Quotes about sir
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“But Adrian did not hear him. I have mentioned that during dinner, preoccupied with his thoughts, he had bolted his food. Nature now took its toll. An acute spasm suddenly ran though him, and with a brief 'Ouch!' of pain he doubled up and began to walk round in circles. Sir Jasper clicked his tongue impatiently. "This is no time for doing the Astaire pom-pom dance," he said sharply.”

Fred Astaire (1899–1987) American dancer, singer, actor, choreographer and television presenter

From P.G. Wodehouse's Mulliner Nights (1933).

Pain, Food, Nature, Time

“I assert that the art of sculpture, among all the arts connected with design, is at least seven times greater than any other, for the following reason: why, sir, a statue of true sculpture ought to have seven points of view, which ought all to boast equal excellence.”

Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571) Florentine sculptor and goldsmith

Dico, che l'arte della Scultura infra tutte l'arte, che s'interviene disegno, è maggiore sette volte, perchè una statua di Scultura deve avere otto vedute, e conviene che la sieno tutte di egual bontà.
Letter to Benedetto Varchi, January 28, 1546, cited from G. P. Carpani (ed.) Vita di Benvenuto Cellini (Milano: Nicolo Bettoni, 1821) vol. 3, p. 183; translation from Thomas Nugent (trans.) The Life of Benvenuto Cellini, a Florentine Artist (London: Hunt and Clarke, 1828) vol. 2, p. 264.

Art, Time

“The executive power is better to be trusted when it has no screen. Sir, we have a responsibility in the person of our President; he cannot act improperly, and hide either his negligence or inattention; he cannot roll upon any other person the weight of his criminality; no appointment can take place without his nomination; and he is responsible for every nomination he makes… far from being above the laws, he is amenable to them in his private character as a citizen, and in his public character by impeachment.”

James Wilson (1742–1798) one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independe…

Arguing for a single executive at the Philadelphia Convention (1787).

Law, Personality

“Sir John Mandeville [was] an encyclopedist whose mostly invented stories still ring true, thanks to his gift for writing the first realistic Western fiction since Petronius. We do not know who this man was or even what language he wrote in, but modern textual analysis suggests that he rarely left his study. Rather than travel, he scavenged and plagiarized the works of others, improving their prose as he claimed their discoveries. In a period of continental isolation, Mandeville satisfied Europe's appetite for news by making up an East that sounded real. In expanding editions and translations, his Voyages and Travels became the most popular prose book of the Middle Ages.”

John Mandeville (1300–1372) writer

Michael Wolfe One Thousand Roads to Mecca (New York: Grove Press, 1999) p. 75.
Criticism

Books, Age, Travel, Study

“Last Saturday it was a rainy evening. I took advantage of that to draw once again the whole evening at Dam Square all over and Sunday I repainted my painting [of Dam square] completely, that yellow nasty color has disappeared now completely. The work has become much broader, and I believe it is really finished now. When my model came, the change struck her so strongly that she said, 'sir, the painting has become beautifully now'. I myself am very happy with it, because I believe it is really good.”

George Hendrik Breitner (1857–1923) Dutch painter and photographer

translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek version in original Dutch (citaat van Breitner's brief, in het Nederlands:) Zaterdag avond was het een regenachtige avond. Ik heb daarvan geprofiteerd en [om] de heele avond op de Dam alles nog eens goed over te teekenen en Zondag mijn schilderij heelemaal overgeschilderd, de geele nare kleur is er heelemaal uit. Het is veel ruimer geworden, en ik geloof dat het er nu is. Toen mijn modelletje kwam, trof haar de verandering zoo erg dat het zei, hè meneer, nou is het schilderij mooi geworden. Ik zelf ben er erg mee in mijn schik, want het is geloof ik, heel goed. quote of Breitner in a letter to his friend Herman van der Weele, Amsterdam, 14 June 1893; original letter in RKD-Archive, The Hague https://rkd.nl/explore/excerpts/54 1890 - 1900

Happiness, Color, Change, Drawing

“I said I knew a very wise man so much of Sir Christopher's sentiment, that he believed if a man were permitted to make all the ballads he need not care who should make the laws of a nation, and we find that most of the ancient legislators thought that they could not well reform the manners of any city without the help of a lyric, and sometimes of a dramatic poet.”

Andrew Fletcher (1961–2022) English musician, member of Depeche Mode

An ACCOUNT of A CONVERSATION concerning A RIGHT REGULATION of GOVERNMENTS For the common Good of Mankind: In A LETTER to the Marquiss of Montrose , the Earls of Rothes, Roxburg and Haddington , From London the first of December, 1703'. Later variants express the sentiment in the first person, e.g.: Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws. Give me the making of a people's songs, and I care not who makes its laws. They may also substitute equivalent words, such as "songs" for "ballads" or "country" for "nation". The sentiment is sometimes attributed to Plato, but does not appear in his works. Austin Matzko has discovered http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/2006/10/20/what-plato-might-have-said-but-didnt/ that the mistaken attribution probably originated in an ambiguous sentence in Donald J. Grout's A History of Western Music (1973, p. 8).

Law, Help

“A former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Harold Mc Millan, once said, "It is not the things that one did in one's life that one regrets, but rather the opportunities missed."”

Francis Escudero (1969) Filipino politician

2009, Speech: The Socio-Economic Peace Program of Senator Francis Escudero

Life

““I frankly doubt that.”
“Ah. That is your privilege. But doubt doesn’t alter fact, sir.””

C. J. Cherryh book Downbelow Station

Book 2, Chapter 2 (p. 124)
Downbelow Station (1981)

“When Sir A. Fountaine was at Berlin with Leibnitz in 1701, and at supper with the Queen of Prussia, she asked Leibnitz his opinion of Sir Isaac Newton. Leibnitz said that taking mathematicians from the beginning of the world to the time when Sir Isaac lived, what he had done was much the better half; and added that he had consulted all the learned in Europe upon some difficult points without having any satisfaction, and that when he applied to Sir Isaac, he wrote him in answer by the first post, to do so and so, and then he would find it.”

Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) German mathematician and philosopher

Anecdote (1701) from John Conduitt's manuscript, as quoted by Sir David Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton (1855) Vol.2 https://books.google.com/books?id=Bp8RAAAAYAAJ

World, Learning, Time

“Sir,
Having long deferred to make any report relating to the observations that were taken at sea by captain Campbell, in the year 1757, which you transmitted to me by order of the lords of the admiralty, I think it necessary to acquaint you, that, upon examining those observations, I perceived that they were not in all respects accompanied with such circumstances as are requisite for forming a right judgment of the accuracy and certainty with which observations proper for finding the longitude at sea by the moon can in fact be taken; for which reason I delayed giving my opinion upon this point till I could have an opportunity of comparing a greater variety of observations, made at different times, and with different instruments: such an opportunity having lately been given me by captain Campbell, who has favoured me with a copy of several observations that were made by him in 1758 and 1759, I now beg leave to lay before their lordships the result of the comparisons which I have made.”

James Bradley (1693–1762) English astronomer; Astronomer Royal

Miscellaneous Works and Correspondence (1832), To Mr. Cleveland Secretary of the Admiralty (April 14, 1760)

Thinking, Time, Sea

“Lift latch, step in, be welcome, Sir,
Albeit to see you I’m unglad.”

Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) English writer

A Luncheon

“Always Sir Arthur lost so much blood that it was a marvel he stood on his feet, but he was so full of knighthood that knightly he endured the pain.”

Thomas Malory book Le Morte d'Arthur

Book IV, ch. 9
Le Morte d'Arthur (c. 1469) (first known edition 1485)

Pain

“I pray you, magnificent Sir, do not trouble yourself to return to us, but await our coming to you.”

Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer

Third Dialogue
On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584)

“Sir, you shall taste my Anno Domini.”

George Farquhar (1677–1707) Irish dramatist

The Beaux’ Stratagem (1707), Bon, Act i, Sc. 1.

“If the water flow down by a gradual natural channel, its potential energy is gradually converted into heat by fluid friction, according to an admirable discovery made by Mr Joule of Manchester above twelve years ago, which has led to the greatest reform that physical science has experienced since the days of Newton. From that discovery, it may be concluded with certainty that heat is not matter, but some kind of motion among the particles of matter; a conclusion established, it is true, by Sir Humphrey Davy and Count Rumford at the end of last century, but ignored by even the highest scientific men during a period of more than forty years.”

William Thomson (1824–1907) British physicist and engineer

Mathematical and Physical Papers, Vol.2 http://books.google.com/books?id=kNrVAAAAMAAJ (1884) "On Mechanical Antecedents of Motion, Heat and Light" (originally published 1854, 1855) Thermodynamics quotes

Men, Nature, Water, Science

“I was shamed into helping the unborn after 12 years of silence, in 1986. Since then, my only client has been the unborn. I don't work for a movement. I don't work for a party. I don't work for candidates. I work for the unborn, and I don't give a flying flick about what people want to do on paper with bylaws, and all that kind of stuff, because it's just like the Pharisees, who had all their rules about the Sabbath, but they didn't know that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath! I will stand for the unborn, and I will not relent! I don't know Mr. Clymer, but Howard Phillips has lost ALL of my respect, because he stands for people who want to kill ONE, only ONE, innocent child, and that's all that counts! If you want ONE innocent child, GO with this man, but I'll tell you what- I've got my paperwork filled out. All it lacks is my signature, and my wife's signature, and we're the hell out of here, if you vote to stay with a national party that will put up with ONE dead baby, much less many thousands of dead babies. And you sir [pointing at Jim Clymer] need to repent! Because the blood will be on your hands when you stand before God. You won't be able to argue about procedural votes, and keeping the party together before God! You'll be standing there quaking in your boots, wishing you'd washed yourself in the blood of the Lamb. That's all I've got to say…The only thing that matters to me is doing my job to stop the killing of the unborn.”

Paul deParrie (1949–2006) American activist

The Last Words of Paul deParrie http://www.constitutionpartyoregon.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=111&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

God, People, Hell, Silence

“You’re as worthless as one of that decrepit mob. Lucifer has rejected you. Now mankind rejects you. Have the good taste, Sir, to accept a fact!”

Michael Moorcock book The City in the Autumn Stars

Source: The City in the Autumn Stars (1986), Chapter 17 (p. 408)

“I have thus played the sedulous ape to Hazlitt, to Lamb, to Wordsworth, to Sir Thomas Browne, to Defoe, to Hawthorne, to Montaigne, to Baudelaire and to Obermann. (…) That, like it or not, is the way to learn to write whether I have profited or not, that is the way.”

Robert Louis Stevenson book Memories and Portraits

Memories and Portraits, ch. IV. A College Magazine (1887).

Way, Learning

““Good luck to you, too, sir.”
“I make it a point not to know the lady,” said Cletus. “I can’t afford to count on her.””

Gordon R. Dickson book Tactics of Mistake

Source: Tactics of Mistake (1971), Chapter 24 (p. 349)

“Sir, a man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it.”

James Macpherson (1736–1796) Scottish writer, poet, translator, and politician

Samuel Johnson, quoted in James Boswell Life of Johnson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) p. 1207.
Criticism

“Full of years, Sir Frank's body died. The diphtheria which carried him off caused him as much suffering as it would have done an ordinary man; dying was not eased by his unique gift. He slid out into the long darkness — but his consciousness continued unabated in eight other bodies.”

Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017) British science fiction author

Let's Be Frank (1957)

Suffering

“Repression, Sir is a habit that grows. I am told it is like making love-it is always easier the second time! The first time there may be pangs of conscience, a sense of guilt. But once embarked on this course with constant repetition you get more and more brazen in the attack. All you have to do is to dissolve organizations and societies and banish and detain the key political workers in these societies. Then miraculously everything is tranquil on the surface. Then an intimidated press and the government-controlled radio together can regularly sing your praises, and slowly and steadily the people are made to forget the evil things that have already been done, or if these things are referred to again they're conveniently distorted and distorted with impunity, because there will be no opposition to contradict.”

Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) First Prime Minister of Singapore

Source: Lee Kuan Yew as an opposition PAP member speaking to David Marshall, Singapore Legislative Assembly, Debates, 4 October, 1956

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/26/world/asia/29leekuanyew-quotes.html

Love, People, Making love, Sense

““Let’s waste a little time, hmm?”
“A nice euphemism, sir,” she mused distantly.
He smiled. “Come and help me think of better ones.”
She smiled and they both looked at each other.
There was a long pause.”

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, Use of Weapons (1990), Chapter IX (p. 157).

Smile, Thinking, Time, Help

“"I’m an owl; you’re another. Sir Critic, good day."
And the barber kept on shaving.”

James Thomas Fields (1817–1881) American writer and publisher

The Owl-Critic, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“Sir Walter, being strangely supprized and putt out of his countenance at so great a Table, gives his son a damned blow over the face; his son, as rude as he was, would not strike his father, but strikes over the face of the Gentleman that sate next to him, and sayed, Box about, 'twill come to my Father anon.”

John Aubrey book Brief Lives

'Tis now a common used Proverb.
"Sir Walter Raleigh"
Brief Lives

Box

“What you could do with is a nice strong cup of tea, sir. I’ll tell the kuki to make you one.’
‘Does it really do any good, Nabby? (That was better.) ‘I’ve tried every damn thing.’….”

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer

Fiction, Time for a Tiger (1956)

Strong, Tea

“Mr Mayor and gentlemen - I have great pleasure in associating myself in how ever humble and transitory manner with this great and splendid undertaking. I am glad to be associated with an enterprise which I hope will carry still further the prosperity and power of Liverpool, and which will carry down the name of Liverpool to posterity as the place where a great mechanical undertaking first found its home. Sir William Forwood has alluded to the share which this city took in the original establishment of railways. My memory does not quite carry me back to the melancholy event by which that opening was signalised, but I can remember that which presents to my mind a strange contrast with the present state of things. Almost the earliest thing I can recollect is being brought down here to my mother's house which is close in the neighbourhood, and we took two days on the road, and had to sleep half way. Comparing that with my journey yesterday I feel what an enormous distance has been traversed in the interval, and perhaps a still larger distance and a still more magnificent rate of progress will be achieved before a similar distance of time has elapsed from the present day. I will not detain you in a room where it is perhaps difficult to hear. Of all my oratorical efforts, the one which I find most difficult to achieve is that of competing with a steam engine. Occasionally you are invited to do it at railway stations, and I know distinguished statesmen who do it with effect, but I think I have never ventured to compete in that line. I will therefore, though with some fear and trembling, fulfil the injunctions of Sir William Forwood, and proceed to handle the electric machinery which is to set this line in motion. I only hope the result will be no different from what he anticipates.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

At the opening of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, 4 February 1893. Quoted in the Liverpool Echo of the same day, p. 3
1890s

Pleasure, Fear, Hope, Way

“Dear Sir Joshua, - I am just to write what I fear you will not read - after lying in a dying state for 6 months [in reality much shorter]. The extreme affection which I am informed of by a Friend which Sir Joshua has expresd induces me to beg a last favor, which is to come once under my Roof and look at my things, my woodman you never saw, if what I ask now is not disagreeable to your feeling that I may have the honour to speak to you. I can from a sincere Heart say that I always admired and sincerely loved Sir Joshua Reynolds. 'Tho. Gainsborough.”

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) English portrait and landscape painter

A last letter of Gainsborough to Sir Joshua Reynolds, End of July 1788; as cited in Thomas Gainsborough, by William T, Whitley https://ia800204.us.archive.org/6/items/thomasgainsborou00whitrich/thomasgainsborou00whitrich.pdf; New York, Charles Scribner's Sons – London, Smith, Elder & Co, Sept. 1915, p. 307 Gainsborough, on the occasion of that last visit, actually had many of his unfinished canvases brought to his bedside to show to Sir Joshua 1770 - 1788

Love, Fear, Feeling, Lying

“Depend upon it, Sir, nothing will come of them!”

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) British soldier and statesman

On the coming of the railways, in The Birth of the Modern (1991), by Paul Johnson. p. 993.

Dependency

“Killers among your kind, among my kind, are just that — the savagery of beasts mated with intelligence, or what passes for intelligence. They dwell in a murky world, sir, confuse and fearful, stained dark with envy and malice. And in the end, they die as they lived. Frightened and alone, with every memory of power revealed as illusion, as farce.”

Steven Erikson book Toll the Hounds

Toll the Hounds (2008)

World, Fear, Intelligence, Memory

“"Patriotism, sir, is the last resort of scoundrels," said Dr. Samuel Johnson. Leo Tolstoy, the greatest anti-patriot of our time, defines patriotism as the principle that will justify the training of wholesale murderers; a trade that requires better equipment in the exercise of man-killing than the making of such necessities as shoes, clothing, and houses; a trade that guarantees better returns and greater glory than that of the honest workingman.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

What is Patriotism? (1908)

Shoe, Exercises, Time, Housing

“Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning; but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing. That's my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat.”

George Eliot book Scenes of Clerical Life

" Janet's Repentance http://classiq.net/george-eliot/janets-repentance/index.html" Ch. 6 Scenes of Clerical Life (1858)

Way, Victory, Fight

“When trade is at stake, it is your last entrenchment; you must defend it, or perish…Sir, Spain knows the consequence of a war in America; whoever gains, it must prove fatal to her…is this any longer a nation? Is this any longer an English Parliament, if with more ships in your harbours than in all the navies of Europe; with above two millions of people in your American colonies, you will bear to hear of the expediency of receiving from Spain an insecure, unsatisfactory, dishonourable Convention?”

William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708–1778) British politician

Denouncing the Spanish Convention of Pardo in the House of Commons (6 March 1739), quoted in William Pitt, The Speeches of the Right Honourable the Earl of Chatham in the Houses of Lords and Commons: With a Biographical Memoir and Introductions and Explanatory Notes to the Speeches (London: Aylott & Jones, 1848), pp. 6-7.

