Quotes about nothing
page 93

Giacomo Casanova photo
Alfred Binet photo
Marcus Aurelius photo
Charles Dickens photo

“You have seen bigger horses than his thirteen and a half, perhaps fourteen hands, his nine hundred pounds. You have seen handsomer profiles than this Roman nose, slightly convex. Burrs cling to his long sweeping tail. His coat is dark and unglossed. Yet look again, while he is still, for he will not be still long. Sense the vitality in those muscles, trembling beneath the skin; see the pride in that high head, hear the haughty command to his voice. For this is a wild horse, my friend. Once he claimed the western range. Then they took his range away from him. But nothing, no one claims him. He feels the wind and the air with his nose, with his ears, with his very soul, and what he feels is good. He tosses his head, once, quickly, and behind him his harem of six mares trot up to join him, and behind them, a yearling colt, a filly and two stork-legged foals. Coats dusty and chewed, tails spiked with bits of the desert, sage and nettle and leftover pine needles from winter climbs down from timberland. The Barb-nosed stallion led his family down to the waterhole. Not Barb from barbed wire, though perhaps the chewed skin was from barbed wire, but Barb from the Spanish horses from which he descended, brought to the New World over four hundred years ago, from the Barbary states of North Africa, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Fez, Tripoli. Indians stole them from the Spaniards; the Barbs stole themselves free from the Indians. Running wild, a few still run free.”

Arnold Hano (1922) American writer

From Running Wild (1973) by Hano, p. 10
Other Topics

Abraham Cowley photo

“Nothing is there to come, and nothing past,
But an eternal now does always last.”

Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) British writer

Book I, lines 361-362
See also "One of our poets (which is it?) speaks of an everlasting now", Robert Southey, The Doctor, chap. xxv. p. 1
Davideis (1656)

Hillary Clinton photo

“For 40 years, everyone running for president has released their tax returns. You can go and see nearly, I think, 39, 40 years of our tax returns, but everyone has done it. We know the IRS has made clear there is no prohibition on releasing it when you're under audit. So you've got to ask yourself, why won't he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he's not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he's not as charitable as he claims to be. Third, we don't know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody's ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax. So if he's paid zero, that means zero for troops, zero for vets, zero for schools or health. And I think probably he's not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are, because it must be something really important, even terrible, that he's trying to hide. And the financial disclosure statements, they don't give you the tax rate. They don't give you all the details that tax returns would. And it just seems to me that this is something that the American people deserve to see. And I have no reason to believe that he's ever going to release his tax returns, because there's something he's hiding.”

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

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), First presidential debate (September 26, 2016)

Jean Paul photo
Valentino Braitenberg photo
Boris Johnson photo
Cesare Pavese photo

“There is nothing fine about being a child: it is fine, when we are old, too look back to when we were children.”

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

This Business of Living (1935-1950)

Pearl S.  Buck photo

“Had Japan been a tenth as wise as Abraham Lincoln, had Hitler been a hundredth part as sensible, we today, the United States and England, would not have a chance in this war. Had those two enemies of ours coveted the lands upon subject peoples dwell today and had they whispered the magic word freedom to those peoples, they might have set half the world against us in a moment. But they have lost because they attacked lands already free, and because they have enslaved peoples accustomed to freedom. By this one thing alone, if by no other, they are doomed. They have misread the hearts and minds of men. By their enslavement of the peoples whom they have made subject by force of arms, they have aroused against themselves a greater force than can be found in any army, in any weapon. It is this- the will of men everywhere to be free. Let us learn today from Abraham Lincoln, as we fight this war still so far from victory. He could not win that war until he lit the fire in the hearts of men and women enslaved. Nothing had been enough to make men rise up and shout aloud for victory until that moment. A few men like war and enjoy it as a game. But most men and all women hate war. They will not fight with their whole hearts unless they are set aflame. And the torch is always the same words. Whisper those words and men and women will shout them aloud and sing them as they march. The words are simple but they are the most potent in the universe- they are the spiritual dynamite of victory. The words? "All persons held as slaves… are and henceforward shall be free."”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

Source: What America Means to Me (1943), p. 195

Halldór Laxness photo
Richard Stallman photo

“I see nothing unethical in the job it does. Why shouldn't you send a copy of some music to a friend?”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

Comment on Napster
2000s, Thus Spake Stallman (2000)

Samuel T. Cohen photo
Gertrude Stein photo
Nathanael Greene photo
Louis Kauffman photo
Pete Yorn photo
Robert LeFevre photo

“When we express a preference politically, we do so precisely because we intend to bind others to our will. Political voting is the legal method we have adopted and extolled for obtaining monopolies of power. Political voting is nothing more than the assumption that might makes right.”

Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) American libertarian businessman

As quoted in Bagatorials: A Book Full of Bags by John Roscoe and Ned Roscoe, Simon & Schuster, "Abstain from Beans" (1996) p. 17.

Fritz Leiber photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“The entire world has been upset. The entire world, it's a different place. During Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's term, she's done a horrible job.
She has caused death. She has caused tremendous death with incompetent decisions. I was against the war in Iraq. I wasn't a politician, but I was against the war in Iraq. She voted for the war in Iraq.
Look at Libya. That was her baby. Look. I mean, I'm not even talking about the ambassador and the people with the ambassador. Young, wonderful people. With messages coming in by the hundreds, and she's not even responding. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about all of the death that's been caused and not only our side.
There was nothing saved. If we would have never done anything in the Middle East, we would have a much safer world right now. … All of this has led to the migration. All of this has led to tremendous death and destruction. And she for the most part was in charge of it along with Obama.
She's constantly playing the woman card. It's the only way she may get elected. I mean frankly… Personally, I'm not sure that anybody else other than me is going to beat her. And I think she's a flawed candidate. And you see what's happened recently. And it hasn't been a very pretty picture for her or for Bill. Because I'm the only one that's willing to talk about his problems. I mean, what he did and what he has gone through I think is frankly terrible, especially if she wants to play the woman card.
I have more respect for women by far than Hillary Clinton has. And I will do more for women than Hillary Clinton will. I will do far more including the protection of our country. She caused a lot of the problems that we have right now.”

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

CBS interview with John Dickerson (taped 1 January 2016) for Face the Nation — as quoted in "Trump: Clinton has ruined the world" http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/trump-hillary-clinton-donald-217294 by Nick Gass, Politico (3 January 2016)
2010s, 2016, January

Elizabeth Barrett Browning photo

“Dreams of doing good
For good-for-nothing people.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

Book II.
Aurora Leigh http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html (1857)

Clifford D. Simak photo
Susan Faludi photo
John Major photo

“Oh, Lord, if I must die today,
Please make it after Close of Play.
For this, I know, if nothing more,
I will not go, without the score...”

John Major (1943) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Excerpt of poem variously titled "Cricket Match" or "A Cricket Prayer" http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,23069-1768078,00.html http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1768342,00.html
1990s, 1997

Lawrence Weiner photo
Newton Lee photo

“There is nothing like having a United Nations at home.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

Counterterrorism and Cybersecurity: Total Information Awareness (2nd Edition), 2015

Josh Homme photo

“Risk nothing, get nothing. If you wanna be famous, then it's OK if the music is fake, because fame isn't real.”

Josh Homme (1973) American musician

" Queens of the Stone Age: Josh Homme comes back from the brink http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jun/01/queens-stone-age-like-clockwork" The Guardian (June 1, 2013)

John Cheever photo

“Homesickness is nothing … Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the time.”

John Cheever (1912–1982) American novelist and short story writer

“The Bella Lingua” in The Brigadier and the Golf Widow (1964).

Oswald Pohl photo
Marcus Aurelius photo

“Use these rules then, and trouble thyself about nothing else.”

X, 2
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X

Henri Fantin-Latour photo
Nicolas Chamfort photo

“Love, as it exists in society, is nothing but the exchange of two fantasies and the contact of two skins.”

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer

L'amour, tel qu'il existe dans la société, n'est que l'échange de deux fantaisies et le contact de deux épidermes.
Maximes et pensées (1805), nr. 359

Samuel Beckett photo
Henri-Frédéric Amiel photo
Orson Pratt photo
Rémi Brague photo
Donald J. Trump photo
George Bernard Shaw photo

“All government is cruel; for nothing is so cruel as impunity.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Pilate, as portrayed in Preface, Difference Between Reader And Spectator
1930s, On the Rocks (1933)

“My dignity asks him who does me no harm to do me no harm. Of him who harms me it asks nothing.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Mi dignidad le pide a quien no me hace daño que no me haga daño, y a quien me hace daño no le pide nada.
Voces (1943)

Frank P. Ramsey photo
Burkard Schliessmann photo
Ellen Kushner photo
John Gray photo
Max Beckmann photo
Joseph Story photo

“I will not say with Lord Hale, that "the law will admit of no rival, and nothing to go even with it;" but I will say, that it is a jealous mistress, and requires a long and constant courtship. It is not to be won by trifling favours, but by a lavish homage.”

