Quotes about thing
page 98

Stanley Baldwin photo

“It is one thing to coolly design a portfolio strategy on a sheet of paper or computer monitor, and quite another to actually deploy it.”

William J. Bernstein (1948) economist

Source: The Four Pillars of Investing (2002), Chapter 4, The Perfect Portfolio, p. 115.

Frank Wilczek photo
Jonah Goldberg photo
John Green photo

“That's the thing about pain," Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. "It demands to be felt.”

Augustus "Gus" Waters, p. 63
The Fault in Our Stars (2012)

Alan Rusbridger photo
Mao Zedong photo

“(Referring to the Kuomintang) There are many stubborn elements, graduates in the speciality schools of stubbornness. They are stubborn today, they will be stubborn tomorrow, and they will be stubborn the day after tomorrow. What is stubbornness (wan gu)? "Gu" is to be stiff. "Wan" is to not progress: not today, nor tomorrow, nor the day after tomorrow. People like that are called the "stubborn elements". It is not an easy thing to make the stubborn elements listen to our words.”

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

Mao, 1967, as quoted by Jing Huang in The Role of Government Propaganda in the Educational System during the Cultural Revolution in China http://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Cultural-Revolution-in-China-paper.pdf.

Antonin Scalia photo
Booker T. Washington photo

“In all things social as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”

Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor

As quoted in speech by Edward de Veaux Morrell https://cdn.loc.gov/service/rbc/lcrbmrp/t2609/t2609.pdf (April 1904)
Variant: In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.

Donald J. Trump photo
Nelson Mandela photo

“I detest racialism because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

1990s, Long Walk to Freedom (1995)

Dennis M. Ritchie photo
Jeet Thayil photo
John Ruysbroeck photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Mike Huckabee photo
Michael Faraday photo
Democritus photo

“Beautiful objects are wrought by study through effort, but ugly things are reaped automatically without toil.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

Freeman (1948), p. 161
Variant: The good things of life are produced by learning with hard work; the bad are reaped of their own accord, without hard work.

Robert A. Heinlein photo

“Everybody has a skeleton in the closet; the thing is to keep ’em there and not at the feast.”

Source: Starman Jones (1953), Chapter 10, “Garson’s Planet” (p. 109)

Arnold J. Toynbee photo

“… the dogma that History is just "one damned thing after another…."”

Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) British historian, author of A Study of History

"Law and Freedom in History," <i>A Study of History</i>, Vol. 2 (1957). The embedded quotation is attributable to Elbert Hubbard.

Donald J. Trump photo
Kelly Clarkson photo

“And now I cry in the middle of the night for the same damn thing.”

Kelly Clarkson (1982) American singer-songwriter, actress

Because Of You
Lyrics, Breakaway (2004)

Phil Liggett photo
Jennifer Shahade photo
Will Self photo

“I think of writing as a sculptural medium. You are not building things. You are removing things, chipping away at language to reveal a living form.”

Will Self (1961) English writer and journalist

Quoted by The Guardian http://books.guardian.co.uk/authors/author/0,5917,-164,00.html

Pierre Louis Maupertuis photo

“We cannot doubt that all things are regulated by a supreme Being, who, while he has imprinted on matter forces which show his power, has destined it to execute effects which mark his wisdom… Let us calculate the motion of bodies, but let us also consult the designs of the Intelligence which makes them move.”

Pierre Louis Maupertuis (1698–1759) French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters

Les Oeuvres De Mr. De Maupertuis (1752) vol. iv p. 22; as quoted by Philip Edward Bertrand Jourdain, The Principle of Least Action (1913) p. 6.

Lewis Pugh photo

“To succeed as a pioneer you need two things: ignorance and purpose. Ignorance of just how tough the path ahead will be. And a driving purpose, which keeps you going nonetheless.”

Lewis Pugh (1969) Environmental campaigner, maritime lawyer and endurance swimmer

26 November 2014, Twitter
Speaking & Features

Viswanathan Anand photo
Tom Baker photo
Everett Dean Martin photo

“Of the Russian pianists I like only one, Richter. Gilels did some things well, but I did not like his mannerisms, the way he moved around while he was playing.”

Emil Gilels (1916–1985) Soviet pianist

Vladimir Horowitz, quoted in Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz: his life and music

N. K. Jemisin photo

“It’s all right to need help. All of us have things we can’t do alone.”

Source: The Broken Kingdoms (2011), p. 1; repeated twice more in the book

Houston Stewart Chamberlain photo
John Steinbeck photo

“It is so easy a thing to give—only great men have the courage and courtesy and, yes, the generosity to receive.”

