text:
User:Sir Paul

Find me at Wikipedia

title: User:Sir Paul


text:
Benito Juárez

Benito Pablo Juárez García (21 March 1806 – 18 July 1872), known primarily as Benito Juárez, was a Mexican politician; a full-blooded Zapotec, he became the first indigenous national to serve as President of Mexico, from 1861 to 1863 and from 1867 to 1872.

Quotes

 * Entre los Individuos, como entre Las Naciones, El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz.
 * '''Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.'

 * Statement of Juárez inscribed as a Motto on the State Flag of Oaxaca, of which he was Governor from 1847 to 1853. Variant translations: Among individuals as among nations, when there is respect, there is peace. Respect for the rights of others means peace.

 * The government of the republic will fulfill its duty to defend its independence, to repel foreign aggression, and accept the struggle to which it has been provoked, counting on the unanimous spirit of the Mexicans and on the fact that sooner or later the cause of rights and justice will triumph.
 * Proclamation to the Mexican people, shortly before the Battle of Puebla of 5 May 1862 (which is commemorated by the "Cinco de Mayo" celebrations).

 * In use of the broad powers with which I have been invested, I have found it proper to declare that  1. Priests of any cult who, abusing their ministry, excite hate or disrespect for our laws, our government, or its rights, will be punished by three years’ imprisonment or deportation.   2. Because of the present crisis all cathedral chapters are suppressed, except for that of Guadalajara  because of its patriotic behavior.   3. Priests of all cults are forbidden from wearing their vestments or any other distinguishing garment outside of the churches… All violators will be punished with fines of ten to one hundred pesos or imprisonment from fifteen to sixty days.
 * Proclamation in response to church officials openly encouraging support for French forces. (30 August 1862)

 * Democracy is the destiny of humanity; freedom its indestructible arm.
 * As quoted by US President John F. Kennedy in a speech. (29 June 1962)

 * Adversity, Citizen Deputies, discourages none but contemptible peoples; ours has been ennobled by great feats and we are far from being shorn of the immense obstacles, material and moral, which the country will oppose…
 * Juarez and his Mexico : A Biographical History (1968) by Ralph Roeder, Vol. 2, p. 511

 * There is no help but in defense but I can assure you... the Imperial Government will not succeed in subduing the Mexicans, and its armies will not have a single day of peace... we must stop them, not only for our country but for the respect of the sovereignty of the nations.
 * As quoted in Hispanic Network Magazine: Vol. 17-18 (2005)

 * Mexicans: let us now pledge all our efforts to obtain and consolidate the benefits of peace. Under its auspices, the protection of the laws and of the authorities will be sufficient for all the inhabitants of the Republic. May the people and the government respect the rights of all. Between individuals, as between nations, peace means respect for the rights of others.
 * As quoted in Global History, Volume Two : The Industrial Revolution to the Age of Globalization (2008) by Jerry Weiner, Mark Willner, George A. Hero and Bonnie-Anne Briggs, p. 175

 * There is one thing beyond the reach of perversity. The inevitable failure of history, she will judge us
 * From the letter to Maximiliano de Habsburgo in 1864

Quotes about Benito Juárez

 * The vision that impels feminists to action was the vision of the Grandmothers' society, the society that was captured in the words of the sixteenth-century explorer Peter Martyr nearly five hundred years ago. It is the same vision repeated over and over by radical thinkers of Europe and America, from François Villon to John Locke, from William Shakespeare to Thomas Jefferson, from Karl Marx to Friedrich Engels, from Benito Juarez to Martin Luther King, from Elizabeth Cady Stanton to Judy Grahn, from Harriet Tubman to Audre Lorde, from Emma Goldman to Bella Abzug, from Malinalli to Cherríe Moraga, and from Iyatiku to me. That vision as Martyr told it is of a country where there are "no soldiers, no gendarmes or police, no nobles, kings, regents, prefects, or judges, no prisons, no lawsuits... All are equal and free."
 * Paula Gunn Allen The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions (1986)

 * This is the beginning of a social movement in fact and not in pronouncements. We seek our basic, God-given rights as human beings. Because we have suffered — and are not afraid to suffer — in order to survive, we are ready to give up everything, even our lives, in our fight for social justice. We shall do it without violence because that is our destiny. To the ranchers, and to all those who opposes, we say, in the words of Benito Juárez: "El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz." [Respect for another's right is the meaning of peace.]
 * Cesar Chavez, "The Plan of Delano" (1965)

 * Without realizing it the maids provided me with a version of Benito Juárez; they were all like Benito Juárez. Like him they vindicated themselves: "Dirty foreigners." Like him they defended Mexico, as stubborn as mules. Like him they had no roof of their own and had eaten only poor people's food, and for me, a girl raised on French mashed potatoes, discovering them meant entering into "the other."
 * Elena Poniatowska "A Question Mark Engraved on my Eyelids" in The Writer on Her Work (1992), translated from Spanish by Cynthia Steele

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

title: Benito Juárez


text:
User talk:Danigrl~enwikiquote

"Somebody has to be in charge" Bill Austin also by him "When you take dancing lessons, you learn steps and you learn steps and you learn steps. It can go on for a long time. And then one day, you just learn to dance, and it is so different."

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools. --Unknown

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

The universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson. The mountain teaches stability and grandeur; the ocean immensity and change. Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes--every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man. --Orison Swett Marden

If you're going through hell, keep going. --Sir Winston Churchill

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind. --Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. --Mahatma Gandhi

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Danigrl. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Danigrl~enwikiquote that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:21, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 05:46, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Danigrl~enwikiquote


text:
Paul Bowles

Paul Bowles (30 December 1910 – 18 November 1999) was a composer, author, and traveler.

Quotes

 * No one can ever heap enough insults upon me to suit my taste. I think we all really thrive on hostility, because it's the most intense kind of massage the ego can undergo. Other people's indifference is the only horror.
 * Letter to Charles Henri Ford (25 January 1948), as published in In Touch : The Letters of Paul Bowles (1995) edited by Jeffrey Miller, p. 192

The Sheltering Sky (1949)

 * A novel about an American couple travelling in North Africa. A film adaptation of the book directed by Bernardo Bertolucci was released in 1990.

 * Many days later another caravan was passing and a man saw something on top of the highest dune there. And when they went up to see, they found Outka, Mimouna and Aicha; they were still there, lying the same way as when they had gone to sleep. And all three of the glasses... were full of sand. That was how they had their tea in the Sahara.

 * Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.

 * For in order to avoid having to deal with relative values, he had long since come to deny all purpose to the phenomenon of existence — it was more expedient and comforting.
 * p. 65

 * So she said banteringly: "What's the unit of exchange in this different world of yours?" He did not hesitate. "The tear." "It isn't fair," she objected. "Some people have to work very hard for a tear. Others can have them just for thinking." "What system of exchange is fair?" he cried, and his voice sounded as if he were really drunk. "And whoever invented the concept of fairness, anyway? Isn't everything easier if you simply get rid of the idea of justice altogether? You think the quantity of pleasure, the degree of suffering is constant among all men? It somehow comes out in the end?  You think that? If it comes out even it's only because the final sum is zero."
 * p. 148

 * A black star appears, a point of darkness in the night sky's clarity. Point of darkness and gateway to repose. Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose.
 * p. 210

Let It Come Down (1952)

 * Africa was a big place and would offer its own suggestions
 * p. 199

 * For God's sake, sit down. You look like a Calvinist rector telling his flock about Hell.
 * p. 231

 *  "We're all monsters," said Daisy with enthusiasm. "It's the Age of Monsters."
 * p. 238

Up Above the World (1966)

 * Dr Slade went in to lunch in a state of desperate boredom tempered with resentment; it had shaken him a little to see how bad luck could be prolonged to such unlikely lengths.
 * p. 23

Points in Time (1982)

 * ISBN 0720605946.

 * Every second, ten stars set behind the black water in the west.
 * p. 28

title: Paul Bowles


text:
The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride is a 1973 novel by William Goldman claiming to be an abridgment of a non-existent story written by S. Morgenstern. Framed as a story within a story, it is a tale of true love and high adventure, pirates, princess, giants, miracles, fencing, true love, and rodents of unusual size.
 * See also:
 * The Princess Bride (1987 film based on the book)

Introduction

 * This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.
 * "Has it got any sports in it?"
 * "Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles."

 * People don't remember me. Really. It's not a paranoid thing; I just have this habit of slipping through memories. It doesn't bother me all that much, except I guess that's a lie; it does. For some reason, I test very high on forgettability.

 * Even today, that's how I summon back my father when the need arises. Slumped and squinting and halting over words, giving me Morgenstern's masterpiece as best he could. The Princess Bride belonged to my father.

 * But my father only read me the action stuff, the good parts. He never bothered with the serious side at all.

 * Anyway, here's the "good parts" version. S. Morgenstern wrote it. And my father read it to me. And now I give it to you. What you do with it will be of more than passing interest to us all.

One: The Bride

 * Prince Humperdinck actually ran things. If there had been a Europe, he would have been the most powerful man in it. Even as it was, nobody within a thousand miles wanted to mess with him.

 * Flailing and thrashing, Buttercup wept and tossed and paced and wept some more, and there have been three great cases of jealousy since David of Galilee was first afflicted with the emotion when he could no longer stand the fact that his neighbor Saul's cactus outshone his own. (Originally, jealousy pertained solely to plants, other people's cactus or ginkgoes, or later, when there was grass, grass, which is why, even to this day, we say that someone is green with jealousy.) Buttercup's case rated a close fourth on the all-time list.

