Quotes about lady
page 4

Mel Brooks photo

“Lady, it rose below vulgarity.”

Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer

To a woman accusing The Producers of being vulgar; quoted in "Great Movies: The Producers" by Roger Ebert (23 July 2000) http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-producers-1968

Frederick Buechner photo
Ann Coulter photo
Rick Santorum photo
Snoop Dogg photo

“Waitin' on the pizzle, the dizzle and the shizzle
G's to the bizzack, now ladies here we gizzo.”

Snoop Dogg (1971) American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor

"Drop It Like It's Hot", R&G: The Masterpiece (2004).

Margaret Cho photo
John Kruk photo

“I ain't an athlete, lady. I'm a ballplayer.”

John Kruk (1961) American baseball player

"John Kruk Stats" http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=krukjo01, Baseball-Almanac.com (accessed 2006-04-14)

Bret Easton Ellis photo
Edgar Rice Burroughs photo

“Tarzan of the Apes had decided to mark his evolution from the lower orders in every possible manner, and nothing seemed to him a more distinguishing badge of manhood than ornaments and clothing.
To this end, therefore, he collected the various arm and leg ornaments he had taken from the black warriors who had succumbed to his swift and silent noose, and donned them all after the way he had seen them worn.
About his neck hung the golden chain from which depended the diamond encrusted locket of his mother, the Lady Alice. At his back was a quiver of arrows slung from a leathern shoulder belt, another piece of loot from some vanquished black.
About his waist was a belt of tiny strips of rawhide fashioned by himself as a support for the home-made scabbard in which hung his father's hunting knife. The long bow which had been Kulonga's hung over his left shoulder.
The young Lord Greystoke was indeed a strange and war-like figure, his mass of black hair falling to his shoulders behind and cut with his hunting knife to a rude bang upon his forehead, that it might not fall before his eyes.
His straight and perfect figure, muscled as the best of the ancient Roman gladiators must have been muscled, and yet with the soft and sinuous curves of a Greek god, told at a glance the wondrous combination of enormous strength with suppleness and speed.”

Source: Tarzan of the Apes (1912), Ch. 13 : His Own Kind

Mark Knopfler photo

“For me, being a 'lady painter' was never an issue. I don't resent being a female painter. I don't exploit it. I paint.”

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) American artist

Quote by John Gruen, in 'The Party's Over Now: Reminiscences of the fifties — New York's artists, writers, musicians, and their friends'; Viking Press, 1972 - ISBN 0-916366-54-5; as cited by by Grace Glueck, in 'New York Times', 2011
1970s - 1980s

Julian of Norwich photo
Janeane Garofalo photo

“Red flag of the eating disorder: the muffin. Keep your eye on the ladies with the muffins…and sometimes I'll just eat the muffin top.”

Janeane Garofalo (1964) comedian, actress, political activist, writer

self-titled TV comedy special, 1997
Standup routines

Rāmabhadrācārya photo

“Why did you fight with my Giridhara (Kṛṣṇa)? You are a young maiden, and my Giridhara (Kṛṣṇa) is but a child, why did you hold his arm? My Giridhara (Kṛṣṇa) is crying, sobbing repeatedly, and you stand [looking at him] smirkingly! O Ahir lady (cowherd girl), you are excessively inclined to quarrel, and come and stand here uninvited." Giridhara (the poet) sings - so says Yaśodā, holding on to the hand of Giridhara (Kṛṣṇa) and covering [her face] with the end of her Sari.”

Rāmabhadrācārya (1950) Hindu religious leader

mere giridhārī jī se kāhe larī ।
tuma taruṇī mero giridhara bālaka kāhe bhujā pakarī ॥
susuki susuki mero giridhara rovata tū musukāta kharī ॥
tū ahirina atisaya jhagarāū barabasa āya kharī ॥
giridhara kara gahi kahata jasodā āʼncara oṭa karī ॥
[Nagar, Shanti Lal, The Holy Journey of a Divine Saint: Being the English Rendering of Swarnayatra Abhinandan Granth, Acharya Divakar, Sharma, Siva Kumar, Goyal, Surendra Sharma, Susila, B. R. Publishing Corporation, First, Hardback, New Delhi, India, 2002, 8176462888]
[Prasad, Ram Chandra, Sri Ramacaritamanasa The Holy Lake Of The Acts Of Rama, Motilal Banarsidass, 1999, Illustrated, reprint, Delhi, India, 8120807626, First published 1991]

