text:
Stevie Wonder

Stevland Hardaway Morris (born 13 May 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, musician, and social activist.

Quotes

 * We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.
 * As quoted in The Story of Stevie Wonder (1976) by James Haskins, Ch. 1 : Growing Up in a World of Darkness

 * Sometimes I think I would love to see … just to see the beauty of flowers and trees and birds and the earth and grass. … Being as I've never seen, I don't know what it's like to see. So in a sense I'm complete. Maybe I'd be incomplete if I did see. Maybe I'd see some things that I didn't want to see … the beauty of the earth compared to the destruction of man. You see, it's one thing when you are blind from birth, and you don't know what it's like to see, anyway, so it is just like seeing. The sensation of seeing is not one that I have and not one that I worry about.
 * As quoted in Stevie Wonder (1978) by Constanze Elsner, and Jet Vol. 53, No. 22 (16 February 1978), p. 60

 * Most cassettes are afraid of me.

 * I've been a vegan for two years, so that's helped my already good-looking self. I think that eating healthy is important. … We have to be about making our planet more greener, the urban areas more sustainable for the children. We can't just talk about it, we have to be about it. … I'm motivating people to do something about how we are living on this planet. … You know it is only possible to be able to have the blessing of song through the fact that God has given me life. And the only way we can have life is by perpetuating life in how we live.
 * "Stevie Wonder talks being vegan and living a green lifestyle", interview with AOL (26 February 2016)

 * What I’ve not heard is a unanimous commitment to atone for the sins of this country... I know that dance. I've heard those songs. It was an 18-year fight to (make) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday... Yet it was a fight I was not willing to lose...  Systemic racism can have an ending. Police brutality can have an ending. Economic repression of Black and brown people can have an ending... A movement without action is a movement standing still. To those who say they care: Move more than your mouth. Move your feet to the polls, and use your hands to vote...  Black lives do matter. And this is not another digital, viral trend, moment or hashtag, Yes, all lives do matter, but they only matter when black lives matter too.
 * Quoted in Stevie Wonder calls for action on Black Lives Matter efforts: 'Move more than your mouth', Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, source: USA Today,  (24 June 2020)

Song lyrics

 * Baby, everything is alright, Uptight, outta sight!
 * Uptight (Everything's Alright)

 * My Cherie Amour, pretty little one that I adore You're the only girl my heart beats for How I wish that you were mine.
 * My Cherie Amour

 * For once in my life I have someone who needs me, Someone I needed so long.
 * For Once In My Life

 * For once in my life I won’t let sorrow hurt me, Not like it’s hurt me before, oh For once I have something I know won't desert me ‘Cause I’m not alone anymore.
 * For Once In My Life

 * Like a fool I went and stayed too long, Now I'm wondering if your love's still strong, Ooh, baby, here I am, Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours!
 * Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)

Music of My Mind (1972)

 * But, very well, I believe I know you very well, Wish that you knew me too, very well, And I think I can deal with everything going through your head.
 * Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)

 * When the summer came you were not around, Now the summer's gone and love cannot be found, Where were you when I needed you last winter, my love?
 * Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)

 * I'm happier than the morning sun, And that's the way you said that it would be, If I should ever bring you inside my life.
 * Happier Than The Morning Sun

Talking Book (1972)

 * You are the sunshine of my life, That's why I'll always be around, You are the apple of my eye, Forever you'll stay in my heart.
 * You Are The Sunshine of My Life

 * I feel like this is the beginning, Though I've loved you for a million years, And if I thought our love was ending, I'd find myself drowning in my own tears.
 * You Are The Sunshine of My Life

 * Very superstitious, Writings on the wall, Very superstitious, Ladder's 'bout to fall, Thirteen month old baby, Broke the looking glass, Seven years of bad luck, The good things in your past.
 * Superstition

 * When you believe in things that you don't understand, Then you suffer, Superstition ain't the way.
 * Superstition

 * I believe when I fall in love with you It will be forever.
 * I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)

Innervisions (1973)

 * But what I'd like to know, Is could a place like this Exist so beautiful? Or do we have to find our wings and fly away To the visions in our mind?
 * Visions

 * A boy is born in hard time Mississippi, Surrounded by four walls that ain't so pretty, His parents give him love and affection, To keep him strong, moving in the right direction, Living just enough, just enough for the city.
 * Living For The City

 * Her brother's smart, he's got more sense than many, His patience long, but soon he won't have any, To find a job is like a haystack needle, 'Cause where he lives, they don't use coloured people, Living just enough, just enough for the city.
 * Living For The City

 * To see the heaven in your eyes is not so far, 'Cause I'm not afraid to try and go it, To know the love and beauty never known before, I'll leave it up to you to show it.
 * Golden Lady

 * I'm so darn glad he let me try it again, 'Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin, I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then, Gonna keep on trying until I reach my highest ground.
 * Higher Ground

 * But don't you worry 'bout a thing, Don't you worry 'bout a thing, mama, 'Cause I'll be standing in the side when you check it out.
 * Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing

 * He's a man with a plan, Got a counterfeit dollar in his hand, He's misstra know-it-all.
 * He's Misstra Know-It-All

Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974)

 * 'Where is your God?' That's what my friends ask me, And I say it's taken him so long 'Cause we've got so far to come.
 * Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away

 * And I can't go on this way, With it stronger every day, But being too shy to say That I really love you.
 * Too Shy To Say

 * I like to see you boogie right across the floor, I'd like to do it to you 'til you howl for more, I like to reggae, but you dance too fast for me, I'd like to make love to you so you can make me scream.
 * Boogie On Reggae Woman

 * 'Cause we are sick and tired of hearing your song, Telling us how you are gonna change right from wrong, 'Cause if you really want to hear our views, You haven't done nothin'.
 * You Haven't Done Nothin'

 * No more lying friends wanting tragic ends, Though they do pretend, They won't go when I go.
 * They Won't Go When I Go

 * And I'll go where I've longed to go, So long, away from tears.
 * They Won't Go When I Go

Songs In The Key of Life (1976)

 * Love's in need of love today, Don't delay, send yours in right away, Hate's going 'round breaking many hearts, Stop it please, before it's gone too far.
 * Love's In Need of Love Today

 * Would you like to go with me Down my dead end street? Would you like to come with me To village ghetto land?
 * Village Ghetto Land

 * Music is a world within itself With a language we all understand, With an equal opportunity For all to sing, dance and clap their hands.
 * Sir Duke

