text:
Nancy Reagan

Nancy Reagan (6 July 1921 - 6 March 2016), born Anne Francis Robbins, was an American actress, political activist, and the wife of US President Ronald Reagan.

Quotes

 * Someone asked me if I wanted to make a New Year's wish, and I said yes — and it was that I'd like to see every young person in the world join the "Just Say No" to drugs club. Well, just the fact that Congress has proclaimed "Just Say No Week" and in light of all the activities taking place, it seems that my wish is well on its way to coming true.
 * On the "Just Say No to Drugs Week" (1986), as quoted in "JUST SAY NO" at The Ronald Reagan Foundation

 * Our relationship is very special. We were very much in love and still are. Thank God we found each other. When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it's true. It did. Forty-six years? Can't imagine life without him.
 * On her relation with her husband, Ronald Reagan, as quoted in an interview with Vanity Fair (July 1998), and in Saving The Reagan Presidency : Trust Is The Coin Of The Realm (2005) by David M. Abshire, p. 107
 * Variant: Our relationship is very special. We were very much in love and still are. When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it's true. It did. I can't imagine life without him.
 * As quoted in "End of a love story" at BBC (5 June 2004)

 * I must say that acting was good training for the political life that lay ahead of us.
 * As quoted in Business : The Ultimate Resource (2002) by Daniel P. Goleman

 * I don't intend for this to take on a political tone. I'm just here for the drugs.
 * At an anti-drug rally, as quoted in 1001 Dumbest Things Ever Said (2004) by Steven D. Price, p. 19

 * I am a big believer that you have to nourish any relationship. I am still very much a part of my friends' lives and they are very much a part of my life. A First Lady who does not have this source of strength and comfort can lose perspective and become isolated.
 * As quoted in Winning with People : Discover the People Principles That Work for You Every Time (2005) by John C. Maxwell, p. 186

 * The time for a woman to serve as our President has come – really, now is the time — and I think the idea of having a former First Lady as the leader of the free world is really quite a marvelous notion. I want Hillary to win. Even though I admire two of the current potential Republican nominees, I have no interest in seeing either of them lead this country.
 * In an interview for First Ladies in Their Own Words, as quoted in Nancy Reagan: "I Want Hillary to Win" by Pierce Bublé at National Report (10 April 2015)

Just Say No (1986)

 * 'Just Say No' Address to the Nation (14 September 1986) Video at YouTube (September 1986)

 * As a mother, I've always thought of September as a special month, a time when we bundled our children off to school, to the warmth of an environment in which they could fulfill the promise and hope in those restless minds. But so much has happened over these last years, so much to shake the foundations of all that we know and all that we believe in. Today there's a drug and alcohol abuse epidemic in this country, and no one is safe from it — not you, not me, and certainly not our children, because this epidemic has their names written on it. Many of you may be thinking: "Well, drugs don't concern me." But it does concern you. It concerns us all because of the way it tears at our lives and because it's aimed at destroying the brightness and life of the sons and daughters of the United States.

 * For 5 years I've been traveling across the country — learning and listening. And one of the most hopeful signs I've seen is the building of an essential, new awareness of how terrible and threatening drug abuse is to our society. This was one of the main purposes when I started, so of course it makes me happy that that's been accomplished. But each time I meet with someone new or receive another letter from a troubled person on drugs, I yearn to find a way to help share the message that cries out from them.

 * Drugs steal away so much. They take and take, until finally every time a drug goes into a child, something else is forced out — like love and hope and trust and confidence. Drugs take away the dream from every child's heart and replace it with a nightmare, and it's time we in America stand up and replace those dreams. Each of us has to put our principles and consciences on the line, whether in social settings or in the workplace, to set forth solid standards and stick to them. There's no moral middle ground. Indifference is not an option. We want you to help us create an outspoken intolerance for drug use. For the sake of our children, I implore each of you to be unyielding and inflexible in your opposition to drugs.

 * Our young people are helping us lead the way. Not long ago, in Oakland, California, I was asked by a group of children what to do if they were offered drugs, and I answered, "Just say no." Soon after that, those children in Oakland formed a Just Say No club, and now there are over 10,000 such clubs all over the country. Well, their participation and their courage in saying no needs our encouragement. We can help by using every opportunity to force the issue of not using drugs to the point of making others uncomfortable, even if it means making ourselves unpopular.

 * Our job is never easy because drug criminals are ingenious. They work everyday to plot a new and better way to steal our children's lives, just as they've done by developing this new drug, crack. For every door that we close, they open a new door to death. They prosper on our unwillingness to act. So, we must be smarter and stronger and tougher than they are. It's up to us to change attitudes and just simply dry up their markets.

So, to my young friends out there: '''Life can be great, but not when you can't see it. So, open your eyes to life: to see it in the vivid colors that God gave us as a precious gift to His children, to enjoy life to the fullest, and to make it count. Say yes to your life. And when it comes to drugs and alcohol just say NO.'''
 * And finally, to young people watching or listening, I have a very personal message for you: There's a big, wonderful world out there for you. It belongs to you. It's exciting and stimulating and rewarding. Don't cheat yourselves out of this promise. Our country needs you, but it needs you to be clear-eyed and clear-minded. I recently read one teenager's story. She's now determined to stay clean but was once strung out on several drugs. What she remembered most clearly about her recovery was that during the time she was on drugs everything appeared to her in shades of black and gray and after her treatment she was able to see colors again.

My Turn (1989)
While I loved being first lady, my eight years with that title were the most difficult years of my life. Both of my parents died while Ronnie was president, and my husband and I were both operated on for cancer. Before we had even settled in, Ronnie was shot and almost killed. Then there was the pressure of living under the intense scrutiny of the media, and the frustration of frequently being misunderstood. Everything I did or said seemed to generate controversy, and it often seemed that you couldn't open a newspaper without seeing a story about me — my husband and me, my children and me, Donald Regan and me, and so on. I don't think I was as bad, or as extreme in my power or my weakness, as I was depicted — especially during the first year, when people thought I was overly concerned with trivialities, and the final year, when some of the same people were convinced I was running the show. In many ways, I think I served as a lightning rod; and in any case, I came to realize that while Ronald Reagan was an extremely popular president, some people didn't like his wife very much. Something about me, or the image people had of me, just seemed to rub them the wrong way.
 * In 1981, when Ronnie and I moved to Washington, I never dreamed that our eight years there would be a time of so much emotion. But life in the White House is magnified: The highs were higher than I expected, and the lows were much lower.
 * Foreword

I often cried during those eight years. There were times when I just didn't know what to do, or how I would survive. But even so, I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. I did things I never dreamed I could do, went places I never imagined I'd go, grew in ways I never thought possible.
 * Although there is a certain dignity in silence, which I find appealing, I have decided that for me, for our children, and for the historical record, I want to tell my side of the story. So much was said about me — about astrology, and my relationship with Raisa Gorbachev, and whether I got Donald Regan fired, and what went on between me and my children, especially Patti. Ironically, I felt I could start rebuilding our private life only by going public on these and other topics — to have my say and then to move on.
 * Foreword

My mother used to say, “Play the hand that’s dealt you,” and that is what I have always tried to do. And this, for better or worse, is how it seemed to me.
 * I kept a diary during our White House years, and I have drawn upon it often in this book. I experience the world through my intuitions and feelings, and you'll find out a lot about those in these pages.
 * Foreword

Did I ever give Ronnie advice? You bet I did. I'm the one who knows him best, and I was the only person in the White House who had absolutely no agenda of her own — except helping him. And so I make no apologies for telling him what I thought. Just because you're married doesn't mean you have no right to express your opinions. '''For eight years I was sleeping with the president, and if that doesn't give you special access, I don't know what does! So yes, I gave Ronnie my best advice — whenever he asked for it, and sometimes when he didn't. But that doesn't mean he always took it.''' Ronald Reagan has a mind of his own.
 * I was not the power behind the throne.
 * Ch. 4 : First Lady, Dragon Lady

Misattributed

 * A lot of what acting is, is paying attention.
 * Robert Redford, as quoted in Hollywood's All-Time Greatest Stars : A Quiz Book (2003) by Andrew J. Rausch, p. 216

Quotes about Reagan

 * Sorted alphabetically by author or source

What her detractors failed to understand (and I was among them) was the substantive role she played behind the scenes at the White House in keeping her husband's presidency on track. She took the long view in looking after his legacy, intervening through favored surrogates to keep conservative ideologues from driving the agenda. Her insistence that no president could be considered great without reaching out to Soviet leaders trumped resistance from the right wing of the GOP. She was fiercely protective of her husband's image, less so of her own, and she paid the price. When some of her interventions became known, particularly in the personnel department, she was cast as Lady Macbeth —even though the firings she engineered won praise. ... Years later, with the benefit of hindsight and after watching Hillary Clinton's failed effort to achieve health-care reform, I came to believe Nancy Reagan deserved a fairer assessment. I wrote an op-ed piece that appeared in The Washington Post on Jan. 8, 1995, with the headline "Nancy with the centrist face: Derided as an elitist, Mrs. Reagan's impact was unequaled." I made the point that unlike Clinton, who took an office in the West Wing and was upfront about wanting to be a player, Reagan operated undercover, usually through a surrogate, and that '''she was a force for good. She rarely left fingerprints, but she got the job done, and her job was to play up her husband's strengths and cover for his weaknesses. She did both very well.''' The piece concluded with this line: "She is without doubt an effective First Lady, and she may yet win our hearts." Soon after I received a handwritten note from Mrs. Reagan saying, "I don't really know how to say this but when something very nice comes from an unexpected source, it's really appreciated — and if you see me in a different light now, I'm happy. I can only hope one day 'to win the heart.' " Later that same year, she cooperated with a Newsweek cover about her reconciliation with daughter Patti Davis, and how the president's Alzheimer's disease had brought the family together after literally decades of turmoil. Another handwritten note arrived shortly after with the lighthearted comment, "We've got to stop meeting like this!" After sharing her thoughts and emotions on her family's difficult times, Reagan said, "Hopefully I'm close to 'winning the heart.' "  In looking back at these notes, I realize how much it meant to her to gain a measure of affection after being treated so harshly in the public eye.
 * Nancy Reagan became first lady during the height of the feminist movement, and women who were battling for their rights in a male-dominated world saw her as an anachronism. Reagan said her life began when she met her husband. The adoring look she focused on her Ronnie when they were in public became known as "the gaze," adding to the caricature of her as a rich Hollywood socialite who did not understand the concerns of a generation of women coming into their own as professionals and seeking equality.
 * Eleanor Clift, in "Farewell to Hollywood's Great White House Romance" in The Daily Beast (6 March 2016)

