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Dick Cheney

Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney (born January 30, 1941) was the 46th vice president of the United States, serving under President George W. Bush. Previously, he served as White House chief of staff, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wyoming, and Secretary of Defense. In the private sector, he was the chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton Energy Services.

1970s

 * Principle is okay up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you lose.
 * Remarks during the 1976 US Presidential

1980s

 * Let us rid ourselves of the fiction that low oil prices are somehow good for the United States.
 * Remarks after introducing a legislation to create a new import tax that would have caused the price of oil to soar by billions of dollars per year October 1986

1990s

 * I think that the proposition of going to Baghdad is also fallacious. I think if we we're going to remove Saddam Hussein we would have had to go all the way to Baghdad, we would have to commit a lot of force because I do not believe he would wait in the Presidential Palace for us to arrive. I think we'd have had to hunt him down. And once we'd done that and we'd gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and his government, then we'd have had to put another government in its place. What kind of government? Should it be a Sunni government or Shi'i government or a Kurdish government or Ba'athist regime? Or maybe we want to bring in some of the Islamic fundamentalists? How long would we have had to stay in Baghdad to keep that government in place? What would happen to the government once U.S. forces withdrew? How many casualties should the United States accept in that effort to try to create clarity and stability in a situation that is inherently unstable? I think it is vitally important for a President to know when to use military force. I think it is also very important for him to know when not to commit U.S. military force. And it's my view that the President got it right both times, that it would have been a mistake for us to get bogged down in the quagmire inside Iraq.
 * At the Washington Institute's Soref Symposium, April 29, 1991

 * And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.... Once we had rounded him up and gotten rid of his government, then the question is what do you put in its place? You know, you then have accepted the responsibility for governing Iraq.
 * August 1992, at the Discovery Institute in Seattle

 * Because if we had gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. It would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq. Once you got to Iraq and took it over and took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world. And if you take down the central government in Iraq, you could easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. Part of it the Syrians would like to have, the west. Part of eastern Iraq the Iranians would like to claim. Fought over for eight years. In the north, you've got the Kurds. And if the Kurds spin loose and join with Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey. It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq. The other thing is casualties. Everyone was impressed with the fact that we were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had, but for the 146 Americans killed in action and for the families it wasn't a cheap war. And the question for the president in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad and took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein was, how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? And our judgment was not very many, and I think we got it right.
 * Cheney, on not pushing on to Baghdad during the first Gulf War; C-SPAN 4-15-94 Interview on CNN

 * The good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all things considered, one would not normally choose to go. But, we go where the business is.
 * Speech delivered at the Cato Institute, (June 23, 1998)

 * Oil remains fundamentally a government business. While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies, even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow.
 * Speech delivered at the London Institute of Petroleum, 1999

2000s

 * The suggestion that somehow, because this was a close election, we should fundamentally change our beliefs I just think is silly.
 * CBS News program Face the Nation (December 2000)

2001

 * We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will.
 * Interview on NBC (September 16, 2001)

2002

 * Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction; there is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.
 * Address at the Opening Session of the 103rd National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (August 26, 2002)

2003

 * We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.
 * Cheney on NBC's Meet the Press, March 16, 2003

 * [In response to "Do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties?"] "Well, I don’t think it’s likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. I’ve talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House....The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that."
 * My belief is, we will, in fact be greeted as liberators.
 * Meet The Press with Tim Russert. (March 16, 2003)

 * [In response to "Reconstituted nuclear weapons. You misspoke."] Yeah. I did misspeak. I said repeatedly during the show weapons capability. We never had any evidence that he had acquired a nuclear weapon.
 * Meet The Press with Tim Russert. (Sept. 14, 2003)

 * [In response to "We have not been greeted as liberators."] "Well, I think we have by most Iraqis. I think the majority of Iraqis are thankful for the fact that the United States is there, that we came and we took down the Saddam Hussein government. And I think if you go in vast areas of the country, the Shia in the south, which are about 60 percent of the population, 20-plus percent in the north, in the Kurdish areas, and in some of the Sunni areas, you’ll find that, for the most part, a majority of Iraqis support what we did.
 * Meet The Press with Tim Russert. (Sept. 14, 2003)

 * If we’re successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it’s not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it’s not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.
 * Meet The Press with Tim Russert. (September. 14, 2003)

2004

 * You know, Paul, Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. We won the mid-term elections, this is our due.
 * Remarks on Paul O'Neill (January 9, 2004)

 * We haven't really had the time yet to pore through all those records in Baghdad. We'll find ample evidence confirming the link, that is the connection if you will between al Qaida and the Iraqi intelligence services. They have worked together on a number of occasions.
 * Interview with Rocky Mountain News, January 2004

 * America has shown we are serious about removing the threat of weapons of mass destruction."..."We now know that Saddam Hussein had the capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction.... We know he had the necessary infrastructure because we found the labs and the dual-use facilities that could be used for these chemical and biological agents. We know that he was developing the delivery systems — ballistic missiles — that had been prohibited by the United Nations.
 * Speech at a Fundraising dinner in New Mexico, (February 16, 2004)

 * What we did in Iraq was exactly the right thing to do. If I had it to recommend all over again, I would recommend exactly the same course of action.
 * Vice Presidential Debate October 5, 2004

 * If the Democratic policies had been pursued over the last two or three years...we would not have had the kind of job growth we've had.
 * Lester Holt interview, MSNBC, March 2, 2004 whitehouse.archives.gov

 * With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is that freedom means freedom for everyone. People...ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.
 * Remarks on same same-sex marriage Washington Post (25 August 2004)

 * Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. And that makes the whole thing mutual — America sees two John Kerrys.
 * Acceptance Speech at the Republican National Convention. - Video and text available. (1 September 2004)

 * Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States, and that we'll fall back into the pre-9/11 mind set if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts, and that we're not really at war. I think that would be a terrible mistake for us.
 * Speaking about the choice Americans would soon make in the presidential election at a Des Moines, Iowa campaign appearance on September 7, 2004 whitehouse.archives.gov.

 * The senator has got his facts wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11, but there's clearly an established Iraqi track record with terror.
 * At the Vice Presidential Debates, October 5, 2004.

