Quotes about someone
page 45

“At the age of nine I found it a weird concept that someone is here one day and not the next. I didn’t understand what that truly meant. It was so big. I’d never heard of murders in London before then. A little kid running around with your packed lunch and your superheroes.”

John Boyega (1992) British Nigerian actor

On the murder of his childhood friend Damilola Taylor in “John Boyega: I've met Americans who don't know black people live in London” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/05/john-boyega-ive-met-americans-who-dont-know-black-people-live-in-london in The Guardian (2019 Dec 5)

Age, Understanding

“It’s funny, when you use tiny sums of money, like when I started off, actually, it is equally as hard, because that money is someone’s money. It’s not a corporation, not a company, you have taken that money from friends or family, however you have raised it. It’s a funny thing coming up through filmmaking that way, it really makes you be responsible and to really appreciate the money that people are putting it.”

Johannes Roberts (1976) British film director

Interview – Johannes Roberts https://crypticrock.com/interview-johannes-roberts/ (March 7, 2018)

Money, People, Making love, Family

“I think that I painted an accurate picture of what life was like for someone like Billy forty years ago. Looking back, maybe I was not as sympathetic as I could have been to some of the adult characters.”

Barry Hines (1939–2016) British author

On A Kestrel for a Knave
Barry Hines Interview: Homecoming Hero

Life, Thinking, Painting

“All governments behave like any other instrument of war and terror. A gun doesn’t change it nature. When it is aimed at someone you fear or dislike, you will praise the importance of guns. When the gun is aimed at you, you will call for help against those who use guns.”

Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) American libertarian businessman

Source: A Way to Be Free: The Autobiography of Robert LeFevre, Volume I, (1999), p. 136

War, Fear, Nature, Change

“I’m bringing it up because it’s just an arbitrary example of a cycle that it seems like our culture repeats about once a week: somebody makes a joke, some people are offended by the joke, and other people are indignant about the fact that those people are offended. The cycle usually gets framed as a battle in a culture war that’s supposedly going on between generation snowflake, easily triggered, humorless PC cucks, and badass, edgy, nothing-off-limits free-speech truth tellers. Now if this really is a culture war between two sides, then I am a double agent, because I’m a generation snowflake PC cuck who loves dank edgy memes, and I’ve found myself on both sides of this type of conflict many, many times. So on the one hand, when I see the internet roasting a comedian for some shitty trans joke my inner snowflake wants to watch the bastard burn. But my inner edgelady knows how it feels to be dragged across Twitter over a joke. And as someone who basically writes jokes about controversial topics for a living, I appreciate how difficult it is to maintain the mildly sadomasochistic character of comedy while also keeping your moral compass from getting too jittery.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), The Darkness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtj7LDYaufM (2019)

Love, War, People, Truth

“So basically what I think is that in a free society, different people will have lots of different sexual lifestyles. Some people will want to settle down and get married, and that’s fine. Some people will wanna have a fucking baby, and that’s also fine—someone needs to have the fucking babies. But some people won’t want to do that: some people will wanna dip their balls in hot wax and pour wolf’s milk all over a stranger’s face, and that’s fine, too. Some people won’t want to have sex or romantic relationships. Point is, all these things carry emotional risks: you’ve got heartbreak, loneliness, excruciating boredom—this is just the human condition. And no matter what you do, you have to take emotional risks. But as a society, we could make sex less risky for women by ending rape culture and slut-shaming, and instituting all-you-can-eat birth control. Hence, you know, feminism. And there are also things that we can do as individuals to be safer, kinder, and more responsible. If you do choose to have casual sex, things are gonna go a lot better for you and your partners if you try to remain honest, open and communicative about what your intentions are. And for God’s sake, use a condom—do not get pregnant or get anyone else pregnant. That’s a real downer, this… echoing God’s act of creation by bringing new life into the world. It’s disgusting!”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), Is Casual Sex Bad for Your Soul? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKrbvLkbHu8 (2017)

Life, Women, God, People

“Luis Valdez said it long ago: The beauty and the frustration of theater is it is one permanent long shot…You never get up close in someone’s eyes. And that kind of blew me away (while shooting) a close-up. That was all new storytelling for me, and I had to figure it out on a very fast learning curve.”

Richard Montoya (1959) actor

On how he transitioned into filmmaking in “Culture Clash’s Richard Montoya becomes a movie multitasker” https://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/movies-news-reviews/article18414926.html in The Sacramento Bee (2015 Apr 13)

Beauty, Learning

“Certain actual sleeping pills cause retrograde amnesia. It can be true that, if I take such a pill, I shall remain awake for an hour, but after my night’s sleep I shall have no memories of the second half of this hour. I have in fact taken such pills, and found out what the results are like. Suppose that I took such a pill nearly an hour ago. The person who wakes up in my bed tomorrow will not be psychologically continuous with me as I was half an hour ago. I am now on psychological branch-line, which will end soon when I fall asleep. During this half-hour, I am psychologically continuous with myself in the past. But I am not now psychologically continuous with myself in the future. I shall never later remember what I do or think or feel during this half-hour. This means that, in some respects, my relation to myself tomorrow is like a relation to another person. Suppose, for instance, that I have been worrying about some practical question. I now see the solution. Since it is clear what I should do, I form a firm intention. In the rest of my life, it would be enough to form this intention. But, when I am no this psychological branch-line, this is not enough. I shall not later remember what I have now decided, and I shall not wake up with the intention that I have now formed. I must therefore communicate with myself tomorrow as if I was communicating with someone else. I must write myself a letter, describing my decision, and my new intention. I must then place this letter where I am bound to notice it tomorrow. I do not in fact have any memories of making such a decision, and writing such a letter. But I did once find such a letter underneath my razor.”

Derek Parfit book Reasons and Persons

Source: Reasons and Persons (1984), pp. 287-288

Life, Making love, Feeling, Communication

“He thinks he’s a liberal, he’s generally on our side, but he’s also ex-military, and he falls for the national security gambit every time someone plays it. Star Wars. Stealth anything. Talk about burning the flag and he gets all choked up. Funny, so many of these guys think the country stands for the flag instead of the other way around. So long as Old Glory’s whipping in the breeze, it’s okay to deal guns to kids and cheat on your taxes.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: The Fresco (2000), Chapter 39, p. 283

War, Way, Guy, Star

“I was born in Havana and my family left when I was five-and-a-half. I remember the transition and some memories of being in Havana. I tried to analyze this and I think all exiles who have to leave a country you love, develop a profound nostalgia for where you were born but can no longer be there – like an impossible love. You protect those memories and don’t take them for granted. It’s different for someone who grew up and still lives in the same city because they do take their memories for granted. For me, I’m very nostalgic – not only about my time in Havana, but my 30 years in Miami Beach. All those memories are pretty vivid and I guard and cherish them. I also use those recollections in my work.”