Joseph Story (1779–1845) US Supreme Court justice

A Discourse Pronounced upon the Inauguration of the Author, as Dane Professor of Law in Harvard University on the Twenty-fifth Day of August, 1829 (1829), p. 29.

Sri Aurobindo photo
George Bernard Shaw photo
James Randi photo
Harriet Beecher Stowe photo
E.M. Forster photo
Franz Kafka photo
Ravachol photo

“What can he do who lacks the necessary work, if he comes to be unemployed? He has nothing but to let himself die of hunger. Then a few phrases of pity will thrown on his cadaver. That's what I decided to leave to others. I preferred to make myself a black-marketer, forger, thief, murderer and assassin. I could have begged: it's degrading and cowardly and even punished by your laws that make a crime of poverty. If all those in need, instead of waiting, took wherever there was enough to be taken and by any means whatever, the satisfied would perhaps understand quicker that there is danger in trying to consecrate the current social condition, where worry is permanent and life threatened at every instant.”

Ravachol (1859–1892) French anarchist

Que peut-il faire celui qui manque du nécessaire en travaillant, s'il vient à chômer ? Il n'a qu'à se laisser mourir de faim. Alors on jettera quelques paroles de pitié sur son cadavre. C'est ce que j'ai voulu laisser à d'autres. J'ai préféré me faire contrebandier, faux-monnayeur, voleur, meurtrier et assassin. J'aurais pu mendier : c'est dégradant et lâche et même puni par vos lois qui font un délit de la misère. Si tous les nécessiteux, au lieu d'attendre, prenaient où il y a et par n'importe quel moyen, les satisfaits comprendraient peut-être plus vite qu'il y a danger à vouloir consacrer l'état social actuel, où l'inquiétude est permanente et la vie menacée à chaque instant.
Trial statement

James Bradley photo
Khaled Hosseini photo
Fred Astaire photo
Henry Adams photo
Thomas Eakins photo
Colin Wilson photo
Charles de Gaulle photo

“Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.”

Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) eighteenth President of the French Republic

Rien ne rehausse l'autorité mieux que le silence, splendeur des forts et refuge des faibles.
in Le Fil de l'épée.
Writings

Thomas De Witt Talmage photo
Ilana Mercer photo

“Like nothing else, the annual Correspondents' Dinner is a mark of a corrupt politics. It's a sickening specter, where some of the most pretentious, worthless people in the country—in politics, journalism and entertainment—convene to revel in their ability to petition and curry favor with one another, usually to the detriment of the rest of us in Rome's provinces.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

"Thanks, POTUS, For Breaking-Up The Annual Correspondents’ Circle Jerk." http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/05/thanks_potus_for_breakingup_the_annual_correspondents_circle_jerk.html The American Thinker, May 8, 2017.
2010s, 2017

Michel De Montaigne photo
John Calvin photo
Russell T. Davies photo

“There's nothing better than a party that turns into a death trap.”

Russell T. Davies (1963) Screenwriter, former executive producer of Doctor Who

Doctor Who Confidential Series 2, Episode 5, "Cybermen" http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/confidential/index5.shtml (Doctor Who documentary series, 2005)

John Knox photo

“Prices have no memory, and yesterday has nothing to do with tomorrow.”

George Goodman (1930–2014) American author and economics commentator

Source: The Money Game (1968), Chapter 11, What The Hell Is A Random Walk?, p. 148

Jibril Rajoub photo

“Resistance does not just mean sending some martyrdom-seeker to Tel Aviv…. If resistance meant nothing more than bearing arms and making a big fuss – this would not be resistance, but suicide.”

Jibril Rajoub (1953) Palestinian sharamit

Fatah Revolutionary Council Member Jibril Rajoub: Merely Bearing Arms and Making a Big Fuss Is Suicide, Not Resistance http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1434 April 2007

Ben Stein photo
Helen Keller photo
David Bowie photo

“I, I will be king.
And you, you will be queen.
Though nothing will drive them away.
We can beat them, just for one day.
We can be heroes, just for one day.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

"Heroes", written with Brian Eno
Song lyrics, "Heroes" (1977)

Haruki Murakami photo
John Rogers Searle photo
Sten Nadolny photo
Thomas Fuller photo

“Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilised into time and tune.”

Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) English churchman and historian

The History of the Worthies of England (1662): Musicians.

Thomas Jefferson photo

“Nothing was or is farther from my intentions, than to enlist myself as the champion of a fixed opinion, where I have only expressed doubt.”

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

Letter to Joel Barlow (8 October 1809); Jefferson here expresses an aversion to supporting the "fixed opinion" that blacks were not equal to whites in general mental capacities, which he asserts in his Notes on the State of Virginia he had advanced as "a suspicion only".
1800s, Post-Presidency (1809)

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel photo
Paul Gabriël photo

“.. that one [a tree study in Gabriël's studio] is from my early times; I don't make them that way anymore; look how the thing is painted..; and those days my teachers told me that nothing would come of me in this way. What kind of folks were they? [o. a. his early and short teacher Koekoek, c. 1844-45] And which guys belonged to them? Well, let's keep mum about that; all those guys are dead already. But those days [c. 1840's] it was the ruling idea to use nature only as a tool; she had to be embellished later with imagination and so on …. imagination …. the stupidest thing in the world. (L. de Haes asked him: Do you think imagination is so improper?) Improper, I think it is simply an unhealthy trait. You see; imagination is the proper way to insanity. Imagine that you start painting from your imagination without knowing nature; after all, there will be no result whatsoever. All those people of imagination imagine so much, and it is the greatest misfortune you can have in life, you know what it is good for: to idealize your faults.”

Paul Gabriël (1828–1903) painter (1828-1903)

translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek
version in original Dutch / citaat van Paul Gabriël, in Nederlands: ..da's er een [ een boom-studie] uit m'n eersten tijd; zoo doe 'k het niet meer; kijk dat ding eens geschilderd wezen; en in dien tijd zeiden mijn leermeesters dat er op die manier niets van mij terecht zou komen. Wat een lui waren dat hè [o.a. zijn tijdelijke vroege leermeester Koekoek, c. 1844-45]? En wie waren dat zoo al? Ja daar zullen we maar over zwijgen; die menschen zijn nu al dood; maar 't was toen de opvatting, de natuur alleen als hulpmiddel te gebruiken; zij moest nog verfraaid worden met verbeelding en zoo al meer .... imaginatie.... 't stomste wat er op de wereld is. (L. de Haes: Vindt u verbeelding dan zoo verwerpelijk?) Verwerpelijk, och ik vind het eenvoudig een ziekelijke eigenschap, zie je wel; verbeelding, dat is de weg naar de krankzinnigheid. Verbeeld je dat je uit je verbeelding gaat schilderen zonder de natuur te kennen; daar komt immers niets van terecht. Al die menschen van verbeelding verbeelden zich zoo veel, en 't is 't grootste ongeluk wat je op de wereld kan hebben, weet je waar 't alleen goed voor is: om je gebreken te idealiseeren.
Quote of Gabriël, 1893; as cited by L. de Haes, in 'P.J.C. Gabriël'; published in Elsevier's geïllustreerd maandschrift 3., April/May 1893, pp. 453-473
1880's + 1890's

“Every time I wake, I understand how easy it is to be nothing.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

Cada vez que me despierto, comprendo que es fácil ser nada.
Voces (1943)

Morrissey photo

“It was probably nothing, but it felt like the world.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

Autobiography

Harry Turtledove photo

“"Let's dicker, Lord Lyons," Lincoln said; the British minister needed a moment to understand he meant bargain. Lincoln gave him that moment, reaching into a desk drawer and drawing out a folded sheet of paper that he set on top of the desk. "I have here, sir, a proclamation declaring all Negroes held in bondage in those areas now in rebellion against the lawful government of the United States to be freed as of next January first. I had been saving this proclamation against a Union victory, but circumstances being as they are-" Lord Lyons spread his hands with genuine regret. "Had you won such a victory, Mr. President, I should not be visiting you today with the melancholy message I bear from my government. You know, sir, that I personally despise the institution of chattel slavery and everything associated with it." He waited for Lincoln to nod before continuing. "That said, however, I must tell you that an emancipation proclamation issued after the series of defeats Federal forces have suffered would be perceived as a cri de coeur, a call for servile insurrection to aid your flagging cause, and as such would not be favorably received in either London or Paris, to say nothing of its probable effect in Richmond. I am sorry, Mr. President, but this is not the way out of your dilemma." Lincoln unfolded the paper on which he'd written the decree abolishing slavery in the seceding states, put on a pair of spectacles to read it, sighed, folded it again, and returned it to its drawer without offering to show it to Lord Lyons. "If that doesn't help us, sir, I don't know what will," he said. His long, narrow face twisted, as if he were in physical pain. "Of course, what you're telling me is that nothing helps us, nothing at all."”

