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Eugène Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix (April 26 1798 – August 13 1863) was a French painter, one of the leading artists of Romanticism in Europe of the nineteenth century.

Quotes of Delacroix

 * sorted chronologically, by date of the quotes of Eugène Delacroix

1815 - 1830

 * For a man who is sensitive to nature, happiness consists in expressing nature. How infinitely happy, then, is the man who reflects nature like a mirror without being aware of it, who does the thing for love of it and not from any pretensions to take first place. This noble unself-consciousness is what we find in all truly great men, in the founders of the arts. I picture the great Poussin, in his retreat, delighting in the study of the human heart.. ..I picture Raphael in the arms of his mistress, turning from La Fornarina to paint his Saint Cecilia..  ..I am only too well aware that I am far not only from their divine spirit, but even from their modest simplicity...
 * Quote in a letter to Delacroix' friend J. B. Pierret, 23 October 1818, from the Forest of Boixe; as quoted in Eugene Delacroix – selected letters 1813 – 1863, ed. and transl. Jean Stewart, art Works MFA publications, Museum of Fine Art Boston, 2001, p. 43

 * In the midst of the activities that distract me [shooting partridges in the woods], when I remember a few lines of poetry, when I recall some sublime painting, my spirit is roused to indignation and spurns the vain sustenance of the common herd. And in the same way, when I think of those I love, my soul clings eagerly to the elusive trace of these cherished ideas. Yes, I am sure of it, great friendship is like great genius, and the remembrance of a great and enduring friendship is like that of great works of genius... What a life would be that of two great poets who loved each other as we do! That would be too great for human kind.
 * Quote in a letter to his friend J. B. Pierret, 18 September 1818, from the Forest of Boixe; as quoted in ''Eugene Delacroix – selected letters 1813 – 1863”, ed. and translation Jean Stewart, art Works MFA publications, Museum of Fine Art Boston, 2001, p. 41

 * ..The movement and the rustle of the branches [in the forest, while losing his attention for chasing] delights me. The clouds float past and I lift my head to follow their flight, or think about some madrigal, when a slight sound, which has been going on for a little while, rouses me slowly from my dream.; at least I turn my head and see, to my grief, a little white scut just disappearing into the thicket...
 * Quote in a letter to Delacroix' friend Achille Peron - 16 September 1819, Paris; as quoted in Eugene Delacroix – selected letters 1813 – 1863, ed. and translation Jean Stewart, art Works MFA publications, Museum of Fine Art Boston, 2001, p. 51

 * I am thinking of painting for the coming Salon a picture [probably the large and unfinished painting 'Botzaris' by Delacroix] whose subject I shall take from the recent wars between the Turks and the Greeks. I think that.. .. this would be a way to attract some attention. I should therefore like you to send me some drawings of the country round Naples, a few quick sketches of seascapes or picturesque mountain sites...  Why not also send a few of the studies you have in your portfolio? You don’t need them while you are out there, and it would oblige you to make some more of them.
 * Quote in his letter to Charles Soulier - 15 September 1821, Paris; as quoted in Eugene Delacroix – selected letters 1813 – 1863, ed. and translation Jean Stewart, art Works MFA publications, Museum of Fine Art Boston, 2001, p. 105

 * I must try to live austerely, as Plato did.. .I need to live a more solitary life..  .Valuable ideas beyond number miscarry because I have no continuity in my thoughts..  ..The things which we experience for ourselves when we are on our own are stronger by far, and fresher... [his painting 'The Massacre at Chios' was half done when he wrote this note].
 * autobiographical note in Delacroix' Journal, March 1824; as quoted in Eugene Delacroix – selected letters 1813 – 1863, ed. and translation Jean Stewart, art Works MFA publications, Museum of Fine Art Boston, 2001, p. 9

 * I have seen here [in London] a play on Faust, the most diabolic thing imaginable. The Mephistopheles is a masterpiece of caricature and intelligence. It is Goethe's 'Faust', but adapted; the principle features are preserved. They have made it into an opera mixed with comedy and with everything that is most sombre. The scene in the church is given with the priest's chanting and the organ in the distance. Impossible to carry an effect further, in the theater.
 * Quote in a letter (written in London, England) to J. B. Pierret, 18 June 1825; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 67

 * I am not doing very much as yet. I am put out by this manner of the Salon. They will end by persuading me that I have produced a veritable fiasco. But I am not yet entirely convinced of it. Some say it is a complete downfall; that the 'Death of Sardanaplus' [Delacroix painted this painting in 1827 after the drama, written by Byron] is that of the Romantics, inasmuch as Romantics do exist; others merely say that I am an 'inganno' [a fraud].. ..So I say they are all imbeciles, that the picture has its qualities and its defects, and that while there are some things I could wish to be better, there are not a few others that I think myself fortunate to have created, and which I wish them.
 * Quote in a letter to Delacroix' friend Charles Soulier, 11 March 1828; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, pp. 67-68

 * Well! A general invasion: Hamlet rears his hideous head, Othello is preparing his dagger, that essentially murderous weapon, subversive of all good theatrical government. What more, who knows.. .King Lear is to tear his eyes before a French audience. It should be a point of dignity for the Academy to declare that all imports of this kind are incompatible with public morals. Farewell good taste! In any case, equip yourself with a stout coat of mail under your evening dress. Beware of the Classicist's daggers, or rather, sacrifice yourself valiantly for our barbarian pleasure..
 * quote on Hamlet, in a letter to Victor Hugo, 1828; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock -, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 67

 * I have started work on a modern subject, a scene on the barricades.. .I may not have fought for my country but at least I shall have painted for her.. [quote is referring to his famous painting 'Liberty Leading the People', 1830]
 * Quote in an unpublished letter to Delacroix' brother, 18 October 1830, but mentioned by M. Sérullaz; as quoted in Eugene Delacroix – selected letters 1813 – 1863, ed. and translation Jean Stewart, art Works MFA publications, Museum of Fine Art Boston, 2001, p. 13

Delacroix' 'Journal' (1822 – 1824)

 * Quotes from: The Journal of Eugene Delacroix : A Selection (1980) ed. Hubert Wellington, translated by Lucy Norton, Cornell University Press ISBN 0-8014-9196-7

 * The contour should come last, only a very experienced eye can place it rightly.
 * Introduction (p. xxiv)

 * Of late, men seem to have been possessed by an incomprehensible impulse to strip themselves of everything with which nature has endowed them in order to make them superior to the beasts of burden. A philosopher is a gentleman who sits down four times a day to the best meals he can possibly obtain, and who considers that virtue, glory and noble sentiments should be indulged in only when they do not interfere with those four indispensable functions and all the rest of his little personal comforts. At this rate, a mule is a better philosopher by far, because in addition to all this he puts up with blows and hardship without complaint.
 * Quote, 29 April 1824 (p. 35)

 * There is no merit in being truthful when one is truthful by nature, or rather when one can be nothing else; it is a gift, like poetry or music. But it needs courage to be truthful after carefully considering the matter, unless a kind of pride is involved; for example, the man who says to himself, "I am ugly," and then says, "I am ugly" to his friends, lest they should think themselves the first to make the discovery.
 * Quote, 6 June 1824 (p. 45)

1831 - 1863

 * ..that famous idea of 'beauty', which is, as everybody says, the goal of the arts. If it is their only goal, what becomes of the men like Rubens, Rembrandt, and all the northern natures generally, who prefer other qualities? Demand purity, In a word beauty.. .In general the men of the north tend less in that direction. The Italian prefers ornament.
 * Quote 1847, as cited in Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 229

 * One has to see a painter in his own place to get an idea of his worth. I went back there [to Corot's studio, after the official exhibition] and I appreciate in a new light the paintings that I had seen in the Museum and that had struck me as middling.. .He told me to go a bit ahead of myself, abandoning myself to whatever might come; this is how he works most of the time..  .Corot delves deeply into a subject; ideas come to him and he adds while working; it's the right approach.
 * Quote from entry of Delacroix's Journal, 14 March, 1847; as cited in Selected writings on Art and Artists, transl. P. E. Charvet – Cambridge University Press, Archive, 1981, p. 150, note 44
 * This visit of Delacroix was the beginning of an important friendship

 * I see in painters prose writers and poets. Rhyme, measure, and the turning of verses, which is indispensable and which gives them so much vigor, are analogous to the hidden symmetry, to the equilibrium at once wise and inspired, which governs the meeting or separation of lines and spaces, the echoes of color, etc... ..but the beauty of verse does not consist of exactitude in obeying rules..  .It resides in a thousand secret harmonies and conventions which make up the power of poetry and which go straight to the imagination; in just the same way the happy choice of forms and the right understanding of their relationship act on the imagination in the art of painting.
 * Quote in Delacroix's Journal of 19 September 1847; as cited in Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 229

 * Criticism, like so many other things, keeps to what has been said before and does not get out of the rut. This business of the 'Beautiful' some see it in curved lines, some in straight lines, but all persist in seeing it as a matter of line. I am now looking out of my window and I can see the most lovely countryside; lines just do not come into my head: the lark is singing, the river sparkles with a thousand diamonds, the leaves are whispering; where, I should like to know, are the lines that produce delicious impressions like these? They refuse to see proportion or harmony except between two lines: all else they regard as chaos, and the dividers alone are judge.
 * Quote from a letter to Léon Peisse, 15 July 1949; as cited in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 68
 * this quote refers to Delacroix's refusal to use the line as boundary of the form in his painting art, as a too sharp dividing force in the picture - in contrast to the famous classical painter in Paris then, Ingres

 * If you make the light dominate too much, the breadth of the planes leads to the absence of half tints, and consequently to discoloration; the opposite abuse is harmful above all in big compositions destined to be seen from a distance, like ceilings, etc. In the latter form of painting, Paul Veronese goes beyond Rubens through the simplicity of his local color and his breadth in handling the light.. .Veronese had greatly to strengthen his local color in order that it should not appear discolored when immunized by the very broad light he threw on it.
 * Quote in Delacroix's Journal of 1850; as cited in Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, pp. 230 – 231

