Quotes about something
page 84

Carl Schmitt photo
Frank Sinatra photo

“If you possess something but you can't give it away, then you don't possess it… it possesses you.”

Frank Sinatra (1915–1998) American singer and film actor

Tom Dreesen on the Late Show with David Letterman March 30th 2009 said that Frank Sinatra had said this after giving his $2000 cuff links to a fan.

“An abstract painting will react to you if you react to it. You get from it what you bring to it. It will meet you half way but no further. It is alive if you are. It represents something and so do you. YOU, SIR, ARE A SPACE, TOO.”

Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) American painter

Quote from the six page comic How to Look at Anvolved in some ideas. In painting – for me – no fooling-the-eye, no window-hole-in-the wall, no illusions, no representations, no associations, no distortions, no paint-caricaturing, no dream pictures of dripping, no delirium trimmings, no sadism or slashing, no therapy, no kicking-the-effigy, no clowning, no acrobatics, no heroics, no self-pity, no guilt.. ..no abstraction of everything, no nonsense, no involvements, no confusing painting with everything that is no painting.


Source: Contemporary American Painting, University rt, in Arts & Architecture, January 1947. note: 1940 - 1955,
en.wikiquote.org - Ad Reinhardt / Quotes of Ad Reinhardt / 1940 - 1955

Bernard of Clairvaux photo

“Our King [Jesus] is accused of treachery; it is said of him [by the Muslims] that he is not God, but that he falsely pretended to be something he was not.”

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) French abbot, theologian

As quoted in Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammad? : Understanding the Differences between Christianity and Islam (2002) by Timothy George, p. 49

Hubert H. Humphrey photo
Paul Graham photo
Jeremy Clarkson photo
Henry Moore photo
Dudley Moore photo
Vladimir Putin photo

“As for some countries’ concerns about Russia's possible aggressive actions, I think that only an insane person and only in a dream can imagine that Russia would suddenly attack NATO. I think some countries are simply taking advantage of people’s fears with regard to Russia. They just want to play the role of front-line countries that should receive some supplementary military, economic, financial or some other aid. Therefore, it is pointless to support this idea; it is absolutely groundless. But some may be interested in fostering such fears. I can only make a conjecture.

For example, the Americans do not want Russia's rapprochement with Europe. I am not asserting this, it is just a hypothesis. Let’s suppose that the United States would like to maintain its leadership in the Atlantic community. It needs an external threat, an external enemy to ensure this leadership. Iran is clearly not enough – this threat is not very scary or big enough. Who can be frightening? And then suddenly this crisis unfolds in Ukraine. Russia is forced to respond. Perhaps, it was engineered on purpose, I don’t know. But it was not our doing.

Let me tell you something – there is no need to fear Russia. The world has changed so drastically that people with some common sense cannot even imagine such a large-scale military conflict today. We have other things to think about, I assure you.”

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

2015-06-06, Interview to the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/49629
2011 - 2015

Ethan Hawke photo
Ryū Murakami photo
Neil Armstrong photo

“I know lots of people like Albert. I might be like him myself. He was a hopeless romantic, he lived on anticipation. He was always yearning for the next thing. He was always envisioning some wonderful life with somebody else, while grimly enduring life with the woman he was with. If I think about it, I would say that that was kind of the key to his psychology, that he had the lure of the perfect situation, the perfect person. Of course if you're Einstein, you want everything that you want your way and then you want to be left alone. So you want love, and you want affection, you want a good meal, but then you don't want any interference outside of that, so you don't want any obligations interfering with your life, with your work. Which is a difficult stance to maintain in an adult relationship; it doesn't work. Everything has to be a give and take.
Einstein always felt Paradise was just around the corner, but as soon as he got there, it started looking a little shabby and something better appeared. I've known a lot of people like Albert in my time, I have felt lots of shocks of recognition. I feel like I got to know Albert as a person in the course of this, and I have more respect for him as a physicist than I did when I started, I have more a sense of what he accomplished and how hard it really was to be Einstein than I did before. It's a great relief to be able to think of him as a real person. If he was around I'd love to buy him a beer ….. but I don't know if I'd introduce him to my sister.”

Dennis Overbye (1944) American writer

On Albert Einstein, in Sex and Physics : A Talk with Dennis Overbye (2001) http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/overbye/overbye_print.html

Patrick McHale (artist) photo

“I think whenever you write something you want people to like it. The best way to do that, usually, is to write what you think is good. That’s basically what everyone tries to do… just to write what they think is good. Part of that is staying true to the characters and the world (which makes it a kids show by it’s design)… and part of that is introducing deeper concepts that we, as writers, are curious about exploring”

Patrick McHale (artist) (1983) writer, storyboard artist, animator, filmmaker

which makes it more interesting for adults
Interview with Pat McHale (Adventure Time, Over the Garden Wall writer) https://crackplot.com/2015/06/13/interview-with-pat-mchale-adventure-time-over-the-garden-wall-writer/ (June 13, 2015)

Jef Raskin photo
Andy Warhol photo
John Ruskin photo
Paul Klee photo

“He [in general] has found his style, when he cannot do otherwise, i. e., cannot do something else.”

Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter

Diary entry (Munich, 1908), # 825, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898-1918; University of California Press, 1968, p. 227
1903 - 1910

Herbert Spencer photo
Joan Miró photo
Colin Wilson photo
Ben Moody photo

“Something tells me a bomb would pretty much take our bus out.”

Ben Moody (1981) American musician

Random stuff

Richard Rodríguez photo
Shandi Finnessey photo
Gerard Manley Hopkins photo

“I find myself both as man and as myself something more determined and distinctive, at pitch, more distinctive and higher pitched than anything else I see.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) English poet

Comments on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola

Alex Kurtzman photo
Tom Brady photo
Haruki Murakami photo
Robert Musil photo
Jiddu Krishnamurti photo
Maddox photo
John Desmond Bernal photo
Emma Goldman photo
Alexander Ovechkin photo

“We're lucky we have personalities on this team. Outgoing guys. (Alexander) Ovechkin is our top player and he's a free spirit. We let them have fun. Maybe there comes a time we need to do something to get to the next step. We'll see. Nothing is forever.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Glen Hanlon, interview in Rich Chere (December 31, 2006) "Young Capitals playing a game within a game: ON THE NHL", The Star-Ledger, p. 13.
About

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi photo
Pat Condell photo
Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Pope Benedict XVI photo
James Joyce photo

“Our civilization, bequeathed to us by fierce adventurers, eaters of meat and hunters, is so full of hurry and combat, so busy about many things which perhaps are of no importance, that it cannot but see something feeble in a civilization which smiles as it refuses to make the battlefield the test of excellence.”

James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish novelist and poet

"A Suave Philosophy," in Daily Express, Dublin (6 February 1903), printed in James Joyce: Occasional, Critical and Political Writing (2002) edited by Kevin Barry [Oxford University Press, <small> ISBN 0-192-83353-7</small>], p. 67

Susie Bright photo
Roberto Clemente photo
G. K. Chesterton photo

“If you convey to a woman that something ought to be done, there is always a dreadful danger that she will suddenly do it.”

The Secret of Father Brown (1927) The Song of the Flying Fish
The Father Brown Mystery Series (1910 - 1927)

Max Delbrück photo

“If you're too sloppy, then you never get reproducible results, and then you never can draw any conclusions; but if you are just a little sloppy, then when you see something startling, (…) you nail it down (…). So I called it the "Principle of Limited Sloppiness."”

Max Delbrück (1906–1981) biophysicist

Interview with Max Delbruck http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Delbruck_M (1978), p. 76-77. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives, Pasadena, California.

Gerard Bilders photo

“For me Ruisdael is the true man of poetry, the real poet. There is a world of sad, serious and beautiful thoughts in his paintings. They possess a soul and a voice that sounds deep, sad and dignified. They tell melancholic stories, speak of gloomy things and are witnesses of a sad spirit. I see him wander, turned in on himself, his heart opened to the beauties of nature, in accordance with his mood, on the banks of that dark gray stream that rustles and splashes along the reeds. And those skies!... In the skies one is completely free, untied, all of himself.... what a genius he is! He is my ideal and almost something perfect. When it storms and rains, and heavy, black clouds fly back and forth, the trees whiz and now and then a strange light breaks through the air, and falls down here and there on the landscape, and there is a heavy voice, a grand mood in nature; that is what he paints; that is what he [Ruysdael] is imaging.”

Gerard Bilders (1838–1865) painter from the Netherlands

(version in original Dutch / citaat van Bilders' brief, in het Nederlands:) Ruisdael is voor mij de ware man der poezië, de echte dichter. Daar is een wereld van droevige, ernstige schone gedachten in zijn schilderijen. Ze hebben een ziel en een stem, die diep, treurig, deftig klinkt. Zij doen weemoedige verhalen, spreken van sombere dingen, getuigen van een treurige geest. Ik zie hem dwalen, in zichzelf gekeerd, het hart geopend voor de schoonheden der natuur, in overeenstemming met zijn gemoed, aan de oevers van die donkere grauwe stroom die ritselt en plast langs het riet. En die luchten!.. .In de luchten is men geheel vrij, ongebonden, geheel zichzelf.. ..welke een genie is hij [Ruisdael]! Hij is mijn ideaal en bijna iets volmaakts.Als het stormt en regent, en zware, zwarte wolken heen en weer vliegen, de bomen suizen en nu en dan een wonderlijk licht door de lucht breekt en hier en daar op het landschap neervalt, en er een zware stem, een grootse stemming in de natuur is, dat schildert hij, dat geeft hij weer.
Source: 1860's, Vrolijk Versterven' (from Bilders' diary & letters), pp. 51+52, - quote from Bilders' diary, 24 March 1860, written in Amsterdam