Maggie Stiefvater photo
Pauline Hanson photo
Don Marquis photo

“well boss
mehitabel the cat
has reappeared in her old
haunts with a
flock of kittens

archy she said to me
yesterday
the life of a female
artist is continually
hampered what in hell
have i done to deserve
all these kittens
i look back on my life
and it seems to me to be
just one damned kitten
after another
i am a dancer archy
and my only prayer
is to be allowed
to give my best to my art
but just as i feel
that i am succeeding
in my life work
along comes another batch
of these damned kittens
it is not archy
that i am shy on mother love
god knows i care for
the sweet little things
curse them
but am i never to be allowed
to live my own life
i have purposely avoided
matrimony in the interests
of the higher life
but i might just
as well have been a domestic
slave for all the freedom
i have gained
i hope none of them
gets run over by
an automobile
my heart would bleed
if anything happened
to them and i found it out
but it isn t fair archy
it isn t fair
these damned tom cats have all
the fun and freedom
if i was like some of these
green eyed feline vamps i know
i would simply walk out on the
bunch of them and
let them shift for themselves
but i am not that kind
archy i am full of mother love
my kindness has always
been my curse
a tender heart is the cross i bear
self sacrifice always and forever
is my motto damn them
i will make a home
for the sweet innocent
little things
unless of course providence
in his wisdom should remove
them they are living
just now in an abandoned
garbage can just behind
a made over stable in greenwich
village and if it rained
into the can before i could
get back and rescue them
i am afraid the little
dears might drown
it makes me shudder just
to think of it
of course if i were a family cat
they would probably
be drowned anyhow
sometimes i think
the kinder thing would be
for me to carry the
sweet little things
over to the river
and drop them in myself
but a mother s love archy
is so unreasonable
something always prevents me
these terrible
conflicts are always
presenting themselves
to the artist
the eternal struggle
between art and life archy
is something fierce
yes something fierce
my what a dramatic
life i have lived
one moment up the next
moment down again
but always gay archy always gay
and always the lady too
in spite of hell
well boss it will
be interesting to note
just how mehitabel
works out her present problem
a dark mystery still broods
over the manner
in which the former
family of three kittens
disappeared
one day she was talking to me
of the kittens
and the next day when i asked
her about them
she said innocently
what kittens
interrogation point
and that was all
i could ever get out
of her on the subject
we had a heavy rain
right after she spoke to me
but probably that garbage can
leaks so the kittens
have not yet
been drowned”

Don Marquis (1878–1937) American writer

mehitabel and her kittens http://donmarquis.com/reading-room/kittens/
archy and mehitabel (1927)

Robert F. Kennedy photo
Emo Philips photo

“I ran three miles today… finally I said, "Lady, take your purse."”

Emo Philips (1956) American comedian

E=MO² (1985), A Fine How Ya Do

Anne Brontë photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“I have heard with admiring submission the experience of the lady who declared "that the sense of being perfectly well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquility which religion is powerless to bestow."”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Social Aims
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Books, Letters and Social Aims http://www.rwe.org/comm/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=5&id=74&Itemid=149 (1876)

Noel Fielding photo

“I'd like to punch out a really old lady. There'd be no repercussions.”

Noel Fielding (1973) British comedian and actor

Q Magazine, October 2008

John Buchan photo
Christina Applegate photo

“I'm going to have cute boobs 'til I'm 90, so there's that. I'll have the best boobs in the nursing home. I'll be the envy of all the ladies around the bridge table.”

Christina Applegate (1971) American actress

During an interview on Good Morning America about her recent mastectomy. (August 19, 2008)

Roger Ebert photo
David Icke photo
George Eliot photo
Markiplier photo
Orson Welles photo
Ben Jonson photo

“Lady: How do's it fit? wilt come together? Prudence: Hardly. Lad: Thou must make shift with it. Pride feels no Pain.”

Act II, Scene I
The New Inn, or The Light Heart (licensed 19 January 1629; printed 1631)

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
R. A. Lafferty photo
Karen Blixen photo

“My love was both humble and audacious, like that of a page for his lady…”

"The Old Chevalier"
Seven Gothic Tales (1934)

R. A. Salvatore photo
Margaret Atwood photo
Temple Grandin photo
Paris Hilton photo
Donald J. Trump photo
James Russell Lowell photo

“The birch, most shy and lady-like of trees,
Her poverty, as best she may, retrieves,
And hints at her foregone gentilities
With some saved relics of her wealth of leaves.”