War, People

“These widows, sir, are the most perverse creatures in the world.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 335 (25 March 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

World

“The capitalist is very fond of declaring that labour is a commodity, and the wage contract a bargain of purchase and sale like any other. But he instinctively expects his wage-earners to render him, not only obedience, but also personal deference. If the wage contract is a bargain of purchase and sale like any other, why is the workman expected to toff his hat to his employer, and to say ‘sir’ to him without reciprocity?”

Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield book Industrial Democracy

Industrial Democracy, written with Beatrice Webb (1902) 842

Personality

“Petition me no petitions, sir, to-day;
Let other hours be set apart for business.
Today it is our pleasure to be drunk;
And this our queen shall be as drunk as we.”

Henry Fielding (1707–1754) English novelist and dramatist

Act I, sc. ii
Tom Thumb the Great (1730)

Pleasure, Business

“The eye of the yeoman and peasant sought in vain the tall form of old Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, as, wrapped in his laced cloak, and with beard and whiskers duly composed, he moved slowly through the aisles, followed be the faithful mastiff, or bloodhound, which in old time had saved his master by his fidelity, and which regularly followed him to church. Bevis indeed, fell under the proverb which avers, ‘He is a good dog, which goes to church’; for, bating an occasional temptation to warble along with the accord, he behaved himself as decorously as any of the congregation, and returned much edified, perhaps, as most of them.”

Walter Scott book Woodstock

Woodstock (1826), Ch.1.

Faith, Dogs, Time

“Of course, history is only a muddle of facts and a fuddle of professors, and anyone who thinks it is one clear voice saying "Arise, sir Knight" deserves a life sentence in Camelot.”

Wilfrid Sheed (1930–2011) English-American novelist and essayist

"The Aesthetics of Politics," p. 156
Essays in Disguise (1990)

Life, History, Thinking

“Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer (slurring): [Aboard airplane] Stewardess, could you get me another drink?
Stewardess: Sorry sir, the head steward said you already had enough.
Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer: But she don't understand, I need this drink. I'm a caveman and I'm frightened by your strange flying machine, so get me another Dewars and water, pronto.
Stewardess: Sorry sir.
Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer: Listen, I'll sue you and your WHOLE CRUMMY AIRLINE!”

Phil Hartman (1948–1998) Canadian American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist

On Saturday Night Live, More Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer

Drink, Understanding, Water, Flying

“"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."”

Harry Turtledove book The Great War: American Front

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

Pain, Law, Way, Understanding

“An audience member: Question is for GG. Sir, if a woman is at your concert and chooses to leave through an exit door because she didn't realize she may be getting raped are you gonna let her leave or are you gonna rape her?”

GG Allin (1956–1993) American singer-songwriter

On The Jerry Springer Show

Question

“Sir, please do not write anything about me. I am an insignificant person. If you wish to write anything, then write about Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. That will benefit humanity.”

Swami Adbhutananda Disciple

When Sharat Chandra Chakrabarty, a disciple fo Vivekananda asked Adbhutananda for permission to write his biography.
Source: God Lived with Them, p.395

Personality

“But some years after, a letter, which he received from Dr. Hooke, put him on inquiring what was the real figure, in which a body let fall from any high place descends, taking the motion of the earth round its axis into consideration. Such a body, having the same motion, which by the revolution of the earth the place has whence it falls, is to be considered as projected forward and at the same time drawn down to the centre of the earth. This gave occasion to his resuming his former thoughts concerning the moon, and Picard in France having lately measured the earth, by using his measures the moon appeared to be kept in her orbit purely by the power of gravity; and consequently, that this power decreases, as you recede from the centre of the earth, in the manner our author had formerly conjectured. Upon this principle he found the line described by a falling body to be an ellipsis, the centie of the earth being one focus. And the primary planets moving in such orbits round the sun, he had the satisfaction to see, that this inquiry, which he had undertaken merely out of curiosity, could be applied to the greatest purposes. Hereupon he composed near a dozen propositions, relating to the motion of the primary planets about the sun. Several years after this, some discourse he had with Dr. Halley, who at Cambridge made him a visit, engaged Sir Isaac Newton to resume again the consideration of this subject; and gave occasion to his writing the treatise, which he published under the title of Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. This treatise, full of such a variety of profound inventions, was composed by him, from scarce any other materials than the few propositions before mentioned, in the space of a year and a half.”

Henry Pemberton (1694–1771) British doctor

Republished in: Stephen Peter Rigaud (1838) Historical Essay on the First Publication of Sir Newton's Principia http://books.google.com/books?id=uvMGAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA49. p. 519 Preface to View of Newton's Philosophy, (1728)

Appearance, Time, Sun

“Sirs, I address this warning to you, the aristocracy of industry in this city, because, like all aristocracies, you tend to grow blind in long authority, and to be unaware that you and your class and its every action are being considered and judged day by day by those who have power to shake or overturn the whole social order, and whose restlessness in poverty today is making our industrial civilisation stir like a quaking bog. You do not seem to realise that your assumption that you are answerable to yourselves alone for your actions in the industries you control is one that becomes less and less tolerable in a world so crowded with necessitous life.”

George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, and artistic painter

Open letter to the Masters of Dublin (1913)

Life, World

“I appeal to the contemptible speech made lately by Sir Robert Peel to an applauding House of Commons. "Orders of merit," said he, "were the proper rewards of the military" (the desolators of the world in all ages). "Men of science are better left to the applause of their own hearts." Most learned legislator! Most liberal cotton-spinner! Was your title the proper reward of military prowess? Pity, you hold not the dungeon-keys of an English Inquisition! Perhaps Science, like Creeds, would flourish best under a little persecution.”

John Joseph Griffin (1802–1877) English chemist and publisher

Chemical Recreations (7th Edition, 1834) "The Romance of Chemistry" p232

Men, Age, World, Learning

“Unidentified Congressman: Will the gentleman yield?
Norton: I will not yield, sir! The District of Columbia has spent two hundred and six years yielding!”

Eleanor Holmes Norton (1937) non-voting Delegate to to the United States Congress for the District of Columbia

During a speech before the U.S. Congress, April 19, 2007
[DC Vote, CBS Evening News, 1 June 2006]

“Dear Sir Verloren. Today I send you a drawing for your art-reviews. I would liked to have done more for you, but I have many demands for drawings from all sides and I am still very busy with paintings after my studies I made during the last trip. I hope that the drawing will be acceptable. The price is 150 guilders. I am not sure you need a title, call it just simply, 'Bij een Drentsch dorp' (At a village in Drenthe).”