Andy García (1956) American actor and director

On how he’s nostalgic about Cuba in “Andy Garcia Interview - Up Close And Personal” https://www.lasplash.com/publish/Celebrity_Talk_102/Andy_Garcia_Interview_-_Up_Close_And_Personal.php in Splash Magazines

Love, Making love, Family, Thinking

“The world of the favela today is much more cruel than when I was growing up there or even as I show it in my book…If I were to write about the way things are today, I would start the book with a pile of rubber tires, gasoline and someone being burned alive.”

Paulo Lins (1958) Brazilian author

On how the favela has changed since his time in “THE SATURDAY PROFILE; Out of the Slums of Rio, an Author Finds Fame” https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/26/world/the-saturday-profile-out-of-the-slums-of-rio-an-author-finds-fame.html in The New York Times (2003 Apr 26)

Books, World, Way

“I wanted to put presence into absence. I was very frustrated that black British women weren’t visible in literature. I whittled it down to 12 characters – I wanted them to span from a teenager to someone in their 90s, and see their trajectory from birth, though not linear. There are many ways in which otherness can be interpreted in the novel – the women are othered in so many ways and sometimes by each other. I wanted it to be identified as a novel about women as well.”

Bernardine Evaristo (1959) British writer

On her novel Girl, Woman, Other in “Bernardine Evaristo: ‘I want to put presence into absence’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/27/bernardine-evaristo-girl-woman-other-interview in The Guardian (2019 Apr 27)

Women, Way, Literature, Birth

“I don’t think anyone understands the Asian Americans’ place amidst this white and black culture. There’s something very specific to being Asian American that other peoples aren’t getting, and we haven’t learned how to define it, even amongst ourselves. We’re the Other. We’re always the Other, we can be here forever and we’re still foreign. We’ve impacted the culture, but third, fourth, fifth, sixth generations and still, you walk down the street and someone will look at you, and you will be foreign. That is what disturbs me.”

Philip Kan Gotanda (1951) American film director and playwright

On how Asians might fit into the Black-White dichotomy in the United States in “Philip Kan Gotanda by David Henry Hwang” https://bombmagazine.org/articles/philip-kan-gotanda-1/ in BOMB Magazine (1997 Jan 1)

People, Understanding, Thinking, Learning

“I have been taking these photographs as I am dead, and then I look back at these photographs to re-experience what it was like, as someone who experienced themselves as a dead person. And they’re the same. It’s very much the same experience, just one is visual and one is more verbal. Both are ways to get through a very difficult experience, and they’re also ways to remember it.”

Esmé Weijun Wang American writer

On using various mediums to highlight an experience in “Schizophrenia Terrifies: An Interview with Esmé Weijun Wang” https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/02/04/schizophrenia-terrifies-an-interview-with-esme-weijun-wang/ in The Paris Review (2019 Feb 4)

Way, Personality, Dead

“You all wanted that someone be made a scapegoat. I did not do that. I allowed you to break all pots on my head alone. You have all decided-all these riots happened under this man (Narendra Modi). Until this man is removed from the chief minister’s post, we will not rest in peace. My best wishes to you in your mission.”

Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India

Interview to NDTV broadcast on March 20, 2004, Narendra Modi said to Shekhar Gupta. quoted in Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. Voices from Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, Manushi Publications, Delhi 2014.
2004

Peace

“I define an antiracist as someone who is expressing an antiracist idea or supporting or an antiracist policy, policies that yield racial equity, while antiracist ideas talk about the equality of racial groups…”

Ibram X. Kendi (1982) American author and historian

On how he defines “antiracist” in his book How to Be an Antiracist in “Ibram X. Kendi's Latest Book: 'How To Be An Antiracist'” https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/750709263/ibram-x-kendis-latest-book-how-to-be-an-antiracist in NPR (2019 Aug 13)

Idea, Support

“When you get older, as a leading lady it gets harder…You try not to have someone else upstage or take the shine. When I play character roles I am usually playing people who are slightly over the top, so that goes fine.”

Jane Seymour (1951) English-American actress

On staying the course as a leading lady in “Jane Seymour: 'I try not to let anyone upstage me'” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/jane-seymour-i-try-not-to-let-anyone-upstage-me/ in The Telegraph (2016 Apr 10)

People

“The streak of rationality and questioning tradition too came early to him. Once a multicoloured book on the shelf at home caught his attention and he decided to read it, despite it being in Sanskrit, of which he understood very little. When Damodarpant discovered that his young son was reading the Aranyaka s he was enraged. There was a superstition that reading the Aranyaka s at home forebodes evil for the reader’s worldly life and they needed to be read in seclusion in the woods. This left a lasting question in Vinayak’s mind. How could someone as intelligent as his father believe in such superstitions?, he wondered. Mocking the belief, he continued reading the book without anyone’s knowledge and proved to himself that this was just a fanciful and concocted tale.”

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883–1966) Indian pro-independence activist,lawyer, politician, poet, writer and playwright

Vikram Sampath - Savarkar, Echoes from a Forgotten Past

Life, Books, Home, Intelligence

“When we appreciate how natural it is for man to strive to be a hero, how deeply it goes in his evolutionary and organismic constitution, how openly he shows it as a child, then it is all the more curious how ignorant most of us are, consciously, of what we really want and need. In our culture anyway, especially in modern times, the heroic seems too big for us, or we too small for it. Tell a young man that he is entitled to be a hero and he will blush. We disguise our struggle by piling up figures in a bank book to reflect privately our sense of heroic worth. Or by having only a little better home in the neighborhood, a bigger car, brighter children. But underneath throbs the ache of cosmic specialness, no matter how we mask it in concerns of smaller scope. Occasionally someone admits that he takes his heroism seriously, which gives most of us a chill, as did U.S. Congressman Mendel Rivers, who fed appropriations to the military machine and said he was the most powerful man since Julius Caesar. We may shudder at the crassness of earthly heroism, of both Caesar and his imitators, but the fault is not theirs, it is in the way society sets up its hero system and in the people it allows to fill its roles. The urge to heroism is natural, and to admit it honest. For everyone to admit it would probably release such pent-up force as to be devastating to societies as they now are.”

