Quotes about wrong
page 33

Tim Powers photo
Bill Clinton photo

“Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

First inaugural address (January 20, 1993), Washington, D.C.
1990s

Donald A. Glaser photo

“Physics is a wrong tool to describe living systems.”

Donald A. Glaser (1926–2013) American physicist and neurobiologist

as reported by [Magdolna Hargittai, Candid science 6, Imperial College Press, 2006, 1860946933, 522]

Tallulah Bankhead photo
Richard Feynman photo
Shamini Flint photo
Thomas Jefferson photo

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Abigail Smith Adams http://memory.loc.gov/master/mss/mtj/mtj1/006/1200/1251.jpg from Paris while a Minister to France (22 February 1787), referring to Shay's Rebellion. "Jefferson's Service to the New Nation," Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/thomas-jefferson/history4.html
1780s

Lee Kuan Yew photo

“Even from my sick bed, even if you are going to lower me into the grave and I feel something is going wrong, I will get up.”

Lee Kuan Yew (1923–2015) First Prime Minister of Singapore

1988 National Day Rally, when he discussed the leadership transition to Goh Chok Tong in 1990. As quoted in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: Volume 2, The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
1980s

“Our problem today – not only in Iraq, but in all Arab and Islamic countries – is the duality of the Shari'a and the law…. Our countries do not fully abide by the Shari'a of Allah, nor do they follow a man-made law, like in France and other countries – including Turkey. There is nothing wrong with a country that bases itself exclusively on Shari'a law, with no regard for the civil law. We believe the Koran to be the book sent by Allah – a complete book, with no additions and no omissions. Indeed, we believe that the Koran and Islam are the solution. Why, then, do we mix elements of the French and other laws in our Shari'a law? Let the brothers who demand the establishment of a religious state adhere exclusively to Shari'a law. Let them, for example, collect the Jizya([9, 29, y] poll tax from their Christian citizens. Let them annihilate the Yazidis because they do not belong to the People of the Book. Let them raise doubts about the status of the Sabaeans in Iraq, because it is unclear whether they belong to the People of the Book or not.”

Iyad Jamal Al-Din (1961) Iraqi politician

Note he is speaking sarcastically when he says "There is nothing wrong with a country that bases itself exclusively on shari'a, with no regard for the civil law" and again when he says "Let them, for example, collect the jizya from their Christian citizens. Let them annihilate the Yazidis … Let them raise doubts about the status of the Sabaeans ..."
Iraqi MP Iyad Jamal Al-Din Criticizes the Concept of an Islamic State and Says Iraqis Should Be Grateful to the US for Liberating Iraq, MEMRI, December 14, 2007 http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/1641.htm,

Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Ellen DeGeneres photo
Norman Lamont photo

“There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power.”

Norman Lamont (1942) British politician

Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.
Hansard, HC 6Ser vol 226 cols 284-5 (9 June 1993) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199293/cmhansrd/1993-06-09/Debate-1.html.
In his resignation speech to the House of Commons.

Nick Bostrom photo
Yogi Berra photo

“What's wrong with readin' comic books? I don't understand this kiddin' about readin' comic books. When I get through with 'em the other players on our club borrow them from me. Nobody makes a fuss about that.”

Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American baseball player, manager, coach

Al Abrams, from "Sidelight on Sports: A New One on Yogi" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kpJRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pGoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1705%2C4055373 in The Pittsburgh Press (Monday, September 15, 1952), p. 20.

Jesse Ventura photo
Conor McGregor photo

“I love proving people wrong and proving my supporters right. This is all fun and games to me. I love it. I love my job. I whoop people for truckloads of cash. How could I hate this life? I love it so much. I’m grateful every single day.”

Conor McGregor (1988) Irish mixed martial artist and boxer

UFC 178 post-event press conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAAC34JzxS0 (September 2014), Ultimate Fighting Championship, Zuffa, LLC
2010s, 2014

“Pedantry prides herself on being wrong by rules; while common sense is contented to be right, without them.”

Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832) British priest and writer

Vol. I; XLVIII
Lacon (1820)

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“Yet, wake again, I pray thee, wake;
My soul yet lives upon the chords —
My heart must breathe its wrongs, or break :
Yet can it find relief in words!”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

(20th March 1824) Metrical Tales. Tale IV.— The Troubadour
The London Literary Gazette, 1824

Vangelis photo
Susan Cain photo
Hugo Weaving photo
William Morley Punshon photo
Bill Hicks photo
Tony Benn photo
David Graeber photo

“Before we can apply the tools of anthropology to reconstruct the real history of money, we need to understand what's wrong with the conventional account.”

David Graeber (1961) American anthropologist and anarchist

Source: Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Chapter Two, "The Myth of Barter", p. 22

H.V. Sheshadri photo

“I'm a games player by nature. Don't get me wrong. Nothing that involves movement. Like leaving my chair.”