Willem Roelofs (1822–1897) Dutch painter and entomologist (1822-1897)

translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek (original Dutch: citaat van Willem Roelofs, in het Nederlands:) Waarde Heer Verloren. Heden zend ik U eene teekening voor Uwe kunstbeschouwingen. Gaarne had ik méér gedaan, maar heb aan alle kanten vraag naar teekeningen en zit daarenboven nog tot over de ooren in schilderijen naar studies der laatste reis. Ik hoop dat men de teekening redelijk goed zal vinden.- De prijs is 150 guldens.- Ik weet niet of gij een titel behoeft, noem het dan maar eenvoudig, 'Bij een Drenthsch dorp'. Quote from a letter of W. Roelofs 2 Oct. 1861, to art-collector/dealer P. verloren van Themaat in Utrecht, taken from: an extract in the Dutch Archive R.K.D., The Hague https://rkd.nl/explore/excerpts/281 1860's

Hope, Art, Business, Study

“I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall out in the Middle of the Winter”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 269 (8 January 1712).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

Winter, Christmas

“I'm sorry, but I stand by my decision. I am now a member of the elite club of people that have fought a professional team mascot. You sir, are not in that club.”

Tucker Max (1975) Internet personality; blogger; author

Tucker goes to hockey game, causes trouble http://www.tuckermax.com/archives/entries/date/tucker_goes_to_hockey_game_causes_trouble.phtml#279, The Tucker Max Stories

People, Decision

“Sir Henry Wotton used to say that critics are like brushers of noblemen's clothes.”

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

No. 64
Apophthegms (1624)

Clothes

“You have the charisma of a damp rag, and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk. And the question that I want to ask, […] that we're all going to ask, is "Who are you?" I'd never heard of you. Nobody in Europe had ever heard of you. I would like to ask you, President, who voted for you, and what mechanism … oh, I know democracy's not popular with you lot, and what mechanism do the people of Europe have to remove you? Is this European democracy? Well, I sense, I sense though that you are competent and capable and dangerous, and I have no doubt in your intention, to be the quiet assassin of European democracy, and of the European nation states. You appear to have a loathing for the very concept of the existence of nation states - perhaps that's because you come from Belgium, which of course is pretty much a non-country. But since you took over, we've seen Greece reduced to nothing more than a protectorate. Sir, you have no legitimacy in this job at all, and I can say with confidence that I speak on behalf of the majority of British people in saying: We don't know you, we don't want you, and the sooner you're put out to grass, the better.”

Nigel Farage (1964) British politician and former commodity broker

Speech in the European Parliament, 24 February 2010 - Ukip's Nigel Farage tells Van Rompuy: You have the charisma of a damp rag http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/25/nigel-farage-herman-van-rompuy-damp-rag, The Guardian, 24 February 2010. 2010

People, Democracy, Confidence, Question

“Unfairness existed, it always had and it always would, and the miracle, to Sharpe's eyes, was that some men like Hill and Wellesley, though they had become wealthy and privileged through unfair advantages, were nevertheless superb at what they did. […] Sharpe did not care that Sir Arthur Wellesley was the son of an aristocrat and had purchased his way up the ladder of promotion and was as cold as a lawyer's sense of charity. The long-nosed bugger knew how to win and that was what mattered.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 234
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Havoc (2003)

Men, Way, Sense

“I like the lad who, when his father thought
To clip his morning nap by hackneyed phrase
Of vagrant worm by early songster caught,
Cried, "Served him right! — it's not at all surprising;
The worm was punished, sir, for early rising!"”

John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) American poet

"Early Rising"; compare: "The healthy-wealthy-wise affirm, That early birds obtain the worm — (The worm rose early too!)", Frederick Locker-Lampson.

“Sir Impey Biggs: Lawyers enjoy a little mystery, you know. Why, if everybody came forward and told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth straight out, we should all retire to the workhouse.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book Clouds of Witness

Clouds of Witness (1926)

Truth

“It is really mortifying, sir, when a woman possessed of a common share of understanding considers the difference of education between the male and female sex, even in those families where education is attended to… Nay why should your sex wish for such a disparity in those whom they one day intend for companions and associates. Pardon me, sir, if I cannot help sometimes suspecting that this neglect arises in some measure from an ungenerous jealousy of rivals near the throne.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

Letter to John Thaxter (15 February 1778)

Education, Jealousy, Family, Sex

“Poetry’s a mere drug, Sir.”

George Farquhar (1677–1707) Irish dramatist

Love and a Bottle (1698), Act iii, Sc. 2.

“"The ability to see what is, sir, is essential for the leader of a great nation," the British minister said. He wanted to let Lincoln down easy if he could. "I see what is, all right. I surely do," the president said. "I see that you European powers are taking advantage of this rebellion to meddle in America, the way you used to before the Monroe Doctrine warned you to keep your hands off. Napoleon props up a tin-pot emperor in Mexico, and now France and England are in cahoots"- another phrase that briefly baffled Lord Lyons- "to help the Rebels and pull us down. All right, sir." He breathed heavily. "If that's the way the game's going to be played, we aren't strong enough to prevent it now. But I warn you, Mr. Minister, we can play, too." "You are indeed a free and independent nation," Lord Lyons agreed. "You may pursue diplomacy to the full extent of your interests and abilities." "Mighty generous of you," Lincoln said with cutting irony. "And one fine day, I reckon, we'll have friends in Europe, too, friends who'll help us get back what's rightfully ours and what you've taken away." "A European power- to help you against England and France?" For the first time, Lord Lyons was undiplomatic enough to laugh. American bluster was bad enough most times, but this lunacy- "Good luck to you, Mr. President. Good luck."”