Ernest Becker book The Denial of Death

The Recasting of Some Basic Psychoanalytic Ideas
The Denial of Death (1973)

Children, People, Books, Cars

“The hardest thing these days is to make something that’s beautiful; it’s easy to make ugly art. I think it takes a lot more talent to make something beautiful. Beauty to me is when you show something to someone that they’ve never seen before. That’s what a great work of art does; it shows you something that you didn’t know existed.”

Gronk (artist) (1954) American artist

On making beautiful artwork in “Gronk by Marisela Norte” https://bombmagazine.org/articles/gronk/ in BOMB Magazine (2007 Jan 1)

Making love, Beauty, Art, Thinking

“Anti-Zionism is not criticism of Israel. It is a hatred of Israel — a hatred greater than that of any other country and a delegitimization of Zionism, the movement to reestablish the Jewish national home. Imagine someone who argued that the establishment of the Italian state — Italy — was illegitimate and who hated Italy more than any other country in the world yet claimed that he was in no way anti-Italian, as he had Italian friends and loved Italian culture. No one would believe such an absurdity.”

Dennis Prager (1948) American writer, speaker, radio and TV commentator, theologian

2010s, Why Most Jews Aren't Bothered By The Times' Anti-Semitic Cartoon (2019)

Love, Hate, World, Making love

“For someone born in the US but whose parents hail from Mexico, there is always a disconnect that happens between the present culture and the one before. Sometimes, it is a flimsy synapse, and sometimes the disconnect can be a chasm…”

Octavio Solis (1958)

On having Mexican-born parents in “An Interview with Octavio Solis” http://literaryashland.org/?p=10939 (Welcome to Literary Ashland; 2019 Jun 24)

Parent

“They were human beings who had a life, who had a lineage, who had parents, who had children, who had lives. They were not poor or rich. They were people and these people had humanity. So it was important that someone who knew them write about the event…”

Dany Laferrière (1953) Haitian Canadian novelist and journalist

On reporting about the 2010 earthquake in Haiti in “An Interview with Dany Laferrière” https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/an-interview-with-dany-laferriere-jessie-chaffee (WWB Daily, 2016)

Life, Children, People, Parent

“I’ve never considered myself a strong reader or writer. When I was younger, I had some hardships with reading and writing, and I never thought of myself as someone who could pull this off. To a degree it was challenging. In my everyday life, I’m pretty private and reserved, so the hardest part was taking personal emotion and putting it on the page and putting myself out there…”

Ian Purkayastha (1992)

On writing his book Truffle Boy in “Ian Purkayastha: How I Write” https://www.writermag.com/writing-inspiration/author-interviews/ian-purkayastha-write/ in The Writer (2017 Aug 7)

Life, Strong, Reading, Parting

“Translation from Bulgarian: Someone said that human harmony is achieved when the body and the soul are at the same place. For me, this situation has not existed since I can remember. I am more of a polyphonic person: I live in several dimensions and I like it.”

Lea Cohen (1942)

Някой беше казал, че хармонията на човека се постига, когато душата и тялото са на едно място. За мен такава ситуация не съществува откак се помня. Май съм повече полифонична личност: живея в няколко измерения и това ми харесва.
Interview with Lea Cohen, Mila, June 2019

Soul, Personality

“I’ve been through a lot of hearings about one damn thing and another. Most of the time they’re exercises in ass covering. If the unvarnished truth ever came out at one, it would be because someone screwed up.”

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

Source: Caliban's War (2012), Chapter 9 (pp. 93-94)

Truth, Exercises, Time

“No one in a productive society wants you to know there ways of looking at the world other than their ways, and among the effects drugs may have is that of switching a mind from the normal track. Reading the works of certain writers has a corresponding effect. When receptive individuals explore the writings of someone such as Lovecraft, they are majestically solaced to find articulations of existence countering those to which the heads around them have become habituated.”

Thomas Ligotti (1953) American horror author

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror (2010)

World, Way, Reading

“There seems to be an inborn drive in all human beings not to live in a steady emotional state, which would suggest that such a state is not tolerable to most people. Why else would someone succumb to the attractions of romantic love more than once? Didn’t they learn their lesson the first time or the tenth time or the twentieth time? And it’s the same old lesson: everything in this life—I repeat, everything—is more trouble than it’s worth. And simply being alive is the basic trouble. This is something that is more recognized in Eastern societies than in the West. There’s a minor tradition in Greek philosophy that instructs us to seek a state of equanimity rather than one of ecstasy, but it never really caught on for obvious reasons. Buddhism advises its practitioners not to seek highs or lows but to follow a middle path to personal salvation from the painful cravings of the average sensual life, which is why it was pretty much reviled by the masses and mutated into forms more suited to human drives and desires. It seems evident that very few people can simply sit still. Children spin in circles until they collapse with dizziness.”

Thomas Ligotti (1953) American horror author

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror (2010)

Love, Life, Pain, Children

“Look, there are senior executives from our television company Russia Today sitting across from me. What is happening in some countries where they operate? They are being banned. What does this mean? It means those who do so are afraid of the competition… Someone is making it hard for them. That means we are winning…. We do not have global media like CNN, Fox News, BBC and so on… We have just one fairly modest channel. Even if it causes so much heartburn and fear of it being able to influence minds, then we are winning this competition…”

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

Cooperation, Terrorism, UK & USA, President Trump, Resolving Conflict, Defense, Crimea, The Media, Nuclear Weapons Policy: 15th Plenary Session (18 October 2018)

Fear, Making love, Country

“Crimea is our land… Even if someone decides to argue with me, the dispute will immediately come to a dead-end… Democracy is the power of the people. How is it exercised, this power of the people? It is exercised through referendums, elections and so on. People came to a referendum in Crimea and voted for independence, first, and then for being part of Russia…. Let me remind you for the hundredth time that there was no referendum in Kosovo, only the parliament voted for independence, that was all. Everyone who wanted to support and destroy the former Yugoslavia said: well, thank God, we are fine with that… we proceed based on the will expressed by the people who live on that territory.”

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

Cooperation, Terrorism, UK & USA, President Trump, Resolving Conflict, Defense, Crimea, The Media, Nuclear Weapons Policy: 15th Plenary Session (18 October 2018)

God, People, Exercises, Democracy

“If you can give someone the pleasure of not liking you, maybe that’s as valid as the pleasure of liking you, some people want to assert themselves by showing the things they don’t like. It’s a form of positioning yourself. We all do that. I get it. But I’m more focused on the people who do like what we do, and there’s a few of them. I like hanging out with those people. If you ever liked Coldplay, then we’re going to really deliver on our promise over the next year or so. It’s not guarded music. It’s about very open things and that might not resonate with some people. But I don’t want to obscure our music behind coolness or cynicism just to avoid criticisms. Because for some people it really connects, and I need it, too.”

