Quotes about stand
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Avril Lavigne photo
Claudette Colvin photo

“I knew then and I know now that, when it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it, You have to take a stand and say, 'This is not right.”

Claudette Colvin (1939) African-American civil rights movement leader

Claudette Colvin http://www.biography.com/people/claudette-colvin-11378 at biography.com, accessed 2 Nov 2013.

Eugene O'Neill photo
Solomon photo
Kenzaburō Ōe photo
Theodore Roosevelt photo

“We face the future with our past and our present as guarantors of our promises; and we are content to stand or to fall by the record which we have made and are making.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Address at Oyster Bay, New York (27 July 1904) http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/txtspeeches/104.txt, in response to the committee appointed to notify him of his nomination for the Presidency.
1900s

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“Shadow is the diminution alike of light and of darkness, and stands between darkness and light.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), III Six books on Light and Shade

Morgan Freeman photo

“The search for truth is never over and the survival of truth is never assured. We have to choose - do we stand with those who wish to suppress the truth or stand with those who seek it.”

Morgan Freeman (1937) American actor, film director, and narrator

Source: [Jarvey, Natalie, December 4, 2017, Morgan Freeman, Kerry Washington Celebrate "Oscars of Science'" at Breakthrough Prize Ceremony, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/morgan-freeman-kerry-washington-celebrate-oscars-science-at-breakthrough-prize-ceremony-1064160, The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles, December 4, 2017]

Martin Luther photo
Elvis Presley photo
Francesco Balilla Pratella photo

“All innovators, logically speaking, have been Futurists in relation to their time. Palestrina would have thought that Bach was crazy, and Bach would have thought Beethoven the same, and Beethoven would have thought Wagner equally so.
Rossini liked to boast that he had finally understood the music of Wagner—by reading it backward; Verdi, after listening to the overture to Tannhäuser, wrote to a friend that Wagner was mad.
So we stand at the window of a glorious mental hospital, even while we unhesitatingly declare that counterpoint and the fugue, which even today are still considered the most important branches of musical instruction…”

Francesco Balilla Pratella (1880–1955) Italian composer

Original text:
Tutti gli innovatori sono stati logicamente futuristi, in relazione ai loro tempi. Palestrina avrebbe giudicato pazzo Bach, e così Bach avrebbe giudicato Beethoven, e così Beethoven avrebbe giudicato Wagner.
Rossini si vantava di aver finalmente capito la musica di Wagner leggendola a rovescio! Verdi, dopo un’audizione dell’ouverture del Tannhäuser, in una lettera a un suo amico chiamava Wagner matto.
Siamo dunque alla finestra di un manicomio glorioso, mentre dichiariamo, senza esitare, che il contrappunto e la fuga, ancor oggi considerati come il ramo più importante dell’insegnamento musicale...
Source: Technical Manifesto of Futurist Music (1911), p. 80

Dante Alighieri photo
Colin Wilson photo
Henry VIII of England photo
Miles Davis photo

“He plays like somebody is standing on his foot.”

Miles Davis (1926–1991) American jazz musician

Alternative: He plays like somebody was standing on his foot.
In Down Beat "Blindfold Test" with Leonard Feather (13 June 1964); also in
On Eric Dolphy
1960s

“Never stand when you can sit; never walk when you can ride; never Push when you can Pull.”

Laurence J. Peter (1919–1990) Canadian eductor

Source: The Peter Principle (1969), p. 63

Greg Egan photo

“If we spend all our time gazing at the wonders ahead without remembering where we're standing right now, we're going to trip and fall flat on our face, over and over agaain.”

Greg Egan (1961) Australian science fiction writer and former computer programmer

Source: Fiction, Zendegi (2010), Ch. 1

Martin Luther photo

“Of all the fathers, as many as you can name, not one has ever spoken about the sacrament as these fanatics do. None of them uses such an expression as, 'It is simply bread and wine,' or, 'Christ’s body and blood are not present.' Yet since this subject is so frequently discussed by them, it is impossible that they should not at some time have let slip such an expression as, 'It is simply bread,' or, 'Not that the body of Christ is physically present,' or the like, since they are greatly concerned not to mislead the people; actually, they simply proceed to speak as if no one doubted that Christ’s body and blood are present. Certainly among so many fathers and so many writings a negative argument should have turned up at least once, as happens in other articles; but actually they all stand uniformly and consistently on the affirmative side.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

