Quotes about talk
page 23

Victor Villaseñor photo
H. G. Wells photo

“The Anglo-Saxon genius for parliamentary government asserted itself; there was a great deal of talk and no decisive action.”

Source: The Invisible Man (1897), Chapter 6: The Furniture that Went Mad

Lucy Maud Montgomery photo
Rush Limbaugh photo

“I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of need to blow some steam off?”

Rush Limbaugh (1951) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, author, and television personality

Stated about Abu Ghraib (May 4, 2004), quoted in — [Stanford, David, Doonesbury.com's The War in Quotes, Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2008, 77, 16900868M, 0740772317, 9780740772313, 2008024621]

Jimmy Kimmel photo
Yanni photo

“I remember a few years ago I was watching this astronaut from the space shuttle, talking about his experiences in space and talking about what earth looked like to him from above.”

Yanni (1954) Greek pianist, keyboardist, composer, and music producer

Yanni in Words. Miramax Books. Co-author David Rensin

M.I.A. photo

“They wanted me to be the face of Coca Cola. I was like 'Wow. Have you guys got any idea what you’re talking about?' Then Pepsi called me the next week. My mother-in-law called me and said 'Oh my God, Maya, they’re offering you so much money.”

M.I.A. (1975) British recording artist, songwriter, painter and director

Quote on corporate sponsorship http://www.nme.com/photos/in-her-own-words-mias-20-sharpest-quotes/172930/16/4#5 reprinted in NME (2010)
Sourced quotes

Hugo Chávez photo
Margaret Cho photo
Ben Bernanke photo

“Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve System. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again.”

Ben Bernanke (1953) American economist

"Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke at the Conference to Honor Milton Friedman, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois," http://www.federalreserve.gov/BOARDDOCS/SPEECHES/2002/20021108/default.htm federalreserve.gov (2002-11-08)
Commenting to Milton Friedman's public statement that the Great Depression was caused by the Federal Reserve Bank

Ben Stein photo

“But when I talk to people who are Darwinists or evolutionists and say, 'Well, how did life begin' -- they're…they don't have an answer. I mean, they have an answer, but it's a BS answer. It's an answer that wouldn't make sense to a small child.”

Ben Stein (1944) actor, writer, commentator, lawyer, teacher, humorist

Youtube: Ben Stein on Glenn Beck's show about Intelligent Design, Ben Stein on Glenn Beck's show about Intelligent Design, 13 November 2007, 2008-04-18 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHbdMbSLfb4,

Adolf Eichmann photo
Mike Oldfield 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”

Ian McCulloch photo
Max Ernst photo
Louis C.K. photo

“I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen. Thank you for reading.”

Louis C.K. (1967) American comedian and actor

Statement in response to allegations of sexual misconduct, "Louis C.K. Responds to Accusations: ‘These Stories Are True’" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/arts/television/louis-ck-statement.html, New York Times, Nov 10, 2017.

“But so far as the Hindus are concerned, this period was a prolonged spell of darkness which ended only when the Marathas and the Jats and the Sikhs broke the back of Islamic imperialism in the middle of the 18th century. The situation of the Hindus under Muslim rule is summed up by the author of Tãrîkh-i-Wassãf in the following words: “The vein of the zeal of religion beat high for the subjection of infidelity and destruction of idols… The Mohammadan forces began to kill and slaughter, on the right and the left unmercifully, throughout the impure land, for the sake of Islãm, and blood flowed in torrents. They plundered gold and silver to an extent greater than can be conceived, and an immense number of precious stones as well as a great variety of cloths… They took captive a great number of handsome and elegant maidens and children of both sexes, more than pen can enumerate… In short, the Mohammadan army brought the country to utter ruin and destroyed the lives of the inhabitants and plundered the cities, and captured their off-springs, so that many temples were deserted and the idols were broken and trodden under foot, the largest of which was Somnãt. The fragments were conveyed to Dehlî and the entrance of the Jãmi‘ Masjid was paved with them so that people might remember and talk of this brilliant victory… Praise be to Allah the lord of the worlds.””

