Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Paris 1923
As quoted in Futurism, ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 311
Quotes, 1920's
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Paris 1923
As quoted in Futurism, ed. Didier Ottinger; Centre Pompidou / 5 Continents Editions, Milan, 2008, p. 311
Quotes, 1920's
Bert McCracken (1982) American musician
On his music and lyrics relating to the audience, interview in Susan Carpenter, Los Angeles Times (November 5, 2004) "Whisper To a Scream The Used's Heartfeld Lyrics Are Half-Sung, Half-Shrieked", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PG Publishing Co.
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Statements (c. December 1907), in Mark Twain In Eruption : Hitherto Unpublished Pages About Men And Events (1940) edited by Bernard Augustine De Voto
Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist
Interview http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Chomsky/Chomsky_Tapes_MAlbert.html with Michael Albert (January 1993) <br class="br">Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994
P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004) Indian politician
On his preference to give written replies to questions than give give oral interviews with the press, in: Vir Sanghvi The charges are baseless and I knew I had nothing to worry about http://www.rediff.com/news/1996/3009rao.htm, 1996.
Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society
“Was bedeutet Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit” (1959)
Hermann Grassmann (1809–1877) German polymath, linguist and mathematician
the "ideas of analysis" to which he returned, are those quoted above.
Ausdehnungslehre (1844)
“At some time, here or hereafter, every account must be settled, and every debt paid in full.”
John Heyl Vincent (1832–1920) American theologian
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 361.
"The Paradox of Our Age"; these statements were used in World Wide Web hoaxes which attributed them to various authors including George Carlin, a teen who had witnessed the Columbine High School massacre, the Dalai Lama and Anonymous; they are quoted in "The Paradox of Our Time" at Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/paradox.asp <br class="br">Words Aptly Spoken (1995)
“The present life of man, O king, seems to me, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.”
Talis...mihi uidetur, rex, vita hominum praesens in terris, ad conparationem eius, quod nobis incertum est, temporis, quale cum te residente ad caenam cum ducibus ac ministris tuis tempore brumali, accenso quidem foco in medio, et calido effecto caenaculo, furentibus autem foris per omnia turbinibus hiemalium pluviarum vel nivium, adveniens unus passeium domum citissime pervolaverit; qui cum per unum ostium ingrediens, mox per aliud exierit. Ipso quidem tempore, quo intus est, hiemis tempestate non tangitur, sed tamen parvissimo spatio serenitatis ad momentum excurso, mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens, tuis oculis elabitur. Ita haec vita hominum ad modicum apparet; quid autem sequatur, quidue praecesserit, prorsus ignoramus. Unde si haec nova doctrina certius aliquid attulit, merito esse sequenda videtur.
Bede book Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Book II, chapter 13
This, Bede tells us, was the advice given to Edwin, King of Northumbria by one of his chief men, at a meeting where the king proposed that he and his followers should convert to Christianity. It followed a speech by the chief priest Coifi, who also spoke in favor of conversion.
Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People)
Francis de Sales book Introduction to the Devout Life
Pt. 3, ch. 39
Introduction to the Devout Life (1609)
Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) French painter
Courbet wrote this 'Realist manifesto' for the introduction to the catalogue of his independent, personal exhibition at the Pavilion of Realism in Paris, outside the 1855 Universal Exhibition. His text is echoing the tone of the period's political manifestos of those days
1840s - 1850s, Realist Manifesto', 1851/1855
Fredric Jameson (1934) American academic
Introduction
Postmodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
In response to a question "In what circumstances would the president have constitutional authority to bomb Iran without seeking a use-of-force authorization from Congress?" <br class="br">Boston Globe questionnaire on Executive Power, December 20, 2007. http://www.ontheissues.org/Archive/2007_Exec_Power_Barack_Obama.htm <br class="br">2007
Heath Ledger (1979–2008) Australian actor
Speaking on his problems with the paparazzi, as quoted in the National Post (May 2001).
Anna Comnena book Alexiad
The Alexiad, Preface
“For a brief time I was here; and for a brief time I mattered.”
Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) American writer
His entire afterword to The Essential Ellison (1987)
Also quoted in the death announcement made by his publicist (28 June 2018).