 * Perhaps we shall one day find that Rembrandt is a greater painter than Raphael. I write down this blasphemy which will cause the hair of the school-men to stand on end without taking sides.
 * Quote in Delacroix's Journal of 1851; as cited in The Rise of the Cult of Rembrandt: Reinventing an Old Master in Nineteenth-Century France (2004) by Alison McQueen, p. 102

 * One should always be desiring or hoping for something. When one can hope for that which one desires, one enjoys the greatest happiness of which our thinking apparatus is capable. To obtain what one has been desiring is the first step to the depths of sadness and even pain, from which one can never emerge. The sea still enchants me; I linger for three or four hours at a time on the jetty or at the edge of the cliffs. Impossible to tear oneself away. If I could lead such a life for a certain time, coupling it with some interesting occupation, I should enjoy excellent health.
 * Quote from his letter to Madame de Forget, Dieppe, 13 September 1852; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 68
 * Delacroix's quote refers to his stay at the coast at Dieppe

 * To be like other people is the real condition of happiness. Sea air and diversions are producing this miraculous effect upon me. What you need is just the contrary. You are dying of boredom from what most mortals regard as bliss – having nothing to do. You need the treatment opposite to mine; I am not joking in the very least: one has to be compelled to some task, driven to it: anyone who is not a drunken brute must achieve boredom at all costs unless he can discover the secret of a taste for amusements.. .These reflections..  ..are not likely to comfort you, but they will change your frame of mind for a few minutes. I shall probably be back in Paris on Thursday...
 * In: a letter to Madame de Forget, Dieppe, 13 September 1852; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 68

 * How do things stand, now, if the subject contains a large element of pathos?.. .Consider such an interesting subject as the scene taking place around the bed of a dying woman, for example; seize and render that ensemble by photography, if that is possible [photography was a very recent invention in Paris ca. 1853, a.o. by the photographer Nadar ]: it will be falsified in a thousand ways. The reason is that, according to the degree of your imagination, the subject will appear to you more or less beautiful, you will be more or less the poet in that scene in which you are an actor; you see only what is interesting, whereas the instrument puts in everything.
 * In Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 233
 * quote circa 1853, in which Delacroix relates painting to theater from the view of the visitor / spectator

 * The original idea, the sketch, which is so to speak the egg or embryo of the idea, is usually far from being complete; it contains everything, which is simply a mixing together of all parts. Just the thing that makes of this sketch the essential expression of the idea is not the suppression of details, but their complete subordination to the big lines, which are, before all else, to create the impression. The greatest difficulty therefore is that of returning in the picture to that effacing of the details which, however, make up the composition, the web and the woof of the picture.
 * quote in 1854, in Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, pp. 234 – 235

 * He [ Michelangelo ] did not know a single one of the feelings of man, not one of his passions. When he was making an arm or a leg, it seems as if he were thinking only of that arm or leg and was not giving the slightest consideration to the way it relates with the action of the figure to which it belongs, much less to the action of the picture as a whole.. .Therein lies his great merit; he brings a sense of the grand and the terrible into even an isolated limb.
 * quote in 1854, on the Italian Renaissance artist [[w:Michelangelo|Michelangelo, as cited in Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries'', ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 235

 * After leaving [the International Exposition in Paris, with a lot of new machines], I went to see Courbet's exhibition; he has reduced the admission to ten cents. I stay there alone for nearly an hour and discover that the picture [ 'L'atélier' / the Painter's Studio - 1855] of his which they refused [for exposing on the official Salon in Paris ] is a masterpiece; I simply could not tear myself away from the sight of it.
 * Quote in Delacroix's Journal of 3 August, 1855; as quoted in Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 236

 * Constable, an admirable man, is one of England's glories. I have already told you about him and about the impression he had made on me when I was making 'The massacre at Chios'. He and Turner were real reformers. They broke out of the rut of traditional landscape painting. Our School [ French Romanticism ], which today abounds in men of talent in this field, profited greatly by their example. Géricault [first leader of French Romanticism, followed by Delacroix after his early death] came back in a daze from seeing one of the great landscapes Constable sent us.
 * Quote from Delacroix' letter to Théophile Silvestre, Paris, 31 December 1858; as quoted in Eugene Delacroix – selected letters 1813 – 1863, ed. and translation Jean Stewart, art Works MFA publications, Museum of Fine Art Boston, 2001, p. 352

 * I did not come to know part II of 'Faust' until long after I made my illustrations, and even then only very superficially. It struck me as an ill-digested work, of little interest from the literary standpoint, but among those most calculated to inspire a painter owing to the mixture of characters and styles it contains.. .You asked what gave me the first idea of the Faust lithographs. I remember that about 1821 I saw the designs made by Retch [ Retzsch]  and found them rather striking; but it was above all the performance of a dramatic opera on Faust that I saw in London in 1825 which stirred me to do something on the subject. The actor..  ..was a perfect Mephistopheles; he was fat, but that in no way diminished his nimbleness and his Satanic character.
 * Quote in Delacroix' letter to Philippe Burty, 1 March 1862; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 76
 * Delacroix describes the source of his series Faust lithographs

 * Rubens, when past fifty years of age, used the time he did not give to the business of his mission to the King of Spain in copying the superb Italian originals he found in Madrid.. .Accuracy of the eye, sureness of the hand, the art of carrying the picture on from the indications of the lay-in to the rounding out of the work, and so many other matters which are all of primary importance, demand application at every moment, and the practice of a lifetime.
 * Quote in Journal of Delacroix, Crown Publishers, New York, pp. 543-544

Delacroix' 'Journal' (1847 – 1863)

 * many (but not all) quotes from: The Journal of Eugene Delacroix : A Selection (1980) edited by Hubert Wellington, translated by Lucy Norton, Cornell University Press - ISBN 0-8014-9196-7

 * The Natural History Museum is open to the public on Tuesdays and Fridays. Elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus; extraordinary animals! Rubens rendered them marvellously. I had a feeling of happiness as soon as I entered the place and the further I went the stronger it grew. I felt my whole being rise above commonplaces and trivialities and the petty worries of my daily life.
 * 19 January 1847 (p. 55)

 * I believe it safe to say that all progress must lead, not to further progress, but finally to the negation of progress, a return to the point of departure.
 * 23 April 1849 (p. 97)

 * Proportion applies to sculpture as to painting; perspective determines the contour; chiaroscuro gives relief through the disposition of lights and shadows in their relationship with the background; color gives the appearance of life.. .The colorists, the men who unite all the phases of painting, have to establish, at once and from the beginning, everything that is proper and essential to their art. They have to mass things in with color, even as the sculptor does with clay, marble or stone; their sketch, like that of the sculptor, must also render proportion, perspective effect, and color.
 * 15 April 1851, as quoted in Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, pp. 230 – 231

 * Commonplace people have an answer for everything and nothing ever surprises them. They try to look as though they knew what you were about to say better than you did yourself, and when it is their turn to speak, they repeat with great assurance something that they have heard other people say, as though it were their own invention.
 * 25 February 1852 (p. 152)

 * The landscape [in the painting 'The Bathers', 1853, by Courbet ] is of an extraordinary vigor, but Courbet has done no more than enlarge a study exhibited there, near his large canvas; the conclusion is that the figures [the two bathers in the painting] were put in afterwards and without connection with their surroundings. This brings up the question of harmony between the accessories and the principal object, a thing lacking in the majority of great painters, [15 April 1853]
 * Quote from Delacroix' Journal, as quoted in Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 231
 * Delacroix comments here the painting 'The Bathers' of the French painter Courbet

 * Can any man say with certainty that he was happy at a particular moment of time which he remembers as being delightful? Remembering it certainly makes him happy, because he realizes how happy he could have been, but at the actual moment when the alleged happiness was occurring, did he really feel happy? He was like a man owning a piece of ground in which, unknown to himself, a treasure lay buried.
 * 28 April 1854 (p. 227)

 * The more I think about colour, the more convinced I become that this reflected half-tint is the principle that must predominate, because it is this that gives the true tone, the tone that constitutes the value, the thing that matters in giving life and character to the object. Light, to which the schools teach us to attach equal importance and which they place on the canvas at the same time as the half-tint and shadow, is really only an accident. Without grasping this principle, one cannot understand true colour, I mean the colour that gives the feeling of thickness and depth and of that essential difference that distinguishes one object from another.
 * 29 April 1854 (p. 228)

 * Perfect beauty implies perfect simplicity, a quality that at first sight does not arouse the emotions which we feel before gigantic works, objects whose very disproportion constitutes an element of beauty.
 * 7 September 1854 (p. 252)

 * They say that each generation inherits from those that have gone before; if this were so there would be no limit to man's improvements or to his power of reaching perfection. But he is very far from receiving intact that storehouse of knowledge which the centuries have piled up before him; he may perfect some inventions, but in others, he lags behind the originators, and a great many inventions have been lost entirely. What he gains on the one hand, he loses on the other.
 * 21 September 1854 (p. 256)

 * Delsarte tells me that Mozart stole outrageously from Galuppi, in the same way, I suppose, that Molière stole from anybody anywhere, if he found something work taking. I said that what was Mozart had not been stolen from Galuppi, or from anyone else for that matter.
 * 15 March 1855 (p. 270)

 * We should not allow ourselves to believe that writers like Poe have more imagination than those who are content with describing things as they really are. It is surely easier to invent striking situations in this way than to tread the beaten track which intelligent minds have followed throughout the centuries.
 * 6 April 1856 (p. 312)

 * We are told that Shakespeare's plays were generally performed in barns and that no great trouble was taken over the production. The constant changes of scene which, incidentally, seem the sign of a decadent art rather than one which is progressing, were shown by placards with the inscription: "A Forest," "A Prison," and so on. Within this conventional setting the onlooker's imagination was free to follow the actions of the various characters who were animated by passions drawn from nature, and that was enough for him. So-called innovations are gratefully seized on as an excuse for poverty of invention and in the same way, the long descriptive passages that so overburden modern novels are a sign of sterility, for it is obviously easier to describe a dress or the outward appearance of an object than to trace the subtle development of a character or portray the emotions of the heart.
 * 9 April 1856 (p. 313)

