Quotes about today
page 49

John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy photo

“There are a number of ways by which the Federal Government can meet its responsibilities to aid economic growth. We can and must improve American education and technical training. We can and must expand civilian research and technology. One of the great bottlenecks for this country's economic growth in this decade will be the shortage of doctorates in mathematics, engineering, and physics; a serious shortage with a great demand and an under-supply of highly trained manpower. We can and must step up the development of our natural resources. But the most direct and significant kind of Federal action aiding economic growth is to make possible an increase in private consumption and investment demand--to cut the fetters which hold back private spending. In the past, this could be done in part by the increased use of credit and monetary tools, but our balance of payments situation today places limits on our use of those tools for expansion. It could also be done by increasing Federal expenditures more rapidly than necessary, but such a course would soon demoralize both the Government and our economy. If Government is to retain the confidence of the people, it must not spend more than can be justified on grounds of national need or spent with maximum efficiency.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1962, Address and Question and Answer Period at the Economic Club of New York

John F. Kennedy photo
John F. Kennedy photo
Jeremy Jackson (scientist) photo
Benjamin Creme photo
Ted Kennedy photo
John Lewis (civil rights leader) photo
Frédéric Chopin photo

“Now I am going to wash myself. Please do not embrace me as I have not washed yet. And you? Even were I to anoint myself with fragrant oils from Byzantium, you would not embrace me—not unless forced to by magnetism. But there are forces in Nature! Today you will dream that you are embracing me! You have to pay for the nightmare you caused me last night!”

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer

Translation 2: I'm going to wash myself, don't kiss me yet, while I haven't washed myself yet. – You? even when I would rub myself with Byzantine oil, you wouldn't kiss me, unless I'd force you with magnetic powers. There's a certain power in nature. Today you will dream you are kissing me. Payback time for the bad dream you caused me last night.
Translation 1: Walker, Alan (2018). Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times https://books.google.com/books?id=6ThIDwAAQBAJ. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374714376, pp. 109 https://books.google.com/books?id=6ThIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT109– 110 https://books.google.com/books?id=6ThIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT110.
da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna (19 November 2018). "An Ingenious Frédéric Chopin" https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/books/review/fyderyk-chopin-alan-walker-frederic-chopin-biography.html in The New York Times.
Oltermann, Philip and Walker, Shaun (25 November 2020). "Chopin's interest in men airbrushed from history, programme claims: Journalist says he has found overt homoeroticism in Polish composer’s letters" https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/nov/25/chopins-interest-in-men-airbrushed-from-history-programme-claims in The Guardian.
Picheta, Rob (29 November 2020). "Was Chopin gay? The awkward question in one of the EU's worst countries for LGBTQ rights" https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/29/europe/chopin-sexuality-poland-lgbtq-debate-scli-intl/index.html at CNN.
Chilton, Louis (30 November 2020). "Frédéric Chopin’s same-sex love letters covered up by biographers and archivists, claims new programme: Swiss radio documentary explored evidence of the great composer’s attraction to men" https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/chopin-frederic-composer-gay-letters-b1761548.html in The Independent.
From Chopin's Polish letters
Original: (pl) Idę się umywać, nie całuj mię teraz, bom się jeszcze nie umył. Ty? chociażbym się olejkami wysmarował bizantyjskimi, nie pocałowałbyś, gdybym ja Ciebie magnetycznym sposobem do tego nie przymusił. Jest jakaś siła w naturze. Dziś Ci się śnić będzie, że mnie całujesz. Muszę Ci oddać za szkaradny sen, jakiś mi dziś w nocy sprowadził.
Source: Polish: To Tytus Woyciechowski in Poturzyn (1830-09-04) https://chopin.nifc.pl/en/chopin/list/675_to-tytus-woyciechowski-in-poturzyn at Fryderyk Chopin Institute website.

