Quotes about translation
page 4

Paul Cézanne photo
Jonah Lehrer photo
Marcel Duchamp photo
Lu Xun photo
Auguste Rodin photo
Pierre-Jean de Béranger photo

“And in the years he reigned; through all the country wide,
There was no cause for weeping, save when the good man died.”

Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780–1857) French poet and chansonnier

Ce n'est que lorsqu'il expira
Que le peuple, qui l'enterra, pleura.
Le Roi Yvetot; rendering of Thackeray, King of Brentford; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 683.

David Whitmer photo

“BE IT KNOWN unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unto whom this work shall come: That we, through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, which is a record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, their brethren, and also of the people of Jared, who came from the tower of which hath been spoken. And we also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true. And we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true. And it is marvelous in our eyes. Nevertheless, the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment-seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen. OLIVER COWDERY DAVID WHITMER MARTIN HARRIS”

David Whitmer (1805–1888) Book of Mormon witness

Book of Mormon, 1830 Edition, p. 585 (1830)

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Pierre-Jean de Béranger photo

“In spite of their hats being very ugly, Goddam! I love the English.”

Pierre-Jean de Béranger (1780–1857) French poet and chansonnier

Quoique leurs chapeaux sont bien laids,
Goddam! j'aime les anglais.
Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 222.

Gildas photo

“A multitude of whelps came forth from the lair of this barbaric lioness, in three cyuls, as they call them, that is, in their ships of war.”
Tum erumpens grex catulorum de cubili laeanae barbarae, tribus, ut lingua eius exprimitur, cyulis, nostra longis navibus.

Section 23.
De Excidio Britanniae (On the Ruin of Britain)

“but even if you struggle with the words you want to say, don't give up”

Ritsuko Okazaki (1959–2004) Japanese singer

Lyrics

“The effects of Asian contacts on Europe, though considerably less, cannot be considered insignificant. The growth of capitalism in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in itself a profound and revolutionary change, is intimately connected with the expansion of European trade and business into Asia. The political development of the leading Western European nations during this period was also related to their exploitation of their Asian possessions and the wealth they derived from the trade with and government of their Eastern dependencies. Their material life, as reflected in clothing, food, beverages, etc., also bears permanent marks of their Eastern contacts. We have already dealt briefly with the penetration of cultural, artistic and philosophical influences, though their effects cannot still be estimated. Unlike the Rococo movement of the eighteenth century, the spiritual and cultural reactions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are deeper, and have not yet fully come to the surface. The influence of Chinese literature and of Indian philosophical thought, to mention only two trends which have become important in recent years, cannot be evaluated for many years to come. Yet it is true, as T. S. Eliot has stated, that most modern poets in Europe have in some measure been influenced by the literature of China. Equally the number of translations of the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, which have been appearing every year, meant not for Orientalists and scholars but for the educated public, and the revival of interest in the religious experience of India, are sufficient to prove that a penetration of European thought by Oriental influences is now taking place which future historians may consider to be of some significance.”

K. M. Panikkar (1895–1963) Indian diplomat, academic and historian

Asia and Western Dominance: a survey of the Vasco Da Gama epoch of Asian history, 1498–1945

Alexander Pope photo
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley photo

“A Pack of Spanish Lies sent abroad in the world, first printed in the Spanish tongue, and translated out of the original. Now ripped up, unfolded and by just examination condemned, as containing false, corrupt and detestable wares worthy to be damned and burned.”

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (1520–1598) English statesman

Title of a pamphlet published by Burghley on Spanish claims over what happened during the Spanish Armada's attempted invasion of England in 1588.
Conyers Read, Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth (London: Jonathan Cape, 1960), pp. 433-4.

C. Wright Mills photo

“[O]ne could translate the 555 pages of The Social System into about 150 pages of straightforward English. The result would not be very impressive.”

Source: The Sociological Imagination (1959), p. 31, commenting on the verbosity of the chief work of competing sociologist Talcott Parsons.

Lu Xun photo

“Chinese medicine lies, whether purposefully or not.”

Source: From the preface of his work Na Han (Call to Arms) (1922)

Robert Charles Wilson photo
Brian Leiter photo

“Mistrust first impulses, they are nearly always good.”