 * It took her husband's long illness and her grace in caring for him to show her critics what she was made of. Rarely did she spend more than an hour or two away from him, and during the decade of his decline, she guarded his image, his legacy, and his dignity. As his cognitive powers slipped away, eldest son Michael reminded him that he used to be president. "How did I do?" Reagan replied, his characteristic humor and humility intact. In the 1994 letter to the American people in which the former president revealed his illness, he wrote, "I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience. When the time comes I am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage." In their life together, Ronald Reagan never worried about anything; Nancy worried about everything, carrying a burden few appreciated until the end. She didn't have his gift for storytelling, but she made sure all the parts were in place, and by honoring him, she was true to herself, a woman for all times.
 * Eleanor Clift, in "Farewell to Hollywood's Great White House Romance" in The Daily Beast (6 March 2016)

 * You didn't have to be a Reagan Republican to admire and respect Nancy Reagan. ... She was a tower of strength alongside her husband, had strong beliefs, and was not afraid to chart her own course politically. She persuaded her husband to support the Brady Law, and their advocacy was instrumental in helping us pass it.
 * Bill Clinton, as quoted in "Nancy Reagan ‘was quiet and mild, but you could tell that she had steel on the inside’" by Peter Holley, in The Washington Post (6 March 2016)

 * I appreciate the attention and prayers of people I will probably never meet. Just as when my father died, there is comfort in feeling surrounded by gentle thoughts and kind wishes, often sent out by strangers. And just as when my father died, we will honor my mother publicly — stand on the public stage and share as much as we can. Then, when that is completed, we'll draw the circle in a little tighter and deal with the often complicated map of personal loss.
 * Patti Davis, in "My Mother" (6 March 2016)

 * Her most famous moment as First Lady came almost by accident: the Just Say No   campaign against drug use at a time when abuse was running out of control. "I was in California and I was talking to, I think, fifth graders, and one little girl raised her hand and said, 'Mrs. Reagan, what do you do if somebody offers you drugs?' And I said, 'well, you just say no.' And there it was born. I think people thought that we had an advertising agency over who dreamed that up — not true." Reagan called her "my secret weapon" in his fight against drug use.
 * Nancy Gibbs, in "Remembering Nancy Reagan: The End of a White House Love Story" in TIME (6 March 2016)]

 * the 1980s, when Nancy Reagan's slogan "Just Say No" passed as high-level drug education.
 * Carl Hart Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear (2021)

 * Reagan's legacy may be one of the few things Republican presidential candidates have agreed upon in recent weeks. Republican front-runner Donald Trump called Reagan an “amazing woman” on Twitter, and Sen. Ted Cruz recalled her “deep passion.”
 * Peter Holley, in "Nancy Reagan ‘was quiet and mild, but you could tell that she had steel on the inside’" in The Washington Post (6 March 2016)

She responded, "Yes, of course." Gromkyo responded, "Then whisper 'peace' in your husband's ear every night." Without missing a beat, Mrs. Reagan replied, "I will. And I'll also whisper it in your ear." Gromyko repeated the story many times over the years. It was a clear and unmistakable message coming from President's Reagan's closet and most influential adviser — his wife — that they had turned a new page in the relationship. '''The rest is history. President Reagan and Soviet President Gorbachev reached historic arms control agreements. Reagan went to Moscow. Gorbachev visited the United States. They ushered in a new era of peace that had been unequalled in modern times.''' Feminists today look at Nancy Reagan as an example of the old world, when women worried more about frivolous things like clothes and dinner parties. Let them. Nancy Reagan had more to do with successfully winning the Cold War than all the generals, diplomats and politicians ever could. Nancy Reagan may have been tiny in size, but she was a giant in stature. We have peace in the world today because that indomitable first lady took the first step.
 * When she greeted Gromyko, he leaned down to her and said, "Does your husband believe in peace?"
 * K. T. McFarland, in "Ronald Reagan won the Cold War but it was Nancy Reagan who made it happen" at Fox News Opinion (6 March 2016)

Our former First Lady redefined the role in her time here. Later, in her long goodbye with President Reagan, she became a voice on behalf of millions of families going through the depleting, aching reality of Alzheimer's, and took on a new role, as advocate, on behalf of treatments that hold the potential and the promise to improve and save lives. We offer our sincere condolences to their children, Patti, Ron, and Michael, and to their grandchildren. And we remain grateful for Nancy Reagan's life, thankful for her guidance, and prayerful that she and her beloved husband are together again.
 * Nancy Reagan once wrote that nothing could prepare you for living in the White House. She was right, of course. But we had a head start, because we were fortunate to benefit from her proud example, and her warm and generous advice.
 * Barack & Michelle Obama, in joint "Statement by the President and the First Lady" (6 March 2016)

 * I am saddened by the passing of my step mother Nancy Reagan...She is once again with the man she loved. God Bless... Nancy is where she has always wanted to be with her Ronnie...Now she is at peace...
 * Michael Reagan, on Twitter (6 March 2016)

 * With charm, grace, and a passion for America, this couple reminded us of the greatness and the endurance of the American experiment. ... Some underestimate the influence of a first lady but from Martha and Abigail through Nancy and beyond, these women have shaped policy, strengthened resolve, and drawn on our better angels. God and Ronnie have finally welcomed a choice soul home.
 * Mitt Romney, as quoted in "Nancy Reagan ‘was quiet and mild, but you could tell that she had steel on the inside’" by Peter Holley, in The Washington Post (6 March 2016)

 * She will be sorely missed by those who knew her, and forever remembered by a grateful nation.
 * Marco Rubio, as quoted in "Nancy Reagan ‘was quiet and mild, but you could tell that she had steel on the inside’" by Peter Holley, in The Washington Post (6 March 2016)

 * Ronald Reagan could not have accomplished everything that he did without his wife Nancy. As first lady, she brought a sense of grace and dignity to the White House. She roused the country to redouble the fight against drugs. And she showed us all the meaning of devotion as she cared for President Reagan throughout his long goodbye. She loved her husband, and she loved her country. This was her service. It was her way of giving back. And all of us are very grateful. So on behalf of the entire House, I wish to extend our condolences to the Reagan family and offer our prayers on the passing of a great American, Nancy Reagan.
 * Paul Ryan, in an official release as Speaker of the House of Representatives (6 March 2016)

Nancy's joining me because the message this evening is not my message but ours. And we speak to you not simply as fellow citizens but as fellow parents and grandparents and as concerned neighbors. It's back-to-school time for America's children. And while drug and alcohol abuse cuts across all generations, it's especially damaging to the young people on whom our future depends.
 * Usually, I talk with you from my office in the West Wing of the White House. But tonight there's something special to talk about, and I've asked someone very special to join me. Nancy and I are here in the West Hall of the White House, and around us are the rooms in which we live. It's the home you've provided for us, of which we merely have temporary custody.
 * Ronald Reagan, introducing his wife, for her 'Just Say No' Address to the Nation (14 September 1986)

 * No matter how divisive the nation was during the Presidency, the First Ladies of this nation knew their job was to soften the rhetoric by loving all Americans equally – just like a mother would. ... She wants people to know that the First Ladies are tight. They get together once a year to support each other.
 * Ron Reagan, on his mother's endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president of the US, as quoted in Nancy Reagan: "I Want Hillary to Win" by Pierce Bublé at National Report (10 April 2015)

title: Nancy Reagan


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Wikiquote:Reference desk

What is the earliest verifiable quote?
It seems like a simple question, but I haven't had much luck trying to find the answer. Maybe my google-fu is weak, but at any rate, for the purpose of clarifying the scope of the question, let’s define a “quote” as “a word or series of words, which was cited as the synthesis of, or attributed to, another speaker or writer.” Considering a quote as only a single word may seem odd, but in the case of wholly new words, new loanwords, and translations all the same, the first time something is quoted represents the moment the word(s) enters the historical record as not just a word(s) but a unit of cultural information in a way less easily lost to time than, say, the moment the word(s) is first uttered or the moment the meaning is comprehended by a whole segment of contemporary society.

Accordingly, the definition of “verifiable” must be able to be applied to both the quote and the original. For this purpose, I’ll define it narrowly, as “that which can be confirmed to have been written or spoken, by proof or evidence of a surviving copy of the text or record, or by proof or evidence of reference to the text or record by a source regarded by the majority of modern historians to be accurate.”

So, now that I’ve properly explained what it is that I’m looking for, I humbly ask any smart person reading this with even a slight interest in the subject matter to share their knowledge or any vague directions that may be helpful along my journey. If you made it this far, thank you, and I hope we can discover history together. —Szofiasaint (talk) 20:10, 27 August 2021 (UTC)

Joseph Campbell quote?
"Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is." ~ Joseph Campbell - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7smvO_XoAE0zf5.jpg ~ JasonCarswell (talk) 11:25, 28 June 2019 (UTC)

 * Did you mean to post this on this page? If so, why? Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 17:11, 29 June 2019 (UTC)

 * Yes, sorry, I forgot to ask for help verifying it. (I moved this section from the Village Pump here to be more correct and more current.) ~ JasonCarswell (talk) 04:47, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Søren Kierkegaard quote?
I'd also like help verifying this quote:

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." ― Søren Kierkegaard

It's been touched on, but not verified: Talk:Søren_Kierkegaard

Before I repeat quotes, even if popular, as the above two are, I try to verify them on Wikiquote first as sadly far too often they are misquotes. ~ JasonCarswell (talk) 04:52, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

Otto Von Bismarck
I found this quote in Tolstoy's Calendar of Wisdom, but I can't find any origin for it.

I'm wondering does anyone know of the source? I feel a little skeptical that it is a real quote.

"I feel sick at heart. During the entire course of my long life I have never made anyone happy – neither any of my friends, nor my family, nor even myself. I have committed so much evil.... I have been responsible for three large-scale wars. Because of me, more than 800,000 people have perished on the field of battle, they are now being mourned by their mothers brothers and widows... And all this stands between me and God"

https://books.google.ie/books?id=Mn5jDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA230&lpg=PA230&dq=%22all+this+stands+between+me+and+god%22+bismarck&source=bl&ots=Nu5JDm5URO&sig=ACfU3U3X7ci5PuHGuLrylycrTjlEFUv8mg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwitmMDuwpbkAhWLWhUIHZcuAV0Q6AEwAHoECAAQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22all%20this%20stands%20between%20me%20and%20god%22%20bismarck&f=false

Arsenic & Old Lace - Dialogue
(Correction) Man in window seat’s name is Spinoza.

