Quotes about return
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“We are the beat of nature's heart,
the earth is our heaven
and the sun our breath,
through our heart journey's
the eternity unfolds and encircles us
with her gentle hands,
there is no end or return, no answer,
just one spark flickers.”

alexis karpouzos

poetry and spirituality

Nature, Sun, Heart

“Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished. Force, maketh nature more violent in the return; doctrine and discourse, maketh nature less importune; but custom only doth alter and subdue nature.”

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 Nature in Men

Nature

“Whoever harms his kinship and his neighbors is worse than them. Whosoever returns ill that he receives from them is like them. Whosoever does not return ill done to him is the master, the best and most virtuous amongst all.”

Ibn Hazm (994–1064) Arab theologian

ibid, 18

“It is surely delightful, Sir, to look forward to that period when a series of liberal and prudent measures shall have delivered islands, so highly favoured by the bounty of Providence, from the curse inflicted on them by the frantic rapacity of man. Then the peasant of the Antilles will no longer crawl in listless and trembling dejection round a plantation from whose fruits he must derive no advantage, and a hut whose door yields him no protection; but, when his cheerful and voluntary labour is performed, he will return with the firm step and erect brow of a British citizen from the field which is his freehold to the cottage which is his castle.”

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

Speech to a meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society held at Freemasons' Tavern (25 June 1824), quoted in Report of the Committee of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions, Volume I (1824), p. 77
1820s

“Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanch'd land,Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.”

Matthew Arnold Dover Beach

St. 1
Dover Beach (1867)

Sadness, Drawing, Sea

“[T]he artist sells the work of his brush and in this he is a merchant. The writer sells to any who will buy, let his ideas be what they will. The teacher sells his knowledge of books—often in too low a market—to those who would have this knowledge passed on to the young.
The doctor... too is a merchant. His stock-in-trade is his intimate knowledge of the physical man and his skill to prevent or remove disabilities. ...The lawyer sometimes knows the laws of the land and sometimes does not, but he sells his legal language, often accompanied by common sense, to the multitude who have not yet learned that a contentious nature may squander quite as successfully as the spendthrift. The statesman sells his knowledge of men and affairs, and the spoken or written exposition of his principles of Government; and he receives in return the satisfaction of doing what he can for his nation, and occasionally wins as well a niche in its temple of fame.
The man possessing many lands, he especially would be a merchant... and sell, but his is a merchandise which too often nowadays waits in vain for the buyer. The preacher, the lecturer, the actor, the estate agent, the farmer, the employé, all, all are merchants, all have something to dispose of at a profit to themselves, and the dignity of the business is decided by the manner in which they conduct the sale.”

Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858–1947) America born English businessman

The Romance of Commerce (1918), Concerning Commerce

Men, Books, Law, Idea

“Because of the many things that have happened to me in my life, I have touched the decline more than the rise. I decided to retreat into myself. But I soon return stronger.”

Nedim Jahić (2001) Bosnian singer

Life

“Pre-eighteenth century economics were governed, not by consumers, who determined what should be produced by what they were willing to buy in a competitive market, but by producers who enjoyed special privileges in return for the most stringent kind of state regulations. Mr. Walter Lippmann, in his book, The Good Society, points out that in the days of Louis XIV the manufacturers of France were told exactly what to produce and exactly how to produce it. Industry and agriculture were governed by codes more complicated than anything ever invented by the NRA or Mr. Wallace.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 66

Books

“No one, I think, can deny that the depression of the agricultural interest is excessive. Though I can recall periods of suffering, none of them have ever equalled the present in its instances. ... [N]or is it open to doubt that foreign competition has exercised a most injurious influence on the agricultural interests of the country. The country, however, was perfectly warned that if we made a great revolution in our industrial system, that was one of the consequences that would accrue. I may mention that the great result of the returns we possess is this, that the immense importations of foreign agricultural produce have been vastly in excess of what the increased demands of our population actually require, and that is why the low prices are maintained...That is to a great degree the cause of this depression.”