Chris Martin (1977) musician, co-founder of Coldplay

On interview with Wall Street Journal, 2015. source http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/coldplay-and-chris-martin-open-up-for-new-album-1447868383

People, Pleasure, Music

“I became the protagonist of my story and the protagonist of my life. I realized we’ve all been left out of this story. We are always the supporting characters, and we have to say no. My job is to show people that everyone belongs in the theater, everyone belongs making films, everybody has something important to teach someone else. And that’s why stories are so important.”

Josefina Lopez (1969) American playwright

On making Latinos the center of the story in “Josefina López: ‘I became the protagonist of my story’” https://boyleheightsbeat.com/josefina-lopez-i-became-the-protagonist-of-my-story/ in Boyle Heights Beat (2018 Sep 19)

Life, People, Making love, Support

“There is a duality between Awkwafina and Nora. Awkwafina is someone who never grew up, who never had to bear the brunt of all the insecurities and overthinking that come with adulthood. Awkwafina is the girl I was in high school – who did not give a shit. Nora is neurotic and an overthinker and could never perform in front of an audience of hecklers.”

Awkwafina (1988) actress and rapper from New York

On how her alter ego helps her cope with adulthood in “Awkwafina: ‘I was always the crazy one, the funny one. I’d do anything for a laugh’” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/17/awkwafina-oceans-8-youtube-crazy-funny-nora-lum in The Guardian (2018 Jun 17)

School, Girl, Adulthood

“As these remarks indicate, the Social Security program involves a transfer from the young to the old. To some extent such a transfer has occurred throughout history—the young supporting their parents, or other relatives, in old age. Indeed, in many poor countries with high infant death rates, like India, the desire to assure oneself of progeny who can provide support in old age is a major reason for high birth rates and large families. The difference between Social Security and earlier arrangements is that Social Security is compulsory and impersonal—earlier arrangements were voluntary and personal. Moral responsibility is an individual matter, not a social matter. Children helped their parents out of love or duty. They now contribute to the support of someone else’s parents out of compulsion and fear. The earlier transfers strengthened the bonds of the family; the compulsory transfers weaken them.”

Milton Friedman book Free to Choose

Source: Free to Choose (1980), Ch. 4 “Cradle to Grave”, p. 106

Love, Death, Children, Age

“Since we all breathe, all the time, it is amazing what happens when someone else directs you how and when to breathe. And how vividly someone with no imagination whatsoever can see what he’s told is right there, complete with banister and rubber runners, curving down and rightward into a darkness that recedes before you.”

David Foster Wallace book The Pale King

The Pale King (2011)

Imagination, Time

“The idea was to have the accident and whatever explosion and fire was involved occur someplace isolated enough that no one else would see it, so that there would be as little an aspect of performance to the thing as I could manage and no temptation to spend my last few seconds trying to imagine what impressions the sight and sound of the impact might make on someone watching. I was partly concerned that it might be spectacular and dramatic and might look as if the driver was trying to go out in as dramatic a way as possible. This is the sort of shit we waste our lives thinking about.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

"Good Old Neon", Oblivion: Stories
Short stories

Making love, Way, Imagination, Idea

“Having a play directed by someone else is like going to a religious school when you’re a child, you listen and obey…”

María Irene Fornés (1930–2018) American writer

On the loss of creative control if you’re not directing in “María Irene Fornés by Allen Frame” https://bombmagazine.org/articles/maria-irene-fornes/ in BOMB Magazine (1984 Oct 1)

School

“The real struggle has been since Africans first set foot on the continent, an affirmation of the value of one’s self. And I think if, in order to participate in American society, in order to accomplish some of the things which the black middle class has accomplished, if you have had to give up that self in order to accomplish that, then you are not making an affirmation of the value of the African being. You are saying that in order to do that I must become someone else, I must become like someone else…”

August Wilson (1945–2005) American playwright

On the cultural sacrifices made by African Americans in higher classes in “Playwright August Wilson on Writing About Black America” https://billmoyers.com/story/august-wilson-on-writing-about-black-america/ (Bill Moyers, 1988)

Making love, Thinking, Self-confidence

“Another problem with godheads, Johnny reflects, is that they can’t quite understand how anyone could not believe their shit. (He knows this because he started out as one, although he lost his faith before his balls dropped.) Consequently, they have immense difficulty in grasping, at an intuitive level, that someone who used to be one of them might no longer be completely in tune with their ideology.”

Charles Stross The Laundry Files

Source: The Laundry Files, The Apocalypse Codex (2012), Chapter 14, “Appointment in Samarra” (p. 291)

Faith, Understanding, Problem

“During Navy Seal training the students are all broken down into boat crews. Each crew is seven students — three on each side of a small rubber boat and one coxswain to help guide the dingy. Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surf zone and paddle several miles down the coast. In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high and it is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in. Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously dumped back on the beach. For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle. You can’t change the world alone — you will need some help — and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the goodwill of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide you. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.”

William H. McRaven (1955) United States admiral

World, Making love, Effort, Strong

“Never look for complexity in diplomatic decisions. With very few exceptions, actions always devolve—and that’s the exact term—from someone’s self-interest. Not the national self-interest, by the way. We are talking here about individual careers.”

Jack McDevitt book Infinity Beach

Source: Infinity Beach (2000), Chapter 15 (p. 218)

Way, Decision, Self-confidence

“Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else. Everything.”

Danny Trejo (1944) Mexican American actor

"Actor Danny Trejo saves a trapped baby from an overturned car" https://kfor.com/2019/08/07/actor-danny-trejo-saves-a-trapped-baby-from-an-overturned-car/ (August 7, 2019)

Help

“I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.”

Dylann Roof (1994) American mass murderer

archived 20 June 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150620135047/http://lastrhodesian.com/data/documents/rtf88.txt on website registered 9 February 2015, published 21 June 2015 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/us/dylann-storm-roof-photos-website-charleston-church-shooting.html in NYT, original date of authorship unknown

World, Time, Fight, Country

“Along with plot, I am always thinking about structure. Sometimes the story guides you to the best structure for its telling. Using letters seemed like the best way to tell this story. When writing these letters, the characters are selecting what they want to tell. In this case, the woman is writing in a way that would not endanger her or her family if her letters were found by the military authorities who took over the country, and the man is writing with the urgency of someone who could die at any minute while at sea.”

