Quotes about someone
page 29

Neil Young photo
Bon Scott photo
Connie Willis photo
Georges Braque photo
Pat Condell photo

“But just because I believe that religion is a cynical perversion of the human spirit that exists purely for the benefit of the parasites we know as clergy, doesn't mean I'm not looking for answers to the big questions just like everybody else — you know, the questions that religion pretends it has answers to, because it knows that for some people, anyone answer is better than no answer at all. Questions like, Why are we here? Where did we come from? Where are we going?…Is there an afterlife, and if so, is it fully licensed for alcoholic drinks? That last bit may seem like a trivial concern to you, but not to me, because I live in a society where many people enjoy a social drink from time to time — not a huge amount, just enough to kill a horse. And in these enlightened days of the twenty-first century, when everyone's human rights and cultural identity are so very important, I don't see why I should have to abandon my culture, just because I'm dead. It's only the afterlife, not Saudi Arabia. Let's keep things in perspective. Of course in reality, we know that there will be beer in heaven, and lots of it, otherwise it wouldn't be heaven, would it? It's almost not even worth pointing that out, but I thought I would anyway, just in case someone wants to take the opportunity to be offended.”

Pat Condell (1949) Stand-up comedian, writer, and Internet personality

"God is not enough" (23 May 2008) http://youtube.com/watch?v=1czXvHSjDac&feature=related)
2008

George Carlin photo
Tsunetomo Yamamoto photo
Francis Escudero photo
Norman Angell photo
Joseph Alois Schumpeter photo
Tad Williams photo
Daniel Radcliffe photo
Burkard Schliessmann photo
Jacques Ellul photo
Anthony Watts photo
Pat Sajak photo

“I would be surprised… if someone at CBS wasn't thinking that eventually Johnny's gonna retire and if we have somebody in place, we'll be in good shape.”

Pat Sajak (1946) American television host

1980s-1990s
Source: Newsweek, Vol. 113 (1989), p. 138: Article states that "It's in the network's interest to get some kind of talk show going."

Barbara Stanwyck photo

“I'm a tough old broad from Brooklyn. Don't try to make me into something I'm not. If you want someone to tiptoe down the Barkley staircase in crinoline and politely ask where the cattle went, get another girl.”

Barbara Stanwyck (1907–1990) American actress

Quoted in Gary A. Yoggy, Back in the saddle: essays on Western film and television actors (1998), Page 122 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pLbMzGDhTOIC&pg=PA122&dq=%22%22tough+old+broad+from+Brooklyn%22%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=43MyT7SXD6Lc4QTqxMCEBQ&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22%22tough%20old%20broad%20from%20Brooklyn%22%22&f=false

Henry Rollins photo

“Someone who would go across a desert that can kill you, to get to another country? You want to be an American *that* bad? 'Cause I've never had to lift my damn finger to be an American. I'm honored to share a country with you.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Interview with Pharrel Williams for the Reserve Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTekl1AFNm4&t=41s at youtube.com

Richard Stallman photo

“The use of “hacker” to mean “security breaker” is a confusion on the part of the mass media. We hackers refuse to recognize that meaning, and continue using the word to mean someone who loves to program, someone who enjoys playful cleverness, or the combination of the two.”

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

"The GNU Project", originally published in Open Sources (1998) http://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html
1990s

Sören Kierkegaard photo
Ben Carson photo

“When someone is being particularly mean and nasty, I simply think to myself, He or she used to be a cute little baby, I wonder what happened?”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: One Nation (2014), Ch. 2: 'Political Correctness'

Huston Smith photo
Megyn Kelly photo
Alain de Botton photo
Elizabeth Taylor photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
Donald J. Trump photo
James Taylor photo
Jim Butcher photo
Daniel Dennett photo
Karl Kraus photo

“When someone has behaved like an animal, he says: "I'm only human!" But when he is treated like an animal, he says: "I'm human, too!"”