The Story of Islamic Imperialism in India (1994)

Michelangelo Antonioni photo

“Hollywood is like being nowhere and talking to nobody about nothing.”

Michelangelo Antonioni (1912–2007) Italian film director and screenwriter

Sunday Times [London] (20 June 1971)

Margaret Cho photo
Halldór Laxness photo
Ed Koch photo
Edwin Boring photo
Carole King photo
Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“2033. He talks in the Bear-Garden Tongue.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Anwar Ibrahim photo

“We talk of poverty and inequality, but in crafting an economic programme or policy for the future for this country, we must ensure no community, no region should be neglected.”

Anwar Ibrahim (1947) Malaysian politician

Anwar Ibrahim said during a meeting event with bankers and fund managers at a Port Dickson hotel, quoted on The Star Online, "Anwar underscores the need to help the poor" https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/10/10/anwar-underscores-the-need-to-help-the-poor/, 10 October 2018.

Nathalia Crane photo

“Cloud-made mountains towered,
Beckoning to me;
Visionary triremes
Talked about the sea…”

Nathalia Crane (1913–1998) American writer

The Janitor's Boy And Other Poems (1924)

Richard Stallman photo
Derek Jeter photo

“You're playing a game, whether it's Little League or Game 7 of the World Series. It's impossible to do well unless you're having a good time. People talk about pressure. Yeah, there's pressure. But I just look at it as fun.”

Derek Jeter (1974) American baseball player

Reported in Tom Verducci, " Derek Jeter: In his own words http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/magazine/specials/sportsman/2009/11/30/jeter.interview/index.html", Sports Illustrated (November 30, 2009).
2000s, 2009

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'

River Phoenix photo
Gerhard Richter photo
Madeleine Stowe photo
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe photo
Paul Cézanne photo

“If I dared, I should say that your [ Camille Pissarro ] letter is imprinted with sadness. The picture business isn't going well; I fear that your morale may be colored a little grey, but I'm sure that it's only a passing phase… I imagine that you would be delighted with the country where I am now…. in ', who had talked to me about it. It's like a playing card. Red roofs against the blue sea. If the weather turns favorable perhaps I'll be able to finish them off.”

Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) French painter

Quote from Cezanne's letter to Camille Pissarro, from L'Estaque 2 July 1876, taken from Alex Danchev, The Letters of Paul Cézanne, 2013; as quoted in the 'Daily Beast' online, 13 Oct. 2013 https://www.thedailybeast.com/cezannes-letter-to-pissarro-picture-business-isnt-going-well
Quotes of Paul Cezanne, 1860s - 1870s

Edward Young photo

“Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours,
And ask them what report they bore to heaven.”

Source: Night-Thoughts (1742–1745), Night II, Line 376.

