Quotes about start
page 23

Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.”

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 45

Tom Stoppard photo

“Animals that are killed for their flesh lead miserable lives. They are kept in disgusting conditions. The simplest little thing you can do not to hurt animals is just not eat them. I'm bringing my four children up vegetarian, and I know absolutely that I'm giving them the very best start in life.”

Sadie Frost (1965) English actress and producer

“Sadie Frost: Vegetarian Testimonial for PETA”, video ad for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (14 October 2011) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTkXMQSJOpI.

Diora Baird photo

“It wasn't until in the last year and a half that I started making fun of myself and the fact that I have big boobs. I never really was comfortable with my large breasts. And I went to the plastic surgeon, and almost got a breast reduction. I didn't do it, thankfully.”

Diora Baird (1983) American actress and model

["Five words that must never be uttered ever again", July 2005, ThisIsWhatWeDoNow.com, http://www.thisiswhatwedonow.com/2005/07/five-words-that-must-never-be-uttered.html]

Abdul Sattar Edhi photo

“I always say, be human and preach humanity. I started my humanitarian service by strictly observing four principles: truth, simplicity, hard-work and punctuality, and I repeat, be human, preach humanity and adopt humanity.”

Abdul Sattar Edhi (1928–2016) Pakistani philanthropist, social activist, ascetic and humanitarian

as quoted in his Urdu language message, published in the report of National Annual Conference-2004 and Award Ceremony on the International Day of Human Rights, page-14 ( December 9, 2004 at Islamabad –Pakistan http://www.ihro.org.pk/downloads/4th%20Annual%20conference%20report.pdf/) organized by International Human Rights Observer http://www.ihro.org.pk/ Retrieved July 23, 2016

Pete Doherty photo

“I still do. It's changed a lot. It started off as something ancient and forgotten; and became something modern and real. I just couldn't swim. The tunnels get narrower and narrower.”

Pete Doherty (1979) English musician, writer, actor, poet and artist

NME (New Musical Express), December 15, 2006, when asked if he still believes in Arcadia.
Arcadia

Thomas Sowell photo

“Republicans won big, running as Republicans, in 2004. But once they took control of Congress, they started acting like Democrats and lost big. There is a lesson in that somewhere but whether Republicans will learn it is another story entirely.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Random Thoughts http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2008/08/26/random_thoughts?page=full&comments=true, 26 August 2008.
2000s

Roger Manganelli photo
Valentina Lisitsa photo

“It’s only when you stop trying to find faults and start doing something constructive that you will survive … It’s just good for you as a human not to dwell on your disasters.”

Valentina Lisitsa (1973) Ukrainian-American classical pianist

nytimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/arts/music/valentina-lisitsa-jump-starts-her-career-online.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.

Cassandra Clare photo
Pete Doherty photo
Mike Oldfield photo
Toby Keith photo
Dejan Stojanovic photo

“If I would really start talking, you would become silent.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

"Return from the Dream," p. 28
The Shape (2000), Sequence: “Happiness of Atoms”

Martin Rushent photo
Edna St. Vincent Millay photo
Elizabeth Gaskell photo
Hendrik Werkman photo

“I have applied for a pass and I am going to travel through Western Europe for 5 days. [I] start in Cologne and will probably end in Paris. Who cares. In Cologne there is a large exhibition of German painters [especially Die Brücke-artists]. Jan W. [= Jan Wiegers, who knew Kirchner very well since 1920] has been there and animated so much that I'm going there for a while.... it seems that Jan wants to come with me. He was so enthusiastic that I suspect to be able to note him as my traveling companion.”

Hendrik Werkman (1882–1945) Dutch artist

version in original Dutch (origineel citaat van Hendrik Werkman, in het Nederlands): Ik heb een pas aangevraagd en ga West-Europa in 5 dagen afreizen. Begin in Keulen en eindig vermoedelijk in Parijs. Wie doet je wat. In Keulen is een groote tentoonstelling van Duitse schilders [met name van Die Brücke]. Jan W. [= nl:Jan Wiegers] is er geweest en animeerde zoodanig dat ik er even heen ga.. ..'t schijnt dat Jan met me mee wil. Hij was zo enthousiast dat ik vermoed hem als reisgezel te kunnen noteren.
Quote van Werkman, in his letter to Cor Spruit, 14 August, 1929; as cited in H. N. Werkman - Leven & Werk - 1882-1945, ed. A. de Vries, J. van der Spek, D. Sijens, M. Jansen; WBooks, Groninger Museum / Stichting Werkman, 2015 (transl: Fons Heijnsbroek), p. 110
After this trip Werkman made a series of prints from the Paris' metro: 'D-67' and 'D-69'
1920's

Henry Moore photo
William Hazlitt photo
Michael Johns photo

“The time has come to stop talking about the lessons of Vietnam, and to start talking about the lessons of Afghanistan.”