 * "Don't you understand anything that's going on? Buttercup shook her head. Westley shook his too. "You never have been the brightest, I guess." "Do you love me, Westley? Is that it?" He couldn't believe it. "Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches! If your love were -" "I don't understand that first one yet," Buttercup interrupted. She was starting to get very excited now. "Let me get this straight. Are you saying my love is a grain of sand and yours is this other thing? Images confuse me so - is this universal business of yours bigger than my sand? Help me, Westley. I have the feeling we're on the verge of something just terribly important."

 * "I've been saying it so long to you, you just wouldn't listen. Every time you said 'Farm Boy do this' you thought I was answering 'As you wish' but that's only because you were hearing wrong. 'I love you' was what it was, but you never heard."

 * There have been five great kisses since 1642 B.C. ... (before then couples hooked thumbs.) And the precise rating of kisses is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy...Well, this one left them all behind.

Two: The Groom

 * Hunting was [Humperdinck's] love. Once he was determined, once he had focused on an object, the Prince was relentless. He never tired, never wavered, neither ate nor slept. It was death chess and he was international grand master.

 * "Your father has had his annual physical," the Count said. "I have the report." "And?" "Your father is dying." "Drat!" said the Prince. "That means I shall have to get married."

Three: The Courtship

 * [Buttercup] "I'll never love you." [Humperdinck] "I wouldn't want it if I had it." "Then by all means let us marry."

Four: The Preparations

 * I didn't even know this chapter existed until I began the 'good parts' version. All my father used to say at this point was, "What with one thing and another, three years passed," and then he'd explain how the day came when Buttercup was officially introduced to the world as the coming queen, and how the Great Square of Florin City was filled as never before, awaiting her introduction, and by then he was into the terrific business dealing with the kidnapping. Would you believe that in the original Morgenstern this was the longest chapter in the book?

 * But from a narrative point of view, in 105 pages nothing happens. Except this: 'What with one thing and another, three years passed.'

Five: The Announcement

 * [Princess Buttercup is walking among her people for the first time.]
 * But - - in the farthest corner of the Great Square - - in the highest building in the land - - deep in the deepest shadow - - the man in black stood waiting.

 * "The Prince and I have never from the beginning lied to each other. He knows I do not love him." "Are not capable of love is what you mean." "I'm very capable of love," Buttercup said. "Hold your tongue, I think." "I have loved more deeply than a killer like you can possibly imagine."  He slapped her.

 * "I loved once," Buttercup said after a moment. "It worked out badly." "Another rich man? Yes, and he left you for a richer woman." "No. Poor. Poor and it killed him." "Were you sorry? Did you feel pain? Admit that you felt nothing -" "You mock my pain! I died that day."

 * While he was watching the ships, Buttercup shoved him with all her strength remaining...down went the man in black..." And you can die too for all I care!" she said, and then she turned away. Words followed her. Whispered from afar, weak and warm and familiar. "As...you...wish..."

 * "The battle of wits has begun," said the man in black. "It ends when you decide and we drink and find out who is right and who is dead."

 * "Fool!" cried the hunchback. "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia,' but only slightly less well known is this: 'Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.'" He was quite cheery until the iocane powder took effect.

Six: The Festivities

 * "It comes to this," Buttercup began. "In the Fire Swamp I made the worst mistake in all the world. I love Westley. I always have. It seems I always will...I mean this now too: if you say I must marry you in fifty days I will be dead by morning."

 * But Westley, as the lever moved, took his brain away, and when the Machine began, Westley was stroking her autumn-coloured hair and touching her skin of wintry cream and - and - and then his world exploded... In humiliation, and suffering, and frustration, and anger, and anguish so great it was dizzying, Westley cried like a baby. "Interesting," said the Count, and carefully noted it down.

Seven: The Wedding

 * "You see," Max explained as he pumped, "there's different kinds of dead: there's sort of dead, mostly dead, and all dead. This fella here, he's only sort of dead, which means there's still a memory inside, there's still bits of brain. You apply a little pressure here, a little more there, sometimes you get results."

Eight: Honeymoon

 * "Hello," he said. "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

 * Prince Humperdinck dove for his weapons, and a sword flashed in his thick hands. "To the death," he said, advancing. Westley gave a soft shake of his head. "No," he corrected. "To the pain." It was an odd phrase, and for the moment it brought the Prince up short. "I don’t think I quite understand that."

 * "I’m going to tell you something once and then whether you die is strictly up to you," Westley said, lying pleasantly on the bed. "What I’m going to tell you is this: drop your sword, and if you do, then I will leave with this baggage here"—he glanced at Buttercup—"and you will be tied up but not fatally, and will be free to go about your business. And if you choose to fight, well, then, we will not both leave alive." "You are only alive now because you said 'to the pain.' I want that phrase explained." "My pleasure. To the pain means this: if we duel and you win, death for me. If we duel and I win, life for you. But life on my terms. The first thing you lose will be your feet. Below the ankle. You will have stumps available to use within six months. Then your hands, at the wrists. They heal somewhat quicker. Five months is a fair average. Next your nose. No smell of dawn for you. Followed by your tongue. Deeply cut away. Not even a stump left. And then your left eye—" "And then my right eye, and then my ears, and shall we get on with it?" the Prince said. "Wrong!" Westley’s voice rang across the room. "Your ears you keep, so that every shriek of every child shall be yours to cherish—every babe that weeps in fear at your approach, every woman that cries 'Dear God, what is that thing?' will reverberate forever with your perfect ears. That is what 'to the pain' means. It means that I leave you in anguish, in humiliation, in freakish misery until you can stand it no more; so there you have it, pig, there you know, you miserable vomitous mass, and I say this now, and live or die, it’s up to you: Drop your sword!" The sword crashed to the floor.

 * "Doomed, madam?" "To be together. Until one of us dies." "I've done that already, and I haven't the slightest intention of ever doing it again." Westley said. Buttercup looked at him. "Don't we sort of have to sometime?" "Not if we promise to outlive each other, and I make that promise now." Buttercup looked at him. "Oh my Westley, so do I."

title: The Princess Bride


text:
Michael Jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials, MJ, is an American retired professional basketball player, businessman, and principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets. Jordan played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. He is widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time.

Quotes

 * I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying [no hard work]. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. (p. 20, 24)
 * Jordan, Michael. I Can't Accept Not Trying : Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994. p. 129

 * I've reached the pinnacle of my career. I just feel that I don't have anything else to prove. When I lose the sense of motivation and the sense of 'to prove something' as a basketball player, it's time for me to move away from the game of basketball.
 * Announcing his retirement from the Bulls (1993-10-06)

 * I'm back for the second time.
 * Announcing his return to the Bulls (1995-03-18),

 * I've missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
 * As quoted in Nike Culture : The Sign of the Swoosh (1998), by Robert Goldman and Stephen Papson, p. 49

 * I'm retired 99.9%. Of course, there always is that .1%.
 * Statement of 1999-02-18

 * There will be a player greater than me.
 * Michael Jordan to the Max (Film, 2000)

 * Enjoy every minute of life. Never second-guess life.
 * How to be like Mike (2005)

 * I set another goal … a reasonable, manageable goal that I could realistically achieve if I worked hard enough. I approached everything step by step.
 * How to be like Mike (2005)

 * (In 1985, Jordan broke his foot and the management, namely Jerry Krause, wanted to limit his return for fear of worsening the injury - the idea was to play seven minutes in each half) The [Bulls] came up with this whole theory you can play seven minutes a game when I'm practicing two hours a day... I didn’t agree with that math. I wanted to play. I wanted to make the playoffs. [...] Jerry [Reinsdorf] said, "Let me ask if you had a headache and" - there was a 10 percent chance then I’d reinjure my ankle - "and you've got 10 tablets and one of them is coated with cyanide, would you take it?" I looked at him and said, "How bad is the headache?" Jerry looked at me and said, "I guess that's a good answer, you can go back and play."
 * Hall of Fame induction address, 2009

 * [Jerry Krause] said organizations win championships. I said, "I didn't see organizations playing with the flu in Utah."
 * Hall of Fame induction address, 2009

 * I was in Chicago in 1994 and at this time I had no thoughts of coming back and playing the game of basketball, Bryon Russell came over to me and said, "Why'd you quit? You know I could guard you." When I did come back in 1995 and we played Utah in '96, I'm at the center circle and Bryon Russell is standing next to me. I said, "You remember what you said in 1994 about, 'I think I can guard you, I can shut you down, I would love to play against you?' Well, you're about to get your chance."
 * Hall of Fame induction address, 2009

 * I can remember a game, we were down with about 5 to 10 points, I go off about 25 points, we come back and win the game, we're walking off the floor. Tex (Winter) looks at me and says "There's no "I" in team!" I looked at Tex and say, "There's not, but there's an 'I' in win!"
 * Hall of Fame induction address, 2009

 * Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion
 * Hall of Fame induction address, 2009

 * Can I still dunk... Are you stupid?
 * Jordan's reply to Jay Leno's question, 2010

