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Fred Astaire

Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American film and stage dancer, actor, singer and choreographer.

Astaire on Astaire

 * I have no desire to prove anything by it. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance.
 * from Astaire's autobiography Steps in Time, 1959, p. 325.

 * When working on my choreography I am not always receptive to outside suggestions or opinions. I believe that if you have something in mind in the way of a creation, such as a new dance, a sequence, or an effect, you are certain to come up with inaccurate criticism and damaging results if you go around asking for opinions.
 * op. cit., p. 6.

 * But I do nothing that I don't like, such as "inventing" up to the arty or "down" to the corny. I happen to relish a certain type of corn. What I think is the really dangerous approach is the "let's be artistic" attitude. I know that artistry just happens.
 * op. cit., pp. 6-7.

 * I don't make love by kissing, I make love by dancing.
 * Fred Astaire to Henry Ephron, screenwriter on Daddy Long Legs, as quoted in Ephron, Henry. We Thought We Could Do Anything: The Life of Screenwriters Phoebe and Henry Ephron, New York: Norton, 1977, p. 131. (M).

 * Either the camera will dance, or I will.
 * Fred Astaire in Winge, John. "How Astaire Works." Film and Theatre Today, January 1950, pp. 7-9. (M).

 * There comes a day when people begin to say, 'Why doesn't that old duffer retire?' I want to get out while they're still saying Astaire is a hell of a dancer.
 * Fred Astaire in Time. "The New Pictures: 'Blue Skies'". October 14, 1946, p. 103. (M).

 * A four wood I hit on the 13th hole at Bel Air Country Club in June of 1945. It landed right on the green and rolled into the cup for a hole in one.
 * Fred Astaire on his proudest achievement in Lewis, Jerry D. "Interview : Fred Astaire." Glendale Federal Magazine, Summer 1982, pp. 8-10. (M).

 * What's all this talk about me being teamed with Ginger Rogers? I will not have it Leland--I did not go into pictures to be teamed with her or anyone else, and if that is the program in mind for me I will not stand for it. I don't mind making another picture with her but as for this teams idea, it's out.
 * Fred Astaire in a letter to his agent Leland Hayward dated February 9, 1934. He went on to make a further nine musical films with Rogers. (M).

 * I have had to do most of my choreography. I would say most of it, with help from various choreographers I have worked with.
 * Fred Astaire in "Reminiscences of Fred Astaire", Interview with Ronald L. Davis, Beverly Hills, July 31, 1978, SMU Oral History Project on the Performing Arts. (M).

 * Oh, there's no such thing as my favorite performance. I can't sit here today and look back, and say, Top Hat was better than Easter Parade or any of the others. I just don't look back, period. When I finish with a project, I say 'all right, that's that. What's next?'
 * Fred Astaire, interviewed by Dan Navarro for American Classic Screen Magazine, September/October 1978.

On Astaire's insecurity

 * He lacks confidence to the most enormous degree of all the people in the world. He will not even go to see his rushes. He’ll stay out in the alley and pace up and down and worry and collar you when you come out and say: ‘How good was so and so?’, and he’ll keep you for 45 minutes. It would be much simpler if he would go and look at them himself, you know? But he always thinks he’s no good.
 * Vincente Minnelli quoted in Schickel, Richard. The Men Who Made The Movies. New York: Atheneum, 1975. (M).

 * I remember when I was doing a film with Fred Astaire, it was nothing for him to work three or four days on two bars of music. One evening in the dark grey hours of dusk, I was walking across the deserted MGM lot when a small, weary figure with a towel around his neck suddenly appeared out of the giant cube sound stages. It was Fred. He came over to me, threw a heavy arm around my shoulder and said: "Oh Alan, why doesn't someone tell me I cannot dance?" The tormented illogic of his question made any answer insipid, and all I could do was walk with him in silence.
 * Alan Jay Lerner in Lerner, Alan Jay. On the Street Where I Live. New York: Norton, 1978. p. 89. (M).

Classical dancers and choreographers on Astaire

 * He is terribly rare. He is like Bach, who in his time had a great concentration of ability, essence, knowledge, a spread of music. Astaire has that same concentration of genius; there is so much of the dance in him that it has been distilled.
 * George Balanchine in Nabokov, Ivan and Carmichael, Elizabeth. "Balanchine, An Interview". Horizon, January 1961, pp. 44-56. (M).

 * He is the most interesting, the most inventive, the most elegant dancer of our times... you see a little bit of Astaire in everybody's dancing--a pause here, a move there. It was all Astaire's originally.
 * George Balanchine, quoted in Thomas, Bob. Astaire, the Man, The Dancer. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1985. ISBN 0297784021 p. 33.

 * What do dancers think of Fred Astaire? It's no secret. We hate him. He gives us a complex because he's too perfect. His perfection is an absurdity. It's too hard to face.
 * Mikhail Baryshnikov at the 1978 Kennedy Center Honours for Fred Astaire and George Balanchine, as quoted in Satchell, Tim. Astaire, The Biography. Hutchinson, London. 1987. ISBN 0-09-173736-2 p. 255.

 * He's a genius...a classical dancer like I never saw in my life.
 * Mikhail Baryshnikov in "Interview with Mike Wallace", 60 Minutes, CBS Television. February 18, 1979. (M).

 * It's unmatched perfection. It's a taste, understanding of his strength, and weaknesses in a way. He was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.
 * Mikhail Baryshnikov in an interview on Larry King Live, CNN. 5 May 2002.

 * He was not just the best ballroom dancer, or tap dancer, he was simply the greatest, most imaginative, dancer of our time.
 * Rudolph Nureyev quoted in Cooke, Alistair. "Fred Astaire Obituary", Letter From America, BBC World Service, June 1987.

 * When I was in the Soviet Union recently I was being interviewed by a newspaperman and he said, "Which dancers influenced you the most?" and I said, "Oh, well, Fred Astaire." He looked very surprised and shocked and I said, "What's the matter?" He said, "Well, Mr. Balanchine just said the same thing."
 * Jerome Robbins in Heeley, David, producer and director. Fred Astaire: Puttin' on his Top Hat and Fred Astaire: Change Partners and Dance (two television programs written by John L. Miller), PBS, March 1980. (M).

 * The history of dance on film begins with Astaire.
 * Gene Kelly in Heeley, David, producer and director. Fred Astaire: Puttin' on his Top Hat and Fred Astaire: Change Partners and Dance (two television programs written by John L. Miller), PBS, March 1980. (M).

 * Except for times Fred worked with real professional dancers like Cyd Charisse, it was a twenty five year war.
 * Hermes Pan, Astaire's principal choreographic collaborator, quoted in Davidson, Bill. The Real and the Unreal. New York: Harper and Bros., 1961. p. 186. (M).

Singers and songwriters on Astaire

 * There is no setup in Hollywood that compares with an Astaire picture.
 * Irving Berlin to George Gershwin quoted in Jablonski, Edward, and Stewart, Lawrence D. The Gershwin Years. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961, p. 250. (M).