Michael Johns (1964) American businessman

The Lessons of Afghanistan: Bipartisan Support for Freedom Fighters Pays Off," Policy Review, Spring 1987, by Michael Johns: Urging America to Discard its 'Vietnam Syndrome'

Ken Ham photo
Steve Martin photo

“The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need. My name in print. That really makes somebody. Things are going to start happening to me now!”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

As "Navin R. Johnson" in The Jerk (1979)

K. R. Narayanan photo
Marcel Duchamp photo
Whoopi Goldberg photo
John Maynard Keynes photo

“I don't really start until I get my proofs back from the printers. Then I can begin my serious writing.”

John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) British economist

As quoted in The Guardian (8 June 1983). p. 82
Attributed

Rachel Whiteread photo

“I became aware of Louise Bourgeois in my first or second year at Brighton Art College. One of my teachers, Stuart Morgan, curated a small retrospective of her work at the Serpentine, and both he and another teacher, Edward Allington, saw something in her, and me, and thought I should be aware of her. I thought the work was wonderful. It was her very early pieces, The Blind Leading the Blind, the wooden pieces and some of the later bronze works. Biographically, I don't really think she has influenced me, but I think there are similarities in our work. We have both used the home as a kind of kick-off point, as the space that starts the thoughts of a body of work. I eventually got to meet Louise in New York, soon after I made House. She asked to see me because she had seen a picture of House in the New York Times while she was ironing it one morning, so she said. She was wonderful and slightly kind of nutty; very interested and eccentric. She drew the whole time; it was very much a salon with me there as her audience, watching her. I remember her remarking that I was shorter than she was. I don't know if this was true but she was commenting on the physicality of making such big work and us being relatively small women. When you meet her you don't know what's true, because she makes things up. She has spun her web and drawn people in, and eaten a few people along the way.”

Rachel Whiteread (1963) British sculptor

Rachel Whiteread, " Kisses for Spiderwoman http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2007/oct/14/art2," The Guardian, 14 Oct. 2007: on Louise Bourgeois

Ken Ham photo
Rafael Benítez photo

“We were good friends until Liverpool started winning, then he [Mourinho] started changing his mind.”

Rafael Benítez (1960) Spanish association football player and manager

About José Mourinho.
We don't need to give away flags for our fans to wave (2012)

Patrick Modiano photo
Theo Walcott photo
Heidi Klum photo
Larry Wall photo

“Historically Tcl has always stored all intermediate results as strings. (With 8.0 they're rethinking that. Of course, Perl rethought that from the start.)”

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

Usenet postings, 1997

Statius photo

“To stand still is torture; a thousand paces are wasted before the start, the heavy hoof strikes the absent flat.”
Stare adeo miserum est, pereunt vestigia mille ante fugam, absentemque ferit grauis ungula campum.

Source: Thebaid, Book VI, Line 400

Joyce Brothers photo

“Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.”

Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) Joyce Brothers

As quoted in The Pocket Philosopher/ Psychologist (2004) by Mark J. Merten, p. 87

Jacob M. Appel photo
Paul Gabriël photo

“Amice, be so good, if it is not too late, to scrape the title 'l'Aprês-Midi' ['Afternoon', title of the work submitted for the exhibition] and simply put on it 'Paysage', for the simple reason.... because I chose the moment [in the work] that the sun starts to color and (sic) because there is vapor - many people will wrongly see it as a 'morning'. Mauve will send another aquarelle..”

Paul Gabriël (1828–1903) painter (1828-1903)

translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek
version in original Dutch / citaat van Paul Gabriël, in Nederlands: Amice, Wees zoo goed, indien het niet te laat is, de titel 'l'Aprês-Midi' ['Namiddag' titel van een ingezonden werk voor een expositie] uit te schrabben en eenvoudig maar Paysage te zetten om den eenvoudige reden.. ..daar ik het moment genomen heb [in het werkje] dat de zon begint te kleuren en (sic) doordien er damp is - door velen voor een morgen aangezien zal worden. Mauve zal een anderen aquarelle zenden..
Quote of Gabriël, in his letter to Henry Hymans (Secr. de Societé des Aquarellistes Bruxelles, from Schaerbeek 14 April, 1867; taken from an excerpt in the Collection RKD: Letters, Manuscripts and small Archives https://rkd.nl/explore/excerpts/158, The Hague
1860's + 1870's

Kent Hovind photo
Lima Barreto photo
Yogi Berra photo
Lew Rockwell photo
Sienna Guillory photo

“I had no idea in 1933 what economics was, but I did well in the subject from the start, and when I graduated in 1937 with first class honours LSE gave me a scholarship to do a PhD in industrial economics.”