Harry Turtledove book The Great War: American Front

Source: The Great War: American Front (1998), p. 9

Way, Game, Strong, Time

““Do you realize,” he asked, “that the whole purpose of civilization is to take the surprises out of life, so one can be bored to death? That a culture in which nothing unexpected ever happens is in what is called its Golden Age? That when nobody can even imagine anything happening unexpectedly, that they later fondly refer to that period as the Good Old Days?”
“I hadn’t thought of it in just those words, sir—”
“It is one of the most-avoided facts of life,” said the ambassador. “Government, in the local or planetary sense of the word, is an organization for the suppression of adventure. Taxes are, in part, the insurance premiums one pays for protection against the unpredictable.”

Murray Leinster book The Pirates of Zan

Source: The Pirates of Zan (1959), Chapter 2

Life, Death, Age, Imagination

“There's no chance of cheering him up, sir. He likes being miserable, so he does, and the bastard will get over it.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Sergeant Patrick Harper to Lieutenant Robert Knowles, regarding Captain Sharpe's grumpy attitude, p. 9
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Gold (1981)

Chance

“Then take, good sir, your pleasure while you may;
With life so short 'twere wrong to lose a day.”

John Conington (1825–1869) British classical scholar

Dum licet, in rebus jucundis vive beatus;
Vive memor quam sis aevi brevis.
Book II, satire viii, line 96 (trans. Conington)
Translations, The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry of Horace (1869), Satires

Life, Pleasure

“This is coercion,” Bruce thundered.
The patrolman smiled. “No, sir,” he said. “This is Texas.”

Bradley Denton (1958) American science fiction author

Source: Buddy Holly is Alive and Well on Ganymede (1991), p. 173

Smile

“Somebody told me once that I couldn’t talk about religion because I wasn’t a religious man. I kept thinking for a moment because he was right about something: I am a religious spirit, but not a religious man because my mind doesn’t know about safety. Obviously, he was wrong about the rest. “Sir – I wanted to answer, not without shyness –, if Catholic priests have given marital advice since always and now they even give a sexual conduct class, why can’t an atheist teach theology?"”

Jorge Majfud (1969) Uruguayan-American writer

Critica de la pasión pura (1998)

Religion, Thinking

“When I called upon Dr. Johnson next morning, I found him highly satisfied with his colloquial prowess the preceding evening. "Well, (said he,) we had good talk." BOSWELL: "Yes, Sir, you tossed and gored several persons."”

James Boswell book The Life of Samuel Johnson

1768
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)

Personality

“What did he want? A tournament? Who does he think we are? The knights of the round bloody table? I don't know what happens to some folk. They put a sir in front of their names and their brains get addled. Fighting fair! Whoever heard of anything so daft? Fight fair and you lose.”

Bernard Cornwell The Grail Quest

Will Skeat, p. 94
The Grail Quest, The Archer's Tale/Harlequin (2000)

Thinking, Fight

“A man well-known to be a liar had just told a most improbable story. “Sir, while I believe you,” someone said, “you must admit that it's very wrong of truth not to condescend to be more plausible.””

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer

Reflections

Truth

“The south repudiates the idea that a pecuniary dependence on the federal government is one of the legitimate means of holding the states together. A moneyed interest in the government is essentially a base interest; and just so far as it operates to bind the feelings of those who are subjected to it to the government,—just so far as it operates in creating sympathies and interests that would not otherwise exist,—is it opposed to all the principles of free government, and at war with virtue and patriotism. Sir, the link which binds the public creditors, as such, to their country, binds them equally to all governments, whether arbitrary or free. In a free government, this principle of abject dependence, if extended through all the ramifications of society, must be fatal to liberty.”

Robert Hayne (1791–1839) American politician

Hayne's Speech on Mr. Foot's Resolution, January 21, 1830, page 9.

Money, War, Feeling, Idea

“I have been living a hermit-life, though always with my pencil in my hand... How much real delight have I had with the study of landscape this summer! Either I am myself improved in the art of seeing nature, which Sir Joshua call painting, or nature has unveiled her beauties to me less fastidiously. Perhaps there is something of both, so we will divide the compliment.”

John Constable (1776–1837) English Romantic painter

Quote from Constable's letter to Rev. John Fisher (22 July 1812), as quoted in Richard Friedenthal, Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock (Thames and Hudson, London, 1963), p. 40
1800s - 1810s

Life, Beauty, Art, Nature

“A later generation could have explained the miracle to Sir Frank — though explaining in terms he would not have understood. Though he knew well enough the theory of family traits and likenesses, it would have been impossible then to make him comprehend the intricacy of a chromosome which carries inside it — not merely the stereotypes of parental hair or temperament — but the secret knowledge of how to breathe, how to work the muscles to move the bones, how to grow, how to remember, how to commence the processes of thought … all the infinite number of secret "how to's" that have to be passed on for life to stay above jelly level.
A freak chromosome in Sir Frank ensured he passed on, together with these usual secrets, the secret of his individual consciousness.”

Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017) British science fiction author

Let's Be Frank (1957)

Life, Secret, Family, Knowledge

“Queen Victoria on promotion of Lionel Rothschild to peerage: "It is not only the feeling, of which she cannot divest herself, against making a person of the Jewish religion, a Peer; but she cannot think that one who owes his great wealth to contracts with foreign Governments for Loans, or to successful speculation on the Stock Exchange, can fairly claim a British Peerage. However high Sir L. Rothschild may stand personally in public estimation, this seems to her not less a species of gambling because it is on a gigantic scale and far removed from that legitimate trading which she delights to honour, in which men have raised themselves by patient industry and unswerving probity to positions of wealth and influence."”

Victoria of the United Kingdom (1819–1901) British monarch who reigned 1837–1901

Gentile folly: the Rothschilds, by Arnold Leese.

Men, Religion, Feeling, Thinking

“This unasked-for jollity in the middle of an English afternoon left Sir Henry shivering with a red passion, his face a crumpled tissue on which a lobster might well have wiped its bottom.”

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

Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1978)

Passion

“Dancing begets warmth, which is the parent of wantonness. It is, Sir, the great grandfather of cuckoldom.”

