Quotes about office (1685 quotes, page 17)

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

Zhang Zhijun (1953) Chinese politician

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

“Better be careful, Jason warned himself. Why should I be careful? A nagging thought just below the surface of his mind gave him an uneasy feeling again, the feeling that something was wrong, that things were not what they seemed. Was that his imagination or just being in this small office, no air-conditioning, not even an electric fan? For some reason, the blank walls bothered him. No pictures. And no windows. I want to get out of here.”

Robert Cormier book The Rag and Bone Shop

He realized that he could get out of there. He could simply get up and leave. He didn't have to even speak to anybody. Hadn't they said this was voluntary? He was a volunteer. Well, he didn't feel like being a volunteer anymore. He wanted to go home.
Source: The Rag and Bone Shop (2000), p. 99-100

Imagination , Feeling

“The American Left champions causes such as gay rights (including gay marriage), equality for women (suffrage, the right to work, etc.), and religious freedom (usually in the form of freedom from religion). Yet, fundamentalist Islam opposes nearly everything the American Left stands for. In many Islamic countries, homosexuality is punishable by death. In Iran, a top government official recently said that torture followed by death is the appropriate punishment for being gay. In Saudi Arabia, women can’t vote, run for public office, or drive cars. Women are routinely jailed and beaten for merely being in the presence of a man not related to them. The Saudi version of Dr. Phil provides televised lessons to men on how to properly beat their wives. In many Islamic countries, women are forced into arranged marriages and held as property by their husbands, something not exactly in line with progressive Western thinking. In some Muslim countries, women aren’t even allowed to decide what clothes to wear. To reveal even the smallest patch of skin is a crime. Religious freedom is often nonexistent under Islamic rule. In countries like Afghanistan and Iran, people who convert from Islam to another religion face public execution. So why does the American Left hate Christianity yet love Islam?”

Chuck Hustmyre (1963) American journalist

2000s, 2009, The Left's love affair with Islam (2009)

Clothes , Religion , Hate , Freedom

“One phone call from anyone in his office could have got us admission in an elite school in Delhi. We were admitted instead in the Delhi Kannada School at Khan Market. Clearly, grandfather did not want us to pick up any notion that we belonged to the privileged class. Our fellow students here were mostly children of Kannadigas working in offices in Delhi.”

Basappa Danappa Jatti (1912–2002) Indian politician

Simple man with a lofty office

School , Children

“He was a man of many parts – Law, Literature, Public Affairs, International Affairs and Education. In the field of Law he held all offices which any lawyer can aspire to hold – Government Pleader; Advocate General of C. P. & Berar; Judge of the Nagpur High Court; Chief Justice of the Nagpur, High Court; Judge of the Supreme Court and culminating as the Chief Justice of India. He served as a Judge for 25 years.”

Mohammad Hidayatullah (1905–1992) 11th Chief Justice of India

By J.R. Jagrat
Speech By Mr. S. G. Page, Government Pleader, High Court, Bombay, Made OnMonday, 28 September, 1992

Justice , Law , Literature , Education

“His tenure as President was a period of unparelled political turmoil and saw him swear in three governments led by Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and Indira Gandhi. He took historic decisions on a number of important issues. By virtue of his long years in public life and close association with leaders from all sections of opinion, he was able to be a steady hand at the wheel of state. His wisdom, friendliness and accessibility endeared him to people belonging to all walks of life. He lent distinction to the highest office of the land by his idealism and patriotism.”

Neelam Sanjiva Reddy (1913–1996) sixth President of India

Speech by the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee at the concluding function of the centenary celebrations of the former President of India, Dr. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy

Life , People , Wisdom , Decision

“He was very sensitive about his particular views on national history and culture. Soon after Independence, both inside and outside India, Indian nationalism and culture were closely identified with Hinduism and its peculiar culture. After assuming the offices of Governor, Vice-President and President of the Republic, he regarded as his duty to present his above-mentioned viewpoint in an effective and moving manner. He wanted to keep the collective conscience alive on this view.”

Zakir Hussain (politician) (1897–1969) 3rd President of India

Source: About Zakir Hussain, Quest for Truth (1999), p. 339.

History

“Starting his career as a Trade Unionist when Trade Unionism was not prominent of public life, he came to occupy the highest office of this country, with dignity and charm. It was a day of Victory for the labour and Weaker Sections of the Society, when he became the President of India winning a political battle with popular support. He was a fearless champion of the cause of the poor and the working classes. He was always insisting upon cleaner methods in public life. As a labour leader he did not allow Trade Unions to be involved in political activities. He was a stalwart of Indian Nationalism.”