 * Well there's Basie, Miller, Satchmo And the king of all, Sir Duke, And with a voice like Ella's ringing out, There's no way the band can lose.
 * Sir Duke

 * Looking back on when I was a little nappy-headed boy, Then my only worry was for Christmas, what would be my toy? Even though we sometimes would not get a thing, We were happy with the joy the day would bring.
 * I Wish

 * I wish those days could come back once more, Why did those days ever have to go?
 * I Wish

 * They've been spending most their lives Living in a pastime paradise. They've been spending most their lives Living in a pastime paradise. They've been wasting most their time Glorifying days long gone behind, They've been wasting most their days In remembrance of ignorance oldest praise.
 * Pastime Paradise

 * As around the sun the earth knows she's revolving, And the rosebuds know to bloom in early May, Just as hate knows love's the cure, You can rest your mind assured, That I'll be loving you always.
 * As

 * For you, there might be a brighter star, But through my eyes the light of you burns all I see. For you, there might be another song, But all my heart can hear is your melody.
 * Another Star

 * Goin' back to Saturn where the rings all glow, Rainbow, moonbeams and orange snow, On Saturn, people live to be two hundred and five, Goin' back to Saturn where the people smile, Don't need cars 'cause we've learned to fly, On Saturn, just to live to us is our natural high.
 * Saturn

Hotter Than July (1980)

 * You took me riding in your rocket and gave me a star, But at a half a mile from heaven You dropped me back down to this cold, cold world.
 * Rocket Love

 * Everyone's feeling pretty, It's hotter than july, Though the world's full of problems, They couldn't touch us even if they tried.
 * Master Blaster (Jammin')

 * Didn't know that you Would be jammin' until the break of dawn, See nobody ever told you that you Would be jammin' until the break of dawn.
 * Master Blaster (Jammin')

 * Well I'm a man of many wishes, Hope my premonition misses, But what I really feel, My eyes won't let me hide, 'Cause they always start to cry, 'Cause this time could mean goodbye.
 * Lately

 * You know it doesn't make much sense, There ought to be a law against Anyone who takes offence At a day in your celebration, 'Cause we all know in our minds That there ought to be a time That we can set aside To show just how much we love you, And I'm sure you would agree, What could fit more perfectly Than to have a world party On the day you came to be? Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, Happy birthday.
 * Happy Birthday

The Woman in Red (1984)

 * I just called to say I love you, I just called to say how much I care, I just called to say I love you, And I mean it from the bottom of my heart.
 * I Just Called to Say I Love You

In Square Circle (1985)

 * Call up, ring once, hang up the phone, To let me know you made it home, Don't want nothing to be wrong, With part-time lover.
 * Part-Time Lover

 * We are undercover passion on the run, Chasing love up against the sun, We are strangers by day, lovers by night, Knowing it's so wrong but feeling so right.
 * Part-Time Lover

 * And though you don't believe that they do, They do come true, For did my dreams Come true when I looked at you, And maybe too if you would believe, You too might be overjoyed, over love, over me.
 * Overjoyed

A Time To Love (2005)

 * Raindrops, passionate raindrops, The kind of rain that writes 'They're so in love' on our skin. Raindrops, that we hope won't stop Cooling the red hot love that we are making.
 * Passionate Raindrops

 * Shame on me, shame on you, Shame on them, shame on us, Shame on me, shame on you, Shame on them, shame on us, So what the fuss.
 * So What The Fuss

About

 * I don't know what life would be like without music. In my lonely times, music has been my closest friend. It has also been my doctor-and my lover, in the sense that I sometimes listen to music and dream of a lover that doesn't exist. Late at night, when I don't feel sleepy, I'll play music-all types of music and lose myself in its mystery. I might decide to play Stevie Wonder, or Debussy, or Tchaikovsky. It depends on my mood.
 * 1977 interview in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989)

 * As Stevie Wonder says in his song (It will take a long time before white America can understand what his music is about at all; it's almost like a code. They don't really know what Stevie is singing about or what Stevie is saying. They can't afford to know.) Stevie says, "I ain't gotta do nothing to you; I ain't even gotta do nothing to you; you cause your own country to fall." And that's what's happening.
 * 1973 interview in Conversations with James Baldwin edited by Louis H. Pratt and Fred L. Standley (1989)

 * Stevie Wonder delivered an emphatic, at times impatient video message Tuesday urging on the Black Lives Matter movement. Saying he has listened to "voices on the left, voices on the right," Wonder added, "What I’ve not heard is a unanimous commitment to atone for the sins of this country."... Wonder lamented that three states — North Dakota, South Dakota and Hawaii — have failed to formally recognize Juneteenth as a holiday.  "... It was an 18-year fight to (make) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday," said Wonder, who teamed with late U.S. Rep. John Conyers in that ultimately successful campaign... The short video, titled "The Universe is Watching Us," was posted to Wonder's social media channels Tuesday afternoon.
 * Brian MCollum, "Stevie Wonder calls for action on Black Lives Matter efforts: 'Move more than your mouth'" Detroit Free Press, USA Today

 * And most of all, I'd like to thank Stevie Wonder, who didn't make an album this year.
 * Paul Simon, speaking on February 28, 1976, accepting the award given  as Album of the Year at the 18th Annual Grammy Awards

title: Stevie Wonder


text:
Ferdinand Marcos

Ferdinand Edralin Marcos (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986.

Quotes

 * I have committed many sins in my life. But stealing money from the government, from the people, is not one of them.
 * in an interview on ABC

1940s

 * Elect me as your congressman today, I promise you an Ilocano president in 20 years.
 * Election speech as candidate for Congress (1949)

1960s

 * The Filipino, it seems, has lost his soul, his dignity, and his courage. We have come upon a phase of our history when ideals are only a veneer for greed and power, (in public and private affairs) when devotion to duty and dedication to a public trust are to be weighted at all times against private advantages and personal gain, and when loyalties can be traded…Our government is in the iron grip of venality, its treasury is barren, its resources are wasted, its civil service is slothful and indifferent, its armed forces demoralized and its councils sterile. We are in crisis. You know that the government treasury is empty. Only by severe self-denial will there be hope for recovery within the next year…This nation can be great again. This I have said over and over. It is my articles of faith, and Divine Providence has willed that you and I can now translate this faith into deeds.
 * "Mandate for Greatness," First Inaugural Address (30 December 1965).