Copying Edit Request in Censorship in China page
I have translated a quote in a document published by Chinese government. But the translation is not good enough and I need someone to copy edit the translation.Mariogoods (talk) 23:34, 2 November 2019 (UTC)

perhaps you can ask who has Chinese language skills. -- ო ~ #SheSaid 10:50, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

When to use BOLD?
I noticed that some articles use bold typeface to emphasize especially good parts of quotes. But is there a policy on when to use it? Because if I emphasize one part of an author's quotation, let's say about computer science, because it's too long, then it wouldn't look fair to other authors, who might have "better" and shorter quotes. --Amakuha (talk) 08:26, 20 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Good question: there is no consensus. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 10:43, 20 March 2020 (UTC)
 * see also the discussion here -- ო ~ #SheSaid 10:48, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Nimitz quote?
Some report Admiral Chester Nimitz saying “well, you were only five minutes, five degrees, and five miles out", which I always thought was a significant quote, but I cannot find anything like that on Wikiquote - could it be a false attribution, or - if valid - could it be added? Thanks, Mark. 2404:4404:2709:EB00:4BE:DDCE:EB4D:3746 03:27, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

Andrew Carnegie
Please see Talk:Andrew Carnegie. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 21:31, 26 October 2021 (UTC)

Je to na hovoří kdo se má v té ajně vyznat
No coment
 * According to Google, the above is Czech for "It's up to you who knows what to do." HouseOfChange (talk) 17:26, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

Siavash Shahsavari, to be checked
Please could you check Siavash Shahsavari. If this Arabic source is serious, then Wikidata entry Wikidata:Q113708516 can stay. But I am not familiar with Wikiquote notability criteria. (Sorry not logged in, coz central login problem, actually Wikidata:User:Estopedist1) --2001:7D0:87F5:8D80:C6B:9E9C:7DF2:C036 05:37, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

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

title: Wikiquote:Reference desk


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Talk:Émile Zola

Could someone track down the "I don't see any wooden legs" quote, please? — Bobby D. Bryant 11:14, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I'm eager to know this too.
I've also heard it attributed to Anatole France and Sartre. Is it apocryphal?

"We are like books"
I have seen the quote "We are like books. Most people only see our cover, the minority read only the introduction, many people believe the critics. Few will know our content." attributed to Zola in many places, but I don't see anything close to an actual cited source anywhere. Can anyone validate or debunk this? Aliza250 (talk) 03:08, 2 August 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Émile Zola


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Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland (November 14 1900 – December 2 1990) was an American composer of concert and film music. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as “the dean of American composers.”

Quotes

 * The composer who is frightened of losing his artistic integrity through contact with a mass audience is no longer aware of the meaning of the word art.
 * Aaron Copland and His World, ISBN 9780691124704.

 * For me, the most important thing is the element of chance that is built into a live performance. The very great drawback of recorded sound is the fact that it is always the same. No matter how wonderful a recording is, I know that I couldn't live with it--even of my own music--with the same nuances forever.
 * Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812.

 * I hope my recordings of my own works won't inhibit other people's performances. The brutal fact is that one doesn't always get the exact tempo one wants, although one improves with experience.
 * Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812.

 * If the listener does eventually come to the point where he makes the ultimate performance by splicing tapes from other musicians' recordings, he will eventually become just as bored with it as with other recordings, for it will still always be the same. Look, for instance, at electronic music. The boys are already becoming bored with what they do because they put it irrevocably on tape. The best indication of this is that more and more they are mixing the live performance element with their tapes.
 * Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812.

 * I object to background music no matter how good it is. Composers want people to listen to their music, they don't want them doing something else while their music is on. I'd like to get the guy who sold all those big businessmen the idea of putting music in the elevators, for he was really clever. What on earth good does it do anybody to hear those four or eight bars while going up a few flights.
 * Quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812.

 * I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.
 * Aaron Copland: the Life and Work of an Uncommon Man, ISBN 0805049096.

 * I don't compose. I assemble materials.
 * Aaron Copland: the Life and Work of an Uncommon Man, ISBN 0805049096.

 * Somehow, suddenly, a musical idea occurs to you; either a whole phrase, or three notes, or a series of chords, something that seems pregnant with possibilities for development. Once you have the kinds of ideas that fascinate you, you're no longer in a position to decide the nature of the animal.  It's going to take its essence from the musical ideas that occur to you....Some musical ideas are too short, they don't seem long enough to carry you through ten minutes of music, so you have to start searching about for other ideas; contrasting ones that seem to fit with the original ones.
 * Aaron Copland: the Life and Work of an Uncommon Man, ISBN 0805049096.

 * So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it.
 * Music as an Aspect of the Human Spirit (1954).

 * If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.
 * Aaron Copland: the Life and Work of an Uncommon Man, ISBN 0805049096.

 * Nadia Boulanger was quite aware that as a composition teacher she labored under two further disadvantages: she was not herself a regularly practicing composer and in so far as she composed at all she must of necessity be listed in that unenviable category of the woman composer. Everyone knows that the high achievement of women musicians as vocalists and instrumentalists has no counterpart in the field of musical composition. This historically poor showing has puzzled more than one observer. ... Is it possible that there is a mysterious element in the nature of musical creativity that runs counter to the nature of the feminine mind? ... The future may very well have a different tale to tell; for the present, however, no woman's name will be found on the list of world-famous composers.
 * Copland on Music (1960) ISBN 0393001989.

title: Aaron Copland


text:
Performance

Quotes about performance.

 * See also: performance art

Quotes

 * "For me, the most important thing is the element of chance that is built into a live performance. The very great drawback of recorded sound is the fact that it is always the same.  No matter how wonderful a recording is, I know that I couldn't live with it -- even of my own music -- with the same nuances forever."
 * Aaron Copland, quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music. ISBN 0028645812.

 * "I hope my recordings of my own works won't inhibit other people's performances. The brutal fact is that one doesn't always get the exact tempo one wants, although one improves with experience."
 * Aaron Copland, quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music. ISBN 0028645812.

 * "Performance has remained the ideal locus of rock authenticity long after it has ceased to be the real origin of rock music."
 * David R. Shumway (1999). "Performance". Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture. Malden, Massachusetts. ISBN 0631212639.

title: Performance


text:
Background music

Background music, often referred to as elevator music (for the common practice of playing this genre in elevators) or Muzak (a trademarked name of a company famous for supplying this music), refers to various styles of music or soundscapes primarily intended to be passively listened to. It is not meant to be the main focus of an audience, but rather to supplement that which is meant to be focused upon. Music that is played at a low volume and is not the main focus of an audience is also referred to as background music. Traditional examples of background music include music played at various social gatherings and music played in certain retail venues

Quotes

 * I object to background music no matter how good it is. Composers want people to listen to their music, they don't want them doing something else while their music is on.  I'd like to get the guy who sold all those big businessmen the idea of putting music in the elevators, for he was really clever.  What on earth good does it do anybody to hear those four or eight bars while going up a few flights.
 * Aaron Copland, quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812.

 * Light and noise pollution are “neglected pollutants” in need of renewed focus
 * House of Lords Pipedown The campaign for freedom from piped music  (19 July 2023)

 * The barbarians are inside the gate. They're playing Muzak in Jenners.
 * The full content of a letter to The Scotsman newspaper demonstrating contempt for the genre. source

title: Background music


text:
Recording

Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording.

Quotes

 * I can't believe that people really prefer to go to the concert hall under intellectually trying, socially trying, physically trying conditions, unable to repeat something they have missed, when they can sit at home under the most comfortable and stimulating circumstances and hear it as they want to hear it. I can't imagine what would happen to literature today if one were obliged to congregate in an unpleasant hall and read novels projected on a screen.
 * Milton Babbitt; quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812

 * We have all been affected as composers, as teachers, as musicians by recordings to an extent that cannot possibly be calculated as yet or predicted for the future. The music which is being most widely disseminated and most widely discussed, and therefore most widely imitated and influential, is that music which is available on records.  The music that is only published is very little known.  I don't think one can possibly exaggerate the extent to which the climate of music today is determined by the fact that the total Webern is available on records, that the total Schoenberg is becoming available.
 * Milton Babbitt; quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812

 * For me, the most important thing is the element of chance that is built into a live performance. The very great drawback of recorded sound is the fact that it is always the same.  No matter how wonderful a recording is, I know that I couldn't live with it -- even of my own music -- with the same nuances forever.
 * Aaron Copland; quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812.

 * I hope my recordings of my own works won't inhibit other people's performances. The brutal fact is that one doesn't always get the exact tempo one wants, although one improves with experience.
 * Aaron Copland; quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812

 * If the listener does eventually come to the point where he makes the ultimate performance by splicing tapes from other musicians' recordings, he [sic] will eventually become just as bored with it as with other recordings, for it will still always be the same. Look, for instance, at electronic music.  The boys are already becoming bored with what they do because they put it irrevocably on tape.  The best indication of this is that more and more they are mixing the live performance element with their tapes.
 * Aaron Copland; quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music, ISBN 0028645812.