Karl Kraus (1874–1936) Czech playwright and publicist

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

“Now this structure of hope (among other things) is also what distinguishes philosophy from the special sciences. There is a relationship with the object that is different in principle in the two cases. The question of the special sciences is in principle ultimately answerable, or, at least, it is not un-answerable. It can be said, in a final way (or some day, one will be able to say in a final way) what is the cause, say, of this particular infectious disease. It is in principle possible that one day someone will say, "It is now scientifically proven that such and such is the case, and no otherwise." But […] a philosophical question can never be finally, conclusively answered. […] The object of philosophy is given to the philosopher on the basis of a hope. This is where Dilthey's words make sense: "The demands on the philosophizing person cannot be satisfied. A physicist is an agreeable entity, useful for himself and others; a philosopher, like the saint, only exists as an ideal." It is in the nature of the special sciences to emerge from a state of wonder to the extent that they reach "results." But the philosopher does not emerge from wonder.
Here is at once the limit and the measure of science, as well as the great value, and great doubtfulness, of philosophy. Certainly, in itself it is a "greater" thing to dwell "under the stars."”

Josef Pieper (1904–1997) German philosopher

But man is not made to live "out there" permanently! Certainly, it is a more valuable question, as such, to ask about the whole world and the ultimate nature of things. But the answer is not as easily forthcoming as for the special sciences!
The Dilthey quote is from Briefwechsel zwischen Wilhelm Dilthey und dem Grafen Paul Yorck v. Wartenberg, 1877–1897 (Hall/Salle, 1923), p. 39.
Source: Leisure, the Basis of Culture (1948), The Philosophical Act, pp. 109–111

Herbert A. Simon photo
Carol J. Adams photo

“In ontologizing women and animals as objects, our language simultaneously eliminates the fact that someone else is acting as a subject/agent/perpetrator of violence.”

Carol J. Adams (1951) author, animal rights activist

“Ecofeminism and the Eating of Animals”, in Ecological Feminist Philosophies, edited by Karen J. Warren (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), p. 125.

“Someone [on the staff of The Times] had invented a game – a competition with a small prize for the winner – to see who could write the dullest headline. It had to be a genuine headline, that is to say one which was actually printed in the next morning's newspaper. I won it only once with a headline which announced: "Small Earthquake in Chile. Not many dead."”

Claud Cockburn (1904–1981) Irish journalist

Page 139
No such headline has ever been found in The Times at the period in question (the spring and summer of 1929), though one paragraph reads "An earthquake was felt yesterday between Illapel, to the north, and Talca, to the south, in Chile. No damage was done." (August 6, 1929). Source: The Quote... Unquote Newsletter (October, 2000) pp. 2-3.
A Discord of Trumpets (1956)

Daniel Handler photo
Clarence Thomas photo
Billy Joel photo

“Late at night
When it's dark and cold
I reach out
For someone to hold
When I'm blue
When I'm lonely
She comes through
She's the only one who can
My baby grand
Is all I need.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

Baby Grand (sung with Ray Charles).
Song lyrics, The Bridge (1986)

Tim O'Brien photo

“If he suddenly falls in love with someone else, a husband may not start wanting a divorce; but if he suddenly makes a lot of money, he usually will.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Yanis Varoufakis photo
Victor Davis Hanson photo
Thomas Aquinas photo

“I am in this same river. I can't much help it. I admit it: I'm racist. The other night I saw a group (or maybe a pack?) or white teenagers standing in a vacant lot, clustered around a 4x4, and I crossed the street to avoid them; had they been black, I probably would have taken another street entirely. And I'm misogynistic. I admit that, too. I'm a shitty cook, and a worse house cleaner, probably in great measure because I've internalized the notion that these are woman's work. Of course, I never admit that's why I don't do them: I always say I just don't much enjoy those activities (which is true enough; and it's true enough also that many women don't enjoy them either), and in any case, I've got better things to do, like write books and teach classes where I feel morally superior to pimps. And naturally I value money over life. Why else would I own a computer with a hard drive put together in Thailand by women dying of job-induced cancer? Why else would I own shirts made in a sweatshop in Bangladesh, and shoes put together in Mexico? The truth is that, although many of my best friends are people of color (as the cliche goes), and other of my best friends are women, I am part of this river: I benefit from the exploitation of others, and I do not much want to sacrifice this privilege. I am, after all, civilized, and have gained a taste for "comforts and elegancies" which can be gained only through the coercion of slavery. The truth is that like most others who benefit from this deep and broad river, I would probably rather die (and maybe even kill, or better, have someone kill for me) than trade places with the men, women, and children who made my computer, my shirt, my shoes.”

