Quotes about start
page 31

K. R. Narayanan photo
Peter Mayhew photo
Paul Simon photo
Hendrik Werkman photo

“I never have to search for subjects, they come to offer themselves - the right form is not always there immediately and that is why it is good to draw those small sketches beforehand. Otherwise it will become too wild, the work demands great calmness and if I am bound to time - for example when Greet [his wife] thinks that I should come home earlier - [then] it starts thundering, because peace has disappeared.”

Hendrik Werkman (1882–1945) Dutch artist

version in original Dutch (origineel citaat van Hendrik Werkman, in het Nederlands): Onderwerpen behoef ik nooit te zoeken die komen zichzelf aanbieden, de goede vorm niet altijd dadelijk en daarom is het goed vooraf die kleine schetsjes te maken. Anders wordt het te wild, het werk eischt een groote kalmte en als ik aan tijd gebonden ben, bijv. als Greet [zijn vrouw] vindt dat ik vroeger thuis moet komen [dan] is het donderen want de rust is zoek.
Quote in a letter to nl:Paul Guermonprez, 15 July 1942; 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. 176
1940's

Stephen King photo
Clay Aiken photo
Ray Charles photo
Michael Rosen photo

“The competition between chunks of capital is getting fiercer, there is the same old same old desperate need to keep wages down, desperate need to substitute machines for labour (but that costs trillions of investment) and no matter how hard you exploit workers, you still need to sell stuff to them, and if their wages are low, they can't buy the stuff. You can force the poorly paid into borrowing money (credit cards, wonga etc) but there comes a point when that causes a credit crisis: someone somewhere says they want some dosh and a bank somewhere says they haven't got the dosh (Northern Rock, last time). Let's remember, none of this is caused by migrants or left social democrats. This is a crisis entirely born from a system that is locked into competition for markets. So, these fervid rows between squadrons of extremely unpleasant individuals are rows between people who deep down know that they can't control this system of running the making and distribution of the things we need. They are just coming up with fantasies on how to stay in power while the next phase veers from crisis to crisis. It is terrible for millions of people in awful insecure, low paid jobs and/or in insecure, lousy housing, or if they are disabled, or for millions trying to migrate their way out of poverty and despair. We should be alarmed when members of the ruling class start pleading with us to take sides with them against the 'elite': one section of the elite calling for us to oppose the elite.”

Michael Rosen (1946) British children's writer

'Neither Brussels or the City - for the many not the few'. http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com/2018/07/neither-brussels-or-city-for-many-not.html (6 July 2018)

Ron Paul photo

“I miss the closet. Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities. They could also not be as promiscuous. Is it any wonder the AIDS epidemic started after they "came out of the closet," and started hyper-promiscuous sodomy? I don't believe so, medically or morally.”

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

1990
June
Ron Paul Political Report
6
http://www.tnr.com/sites/default/files/PR_June90_p6.pdf, quoted in * 2011-12-23
TNR Exclusive: A Collection of Ron Paul's Most Incendiary Newsletters
New Republic
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/98883/ron-paul-incendiary-newsletters-exclusive
Disputed, Newsletters, Ron Paul Political Report

Roger Ebert photo

“Once is the kind of film I've been pestered about ever since I started reviewing again. People couldn't quite describe it, but they said I had to see it. I had to. Well, I did. They were right.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/once-2007 of Once (24 December 2007)
Reviews, Four star reviews

David Cameron photo

“Our imaginations can throw off the shackles of consumerism if we start to feel the infinite once again.”

The Divine Commodity: Discovering A Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (2009, Zondervan)

Richard Serra photo

“Don't start telling me buildings are works of art, because I don't buy it.”

Richard Serra (1939) American sculptor

Charlie Rose interview (2001)

Kent Hovind photo
Thomas Carlyle photo
Karel Appel photo
Kathy Griffin photo
Ryū Murakami photo
Jean Cocteau photo

“This is not what I thought physics was about when I started out: I learned that the idea is to explain nature in terms of clearly understood mathematical laws; but perhaps comparisons are the best we can hope for.”