2005

 * The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people. I mean, these are terrorists for the most part.
 * Interview talking about the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay on Fox News (13 June 2005)

 * I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time... The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.
 * Larry King Live. interview (June 20, 2005)

2006

 * I think so. I guess if I look back on it now, I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence that we've encountered.
 * [In response to the question "Do you think that you underestimated the insurgency's strength?"] Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize Luncheon, June 19, 2006

 * What the Democrats are suggesting, basically, about a withdrawal — you can call it redeployment, whatever you want to call it. Basically, it in effect validates the terrorists' strategy. You've got to remember that the Osama bin Laden-types, the al Qaeda-types, the Zarqawi-types that have been active in Iraq are betting that ultimately they can break the United States' will. There's no way they can defeat us militarily. Their whole strategy, if you look at what bin Laden's been saying for 10 years, is they believe they can, in fact, force us to quit, that ultimately we'll get tired of the fight, that we don't have the stomach for a long, tough battle and that we'll pack it in and go home. If we were to do that it would be devastating from the standpoint of the global war on terror. It would affect what happens in Afghanistan. It would make it difficult for us to persuade the Iranians to give up their aspirations for nuclear weapons. It would threaten the stability of regimes like Musharraf in Pakistan and the Saudis in Saudi Arabia. It is absolutely the worst possible thing we could do at this point. It would be to validate and encourage the terrorists by doing exactly what they want us to do.
 * Interview with John King on CNN (June 22, 2006)
 * Here's what I can tell you about Don Rumsfeld. You're never going to get any credit. And you'll only know how well you're doing if he gives you more work. If that happens, you're doing fine.
 * Quoted in Bob Woodward's, State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, Simon & Schuster, 2006

2007

 * This is an existential conflict. It is the kind of conflict that's going to drive our policy and our government for the next 20 or 30 or 40 years. We have to prevail and we have to have the stomach for the fight long term.
 * On Fox News Sunday responding to the opposition against sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq (January 14, 2007)

 * Wolf, you can come up with all kinds of what-ifs; you've got to deal with the reality on the ground. The reality on the ground is, we've made major progress. We've still got a lot of work to do. There's a lot of provinces in Iraq that are relatively quiet. There's more and more authority transferred to the Iraqis all the time.... Bottom line is that we've had enormous successes and we will continue to have enormous successes.
 * CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer responding to the question, How worried are you of the Iraqi government turning against the United States? (January 24, 2007)

2009

 * If fine speech-making, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field.
 * Speech at the American Enterprise Institute (21 May, 2009)

 * [W]atching a coordinated, devastating attack on our country from an underground bunker at the White House can affect how you view your responsibilities.
 * National Secruity Speech, American Enterprise Institute (21 May 2009)

2014
Chuck Todd: 25% of the detainees though, 25% turned out to be innocent. They were released. Dick Cheney: Where are you going to draw the line, Chuck? How are— Chuck Todd: Well, I'm asking you. Dick Cheney: —you going to know? [Overtalk] Chuck Todd: Is that too high? You're okay with that margin for error? Dick Cheney: I have no problem as long as we achieve our objective.
 * Dick Cheney: I'm more concerned with bad guys who got out and released than I am with a few that, in fact, were innocent.
 * , quoted in
 * Asked about Gul Rahman, who was taken into CIA custody as a result of mistaken identity, and died from CIA abuse.

2015

 * Hugh Hewitt: Is he naïve, Mr. Vice President? Or does he have a far-reaching vision that only he entertains of a realigned Middle East that somehow it all works out in the end?
 * Dick Cheney: I don't know, Hugh. I vacillate between the various theories I've heard, but you know, if you had somebody as president who wanted to take America down, who wanted to fundamentally weaken our position in the world and reduce our capacity to influence events, turn our back on our allies and encourage our adversaries, it would look exactly like what Barack Obama's doing. I think his actions are constituted in my mind those of the worst president we've ever had.
 * , quoted in
 * Hewitt and Cheney discuss Obama's ongoing nuclear talks with Iran.

 * I think this whole notion that somehow we can just say no more Muslims, just ban a whole religion, goes against everything we stand for and believe in. I wouldn't support a ban on all Muslims coming into this country.
 * On The Hugh Hewitt Show (7 December 2015).

2017

 * I think what we did in Iraq was the right thing to do. I still believe that.
 * At the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall Lecture Series in Sarasota (January 2017)

 * If we hadn't taken down Saddam, Gaddafi would not have surrendered his materials. Now Gaddafi's gone, dead, [and] ISIS plays a significant role today in Libya, [and] they would have inherited that material,” Cheney said. “So that whole area of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and so forth, everybody wants to say, ‘Well, there wasn’t any WMD in Iraq,’ but that's a small, small way to look at the problem.
 * At the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall Lecture Series in Sarasota (January 2017)

 * NATO's crucial. NATO's maybe the best, or most successful, alliance in history... To suggest that it's obsolete is not correct. It's not obsolete. A lot of our NATO allies sent troops to serve alongside ours in Afghanistan after 9/11 and a lot of European soldiers were killed supporting what essentially was our response to an attack upon the United States.
 * At the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall Lecture Series in Sarasota (January 2017)

 * The threat levels are going up, the dangers are increasing and our capability to deal with them has gone down because of the way the Obama administration has operated for the last eight years.
 * At the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall Lecture Series in Sarasota (January 2017)

 * [F]ascinating... significant movement... [P]art of the American tradition... There's something positive... when we can simultaneously swear in a new president and at the same time have a democratic process of people expressing their views. It's their right and we shouldn't be surprised by it, or annoyed by it.
 * At the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall Lecture Series in Sarasota (January 2017)

2022

Lynne and I are so proud of Liz for standing up for the truth, doing what's right, honoring her oath to the Constitution when so many in our party are too scared to do so. Liz is fearless, she never backs down from a fight. There is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office and she will succeed.
 * In our nation’s 246 year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters. He lost his election and he lost big. I know it, he knows it and deep down I think most Republicans know it.
 * In a political advertisement for his daughter Liz Cheney's re-election, presented on "Joe: GOP Has Become So Radical That Liz, Dick Cheney Are Considered So-Called 'RINOs'" (5 August 2022)

Quotes about Cheney

 * (Vice President Dick Cheney said you wore out your welcome in Haiti. It’s time for you to go.) JBA: How can someone, after the kind of elections they had, now talk like that regarding Haiti where you had fair, democratic elections regarding the elected president...
 * Jean-Bertrand Aristide interview with Democracy Now (March 08, 2004)

 * At the same time, Kissinger, Carter and détente were condemned as weakening the West by a group of conservative Democrats led by Henry (Scoop) Jackson, a critic of SALT, as well as by key Republicans who were influential in the Ford administration (1974–7), notably his Chief of Staff, Richard (Dick) Cheney, and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. They drew on advice from commentators such as Richard Perle, Richard Pipes and Paul Wolfowitz who warned about Soviet intentions. The continuity of this group, through 1990s’ opposition to Clintonian liberal internationalism, to the neo-conservative activism of the early 2000s, especially against Iraq, is notable.
 * Jeremy Black, The Cold War: A Military History (2015)

 * Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk was on the mark... in November 2002, he wrote, “Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 11 September. If the United States invades Iraq, we should remember that.” On many psychological levels, the Bush team was able to manipulate post-9/11 emotions well beyond the phantom of Iraqi involvement in that crime against humanity. The dramatic changes in political climate after 9/11 included a drastic upward spike in the attitude—fervently stoked by the likes of Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and the president—that our military should be willing to attack potential enemies before they might attack us. Few politicians or pundits were willing to confront the reality that this was a formula for perpetual war, and for the creation of vast numbers of new foes who would see a reciprocal logic in embracing such a credo themselves. President Bush’s national security adviser “felt the administration had little choice with Hussein,” reporter Bob Woodward recounted in mid-November 2002. A quote from Condoleezza Rice summed up the approach. “Take care of threats early.” Determining exactly what constitutes a threat—and how to “take care” of it—would be up to the eye of the beholder in the Oval Office.
 * Norman Solomon in Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You, p. 99  (2003)