V. V. Giri (1894–1980) Indian politician and 4th president of India

Source: Presidents of India, 1950-2003, p. 84

Support , Life , Victory , Country

“India has been more than fortunate in her sons and daughters. You will always be associated with your great warmth and humanity, your heartiness and winning informality, and your habit of zestful dedication –qualities which have endured you to one and all and won for you universal regard and goodwill. You will be remembered always as People’s President. So, indeed were you hailed, signifying thereby your life-long closeness to the common man and particularly your association with the working class in our country, when in an unprecedented and mist keenly-fought election you romped home to victory. And, in the midst of all the pomp and regalia associated with your office, you have remained a great comer at heart.”

V. V. Giri (1894–1980) Indian politician and 4th president of India

In the Farewell address presented to him Dr. G.S.Dhillon, Speaker on behalf of the Members of the Parliament in August 1974, P.80-81
Presidents of India, 1950-2003

Home , Country , Victory , Daughters

“Basically a leader of peasant community in the north and had not tackled a broad vision. He cannot be called a true Gandhian because a true Gandhian cannot be for office only.”

Charan Singh (1902–1987) prime minister of India

Morarji Desai in: P.230
Profiles of Indian Prime Ministers

Communication

“In his 10 months in office he has aroused more controversy, and attracted more condemnation, than any of his predecessors in the same period. Students continue to immolate themselves in the belief that he symbolises the forces responsible for their ever-mounting frustration in the search for employment. At the same time, he has authorized the arrest of Lal Krishna Advani, whose rath yatra was projected as a holy campaign to arouse Hindu awareness of the need to salve the hurt caused to their religious heritage.”

V. P. Singh (1931–2008) Indian politician

Ajit Bhattacharjee in: Why V.P. Singh Must Be Defended http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1116.html, Mainstream Weekly

Hurt , Time , Search

“He played a very significant role in the state politics and held many important positions. Even before entering the political life, he had served the Government, as an upright judicial officer, for a period of twelve years. It goes to his credit that he did not compromise his principles under any circumstances.”

Morarji Desai (1896–1995) Former Indian Finance Minister, Freedom Fighters, Former prime minister

Janak Raj Jai in: Commissions and Omissions by Indian Prime Ministers, Volume 1 http://books.google.co.in/books?id=5Wrc1K0uJTgC&pg=PA216, Daya Books, 1996 P.216

Life

“What set him apart from almost all the freedom fighters who held high offices in independent India was his complete freedom from material desire. He had no source of income and would not accept money from his children or from well-wishers. He had to be forced to sign an application for the freedom fighters pension of Rs 500 per month.”

Gulzarilal Nanda (1898–1998) Prime Minister of India

Rediff.com, in "Former PM Gulzarilal Nanda dead".

Money , Children , Freedom

“A strident socialist, he made his presence felt in the political life of our country in the past four decades but with the unique distinction of not having held any ministerial office.”

Chandra Shekhar (1927–2007) Indian politician

In p. ix
The Long March: Profile of Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar

Past , Life , Country

“This was certainly at the root of my intense dislike of machinery, and my firm determination never to work in an office or anything of that nature.”

Christian Dior (1905–1957) French fashion designer

His aversion for his father’s factories about which he was terrified. He was guided in all things by his mother. His senses were simulated by the floral, ornamental opulence of her world. P.11
Christian Dior: The Man who Made the World Look New

Nature

“I believe he has a sense of integrity…Relatively speaking he has a cleaner record than most politicians in office.”

Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) 10th Prime Minister of India

Shoba De, a columnist quoted in “Atal Bihari Vajpayee: Prime Minister of India" page=38

Sense

“He was an extremely humane and approachable officer and was the epitome of a gentleman.”

Sam Manekshaw (1914–2008) First Field marshal of the Indian Army

Comment by Major General Shubi D Sood in “A soldier's general” in Mumbai Mirror.

“The Pharisees were orthodox Jews, deeply concerned with the affairs of the Church and conscientious observers of all its ceremonies. They held its chief offices, occupied the chief places at the feasts, and sat in the chief seats in the synagogues. …Who then could have been more astonished than they when, like a thunderbolt from the sky, came the simplest, clearest, most concise and yet complete statement of fundamental religious truth that has ever been uttered?”

Robert Hunter (author) (1874–1942) American sociologist, author, golf course architect

In twenty-eight words Jesus stated for all time and in a manner that may be understood by everybody, the fundamental basis of Christianity—"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all mind... And Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 92-93

Truth

“Even ten years back, Indian film producers may not have thought of this scale, as there is a business logic to this new model aided by neo-liberal economic policies; when films are available on DVDs alongside Internet-based web interface, the first two weeks box-office collections make all the difference.”