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

Source: Speech in the House of Lords on the agricultural depression (28 March 1879), reported in The Times (29 March 1879), p. 8

Exercises, Thinking, Suffering, Country

“I am bitterly opposed to any form of legislation, particularly legislation introduced by a Labour Government, which involves an element of colour bar. It is an appalling thing to have happened. I want to see us returning as swiftly as possible to a situation where we wipe away this stain on the reputation of the Labour movement.”

Michael Foot (1913–2010) British politician

Source: Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1965/nov/23/schedule-acts-continued-till-end-of#column_370 in the House of Commons (23 November 1965)

“Learn, then, that the service demanded is that unselfish service that gives everything and asks for nothing in return; and if you find that in you it is a necessity of your nature, not a choice but an overmastering impulse, then you may be sure that you are one of the men of the world who are taking the first steps towards the Path. (I need hardly say that when I say men I mean women too, but I cannot keep on saying "man and woman each time..)!”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Initiation, The Perfecting of Man 1923, p. 29

Women, Men, World, Nature

“The government's priority remains the earliest termination of this hijacking and the earliest return of the passengers, crew and aircraft.”

Jaswant Singh (1938–2020) Indian politician and retired army officer

Source: As Minister of External Affairs of India, over Hijacking of Flight 814), Jaswant Singh's version of the Kandahar hijack https://www.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/21onkar1.htm (from Rediff).

“Every teardrop returns to a cloud.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)

“Starting in a hollowed log of wood — some thousand miles up a river, with an infinitesimal prospect of returning! I ask myself 'Why?”

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

and the only echo is 'damned fool!... the Devil drives'.
Burton to Lord Houghton as quoted in The Devil Drives: A life of Sir Richard Burton (1984) by Fawn Brodie.

“[E]lections to the supreme power having upon some occasions produced the most destructive contentions, many states would take refuge from a return of the same calamities, in a rule of succession; and no rule presents itself so obvious, certain, and intelligible, as consanguinity of birth.”

William Paley (1743–1805) Christian apologist, natural theologian, utilitarian

Vol. II, Book VI, Ch. I.
The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785)

Intelligence, Birth, Success

“Wherever a man may happen to turn, whatever a man may undertake, he will always end up by returning to the path which nature has marked out for him.”

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

Nature

“The saint is the man who acts as if he had died and returned to life; having already ceased to be "himself" in the earthly sense, he has no intention whatever of returning to that dream, but maintains himself in a kind of wakefulness, which the world with its narrowness and impurities cannot understand.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2006, Gnosis: Divine Wisdom, World Wisdom, 116-117, 978-1-933316-18-5]
Spiritual path, Holiness

Life, World, Dreams, Understanding

“We are used to thinking that what we give is the same as what we receive, but people who love, expecting to be loved in return, are wasting their time. Love is an act of faith, not an exchange.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Love has always passed me by

Love, People, Faith, Thinking

“I will be capable of loving, regardless of whether I am loved in return,”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Love

“After warning the stenographers not to record his speech, he attacked Crimean Tatars as an "irresponsible people" for wanting return to their homeland and be so as an equal as all other peoples of the USSR.”

Rafiq Nishonov (1926–2023) Soviet politician

(ru) Предупредив стенографисток, чторы его речь не записывали, он обрушился на крымских татар, как на «несознательный народ», который, видите ли, хочет вернуться к себе на Родину, хочет быть таким же равноправным, как и все другие народы СССР. Nishonov's rant about Crimean Tatars https://books.google.com/books?id=_jgHAAAAMAAJ

People

“Everything can tend toward diminishing returns and unsustainability, […] even in the short term.”

James Howard Kunstler book The Long Emergency

Source: The Long Emergency (2005), Chapter 7, p. 240.

“A soldier will return as a hero either with a medal on his chest or a metal in his chest.”

Suraj Sani (1996) Nigerian writer, Spoken word artist

P. 52. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10937446-a-soldier-will-return-as-a-hero-either-with-a

“At this time of crisis, I find great comfort in returning to nature, the wilderness, the richness and vast scale of the land. It has shaped the American identity; circling back to the landscape gives me hope for the future.”