 * You know, I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over. I don't believe he went in there for oil. We didn't go in there for imperialist or financial reasons. We went in there because he bought the Wolfowitz-Cheney analysis that the Iraqis would be better off, we could shake up the authoritarian Arab regimes in the Middle East, and our leverage to make peace between the Palestinians and Israelis would be increased.
 * Bill Clinton, Interview with Time, June 2004

 * President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have asserted the president's right to wield virtually unchecked power. They have used the tragedy of 9/11 to implement a radical political agenda, attempting to ram through a right-wing wish list, from gutting social security to delivering tax cuts to the rich, to discarding basic civil liberties. Our government now routinely invades the privacy of its own citizens, then pulls the cloak of national security over its operations to hide its deceptions and blunders from public view. The economy has been trashed, inequality is now at levels not seen since the Great Depression, and at least 5 million more Americans live in poverty than did at the start of the Bush presidency. Many eminent historians and economists are concluding that George W. Bush has earned the distinction of being the "worst president ever."
 * Amy Goodman Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (2008)

 * Vice President Dick Cheney made it clear who was setting the environmental agenda when he huddled behind closed doors with his former colleagues in the oil industry in early 2001 and virtually allowed them to write a new national energy policy to their liking. The result: the 2005 Energy Bill, which gave $16 billion in subsidies to the oil, gas, and coal industries, recommended opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and natural gas drilling, deregulated the electricity market, subsidized building new nuclear power plants, and dumbed down fuel economy standards for SUVs and light trucks.
 * Amy Goodman Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (2008)

 * What Liam Madden saw in Iraq quickly disabused him of the idea that Americans were being "greeted as liberators," as Vice President Dick Cheney blithely promised in 2003. "People in Iraq had eyes full of fear and hopelessness. It was obvious to me that we were not helping those people. Any help was for propaganda-'Look, we're slapping a coat of paint on a building!' It was not systemic help." He was sent to Fallujah a few months after U.S. forces attacked in retaliation for the killings of four employees of Blackwater, the American mercenary firm. "It was devastated. Just rubble."...In the course of our conversation, Madden stops to do a brief radio interview. He is asked his view of his commander in chief and of Vice President Cheney. "I personally believe they are war criminals," he says without hesitating. Sounding like a seasoned media professional, he is quick on his feet and forceful. "They committed a war of aggression. Certainly they should be impeached for trampling on the Constitution."
 * Amy Goodman Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (2008)

 * We shall never know many of the facts about the invasion [of Panama], nor shall we know the true extent of the massacre. Defense Secretary Richard Cheney claimed a death toll between five hundred and six hundred, but independent human rights groups estimated it at three thousand to five thousand, with another twenty-five thousand left  homeless... Noriega was arrested, flown to Miami, and sentenced to forty years' imprisonment; at that time, he was the only person in the United States officially classified as a prisoner of war... The world was outraged by this breach of international law and  by the needless destruction of a defenseless people at the hands of  the most powerful military force on the planet, but few in the United States were aware of either the outrage or the crimes Washington had committed. Press coverage was very limited. A number of factors contributed to this, including government policy, White House phone calls to publishers and television executives, congress people who dared not object, lest the wimp factor become their problem,  and journalists who thought the public needed heroes rather than objectivity.
 * David Harris, Shooting the Moon: The True Story of an American Manhunt Unlike Any Other, Ever, p 6.  (2001) quoted in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, (2004)

 * Cheney and Rumsfeld were inveterate schemers whose cynicism about going to war was exceeded only by their ineptitude in conducting it.
 * Jacob Heilbrunn, "Why the United States Invaded Iraq" New York Times (28 July 2020)

 * Few talk or think about Iraq these days; the media ignores this important but demolished nation. Iraq, let us recall, was the target of a major western aggression concocted by George W Bush, Dick Cheney and Britain's Tony Blair, and financed and encouraged by the Gulf oil sheikdoms and Saudi Arabia... We hear nothing about the billions of dollars of Iraqi oil being extracted by big US oil firms since 2003.
 * Eric Margolis in The forgotten plunder of Iraq, (November 17, 2019)

 * Recognize that Dick Cheney is the most cynical political figure to hold high office in this country since his former boss Dick Nixon. And he is perfectly willing to say what he thinks will advance him, particularly in an election season. In 1994, he was, at least in his own mind, competing for the Republican nomination for President in 1996. In 2000 of course he was competing for the vice presidency. In both cases he needed to seem to be a mainstream and responsible figure. But the real Dick Cheney, the man who was secretary of defense in 1990 and produced a secret plan for invading Iraq and capturing Saddam Hussein that was ultimately rejected by Norman Schwarzkopf and others, I don't think ever relinquished his desire to take control of Iraq and its oil.
 * John Nichols, author of Dick: The Man Who is President, reconciling the perceived change of heart Cheney had over toppling Saddam after 9/11, CSNBC 8-18-07

 * One of the things that [his old professors at Yale] said is that back in 1960 he was a guy who was looking for simple ideas about the world, most of them rooting back to the idea of the United States being able to do whatever it wants without any consequences. I don't think Dick Cheney has changed at all, but I do think we often see different faces of him when he believes it is politically convenient.
 * John Nichols, author of Dick: The Man Who is President, reconciling the perceived change of heart Cheney had over toppling Saddam after 9/11, CSNBC 8-18-07

 * One week into the [Gulf] war, the public mood had become unsettled and the media was becoming critical. After the success of the first day and the excitement of watching cruise missiles strike with incredible accuracy, it looked from the outside as though the war was going nowhere. "Why isn't the war over?" people were asking. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and I realized we had to act to settle things down. The point of decision for us at that moment was not in our offices or in the situation rooms monitoring the war, but down in the press room. We called a press conference where Dick gave an excellent summary of the strategic and political situation, and then I covered the military campaign. I summarized our actions during the previous week, concluding with a few sharp words detailing our strategy to kick the Iraqi army out of Kuwait: "First we are going to cut it off," I told the assembled reporters, "and then we are going to kill it." My line was picked up by all the newspapers and all the radio and TV news shows. It did the trick. It told the people out there what they needed to know. Confidence about our war aims returned. And Dick and I could leave the front lines and get back to our offices.
 * Colin Powell, It Worked For Me: In Life and Leadership (2012), p. 58

 * I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons.
 * Donald Rumsfeld, at a hearing of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee on defense, May 14, 2003 ; Cheney asserted that Iraq had nuclear weapons March 16 of the same year on Meet the Press. On Sept 14 of that year, Cheney said the original statement was misstatement, and that he had meant to say "reconstituted nuclear weapons program".