Friend Ed to Joe Saul in Act Three, Scene I: The Sea
Burning Bright (1950)

Amitabh Bachchan photo

“I know that there are a lot of areas inside me which I need to analyse. But I need time. I can't be rushed into it. Even if it keeps lingering in the back of my mind always. I keep joking, fooling around on the sets, trying to push everything away for a later day scrutiny. I don't even want to acknowledge those dark corners of my insides as yet. And if at all I do it, I'll do it for no one else but myself. Not my wife, not my parents. Maybe my children - maybe just my son. Nobody else. Of course, there is also another way of looking at things. Supposing I did not have this pressure of talking to the media, maybe people like you and others would have always thought of me as somebody else. I don't know what opinion of me you have now. I don't know what you felt before you met me, how you felt while you were interviewing me and how you feel today and how you'll feel tomorrow. But I'm sure there will be a difference. Because forming an opinion without meeting a person and judging your instincts and impressions after meeting him are two different things. Most people I've met of late have gone back thinking exactly the contrary of what they thought earlier. I've tried to be as honest as I can with you. I can tell you that I've never spoken like this to anyone before. I wonder if you're convinced. You don't look it. Maybe I will convince you someday.”

Amitabh Bachchan (1942) Indian actor

Quotable quotes by Amitabh Bachchan.

Michael McIntyre photo
Nicholas Rescher photo
Tad Williams photo
Al Gore photo
Tad Williams photo

“I’m your apprentice!” Simon protested. “When are you going to teach me something?”
“Idiot boy! What do you think I’m doing? I’m trying to teach you to read and to write. That’s the most important thing. What do you want to learn?”
“Magic!” Simon said immediately. Morgenes stared at him.
“And what about reading…?” the doctor asked ominously.
Simon was cross. As usual, people seemed determined to balk him at every turn. “I don’t know,” he said. What’s so important about reading and letters, anyway? Books are just stories about things. Why should I want to read books?”
Morgenes grinned, an old stoat finding a hole in the henyard fence. “Ah, boy, how can I be mad at you…what a wonderful, charming, perfectly stupid thing to say!” The doctor chuckled appreciatively, deep in his throat.
“What do you mean?” Simon’s eyebrows moved together as he frowned. “Why is it wonderful and stupid?”
“Wonderful because I have such a wonderful answer,” Morgenes laughed. Stupid because…because young people are made stupid, I suppose—as tortoises are made with shells, and wasps with stings—it is their protection against life’s unkindnesses.”
“Begging your pardon?” Simon was totally flummoxed now.
“Books,” Morgenes said grandly, leaning back on his precarious stool, “—books are magic. That is the simple answer. And books are traps as well.”
“Magic? Traps?”
“Books are a form of magic—” the doctor lifted the volume he had just laid on the stack, “—because they span time and distance more surely than any spell or charm. What did so-and-so think about such-and-such two hundred years agone? Can you fly back through the ages and ask him? No—or at least, probably not.
But, ah! If he wrote down his thoughts, if somewhere there exists a scroll, or a book of his logical discourses…he speaks to you! Across centuries! And if you wish to visit far Nascadu or lost Khandia, you have also but to open a book….”
“Yes, yes, I suppose I understand all that.” Simon did not try to hide his disappointment. This was not what he had meant by the word “magic.” “What about traps, then? Why ‘traps’?”

Tad Williams (1957) novelist

Morgenes leaned forward, waggling the leather-bound volume under Simon’s nose. “A piece of writing is a trap,” he said cheerily, “and the best kind. A book, you see, is the only kind of trap that keeps its captive—which is knowledge—alive forever. The more books you have,” the doctor waved an all-encompassing hand about the room, “the more traps, then the better chance of capturing some particular, elusive, shining beast—one that might otherwise die unseen.”
Source: Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, The Dragonbone Chair (1988), Chapter 7, “The Conqueror Star” (pp. 92-93).

James Taylor photo
Giorgio de Chirico photo
John Dankworth photo
John McAfee photo

“If the majority holds some thing of value, you can be certain it has none.”

John McAfee (1945) American computer programmer and businessman

Anti-virus presentation, Sydney Australia, 1991, on the general trend away from virus scanning as a valid method of virus control.

Henry Suso photo
William James photo
Stan Lee photo
Sukarno photo
Herman Melville photo

“Let us be Christians toward our fellow-whites, as well as philanthropists toward the blacks our fellow-men. In all things, and toward all, we are enjoined to do as we would be done by.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Supplement
Battle Pieces: And Aspects of the War (1860)

Clifford D. Simak photo
Ben Croshaw photo
Murray Leinster photo

“I've never noticed that being nonsensical keeps things from happening. Don’t you ever read about politics?”