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat

An Indian Summer Reverie http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/1164/, st. 8 (1846)

David D. Levine photo

“Gambling is a wretched vice,” Lady Corey replied with a sniff. “A snare for men of weak character.”

David D. Levine (1961) science fiction writer

Source: Arabella and the Battle of Venus (2017), Chapter 5, “Navigation” (p. 71)

Peter Greenaway photo
Michael Lewis photo
Thomas Wolfe photo
Ludovico Ariosto photo

“Whoever in a noble noose is caught,
Although his lady may but ill receive
His ardour and thus render him distraught,
And no reward for his devotion give,
Whence all his time and labour come to naught,
Yet, if his heart be worthily bestowed,
No lamentation to his grief is owed.”

Che chi si truova in degno laccio preso,
Se ben di sé vede sua donna schiva,
Se in tutto aversa al suo desire acceso;
Se bene Amor d'ogni mercede il priva,
Poscia che 'l tempo e la fatica ha speso;
Pur ch'altamente abbia locato il core,
Pianger non de', se ben languisce e muore.
Canto XVI, stanza 2 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

Ray Bradbury photo
Glen Cook photo

““Truth is a deadly weapon,” Lady said.
“Which is why priests and princes dread it,” I said.”

Source: Shadow Games (1989), Chapter 25, “Taglios: Scouting Southward” (p. 127)

Tanith Lee photo

“Resist. Come, you’re tough enough, my lady, aren’t you, if you beg for death rather than inflict evil?”

Part 4 “The Witch Hunt” (p. 133)
The Castle of Dark (1978)

Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

“A lovely lady, garmented in light
From her own beauty.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

The Witch of Atlas http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4696 (1820), st. 5

Charles Webster Leadbeater photo
Michelle Obama photo

“Over the past few years as First Lady, I have had the extraordinary privilege of traveling all across this country.”

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

2010s, Democratic National Convention speech (2012)

Edvard Munch photo
Anthony Trollope photo
Bernard Cornwell photo
William Makepeace Thackeray photo
Albrecht Thaer photo

“Arriving in Berlin, I found myself in my element, and began to breathe freely. Jerusalem and Lessing had given us letters of introduction to the greatest men in Berlin; but they knew us already, Leisewitz as author of "Julius Von Tarent," and myself as author of my Dissertation. We had daily the choice of the first society; covers were laid for us in the first families daily, for dinner as well as supper. Von Zetlitz sent a general invitation that covers were laid for us every day during our stay in Berlin. Most of the time we could spare was divided between physicians and philosophers, of which the latter had the greater share. Spalding, Mendelsohn, Eberhard, Engel, Nicolai, Reichard, and Madame Bamberger, daughter of Doctor Sack, Bishop of Berlin, honoured us with their most sincere friendship. The latter, a highly gifted and accomplished lady, possessed the rare art of spreading over the most abstract hypothesis and theorem the brightest and most charming light; Jerusalem, the father of the ill-fated Werther (see the "Sorrows of Werther," by Goethe), used to send her his works to correct, and she alone was able to console and comfort him, when he was informed of the death of his beloved son. This amiable lady assumes in common life the character of a plain woman, and when at court, as friend of the Queen and the Princess Amalie, she won all hearts by her truly noble man ners and unconstrained courtesy: at court beloved, she was admired, nay, adored in the philosophical clubs. But do not think that here alone we spent all our time; Madame Bamberger knew how to blend study with amusement; she issued frequently cards of invitation to select parties, for suppers and balls, and her house was the point of union of all that was learned, beautiful, and amiable. Thus Berlin became my Paradise. I had the most tempting offers from the Minister of State to stay here; but the illness of my father obliged me, after a stay of three months, to return home. I visited Lessing on my journey back; stayed two days, which were the most interesting of all days I ever remember.”

Albrecht Thaer (1752–1828) German agronomist and an avid supporter of the humus theory for plant nutrition

My Life and Confessions, for Philippine, 1786

Harold Monro photo

“The children eat and wriggle and laugh,
The two old ladies stroke their silk;
But the cat is grown small and thin with desire,
Transformed to a creeping lust for milk.”