 * As was documented in Josh Fox's excellent documentary Gasland, the chemicals injected into the ground pose serious health and environmental risks to drinking water, air quality, and wildlife. However, the full extent of the risk is not known, because the gas industry isn't required to disclose what chemicals are used, or in what quantities. If that complete lack of transparency sounds outrageous, it is. We have Dick Cheney to thank for the "Halliburton loophole," which exempts fracking companies from many of the disclosures normally required under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
 * Bernie Sanders Our Revolution (2016)

 * The real anomaly in the administration is Cheney. I consider Cheney a good friend — I've known him for 30 years. But Dick Cheney I don't know anymore.
 * Brent Scowcroft

 * As a general matter, the left's favorite three lines of attack are (1) you're stupid; (2) you're mean; (3) you're corrupt. Sarah Palin is supposedly stupid; Mitt Romney is supposedly mean; Dick Cheney is supposedly corrupt. Take away those lines of attack and watch the discomfort set in.
 * Ben Shapiro,

Jon Stewart: Wow. How powerful a man do you have to be to able to shoot someone in the face and have that guy say, "My bad"?
 * [clip]: My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this past week.
 * Jon Stewart, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart season 11 episode 26,
 * regarding Vice President Dick Cheney shooting lawyer while hunting quail

 * He became vice president well before George Bush picked him. And he began to manipulate things from that point on, knowing that he was going to be able to convince this guy to pick him, knowing that he was then going to be able to wade into the vacuums that existed around George Bush — personality vacuum, character vacuum, details vacuum, experience vacuum.
 * Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Colin Powell.

 * Clearly, he's a coward.
 * former Reform Party governor/ Navy UDT Jesse Ventura.

title: Dick Cheney


text:
Elizabeth Bibesco

Princess Elizabeth (Asquith) Bibesco (26 February 1897 – 7 April 1945) was an English writer and poet, active between 1921 and 1940. A final posthumous collection of her stories, poems and aphorisms was published under the title Haven in 1951.

Haven (1951)

 * Of what help is anyone who can only be approached with the right words?

 * Blessed are those who give without remembering and take without forgetting.

 * Life more often teaches us how to perfect our weaknesses than how to develop our strengths.

 * Those we love are entitled to resent the allowances we make for them.

 * To be on a pedestal is to be in a corner.

 * What we buy belongs to us only when the price is forgotten.

 * It is easier to be generous than to be just.

 * Each play worth seeing should be watched a second time on the faces of the audience.

 * Winter draws what summer paints.

 * The image of ourselves in the minds of others is the picture of a stranger we shall never see.

 * We learn nothing by being right.

 * We are bound to those we love by their imperfections — their perfections help us to explain them to others.

 * Our losses should frequently be put on the credit side.

 * To regret your sins of commission as much as your sins of omission is to prove yourself a most unworthy sinner.

 * Death is part of this life and not of the next.

 * Perfect moments don't turn into half-hours.
 * Portrait of Caroline

 * My soul has gained the freedom of the night.
 * Poems (1928)

About Elizabeth Bibesco

 * I always felt a deep malaise in her — her writing and the fluctuations of her brilliant and esoteic conversation led her everywhere but to self-satisfaction.
 * S. N. Behrman

 * Prince Antoine Bibesco, when asked (by her mother, Margot Asquith) why his wife didn't do more "good works", such as visiting a hospital, replied, "Dearest Margot, Elizabeth visits a hospital three times a week, with the result that the lame walk, the blind see, and the dumb would speak if they could get a word in edgeways."
 * Anecdote about Antoine and Elizabeth Bibesco, mentioned in London's Secret History (1983) by Peter Bushell, p. 187

 * Princess Bibesco delighted in a semi-ideal world — a world which, though having a counterpart in her experience, was to a great extent brought into being by her own temperament and, one might say, flair.
 * Elizabeth Bowen

 * A brilliant woman whose perpetual wit made my head swim.
 * David Low

 * Miss Asquith, who was probably unsurpassed in intelligence by any of her contemporaries … looked like a lovely figure in an Italian fresco.
 * Marcel Proust

 * She is pasty and podgy, with the eyes of a currant bun, suddenly protruding with animation.
 * Virginia Woolf

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

title: Elizabeth Bibesco


text:
Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (5 December 1901 – 15 December 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, and animator. One of the most well-known motion picture producers in the world, Disney was also the artist responsible for works in a variety of other media, the creator of Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and the founder of The Walt Disney Company, the world's largest entertainment and media organization, Walt Disney characters including Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Mary Poppins, Pinocchio and many others.

Quotations

 * Our most important aim is to develop definite personalities in our cartoon characters. We don't want them to be just shadows, for merely as moving figures they provoke no emotional response from the public. We invest them with life a caricature of life.
 * As quoted in The New York Times (March 1938)

 * Over at our place, we're sure of just one thing: everybody in the world was once a child. So in planning a new picture, we don't think of grown-ups, and we don't think of children, but just of that fine, clean, unspoiled spot down deep in every one of us that maybe the world has made us forget and that maybe our pictures can help recall.
 * Recorded statement (1938) used in The Pixar Story (2008)

 * Once a man has tasted freedom he will never be content to be a slave. That is why I believe that this frightfulness we see everywhere today is only temporary. Tomorrow will be better for as long as America keeps alive the ideals of freedom and a better life. All men will want to be free and share our way of life. There must be so much that I should have said, but haven't. What I will say now is just what most of us are probably thinking every day. I thank God and America for the right to live and raise my family under the flag of tolerance, democracy and freedom.
 * Radio address "Our American Culture" broadcast during an intermission of the Metropolitan Opera. (1 March 1941)

 * No story in English literature has intrigued me more than Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It fascinated me the first time I read it as a schoolboy and as soon as I possibly could after I started making animated cartoons, I acquired the film rights to it. People in his period had no time to waste on triviality, yet Carroll with his nonsense and fantasy furnished a balance between seriousness and enjoyment which everybody needed then and still needs today.
 * As quoted in American Weekly (1946)

 * During the last few years, we've ventured into a lot of different fields. We've had the opportunity to meet and work with a lot of wonderful people. Our only hope is we never lose sight of one thing: that it was all started by a mouse. Now, that is why I want this part of the show to belong to Mickey, because the story of Mickey is truly the real beginning of Disneyland.
 * The Disneyland Story television program (27 October 1954)
 * Variants:
 * I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing — that it all started with a mouse.
 * As quoted in The Story of Disney (2004) by Adele D. Richardson, p. 41

 * To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America; with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.
 * Speech on the opening day of Disneyland (17 July 1955)

 * All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
 * As quoted in The Story of Walt Disney (1957)

 * I suppose my formula might be: dream, diversify and never miss an angle.
 * "Walt's Profit Formula: Dream, Diversity, and Never Miss an Angle" in Wall Street Journal (4 February 1958)

 * We are not influenced by the techniques or fashions of any other company.
 * Interview with David Griffiths (1959); as quoted in Walt Disney : Conversations (2006) edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson
 * Paraphrased variant: I am not influenced by the techniques or fashions of any other motion picture company.