 * He Titian is the least mannered and consequently the most varied of artists. Mannered talents have but one bias, one usage only. They are more apt to follow the impulse of the hand than to control it. Those that are less mannered must be more varied, for they continually respond to genuine emotion.
 * 5 January 1857 (p. 326)

 * In every art we are always obliged to return to the accepted means of expression, the conventional language of the art. What is a black-and-white drawing but a convention to which the beholder has become so accustomed that with his mind's eye he sees a complete equivalent in the translation from nature?
 * 13 January 1857 (p. 334)

 * For his contemporaries, Racine was a romantic, but for every age he is classical, that is to say, he is faultless.
 * 13 January 1857 (p. 337)

 * Mythological subjects always new. Modern subjects difficult because of the absence of the nude and the wretchedness of modern costume.
 * 13 January 1857 (p. 338)

 * Painting, in the beginning, was a trade like any other. Some men became picture-makers as others became glaziers or carpenters. Painters painted shields, saddles and banners. The primitive painter was more of a craftsman than we are; he learned his trade superlatively well before he thought of letting himself go. The reverse is true today.
 * 13 January 1857 (p. 339)

 * Curiously enough, the Sublime is generally achieved through want of proportion.
 * 25 January 1857 (p. 345)

 * Nature creates unity even in the parts of a whole.
 * 25 January 1857 (p. 346)

 * The so-called conscientiousness of the great majority of painters is nothing but perfection laboriously applied to the art of being boring.
 * 25 January 1857 (p. 346)

 * Les artistes qui cherchent la perfection en tout sont ceux qui ne peuvent l'atteindre en aucune partie.
 * Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.
 * Quote, 14 March 1858, from Journal de Eugène Delacroix, book 3

 * They say that truth is naked. I cannot admit this for any but abstract truths; in the arts, all truths are produced by methods which show the hand of the artist.
 * 12 October 1859 (p. 388)

 * Weaknesses in men of genius are usually an exaggeration of their personal feeling; in the hands of feeble imitators they become the most flagrant blunders. Entire schools have been founded on misinterpretations of certain aspects of the masters. Lamentable mistakes have resulted from the thoughtless enthusiasm with which men have sought inspiration from the worst qualities of remarkable artists because they are unable to reproduce the sublime elements in their work.
 * 16 January 1860 (p. 391)

Quotes, undated

 * Nature is just a dictionary, you hunt in it for words.. ..you find in it the elements which make a phrase or a story; but nobody would regard a dictionary as a composition in the poetic sense of the term. Besides, nature is far from being always interesting from the point of view of the effect of the whole..  .If each detail is perfect in some way, the union of these details seldom gives an effect equivalent to that which arises, in the work of a great artist, from the total composition.
 * Delacroix, quoted by Paul Signac: in D'Eugene Delacroix au Neo-impressionnisme, Chap. I.; as quoted by John Rewald, in ''Georges Seurat', a monograph; Wittenborn and Compagny, New York, 1943. p.10 + note 15

Quotes about Eugene Delacroix

 * sorted chronologically, by date of the quotes about Eugène Delacroix

 * Delacroix, lac de sang hanté des mauvaises anges, Ombragés par un bois de sapins toujours vert, Où, sous un ciel chagrin, des fanfares étranges Passent, comme un soupir étouffé de Weber.
 * Delacroix, blood lake, domain of evil angels, Encircled by fir trees, in depths of green darkness, Where, under wincing skies, such eerie fanfares drift, Like a smothered, love-lost sigh, an air of Weber.
 * Quote by Charles Baudelaire, "Beacons" [Les Phares] from Les Fleurs du Mal (1857)

 * ..but there is a master canvas in the Palais The Luxembourg: 'The Bargue of Dante'. If we want to visit Delacroix, our pretext might be to ask him permission to do a copy of the Bargue.. [after having visited Delacroix who received them graciously, but emphasized them repeatedly the importance of studying Rubens, Manet said to his friend A. Proust:] ..Delacroix isn't cold at all, but his doctrine is frozen. Anyway, we'll copy the Bargue. It's a fine piece.
 * Quote of Edouard Manet, recorded by, early 1850's; as cited in Manet, ed. Françoise Cachin, Charles S. Moffett, Juliet Wilson Bareau; publication of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1983

 * Delacroix était passionnément amoureux de la passion, et froidement déterminé à chercher les moyens d'exprimer la passion de la manière la plus visible. Dans ce double caractère, nous trouvons, disons-le en passant, les deux signes qui marquent les plus solides génies, génies extrêmes.
 * Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, and coldly determined to seek the means of expressing passion in the most visible manner. In this dual character, be it said in passing, we find the two distinguishing marks of the most substantial geniuses, extreme geniuses.
 * Quote of Charles Baudelaire, L'Oeuvre et la vie d’Eugène Delacroix [The Life and Work of Eugène Delacroix] (1863), published in Curiosités esthétiques (1868)
 * Variant translation: Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible.
 * As quoted in the Introduction to The Journal of Eugène Delacroix (1980), p. xiv

 * Eugène Delacroix was a curious mixture of skepticism, politeness, dandyism, willpower, cleverness, despotism, and finally, a kind of special goodness and tenderness that always accompanies genius.
 * Quote of Charles Baudelaire, as quoted in Delacroix (1997) by Jobert Barthélémy, p. 27

 * ...and, to tell the truth, I find it very difficult to like new art. It is only lately, and after having been unsympathetic for a great while, that I at last understood Eugene Delacroix, whom I now think a great man.
 * Quote of Camille Corot, c 1860's; as quoted by Arthur Hoebert, in The Barbizon Painters – being the story of the Men of thirty – associate of the National Academy of Design; publishers, Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York 1915, p. 61

 * Color, which is controlled by fixed laws, can be taught like music. . . . It is because he knew these laws, and studied them profoundly, after having intuitively divined them, that Eugene Delacroix became one of the greatest colorists of modern times.
 * Quote of Charles Blanc, Grammaire des arts du dessin', translated by K. Newell Doggett: The Grammar of Painting and Engraving, New York, 1874; as quoted by John Rewald, in Georges Seurat', a monograph; Wittenborn and Compagny, New York, 1943. p. 5

 * Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, a painter of noble lineage, who carried a sun in his head and storms in his heart; who for forty years played upon the keyboard of human passions, and whose brush— grandiose, terrifying or tender— passed from saints to warriors, from warriors to lovers, from lovers to tigers, and from tigers to flowers.
 * Quote on Delacroix by Théophile Silvestre, in Les Artistes français, études d'après nature (1878)

 * ..Something else about Delacroix — he had a discussion with a friend about the question of working absolutely from nature, and said on that occasion that one should take one's 'studies' from nature — but that the 'actual painting' had to be made 'by heart'. This friend was walking along the boulevard when they had this discussion — which was already fairly heated. When they parted the other man was still not entirely persuaded. After they parted, Delacroix let him stroll on for a bit — then (making a trumpet of his two hands) bellowed after him in the middle of the street — to the consternation of the worthy passers-by: 'By heart! By heart!' ('Par coeur! Par coeur!') I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading this article and some other things about Delacroix..
 * Quote by Vincent van Gogh, in his letter to Anthon van Rappard; from Nuenen, The Netherlands, 8 + c. 15 August, 1885 - original manuscript, letter 526, at Van Gogh Museum, location Amsterdam - inv. nos. b8390 V/2006,
 * See for this anecdote, taken from Charles Blanc, in ''Les artistes de mon temps', letter 496, n. 7.

 * Delacroix was right. It is the struggle that matters. Not the outcome. I was where I should have been that Saturday in front of the Paris Opera House. Yes, our cries were not heard. Yes, it may be futile. But the fight is what makes us human. It gives us dignity. It affirms life in the face of death. “This eternal combat” brings with it, as the painter knew, a strange kind of consolation that lifts us up to the level of our despair.
 * [Chris Hedges] in"Only the Struggle Matters", Truthdig (1 April 2019)

 * ..what Delacroix occupies himself about, what moves him, is the drama. The subject is no great thing for this grand artist; it is naught but a pretext; the dramatic impression proceeding from it is everything. When Delacroix paints the magnificent upon the Cross'.. ..it is the supreme drama which inspires him; what he desires to render is the grand crime of the crucifixion, and not the Crucified Himself.
 * Quote of Albert Wolff, 1886, Notes upon certain masters of the XIX century, - printed not published MDCCCLXXXVI (1886), The Art Age Press, 400 N.Y. (written after the exhibition 'Cent Chefs-d'Oeuvres: the Choiche of the French Private Galleries', Petit, Paris / Baschet, New York, 1883, p. 39

 * ..The so-called classical school, men of a rare perfection in their science, understood nothing of this art - an art bursting from the painter's heart, with a passion which sometimes made it rise to the most impregnable altitudes, yet which sometimes, by its very exaggeration, brought it down again to the ground. For the works of Delacroix have their weak passages, I admit, because they are human works, because they are not born of cold calculations of the mind, and because the vexations of the painter, in following his ideal, pierce through them.
 * Quote of Albert Wolff, 1886, Notes upon certain masters of the XIX century, - printed not published MDCCCLXXXVI (1886), The Art Age Press, 400 N.Y. (written after the exhibition 'Cent Chefs-d'Oeuvres: the Choiche of the French Private Galleries', Petit, Paris / Baschet, New York, 1883, p. 40-41

 * His [Delacroix's] remains the finest palette in France and nobody in our country has possessed at once such calm and pathos, such shimmering color. We all paint in him.
 * another & longer version: Maybe Delacroix stands for Romanticism. He stuffed himself with too much Shakespeare and Dante, thumbed through too much Faust. His palette is still the most beautiful in France, and I tell you no one under the sky had more charm and pathos combined than he, or more vibration of colour. We all paint in his language, as you all write in Hugo's.
 * Quote of Paul Cézanne in 'What he told me – II. The Louvre', Joachim Gasquet's Cézanne, - a Memoir with Conversations, (1897 - 1906); Thames and Hudson, London 1991 p. 197