 * My experience of the original Edison phonograph goes back to the period when it was first introduced into this country. In fact, I have good reason to believe that I was among the very first persons in London to make a vocal record, though I never received a copy of it, and if I did it got lost long ago.  It must have been in 1881 or 1882, and the place where the deed was done was on the first floor of a shop in Hatton Garden, where I had been invited to listen to the wonderful new invention.  To begin with, I heard pieces both in song and speech produced by the friction of a needle against a revolving cylinder, or spool, fixed in what looked like a musical box.  It sounded to my ear like someone singing about half a mile away, or talking at the other end of a big hall; but the effect was rather pleasant, save for a peculiar nasal quality wholly due to the mechanism, though there was little of the scratching which later was a prominent feature of the flat disc.  Recording for that primitive machine was a comparatively simple matter.  I had to keep my mouth about six inches away from the horn and remember not to make my voice too loud if I wanted anything approximating to a clear reproduction; that was all.  When it was played over to me and I heard my own voice for the first time, one or two friends who were present said that it sounded rather like mine; others declared that they would never have recognised it.  I daresay both opinions were correct.
 * Herman Klein; quoted in The Gramophone magazine, December 1933

 * People have a good reason for saying that because the Japanese have been smart. They have visited Jamaica and they bought maybe 90 per cent of our vinyl collection and that vault is now in Japan. I talking classic vinyl that your grand parents used to collect. The Japanese came here and they knocked door to door and bought out the vinyl records...so most of our catalogue is in Japan.
 * Wee Pow, in The Sunday Gleamer, as qtd. in Anton Spice, "“90% of Jamaica’s vinyl collection is in Japan” – Iconic sound system owner speaks out", The Vinyl Factory, (June 12, 2017)

 * We did not see the value in vinyl, and so we were quick to sell them to the Japanese, and now they have all the gold.
 * Wee Pow, in The Sunday Gleamer, as qtd. in Anton Spice, "“90% of Jamaica’s vinyl collection is in Japan” – Iconic sound system owner speaks out", The Vinyl Factory, (June 12, 2017)

title: Recording


text:
Sublime (band)

Sublime was an American band from Long Beach, California that formed in 1988. The band members included Bradley Nowell (vocals, guitars, and songwriter on all songs), Eric Wilson (bass), and Bud Gaugh (drums).

40 Oz. to Freedom (1992).

 * So let the lovin' take a hold over me let the lovin' take a hold over me (follow me, Long Beach posse) 'cause all I see is your fussin' and fightin' 1992, let us all start uniting put your heads together be the best you can be let this jam take us to 1993 stay positive, the love will come back to me.
 * "Get Out!"

 * Life is one big question when you're staring at the clock and the answer's always waiting at the liquor store: 40 ounces to freedom, so I'll take that walk.
 * "40 Oz. to Freedom"

 * 40 ounces to freedom is the only chance I have to feel good, even though I feel bad.
 * "40 Oz. to Freedom"

 * I smoke two joints in the morning I smoke two joints at night I smoke two joints in the afternoon it makes me feel alright. I smoke two joints in times of peace and two in time of war. I smoke two joints before I smoke two joints, and then I smoke two more.
 * "Smoke Two Joints"

 * If I had a shotgun, you know what I'd do? I'd point that shit straight at the sky and shoot heaven on down for you.
 * "Don't Push"

 * When you grab a hold of me, Tell me that ill never be set free
 * "Badfish"

 * Tell me, are you a bad fish too?
 * "Badfish"

 * I don't gamble, but I bet I'm gonna die if I don't get a cigarette.
 * "Let's Go Get Stoned"

 * The stone that the builder refuse shall be the head cornerstone.
 * "D.J.s"

 * I'm not a fool to hurt myself, but I was innocent to what they done to me
 * "54-46 That's My Number/Ball And Chain"

 * It's a crazy world to live alone, a ball and chain I call my own.
 * "54-46 That's My Number/Ball And Chain"

 * When the music hits you shall feel no pain
 * "Doin' Time (Eerie Splendor Remix)"

 * Oh well the bars are always open, and the time is always right. And if God's good word goes unspoken, the music goes all night.
 * "Don't Push"

 * If rhymes were valiums I'd be comfortably numb
 * "Don't Push"

Robbin' the Hood (1994)

 * One day I'm gonna lose the war.
 * "Pool Shark"

 * Still I got my yellow cat and my wooden baseball bat and my shiny silver gat and if my homies got my back then I got all that I need. Look at all the love we've found.
 * "S.T.P."

Sublime (1996)

 * Lovin' is what I got now remember that.
 * "What I Got"

 * Life's too short so love the one you got 'cuz you might get run over or you might get shot.
 * "What I Got"

 * I don't cry when my dog runs away I don't get angry at the bills I have to pay I don't get angry when my mom smokes pot, hits that bottle and goes right to the rock.
 * "What I Got"

 * I don't practice Santeria, I ain't got no crystal ball well, I had a million dollars but I, I spent it all.
 * "Santeria"

 * Caress me down, that's the loving sound
 * "Caress Me Down"

 * Hola, mucho gusto. Me llamo Bradley I am hornier than Ron Jeremy
 * "Caress Me Down"

 * Summertime and the livin's easy
 * "Doin' Time"

 * Me and my girl, we got this relationship I love her so bad but she treats me like shit
 * "Doin' Time"

 * Take this veil from off my eyes My burning sun will someday rise
 * "Doin' Time"

 * Evil, I've come to tell you that she's evil Most definitely.
 * "Doin' Time"

title: Sublime (band)


text:
Kill Bill: Volume 1

Kill Bill: Volume 1 is a 2003 film about a former member of an elite team of assassins who seeks revenge on her former boss and partners after a massacre at her wedding rehearsal during which she was left for dead. The film was followed by Kill Bill: Volume 2.
 * Directed by Quentin Tarantino. Written by Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman.

Here comes the bride.(taglines)

Opening caption

 * Revenge is a dish best served cold.
 * Old Klingon proverb

Bill

 * [To The Bride] Do you find me sadistic? You know, I'll bet I could fry an egg on your head right now if I wanted to. No, Kiddo, I'd like to believe you're aware enough, even now, to know there's nothing sadistic in my actions. Maybe towards those other jokers, but not you. No, Kiddo, this moment, this is me at my most ... masochistic.

 * [To Sofie] One more thing Sofie, is she aware her daughter is still alive?

The Bride

 * It's mercy, compassion and forgiveness I lack. Not rationality.

 * Just because I have no wish to murder you before the eyes of your daughter does not mean parading her around in front of me is going to inspire sympathy. You and I have unfinished business. And not a goddamn fucking thing you've done in the subsequent four years, including getting knocked up, is going to change that.

 * [to Nikki, Vernita Green's daughter, after killing Vernita] It was not my intention to do this in front of you. For that, I'm sorry. But you can take my word for it, your mother had it coming. When you grow up, if you still feel raw about it, I'll be waiting.

 * When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other that not only does God exist, you're doing his will.

 * [about O-Ren] O-Ren Ishii was born on an American military base in Tokyo, Japan. The half-Japanese, half-Chinese American army brat made her first acquaintance with death at the age of 9. It was that age she witnessed the death of her parents at the hands of Japan's most ruthless Yakuza boss, Boss Matsumoto. She swore revenge. Luckily, for her, Boss Matsumoto was a pedophile. At 11, she got her revenge. By 20, she was one of the top female assassins in the world. At 25, she did her part in the killing of 9 innocent people, including my unborn daughter, in a small wedding chapel in El Paso, Texas. But on that day, four years ago, she made one big mistake. She should've killed 10.

 * So, O-Ren... Any more subordinates for me to kill?

 * [punctuating each word by spanking a boy with the flat side of her sword] This - is what - you get - for fucking - around - with Yakuzas! Go home to your mother!

 * [in Japanese] Those of you lucky enough to still have your lives, take them with you! But leave the limbs you have lost. They belong to me now. [to Sofie, in English] Except you, Sofie! You stay right where you are!

 * O-REN ISHII! Shoubu wa mada tsuicha inai yo! [calling out O-Ren in Japanese: "You and I have unfinished business!"]

 * [to Sofie] I am gonna ask you questions. And every time you don't give me answers, I'm gonna cut something off. And I promise you, they will be things you will miss. Give me your other arm!

 * As I said before, I've allowed you to keep your wicked life for two reasons. And the second reason is so you can tell him [Bill] in person everything that happened here tonight. I want him to witness the extent of my mercy by witnessing your deformed body. I want you to tell him all the information you just told me. I want him to know what I know. I want him to know I want him to know. And I want them all to know they'll all soon be as dead as O-Ren.

Elle Driver

 * I might never have liked you. Point in fact, I despised you. But that shouldn't suggest that I don't respect you. Dying in our sleep is a luxury that our kind is rarely afforded. My gift to you.

 * Thought that was pretty fucking funny, didn't you? Word of advice, shithead: don't you ever wake up.

Hattori Hanzo

 * Funny. You like samurai swords; I like baseball. [throws a ball at the Bride, who slices it in midair]

 * I've done what I swore an oath to God twenty-eight years ago to never do again. I've created "something that kills people". And in that purpose, I was a success. I've done this because, philosophically, I'm sympathetic to your aim. I can tell you, with no ego, this is my finest sword. If, on your journey, should you encounter God, God will be cut.

 * For those regarded as warriors, when engaged in combat, the vanquishing of thine enemy can be the warrior's only concern. Suppress all human emotion and compassion. Kill whoever stands in thy way, even if that be Lord God or Buddha himself. This truth lies at the heart of the art of combat.

 * Revenge is never a straight line. It's a forest, and like a forest it's easy to lose your way ... to get lost ... to forget where you came in.

O-Ren Ishii

 * [after she cuts off Boss Tanaka's head, in Japanese] So that you understand how serious I am.... I'm going to say this in English. [puts her sword down and says to her councilmen in English while Sofie translates] As your leader, I encourage you, from time to time and always in a respectful manner, to question my logic. If you're unconvinced a particular plan of action I've decided is the wisest, tell me so! But allow me to convince you. And I promise you, right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo ... except, of course, the subject that was just under discussion. The price you pay for bringing up either my Chinese or American heritage as a negative is – I collect your fucking head. [holds up Tanaka's head] Just like this fucker here. Now, if any of you sons of bitches got [raises her voice] ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY, NOW'S THE FUCKING TIME!!! [pause, in a calm voice] I didn't think so. [drops Tanaka's head on the table and says to her councilmen in Japanese] Gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned.

 * [in Japanese] Swords, however, never get tired. I hope you saved your energy. If you haven't... You may not last five minutes. But as last looks go, you could do worse.

 * Silly Caucasian girl likes to play with samurai swords. You might not be able to fight like a samurai, but you can at least die like a samurai.

 * That really was a Hattori Hanzo sword. [falls dead, the top of her head slashed off]

Other

 * Vernita Green: Black Mamba. I should have been motherfucking Black Mamba.

 * Buck: My name is Buck, and I'm here to fuck.

 * Sofie: [in French] Burn in hell, you stupid, stupid blonde! I'll tell you nothing!

 * Sofie: Guessing won't be necessary. She informed me.

 * Budd: [on The Bride] That woman...deserves her revenge. And we...deserve to die.
 * This is a flash-forward to a scene in Kill Bill Vol. 2, in which Budd adds: "But then again, so does she".