Hans Christian von Baeyer (1938) American physicist

Source: Information, The New Language of Science (2003), Chapter 22, Quantum Computing, Putting qubits to work, p. 203

Amir Taheri photo

“The chief weakness in France’s anti-terrorism strategy is the inability of its leadership elite to agree on a workable definition of the threat the nation faces. Many still cling to the notion that Bouhelel and other terrorists are trying to take revenge against France for tis colonial past. Yet Tunisia, where Bouhelel’s family came from in the 1960s, has been independent for more than 60 years, double the life of the terrorist — who had not been there, even as a tourist. Some, like the Islamologist Gilles Kepel, blame French society for “the sense of exclusion” inflicted on immigrants of Muslim origin. However, leaving aside self-exclusion, there are few barriers that French citizens of Muslim faith can’t cross. Today, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Manuel Valls includes at least two Muslim ministers. Others still claim that France is being hit because of Muslim grievances over Palestine, although successive French governments have gone out of their way to sympathize with the “Arab cause.” France was the first nation to impose an arms embargo on Israel in 1967 and the first in the West to recognize the PLO. The blame-the-victim school also claims that France is attacked because of the “mess in the Middle East,” although the French took no part in toppling Saddam Hussein and have stayed largely on the sidelines in the conflict in Syria. Isn’t it possible that this new kind of terrorism, practiced by neo-Islam, is not related to any particular issue? Isn’t it possible that Bouhelel didn’t want anything specific because he wanted everything, starting with the right to kill people not because of what they did but because of who they were?”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

"A cry from France: After Nice, can we finally face the truth about this war?" http://nypost.com/2016/07/15/a-cry-from-france-after-nice-can-we-finally-face-the-truth-about-this-war/ New York Post (July 15, 2016)
New York Post

Gerhard Richter photo
Jonathan Ive photo

“To create something that's genuinely new, you have to start again, and I think with great intent, you disconnect from the past.”

Jonathan Ive (1967) English designer and VP of Design at Apple

Ive (2012) cited in: " Without Steve Jobs, Has Apple Lost its Mojo? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFY_vJV4I6A", TODAY Online, Jun. 12, 2012: About the new MacBook Pro in its introduction video

Tawakkol Karman photo
Burkard Schliessmann photo
Lien Fang Yu photo

“We can have think tanks on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to start to explore problems that still exist in the political area.”

Lien Fang Yu (1943) wife of Lien Chan

Lien Fang Yu (2013) cited in " KMT's Lien Chan visits Beijing's Space City https://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/china-taiwan-relations/2013/02/28/371610/KMTs-Lien.htm" on The China Post, 28 February 2013

John McCarthy photo
Slavoj Žižek photo

“Muslim ‘community’ in India had remained sharply divided into two mutually exclusive segments throughout the centuries of Islamic invasions and rule over large parts of the country. On the one hand, there were the descendants of conquerors who came from outside or who identified themselves completely with the conquerors - the Arabs, the Turks, the Iranians, and the Afghans. They glorified themselves as the Ashrãf (high-born, noble) or Ahli-i-Daulat (ruling race) and Ahl-i-Sa‘adat (custodians of religion). On the other hand, there were converts from among the helpless Hindus who were looked down upon by the Ashrãf and described as the Ajlãf (low-born, ignoble) and Arzãl (mean, despicable) depending upon the Hindu castes from which the converts came. The converts were treated as Ahl-i-Murãd (servile people) who were expected to obey the Ahl-i-Daulat and Ahl-i-Sa‘adat abjectly. Shah Waliullah (1703-62) and his son Abdul Aziz (1746-1822) were the first to notice this situation and felt frightened that the comparatively small class of the Ashrãf was most likely to be drowned in the surrounding sea of Hindu Kafirs. … They had to turn to the neo-Muslims. The neo-Muslims, however, had little interest in waging wars for Islam. They had, therefore, to be fully Islamized, that is, alienated completely from their ancestral society and culture. That is why the Tabligh movement was started.”

Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (1703–1762) Indian muslim scholar

Goel, Sita Ram (1995). Muslim separatism: Causes and consequences. ISBN 9788185990262

Enrico Fermi photo
James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce photo
Bobby Hull photo

“I think for kids it's the most important part of the game. You have to be able to skate forward and backward, stop and start, go from side to side. Those are the basics of the game.”

Bobby Hull (1939) Canadian ice hockey player

Quoted in Andrew Podnieks, "One on One with Bobby Hull," http://www.legendsofhockey.net/html/spot_oneononep198302.htm Legends of Hockey.net (2001-12-11)
Hull comments on his belief that the most fundamental aspect of ice hockey is skating.

Janis Joplin photo
Heather Brooke photo
Brian Wilson photo

“In order to understand information, we must define it; bit in order to define it, we must first understand it. Where to start?”

Hans Christian von Baeyer (1938) American physicist

Source: Information, The New Language of Science (2003), Chapter 3, In-Formation, The roots of the concept, p. 18

Mr. T photo
Alicia Silverstone photo
Toby Keith photo
Antoni Tàpies photo
Victor Villaseñor photo
Edgar Froese photo
John Stossel photo
Bob Dylan photo

“The vagabond who's rapping at your door,
Is standing in the clothes that you once wore,
Strike another match, go start anew!
And it's all over now, Baby Blue.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Ella Wheeler Wilcox photo
Kazimir Malevich photo

“We can now return to the NCERT guideline which proclaims that the conflict between Hindus and Muslims in medieval India shall be regarded as political rather than religious. There is no justification for such a characterisation of the conflict. The Muslims at least were convinced that they were waging a religious war against the Hindu infidels. The conflict can be regarded as political only if the NCERT accepts the very valid proposition that Islam has never been a religion, and that it started and has remained a political ideology of terrorism with unmistakable totalitarian trends and imperialist ambitions. The first premises as well as the procedures of Islam bear a very close resemblance to those of Communism and Nazism. Allah is only the predecessor of the Forces of Production invoked by the Communists, and of the Aryan Race invoked by the Nazis.
My heart sinks at the very idea of such a sinister scheme being sponsored by an educational agency set up by the government of a democratic country. It is an insidious attempt at thought-control and brainwashing. Having been a student of these processes in Communist countries, I have a strong suspicion that this document has also sprung from the same sort of mind. This mind has presided for long over the University Grants Commission and other educational institutions, and has been aided and abetted by the residues of Islamic imperialism masquerading as secularists.”

The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India (1994)

Phil Brown (footballer) photo

“If you score first, you have a 75 per cent chance of not losing the game. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to work out that you have to get off to a good start and score.”

Phil Brown (footballer) (1959) English association football player and manager

06-Mar-2007, Hull City OWS
It's maths, not rocket science.

Elia M. Ramollah photo

“Start from where the others have finished, those whom where successful and their results were acceptable. Useless repeating of a task is not suggested.”

Elia M. Ramollah (1973) founder and leader of the El Yasin Community

The Great Master of Thought (Amen- Vol.3), Observing management

Dmitri Bulykin photo

“Everything is tres-chique in my life now. I've adapted, set up the house, moved the family in. Sometimes my wife visits me. The only thing left is to start playing football… but this hasn't worked out so far”

Dmitri Bulykin (1979) Russian association football player

Дмитрий Булыкин: «Хочу остаться в «Андерлехте» и доказать, что я – хороший футболист» http://www.sports.ru/football/6390016.html

Leon Fleisher photo
Anil Kumble photo
Stephenie Meyer photo

“"I told you—," I started to say.
"Did you know that 'I told you so' has a brother, Jacob?" she asked, cutting me off. "His name is 'Shut the hell up.'"”

Stephenie Meyer (1973) American author

Jacob Black and Bella Cullen, p. 188
Twilight series, Breaking Dawn (2008)

Robert T. Kiyosaki photo
Jack Benny photo

“Bob Hope: Put your head back through there, or I'll start handing out baseballs to the audience.”

Jack Benny (1894–1974) comedian, vaudeville performer, and radio, television, and film actor

The Jack Benny Program (Radio: 1932-1955), The Jack Benny Program (Television: 1950-1965)

Richard Feynman photo
Mickey Spillane photo
Christina Aguilera photo

“Even when I was little, I knew I was meant to perform. I would watch specials on TV or videos of Janet or Whitney, and I would start crying because I was like 'I want that so bad.”

