Quotes about sausage

A collection of quotes on the topic of sausage, likeness, look, eating.

Quotes about sausage

H.P. Lovecraft photo

“I can better understand the inert blindness & defiant ignorance of the reactionaries from having been one of them. I know how smugly ignorant I was—wrapped up in the arts, the natural (not social) sciences, the externals of history & antiquarianism, the abstract academic phases of philosophy, & so on—all the one-sided standard lore to which, according to the traditions of the dying order, a liberal education was limited. God! the things that were left out—the inside facts of history, the rational interpretation of periodic social crises, the foundations of economics & sociology, the actual state of the world today … & above all, the habit of applying disinterested reason to problems hitherto approached only with traditional genuflections, flag-waving, & callous shoulder-shrugs! All this comes up with humiliating force through an incident of a few days ago—when young Conover, having established contact with Henneberger, the ex-owner of WT, obtained from the latter a long epistle which I wrote Edwin Baird on Feby. 3, 1924, in response to a request for biographical & personal data. Little Willis asked permission to publish the text in his combined SFC-Fantasy, & I began looking the thing over to see what it was like—for I had not the least recollection of ever having penned it. Well …. I managed to get through, after about 10 closely typed pages of egotistical reminiscences & showing-off & expressions of opinion about mankind & the universe. I did not faint—but I looked around for a 1924 photograph of myself to burn, spit on, or stick pins in! Holy Hades—was I that much of a dub at 33 … only 13 years ago? There was no getting out of it—I really had thrown all that haughty, complacent, snobbish, self-centred, intolerant bull, & at a mature age when anybody but a perfect damned fool would have known better! That earlier illness had kept me in seclusion, limited my knowledge of the world, & given me something of the fatuous effusiveness of a belated adolescent when I finally was able to get around more in 1920, is hardly much of an excuse. Well—there was nothing to be done … except to rush a note back to Conover & tell him I'd dismember him & run the fragments through a sausage-grinder if he ever thought of printing such a thing! The only consolation lay in the reflection that I had matured a bit since '24. It's hard to have done all one's growing up since 33—but that's a damn sight better than not growing up at all.”

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author

Letter to Catherine L. Moore (7 February 1937), in Selected Letters V, 1934-1937 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, pp. 407-408
Non-Fiction, Letters

Erik Satie photo

“I eat only white foods: eggs, sugar, grated bones, the fat of dead animals; veal, salt, coconut, chicken cooked in white water; fruit mold, rice, turnips; camphorated sausage, dough, cheese (white), cotton salad, and certain fish (skinless).”

Erik Satie (1866–1925) French composer and pianist

Quoted by Rollo H. Myers (1968). Erik Satie, p.135. New York: Dover.
See also Socrate for the context of this quote.
General quotes

Terry Pratchett photo

“Pride is all very well, but a sausage is a sausage.”

Source: Men at Arms

Anthony Bourdain photo

“To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.”

Kitchen Confidential (2000)
Source: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Context: Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It's healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I've worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold. Oh, I'll accommodate them, I'll rummage around for something to feed them, for a 'vegetarian plate', if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine. (p. 70).

Diana Gabaldon photo
Rick Riordan photo
Louis-ferdinand Céline photo
Aristophanés photo

“Sausage-Seller: You [demagogues] are like the fishers for eels; in still waters they catch nothing, but if they thoroughly stir up the slime, their fishing is good; in the same way it's only in troublous times that you line your pockets.”

tr. O'Neill 1938, Perseus http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Aristoph.+Kn.+864
ὅπερ γὰρ οἱ τὰς ἐγχέλεις θηρώμενοι πέπονθας.
ὅταν μὲν ἡ λίμνη καταστῇ, λαμβάνουσιν οὐδέν·
ἐὰν δ᾽ ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω τὸν βόρβορον κυκῶσιν,
αἱροῦσι· καὶ σὺ λαμβάνεις, ἢν τὴν πόλιν ταράττῃς.
Knights, line 864-867
Dialog aimed at the politician Cleon, symbolizing demagogues for the author.
Knights (424 BC)
Source: The Knights

Antonin Scalia photo

“This case, involving legal requirements for the content and labeling of meat products such as frankfurters, affords a rare opportunity to explore simultaneously both parts of Bismarck's aphorism that 'No man should see how laws or sausages are made.”

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

Community Nutrition Institute v. Block, 749 F.2d 50, 51 (D.C. Cir. 1984) ; decided December 5, 1984.
1980s

John Godfrey Saxe photo

“Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.”

John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) American poet

As quoted in University Chronicle. University of Michigan (27 March 1869) books.google.de http://books.google.de/books?id=cEHiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA164, Daily Cleveland Herald (29 March 1869), McKean Miner (22 April 1869), and "Quote... Misquote" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/magazine/27wwwl-guestsafire-t.html by Fred R. Shapiro in The New York Times (21 July 2008); similar remarks have long been attributed to Otto von Bismarck, but this is the earliest known quote regarding laws and sausages, and according to Shapiro's research, such remarks only began to be attributed to Bismarck in the 1930s.