1970s

 * My countrymen, as of the twenty-third of this month, I signed Proclamation #1081 placing the entire Philippines under Martial Law.
 * Televised speech on the proclamation of Martial Law (21 September 1972)

 * No matter how strong and dedicated a leader may be, he must find root and strength amongst the people. He alone cannot save a nation. He may guide, he may set the tone, he may dedicate himself and risk his life, but only the people may save themselves.
 * Address at the launching of the Mabuhay Ang Pilipino Movement, Malacañang (30 November 1972)

 * Of what good is democracy if it is not for the poor?
 * "Notes on the New Society of the Philippines" (1973)

 * Authority must be utilized by government to attain certain noble objective but this authority must be circumscribed.
 * in an interview with William F. Buckley Jr. (17 November 1977)

 * When authoritarianism is no longer necessary to protect the welfare of the people, I will be the first to move for its dismantling. But the easy, casual wave of the hand dismissing the dangers that confront the worsening world situation and us is not for me. It is for those who insist that I dismantle martial law against my best judgment but, legally and morally, cannot be held liable for any Kampuchean-like tragedy that would be fall our people if I followed their advice. But I would be liable. I would be called all kinds of names. I would be called stupid, naïve and obstinate. History and our people would hold me accountable not only perhaps for lack of wisdom, but for lack of courage if I followed such advice.
 * Remarks at the inauguration of the Philippines Columbian Association's New Clubhouse Complex, Plaza Dilao, Manila (14 December 1979)

 * The foundation upon which our nation stands is much richer and firmer than the sympathies that may occasionally divide us. And we never know this more truly than in Christmas time. In good times or in bad, under clear skies or under the shadow of uncertainty, the Christmas message is the imperishable one of joy, hope and brotherhood.
 * Christmas message to overseas Filipinos (25 December 1979)

1980s

 * I was reminded as I was reviewing my life, that I have been in too many conflicts, too many wars, political battles, military battles, civil strifes in government. And always one lesson stands out and that is, those whom you fight most passionately often turn out to be your best friends.
 * Extemporaneous speech at the Sixth Centennial Celebration of Islam in the Philippines (10 June 1980)

 * I have listened to you, to our people. I have heard your doubts, your anxieties, nay, outright opposition to the lifting of Martial Law. And I have prayed to the Almighty for guidance. And it is after deliberate, sober judgment and soul-searching that I come before you and say, it is now time to terminate martial law.
 * Speech proclaiming the termination of the state of Martial law, Heroes Hall, Malacañang (17 January 1981)

 * I pray now and I ask you to pray with me, as I prayed eight years ago, that I am doing, that we are doing, the right thing by our people; for the end of martial law does not mean the end of our efforts, of our needed reforms, of our struggles, of our sacrifices. The passing of martial law does not necessarily carry with it the passing of all the burdens especially the heavy ones. There will be more tests, for our capacity, for our resiliency, for our strength as a people. I say, we have just begun.
 * Speech proclaiming the termination of the state of Martial law, Heroes Hall, Malacañang (17 January 1981)

 * We cannot and we will not negotiate with terrorists. We have nothing but contempt for them. To conciliate differences with these people without them changing their objectives is to condemn our Republic to ultimate strangulation and death.
 * Extemporaneous remarks during the Meeting with the Leaders of Regions I and II, Mansion House, Baguio City (15 March 1981)

 * "Hey, what's the name of that nice young girl, my loyalist supporter?" I said, Mr. President, her name is Annie Ferrer. "Will you give that girl my regards and kisses?" he asked. I said yes, of course — it was really strange.
 * Cynthia Sycip, "Interview with an ex-Dictator" (1987)

 * You are repetitious and stupid.
 * At a press conference in Hawaii, when asked about secret Swiss bank accounts (1987)

 * My spirit will rise from the grave and the world shall know that I was right.
 * Remark made days before passing in Honolulu (September 1989)

Quotes about Ferdinand Marcos

 * This morning [ Imelda Marcos] offered the latest in a series of explanations of the billions of dollars that she and her husband, who died in 1989, are believed to have stolen during his presidency. "It so coincided that Marcos had money," she said. "After the Bretton Woods agreement he started buying gold from Fort Knox. Three thousand tons, then 4,000 tons. I have documents for these: 7,000 tons. Marcos was so smart. He had it all. It's funny; America didn't understand him."
 * The New York Times (Monday, 4 March, 1996). Reprinted as an epigraph in Cryptonomicon.

 * Marcos was not a smoker, he was not known as a drinker, he didn’t swear—the strongest expression of irritation people would hear from him was “Lintik!” And he was not much more of a womanizer than most men of his generation and macho culture like to think themselves to be. He was not tall, but trim and athletic for most of his life: a marksman, orator, armed with a photographic memory. Surely we can agree he was a man of talent; we continue to disagree whether he used those talents for anything larger than his own ambitions.
 * Manuel L. Quezon III, The Long View: Marcos in retrospect (17 September 2007)

 * The Philippines is a nation of 40 million cowards and one son of a bitch.
 * by unnamed ranking cabinet member of the Reagan administration, but attributed to Secretary of State George Shultz (1982).

 * We love your adherence to democratic principles and to democratic processes.
 * Vice President George Bush addressing Marcos, on his visit to Manila (1981)

 * The difference lies in the culture of the Filipino people. It is a soft, forgiving culture. Only in the Philippines could a leader like Ferdinand Marcos, who pillaged his country for over 20 years, still be considered for a national burial...
 * Lee Kuan Yew

 * The second most corrupt head of government ever (after Suharto).
 * Transparency International (2003)

 * In 2004, Transparency International listed the ten worst kleptocratic rulers of recent times. Mobutu came in third, followed by Sani Abacha (Nigeria, 1993-98; stole US$2-5 billion); Slobodan Milošević (Serbia/Yugoslavia, 1989-2000, US$1 billion); Jean-Claude Duvalier (Haiti, 1971-86, US$300-800 million); Alberto Fujimori (Peru, 1990-2000, US$600 million); Pavlo Lazarenko, Ukraine (1996-7, US$114-200 million); Arnoldo Aleman (Nicaragua, 1997-2002, US$100 million); and Joseph Estrada (Philippines, 1998-2001, US$78-80 million). Second was Ferdinand Marcos, Philippine president from 1965 to 1986, who with his wife Imelda — famed for her vast collection of shoes — plundered the Philippine economy through a system of 'crony capitalism', amassing a vast fortune while ordinary Filipinos went hungry. Opponents were arrested by the military — over 60,000 from 1972 to 1977 —- and many tortured and murdered, including opposition leader Benigno Aquino. A popular rebellion in 1986 finally forced him from office and he fled with his wife to Hawaii. Transparency International put his stolen wealth at US$5-10 billion, others much higher. Marcos died in 1989 before he could stand trial.
 * Simon Sebag Montefiore, Monsters: History's Most Evil Men and Women (2009), p. 334