Dialogue

 * Bill: Elle, you're going to abort the mission.
 * Elle Driver: What?!
 * Bill: We owe her better than that.
 * Elle Driver: [screaming] Oh, you don't owe her shit!
 * Bill: Will you keep your voice down?
 * Elle Driver: [quietly] You don't owe her shit.
 * Bill: May I say one thing?
 * Elle Driver: Speak.
 * Bill: Y'all beat the hell out of that woman, but you didn't kill her. And I put a bullet in her head, but her heart just kept on beatin'. Now, you saw that yourself with your own beautiful blue eye, did you not? We've done a lot of things to this lady; and if she ever wakes up, we'll do a whole lot more. But one thing we won't do is sneak into her room in the night like a filthy rat and kill her in her sleep. And the reason we won't do that thing is because... that thing would lower us. Don't you agree, Miss Driver?
 * Elle Driver: I guess.
 * Bill: Do you really have to guess?
 * Elle Driver: [sighs] No. I don't really have to guess. I know.

 * Earl McGraw: Son Number 1?
 * Son Number 1: Yeah?
 * Earl McGraw: This tall drink of blonde cocksucker ain't dead.

 * Earl McGraw: Who's the bride?
 * Edgar McGraw: Don't know. The name on the marriage certificate is "Arlene Machiavelli." That's a fake. We've all just been calling her "The Bride" on account of the dress.
 * Earl McGraw: You can tell she was pregnant. Man'd have to be a mad dog to shoot a goddamn good-looking gal like that in the head. Look at her. Hay-colored hair, big eyes. She's a little blood-spattered angel.

 * Vernita: So I suppose it's a little late for an apology, huh?
 * The Bride: You suppose correctly.
 * Vernita: Look, bitch...I need to know if you're going to start any more shit around my baby girl.
 * The Bride: You can relax for now. I'm not going to murder you in front of your child, okay?
 * Vernita: That's being more rational than Bill led me to believe you were capable of.
 * The Bride: It's mercy, compassion, and forgiveness I lack. Not rationality.
 * Vernita: Look. I know I fucked you over. I fucked you over bad. I wish to God I hadn't, but I did. You have every right to want to get even.
 * The Bride: No, no, no, no, no. No, to get even, even-Steven? I would have to kill you...go up to Nikki's room, kill her...then wait for your husband, the good Dr. Bell, to come home and kill him. That would be even, Vernita. That'd be about square. [draws a square in the air with a finger]

 * Vernita: Look, if I could go back in a machine, I would. But I can't. All can tell you is that I'm a different person now.
 * The Bride: Oh great. I don't care.
 * Vernita: Be that as it may, I know I don't deserve your mercy or your forgiveness. However, I beseech you for both on behalf of my daughter.
 * The Bride: Bitch. You can stop right there. Just because I have no wish to murder you before the eyes of your daughter does not mean parading her around in front of me is going to inspire sympathy. You and I have unfinished business. And not a goddamn fucking thing you've done in the subsequent four years including getting knocked up is going to change that.
 * Vernita: So when do we do this?
 * The Bride: It all depends. When do you want to die? Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow?
 * Vernita: How about tonight, bitch?
 * The Bride: Splendid. Where?
 * Vernita: There's a baseball diamond where I coach Little League about a mile from here. We meet there around two-thirty in the morning dressed all in black. Your hair in a black stocking. And we have us a knife fight. We won't be bothered. Now...I have to fix Nikki's cereal.

 * The Bride: [narrating] The young girl in the school uniform is O-Ren's personal bodyguard, 17-year-old Gogo Yubari. Gogo may be young, but what she lacks in age, she makes up for in madness.
 * [Flashback shows Gogo with her hair in pigtails drinking an alcoholic beverage while a businessman tries to flirt with her]
 * Japanese Businessman: Do you like Ferraris?
 * Gogo Yubari: Ferrari? Italian trash. [smacks down beverage bottle] Do you want to screw me?
 * [Japanese Businessman giggles, offending Gogo.]
 * Gogo: Don't laugh! Do you want to screw me, yes or no?
 * Businessman: Yes.
 * [Gogo stabs him]
 * Gogo: How about now, big boy? Do you still wish to penetrate me? Or is it I … who has penetrated you?
 * The Bride: See what I mean?

 * Sushi Bar Assistant: [in Japanese] What'd ya want?
 * The Bride: [in English] I beg your pardon?
 * Hattori Hanzo: [in English] Oh … "drink" [makes drinking motion with hand]
 * The Bride: [in English] Oh, yes, a bottle of warm sake please.
 * Hattori Hanzo: [in English] Warm sake? Very good. [in Japanese] One warm sake.
 * Sushi Bar Assistant: [in Japanese] Sake? In the middle of the day?
 * Hattori Hanzo: [in Japanese] Day, night, afternoon, who gives a damn? Get the sake.
 * Sushi Bar Assistant: [in Japanese] How come I always have to get the sake? You listen well … for thirty years, you make the fish, I get the sake. If this were the military, I'd be General by now.
 * Hattori Hanzo: [in Japanese] Oh, so you'd be General, huh? If you were General, I'd be Emperor, and you'd still get the sake. So shut up and get the sake. [in English] Do you understand?

 * Hattori Hanzo: What do you want with Hattori Hanzo?
 * The Bride: I need Japanese steel.
 * Hattori: Why do you need Japanese steel?
 * The Bride: I have vermin to kill.
 * Hattori: You must have big rats if you need Hattori Hanzo's steel.
 * The Bride: Huge.

 * The Bride: So, O-Ren, any more subordinates for me to kill?
 * Gogo Yubari: [waves] Hi!
 * The Bride: [in Japanese] Gogo, right?
 * Gogo: [in English] Bingo. [in Japanese] And you're Black Mamba.
 * The Bride: [in Japanese] Our reputations precede us.
 * Gogo: [in Japanese] Don't they?
 * The Bride: [in English] Gogo, I know you feel you must protect your mistress. But I beg you, walk away.
 * Gogo: [giggles girlishly, in Japanese] You call that begging? [serious tone] You can beg better than that.

 * The Bride: [hearing the approach of the Crazy 88's] Is that what I think it is?
 * O-Ren: You didn't think it was gonna be that easy, did you?
 * The Bride: You know, for a second there ... yeah, I kinda did.
 * O-Ren: Silly rabbit.
 * The Bride: Trix are for...
 * O-Ren: ...kids.

 * O-Ren: [in English] Your instrument is quite impressive. [in Japanese] Where was it made?
 * The Bride: [in English] Okinawa.
 * O-Ren: [in Japanese] Whom in Okinawa made you this steel?
 * The Bride: [in English] This is Hattori Hanzo steel.
 * O-Ren: [in Japanese] YOU LIE! [the Bride shakes her head and turns her sword, showing Hattori Hanzo's stamp] Mmm-hmm. Swords, however, never get tired. I hope you saved your energy. If you haven't... You might not last five minutes. But as last looks go, you could do worse.

 * O-Ren: [in Japanese] For ridiculing you earlier, I apologize.
 * The Bride: [in Japanese] Accepted.
 * [long pause while both catch their breath]
 * The Bride: [in Japanese] Ready?
 * O-Ren: [in Japanese] Come on.

 *  The Bride: How did you find me?
 * Bill: I'm the man.

Taglines

 * Here comes the bride.

 * In 2003, Uma Thurman will Kill Bill.

 * On October 10, speak softly and carry a big sword.

About Kill Bill: Volume 1

 * During the 1970s there was a queasy urban myth that, in New York cinemas, drug dealers were skulking down the aisles at midnight shows jabbing innocent moviegoers with needles, so instantly enslaving them to heroin. After one single viewing of Kill Bill Volume 1, starring Uma Thurman - Quentin Tarantino's first movie for six years - I felt like the director himself had cacklingly jammed his hypodermic into my throbbing arm. Really, no one delivers that sheer, aneurism-inducing rush with the same intravenous efficiency as Tarantino. It may not be the best film of the year, nor the best Tarantino film. But it's sure as hell got to be the best way, the only way, to mainline pure adrenaline in the cinema. Whether this results in euphoria or nausea depends on the needle-user. Brutally bloody and thrillingly callous from first to last, Kill Bill covers its action in a kind of delirium-glaze. Its storyline rolls out in a simulacrum universe, a place which looks and sounds like planet Earth in the early 21st century, but isn't. It's a martial- arts movie universe where the normal laws of economics, police work, physiology and gravity do not apply: a world composed of a brilliantly allusive tissue of spaghetti western and Asian martial-arts genres, on which the director's own, instantly identifiable presence is mounted as a superstructure.
 * Peter Bradshaw, "Kill Bill: Volume 1", The Guardian, (9 Oct 2003).

 * Blood doesn't just flow in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill-Vol. 1"—it splatters and spurts and rises in fountains so baroque and luxuriant that there are moments when it seems as if it were raining red. It isn't, but only because there's little in this private fetish of a movie that relates to the natural world. Despite the occasional glimpse of the not-so-great outdoors, the first half of Tarantino's two-part anti-epic isn't about life—it's about movie-made death in all its spectacular and foolish excess.
 * A blood-soaked valentine to movies, "Vol. 1" is the ultimate film-geek freakout, a compendium of 1960s and 1970s cine-references from blaxploitation to Japanese yakuza, classic chopsocky and spaghetti westerns. But this is no ordinary movie love. From the moment that the logo "ShawScope" flashes in the opening credits (a nod at the legendary Hong Kong studio), it's apparent that Tarantino is striving for more than an off-the-rack mash note or a pastiche of golden oldies. It is, rather, his homage to movies shot in celluloid and wide, wide, wide, wide screen—an ode to the time right before movies were radically secularized, before they were slabs of plastic to be rented, slapped into a home-video player, tossed and forgotten in the backseat of a car. Back to the moment when moviegoing was our great collective ritual.
 * There's something sweet about Tarantino—it's his old-time religion. In "Vol. 1" he uses snatches of music from one type of movie—say, a snippet from one of Ennio Morricone's scores for a Sergio Leone western—and lays it over a bit of Japanese-flavored mayhem. Sampling movies like a D.J., Tarantino uses other artists' beats and images to scratch out his own tune. This sort of playful mix-master technique has its seductions, but there are dangers to getting hooked on other people's genius. The penultimate battle royale in a Japanese nightclub has moments of great graphic beauty amid the spurting severed limbs, yet the scene's most stunning tableau—a silhouette of the Bride squaring off against some heavies—is borrowed from Seijun Suzuki, an eccentric master of the yakuza film. This kind of mad movie love explains Tarantino's approach and ambitions, and it also points to his limitations as a filmmaker. His multiple references are inescapably entertaining—it's like watching a movie programmer strut his cool stuff—but there can be something distracting about them as well.
 * Manohla Dargis, "Kill Bill Vol. 1". Los Angeles Times, (October 10, 2003).