Rajinikanth (1950) Indian actor

Professor Harish
Decoding Rajinikanth

Business , Making love , Box

“My brother P-Rain knows we fuck with the same hoes, plus he taught me how to spot a officer in plain clothes, staring at you pussy niggas all I see is rainbows, hopping on a jet to every single Lil Wayne show. Me and little jazzy, please do not harass me just holla if you got me and fuck you if you had me.”

Drake (1986) Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor

"Still Fly Freestyle," So Far Gone (2009)
2000s

Clothes

“A minister of interior who knew not even what went on in the interior of his own office, much less the interior of his own department, and nothing at all about the interior of Germany.”

Wilhelm Frick (1877–1946) German Nazi official

Robert H. Jackson

“His book has the force of a mob-protest; an outcry from anonymous throats. The wheel turns and turns and it does not matter, one hardly notices that the captain of the company, killed on page 159, is alive again a hundred pages later. It does not matter that every stock situation of the war, suicide, the murder of an officer, the slaughter of prisoners, a vision of Christ, is apportioned to Company K, because the book is not written in any realistic convention. It is the only War-book I have read which has found a new form to fit the novelty of the protest. The prose is bare, lucid, without literary echoes, not an imitation but a development of eighteenth-century prose.”

William March (1893–1954) United States Marine, novelist, short story writer

In a Graham Greene review of the novel Company K for the newspaper The Spectator.

Reading , War , Books , Christ

“Then you know what to avoid. Do the exact opposite of what he did. His administration at the Foreign Office was one long crime.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

John Bright to Lord Rosebery in 1886, after asking him whether he had read about Palmerston's policies at the Foreign Office. (The Fifth Earl of Rosbery's journal, 17 March 1886)

“I watched an old American submarine movie on television. The creaking plot had the captain and first officer constantly at each other’s throat. The submarine was a fossil, and one guy had claustrophobia. But all that didn’t stop everything from working out well in the end. It was an everything-works-out-in-the-end-so-maybe-war’s-not-so-bad-after-all sort of film. One of these days they’ll be making a film where the whole human race gets wiped out in a nuclear war, but everything works out in the end.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel (1982)

War , Bad luck , Making love , Guy

“The disembarkation was a fucking shambles and we only took Alexandria as quick as we did to get a fucking drink somewhere, because we were near dead with the thirst…. The town was full of a lot of half-starved blacks, near-blacks you could call them, in filthy rags, raising their hands to the bloody burning heavens when they saw us come in, shouting Allah Allah and so on. Some old bints with veils on gave us fucking filthy water to drink, but filthy or not it was like elation and ecstasy and so on. There was hardly a solitary fucking thing worth having in the whole town, all half-starved goats and so on, and talk about the fucking heat and the smell. Anyway, what they called sheiks came and gave him the keys, and the officers did all right with like knives and scimitars with jewels on, but then we had to move on to Damanhur and Rahmaniya and so on, near dropping with the fucking heat….”

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer

Fiction, Napoleon Symphony (1974)

Water , Drink , Dead

“When someone is made the head of an office in the Ogilvy & Mather chain, I send him a Matrioshka doll from Gorky. If he has the curiosity to open it, and keep opening it until he comes to the inside of the smallest doll, he finds this message: If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs.”

David Ogilvy (1911–1999) Advertising executive

But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.
Ogilvy on Advertising, p. 47

People

“All I ask for is a chance to have the same kind of forum, the right to speak, the same credibility as thee wrong-ass ignant fools. But the producers of these types of shows think tht I will only talk about tai chi, where to get the best sushi on the West Side, how to feng-shui your office…the fact that the media at large look at my race before they hear my voice = fucked up shit.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

From Her Books, I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight, INVISIBILITY

Thinking , Fools , Chance

“The Mexicans were badly commanded, and there was very little hard fighting during that war, at least nothing to be compared with what was seen afterward in our own. Our soldiers had only to show the bayonet at the Mexicans and they would run. As to the bowie-knife, I do not think one was used during the war. It was a pity to see good troops used as the Mexican soldiers were in those campaigns. I do not think a more incompetent set of officers ever existed than those who commanded the Mexicans. With an able general the Mexicans would make a good fight, for they are a courageous people. But I do not suppose any war was ever fought with reference to which so many romances were invented as the war in Mexico.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

Source: 1870s, Around the World with General Grant (1879), pp. 162–163

Courage , War , People , Thinking

“Yamamoto was an aggressive and inspiring officer, but he made the error of dividing his huge force five ways and of thinking that his foe would behave in a predictable way. After his crushing defeat on Midway, he ordered a general retreat and took ill in his cabin. U.S. naval intelligence again was his undoing. When he took off on an inspection tour from Rabaul, American fighter planes were up and waiting for him.”