Harold Monro (1879–1932) British poet

"Milk for the Cat", line 17, from Alida Monro (ed.) Collected Poems (London: Duckworth, [1933] 1970) p. 163.

Elliott Smith photo
William Westmoreland photo
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis photo

“The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.”

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994) public figure, First Lady to 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy

Advice to her secretary; quoted inThe Kennedys (1984) by Peter Collier and David Horowitz

Paul Weller (singer) photo

“The lords and ladies pass a ruling
That sons and girls go hand in land
From good stock and the best breeding
Paid for by the servile class.”

Paul Weller (singer) (1958) English singer-songwriter, Guitarist

The Whole Point Of No Return, from Café Bleu (1984)

Leo Tolstoy photo
Lauren Bacall photo
Hans Christian Andersen photo
Ludovico Ariosto photo

“But not on that account (for I'd be wrong)
Would I advise you, ladies, to shun love,
For like a vine untended, with no strong
Support to cling to, you would be.”

Non vi vieto per questo (ch'avrei torto)
Che vi lasciate amar; che senza amante
Sareste come inculta vite in orto,
Che non ha palo ove s'appoggi o piante.
Canto X, stanza 9 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

Irene Dunne photo

“There are worse things in life than being called a lady.”

Irene Dunne (1898–1990) American actress

A Visit With Irene Dunne (1977)

Mary Wortley Montagu photo
Pierre Monteux photo

“Now that was very impressive. But before you try to impress the ladies in the balcony, make sure the horns come in.”

Pierre Monteux (1875–1964) French conductor

Quoted from Freedland, M. André Previn. Century, 1991. p97
To a student conductor.

Bob Seger photo
Jeremy Corbyn photo
Van Morrison photo

“Yonder comes my lady
Rainbow ribbons in her hair
Yonder comes my lady
Rainbow ribbons in her hair
Six white horses and a carriage
She's returning from the fair”

Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician

Cyprus Avenue
Song lyrics, Astral Weeks (1969)

James Comey photo
Camille Paglia photo
John Wallis photo
Dorothy L. Sayers photo
Guillaume de Machaut photo

“And since my malady
Will not be
Cured at all
Without you, sweet enemy.
Who are glad
At my torment.
With folded hands I pray
To your heart, since it forgets me.
That it should kill me quickly.
For I languish too long.
Sweet pretty lady.
For God's sake do not think
That any one has authority
Over me but you alone.”

Guillaume de Machaut (1300–1377) French poet and composer

Et quant ma maladie
Garie
Ne sera nullement
Sans vous, douce anemie,
Qui lie
Estes de mon tourment,
A jointes mains deprie
Vo cuer, puis qu'il m'oublie,
Que temprement m'ocie,
Car trop langui longuement.
Douce dame jolie,
Pour dieu ne penses mie
Que nulle ait signourie
Seur moy fors vous seulement.
"Douce dame jolie", line 33; translation by Jennifer Garnham. http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/MMDB/composer/H0033004.HTM

Johannes Warnardus Bilders photo

“This afternoon I had put myself down on this sweet spot, very tired of painting [with a view of the old castle of Vorden].... I was completely immersed in thinking of You... I would rather like to.... thank you, dear and beloved Lady, for the right judgments and remarks which You gave me in this [your? ] sweet letter. I solemnly promise you that I will use them for my benefit, and will spent all my powers as an artist, to make your attentions more worthy to me.”

Johannes Warnardus Bilders (1811–1890) painter from the Northern Netherlands

translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek
version in original Dutch (citaat van Johannes Warnardus Bilders' brief, in het Nederlands:) Toen ik heden middag mij zeer vermoeid van 't schilderen op dit lieve plekje had neder gezet [met zicht op het oude kasteel van Vorden].. ..ik was namelijk geheel verdiept in de gedachte aan UE.. .Ik wil liever.. ..bedenken, hoe ik U veel beminde juffrouw, dank zou zeggen, voor de juiste oordeelvellingen en bemerkingen, welke UE mij in dit [uw[?] lieve schrijven gemaakt heb, Ik beloof u plechtig dat ik ze mij ten nutte zal maken, en al mijn krachten als kunstenaar zal in spannen, om uwe atenties mij meer waardig te maken.
J.W. Bilders, in his letter [including a sketch by pen of the landscape with the castle, seen from the garden of the hotel where he stayed] to Georgina van Dijk van 't Velde, from Vorden, 1 Sept. 1868; from an excerpt of the letter https://rkd.nl/nl/explore/excerpts/751236 in the RKD-Archive, The Hague
1860's + 1870's

David D. Levine photo

“My dear Mrs. Singh,” Lady Corey sighed, interrupting. “The first thing you must learn about prevarication is to reduce detail to an absolute minimum.”