 * President Marcos turned to me and directed his eyes into mine—an instant of history that still replays in my memory—and responded that should we stand our ground, a military confrontation against the rebels is inevitable. And in his baritone voice declared "I don’t want us to be shooting at our own people. We must resolve this peacefully."
 * Col. Irwin Ver, "Marcos's chief guard, Irwin Ver, remembers EDSA" (25 February 2008)

 * I think you should cut and cut cleanly. The time has come.
 * U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt, in telephone conversation with Marcos just before his downfall (March 1986)

 * This generation of Filipinos fought a foreign power that invaded us. I think all of them are entitled to be buried in the Libingan ng Mga Bayani. Regardless of whether medals or no medals he, as a soldier who fought that war, is entitled to be buried in Libingan, and I am not denigrating the people who are denying that right or objecting to it. I don’t think they ever saw the muzzles of the guns of a foreign enemy and confronted them.
 * Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Enrile: Marcos, as soldier, deserves 'Libingan' burial, Manila Bulletin (14 April 2011)

 * He was hanging on, looking for a life preserver. He was a desperate man clutching at straws.
 * U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt, after his telephone conversation with Marcos, March 1986

 * The Man of Steal
 * Headline, Hot Manila (3 March 2000)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Ferdinand Marcos


text:
Lullaby (Palahniuk novel)

Lullaby (2002) is a horror satire novel by Chuck Palahniuk.

Quotes

 * The problem with every story is you tell it after the fact. Every play-by-play description on the radio, the home runs and strikeouts, even that's delayed a few minutes. Even live television is postponed a couple seconds. Even Sound and light can only go so fast.
 * Chapter 1
 * The muffled thunder of dialogue comes through the walls, then a chorus of laughter. Then more thunder. Most of the laugh tracks on television were recorded in the early 1950s. These days, most of the people you hear laughing are dead.
 * Chapter 3
 * You turn up your music to hide the noise. Other people turn up their music to hide yours. You turn up yours again. Everyone buys a bigger stereo system. This is the arms race of sound You don't win with a lot of treble. This isn't about quality. It's about volume. This isn't about music. This is about winning. You stomp the competition with the bass line. You rattle windows. You drop the melody line, and shout the lyrics. You put in foul language and come down hard on each cussword. You dominate. This is really about power.
 * Chapter 3
 * These people so scared of silence. These are my neighbors. These sound-oholics. These quiet-ophobics.
 * Chapter 3
 * We come from a generation of people who need their TV or stereo playing all the time. These people so scared of silence. These soundaholics, these quietophobics.
 * Chapter 3
 * No one wants to admit we're addicted to music. That's just not possible. No one's addicted to music and television and radio. We just need more of it, more channels, a larger screen, more volume. We can't bear to be without it, but no, nobody's addicted. We could turn it off anytime we wanted. I fit a window frame into a brick wall. With a little brush, the size for fingernail polish, I glue it. The window is the size of a fingernail. The glue smells like hair spray. The smell tastes like oranges and gasoline
 * Chapter 3

 * No detail is too minor to note.
 * Anymore, no one's mind is their own. You can't concentrate. You can't think. There's always some noise worming in. Singers shouting. Dead people laughing. Actors crying. All these little doses of emotion. Someone's always spraying the air with their mood.
 * Chapter 3
 * There are worse things than finding your wife and child dead. You can watch the world do it. You can watch your wife get old and bored. You can watch your kids discover everything in the world you've tried to save them from. Drugs, divorce, conformity, disease. All the nice clean books, music, television. Distraction. These people with dead children, you want to tell them, go ahead. Blame yourself. There are worse things you can do to the people you love than kill them. The regular way is just to watch the world do it. Just read the newspaper.
 * Chapter 3
 * Old George Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed. He's making sure your imagination withers. Until it's as useful as your appendix. He's making sure your attention is always filled. And this being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world.
 * Chapter 3
 * When ancient Greeks had a thought, it occurred to them as a god or goddess giving an order. Apollo was telling them to be brave. Athena was telling them to fall in love. Now people hear a commercial for sour cream potato chips and rush out to buy them, but now they call this free will. At least the Greeks were being honest.
 * Chapter 3

 * The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up.
 * Chapter 3
 * In journalism school, what they want you to be is a camera. A trained, objective, detached professional. Accurate, polished, and observant. They want you to believe that the new and you are always two separate things. Killers and reporters are mutually exclusive. Whatever the story, this isn't about you.