Muhammad bin Qasim (695–715) Umayyad general
Tarikh-i-Firishta, translated into English by John Briggs under the title History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India, 4 Volumes, New Delhi Reprint, 1981. p. 234-238
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XXI Letters. Personal Records. Dated Notes.
Evelyn Waugh book The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
Source: The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (1957), Chapter 1
“Only it takes time to be happy. A lot of time. Happiness, too, is a long patience.”
Albert Camus book A Happy Death
Seulement, il faut du temps pour être heureux. Beaucoup de temps. Le bonheur lui aussi est une longue patience.
A Happy Death (1971)
David Duke (1950) American White nationalist, white supremacist, writer, right-wing politician, and a former Republican Louisiana …
Podcast (4 July 2006) http://www.davidduke.com/mp3/dukeradio060704.mp3
Seymour Papert book Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas
Source: Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (1980), Chapter 1, Computers and Computer Cultures
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works
One of two draft letters (25 July, 1938) written for Stanley Unwin to select as a response to his German publishers inquiry about his ancestry. The other letter refused to answer altogether on his ancestry; since the quoted letter persists, it seems that the other letter was sent.
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
Wladyslaw Sikorski (1881–1943) Polish military and political leader
in Kazimierz Ziobro Poseł na Sejm RP http://www.kazimierzziobro.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13:dnia-4-lipca-2012-roku-delegacja-solidarnej-polski-zoya-kwiaty-pod-pomnikiem-generaa-wadysawa-sikorskiego-podczas-uroczystoci-upamitniajcych-69-rocznic-jego-mierci-w-katastrofie-lotniczej-na-gibraltarze and Cytatybaza: Władysław Sikorski http://cytatybaza.pl/autorzy/wladyslaw-sikorski.html <br class="br">Original: Dziś czas jest dla ludzi silnych i odważnych, ci bowiem tylko mogą uzyskać zwycięstwo i uwolnić świat od tyranii.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Letter to Alys Pearsall Smith (1894). Smith was a Quaker, thus the archaic use of "Thee" in this and other letters to her.
1890s
Paul Dirac book Principles of Quantum Mechanics
I. The Principle of Superposition - 1. The Need for a Quantum Theory
The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (4th ed. 1958)
W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer
St. 4. <br class="br">Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/ <br class="br">Context: I write it out in a verse—<br>MacDonagh and MacBride<br>And Connolly and Pearse<br>Now and in time to be,<br>Wherever green is worn,<br>Are changed, changed utterly:<br>A terrible beauty is born.
Norbert Wiener book Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
Source: Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948), p. 2-4; As cited in: George Klir (2001) Facets of Systems Science, p. 47-48
Ronnie Coleman (1964) American bodybuilder
Raymond Linex (June 12, 1998) "Strong arm of the law - Arlington policeman sets sights on Mr. Olympia title", The Dallas Morning News, p. 1B.
“Just as the lotus wilts, the mums bloom forth—
time softens grief, and winter turns to spring.”
Source: The Tale of Kiều (1813), Lines 1795–1796; quoted by Bill Clinton, in "Remarks at a State Dinner Hosted by President Tran Duc Luong of Vietnam in Hanoi" (17 November 2000) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=1030: "Just as the lotus wilts, the mums bloom forth; time softens grief; and the winter turns to spring."
Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, enlightener, philosopher
§ 44
New Era Community (1926)
James Tobin (1918–2002) American economist
Source: "Money and Finance in the Macro-Economic Process" (1982), p. 12
Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics
Letter to Josiah Burchett (1721), quoted in Longitude (1995) by Dava Sobel, p. 60
Board of Longitude
Duo Duo (1951) Poet
"Night" (1973), p. 9
The Boy who Catches Wasps (2002)
Stan Lee (1922–2018) American comic book writer
The artist may see it differently; maybe he feels it should be a shot of Spider-Man swinging on his web, or climbing upside-down on the ceiling or something. <br class="br">On the early days of work at Marvel Comics. Interview (1975) http://www.ditko.comics.org/ditko/why/whyquote.html
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2015, Bloody Sunday Speech (March 2015)
Jack McDevitt (1935) American novelist, Short story writer
Source: Academy Series - Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, Cauldron (2007), Chapter 30 (p. 279)
Krist Novoselic (1965) Croatian-American rock musician
As quoted in "Take The Money and Run", Sounds (27 December 1990), interviewed by Keith Cameron on 23 September 1990<sup> http://www.livenirvana.com/interviews/9009kc/index.html</sup>
Max Tegmark book Our Mathematical Universe
Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality (2014)
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
The Crisis No. V (1778)
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)
Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962) German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer
False Gods: The Jerusalem Memoirs, London: UK, Black House Publishing (2015) p. 75
Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989) former President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986
Christmas message to overseas Filipinos (25 December 1979)
1965
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
But since the Lecompton bill no Democrat, within my experience, has ever pretended that he could see the end. That cry has been dropped. They themselves do not pretend, now, that the agitation of this subject has come to an end yet.
