Quotes about nothing
page 68

Stefan Szczesny photo
Lewis Mumford photo

“Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's further development.”

Lewis Mumford (1895–1990) American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic

"The Way and the Life"
The Conduct Of Life (1951)

Irshad Manji photo
Kwame Nkrumah photo

“I was introduced to the great philosophical systems of the past to which the Western universities have given their blessing, arranging and classifying them with the delicate care lavished on museum pieces. When once these systems were so handled, it was natural that they should be regarded as monuments of human intellection. And monuments, because they mark achievements at their particular point in history, soon become conservative in the impression which they make on posterity. I was introduced to Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Marx and other immortals, to whom I should like to refer as the university philosophers. But these titans were expounded in such a way that a student from a colony could easily find his breast agitated by Conflicting attitudes. These attitudes can have effects which spread out over a whole society, should such a student finally pursue a political life. A colonial student does not by origin belong to the intellectual history in which the university philosophers are such impressive landmarks. The colonial student can be so seduced by these attempts to give a philosophical account of the universe, that surrenders his whole personality to them. When he does this, he loses sight of the fundamental social fact that he is a colonial subject. In this way, he omits to draw from his education and from the concern displayed by the great philosophers for human problems, anything which he might relate to the very real problem of colonial domination, which, as it happens, conditions the immediate life of every colonized African. With single-minded devotion, the colonial student meanders through the intricacies of the philosophical systems. And yet these systems did aim at providing a philosophical account ofthe world in the circumstances and conditions of their time. For even philosophical systems are facts of history. By the time, however, that they come to be accepted in the universities for exposition, they have lost the vital power which they had at their first statement, they have shed their dynamism and polemic reference. This is a result of the academic treatment which they are given. The academic treatment is the result of an attitude to philosophical systems as though there was nothing to them hut statements standing in logical relation to one another. This defective approach to scholarship was suffered hy different categories of colonial student. Many of them had heen handpicked and, so to say, carried certificates ofworthiness with them. These were considered fit to become enlightened servants of the colonial administration. The process by which this category of student became fit usually started at an early age, for not infrequently they had lost contact early in life with their traditional background. By reason of their lack of contact with their own roots, they became prone to accept some theory of universalism, provided it was expressed in vague, mellifluous terms. Armed with their universalism, they carried away from their university courses an attitude entirely at variance with the concrete reality of their people and their struggle. When they came across doctrines of a combative nature, like those of Marxism, they reduced them to arid abstractions, to common-room subtleties. In this way, through the good graces oftheir colonialist patrons, these students, now competent in the art of forming not a concrete environmental view of social political problems, but an abstract, 'liberal' outlook, began to fulfil the hopes and expectations oftheir guides and guardians.”

Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972) Pan Africanist and First Prime Minister and President of Ghana

Source: Consciencism (1964), Introduction, pp. 2-4.

“For Socrates, virtue was nothing but its own pursuit. And only the promise of happiness is happiness itself.”

Alexander Nehamas (1946) Professor of philosophy

Only a Promise of Happiness: The Place of Beauty in a World of Art (2010), p. 138.

James Howard Kunstler photo
Terence photo

“I am human, I consider nothing human alien to me.”
Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto.

Act I, scene 1, line 25 (77).
Variant translations:
I am a human and consider nothing human alien to me.
I am human, I consider nothing human to be alien to me.
I am human, therefore nothing relating to humanity is outside of my concern.
I am a man; I consider nothing human alien to me.
I am a man, I regard nothing that is human alien to me.
I am a man, I count nothing human foreign to me.
Heauton Timorumenos (The Self-Tormentor)

Anton Chekhov photo

“To describe drunkenness for the colorful vocabulary is rather cynical. There is nothing easier than to capitalize on drunkards.”

Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian dramatist, author and physician

Letter to N.A. Leikin (December 24, 1886)
Letters

Adolphe Quetelet photo

“Nothing can be done at once hastily and prudently.”

Publilio Siro Latin writer

Maxim 557
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave

Jack Johnson (musician) photo
Burkard Schliessmann photo
Walter Savage Landor photo

“I am heartily glad to witness your veneration for a Book which to say nothing of its holiness or authority, contains more specimens of genius and taste than any other volume in existence.”

Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) British writer

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 33.