 * He [Delacroix] turns David upside down. His painting is iridescent. Seeing one Constable [famous English landscape painter, admired by French painters, then] is enough to make him understand all the possibilities of landscape, and he too sets up his easel by the sea.. .And he has a sense of human being, of life in movement, of warmth. Everything moves, every glistens. The light!.. .There is more warm light in this interior [probably: 'Woman of Algiers'] of his than in all of Corot's landscapes..
 * Quote by Paul Cézanne, in: 'What he told me – II. The Louvre', Joachim Gasquet’s 'Cézanne, - a Memoir with Conversations', (1897 - 1906); Thames and Hudson, London 1991 p. 196

 * The light! [in the paintings of Délacroix].. ..There is more warm light in this interior [probably in the painting 'Woman of Algiers'] of his than in all of Corot's landscapes..'''
 * Paul Cezanne's quote in: 'What he told me – II. The Louvre', in Joachim Gasquet's Cézanne, - a Memoir with Conversations, (1897 - 1906); Thames and Hudson, London 1991, p. 196

 * Delacroix felt his composition more vividly as a whole, thought of his figures and crowds as types, and dominated them by the symbolic figure of Republican Liberty which is one of his finest plastic inventions..
 * Quoted by Hubert Wellington, in The Journal of Eugène Delacroix, introduction, page xiv; translated by Lucy Norton, Cornell University Press, 1980. ISBN 0-8014-9196-7; as quoted by Wikipedia: Delacroix

 * This became Delacroix's theme: that the achievements of the spirit — all that a great library contained — were the result of a state of society so delicately balanced that at the least touch they would be crushed beneath an avalanche of pent-up animal forces.
 * Quote by Kenneth Clark, The Romantic Rebellion (1973), Ch. 8

title: Eugène Delacroix


text:
Roxanne (film)

Roxanne is a 1987 comedy film, starring Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah. It is a modern retelling of the play Cyrano de Bergerac, written in 1897 by French author Edmond Rostand.

C. D. Bales

 * I have a dream. It's not a big dream, it's just a little dream. My dream - and I hope you don't find this too crazy - is that I would like the people of this community to feel that if, God forbid, there were a fire, calling the fire department would actually be a wise thing to do. You can't have people, if their houses are burning down, saying, "Whatever you do, don't call the fire department!" That would be bad.

Others

 * Chris McConnell: [to Roxanne] Your breasts, they're like melons. No, no, they're like pillows. Can I fluff your pillows?

 * Andy: That's our new computer. We can pinpoint any fire in town with that. It's perfect for us, because, you know, we're the fire department.

Dialogue

 * Ralston: Man, whatever you do, don't stare.
 * Chris: Look, I'm not gonna stare, come on.
 * Jerry: None of us would. But you get there, and you feel yourself not staring.
 * Ralston: Then you think, "It's obvious I'm not staring." So you look, and you think, "I'm staring." So you say, "This is ridiculous," and you take a GOOD LOOK. And you think, "I'm looking at a man who, when he washes his face, loses the bar of soap."
 * Chris: [laughs] Thanks, guys, all right.
 * Ralston: Don't say we didn't warn you.

 * Dixie: Hey, what about your boyfriend? What was his name?
 * Roxanne: Richard.
 * Dixie: When's he coming?
 * Roxanne: He's not. He's not coming.
 * Dixie: What happened?
 * Roxanne: We just ran out of gas. I guess I mistook sex for love.
 * Sandy: Oh, I did that once. It was great.

 * [Roxanne is walking behind a hedge because she is nude after locking herself out of her house]
 * Roxanne: Nobody had a coat?
 * C.D.: I thought you said you didn't want a coat...
 * Roxanne: Why would I not want a coat?
 * C.D.: You said you didn't want a coat!
 * Roxanne: I was being ironic.
 * C.D.: Oh, ho, ho, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a, a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83, when I was the only practitioner of it. And I stopped because I was tired of being stared at.

 * C.D.: Let's take a look at that letter...
 * Chris: I think it's really good!
 * C.D.: "Dear Roxanne, how's it going? Want to have a drink sometime? If you do, check this box."

 * C.D.: You must know about M31.
 * Roxanne: Yeah.
 * C.D.: Now, see, I like it when they give astronomical objects names, you know, like "Andromeda" and "Saturn" and "Sea of Tranquility." This whole numbering thing is just too boring for us civilians.
 * Roxanne: Do you know how many objects are up there?
 * C.D.: Well, I know it's over fifty.

 * C.D.: [challenged to think of twenty jokes better than "Big Nose"] Let's start with... Obvious: 'scuse me, is that your nose or did a bus park on your face? Meteorological: everybody take cover, she's going to blow! Fashionable: you know, you could de-emphasize your nose if you wore something larger, like... Wyoming. Personal: well, here we are, just the three of us. Punctual: all right, Delbman, your nose was on time but you were fifteen minutes late! Envious: Ooooh, I wish I were you! Gosh, to be able to smell your own ear! Naughty: uh, pardon me, sir, some of the ladies have asked if you wouldn't mind putting that thing away. Philosophical: you know, it's not the size of a nose that's important, it's what's in it that matters. Humorous: laugh and the world laughs with you. Sneeze, and it's goodbye, Seattle! Commercial: hi, I'm Earl Scheib, and I can paint that nose for $39.95! Polite: uh, would you mind not bobbing your head? The, uh, orchestra keeps changing tempo. Melodic: Everybody. He's got the whole world ...
 * Everyone: [singing] In his nose!
 * C.D.: Sympathetic: aw, what happened? Did your parents lose a bet with God? Complimentary: you must love the little birdies to give them this to perch on. Scientific: Say, does that thing there influence the tides? Obscure: whoa! I'd hate to see the grindstone. Well, think about it. Inquiring: when you stop to smell the flowers, are they afraid? French: saihr, ze pigs have refused to find any more truffles until you leave! Pornographic: finally, a man who can satisfy two women at once! How many is that?
 * Dean: Fourteen, Chief!
 * C.D.: Religious: the Lord giveth... and He just kept on giving, didn't He? Disgusting: Say, who mows your nose hair? Paranoid: keep that guy away from my cocaine! Aromatic: it must be wonderful to wake up in the morning and smell the coffee... in Brazil. Appreciative: Oooh, how original! Most people just have their teeth capped. [he pauses, pretending to be stumped, while the crowd urges him on] All right. Dirty: your name wouldn't be Dick, would it?
 * Man: You smart-assed son-of-a-bitch! [swings and misses at C. D.]
 * C.D.: You flat-faced, flat-nosed, flat-head. [punches man and walks away] [to Dixie] Has he fallen yet?
 * [The man falls and everyone applauds]

 * Roxanne: When you're getting love letters, you don't go around trying to compare the signature to the handwriting.
 * C.D.: You wanna know why? 'Cause you wanted to believe it. You wanted it all. All the romance and emotion, all wrapped up in a cute little nose and a cute little ass!
 * Roxanne: You even got me in bed.
 * C.D.: Yeah. Yeah, what about that? You went to bed with him on your first date.
 * Roxanne: Only because you seduced me. I would have never gone to bed with him otherwise.
 * C.D.: You still went to bed with him awfully fast! A few frilly words and you're counting ceiling tiles.
 * Roxanne: I don't even consider that I went to bed with him!
 * C.D.: Well, somebody was up there, and it's for goddamn sure it wasn't me!

 * Roxanne: When I close my eyes, I see you again and again. Your eyes, your face. The way you walk. And your style. Your wit. And your nose, Charlie...
 * C.D.: Doesn't quite work, does it?
 * Roxanne: I went inside and I thought what it was about Chris that attracted me. It wasn't the way he looked. Well, that's not true - at first it was the way he looked. But it was how he made me feel. He made me feel romantic, intelligent, feminine. But it wasn't him doing that to me. It was you. All these other men, Charlie, they've got flat, featureless faces. No character! No fire! No nose! Charlie - you have a big nose. You have a beautiful, great, big, flesh-and-bone nose! I love your nose! I love your nose, Charlie. I love you, Charlie. Well?
 * C.D.: Are you kidding?[somersaults off the roof of the house and, with some difficulty, they kiss]

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

title: Roxanne (film)


text:
Talk:Catullus

Carmen LI
I removed this entry, as the only sources I could find have alternate line divisions and do not include the phrase "Simul te aspexi..." but rather "Nam simul te Lesbia adspexi..." , ,

 * Simul te aspexi, nihil est super mi vocis in ore, lingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus flamma demanat, sonitu suopte tintinant aures, gemina teguntur lumina nocte.
 * Directly when I see you, nothing is left from the voice in my mouth, but my tongue is paralyzed, in my limbs flows a delicate flame, By their own sound sing my ears, my eyes are being covered by a double night.
 * LI

IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 19:54, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Perseus reads thus:

 * ''Nam simul te, Lesbia, adspexi, nihil est super mi lingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus flamma demanat, sonitu suopte tintinant aures, gemina teguntur lumina nocte

With English translation by Leonard C. Smithers as: "for the instant I glance on you, Lesbia, nothing is left to me [of voice], but my tongue is numbed, a keen-edged flame spreads through my limbs, with sound self-caused my twin ears sing, and my eyes are enwrapped with night.

title: Talk:Catullus


text:
Talk:Thaddeus Stevens

Thaddeus Stevens Society
Thaddeus Stevens is one of the most underappreciated politicians in American history. He was a true believer in the equality of man and helped change this country for the better. If you would like to help promote his memory, contact the Thaddeus Stevens Society at contact@thaddeusstevenssociety.com. One of Steven's greatest quotes was his epitaph which said:

"I repose in this quiet and secluded spot not from any natural preference for solitude, but finding other cemeteries limited as to race by charter rules, I chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life: EQUALITY OF MAN BEFORE HIS CREATOR." 4.23.231.41 (talk) 15:08, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the link, it is much appreciated. Illegitimate Barrister (talk) 17:02, 25 December 2013 (UTC)

title: Talk:Thaddeus Stevens


text:
User:Vildricianus

Good day. I am at Wiktionary.

/monobook.css

title: User:Vildricianus


text:
Billy Graham (wrestler)

"Superstar" Billy Graham was the ring name of Eldridge Wayne Coleman (June 7, 1943 – May 17, 2023), an American professional wrestler who rose to fame in the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the 1970s.