Isoroku Yamamoto (1884–1943) Japanese Marshal Admiral

C.L. Sulzberger, The American Heritage Picture History of World War II (1966), p. 212
Disputed

Waiting , Intelligence , Thinking , Way

“An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history; conviction results from whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office.”

Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)

Remarks in the U.S. House of Representatives in an effort to impeach Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (15 April 1970); recorded in the Congressional Record, vol. 116, p. 11913 and http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Senate_Impeachment_Role.htm.
1970s

Housing , History

“We've reached a truly remarkable situation: a grotesque mismatch between the American intelligencia and the American electorate. A philosophical opinion about the nature of the universe which is held by the vast majority of top American scientists, and probably the majority of the intelligencia generally, is so abhorrent to the American electorate that no candidate for popular election dare affirm it in public. If I'm right, this means that high office in the greatest country in the world is barred to the very people best qualified to hold it: the intelligencia, unless they are prepared to lie about their beliefs. To put it bluntly American political opportunities are heavily loaded against those who are simultaneously intelligent and honest.”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

Richard Dawkins on militant atheism http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html, (February 2002)

Country , Intelligence , People , Nature

“Happy family: The existence and maintenance of [this] is thought to make a politician fit for public office. According to this theory, the public are less concerned by whether or not they are effectively represented than by the need to be assured that the penises and vaginas of public officials are only used in legally sanctioned circumstances.”

John Ralston Saul The Doubter's Companion

"Happy family"
The Doubter's Companion (1994)

Family , Happiness , Making love

“When the business man rebukes the idealism of his office-boy, it is commonly in some such speech as this: “Ah, yes, when one is young, one has these ideals in the abstract and these castles in the air; but in middle age they all break up like clouds, and one comes down to a belief in practical politics, to using the machinery one has and getting on with the world as it is.””

G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English mystery novelist and Christian apologist

Thus, at least, venerable and philanthropic old men now in their honoured graves used to talk to me when I was a boy. But since then I have grown up and have discovered that these philanthropic old men were telling lies. What has really happened is exactly the opposite of what they said would happen. They said that I should lose my ideals and begin to believe in the methods of practical politicians. Now, I have not lost my ideals in the least; my faith in fundamentals is exactly what it always was. What I have lost is my old childlike faith in practical politics.
"The Ethics of Elfland" https://www.ccel.org/ccel/chesterton/orthodoxy.vii.html in Delphi Works of G. K. Chesterton

Business , Boy , Age , World

“I've been promised bail, ladies and gentlemen, by my office. This is John Chancellor, somewhere in custody.”

John Chancellor (1927–1996) American journalist

At the 1964 Republican National Convention, arrested for refusing to cede his spot on the floor to "Goldwater Girls," supporters of the Republican presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater. When security came to get him, he was forced to sign off.

“This evening, we know that at least one police officer was killed, and another injured. This imponderable problem, this menace will be part of our daily lives for the years to come. I express all my support in this regard for our police forces and the forces of law and order. I am thinking of the victim's family.””

Emmanuel Macron (1977) 25th President of the French Republic

20 April 2017 https://www.facebook.com/EmmanuelMacron/posts/1951134895119087/
2017
Original: (fr) Ce soir, on sait qu'au moins un policier a été tué, qu’un autre a été blessé. Cet impondérable, cette menace fera partie du quotidien des prochaines années. Je témoigne toute ma solidarité à l’égard de nos forces de police, de nos forces de l’ordre. J'ai une pensée pour la famille de la victime.

Family , Law , Support , Problem

“"Democrat" is among officers simply a term denoting a bad lot.”

Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) Prussian Field Marshal

Waldersee in his diary, quoted in Walter Görlitz, History of the German General Staff, 1657-1945 https://ia801907.us.archive.org/34/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.285159/2015.285159.The-_text.pdf

Bad luck

“[I]n this book... the rallies... are different... they build from day to day... and... it's led by people who are full-time... and they open offices in Washington. ...Three enlightened billionaires come to town and they say... "Hey, let's fund this"... and a brain trust.”

Ralph Nader (1934) American consumer rights activist and corporate critic

"How The Rats Reformed The Congress" (2018)

Books , People , Time

“In the esoteric tradition, the Christ is not the name of an individual but of an Office in the [esoteric spiritual] Hierarchy. The present holder of that Office, the Lord Maitreya, has held it for 2,600 years, and manifested in Palestine through His disciple, Jesus, by the occult method of overshadowing, the most frequent form used for the manifestation of Avatars.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom (1980)

Christ

“Modern policing must of course be visible policing and that means community policing, localised policing and having police visibility that police officers are empowered to do their jobs. For too long we’ve had our police forces, police officers tied up with regulation and bureaucracy. I want them to feel free to get on and do their jobs, I want them to know that we will support them.”