Jimmy Wales photo

“[Wikipedia is] like a sausage: you might like the taste of it, but you don't necessarily want to see how it's made.”

Jimmy Wales (1966) Wikipedia co-founder and American Internet entrepreneur

Who knows?, The Guardian, October 26, 2004, 2007-02-09 http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1335837,00.html, (Alluding to a famous quote "Laws are like sausages — it is better not to see them being made.", generally attributed to Otto von Bismarck.)

Justin Heazlewood photo
Ben Croshaw photo

“As well hope to start with a string of sausages and reconstruct the pig”

The four gospels: a study of origins, treating of the manuscript tradition, sources, authorship, & dates http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=v_M2AAAAMAAJ&dq=editions%3ACMVjM-tav4QC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22start+with+a+string+of+sausages+and+reconstruct+the+pig%22, Macmillan and Co., 1924

Otto von Bismarck photo

“Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made”

Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) German statesman, Chancellor of Germany

Gesetze sind wie Würste, man sollte besser nicht dabei sein, wenn sie gemacht werden
Though similar remarks are often attributed to Bismarck, this is the earliest known quote regarding laws and sausages, and is attributed to John Godfrey Saxe University Chronicle. University of Michigan (27 March 1869) books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=cEHiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA164 and "Quote... Misquote" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/magazine/27wwwl-guestsafire-t.html by Fred R. Shapiro in The New York Times (21 July 2008); according to Shapiro's research, such remarks only began to be attributed to Bismarck in the 1930s.
Variants often attributed to Bismarck:
If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.
Laws are like sausages — it is best not to see them being made.
Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made.
Laws are like sausages. You should never see them made.
Laws are like sausages. You should never watch them being made.
Law and sausage are two things you do not want to see being made.
No one should see how laws or sausages are made.
To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.
The making of laws like the making of sausages, is not a pretty sight.
Je weniger die Leute darüber wissen, wie Würste und Gesetze gemacht werden, desto besser schlafen sie nachts.
The less the people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep in the night.
No citation exists for where this German phrase or this translation originated.
Misattributed

Richard Proenneke photo
George Santayana photo
Anthony Bourdain photo
Walter Besant photo
O. Henry photo
Boris Johnson photo

“The meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

BBC News Interview http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8668036.stm with Jeremy Paxman, BBC News, 7 May 2010
Johnson on the possibility of a coalition after the United Kingdom general election, May 2010.
Johnson: Whatever type of Wall's sausage is contrived by this great experiment, the dominant ingredient has got to be conservatism. The meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative, I would say. With plenty of bread and other bits and pieces.
Paxman: The question is whether it's a chipolata or a Cumberland sausage, I suppose, is it?
Johnson: This is fantastic to listen to. Enough of this gastronomic metaphor!
Paxman: You started it!
Johnson: Well, I've had enough of it!
Paxman: Haven't you got a city to run?
Johnson: I have got a city to run and that's exactly the point! The government of London will carry on irrespective of the temporary difficulties in providing a national government. Thank you.
Paxman: Bye bye, Boris!
2010s, 2010

Charlie Brooker photo

“…I haven't seen so many dirty snouts, and slimy arseholes crammed into such a small space since I last looked inside a sausage.”

Charlie Brooker (1971) journalist, broadcaster and writer from England

S2E6
Newswipe

Rosa Luxemburg photo
Francis Picabia photo
Gene Wolfe photo

“She often spoke of marryin' a butcher or a sausage maker, having a liking for those trades, as she said, for they knew you couldn't never get all the stains from their aprons, and didn't demand it.”

Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer

"Our Neighbor by David Copperfield", Future Tense (1978), ed. Lee Harding, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Endangered Species (1989)
Fiction

Michael Savage photo
Vivian Stanshall photo

“Like the shock of fondling a raw sausage, blindfold, at a gay party …”

Vivian Stanshall (1943–1995) English musician, artist and author

Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1978)

A. P. Herbert photo

“A highbrow is the kind of person who looks at a sausage and thinks of Picasso.”

"Is 'Highbrow' Libellous?"
Uncommon Law (1935)

Arsène Wenger photo

“If you eat caviar every day it's difficult to return to sausages.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

Arsenal 1-1 Middlesbrough (29 November 1998) http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60615442.html
Interviews

P. J. O'Rourke photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Stephen King photo
Mike Myers photo

“They say that comedy and sausages are the two things that if you know how they're made they affect the appetite. I'm always creating and writing stuff so it's nice for me to be able to watch it as a fan.”

Mike Myers (1963) Canadian- British- American actor, comedian, singer, screenwriter, and film producer

Interview with Joe Utichi, RT-UK: Mike Myers Interview https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/rtuk-mike-myers-interview/, rottentomatoes.com, 27 June 2007.