 * As a proud American, a father who lost his own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a black man, I have been deeply troubled by the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement and angered by the cowardly and hateful targeting and killing of police officers. I grieve with the families who have lost loved ones, as I know their pain all too well.
 * I was raised by parents who taught me to love and respect people regardless of their race or background, so I am saddened and frustrated by the divisive rhetoric and racial tensions that seem to be getting worse as of late. I know this country is better than that, and I can no longer stay silent. We need to find solutions that ensure people of color receive fair and equal treatment AND that police officers – who put their lives on the line every day to protect us all – are respected and supported.
 * If we all work together, we can foster greater understanding, positive change and create a more peaceful world for ourselves, our children, our families and our communities.
 * Michael Jordan: ‘I can no longer stay silent’, The Undefeated (July 25, 2016)

Quotes about Jordan

 * Once Michael gets up there he says, "Well, maybe I’ll just hang up here in the air for a while, just sit back." Then all of a sudden, he says, "Well, maybe I’ll 360. No, I changed my mind. I’ll go up on the other side." He’s just incredible.
 * Magic Johnson, quoted in

 * I think he's God disguised as Michael Jordan.
 * Boston Celtics forward Larry Bird, after beating the Bulls in a 1986 Eastern Conference first-round playoff game that ended in 2OT, a game in which Jordan had scored 63 points.
 * Quoted in

 * "So, it's the Cavs 5, and Jordan 4."
 * "…Daugherty grabbed him, and Jordan put it in anyway - he is unbelievable."
 * "…he is so strong that he can shoot and score with people actually having their hands on the ball, as Ehlo did that time…"
 * Quotes made by Cleveland Cavaliers broadcaster Joe Tait during Game 4 of the 1988 NBA Playoffs series against the Bulls, May 5, 1988

 * That play was “Give the ball to Michael and everyone else get the fuck out of the way.”
 * Bulls head coach Doug Collins on The Shot, quoted in the NBA Encyclopedia.

 * You don't hesitate with Michael, or you'll end up on some poster in a gift shop someplace.
 * Felton Spencer, quoted in the NBA Encyclopedia.

 * The Chicago Bulls' Michael Jordan's three-point explosion in Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals against Portland is easily one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. As he made his sixth straight, he winked directly at Mike Fratello and me in the broadcast booth and held his palms up in a shrug, as if to say, “What can I do?”
 * Marv Albert, quoted in the NBA Encyclopedia.

 * Michael and I combined for 57 points.
 * Teammate Bill Wennington, referring to The Double Nickel, a 55-point scoring performance by Jordan against the Knicks, on March 28, 1995, Jordan's fifth game back in the league.

 * He didn't miss games. He played hurt, with pain, when he was sick. He came out and performed at an intense level. I don't think anybody ever went away disappointed after watching Michael.
 * Phil Jackson, quoted in Michael Jordan's 50 Greatest Games by Bob Condor

 * This is a day that I had hoped would never come. It has to be the toughest day in the history of the Chicago Bulls. It's a tough day for Chicago.
 * Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, quoted in

 * Number 45 doesn't explode like Number 23 used to.
 * Nick Anderson, quoted in an interview after Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals on May 7th, 1995.

 * To me, Jordan is the god of Basketball, and I think he will always be.
 * Dirk Nowitzki, quoted in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, 2007-04-20.

 * Michael Jordan is sort of...the hip-hop version of Dr. J
 * Shaquille O'Neal, ESPN interview, 2009 (at 3:30 mins)

title: Michael Jordan


text:
Marcel Marceau

Marcel Mangel (22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007), more famous by his stage name Marcel Marceau, was a French entertainer, the world's most famous mime.

Quotes

 * Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?
 * As quoted in The Reader’s Digest (June 1958)

 * I have designed my style pantomimes as white ink drawings on black backgrounds, so that man’s destiny appears as a thread lost in an endless labyrinth... I have tried to shed some gleams of light on the shadow of man startled by his anguish.
 * As quoted in Wall Street Journal (19 November 1965)

 * Non!
 * No!
 * Silent Movie (1976) The only spoken word in the entire Mel Brooks comedy film.

 * Mime makes the invisible, visible and the visible, invisible.
 * As quoted in Core Media Collection for Elementary Schools (1978) by Lucy Gregor Brown; unsourced variant or misquotation: "A magician makes the visible invisible. A mime makes the invisible visible."

 * Music conveys moods and images. Even in opera, where plots deal with the structure of destiny, it’s music, not words, that provides power.
 * US News & World Report (23 February 1987)

 * Music and silence... combine strongly because music is done with silence, and silence is full of music.
 * US News & World R eport (23 February 1987)

 * In silence and movement you can show the reflection of people.
 * US News & World Report (23 February 1987)

 * Never get a mime talking. He won’t stop.
 * US News & World Report (23 February 1987)

 * To communicate through silence is a link between the thoughts of man.
 * US News & World Report (23 February 1987)

 * I have spent more than half a lifetime trying to express the tragic moment.
 * The Guardian (London, 11 August 1988)

 * Chaplin made me laugh and cry without saying a word. I had an instinct. I was touched by the soul of Chaplin — Mime is not an imitator but a creator.
 * Interview, The Lantern (5 April 2001)

 * Fathers, I do not practice. I’m not religious in life, but when I perform "The Creation of the World" and when my soul is touched by the confrontation of "Good and Evil", then God enters in me.
 * Interview The Lantern (5 April 2001) Replying to two priests who, after a performance of his routines of "The Creation of The World" and "The Hands of Good and Evil", asked if he was religious.

 * No art is superior to another one, but every art looks for expertise and perfection. This is life, which continues; this is why there is no death. There is continuation. There is no silence. There is a continuation of thought.
 * Interview The Lantern (5 April 2001)

 * Silence is like a flame, you see?
 * Interview Charlie Rose (27 September 2000)

Quotes about Marceau

 * He's garnered honorary degrees from prestigious universities across America. He's had three wives, four children, survived the Holocaust, joined the Resistance and marched in Patton's army. All this, and he has a wickedly weird and original sense of humor. "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards," Marceau once said, "for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup." Even when you don't quite get it, Marceau makes you think twice.
 * Leslie Crawford in "Brilliant Careers - Marcel Marceau" at Salon.com (27 July 1999)

 * Perhaps true appreciation of Marceau requires a step back in time. Before Marceau broke out of an invisible box and stepped into millions of American's living rooms on Max Liebman's "Show of Shows" nearly 40 years ago, you could fit the number of people who knew or much less cared anything about the art of pantomime in a Citroen. What we know of mime — the mute theatrics, the exaggerated body language, the requisite black-and-white get-up — was essentially minted by Marceau. … When Marceau is gone, we won't say, "There goes one of the world's greatest mimes," but "There goes 'the' world's great mime."
 * Leslie Crawford in "Brilliant Careers - Marcel Marceau" at Salon.com (27 July 1999)

title: Marcel Marceau


text:
User talk:219.239.157.6

Welcome to Wikiquote. You are welcome to add quotations and make other legitmate edits, but the template "Yangyang85103" with the contents "hi~I am a chinese girl living in beijing~" does not have a legitimate purpose here and will be deleted. ~ Kalki 02:41, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:219.239.157.6


text:
Virginia Satir

Virginia Satir (26 June 1916 – 10 September 1988) Psychotherapist, family therapist, co-founder of the Mental Health Research Institute (MHRI) in Menlo Park, founder of the International Human Learning Resources Network (IHLRN; originallythe "Beautiful People") in 1970, and The Advanta Network in 1977; born Virginia Pagenkopf.

Quotes

 * “Life is not the way it’s supposed to be. It’s the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference” - 1986 meeting of 600 Los Angeles-area psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.
 * “I think if I have one message, one thing before I die that most of the world would know, it would be that the event does not determine how to respond to the event. That is a purely personal matter. The way in which we respond will direct and influence the event more than the event itself.” - 1986 meeting of 600 Los Angeles-area psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals.
 * Why Family Therapy?...because it deals with family pain.
 * Conjoint Family Therapy: A Guide to theory and technique (1967)

 * A growing body of clinical observation has pointed to the conclusion that the family therapy must be oriented to the family as a whole.
 * Conjoint Family Therapy: A Guide to theory and technique (1967)

 * I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen, heard, understood and touched by them. The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand and touch another person. When this is done, I feel contact has been made.
 * Brief biography at Webster University

 * I have often thought had there been somebody like me around, something might have been able to be done. I also think I don't see how I could have done what I've done in the world had I been married. And when I decided-because I've been on the verge of marriage many times-I said no, because if I wanted to roam the globe like I did, it wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't be fair to me, it wouldn't be fair to the people. At the point, I really feel it was a kind of destiny because I've been able to get to places. There are some people in the world who have other jobs to do.
 * Brief biography at Avanta.net (1999)

 * To all my friends, colleagues and family: I send you love. Please support me in my passage to a new life. I have no other way to thank you than this. You have all played a significant part in my development of loving. As a result, my life has been rich and full, so I leave feeling very grateful.
 * Brief biography at Avanta.net (1999)

 * We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.
 * Magic Touch: Six Things You Can Do to Connect in a Disconnected World., Forbes, 18 Jan 2011.

title: Virginia Satir


text:
Antoni Gaudí

Antoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí i Cornet (25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926), also known as Antonio Gaudí, was a Catalan architect famous for his highly individual designs. He was associated with the Modernisme and Art Nouveau movements.

Quotes

 * Men may be divided into two types: men of words and men of action. The first speaks; the latter act. I am of the second group. I lack the means to express myself adequately. I would not be able to explain to anyone my artistic concepts. I have not yet concretised them. I never had time to reflect on them. My hours have been spent in my work.
 * La Razón, 1913 in: Gaudi by Gijs Van Hensbergen, introduction p.xxxii

Attributed

 * The straight line belongs to Man. The curved line belongs to God.
 * The real author seems to be Pierre Albert-Birot.