Billy Graham, Tangled Ropes: Superstar Billy Graham (2006)

 * I lift barbell plates. I eat T-bone steaks.  I'm sweeter than a German chocolate cake.  How much more of me can you take?

 * I'm the reflection of perfection, the number one selection.

 * I'm the man of the hour, the man with the power, too sweet to be sour.

 * I am the women's pet, the men's regret. What you see is what you get.  And what you don't see is better yet.
 * I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. There's nobody as beautiful or as powerful as me!

 * I am the sensation of the nation. The number-one creation.

 * This is what the world waits for. The world out there asks, 'What's the Superstar going to wear next?'  Not, 'Who's he going to whip next?'  but what in the world is the Superstar going to wear.  And I've got millions of letters saying, 'Superstar, would you please lay some yellow on  me, daddy?'

 * Marilyn Monroe looks her best when she is sitting on the Superstar's chest (On wearing a Marilyn Monroe t-shirt.)

 * What you gonna do when the Superstar comes down on you?

title: Billy Graham (wrestler)


text:
User talk:193.217.208.142

Thanks for your contributions and the work you've done with the One Tree Hill page. I just wanted to let you know about the formatting changes I made -- wikiquote conventions are that the wiki character links only need to appear the first time a character appear in an episode, not every time. Also, we don't use the full line break between episodes. The latest changes to the page will show where I corrected these two things. But again, thanks and I'm sure you'll have more to contribute. You might consider creating a User ID also. ~ UDScott 16:26, 19 February 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:193.217.208.142


text:
Talk:Communism

Older comments
I don’t think you can actually decide that Frank Zappa and Will Rogers are “Anti-communists” because of a single quotation. Setting them both up in the same category as Ronald Regan and Rush Limbaugh is rather deceptive.

To be honest this article is problematic and should probably be reconsidered. If it must be put up it the headings should be put up as “Quotes in favor of Communism” versus “Quotes against Communism.”

One too many "m"s in "communism" in the "quotes against commmunism" section

Questionable quote

 * "Have a red instead." –Murray Ross

According to the wikipedia article linked this person was a Canadian educator. The article didn't mention anything about him being involved in politics. Besides that, there is really no way of telling if the quote is for or against communism or has anything to do with it at all. For all we know it might be about wine. Steve Dufour 05:42, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Problems with recently added Solzhenitsyn quote
1. There is no source identified. 2. The quote is not "notable" as it should be. Quote 1 yields 45 Google results at this moment (07:19 GMT, 7 August 2008). Quote 2 yields 277. Quote 3 yields 153. "History has proven that no kind of people could be more dangerous or more pesterous than the communist." yields 1 (a single) result as a sentence. Bortz

Which Adlai Stevenson?
So, which Adlai Stevenson was it who said ""Communism is the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity – in short, of tyranny – and it is committed to making tyranny universal."? The link is to a disambiguation page on wikipedia with links to Adlai Stevenson I, II, III, and IV. I'm assuming it was Adlai Stevenson II, the most well-known of the four (aka the Democratic presidential candidate who lost twice to Eisenhower... odd that he'd be better known that his dad, who was Vice President, but that's how it goes...) but some clarification would be nice. 76.102.162.163 07:47, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Missing quote
It surprises me that this quote by Karl Marx never appears on this page: "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win". It's considered one of the powerful pro communism quotes around and yet it's absence from the page almost hints the editors are biased.
 * OF COURSE the editors are biased — ALL PEOPLE are biased in some way — the distinctions between improper or proper biases people make or obscure with words are more astute observations to be made, such as biases that exist between those inclined to diligence or laziness, complaint or contributions. There are plainly pro and anti communist biases at work on this page, and on the whole it remains largely neglected. I might try to do some cleanup here within a few weeks, with a bias towards a more well formatted and organized article, rather than the mess it is, if I find the time, but I make no promises. ~ Kalki (talk · contributions) 00:19, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * To people who care about it enough to complain: please note that anyone can edit. Do you care enough to look up the source and add the quote into the article? ~ Ningauble 18:10, 1 September 2011 (UTC)
 * To people who care about it enough to complain: please note that anyone can edit. Do you care enough to look up the source and add the quote into the article? ~ Ningauble 18:10, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Unsourced

 * "It is remarkable that some of the most precious rights of human welfare are attributed to the advocacy and practice of communists; and yet, in the same breath, we are asked to hate communists."- Oliver Cox

 * "Communism is not a set of measures to be put into practice after the seizure of power. It is a movement which already exists, not as a mode of production (there can be no communist island within capitalist society), but as a tendency which originates in real needs. Communism does not even know what value is. The point is not that one fine day a large number of people start to destroy value and profit. All past revolutionary movements were able to bring society to a standstill, and waited for something to come out of this universal stoppage. Communization, on the contrary, will circulate goods without money, open the gate isolating a factory from its neighbourhood, close down another factory where the work process is too alienating to be technically improved, do away with school as a specialized place which cuts off learning from doing for 15 odd years, pull down walls that force people to imprison themselves in 3-room family units - in short, it will tend to break all separations." –Gilles Dauvé

 * "Communism is the end of the economy as a separate and privileged field on which everything else depends while despising and fearing it." –Gilles Dauvé

 * "The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality." "There is no other definition of communism valid for us than that of the abolition of the exploitation of man by man." –Che Guevara

 * "I worked at a factory owned by Germans, at coal pits owned by Frenchmen, and at a chemical plant owned by Belgians. There I discovered something about capitalists. They are all alike, whatever the nationality. All they wanted from me was the most work for the least money that kept me alive. So I became a communist." –Nikita Khrushchev

 * "The political form of a society wherein the proletariat is victorious in overthrowing the bourgeoisie will be a democratic republic." –Vladimir Lenin

 * "Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality [will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things. The conditions of this movement result from the premises now in existence." –Karl Marx

 * "Communism differs from all previous movements in that it overturns the basis of all earlier relations of production and intercourse, and for the first time consciously treats all natural premises as the creatures of hitherto existing men, strips them of their natural character and subjugates them to the power of the united individuals. Its organisation is, therefore, essentially economic, the material production of the conditions of this unity; it turns existing conditions into conditions of unity. The reality, which communism is creating, is precisely the true basis for rendering it impossible that anything should exist independently of individuals, insofar as reality is only a product of the preceding intercourse of individuals themselves." –Karl Marx

 * "The theory of the Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property." "From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his needs." "Communism deprives no man of the ability to appropriate the fruits of his labour. The only thing it deprives him of is the ability to enslave others by means of such appropriations." "Democracy is the road to socialism." "Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Proletarians of all countries, unite!" ''–Karl Marx

 * "Communism is the graveyard of ambition" –Daniel R. Bou Diab

 * "Capitalism and communism stand at opposite poles. Their essential difference is this: The communist, seeing the rich man and his fine home, says: 'No man should have so much.' The capitalist, seeing the same thing, says: 'All men should have as much.' " –Phelps Adams

 * "Communism and fascism or Nazism, although poles apart in their intellectual content, are similar in this, that both have emotional appeal to the type of personality that takes pleasure in being submerged in a mass movement and submitting to superior authority." –James A. C. Brown

 * "Justice is always naive and self-confident; believing that it will immediately win once recognized. That is the reason why the forces of Justice are so poorly organized. On the other hand, the Evil is cynic, sly and fantastically organized. It never ever has the illusion of the ability to stand on its own feet and to win in a fair competition. That is why it is ready to use any kind of means without hesitation. And of course it does - under the banners of the most noble ideas." –Vladimir Bukovsky

 * "From the days of Spartacus, Karl Marx, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, and Emma Goldman, this world conspiracy has been steadily growing. This conspiracy played a definite recognizable role in the tragedy of the French revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the 19th Century. And now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their head and have become the undisputed masters of that enormous empire." "A communist is like a crocodile – when it opens its mouth you cannot tell whether it is trying to smile or preparing to eat you up." "The substance of the eminent Socialist gentlemen's speech is that making a profit is a sin. It is my belief that the real sin is taking a loss!" –Winston Churchill

 * "The streets of our country are in turmoil. The universities are filled with students rebelling and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country. Russia is threatening us with her might, and the Republic is in danger. Yes - danger from within and without. We need law and order! Without it our nation cannot survive." –Adolf Hitler

 * "Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both." –John Fitzgerald Kennedy

 * "No one is so stubborn and dangerous as the beneficiaries of a fallen idea - they defend not the idea, but their bare life and the loot." –Sándor Márai

 * "Don't listen to what the Communists say, but look at what they do." - Nguyen Van Thieu, the President of South Vietnam.