Maureen Lipman (1946) British actress, columnist and comedienne

How Was it For You?

George E. P. Box photo

“Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.”

George E. P. Box (1919–2013) British statistician

Source: Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces (1987), p. 424,

Robert G. Ingersoll photo
Josiah Warren photo

“It has now become a very common sentiment, that there is some deep and radical wrong somewhere, and that legislators have proved themselves incapable of discovering, or of remedying it.”

Josiah Warren (1798–1874) American individualist anarchist, inventor, musician, and author

pg 105
Equitable Commerce (1848)

“Sometimes in your everyday life, you should say the right thing. But the wrong thing is funnier.”

Ed Byrne (1972) Irish comedian

Pedantic & Whimsical (2006)

Mitt Romney photo

“Most of us know, now, that Rousseau was wrong: that man, when you knock his chains off, sets up the death camps. Soon we shall know everything the eighteenth century didn't know, and nothing it did, and it will be hard to live with us.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

"On the Underside of the Stone," The New York Times Book Review (1953-08-23) [p. 177]
Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

Eric Temple Bell photo
Linda McCartney photo
Francis Escudero photo
Georgia O'Keeffe photo
Jordan Peterson photo
Shashi Tharoor photo

“"It was as if he had heard what I wanted," she said. But a skilled magician can do that, and it would be wrong to see Sai Baba as a conjurer. He has channeled the hopes and energies of his followers into constructive directions, both spiritual and philanthropic.”

Shashi Tharoor (1956) Indian politician, diplomat, author

The Hindu, "Reality - Spiritual and Virtual", Nov 10, 2002 Available Online http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2002/11/10/stories/2002111000620300.htm.
2000s

Pete Doherty photo
Carole King photo
Bob Dylan photo

“A woman like you should be at home. That's where you belong, taking care of somebody nice who don't know how to do you wrong.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Sweetheart Like You

Max Scheler photo

“Impulses of revenge lead to ressentiment the more they change into actual *vindictiveness*, the more their direction shifts toward indeterminate groups of objects which need only share one common characteristic, and the less they are satisfied by vengeance taken on a specific object. If the desire for revenge remains permanently unsatisfied, and especially if the feeling of “being right (lacking in an outburst of rage, but an integral part of revenge) is intensified into the idea of a “duty,” the individual may actually wither away and die. The vindictive person is instinctively and without a conscious act of volition drawn toward events which may give rise to vengefulness, or he tends to see injurious intentions in all kinds of perfectly innocent actions and remarks of others. Great touchiness is indeed frequently a symptom of a vengeful character. The vindictive person is always in search of objects, and in fact he attacks—in the belief that he is simply wreaking vengeance. This vengeance restores his damaged feeling of personal value, his injured “honor,” or it brings “satisfaction” for the wrongs he has endured. When it is repressed, vindictiveness leads to ressentiment, a process which is intensified when the *imagination* of vengeance, too, is repressed—and finally the very emotion of revenge itself. Only then does this *state of mind* become associated with the tendency to detract from the other person's value, which brings an illusory easing of the tension."”

Max Scheler (1874–1928) German philosopher

Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

Michelangelo Antonioni photo
Joseph Arch photo
Kamisese Mara photo
Pol Pot photo
Michael Elmore-Meegan photo

“When you are defeated it is your own attitude that is wrong.”

Michael Elmore-Meegan (1959) British humanitarian

All Will be Well (2004)

Noam Chomsky photo
Lewis Pugh photo

“I always tell young swimmers: 'Practice things until you can't get them wrong. Not until you get them right.”

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

There's a big difference.
Website

Mel Gibson photo
Thomas Jefferson photo
Mitt Romney photo

“The idea to say that Steve Jobs didn't build Apple, that Henry Ford didn't build Ford Motor, that Papa John didn't build Papa John Pizza, that Ray Kroc didn't build McDonald's, that Bill Gates didn't build Microsoft, you go on the list, that Joe and his colleagues didn't build this enterprise, to say something like that is not just foolishness, it is insulting to every entrepreneur, every innovator in America and it's wrong.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

2012-07-17
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/17/videos-romney-on-the-attack-after-obamas-you-didnt-build-that-remark/
Videos: Romney on the attack after Obama’s “You didn’t build that” remark
Hot Air
referring to Barack Obama's statement, "Somebody invested in roads and bridges — if you've got a business, you didn't build that; somebody else made that happen."
2012

Roberto Clemente photo

“I couldn't stand the pain. All the doctors said there was nothing wrong with my spine because there was nothing they could see. But the chiropractors said they thought they could help and they did.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

From his 1971 World Series MVP acceptance speech, recalling the time in 1957 when he considered quitting baseball, as quoted in "Pittsburgh's Clemente Honored" https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19711021&id=66lOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tQkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7211,3919174 by United {Press International, in The Wilmington Star-News (Thursday, October 21, 1971), p. 1-D
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

Joe Biden photo

“Israel will not get everything it asks for

I firmly believe that the actions that Israel's government has taken over the past several years -- the steady and systematic expansion of settlements, the legalization of outposts, land seizures -- they're moving us, and, more importantly, they're moving Israel in the wrong direction”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

19 April 2016 The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/19/joe-biden-us-overwhelming-frustration-israeli-government
2010s

“If two opposite theories are propagated one will be wrong.”