Edwidge Danticat (1969) Novelist, short story writer, memoirist

On using an epistolary form for her short story “Children of the Sea” in “An Interview | Edwidge Danticat” http://www.bkreview.org/fall-2018/an-interview-with-edwidge-danticat/ in The Brooklyn Review (Fall 2018) Interviews

Family, Way, Thinking, Sea

“I was on tour with Soundgarden, and I remember writing down the title. The title immediately brought up the idea of the song, which is that someone is so distracted by a new person or a new thing in their life that they kind of forgot that they had given up on life. Sometimes it just happens without us even noticing.”

Chris Cornell (1964–2017) American singer-songwriter, musician

On the inspiration behind the song "Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart" ** Chris Cornell Flashback Q&A: 'We Have to Be Aware That Life Is So Short', Yahoo!, May 19, 2017 https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/chris-cornell-flashback-qa-aware-life-short-023857577.html, On songwriting

Life, Idea, Personality

“In beginning this practice of meditation it is desirable to watch closely its physical effects. Methods prescribed by those who understand the matter ought never to cause headache or any other pain, yet such results do sometimes occur in particular cases. It is true that meditation strains the thought and attention a little further than its customary point in any individual, but that should be so carefully done, so free from any kind of excess, as not to cause any physical ill-effects. Sometimes a person takes it up too strenuously and for too long at a time, or when the body is not in a fit state of health, and the consequence is a certain amount of suffering. It is fatally easy to press one’s physical brain just a little too far, and when that happens it is often difficult to recover equilibrium. Sometimes a condition may be produced in a few days which it will take years to set right; so anyone who begins to feel any unpleasant effects should at once stop the practice for a while and attend to his physical health, and if possible consult someone who knows more than he does about the subject.”

Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854–1934) English theosophist

Source: The Masters and the Path (1925), Ch.4

Pain, Health, Feeling, Understanding

“What makes karma a major problem for people is their inability to deal with it, to recognize their own responsibility for it, and to do something about it. Most people blame their problems on other people or on circumstances: it was their upbringing, the fact that their parents did not love them, or got divorced, or left them wanting, or that their husband left them, or did not leave them. All these experiences are shed onto someone else, but of course it is all to do with karma, our own responsibility.”

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

The Art of Co-operation (2002)

Love, People, Making love, Problem

“And the only way there’s going to be followers, is if the leader is doing things that have merit, that are persuasive to others. Why else would someone follow somebody if they didn’t think the individual was doing something worthwhile, going in the right direction?”

Donald Rumsfeld (1932) U.S. Secretary of Defense

As quoted in "My Date With Rummy: Now 84, The Former Secretary Of Defense Is As Wily As Ever" https://taskandpurpose.com/donald-rumsfeld-secretary-defense (12 June 2017), by Adam Linehan, Task & Purpose 2010s

Way, Thinking

“Everybody knows someone in their life that is already an amazing public servant… Nominate that amazing public servant to take their service to the halls of Congress. Give them that nudge. My brother did it for me.”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

Quoted in [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez helps recruit a new wave of Democrats, NY Post https://nypost.com/2019/01/16/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-helps-recruit-a-new-wave-of-democrats/ (16 January 2019) Quotes (2019)

Life

“My message, unchanged for more than fifty years, is this: God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be. It is the message of grace… A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wages as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party no ifs, ands, or buts… This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion. It works without asking anything of us… Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try to find something or someone it cannot cover. Grace is enough… Jesus is enough.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir https://books.google.com/books?id=eFTh3OqjASkC&pg=PA192 (2011), pp. 192–194 2010s

Love, God, Making love

“The fighting had ended and his old routines had begun to be re-established ‑ even El Morito had reappeared, skinny and flea-ridden - but nothing was as it had been. He was like someone who had stepped into a long, dark, and frightening tunnel and, coming into the light, could not blink away the darkness that continued to cloud the periphery of his vision. The world was a more arbitrary and crueler place, and even though his family surrounded him, he knew now that he was essentially alone in it.”

Michael Nava (1954) American writer

Source: The Children of Eve' series of novels (historical fiction), The City of Palaces (2014), p.323

World, Family, Light, Fight

“He had the open, cheerful, rather self-satisfied countenance of someone upon whom life had made very few demands.”

Michael Nava (1954) American writer

Source: Henry Rios series of novels, Rag and Bone (2001), p.187

Life, Self-confidence

“But the weird thing is that many of the people who are outraged by benign nationalism or the benign pan-nationalism that is pride in Western civilization take no umbrage when someone from Iran or China says they think their civilization is best. This of course is a manifestation of the ancient cult of identitarianism, which the best traditions of the West have battled internally at great cost for thousands of years. Saying Western civilization is great hurts the feelings of some people invested in some other source of identity. And it hurts the feelings of some Westerners because they think it’s a sign of enlightenment to get offended on other people’s behalf or to denigrate the society that gave them their soap box.”

Jonah Goldberg (1969) American political writer and pundit

2010s, 2019, What's So Great About Western Civilization (2019)

People, Feeling, Thinking, Hurt

“I am not prepared to serve a sectarian regime. If we can achieve a broad, clear mandate for national unity, where it doesnt matter if someone is Kurd or Arab, Sunni or Shiite, then I am ready to take any post.”

Ayad Allawi (1945) Iraqi politician

“Tommy Robinson is not far-right… and does not have far-right views. He is someone who can give some information and research which is useful to me. We have always been a democratic, non-racist party. That has always been in our constitution and that is exactly the way we are going to keep it. It is very odd in this day and age when you get called far-right, when what you have spent the last 25 years trying to do is to return government to our own democratically elected Parliament.”

Gerard Batten (1954) British politician

UKIP: Gerard Batten says Nigel Farage trying to 'discredit' party https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47926785 BBC News (14 April 2019) 2019

Age, Way

“If someone is at the centre of these elections, it is 130 crore people of India. This election is not about one individual, but about hopes, expectations and aspirations of 130 crore individuals. People of India have seen obstacles of past 55 years and they have seen optimism of our 55 months. They have seen 55 years of Family First and 55 months of India First.”

Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India

2019, "2014 was a mandate for hope and aspiration, 2019 is about confidence and acceleration", 2019

People, Family, Hope, Optimism

“One thing that is important is that, if you have a choice between a lower valuation with someone you really like, or higher valuation with someone you have a question mark about, take the lower valuation.”