 * Well, my greatest reward, I think, is that I've been able to build this wonderful organization. I've been able to enjoy good health, and the way I feel today, I feel like I can still go on being part of this thing after forty some odd years of business, and also, to have the public appreciate and accept what I've done all these years. That, that is a great reward. … Well of course, happiness is a state of mind. You can be happy or you can be unhappy. It's just according to the way you look at things. You know. So I think happiness is contentment but it doesn't mean you have to have wealth. But all individuals are different. Some of us just wouldn't be satisfied with just carrying out a routine job and being happy. Yet I envied those people. I had a brother who I really envied because he was a mailman. But he's the one that had all the fun. He had himself a trailer, and he used to go out and go fishing, and he didn't worry about payrolls and stories and picture grosses or anything. And he was the happy one. I always said, "He's the smart Disney."
 * Interview with Fletcher Markle (25 September 1963) in Walt Disney: Conversations (2006) edited by Kathy Merlock Jackson The Walt Disney Story (1973)

 * A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.
 * As quoted in Walt Disney, Magician of the Movies (1966) by Bob Thomas p. 116

 * As the original Mary Poppins budget of five million dollars continued to grow, I never saw a sad face around the entire Studio. And this made me nervous. I knew the picture would have to gross 10 million dollars for us to break even. But still there was no negative head-shaking. No prophets of doom. Even Roy was happy. He didn't even ask me to show the unfinished picture to a banker. The horrible thought struck me — suppose the staff had finally conceded that I knew what I was doing.
 * Statement of 1 October 1966, used in The Walt Disney Story (1973)

 * That’s a pretty sexy little girl, Ollie.
 * November 1966 statement to Ollie Johnston, regarding Mowgli's love interest Shanti) during work on The Jungle Book prior to its 1967 theatre debut; as quoted in a 2003 interview that Michael Mallory had with Ollie prior to Ollie's death in 2008, attested in "Ollie Johnston: Even ‘Old Men’ Need a Lift!" in Animation Magazine (27 October 2011)]

 * Girls bored me — they still do. I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I've ever known.
 * As quoted in You Must Remember This (1975) by Walter Wagner

 * There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and at the bottom of the Spanish Main... and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.
 * As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter

 * We allow no geniuses around our Studio. .. It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
 * As quoted in Animated Architecture (1982) by Derek Walker, p. 10

 * We're not trying to entertain the critics … I'll take my chances with the public.
 * As quoted in "Disneyland, 1955: Just Take the Santa Ana Freeway to the American Dream" by Karal Ann Marling, in American Art (Winter-Spring 1991)
 * Variant: We are not trying to entertain the critics. I'll take my chances with the public.

 * I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible, because dreams offer too little collateral.
 * As quoted in The Stuff Americans Are Made Of : The Seven Cultural Forces that Define Americans — A New Framework for Quality, Productivity, and Profitability (1996) by Joshua Hammond and James Morrison

 * Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion, no matter where it is exercised. Usually it implies some risk — especially in new undertakings. Courage to initiate something and to keep it going, pioneering an adventurous spirit to blaze new ways, often, in our land of opportunity.
 * As quoted in The Magic of Teamwork (1997) by Pat Williams

 * Until a character becomes a personality it cannot be believed. Without personality, the character may do funny or interesting things, but unless people are able to identify themselves with the character, its actions will seem unreal. And without personality, a story cannot ring true to the audience.
 * As quoted in Seven Minutes : The Life and Death of the American Animated Cartoon (1998) by Norman M. Klein. p. 48

 * All right. I'm corny. But I think there's just about a-hundred-and-forty-million people in this country that are just as corny as I am.
 * As quoted in The Magic Kingdom : Walt Disney and the American Way of Life (2001) by Steven Watts, p. 401

 * What are you doing with a car here in 1860?
 * To a company publicist at Frontierland in Disneyland, As quoted in Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service (Disney Editions, 2001) p. 62

 * When we do fantasy, we must not lose sight of reality.
 * As quoted in Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service (Disney Editions, 2001) p. 102

 * For every laugh, there should be a tear.
 * As quoted in The New York Times (2 November 2001); also in The Victory Letters : Inspiration for the Human Race (2003) by Cheri Ruskus, p. 79

 * I don't believe there's a challenge anywhere in the world that's more important to people everywhere than finding solutions to the problems of our cities. But where do we begin — how do we start answering this great challenge? Well, we're convinced we must start answering the public need. And the need is not just for curing the old ills of old cities. We think the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and building a special kind of new community that will always be in a state of becoming. It will never cease to be a living blueprint of the future, where people actually live a life they can't find anywhere else in the world.
 * On EPCOT, quoted in Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando (2001) by Richard E. Foglesong, p. 67, and The Animated Man : A Life of Walt Disney (2007) by Michael Barrier

 * All we ever intended for him or expected of him was that he should continue to make people everywhere chuckle with him and at him. We didn't burden him with any social symbolism, we made him no mouthpiece for frustrations or harsh satire. Mickey was simply a little personality assigned to the purposes of laughter. .. I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether we be six or sixty. Call the child "innocence". The worst of us is not without innocence, although buried deeply it might be. In my work I try to reach and speak to that innocence, showing it the fun and joy of living; showing it that laughter is healthy; showing it that the human species, although happily ridiculous at times, is still reaching for the stars.
 * As quoted in A Walt Disney World Resort Outing : The Only Vacation Planning Guide Exclusively for Gay and Lesbian Travelers (2002) by Dann Hazel and Josh Fippen, p. 211

 * I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.
 * As quoted in Success (2003) by Ariel Books

 * We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us. .. They say I'm a conservative, but I consider myself a true liberal.
 * As quoted August 2004 in How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life by Pat Williams, Jim Denney, pg. 371

 * Mickey Mouse is, to me, a symbol of independence. He was a means to an end. He popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner. Born of necessity, the little fellow literally freed us of immediate worry. He provided the means for expanding our organization to its present dimensions and for extending the medium of cartoon animation toward new entertainment levels. He spelled production liberation for us.
 * Quoted in A Walt Disney World Resort Outing : The Only Vacation Planning Guide Exclusively for Gay and Lesbian Travelers (2002) by Dann Hazel and Josh Fippen, p. 211, and Organisation And Complexity : Using Complexity Science to Theorise Organisational Aliveness (2004) by Jacco van Uden, p. 43

 * We felt that the public, and especially the children, like animals that are cute and little. I think we are rather indebted to Charlie Chaplin for the idea. We wanted something appealing, and we thought of a tiny bit of a mouse that would have something of the wistfulness of Chaplin — a little fellow trying to do the best he could.
 * Stating that the development of the Mickey Mouse character was inspired by Charlie Chaplin's character "the Tramp", as quoted in How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004) by Pat Williams and Jim Denney, p. 52