Nahj al-Balagha

Russell Brand photo

“I keep hearing in my head "you are the Messiah, you are the Messiah". I think there's something wrong with my headphones.”

Russell Brand (1975) British comedian, actor, and author

Radio 2 Show - 30th June 2007
Radio 2 Show (2007–2008)

Muhammad photo
Katy Perry photo

“I kissed a girl and I liked it,
The taste of her cherry chap stick.
I kissed a girl just to try it,
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it.
It felt so wrong,
It felt so right,
Don't mean I'm in love tonight.
I kissed a girl and I liked it,
I liked it.”

Katy Perry (1984) American singer, songwriter and actress

I Kissed a Girl, written by Katy Perry, Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin, and Cathy Dennis
Song lyrics, One of the Boys (2008)

Ai Weiwei photo
P. W. Botha photo

“Because you could not translate the word apartheid into the more universal language of English, the wrong connotation was given to it.”

P. W. Botha (1916–2006) South African prime minister

As cited in Dictionary of South African Quotations, Jennifer Crwys-Williams, Penguin Books 1994, p. 22

Francesco Saverio Nitti photo

“The poverty-stricken rural population rose up against their despoilers; they burnt down the castles of the nobles, and swore that they would leave nothing to be seen upon the land but the cabins of the poor. The rich middle-class seemed at first to side with them, and at Strasburg, Nuremberg, and Ulm the peasants were encouraged, aided, and provided for. However, the bourgeoisie soon grew alarmed at the spreading of the insurrection, and made common cause with the nobles in smothering the revolt in the rural districts. Luther, who was then at the apex of his power, condemned the rising in the name of religion, and proclaimed the servitude of the people as holy and legitimate. "You seek," wrote he, "to free your persons and your goods. You desire the power and the goods of this earth. You will suffer no wrong. The Gospel, on the contrary, has no care for such things, and makes exterior life consist in suffering, supporting injustice, the cross, patience, and contempt of life, as of all the things of this world. To suffer! To suffer! The cross! The cross! Behold what Christ teaches!" Were not these teachings, given in the name of the faith to a famishing people in revolt against the tyranny and avidity of the ruling aristocracy, fatal to the future of the peasant masses, whose very sufferings were thus legitimised in the name of the religion that should have come to their aid?”

Francesco Saverio Nitti (1868–1953) Italian economist and political figure

Source: Catholic Socialism (1895), p. 75

Averroes photo
Edgar Guest photo
Anne Brontë photo
Will Cuppy photo

“Although this structure [the Great Pyramid of Giza] failed as a tomb, it is one of the wonders of the world even today because it is the largest thing ever built for the wrong reason.”

Will Cuppy (1884–1949) American writer

The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950), Part I: It Seems There Were Two Egyptians, Cheops, or Khufu

Sydney Smith photo
Johan Cruyff photo
Dmitri Shostakovich photo

“What do you think of Puccini?
[ Britten: "I think his operas are dreadful." ]
No, Ben, you are wrong. He wrote marvellous operas, but dreadful music.”

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) Russian composer and pianist

Quoted in Lord Harewood The Tongs and the Bones (1981) p. 133.

Francis Escudero photo

“The question we all must ponder is - what is wrong with us?”

Francis Escudero (1969) Filipino politician

2009, Speech: The Socio-Economic Peace Program of Senator Francis Escudero

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan photo
J.M. Coetzee photo
Samuel Rutherford photo
Sara Bareilles photo

“I've got my little black dress on
And if I tell myself that nothing's wrong
This doesn't have to be a sad song
Not with my little black dress on.”

Sara Bareilles (1979) American pop rock singer-songwriter and pianist

"Little Black Dress"
Lyrics, The Blessed Unrest (2013)

Van Morrison photo
Gustav Radbruch photo
Francis Crick photo

“…a novel is a prose narrative of some length that has something wrong with it…”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

“An Unread Book”, p. 50
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)

Russell Brand photo
M. K. Hobson photo

“She was painfully aware that doing one’s best was never assurance that it wasn’t the wrong choice anyway.”

M. K. Hobson (1969) American writer

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 3, “Bottle of Memories” (p. 42)

Lyndon B. Johnson photo
Lewis H. Lapham photo

“The whole track of history is marked with the ruin of empires which having been founded in injustice, or perpetuated by wrong, were ultimately destroyed.”