Barbara W. Tuchman photo
Nagin Cox photo
Benito Mussolini photo

“World Jewry has been, for sixteen years, despite our policy, an irreconcilable enemy of Fascism. In Italy our policy has led, in the Semitic elements, to what can today be called a true rush to board the ship.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

Speech held in Trieste (September 18, 1938)
Source: Il discorso di Trieste, archivioluce, 2021-01-04 https://www.archivioluce.com/2019/09/18/il-discorso-di-trieste/,

Ahmad Kasravi photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“I am very proud now that we have a museum on the National Mall where people can learn about Reverend King, so many other things, Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more, I notice. Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and millions more black Americans who made [[America] what it is today. Big impact”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2017, February
Source: Donald Trump's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/frederick-douglass-trump/515292/ February 1, 2017

Alfred Denning, Baron Denning photo
Joe Biden photo
Joe Biden photo
Adolf Hitler photo

“I alone bear the responsibility. But I am not a criminal because of that. If today I stand here as a revolutionary, it is as a revolutionary against the revolution. There is no such thing as high treason against the traitors of 1918.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

At his trial https://worldhistoryproject.org/1924/2/26/adolf-hitler-goes-on-trial-for-treason, 24 February 1924
1920s

Mashrafe Mortaza photo
Eminem photo
David Hilbert photo

“We must not believe those, who today, with philosophical bearing and deliberative tone, prophesy the fall of culture and accept the ignorabimus. For us there is no ignorabimus, and in my opinion none whatever in natural science. In opposition to the foolish ignorabimus our slogan shall be:
We must know — we will know!”

David Hilbert (1862–1943) German prominent mathematician

Wir müssen wissen — wir werden wissen!
Address to the Society of German Scientists and Physicians, in Königsberg (8 September 1930). The concluding statement was used as the epitaph on his tomb in Göttingen. Radio broadcast of the address http://math.sfsu.edu/smith/Documents/HilbertRadio/HilbertRadio.mp3, and transcription and English translation http://math.sfsu.edu/smith/Documents/HilbertRadio/HilbertRadio.pdf.

Tori Amos photo
William Gibson photo
Domenico Mogavero photo

“Pretending to be God and parroting his power of creation is an enormous risk that can plunge men into a barbarity. Never forget that there is only one creator: God. In the wrong hands, today's development can lead tomorrow to a devastating leap in the dark.”

Domenico Mogavero (1947) Catholic bishop

Catholic Church: synthetic cell potentially a good development but life originates from God https://www.foxnews.com/world/catholic-church-synthetic-cell-potentially-a-good-development-but-life-originates-from-god (May 21, 2010)

Boris Yeltsin photo
Murray Bookchin photo

“People who resist authority, who defend the rights of the individual, who try in a period of increasing totalitarianism and centralization to reclaim these rights—this is the true left in the United States. Whether they are anarcho-communists, anarcho-syndicalists, or libertarians who believe in free enterprise, I regard theirs as the real legacy of the left, and I feel much closer, ideologically, to such individuals than I do to the totalitarian liberals and Marxist-Leninists of today.”

Murray Bookchin (1921–2006) American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher

“Reason Interview: Murray Bookchin: A controversial anarchist talks about government, the Libertarian Party, Ayn Rand, and the evolution of his own ideas” http://reason.com/archives/1979/10/01/interview-with-murray-bookchin/1, Leslee J. Newman, Reason magazine, (October 1979) pp. 34-39.

Leopold I of Belgium photo
Larry Niven photo

“I knew it long ago: I’m a compulsive teacher, but I can’t teach. The godawful state of today’s education system isn’t what’s stopping me. I lack at least two of the essential qualifications.
I cannot “suffer fools gladly.””

The smartest of my pupils would get all my attention, and the rest would have to fend for themselves. And I can’t handle being interrupted.
Writing is the answer. Whatever I have to teach, my students will select themselves by buying the book. And nobody interrupts a printed page.
Foreword: Playgrounds for the Mind (pp. 26-27)
Short fiction, N-Space (1990)

Greg McKeown (author) photo
Peter Singer photo
Marjorie Taylor Greene photo

“Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling. The Holocaust is the greatest atrocity committed in history. The fact that this needs to be stated today is deeply troubling.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene (1974) American politician and businesswoman from the state of Georgia

Statement from House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy https://republicanleader.house.gov/leader-mccarthy-condemns-comparisons-to-the-holocaust/, 25 May 2021
About

Mohammad Al Gergawi photo

“In today’s world, governments cannot create the future on their own; it is important to involve everyone including the private sector, the youth, international partners and others in creating policies."”