W. Arthur Lewis (1915–1991) Saint Lucain economist

Lewis (1979). " Sir Arthur Lewis - Biographical http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1979/lewis-bio.html," cited in: Toporowski, Jan. "Sir William Arthur Lewis (1915–91)." Fifty Key Thinkers on Development (2006): 144.

Wesley Snipes photo
Mahmud of Ghazni photo
Amir Taheri photo

“There is no evidence that a majority of Israelis want a two-state formula. In fact, if we add up votes won by all parties implicitly or explicitly opposed to the two-state formula, we will have a whopping 75 per cent of Israelis. Thus what Netanyahu mastered enough courage to say aloud is what most Israelis think in silence. The picture is hardly different on the Palestinian side. To start with, the Palestinians are divided in at least three camps. In one camp we have Fatah and its allies who have never formally committed to a two-state formula but have dropped hints that they might accept such a solution as a first step toward liberating the rest of historic Palestine, that is to say, what is now Israel, later. The second camp is dominated by Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel in no uncertain terms. However, Hamas does not want a Palestinian state either. As the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas is a pan-Islamist group dedicated to fighting for the creation of a global caliphate. In the third camp, there are more radical Palestinian groups, including the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, now the favored protégé of the Islamic Republic in Tehran. The IJLP leadership has repeatedly declared its support for a one-state formula sponsored by Iranian “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

Who wants a two-state solution, anyway? http://nypost.com/2015/03/20/who-wants-a-two-state-solution-anyway/, New York Post (March 20, 2015).
New York Post

Lois Duncan photo
Maggie Q photo
Terry Brooks photo
Glen Cook photo

“A sign of advancing age. You start obsessing about how much you have to get done in the time that you have left.”

Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 43, “The Taglian Shadowlands: The Shadowgate” (p. 514)

Richard Burton photo
Leonard Peikoff photo

“Now, the United States’ response, the western response to this is a continuation of the appeasement that was started back in the ’50s with Eisenhower when Iran seized western oil companies. The Americans, the British, and the Israelis, as I remember, launched an attack to try to reclaim it and — or at least the British and the Israelis did and Eisenhower vetoed it.”

Leonard Peikoff (1933) Canadian-American philosopher

On Middle East history and American foreign policy, in What do you think of the plan for a mosque in New York City near Ground Zero? (28 June 2010) http://www.peikoff.com/2010/06/28/what-do-you-think-of-the-plan-for-a-mosque-in-new-york-city-near-ground-zero-isnt-it-private-property-and-therefore-protected-by-individual-rights/ - Transcript http://treygivens.com/?p=1738
2010s

Gary L. Francione photo
Gracie Allen photo

“I read a book twice as fast as anybody else. First, I read the beginning, and then I read the ending, and then I start in the middle and read toward whatever end I like best.”

Gracie Allen (1902–1964) American actress and comedienne

As quoted in Funny Ladies : The Best Humor from America's Funniest Women (2001) by Bill Adler, p. 51

Wilt Chamberlain photo
Adam Schaff photo
Meagan Duhamel photo
Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“Greatness starts with the replacement of hatred with polite disdain.”

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 64

Amy Klobuchar photo
Edward Hopper photo
Adolf Hitler photo
Lucy Mack Smith photo
Edgar Rice Burroughs photo
Jerry Coyne photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak not now of the soldiers of each side, not of military government in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know these people and hear their broken cries. Now let me tell you the truth about it. They must see Americans as strange liberators. Do you realize that the Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945, after a combined French and Japanese occupation. And incidentally, this was before the communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. And this is a little known fact, these people declared themselves independent in 1945, they quoted our Declaration of Independence in their document of freedom. And yet our government refused to recognize, President Truman said they were not ready for independence. So we failed victim as a nation at that time of the same deadly arrogance that has poisoned the international situation for all of these years. France then set out to reconquer its former colony. And they fought eight long, hard, brutal years, trying to reconquer Vietnam. You know who helped France? It was the United States of America, it came to the point that we were meeting more than 80% of the war cost. And even when France started despairing of its reckless action, we did not. And in 1954, a conference was called at Geneva, and an agreement was reached, because France had been defeated at Dien Bien Phu. But even after that and even after the Geneva Accord, we did not stop. We must face the sad fact that our government sought in a real sense to sabotage the Geneva Accord. Well, after the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come through the Geneva agreement. But instead the United States came and started supporting a man named Diem, who turned out to be one of the most ruthless dictators in the history of the world. He set out to silence all opposition, people were brutally murdered merely because they raised their voices against the brutal policies of Diem. And the peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by United States influence, and then by increasing numbers of United States troops, who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change, especially in terms of their need for land and peace. And who are we supporting in Vietnam today? It's a man by the name of General Ky, who fought with the French against his own people, and who said on one occasion that the greatest hero of his life is Hitler. This is who we're supporting in Vietnam today. Oh, our government, and the press generally, won't tell us these things, but God told me to tell you this morning. The truth must be told.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam (1967)