David Chalmers photo
Mahasi Sayadaw photo
Phil Brooks photo

“I tried. I tried so hard to empathize with all of your weaknesses. I implored every single one of you to just say "no," and all my empathy got was for you to love Jeff Hardy that much more than you already did. But this will not deter me. I will stay the course; I still believe in teaching you people the difference between right and wrong. (Audience chants "Hardy!") Oh, obviously it's gonna be challenging, listening to you people, and by the looks of some of you, it's gonna be a big challenge. But just like any other challenge that's come down the pipe in my lifetime, I'm gonna meet that challenge head on like a man, just like I did last week. Let's take a look. (Recap of Punk's assault on Hardy) See, now I know why you people love Jeff Hardy so much. It's because you are all just like him; and, in turn, Jeff Hardy is just like all of you. The reality is, none of you have the strength to be straight-edge. (Audience resumes chant) You gravitate towards Jeff because it's the easy way out: it's easier to weak like Jeff, because you sure can't be strong like me. Oh, you can boo all you want. I know why you boo, you know why you boo. It's because I tell the truth. And the truth sometimes hurts, doesn't it? For instance, what does it say on your prescription bottle of pills? "Take one every four hours"? Well, don't tell me you people don't gobble four, six, eight at a time like they were Pez. That is drug abuse—I don't do that. I also don't smoke, and those who do are stupid. You gotta be stupid to not listen to the Surgeon General, especially when he prints the warning label on the package of smokes. You gotta be a fool. And we can talk about those funny cigarettes, and you obviously know what I'm talking about because you cheer, and that's utterly sad. That's pathetic. I…I can't even wrap my head around you people cheering, 'cause when you smoke those funny cigarettes, not only is that hazardous to your health, it's also illegal. So those who have taken a puff, not only are you poisoning yourself, you're also breaking the law, so the vast majority of everybody here in this arena is a criminal. I am not a criminal—I never have been, and I never will be. Now let's talk about alcohol. I've saved the best poison for last, see because this is a gateway drug. Don't tell me not a single one of you here has ever said, "I'm gonna go out for one drink," and one leads to two, and two drinks leads to three, and then it's a double of this, and a shot of that, and then your head winds up in the toilet, night in and night out. Congratulations, that is alcoholism. And in my book, if you even take one drink, you're an alcoholic. So I understand why you people love Jeff Hardy so much, I understand why Jeff loves you—it's because you're all weak. Whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, you deserve better. This entire world deserves better. What you need is a leader. You need a strong leader who's gonna stand up in the face of adversity and just say "no."”

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

You need a strong leader that's gonna carry the banner of the World Heavyweight Championship with honor, with pride, respect, dignity, integrity, and class. What you people need is a straight-edge World Heavyweight Champion. You need CM Punk.
August 7, 2009
Friday Night SmackDown

Whoopi Goldberg photo

“My experience of the original Edison phonograph goes back to the period when it was first introduced into this country. In fact, I have good reason to believe that I was among the very first persons in London to make a vocal record, though I never received a copy of it, and if I did it got lost long ago. It must have been in 1881 or 1882, and the place where the deed was done was on the first floor of a shop in Hatton Garden, where I had been invited to listen to the wonderful new invention. To begin with, I heard pieces both in song and speech produced by the friction of a needle against a revolving cylinder, or spool, fixed in what looked like a musical box. It sounded to my ear like someone singing about half a mile away, or talking at the other end of a big hall; but the effect was rather pleasant, save for a peculiar nasal quality wholly due to the mechanism, though there was little of the scratching which later was a prominent feature of the flat disc. Recording for that primitive machine was a comparatively simple matter. I had to keep my mouth about six inches away from the horn and remember not to make my voice too loud if I wanted anything approximating to a clear reproduction; that was all. When it was played over to me and I heard my own voice for the first time, one or two friends who were present said that it sounded rather like mine; others declared that they would never have recognised it. I daresay both opinions were correct.”

Herman Klein (1856–1934) British musical critic journalist and singing teacher

The Gramophone magazine, December 1933

Aldous Huxley photo

“To talk about religion except in terms of human psychology is an irrelevance.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

“One and Many,” p. 3
Do What You Will (1928)

Joe Lieberman photo
Pat Condell photo

“When people are afraid of the truth they've got nowhere to turn. All they have at their disposal is censorship and denial. And Swedish politicians are so deep in denial you can only feel pity for them, because you know that in some dark chamber of their subconscious these wretched people know what a terrible thing they're doing, and they know that history is going to revile them and their entire generation for it. But they just can't face up to it. Psychologically, they are simply not big enough as people to acknowledge, let alone confront, the enormity of their mistake. They've backed themselves into an ideological corner where their only option now is to double down on the insanity and brazen it out until the bitter end, while criminalising anyone who draws attention to it. Whatever social upheaval it may cause, and whatever the cost to Sweden's women, mass Islamic immigration must continue. Any restriction would be an admission that there's a problem, and that would fatally undermine everything they're so desperately pretending to believe in… If you say there's a problem, you'll be treated as a criminal – which means that there are now two problems. One: the Swedish people have an aggressive social cancer growing in their midst; and two: they're not allowed to talk about it.”