 * "Kill Bill, Volume 1" shows Quentin Tarantino so effortlessly and brilliantly in command of his technique that he reminds me of a virtuoso violinist racing through "Flight of the Bumble Bee"—or maybe an accordion prodigy setting a speed record for "Lady of Spain." I mean that as a sincere compliment. The movie is not about anything at all except the skill and humor of its making. It's kind of brilliant.
 * The movie is all storytelling and no story. The motivations have no psychological depth or resonance, but are simply plot markers. The characters consist of their characteristics. Lurking beneath everything, as it did with "Pulp Fiction," is the suggestion of a parallel universe in which all of this makes sense in the same way that a superhero's origin story makes sense. There is a sequence here (well, it's more like a third of the movie) where The Bride single-handedly wipes out O-Ren and her entire team, including the Crazy 88 Fighters, and we are reminded of Neo fighting the clones of Agent Smith in "The Matrix Reloaded," except the Crazy 88 Fighters are individual human beings, I think. Do they get their name from the Crazy 88 blackjack games on the Web, or from Episode 88 of the action anime "Tokyo Crazy Paradise", or should I seek help? The Bride defeats the 88 superb fighters (plus various bodyguards and specialists) despite her weakened state and recently paralyzed legs because she is a better fighter than all of the others put together. Is that because of the level of her skill, the power of her focus, or the depth of her need for vengeance? Skill, focus and need have nothing to do with it: She wins because she kills everybody without getting killed herself. You can sense Tarantino grinning a little as each fresh victim, filled with foolish bravado, steps forward to be slaughtered. Someone has to win in a fight to the finish, and as far as the martial arts genre is concerned, it might as well be the heroine. (All of the major characters except Bill are women, the men having been emasculated right out of the picture.) "Kill Bill, Volume 1" is not the kind of movie that inspires discussion of the acting, but what Thurman, Fox and Liu accomplish here is arguably more difficult than playing the nuanced heroine of a Sundance thumb-sucker. There must be presence, physical grace, strength, personality and the ability to look serious while doing ridiculous things. The tone is set in an opening scene, where The Bride lies near death and a hand rubs at the blood on her cheek, which will not come off because it is clearly congealed makeup. This scene further benefits from being shot in black and white; for QT, all shots in a sense are references to other shots—not particular shots from other movies, but archetypal shots in our collective moviegoing memories.
 * There's B&W in the movie, and slo-mo, and a name that's bleeped entirely for effect, and even an extended sequence in anime. The animated sequence, which gets us to Tokyo and supplies the backstory of O-Ren, is sneaky in the way it allows Tarantino to deal with material that might, in live action, seem too real for his stylized universe. It deals with a Mafia kingpin's pedophilia. The scene works in animated long shot; in live action closeup, it would get the movie an NC-17.
 * To see O-Ren's God-slicer and Go-Go's mace clashing in a field of dead and dying men is to understand how women have taken over for men in action movies. Strange, since women are not nearly as good at killing as men are. Maybe they're cast because the liberal media wants to see them succeed. The movie's women warriors reminds me of Ruby Rich's defense of Russ Meyer as a feminist filmmaker (his women initiate all the sex and do all the killing).
 * Roger Ebert, “Kill Bill, Volume 1”, Chicago Sun-Times, (October 10, 2003).

 * There were a lot of close calls. [Uma] biffed her knee really hard on the couch trying to go over [it]. I got cut with a little bit of glass, landing on that table. I think that that was the one day I wanted to choke Quentin because he didn't realize how hard the table was... I wanted to put a mat down there so I could warm up. And he was like, 'Just get up there and do it.' And I was like, 'Do you know how hard that table is?' So, that was the only day that there was a little bit of grief. And that table, when I landed on it, I landed so hard that my jaw snapped. There were times when you kind of missed or nicked each other, when Uma cocked it a little bit too hard. We filmed it for four days, the fight scene, and I was just covered with bruises and my shoulders were really tired.
 * Vivica Fox, "AN INTERVIEW WITH VIVICA A. FOX", IGN, (6 Oct 2003).

 * We went out to Kushiyu on Ventura in Tarzana. At dinner, he told me his plan for the film: There would be no quick cuts or getting away with special effects to make us look like real warriors. I had to commit to six months of training, and all of the actors needed to become experts in martial arts to make his vision real on the screen.
 * Vivica Fox, "Vivica A. Fox: How Uma Thurman Helped Me Through ‘Kill Bill’ With Quentin Tarantino", Time, (March 20, 2018).
 * For three months, Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, David Carradine, and I spent eight hours a day studying martial arts at a gym they put together in Culver City. It was nine to five, Monday through Friday. If you didn't walk in the door between 8:55 and 8:59, you were in trouble at 9:01. I thought I was in the damn Olympics or something.
 * Vivica Fox in "Vivica A. Fox Remembers How Uma Thurman Helped Her Survive Tarantino’s Grueling ‘Kill Bill’ Training" by Zack Sharf, Indiewire, (Mar 20, 2018).

 * Compared to Q.T.'s slice 'em, dice 'em deli, the much-hyped Neo versus 100 Agent Smiths showdown appears unforgivably gutless and soulless. Moral guardians may be outraged but, after a build that most audiences will find slow, it is the bloody geysers Tarantino uncorks here that will have them joining the queue for the very next showing.
 * Colin Kennedy, Bill: Vol. 1 Review", Empire Online, (12 Apr 2016).
 * I actually didn't think she was tough. I didn't, I thought she was a really cool character to play because she was a survivor, you know what I mean? She had so many reasons why she had become what she was. She had to continue fighting all her life to basically stay alive, from the moment that her parents were killed. He (Tarantino) pretty much lays it out for you... O-Ren Ishii wasn't the type of person who was ever gonna die peacefully in her bed, you know what I mean? She was going to die fighting and that was how it was gonna be. She died the best way that she could have ever imagined, with the Hattori Hanzo sword. So ultimately, it was a very respectful death, and I think her character is more of a survivor than someone who's tough, you know?
 * It's a really important moment... I didn't think it was gory, because it wasn't a lot of blood, it was just the head was gone, at the end. I just feel like it represents how important it was for her to go to Japan and get that sword made by Sonny Chiba's character, Hattori Hanzo. Hattori Hanzo's sword is in itself its own individual character in the movie. And to have that payoff in the end, with how strong it was, it could just slice her head off like that, through a skull, which is very difficult to do. It really takes, it comes all the way back around for why she went to get that sword and why it was important, and how for her character, she had always wanted one of those swords. To die by that sword is really the only way that she could have died with respect. I think the Bride knew that. So they sort of allow each other the respect that they deserved... You'd have to think that if you do something that's not such a great thing, even though she was taking orders from Bill, that it's going to come back at you, and you have to take responsibility for that moment. I think that she probably knew at some point that that was going to happen.
 * Lucy Liu, "AN INTERVIEW WITH LUCY LIU", IGN, (7 OCT 2003).

 * In an interview following the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992, Tim Roth ventured that "I honestly think you could take the same script but reshoot it with women and it would work. It would be the most controversial film ever. ... You could call it Reservoir Bitches." It took more than a decade, but with Kill Bill Volume 1 (out on video this week), Quentin Tarantino finally made his Reservoir Bitches. And while it's not the most controversial film ever (nor even of the past twelve months), that was clearly the director's aspiration. Originally conceived as a single film but split into two "volumes" due to its length (Volume 2 opens in theaters on Friday), Kill Bill is, by most accounts, the most violent film ever released by a major studio. If that weren't enough to ensure its notoriety, the vast majority of that violence is performed by officially hot actresses Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, and Vivica A. Fox.
 * The violence is ridiculous, in the literal sense of the word: When a baddie (there are no goodies) is decapitated, the neck-stump sprays blood like an infernal lawn sprinkler. These abattoir antics might amuse in limited doses (though John Cleese's Black Knight proved 30 years ago that the joke is not in the mutilation but in the obliviousness to it). Yet transgressing limits is Tarantino's whole point, and so we get stabbing after stabbing, severed limb after severed limb, arterial spray after arterial spray, until the walls are painted red and the floor piled high with body parts. And though the carnage is composed by famed martial-arts choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping, it lacks both the athletic poetry he brought to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the dizzying spatial geometry he presented in The Matrix. Rather, with the exception of a single sequence featuring a ball-and-chain, the fight in the restaurant (which runs to more than 20 minutes) feels like what it is: a long, mostly earthbound slog through bone and sinew. By the end, it's not funny, or beautiful, or even shocking. It's merely tiresome, an hour spent at the Safeway meat counter.
 * Christopher Orr, "The Movie Review: 'Kill Bill Vol. 1'", The Atlantic, (Apr 13, 2004).