Elon Musk (1971) South African-born American entrepreneur

During an interview with PandoDaily - Fireside Chat With Elon Musk - Jul, 17th 2012

Question

“And in terms of poverty and race in this country, again, you know, one of the things that I really, really wanted to stress is, the level of poverty specifically that you see in the African-American community is not accidental. It’s not accidental. This is part of the process. The process of enslavement involves stealing something from someone. It involves taking something from someone.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates (1975) writer, journalist, and educator

Ta-Nehisi Coates: Reparations Are Not Just About Slavery But Also Centuries of Theft & Racial Terror, Democracy Now (20 June 2019)

Communication, Parting, Country

“It was always going to be uphill for us because I was someone who voted Remain and I think lots of party members felt that this was a moment when you just had to have someone who voted for Brexit in the referendum. In retrospect, that was a hurdle we were never able to overcome.”

Jeremy Hunt (1966) British politician

Boris Johnson wins race to be Tory leader and PM https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49084605 BBC News (23 July 2019) 2019

Thinking

“Quotations: I love them because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognizedly wiser than oneself.”

Marlene Dietrich (1901–1992) German-American actress and singer

Marlene Dietrich's ABC https://books.google.com/books?id=u7x5UYHMs0IC&pg=PT157 (1962)

Love, Making love, Joy

“Philopon: The misfortune of this man has always touched me in an extraordinary way. He lived in moderation, alone and irreproachable; he renounced all human idols and devoted his entire life to reflection, and look what happened! In the labyrinth of his meditations, he goes astray and, out of error, maintains much that agrees very little with his innocent way of life and that the most depraved scoundrel might wish for in order to be able to indulge his evil desires with impunity. How unjust is the irreconcilable hatred of scholars towards someone so unfortunate!”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Moses Mendelssohn, in his Philosophical Writings (1755–77) [original in German]
M - R

Life, Way, Error, Evil

“Neophil: …Leibniz, Wolff, and their various successors, to what a level of perfection and completeness they have brought philosophy! How proud Germany can be of them! Yet what does it help to claim more for oneself than is right? Let us always acknowledge that someone other than a German, I add further, someone other than a Christian, namely, Spinoza, has participated immensely in the work of bettering philosophy. Before the transition from the Cartesian to the Leibnizian philosophy could occur, it was necessary for someone to take the plunge into the monstrous abyss lying between them. This unhappy lot fell to Spinoza. How his fate is to be pitied! He was a sacrifice for the human intellect, but one that deserves to be decorated with flowers. Without him, philosophy would never have been able to extend its borders so far.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Moses Mendelssohn, in his Philosophical Writings (1755–77) [original in German]
M - R

Fate, Flowers, Lying, Help

“Someday, if we survive the mess we’ve made of the planet, someone will compile a detailed sociological examination of how this constant torrent of mind bombs came to affect the population. For many, I fear, the ultimate result is inaction due to confusion, consternation and livid frustration.”

William Rivers Pitt (1971) writer

"The Problem Is Not “Fake News.” It’s the Noise That Drowns Out the News". Truthout https://truthout.org/articles/the-problem-is-not-fake-news-its-the-noise-that-drowns-out-the-news/ (9 February 2019)

Fear

“Apparently Jordan and Peter Andre are fighting each other over custody of Harvey, well eventually one of them’ll lose and have to keep him. I have a theory that Jordan married a cage fighter cause she needed someone strong enough to stop Harvey from fucking her.”

Frankie Boyle (1972) Scottish comedian

Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights (2010)

Strong, Fight

“Of course, laws weren’t always just. Some rules outlawed a thing because it was intrinsically bad: child molestation, say. Other rules made harmless activities crimes only because someone wished them to be so. Take cohabitation on a religious holiday. On some worlds, it was legal on one day, illegal the next, and on the third, okay once again. Khadaji could see no moral dilemma there.”

Steve Perry book The Man Who Never Missed

Source: The Man Who Never Missed (1985), Chapter 16 (p. 143)

Bad luck, World, Law, Holiday

“And someone that brilliant must be a devil?”

Gordon R. Dickson book Dorsai!

queried Galt, dryly.
“Not at all,” explained Donal, patiently. “But having such intellectual capabilities, a man must show proportionately greater inclinations toward either good or evil than lesser people. If he tends toward evil, he may mask it in himself—he may even mask its effect on the people with which he surrounds himself. But he has no way of producing the reflections of good which would ordinarily be reflected from his lieutenants and initiates—and which, if he was truly good—he would have no reason to try and hide. And by that lack, you can read him.”
“Mercenary II” (section 4, p. 386)
Dorsai! (1960)

“So it was biased, but it was the true feelings which I had experienced, and I would rather be honest than be balanced, and plus it was much more fun to write. He did urge me to write something balanced next time, and I could see he was a true advocator of that, having purely positive pandering of students, covering the walls of the school and in every yearbook. And then when someone like me writes something negative, you then say I should be balanced. Actually, since the school has published everything that is positive for several years, and I wrote a long post that is purely negative, I have actually helped garnered a balanced view of the school haven’t I?”

Amos Yee (1998) blogger

Tumblr postings

School, Feeling, Time, Help

“There is only a way of escape from a place: is leaving ourselves. There is only a way of leaving ourselves: is loving someone. Só há um modo de escapar de um lugar: é sairmos de nós. Só há um modo de sairmos de nós: é amarmos alguém.”

Mia Couto (1955) Mozambican writer

Confession of the Lioness: A Novel

Love, Making love, Way

“If you want to appoint someone to help stop the spread of a lethal contagion, you would never think of Klain. But if you want to contain the Ebola episode so it stays as quiet as possible until after the election, he is the right guy for the job. Good luck to us all.”

Ron Klain (1961) American lawyer

[Ed Rogers, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/10/20/the-insiders-what-is-ron-klain-supposed-to-do-about-ebola/, The Insiders: What is Ron Klain supposed to do about Ebola?, Washington Post, October 20, 2014, October 21, 2014]

Bad luck, Guy, Thinking, Help

“What struck me most was his naiveté. He was like someone in a coal mine who suddenly finds a diamond and starts exulting over it. He begins to seriously believe that it is possible to repeat the feat, so he will dig into the black soot again.”

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

The Lonely Punter: V.P.Singh

“The magnificent baritone was not merely a voice. It was an orchestra of enormous range and power, its graceful sound seemed to linger on for millions who had heard it on film and stage. Homer must have known someone very much like Richard Burton.”