Murray Leinster (1896–1975) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Time Tunnel (1964), Chapter 2 (p. 22).

Torquato Tasso photo

“All things are lawful for our lands and faith.”

Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) Italian poet

Per la fe, per la patria il tutto lice.
Canto IV, stanza 26 (tr. Fairfax)
Max Wickert's translation: "For God and country, all things are allowed".
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)

Kazimir Malevich photo
Northrop Frye photo
William Blackstone photo
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky photo

“Evidently Proclus does not advocate here simply a superstition, but science; for notwithstanding that it is occult, and unknown to our scholars, who deny its possibilities, magic is still a science. It is firmly and solely based on the mysterious affinities existing between organic and inorganic bodies, the visible productions of the four kingdoms, and the invisible powers of the universe. That which science calls gravitation, the ancients and the mediaeval hermetists called magnetism, attraction, affinity. It is the universal law, which is understood by Plato and explained in Timaeus as the attraction of lesser bodies to larger ones, and of similar bodies to similar, the latter exhibiting a magnetic power rather than following the law of gravitation. The anti-Aristotelean formula that gravity causes all bodies to descend with equal rapidity, without reference to their weight, the difference being caused by some other unknown agency, would seem to point a great deal more forcibly to magnetism than to gravitation, the former attracting rather in virtue of the substance than of the weight. A thorough familiarity with the occult faculties of everything existing in nature, visible as well as invisible; their mutual relations, attractions, and repulsions; the cause of these, traced to the spiritual principle which pervades and animates all things; the ability to furnish the best conditions for this principle to manifest itself, in other words a profound and exhaustive knowledge of natural law — this was and is the basis of magic.”

Source: Isis Unveiled (1877), Volume I, Chapter VII

Calvin Coolidge photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“Many of you are well enough off that… the tax cuts may have helped you… We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.”

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

Explaining her opposition to President Bush's tax cut in San Francisco (28 June 2004) http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20040629-0007-ca-clintons-sanfrancisco.html
Senate years (2001 – January 19, 2007)

Aldous Huxley photo
James Hudson Taylor photo

“The missionaries should be men of apostolic zeal, patience, endurance, willing to be all things to all men. May the Lord raise up suitable instruments, and fit me for this work.”

James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) Missionary in China

(A.J. Broomhall. Hudson Taylor and China’s Open Century, Book Two: Over the Treaty Wall. London: Hodder and Stoughton and Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1982, 23).

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“What a queer thing touch is, the stroke of the brush. In the open air, exposed to wind, to sun, to the curiosity of the people, you work as you can, you feel your canvas anyhow... But when after a time you take up again this study and arrange your brush strokes in the direction of the objects - certainly it is more harmonious and pleasant to look at, and you add whatever you have of serenity and cheerfulness.”

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

Quote in his letter to brother Theo, from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, 10 Sept. 1889; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, (letter 605), pp. 33-34
1880s, 1889

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo
Vanna Bonta photo

“In life, the way we perceive life and reality is often instrumental in how things can unfold.”

Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) Italian-American writer, poet, inventor, actress, voice artist (1958-2014)

Vanna Bonta Talks About Quantum fiction: Author Interview (2007)

Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Patrick Pearse photo
F. Scott Fitzgerald photo
Marcus Aurelius photo
Ogden Nash photo
Christine O'Donnell photo

“The thing that attracts people to “The Sopranos” is the family element. It shows that America still has a longing for that traditional upbringing.”

Christine O'Donnell (1969) American Tea Party politician and former Republican Party candidate

Hardball
2003-06-20
TV appearances

Ricky Hatton photo

“I have always really liked Tom Jones and I can't wait to see him in action. One thing is for sure, I would rather be singing for a living than getting punched on the head.”

Ricky Hatton (1978) English former professional boxer

Ricky Hatton reveals he has two front row tickets for a Tom Jones concert http://news2.thdo.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/funny_old_game/6310365.stm

Berthe Morisot photo

“.. the glimpse of the dome of St. Paul's through the forest of yellow masts, the whole thing bathed in a golden haze.”

Berthe Morisot (1841–1895) painter from France

In a letter to her sister Edma, August 1875; as quoted in The Correspondence of Berthe Morisot, with her family and friends Denish Rouart - newly introduced by Kathleen Adler and Tamer Garb; Camden Press London 198, p. 105
Berthe is describing the embankment of river Thames
1871 - 1880

William Burges photo

“Pugin says in one of his works that had he a cathedral to build, one of the first things he would do would be to set up a lathe to turn the smaller columns.”