Priti Patel (1972) British politician

Said in an interview with the Braintree and Witham Times. Priti Patel interview on stop and search, knife crime, social spending and terror comments https://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/17832581.priti-patel-interview-stop-search-knife-crime-social-spending-terror-comments/ (14 August 2019)
2019

Support , Feeling , Communication

“I didn’t vote in the referendum [Brexit] although I can see how there is absolutely nothing attractive about the EU. My view has always been that the result of the referendum must be carried through. If the vote had been remain there would be absolutely no question that we would remain. In the interest of true democracy, you cannot argue against the wish of the people. Without the people, nobody in high office gets paid.”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

CULTURE Pop Icon Morrissey Says Diversity is Not a Strength https://summit.news/2019/06/24/pop-icon-morrissey-says-diversity-is-not-a-strength/?fbclid=IwAR398wYgRpEduvLPMg8qiO9WQNVnZl3LaNydJ8Bx1-DTF33ahE2rVTHFKuE, June 24 2019
In interviews etc., About politics and society

Democracy , People , Question

“I work from early in the morning until late at night, haven’t left the White House in many months (except to launch Hospital Ship Comfort) in order to take care of Trade Deals, Military Rebuilding etc., and then I read a phony story in the failing @nytimes about my work schedule and eating habits, written by a third rate reporter who knows nothing about me. I will often be in the Oval Office late into the night & read & see that I am angrily eating a hamberger & Diet Coke in my bedroom. People with me are always stunned. Anything to demean!”

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

As quoted by * 2020-04-26

'Hambergers' and 'Noble prizes': Trump attacks press in furious Twitter rant riddled with spelling errors

Alex Woodward

Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-latest-coronavirus-hamburger-nobel-prize-russia-a9485006.html
2020s, 2020, April

Night , Housing , Reading , People

“It was my fortune, or misfortune, to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training. From the age of 17 I had never even witnessed the excitement attending a Presidential campaign but twice antecedent to my own candidacy, and at but one of them was I eligible as a voter.
Under such circumstances it is but reasonable to suppose that errors of judgment must have occurred. Even had they not, differences of opinion between the Executive, bound by an oath to the strict performance of his duties, and writers and debaters must have arisen. It is not necessarily evidence of blunder on the part of the Executive because there are these differences of views. Mistakes have been made, as all can see and I admit...”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

1870s, Eighth State of the Union Address (1876)

Training , Age , Error , Parting

“In view of this grave and unprecedented outrage, the House may be assured that his Majesty's Government will take without delay appropriate steps to vindicate the authority of the law and to protect officers and servants of the King and his Majesty's subjects in the exercise of their duties and in the enjoyment of their legal rights.”

H. H. Asquith (1852–1928) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in the House of Commons on the gun-running at Larne, Ireland (27 April 1914), quoted in The Times (28 April 1914), p. 8
Prime Minister

Housing , Law , Exercises

“I may be down, but never out. An infantry officer can do anything.”

Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general

Source: It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership (2012), p. 6

“...any Japanese officer wishing to commit suicide would be given every facility.”

William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim (1891–1970) former Governor-General of Australia

Source: Defeat Into Victory (1961), p. 442

Suicide

“We'll have an office suck-off.”

Gavin Free (1988) English filmmaker

"RT Podcast: Ep. 247" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IllhF-RQuE. youtube.com. December 10, 2013. Retrieved February 21, 2019.

“Russia has always respected the bravery and heroism of the Polish people, soldiers and officers, who stood up first against Nazism in 1939.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

On the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II, 1 September 2009 https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/world/europe/02russia.html
2006 - 2010

People

“Let not judges also be ignorant of their own right, as to think there is not left to them, as a principal part of their office, a wise use and application of laws.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Judicature

Law , Thinking , Parting

“In every parganah officers have come from the thanahs with orders from the Presence for the destruction of idols.”

Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor

Quotes from late medieval histories, 1670s
Source: A letter preserved in the Yasho-Madhav temple of Dhamrai in the Dacca district, dated 27 June, 1672, and printed in J. M. Ray’s Bengali History of Dacca, i. 389. quoted in Sarkar, Jadunath (1972). History of Aurangzib: Volume III. App. V.

“…You can’t separate race from police shooting cases, but you also can’t say that’s the whole story. There’s something out of whack with the way we’ve structured relationships—not just between police officers and civilians, but between strangers of all kinds.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: On police shootings in “Oprah Talks to Revisionist History's Malcolm Gladwell” https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/a28568751/oprah-talks-to-malcolm-gladwell/ in O Magzzine (2019 Aug 7)

Way

“That noble Lord is of opinion, not only that we ought to exclude Natives from office, but that even by encouraging them to study the arts and learning of Europe, we are preparing the way for the utter destruction of our power in India. I must leave it to the noble Lord to explain what seems to me a rather singular inconsistency in his opinion. I am at a loss to understand how, while utterly contemning education when it is given to Europeans, he should regard it with dread when it is given to Natives. This training, we are told, when given to a European, makes him a bookworm, a twaddler, a man unfit for the active duties of life; but give the same education to the Hindoo, and it arms him with such an accession of intellectual power, that an established government, with an army of 250,000 men, backed by the whole army and navy of England, are to go down inevitably before its irresistible power.”