Casimir, Comte de Montrond (1768–1843) French diplomat

Défiez-vous des premiers mouvements, ils sont presque toujours bons.
Quoted by Rees Howell Gronow in Reminiscences of Captain Gronow, formerly of the Grenadier Guards and M.P. for Stafford, being Anecdotes of the Camp, the Court, and the Clubs, at the close of the last War with France http://books.google.com/books?id=04BHAAAAYAAJ&q=%22D%C3%A9fiez-vous+des+premiers+mouvements+ils+sont+presque+toujours+bons%22&pg=PA239#v=onepage (1862)

Jane Roberts photo
John Wesley photo

“As to the word itself, it is generally allowed to be of Greek extraction. But whence the Greek word, enthousiasmos, is derived, none has yet been able to show. Some have endeavoured to derive it from en theoi, in God; because all enthusiasm has reference to him. … It is not improbable, that one reason why this uncouth word has been retained in so many languages was, because men were not better agreed concerning the meaning than concerning the derivation of it. They therefore adopted the Greek word, because they did not understand it: they did not translate it into their own tongues, because they knew not how to translate it; it having been always a word of a loose, uncertain sense, to which no determinate meaning was affixed.
It is not, therefore, at all surprising, that it is so variously taken at this day; different persons understanding it in different senses, quite inconsistent with each other. Some take it in a good sense, for a divine impulse or impression, superior to all the natural faculties, and suspending, for the time, either in whole or in part, both the reason and the outward senses. In this meaning of the word, both the Prophets of old, and the Apostles, were proper enthusiasts; being, at divers times, so filled with the Spirit, and so influenced by Him who dwelt in their hearts, that the exercise of their own reason, their senses, and all their natural faculties, being suspended, they were wholly actuated by the power of God, and “spake” only “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
Others take the word in an indifferent sense, such as is neither morally good nor evil: thus they speak of the enthusiasm of the poets; of Homer and Virgil in particular. And this a late eminent writer extends so far as to assert, there is no man excellent in his profession, whatsoever it be, who has not in his temper a strong tincture of enthusiasm. By enthusiasm these appear to understand, all uncommon vigour of thought, a peculiar fervour of spirit, a vivacity and strength not to be found in common men; elevating the soul to greater and higher things than cool reason could have attained.
But neither of these is the sense wherein the word “enthusiasm” is most usually understood. The generality of men, if no farther agreed, at least agree thus far concerning it, that it is something evil: and this is plainly the sentiment of all those who call the religion of the heart “enthusiasm.” Accordingly, I shall take it in the following pages, as an evil; a misfortune, if not a fault. As to the nature of enthusiasm, it is, undoubtedly a disorder of the mind; and such a disorder as greatly hinders the exercise of reason. Nay, sometimes it wholly sets it aside: it not only dims but shuts the eyes of the understanding. It may, therefore, well be accounted a species of madness; of madness rather than of folly: seeing a fool is properly one who draws wrong conclusions from right premisses; whereas a madman draws right conclusions, but from wrong premisses. And so does an enthusiast suppose his premisses true, and his conclusions would necessarily follow. But here lies his mistake: his premisses are false. He imagines himself to be what he is not: and therefore, setting out wrong, the farther he goes, the more he wanders out of the way.”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Sermon 37 "The Nature of Enthusiasm"
Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)

Lu Xun photo
Umberto Boccioni photo
Margaret Mead photo
Marco Denevi photo

“My guilt walks so slowly that forgiveness and oblivion always catch up with it.”

Mi culpa marcha tan lenta que siempre la alcanzan el perdón y el olvido.
Falsificaciones (1977)

Julián Hernández photo

“"I don't go to the movies, cause I first judge the making of. I watch the trailers and the making of in TV. That's enough for me.”

"Yo no voy al cine, porque primero juzgo el 'making off'.
Yo veo los 'trailers' y el 'así se hizo' en televisión. Con eso ya tengo bastante".
In an interview to Viernes de Evasión, El Correo newspaper.

Filippo Baldinucci photo

“He who would form a correct judgment of their tone, must hear first one bell and then the other.”

Filippo Baldinucci (1625–1697) Italian art historian

A chi vuol dar buon giudizio del suono, bisogna il sentire l’una campana, e l’altra.
La Veglia. (Ed. Milan, 1812. Opere, Vol. XIV., p. 213).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 241.

Joseph Campbell photo
Joseph Martin Kraus photo

“What depth in these thoughts - what classical talent!”