Pat Condell (1949) Stand-up comedian, writer, and Internet personality

"Sweden Goes Insane" (19 May 2014) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_znVnOizU8
2014

Khaled Hosseini photo
Paul Williams (songwriter) photo

“Sharing horizons that are new to us,
Watching the signs along the way,
Talking it over just the two of us,
Working together day to day
Together.”

Paul Williams (songwriter) (1940) American composer, singer, songwriter and actor

"We've Only Just Begun" (1970).

Abby Stein photo

“You’re saying God is all made up, but okay, who cares? People say, “I can’t pray because I feel like I’m talking to myself.” The rabbi would say, “Pray! That’s so good. Go talk to yourself.””

Abby Stein (1991) Trans activist, speaker, and educator

Huffington Post, June 9, 2016 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/abby-stein-judaism_us_57574cbfe4b08f74f6c08963
2016

Bernie Sanders photo
George Bernard Shaw photo

“I don't want to talk grammar, I want to talk like a lady.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Act II
1910s, Pygmalion (1912)

Zadie Smith photo
Ernest Rutherford photo

“Don't let me catch anyone talking about the Universe in my department.”

Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist

As quoted by John Kendrew in "J.D. Bernal and the Origin of Life," BBC Radio Talk (26 July 1968), and in Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists, Third Edition http://books.google.com/books?id=vqTNfnKJVPAC&lpg=PA663&dq=rutherford%20%22shell%20at%20a%20piece%20of%20tissue%22&pg=PA662#v=onepage&q=rutherford%20%22shell%20at%20a%20piece%20of%20tissue%22&f=false by John Daintith, p. 662

Paul Oakenfold photo
George Bernard Shaw photo

“I can't talk religion to a man with bodily hunger in his eyes.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Act II
1900s, Major Barbara (1905)

Pat Condell photo
Conor Oberst photo
Dylan Moran photo
Klaus Kinski photo
Mahatma Gandhi photo

“Now when we talk of brotherhood of men, we stop there and feel that all other life is there for man to exploit for his own purposes. But Hinduism excludes all exploitation.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Young India (26 December 1926)
1920s

Marshall Faulk photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Mohamed Nasheed photo
Maggie Q photo
Miguel de Cervantes photo

“In me the need to talk is a primary impulse, and I can't help saying right off what comes to my tongue.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Unplaced as yet by chapter

“The excursus upon the origin of Odysseus’ scar is not basically different from the many passages in which a newly introduced character, or even a newly appearing object or implement, though it be in the thick of a battle, is described as to its nature and origin; or in which, upon the appearance of a god, we are told where he last was, what he was doing there, and by what road he reached the scene; indeed, even the Homeric epithets seem to me in the final analysis to be traceable to the same need for an externalization of phenomena in terms perceptible to the senses. Here is the scar, which comes up in the course of the narrative; and Homer’s feeling simply will not permit him to see it appear out of the darkness of an unilluminated past; it must be set in full light, and with it a portion of the hero’s boyhood. … To be sure, the aesthetic effect thus produced was soon noticed and thereafter consciously sought; but the more original cause must have lain in the basic impulse of the Homeric style: to represent phenomena in a fully externalized form, visible and palpable in all their parts, and completely fixed in their spatial and temporal relations. Nor do psychological processes receive any other treatment: here too nothing must remain hidden and unexpressed. With the utmost fullness, with an orderliness which even passion does not disturb, Homer’s personages vent their inmost hearts in speech; what they do not say to others, they speak in their own minds, so that the reader is informed of it. Much that is terrible takes place in the Homeric poems, but it seldom takes place wordlessly: Polyphemus talks to Odysseus; Odysseus talks to the suitors when he begins to kill them; Hector and Achilles talk at length, before battle and after; and no speech is so filled with anger or scorn that the particles which express logical and grammatical connections are lacking or out of place.”