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

Speech in the House of Commons (24 June 1853) https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1853/jun/24/government-of-india-bill-adjourned#column_758
1850s

Loss , Study , Understanding , Learning

“It was like a Chihuahua threatening an office building.”

Daniel Abraham (1969) speculative fiction writer from the United States

Source: The Expanse, Tiamat's Wrath (2019), Chapter 3 (p. 41)

“So long as the figures 'now superseded' and the academic projections based upon them held sway, it was possible for politicians to shrug their shoulders. With so much of immediate and indisputable importance on their hands, why should they attend to what was forecast for the end of the century, when most of them would be not only out of office but dead and gone? … It was not for them to heed the cries of anguish from those of their own people who already saw their towns being changed, their native places turned into foreign lands, and themselves displaced as if by a systematic colonisation. For these the much vaunted compassion of the parties and politicians was not available: the parties and the politicians preferred to be busy making speeches on race relations; and if any of their number dared to tell them the truth, even less than the whole truth, about what was happening and what would happen here in England, they denounced them as racialist and turned them out of doors. They could feel safe; for they said in their hearts: 'If trouble comes, it will not be in our time; let the next generation see to it!'”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

… The explosive which will blow us asunder is there and the fuse is burning, but the fuse is shorter than had been supposed. The transformation which I referred to earlier as being without even a remote parallel in our history, the occupation of the hearts of this metropolis and of towns and cities across England by a coloured population amounting to millions, this before long will be past denying. It is possible that the people of this country will, with good or ill grace, accept what they did not ask for, did not want and were not told of. My own judgment—it is a judgment which the politician has a duty to form to the best of his ability—I have not feared to give: it is—to use words I used two years and a half ago—that 'the people of England will not endure it'.
Source: Speech to the Carshalton and Banstead Young Conservatives at Carshalton Hall (15 February 1971), from Still to Decide (1972), pp. 202-203

Time , Dead , Business , People

“Nothing is more disgusting, than the habit of our officers speaking always of the inhabitants of India—many of them descended from the great races—as “niggers.””

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

It is ignorant, & brutal,—& surely most mischievous.
Source: Letter to Lord Salisbury (13 December 1875), quoted in Michael Bentley, Lord Salisbury's World: Conservative Environments in Late-Victorian Britain (2001), p. 224, n. 10

“Now, what is meant by the union between Church and State? ... I understand by it that authority is to be not merely political; that Government is to be not merely an affair of force, but is to recognize its responsibility to the Divine Power. Sir, we have discarded the divine right of Kings, and properly discarded it, because the divine right of Kings led to the abuse of supernatural power by individuals; but an intelligent age will never discard the divine right of Government. If Government is not divine, it is nothing. It is a mere affair of the police-office, of the tax-gatherer, of the guard-room.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1868/apr/03/adjourned-debate#column_917 in the House of Commons (3 April 1868)

Intelligence , Age , Understanding

“Some days you go to your office and you're the only one who shows up, none of the characters show up, and you sit there by yourself, feeling like an idiot. And some days everybody shows up ready to work. You have to show up at your office every day. If an idea comes by, you want to be there to get it in.”

Thomas Harris (1940) American author and screenwriter

Hannibal Lecter’s Creator Cooks Up Something New (No Fava Beans or Chianti) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/books/thomas-harris-new-book.html (May 18, 2019)

Idea , Feeling

“It seems to me that the more Christian a country is the less likely it is to regard the death penalty as immoral. Abolition has taken its firmest hold in post-Christian Europe, and has least support in the church-going United States. I attribute that to the fact that, for the believing Christian, death is no big deal. Intentionally killing an innocent person is a big deal: it is a grave sin, which causes one to lose his soul. But losing this life, in exchange for the next? The Christian attitude is reflected in the words Robert Bolt’s play has Thomas More saying to the headsman: 'Friend, be not afraid of your office. You send me to God.'”