 * WITH its relentless bloodshed and scrambled, inconclusive narrative, Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited fourth feature, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, is certain to provoke both awe and revulsion. The film's detractors and its fans are likely to agree, however, that the movie, a densely referential pastiche of B-movie attitudes and situations, is above all an exercise in style.
 * In parts of Pulp Fiction (1994) and in his last picture, Jackie Brown (1997), Mr. Tarantino seemed to be using the action-exploitation formulas of which he is so enamored as stepping stones toward an exploration of plausible characters and authentic emotions. Now, it seems, his interests have swung in the opposite direction, and he has immersed himself, his characters and his audience in a highly artificial world, a looking-glass universe that reflects nothing beyond his own cinematic obsessions.
 * While being so relentlessly exposed to a filmmaker's idiosyncratic turn-ons can be tedious and off-putting, the undeniable passion that drives Kill Bill is fascinating, even, strange to say it, endearing. Mr. Tarantino is an irrepressible showoff, recklessly flaunting his formal skills as a choreographer of high-concept violence, but he is also an unabashed cinephile, and the sincerity of his enthusiasm gives this messy, uneven spectacle an odd, feverish integrity. Old movies are not the sole focus of his obsession. The most vivid emotional connection in Kill Bill does not take place between any of the characters, but between the director and his star, Uma Thurman. Mr. Tarantino has referred to Ms. Thurman as my actress, and as Marlene Dietrich to his Josef von Sternberg. Accordingly, much of the perverse energy of Kill Bill arises from his near-maniacal fascination with her. She is at once his idol, his alter-ego, his dream lover and his muse, the way Anna Karina was for Jean-Luc Godard in the early 1960's.
 * The sordid creepiness that occasionally seeps into Kill Bill makes you wonder what Mr. Tarantino is trying to do, and whether he is entirely in control of his own imagination.
 * A. O. Scott, "Film Review; Blood Bath & Beyond", The New York Times, (October 10, 2003).
 * Q: Kill Bill is an eclectic movie, stitched together from samurai movies, Yakuza movies, spaghetti westerns...
 * A: I just grew up watching a lot of movies. I'm attracted to this genre and that genre, this type of story, and that type of story. As I watch movies I make some version of it in my head that isn't quite what I'm seeing - taking the things I like and mixing them with stuff I've never seen before.
 * Q: You describe Kill Bill as your "grindhouse epic". Aren't you worried that Western audiences won't get what you're doing?
 * A: I'm a little hesitant about saying this out loud - I'm not trying to crow - but I'm influenced by movies from all different countries. I don't really consider myself an American filmmaker like, say, Ron Howard might be considered an American filmmaker. If I'm doing something and it seems to me to be reminiscent of an Italian giallo, I'm gonna to do it like an Italian giallo. And if I'm gonna do something that begs to be done in the vein of a Japanese Yakuza movie, or Hong Kong Triad movie, I'm gonna do it like that. I understand a lot of audiences from a lot of different countries and, to me, America is just another market.
 * Quentin Tarantino, "Kill Bill: Volume 1", by Michaela Latham, BBC, (10/06/2003).

 * I don't like realistic violence. In fact, I don't really like violence full stop. The violence is Quentin's thing. I don't groove with him on it. But I think the way he executes his violence is comic, creative, dramatic and playful, and not titillating in that horrifically realistic way. It's clearly a creative expression. If you look at the House of Blue Leaves sequence in Kill Bill Volume 1, the reason he wanted it to be so operatic and absurdist was because, if it had been less ridiculous, it would be more upsetting.
 * Uma Thurman, "Uma Thurman: Pulp friction", The Independent, (16 April 2004).

 * Like a dick-swinging flasher, Quentin Tarantino lets all his obsessions hang out in Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Some people may want to kill him for it, and not just because they'll have to pay again to see Vol. 2, set for release on February 20. Kill Bill is an act of indecent exposure. Everything that makes Tarantino tumescent — kung-fu fighting, samurai flicks, spaghetti westerns and babe-on-babe head bashing, preferably with swords — is stuffed into the 110 minutes of Vol. 1. No use hammering Tarantino for raiding the lost ark of 1970s pop culture when his movie is killingly funny, wildly inventive, bloody as a gushing artery and heart-stoppingly beautiful. Tarantino has the talent to show us what's sacred about the profane, even if you didn't enjoy a misspent youth in seedy theaters with floors sticky from God knows what. In Kill Bill, Tarantino brings delicious sin back to movies — the thrill you get from something down, dirty and dangerous.
 * For Tarantino, who set aside his skill at dialogue to show he can do pure action, the film is a challenge to his ego. Ads trumpet Kill Bill as “the Fourth Film by Quentin Tarantino.” Talk about hubris. Fellini didn't even start counting till 8 1/2. But moxie is part of Tarantino's DNA. Who else would make his first film in six years a wet kiss to kung fu and pack it with his fetishes for ultraviolence, Uma Thurman's feet and music from Nancy Sinatra to RZA? And who else could pull it off? Kill Bill is damn near as good as Tarantino thinks it is.
 * Peter Travers, "Kill Bill Vol. 1", Rolling Stone, (Oct 9, 2003).

Cast

 * David Carradine – Bill/Snake Charmer
 * Uma Thurman – The Bride/Black Mamba
 * Lucy Liu – O-Ren Ishii/Cottonmouth
 * Sonny Chiba – Hattori Hanzo
 * Chiaki Kuriyama – Gogo Yubari
 * Daryl Hannah – Elle Driver/California Mountain Snake
 * Vivica A. Fox – Vernita Green/Copperhead

title: Kill Bill: Volume 1


text:
John Carder Bush

John Carder Bush (born 1944) is a British writer, poet, and photographer. He is the eldest brother of Kate Bush.

The Creation Edda (1970)

 * Embla lies with each thing, Ask looks and knows. Understanding without explanation they depart and separate.

 * On the ice flow they grip, cut, twist, break open seeds throwing out the white salt, revive volcanic dreams: unable to satisfy their diminuated lust the allegoric flesh learns the thrill of return.

Control: A translation (1974)

 * When God comes at me do I bow the stallion's legs or meet him with flared nostrils?

 * When Man comes at me do I rein in the stallion, or let him meet the hooves?

 * When Woman comes at me do I let her take the bridle, or turn away the head?

 * When I and stallion blend the grass gets cropped.

Jig of Life (1985)

 * Can't you see where memories are kept bright? Tripping on the water like a laughing girl. Time in her eyes is spawning past life, One with the ocean and the woman unfurled, Holding all the love that waits for you here. Catch us now for I am your future. A kiss on the wind and we'll make the land. Come over here to where When lingers, Waiting in this empty world, Waiting for Then, when the lifespray cools. For Now does ride in on the curl of the wave, And you will dance with me in the sunlit pools. We are of the going water and the gone. We are of water in the holy land of water And all that's to come runs in With the thrust on the strand.
 * This portion of the track "Jig of Life" on his sister Kate's album Hounds of Love (1985) was actually written as well as spoken by JCB.

title: John Carder Bush


text:
Horatio Nelson

Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. He was noted for his inspirational leadership, superb grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics, all of which resulted in a number of decisive naval victories, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars (1797–1815).

Childhood
A number of quotes are attributed to Nelson from when he was a child. The exact, or even approximate, dates they were first said is not known. Most were recorded by family members or friends.
 * Fear? I never saw fear. What is it? It never came near me.
 * Said by Nelson after getting lost on a bird-nesting exhibition and being asked by his grandmother why fear did not drive him home, as quoted in Nelson: A personal history (1994), Hibbert, C., p. 6
 * Those gobblers [the French]?- I detest them.
 * Said by Nelson during a conversation with his uncle Maurice Suckling, as quoted in Nelson: A personal history (1994), Hibbert, C., p. 73

1790s

 * There are three things, young gentlemen, which you are constantly to bear in mind. Firstly, you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own respecting their propriety. Secondly, you must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your king; and thirdly, you must hate a Frenchman, as you do the devil.
 * Nelson's advice to his Midshipmen (1793), as quoted in Memoirs of the Life of Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson K.B. (1849), edited by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, Vol. 2, p. 580

 * Success, I trust — indeed have little doubt — will crown our zealous and well-meant endeavours: if not, our Country will, I believe, sooner forgive an Officer for attacking his Enemy than for letting it alone.
 * Statement regarding the attack on Bastia, Corsica (3 May 1794), as published in The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson with Notes (1845) edited by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Vol. I : 1777-1794, p. 393

 * The lives of all are in the hands of Him who knows best whether to preserve it or no, and to His will do I resign myself. My character and good name are in my own keeping. Life with disgrace is dreadful. A glorious death is to be envied, and, if anything happens to me recollect death is a debt we must all pay, and whether now or in a few years hence can be but of little consequence.
 * Letter from Agamemnon at sea (10 March 1795), in Nelson's letters to his wife and other documents, 1785-1831 edited by Navy Records Society, p. 199

 * I cannot, if I am in the field for glory, be kept out of sight. Probably my services may be forgotten by the great, by the time I get Home; but my mind will not forget, nor cease to feel, a degree of consolation and of applause superior to undeserved rewards. Wherever there is anything to be done, there Providence is sure to direct my steps. Credit must be given me in spite of envy.
 * Letter to his wife, Frances Nelson (2 August 1796), as published in The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson with Notes (1845) edited Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Vol. II : 1795-1797, p. 203

 * I had rather suffer death than alarm Mrs. Freemantle, by letting her see me in this state, when I can give her no tidings whatever of her husband.
 * After being wounded during the attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife (24 July 1797), as quoted in The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson with Notes (1845) edited Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Vol. II : 1795-1797, p. 423

 * Let me alone, I have yet my legs left, and one arm. Tell the surgeon to make haste and get his instruments. I know I must lose my right arm, so the sooner it is off the better.
 * After being wounded during the attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife (24 July 1797), as quoted in The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson with Notes (1845) edited Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Vol. II : 1795-1797, p. 423

 * First gain the victory and then make the best use of it you can.
 * Before the battle of the Nile (1 August 1797)

 * Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a peerage, or Westminster Abbey.
 * Before the Battle of the Nile (1 August 1797), as quoted in Life of Nelson, Ch. 5; alternately reported as "Westminster Abbey, or victory!"

 * The Neapolitan officers did not lose much honour, for God knows they had not much to lose - but they lost all they had.
 * After a French rout of the Neapolitan army (1798)

 * I am myself a Norfolk man.
 * On being welcomed on arrival in Great Yarmouth, in his home county

1800s

 * My greatest happiness is to serve my gracious King and Country and I am envious only of glory; for if it be a sin to covet glory I am the most offending soul alive.
 * Letter to his mistress, Lady Hamilton (1800) ; derived from "But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive." by William Shakespeare, in Henry V

 * It is warm work; and this day may be the last to any of us at a moment. But mark you! I would not be elsewhere for thousands.
 * At the Battle of Copenhagen (2 April 1801)

 * To leave off action"? Well, damn me if I do! You know, Foley, I have only one eye,— I have a right to be blind sometimes . . . I really do not see the signal!
 * At the battle of Copenhagen, Ignoring Admiral Parker's signal to retreat, holding his telescope up to his blind eye, and proceeding to victory against the Danish fleet. (2 April 1801); as quoted in Life of Nelson, Ch. 7

 * If a man consults whether he is to fight, when he has the power in his own hands, it is certain that his opinion is against fighting.
 * Statement (August 1801)

 * There is in the handling of these Transatlantic ships a nucleus of trouble for the Navy of Great Britain.
 * On American ships sighted sometime between 1801 and 1803, as quoted in The Royal Navy: Its Influence in English History and in the Growth of Empire (1914) by John Leyland

 * Never mind manoeuvres always go at them.
 * Advice to then Captain Thomas Cochran RN 1800s.