Quotes about Gaudí and his work

 * After lunch, in sudden rain, we go to see Gaudí's masterpiece - the still unfinished church of the Sagrada Familia or Holy Family. There is nothing in the world like it. It is Disney whimsicality raised to the level of soaring nobility. It is metaphysical conceit humanized with crockets and pompons. It is scrawl and mysticism, vision and fancy, an evanescent dream hammered into sempiternal solidity.
 * Anthony Burgess, Homage to QWERT YUIOP: Essays. London, Hutchinson, 1986 (p.71).

 * What I saw in Barcelona – Gaudí – was the work of such strength, such faith, of an extraordinary technical capacity, manifested during a whole life of genius; of a man who carved the stones before his eyes in well thought out pattern. Gaudí is the ‘builder’ of the turn of the century, a man adept with stone, iron and brick. His glory is seen today in his country. Gaudí was a great artist; only those who move the sensitive hearts of gentle people remain. But they are mistreated in the course of their lives, misunderstood or accused of sin toward the mode of the day. Architecture’s significance is shown when there dominates evidence of lofty intentions that triumph over all the problems in the line of fire (structure, economy, technique, utility). Thanks to interior preparation, architecture is the fruit of character – just that, a manifestation of character.
 * Le Corbusier, Gaudí, Editorial RM, Barcelona, Antoni Gaudi y Cornet 79

 * A feature of the city which I must mention at some place in this account is the architecture of Gaudi. This I naturally found altogether extraordinary, and at one time or another I must have seen every building of his still then existing in the Catalonian capital...At that time Gaudi was little - known outside Spain, though nowadays universally recognized as one of the great pioneers of modern architecture, and his buildings, particularly the Cathedral of the Holy Family, and also the fantastic rambling park in the hilly suburbs of Barcelona, made a great impact on my imagination.
 * David Gascoyne, Journal 1936-1937. London Enitharmon Press (1980). Quoted in The Spanish Front: Writers on the Civil War (1986), edited by Valentine Cunningham

 * Sagrada Familia...is the greatest piece of creative architecture in the last twenty-five years. It is spirit symbolised in stone!
 * Louis Sullivan. From Thomas E. Tallmadge, "The Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family," in Western Architect, XXXI (March 1922).

 * For the first time since I had been in Barcelona I went to have a look at the cathedral--a modern cathedral, and one of the most hideous buildings in the world. It has four crenellated spires exactly the shape of hock bottles. Unlike most of the churches in Barcelona it was not damaged during the revolution--it was spared because of its 'artistic value', people said. I think the Anarchists showed bad taste in not blowing it up when they had the chance, though they did hang a red and black banner between its spires.
 * George Orwell on the Sagrada Familia, Homage to Catalonia, 1938

title: Antoni Gaudí


text:
Talk:Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

CBE
What is a "CBE"?

 * It means a Commander of the British Empire. It's an honour granted by the Queen which is higher than Officer of the British Empire and Member of the British Empire but is lower than the title of Knight (Sir) or Dame.

Hummm...
"My husband and i" Famous line said in many of her speeches".

It has been suggested this is a "famous line" from "many of her speeches." Since I'm from the US, I haven't heard many of her speeches; is this really a notable line? -- Essjay 08:27, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * Yes, "My husband and I" is a classic Liz quote, although not a particularly insightful one. It is, however, the stock phrase used by every imitator of her (along with mimicking the trademark plummy-but-nasal voice.) In the Guildhall speech referred to in 'Annus Horribilis' she actually says "...to Prince Philip and me...", but that's because she and Phil together are the object of the sentence.

 * In fact the view out there seems to be that she avoids using it because she knows it's seen as her catchphrase. -- Rupert Clayton 29 June 2005 14:05 (UTC)

Unsourced

 * Actually, Captain, I think it's me they've come to see.
 * When an escort commander blocked the crowd's view of the State Carriage

 * Atrocities such as these simply reinforce our sense of community, our humanity, and our trust in the rule of law.
 * After the London bombings

 * "Bloody 'ell ma'am, what's 'e doin' in 'ere?"
 * Imitation of the chambermaid who found Michael Fagan in the state bedroom

 * Football's a difficult business and aren't they prima donnas?
 * The Queen gives her verdict on the beautiful game to Premier League chairman Sir David Richards

 * For goodness sake, get a bloody move on!
 * To the policemen who came to arrest Fagan (who adjusted their ties on seeing her before making the arrest)

 * Grief is the price we pay for love.
 * In a letter read at the memorial for British victims of the 9/11 attacks held in New York

 * How very assuring!
 * In reply to a shopkeeper who said "You look awfully like the Queen"

 * I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice, but I can do something else, I can give you my heart.

 * I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great Imperial Family to which we all belong.
 * As Princess Elizabeth, during her twenty-first birthday speech

 * I do hope you can see me today.
 * Opening a speech to the U.S Congress on May 16, 1991, the day after giving a speech where the podium was too high for her to see over

 * I have a feeling that, in the end, probably, training is the answer to a great many things. You can do a lot if you're properly trained.
 * Spoken in voice-over interview for the BBC's 1992 documentary Elizabeth R

 * I suppose you think you ought to be doing this?
 * To Prunella Scales while appointing her Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Scales portrayed the Queen in Alan Bennett's A Question of Attribution.

 * I'm so glad we've got the yacht with us this time. The last time we came here we had to stay in a guest house.
 * On visiting the Cayman Islands aboard the HMY Britannia

 * My Golden Jubilee!
 * Said in response to Tony Blair who mentioned "the Golden Jubilee"

 * None of my Governments seem to know what to do about them.
 * About economic recessions

 * They all need to be reassured that there is so much to be gained by reaching out to others; that diversity is indeed a strength and not a threat.
 * A plea for increased tolerance and understanding in her Christmas Day Broadcast, 2004

 * "What's that?" "It's a cow's vagina, ma'am" "Ask a silly question!"
 * While being shown around an artificial insemination unit of the Milk Marketing Board

Protection
Why is this page protected? I wanted to edit the description box below the picure because its wrong The C of E 06:05, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Annus Horribilis
It might be mentioned that this is a reference to 'Annus Mirabilis', 1759, a rather big year in British history. I also apologise if I have done something wrong on this discussion page. I'm new to this Wiki thing and I should very much like someone to correct any error I might make. Thank you. 70.29.31.27 01:15, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Isn't this meant to be balanced?
I've been reading a few of the wikiquote pages about various members of the Royal Family, and it seems that Christopher Hitchens always has a quote 'about' the various people or there is generally a negative quote. That's fair enough, but surely you can see the one-sidedness of using only Hitchens articles or negative views. Perhaps it would be more fitting to add praise as well as criticism. Maybe I am rather cynical, but it does seem to me that the impartiality of this has dissipated. Sorry about not being logged in, but I've forgotten my stupid username :/

Royal Website
Are the quotes from the royal website considered to be advertising? I highly doubt it since a quote is good as long as the source is reliable, and I think we can assume that the Royal Website is reliable. However, if not, than those quotes need to be taken down since advertising excerpts lack notability according to Wikiquote policy. Just A Regular New Yorker (talk) 23:46, 11 March 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom


text:
Talk:Ferdinand Foch

The article has the quote as: Mon centre cède, impossible de me mouvoir, situation excellente, j'attaque." Translation: "My centre is giving way, I cannot move, situation excellent, I shall attack."-- Spoken during the Second Battle of the Marne, July 1918

I thought it went more like one of these:

@ www.giga-usa.com: My right has been rolled up. My left has been driven back. My center has been smashed. I have ordered an advance from all directions. - in a letter to Marshal Joffre during the Battle of the Marne

@ www.brainyquote.com : My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.

@ en.thinkexist.com: My centre is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I am attacking.

@ www.creativequotations.com: My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.

I don't have any authoritative references, so I won't make changes to the article for now.

 * According to, he claimed never to have sent that. --Slashme 12:37, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ferdinand Foch


text:
User:Rmhermen

Wikivacation
I will be gone till Aug. 1. Rmhermen 19:36, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

Something about Myself
I started trying to give my computer something to do so I signed it up for Seti at Home. Then I found I could do something myself and joined Distributed Proofreaders in early 2000, soon after it started, proofreading texts for inclusion in Project Gutenberg. Then I tried to join Nupedia but they only wanted PhD's and never sent me any proofreading work since that project moved slower than a snail on a tar barrel. I saw a little link for their side project and found Wikipedia in early 2001, probably in April. Sometime in 2001 or 2002 I also worked on Clickworkers, marking lunar and Martian craters on images. My first edits to Wikiquote was on Aug 2, 2004 when I dug out my old copy of Bartlett's and opened a random page. On March 31, 2005, I was made a sysop on Wikiquote.

Copyedit Challenge
Compared to Wikipedia, Wikiquote still has very few editors. Kind of like the old days at Wikipedia but fewer eyes mean more simple mistakes don't get caught and corrected. I have recently been on a high noble quest to properly format articles. Mostly adding categories, fixing en: links to w: or adding missing links to Wikipedia. I have been using Special:AncientPages to find old neglected pages and Special:New Pages to check new pages. I hit Random Page ten times one day and found something to correct/alter on every page. So it is clear that there is a lot of simple maintenance required. I will try to remember to stop copyediting every once in a while to add new quotes, if I remember.

title: User:Rmhermen


text:
Conspiracy Theory (film)

Conspiracy Theory is a 1997 film. A Justice Department attorney who has befriended a conspiracy-buff cab driver finds herself drawn into his paranoid world when one of his conspiracy theories seems to have come to life.