Philip Johnson photo
Shane Warne photo
Chris Cornell photo

“I don’t really remember writing it [The Day I Tried To Live]. I vaguely remember the verse. It was based on a tuning that Ben Shepherd had came up with. Lyrically, it was one of those songs that I thought everyone could connect with. ‘Fell On Black Days’ is maybe a sister song to it. It’s this feeling that could come over anyone, and has probably happened to everyone. ‘Fell On Black Days’ is the feeling of waking up one day and realizing you’re not happy with your life. Nothing happened, there was no emergency, no accident, you don’t know what happened. You were happy, and one day you just aren’t, and you have to try to figure that out.
With ‘The Day I Tried To Live,’ the attitude I was trying to convey was that thing that I think everyone goes through where you wake up in the morning and you just don’t know how you are going to get through the day, and you kind of just talk yourself into it. You may go through different moments of hopelessness and wanting to give up, or wanting to just get back into bed and say f— it, but you convince yourself you’re going to do it again. And maybe this is the last time you’re going to do it, but it’s once more around.”

Chris Cornell (1964–2017) American singer-songwriter, musician

Interview with Entertainment Weekly, June 3, 2014 http://ew.com/article/2014/06/03/soundgarden-superunknown-spoonman-black-hole-sun-stories/,
On depression and suicide

William Cowper photo
Tertullian photo

“Reason, in fact, is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason — nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason. All, therefore, who are ignorant of God, must necessarily be ignorant also of a thing which is His, because no treasure-house at all is accessible to strangers. And thus, voyaging all the universal course of life without the rudder of reason, they know not how to shun the hurricane which is impending over the world.”
Quippe res dei ratio quia deus omnium conditor nihil non ratione providit disposuit ordinavit, nihil [enim] non ratione tractari intellegique voluit. [3] Igitur ignorantes quique deum rem quoque eius ignorent necesse est quia nullius omnino thesaurus extraneis patet. Itaque universam vitae conversationem sine gubernaculo rationis transfretantes inminentem saeculo procellam evitare non norunt.

Tertullian (155–220) Christian theologian

De Paenitentia (On Repentance), 1.2-3

Pierre Hadot photo

“One must have nothing to do with the partiality of the individual, passionate self in order to raise oneself to the universality of the rational self.”

Pierre Hadot (1922–2010) French historian and philosopher

Il faut se défaire de la partialité du moi individuel et passionné pour se hausser à l’universalité du moi rationnel.
La Philosophie comme manière de vivre (2001)

Arthur Stanley Eddington photo
Annie Besant photo
Anna Akhmatova photo

“We thought: we're poor, we have nothing,
but when we started losing one after the other
so each day became
remembrance day,
we started composing poems
about God's great generosity
and — our former riches.”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

"We thought: we're poor"
We thought we were beggars, we thought we had nothing at all
But then when we started to lose one thing after another,
Each day became
A memorial day -
And then we made songs
Of great divine generosity
And of our former riches.
Translated by Ilya Shambat (2001)
White Flock (1917)

Rod Serling photo
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay photo

“Nothing is so useless as a general maxim.”

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) British historian and Whig politician

On Machiavelli (1827)

Miyamoto Musashi photo

“The true Way of sword fencing is the craft of defeating the enemy in a fight, and nothing other than this.”

Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese martial artist, writer, artist

Go Rin No Sho (1645), The Fire Book

John Fante photo
Cesare Pavese photo

“When a woman marries she belongs to another man; and when she belongs to another man there is nothing more you can say to her.”

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator

The winter of '41-'42
This Business of Living (1935-1950)

Donald E. Westlake photo

“What did Jesus Christ say to the Teamsters? 'Do nothing till I get back.”

Donald E. Westlake (1933–2008) American novelist

Walking Around Money (2005)

Penn Jillette photo
Brian Keith photo
Gerhard Richter photo

“When we describe a process, or make out an invoice, or photograph a tree, we create models; without them we would know nothing of reality and would be animals. Abstract pictures are fictive models, because they make visible a reality that we can neither see nor describe, but whose existence we can postulate.”

Gerhard Richter (1932) German visual artist, born 1932

in text for catalogue of documenta 7, Kassel, 1982; as cited on collected quotes on the website of Gerhard Richter: on 'Abstract paintings' https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/quotes/subjects-2/abstract-paintings-7
1980's

Robert Charles Wilson photo
Bradley Joseph photo

“Music allows a person to express their deepest thoughts, thoughts that cannot be expressed with just words. I am often asked how I begin a song or develop a melody from nothing. That is the spiritual aspect of creating. Finding something deep within yourself that can only be created by you.”