Source: The Culture of Make Believe (2003), p. 69

Jim Carrey photo
Pope Benedict XVI photo

“Celibacy is not a matter of compulsion. Someone is accepted as a priest only when he does it of his own accord.”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

from "Salt of the Earth: Christianity and the Catholic Church at the end of the Millennium: An interview with Peter Seewald," by Ratzinger, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997
1990s

Madonna photo

“Publicly humiliating someone for your own gain will only come and haunt you. God’s going to have his revenge.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Madonna Interview : Q Magazine, Q, 2003-04-01 http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-library/madonna-interview-q-magazine-april-2003,

Joanna MacGregor photo
Joe Strummer photo

“[T]he toughest thing is facing yourself. Being honest with yourself, that's much tougher than beating someone up. That's what I call tough.”

Joe Strummer (1952–2002) British musician, singer, actor and songwriter

As quoted in [Coon, Caroline, w:en:Caroline Coon, 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion, http://homepage.mac.com/blackmarketclash/Bands/Clash/Clash%20gigography/1976%20DATES.html, 2011-09-21, 1977, Hawthorn, London, 0801561299., 79262599, http://web.archive.org/20071026052834/homepage.mac.com/blackmarketclash/Bands/Clash/Clash%20gigography/1976%20DATES.html, 2007-10-26]

J.M. Coetzee photo
Sammy Cahn photo

“When somebody loves you
It's no good unless he loves you - all the way
Happy to be near you
When you need someone to cheer you - all the way.”

Sammy Cahn (1913–1993) American lyricist, songwriter, musician

All the Way (1957)
Song lyrics

Jimmy Kimmel photo
Harry Emerson Fosdick photo

“The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.”

Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American pastor

Elbert Hubbard, as quoted in The Treasury of Humorous Quotations (1951) by Evan Esar, p. 103
Misattributed

Gastón Gaudio photo

“I think maybe you should ask someone else. Don't ask me.”

Gastón Gaudio (1978) Argentine tennis player

When asked how one could stop Federer winning his third straight Masters Cup title
Source: [Gaston Gaudio press conference losing to Roger Federer, http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=18619, ASAP Sports, 2005-11-19]

Errol Morris photo
Otis Redding photo

“You call me Mr. Pitiful;
Baby that's my name now, oh.
They call me Mr. Pitiful;
That's how I got my fame.
But people just don`t understand, now
What makes a man feel so blue, now
Ooh, they call me Mr. Pitiful;
Cause I lost someone just like you, now.”

Otis Redding (1941–1967) American singer, songwriter and record producer

Mr. Pitiful, co-written with Steve Cropper.
Song lyrics, The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads (1965)

Knut Hamsun photo

“In old age… we are like a batch of letters that someone has sent. We are no longer in the past, we have arrived.”

Knut Hamsun (1859–1952) Norwegian novelist and Nobel Prize recipient

Wanderers (1909)

Salma Hayek photo

“It's very easy to feel someone's pain when you love them.”

Salma Hayek (1966) Mexican-American actress and producer

"Conversation with Salma Hayek" (2002)

Michael Elmore-Meegan photo

“Today we can change the future for someone, we have only to act.”

Michael Elmore-Meegan (1959) British humanitarian

Surprised by Joy

Cassandra Clare photo
Phil Brooks photo

“Before you cut me off, Raven, the reason I hate you, the reason in my heart of hearts why I hate you, is I did not know any better when I was a little kid. When my dad came home smelling like beer. I thought it was a hard day’s work he was doing. I did not realize he was out at a bar. I did not realize ‘work’ meant ‘unemployment office.’ I did not think it was strange for someone to come home and take an Old Style up into the shower. I did not think it was strange for somebody to pass out. I thought an Old Style, a pack a day, was the norm. Raven, my father is exactly like you. Since day one of Ring of Honor, where fighting spirit is supposed to be revered, things are not supposed to be this way! I’d shake your hand like a normal man, but the thing is, I don’t respect you! I hate you! I hate you for everything you have pissed away! Everything I have scrapped and clawed for that I haven’t even earned yet! That you got handed to you and you flushed down the toilet! For what? For pills? For booze? For alcohol? For women? I’m born of your poison society. So, on the seventeenth of July, I will become a monster to fight the monsters of the world! Your time in Ring of Honor will be done. That is a promise. This is true! This is real! This is straight edge!”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

Ring of Honor: WrestleRave '03. June 28th, 2003.
Promo aimed at Raven after a tag team match with Colt Cabana against Raven and Christopher Daniels
Ring of Honor

Jonathan Mitchell photo
Nicholas Sparks photo
Thom Yorke photo
Simone Weil photo
Jane Roberts photo
Cesare Pavese photo

“I thought of how many places there are in the world that belong in this way to someone, who has it in his blood beyond anyone else's understanding.”