 * Directed by Richard Donner. Screenplay by Brian Helgeland.

Jerry Fletcher sees conspiracies everywhere. One has turned out to be true. taglines

Jerry Fletcher

 * You know what they put in the water, don't you? Fluoride. Yeah, fluoride — on the pretext that it strengthens your teeth! That's ridiculous. You know what that stuff does to you? It weakens your will, destroys your capacity for free and creative thought, and makes you a slave to the state!
 * You ever wonder about these militia groups? Survivalist-type kooks on the right wing side? They say they're defending the country from U.N. troops. These guys are yelling so loud, my theory is that this is a conspiracy, pal — they ARE the U.N. troops, and they're in place. The infrastructure's ready, it's a fait accompli. When the time comes, they'll just take over and we'll all be toast.
 * Oswald. Yeah, Oswald, that's what I said, Oswald. I mean, he said, "I'm just a patsy." And that means he didn't do it, right?
 * Websites, newsletters, uh, self-published manifestos... they think we're kooks!
 * I am an American citizen, and I demand to see Alice Sutton.
 * George Bush knew what he was doing when he said, "New World Order". Remember those three little words, "New World Order"? Well, he was a thirty-third degree Mason, you know, and as ex-head of the C.I.A., he knew saying that would send conspiratologists everywhere spinning, spinning their wheels. And then, then, th-they destroy their own credibility!
 * Hey, don't get me wrong, Sister, I'm sure your heart's in the right place, okay? But somebody's gotta lift the scab, the festering scab, that is the Vatican. (to a nun riding in his cab)
 * Is that one of those new hundreds? You know, where they changed the picture of Ben Franklin? Look at him, yeah. He looks like the love child of-of, uh, Fred Mertz and Rosie O'Donnell! Yeah, that's him, yeah. Get rid of it as soon as you can, lady. Look at it up in the light. You see that metal strip? That's a tracking device!
 * Black helicopters, right? You've heard about them, black helicopters? Yeah, they're on, they're on whisper mode, so you can't hear 'em till they've already gone! You know?
 * Why is this thing safe for me and not for my keys?
 * I'm only paranoid because they want me dead.
 * They, they start when you're young, you know, in school. They Baden-Powell all the boys and-and they Betty Crocker all the girls!
 * You're after a man with no nose, not me! Not me!
 * A good conspiracy is unprovable. I mean, if you can prove it, it means they screwed up somewhere along the line.
 * Alice? I... I'm sorry you're dead.
 * It's on the tip of my brain.

Alice Sutton

 * That guy is a restraining order waiting to happen. It's like he has a problem with the world.
 * Do you know what it's like, Mister Willion, to think you know what happened, but to never be sure?
 * Is that supposed to protect you from aliens or something?
 * I'm turning into a Jerry.
 * I believe you. He made great coffee.

Dr. Jonas

 * We've been looking for you for a long time, Jerry.
 * Have you ever been in a place from which hope is gone? Where the only thing left... is patience?
 * I know I must share some of the blame for this. I wish it didn't have to be this way.
 * In one hour, I want to know what she eats, where she sleeps, the name of her kindergarten teacher, everything.
 * This will put my words in your mouth. [while drugging Jerry]
 * Jerry, you continually surprise me. Alice… I always seem to come between you and the men in your life.

Others

 * If the intelligence world was a family, we'd be the uncle no one ever talks about.
 * Agent Lowry

Dialogue

 * [Jerry's latest passenger sighs contendedly as they pull away from the curb.]
 * Jerry Fletcher: The sound of love.
 * Passenger: Excuse me?
 * Jerry: That, what you just did. [imitates sigh] That's love.
 * Passenger: Love's just a pretty way of saying, "I want to sleep with you."
 * Jerry: Admit it. I saw you kiss her. This is the street where love lives.
 * Passenger: Love is bullshit.
 * Jerry: Love give you wings. It makes you fly. I don't even call it love. I call it "Geronimo".
 * Passenger: Geronimo?
 * Jerry: Yeah, Geronimo. See, when you're in love, you'll jump off the Empire State and you won't care. Screaming, "Geronimo" all the way down. It's great.
 * Passenger: Yeah, but then you'll die. You'll squash yourself. So what's the point?
 * Jerry: Hey, aren't you listening? I'm telling you, man — love gives you wings!
 * Passenger: [laughs] She must be some girl.

 * [The street is flooded when Jerry stops to pick up his daily stack of newspapers.]
 * Flip [news vendor]: Water main broke all the way up on 40th Street and 7th Avenue. They say the subway's a damn river.
 * Jerry: Strange.
 * Flip: What's up, Jerry? What you thinking?
 * Jerry: Well... water mains don't usually break unless it's wintertime. The, uh, pipes burst open because it's cold. And.. it's only the First of October.
 * Flip: Reminds me of life in the Delta.
 * Jerry: Yeah. Mississippi, all right.
 * Flip: Mekong, my friend. Mekong.
 * Jerry: Hey, Flip... did I ever tell you that the whole Vietnam War was fought over a bet that Howard Hughes lost to Aristotle Onassis?

 * [Jerry is struggling with security guards, demanding to see Alice Sutton.]
 * Jerry Fletcher: I am an American citizen! I have a right to be here!
 * Alice Sutton: Officers! Officers, please! I'm Alice Sutton. I'll take it from here.
 * Jerry: [suddenly calm] Hi, Alice.
 * Alice: You need to start making appointments.
 * Jerry: Uh... can I make one now? Say, in a couple of minutes? I can wait if you're busy.
 * Alice: Come around.
 * Alice: I don't see the connection.
 * Jerry: You don't see the connection? Come on. Six major earthquakes in the last three-and-a-half years, and the space shuttle up in orbit for every single one of 'em. Don't you think that's a little strange?
 * Alice: Testing some top-secret seismic weapon?
 * Jerry: No, not testing. Using. Nukes are passé. We're talking weapon of the future.
 * Alice: Okay, but I still don't see what it has to do with the president.
 * Jerry: The president is in Europe at the moment, and tomorrow he'll be, uh, in Turkey. Right here, along this fault line. And they sent up a space shuttle yesterday.
 * Alice: Motive?
 * Jerry: Motive? How about fifty billion dollars, how's that for a motive? The president's cutting funding for NASA, the milk-cow of the aerospace industry. And that's a lot of milk.
 * Alice: Um, so... you're telling me that NASA is going to kill the president of the United States with an earthquake
 * Jerry: It's not the kind of thing a Secret Service agent can, like, just throw himself on top of, is it?
 * Alice: Now, I have to go. My boss is looking to yell at me.
 * Jerry: Oh. Do you want me to talk to him? You know, smooth things out for you?
 * Alice: No, Jerry. I want you to go home, or wherever it is that you go. And I want you to make an appointment next time. Please? You can't just keep bursting in here.
 * Jerry: That's... it's just what they'd be expecting me to do. If I make an appointment —
 * Alice: Jerry. I have a serious job here. I have a boss I must answer to. Do you understand that?
 * Jerry: I'm sorry. You're right.
 * Alice: Use your common sense.
 * Jerry: Okay. Okay, deal. So, are you gonna warn him?
 * Alice: Who?
 * Jerry: [exasperated sigh] The president.
 * Alice: I'm not gonna promise you anything, okay?
 * Jerry: [exasperated sigh] The president.
 * Alice: I'm not gonna promise you anything, okay?

 * [Jerry's silent captors are strapping him down in a wheelchair.]
 * Jerry: So, you guys must be spooks, right? Spooks? C.I.A.? Come on, say something. Please?
 * [The spooks start duct-taping his limbs in place]
 * Jerry: I was right! I was right! Uh... what was I right about?
 * [A blindingly bright light is shined in his face]
 * Jerry: I wasn't right about anything. I was wrong. I was wrong!
 * Dr. Jonas: To whom have you been talking, Jerry?
 * Jerry: Talking? I talk to all kinds of people. I mean, I drive a cab. I talk to people all day long.
 * Dr. Jonas: Who else knows what we know?
 * Jerry: What we... what do we know?
 * Dr. Jonas: [sternly] Who else knows what we know, Jerry?
 * Jerry: What? Tell me what. What do we know? What do we know? If I know what we know, then I could tell you what we know, and if someone else knows. Okay? I mean, it's... you gotta be more specific.
 * [Dr. Jonas holds up a syringe full of an unknown chemical.]
 * Jerry: Wh-what is that?
 * Dr. Jonas: Gravy for the brain.
 * Jerry: No... not gravy!
 * Dr. Jonas: Gravy for the brain.
 * Jerry: No... not gravy!

 * [Dr. Jonas catches Alice looking at his bandaged nose.]
 * Dr. Jonas: A dog bit it.
 * Alice Sutton: Pardon me?
 * Dr. Jonas: You were going to ask about my nose. A dog bit it. Poor animal is slated to be destroyed today.
 * Alice: And you feel sorry for it?
 * Dr. Jonas: It was my dog.
 * Alice Sutton: He said a dog bit his nose.
 * Jerry Fletcher: Arf.
 * Jerry Fletcher: Arf.