That These Words of Christ, 'This is My Body' Still Stand Firm Against the Fanatics, 1527, in Luther's Works, Word and Sacrament III, 1961, Fortress Press, , volume 37, p. 54. http://books.google.com/books?ei=PxdBTeK6F4PogQe9lKizAw&ct=result&id=J-0RAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22Nicodemus%2C+joseph%2C+Paul%22&q=%22Still+Stand+Firm+Against+the+Fanatics%22#search_anchor This work appeared in vol. 2 of the Wittenberg ed. of Luther's Works (in German) and was later translated into Latin by Matthew Judex (Matthaeum Iudicem) under the title: Defensio τοῦ ρητοῦ Verborum Cenae: Accipite, Comedite: Hoc est Corpus Meum: Contra Phanaticos Sacramentariorum Spiritus. http://solomon.tcpt.alexanderstreet.com/cgi-bin/asp/philo/cpt/getobject.pl?c.121:1.cpt
Luther's Latin: “Nullus ex patribus, quorum infinitus est numerus, de Sacramento sic loquutus est, ut Sacramentarii. Nam nemo ex iis talibus verbis utitur Tantum panis & vinum est: Vel Corpus & Sanguis Christi non adestProfecto non est credibile, nec possibile cum toties ab iis res ista agatur & repetatur, quod non aliquando, vel semel tantum excidissent haec verba. Est merus Panis, aut, non quod Christi corpus corporaliter adsit, aut his similia, cum tamen multum referat ne homines seducantur, Sed omnes praecise ita loquuntur, quasi nullus dubitet, quin ibi praesto sit corpus & sanguis Christi. Sane ex tot patribus, & tot scriptis, ab aliquibus, vel saltem ab uno potuisset negativa sententia proferri, ut in aliis articulis usitatum & frequens est, si non sensissent, corpus & sanguinem Christi vere inesse. Verum omnes concordes & constantes uno ore affirmatium proferunt.” See Luther's Opera Omnia, Wittenberg ed., (1558), vol., 7, p. 391. http://books.google.com/books?id=jrpjO-K_kQYC&pg=PR10&dq=Accipitae+Hoc+%22corpus+meum%22+luther&hl=en&ei=9iFBTeOqIonbgQeJ4IXmAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=coenae&f=false

Zakir Hussain (politician) photo
Muhammad Ali photo
Rosa Parks photo
Napoleon I of France photo

“True character stands the test of emergencies. Do not be mistaken, it is weakness from which the awakening is rude.”

Napoleon I of France (1769–1821) French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French

Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn photo
John Diefenbaker photo
Max Ernst photo
Karel Čapek photo
Ghani Khan photo
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius photo

“For he that is fallen low did never firmly stand.”
Qui cecidit, stabili non erat ille gradu.

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (480) philosopher of the early 6th century

Poem I, line 22; translation by W.V. Cooper
The Consolation of Philosophy · De Consolatione Philosophiae, Book I

George Orwell photo
Theodore Roosevelt photo
Richard Feynman photo
Amos (prophet) photo
Swami Vivekananda photo
Nathan Bedford Forrest photo
Robert Murray M'Cheyne photo
Eugene Cernan photo
Jagadish Chandra Bose photo
Charles Spurgeon photo
Karl Marx photo

“Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love.”

Source: The German Ideology (1845/46), International Publishers, ed. Chris Arthur, p. 103.

George Orwell photo
Josiah Gilbert Holland photo
George Orwell photo
Rabindranath Tagore photo
Eugene V. Debs photo

“Ignorance alone stands in the way of socialist success.”

Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American labor and political leader

The Socialist Party and the Working Class (1904)
Context: Ignorance alone stands in the way of socialist success. The capitalist parties understand this and use their resources to prevent the workers from seeing the light.
Intellectual darkness is essential to industrial slavery.

Warren Buffett photo

“The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

" My Philanthropic Pledge http://givingpledge.org/pdf/letters/Buffett_Letter.pdf" at the The Giving Pledge (2010)
Context: Some material things make my life more enjoyable; many, however, would not. I like having an expensive private plane, but owning a half-dozen homes would be a burden. Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.
My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest. Both my children and I won what I call the ovarian lottery. (For starters, the odds against my 1930 birth taking place in the U. S. were at least 30 to 1. My being male and white also removed huge obstacles that a majority of Americans then faced.) My luck was accentuated by my living in a market system that sometimes produces distorted results, though overall it serves our country well. I’ve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. In short, fate’s distribution of long straws is wildly capricious.
The reaction of my family and me to our extraordinary good fortune is not guilt, but rather gratitude. Were we to use more than 1% of my claim checks on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99% can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others. That reality sets an obvious course for me and my family: Keep all we can conceivably need and distribute the rest to society, for its needs. My pledge starts us down that course.

Abraham Lincoln photo

“We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1850s, The House Divided speech (1858)
Context: Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all them to falter now? — now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.

Mikhail Bakunin photo

“A person is strong only when he stands upon his own truth, when he speaks and acts from his deepest convictions. Then, whatever the situation he may be in, he always knows what he must say and do. He may fall, but he cannot bring shame upon himself or his cause.”

God and the State (1871; publ. 1882)
Context: A person is strong only when he stands upon his own truth, when he speaks and acts from his deepest convictions. Then, whatever the situation he may be in, he always knows what he must say and do. He may fall, but he cannot bring shame upon himself or his cause. If we seek the liberation of the people by means of a lie, we will surely grow confused, go astray, and lose sight of our objective, and if we have any influence at all on the people we will lead them astray as well — in other words, we will be acting in the spirit of reaction and to its benefit.