Richard Burton (1925–1984) Welsh actor

Gerald Clarke, in Show Business: The Mellifluous Prince of Disorder http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,954366,00.html, 20 August 1984

“Rajiv Gandhi was not a great Prime Minister by any yardstick. He had his high points and his low points. He did try hard in some ways, but history will judge him not as a man who left behind a great legacy, but as someone who squandered the greatest opportunity India provided to any Prime Minister in living memory to take the country to new heights. He left the country in chaos and in self-doubt, and the economy in the dust.”

Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) sixth Prime Minister of India

R Jagannathan, in "Dear Priyanka, your Dad Rajiv was no angel. He let India down (2 May 2014)"

Way, History, Memory, Self-confidence

“An astute Marwari businessman domiciled in Madras, he turned a media baron, assiduously accumulating credits by rendering political or monetary favours or putting in a word for someone who needed assistance, asking for nothing in return.”

Ramnath Goenka (1904–1991) Indian politician

Ramnath Goenka — Media Baron, 1904-1991

“As someone who has always aspired to build a company committed to its people and to the world, I admire her determination to achieve sustainability at an established company like Pepsi Co. And I believe that all socially responsible companies could learn from Indra Nooyi’s style of leadership.”

Indra Nooyi (1955) Indian-born, naturalized American, business executive

Herbart Schultz, President and CEO, Starbucks quoted in "Together with Business Studies XI" in page=135.

People, World, Learning

“It would have been funny if I had been an observer and not a participant, an idea that gave me a disconcerting insight into gossip. As I talked beside the silent Tamara, I realized that despite how entertaining certain stories were, at the bottom of every item of gossip there was someone getting hurt.”

Sherwood Smith book Crown Duel

Crown Duel (Crown & Court #1 - 2, 1997)

Idea, Hurt

“I love a guy who knows how to bitch. Any moron can gripe about chow or rotations, but someone who can get exercised over architecture is my kind of dude.”

Steven Pressfield book The Profession

Gent, p. 202
The Profession (2011)

Love, Making love, Guy, Exercises

“I am throughly confused as to why muslims have such a great desire to inflict pain on those who are in a weaker position, such as animals, children and women. I think this pattern is pretty clear. Why do muslims jump around ululating with their dicks hard whenever heads get chopped off or someone gets whipped?”

Jussi Halla-aho (1971) Finnish Slavic linguist, blogger and a politician

Jussi Halla-aho (2005), published in the blog Scripta Mietteitä kansainvaelluksesta http://www.halla-aho.com/scripta/mietteita_kansainvaelluksesta.html, April 20, 2005 2005-09

Women, Pain, Children, Thinking

“Harvey was not especially introspective, but this didn’t mean he was stupid. He was moral, within his lights; he understood the value of subtlety even if he wasn’t much for it himself, and one of the reasons he could get away with being loud and obnoxious was that he was a fair stick at strategy and logistics. Give him a job and he’d do it, usually in the most entropy-producing way possible, yes, but also in a way that achieved exactly the aim it was supposed to. One of Harvey’s guiding lights in terms of strategies was simplicity; all things being equal, Harvey preferred the course of action that let him get into the middle of things and then just buckle down. When asked about it, Harvey called it his Occam’s razor theory of combat: The simplest way of kicking someone’s ass was usually the correct one.”

John Scalzi book The Ghost Brigades

Source: The Ghost Brigades (2006), Chapter 14 (p. 315)

Stupidity, Way, Light

“Abjuring love? Real people don’t do that. Now you’re the one who sounds like someone on a stage. That’s not the real world. Real people follow their hearts, wherever it takes them. Real people refuse to be put into a little tiny box. You can say you love me or you don’t love me, it doesn’t matter; I know you have foresworn nothing except an existence you found intolerable.”

Ellen Kushner book The Privilege of the Sword

She really did smile this time. “Now you’re making me sound like a heroine. Be honest, Lucius. For all that you go on about the real world with its real people, you don’t really want to live in it, either.”
Part III, Chapter VIII (p. 299)
The Privilege of the Sword (2006)

Love, People, World, Making love

“Shaun: You know, when you sponsor a child like Doris here, you’ll be doing more than just putting food on her table. If every Australian gave a dollar a week to someone like Doris, that would guarantee her a weekly income of about 18 million dollars. Almost a billion dollars a year. That buys a lot in Doris’ village. Enough coconuts to stretch from here to Neptune transported in solid gold space shuttles fuelled by burning bank notes. Does seem a bit excessive doesn’t it?”

Shaun Micallef (1962) Australian actor

The Micallef P(r)ogram(me)

Food

“I’m still just reveling that someone from Hollywood made a speech like that. I hope you’re going to be able to find work after this. I really enjoyed that.”

Jon Voight (1938) American actor

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky congratulating Voight on his June 2009 speech at a Republican fundraiser. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aFfk5skijH5s

Hope

“Paul Scholes was always unbelievably talented. Quiet. And dirty. When he got his tackle right, it was a great tackle. But when he got it wrong, he could kill someone. He was so talented and a player I feel honoured to have played with.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25184865
David Beckham

Feeling

“I remember when I played against Paul Scholes, from Manchester. And because he is a midfielder, and I am a midfielder, sometimes we would have to confront each other. He is not tall, he is not strong but he is clever. This is very difficult. To play against someone who is clever. And he was fantastic with the ball, clever how he passed the ball, clever how he would see you. That was interesting to talk about afterwards.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AofzmUFraro
Edu Gaspar

Strong

“Paul Scholes has been the best England midfield player for 30-odd years. You’d probably have to go back to Bobby Charlton to find someone who could do as much as Scholes. When the ball arrives at his feet he could tell you where every player on that pitch is at that moment. His awareness is superb.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://thepeoplesperson.com/2013/11/05/what-made-paul-scholes-so-special-30928/
Gordan Strachan

“After 19 days of interrogation, they put me in a cell. They would carry by the bodies of tortured people. With the point of a boot, Barbie would turn their heads to look at their faces, and if he saw someone he believed to be a Jew, he would crush it with his heel.”

Klaus Barbie (1913–1991) SS-Hauptsturmführer, soldier and Gestapo member

Lise Lesevre

People

“One of the minor regrets, not really a big regret, is that I’ve never published a paper with Mac Burnet. I’ve published 500 papers, not a single one has Burnet as a co-author. He did not believe in putting his name on a paper if he hadn’t done at least one third of the work himself. A sort of an honest unselfish approach, when it comes time to reap the glory you do it without having someone grabbing it instead of you.”

Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1899–1985) Australian virologist

Gustav Nossal (2002): In interview by Robyn Williams, in: The Science Show http://web.archive.org/web/20020812175035/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s538314.htm, Saturday 20/4/2002. Gustav Nossal on working with Burnet. About Burnet

Time

“He is without doubt the greatest player I have ever played with, he has everything. At Liverpool, he is irreplaceable. Every big club has a standard bearer, a home-grown talent, someone with a lifelong commitment to the cause. People come and go but he’s always there. It’s him and 10 others. He’s everything to the side. That’s Steven Gerrard at Liverpool. I can’t even begin to imagine the place without him.”

Steven Gerrard (1980) English footballer

Fernando Torres on Steven Gerrard, Sep 2009 ( Source http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1213814/My-idol-Steven-Gerrard-best-player-world-insists-Liverpool-star-Fernando-Torres.html)

People, Home, Imagination

“He is physically and technically precocious. He’s got a good engine and remarkable energy. He reads the game and he passes quickly. I would hate to think Liverpool have someone as good as Roy Keane.”

Steven Gerrard (1980) English footballer

Alex Ferguson on Steven Gerrard, (December 17th 2000): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2473158/Sir-Alex-Ferguson-Steven-Gerrard--stats-prove-Fergie-wrong.html

Hate, Game, Thinking, Reading

“What we aim to do is calm the spirit and get in touch with the source from which everything comes, removing any trace of malice or egotism. If you spend too much time trying to find out what is good or bad about someone else, you’ll forget your own soul and end up exhausted and defeated by the energy you have wasted in judging others.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Bad luck, Soul, Time, Forgetting

“I love people. And I think if you take the 7 billion people on the planet and you round it off, about 7 billion of them are good. To find bad people is really difficult. Not people doing bad things, but really bad people who get up in the morning and say, How can I fuck people up? That’s a really rare thing. Misguided, you know, mistaken, but I just can’t understand how this view of humanity that all we want to do is horrible things to each other and it’s just this belief in something else that stops us. And that that is what you see over and over again through the Bible. There’s reward and punishment but there’s no – I mean, nothing feels better than helping someone out. I mean, there’s nothing better, nothing better in the world than someone whose life was fucked up and you do a little something and now their life isn’t. I mean, you can talk about the joy of sex, hedonistic joys of food, and you can talk about the joy with your children, but man, someone is going through a hard time and you help them out, man you feel good for months.”

Penn Jillette (1955) American magician

2010s, Penn Jillette Rapes All the Women He Wants To (2012)

Love, Life, Bad luck, Children

“I read some articles about him, his message and his work. I was deeply impressed by the extent of the recognition that he has received as he travels around the world. Millions of people have come to him throughout the years looking for inspiration and guidance. He has received honors from many cities around the world and has been invited to speak in some of the most prestigious forums. He is a true globalizer. More than that, what has struck me is—how much he has touched the lives of countless individuals, rich and poor alike, regardless of their beliefs or condition—in all positions in society. The need to find peace is a most pressing one. And it is a privilege and honor to welcome someone who claims that peace is possible and who offers to show a practical way to find peace within. He brings a message of hope and peace that is simple and from the heart. A message that is relevant for each and every individual.”

Prem Rawat (1957) controversial spiritual leader

Mr. S. Haribhakti, President of the Indian Merchants Chamber of Commerce, Mumbai, India. February 28, 2004.
About, 2000s

People, World, Peace, Hope

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

David Ogilvy (1911–1999) Advertising executive

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

People

“We like to tell the lie that when we love someone else, we are doing it for them. We aren't. Love is selfish. It is the most selfish act in the world. It is selfish because it is the most beneficial thing in the world to YOU. Because of this, it should not wait. Do not wait for someone to give you love, for you to love them. Be selfish and love people without reservation. Love makes you whole. Love fulfills you. Love will strike fear from the record of your soul. What a gift to allow yourself to become whole, fulfilled and fearless.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Love, People, Lie, World

“Don’t lie to yourself with affirmations. Don’t lie to the world by pretending to be who you want to be whilst rejecting who you are in this moment. You only want to be different than who you really are because long ago, someone rejected the truth of you and you have been trying to mold yourself into something false so as to be accepted ever since.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

tealswan.com/quotes

Truth, Lie, World, Falseness

“There is, of course, a tipping point. There have been times when I realized that someone can’t be helped, because they continue doing the wrong things. Typically, the only time I cut someone off is when they’re in jail, because I can’t help them there.”

Richard Sherman (American football) (1988) American football player

Stardom Doesn’t Change Where You’re From (April 02, 2014)

Time, Help

“In general, the best thing to do when you suspect people of trying to distract you from the truth is not to actively confront them in the beginning, but in fact to encourage them to continue by showing interest in what they are saying or doing. You want them to talk more, to reveal more signs of tension and contrivance. At the right moment you must surprise them with a question or remark that is designed to make them uncomfortable, revealing you are onto them. Pay attention to the microexpressions and body language they emit at such moments. If they are really deceiving, they will often have a freeze response as they take this in, and then quickly try to mask the underlying anxiety. This was the favorite strategy of detective Columbo in the television series of the same name—facing criminals who had tried to reverse engineer the evidence to make it look like someone else had done it, Columbo would pretend to be perfectly friendly and harmless but then would suddenly ask an uncomfortable question and then pay extra attention to the face and body.”

Robert Greene (1959) American author

Chap. 3 : See Through People’s Masks
The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

People, Truth, Making love, Question

“Animals should be treated the same as you would a kid. Would you want someone just to walk up and skin your kid? Hell no!”

Waka Flocka Flame (1986) American rapper and comedian

Interview https://www.xxlmag.com/xxl-magazine/2011/02/waka-flocka-flame-to-become-the-new-face-of-peta/ with XXL (7 February 2011); quoted in "Waka Flocka Flame Is the New Face of PETA" https://bbook.com/nightlife/waka-flocka-flame-is-the-new-face-of-peta/, BlackBook.

Hell, Animals

“Most people think that love is to feel intensely positive towards something or someone. This is not the case. That is the byproduct of love. To love something is to take it as a part of yourself.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Love, People, Making love, Feeling

“In relationships, we deeply crave to be with someone who understands how we feel, but we don't even take the time to understand how we feel.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Feeling, Understanding, Time

“Complaint is in fact a form of manipulation. We're trying to get our need met in an indirect way. That need being for our pain to be seen and heard and felt and acknowledged and validated. We are too scared to just flat out ask for someone to do this. But we need to get that it is much less off-putting to flat out ask someone for this need to be met than it is to complain near them so as to try to covertly get this out of them.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Pain, Way

Quotes about someone page 45

Quotes about someone
page 45