1860s, Allow the humblest man an equal chance (1860)
José Saramago (1922–2010) Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature
Eu, no fundo, não invento nada. Sou apenas alguém que se limita a levantar uma pedra e a pôr à vista o que está por baixo. Não é minha culpa se de vez em quando me saem monstros.
Quoted in the article Literatura: Saramago doutor honoris causa da Universidade Autónoma Madrid. Published by Rádio Mirasado. (March 15th, 2007)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
Diese doppelte Selbständigkeit preist man mit Hochgefühl als ›akademische Freiheit‹: ... nur daß hinter beiden Gruppen in bescheidener Entfernung der Staat mit einer gewissen gespannten Aufsehermiene steht, um von Zeit zu Zeit daran zu erinnern, daß er Zweck, Ziel und Inbegriff der sonderbaren Sprech- und Hörprozedur sei.
Anti-Education (1872)
Matthew Perry (actor) (1969) American actor
Newsday staff (September 13, 2002) "START / Fast Chat Matthew Perry", Newsday, Newsday Inc., p. D03.
Friedrich Nietzsche book On the Genealogy of Morality
Essay 2, Section 7
On the Genealogy of Morality (1887)
Friedrich Nietzsche book Ecce homo
"Why I Am So Wise", 3, as translated in The Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings (2005) edited by Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman, p. 77
Ecce Homo (1888)
Klaus Kinski (1926–1991) German actor
Source: Kinski Uncut : The Autobiography of Klaus Kinski (1996), p. 59
Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) Dutch painter
(1980's)as quoted in 'A painter's testament: De Kooning in the Eighties', Robert Storr, Moma-website http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/1997/dekooning/essay.html, reprinted in 1997 <br class="br">1980's
“Make the time to be scared of more interesting things”
Merlin Mann (1966) American blogger
Inbox Zero theme statement http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/4995139700/theme <br class="br">Websites, The KungFu Grippe Tumblr website
Henri Bergson book Creative Evolution
Creative Evolution (1907), Chapter III. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1911, p. 271
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) German, later British Baroque composer
Richard Alexander Streatfeild Handel (2005) p. 195, citing Anton Schmid Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck (1854) p. 29
In conversation with Gluck.
Muammar Gaddafi (1942–2011) Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist
Televised address to the nation, quoted in guardian.co.uk (22 February 2011) " Gaddafi urges violent showdown and tells Libya 'I'll die a martyr' http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/22/muammar-gaddafi-urges-violent-showdown?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487" by Ian Black <br class="br">Speeches
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Review of Signals Intelligence Speech (June 2014)
Diogenes of Sinope (-404–-322 BC) ancient Greek philosopher, one of the founders of the Cynic philosophy
Diogenes Laërtius, vi. 40
Quoted by Diogenes Laërtius
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2011, Remarks on Egyptian political transition (February 2011)
Subcomandante Marcos (1957) Mexican activist
"The Movement of Movements" (2004) " The Hourglass of the Zapatistas http://books.google.com/books?id=gh052B6W1HYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=movement+of+movements&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sBSVT5CXC4OC8QSUzfSiBA&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=In%20previous%20armies%2C%20soldiers%20used%20their%20time%20to%20clean%20their%20weapons%20and%20stock%20up%20on%20ammunition.%20Our%20weapons%20are%20words%2C%20and%20we%20may%20need%20our%20arsenal%20at%20any%20moment.&f=false"
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Floor Statement on Iraq War De-escalation Act of 2007 (30 January 2007)
2007
Taylor Swift (1989) American singer-songwriter
Picture to Burn, written by Taylor Swift and Liz Rose.