 * Alice Sutton: Do you have any proof of this?
 * Jerry Fletcher: No. Absolutely not. I mean, a good conspiracy is an unproveable one.

 * [At his apartment, Jerry balances an empty bottle on the doorknob.]
 * Alice: Is that supposed to protect you from aliens or something?
 * Jerry: No, no. It's just a beer bottle.

 * [Agent Lowry appears to be unconscious after a blow to the head.]
 * Jerry: Are… are you pretending?
 * [Lowry stays limp; Jerry chambers a round.]
 * Lowry: [sitting up] Yes. Yes, okay.
 * Jerry: [hitting him again] Sorry.

 * Jerry: David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, Richard Speck…
 * Alice: What about them?
 * Jerry: Serial killers. Serial killers only have two names, you ever notice that? But lone-gunman assassins, they always have three names. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Mark David Chapman…
 * Alice: John Hinckley. He shot Reagan. He only has two names.
 * Jerry: Yeah, but he only just shot Reagan. Reagan didn't die. If Reagan had died, I'm pretty sure… we probably would all know what John Hinckley's middle name was.

 * Jerry Fletcher: I love you.
 * Alice: Jerry, no, no, you don't love me.
 * Jerry Fletcher: Sure I do.
 * Alice: No, no.
 * Jerry Fletcher: I don't?

 * [A captive aboard a helicopter, Jerry watches Alice flee for her life from Dr. Jonas' henchmen.]
 * Jerry Fletcher: Alice...
 * Dr. Jonas: You shouldn't watch, Jerry. This is a moment without hope.
 * Jerry: You've never seen her run.

Taglines

 * Jerry Fletcher sees conspiracies everywhere. One has turned out to be true.

Cast

 * Mel Gibson - Jerry Fletcher
 * Julia Roberts - Alice Sutton
 * Patrick Stewart - Dr. Jonas
 * Cylk Cozart - Agent Lowry

title: Conspiracy Theory (film)


text:
Erich Fromm

Erich Seligmann Fromm (23 March 1900 – 18 March 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory.
 * See also:
 * The Sane Society (1955)

Quotes

 * The application of psychoanalysis to sociology must definitely guard against the mistake of wanting to give psychoanalytic answers where economic, technical, or political facts provide the real and sufficient explanation of sociological questions. On the other hand, the psychoanalyst must emphasize that the subject of sociology, society, in reality consists of individuals, and that it is these human beings, rather than abstract society as such, whose actions, thoughts, and feelings are the object of sociological research.
 * "Psychoanalyse und Soziologie" (1929); published as "Psychoanalysis and Sociology" as translated by Mark Ritter, in Critical Theory and Society : A Reader (1989) edited by S. E. Bronner and D. M. Kellner

 * Psychoanalysis, which interprets the human being as a socialized being, and the psychic apparatus as essentially developed and determined through the relationship of the individual to society, must consider it a duty to participate in the investigation of sociological problems to the extent the human being or his/her psyche plays any part at all.
 * "Psychoanalyse und Soziologie" (1929); published as "Psychoanalysis and Sociology" as translated by Mark Ritter, in Critical Theory and Society : A Reader (1989) edited by S. E. Bronner and D. M. Kellner

 * Human history began with an act of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of obedience.
 * "Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem" in On Disobedience and Other Essays (1981)

 * One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.
 * ABC TV (25 May 1958)

 * It is often said that the Arabs fled, that they left the country voluntarily, and that they therefore bear the responsibility for losing their property and their land. It is true that in history there are some instances — in Rome and in France during the Revolutions when enemies of the state were proscribed and their property confiscated. But in general international law, the principle holds true that no citizen loses his property or his rights of citizenship; and the citizenship right is de facto a right to which the Arabs in Israel have much more legitimacy than the [European] Jews. Just because the Arabs fled? Since when is that punishable by confiscation of property and by being barred from returning to the land on which a people's forefathers have lived for generations? Thus, the claim of the Jews to the land of Israel cannot be a realistic political claim. If all nations would suddenly claim territories in which their forefathers had lived two thousand years ago, this world would be a madhouse. … I believe that, politically speaking, there is only one solution for Israel, namely, the unilateral acknowledgement of the obligation of the State towards the Arabs — not to use it as a bargaining point, but to acknowledge the complete moral obligation of the Israeli State to its former inhabitants of Palestine.
 * Jewish Newsletter [New York] (19 May 1959); quoted in Prophets in Babylon (1980) by Marion Woolfson, p. 13

 * Both dreams and myths are important communications from ourselves to ourselves. If we do not understand the language in which they are written, we miss a great deal of what we know and tell ourselves in those hours when we are not busy manipulating the outside world.
 * As quoted in The New York Times (5 January 1964)

 * Among most Christians the Old Testament is little read in comparison to the New Testament. Furthermore, much of what is read is often distorted by prejudice. Frequently the Old Testament is believed to express exclusively the principles of justice and revenge, in contrast to the New Testament, which represents those of love and mercy; even the sentence, "Love your neighbor as yourself,” is thought by many to derive from the New, not the Old Testament. Or the Old Testament is believed to have been written exclusively in the spirit of narrow nationalism and to contain nothing of supranational universalism so characteristic of the New Testament.
 * You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition (1966) "Introduction"

 * Man is born as a freak of nature, being within nature and yet transcending it. He has to find principles of action and decision-making which replace the principles of instincts. He has to have a frame of orientation which permits him to organize a consistent picture of the world as a condition for consistent actions. He has to fight not only against the dangers of dying, starving, and being hurt, but also against another danger which is specifically human: that of becoming insane. In other words, he has to protect himself not only against the danger of losing his life but also against the danger of losing his mind.
 * The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology (1968), p. 61

 * What is it that distinguishes man from animals? It is not his upright posture. That was present in the apes long before the brain began to develop. Nor is it the use of tools. It is something altogether new, a previously unknown quality: self-awareness. Animals, too, have awareness. They are aware of objects; they know this is one thing and that another. But when the human being as such was born he had a new and different consciousness, a consciousness of himself; he knew that he existed and that he was something different, something apart from nature, apart from other people, too. He experienced himself. He was aware that he thought and felt. As far as we know, there is nothing analogous to this anywhere in the animal kingdom. That is the specific quality that makes human beings human.
 * "Affluence and Ennui in Our Society" in For the Love of Life (1986) translated by Robert and Rita Kimber

 * The two most far-reaching critical theories at the beginning of the latest phase of industrial society were those of Marx and Freud. Marx showed the moving powers and the conflicts in the social-historical process. Freud aimed at the critical uncovering of the inner conflicts. Both worked for the liberation of man, even though Marx’s concept was more comprehensive and less time-bound than Freud’s.
 * "The Art of Being" Pt. 3 (1989)

 * His concept of the anal character as one that has not reached maturity is in fact a sharp criticism of bourgeois society of the nineteenth century, in which the qualities of the anal character constituted the norm for moral behavior.
 * "To Have or to Be?" (2005) p. 68

Escape from Freedom (1941)

 * 1st edition (Internet Archive, must be borrowed)

 * The kind of relatedness to the world may be noble or trivial, but even being related to the basest kind of pattern is immensely preferable to being alone.
 * Ch. 1

 * Man’s biological weakness is the condition of human culture.
 * Ch. 2

 * Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.
 * Ch. 4

 * The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
 * Ch. 7

 * If the individual realizes his self by spontaneous activity and thus relates himself to the world, he ceases to be an isolated atom; he and the world become part of one structuralized whole; he has his rightful place, and thereby his doubt concerning himself and the meaning of life disappears. This doubt sprang from his separateness and from the thwarting of life; when he can live, neither compulsively nor automatically but spontaneously, the doubt disappears.  He is aware of himself as an active and creative individual and recognizes that there is only one meaning of life: the act of living itself.
 * Ch. 7, p. 262-3

Man for Himself (1947)

 * Man for himself, an inquiry into the psychology of ethics (1947) ISBN 978-0-8050-1403-7

 * Man's life cannot "be lived" by repeating the pattern of his species; he must live. Man is the only animal that can be bored, that can be discontented, that can feel evicted from paradise. Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem which he has to solve and from which he cannot escape. He cannot go back to the prehuman state of harmony with nature; he must proceed to develop his reason until he becomes the master of nature, and of himself.
 * Ch. 3 "Human Nature and Character

 * The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.
 * Ch. 3

 * Temperament refers to the mode of reaction and is constitutional and not changeable; character is essentially formed by a person’s experiences, especially of those in early life, and changeable, to some extent, by insights and new kinds of experiences. If a person has a choleric temperament, for instance, his mode of reaction is "quick and strong.” But what he is quick or strong about depends on his kind of relatedness, his character. If he is a productive, just, loving person he will react quickly and strongly when he loves, when he is enraged by injustice, and when he is impressed by a new idea. If he is a destructive or sadistic character, he will be quick and strong in his destructiveness or in his cruelty. The confusion between temperament and character has had serious consequences for ethical theory. Preferences with regard to differences in temperament are mere matters of subjective taste. But differences in character are ethically of the most fundamental importance.
 * Ch. 3

 * Care and responsibility are constituent elements of love, but without respect for and knowledge of the beloved person, love deteriorates into domination and possessiveness. Respect is not fear and awe; it denotes, in accordance with the root of the word (respicere = to look at), the ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his individuality and uniqueness. To respect a person is not possible without knowing him; care and responsibility would be blind if they were not guided by the knowledge of the person's individuality.
 * Ch. 3; in Ch. 2 of his later work The Art of Loving (1956) a similar statement is made :
 * Respect is not fear and awe; it denotes, in accordance with the root of the word (respicere = to look at), the ability to see a person as he is, to be aware of his unique individuality. Respect, thus, implies the absence of exploitation. I want the loved person to grow and unfold for his own sake, and in his own ways, and not for the purpose of serving me.