After long enough, everyone in the world will be your enemy. With every crime, Mona says, you're more and more alienated from the world. More and more, you imagine the whole world is against you.''' And maybe it was after years and years of getting the same calls about unwanted pregnancies, about divorces, about family squabbles. Maybe it was because her audience grew and her show moved to prime time. Maybe it was the more money she earned. Maybe power corrupts, but she wasn't always a bitch.
 * You don't become a journalist because you're good at keeping secrets. Being a Journalist is about telling. It's about bearing the bad news. Spreading the contagion. The biggest story in history. This could be the end of mass media. The Culling song would be a plague unique to the Information Age. Imagine a world where people shun the television, the radio, movies, the Internet, magazines, and newspapers. People have to wear earplugs the way they wear condoms and rubber gloves. In the past, nobody worried too much about sex with strangers. Or before that, bites from fleas. Or untreated drinking water. Mosquitoes. Asbestos.
 * Chapter 7
 * Imagine the books burning. And tapes and films and files, radios and televisions, will all go into that same bonfire. All those libraries and bookstores blazing away in the night. People will attack microwave relay stations. People with axes will chop every fiber-optic cable.
 * Chapter 7
 * Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. So just relax, Helen Boyle told me, and just enjoy the ride. She said, "Even absolute corruption has its perks.
 * Chapter 9
 * Our footsteps echo against the concrete floor. The steel roof hums with rain. And she says, 'Don't you feel, somehow, buried in history?'
 * Chapter 10
 * These distraction-oholics. These focus-ophobics."
 * Chapter 14
 * Sticks and stones may break your bones but words can hurt like hell.
 * Chapter 14
 * Here's Big Brother, singing and dancing, force-feeding you, so your mind never goes hungry enough to think.
 * Chapter 14
 * Until you deal with your real personal issues, you'll never be able to control yourself.
 * Chapter 14
 * Down through the ceiling comes a fire siren and people screaming that we're supposed to ignore. The gunshots and tires squeeling, sounds wee have to pretend are okay. They don't mean anything. It's just television. An explosion vibrates down from the upstairs. A woman begs someone not to rape her. It's not real. It's just a movie. We're the culture that cried wolf.
 * Chapter 17
 * "When you think about it from a native plant perspective," Oyster says."Johnny Apple seed was a fucking biological terrorist."
 * Chapter 19
 * The way you can go to Paris or Beijing, Oyster says, and everywhere there's a McDonald's hamburger, this is the ecological equivalent of franchised life-forms. Every place is the same place. Kudzu. Zebra mussels. Water hyacinths. Starlings. Burger Kings. The local natives, anything unique gets squeezed out.. He says, "We're landscaping the whole world one stupid mistake at a time."
 * Chapter 19
 * Sure, everybody wants to play God, but for me it's a full-time job.
 * Chapter 20
 * '''According to Mona, you shouldn't kill people, because that drives you away from humanity. In order to justify killing, you have to make the victim your enemy. To justify any crime, you have to make the victim your enemy.
 * Chapter 22
 * Doctor Sarah didn't start out by attacking and berating everybody who called her radio show," Mona says. "She used to have a little time slot and a little audience, and she seemed to really care about helping people."
 * Chapter 22
 * Still, he deserved to die. He called me an asshole.
 * Chapter 22
 * Centuries ago, sailors on long voyages used to leave a pair of pigs on every deserted island. Or they'd leave a pair of goats. Either way, on any future visit, the island would be a source of meat. These islands, they were pristine. These were home to breeds of birds with no natural predators. Breeds of birds that lived nowhere else on earth. The plants there, without enemies they evolved without thorns or poisons. Without predators and enemies, these islands, they were paradise. The sailors, the next time they visited these islands, the only things still there would be herds of goats or pigs. .... Does this remind you of anything? Maybe the ol' Adam and Eve story? .... You ever wonder when God's coming back with a lot of barbecue sauce?
 * Chapter 23
 * The masochist bullies the sadist into action. The most person person is actually the aggressor. Every day, just you living means the misery and death of plants and animals- and even some people. "Slaughterhouses, factory farms, sweatshops," she says, "like it or not, that's what your money buys."
 * In order to save the world, Jesus Christ suffered for about thirty-six hours on the cross. I am willing to suffer an eternity in hell for the same cause.
 * Chapter 26

 * Every generation wants to be the last. Every generation hates the next trend in music they can't understand. We hate to give up the reins of our culture. To find our own music playing in elevators. The ballad for our revolution, turned into background music for a television commercial. To find our generation's clothes and hair suddenly retro.
 * Chapter 26
 * Maybe you don't go to hell for the things you do. Maybe you go to hell for the things you don't do.
 * Chapter 28
 * History is is filled with brilliant people who wanted to fix things and just made them worse.
 * Chapter 39
 * I need to rebel against myself. It's the opposite of following your bliss. I need to do what I most fear.
 * Chapter 39

 * The trick to forgetting the big picture is to look at everything close-up.
 * The more people die, the more things stay the same.
 * Imagine immortality, where even a marriage of fifty years would feel like a one-night stand. Imagine seeing trends and fashions blur past you. Imagine the world more crowded and desperate every century. Imagine changing religions, homes, diets, careers, until none of them have any real value.Imagine traveling the world until you're bored with every square inch. Imagine your emotions, your loves and hates and rivalries and victories, played out again and again until life is nothing more than a melo-dramatic soap opera. Until you regard the birth and death of other people with no more emotion than the wilted cut flowers you throw away.

 * Maybe this is why so many serial killers work in pairs. It's nice not to feel alone in a world full of victims or enemies.

 * Sticks and stones will break your bones, but now words can kill, too.This is how we must look to God. As if everything's just fine.

 * This culling poem is a blessing. Why do you think it was created in the first place? It will save millions of people from the slow terrible death we're headed for from disease, from famine, drought, from solar radiation, from war, from all the places we're headed.

 * "The best way to waste your life is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch.

 * Either an ancient cursed Egyptian mummy has come back to life and is trying to kill the people next door, or they're watching a movie.

title: Lullaby (Palahniuk novel)


text:
Nâzım Hikmet

Nâzım Hikmet (20 November 1901 – 3 June 1963) was a Turkish poet and dramatist, who is widely regarded as the best-known Turkish poet in the West; his works have been translated into several languages.

Quotes

 * Don’t live in the world as if you were renting Or here only for the summer, But act as if it were your father’s house. Believe in seeds, earth, the sea But people above all. Grieve for the withering branch, The dying star, And the hurt animal. But feel for people above all. Rejoice in all the earth’s blessings – Darkness and light, The four seasons, But people above all.
 * From Last letter to my son, as quoted in Nel cuore delle parole. Alla scoperta del gusto di comunicare

 * It's this way: being captured is beside the point, the point is not to surrender.
 * From It's This Way

 * You waste the attention of your eyes, the glittering labour of your hands, and knead the dough enough for dozens of loaves of which you'll taste not a morsel; you are free to slave for others— you are free to make the rich richer. The moment you're born they plant around you mills that grind lies lies to last you a lifetime. You keep thinking in your great freedom a finger on your temple free to have a free conscience. Your head bent as if half-cut from the nape, your arms long, hanging, your saunter about in your great freedom: you're free with the freedom of being unemployed. You love your country as the nearest, most precious thing to you. But one day, for example, they may endorse it over to America, and you, too, with your great freedom— you have the freedom to become an air-base. You may proclaim that one must live not as a tool, a number or a link but as a human being— then at once they handcuff your wrists. You are free to be arrested, imprisoned and even hanged. There's neither an iron, wooden nor a tulle curtain in your life; there's no need to choose freedom: you are free. But this kind of freedom is a sad affair under the stars.
 * From A Sad State Of Freedom

 * I'm twenty-seven, she's seventeen. "Blind Cupid, lame Cupid, both blind and lame Cupid said, Love this girl,"
 * From A Spring Piece Left In The Middle