David D. Levine (1961) science fiction writer

Source: Arabella and the Battle of Venus (2017), Chapter 11, “Prisoners” (p. 164)

“She is a half-mad old bag lady. The Finchley Whinger.”

Tony Banks (1942–2006) British politician

An MP who took no prisoners, The Daily Telegraph, 2006-01-09 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/09/nbanks109.xml, http://www.geocities.com/Axiom43/insults.html
on former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher again.

Fred Astaire photo
Luís de Camões photo

“Whoever, Lady, sees plain and clear
the lovely essence of your fair eyes
and doesn't from seeing them go blind
hasn't paid your looks their due.”

Luís de Camões (1524–1580) Portuguese poet

Quem vê, Senhora, claro e manifesto
o lindo ser de vossos olhos belos,
se não perder a vista só em vê-los,
já não paga o que deve a vosso gesto.
Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Quem vê, Senhora, claro e manifesto

Louis-ferdinand Céline photo

“And the music came back with the carnival, the music you've heard as far back as you can remember, ever since you were little, that's always playing somewhere, in some corner of the city, in little country towns, wherever poor people go and sit at the end of the week to figure out what's become of them, sometimes here, sometimes there, from season to season, it tinkles and grinds out the tunes that rich people danced to the year before. It's the mechanical music that floats down from the wooden horses, from the cars that aren't cars anymore, from the railways that aren't at all scenic, from the platform under the wrestler who hasn't any muscles and doesn't come from Marseille, from the beardless lady, the magician who's a butter-fingered jerk, the organ that's not made of gold, the shooting gallery with the empty eggs. It's the carnival made to delude the weekend crowd. We go in and drink the beer with no head on it. But under the cardboard trees the stink of the waiter's breath is real. And the change he gives you has several peculiar coins in it, so peculiar that you go on examining them for weeks and weeks and finally, with considerable difficulty, palm them off on some beggar. What do you expect at the carnival? Gotta have what fun you can between hunger and jail, and take things as they come. No sense complaining, we're sitting down aren't we? Which ain't to be sneezed at. I saw the same old Gallery of the Nations, the one Lola caught sight of years and years ago on that avenue in the park of Saint-Cloud. You always see things again at carnivals, they revive the joy of past carnivals. Over the years the crowds must have come back time and again to stroll on the main avenue of the park of Saint-Cloud…taking it easy. The war had been over long ago. And say I wonder if that shooting gallery still belonged to the same owner? Had he come back alive from the war? I take an interest in everything. Those are the same targets, but in addition, they're shooting at airplanes now. Novelty. Progress. Fashion. The wedding was still there, the soldier too, and the town hall with its flag. Plus a few more things to shoot at than before.”

27
Journey to the End of the Night (1932)

Charles, Prince of Wales photo

“Anthony Carthew (ITN): And, I suppose, in love?
Lady Diana Spencer: Of course!
Charles, Prince of Wales: Whatever 'in love' means.”

Charles, Prince of Wales (1948) son of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

" Anthony Carthew http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-2559197,00.html" (Obituary), The Times, 22 January 2007.
On announcing his engagement to Lady Diana Spencer (1981 Feb-July)
1980s

Stevie Nicks photo

“It's just about a lady who's a goddess of steeds and a maker of birds.”

Stevie Nicks (1948) American singer and songwriter, member of Fleetwood Mac

(on "Rhiannon") The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll http://books.google.com/books?id=GBYEAAAAMBAJ (1996: Harvard University Press), ISBN 9780674802735, p. 281.