Joseph Martin Kraus (1756–1792) German composer

Welche Tiefe der Gedanken - welch klassisches Talent!
Joseph Haydn to Fredrik Samuel Silverstolpe

David Myatt photo
Helmut Kohl photo

“This is a typical journalistic statement: It is correct, but it is not the truth.”

Helmut Kohl (1930–2017) former chancellor of West Germany (1982-1990) and then the united Germany (1990-1998)

Das ist eine klassische journalistische Behauptung. Sie ist zwar richtig, aber sie ist nicht die Wahrheit.
ARD-Tagesthemen (February 22, 1994)

Naomi Klein photo
Petronius photo

“A huge dog, tied by a chain, was painted on the wall and over it was written in capital letters ‘Beware of the dog.”
Canis ingens, catena vinctus, in pariete erat pictus superque quadrata littera scriptum ‘Cave canem.’

Sec. 29
Satyricon

Hugo Black photo
Plautus photo

“I love truth, and wish to have it always spoken to me : I hate a liar. (translated by Thornton)”
Ego verum amo, verum vol mihi dici : mendacem odi.

Mostellaria, Act I, scene 3, line 26
Mostellaria (The Haunted House)

As-Saffah photo

“Al-Suyuti, History of The Caliphs, Translated by Major H. S. Jarrett, Calcutta (India), 1881.”

As-Saffah (722–754) First Abbasid caliph

Further Readings

Jozef Israëls photo

“Is there a difference between a Jewish sea and a non-Jewish sea? What is a Jewish way of painting? (translation from Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

Jozef Israëls (1824–1911) Dutch painter

version in Dutch (citaat van Israëls, in het Nederlands): Is er een verschil tussen een joodse zee en een niet-joodse zee? Wat is een joodse manier van schilderen?
Quote of Israëls in a talk with N. Sokolov, c. 1910's; published in Ishim part 3. by Sokolov (written in Hebrew); Tel Aviv, 1935, pp. 151-169
Quotes of Jozef Israels, after 1900

Rudolf Pannwitz photo

“Translations [into the German language], even the best ones, proceed from a mistaken premise. They want to turn Hindi, Greek, English into German instead of turning German into Hindi, Greek, English. … The basic error of the translator is that he preserves the state in which his own language happens to be instead of allowing his language to be powerfully affected by the foreign tongue.”

Rudolf Pannwitz (1881–1969) German writer and philosopher

Unsere übertragungen, auch die besten, gehen von einem falschen grundsatz aus, sie wollen das indische, griechische, englische verdeutschen, anstatt das deutsche zu verindischen, vergriechischen, verenglischen. ... Der grundsätzliche irrtum des übertragenden ist, daß er den zufälligen stand der eigenen sprache festhält, anstatt sie durch die fremde gewaltig bewegen zu lassen.
Die Krisis der europäischen Kultur (1917), as translated in Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings: Volume 1, 1913-1926 (1996), pp. 261-262

Kuba Wojewódzki photo

“"Tell me if you had music lessons at school?"
"Yes, I had."
"Do you remember this school's address? Go there and set fire to it. They taught you nothing."”

Kuba Wojewódzki (1963) Polish journalist

"Powiedz mi, czy ty miałaś wychowanie muzyczne w szkole?"
"Tak."
"Pamiętasz adres szkoły? Pójdź i podłóż ogień, niczego cię nie nauczyli."
To Idol contestants

Romário photo

“"The reason I like night time is simple. At night you see what you want. During the day, you are forced to see everything"”

Romário (1966) Brazilian association football player

Se você me perguntar por que eu gosto da noite, é simples: é que à noite você vê só o que quer. De dia, é obrigado a ver tudo.
Source: Veja Magazine; 1992 Edition. February 18th, 2005.

Thomas Carlyle photo
Anton Mauve photo

“Take care for this, don't start with the sentiment first, [because] that's where a piece of art is ending with - but the good start is drawing good and right. (translation from original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018)”

Anton Mauve (1838–1888) Dutch painter (1838–1888)

(version in original Dutch / origineel citaat van Anton Mauve, uit zijn brief:) denk daar goed om, niet eerst het sentiment, daar eindigt een kunststuk mede, maar goed en juist teekenen is het goede begin.
In a letter of Anton Mauve to his student , from Laren 1885; as cited in Anton Mauve, (exhibition catalog of Teylers Museum, Haarlem / Laren, Singer), ed. De Bodt en Plomp, 2009, p. 120
1880's

Abdul Halim of Kedah photo

“If in taking my new duty, I brought qualities that are lacking of widsom and experience that makes a youth, hence I will try to replace this demerit with a vehement spirit to do deeds.”

