560–1633) English playwright and miscellaneous writer

Poem Colin http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1527.html

T. H. White photo
Gene Wolfe photo

““I pledged myself to show you wonders.”
I drew her farther from the building. “I’m not ready to see wonders. Yours, or any other woman’s.””

Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 19, "Silence" (p. 132)

Dennis Miller photo

“Listen, the weather is just like Hillary's explanation for her war vote: we just don't know, do we?”

Dennis Miller (1953) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actor

The Buck Starts Here (17 June 2007)

John McCain photo

“Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

GOP fund-raiser, Washington D.C., (June 1998)
1990s
Source: [the Flash, Flashes - That's Senator McNasty to You, http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/1998-06-18/news/flashes/, Phoenix New Times, Village Voice Media, 1998-06-18, 2007-02-19, The Washington Post broke the news last week of yet another McCain gaffe, made during a GOP fund raiser at a D.C. steak house. But neither the Post nor any other national publication that the Flash knows of actually printed the joke. To its credit, the Arizona Republic did. Here goes: ...]
Source: A joke too bad to print?, 2007-02-09, Corn, David, Salon.com, Salon.com, http://web.archive.org/web/20000229090904/http://www.salon.com/news/1998/06/25newsb.html, 1998-06-25 http://www.salon.com/news/1998/06/25newsb.html,
Source: McCain's Out-of-Control Anger, 2007-02-09, Kessler, Ronald, 2006-07-05, NewsMax.com, NewsMax.com, 2007-02-08, http://web.archive.org/web/20060721082127/http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/7/5/00548.shtml, "… only a few news outlets, like the Phoenix New Times in Arizona and the National Journal, that ran an Associated Press story reporting McCain's 1998 joke suggesting that Chelsea Clinton was ugly and Janet Reno and Hillary Clinton were lesbians." http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/7/5/00548.shtml,

Anthony Burgess photo
James Macpherson photo

“By practice and conviction formed,
With ancient stubbornness ingrained,
Although her body clung and swarmed,
My own identity remained.”

Yvor Winters (1900–1968) American poet and literary critic

"Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight"
The Collected Poems of Yvor Winters (1960)

Muhammad photo

“Jabir B. Abdillah reported that once he was on an expedition with the Prophet salla Allahu ʿalayhi wa sallam, and when they were close to the city of Madinah, he sped on his mount. The Prophet salla Allahu ʿalayhi wa sallam asked him why he was in such a hurry to return home. Jabir replied, “I am recently married!” The Prophet salla Allahu ʿalayhi wa sallam asked, “To an older lady or a younger one?” [the Arabic could also read: “To a widow or a virgin?”], to which he replied, “A widow.” The Prophet salla Allahu ʿalayhi wa sallam said, “But why didn’t you marry a younger girl, so that you could play with her, and she could play with you, and you could make her laugh, and she could make you laugh?”He said, “O Messenger of Allah! My father died a martyr at Uhud, leaving behind daughters, so I did not wish to marry a young girl like them, but rather an older one who could take care of them and look after them.” The Prophet salla Allahu ʿalayhi wa salam replied, “You have made the correct choice.”Jabir continues, “So when we were about to enter the city, the Prophet salla Allahu ʿalayhi wa sallam said to me, "Slow down, and enter at night, so that she who has not combed may comb her hair, and she who has not shaved may shave her private area."”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Then he said to me, "When you enter upon her, then be wise and gentle.”
Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah [Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim, with various wordings, in their two Sahihs]
Sunni Hadith

Angelique Rockas photo

“My grandmother was a fearless Greek warrioress, and very protective of her land. She literally ordered some Nazi soldiers to get off one of her fields pointing a gun at them.”

Angelique Rockas South African actress and founder of Internationalist Theatre, London

On the Greek heritage to resist
Interview on Helenism .net (September 2011)

Warren Farrell photo
Rudyard Kipling photo

“A fool there was and he made his prayer
(Even as you and I!)
To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair
We called her the woman who did not care),
But the fool he called her his lady fair”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

Even as you and I!
The Vampire http://www.readprint.com/work-973/The-Vampire-Rudyard-Kipling, Stanza 1.
Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886)

Nicholas Sparks photo
Florence Nightingale photo
George Chapman photo
Taylor Caldwell photo
Thomas Lodge photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Justin Martyr photo
Sufjan Stevens photo

“Once when we moved away,
She came to Romulus for a day.
Her Chevrolet broke down.
We prayed it'd never be fixed or be found.”