Roberto Clemente photo
Hayley Jensen photo
Leon R. Kass photo

“I have discovered in the Hebrew Bible teachings of righteousness, humaneness, and human dignity—at the source of my parents' teachings of mentschlichkeit—undreamt of in my prior philosophizing. In the idea that human beings are equally God-like, equally created in the image of the divine, I have seen the core principle of a humanistic and democratic politics, respectful of each and every human being, and a necessary correction to the uninstructed human penchant for worshiping brute nature or venerating mighty or clever men. In the Sabbath injunction to desist regularly from work and the flux of getting and spending, I have discovered an invitation to each human being, no matter how lowly, to step outside of time, in imitatio Dei, to contemplate the beauty of the world and to feel gratitude for its—and our—existence. In the injunction to honor your father and your mother, I have seen the foundation of a dignified family life, for each of us the nursery of our humanization and the first vehicle of cultural transmission. I have satisfied myself that there is no conflict between the Bible, rightly read, and modern science, and that the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis offers "not words of information but words of appreciation," as Abraham Joshua Heschel put it: "not a description of how the world came into being but a song about the glory of the world's having come into being"—the recognition of which glory, I would add, is ample proof of the text's claim that we human beings stand highest among the creatures. And thanks to my Biblical studies, I have been moved to new attitudes of gratitude, awe, and attention. For just as the world as created is a world summoned into existence under command, so to be a human being in that world—to be a mentsch—is to live in search of our ­summons. It is to recognize that we are here not by choice or on account of merit, but as an undeserved gift from powers not at our disposal. It is to feel the need to justify that gift, to make something out of our indebtedness for the opportunity of existence. It is to stand in the world not only in awe of its and our existence but under an obligation to answer a call to a worthy life, a life that does honor to the special powers and possibilities—the divine-likeness—with which our otherwise animal existence has been, no thanks to us, endowed.”

Leon R. Kass (1939) American academic

Looking for an Honest Man (2009)

Conor Oberst photo
Heath Ledger photo

“I apologize for my terrible interview skills. I wasn't prepared to expose stories about something so special and wonderfully private that is happening in my life. I guess a part of me wishes that I'd never have to and that maybe I could protect this special time. I was dreaming.”

Heath Ledger (1979–2008) Australian actor

Apology from Ledger after he was accused of ignoring reporters' questions and focused on peeling an orange to calm his nerves for Sunrise, (September 2005).

Magda Goebbels photo
David Brin photo
Patrick Fitzgerald photo

“Let me then ask your next question: Well, why is this a leak investigation that doesn't result in a charge? I've been trying to think about how to explain this, so let me try. I know baseball analogies are the fad these days. Let me try something.If you saw a baseball game and you saw a pitcher wind up and throw a fastball and hit a batter right smack in the head, and it really, really hurt them, you'd want to know why the pitcher did that. And you'd wonder whether or not the person just reared back and decided, "I've got bad blood with this batter. He hit two home runs off me. I'm just going to hit him in the head as hard as I can."You also might wonder whether or not the pitcher just let go of the ball or his foot slipped, and he had no idea to throw the ball anywhere near the batter's head. And there's lots of shades of gray in between.You might learn that you wanted to hit the batter in the back and it hit him in the head because he moved. You might want to throw it under his chin, but it ended up hitting him on the head.And what you'd want to do is have as much information as you could. You'd want to know: What happened in the dugout? Was this guy complaining about the person he threw at? Did he talk to anyone else? What was he thinking? How does he react? All those things you'd want to know.And then you'd make a decision as to whether this person should be banned from baseball, whether they should be suspended, whether you should do nothing at all and just say, "Hey, the person threw a bad pitch. Get over it."In this case, it's a lot more serious than baseball. And the damage wasn't to one person. It wasn't just Valerie Wilson. It was done to all of us.And as you sit back, you want to learn: Why was this information going out? Why were people taking this information about Valerie Wilson and giving it to reporters? Why did Mr. Libby say what he did? Why did he tell Judith Miller three times? Why did he tell the press secretary on Monday? Why did he tell Mr. Cooper? And was this something where he intended to cause whatever damage was caused?Or did they intend to do something else and where are the shades of gray?And what we have when someone charges obstruction of justice, the umpire gets sand thrown in his eyes. He's trying to figure what happened and somebody blocked their view.”