Henry Fielding Love in Several Masques

Act III, sc. vii
Love in Several Masques (1728)

Parent, Dance

“I've lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing Proofs I see of this Truth — That God governs in the Affairs of Men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that except the Lord build the House they labor in vain who build it. I firmly believe this, — and I also believe that without his concurring Aid, we shall succeed in this political Building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our Projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a Reproach and Bye word down to future Ages.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

Speech to the Constitutional Convention (28 June 1787); Manuscript notes by Franklin preserved in the Library of Congress http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/vc006642.jpg Constitutional Convention of 1787

Men, God, Truth, Age

“"Why do they call them vaulters?" "Vaulters?" "Voltigeur, Sharpe. French for vaulter." "God knows, sir." "Because the jump like fleas, sir, when you shoot at them. But don't worry yourself about that one, sir. He's a good voltigeur, that one. He's dead."”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Colonel Claud Runciman, Captain Richard Sharpe, and Sergeant Patrick Harper, p. 331
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Battle (1995)

God, Dead

“Sir Henry Wotton was a most dear lover and a frequent practiser of the Art of Angling; of which he would say, "'T was an employment for his idle time, which was then not idly spent, a rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of contentedness;" and "that it begat habits of peace and patience in those that professed and practised it."”

Izaak Walton book The Compleat Angler

Part I, ch. 1.
The Compleat Angler (1653-1655)

Sadness, Peace, Art, Lovers

“I remember about 1660 there was a great difference between him and Sir Hierome Sanchy, one of Oliver's knights…The Knight had been a Soldier, and challenged Sir William to fight with him. Sir William is extremely short sighted, and being the challengee it belonged to him to nominate place and weapon. He nominates, for the place, a darke Cellar, and the weapon to be a great Carpenter's Axe. This turned the knight's challenge into Ridicule, and so it came to nought.”

John Aubrey book Brief Lives

"Sir William Petty"
Brief Lives

Fight

“"Your name is John Coffey."
"Yes, sir, boss, like the drink only not spelled the same way."”

Stephen King book The Green Mile

The Green Mile (1996)

Way, Drink

“My God, but I command King Ferdinand's guard and-" "And King Ferdinand, sir, is a prisoner! Which does not speak, sir, for the efficacy of his guard.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Lord Kiely and Major General Arthur Wellesley, p. 218
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Battle (1995)

God

“I do not know, sir, that the fellow is an infidel; but if he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to say, he has never thought upon the subject.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

1769
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Life of Johnson (Boswell)

Dogs

“I have forborne, sir, in this discussion, to argue the question upon any other or different grounds of right than those adopted by your authorities, in claiming the negroes as property, because I understand that your fabric of opposition to the Government of the United States has the right of property in man as its corner-stone.”

Benjamin Butler (politician) (1818–1893) Union Army general, lawyer, politician

As quoted in Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benj. F. Butler (1892), p. 604

Understanding, Question

“If you take five white guys and put 'em with five black guys, and let 'em hang around together for about a month, and at the end of the month, you'll notice that the white guys are walking and talking and standing like the black guys do. You'll never see the black guys going, "Oh, golly! We won the big game today, yes sir!"”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

But you'll see guys with red hair named Duffy going, "What's happenin'?"
Occupation: Foole (1973)

Guy, Game

“Sir Amice Pawlet, when he saw too much haste made in any matter, was wont to say. "Stay a while, that we may make an end the sooner."”

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

No. 76
Apophthegms (1624)

““Thanks, awfully,” said Thomas. “Now… uh… what do I owe you for this?”
Finney’s reaction made him feel as if he had uttered some indecency. “Don’t mention payment, my son! Money is wrong—it’s the means whereby man enslaves his brother.”
“I beg your pardon, sir,” Thomas apologized sincerely. “Nevertheless, I wish there were some way for me to do something for you.”
“That is another matter. Help your brother when you can, and help will come to you when you need it.””

Robert A. Heinlein book Sixth Column

Source: Sixth Column (1949; originally serialized in 1941), Chapter 2 (pp. 24-25)

Money, Way, Feeling, Help

“A physician, after he had felt the pulse of Pausanias, and considered his constitution, saying, "He ails nothing," "It is because, sir," he replied, "I use none of your physic."”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Of Pausanias the Son of Phistoanax
Laconic Apophthegms

“Dear Sir, - I have truly, I must say, written three times, and now hesitate; for did I know your son's works, or, as you say, his gifted merits yet even then I would rather advise you to think well, and not be carried away by the admiration which any friendly hopes (which ardent friends to early talent) may assume: they know not the difficulties or the necessities of the culture of the Fine Arts generally speaking. In regard to yourself, it is you alone can judge how far you are inclined to support him during perhaps a long period of expense; and particularly if you look towards tuition, the more so; for it cannot insure success (however much it may facilitate practice), and therefore it behooves you to weigh well the means in your power before you embark in a profession which requires more care, assiduity, and perseverance than any person can guarantee.”

J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) British Romantic landscape painter, water-colourist, and printmaker

Quote from Turner's letter 4 Dec. 1848 to James Astbury Hammersley; as cited in The life of J.M.W. Turner, Volume II, George Walter Thornbury; Hurst and Blackett Publishers, London, 1862, pp. 115-16
James Astbury Hammersley, himself an artist and art-teacher, wrote Turner to ask him to give his son further instructions in painting
1821 - 1851

Hope, Art, Support, Thinking

“Issue the orders Sir, and I will storm Hell.”

Anthony Wayne (1745–1796) Continental Army general

when asked by General George Washington if he would undertake the capture of Stony Point
Attributed

Hell

“Accustom him to everything, that he may not be a Sir Paris, a carpet-knight, 5 but a sinewy, hardy, and vigorous young man.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book I, Ch. 15. Of the Education of Children
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“"I assume I'm expendable, sir." "You're a soldier, aren't you? Of course you're expendable!" Sharpe was still smiling. He was a soldier, and a lady needed recuing, and was that not what soldiers throughout history had done?”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Captain Richard Sharpe and Major General Nairn, p. 49
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Enemy (1984)

Smile, History

“Jim?”
“Yes, Dad.”
“What’s this about leaving your gun where the baby could reach it?”
Jim flushed. “It wasn’t charged, Dad.”
“If all the people who had been killed with unloaded guns were laid end to end it would make quite a line up. You are proud of being a licensed gun wearer, aren’t you?
“Uh, yes, sir.”
“And I’m proud to have you be one. It means you are a responsible, trusted adult. But when I sponsored you before the Council and stood up with you when you took your oath, I guaranteed that you would obey the regulations and follow the code, wholeheartedly and all the time—not just most of the time. Understand me?”