Sufjan Stevens (1975) American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist

"Romulus"
Lyrics, Michigan (2003)

Michelle Obama photo

“Sometimes it makes your hips move. Sometimes it makes you rock your head. Sometimes it helps you just kick back and relax and soak it in. But no matter what form it comes in, you know this music always comes straight from the heart. You know you’re listening to someone who’s found her own unique voice, and isn’t afraid to show it to the world. And these women are perfect examples of just that.”

Michelle Obama (1964) lawyer, writer, wife of Barack Obama and former First Lady of the United States

Statements at "I'm every woman: The History of Women in Soul" event (06 March 2014) http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/03/michelle-obama-hangs-out-with-soul-sisters-melissa-etheridge-and-pattie-labelle/
2010s

William Cullen Bryant photo

“Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again;
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes with pain,
And dies among his worshippers.”

William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) American romantic poet and journalist

The Battlefield http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16341/16341-h/16341-h.htm#page222 (1839), st. 9

Winston S. Churchill photo
Traci Lords photo

“Let me kiss it
And make it better
After tonight
You will forget her”

Traci Lords (1968) American mainstream and pornographic actress, producer, film director, writer and singer

Control, written by Traci Lords, Ben Watkins, and Wonder Schneider
Song lyrics, 1000 Fires (1995)

Matthew Arnold photo
Muhammad bin Qasim photo

“Muhammad took the fort [of Rawar] and stayed there for two or three days. He put six thousand fighting men, who were in the fort, to the sword, and shot some with arrows. The other dependents and servants were taken prisoners, with their wives and children… When the number of the prisoners was calculated, it was found to amount to thirty thousand persons, amongst whom thirty were the daughters of chiefs, and one of them was Rai Dahir's sister's daughter, whose name was Jaisiya. They were sent to Hajjaj. The head of Dahir and the fifth part of the prisoners were forwarded in charge of Ka'ab, son of Mharak. When the head of Dahir, the women, and the property all reached Hajjaj, he prostrated himself before Allah, offered thanksgivings and praises… Hajjaj then forwarded the head, the umbrellas, and wealth, and the prisoners to Walid the Khalifa. When the Khalifa of the time had read the letter, he praised Almighty Allah. He sold some of those daughters of the chiefs, and some he granted as rewards. When he saw the daughter of Rai Dahir’s sister he was much struck with her beauty and charms, and began to bite his finger with astonishment…. It is said that after the conquest was effected and the affairs of the country were settled and the report of the conquest had reached Hajjaj, he sent a reply to the following effect. 'O my cousin! I received your life-inspiring letter. I was much pleased and overjoyed when it reached me. The events were recounted in an excellent and beautiful style, and I learnt that the ways and rules you follow are conformable to the Law. Except that you give protection to all, great and small alike, and make no difference between enemy and friend. God says, - Give no quarter to Infidels, but cut their throats. Then know that this is the command of the great God [Allah]. You shall not be too ready to grant protection, because it will prolong your work. After this, give no quarter to any enemy except to those who are of rank.”

Muhammad bin Qasim (695–715) Umayyad general

The Chach Nama, in: Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, Volume I, p. 172-173. Also partially quoted in B.R. Ambedkar, Pakistan or The Partition of India (1946)
Quotes from The Chach Nama

Herman Cain photo

“What in her do I require?
The face of gratified desire.”

Brownish Spider.
Brother, Sister (2006)

El Greco photo

“Anyway, I would not be happy to see a beautiful, well-proportioned woman, no matter from which point of view, however extravagant, not only lose her beauty in order to, I would say, increase in size according to the law of vision, but no longer appear beautiful, and, in fact, become monstrous.”

El Greco (1541–1614) Greek painter, sculptor and architect

Quote from the marginalia, which El Greco inscribed in his copy of Daniele Barbaro's translation of Vitruvius' De architectura; as quoted by Liane Lefaivre and Alexander Tzonis, The Emergence of Modern Architecture: A Documentary History from 1000 to 1810 https://books.google.com/books?id=4xB9k7-Neb8C&pg=PT184; Routledge, New York, 2004) p. 165

Andrew Marvell photo
Philip Pullman photo
Pope Benedict XVI photo
Oswald Mosley photo
Voltairine de Cleyre photo
Willa Cather photo
Lee Meriwether photo