Song lyrics, Taylor Swift (2006)
Chuba Okadigbo (1941–2003) Nigerian politician
Address to the controversial bill signed by President Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ (2001), USAfrica Online http://www.usafricaonline.com/okadigbo.biafra2001.html
Friedrich Schiller book On the Aesthetic Education of Man
Letter 9
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)
Karl Marx book Grundrisse
Notebook VII, The Chapter on Capital, pp. 628–629.
Grundrisse (1857/58)
Context: The development of fixed capital indicates in still another respect the degree of development of wealth generally, or of capital…
The creation of a large quantity of disposable time apart from necessary labour time for society generally and each of its members (i. e. room for the development of the individuals’ full productive forces, hence those of society also), this creation of not-labour time appears in the stage of capital, as of all earlier ones, as not-labour time, free time, for a few. What capital adds is that it increases the surplus labour time of the mass by all the means of art and science, because its wealth consists directly in the appropriation of surplus labour time; since value directly its purpose, not use value. It is thus, despite itself, instrumental in creating the means of social disposable time, in order to reduce labour time for the whole society to a diminishing minimum, and thus to free everyone’s time for their own development. But its tendency always, on the one side, to create disposable time, on the other, to convert it into surplus labour...
The mass of workers must themselves appropriate their own surplus labour. Once they have done so – and disposable time thereby ceases to have an antithetical existence – then, on one side, necessary labour time will be measured by the needs of the social individual, and, on the other, the development of the power of social production will grow so rapidly that, even though production is now calculated for the wealth of all, disposable time will grow for all. For real wealth is the developed productive power of all individuals. The measure of wealth is then not any longer, in any way, labour time, but rather disposable time. Labour time as the measure of value posits wealth itself as founded on poverty, and disposable time as existing in and because of the antithesis to surplus labour time; or, the positing of an individual’s entire time as labour time, and his degradation therefore to mere worker, subsumption under labour. The most developed machinery thus forces the worker to work longer than the savage does, or than he himself did with the simplest, crudest tools.
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
We stick to the policy of our fathers.
1860s, Speech at Hartford (1860)
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, Letter to James C. Conkling (1863)
“Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme
of things not found within recorded time.”
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) British philologist and author, creator of classic fantasy works
Mythopoeia (1931)
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist
Paraphrased and misattributed, actually from "Die Musik des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts und ihre Pflege: Methode der Musik" ("The Music of the Nineteenth Century, and its Culture") by Adolf Bernhard Marx: "Die Kunst ist stets und überall das geheime Bekenntnis und unsterbliche Denkmal ihrer Zeit." ("Art is always and everywhere the secret confession as well as the undying monuments of its time.").
Misattributed
“The only time we can talk about death is while we’re alive, not afterwards.”
José Saramago book The Cave
Source: The Cave (2000), p. 22 (Vintage 2003)
Kurt Vonnegut book The Sirens of Titan
Source: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Chapter 10 “An Age of Miracles” (p. 215; epigram)
Stephen Hawking book Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays
Last lines. Hawking later wrote: "In the proof stage I nearly cut the last sentence in the book... Had I done so, the sales might have been halved.
Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993)
Friedrich Nietzsche book The Birth of Tragedy
Mit dem Tode der griechischen Tragödie dagegen entstand eine ungeheure, überall tief empfundene Leere; wie einmal griechische Schiffer zu Zeiten des Tiberius an einem einsamen Eiland den erschütternden Schrei hörten "der grosse Pan ist todt": so klang es jetzt wie ein schmerzlicher Klageton durch die hellenische Welt: "die Tragödie ist todt! Die Poesie selbst ist mit ihr verloren gegangen! Fort, fort mit euch verkümmerten, abgemagerten Epigonen! Fort in den Hades, damit ihr euch dort an den Brosamen der vormaligen Meister einmal satt essen könnt!"
Source: The Birth of Tragedy (1872), p. 54
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist artist
Source: 1890s - 1910s, The Writings of a Savage (1996), p. 219: quote from 1903