 * "Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don't need it, and hell where they already have it." "How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin." "The years ahead will be great ones for our country, for the cause of freedom and the spread of civilization. The West will not contain Communism, it will transcend Communism. We will not bother to denounce it, we'll dismiss it as a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written." "In an ironic sense, Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis – a crisis where the demands of the economic order are colliding directly with those of the political order. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West, but in the home of Marxism-Leninism, the Soviet Union ... [Communism will be] left on the ash heap of history." –Ronald Reagan

 * "Communism is like Prohibition, it's a good idea but it won't work" –Will Rogers

 * "At the end of a century that has seen the evils of communism, Nazism and other modern tyrannies, the impulse to centralize power remains amazingly persistent." –Joseph Sobran

 * "For us in Russia communism is a dead dog. For many people in the West, it is still a living lion." "I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either." "In our country, the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State." –Alexander Solzhenitsyn

 * "Communism is the corruption of a dream of justice." "Communism is the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity – in short, of tyranny – and it is committed to making tyranny universal. –Adlai E. Stevenson

 * "Communists always say that Capitalism leaves holes for crime, poverty and a higher society and that it is wrong. Communists do an even worse job at correcting this. Capitalism has a mission to give every person everything they want, and right now we are set out to fulfill that mission. All we lack is a means." –Cole Stewart

 * "It all came from there." –Lech Walesa, pointing to a TV when a reporter asked him why communism fell

 * "Communists are of two kinds only. Gadarene Swine whose wits have been taken from them so that they rush headlong down the slope to their own destruction, and ordinary voracious swine who, if you were standing in their sty, had a heart-attack and fell among them, would instantly set upon and devour you." -Dennis Wheatley

 * "Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff." –Frank Zappa

 * "The scientific approach uncovers, that Communism does not eliminate the inequality between men, the social injustice, exploitation of man by man and other evils of society – communism merely changes their form and gives birth to new evils, which become eternal fellow-travelers of communism." "All in all, Engels talked so much rot of every kind, that now all the world’s academies of science should be directed to rectify his mistakes and idiocies."" -Aleksandr Zinovyev

 * "Today the primary threat to the liberties of the American people comes not from communism, foreign tyrants or dictators. It comes from the tendency on our own shores to centralize power, to trust bureaucracies rather than people." –George H. Allen

 * Of the Communist Party: "Its relationship to democratic institutions is that of the death watch beetle - it is not a party, it is a conspiracy." ~ Aneurin Bevan, attributed

 * "The devotion of such titans of spirit as Lenin to an Ideal must bear fruit. The nobility of his selflessness will be an example through centuries to come, and his Ideal will reach perfection." ''–Mahatma Gandhi

 * "In October 1917, we parted with the old world, rejecting it once and for all. We are moving toward a new world, a world of Communism. We shall never turn off that road." –Mikhail Gorbachev''

 * "Catholics and Communists have committed great crimes, but at least they have not stood aside, like an established society, and been indifferent. I would rather have blood on my hands than water like Pilate." "If you have abandoned one faith, do not abandon all faith. There is always an alternative to the faith we lose. Or is it the same faith under another name?" –Graham Greene

 * "The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians" –Henry Louis Mencken

 * "In Germany, [the Nazis] first came for the Communists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me – and by that time no one was left to speak up." –Martin Niemoller

 * "Communism needs democracy like the human body needs oxygen." –Leon Trotsky

 * "Any man who is not a communist at the age of twenty is a fool. Any man who is still a communist at the age of thirty is an even bigger fool." George Bernard Shaw

 * "We first fought the heathens in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change." –Serj Tankian

 * "We grow tyrannical fighting tyranny. ... The most alarming spectacle today is not the spectacle of the atomic bomb in an unfederated world, it is the spectacle of the Americans beginning to accept the device of loyalty oaths and witch hunts, beginning to call anybody they don't like a Communist." –E. B. White

 * "Communism is the perfect system, in theory. As are Monarchy, Fascism and Democracy. The only reason they don't work, is because of Human nature to pervert the situation into the best one for them. Nothing else." –Samuel Webster

Biased quote selection
Why is it that a quote by John Adams gets to be the header and the caption under the soviet flag? Wouldn't something by Lenin or Marx be more fitting? 169.235.104.199 06:24, 10 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Well, the Soviet Union was a communist state, at least nominally. So, a Soviet flag is fitting for a lead image. – Illegitimate Barrister, 23:51, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Communism is the most painful path between capitalism and capitalism.
There are pro communist/anti capitalism quotes+images on this page. Only fitting to have some anti communist-pro capitalist ones as well, such as Communism is the most painful path between capitalism and capitalism. by Scott Adams. --2001:8003:412B:6300:988A:1B7B:BB1C:989B 03:48, 23 October 2019 (UTC)

Seidler's notability
I removed two quotes per WQ:Q, I searched about the author but I couldn't find any evidence of notability:

 * The Communist party, in terms of both its aboveground and underground activities, was at its height of power. During that decade the disciples of Lenin and Stalin penetrated far and wide into American life. During most of the years following the Russian Revolution the Communists throughout the world were constantly making vigorous and vicious attacks not only upon conservative groups but upon liberal and socialist groups as well. All other groups with left and center orientations were looked upon as rivals that had to be destroyed. Indeed, the Communists behaved in accordance with a theory that suggested that Socialists were more of a threat to their ambitions than Fascists.
 * Murray B. Seidler, Norman Thomas: Respectable Rebel, Syracuse University Press (1961) pp. 120-21

 * During the early months of the Nazi regime, the Communists sought rapprochement with the Fascists, but the former were soon to realize that they had misjudged the potential of a Fascist Germany.
 * Murray B. Seidler, Norman Thomas: Respectable Rebel, Syracuse University Press (1961) p. 121

Rupert Loup 06:44, 15 November 2019 (UTC)

Images
Per WQ:MOBILEFRIENDLY.

Rupert Loup 18:28, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

Point of View of the Introductory Paragraph
The statement that people in a communist society lose their individual rights and that the government holds absolute power was removed from the page on the grounds that it was from a particular point of view. However, it seems to me that this sentence was objective, since every time a society has actually become communist, the result has been a loss of rights and increased control by an authoritarian government. As it was, the paragraph only included the ideology of communism and not the practical results of it.

--Mathematician2718 (talk) 23:35, 21 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "Society has actually become communist" There have never been communist societies in human history, only socialist regimes ruled by communist parties, so your assertion makes little sense.--Mhorg (talk) 09:50, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Communism


text:
Lord of War

Lord of War is a 2005 film written and directed by Andrew Niccol and starring Nicolas Cage. It follows the life of a fictitious illegal arms smuggler through true war events.

Yuri Orlov

 * There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other eleven?

 * The first and most important rule of gun-running is, never get shot with your own merchandise.

 * The second rule of gun-running is always ensure you have a foolproof way of getting paid, preferably in advance, preferably to an offshore account.

 * I don't know what was going through Vitaly's head that day. What I do know is that Vitaly broke the cardinal rule of gun-running: never pick up a gun and join the customers.

 * Of all the weapons in the vast Soviet arsenal nothing was more profitable than Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947, more commonly known as the AK-47, or Kalashnikov. It's the world's most popular assault rifle, a weapon all fighters love. An elegantly simple nine pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood, it doesn't break, jam, or overheat. It will shoot whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand. It's so easy even a child can use it, and they do. The Soviets put the gun on a coin, Mozambique put it on their flag. Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people's greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure; no one was lining up to buy their cars.

 * [narrating] There are only two tragedies in life. One is not getting what you want, the other is getting it.

 * [last lines] You know who's going to inherit the Earth? Arms dealers. Because everyone else is too busy killing each other. That's the secret to survival. Never go to war. Especially with yourself.

 * I was an equal opportunity merchant of death. I supplied everyone but the Salvation Army. I sold Israeli-model Uzis to Muslims. I sold Communist-made bullets to Fascists... I even shipped cargo to Afghanistan when they were fighting my fellow Soviets. I never sold to Osama bin Laden. Not on any moral grounds: back then, he was always bouncing checks.

 * They say, "Evil prevails when good men fail to act." What they ought to say is, "Evil prevails."

 * [on the phone] Truce? What do you mean, truce, the guns are already on their way... Peace talks... All right, forget it. I'll reroute the shipment to the Balkans. When they say they're going to have a war, they keep their word!

 * I sell to leftists, and rightists. I sell to pacifists, but they're not the most regular customers. Of course, you're not a true internationalist until you've supplied weapons to kill your own countrymen.

 * Selling a gun for the first time is a lot like having sex for the first time. You're excited but you don't really know what the hell you're doing. And some way, one way or another, it's over too fast.

 * Thank God there are still legal ways to exploit developing countries. The only problem with an honest buck is they're so hard to make - the margins are too low, too many people are doin' it.

 * Where there's a will, there's a weapon.

 * Every day there's people shooting each other. You know what I do when I see that? I look to see what guns they're using and I think to myself, why not my guns?

Agent Jack Valentine

 * [to Yuri Orlov] You get rich by giving the poorest people on the planet the means to continue killing each other. Do you know why I do what I do? I mean, there are more prestigious assignments. Keeping track of nuclear arsenals. You'd think that more critical to world security. But it's not. No. Nine out of ten war victims today are killed with assault rifles and small arms. Like yours. Those nuclear missiles, they sit in their silos. Your AK-47, that is the real weapon of mass destruction.

Simon Weisz

 * Bullets change governments far surer than votes.

Closing Titles

 * While private gun-runners continue to thrive, the world's biggest arms suppliers are the U.S., U.K., Russia, France, and China. They are also the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

Dialogue

 * Vitaly Orlov: Yuri, what the fuck do you know about guns?
 * Yuri Orlov: I know which end I'd rather be on.
 * Vitaly Orlov: What, are you thinking of opening a gun shop?
 * Yuri Orlov: Already more of those in America than McDonald's. Even with all the gangs around here, the margins are too low.
 * Vitaly Orlov: You've worked out the margins?
 * Yuri Orlov: I've already made the first sale. We're already in business.
 * Vitaly Orlov: We?
 * Yuri Orlov: I need a partner.
 * Vitaly Orlov: I don't know, Yuri- I don't know...
 * Yuri Orlov: Vitaly, I've tasted your borscht- you're no fucking chef! I can eat in the restaurant for free and I still don't eat there!
 * Vitaly Orlov: Fuck you!
 * Yuri Orlov: We're doing nothing with our lives! I mean- it's a shit! It's a shit! It's a fuck!
 * Vitaly Orlov: It's true. But maybe doing nothing's better than doing this.

 * Yuri: Excuse me, Simeon Weisz? [Hands his business card to Weisz, who glances at it] A mutual friend, Eli Kurtzman, in Brighton Beach, contacted you. I have a business proposal. I thought perhaps you and I could-
 * Simeon Weisz: [Interrupting] I don't think you and I are in the same business. You think I just sell guns, don't you? I don't. I take sides.
 * Yuri: But in the Iran-Iraq War, you sold guns to both sides.
 * Simeon Weisz: Did you ever consider that I wanted both sides to lose? Bullets change governments far surer than votes. You're in the wrong place, my young friend; this is no place for amateurs.
 * [Simeon Weisz gives back Yuri's card and leaves.]