 * I've never regretted I was born too soon. I'm proud to be a child of the twentieth century. I'm satisfied to join its ranks on our side and fight for a new world...
 * From On the Twentieth Century (12 November 1941)

 * My country or the stars Or my youth, what's farthest?
 * From In the Snowy Night Woods (10 March 1956)

 * The strangest of our powers Is the courage to live Knowing that we will die, Knowing nothing more true.
 * From In the Snowy Night Woods (10 March 1956)

 * Loneliness feels like prison.
 * From New Year's Eve (23 March 1956)

 * The world's not run by governments or money but people rule a hundred years from now maybe but it will be for sure.
 * From Optimism (12 September 1957)

 * Separation isn't time or distance it's the bridge between us finer than silk thread sharper than swords
 * From Separation (6 June 1960)

 * Because of you, each day is a melon slice smelling sweetly of earth Because of you, all fruits reach out to me as if I were the sun. Thanks to you, I live on the honey of hope. You are the reason my heart beats. Because of you, even my loneliest nights smile like an Anatolian kilim on your wall. Should my journey end before I reach my city, I've rested in a rose garden thanks to you. Because of you I don't let death enter, clothed in the softest garments, and knocking on my door with songs calling me to the greatest place.
 * From Because of You (29 August 1960)

 * All I wrote about us is lies All I wrote about us is the truth
 * From About Us (30 September 1960)

 * Welcome baby, It's your turn to live, They lie in wait for you, chicken pox, whooping cough, smallpox, Malaria, TB, heart disease, cancer, and so on. Unemployment, hunger, and so on. Train wrecks, bus accidents, plane crashes, work accidents, Earthquakes, floods, droughts, and so on. Heartbreak, alcoholism, and so on. Nightsticks, prison doors, and so on. They lie in wait for you, the atom bomb, and so on. Welcome baby, It's your turn to live. They lie in wait for you, socialism, communism, and so on.
 * From Welcome (10 September 1961)

 * You're my bondage and my freedom, my flesh burning like a naked summer night, you're my country. Hazel eyes marbled green, you're awesome, beautiful, and brave, you're my desire always just out of reach.
 * From You're

 * Looking at this insolent earth, you hear the first battle cry of our species- trap it under a rock and together, screaming, attack and destroy it, as if killing a mammoth.
 * From Human Landscapes from My Country, Book Two, Section VII

 * At eighteen the heart shoots like a pebble from a slingshot and the head doesn't sit on the shoulder.
 * From Human Landscapes from My Country, Book Two, Section VII

 * At eighteen you sleep without memories.
 * From Human Landscapes from My Country, Book Two, Section VII

 * At eighteen you don't think about memories, you tell them.
 * From Human Landscapes from My Country, Book Two, Section VII

 * This earth will grow cold, a star among stars and one of the smallest, a gilded mote on blue velvet— I mean this, our great earth. This earth will grow cold one day, not like a block of ice or a dead cloud even but like an empty walnut it will roll along in pitch-black space... You must grieve for this right now —you have to feel this sorrow now— for the world must be loved this much if you're going to say "I lived"...
 * From On living

that the sky is so far away and so blue and so vast I stood there without a motion. Then I sat on the ground with respectful devotion leaning against the white wall. Who cares about the waves with which I yearn to roll Or about strife or freedom or my wife right now. The soil, the sun and me... I feel joyful and how.
 * Today is Sunday. For the first time they took me out into the sun today. And for the first time in my life I was aghast
 * From Today is Sunday

title: Nâzım Hikmet


text:
Chess

Chess is a recreational and competitive board game played on a square chequered chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight square between two players who each control sixteen pieces.

Quotes

 * That which has reached us from the discoveries of their clear thinking and the marvels of their inventions is the (game) of chess. The Indians have, in the construction of its cells, its double numbers, its symbols and secrets, reached the forefront of knowledge. They have extracted its mysteries from supernatural forces. While the game is being played and its pieces are being maneuvered, there appear the beauty of structure and the greatness of harmony. It demonstrates the manifestation of high intentions and noble deeds, as it provides various forms of warnings from enemies and points out ruses as well as ways to avoid dangers. And in this, there is considerable gain and useful profit.
 * Said al-Andalusi, The Categories of Nations Chapter V: Science in India

 * Life's too short for chess.
 * Henry James Byron, Our Boys (1875), Act I

 * A friendship across sectarian lines is not a common phenomenon, in his experience. In the past, it has struck him that, apart from homosexuals, only chess players have found a reliable way to bridge, intensely but without fatal violence, the gulf that separates any given pair of men.
 * Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, p. 88

 * Buraida reported on the authority of his father that Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: He who played chess is like one who dyed his hand with the flesh and blood of swine.
 * HADITH Sahih Muslim 28:5612
 * Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi from Abdullah ibn Umar that when he found one of his family playing dice he beat him and destroyed the dice. Yahya said that he heard Malik say, "There is no good in chess, and he disapproved of it." Yahya said, "I heard him disapprove of playing it and other worthless games. He recited this ayat, 'What is there after the truth except going the wrong way.' " (Sura l0 ayat 32).
 * Al-Muwatta 52:7

 * Amberley excelled at chess—one mark, Watson, of a scheming mind.
 * Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The Adventure of the Retired Colourman"

 * CHESS. Arabic Shatranj. According to the Hidiyah, "It is an abomination to play at chess, dice, or any other game, for if anything be staked it is gambling (maisir), which is expressly forbidden in the Qur'an; or if, on the other hand nothing be hazarded it is useless and vain. Besides, the Prophet has declared all the entertainment of a Muslim to be vain except three: the breaking in of his horse, the drawing of his bow, and playing and amusing himself with his wives. Several of the learned, however, deem the game at chess lawful as having a tendency to quicken the understanding. This is the opinion of ash-Shafi`i. If a man play at chess for a stake, it destroys the integrity of his character, but if he do not play for a stake, the integrity of his character is not affected. (Hamilton's Hidayah)
 * Hughes, T. P. (1986). Dictionary of Islam: : being a cyclopaedia of the doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs together with the technical and theological terms, of the Muhammadan religion.