 * As a dancer he stands alone, and no singer knows his way around a song like Fred Astaire.
 * Irving Berlin, quoted in Puttin' on the Ritz, BBC Programme Acquisition, 1999.

 * He has a remarkable ear for intonation, a great sense of rhythm and what is most important, he has great style - style in my way of thinking is a matter of delivery, phrasing, pace, emphasis, and most of all presence.
 * Bing Crosby in Crosby, Bing. Liner notes for Attitude Dancing, United Artists Records, UAS29888, 1975. (M).

 * There never was a greater perfectionist, there never was, and never will be, a better dancer, and I never knew anybody more kind, more considerate, or more completely a gentleman...I love Fred, John, and I admire and respect him. I guess it's because he's so many things I'd like to be and I'm not.
 * Bing Crosby in a letter to John O'Hara as quoted in Thomas, Bob. Astaire, the Man, The Dancer. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1985. ISBN 0297784021 p. 242.

 * For a guy who had retired ostensibly, your comeback represents the greatest event since Satchel Paige.
 * Bing Crosby in a letter to Fred Astaire, c.1948, on Astaire's return in Easter Parade, as quoted in Astaire's biography, Steps in Time, United States, 1959. p. 293. ISBN 0815410581.

 * When you talk about Fred Astaire, you talk about heaven. What more can I say?
 * Johnny Green to Mike Steen in Steen, Mike. Hollywood Speaks! An Oral History, G.P. Putnam's, New York, 1974.

 * Fred Astaire once worked so hard/ he often lost his breath/ and now he taps all other chaps to death
 * from Lorenz Hart's lyric to "Do it the Hard Way" from Pal Joey.

 * They climb the clouds/ To come through with airmail/ The dancing crowds/ Look up to some rare male/ Like that Astaire male.
 * from Lorenz Hart's title number to On Your Toes.

 * Astaire can't do anything bad.
 * Jerome Kern quoted in Bordman, Gerald. Jerome Kern: His Life and Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. p. 142. (M).

 * Fred Astaire is the best singer of songs the movie world ever knew. His phrasing has individual sophistication that is utterly charming. Presumably the runner-up would be Bing Crosby, a wonderful fellow, though he doesn't have the unstressed elegance of Astaire.
 * Oscar Levant in Levant, Oscar. The Memoirs of an Amnesiac. New York: Putnam, 1965. (M).

 * Our homeward step was just as light/As the tap-dancing feet of Astaire/And, like an echo far away,/A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square
 * from Eric Maschwitz's lyrics to A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square with music by Manning Sherwin

 * You're the nimble tread/Of the feet of Fred Astaire
 * from Cole Porter's lyric to "You're the Top".

 * Astaire really sweat - he toiled. He was a humorless Teutonic man, the opposite of his debonair image in top hat and tails. I liked him because he was an entertainer and an artist. There's a distinction between them. An artist is concerned only with what is acceptable to himself, where an entertainer strives to please the public. Astaire did both. Louis Armstrong was another one.
 * Artie Shaw on his collaboration with Astaire in Second Chorus (1940) as interviewed in Fantle, Dave and Johnson, Tom. Reel to Real. Badger Books LLC, 2004, p. 304. ISBN 1932542043.

 * By far the gentlest man I have ever known.
 * Frank Sinatra on Astaire as quoted in Barnes, Clive. "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails - Fred Astaire dead at 88," New York Times, June 23, 1987 as reproduced in Billman, Larry. Fred Astaire - a Bio-Bibliography, Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1997, p. 300.

 * Q: What great singers of the past do you wish had sung your music?
 * A: Nobody really. Well, actually, Fred Astaire.
 * Stephen Sondheim in an interview with David Patrick Stearns, Classical Music Critic, The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 19, 2009

Hollywood on Astaire

 * Can't act, slightly bald, also dances.
 * Fred Astaire's version of the lost infamous screen test report in his interview on 20/20 with Barbara Walters, ABC, 1980 and reaffirmed by Astaire in Thomas, Bob. Astaire, the Man, The Dancer. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1985. ISBN 0297784021, p. 78.

 * You know, you so-and-so, you've a little of the hoodlum in you.
 * Jimmy Cagney to Fred Astaire during rehearsals of "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" from Top Hat as quoted in Astaire's autobiography, Steps in Time, p. 8.

 * Once after a dinner party, Gregory Peck and I drove Fred Astaire home. Fred lived in a colonial house that had a long porch with many pillars. When we dropped him off, he danced along the whole front porch, then opened the door, tipped his hat to us, and disappeared. Wow! Greg and I couldn't speak for a few minutes. It was a beautiful way to say thank you.
 * Kirk Douglas in Douglas, Kirk. Let's Face It. Wiley, 2007. ISBN 9780470084694, p. 26.

 * You can get dancers like this for $75 a week.
 * Johnny Considine, MGM associate producer, on viewing Astaire's screen test. Source: Burton Lane as quoted in Green, Benny. Fred Astaire. London: Hamlyn, 1979 and reaffirmed by Lane in Lane, Burton. Letter to John Mueller, March 3, 1983. (M).

 * The main point of Flying Down to Rio is the screen promise of Fred Astaire.... He's assuredly a bet after this one, for he's distinctly likeable on the screen, the mike is kind to his voice and as a dancer he remains in a class by himself. The latter observation will be no news to the professsion, which has long admitted that Astaire starts dancing where the others stop hoofing.
 * Variety. Flying Down to Rio, December 26, 1933. (M).

 * As it turned out, you'd think that Fred had been playing serious drama all his life. He breaks your heart. We had to get rid of any signs that this was Fred Astaire, the dancer, and I even thought of putting weights in his shoes to eliminate that jaunty Astaire walk. But I didn't have to do anything. He worked it all out on his own—even to mussing the hair of his toupee to get rid of the sleek look of 'The Hoofer,' as he calls himself.
 * , on Astaire's performance in On the Beach (1959); quoted in Davidson, Bill. The Real and the Unreal. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1961. p. 191.

 * Of all the actors and actresses I've ever worked with, the hardest worker is Fred Astaire. He behaved like he was a young man whose whole destiny depended on being successful in his first film. He rehearses between takes, after takes - there's no limit to his professionalism.
 * Rouben Mamoulian in Lecture and discussion at University of Southern California, December 7, 1975. Tape recording, Special Collections, University of Southern California. (M).

 * He is a truly complex fellow, not unlike the Michelangelos and da Vincis of the Renaissance period. He's a supreme artist but he is constantly filled with doubts and self-anger about his work--and that is what makes him so good. He is a perfectionist who is never sure he is attaining perfection.
 * Rouben Mamoulian, quoted in Satchell, Tim. Astaire, The Biography. Hutchinson, London. 1987. ISBN 0091737362. p. 200.