An-My Lê (1960) American photographer

Interview with ARTNews (March 3, 2020)

Hope, Nature, Time, Future

“Loving someone who doesn't love me back is like loving the wind, which is felt but cannot be seen. The lover does not love the feeling of getting love in return, but sacrifices himself for his happiness.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Original: What's your?

Love, Happiness, Feeling, Lovers

“Observe well how the word ‘narcissism’ is often used into marriages. The victims are often those who have separated with their significant other, rather than being on good terms with them. Therefore, we must dig deeper to the core of the word and discover its true meaning. In return, we will get a glimpse of our mentality and the main attributes that drive us to label each other with that conflicted word.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Marriage

“The Creator only gives, but does not expect anything from us. He invests in us without expecting any interest in return.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“We do not wish to judge anyone nor wish to be judged in return. Meaning, we must dwell on the neutral side, in order to fully understand ourselves and those who are constantly causing us trouble in our daily lives.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Understanding

“Giving is doing exactly the same work as God, thus making Him happy in return.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God, Happiness

“A letter to the moonlight,
If you come, then bring my peace with you, which is lost somewhere. Bring with you my immense love, which lights up my life, I will imprison you in these eyes, even if you want to go, you will not be able to return.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Love, Life, Peace, Light

“The Dark Ages may return, the Stone Age may return on the gleaming wings of Science, and what might now shower immeasurable material blessings upon mankind, may even bring about its total destruction. Beware, I say; time may be short.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Post-war years (1945–1955) Source: The Sinews of Peace https://www.nato.int/docu/speech/1946/s460305a_e.htm speech, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

Age, Science, Time

“The man who loses the path in the morning, if he returns home by the evening he should not be called lost.”

Eastern proverb

Home

“By God, our religion (din) from which we have departed is better and more correct than that which these people follow. Their religion does not stop them from shedding blood, terrifying the roads, and seizing properties.' And they returned to their former religion.”

Al-Tabari (839–923) influential Persian scholar, historian and exegete of the Qur'an

Source: Tabari 17:187

God, People, Religion

“Their little universe is very young, and its god is still a child. But it is too soon to judge them; when We return in the Last Days, We will consider what should be saved.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

1990s, 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997), p. 88, Epilogue

God, Universe

“A classic unspoken agreement among escapees from a small town: don’t look back, don’t be each other’s anchors, no nostalgia. I wasn’t expecting any of them to return.”

China Miéville Embassytown

Source: Embassytown (2011), Chapter “Formerly, 1” (p. 53)

Nostalgia

“That which had grown from the earth, to the earth, But that which has sprung from heavenly seed, Back to the heavenly realms returns. This is either a dissolution of the mutual involution of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of the unsentient elements.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book VII, 50

“I'm tired of speaking for hours, so from now on, I will reduce the duration of my 'Returning Happiness to People' speech ever [sic] Friday and will have my ministers who oversee each topic to speak in the programme.”

Prayut Chan-o-cha (1954) Thai military officer, junta chief, and politician

"Returning happiness to the people" speeches Source: PM to shorten 'Return to happiness' speeches but in the end happiness is never come true http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/PM-to-shorten-Return-to-happiness-speeches-30257143.html (31 March 2015)

Happiness, People

“Whenever one tree is cut, two trees should be planted in return.”

Mirza Masroor Ahmad (1950) spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Virtual Meetings Source: Virtual Meeting with Waqf-e-Nau From Indonesia https://www.alislam.org/press-release/members-of-waqf-e-nau-from-indonesia-have-honour-of-virtual-meeting-with-head-of-ahmadiyya-muslim-community/, 23rd January 2021

Tree

“I as President of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic in such a destructive situation made every possible effort to return the dialogue to normal and prevent an escalation of tension with Moldova.”

Vadim Krasnoselsky (1970) politician

Source: Vadim Krasnoselsky (2021) cited in " Commentary by Vadim Krasnoselsky regarding the next appeal to the President of the Republic of Moldova https://novostipmr.com/en/news/21-12-24/commentary-vadim-krasnoselsky-regarding-next-appeal-president" on Novosti Pridnestrovya, 24 December 2021.