John Buchan photo
Phil Brooks photo

“So all you people here, despite evidence to the contrary, still choose to support a man that for all intents and purposes can't even support himself? OK, OK, so if you're a Jeff Hardy fan, if you're wearing a Jeff Hardy t-shirt, if you're wearing one of his diabolical little handsleeves, God forbid if you have your face painted, I want to see you stand up right now. I want to hear you make some noise! Go ahead, if you love and support Jeff Hardy, let the world know! (Crowd cheers, stands up.) Cameraman, cameraman get a good shot, get a real good shot at all these people. The truth is ladies and gentlemen, I don't blame you. I don't blame anybody here for supporting Jeff Hardy. The people I blame, are their parents. Or let's be realistic here, I said parents, what I should have said was parent. Because it's obviously a single parent situation, just like the way Jeff Hardy grew up. See you people are so concerned with the relationship with your children failing, just like your marriage did, that you acquiesce to their every whim and their every desire. I hate to tell you, this doesn't make you a good parent, Philadelphia, it makes you an enabler. (Crowd boos. Starts chanting for Hardy.) And the fact that you even let your children look up to a guy like Jeff Hardy, just shows that you really don't care what happens to them to begin with. It's a sad situation. So I don't blame anybody here or sitting at home watching this, that supports Jeff Hardy if they're under 17, because they're young and they're, well, they're impressionable. The real problem lies with the parents, it's the parents who don't make a conscious effort to sit their children down and teach them the proper way to live! (Crowd boos.) You see it starts with a Jeff Hardy t-shirt, next thing you know they're smoking a pack of cigarettes, after that, they're drinking a bottle of beer. Right after that they move on to shots of Jack Daniels, which is a gateway drug for marijuana…(Crowd pops for marijuana.) And the fact that you people sit here and cheer that goes to show that I'm telling the truth! How about some old fashioned street drugs? And before you know it they're digging through Mom's purse because they're addicted, they're addicted to prescription medication. (Crowd cheers, Punk mouths,"That's not cool!" to fans.) All of this can be stopped before it's too late! Parents, all you have to do is talk to your children. Sit them down and show them the way, tell them the words that can save their lives, show them that sometimes it's what you don't do that makes you who you are! For weeks, for weeks I've been saying to people like you, just say no. But today I think we should just say yes. Yes to the future of a straight edge, drug free America! Just say yes to the winner of tonight's match, just say yes, to the World Heavyweight Champion! Thank you!”

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

At Night of Champions 2009
Friday Night SmackDown

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo

“Most Mens' Anger about Religion is as if two Men should quarrel for a Lady they neither of them care for.”

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

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

Khushwant Singh photo
Muhammad bin Qasim photo

“Muhammad Kasim marched from Dhalila, and encamped on the banks of the stream of the Jalwali to the east of Brahmanabad. He sent some confidential messengers to Brahmanabad to invite its people to submission and to the Muhammadan faith, to preach to them Islam, to demand the Jizya, or poll-tax, and also to inform them that if they would not submit, they must prepare to fight…
They sent their messengers, and craved for themselves and their families exemption from death and captivity. Muhammad Kasim granted them protection on their faithful promises, but put the soldiers to death, and took all their followers and dependents prisoners. All the captives, up to about thirty years of age, who were able to work, he made slaves, and put a price upon them…
When the plunder and the prisoners of war were brought before Kasim, and enquiries were made about every captive, it was found that Ladi, the wife of Dahir, was in the fort with two daughters of his by his other wives. Veils were put on their faces, and they were delivered to a servant to keep them apart. One-fifth of all the prisoners were chosen and set aside; they were counted as amounting to twenty thousand in number, and the rest were given to the soldiers. Protection was given to the artificers, the merchants, and the common people, and those who had been seized from those classes were all liberated. But he (Kasim) sat on the seat of cruelty, and put all those who had fought to the sword. It is said that about six thousand fighting men were slain, but, according to some, sixteen thousand were killed, and the rest were pardoned.”

Muhammad bin Qasim (695–715) Umayyad general

Source: The Chach Nama, in: Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, Volume I, p. 176-181. ( also quoted in Bostom, A. G. M. D., & Bostom, A. G. (2010). The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims. Amherst: Prometheus.) note: Quotes from The Chach Nama

Bob Seger photo
Margaret Atwood photo
Taylor Caldwell photo
Claude Debussy photo

“First of all, ladies and gentlemen, you must forget that you are singers.”

Claude Debussy (1862–1918) French composer

Instructions to the singers in his opera Pelléas et Mélisande, as quoted in 100 Great Operas and Their Stories (1989) by Henry William Simon, p. 371