William Burges (1827–1881) English architect

Source: Art applied to industry: a series of lectures, 1865, p. 2

Ogden Nash photo
Huston Smith photo
John Holt (Lord Chief Justice) photo

“It is a vain thing to imagine a right without a remedy; for want of right and want of remedy are reciprocal.”

John Holt (Lord Chief Justice) (1642–1710) English lawyer and Lord Chief Justice of England

2 Raym. Rep. 953.
Ashby v. White (1703)

Ernesto Che Guevara photo
Steve Jobs photo
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel photo
Hermann Hesse photo
G. K. Chesterton photo
Harvey Milk photo
Julie Christie photo

“To people who've been looked at and considered beautiful, particularly women who relied on it so much… age is quite a challenge. The thing which you've always used, a power, is taken away from you.”

Julie Christie (1940) British actress and activist

"Reflecting on ageing when she was approaching fifty" as quoted in: A Century of Women : The History of Women in Britain and the United States (1997) by Sheila Rowbotham, Viking, p. 475

Wilhelm Reich photo
Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“The purpose of his [the Philistine’s] life is to procure for himself everything that contributes to bodily welfare. He is happy enough when this causes him a lot of trouble. For if those good things are heaped on him in advance, he will inevitably lapse into boredom.”

Sich Alles, was zum leiblichen Wohlseyn beiträgt, zu verschaffen, ist der Zweck seines Lebens. Glücklich genug, wenn dieser ihm viel zu schaffen macht! Denn, sind jene Güter ihm schon zum voraus oktroyirt; so fällt er unausbleiblich der Langenweile anheim.
E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 344
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley photo
Kanō Jigorō photo

“Generally speaking, if we look at sports we find that their strong point is that because they are competitive they are interesting, and young people are likely to be attracted to them. No matter how valuable the method of physical education, if it is not put into practice, it will serve no purpose — therein lies the advantage of sports. But, in this regard there are matters to which we must also give a great deal of consideration. First, so-called sports were not created for the purpose of physical education; one competes for another purpose, namely, to win. Accordingly, the muscles are not necessarily developed in a balanced way, and in some cases the body is pushed too far or even injured. For that reason, while there is no doubt that sports are a good thing, serious consideration must be given to the selection of the sport and the training method. Sports must not be undertaken carelessly, over-zealously, or without restraint. However, it is safe to say that competitive sports are a form of physical education that should be promoted with this advice in mind. The reason I have worked to popularize sports for more than twenty years and that I have strived to bring the Olympic Games to Japan is entirely because I recognize these merits. However, in times like these, when many people are enthusiastic about sports, I would like to remind them of the adverse effects of sports as well. I also urge them to keep in mind the goals of physical education—to develop a sound body that is useful to you in your daily life — and be sure to consider whether or not the method of training is in keeping with the concept of”

Kanō Jigorō (1860–1938) Japanese educator and judoka

http://www.judoinfo.com/seiryoku2.htm seiryoku zenyo
"Judo and Physical Training" in Mind Over Muscle : Writings from the Founder of Judo (2006) edited by Naoki Murata, p. 57

Gertrude Stein photo

“Human beings are interested in two things. They are interested in the reality and interested in telling about it.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

What Are Masterpieces and Why Are There So Few of Them (1936), Afterword of a later edition

Arnold Schwarzenegger photo

“Eventually there was a split between my parents about me. My mother obviously knew what was going on with me and the girls my friends lined up. She never came out and said anything directly, but she let me know she was concerned. Things were different between me and my father. He assumed that when I was eighteen, I would just go into the Army and they would straighten me out. He accepted some of the things my mother condemned. He felt it was perfectly all right to make out with all the girls I could. In fact, he was proud I was dating the fast girls. He bragged about them to his friends. 'Jesus Christ, you should see some of the women my son's coming up with'. He was showing off, of course. But still, our whole relationship had changed because I'd established myself by winning a few trophies and now had some girls. He was particularly excited about the girls. And he liked the idea that I didn't get involved. 'That's right, Arnold', he'd say, as though he'd had endless experience, 'never be fooled by them'. That continued to be an avenue of communication between us for a couple of years. In fact, the few nights I took girls home when I was on leave from the Army, my father was always very pleasant and would bring out a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) actor, businessman and politician of Austrian-American heritage

Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/067122879X (1977), New York: Simon & Schuster.
1970s, Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder (1977)

Rod Serling photo
Mark Zuckerberg photo
James Russell Lowell photo