Patrick Fitzgerald (1960) American lawyer

Fitzgerald News Conference from the Washington Post (October 28, 2005)

John Hirst photo
Hilda Solis photo
Aron Ra photo

“So, Kent Hovind gets out of prison and every atheist wants a piece of him. I understand that; I hate liars, I hate anyone who deceives even little old ladies and especially other people's children. So, of course I'd love to have the opportunity to get into it with Mister (not Doctor) Kent Hovind, as would every other atheist activist with a passion for science and a concern for truth. Understand though that this charlatan is every kind of fraud. He just wants to reestablish his racket. His schtick is to pretend to be more important than he is; we all know that his thesis was just as bogus as the PHD that he bought from a mail order catalog for about $100, he also claims to have taught high school science for about 15 years, hoping that folks will think that he has some verifiable connection to a high school somewhere (an actual school), but what I suspect is really the case is he may have preached to homeschooled kids at his house (which he used as a church sometimes). I can understand Atheist Podcast wanting to have this guy on to take him to task, but remember, he is a conman, a professional fraud. In his mind, he gains merit and financial supporters as a result of being "oppressed in the face of adversity", so go ahead and have him on, but only as a sideshow freak, someone to gawk at; show him the contempt he deserves. Don't treat him like an opponent, as if he had something to bring to the table.”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

Youtube, Other, Debating Dr Dunno https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKw8K7o-vwY (August 4, 2015)

Ken Wilber photo
Charles Manson photo
Makoto Kobayashi (physicist) photo
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge photo
Steve Blank photo

“Founders are truly artists – they see something no one else does.”

Steve Blank (1953) American businessman

Fortune "Entrepreneurs as dissidents" http://fortune.com/2012/11/06/entrepreneurs-as-dissidents/. November 6, 2012.

Alice Cooper photo
Zakir Hussain (politician) photo
Gregory of Nyssa photo
Edwin Boring photo
James Jeans photo
Philip K. Dick photo
Maggie Q photo

“[As a vegetarian] I feel better, I have more energy on and off the set, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that I’m doing something to help stop animal suffering.”

Maggie Q (1979) American actress

“Maggie Q’s Beautiful New Ads,” by PETA (29 September 2007) https://www.peta.org/blog/maggie-qs-beautiful-new-ads/.

Andrew Sega photo
Madonna photo

“A lot of people are just really confused by me; they don’t know what to think of me, so they try to compartmentalize me or diminish me. Maybe they just feel unsafe. But any time you have an overtly emotional or irrational, negative reaction to something, you’re fearing something that it’s bringing up in you.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Madonna Interview:Sunday Times Culture, The Times, 2009-09-20 http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6836901.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1,

Hans Haacke photo
Arthur Stanley Eddington photo
Jack Vidgen photo

“I don't sing a song without it meaning something to me, or adding my own interpretation to them.”

Jack Vidgen (1997) Australian singer

Jack Vidgen Inspire Interview http://www.girl.com.au/jack-vidgen-inspire-interview.htm, May 2012.

Harry Chapin photo
Vincent Van Gogh photo

“If I should find something it will probably be a position between clergy man and missionary in the suburbs of London among the working people. Do not speak to anybody about it yet.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

In his letter to brother Theo from Welwyn, England, 17 June 1876; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, p. 17 (letter 69)
as school teacher and lay preacher near London
1870s

Brian Keith photo
Josh Billings photo

“We make progress in society only if we stop cursing and complaining about its shortcomings and have the courage to do something about them.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

As quoted in Voyage of Purpose : Spiritual Wisdom from Near-Death Back to Life (2011) by David Bennett and Cindy Griffith-Bennett, p. 6; also at the official site of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation http://www.ekrfoundation.org/quotes/

Helmut Kohl photo
Alan Bean photo
John Boehner photo

“Just because you have a right to do something in America does not mean it is the right thing to do.”

John Boehner (1949) Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

"World Weighs In to Condemn Terry Jones' Planned Quran-Burning" http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/world-weighs-in-condemn-terry-jones-planned-quran-burning, "Sunshine Times", 2010-8-09
2010s, 2010

Emma Roberts photo

“I'm not in the gossips that much, but something I read recently was that me and Emma Watson are having a feud. And I've never even met her.”

Emma Roberts (1991) American actress

The Family Moan, February 26, 2007, E!, http://web.archive.org/web/20060112220656/http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Awful/Daily2005/051212b.html, 2006-01-12 http://www.eonline.com/Gossip/Awful/Daily2005/051212b.html,

Germaine Greer photo
Alison Lohman photo
Gary Johnson photo
Jean Dubuffet photo
Conor Oberst photo
Robert Denning photo

“Find the ideal in something not ideal.”

Robert Denning (1927–2005) American interior designer

House & Garden (July 1991), p. 120.