 * I believe in being an innovator.
 * As quoted in Cult of the Mouse : Can We Stop Corporate Greed From Killing Innovation in America? (2004) by Henry M. Caroselli, p. 94

 * Somehow, I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. The special secret it seems to me is summarized in four C's. They are Curiosity, Courage, Confidence and Constancy. And the greatest of all is Confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.
 * As quoted in Perceive This! : How to Get Everything You Want Out of Life by Changing Your Perceptions (2004) by Kevin A. Martin, Ch. 9, No Bar Too High!, p. 64

 * All you've got to do is own up to your ignorance honestly, and you'll find people who are eager to fill your head with information.
 * As quoted by Mike Strickland, Director of Photographers at Walt Disney, Co. in Power Marketing for Wedding and Portrait Photographers (2004) by Mitche Graf, p. 19

 * We like to have a point of view in our stories, not an obvious moral, but a worthwhile theme. … All we are trying to do is give the public good entertainment. That is all they want.
 * As quoted in The Gospel According to Disney : Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (2004) by Mark I. Pinsky, p. 2

 * Faith I have, in myself, in humanity, in the worthwhileness of the pursuits in entertainment for the masses. But wide awake, not blind faith, moves me. My operations are based on experience, thoughtful observation and warm fellowship with my neighbors at home and around the world.
 * As quoted in The Gospel According to Disney : Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (2004) by Mark I. Pinsky, p. 20

 * I am interested in entertaining people, in bringing pleasure, particularly laughter, to others, rather than being concerned with "expressing" myself with obscure creative impressions.
 * Quoted in "The man behind 'The Magic Kingdom'" in The Gazette [Colorado Springs (7 May 2005)]

 * When I started on Disneyland, my wife used to say, "But why do you want to build an amusement park? They're so dirty." I told her that was just the point — mine wouldn't be.
 * As quoted in "The Rides of Passage" in Via magazine (July 2005)

 * Disneyland is something that will never be finished. It's something that I can keep developing. It will be a live, breathing thing that will need change. A picture is a thing, once you wrap it up and turn it over to Technicolor, you're through. Snow White is a dead issue with me. But I can change the park, because it's alive.
 * As quoted in "The Rides of Passage" in Via magazine (July 2005)

 * Fantasy, if it's really convincing, can't become dated, for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time. In this new dimension, whatever it is, nothing corrodes or gets run down at the heel or gets to look ridiculous like, say, the celluloid collar or the bustle.
 * As quoted in "The Rides of Passage" in Via magazine (July 2005)

 * Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive. This facility makes it the most versatile and explicit means of communication yet devised for quick mass appreciation.
 * As quoted in OpenGL Shading Language (2006) by Randi J. Rost, p. 411

 * Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
 * As quoted in the ending credits of the movie Meet the Robinsons (2007)

 * Animation offers a medium of story telling and visual entertainment which can bring pleasure and information to people of all ages everywhere in the world.
 * As quoted in "COSI exhibit explores world of cartoons" by Jeffrey Zupanic in The Review (2 August 2007)

 * I always felt that Uncle Remus should be played by a living person, as should also the young boy to whom Harris' old Negro philosopher relates his vivid stories of the Briar Patch. Several tests in previous pictures, especially in The Three Caballeros, were encouraging in the way living action and animation could be dovetailed. Finally, months ago, we 'took our foot in hand,' in the words of Uncle Remus, and jumped into our most venturesome but also more pleasurable undertaking.
 * As quoted in "The Movie: Background" at Song of the South.net

Deeds Rather Than Words (1963)

 * Essay contributed to Faith Is a Star (1963) edited by Roland Gammon

 * Every person has his own ideas of the act of praying for God's guidance, tolerance, and mercy to fulfill his duties and responsibilities. My own concept of prayer is not as a plea for special favors nor as a quick palliation for wrongs knowingly committed. A prayer, it seems to me, implies a promise as well as a request; at the highest level, prayer not only is a supplication for strength and guidance, but also becomes an affirmation of life and thus a reverent praise of God.

 * Deeds rather than words express my concept of the part religion should play in everyday life. I have watched constantly that in our movie work the highest moral and spiritual standards are upheld, whether it deals with fable or with stories of living action.

 * I don't believe in playing down to children, either in life or in motion pictures. I didn't treat my own youngsters like fragile flowers, and I think no parent should. Children are people, and they should have to reach to learn about things, to understand things, just as adults have to reach if they want to grow in mental stature. Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil, and that is what our pictures attempt to do.

 * The American child is a highly intelligent human being — characteristically sensitive, humorous, open-minded, eager to learn, and has a strong sense of excitement, energy, and healthy curiosity about the world in which he lives. Lucky indeed is the grown-up who manages to carry these same characteristics into adult life. It usually makes for a happy and successful individual.

 * I have long felt that the way to keep children out of trouble is to keep them interested in things. Lecturing to children is no answer to delinquency. Preaching won't keep youngsters out of trouble, but keeping their minds occupied will.

 * To me, today, at age sixty-one, all prayer, by the humble or highly placed, has one thing in common: supplication for strength and inspiration to carry on the best human impulses which should bind us together for a better world. Without such inspiration, we would rapidly deteriorate and finally perish. But in our troubled time, the right of men to think and worship as their conscience dictates is being sorely pressed. We can retain these privileges only by being constantly on guard and fighting off any encroachment on these precepts. To retreat from any of the principles handed down by our forefathers, who shed their blood for the ideals we still embrace, would be a complete victory for those who would destroy liberty and justice for the individual.

EPCOT promotional film (1966)

 * The last film which Disney made; first publicly presented at a press conference in Winter Haven, Florida (2 February 1967); also quoted in Vinyl Leaves : Walt Disney World and America (1992) by Stephen M. Fjellman, p. 114

 * Here in Florida … we have something special we never enjoyed at Disneyland — the blessing of size. There's enough land here to hold all the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine.

 * The most exciting and by far the most important part of our Florida Project — in fact, the heart of everything we'll be doing in Disney World — will be our Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow! We call it EPCOT.

 * EPCOT will be an experimental prototype community of tomorrow that will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise.

The Quotable Walt Disney (2001)

 * "The Quotable Walt Disney" compiled by Dave Smith

 * Actually, if you could see close in my eyes, the American flag is waving in both of them and up my spine is growing this red, white and blue stripe.

 * Childishness? I think it's the equivalent of never losing your sense of humor. I mean, yes there's a certain something that you retain. It's the equivalent of not getting so stuffy that you can't laugh at others.

 * I think what I want Disneyland to be most of all is a happy place — a place where adults and children can experience together some of the wonders of life, of adventure, and feel better because of it.

 * Disneyland is a work of love. We didn't go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.

 * Disneyland is like a piece of clay: If there is something I don't like, I'm not stuck with it. I can reshape and revamp.

 * Disneyland is often called a magic kingdom because it combines fantasy and history, adventure and learning, together with every variety of recreation and fun designed to appeal to everyone.

 * Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.
 * A similar quotes about EPCOT and other similar statements about Disneyland also exist.

 * Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination. But just as a muscle grows flabby with disuse, so the bright imagination of a child pales in later years if he ceases to exercise it.

 * It's a mistake not to give people a chance to learn to depend on themselves while they are young.

 * Laughter is America's most important export.

 * In my view, wholesome pleasure, sport, and recreation are as vital to this nation as productive work and should have a large share in the national budget.

 * That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be twelve years old. They patronize; they treat children as inferiors. I won't do that. I'll temper a story, yes. But I won't play down, and I won't patronize.
 * From Walt Disney World: Then, Now, & Forever: Too many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be 12 years old. They patronize, they treat children as inferiors. Well, I won't do that. I won't do that. I'll temper a story, yes. But I won't play down, and I won't patronize.

 * To the youngsters of today, I say believe in the future, the world is getting better; there still is plenty of opportunity. Why, would you believe it, when I was a kid I thought it was already too late for me to make good at anything.

How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004)

 * How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004) by Pat Williams

 * I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter. With the laugh comes the tears and in developing motion pictures or television shows, you must combine all the facts of life — drama, pathos and humor.
 * Ch. 1 : It All Started with a Boy, p. 16

 * All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them.
 * Ch. 3 : Imagination Unlimited, p. 63; Unsourced variant: All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.

 * Leadership means that a group, large or small, is willing to entrust authority to a person who has shown judgement, wisdom, personal appeal, and proven competence.
 * Ch. 4 : Animated Leadership, p. 102
 * Unsourced variant: Leadership implies a strong faith or belief in something. It may be a cause, an institution, a political or business operation in which a man takes active direction by virtue of his faith and self-assurance. And, of course, leadership means a group, large or small, which is willing to entrust such authority to a man — or a woman — in judgment, wisdom, personal appeal and proven competence.

 * Do a good job. You don't have to worry about the money; it will take care of itself. Just do your best work — then try to trump it.
 * Ch. 6 : Triumph to Tragedy

 * A man should never neglect his family for business.
 * Ch. 14 : The Real Walt Disney, p. 361

 * Art was always a means to an end with me. You get an idea, and you just can't wait. Once you've started, then you're in there with the punches flying. There's plenty of trouble, but you can handle it. You can't back out. It gets you down once in a while, but it's exciting. Our whole business is exciting.'''
 * Ch. 15 : Walt Lives!, p. 367

 * I believe firmly in the efficacy of religion, in its powerful influence on a person's whole life. It helps immeasurably to meet the storms and stress of life and keep you attuned to the Divine inspiration. Without inspiration, we would perish.
 * Ch. 15 : Walt Lives!, p. 379

Misattributed

 * "Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever."

 * You can't just let nature run wild.
 * Walter Joseph Hickel, on the killing of wolves, as quoted in Living With Wolves (2005) by James Dutcher. p. 8

 * If you can dream it, you can do it.
 * Tom Fitzgerald, a Disney Imagineer, as quoted in Ask Dave by Dave Smith (27 February - 12 March 2013):
 * Despite its frequent publication, that is not a Walt Disney quote. We checked with Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald for the definitive answer: "I am very familiar with that line because I wrote it! It was written specifically for the Horizons attraction at Epcot and used in numerous ways, from dialogue in the ride to graphics. I find it amusing that the Science of Imagineering DVD series attributes it to Walt Disney, but I guess I should be flattered."
 * Disney Trivia from the Vault (2012) by Dave Smith, p. 243

Quotes about Disney or his work

 * I have seen children brought to me in terrible panics, and interestingly enough most often the Walt Disney movies which do depict very disturbing mother figures. The mothers are always killed or sent to the insane asylums in Walt Disney movies. They are among my experience for Frankenstein, the worst movies in the world for children who have had a problems of the loss of a parent.
 * Lauretta Bender, 1954 Senate Subcommittee Hearings into Juvenile Delinquency, "Testimony of Dr. Lauretta Bender, senior psychiatrist, Belleveu hospital Newyork N.Y."; qtd. in The Secret History of Wonder Woman (2014) by Jill Lepore, p. 270

 * So I took my drawings out there and did an interview and I got accepted right away. They said, "Come to work." So I went to work. Walt was still alive then, and he was working on two things; Sleeping Beauty and building Disneyland. Disneyland occupied, probably, about 80% of his time and we got about 20% of it. I remember the meetings and I remember meeting him. I remember what it was like when what we were building was a film that actually had some soul. A piece of artwork That's what we were filming. It wasn't about "make something quick for the marketers."
 * Don Bluth Interview with Don Bluth, IGN (2000)

 * When I look at the early days when Walt was really in command of the studio, the pictures did not look like each other at all. They were all different. Bambi doesn't look like Snow White. Snow White doesn't look like Pinnochio. Then Dumbo comes along and that's its own movie and then Fantasia what's that? Each one of these was reaching for something. They all followed the rules of good storytelling.
 * I remember once that Walt said something to the effect that, "I'll make the picture; and when I make the picture then you marketing guys can have it." Nowadays, it's the marketing department telling you what they want.
 * Don Bluth Interview with Don Bluth, IGN (2000)

 * Walt wanted to communicate with a global audience. … He wanted to communicate with a multicultural audiance.
 * John Culhane, as quoted in The Gospel According to Disney : Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (2004) by Mark I. Pinsky, p. 4

 * (Ha!) You belong to Disney, which means you stay busy Cranking out magic and assembly line whimsy! Artists begging me to stop; I won't let 'em! Labor conditions in my shop? I don't sweat 'em! I'm powerful enough to make a mouse gigantic! With only 3 circles, I dominate the planet! (Ha!) Clearly, there's nobody near me! I'm owning this battle! In fact, I own this whole series! So hop on my Steamboat, boys, but don't rock it! I'll put on a smile on your face and green in your pocket! You'll be safe and insured when you're under my employ! Now, look at it! Gaze upon my empire of joy!
 * Epic Rap Battles of History, Stan Lee vs. Jim Henson written by Peter Shukoff (aka Nice Peter) and Lloyd Ahlquist

 * Disney, for all his pining for a perfect world (embodied in his depiction of a turn-of-the-century Main Street), did not entirely ignore the authentic. He did kill Bambi's mom, remember. He did permit, perhaps encourage, the occasional sense of danger.
 * Richard Hoffer, in "The Rides of Passage" in Via magazine (July 2005)

 * Disney World has acquired by now something of the air of a national shrine. American parents who don't take their children there sense obscurely that they have failed in some fundamental way, like Muslims who never made it to Mecca.
 * Simon Hoggart, in America: A User's Guide (1990) Ch. 9

 * There is a relationship between cartooning and people Miró and Picasso which may not be understood by the cartoonist, but it definitely is related even in the early Disney.
 * Roy Lichtenstein, as quoted in Lichtenstein (1972) by John Coplan

 * He was a very religious man, but he didn't believe you had to go to church to be religious. … He respected every religion. There wasn't any that he ever criticized. He wouldn't even tell religious jokes.
 * Sharon Disney Lund, his adopted daughter, as quoted in How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004) by Pat Williams, p. 381