 * If I had been censured every time I have run my ship, or fleets under my command, into great danger, I should have long ago been out of the Service and never in the House of Peers.
 * Statement (March 1805)

 * Victory or Westminster Abbey.
 * Life of Nelson Vol. I, Ch. 4 : In the battle off Cape Vincent, giving order for boarding the San Josef

 * In honour I gained them, and in honour I will die with them.
 * Life of Nelson (ch. 9), when asked to cover the stars on his uniform to hide his rank during battle.

 * Duty is the great business of a sea officer; all private considerations must give way to it, however painful it may be.
 * Letter to Frances Nisbet

 * The measure may be thought bold, but I am of the opinion the boldest are the safest.
 * Statement to Sir Hyde Parker urging vigorous action against the Russians and Danes (24 March 1801), quoted in "The Book of Military Quotations" by Peter G. Tsouras, p. 54

 * Bonaparte has often made his boast, that our fleet would be worn out by keeping the sea, that his was kept in order, and increasing, by staying in port; but he now finds, I fancy, if emperors hear truth, that his fleet suffers more in a night, than ours in one year; however, thank God, the Toulon fleet is got in order again, and I hear the troops embarked, and I hope they will come out to sea in fine weather.
 * From a letter to Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, written while aboard HMS Victory and dated (14 March 1805), quoted in full in The Naval History of Great Britain from the year 1783 to 1822 by Captain Edward Pelham Brenton (1824), Vol III, p. 406

 * Desperate affairs require desperate measures.
 * As quoted in The Book of Military Quotations (1992) edited by Peter G. Tsouras, p. 54

 * I cannot command winds and weather.
 * As quoted in Letters and Despatches of Horatio, Viscount Nelson, K.B. (1886) edited by John Knox Laughton, p. 99

 * ...When he was on the eve of departure for one of his great expeditions the coachmaker said to him, "The carriage shall be at the door punctually at six o clock"; "A quarter before," said Nelson. "I have always been a quarter of an hour before my time and it has made a man of me."
 * letter from Sir Thomas Buxton to his son quoted in "Life of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton" from Sylvanus Urban (ed.) The Gentleman's Magazine July to December 1848, p. 577

 * The bravest man feels an anxiety 'circa praecordia' as he enters the battle; but he dreads disgrace yet more.
 * Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Life of Nelson: The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain, Volume 2. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1897, p. 52; attributed by Mahan to Locker's Greenwich Gallery article "Torrington".

 * Time is everything; five minutes make the difference between victory and defeat.
 * Frothingham, Jessie Peabody. Sea Fighters from Drake to Farragut New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1902. p. 314

 * I am Lord Nelson. See, here's my fin.
 * Indicating his stub of his missing arm during the battle of Copenhagen, as quoted in Nelson and the Hamiltons (1969) by Jack Russell, p. 238

The Battle of Trafalgar (1805)

 * There are many accounts of Nelson's words prior to, and during this famous battle of 21 October 1805, against the Napoleonic French and Spanish fleets, in which he was fatally wounded, with minor differences in wording and chronology. These quotations draw from direct readings of several of them.

 * The business of the English Commander-in-Chief being first to bring an Enemy's Fleet to Battle, on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his Ships close on board the Enemy, as expeditiously as possible;) and secondly, to continue them there, without separating, until the business is decided.
 * "Plan of Attack" (1805), drawn up during pursuit of the French fleet to the West Indies, as published in The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson with Notes (1866) edited by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Vol. VI : May 1804 - July 1805, p. 443

 * May the Great God, whom I worship, grant to my Country and for the benefit of Europe in general a great and glorious victory; and may no misconduct in anyone tarnish it; and may humanity after Victory be the predominant feature of the British fleet. For myself, individually, I commit my life to Him who made me, and may His blessing light upon my endeavours for serving my Country faithfully. To Him I resign myself and the just cause which is entrusted to me to defend. Amen. Amen. Amen.
 * Dispatches and Letters of Horatio Nelson : a diary entry on the eve of the battle of Trafalgar

 * Something must be left to chance; nothing is sure in a sea fight above all.
 * Before the battle of Trafalgar

 * When I am without orders and unexpected occurrences arrive I shall always act as I think the honour and glory of my King and Country demand. But in case signals can neither be seen or perfectly understood, no captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.

 * England expects every Man will do his Duty.
 * Famous signal to the British fleet before the battle of Trafalgar, as quoted in Life of Nelson, Ch. 9; Initially dictated as: "England confides that every man shall do his duty." The signaller pointed out that "expects" was in the signals alphabet, but "confides" was not and so had to be spelt out, taking longer, and Nelson agreed to the change.
 * Variant:
 * England expects every officer and man to do his duty this day.
 * As reported in The London Times (26 December 1805)

 * Now I can do no more. We must trust to the Great Disposer of all Events and the Justice of our Cause. I thank God for this great opportunity of doing my Duty.
 * In response to the cheer that was raised after he sent the signal "England expects every Man will do his Duty.", as quoted in The Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, K.B. from His Lordship's Manuscripts (1810) by James Stanier Clarke and John McArthur, p. 667

 * This is too warm work, Hardy, to last long.

 * Drink, drink. Fan, fan. Rub, rub.
 * In his dying hours, Nelson was attended by his chaplain, Alexander Scott; his steward, Chevalier; and the purser, Walter Burke. Their accounts have been available to Nelson's modern biographers. This was a request to alleviate his symptoms of thirst, heat, and the pains of his wounds, as quoted in Horatio Nelson (1987) by Tom Pocock, p. 331

 * It is nonsense, Mr. Burke, to suppose I can live. My sufferings are great but they will soon be over.

 * Kiss me, Hardy
 * Spoken to his Flag Captain, Thomas Masterman Hardy, who kissed his cheek and then his forehead.

 * Thank God, I have done my duty.
 * Statement among his final dying words.

Quotations about Nelson

 * Ever since the days of old the Navy's ruled the waves.
 * For years they've told the world that Britons never shall be slaves.
 * The Navy still remembers and you'll often hear them say
 * What Nelson told Napoleon upon Trafalgar day.
 * It serves you right, you shouldn't have joined, it jolly well serves you right.
 * It serves you right, you shouldn't have joined, you might have been sitting tight
 * You might have been in Civvy Street instead of in the fight
 * But it serves you right, you shouldn't have joined, it jolly well serves you right
 * George Formby, "It Serves Me Right", Bell-Bottom George (1943)
 * George Formby, "It Serves Me Right", Bell-Bottom George (1943)

 * Leaders can call to the best in us. I thought often of the inspiring flag signal Horatio Nelson sent on the eve of Trafalgar. "England expects every man will do his duty." The flags above the Victory didn't ask or demand obedience in the upcoming fight; they expressed Nelson's unshakable admiration for and faith in the sailors and patriots he knew them to be.
 * Stanley A. McChrystal, My Share of the Task (2013), p. 392

 * No body of men have ever been so "un-English" as the great Englishmen, Nelson, Shelley, Gladstone: supreme in war, in literature, in practical affairs; yet with no single evidence in the characteristics of their energy that they possess any of the qualities of the English blood. But in submitting to the leadership of such perplexing variations from the common stock, the Englishman is merely exhibiting his general capacity for accepting the universe, rather than for rebelling against it.
 * C. F. G. Masterman, The Condition of England, (1909). Also quoted in Judy Giles and Tim Middleton, Writing Englishness: An Introductory Sourcebook. Routledge, 2003

 * Let the country mourn their hero; I grieve for the loss of the most fascinating companion I ever conversed with — the greatest and most simple of men — one of the nicest and most innocent — interesting beyond all, on shore, in public and even in private life. Men are not always themselves and put on their behaviour with their clothes, but if you live with a man on board a ship for years; if you are continually with him in his cabin, your mind will soon find out how to appreciate him. I could for ever tell you the qualities of this beloved man. I have not shed a tear for years before the 21st of October and since, whenever alone, I am quite like a child.
 * Alexander Scott, the chaplain who attended to Nelson at his death, as quoted in Trafalgar: An Eyewitness History (2005) edited by Tom Pocock, p. 154; also in Seize, Burn, Or Sink: The Thoughts and Words of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson (2007) edited by Steven E. Maffeo, p. 588

 * I only saw him once in my life, and for, perhaps, an hour. It was soon after I returned from India. I went to the Colonial Office in Downing Street, and there I was shown into the little waiting-room on the right hand, where I found, also waiting to see the Secretary of State, a gentleman, whom from his likeness to his pictures and the loss of an arm, I immediately recognised as Lord Nelson. He could not know who I was, but he entered at once into conversation with me, if I can call it conversation, for it was almost all on his side and all about himself, and in, really, a style so vain and so silly as to surprise and almost disgust me. I suppose something that I happened to say may have made him guess that I was somebody, and he went out of the room for a moment, I have no doubt to ask the office-keeper who I was, for when he came back he was altogether a different man, both in manner and matter. All that I had thought a charlatan style had vanished, and he talked of the state of this country and of the aspect and probabilities of affairs on the Continent with a good sense, and a knowledge of subjects both at home and abroad, that surprised me equally and more agreeably than the first part of our interview had done; in fact, he talked like an officer and a statesman. The Secretary of State kept us long waiting, and certainly, for the last half or three-quarters of an hour, I don't know that I ever had a conversation that interested me more. Now, if the Secretary of State had been punctual, and admitted Lord Nelson in the first quarter of an hour, I should have had the same impression of a light and trivial character that other people have had, but luckily I saw enough to be satisfied that he was really a very superior man; but certainly a more sudden and complete metamorphosis I never saw.
 * Duke of Wellington, remarks to John Wilson Croker (1 October 1834), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. II (1884), pp. 233-234

title: Horatio Nelson


text:
User:Infrogmation

I'm much more active over on Wikipedia.

Infrogmation's Wikpedia User Page

My contributions here have included:

 * Edwin W. Edwards
 * Huey P. Long
 * Earl K. Long

All three former Louisiana Governors who said lots of interesting things.

I started here because haven't found any collection of Edwards quotes on the web, so I figured we needed to start one. There are lots more I need to find the exact wording of.

Sourced quotes
About Wikipedia: "Best waste of time ever for Pedantic Know-It-Alls" -- Infrogmation, November 2002

 * Commentary: Wikipedia has become something more important since. But the quote is still on the Wikipedians LiveJournal community description page.

title: User:Infrogmation