 * Fancy what a game at chess would be if all the chessmen had passions and intellects, more or less small and cunning; if you were not only uncertain about your adversary's men, but a little uncertain also about your own; if your knight could shuffle himself on to a new square by the sly; if your bishop, in disgust at your castling, could wheedle your pawns out of their places; and if your pawns, hating you because they are pawns, could make away from their appointed posts that you might get checkmate on a sudden. You might be the longest-headed of deducted reasoners, and yet you might be beaten by your own pawns. You would be especially likely to be beaten, if you depended arrogantly on your mathematical imagination, and regarded your passionate pieces with contempt. Yet this imaginary chess is easy compared with the game a man has to play against his fellow-men with other fellow-men for his instruments. He thinks himself sagacious, perhaps, because he trusts no bond except that of self-interest; but the only self-interest he can safely rely on is what seems to be such to the mind he would use or govern. Can he ever be sure of knowing this?
 * George Eliot, Felix Holt, The Radical, (1866), at the start of Chapter 29 (at page 237)

 * "It's a useful mental exercise. Through the years, many thinkers have been fascinated by it. But I don't enjoy playing... Because it was a game that was born during a brutal age when life counted for little. Everyone believed that some people were worth more than others. Kings. Pawns. I don't think that anyone is worth more than anyone else... Chess is just a game. Real people are not pieces. You can't assign more value to some of them and not others. Not to me. Not to anyone. People are not a thing that you can sacrifice. The lesson is, anyone who looks on to the world as if it is a game of chess, deserves to lose. "
 * Harold Finch in Person of interest 4x11

 * In my opinion, the King's Gambit is busted. It loses by force.
 * Bobby Fischer, A bust to the King's Gambit (1960)

 * I have played over several hundred of [Paul] Morphy's games, and am continually surprised and entertained by his ingenuity.
 * Bobby Fischer, ‘The Ten Greatest Masters in History’ (pages 56-61 of Chessworld, January-February 1964)

 * You know I'm finished with the old chess because it's all just a lot of book and memorization you know.
 * Bobby Fischer, Radio Interview (27 January 2002)

 * In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory. So if you just brought them back from the dead they wouldn't do well. They'd get bad openings. You cannot compare the playing strength, you can only talk about natural ability. Memorization is enormously powerful. Some kid of fourteen today, or even younger, could get an opening advantage against Capablanca, and especially against the players of the previous century, like Morphy and Steinitz. Maybe they would still be able to outplay the young kid of today. Or maybe not, because nowadays when you get the opening advantage not only do you get the opening advantage, you know how to play, they have so many examples of what to do from this position. It is really deadly, and that is why I don't like chess any more.
 * Bobby Fischer, Radio Interview (16 October 2006)

 * [ Capablanca ] wanted to change the rules already, back in the twenties, because he said chess was getting played out. He was right. Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorization and prearrangement. It’s a terrible game now. Very uncreative.
 * Bobby Fischer, Radio Interview (16 October 2006)

 * The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn: 1st, Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action … 2nd, Circumspection, which surveys the whole Chess-board, or scene of action:—the relation of the several Pieces, and their situations; … 3rd, Caution, not to make our moves too hastily...
 * Benjamin Franklin, "The Morals of Chess" (article) (1750)

 * [C]hess is not a game for dictators for numerous reasons. One, it's transparent. It’s all information hundred percent available so you know exactly what you have, you know exactly what your opponent has. You don’t know what he or she is thinking, but you definitely know what kind of resources your opponent can use to hurt you, to damage your position. Also, chess is very much a strategic game so you have to think long-term. Dictators don’t think long-term. Dictators, especially who are in power for so long as Putin is, they have to work on the survival mode. Because it’s all about today, maybe tomorrow morning. Everything that helps us survive is good. Because the moment the dictator thinks long-term, he’ll definitely miss guys from his own entourage hitting him in his own back. The game that defines dictators much better is poker because it’s about bluffs. It doesn’t matter whether you have a strong hand or weak hand. You can have a weak hand, but if you’re comfortable bluffing, raising stakes, and if you can read your opponent.
 * Garry Kasparov, interview with Bill Kristol (April 2016)

 * We must finish once and for all with the neutrality of chess. We must condemn once and for all the formula "chess for the sake of chess", like the formula "art for art's sake". We must organize shockbrigades of chess-players, and begin immediate realization of a Five-Year Plan for chess.
 * Nikolai Krylenko, as quoted in The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Volume I, pages 434-435, Alexander Solzhenitsyn

 * Chess is so characteristic a product of the legacy of Islam that it deserves more than a passing mention. Modern European chess is the direct descendant of an ancient Indian game, adopted by the Persians, handed on by them to the Muslim world, and finally borrowed from Islam by Christian Europe.
 * Arnold, Legacy of Islam, p.32, citing H.J.R. Murrary, A History of Chess, Oxford, 1913. Quoted from Lal, K. S. (1992). The legacy of Muslim rule in India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 1

 * This loss of interest, hair, and enterprise— Ah, if the game were poker, yes, You might discard them, draw a full house! But it's chess.
 * Philip Larkin, Continuing to Live

 * On the chessboard lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in a checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite.
 * Emanuel Lasker, Lasker's Manual of Chess (1960), p. ix

 * “You are not the first to be shocked and horrified by chess,” he assured her. “It is a curse of the intellect. It is a game for lunatics—or else it creates them.”
 * Fritz Leiber, The 64-Square Madhouse (originally published in If magazine, May 1962)

 * Chess never has been and never can be aught but a recreation. It should not be indulged in to the detriment of other and more serious avocations.
 * Paul Morphy as quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859

 * It [chess] is not only the most delightful and scientific, but the most moral of amusements.
 * Paul Morphy as quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859

 * It [chess] is eminently and emphatically the philosopher's game.
 * Paul Morphy as quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859

 * Let the chessboard supercede the card table, and a great improvement will be visible in the morals of the community.
 * Paul Morphy as quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859

 * I am more strongly confirmed than ever in the belief that the time devoted to chess is literally frittered away. It is, to be sure, a most exhilarating sport, but it is only a sport; and it is not to be wondered at that such as have been passionately addicted to the charming pastime should one day ask themselves whether sober reason does not advise its utter dereliction.
 * Paul Morphy Morphy's letter to Daniel Fiske, February 4, 1863

 * The Lord: The game of chess is like a sword fight. You must think first, before you move.
 * Huang Pa-ching and Katy Chin Shaolin and Wu Tang (1983)

 * Chess is a game by its form, an art by its content and a science by the difficulty of gaining mastery in it. Chess can convey as much happiness as a good book or work of music can.
 * Tigran Petrosian, attributed without citation in "Tigran Petrosian's Best Games" at chessgames.com