Mohammad Al Gergawi (1963) Minister of Cabinet Affairs of the United Arab Emirates and the Chairman of the Executive Office in Dubai.

Statement during the third Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Future Councils as quoted in Mohammed bin Rashid attends opening session of the Annual Meeting of WEF’s Global Future Councils http://Mohammed%20bin%20Rashid%20attends%20opening%20session%20of%20the%20Annual%20Meeting%20of%20WEF’s%20Global%20Future%20Councils in Wam (11th November, 2018).
2018
Source: http://wam.ae/en/details/1395302719712

Layne Beachley photo

“Most people didn’t realise how I struggled throughout my life and career. There was a lot of pain, negative thoughts, and trauma that others didn’t see, and today the majority of the population is enduring this.”

Layne Beachley (1972) Australian surfer

LIFE LESSONS WITH LAYNE BEACHLEY https://www.tracksmag.com.au/news/riding-deep-with-layne-beachley-555092 (October 23 2020)

Mary Ruwart photo

“[M]ost poverty in the world today is caused by aggression, not ignorance. The illusion that aggression-through-government benefits the poor at the expensive of the rich is just that, an illusion.”

Mary Ruwart (1949) American scientist and libertarian activist

Source: Healing Our World: In An Age of Aggression, (2003), p. 92

Joe Alves photo

“I don’t know how anybody would like to do anything but CGI today. Because they sit there on the computer and they can make it look so real.”

Joe Alves (1936) Film designer

‘Jaws’ At 45: Joe Alves Explains Making The Most Famous Movie Monster https://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2020/06/24/jaws-at-45-joe-alves-explains-making-the-most-famous-movie-monster/?sh=1dcc247752a3 (June 24, 2020)

Donald J. Trump photo

“Today I stand before the United Nations General Assembly to share the extraordinary progress we've made. In less than two years, my administration has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Address to UN General Assembly, quoted in * 2018-09-26
Trump's U.N. speech pitting globalism against patriotism proves the president has no idea what patriotism means
Daniel Shapiro
NBC News
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-u-n-speech-pitting-globalism-against-patriotism-proves-ncna913141
2018, September 2018

Theodore Kaczynski photo
James Blunt photo

“Everybody wants a flame, they don’t want to get burnt.
And today is our turn.”

James Blunt (1974) English singer-songwriter

"Bonfire Heart", written by James Blunt and Ryan Tedder
Song lyrics, Moon Landing (2013)

Bell Hooks photo

“Today’s fashion magazines may carry an article about the dangers of anorexia while bombarding its readers with images of emaciated young bodies representing the height of beauty and desirability.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

As quoted in Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2014), p.34

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg photo

“I have no doubt that the only reason I’m alive today at 92 is because God has work for me to do. I have a message to deliver; God has kept me alive to deliver it.”

René Henry Gracida (1923) American Roman Catholic bishop

Airman, Monk, Priest, Bishop: An interview with Bp. Rene Henry Gracida https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2016/01/11/airman-monk-priest-bishop-an-interview-with-bp-rene-henry-gracida/ (January 11, 2016)

Jacques Attali photo

“Today, music heralds… the establishment of a society of repetition in which nothing will happen anymore.”

Jacques Attali (1943) French economist

Source: Quotations of the Day: September 2003, https://www.bartleby.com/quotations/092003.html

David Rockefeller photo
Franklin D. Roosevelt photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
John McCain photo
Benjamin Franklin photo

“One today is worth two tomorrows.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Brendan Behan photo

“No yesterdays are ever wasted for those who give themselves to today.”

Brendan Behan (1923–1964) Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Isaac Asimov photo

“In the world of today can there be peace anywhere until there is peace everywhere?”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

The Egyptians (1967), p. 241
General sources

Seneca the Younger photo

“Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.”