Effort

“The merciful, kind, and generous man benefits himself for his deeds return to bless him, but he who is cruel and callous to the wants of others brings on himself retribution.”

book Bible

Source: Proverbs 11:17, AMP

“You know that my ancestors were the most christian emperors of the great nation of Germany, the catholic kings of Spain, the archdukes of Austria, and the dukes of Burgundy, who all were, until death, faithful sons of the Roman Church...I am therefore resolved to maintain everything which these my forebears have established to the present…and to settle this matter I will use all my dominions and possessions, my friends, my body, my blood, my life, and my soul. It would be a disgrace for you and me, the illustrious and renowned nation of Germany, privileged and pre-eminent as protector and defender of the Catholic faith, if heresy, or even just the suspicion of heresy, and the degradation of the Christian religion were to return to the hearts of men in our time to our perpetual dishonour.”

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

Diet of Worms (1521)
Source: *Detlef Ploese and Guenther Vogler, eds., Buch der Reformation. Eine Auswahl zeitgenössischer Zeugnisse (1476-1555). Berlin: Union Verlag, 1989, pp. 245-53

Life, Death, Men, Faith

“We stand now at the turning point between two eras. Behind us is a past to which we can never return ... The coming of the rocket brought to an end a million years of isolation ... the childhood of our race was over and history as we know it began.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

Source: Exploration of Space (1952)

History, Past, Childhood

“Though the coming of the day is still the most inspiriting, yet day's departure, also, and the return of night refresh, renew, and quiet us; and in the pastures of the dusk we stand, like cattle, exulting in the absence of the load.”

Robert Louis Stevenson book The Silverado Squatters

Toils And Pleasures.
The Silverado Squatters (1883)

Departure, Night

“We desire to see the return of a liberal age where Parliaments will guard freedom, where science will open the banqueting halls to the millions, and where what Bismarck once called "practical Christianity" will mitigate suffering and misfortunes.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Source: 'No Intervention In Spain' (8 January 1937), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step, 1936–1939 (1939; 1947), p. 84

Age, Freedom, Suffering, Science

“Under what circumstances do you think you might want to…return to the real world?”

Tim Powers (1952) American writer

The real world and I never did get along, she thought.
“I can’t imagine,” she said.
Epilogue, “I Have No Idea” (p. 287; closing words)
Stolen Skies (2022)

World, Thinking

“I must pronounce my firm belief that Tibet will soon regain her independence and that His Holiness the Dalai Lama will return to the Golden Throne. Long live His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”

Choekyi Gyaltsen (1938–1989) 10th Panchen Lama of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism

As quoted in 1964, "Death of the Tenth Panchen Lama" https://www.shambhala.com/snowlion_articles/panchen-lama-death/

“Will the right hon. Lady take the opportunity today and every day to make clear to the country, as only she can, that the courses that are being commended to her by the official Opposition and by many other voices mean nothing but a deliberate return to hyper-inflation?”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Question http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1980/jul/22/prime-minister-engagements#column_267 to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons (22 July 1980) 1980s

Country

“Students who simply wanted to better their prospects in life and instead found themselves taken advantage of by a scam that took their money and gave them nothing in return except heartache.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, June 2022, Remarks by Vice President Harris on Corinthian Student Loan Forgiveness

Life, Money

“See, everybody looks at the world from his own point of view. I call it the ground state of the resting mind. And your brain does the same thing, left alone it returns to and thinks about what it’s really interested in.”

Charles Sheffield book Proteus In The Underworld

Source: Behrooz Wolf (aka The Proteus Trilogy), Proteus In The Underworld (1995), Chapter 17 (p. 227)

World, Thinking

“I light a candle for you
and pray for your return,
ask God to lead you back,
'cause I can't find the words
to break through your palace wall,
and make you clearly see
it's safe to take my hand and fall
with me in that great deep.”

Marian Renta

Music lyrics, Great Deep (2021) —"Great Deep"

God, Light

“I am against the idea when we, so to say, throw someone behing the bars, which is the place where they would hide and flee from responsibility. We will surely find them, but they first have to return public money.”