Abdul Halim of Kedah (1927–2017) King of Malaysia

31st birthday speech http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/beritaharian19581129-1.2.93?ST=1&AT=filter&K=tengku+halim&KA=tengku+halim&DF=&DT=&Display=0&AO=false&NPT=&L=&CTA=&NID=&CT=&WC=&YR=1958&QT=tengku,halim&oref=article 28/11/1958

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska photo

“Movement is the translation of life and if art depicts life, movement should come into art, since we are only aware of life, because it moves.”

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891–1915) French painter and sculptor

Letter to Sophie Brzeska-Savage Messiah By H S (Jim) Ede Heinimann (1931)

Abdul Halim of Kedah photo
François Andrieux photo

“These wretched kings,
Of whom all men speak ill, have oft some good in them.”

François Andrieux (1759–1833) French man of letters and playwright

Ces malheureux rois,
Dont on dit tant de mal, ont du bon quelquefois.
Le Meunier de Sans-Souci. (Ed. 1818, Vol. III., p. 205).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 26.

John Denham photo

“Nor ought a genius less than his that writ
Attempt translation.”

John Denham (1615–1669) English poet and courtier

To Sir Richard Fanshaw, Upon his Translation of Pastor Fido, line 9.

George Hendrik Breitner photo

“Be so kind and write me by return, with drawing and explanation, how I can make a [photo] camera. - as I then saw at your home. (translation from the original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

George Hendrik Breitner (1857–1923) Dutch painter and photographer

version in original Dutch (citaat van Breitner's brief, in het Nederlands:) Wees zoo goed en meld me per omgaande, met teekening en uitleg, hoe ik een [foto]-camera kan maken. - zooals ik toen bij jou gezien heb.
Quote of Breitner's letter to his friend H. van der Weele, 14 July 1883 or 1889; as cited by R. Bergsma, & P.H. Hefting, in George Hendrik Breitner 1857-1923, Bussum 1994, p. 21
There are different opinions about the year Breitner started using a photo-camera; they all differ between 1883 and 1889
before 1890

Vladimir Putin photo

“Comrade wolf knows who to eat. He eats without listening to anybody and it seems he is not ever going to listen.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

On the U.S., whose military budget is 25 times bigger than Russia's; annual presidential address to the Federal Senate, 10 May 2006
2006- 2010

James Macpherson photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Nicolas Bouvier photo

“First stage: small stage", say the Persian caravaneers who know so well that, the first evening, everyone realises that he's forgotten something at home. Normally, one covers no more than a "pharsar" (around 6km). The careless should be able to go home and come back before sunrise. This concession to distraction is one more thing I love about Persia. I don't think there's a single practical measure in this country that neglects the irreducible imperfection of man.”

Première étape : petite étape », disent les caravaniers persans qui savent bien que, le soir du départ, chacun s'aperçoit qu'il a oublié quelque chose à la maison. D'ordinaire, on ne fait qu'un pharsar. Il faut que les étourdis puissent encore aller et revenir avant le lever du soleil. Cette part faite à la distraction m'est une raison de plus d'aimer la Perse. Je ne crois pas qu'il existe dans ce pays une seule disposition pratique qui néglige l'irréductible imperfection de l'homme.
Un pharsar représente environ 6 kilomètres. L'Usage du monde (1963), Nicolas Bouvier, éd. Payot, coll. « Petite Bibliothèque Payot/Voyageurs », 1992 (ISBN 2-228-88560-6), p. 259

Linji Yixuan photo

“Be a master everywhere and wherever you stand is your true place. (Translator unsourced.)”

Linji Yixuan Chinese philosopher

<爾且隨處作主。立處皆真。> [T47n1985_p0498a19] from Linji lu (臨濟録, Record of Linji).
Just make yourself master of every situation, and wherever you stand is the true [place]. (Trans: R.F. Sasaki, Ed. T. Kirchner, The Record of Linji).
If you master any situation you are in, wherever you stand, all becomes true. (Trans: Irmgard Schloegl, The Zen Teaching of Rinzai).

Romário photo

“"I am not showing up for work, but they are not paying me. The friendship goes on…"”

Romário (1966) Brazilian association football player

Não estou indo para o trabalho, mas eles também não estão me pagando. E a amizade continua...
Source: "O Dia" newspaper.
Context: Referring to his situation at Vasco da Gama days before he retired.