Source: Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (1946), p. 5

“Any woman can talk herself into being in love with any man, for a while anyway.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Women & men

David Berg photo
Nisargadatta Maharaj photo
Van Morrison photo
Piet Joubert photo
José José photo
Glenn Beck photo

“You want to talk about rape? That's— that's media rape right there. You said you would not do that! Since when does your no mean yes? Do you know the definition of no, sir? You've just raped Bill Cosby. You said you wouldn't do it. You just did it. And then you blamed it on him. My gosh, maybe we should have a lesson on rape.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

The Glenn Beck Program
Premiere Radio Networks
2014-11-20
Radio, quoted in [2014-11-20, Glenn Beck: AP reporter ‘just raped Bill Cosby’ by asking him about alleged rapes, David Edwards, The Raw Story, http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/11/glenn-beck-ap-reporter-just-raped-bill-cosby-by-asking-him-about-alleged-rapes/, 2014-11-24]
Regarding clip from a interview where Bill Cosby refused to comment on the multiple rape allegations against him, and Cosby requesting that footage of AP reporter Brett Zongker asking him about it be "scuttled".
2010s, 2014

Jack White photo
Linus Torvalds photo

“You try to claim that the GPLv3 causes "More developers", and that, my idiotic penpal, is just crazy talk that you made up.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

LKML
June 18, 2007
http://groups.google.com/group/linux.kernel/msg/43013fe224f562e0.
2000s, 2007

Peter Sloterdijk photo
George Horne photo

“Talk often, but not long. The talent of haranguing in private company is insupportable.”

George Horne (1730–1792) English churchman, writer and university administrator

Olla Podrida, No. 7.
Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay, 1880

Pete Yorn photo
James Comey photo
Alfred P. Sloan photo
Aron Ra photo
Prince photo

“I'm going down 2 Alphabet Street
I'm gonna crown the first girl that I meet
I'm gonna talk so sexy
She'll want me from my head 2 my feet.”

Prince (1958–2016) American pop, songwriter, musician and actor

Alphabet St.
Song lyrics, Lovesexy (1988)

Eddie Izzard photo
Jesse Jackson photo

“That's all Hymie wants to talk about is Israel. Every time you go to Hymietown that's all they want to talk about.”

Jesse Jackson (1941) African-American civil rights activist and politician

Remark to Washington Post reporter Milton Coleman (25 January 1984), using an anti-semitic slur. See Coleman (10 April 1984) "A good reporter must put ethics ahead of other considerations" The Milwaukee Journal

William Lloyd Garrison photo

“It is an abuse of language to talk of the slavery of wages… We cannot see that it is wrong to give or receive wages.”

William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) American journalist

As quoted in Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction https://books.google.com/books?id=Tpb7HAIhWHgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=9780199843282&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjz1ILxqfLcAhVDnuAKHda9Ai0Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=9780199843282&f=false (2012), by Allen C. Guelzo, Chapter One

Pippa Black photo
Linda Blair photo

“Every time I watch it, I still see something new, and I’ve seen it a lot as you can imagine. When fans only talk about the scares, they’re not really learning anything, which is a shame because Billy really put a lot of thematic elements in this movie that are supposed to make you think. It wasn’t just about scaring people; it was a family drama that had horrific elements.”

Linda Blair (1959) actress, producer, animal rights activist

Exclusive: Linda Blair Reflects on 40 Years with The Exorcist for FEARnet’s February 17th Five-Film Marathon http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/41504/exclusive-linda-blair-reflects-on-40-years-with-the-exorcist-for-fearnet-s-february-17th-five-film-marathon/ (February 16, 2013)

Edward Everett Hale photo
Bernard Lewis photo
Salma Hayek photo
Terence McKenna photo
Asahel Nettleton photo

“We may talk of the best means of doing good; but, after all, the greatest difficulty lies in doing it in a proper spirit. Speak- the truth in love, "in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves"”

Asahel Nettleton (1783–1844) American theologian

with the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 129.