Viktor Yanukovych (1950) Ukrainian politician who was the President of Ukraine

Source: [Янукович про корупціонерів: ховатись не будуть, - одна розмова, будуть – інша, https://www.unian.ua/politics/482166-yanukovich-pro-koruptsioneriv-hovatis-ne-budut-odna-rozmova-budut-insha.html, 2022-06-12, www.unian.ua, uk, 2011-04-11]

Money, Idea

“The end of the gnostic is traceable 'when he is as he was where he was before he was.' The gnostic then has made easy effort to discharge his duty to God, and his gnosis is a realization of what God has given him; therefore he truly returns from things to God.”

Abu Bakr al-Kalabadhi Sufi Maturidi scholar and Hanafi jurist

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 84

God, Effort

“As you move through this life…you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you.”

Anthony Bourdain (1956–2018) Chef and food writer

Life, Travel

“In the treaty councils the commissioners have claimed that our country had been sold to the Government. Suppose a white man should come to me and say, "Joseph, I like your horses, and I want to buy them." I say to him, "No, my horses suit me, I will not sell them." Then he goes to my neighbor, and says to him: "Joseph has some good horses. I want to buy them, but he refuses to sell." My neighbor answers, "Pay me the money, and I will sell you Joseph's horses." The white man returns to me and says, "Joseph, I have bought your horses, and you must let me have them." If we sold our lands to the Government, this is the way they were bought.”

Chief Joseph (1840–1904) Nez Percé Chieftain

Arguing against the right of the US Government to force his people to leave their lands (1876)

Money, Way, Horse, Country

“And after doing all they do they rise from their bed, they bathe, powder and perfume their persons, they dress, and gradually return to being what they are not.”

Julio Cortázar book Un tal Lucas

Un tal Lucas (1979)
Original: (es) 'AMOR 77'
Y después de hacer todo lo que hacen, se levantan, se bañan, se entalcan, se perfuman, se peinan, se visten, y así progresivamente van volviendo a ser lo que no son.

Personality

“Turn away, if you can. Return you will with hunger peaked and primed.”

A.E. Samaan

Source: SHADES OF VANITY: Shades and Shadows of Eroticism

Hunger

“I spoke the other day to the art historian Vanni Scheiwiler who publishes in Milan. But Signor Scheiwiler is pessimistic; he says that under the influence of the new conformism the city, after all the cultural centre of Italy, has been undergoing a decline in intellectual vitality. Anyone who comes up with something that does not fit in with the line is promptly put down by being called a Fascist. The word Fascist is reported so often that one wonders whether it hasn’t lost all meaning! This reminded me of what Ignazio Silone said in 1945 soon after he returned to Italy from his Zurich exile: “The fascism of tomorrow will never say ‘I am Facism’. It will say: ‘I am anti-Facism’.””

Ignazio Silone (1900–1978) Italian author and politician

Source: https://books.google.de/books?id=CPdKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT250 PT250 books.google Source: François Bondy: Italian Censorship (European Notebook). Encounter Band 47, No. 2 (1976) August, p. 51 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=iS0dAQAAMAAJ&q=silone; Reprint in: European Notebooks 1954-1985, Routledge, New York 2017,

Art

“The idea of ego often defeats all human efforts to achieve happiness. Will we eventually come to peace of heart and mind? Can we let go of the ego to return to the purity of the soul? And the blessings look like twinkling stars in the sky. Blessed are the great souls who are able to overcome the shallowness of the mind and the pride of the soul.”

Titon Rahmawan

Happiness, Peace, Soul, Star

“In a world that often measures value based on what one receives, helping without expecting anything in return is the best way that exists.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: In un mondo che spesso misura il valore in base a ciò che si riceve, aiutare senza aspettarsi nulla in cambio è il modo migliore che esista.
Source: prevale.net

World, Way, Help

“They exist many ways to help. The worst is to expect something in return.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Esistono molti modi per aiutare. Il peggiore è aspettarsi qualcosa in cambio.
Source: prevale.net

Way, Help

Quotes about return page 23

Quotes about return
page 23