William Cowper photo

“p. 651Abstract. Investigations of the function of consciousness in human information processing have focused mainly on two questions: (1) where does consciousness enter into the information processing sequence and (2) how does conscious processing differ from preconscious and unconscious processing. Input analysis is thought to be initially "preconscious," "pre-attentive," fast, involuntary, and automatic. This is followed by "conscious," "focal-attentive" analysis which is relatively slow, voluntary, and flexible. It is thought that simple, familiar stimuli can be identified preconsciously, but conscious processing is needed to identify complex, novel stimuli. Conscious processing has also been thought to be necessary for choice, learning and memory, and the organization of complex, novel responses, particularly those requiring planning, reflection, or creativity. The present target article reviews evidence that consciousness performs none of these functions. Consciousness nearly always results from focal-attentive processing (as a form of output) but does not itself  enter into this or any other form of human information processing. This suggests that the term "conscious process" needs re-examination. Consciousness appears to be necessary in a variety of tasks because they require focal-attentive processing; if consciousness is absent, focal-attentive processing is absent. Viewed from a first-person perspective, however, conscious states are causally effective. First-person accounts are complementary to third-person accounts. Although they can be translated into third-person accounts, they cannot be reduced to them.”

Max Velmans (1942) British psychologist

Is human information processing conscious?, 1991

Mark Pesce photo
Kunti photo

“English translation: Ahalya, Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and
Mandodari: constantly remembering
these virgin five destroys greatfailings.”

Kunti character from Indian epic Mahabharata

Pradip Bhattacharya in: Five Holy Virgins, Five Sacred Myths A Quest for Meaning http://www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_issues/PDF%20141/03%20panchakanya%204-12.pdf, Manushi

Joseph Martin Kraus photo

“That is music of stunning perfection. It is him worthy.”

Joseph Martin Kraus (1756–1792) German composer

Das ist Musik von erstaunlicher Perfektion. Sie ist seiner würdig.

Göran Persson photo

“I have after all studied on the chemico-technical programme in high school, so I understand what it's all about.”

Göran Persson (1949) Swedish politician, Swedish Social Democratic Party, thirty-second Prime minister of Sweden

Said about nuclear power in an interview the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet

Julio Cortázar photo

“"Hair loss and retrieval" (Translation of "Pérdida y recuperación del pelo")


To combat pragmatism and the horrible tendency to achieve useful purposes, my elder cousin proposes the procedure of pulling out a nice hair from the head, knotting it in the middle and droping it gently down the hole in the sink. If the hair gets caught in the grid that usually fills in these holes, it will just take to open the tap a little to lose sight of it.


Without wasting an instant, must start the hair recovery task. The first operation is reduced to dismantling the siphon from the sink to see if the hair has become hooked in any of the rugosities of the drain. If it is not found, it is necessary to expose the section of pipe that goes from the siphon to the main drainage pipe. It is certain that in this part will appear many hairs and we will have to count on the help of the rest of the family to examine them one by one in search of the knot. If it does not appear, the interesting problem of breaking the pipe down to the ground floor will arise, but this means a greater effort, because for eight or ten years we will have to work in a ministry or trading house to collect enough money to buy the four departments located under the one of my elder cousin, all that with the extraordinary disadvantage of what while working during those eight or ten years, the distressing feeling that the hair is no longer in the pipes anymore can not be avoided and that only by a remote chance remains hooked on some rusty spout of the drain.


The day will come when we can break the pipes of all the departments, and for months to come we will live surrounded by basins and other containers full of wet hairs, as well as of assistants and beggars whom we will generously pay to search, assort, and bring us the possible hairs in order to achieve the desired certainty. If the hair does not appear, we will enter in a much more vague and complicated stage, because the next section takes us to the city's main sewers. After buying a special outfit, we will learn to slip through the sewers at late night hours, armed with a powerful flashlight and an oxygen mask, and explore the smaller and larger galleries, assisted if possible by individuals of the underworld, with whom we will have established a relationship and to whom we will have to give much of the money that we earn in a ministry or a trading house.