Source: The Great War: American Front (1998), p. 7

Gregory Benford photo
Nas photo

“No idea is original, there's nothing new under the sun, it's never what you do, but how it's done”

Nas (1973) American rapper, record producer and entrepreneur

No Idea's Original
On Albums, The Lost Tapes (2002)

Yukio Mishima photo
Ismail ibn Musa Menk photo

“Then we have Sūrat al-Sharḥ, also known as al-Inshirāḥ. I need to make mention of this because in it is a lot of comfort for myself and yourselves. We have a problem in life. When we have a problem Allah says, "Don't worry, with that difficulty, there is ease." You will never know what ease is all about unless you've been through difficulty. Those who have a beautiful life, sometimes they are still worried and depressed because they don't know what it is like to have suffered a little bit. So Allah's blessing, he makes us suffer slightly so that when there's a little bit of ease, mashallah. You know, a man who's always driven a Rolls-Royce will never know what it's like to ride a bicycle to work. Two ways of making them ride. One is, the doctor tells you you're about to die, Allahu Akbar, and you need to ride to work. Immediately everything is given up. Why? Because we're worried about dear life. That's why. If you see people – Subhan Allah – I've seen a man who had a carrot, and he was pretending like he's smoking this carrot and nibbling on it. And I told him, I said: "My brother, what made you nibble on this carrot?" He says: "My doctor told me I can't smoke, and a good replacement is a carrot." I said: "Allahu Akbar, you're stuffing your mouth with a carrot because of a doctor, but when Allah told you smoking is bad, then you didn't want to listen…" Allahu Akbar. May Allah make us from amongst those who eat carrots rather than smoking cigarettes. Really. So, my brothers and sisters, it's a reality. Whenever there is a person who has tasted goodness alone, and they don't know what difficulty is about, there comes a time when they do not appreciate what they have. So like I was saying, two ways. One is, Allah snatches it away from you, so you now have nothing. So many people have climbed the peak in terms of materialistic items, and then they've dropped down the mountain. They say it's easier to drop from the top than it is from the bottom. Allahu Akbar. When you arrive at the top, a small movement and you roll down, you're with the avalanche, one time. And when you're at the bottom, they can kick you – if you drop, you stand up again and you're walking – same level, masshalah, it's all about altitude. May Allah protect us. Another thing is, when you drop from the top, greater likelihood of breaking more bones. When you drop from the bottom, "Ah, I might have just hurt my head slightly", just say "Ouch" and carry on. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us and grant us humbleness. So, remember, sometimes Allah wants you to go down, so that you appreciate the bicycle after you had nothing, yet ten years ago you had the Rolls-Royce. May Allah bless us. So Allah says, and I'm sure we know verses, verse number five and six:
فَإِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرً
إِنَّ مَعَ الْعُسْرِ يُسْرًا
"Indeed, with every difficulty [or, with difficulty] there is ease.
And indeed, with the difficulty there is ease."
[…] May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alleviate the suffering that we are all going through in our own little ways. Remember it's a gift of Allah. To keep you in check sometimes. To keep you calling out to Him. May Allah open our doors.”

Ismail ibn Musa Menk (1975) Muslim cleric and Grand Mufti of Zimbabwe.

" Do you have problems in life? Watch This! by Mufti Menk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgp2zbE9Ofg", YouTube (2013)
Lectures

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Noel Gallagher photo
Neil Gaiman photo

“Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.”

Neil Gaiman (1960) English fantasy writer

"somewhat less sinister ducks" Blog entry (23 April 2004) http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2004/04/somewhat-less-sinister-ducks.asp

Anne Bradstreet photo

“"Sister," quoth Flesh, "what liv'st thou on
Nothing but Meditation?”

Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672) Anglo-American poet

The Flesh and the Spirit.