Bradley Joseph (1965) Composer, pianist, keyboardist, arranger, producer, recording artist

Interview with Bradley Joseph, The Spiritual Significance Of Music, World Edition http://www.xtrememusic.org/world/joseph_bradley.pdf http://www.xtrememusic.org/new.html (from extrememusic.org) http://xtrememusic.org/world.html

John Gray photo
Patrick Kavanagh photo
Leonardo Sciascia photo

“There is nothing in his (of Mario Bardi) painting which Sicily cannot explain.”

Leonardo Sciascia (1921–1989) Italian writer

Non c'è niente nella sua pittura che la Sicilia non possa spiegare.
"Storia dell'arte in Sicilia: Mario Bardi", volume 2 (1984), Palermo: Edizioni del Sole (ed.) p. 243 " https://books.google.it/books?id=ntfpAAAAMAAJ"(in Italian).

Thomas Jefferson photo

“Blest is that nation whose silent course of happiness furnishes nothing for history to say.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Count Diodati (29 March 1807)
1800s, Second Presidential Administration (1805-1809)

İsmail Enver photo
Anne Morrow Lindbergh photo
Gustave Courbet photo
E.M. Forster photo

“A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.”

E.M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist

"Anonymity: An Enquiry"
Two Cheers for Democracy (1951)

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“Since nothing is absolute, there is no absolute silence, only an appearance of temporary peace.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

Silence Is the Universal Library http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21396/Silence_Is_the_Universal_Library_
From the poems written in English

Carl von Clausewitz photo
James Jeans photo

“When I believe in nothing, I do not want to meet you when you believe in nothing.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Cuando no creo en nada, no quisiera encontrarme contigo, cuando no crees en nada.
Voces (1943)

Luboš Motl photo
Frank W. Abagnale photo

“Remember what being an adult is: It has nothing to do with money or awards.”

Frank W. Abagnale (1948) American security consultant, former confidence trickster, check forger, impostor, and escape artist

Frank Abagnale, Abagnale & Associates http://www.abagnale.com/news102006.asp Abagnale & Associates Website, accessed 2008-10-12

Sarah Chang photo

“The ultimate high for me is being onstage in front of an audience. Nothing else can compare.”

Sarah Chang (1980) violinist

NEWSWEEK 1999 http://www.jeremycaplan.com/SarahChangInterview.htm

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Shashi Tharoor photo
David Eugene Smith photo
Emily St. John Mandel photo
John Buchan photo
John Stuart Mill photo

“A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do never does all he can.”

Source: Autobiography (1873), Ch. 1: Childhood and Early Education (p. 32 http://archive.org/stream/autobiographymil00milluoft#page/32/mode/2up/search/%22a+pupil+from+whom+nothing+is+ever+demanded+which+he+cannot+do+never+does+all+he+can%22)

Laurell K. Hamilton photo

“Nothing helps you sleep at night so much as being absolutely certain that you're right, and everyone else is evil.”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

Musings of Anita Blake; p. 518
Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, Incubus Dreams (2004)

Hermann Rauschning photo
Antoine François Prévost photo

“Nothing is more wonderful, or honours virtue more, than the confidence with which we turn to people whose probity we have long been acquainted with.”

Antoine François Prévost (1697–1763) French novelist

Rien n'est plus admirable et ne fait plus d'honneur à la vertu, que la confiance avec laquelle on s'adresse aux personnes dont on connaît parfaitement la probité.
Part 1, p. 86; translation p. 40.
L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut (1731)

Indro Montanelli photo
Robert Anton Wilson photo

“There is absolutely nothing that can be taken for granted in this world.”

Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) American author and polymath

The Historical Illuminatus as spoken by Sigismundo Celine

Philip K. Dick photo
John Harvey Kellogg photo

“There is nothing necessary or desirable for human nutrition to be found in meats or flesh foods, which are not found in and derived from vegetable products.”

John Harvey Kellogg (1852–1943) American physician

Source: The New Dietetics, What to Eat and How: A Guide to Scientific Feeding in Health and Disease, Battle Creek, MI: The Modern Medicine Publishing Co., 1921, p. 366 https://books.google.it/books?id=TNsMAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA366.

Richard Cobden photo
Christine O'Donnell photo

“I am not a witch. I'm nothing you've heard. I'm you.”