 * It was on tiny wheels with a mount for the camera that put the lens about two feet above the ground. On it rode the camera operator and the assistant who changed the focus and that's all. Fred always wanted to keep the camera in as tight as possible, and they used to shoot with a 40 millimetre lens, which doesn't give you too much leeway. So every time Fred and Ginger moved toward us, the camera had to go back, and every time they went back, the camera went in. The head grip who was in charge of pushing this thing was a joy to watch. He would maintain a consistent distance, and when they were in the midst of a hectic dance that's quite a stunt.
 * H.C. Potter describing the "The Astaire dolly", as quoted in Croce, Arlene. The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book, W.H. Allen, London, 1974. p. 127. ISBN 0491001592.

Writers on Astaire

 * I don't think that I will plunge the nation into war by stating that Fred Astaire is the greatest tap-dancer in the world.
 * Robert Benchley in "Hail to the King!!" The New Yorker, November 29, 1930, pp. 33-36. (M).

 * Mr. Astaire is the nearest approach we are ever likely to have to a human Mickey Mouse; he might have been drawn by Mr. Walt Disney, with his quick physical wit, his incredible agility. He belongs to a fantasy world almost as free as Mickey's from the law of Gravity.
 * Graham Greene reviewing Follow the Fleet in The Spectator 1936 and quoted in Thomas, Bob. Astaire, the Man, The Dancer. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1985. ISBN 0297784021, p. 81.

 * A very distinguished colleague began his criticism of this show by asking what is Mr Astaire's secret. May I suggest that the solution hangs on a little word of three letters? Mr Astaire's secret is that of the late Rudolph Valentino and of Mr Maurice Chevalier — sex, but sex so bejewelled and be-pixied that the weaker vessels who fall for it can pretend that it isn't sex at all but a sublimated projection of the Little Fellow with the Knuckles in His Eyes. You'd have thought by the look of the first night foyer that it was Mothering Thursday, since every woman in the place was urgent to take to her bosom this waif with the sad eyes and the twinkling feet.
 * Theatre critic James Agate in a review of a 1933 London performance of Gay Divorce as quoted in Cooke, Alistair. "Fred Astaire Obituary", Letter From America, BBC World Service, June 28, 1987.

 * At its most basic, Mr. Astaire's technique has three elements - tap, ballet and ballroom dancing. The ballet training, by his account, was brief but came at a crucial, early age. He has sometimes been classed as a tap dancer, but he was never the hoofer he has jokingly called himself. Much of the choreographic outline of his dancing with his ladies—be it Miss Rogers or Miss Hayworth—is ballroom. But of course, no ballroom dancer could dance like this.
 * Dance critic Anna Kisselgoff, in Shepard, Richard F. "Fred Astaire, The Ultimate Dancer, Dies," The New York Times, 23 June 1987.

 * I have never met anyone who did not like Fred Astaire. Somewhere in his sad monkey-sad face, his loose legs, his shy grin, or perhaps the anxious diffidence of his manner, he has found the secret of persuading the world.
 * "Films of the Week: The Case of Mr Fred Astaire", The Observer (12 April 1936), p. 10, quoted in Halliwell, Leslie. Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion. New York : C. Scribner's Sons, 1985. ISBN 9780684184104, p. 54
 * Preliminary comments to a review of Follow the Fleet.

 * The audience meets Mr. Astaire and The Gay Divorcee at their best when he is adjusting his cravat to an elaborate dance routine or saying the delicious things with his flashing feet that a librettist would have difficulty putting into words.
 * Film critic, "The Screen: 'The Gay Divorcee' with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers," The New York Times, November 16, 1934, p. 27.

Literary references to Astaire

 * As a dancer, I out-Fred the nimblest Astaire.
 * P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster in Joy in the Morning (1947).

 * But Adrian did not hear him. I have mentioned that during dinner, preoccupied with his thoughts, he had bolted his food. Nature now took its toll. An acute spasm suddenly ran though him, and with a brief 'Ouch!' of pain he doubled up and began to walk round in circles. Sir Jasper clicked his tongue impatiently. "This is no time for doing the Astaire pom-pom dance," he said sharply.
 * From P.G. Wodehouse's Mulliner Nights (1933).

 * "There's nothing to beat these old English country houses." said Charlie, becoming lyrical. "All those parks and gardens and terraces and stuff. Makes you think of bygone ages and knights in armour and all like that. I saw one of these joints in a movie in Cicero once with Fred Astaire in it, and I remember thinking those guys have it pretty soft."
 * From P.G. Wodehouse's Do Butlers Burgle Banks? (1968).

 * Mr. Llewellyn paused. Mr. Trout had begun to float about the room like something out of Swan Lake, and Mr. Llewellyn disapproved of this. He was apt to be a martinet in his dealings with his legal advisers, demanding that lawyers should behave like lawyers and leave eccentric dancing to the professionals. A man, he held, is either Fred Astaire or he is not Fred Astaire, and if he is not Fred Astaire he should not carry on like him.
 * From P.G. Wodehouse's Bachelors Anonymous (1973).

 * Grayce Llewellyn thought that with appropriate dietary restrictions, she and J Sheringham Adair could have Ivor Llewellyn looking like Fred Astaire.
 * From P.G. Wodehouse's Pearls, Girls and Monty Bodkin (1972).

Dance partners on Astaire

 * I'd never seen him out front before. It was also the first time I realized that Fred had sex appeal. Fred. Wherever did he get it?
 * Adele Astaire on Astaire's performance in Gay Divorce. Source: "He Worries, Poor Boy." Variety, March 18, 1936, p. 3. (M).

 * If people would only realize when they ask me why I don't do a picture with him - they ask me that all the time, and were quite keen on it while I was in Hollywood - if they'd only realize that he's gone 'way ahead of me. Why I couldn't begin to keep up with him. I couldn't even reach the steps he throws away.
 * Adele Astaire op. cit.

 * Come on, Fred, I'm not your sister, you know.
 * Claire Luce, (Astaire's first dance partner after his sister Adele retired, urging Astaire to turn on the passion during rehearsals for Gay Divorce) in Telephone interview with John Mueller, June 7, 1981. (M).

 * I once said that fifty years from now, the only one of today's dancers who will be remembered is Fred Astaire.
 * Gene Kelly quoted in Shipman, David. The Great Movie Stars, The Golden Years. Crown Publishers, New York. 1970. pp. 25-29 as referenced in Billman, Larry: Fred Astaire - A Bio-bibliography, Greenwood Press, Connecticut, 1997. ISBN 0-313-29010-5 p. 351.

 * The girls always think we're going to throw them over a table or toss them in the air. Their muscles tense up right away. So Fred and I go and sit in a corner and pretend we're talking business.
 * Gene Kelly on the subject of social dancing, in Lawrenson, Helen. "It's Better to Remember Fred." Esquire, August 1976, pp92-96, 106, 109-110. (M).

 * Just try and keep up with those feet of his sometime! Try and look graceful while thinking where your right hand should be, and how your head should be held, and which foot you end the next eight bars on, and whether you're near enough to the steps to leap up six of them backward without looking. Not to mention those Astaire rhythms. Did you ever count the different tempos he can think up in three minutes?
 * Ginger Rogers in Evans, Harry. "Ginger, Leila, and Fred." Family Circle, May 8, 1936. (M).