Christina Aguilera (1980) American singer

A Christina Aguilera interview to Allure Magazine 2002 - Compiled by Courtney Watson http://www.bignoisenow.com/christina/allure02interview.html (2002)

Hilary Duff photo
Hermann Göring photo
Mao Zedong photo

“Discover the truth through practice, and again through practice verify and develop the truth. Start from perceptual knowledge and actively develop it into rational knowledge; then start from rational knowledge and actively guide revolutionary practice to change both the subjective and the objective world. Practice, knowledge, again practice, and again knowledge. This form repeats itself in endless cycles, and with each cycle the content of practice and knowledge rises to a higher level. Such is the whole of the dialectical-materialist theory of knowledge, and such is the dialectical-materialist theory of the unity of knowing and doing.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Concluding Paragraph
On Practice (1937)
Original: (zh-CN) 通过实践而发现真理,又通过实践而证实真理和发展真理。从感性认识而能动地发展到理性认识,又从理性认识而能动地指导革命实践,改造主观世界和客观世界。实践、认识、再实践、再认识,这种形式,循环往复以至无穷,而实践和认识之每一循环的内容,都比较地进到了高一级的程度。这就是辩证唯物论的全部认识论,这就是辩证唯物论的知行统一观。

David Graeber photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Johnny Cash photo
Robert Mitchum photo
Michael Crichton photo
Erica Jong photo

“Birth is the start of loneliness and loneliness the start of poetry…”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Becoming Light: Poems New and Selected (1991)

George Raymond Richard Martin photo

“Back at the Philadelphia Worldcon (which seems a million years ago), I announced the famous five-year gap: I was going to skip five years forward in the story, to allow some of the younger characters to grow older and the dragons to grow larger, and for various other reasons. I started out writing on that basis in 2001, and it worked very well for some of my myriad characters but not at all for others, because you can't just have nothing happen for five years. If things do happen you have to write flashbacks, a lot of internal retrospection, and that's not a good way to present it. I struggled with that essentially wrong direction for about a year before finally throwing it out, realizing there had to be another interim book. That became A Feast for Crows, where the action is pretty much continuous from the preceding book. Even so, that only accounts for one year. Why the four after that? I don't know, except that this was a very tough book to write -- and it remains so, because I've only finished half. Going in, I thought I could do something about the length of the second book in the series, A Clash of Kings, roughly 1,200 pages in manuscript. But I passed that and there was a lot more to write. Then I passed the length of the third book, A Storm of Swords, which was something like 1,500 pages in manuscript and gave my publishers all around the world lots of production problems. I didn't really want to make any cuts because I had this huge story to tell. We started thinking about dividing it in two and doing it as A Feast for Crows, Parts One and Two, but the more I thought about that the more I really did not like it. Part One would have had no resolution whatsoever for 18 viewpoint characters and their 18 stories. Of course this is all part of a huge megaseries so there is not a complete resolution yet in any of the volumes, but I try to give a certain sense of completion at the end of each volume -- that a movement of the symphony has wrapped up, so to speak.”

George Raymond Richard Martin (1948) American writer, screenwriter and television producer

Interview with Locus magazine (November 2005)

Alan Kotok photo

“I'm suspicious of any mode of transportation that requires a running start.”

Alan Kotok (1941–2006) American computer scientist

on flying; quoted in [John E. McNamara, Remembering Alan's Humor, 2006, http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-memoria/2006Jun/0009.html, 2006-12-26]

Karl Rove photo

“I think it was Osama bin Laden’s [idea to start a pre-emptive war in Iraq].”

Karl Rove (1950) American political consultant and policy advisor

Mount Union Theater, Ohio, April 18, 2007 http://web.archive.org/web/20070428010004/http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/17102685.htm

Chris Hedges photo
Umberto Boccioni photo
Ken Thompson photo

“I do believe that in a race, it is naive to think Linux has a hope of making a dent against Microsoft starting from way behind with a fraction of the resources and amateur labor.”