Christine O'Donnell (1969) American Tea Party politician and former Republican Party candidate

first 2010 US Senate race general election TV advertisement by the Christine O'Donnell senate campaign
Christine O'Donnell: I'm You
Christine4Senate's YouTube channel
YouTube
2010-10-04
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGGAgljengs
2010-10-20
2010 Delaware US Senate race, 2010 political advertisements

Alan M. Dershowitz photo
PewDiePie photo
Douglas Coupland photo

“The immanent purpose is an intrinsic property of living beings, without it, they would not exist. Consider the autonomous function units and their components: organs, tissues, isolated cells, as well as other properties such as nutrition, body defense, growth, reproduction, to which they are subject at the end. When it comes to these properties, biologists do not argue; but if you pronounce the word purpose, there is a public outcry. Probably because they do not distinguish the purpose of fact or immanent, the trascendental purpose. Of the latter, the biologist has little or nothing to say; it is a matter of metaphysics.”

Pierre-Paul Grassé (1895–1985) French zoologist

Grassé, Pierre Paul (1977); Evolution of living organisms: evidence for a new theory of transformation. Academic Press, p. 2
Evolution of living organisms: evidence for a new theory of transformation (1977)
Original: La finalité immanente est une propriété intrinseque des etres vivants, sans elle, ils n'existeraient pas. Considérés en tant qu' unités fonctionelles autonomes, leurs constituants: organes, tissus, cellule isolée, au meme titre que les autres propriétés: nutrition, défense de l'organisme, croissance, reproduction, sont subordonnés à une fin. Quand il s'agit de ces propriétes, les biologistes ne se disputent pas; mais si l'on pronounce le mot finalité, c'est un levée de boucliers. Probablement parce qu'ils ne distinguent pas la finalité de fait ou immanente, de la finalité trascendante. Sur cette derniere, le biologiste n'a que peu, sinon rien à dire; elle ressortit de la métaphysique

Pearl S.  Buck photo
Noam Chomsky photo
Neil Gaiman photo
Mark Hopkins (educator) photo
Joseph Conrad photo

“A man is a worker. If he is not that he is nothing.”

Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-British writer

Notes on Life and Letters (1921), part II, "Well Done"

Amanda Lear photo

“I knew nothing when I first met him. He taught me to see things through his eyes. Dalí was my teacher. He let me use his brushes, his paint and his canvas, so that I could play around while he was painting for hours and hours in the same studio. Surrealism was a good school for me. Listening to Dalí talk was better than going to any art school.”

Amanda Lear (1939) singer, lyricist, composer, painter, television presenter, actress, model

http://www.3d-dali.com/centennial-magazine/e-9-muse.htm, Salvador Dali Centennial Magazine – Amanda Lear, 15 June 2004, 3d-dali.com, 15 July 2018

Francesco Guicciardini photo

“We fight to great disadvantage when we fight with those who have nothing to lose.”

Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540) Italian writer, historian and politician

Con disavvantaggio grande si fa la guerra con chi non ha che perdere.
Storia d' Italia (1537-1540)

Robert Skidelsky photo
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner photo

“Near me, nothing but distances.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Cerca de mí no hay más que lejanías.
Voces (1943)

Sri Aurobindo photo
John Marshall photo
Joseph Strutt photo
Nick Cave photo
E.E. Cummings photo
Richard Francis Burton photo

“What see we here? Forms, nothing more! Forms fill the brightest, strongest eye,
We know not substance; 'mid the shades shadows ourselves we live and die.”

Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, lin…

The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)

Zakir Hussain (politician) photo
Samuel Johnson photo
Franklin D. Roosevelt photo

“I do not believe in communism any more than you do but there is nothing wrong with the Communists in this country; several of the best friends I have got are Communists.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States

Reported by Representative Martin Dies as having been said in a conversation at the White House, in the Congressional Record (September 22, 1950), vol. 96, Appendix, p. A6832. Reported as "exceedingly dubious" in Paul F. Boller, Jr., Quotemanship: The Use and Abuse of Quotations for Polemical and Other Purposes, chapter 8, p. 361 (1967); Boller goes on to say that "it is most unlikely that FDR would have said anything like it, even flippantly, to the zealous HUAC chairman, though he may have told Dies that he was exaggerating the size of the American communist movement".
Misattributed

Emil M. Cioran photo