 * Andre Baptiste Sr.: I am not going to pay your asking price. We are not a rich people. Besides, the market is already flooded with your Kalashnikovs; do you realize in some parts of my country you can get one for the price of a chicken?
 * Yuri Orlov: But you can't just look at the unit of price. You forget ancillary costs. End user certificates need to be forged and notarized, shell companies set up, insurance purchased, pilots and crews hired; not to mention the bribes! You can't get a nut and bolt out of the Eastern Bloc without a bribe. There's one bribe for the nut, another for the bolt- Andy, Andy; listen to me. This is an expensive proposition.
 * Andre Baptiste Sr.: Andy. I am going to pay you in timber... or stone.
 * [Baptiste reaches out, opens his hand, and scatters a fistful of diamonds on his desk.]
 * Yuri Orlov: I'll take the stones; it's kinda hard to get a tree trunk into my hand luggage. I know you're planning a new offensive. If you can delay a week, I can get you armored personnel carriers. They'll greatly reduce your casualties, and give you a significant strategic advantage.
 * [Andre Baptiste Sr. looks at Yuri for a moment, visibly impressed.]
 * Andre Baptiste Sr.: You know, they call me the Lord of War. But perhaps it is you.
 * Yuri Orlov: It's not "Lord of War", it's "Warlord".
 * Andre Baptiste Sr.: Thank you, but I prefer it my way.

 * [Yuri has convinced his uncle Dimitri, a major general on the Soviet, now Ukrainian Army, to show him the armory of Dimitri's military base.]
 * Yuri: How many Kalashnikovs do you have?
 * Uncle Dimitri: Forty thousand.
 * Yuri: [Glancing at the paper on Uncle Dimitri's clipboard] Is that a four? Doesn't look like a four to me. Looks more like a one.
 * Uncle Dimitri: No, it's a four.
 * Yuri: It's whatever we say it is, because no one else will know the difference. Ten thousand Kalashnikovs for a battalion... your stocks are badly depleted, Dimitri. You should order more from the factory.
 * Uncle Dimitri: Someone will work it out. What happens then?
 * Yuri Orlov: We'll cut them in.

 * Yuri Orlov: What the fuck are you doing here?
 * Andre Baptiste Sr.: We are here for peace talks at the United Nations.
 * Yuri Orlov: So at the same time you thought you'd drop in on your arms dealer?
 * Andre Baptiste Sr.: You know, I was wondering if that still is your profession. You are a hard man to get a hold of, all of a sudden. It is a shame. My son and I, we were hoping to do a little shopping while we are here in New York.
 * Yuri Orlov: You know they're watching you.
 * Andre Baptiste Sr.: Yes, I know they blame me. They blame me for everything, those hypocrites! They are on a hunt for a witch.
 * Yuri Orlov: Witch hunt.
 * Andre Baptiste Sr.: Hostilities have escalated. They are making it very difficult for me to resupply. And that requires a man... of your rare ingenuity.
 * Yuri Orlov: [Hesitant] I can't help you; I'm sorry.
 * [Yuri turns to go back inside his apartment; Andre Baptiste Sr. moves to block him. The two men stare at each other a few moments before Andre glances down at Yuri's right hand, probably noticing his marriage ring, and smiles.]
 * Andre Baptiste Sr.: I understand. But you should know this. Under the present circumstances, we are compelled... to be unusually generous.
 * [Andre Baptiste Sr. presses a large diamond into Yuri's open palm; Yuri's hand closes on the diamond, and the Liberian dictator grins, knowing Yuri is tempted.]
 * Andre Baptiste Jr.: [Setting a hand on Yuri's shoulder] You still haven't brought me the gun of Rambo.
 * Andre Baptiste Sr.: So I will see you soon. Lord of War.

 * Yuri Orlov: Enjoy it.
 * Jack Valentine: What?
 * Yuri Orlov: This. Tell me I'm everything you despise. That I'm the personification of evil. That I'm what- responsible for the breakdown of the fabric of society and world order. I'm a one-man genocide. Say everything you want to say to me now. Because you don't have long.
 * Jack Valentine: Are you crazy? Or just plain delusional? You have broken every arms embargo written! There is enough evidence here to put you away for consecutive life sentences! You are gonna spend the next ten years of your life going from a cell to a courtroom before you even start serving your time! [Pause] I don't think you fully appreciate the seriousness of your situation!
 * Yuri Orlov: [Quietly] ... My family has disowned me. My wife and son have left me. My brother is dead. Trust me, I fully appreciate the seriousness of my situation. But I promise you, I won't spend a single second in a courtroom.
 * Jack Valentine: [scoffs] You are delusional.
 * Yuri Orlov: I like you, Jack. [considers] Well, maybe not, but... I understand you. Let me tell you what's gonna happen. This way you can prepare yourself.
 * [Valentine scoffs again, but decides to listen.]
 * Jack Valentine: Okay.
 * Yuri Orlov: Soon there's gonna be a knock on that door and you will be called outside. In the hall there will be a man who outranks you. First, he'll compliment you on the fine job you've done, that you're making the world a safer place, that you're to receive a commendation and a promotion. And then he's going to tell you that I am to be released. You're going to protest... you'll probably threaten to resign.
 * [flash-forward, showing all of this happening exactly as Yuri says]
 * Yuri Orlov: But in the end, I will be released. The reason I'll be released is the same reason you think I'll be convicted. I do rub shoulders with some of the most vile, sadistic men calling themselves leaders today. [points to the newspaper] But some of those men are the enemies of your enemies. And while the biggest arms dealer in the world is your boss, the President of the United States, who ships more merchandise in a day than I do in a year... sometimes it's embarrassing to have his fingerprints on the guns. Sometimes he needs a freelancer like me to supply forces he can't be seen supplying. So... you call me evil. But unfortunately for you, I'm a necessary evil.
 * [Valentine now looks very grim, realizing Orlov is right. There is a knock at the door just as Yuri promised.]
 * Jack Valentine: [getting up] I would tell you to go to Hell, but I think you're already there.

Cast

 * Nicholas Cage - Yuri Orlov
 * Bridget Moynahan - Ava Fontaine
 * Jared Leto - Vitaly Orlov
 * Ethan Hawke - Interpol Agent Jack Valentine
 * Ian Holm - Simeon Weisz
 * Eamonn Walker - Andre Baptiste, Sr.
 * Sammi Rotibi - Andre Baptiste, Jr.

title: Lord of War


text:
National Lampoon's Vacation

National Lampoon's Vacation is a 1983 film about the Griswold family's cross-country drive to the WallyWorld theme park that proves to be much more arduous than they ever anticipated.
 * Directed by Harold Ramis. Written by John Hughes, based on his short story Vacation '58.

Every summer, Chevy Chase takes his family on a little trip. This year, he went too far.

Dialogue

 * [Clark, Rusty, and Ed the car salesman are looking over the Wagon Queen Family Truckster]
 * Rusty: Dad, this is not the car you ordered!
 * Clark: Take it easy, Russ. See, Ed, uh... this is not the car I ordered. I distinctly ordered the, uh, Antarctic Blue Super Sports Wagon with the C.B. and the optional rally fun pack.
 * Ed: You didn't order the, uh, Metallic Pea?
 * Clark: Metallic Pea? No, Antarctic Blue! The Sports Wagon! This isn't even the right model!
 * Ed: You know, I think you're right. I don't think this is the car. This is the new Wagon Queen Family Truckster. This is a... this is a damn fine automobile, if you want my honest opinion. Beats the hell out of the Sports Wagon, but... I want to make you happy, huh? Davenport! [to Clark] I'll get to the bottom of this.
 * Davenport: Yes, Mr. Ed.
 * Ed: Mr. Griswold ordered a blue Sports Wagon. Where is it?
 * Davenport: I don't know, sir. [walks away]
 * Ed: I know what must have happened. It didn't come in.
 * Clark: Ed, I'm not your ordinary everyday fool, okay? Now I'd like my Antarctic Blue Super Sports Wagon right now, and if you can't get it for me, I'm gonna take my business elsewhere. Where's my old car?
 * [unbeknownst to him, the car is being crushed]
 * Ed: I'm just as upset as you are, believe me. Davenport! Get Mr. Griswold's car back and bring it back here! [to Clark] I can get you the wagon, there's no problem there. The problem is, it might take six weeks. Now, I owe it to myself to tell you, Mr. Griswold, that if you're thinking of taking the tribe cross-country, this is the automobile you should be using, the Wagon Queen Family Truckster. You think you hate it now, but wait 'til you drive it.
 * Clark: I don't want to drive it. I just want my old car back, okay? I'm not falling for this bit. No way. Let's go, Russ.
 * [the car is returned, flattened, and Clark tries to open the door]

 * Clark: Excuse me, could you please tell me how to get back on the expressway?
 * Pimp: Hey fuck yo mama!
 * Clark: Thank you very much.

 * Ellen: The next time you have one of your outbursts, I'd really appreciate it if you think about the consideration of our kids.
 * Clark: What are you talking about?
 * Ellen: You don't know? After everything that happened, you still don't get it?
 * Clark: I'm just trying to treat my family to a little fun.
 * Ellen: Oh spare me, Clark, I know your brand of family fun. Tomorrow you'll probably kill the desk clerk, hold up a McDonalds, and drive us 1000 miles out of the way to see the world's largest pile of mud!

 * Ellen: Clark, let's just skip the house of mud. I think Dodge City was enough for one day. Besides, Catherine and Eddie are expecting us.
 * Clark: It's living history Ellen. But if you'd rather see your cousins it's okay by me. Personally I'd rather see a pile of mud than Eddie.

 * Ellen: Gee Cath look's like you really got your hands full.
 * Catherine: Oh, it's not so bad. Eddie says after the baby comes, I can quit one of my night jobs.

 * Cousin Eddie: How do you like yours, Clark?
 * Clark: Oh, medium rare, a little pink inside.
 * Cousin Eddie: No, I mean your bun. Light or dark?
 * Clark: Oh, either way, doesn’t matter. [noticing Vicki mixing Kool-Aid with her arm in the jar] Vicki can I help you with that Kool-Aid? Please?
 * [Vicki takes her arm out of the jar and Clark mixes with a spoon]
 * Cousin Eddie: I don't know why they call this stuff hamburger helper. It does just fine by itself, huh? I like it better than tuna helper myself, don't you, Clark?
 * Clark: You're the gourmet around here, Ed! [to Ellen] No meat in this?
 * Ellen: You get plenty of meat at home. Be polite, have some ketchup.
 * Clark: [looking at raw tomato paste] Real tomato ketchup, Eddie?
 * Cousin Eddie: Oh, nothing but the best! Aunt Edna! Helper’s gettin’ cold!
 * Clark: [looking shocked] Is that your Aunt Edna?