 * How do you think those routines were accomplished? With mirrors?... Well, I thought I knew what concentrated work was before I met Fred, but he's the limit. Never satisfied until every detail is right, and he will not compromise. No sir! What's more, if he thinks of something better after you've finished a routine, you do it over.
 * Ginger Rogers (M) op. cit.

 * We were only together for a part of my career, and for every film we did, I did another three on my own. The studio was working me too hard. Fred would rush off for a holiday and call me and say: "Hey, ready to do another?" And I didn't have the sense to say that I was too tired. Those times were murder for me. Oh, I adored Mr. A but all the hard work...the 5 a.m. calls, the months of non-stop dancing, singing and acting. We just worked it out and had a lot of fun and got very exhausted. And Mr A was quite divine.
 * Ginger Rogers quoted in Satchell, Tim. Astaire, The Biography. Hutchinson, London. 1987. ISBN 0091737362. p. 132.

 * I guess the only jewels of my life were the pictures I made with Fred Astaire.
 * Rita Hayworth in Hallowell, John. "Rita Hayworth: Don't Put the Blame on Me, Boys." New York Times October 25, 1970, sec. 2, pp. 15, 38. (M).

Astaire compared to Gene Kelly

 * If I was black and blue, it was Gene. If I didn't have a scratch it was Fred.
 * Cyd Charisse on how her husband would know with whom she had danced, quoted in Aloff, Mindy. Dance Anecdotes: Stories from the Worlds of Ballet, Broadway, the Ballroom, and Modern Dance. Oxford University Press, 2006. p. 196 ISBN 0195054113.

 * As one of the handful of girls who worked with both of those dance geniuses, I think I can give an honest comparison. In my opinion, Kelly is the more inventive choreographer of the two. Astaire, with Hermes Pan's help, creates fabulous numbers - for himself and his partner. But Kelly can create an entire number for somebody else... I think, however, that Astaire's coordination is better than Kelly's... his sense of rhythm is uncanny. Kelly, on the other hand, is the stronger of the two. When he lifts you, he lifts you!... To sum it up, I'd say they were the two greatest dancing personalities who were ever on screen. But it's like comparing apples and oranges. They're both delicious.
 * Cyd Charisse in Charisse, Cyd; Martin, Tony; Kleiner, Dick. The Two of Us, New York: Mason/Charter, 1976. ISBN 0-884-053636.

 * Me? I play Gene Kelly...It's a guy who produces, directs, sings, and dances. who else could it be but Kelly?
 * Fred Astaire on his role in Silk Stockings in Smith, Cecil. "Astaire prefers the 'Good Old Days' of the present." Los Angeles Times, July 14, 1957, sec. 5, p. 3. (M).

 * The fact that Fred and I were in no way similar - nor were we the best male dancers around never occurred to the public or the journalists who wrote about us...Fred and I got the cream of the publicity and naturally we were compared. And while I personally was proud of the comparison, because there was no-one to touch Fred when it came to "popular" dance, we felt that people, especially film critics at the time, should have made an attempt to differentiate between our two styles. Fred and I both got a bit edgy after our names were mentioned in the same breath. I was the Marlon Brando of dancers, and he the Cary Grant. My approach was completely different from his, and we wanted the world to realise this, and not lump us together like peas in a pod. If there was any resentment on our behalf, it certainly wasn't with each other, but with people who talked about two highly individual dancers as if they were one person. For a start, the sort of wardrobe I wore - blue jeans, sweatshirt, sneakers - Fred wouldn't have been caught dead in. Fred always looked immaculate in rehearsals, I was always in an old shirt. Fred's steps were small, neat, graceful and intimate - mine were ballet-oriented and very athletic. The two of us couldn't have been more different, yet the public insisted on thinking of us as rivals...I persuaded him to put on his dancing shoes again, and replace me in Easter Parade after I'd broken my ankle. If we'd been rivals, I certainly wouldn't have encouraged him to make a comeback.
 * Gene Kelly interviewed in Hirschhorn, Clive. Gene Kelly, A Biography. W.H Allen, London, 1984. p. 117. ISBN 0491031823.

 * Fred taught me a step because I said I can't let this experience be over without my learning something. He taught me the most wonderful Fred Astaire-like step, with an umbrella. It was a complete throwaway; it was almost invisible. It was in the way he walked. As he moved along, he bounced the umbrella on the floor to the beat and then he grabbed it. It was effortless and invisible. As a matter of fact, a few years later I was photographing Gene Kelly and told him that Fred Astaire had taught me this trick with an umbrella. And Kelly said, "Oh I'll teach you one," and he did, and the two tricks with the umbrella in some way define the difference between Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, and, in my view, demonstrate who is the greater of the two artists. With Gene Kelly, he threw the umbrella way up into the air, and then he moved to catch it, very slowly, grabbing it behind his back. It was a big, grandstand play, about nothing.
 * Richard Avedon in Silverman, Stephen M. Dancing on the Ceiling. Knopf, 1996. ISBN 0679414126.

 * The major difference between Astaire and Kelly is a difference, not of talent or technique, but of levels of sophistication. On the face of it, Kelly looks the more sophisticated. Where Kelly has ideas, Astaire has dance steps. Where Kelly has smartly tailored, dramatically apt Comden and Green scripts, Astaire in the Thirties made do with formulas derived from nineteenth-century French Farce. But the Kelly film is no longer a dance film. It's a story film with dances, as distinguished from a dance film with a story. When Fred and Ginger go into their dance, you see it as a distinct formal entity, even if it's been elaborately built up to in the script. In a Kelly film, the plot action and the musical set pieces preserve a smooth community of high spirits, so that the pressure in a dance number will often seem too low, the dance itself plebeian or folksy in order to "match up" with the rest of the picture.
 * Arlene Croce, in Croce, Arlene. The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book, W.H. Allen, London, 1974. p. 7. ISBN 0491001592.

 * I suspect it is this Camelot view that leads Miss Croce to be rather unfair to Gene Kelly...I should say the difference starts with their bodies. If you compare Kelly to Astaire, accepting Astaire's debonair style as perfection then, of course, Kelly looks bad. But in popular dance forms, in which movement is not rigidly codified, as it is in ballet, perfection is a romantic myth or a figure of speech, nothing more. Kelly isn't a winged dancer; he's a hoofer and more earthbound. But he has warmth and range as an actor...Astaire's grasshopper lightness was his limitation as an actor - confining him to perennial gosh-oh-gee adolescence;; he was always and only a light comedian and could function only in fairytale vehicles.
 * Pauline Kael, responding to Croce in her review of Croce's The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book, writing in The New Yorker, November 25, 1972, as reproduced in Kael, Pauline. Reeling: Film Writings 1972-1975, Marion Boyars, London - New York, pp. 58-59. ISBN 0-7145-2582-0.