Robert A. Heinlein book Red Planet

“Yes, sir. I think I do.”
Source: Red Planet (1949), Chapter 2, “South Colony, Mars”, pp. 16-17

People, Understanding, Thinking, Time

“Uxbridge: By God, sir, I've lost my leg!
Wellington: By God, sir, so you have!”

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) British soldier and statesman

Exchange said to have occurred at the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), after Lord Uxbridge lost his leg to a cannonball; as quoted in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
Variant account:
Uxbridge: I have lost my leg, by God!
Wellington: By God, and have you!
Thomas Hardy, in The Dynasts, Pt. III Act VII, scene viii, portraying the incident.

God

“…as I felt my way along the wall I collided with what turned out to be a grandfather clock, for the existence of which I had not budgeted, and it toppled over with a sound like the delivery of several tons of coal through the roof of a conservatory. Glass crashed, pulleys and things parted from their moorings, and as I stood trying to separate my heart from the front teeth in which it had become entangled, the lights flashed on and I beheld Sir Watkyn Bassett.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963)

Way, Light, Heart, Parting

“You may be abandoned by Satan, Sir, and I abandoned by God, but that does not put us in the same cart, nor even upon the same road.”

Michael Moorcock book The City in the Autumn Stars

Source: The City in the Autumn Stars (1986), Chapter 17 (p. 406)

God

“We have to level the ground, Sir, because God didn't think of gunners when he made the world. He made too many lumps and not enough smooth spots. But we're very good at improving His handiwork, sir.”

Bernard Cornwell (1944) British writer

Lieutenant Pelletieu, French Artillery, p. 153
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Havoc (2003)

God, World, Thinking

“The Federal commissioners sat down across the mahogany table from their Southern hosts. After a couple of minutes of chitchat meant to be polite- but during which the three Confederates managed to avoid speaking directly to Butler- Seward said, "Gentlemen, shall we attempt to repair the unpleasantness that lies between our two governments?" "Had you acknowledged from the outset that this land contained to governments, sir, all the unpleasantness, as you call it, would have been avoided," Alexander Stephens pointed out. Like his body, his voice was light and thin. "That may be true, but it's moot now," Stanton said. "Let's deal with the situation as we have it, shall we? Otherwise useless recriminations will take up all our time and lead us nowhere. It was, if I may say so, useless recriminations on both sides that led to the breach between North and South."”

Harry Turtledove book The Guns of the South

Source: The Guns of the South (1992), p. 226

Light, Time

“For all his understanding of worldly concerns, when it came to fathoming the deeper meaning of his own furious activity, Sir Bob displayed the sort of laziness for which he himself had no patience in others. He appeared to have only a passing interest in the overall purpose of his financial accumulation.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (2009), p. 288.

Understanding, Appearance, Patience

“What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. Now, it must be evident, that, under this provision, together with their other powers, Congress could take such measures with respect to a militia, as to make a standing army necessary. Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.”

Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814) US diplomat and vice president; Massachusetts governor

House of Representatives, Amendments to the Constitution, 17, 20 Aug. 1789 http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendIIs6.html

People

“One event has been adduced in evidence of the uncertainty of his condition, which ought to excite interest in his behalf. He parted from his wife in 1779, because she would not agree to join him in converting some landed property into money, for the sale of which her consent was required by law. The property was worth, it is said, little more than four hundred pounds. Mrs. Arkwright entertained a high esteem for her husband, and always spoke of him with respect; yet she preferred separating from him, to the chance of being beggared by placing her dowry in so precarious a concern as she then thought the water-spinning frame to be. For some years after this event she lived altogether upon her own means. Mr. Arkwright was justly indignant at this want of sympathy in one so nearly related to him, and in consequence allowed her only thirty pounds a year, out of his own pocket, even when he had realized great opulence. These particulars are given by Mr. Guest on the authority of Sir Richard Arkwright’s niece, probably a disappointed and prejudiced person”

Andrew Ure (1778–1857) Scottish doctor and chemist

Source: The Cotton Manufacture of Great Britain, 1836, p. 234

Money, Law, Disappointment, Water

“We know that England is crying for a leader, and that leader has emerged in the person of the greatest Englishman I have ever known, Sir Oswald Mosley … When the history of Europe comes to be written I can assure you that his name will not be second to either Mussolini or Hitler.”

William Joyce (1906–1946) British fascist and propaganda broadcaster

Frederic Mullally, Fascism inside England (Claud Morris Books, 1946), p. 15
Speech at Brighton, March 1934.

History, Personality, Cry

“I observe you have thought proper to insert the last number of the Philosophical Magazine your opinion that my attempts at the safety tubes and apertures were borrowed from what I have heard of Sir Humphrey Davy's researches. The principles upon which a safety lamp might be constructed I stated to several persons long before Sir Humphrey Davy came into this part of the country. The plan of such a lamp was seen by several and the lamp itself was in the hands of the manufacturers during the time he was here.”

George Stephenson (1781–1848) English civil engineer and mechanical engineer

Letter published in The Philosophical Magazine (1817-03-13)

Time, Parting, Personality, Country

“… Why, I'll swear I see no difference between a country gentleman and a sirloin; whenever the first laughs, or the latter is cut, there run out just the same streams of gravy! … Oh! my dear Sir, don't you find that nine parts in ten of the world are of no use but to make you wish yourself with that tenth part? …”

Horace Walpole (1717–1797) English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician

Letter to John Chute, from Houghton, 20 Aug. 1743 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t5p84vt55;view=1up;seq=425, p. 265, The Letter of Horace Walpole, ed. P. Cunnighham, vol. 1

World, Parting, Country

“"Sir!" she checked him. "I think you are talking treason."
"I hope I am not obscure," said he.”

Rafael Sabatini book Captain Blood

Source: Captain Blood (1922), Ch. V: "Arabella Bishop"

Hope, Thinking

Quotes about sir page 7

Quotes about sir
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