Ken Thompson (1943) American computer scientist, creator of the Unix operating system

I feel the same about Unix.
"Ken Thompson clarifies matters", 1999

Bram van Velde photo
Kevin Kelly photo

“The network economy is founded on technology, but can only be built on relationships. It starts with chips and ends with trust.”

Kevin Kelly (1952) American author and editor

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995), New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World (1999)

Eliza Cook photo

“How cruelly sweet are the echoes that start
When memory plays an old tune on the heart!”

Eliza Cook (1818–1889) British writer

Old Dobbin, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Salma Hayek photo
Alice A. Bailey photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“Our economy has been at risk by investment schemes aimed at making not just a few, but many extra dollars, and we need to start insisting on the right rules and transparency so this doesn't happen again.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

December 5, 2007
Presidential campaign (January 20, 2007 – 2008)

Phil Brown (footballer) photo

“This is the start of the season for us - an 11-game season”

Phil Brown (footballer) (1959) English association football player and manager

3-Mar-2009, Hull City OWS
Phil is very confused about how the Premier League works.

Nat King Cole photo

“I … started out to become a jazz pianist; in the meantime I started singing and I sang the way I felt and that's just the way it came out.”

Nat King Cole (1919–1965) American singer and jazz pianist

Spoken in VOA interview http://www.library.unt.edu/resolveuid/24bc6899959ba29ac6feca22c5ad8ed9 broadcast on Pop Chronicles Show 22 - Smack Dab in the Middle on Route 66: A skinny dip in the easy listening mainstream. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19775/m1/
Also on cassette 3, side B of [Gilliland, John, w:John Gilliland, Pop Chronicles the 40's: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40's, 978-1-55935-147-8, 31611854, 1994, Mind's Eye, audiobook]

Donald J. Trump photo
Billy Joel photo
William Cowper photo

“I am out of humanity's reach.
I must finish my journey alone,
Never hear the sweet music of speech;
I start at the sound of my own.”

William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

Source: Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk (1782), Line 9.

Billy Joel photo
Khalid A. Al-Falih photo

“It is common that once presidents start governing then a lot more substance comes out.”

Khalid A. Al-Falih (1960) CEO of Saudi Aramco

Interview with Financial Times (18 November 2016)

Karl Mannheim photo
Enoch Powell photo

“The nation has been, and is still being, eroded and hollowed out from within by the implantation of large unassimilated and unassimiliable populations—what Lord Radcliffe once in a memorable phrase called "alien wedges"—in the heartland of the state…The disruption of the homogeneous "we", which forms the essential basis of parliamentary democracy and therefore of our liberties, is now approaching the point at which the political mechanics of a "divided community"…take charge and begin to operate autonomously. Let me illustrate this pathology of a society that is being eaten alive…The two active ingredients are grievance and violence. Where a community is divided, grievance is for practical purposes inexhaustible. When violence is injected—and quite a little will suffice for a start—there begins an escalating competition to discover grievance and to remove it. The materials lie ready to hand in a multiplicity of agencies with a vested interest, more or less benevolent, in the process of discovering grievances and demanding their removal. The spiral is easily maintained in upward movement by the repetitions and escalation of violence. At each stage alienation between the various elements of society is increased, and the constant disappointment that the imagined remedies yield a reverse result leads to growing bitterness and despair. Hand in hand with the exploitation of grievance goes the equally counterproductive process which will no doubt, as usual, be called the "search for a political solution"…Indeed, attention has already been drawn publicly to the potentially critical factor of the so-called immigrant vote in an increasing number of worthwhile constituencies. The result is that the political parties of the indigenous population vie with one another for votes by promising remedy of the grievances which are being uncovered and exploited in the context of actual or threatened violence. Thus the legislature finds itself in effect manipulated by minorities instead of responding to majorities, and is watched by the public at large with a bewildering and frustration, not to say cynicism, of which the experience of legislation hitherto in the field of immigration and race relations afford some pale idea…I need not follow the analysis further in order to demonstrate how parliamentary democracy disintegrates when the national homogeneity of the electorate is broken by a large and sharp alteration in the composition of the population. While the institutions and liberties on which British liberty depends are being progressively surrendered to the European superstate, the forces which will sap and destroy them from within are allowed to accumulate unchecked. And all the time we are invited to direct towards Angola or Siberia the anxious attention that the real danger within our power and our borders imperatively demand.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Speech the Hampshire Monday Club in Southampton (9 April 1976), from A Nation or No Nation? Six Years in British Politics (Elliot Right Way Books, 1977), pp. 165-166
1970s