 * [Leslie] Caron is one of only six women who danced with Kelly and Fred Astaire in movies. She says that while Kelly always danced close to the ground, with Astaire (in 1955’s Daddy Long Legs) she felt as if she was floating. Who did she prefer? She gives me a look. "It's not fair to ask me that. For 70 years, I've refused to answer that. A great dancer is a great dancer." She says they were such different men – Kelly tough and generous, Astaire urbane and genteel.
 * Simon Hattenstone writing in The Guardian, June 21, 2021.

The Astaire style

 * I think I can pinpoint the one moment when the American style of dressing first appeared. It was in an appalling 1933 movie called Dancing Lady during an otherwise forgettable dance number. It also just happened to be Fred Astaire's first on-camera dance. But don't look at the steps. Look at the outfit: Astaire is wearing a single-breasted, soft flannel suit with two-tone spectator shoes and a turtleneck. You wish you could look that stylish! Later that year, in Flying Down to Rio, we get the full Astaire impact. The muted plaid suit is not all that striking, but Fred is wearing it with a soft button-down shirt, a pale woven tie, silk pocket square, bright horizontally striped hose and white bucks. Whoa! Now that's different. This melange of the classic and the sporty was an American innovation. As we approach the impeccable Astaire's 100th birthday on May 10, it's worth remembering that he remains the greatest exemplar of that style.
 * G. Bruce Boyer in "Shall We Dress?" Forbes, May 3rd, 1999.

 * (Cary Grant) is, along with Fred Astaire, the best-dressed actor in American movies
 * Benjamin Schwarz in "Becoming Cary Grant" The Atlantic, January/February 2007

Note: The designation (M) after a source denotes that the quotation and its source has been obtained from John Mueller: Astaire Dancing - The Musical Films of Fred Astaire, Knopf 1985, ISBN 0394516540.

Misattributed

 * The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style
 * Sometimes misattributed to Astaire. In fact, it's just a scripted line (written by Blake Edwards and Larry Gelbart) from The Notorious Landlady. Astaire delivers the line to Jack Lemmon.

title: Fred Astaire


text:
User:Dermot~enwikiquote

My interest is in sourcing quotations from film personalities.

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

title: User:Dermot~enwikiquote


text:
User talk:Wjbeaty

I finally registered here. About time!--Wjbeaty 17:52, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Welcome
Hi. Welcome to English Wikiquote. Enjoy! ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:43, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
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title: User talk:Wjbeaty


text:
William Ian Beardmore Beveridge

William Ian Beardmore Beveridge (1908 - August 14, 2006) was an Australian animal pathologist and director of the Institute of Animal Pathology, University of Cambridge

The Art of Scientific Investigation (1950)

 * ...no one believes an hypothesis except its originator but everyone believes an experiment except the experimenter.
 * p. 65.

 * When adults first become conscious of something new, they usually either attack or try to escape from it... Attack includes such mild forms as ridicule, and escape includes merely putting out of mind.
 * p. 65.

 * Many discoveries must have been stillborn or smothered at birth.  We know only those which survived.
 * p. 65.

title: William Ian Beardmore Beveridge


text:
Bionicle: Mask of Light

Bionicle: Mask of Light is a 2003 animated film and the first of four direct-to-video Bionicle films based on the Lego toy series. The films revolve around an island called Mata Nui. The spirit protecting the island, put into a deep sleep, has returned and only the Mask of Light, in the hands of two Matoran who are assisted by six heroes, can return it to the Toa of Light and return his mask before it is too late.

Jaller

 * Aw, he's got more rocks in his head than a Po-Matoran.
 * TAKUA, what are you doing down here all alone? We're supposed to be in the Kolhii match.
 * You're alive! Kolhii-head, you could've been lava-bones.
 * Well, well, well. What ever happened to 'I quit'?
 * Kini Nui, the great temple!
 * You know who you are. You were always different... [Dies]
 * You're alive! Kolhii-head, you could've been Makuta-bones.

Turaga Vakama

 * Trust in the mask; let it be your guide.
 * [Hits Lerahk on the head] Back! Back, you foul creature! One more step, and I'll-- [Toa Tahu attacks]
 * Unity, Duty, Destiny!
 * New legends awake, but old lessons must be remembered. This is the way of the Bionicle.

Makuta

 * Anger amongst them will threaten their precious unity. Hunger will consume their duty. And fear will keep them from their destiny. [speaks to Mata Nui] They will not disturb you...
 * Their unity will be poisoned. Their duty will be broken. Their destiny, I must shatter.
 * Still running, Toa?
 * My brother....shall not....be awakened!!
 * Did you actually believe I would let them return?
 * Go, my sons. Use the shadows, and keep my brother asleep.
 * NOOOOO!

Others

 * Takua, Hahli, and Hewkii: [Before the Kolhii game starts they clank their Kolhii staves together] "Play well". (which is the LEGO company's current slogan)
 * Takua: [sarcastically to Jaller] I quit! Just take the mask and go!

Dialogue

 * Jaller: Takua! I these got more rocks of poltourn. Takua! Uh, Takua?! Hm. Takua! Takua!

 * Jaller: Takua! What are you doing down here alone?! We're supposed to be at the Kolhii match!
 * Takua: Oh... Sorry, Jaller! Hold on. I gotta look at that totem!
 * Jaller: You're hopping across lava to look at a stupid warning totem? Do you know what Turaga Vakama would say?
 * Takua: [speculatively] Irresponsible?
 * Jaller: Now come on!?
 * Takua: [continues hopping] Be... Right... There... Ha ha!
 * Jaller: Very impressive. Now let's go! [Takua picks the rock]
 * Takua: Oh no!
 * Jaller: [gasps and shocked] Takua, get out of there!

 * Toa Pohatu: [exasperated] You two, still so ill at ease? Put your petty differences aside! Rejoice!
 * Toa Gali: [smugly] I think my brother is afraid of having his fire extinguished!
 * Toa Tahu: [smugly] Sister, against me you would be nothing but steam, hot air as they say. [The Turaga overhear and are disheartened]
 * Turaga Onewa: The Toa squabble like Gukko Birds over a berry!
 * Turaga Nokama: Their recent victories are a blessing, but they've forgotten how they need each other.
 * Turaga Vakama: Indeed, Nokama.

 * [Jaller blocks a shot from Hahli during the Kolhii match]
 * Hahli: Not bad.
 * Jaller: Nothing gets past the Captain of the Guard! ...Unless he wishes it.
 * Hahli: [chuckles] I'll keep that in mind.

 * [Jaller and Takua are lost in a blizzard in Ko-Wahi]
 * Takua: Anything here... look familiar?
 * Jaller: [angrily] Well MAYBE our path would be straighter if the REAL herald had the mask!!
 * Takua: The real herald HAS the mask! I couldn't find water if I fell out of a canoe...
 * Jaller: Well what do you think I can find?!
 * [Both bump into a Bohrok]
 * Jaller and Takua: BOHROK!
 * Jaller: Frozen! Who can do this to them? [Toa Kopaka appears] Kopaka, Toa of Ice! How did you find us?
 * Toa Kopaka: It was you been following me.