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXIII

Seneca the Younger photo
Prevale photo

“Music is timeless. A good piece of yesterday, it's beautiful today and it will be beautiful tomorrow.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La musica è senza tempo. Un bel brano di ieri, è bello oggi e sarà bello domani.
Source: prevale.net

Benjamin Creme photo

“In reality, there is no truth in socialism, because it has never worked. Still smarting from the hard lessons of history, today's Marxist socialists have learned to swiftly bury truth and any truth-seekers, before they can become entombed themselves.”

L. K. Samuels (1951) American writer

“No Truth in Socialism: Why the ‘Crisis of Marxism’ Matters” https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/08/no_truth_in_socialism_why_the_crisis_of_marxism_matters.html American Thinker (Aug. 7, 2021)

Roberto Clemente photo

“Once upon a time I never believed I could get tired of baseball. I played baseball from morning to night. But today it isn't as it once was. I just never seem to get enough rest. And if I can't play at my best all the time, why play?”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Clemente: Happy 33, With 3 Years to Go" https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83638719/the-pittsburgh-press/ by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (August 17, 1967), p. 39
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>

Joe Sacco photo

“History is a combination of a lot of things. You can’t isolate events today and say, “Oh, well, this happened—those awful people.””

Joe Sacco (1960) Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist; pioneer of the Non-Fiction Graphic Novel (b. 1960)

The acts might be brutal, but there must be a context to it. I certainly didn’t want to drop the reader into those incidents without telling the story of, well: Why are there refugees? Why were the Israelis and the Palestinians battling along the border? Who were the fedayeen? What was the Israeli response to that? But more than that, I think, for me, the book ends up being—this is going to sound strange—a dead end. Because I don’t know where to go from here, except to delve into human psychology. I think I understand how history works. I understand why one people are battling another people. I understand that they both want land. But ultimately there’s a level that I haven’t really got to yet…
On the multifaceted quality of history in “An Interview with Joe Sacco” https://believermag.com/an-interview-with-joe-sacco/ in Believer Magazine (2011 Jun 1)

Wong Kar-wai photo

“When I was young, the idea of “world cinema” didn’t exist. We would watch any films that we could find in the cinemas. Today, some of those films have become accessible again on streaming platforms. In a way, it doesn’t matter as much where they exist as long as people have access to them.”

Wong Kar-wai (1958) Hong Kong screenwriter, film producer and film director

"5 Questions for Wong Kar Wai" in Notebook Feature (19 March 2021) https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/5-questions-for-wong-kar-wai

“Our world today is in the grip of anti-capitalism. State bureaucracies ruling over anti-market policies have grown into ideological and political elites who arrogantly presume to know and dictate how we should all live and work.”

Richard Ebeling (1950) American economist

“Is the ‘Spectre of Communism’ Still Haunting the World?” https://fee.org/resources/is-the-spectre-of-communism-still-haunting-the-world/, speech entitled “Evenings at FEE” in March 2006. Posted in Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), (December 19, 2008)

Bhaskar Sunkara photo
Zhiar Ali photo
Charles Webster Leadbeater photo
Paolo Monti photo

“Finally, to help the memories came a machine, the photographic device, once bulky like a piece of furniture in the middle of the room, today light, shiny and precise as a weapon. Precise. And faithful?”

Paolo Monti (1908–1982) Italian photographer

"Mariel", in Camera, n. 10, October 1956; quoted in Conversazioni https://www.beic.it/mostre/monti/conversazioni.html, BEIC.
Original: (it) Finalmente ad aiutare i ricordi venne una macchina, l'apparecchio fotografico un tempo ingombrante come un mobile in mezzo alla stanza, oggi leggero, lucido e preciso come un'arma. Preciso. E fedele?

“I came through the fire, and I am so blessed to be with you today. My dream is that one day, all people will live without fear, in real peace, with no fighting and no hostility.”