Antonin Scalia (1936–2016) former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

For the nonbeliever, on the other hand, to deprive a man of his life is to end his existence.
God’s Justice and Ours https://web.archive.org/web/20120311230630/http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/gods-justice-and-ours-32, 123 First Things 17. (May 2002). Adapted from remarks given at Pew Forum Conference on Religion, politics and death penalty.
2000s

God , Soul , Country , Penalty

“Hail Mary, Jesus and Joseph
The great American flag
Is wrapped and dragged with explosives
Compulsive disorder, sons and daughters
Barricaded blocks and borders
Look what you taught us
It's murder on my street, your street, back streets
Wall Street, corporate offices, banks
Employees and bosses with homicidal thoughts
Donald Trump's in office, we lost Barack
And promised to never doubt him again
But is America honest or do we bask in sin?
Pass the gin, I mix it with American blood
Then bash him in, you crippin' or you married to blood?
I'll ask again—oops—accident
It's nasty when you set us up
Then roll the dice, then bet us up
You overnight the big rifles, then tell Fox to be scared of us
Gang members or terrorists, et cetera, et cetera
America’s a reflection of me
That's what a mirror does”

Kendrick Lamar (1987) American rapper, songwriter and record producer from California

Source: Song lyrics, DAMN. (2017), XXX

Daughters

“The frontier of the higher life is everywhere contiguous to the common life, and we can cross the border at any moment. The higher life is as real as the grosser things in which we put our trust. But our eyes must be anointed so that we may see it.
The office of the religious teacher is to be a seer, and to make others see, and thus to win them into the upward way.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 9 : Ethical Outlook
Life and Destiny (1913)

Way , Life , Making love , Teachers

“I loved being a temp, because I would just go from office to office and be terrible at a different job for a week.”

John Mulaney (1982) American actor and comedian

The Comeback Kid (2015)

Love

“The French soldier follows his officers eagerly and willingly into battle, but only so long as these officers are in front of him, and literally lead him on.”

Friedrich von Waldersee (1795–1864) Prussian general (1795-1864)

Quoted by Friedrich Engels in Waldersee über die französische Armee, 1861

“I shall never seek office which will take me away from the people of Oregon. I am going to stay in the fight for them.”

George W. Joseph (1872–1930) American politician (1872-1930)

[George W. Joseph: His Life, Lester, Adams, Lois P. Myers, 1931, Kessinger Publishing, LLC, 92 pages, 1-4325-9812-0] Page 47 (lists 10/7/03.)

Fight , People

“Of course, when you are in office, you have certain responsibilities. But when you are out of office, you also have more freedom to express your ideas.”

Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (1963) Mongolian politician

Source: "When You Live Next to an Autocracy" in The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/12/china-democracy-mongolia/617391/ (15 December 2020)

Freedom , Idea

“When I was a lad I served a term
As office boy to an attorney's firm.
I cleaned the wndows and I swept the floor,
And I polished up the handle of the big front door.
I polished up that handle so carefullee
That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!”

W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) English librettist of the Gilbert & Sullivan duo

H.M.S. Pinafore (1878)
Source: 1878, HMS Pinafore, act 2, also quoted in Dictionary of Quotations, p. 353-354 (2005)

Boy

“I've heard both the founding stories of Google and Yahoo, and for both those companies, the founders didn't even have to get into a car. They could literally go to the law office, the venture capitalists, the bank... on a bike. It's all that close together.”

Marissa Mayer (1975) American business executive and engineer, former ceo of Yahoo!

Source: as quoted in: Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley (As Told by the Hackers, Founders, and Freaks Who Made It Boom), 9781455559015, Fisher, Adam, 10 July 2018 https://books.google.com/books?id=pwo5DwAAQBAJ&q=marissa#v=snippet&q=marissa&f=false,

Law , Cars

“Citizens who understand the power they have to elect and hold those in public office accountable can truly move mountains!”

Yemi Adamolekun Executive Director of Enough is Enough

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/10/nigeria-61-eie-11-light-hope-power-and-voice-opinion/ Speaking about Nigeria (October 18 2021 )

Mountain , Understanding

“I will approach my office as chancellor with great seriousness and respect because there is an incredible amount to do.”

Karl Nehammer (1972) Austrian politician (1972-)

Source: Karl Nehammer (2021) cited in: " Scandal-Shaken Austria Gets Its 3rd Chancellor This Year https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/world/europe/austria-chancellor-nehammer-kurz.html" in The New York Times, 6 December 2021.

“Glass ceilings are being smashed every day in Israel, and I'm proud that during my time in the President's Residence, another one is being broken by a worthy and promising officer.”

Isaac Herzog (1960) Israeli politician

Source: Isaac Herzog (2021) cited in " Israeli president’s pick for military secretary makes history https://www.jns.org/israeli-presidents-pick-for-military-secretary-makes-history/" on Jewish News Syndicate, 21 December 2021.

Time

“I am wholly decided and resolved to go in person to help my brother because his need is so great and the perils so extreme that it does not merely threaten him but places all Christendom at risk. I cannot and must not abandon him because of the office I hold and because of the obligations of fraternal friendship and also because he is such a good brother to me.”