 * Jaller: [laughs] You're bringing Pewku?
 * Takua: Are you kidding? I couldn't leave her behind if I wanted to.

 * [In Ko-Koro, after leaving Pewku behind]
 * Jaller: [seeing Pewku approaching] Oh no, Pewku...
 * Takua: [elated] PEWKU!

 * Toa Pohatu: Chronicler...where's the Herald?
 * Takua: We got separated, after we met the Rahkshi.
 * Toa Onua: Rahkshi?
 * Toa Pohatu: What is Rahkshi? [The caves start to rumble, and more Rahkshi appear]
 * Takua: Those! Except...different ones!
 * Toa Pohatu: Those three are plenty for now!
 * Toa Onua: Welcome to Onu-Koro!

 * Jaller: Well, well, well! Whatever happened to "I quit"?
 * Takua: I could've. But I... didn't. Bad news. More Rahkshi. They've taken Onu-Koro.
 * Jaller: The mask of light wasn't at Onu-Koro.
 * Takua: They don't want the mask. They're looking for the herald.
 * Jaller: You sure they were after the herald?
 * Takua: Oh, yeah. Real sure.
 * Jaller: Then we'd better find the Seventh Toa.

 * Toa Lewa: Sister, he is open-eyed.
 * [Gali hurries to a recovering Tahu]
 * Toa Gali: Brother, are you well?
 * Toa Tahu: No. No, I'm not well. But I...I am alive. And in your debt, my sister.

 * Jaller: Kini Nui, the Great Temple.
 * Takua: No way. We've been all over the island just to wind up here?!
 * Jaller: Why not? It's a special place.
 * Takua: [takes the Mask of Light from Jaller] You sure this thing is working right? [Shakes the mask, which suddenly fires a powerful beam of light]
 * Jaller: What'd you do?!
 * [Part of the temple collapses, revealing something]
 * Jaller: This is it. The seventh Toa must be here! [Sees three of the Rahkshi on the clifftop ahead of them] Rahkshi! Gimme the mask!
 * Takua: Jaller, no! We both know the mask chose me. I'm the true herald!
 * Jaller: Are you sure? Even now?
 * Takua: Yes! I am the herald! [The Rahkshi drop down to face them] And I say ''RUN!!!

 * [Takua runs over to Jaller, who is fatally injured by Rahkshi Turahk]
 * Takua: No! I'm suppose to make the sacrifice!
 * Jaller: No...the duty was mine. [Gives Takua the Mask of Light] You know who you are. You were always...different. [Dies]
 * [Grieving, Takua dons the mask and transforms into Takanuva]
 * Takanuva: I am Takanuva, Toa of Light!

 * [Takanuva mourns Jaller]
 * Takanuva: All this, just to discover who I am?
 * Turaga Vakama: You have finally found your own story, and still you seek answers. Mata Nui is wiser than all. The path you walked was not to be here, [points his staff at Takanuva's heart] but in here! You understand, your destiny is clear?
 * Takanuva: My duty is clear. Jaller's sacrifice will not be in vain.

 * [Takanuva and Hahli enter Makuta's lair]
 * Takanuva: You can no longer hide in shadow.
 * Makuta: I am shadow. The shadow that guards the gate. Now run along, or accept your doom.
 * Takanuva: I am done running! Mata Nui will be awakened this day! Hahli! Summon the Matoran!
 * Hahli: It's done! [Runs off]
 * Makuta: [slowly approaching] Toa of Light, now so bold. But at heart...you are still just Takua. You failed to save your friend. You didn't even warn him. Perhaps, for you next great failure, a simple game of Kolhii. Win, and you may try to open the gate. When you lose, I'll have that mask.
 * Takanuva: [determined] I WILL NOT LOSE!
 * [They fight]

 * Takanuva: You are NOT protecting him?!
 * Makata: My duty to the mask of shadows.

 * Turaga Vakama: Mata Nui. Light shadow will become one.
 * Takutanuva: Light has revealed the will of Mata Nui! Our brother must be awakened. [trying to open the gate] GO! RUN! [to Hahli] Hold, little one. That mask needs life. [Revives Jaller]
 * Hahli: Jaller!
 * Takutanuva: My duty is done. [the gate closes on him]
 * Jaller: [shocked] Get out of there! [the Mask of Light slides under the gate] Ah!
 * [The assembled Matoran, Toa, and Turaga go to the Great Spirit's seal on the floor ahead]
 * Turaga Vakama: Let us awaken the Great Spirit! Unity! [Hahli steps onto the left circle] Duty! [Jaller steps onto the right circle] Destiny! [Places the Mask of Light on the central and final circle]
 * [In a flash of light, Mata Nui awakes and Takanuva revives]
 * Jaller: [overjoyed] You're alive! Kolhii-Head! You could've been Makuta bones!
 * Takanuva: [smiles] Could've been, but I'm not.

title: Bionicle: Mask of Light


text:
Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)

Civil Disobedience (1849) is an essay by Henry David Thoreau expressing his belief that people should not allow governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences and that people have a duty both to avoid doing injustice directly and to avoid allowing their acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War.

Civil Disobedience (1849)

 * I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe— "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.

 * To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?— in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.

 * The mass of men serve the state […], not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away," but leave that office to his dust at least […].

 * He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.

 * How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answered that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

 * All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.

 * All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.

 * We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that many should be as good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.

 * There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free-trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them. There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man; but it is easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it.

 * All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.

 * Oh for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through!

 * It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.

 * The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness. After the first blush of sin comes its indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not quite unnecessary to that life which we have made.

 * The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur. Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform. Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union,(1) to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves — the union between themselves and the State — and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation to the State, that the State does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the Union, which have prevented them from resisting the State?

 * How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again. Action from principle — the perception and the performance of right — changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.

 * Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?

 * One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the only offence never contemplated by government; else, why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate, penalty? If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those who placed him there; but if he should steal ninety times nine shillings from the State, he is soon permitted to go at large again. If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth — certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.

 * I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.

 * A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong.

 * Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one.

 * I meet this American government, or its representative, the State government, directly, and face to face, once a year — no more — in the person of its tax-gatherer; this is the only mode in which a man situated as I am necessarily meets it; and it then says distinctly, Recognize me; and the simplest, the most effectual, and, in the present posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating with it on this head, of expressing your little satisfaction with and love for it, is to deny it then.

 * How shall he ever know well what he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he shall treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action?

 * I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name — if ten honest men only — ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.

 * Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. The proper place to-day, the only place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less desponding spirits, is in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the State by her own act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race, should find them; on that separate, but more free and honorable ground, where the State places those who are not with her, but against her — the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor. If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls, they do not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.'

 * When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now.

 * But the rich man — not to make any invidious comparison — is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it. It puts to rest many questions which he would otherwise be taxed to answer; while the only new question which it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how to spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet. The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called the "means" are increased. The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor.