Phan Thi Kim Phuc (1963) Child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972

"In Napa, “napalm girl” Kim Phuc shares story of suffering and forgiveness in Vietnam and beyond" in Napa Valley Register https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/in-napa-napalm-girl-kim-phuc-shares-story-of-suffering-and-forgiveness-in-vietnam-and/article_4f9225b8-0938-5509-b69b-abe13479fd4d.html (24 February 2019)

Mateusz Morawiecki photo

“We are fighting to make sure that no country, neither today nor tomorrow, is denied funding based on an arbitrary and non-transparent mechanism. This is a matter of fundamental trust on which the European law is based.”

Mateusz Morawiecki (1968) Prime Minister of Poland

"In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine" https://www.gov.pl/web/iceland/interview-with-polish-prime-minister-mateusz-morawiecki-in-frankfurter-allgemeine (3 December 2020)

Bolesław Prus photo
Example (musician) photo

“If only I could fly away
Revel in the moonlight
Try to find a good life
Find a way to break the chains
Find a way to break the chains
Struggle just to hear the call
It's easy now, easy now
Heaven is a mile away
I'll burn it all and leave today”

Example (musician) (1982) English rapper and singer

"Break the Chains" (song), with Rationale (Tinashé Fazakerley)
("Break the Chains" on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvosF7mbrnE
Studio albums, Some Nights Last for Days (2020)

Example (musician) photo

“I'm missing my halo
Where did today go?
Why does it rain so much when it says so?
Let me show you all the beautiful things
What do they know?
Come taste the rainbow
Always gonna live like it's my last day”

Example (musician) (1982) English rapper and singer

"Come Taste the Rainbow" (song)
("Come Taste the Rainbow" on YouTube (with lyrics)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr1pq9-AYbM
Studio albums, The Evolution of Man (2012)

Peter Thiel photo

“No one can predict the future exactly, but we know two things: it’s going to be different, and it must be rooted in today’s world.”

Peter Thiel (1967) American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager

Source: ZERO to ONE

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Garry Davis photo

“Yesterday's science fiction is today's prosaic, everyday reality.”

Garry Davis (1921–2013) American actor turned peace activist (1921-2013)

Letters to World Citizens (2004)

Benjamin Creme photo

“We now have no option but to end war forever because with the nuclear bombs and armament today, we can destroy all life... it's up to us. We have to do it. We have to make the decision.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The State of the World 2010, public lecture in New York City, USA, (July 2010)

Sheyene Gerardi photo

“Workers who don’t share ownership of the robots will be reduced to political powerlessness far worse than their conditions today. We have the opportunity to solve this problem during the bootstrapping period while human labor is still needed for space industry.”

Sheyene Gerardi Venezuelan actor and model

[NASA CLASS Announces Collaboration With Actress Sheyene Gerardi, http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=38c46884-5abc-491a-89aa-c9bb0b71195c]

Tip O'Neill photo

“Yesterday’s seer is today’s bore.”

"The Quack Detector", p. 244
An Urchin in the Storm (1987)

Marcus Aurelius photo

“Today I escaped from anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own”

Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book IX

Kuruvilla Pandikattu photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj photo

“We arrived from being the most isolated and closed communist regime in the world to one of the most open. Today we have a dynamic market economy, a vibrant, creative society.”

Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj (1963) Mongolian politician

Source: "Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj visits European Parliament" https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/eu-affairs/20150605STO63234/mongolian-president-tsakhiagiin-elbegdorj-visits-european-parliament (9 June 2015)

George Will photo

“The cultivation -- even celebration -- of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.”

George Will (1941) American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author

Source: “Afflicted By Comfort” https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2004/01/11/afflicted-by-comfort/9aa0b1db-8b1f-4156-9bf9-8c9eb84ee6be/, The Washington Post, (January 11, 2004)

M.J. Akbar photo

“Jihad is the signature tune of Islamic history. If today’s Muslim rulers are reluctant to sound that note, it is often because they are concerned about the consequences of failure.”

M.J. Akbar (1951) journalist, author

Source: Akbar, M. J - The shade of swords_ Jihad and the conflict between Islam and christianity-Routledge (2008)