Andrew Sullivan photo

“When you fuse Christianity with power, it isn't long before Christians start imposing the cross on others rather than taking it up for themselves.”

Andrew Sullivan (1963) Journalist, writer, blogger

"Robertson and Giuliani: The Torture Link" http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/11/robertson-and-1.html, The Daily Dish (7 November 2007)

Robert Rauschenberg photo
Thomas Szasz photo
Billy Joel photo
Bryan Adams photo
Max Scheler photo
Hendrik Werkman photo

“This afternoon I just finished a print which I started Monday. We got a revolving door here in the post office [in the city Groningen] and that's such a nice thing to use.”

Hendrik Werkman (1882–1945) Dutch artist

version in original Dutch (origineel citaat van Hendrik Werkman, in het Nederlands): Vanmiddag heb ik nog een druksel afgemaakt dat ik Maandag al begonnen was. We hebben hier in 't postkantoor een draaideur gekregen en dat is zoo'n mooi ding om te gebruiken.
Quote of Werkman in his letter to August Henkels, 15 Oct. 1941; as cited in H. N. Werkman - Leven & Werk - 1882-1945, ed. A. de Vries, J. van der Spek, D. Sijens, M. Jansen; WBooks, Groninger Museum / Stichting Werkman, 2015 (transl: Fons Heijnsbroek), p. 178
1940's

Henry Blodget photo
Peter Greenaway photo
Edsger W. Dijkstra photo
Prem Rawat photo
Borís Pasternak photo
Paul Simon photo

“When the papa found out, he began to shout, and he started the investigation
It's against the law, it was against the law
What the mama saw, it was against the law.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
Song lyrics, Paul Simon (1972)

Robert Skidelsky photo
Nick Bostrom photo

“[M]ost of the pop music out today I consider to have become a homogenized product. It gets to the point that so much of what is going on is copying everything else that is out, because there is a businessman that knows what he has just sold millions of records with, and so he keeps trying to get every group that comes in to do it, you know. You know, you approach somebody who is well known as a booker or manager, and the first remark will be, "I love what you do, but you would have to change this to this, and that to that, and this to this, in order for me to be able to sell it." Well, by the time you've changed that, of course, it's like everything else that is out there. And when Prince first started sending me songs, I thought maybe that by the time I had done four arrangements that I would have started getting some sort of a repetitive something or other. I have been extremely surprised to find that each one is as different from the last as the next one is going to be different. Some of them are like little art songs. Some of them have dealt with heavy things like friendship and death. I mean, death of a friend. And yet, some of them are as baudy as…”

Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

Radio interview, circa 1985, by Ben Sidran, as quoted in Talking Jazz With Ben Sidran, Volume 1: The Rhythm Section https://books.google.com/books?id=O3hZDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT456 (1992, 2006, 2014)

Vyasa photo

“I am ready, but only on one condition. Once I start writing, you should not stop dictating to me.”

Vyasa central and revered figure in most Hindu traditions

Ganesha to Vyasa on the latter’s request to him to write down his narration of Mahabharata. Quoted in p. 139.
Sources, Hindu Culture, An Introduction

P. W. Botha photo

“Lord Milner had, in the forced Peace of Vereeniging ensured that there was to be no franchise for black people after the introduction of self-government – which was never intended. It was only after half a century that an Afrikaner government started doing something about black rights.”

P. W. Botha (1916–2006) South African prime minister

As state president, unveiling a monument to Boer War victims at Delareyville, 10 October 1985, as cited in PW Botha in his own words, Pieter-Dirk Uys, 1987, p. 34

James Comey photo
Victor Villaseñor photo
Pete Doherty photo
Nigel Lythgoe photo