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

Source: The devil in the hills (1949), Chapter 9, p. 319

Warren Farrell photo
W. H. Auden photo
Tom Stoppard photo

“The task that lies before me is daunting and the rewards are uncertain. I should probably let someone else do it.”

John S. Hall (1960) Poet, author, singer, lawyer

June 15
Quotes from Daily Negations (2007)

Alija Izetbegović photo
Karl Kraus photo

“Many women would like to dream with men without sleeping with them. Someone should point out to them that this is utterly impossible.”

Karl Kraus (1874–1936) Czech playwright and publicist

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Isaac Asimov photo

“[In response to this question by Bill Moyers: What do you see happening to the idea of dignity to human species if this population growth continues at its present rate? ] "It's going to destroy it all. I use what I call my bathroom metaphor. If two people live in an apartment, and there are two bathrooms, then both have what I call freedom of the bathroom, go to the bathroom any time you want, and stay as long as you want to for whatever you need. And this to my way is ideal. And everyone believes in the freedom of the bathroom. It should be right there in the Constitution. But if you have 20 people in the apartment and two bathrooms, no matter how much every person believes in freedom of the bathroom, there is no such thing. You have to set up, you have to set up times for each person, you have to bang at the door, aren't you through yet, and so on. And in the same way, democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people onto the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Interview by Bill Moyers on Bill Moyers' World Of Ideas (17 October 1988); transcript http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/print/pdfs/woi%20asimov1.pdf (page 6) - audio (20:12) http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/media_players/asimovwoi_audio.html
General sources

Andy Kessler photo

“When someone pukes up a stock, it's not hard to miss. Mispriced securities all over the table. And we are there with a barf bag, collecting all we can.”

Andy Kessler (1958) American writer

Part I, Raising Funds, Making Your Month, p. 33.
Running Money (2004) First Edition

“My experience of the original Edison phonograph goes back to the period when it was first introduced into this country. In fact, I have good reason to believe that I was among the very first persons in London to make a vocal record, though I never received a copy of it, and if I did it got lost long ago. It must have been in 1881 or 1882, and the place where the deed was done was on the first floor of a shop in Hatton Garden, where I had been invited to listen to the wonderful new invention. To begin with, I heard pieces both in song and speech produced by the friction of a needle against a revolving cylinder, or spool, fixed in what looked like a musical box. It sounded to my ear like someone singing about half a mile away, or talking at the other end of a big hall; but the effect was rather pleasant, save for a peculiar nasal quality wholly due to the mechanism, though there was little of the scratching which later was a prominent feature of the flat disc. Recording for that primitive machine was a comparatively simple matter. I had to keep my mouth about six inches away from the horn and remember not to make my voice too loud if I wanted anything approximating to a clear reproduction; that was all. When it was played over to me and I heard my own voice for the first time, one or two friends who were present said that it sounded rather like mine; others declared that they would never have recognised it. I daresay both opinions were correct.”

Herman Klein (1856–1934) British musical critic journalist and singing teacher

The Gramophone magazine, December 1933

Larry Wall photo

“If someone stinks, view it as a reason to help them, not a reason to avoid them.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[199702111730.JAA28598@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997

Harry Browne photo
Mark Zuckerberg photo
Boyd K. Packer photo
Jacob M. Appel photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Paul Oakenfold photo
Jesse Ventura photo
Kathy Ireland photo
Garry Kasparov photo

“It's not common, in our age, for someone to retire while still at the top, but I'm a man who needs a goal, and who wants to make a difference.”

Garry Kasparov (1963) former chess world champion

Source: 2010s, Winter is Coming (2015), p. 136