Brigitte Bardot photo

“I absolutely loathe luxury. It is the one thing I cannot stand.”

Brigitte Bardot (1934) French model, actor, singer and animal rights activist
Andrew Biersack photo
Al Capone photo
Swami Shraddhanand photo
George Orwell photo
Alexis Karpouzos photo
Hamis Kiggundu photo

“Money is only one of the tools of survival; it stands useless if it can’t save people’s lives. After all, no man is an island. I always help where and wherever I can since my individual personal survival is only limited to a very narrow scope of basic needs.”

Hamis Kiggundu (1984) Ugandan business magnate, Internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author

Quoted when donating 15,000 COVID-19 Vaccine doses to the government of Uganda.
2020s
Source: [2021-03-10, Tycoon Kiggundu donates sh530m to procure Covid-19 vaccine, https://www.newvision.co.ug/articledetails/107712, 2021-10-03, New Vision, en-US]

Rainer Maria Rilke photo
William Shakespeare photo
David Levithan photo

“I don't want to fall. All I want to do is stand on solid ground.”

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Ronald Reagan photo
Stephen King photo
James Herriot photo
Theodore Roosevelt photo

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Kansas City Star (7 May 1918)
1910s
Context: The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“One must not let oneself be misled: they say 'Judge not!' but they send to Hell everything that stands in their way.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Source: The Anti-Christ

Oprah Winfrey photo
Oscar Wilde photo

“I can't help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Selected Stories

Ezra Taft Benson photo

“He who kneels before God, can stand before any man.”

Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
William Blake photo

“The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.”

A Memorable Fancy
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793)

Marianne Williamson photo
C.G. Jung photo

“Man cannot stand a meaningless life.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
Rainer Maria Rilke photo

“Right in the difficult we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

Selected Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke (1960)
Rilke's Letters
Context: What is required of us is that we love the difficult and learn to deal with it. In the difficult are the friendly forces, the hands that work on us. Right in the difficult we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are.

Nikki Giovanni photo
Stephen King photo

“And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity.”

Source: Pet Sematary (1983)
Context: It's probably wrong to believe there can be any limit to the horror which the human mind can experience. On the contrary, it seems that some exponential effect begins to obtain as deeper and deeper darkness falls - as little as one may like to support the idea that when the nightmare grows black enough, horror spawns horror, one coincidental evil begets other, often more deliberate evils, until finally blackness seems to cover everything. And the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity. That such events have their own Rube Goldberg absurdity goes almost without saying. At some point, it all starts to become rather funny. That may be the point at which sanity begins either to save itself or to buckle and break down; that point at which one's sense of humor begins to reassert itself.

Leonard Bernstein photo
Elizabeth Cady Stanton photo

“Truth is the only safe ground to stand on.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) Suffragist and Women's Rights activist
Tennessee Williams photo
Corrie ten Boom photo

“(on forgiveness) Didn't he and I stand together before an all seeing God convicted of the same murder? For I had murdered him with my heart and my tongue.”

Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983) Dutch resistance hero and writer

Source: The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom

Abraham Lincoln photo

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to the light I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right — stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Reported as an inscription quoting Lincoln in an English college in The Baptist Teacher for Sunday-school Workers : Vol. 36 (August 1905), p. 483. The portion beginning with "stand with anybody..." is from the 16 October 1854 Peoria speech..
Posthumous attributions

Richard Dawkins photo
Patricia Highsmith photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1850s, Speech at Peoria, Illinois (1854)

Miles Davis photo
Abraham Lincoln photo
C.G. Jung photo

“For better to come, good must stand aside.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
Mark Twain photo
Susan B. Anthony photo

“I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand.”

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist

Speech in San Francisco (July 1871)<!-- also quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, p. 276 -->
Variant: Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.

William Shakespeare photo
Robert T. Kiyosaki photo
Terry Pratchett photo

“Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos were lightning, then he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armor and shouting 'All Gods are bastards.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Variant: If complete and utter chaos was lightning, then he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting 'All gods are bastards!
Source: The Color of Magic

Sylvia Plath photo

“I have never found anybody who could stand to accept the daily demonstrative love I feel in me, and give back as good as I give.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Journals of Sylvia Plath

Hunter S. Thompson photo
Leo Tolstoy photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Mark Twain photo

“Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

"The Chronicle of Young Satan" (ca. 1897–1900, unfinished), published posthumously in Mark Twain's Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (1969), ed. William Merriam Gibson ( pp. 165–166 http://books.google.com/books?id=LDvA2xcYZKcC&pg=PA165 in the 2005 paperback printing, ).
Source: The Mysterious Stranger and Other Curious Tales
Context: Your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug,—push it a little—crowd it a little—weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand.

J. Michael Straczynski photo
Elizabeth Cady Stanton photo
Novalis photo

“The artist stands on the human being as a statue does on a pedestal.”

Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer

Source: Novalis: Philosophical Writings

Virginia Woolf photo