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) Holy Roman Emperor

Friendship , Personality , Help

“In view of Our special love for and inclination to the German Nation and the Holy Roman Empire…as Roman emperor and supreme steward of Christendom, it pertains to Our Imperial office to confess Our obligation to guard, protect, and maintain the holy Christian faith as it has been preserved until now.”

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) Holy Roman Emperor

Diet of Augsburg (1530)
Source: Ruth Kastner, ed., Quellen zur Reformation 1517-1555. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1994, pp. 501-20.

Love , Faith

“Few desire to know the truth of what is happening in our state’s abortion clinics. All of the outrage, all of the noise is directed at one thing: silencing the uncomfortable truth. It’s either willful ignorance or a decision to partner with the abortion industry. When I started in public office, I was intellectually pro-life, but now I have come to see that the life issue is truly the issue of our time. The depth of evil that exists to protect this lie prevents the states from protecting children. How we determine the answer to this issue is what will determine where our nation will end up. Unless the truth prevails, abortion will destroy us as a nation.”

Phill Kline (1959) American politician

Source: Ask the Attorney: An Interview with Former Kansas Attorney General and Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline http://lifelegalgiving.com/ask-the-attorney-an-interview-with-former-kansas-attorney-general-and-johnson-county-district-attorney-phill-kline/ (1 August 2009)

Decision , Life , Silence , Children

“For a decade, I have referred to people who violently assault police officers as terrorists.”

Ted Cruz (1970) American politician

Source: 6 January 2022 https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/06/ted-cruz-tucker-carlson-capitol-attack/

People

“There is no office in this needful world
But dignifies the doer if done well.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: Fortunatus the Pessimist (1892), Franklin in Act I, sc. iv; p. 65.

World

“It is a fantasy to believe that you punish politicians by throwing them out of office. It is when they leave office that they start making the real money.”

Peter Hitchens (1951) author, journalist

2022-06-01
GB News Dewbs & Co

Money

“Well-intentioned men don’t run for office any more! They have too much sense to expose themselves to assassination, and only delusible idiots like our current chief executive can be persuaded to don the robes of high office. Nice guys don’t crave power.”

John Brunner book The Jagged Orbit

Source: The Jagged Orbit (1969), Chapter 46, “Why’s, After the Event” (p. 143)

Guy , Sense , Men

“I have a problem in living which century I live. When I read those manuscripts, I'm taken away there. Sometimes I'm totally taken with them, with the monks and the ancient libraries and the ancient monasteries and then, when someone passes by me in their office and speaks English, I say, "What?" But then I realize I am in an English-speaking world.”

Getatchew Haile (1931–2021) Ethiopian-American philologist; scholar of the Ge'ez language

Preserving Words and Worlds https://onbeing.org/programs/columba-stewart-and-getatchew-haile-preserving-words-and-worlds/ (19 January 2009)

World , Reading , Problem

“An army means, first, morale; second, an officer-corps; third, a high command; and, fourth, the human material of the troops.”

Francis Parker Yockey (1917–1960) American writer

The Enemy of Europe (1953)

“The nationality of an army is that of its political leadership, not of its common soldiers or its officer corps.”

Francis Parker Yockey (1917–1960) American writer

The Enemy of Europe (1953)

“I always wanted a job where I could help people. I never dreamed when I ran for a seat in the Legislature that I would end up in the Governor's office. At the time, I wanted to do something to improve education in the state. It's still my highest priority.”

Gary Locke (1950) American politician

"Questions and Answers for the Governor" https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/governorlocke/kids/questions.htm

People , Education , Time , Dreams

“We desperately need a sociopath test for all politicians. We have the technology to find out if people lack empathy. If they do, they should be banned from running for office, serving on corporate boards, or having any kind of authority.”

Lee Camp (1980) American comedian, writer, and activist

Twitter, https://twitter.com/LeeCamp/status/1282094933231509505 (12 July 2020)

People

“Ye servants of the Lord,
Each in his office wait,
Observant of the heavenly word,
And watchful at his gate.”

Philip Doddridge (1702–1751) English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter

Published in 1755, Hymns: "Ye Servants of the Lord", Chambers Dictionary of Quotations, p. 278.

Waiting

“The problem is that Hollywood is competition for Chinese art films. So I thought I should make a film with box office promise, that refers to Chinese culture, but also contains an art element.”

Zhang Yimou (1950) Chinese actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer

"Fighting for Peace (and Art Films), Zhang Yimou on “Hero”" in Indie Wire https://www.indiewire.com/2004/08/fighting-for-peace-and-art-films-zhang-yimou-on-hero-78697/ (27 August 2004)

Box , Art , Problem