 * When I converse with the freest of my neighbors, I perceive that, whatever they may say about the magnitude and seriousness of the question, and their regard for the public tranquillity, the long and the short of the matter is, that they cannot spare the protection of the existing government, and they dread the consequences to their property and families of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should not like to think that I ever rely on the protection of the State. But, if I deny the authority of the State when it presents its tax-bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably in outward respects. It will not be worth the while to accumulate property; that would be sure to go again. You must hire or squat somewhere, and raise but a small crop, and eat that soon. You must live within yourself, and depend upon yourself always tucked up and ready for a start, and not have many affairs. […] No: until I want the protection of Massachusetts to be extended to me in some distant Southern port, where my liberty is endangered, or until I am bent solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful enterprise, I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts, and her right to my property and life. It costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the State than it would to obey. I should feel as if I were worth less in that case.

 * I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied it. Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being forced to have this way or that by masses of men.

 * If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.

 * I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject.

 * It is for no particular item in the tax-bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with — the dollar is innocent — but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual in such cases.

 * If others pay the tax which is demanded of me, from a sympathy with the State, they do but what they have already done in their own case, or rather they abet injustice to a greater extent than the State requires. If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxed, to save his property, or prevent his going to jail, it is because they have not considered wisely how far they let their private feelings interfere with the public good. This, then, is my position at present. But one cannot be too much on his guard in such a case, lest his action be biased by obstinacy or an undue regard for the opinions of men. Let him see that he does only what belongs to himself and to the hour.

 * If a man is thought-free, fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is not never for a long time appearing to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him.

 * Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but have no resting-place without it. They may be men of a certain experience and discrimination, and have no doubt invented ingenious and even useful systems, for which we sincerely thank them; but all their wit and usefulness lie within certain not very wide limits. They are wont to forget that the world is not governed by policy and expediency.

 * The lawyer's truth is not truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency. Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing.

 * They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountain-head.

 * No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of free-trade and of freedom, of union, and of rectitude, to a nation. They have no genius or talent for comparatively humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and manufacturers and agriculture. If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations.'''

 * For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation?

 * The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to — for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well — is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it.

 * The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual.

 * Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. I please myself with imagining 'a State at least which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen.
 * Final lines

Quotes about Civil Disobedience

 * Civil Disobedience is civil breach of unmoral statutory enactments. The expression was, so far as I am aware, coined by Thoreau to signify his own resistance to the laws of a slave state. . . . But Thoreau was not perhaps an out and out champion of non-violence. Probably, also, Thoreau limited his breach of statutory laws to the revenue law, i.e. payment of taxes. Whereas the term Civil Disobedience as practised in 1919 covered a breach of any statutory and unmoral law. It signified the resister's outlawry in a civil, i.e., non-violent manner . . . Until I read that essay I never found a suitable English translation for my Indian word, Satyagraha.
 * Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Young India (March 23, 1931)

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Talk:Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)

Article Title
I think maybe "Civil Disobedience" could be the title of a theme article, and so I titled this "Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)" as it is on Wikipedia. I hope this was the correct way of doing it. I've also seen this essay go by "On The Duty of Civil Disobedience" and "Resistance To Civil Government". Maybe redirects are in order? --Teabeard 19:08, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

favourite quote - surely not imagined
From memory (having lost my copy of the text)  (one of my all-time filetverlitz) :

"For how can he remember well his ignorance, which his growth so requires, who has so often to make use of what he knows?"

I'm quite sure I got this out of "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"  by Henry David Thoreau. It seems to me this would resonate strongly for many teachers in the U.S.A. today.
 * This quote is actually from the first chapter of Walden - and I have added it to that page. ~ UDScott (talk) 14:46, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

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Neuro-linguistic programming

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a field of study of the human world and subjective psychology, originated by Richard Bandler and John Grinder.

Quotes

 * You want to become competent at whatever you do. That does not mean to get phobics, who shake in their boots while their blood pressure blows through the roof, to believe, "This is not fear." The object is to get them to stay calm and alert, and to stay in their own lane, and to drive across the bridge, which remains standing.
 * Richard Bandler, Time for a Change, 1993, p. 2–5

 * Ask yourself; "Can we build better?" To build those things we have to be able to suspend whatever belief system we already have. Keep it out of the way... Those things get very, very personal. We're talking about basic beliefs regarding human capability. Here's the only truth about that. Nobody knows.
 * ibid., pp. 2–5

 * We have presented these patterns as explicitly and systematically as we can, in order to make it easy for you to learn them. We have presented them in great detail, and warned you about all the mistakes we and others have made with them, to make it hard for you to use them inappropriately. Once you have taken the time to learn these methods thoroughly, you can become more flexible and artistic in utilizing them with clients, with confidence that your behavior will remain systematic and effective.
 * Steve and Connierae Andreas, Change your mind and keep the Change, 1987, pp. x–xi

 * The study of the structure of subjective experience.
 * Bandler, Grinder, also the subtitle of Neuro-Linguistic Programming: Volume I (1980) by Robert Dilts

 * An attitude and a methodology that leaves behind a trail of techniques.
 * Bandler

 * [Milton Erickson] does not translate unconscious communication into conscious form. Whatever the patient says in metaphoric form, Erickson responds [matches] in kind. By parables, by interpersonal action, and by directives, he works within the metaphor to bring about change. He seems to feel that the depth and swiftness of that change can be prevented if the person suffers a translation of the communication.
 * Haley, Uncommon therapy, 1973 + 1986, p. 28

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Talk:Neuro-linguistic programming

Apologies -- new to wikiquote. I'll check back to see how this has been knocked into shape by those more experienced :) FT2 (Talk 19:15, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Unsourced

 * The ability to change the process by which we experience reality is more often valuable than changing the content of our experience of reality.
 * Bandler

 * We have no idea about the 'real' nature of things ... The function of modeling is to arrive at descriptions which are useful.
 * Bandler & Grinder (1979) p.7.

 * "The map is not the territory."
 * Originated from Alfred Korzybski

 * People already have all the resources they need to succeed [or change].

 * "Life and 'Mind' are systemic processes."
 * Originated from Gregory Bateson

 * Underlying structure (form) matters more than specific content

 * Behind every behavior is a positive intention.
 * Originated with Virginia Satir

 * There is no failure, only feedback.
 * Originated from information theory (Asbby, Cybernetics).

 * The meaning of your communication is the response you get.
 * Originated from Gregory Bateson and axiomatic in anthropology, known as cultural relativism.

 * Choice is better than no choice (and flexibility is the way one gets choice).
 * Originated from systems theory

 * Multiple descriptions are better than one.
 * Originated from Gregory Bateson

 * There are no resistant clients; there are only incompetent [less skilled] therapists.

 * NLP is generative.

 * NLP is based upon distinctions in sensory observation.

 * Good NLP is 90% information gathering and testing, and 10% changework.
 * Saying of John Seymour, NLP master trainer, may be more widespread.

 * Everyone is different, always check, never assume a pattern is universal.