William Mackergo Taylor (1829–1895) American theologian

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 427.

Graham Greene photo
Alan Guth photo
Pat Condell photo

“Swedish politicians are not right about much, but you get the impression they think they're setting the example to the rest of us. And they are right about that. Their recent bizarre decision to recognize 'Palestine' – a country that doesn't exist – is somewhat poignant: as the way things are going Sweden itself won't exist much longer. Seems like every piece of news that comes out of that country is more disturbing than the last. But, then, they have been committing cultural suicide so enthusiastically for so long there is now almost a sense that a tipping point is being reached and that, for the rest of us, it's really just a matter of watching the grim process unfold as we thank our lucky stars we don't live there… In Sweden today, democracy is a threat that must be neutralised, just as free speech is a threat that must be criminalised. Like the old Soviet Union, they can't afford to allow either because they're attempting to create an artificial society from a blueprint that doesn't stand up to scrutiny. And they've given it an almost theological significance so that a dogma has been established, and this has led, inevitably, to heresy becoming a problem. So now anyone in Sweden who expresses the wrong opinion about Muslim immigration is liable to be arrested, that's if the police are not too busy running away from violent Muslims.”

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

"Sweden — Ship of fools" (13 October 2014) https://youtube.com/watch/?v=RZsvdg1dkJ4
2014

Kent Hovind photo
James Fenimore Cooper photo

“For ourselves, we firmly believe that the finger of Providence is pointing the way to all races, and colors, and nations, along the path that is to lead the east and the west alike to the great goal of human wants. Demons infest that path, and numerous and unhappy are the wanderings of millions who stray from its course; sometimes in reluctance to proceed; sometimes in an indiscreet haste to move faster than their fellows, and always in a forgetfulness of the great rules of conduct that have been handed down from above. Nevertheless, the main course is onward; and the day, in the sense of time, is not distant, when the whole earth is to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, "as the waters cover the sea.
One of the great stumbling-blocks with a large class of well-meaning, but narrow-judging moralists, are the seeming wrongs that are permitted by Providence, in its control of human events. Such persons take a one-sided view of things, and reduce all principles to the level of their own understandings. If we could comprehend the relations which the Deity bears to us, as well as we can comprehend the relations we bear to him, there might be a little seeming reason in these doubts; but when one of the parties in this mighty scheme of action is a profound mystery to the other, it is worse than idle, it is profane, to attempt to explain those things which our minds are not yet sufficiently cleared from the dross of earth to understand.”

James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American author

Preface
Oak Openings or The bee-hunter (1848)

Alice A. Bailey photo

“Let us look for a moment at the erroneous interpretations given to the Gospel story. The symbolism of that Gospel story — an ancient story-presentation often presented down the ages, prior to the coming of the Christ in Palestine — has been twisted and distorted by theologians until the crystalline purity of the early teaching and the unique simplicity of the Christ have disappeared in a travesty of errors and in a mummery of ritual, money and human ambitions. Christ is pictured today as having been born in an unnatural manner, as having taught and preached for three years and then as having been crucified and eventually resurrected, leaving humanity in order to "sit on the right hand of God," in austere and distant pomp. Likewise, all the other approaches to God by any other people, at any time and in any country, are regarded by the orthodox Christian as wrong approaches […] Every possible effort has been made to force orthodox Christianity on those who accept the inspiration and the teachings of the Buddha or of others who have been responsible for preserving the divine continuity of revelation. The emphasis has been, as we all well know, upon the "blood sacrifice of the Christ" upon the Cross and upon a salvation dependent upon the recognition and acceptance of that sacrifice. The vicarious at-one-ment has been substituted for the reliance which Christ Himself enjoined us to place upon our own divinity; the Church of Christ has made itself famous and futile (as the world war proved) for its narrow creed, its wrong emphases, its clerical pomp, its spurious authority, its material riches and its presentation of a dead Christ. His resurrection is accepted, but the major appeal of the churches has been upon His death.”

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) esoteric, theosophist, writer

Source: The Reappearance of the Christ (1948), Chapter IV: The Work of the Christ Today and in the Future, p. 64

Ted Cruz photo

“Whether it's in Ferguson or Baltimore, the response from senior officials, the president or the attorney general, is to vilify law enforcement. That's wrong. It’s fundamentally wrong. It’s endangering all of our safety and security.”

Ted Cruz (1970) American politician

As quoted in "Ted Cruz blames Obama for death of Harris County sheriff's deputy" http://www.chron.com/news/politics/tedcruz/article/Ted-Cruz-blames-Obama-for-death-of-Harris-County-6476309.php, by Matt Levin, Houston Chronicle (31 August 2015).
2010s