Very often we will have the impression of having reached the end of the task, because we will find (or they will bring us) similar hairs of the one we seek; but since it is not known of any case where a hair has a knot in the middle without human hand intervention, we will almost always end up with the knot in question being a mere thickening of the caliber of the hair (although we do not know of any similar case) or a deposit of some silicate or any oxide produced by a long stay against a wet surface. It is probable that we will advance in this way through various sections of major and minor pipes, until we reach that place where no one will decide to penetrate: the main drain heading in the direction of the river, the torrential meeting of detritus in which no money, no boat, no bribe will allow us to continue the search.


But before that, and perhaps much earlier, for example a few centimeters from the mouth of the sink, at the height of the apartment on the second floor, or in the first underground pipe, we may happen to find the hair. It is enough to think of the joy that this would cause us, in the astonished calculation of the efforts saved by pure good luck, to choose, to demand practically a similar task, that every conscious teacher should advise to its students from the earliest childhood, instead of drying their souls with the rule of cross-multiplication or the sorrows of Cancha Rayada.”

Julio Cortázar (1914–1984) Argentinian writer

Historias de Cronopios y de Famas (1962)

Vladimir Putin photo

“There is no one to talk to since Mahatma Gandhi died.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

После смерти Махатмы Ганди поговорить не с кем.
Responding to a question "Former Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called you a 'pure democrat'. Do you consider yourself such?" June 4, 2007, http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/speeches/2007/06/04/2149_type82916_132716.shtml
2006- 2010

Gerard Bilders photo

“To preserve the sense of the 'grey' even in the most powerful green is amazingly difficult and whoever discovers it will be a happy mortal. (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

Gerard Bilders (1838–1865) painter from the Netherlands

version in original Dutch / citaat van Bilders' brief, in het Nederlands: Om het sentiment van het grijze, zelfs in het krachtigste groen, te houden is verbazend moeylijk, en die het uitvindt is een gelukkig sterveling.
Quote from Gerard Bilders in his letter (July 1860) to his maecenas Johannes Kneppelhout; as cited in Dutch Art in the Nineteenth Century – 'The Hague School; Introduction' https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dutch_Art_in_the_Nineteenth_Century/The_Hague_School:_Introduction, by G. Hermine Marius, transl. A. Teixera de Mattos; publish: The la More Press, London, 1908
1860's

Joseph Martin Kraus photo

“I have one of his symphonies, which I keep in remembrance of one of the greatest geniuses that I have met. I have only this one work, but I know that he also wrote other excellent things.”

Joseph Martin Kraus (1756–1792) German composer

Ich besitze von ihm eine seiner Sinfonien, die ich zur Erinnerung an eines der größten Genies, die ich gekannt habe, aufbewahre. Ich habe von ihm nur dieses einzige Werk, weiß aber, dass er noch anderes Vortreffliches geschrieben hat.

“Bernoulli's real contribution was to coin a word. The word has been translated into English as "utility". It describes this subjective value people place on money.”

William Poundstone (1955) American writer

Part Four, St. Petersburg Wager, Daniel Bernoulli, p. 184
Fortune's Formula (2005)

P. L. Deshpande photo

“It was also suggested that, In London, I should work as a porter to gain some monetary pounds while losing some pounds in weight.”

P. L. Deshpande (1919–2000) Marathi writer, humourist, actor, dramatist

In his travelogue Apoorvai (अपूर्वाइ), Pu La describes the non-stop flow of advice before traveling to London. This quote is one advice given to him on learning on how many pounds porters charge for carrying baggage on train stations in London.
From his various literature

Robert Solow photo
Max Beckmann photo
Arshile Gorky photo

“Movement is the translation of life, and if art depicts life, movement should come into art, since we are only aware of living because it moves.”

Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) Armenian-American painter

Source: posthumous, Astract Expressionist Painting in America, p. 64, in an unpublished letter of Gorky

Marshall McLuhan photo

“The interiorization of the technology of the phonetic alphabet translates man from the magical world of the ear to the neutral visual world.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 21

Enoch Powell photo

“Who first shall reach the mill, he first shall grind.”

Giovanni Maria Cecchi (1518–1587) Italian poet, playwright, writer and notary

Chi prima giugne al mulin, prima macina.
Gli Sciamiti, Act II., Scene III.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 270.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo

“Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc., at times before they're worn out and at times—and this is the worst of all—before we have new ones.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

So wie wir ein Paar Hosen verwachsen, so verwachsen wir Umgang, Bibliotheken, Grundsätze und dergleichen, zuweilen, ehe sie abgenutzt sind und zuweilen, welches der schlimmste Fall ist, ehe wir neue haben.
Gedanken, Satiren, Fragmente (Thoughts, Satires, Fragments), Volume 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=azM4AQAAIAAJ&q=%22So+wie+wir+ein+Paar%22+%22Hosen+verwachsen+so+verwachsen+wir+Umgang+Bibliotheken+Grunds%C3%A4tze+und+dergleichen+zuweilen+ehe+sie+abgenutzt+sind+und+zuweilen+welches+der+schlimmste+Fall+ist+ehe+wir+neue+haben%22&pg=PA14#v=onepage (1907)

“Promise me, this is my only will. Live on. Live on.”