 * Aunt Edna: You're the ones who sent me the fruitcake for Christmas. It made me so sick!
 * Ellen: Oh - we're sorry. We thought you enjoyed fruitcake.
 * Aunt Edna: Do you enjoy throwing up every five minutes Claude?
 * Clark: Clark.
 * Aunt Edna: I thought so. Whew! Well am I gonna eat, or am I gonna starve to death?

 * Cousin Eddie: I got laid off when they closed that asbestos factory, and wouldn't you know it, the army cuts my disability pension because they said that the plate in my head wasn't big enough.
 * Aunt Edna: Why don't you just ask him for the money, Eddie? He sure as hell can't take a hint.
 * Cousin Eddie: Well, I didn't want to ask you, Clark, you know, but could you maybe spare a little extra cash?
 * Clark: [pulling some 20s out of his wallet] Sure, Eddie, how much do you need?
 * Cousin Eddie: About fifty-two thousand dollars.
 * [Clark quickly begins putting the money back in his wallet]

 * Cousin Vicki: I'm going steady, and I French kiss.
 * Audrey: So, everybody does that.
 * Cousin Vicki: Yeah, but Daddy says I'm the best at it.
 * [Audrey looks incredulously at Vicki]

 * Clark: Despite all the little problems it's fun isn't it?
 * Ellen: No. But with every new day there's fresh hope.

 * Ellen: I honestly don't think we're going to find the Grand Canyon on this road.
 * Clark: Jesus Christ, it's only the biggest goddamn hole in the world!!!
 * Aunt Edna: Clark, watch your language!
 * Clark: Make that the second biggest.

 * Motel Clerk: I'm sorry, sir. I can't accept this credit card. [hands Clark back his credit card]
 * Clark: Why not?
 * Motel Clerk: The computer says it's been reported lost.
 * Clark: Oh no, no, no. You see my wife lost her cards back in Colorado, I had to report it, and the computer is probably saying that I lost mine, which obviously, I haven't.
 * Motel Clerk: Well, you're going to have to straighten that out with your bank.
 * Clark: [takes out checkbook] Do you take personal checks?
 * Motel Clerk: For how much?
 * Clark: 300 dollars.
 * Motel Clerk: I can't do that, sir.
 * Clark: Look, I've lost all my cash, and we're on our way to California...
 * Motel Clerk: [unamused] Walley World?
 * Clark: Yeah. Walley World. And I am sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place. I'd really appreciate it.
 * Motel Clerk: [sternly] Not without a major credit card.
 * Clark: I have $6.13 to my name, so I see we're going to have to work something out here between us.
 * Motel Clerk: [becoming more annoyed] Look, I've already told you, I can't accept a check without a major credit card.
 * Clark: I'm making this out for 1000 dollars. All you have to do is give me 300 dollars in cash, and keep the other 700... all for doing nothing more than acting like a total creep.
 * Motel Clerk: [glares at Clark angrily] The only thing I can do is let you stay here until the check clears; 10 working days! [a phone rings in the background, and the clerk walks off-screen to answer it. Clark bangs his fist on the desk in frustration, causing the cash register to open. After a pause, he grabs a load of money from the register, puts the check in the register, puts on a cowboy hat, and runs off]

 * [In the middle of a desert. Clark is going crazy as he trots through the hills. Two men on horses watch him]
 * Clark: We passed a gas station every 10 yards for 1000 miles, but when you really need one, you end up walking your ASS off! This is no way to run a desert! HA!!!!
 * Cowboy: What an asshole.

 * Clark: Okay. What do I owe you?
 * Assistant Mechanic: Never heard of no one so shit-all stupid as you drivin' off that road. You musta got manure for your brains.
 * Clark: Yeah, well, I'm from out of town. What's the bill?
 * [Mechanic and assistant snicker to each other]
 * Clark: Come on, come on, come on. How much?
 * Mechanic: How much you got?
 * Clark: No, no, I'm asking how much the repairs are.
 * Mechanic: [threateningly] And I'm asking you how much you got.
 * Clark: You're out of your mind. Look, I don't have time to play around, okay? So how much is it?
 * Mechanic: [picks up a heavy wrench] All of it, boy.
 * Clark: What does your sheriff think of your business practices?
 * [Mechanic and assistant laugh; mechanic flashes a sheriff's badge]

 * Clark: [Delivering the eulogy for Aunt Edna] O God, ease our suffering in this, our moment of great despair. Yea, admit this kind and decent woman into thy arms of thine heavenly area, up there. And Moab, he lay us upon the band of the Canaanites, and yea, though the Hindus speak of karma, I implore you: give her a break.
 * Ellen: Clark...
 * Clark:[ignoring her] Baaaaroooo gattaaaaaaaaaaa allelujaaaaaaa!!
 * Ellen: Clark, this is a serious matter, I'll do it myself!
 * Clark: Honey, I'm not an ordained minister; I'm doing my best okay?
 * Ellen: Lord, we loved this woman with all our heart.
 * Audrey: Let's not overdo it, mom.
 * Ellen: SHUT UP! Lord, we loved this woman with all our hearts. But my husband wants to go to Wally World. May God have mercy on his soul. Amen.
 * Clark: AMEN LET'S GO!
 * Ellen: Ugh! I hope at least you kids have learned something from this.
 * Audrey: Yeah! Don't die unless someone's home!

 * Clark: I think you're all fucked in the head. We're ten hours from the fuckin' fun park and you want to bail out. Well I'll tell you something, this is no longer a vacation...it's a quest. It's a quest for fun! I'm gonna have fun and you're gonna have fun! We're all gonna have so much fuckin' fun we'll need plastic surgery to remove our goddamn smiles! You'll be whistling Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah out of your assholes!!! HAHAHA!!! I gotta be crazy; I'm on a pilgrimage to see a moose! Praise Marty Moose! Holy shit!!!
 * Rusty: [touching Clark's shoulder] Dad you want an aspirin or something?
 * Clark: Don't TOUCH!

 * Ellen: The next time you have one of your outbursts, I'd really appreciate it if you think about the consideration of our kids.
 * Clark: What are you talking about?
 * Ellen: You don't know? After everything that happened, you still don't get it?
 * Clark: I'm just trying to treat my family to a little fun.
 * Ellen: Oh spare me, Clark! I know your brand of family fun. Tomorrow you'll probably kill the desk clerk, hold up a McDonalds, and drive us 1,000 miles out of the way to see the world's largest pile of mud!

 * Marty Moose: Sorry, folks! We're closed for two weeks to clean and repair America's favorite family fun park. Sorry, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh!
 * [Clark punches the Marty Moose statue, it begins talking incoherently]
 * Ellen: Clark, what are you doing?
 * Clark: We watch his program... We buy his toys, we go to his movies... he owes us. Doesn't he owe us, huh? He owes the Griswolds, right? Fucking-A right he owes us!
 * Ellen: Clark, you're scaring me!
 * Clark: Don't be scared! I just think somebody owes us an explanation, that's all.

 * Lasky: That's not a real gun, is it Clark?
 * Clark: Are you kidding? This is a Magnum P.I.
 * Lasky: It's a BB gun!
 * Clark: Don't tempt me. I could put an eye out with this thing.
 * Lasky: You couldn't even break the skin with that thing.
 * Clark: Yeah I could. It could lodge in the skin and cause a very bad infection.
 * Lasky: That's an old wive's tale Clark. I'm telling you. [Gets out of the rollercoaster car; Clark fires the pistol; Lasky groans in pain and sits back in the seat]
 * Clark: See I told you. I warned you.
 * Lasky: You wrecked these pants and you're paying for them!
 * Clark: Yeah I will pay for them. [The rollercoaster ride begins]

 * Lasky: Has your father ever killed anyone?
 * Rusty: Just a dog. Oh and my Aunt Edna.
 * Clark: Hey you can't prove that Russ.

 * Clark: Roy... can I call you Roy? Have you even driven cross-country?
 * Roy Walley: Oh, hell yes. Drove the whole family to Florida. Worst two weeks I ever spent in my life. The smell from the back seat was terrible.
 * Clark: Ooooh. Ooooh, I know that smell. Roy, could you imagine if you had driven all the way to Florida and it was closed?
 * Roy Walley: Closed? Uh, they don't close Florida.
 * Clark: I know they don't close the state of Florida. But, you know...when we got here, to Roy Walley World...and it was closed down, Roy. If you had seen the look on my kids' faces. I just went a little haywire.
 * Roy Walley: You went a lot haywire, if you ask me.
 * Clark: Well, I'm very sorry, sir. And I'm sorry to all these people. I didn't mean any harm. I just want you to ask yourself one thing. If you were....If you were me, wouldn't you do the same thing for your children?
 * Roy Walley: No.

Taglines
Every summer, Chevy Chase takes his family on a little trip. This year, he went too far.

Cast

 * Chevy Chase - Clark Griswold
 * Beverly D'Angelo - Ellen Griswold
 * Imogene Coca - Aunt Edna
 * Randy Quaid - Cousin Eddie
 * Anthony Michael Hall - Russell "Rusty" Griswold
 * Dana Barron - Audrey Griswold
 * Eddie Bracken - Roy Walley
 * Brian Doyle-Murray - Kamp Komfort Clerk
 * Miriam Flynn - Cousin Catherine
 * James Keach - Motorcycle Cop
 * Eugene Levy - Car Salesman
 * Frank McRae - Grover
 * John Candy - Russ Lasky, Guard at Walley World
 * Christie Brinkley - The Girl in the Red Ferrari
 * Jane Krakowski - Cousin Vicki

title: National Lampoon's Vacation


text:
User talk:128.83.206.108

~ Kalki 05:16, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:128.83.206.108