 * Man’s main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.
 * Ch. 4 "Problems of Humanistic Ethics"

 * Only the person who has faith in himself is able to be faithful to others.
 * Ch. 4

One form of this anxiety is the fear of death; not the normal fear of having to die which every human being experiences in the contemplation of death, but a horror of dying by which people can be possessed constantly. This irrational fear of death results from the failure of having lived; it is the expression of our guilty conscience for having wasted our life and missed the chance of productive use of our capacities. To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable.
 * We may feel only anxious (or even sick) for a number of reasons which have no apparent connection with our conscience. Perhaps the most frequent indirect reaction of our conscience to being neglected is a vague and unspecific feeling of guilt and uneasiness, or simply a feeling of tiredness or listlessness. Sometimes such feelings are rationalized as guilt feelings for not having done this or that, when actually the omissions one feels guilty about do not constitute genuine moral problems. But if the genuine though unconscious feeling of guilt has become too strong to be silenced by superficial rationalizations, it finds expression in deeper and more intense anxieties and even in physical or mental sickness.
 * Ch. 4

 * The selfish person is interested only in himself, wants everything for himself, feels no pleasure in giving, but only in taking. The world outside is looked at only from the standpoint of what he can get out of it; he lacks interest in the needs of others, and respect for their dignity and integrity. He can see nothing but himself; he judges everyone and everything from its usefulness to him; he is basically unable to love. Does not this prove that concern for others and concern for oneself are unavoidable alternatives? This would be so if selfishness and self-love were identical. But that assumption is the very fallacy which has led to so many mistaken conclusions concerning our problem. Selfishness and self-love, far from being identical, are actually opposites. The selfish person does not love himself too much but too little; in fact he hates himself. This lack of fondness and care for himself, which is only one expression of his lack of productiveness, leaves him empty and frustrated. He is necessarily unhappy and anxiously concerned to snatch from life the satisfactions which he blocks himself from attaining. He seems to care too much for himself but actually he only makes an unsuccessful attempt to cover up and compensate for his failure to care for his real self. Freud holds that the selfish person is narcissistic, as if he had withdrawn his love from others and turned it toward his own person. It is true that selfish persons are incapable of loving others, but they are not capable of loving themselves either.
 * Ch. 4

 * Happiness is the indication that man has found the answer to the problem of human existence: the productive realization of his potentialities and thus, simultaneously, being one with the world and preserving the integrity of his self. In spending his energy productively he increases his powers, he "burns without being consumed.“
 * p.189

The Art of Loving (1956)

 * What most people in our culture mean by being lovable is essentially a mixture between being popular and having sex appeal.
 * Ch. 1

 * Envy, jealousy, ambition, any kind of greed are passions; love is an action, the practice of human power, which can be practiced only in freedom and never as a result of compulsion. Love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a "standing in," not a "falling for." In the most general way, the active character of love can be described by stating that love is primarily giving, not receiving.

 * Immature love says: "I love you because I need you." Mature love says: "I need you because I love you."
 * Ch. 2

 * In spite of the universalistic spirit of the monotheistic Western religions and of the progressive political concepts that are expressed in the idea "that all men are created equal," love for mankind has not become a common experience. Love for mankind is looked upon as an achievement which, at best, follows love for an individual or as an abstract concept to be realized only in the future. But love for man cannot be separated from love for one individual. To love one person productively means to be related to his human core, to him as representing mankind. Love for one individual, in so far as it is divorced from love for man, can refer only to the superficial and to the accidental; of necessity it remains shallow.
 * Ch. 2

 * All men are in need of help and depend on one another. Human solidarity is the necessary condition for the unfolding of any one individual.
 * Ch. 2

 * The same polarity of the male and female principle exists in nature; not only, as is obvious in animals and plants, but in the polarity of the two fundamental functions, that of receiving and penetrating. It is the polarity of earth and rain, of the river and the ocean, of night and day, of darkness and light, of matter and spirit.
 * Ch. 2

 * In erotic love, two people who were separate become one. In motherly love, two people who were one become separate. The mother must not only tolerate, she must wish and support the child’s separation.
 * Ch. 2

 * The narcissistic, the domineering, the possessive woman can succeed in being a "loving” mother as long as the child is small. Only the really loving woman, the woman who is happier in giving than in taking, who is firmly rooted in her own existence, can be a loving mother when the child is in the process of separation.
 * Ch. 2

 * The sadistic person is as dependent on the submissive person as the latter is on the former; neither can live without the other. The difference is only that the sadistic person commands, exploits, hurts, humiliates, and that the masochistic person is commanded, exploited, hurt, humiliated. This is a considerable difference in a realistic sense; in a deeper emotional sense, the difference is not so great as that which they both have in common: fusion without integrity.
 * Ch. 2

 * In the dominant Western religious system, the love of God is essentially the same as the belief in God, in God’s existence, God’s justice, God’s love. The love of God is essentially a thought experience. In the Eastern religions and in mysticism, the love of God is an intense feeling experience of oneness, inseparably linked with the expression of this love in every act of living.
 * Ch. 2

 * Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality.
 * Ch. 2

 * If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to all others, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarged egotism.

 * The lack of objectivity, as far as foreign nations are concerned, is notorious. From one day to another, another nation is made out to be utterly depraved and fiendish, while one’s own nation stands for everything that is good and noble. Every action of the enemy is judged by one standard — every action of oneself by another. Even good deeds by the enemy are considered a sign of particular devilishness, meant to deceive us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our noble goals which they serve.

 * Fairness means not to use fraud and trickery in the exchange of commodities and services and the exchange of feelings.

 * The spirit of a production-centered, commodity-greedy society is such that only the non-conformist can defend himself sufficiently against it. Those who are seriously concerned with love as the only rational answer to the problem of human existence must, then, arrive at the conclusion that important and radical changes in our social structure are necessary, if love is to become a social and not a highly individualistic, marginal phenomenon.

 * Our society is run by a managerial bureaucracy, by professional politicians; people are motivated by mass suggestion, their aim is producing more and consuming more, as purposes in themselves. All activities are subordinated to economic goals, means have become ends; man is an automaton — well fed, well clad, but without any ultimate concern for that which is his peculiarly human quality and function. If man is to be able to love, he must be put in his supreme place. The economic machine must serve him, rather than he serve it. He must be enabled to share experience, to share work, rather than, at best, share in profits. Society must be organized in such a way that man's social, loving nature is not separated from his social existence, but becomes one with it. If it is true, as I have tried to show, that love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence, then any society which excludes, relatively, the development of love, must in the long run perish of its own contradiction with the basic necessities of human nature.
 * The portion of this statement, "Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence" has been widely quoted alone, resulting in a less reserved expression, and sometimes the portion following it has been as well: "Any society which excludes, relatively, the development of love, must in the long run perish of its own contradiction with the basic necessities of human nature."

 * To speak of love is not "preaching," for the simple reason that it means to speak of the ultimate and real need of every human being. That this need has been obscured does not mean it does not exist. To analyze the nature of love is to discover its general absence today and to criticize the social conditions which are responsible for this absence. To have faith in the possibility of love as a social and not only exceptional-individual phenomenon, is a rational faith based on the insight into the very nature of man.

Credo (1965)

 * First published in English in On Being Human (1994) by Erich From, edited by Rainer Funk, pp. 99-105. Full text online

 * '''I believe that the unity of man as opposed to other living things derives from the fact that man is the conscious life of himself. Man is conscious of himself, of his future, which is death, of his smallness, of his impotence; he is aware of others as others; man is in nature, subject to its laws even if he transcends it with his thought.

 * I believe that man is the product of natural evolution that is born from the conflict of being a prisoner and separated from nature, and from the need to find unity and harmony with it.

 * I believe that the nature of man is a contradiction rooted in the conditions of human existence that requires a search for solutions, which in their turn create new contradictions and now the need for answers. I believe that every answer to these contradictions can really satisfy the condition of helping man to overcome the sense of separation and to achieve a sense of agreement, of unity, and of belonging. I believe that in every answer to these contradictions, man has the possibility of choosing only between going forward or going back; these choices, which are translated into specific actions, are means toward the regressing or toward the progressing of the humanity that is in us.

 * I believe that the fundamental alternative for man is the choice between "life" and "death"; between creativity and destructive violence; between reality and illusions; between objectivity and intolerance; between brotherhood-independence and dominance-submission.

 * By necrophilia is meant love for all that is violence and destruction; the desire to kill; the worship of force; attraction to death, to suicide, to sadism; the desire to transform the organic into the inorganic by means of "order." The necrophile, lacking the necessary qualities to create, in his impotence finds it easy to destroy because for him it serves only one quality: force.

 * By narcissism is meant ceasing to have an authentic interest in the outside world but instead an intense attachment to oneself, to one’s own group, clan, religion, nation, race, etc. — with consequent serious distortions of rational judgment. In general, the need for narcissistic satisfaction derives from the necessity to compensate for material and cultural poverty.