Ritsuko Okazaki (1959–2004) Japanese singer

"I'm Always Close to You", For Ritz
Lyrics

Philip Schaff photo
Julián Hernández photo

“"If wine is fine, everything is fine, and if it's bad, never mind, as long as it is wine."”

"Si el vino está bien, todo está bien, y si está mal, da lo mismo, con tal de que sea vino..."
taken by Rock de Lux magazine.

Kenneth Gärdestad photo

“Sun, wind and water are
The best as I know
But it's on you, I
Think secretly
Sun, wind and water
High mountains and deep sea
That is my dream woven off.”

Kenneth Gärdestad (1948–2018) Swedish song lyricist, architect and lecturer

Sol, vind och vatten är
Det bästa som jag vet
Men det är på dig jag
Tänker I hemlighet
Sol, vind och vatten
Höga berg och djupa hav
Det, är mina drömmar vävda av
"Sol, vind och vatten", lyrics written by Kenneth
Song lyrics, With Ted Gärdestad, Ted (1973)

“Matrimony must be like a sound flogging, for it makes the veriest block-heads learn something.”

Alessandro Pepoli (1757–1796) Italian writer

Il matrimonio bisogna che sia un vero castigo, poichè fa diventar savi anche i matti.
La Scomessa, Act III., Sc. IV. — (Desiderio.). Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 316.

Francis Escudero photo

“There are many who write good deeds in the dust, and injuries on marble.”

Stefano Guazzo (1530–1593) Italian writer

Ve ne sono molti che scrivono i beneficii nella polvere, e l'ingiurie nel marmo.
Del Prencipe di Valacchia, p. 79.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 436.

William Bateson photo

“Since the belief in transmission of acquired adaptations arose from preconception rather than from evidence, it is worth observing that, rightly considered, the probability should surely be the other way. For the adaptations relate to every variety of exigency. To supply themselves with food, to find it, to seize and digest it, to protect themselves from predatory enemies whether by offence or defence, to counter-balance the changes of temperature, or pressure, to provide for mechanical strains, to obtain immunity from poison and from invading organisms, to bring the sexual elements into contact, to ensure the distribution of the type; all these and many more are accomplished by organisms in a thousand most diverse and alternative methods. Those are the things that are hard to imagine as produced by any concatenation of natural events; but the suggestions that organisms had had from the beginning innate in them a power of modifying themselves, their organs and their instincts so as to meet these multifarious requirements does not materially differ from the more overt appeals to supernatural intervention. The conception, originally introduced by Hering and independently by S. Butler, that adaptation is a consequence or product of accumulated memory was of late revived by Semon and has been received with some approval, especially by F. Darwin. I see nothing fantastic in the notion that memory may be unconsciously preserved with the same continuity that the protoplasmic basis of life possesses. That idea, though purely speculative and, as yet, incapable of proof or disproof contains nothing which our experience of matter or of life at all refutes. On the contrary, we probably do well to retain the suggestion as a clue that may some day be of service. But if adaptation is to be the product of these accumulated experiences, they must in some way be translated into terms of physiological and structural change, a process frankly inconceivable.”

William Bateson (1861–1926) British geneticist and biologist

Source: Problems In Genetics (1913), p. 190

“Wherever you are, whenever it is, never give up. Then, it will be the most "charming" thing in the world.”