 * He definitely believed in God — very definitely. But I think he'd had it [with organized religion] as a child. He never went to church.
 * Diane Disney Miller, his daughter, as quoted in How to Be Like Walt : Capturing the Magic Every Day of Your Life (2004) by Pat Williams, p. 380

 * That's really an interesting thought because one of things Walt was always complaining about – and I think that's one of the reasons Walt continually pushed for innovation at his studio – was that he always wanted to make things better, he wanted to make new things possible. I think Walt would have been quite impressed with the new digital technology because he would have a brand new tool that he could use in amazing ways. So while on one hand we've lost something as we move forward, I do recognise that things will always be changing. Animation changed from the 1930s to the 40s, on up through the 50s and 60s; there has always been new technologies being created, enabling us to make a better product.
 * Floyd Norman Hard Cel an interview with Disney animator Floyd Norman

 * Most family historians agree that Elias's authoritarian and sometimes cruel nature — and propensity for whipping and even beating his young sons — played a role in turning Walt and Roy against the church. The brothers' ambivalent relationship with organized religion is well documented, as is their strong, personal faith in God.
 * Mark I. Pinsky, in The Gospel According to Disney : Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (2004), p. 17

 * Despite the absence of a unifying "story" in Fantasia, there are along the way images and sequences with implications and messages — inspirational and disturbing, subtle and strong, scientific and pagan and Christian — all worth noting.
 * Mark I. Pinsky, in The Gospel According to Disney : Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (2004), Ch. 5, "Fantasia (1940): The Sorcerer's Mascot", p. 33

 * Take the serious side of Disney, the Confucian side of Disney. It's in having taken an ethos … where you have the values of courage and tenderness asserted in a way that everybody can understand. You have got an absolute genius there. You have got a greater correlation of nature than you have had since the time of Alexander the Great.
 * Ezra Pound, in Writers at Work, Second Series (1963) edited by George Plimpton

 * Walt was a strange kind of guy, but he’s still by all odds the most important person that animation has ever known. Anybody who knows anything about animation knows that the things that happened at the Disney Studio were the backbone that upheld everything else. Disney created a climate that enabled all of us to exist
 * Warner Bros animator Chuck Jones, quoted here

 * Marx was fortunate to have been born eighty years before Walt Disney. Disney also promised a child's paradise and unlike Marx, delivered on his promise.
 * John Ralston Saul, in Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West (1992), Ch. 2

 * He probably did more to heal, or at least soothe troubled human spirits than all the psychiatrists in the world.
 * Eric Sevareid, on CBS Evening News, as quoted in The Gospel According to Disney : Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (2004) by Mark I. Pinsky, p. 21

 * Walt considered himself religious yet he never went to church. The heavy dose of religiosity in his childhood discouraged him; he especially disliked sanctimonious preachers. But he admired an respected every religion, and his belief in God never wavered.
 * Bob Thomas, in Walt Disney : An American Original (1976; 1994)

title: Walt Disney


text:
Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition Sinfonia for voices and orchestra) and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.

Quotes

 * A composer's awareness of the plurality of functions of his own tools forms the basis for his responsibility just as, in everyday life, every man's responsibility begins with the recognition of the multiplicity of human races, conditions, needs, and ideals. I would go as far as to say (as my anger comes back) that any attempt to codify musical reality into a kind of imitation grammar (I refer mainly to the efforts associated with the Twelve-Tone System) is a brand of fetishism which shares with Fascism and racism the tendency to reduce live processes to immobile, labeled objects, the tendency to deal with formalities rather than substance. Claude Lévi-Strauss describes (though to illustrate a different point) a captain at sea, his ship reduced to a frail raft without sails, who, by enforcing a meticulous protocol on his crew, is able to distract them from nostalgia for a safe harbor and from the desire for a destination.
 * "The Composer on His Work : Meditation on a Twelve-Tone Horse", in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music : A Continuing Symposium (1996) edited by Richard Kostelanetz and Joseph Darby, ISBN 0-02-864581-2, p. 169

 * Alas, this industrialized twelve-tone horse, dull on the outside and empty inside, constantly being perfected and dragged to a new Troy in shadow of an ideological war long since fought and won by responsible minds like Schoenberg, with neither systems nor scholarship for armor!
 * "The Composer on His Work : Meditation on a Twelve-Tone Horse", in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music : A Continuing Symposium (1996) edited by Richard Kostelanetz and Joseph Darby

 * Music is everything that one listens to with the intention of listening to music.
 * Two Interviews (1985), ISBN 0714528293

title: Luciano Berio


text:
Twelve-tone technique

Twelve-tone technique (also dodecaphony) is a system of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg.

Quotes

 * A composer's awareness of the plurality of functions of his own tools forms the basis for his responsibility just as, in everyday life, every man's responsibility begins with the recognition of the multiplicity of human races, conditions, needs, and ideals. I would go as far as to say (as my anger comes back) that any attempt to codify musical reality into a kind of imitation grammar (I refer mainly to the efforts associated with the Twelve-Tone System) is a brand of fetishism which shares with Fascism and racism the tendency to reduce live processes to immobile, labeled objects, the tendency to deal with formalities rather than substance. Claude Lévi-Strauss describes (though to illustrate a different point) a captain at sea, his ship reduced to a frail raft without sails, who, by enforcing a meticulous protocol on his crew, is able to distract them from nostalgia for a safe harbor and from the desire for a destination.
 * Luciano Berio, in "The Composer on His Work : Meditation on a Twelve-Tone Horse", in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music : A Continuing Symposium (1996) edited by Richard Kostelanetz and Joseph Darby, ISBN 0-02-864581-2, p. 169

 * Alas, this industrialized twelve-tone horse, dull on the outside and empty inside, constantly being perfected and dragged to a new Troy in shadow of an ideological war long since fought and won by responsible minds like Schoenberg, with neither systems nor scholarship for armor!
 * Luciano Berio, in "The Composer on His Work : Meditation on a Twelve-Tone Horse", in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music : A Continuing Symposium (1996) edited by Richard Kostelanetz and Joseph Darby

 * "Collections of all twelve pitch classes can be differentiated from one another only by assigning an order to the pitch classes or by partitioning them into mutually exclusive sub-collections. The ordering principle is the basis of the twelve-tone system formulated by Schoenberg, the partitioning principle the basis of the system formulated around the same time by Hauer.  In Schoenberg's compositional practice, however, the concept of a segmental pitch-class content is represented as well, as a basis for the association of paired inversionally related set forms.  On the relation between Schoenberg and Hauer, see Bryan R. Simms, "Who First Composed Twelve-Tone Music, Schoenberg or Hauer?" Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute X/2 (November 1987)."
 * George Perle (1990). The Listening Composer, p. 101n2. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0520069919.

Attributed

 * Phillip Glass on The School of Paris as "crazy creepy people writing crazy creepy music."

title: Twelve-tone technique