 * By incestuous symbiosis is meant the tendency to stay tied to the mother and to her equivalents — blood, family, tribe — to fly from the unbearable weight of responsibility, of freedom, of awareness, and to be protected and loved in a state of certainty dependence that the individual pays for with the ceasing of his own human development.

 * I believe that the man choosing progress can find a new unity through the full development of all his human forces, which are produced in three orientations. These can be presented separately or together: biophilia, love for humanity and nature, and independence and freedom.

 * I believe that love is the main key to open the doors to the "growth" of man. Love and union with someone or something outside of oneself, union that allows one to put oneself into relationship with others, to feel one with others, without limiting the sense of integrity and independence. Love is a productive orientation for which it is essential that there be present at the same time: concern, responsibility, and respect for and knowledge of the object of the union. I believe that the experience of love is the most human and humanizing act that it is given to man to enjoy and that it, like reason, makes no sense if conceived in a partial way.

 * I believe that freedom is not a constant attribute that "we have" or "we don’t have"; perhaps there is only one reality: the act of liberating ourselves in the process of using choices. Every step in life that heightens the maturity of man heightens his ability to choose the freeing alternative. I believe that "freedom of choice" is not always equal for all men at every moment. The man with an exclusively necrophilic orientation; who is narcissistic; or who is symbiotic-incestuous, can only make a regressive choice. The free man, freed from irrational ties, can no longer make a regressive choice.

 * I believe that none can "save" his fellow man by making a choice for him. To help him, he can indicate the possible alternatives, with sincerity and love, without being sentimental and without illusion. The knowledge and awareness of the freeing alternatives can reawaken in an individual all his hidden energies and put him on the path to choosing respect for "life" instead of for "death."

 * I believe that if an individual is not on the path to transcending his society and seeing in what way it furthers or impedes the development of human potential, he cannot enter into intimate contact with his humanity. If the tabus, restrictions, distorted values appear "natural" to him, this is a clear indication that he cannot have a real knowledge of human nature. I believe that society, while having a function both stimulating and inhibiting at the same time, has always been in conflict with humanity. Only when the purpose of society is identified with that of humanity will society cease to paralyze man and encourage his dominance.

 * I believe that one can and must hope for a sane society that furthers man’s capacity to love his fellow men, to work and create, to develop his reason and his objectivity of a sense of himself that is based on the experience of his productive energy. I believe that one can and must hope for the collective regaining of a mental health that is characterized by the capacity to love and to create...

 * I believe in the possible realization of a world in which man can be much, even if he has little; a world in which the dominant motivation of existence is not consumption; a world in which "man" is the end, first and last; a world in which man can find the way of giving a purpose to his life as well as the strength to live free and without illusions.

The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology (1968)

 * To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.

Human Nature and Social Theory (1969)

 * Letter to Vladimir Dobrenkov (10 March 1969)

 * The most important misunderstanding seems to me to lie in a confusion between the human necessities which I consider part of human nature, and the human necessities as they appear as drives, needs, passions, etc., in any given historical period. This division is not very different from Marx’s concept of "human nature in general", to be distinguished from "human nature as modified in each historical period". The same distinction exists in Marx when he distinguishes between "constant" or "fixed" drives and "relative" drives. The constant drives "exist under all circumstances and … can be changed by social conditions only as far as form and direction are concerned". The relative drives "owe their origin only to a certain type of social organization".

 * One will be conducive to cooperation and solidarity another social structure to competition, suspiciousness, avarice; another to child-like receptiveness, another to destructive aggressiveness. All empirical forms or human needs and drives have to be understood as results of the social practice (in the last analysis based on the productive forces, class structure, etc., etc.) but they all have to fulfill the functions which are inherent in man’s nature in general, and that is to permit him to relate himself to others and share a common frame of reference, etc. The existential contradiction within man (to which I would now add also the contradiction between limitations which reality imposes on his life, and the virtually limitless imagination which his brain permits him to follow) is what I believe to be one of the motives of psychological and social dynamics. Man can never stand still. He must find solutions to this contradiction, and ever better solutions to the extent to which reality enables him. The question then arises whether there is an optimal solution which can be inferred from man’s nature, and which constitutes a potential tendency in man. I believe that such optimal solutions can be inferred from the nature of man, and I have recently found it quite useful to think in terms of what in sociology and economy is now often called »system analysis«. One might start with the idea, in the first place, that human personality — just like society — is a system, that is to say, that each part depends on every other, and no part can be changed unless all or most other parts are also changed. A system is better than chaos. If a society system disintegrates or is destroyed by blows from the outside the society ends in chaos, and a completely new society is built upon its ruins, often using the elements of the destroyed system to build the new. That has happened many times in history. But, what also happens is that the society is not simply destroyed but that the system is changed, and a new system emerges which can be considered to be a transformation of the old one.

 * I must also call your attention to the fact that it is crucial for my viewpoint that human behavior is to a large extent charged with a considerable amount of energy, but that in contrast to Freud I do not consider this energy to be sexual, but the vital energy within any organism which, according to biological laws, gives man the desire to live, and that means to adapt himself to the social necessities of his society. To go back to what I consider to be the misunderstanding, it has never been my position that society only deforms or manifests that which is already there. If we make the distinction between human necessities in general and human desires in particular then indeed, society creates particular desires which, however, follow the general laws of the necessities rooted in human nature.

 * The revolutionary and critical thinker is in a certain way always outside of his society while of course he is at the same time also in it. That he is in it is obvious, but why is he outside it? First, because he is not brainwashed by the ruling ideology, that is to say, he has an extraordinary kind of independence of thought and feeling; hence he can have a greater objectivity than the average person has. There are many emotional factors too. And certainly I do not mean to enter here into the complex problem of the revolutionary thinker. But it seems to me essential that in a certain sense he transcends his society. You may say he transcends it because of the new historical developments and possibilities he is aware of, while the majority still think in traditional terms.

 * What about the utopian thinkers of all ages, from the Prophets who had a vision of eternal peace, on through the Utopians of the Renaissance, etc.? Were they just dreamers? Or were they so deeply aware of new possibilities, of the changeability of social conditions, that they could visualize an entirely new form of social existence even though these new forms, as such, were not even potentially given in their own society? It is true that Marx wrote a great deal against utopian socialism, and so the term has a bad odor for many Marxists. But he is polemical against certain socialist schools which were, indeed, inferior to his system because of their lack of realism. In fact, I would say the less realistic basis for a vision of the uncrippled man and of a free society there is, the more is Utopia the only legitimate form of expressing hope. But they are not trans-historical as, for instance, is the Christian idea of the Last Judgment, etc. They are historical, but the product of rational imagination, rooted in an experience of what man is capable of and in a clear insight into the transitory character of previous and existing society.

The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973)

 * People have committed suicide because of their failure to realize the passions for love, power, fame, revenge. Cases of suicide because of a lack of sexual satisfaction are virtually nonexistent.
 * p. 30

 * Psychoanalysis is essentially a theory of unconscious strivings, of resistance, of falsification of reality according to one's subjective needs and expectations.
 * p. 109

 * The existential split in man would be unbearable could he not establish a sense of unity within himself and with the natural and human world outside.
 * p. 262

 * Neurosis can be understood best as the battle between tendencies within an individual; deep character analysis leads, if successful, to the progressive solution.
 * p. 264

 * Chronic boredom — compensated or uncompensated — constitutes one of the major psychopathological phenomena in contemporary technotronic society, although it is only recently that it has found some recognition.
 * p. 273

 * The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology. The result is that the average individual does not experience the separateness and isolation the fully schizophrenic person feels. He feels at ease among those who suffer from the same deformation; in fact, it is the fully sane person who feels isolated in the insane society — and he may suffer so much from the incapacity to communicate that it is he who may become psychotic. In the context of this study the crucial question is whether the hypothesis of a quasi-autistic or of low-grade schizophrenic disturbance would help us to explain some of the violence spreading today.
 * p. 395

 * Exploitation and manipulation produce boredom and triviality; they cripple man, and all factors that make man into a psychic cripple turn him also into a sadist or a destroyer. This position will be characterized by some as "overoptimistic," "utopian," or "unrealistic." In order to appreciate the merits of such criticism a discussion of the ambiguity of hope and the nature of optimism and pessimism seems called for.
 * p. 483

 * Optimism is an alienated form of faith, pessimism an alienated form of despair. If one truly responds to man and his future, ie, concernedly and "responsibly." one can respond only by faith or by despair. Rational faith as well as rational despair are based on the most thorough, critical knowledge of all the factors that are relevant for the survival of man.
 * p. 483

Quotes about Erich Fromm

 * Fromm revives all the time-honored values of idealistic ethics as if nobody had ever demonstrated their conformist and repressive features. He speaks of the productive realization of the personality, of care, responsibility, and respect for one’s fellow men, of productive love and happiness – as if man could actually practice all this and still remain sane and full of “well-being” in a society which Fromm himself describes as one of total alienation, dominated by the commodity relations of the “market.” In such a society, the self-realization of the “personality” can proceed only on the basis of a double repression: first, the “purification” of the pleasure principle and the internalization of happiness and freedom; second, their reasonable restriction until they become compatible with the prevailing unfreedom and unhappiness. As a result, productiveness, love, responsibility become “values” only in so far as they contain manageable resignation and are practiced within the framework of socially useful activities (in other words, after repressive sublimation); and then they involve the effective denial of free productiveness and responsibility.
 * Herbert Marcuse, “Critique of Neo-Freudian Revisionism,” Eros and Civilization (1955)

title: Erich Fromm