 * Some consider that when I play I am excessively cautious, but it seems to me that the question may be a different one. I try to avoid chance. Those who rely on chance should play cards or roulette. Chess is something quite different.
 * Tigran Petrosian, attributed without citation in "Tigran Petrosian's Best Games" at chessgames.com

 * They say my chess games should be more interesting. I could be more interesting - and also lose.
 * Tigran Petrosian, attributed without citation in "Tigran Petrosian's Best Games" at chessgames.com

 * Chess is a game by its form, an art by its content and a science by the difficulty of gaining mastery in it. Chess can convey as much happiness as a good book or work of music can. However, it is necessary to learn to play well and only afterwards will one experience real delight."
 * Tigran Petrosian, attributed without citation on

 * I'm absolutely convinced that in chess - although it remains a game - there is nothing accidental. And this is my credo. I like only those chess games, in which I have played in accordance with the position requirements... I believe only in logical and right game.
 * Tigran Petrosian, quoted in

 * I don’t mind smoking interfering with my play. Some folks say it takes the sharp edge from one’s intellect, and spoils one’s memory. I haven’t found it so. I’ve smoked since I was 14, and I can play better when I have a cigar in my mouth – only a cigar, never anything else. When I play a lot of games at the same time, I must be keyed up to it, as it were. I practise what you call self-hypnotism. It is largely will-power. You see, it’s just this way. When it becomes my turn to make a move at one of the chess boards, my mental powers are concentrated severely on the one move. All the other chess boards, the checkers and whist are obliterated from my mind. It is as though I had never started playing those games at all. I seem to remember nothing of them. I come to a decision, the move is made, and I turn again to the cards in my hand. Quick as lightning the game of chess vanishes from my mind. Now it is nothing but whist with me. I seem never to have had a thought of anything but the game of cards. I play one. Then I move one of the checkers. These transitions of mind take place so quickly that I seem to be playing chess, checkers and whist all at once, and to be thinking of all the games at once. But it is as I explained. The only thing I really need for the ordeal is my cigar.
 * Harry Pillsbury, as quoted in The American Chess Magazine, August 1899, page 75

 * Yet to calculate is not in itself to analyse. A chess-player, for example, does the one without effort at the other. It follows that the game of chess, in its effects upon mental character, is greatly misunderstood. I [...] assert that the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of draughts than by all the elaborate frivolity of chess. In this latter, where the pieces have different and bizarre motions, with various and variable values, what is only complex is mistaken (a not unusual error) for what is profound. The attention is here called powerfully into play. If it flag for an instant, an oversight is committed, resulting in injury or defeat. The possible moves being not only manifold but involute, the chances of such oversights are multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten it is the more concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers.
 * Edgar Allan Poe, The Murders in the Rue Morgue

 * My life was in crisis. All my values were becoming meaningless. I was discovering that my chosen profession was empty, foolish, as useless as—as playing chess.
 * Robert Silverberg, Schwartz Between the Galaxies (originally published in Stellar 1, 1975)

 * ‘Anderssen once said to me: “To win a tournament, a competitor must in the first place play well, but he should also have a good amount of luck.” I quite agree with that, but it naturally follows that there must be also ill luck in tournaments, of which many instances could be cited, notably that of Winawer, who, after having tied for first and second prizes in Vienna, and just a few weeks before he came out chief victor in Nuremberg, did not win in London a single prize out of eight (to include the special one for the best score against the prize-holders). All this would tend to show that, at least, a single tournament, especially one consisting of one round only, cannot be regarded as a test.’
 * Wilhelm Steinitz, page 236 of the August 1886 International Chess Magazine

 * Shall we play Bezique? Or Nightjack? I’ve cards, or chess if you prefer, but I’ve always found chess to be a bit too much like real life to provide much enjoyment as a game.
 * Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland, For a Little While (originally published at Tor.com, July 27, 2011)

Praelia, buxo acies fictas, et ludicra regna, Ut gemini inter se reges albusque, nigerque Pro laude oppositi certent bicoloribus armis.'' Armies of ivory, and a mock campaign; How two bold kings in different armour veil'd, One black, one white, for conquest fought the field.
 * ''Ludimus effigiem belli, simulataque veris
 * I sing the form of war, the bloodless plain,
 * Marco Girolamo Vida, Scacchia Ludus (1527) [Game of Chess], opening lines. Compare: "Of armies on the chequer'd field array'd,/ And guiltless war in pleasing form display'd;/ When two bold kings contend with vain alarms,/ In ivory this, and that in ebon arms;" William Jones, Caïssa; Or, The Game of Chess.

 * [The queen] sits at the top of the high places above the city. She is restless and determined. She girds her loins with strength. Her feet stay not in her house. She moves in every direction and into every corner. Her evolutions are wonderful, her spirit untiring. How comely are her footsteps as she moves diagonally, one step after another, from square to square!
 * c. 12th century Spanish Hebrew text, attributed to Bonsenior ibn Yehia (quoted in Marilyn Yalom, The Birth of the Chess Queen, pp. 54-55)

 * Chess and Islam were born about the same time - chess out of a regional need to understand complex new ideas, and Islam out of the Arabs' desperate need for discipline, intelligence, and meaningful community. [...] In Persia the Muslims encountered chatrang, the bloodless new war game which relied solely on players' intellect. Chess and Islam complemented each other well: a new game of war, wits and self-control serving a spirited new religious and social movement organized around the same values.
 * David Shenk, The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, (2006) chapter "House of Wisdom".

 * To play chess, the ulema declare, is detestable according to Imam Abu Hanifa, and a man habituated to it is not qualified to be imam... And how could they rule otherwise? Had the Prophet not said, ‘He who plays chess is like one who dyes his hand with the flesh and blood of swine?’...
 * About rulings of the Shariat and ulema on chess. Arun Shourie - The World of Fatwas Or The Sharia in Action (2012, Harper Collins)

Disputed

 * “He who played chess is like one who dyed his hand with the flesh and blood of a swine.” (5612).
 * Sahih Muslim. English translation by Abdul Hamid Siddiqi in four volumes. Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1973-1975.
 * This is also translated as: He who played Nardashir (a game similar to backgammon) is like one who dyed his hand with the flesh and blood of swine.

How to Play Chess Like a Pro== External links ==

title: Chess