Narendra Modi photo

“Yes I have spoken on Gandhi ji’s Vaishnav Jan bhajan at many places. In fact, I used to deliver hour-long speeches describing why Gandhi ji loved this bhajan. If we think carefully and dwell on each word of this song, composed 500 years ago, we will find that everything said in it is still relevant, especially for our public life. He speaks against corruption and importance of personal integrity. In short, it is a manifesto for public life and morality. So, I worked around the words and would say: … "A people’s representative is one who feels the pain of others; one who removes the sorrows of others and yet does not let a trace of pride or arrogance come into his heart."
This used to be part of my worker development programmes. I used to analyse each line of this bhajan and explain why Gandhi ji promoted these values in public life; it contains all the wisdom you need for public life. It is a great misfortune for our country that this bhajan is played only on October 2 at Rajghat. It should have become an instrument of inculcating moral values. Gandhi ji liked this bhajan because Gandhi’s DNA and the elements of this geet match each other. I hold it up as a model of conduct for our party and RSS workers. In the RSS, there is an old tradition of remembering this bhajan every morning. Their pratah smaran (morning remembrance) starts with Gandhi ji’s name.”

Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India

Narendra Modi quoted from Kishwar, Madhu (2014). Modi, Muslims and media: Voices from Narendra Modi's Gujarat. p.379-380
2013

Phil Brooks photo

“I've come out here tonight to challenge you… challenge you, the WWE Universe, into seeing things my way and to learn how to just say "no." See, because the people who cheer for Jeff Hardy are just slaves to the vices associated with his (with quote fingers) "living in the moment." I feel bad for you, I really do. You walk around almost blind and you wear your prescriptions proudly on your sleeves like they were badges of honor. What was it the doctor told you? 'Just take one… every four hours,' right? Aside from myself, there's not a person in this arena who hasn't abused prescription medication or taken a recreational drug. And I know, trust me, it's hard being straight-edge, it's hard to live a straight-edge lifestyle. It's extremely difficult to be me, but what concerns me now is that none of you realize how much more difficult it is to live the life… that you all live. I'm positive nobody in here takes into account the long-term consequences of alcohol on your liver. (Smattering of cheers from audience) See, and you cheer that. That's nothing to cheer. You drink because it's fun, right? (Audience cheers a little louder) Eventually, it's not gonna be fun anymore when it spirals out of control and its no longer… it's no longer fun. Sooner or later, you're just drinking to feel normal. And then there's the smokers. You know, I don't know what's more disgusting–is watching a smoker pollute his/her lungs with over 4,000 foreign chemicals, or having to listen to the smoker convince themselves that they can quit whenever they want to. It's… it's hard to quit, I know, it takes a very strong person to quit, but an even stronger person never would've started smoking in the first place. (Audience boos and chants "Hardy") I didn't want to come out here and be the bearer of bad news, but let's face facts: chances are pretty slim that any of you here will ever get the monkey off your back. You'll never be able to pry the cigarette from your lips, or find the self-control to pour your drink from your glass, or the self-respect to take the pill out of your mouth. See, it starts, and it can't happen without learning how to say "no" to temptation, and that's why I'm out here. I'm out here to challenge you before it's too late. Please, learn how to say "no" to temptation, learn how to say "no" to your vices, learn how to control yourself.”

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

July 24, 2009
Friday Night SmackDown

Alan Kay photo
Morrissey photo

“Now I know how Joan of Arc felt,
As the flames rose to her Roman nose
And her Walkman started to melt…”

Morrissey (1959) English singer

From the song "Bigmouth Strikes Again"
From songs