Ritsuko Okazaki (1959–2004) Japanese singer

"I'm Always Close to You", For Ritz
Lyrics

John McCarthy photo
Orson Welles photo

“Thank you, Donald, for that well-meant but rather pedestrian introduction. Regarding yourself, I quote from the third part of Shakespeare's Henry VI, Act Two, Scene One. Richard speaks, "Were thy heart as hard as steel/ As thou hast shown it flinty by thy deeds/ I come to pierce it, or to give thee mine." To translate into your own idiom, Donald; you're a yo-yo. Now I direct my remarks to Dean Martin, who is being honored here tonight… for reasons that completely elude me. No, I'm not being fair to Dean because - this is true - in his way Dean, and I know him very well, has the soul of a poet. I'm told that in his most famous song Dean authored a lyric which is so romantic, so touching that it will be enjoyed by generations of lovers until the end of time. Let's share it together. [Opens a songsheet for Dean's "That's Amore" and reads in a monotone] "When the moon hits your eye/ Like a big pizza-pie/ That's amore" Now, that's what I call 'touching', Dean. It has all the romanticism of a Ty-D-Bol commercial. "When the world seems to shine/ Like you've had too much wine/ That's amore" What a profound thought. It could be inscribed forever on a cocktail napkin. Hey, there's more. "Tippy-tippy-tay/ Like a gay tarantella" Like a gay tarantella? Apparently, Dean has a 'side Dean' we know nothing about. "When the stars make you drool/ Just like a pasta fazool…. Scuzza me, but you see/ Back in old Napoli/ That's amore" No, Dean; that's infermo, Italian for "sickened". Now, lyrics like that - lyrics like that ought to be issued with a warning: a song like that is hazardous to your health. Ladies and gentlemen… [motions to Dean] you are looking at the end result!”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

Speech given at a Dean Martin Celebrity Roast. Viewable here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlKR0i-51S4.

Sorley MacLean photo

“My obsession was the preservation of the Gaelic language so that there would be people left in the world who could hear its great songs as they really were. No poetry could be translated, still less could song poetry, and the great language of Gaelic song made me fanatical about the beauty of the Gaelic language and its astonishing ability to indicate shades and positions of emphasis with natural inversions and the use of particles.”

Sorley MacLean (1911–1996) Scottish poet

Sorley MacLean, 1982, quoted in Krause, Corinna. Eadar Dà Chànan: Self-Translation, the Bilingual Edition and Modern Scottish Gaelic Poetry https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/3453/Krause2007.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Letters and interviews

Kenneth Gärdestad photo

“In my world, I would like to take as much positive vibrations as possible. The same goes for our music. I feel that there is a big impact.”

Kenneth Gärdestad (1948–2018) Swedish song lyricist, architect and lecturer

Regarding the connection between his fighting of his illness (skin cancer and lymphoma) and the brothers Gärdestad's music as quoted on Kenneth Gärdestad: "Blir sista stora hurraropet", Selåker, Johannes, Expressen.SE, published on 8 February 2018 (web) https://www.expressen.se/noje/kenneth-gardestad-jag-mar-samst/

Vladimir Putin photo

“You must obey the law, always, not only when they grab you by your special place.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

Надо исполнять закон всегда, а не только тогда, когда схватили за одно место.
Interview, 4 November 2003
2000 - 2005

Gerard Bilders photo

“. I don't love less the gray waters of my Holland, their serious and somewhat sad color, which corresponds so well with the similar gray skies and vapors that are hanging there. (translation from the Dutch original: Fons Heijnsbroek)”

Gerard Bilders (1838–1865) painter from the Netherlands

(version in original Dutch / citaat van Bilders' brief, in het Nederlands:) ..niet minder bemin ik toch de graauwe wateren van mijn Holland, hunne ernstige, eenigsinds droeve kleur, die zoo goed overeenkomt met de even grijze luchten en dampen, dier er overeen hangen.
as cited in The land of Mauve: utopia or a reality? / Het land van Mauve: utopie of werkelijkheid? https://www.rug.nl/research/kenniscentrumlandschap/mscripties/christina_vlasma-het_land_van_mauve-masterscriptie.pdf; master-scriptie by Christina van Staats-Vlasma; Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, La Broquerie, Manitoba Canada, Nov. 2010, p. 97
undated quotes

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac photo

“God is the poet, men are only the actors.”

Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597–1654) French author, best known for his epistolary essays

Dieu est le poète et les hommes ne sont que les acteurs.
Socrate Chrétien, Discours VIII.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 42.
Socrate Chrétien (1662)

André Gide photo

“To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom.”

Savoir se libérer n'est rien; l'ardu, c'est savoir être libre.
The Immoralist, Chapter 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=MPmRAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Savoir+se+lib%C3%A9rer+n'est+rien+l'ardu+c'est+savoir+%C3%AAtre+libre%22&jtp=17#v=onepage (1902)
The Immoralist (1902)