 * Use whatever works.
 * Principle of utilization, originated: Milton Erickson, who was famous for turning peoples self-perceived defects, or limitations, to positive use.

 * If something can be done effectively and ecologically in ten minutes, don't spend an hour doing it.

 * If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got.

 * Sometimes worded: If what you are doing isn't working, try something [anything] else

 * Understanding is the booby prize.
 * Saying of John Seymour, master NLP trainer, to signify that effective change and/or learning is far more important than 'understanding', and that change does not always require interpretation and analysis. Originated with Milton Erickson who was notable amongst psychiatrists, because he would avoid "interpreting" back to the client (as described above)

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User talk:FT2

This page may not be checked regularly. Please contact me here on my Wikipedia user page.

Welcome
Hi. Welcome to English Wikiquote. Enjoy! ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:48, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
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Two Moon Junction

Two Moon Junction is a 1988 film about a young Southern debutante who is engaged in a lustful fling with a rugged carnival roustabout.
 * Directed by Zalman King. Written by Zalman King and MacGregor Douglas.

Uncontrollable Passion. Undeniable Heat. Taglines

April Delongpre

 * [after making out with Perry] Darling, don't ever take a Southern woman for granted.

Perry

 * [to the motel guests after his argument with April.] Sorry about the disturbance folks, but that is one special wacko chick.

 * This girl's got a secret. Huh? You got any secrets. I don't have any secrets. I don't have anything. All I got is a bike, a truck, and post office box in Clearlake, Florida.

Belle Delongpre

 * The Delongpre family can claim three governors, two United States senators, three electives of the House of Representatives, a Supreme Court justice, and an ambassabor to Chile. At our table we've had the likes of General Patton, Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, Lyndon Johnson, the actress Tallulah Bankhead, and Truman Capote... and that film star Grace Kelly before she married her prince... and Betty Ford after her rehabilitation.

Other

 * Patti Jean: I'm so envious of your fuckin' tits. Now I know why men like women.

 * Sammantha Delongpre: Get off my sister!

 * Sheriff Earl Hawkins: Well there they be, son. Jonah and Jonah, Jr. They're so old they can't remember who's pappy and who's the son. They're weird and full of superstition. Burying a dead animal on their land can cause the cows to give bloody milk... or bring on a swarm of locusts.

Dialogue

 * Smiley: Fuck you Perry.
 * Perry: That's right Smiley, "fuck you" covers just about everything!

 * [while driving recklessly on the road at night]
 * Patti Jean: Man, I hate it when they get drunk. You can't seem to shake 'em. Men just can't seem to get along without their bourbon along with what else what. You're right, April? Yeah, I thought so. Perry told me all about you when we first met, even though that was this afternoon. I'm Patti Jean. Hey, you got a cigarette on you? I left mine in my purse back there at the carnival.
 * April Delongpre: I don't smoke.
 * Patti Jean: Damn! I wish I had your will power. I tried to quit smoking once but I thought, "what the fuck? I'm just gonna die sooner or later anyway". Speaking of dying, I used to know this woman who worked as a flight attendant operating out of Savannah and she told me that people die on airplanes from heart attacks, motion sickness or whatever, you know where they put 'em until the plane lands? They lock 'em up in the fucking bathroom! No shit! I mean it, what is a more embarrassing way to die? Ending your life on a toilet seat, 35,000 feet in the air. That's pretty something.

 * Patti Jean: What color is your house?
 * April Delongpre: White. But it's not my house, it's my parents.
 * Patti Jean: Is your bedroom white too?
 * April Delongpre: No. It's more of a beige color.
 * Patti Jean: My place down in Texas is wood-panel. Never lived in anything but that. Except when I lived in Vegas. I was married to my second husband, he was this guy in the Air Force. They set us up at Indian Springs with the full decor they give those officers.

 * [Perry and April are fighting in a motel parking lot with all the motel guests looking on]
 * April Delongpre: I don't even know you, yet you just come inside my house, uninvited, and take my life away!
 * Perry: Maybe you don't know it, but you did invite me!
 * April Delongpre: Oh, go to hell!
 * Perry: Oh, sweetheart!
 * April Delongpre: Oh, fuck you!
 * Perry: Princess!
 * April Delongpre: Cocksucker!
 * Perry: Sugar!
 * April Delongpre: Motherfucker!
 * Perry: Sweetpea!
 * April Delongpre: Bastard!
 * Perry: Be careful what you say, people around here might think we love each other.
 * April Delongpre: You can rot in hell for all I care.
 * Perry: You're sexy when you're angry.
 * April Delongpre: You bastard!
 * Perry: You already said that!

Taglines

 * Uncontrollable Passion. Undeniable Heat.
 * The Crossroads of Destiny and Desire.
 * Into her perfect life, comes a perfect stranger, until nothing is perfect anymore.
 * Let your body move your mind.
 * One hot movie.
 * What's love got to do with it?

Cast

 * Sherilyn Fenn - April Delongpre
 * Richard Tyson - Perry
 * Louise Fletcher - Belle Delongpre
 * Burl Ives - Sheriff Earl Hawkins
 * Kristy McNichol - Patti Jean
 * Martin Hewitt - Chad Douglas Fairchild
 * Juanita Moore - Delilah
 * Don Galloway - Senator Delongpre
 * Millie Perkins - Mrs. Delongpre
 * Milla Jovovich - Sammantha Delongpre

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User:Museo8bits

Information
I are born at 1960, Madrid, Spain. I have studied Biology, title of Insurance broker ( 10 yearks working at Insurance), and are professional programmer in Visual FoxPro (another 10 years). My first hobby are Old home computers & Video game consoles (my nick at all sites i are active is museo8bits and make reference to my website, El Museo de los 8 Bits ), and are one of first collectors of Spain (over 100 computers & consoles and more of 3000 original software units). I "sputting english" due all first software for the Sinclair Spectrum (my first computer) are in english. I participe at events as MadriSX&Retro or RetroEuskal, I are vendor at most online auctions sites with the same nick, and founder of iSubastas and AUSO.

I are at the Web / BBS from 1200 bauds modems, I are ex-poin at FidoNet and cosysop at many BBS prev to jump to Internet. After hosting my website at many free hosting sites as Geocities, with a ADSL with fix IP, I make my server over Linux at 2000. I have make my website with PHP, Perl y MySQL

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Talk:Stephen Harper

NPOV dispute
Many of these Stephen Harper quotes are taken out of context and portray him to be a poor leader. The link at the bottom of the page links to an anti-Stephen Harper website. There is no way that this page was created with a neutral point of view. -

I concur. -

concur.. should list quotes that reflect both p.o.v.

Quotes are not "out of context." These are things that our Prime Minister has said and must be held accountable for, as the rascist biogoted, right-wing nutjob that he is :D -

 * Wikiquote does not follow the NPOV guidelines of Wikipedia because of the differing nature of its articles. A Wikipedia article is a series of statements weighed for accuracy and neutrality.  For a Wikiquote article, the standard for accuracy is this: did the person in question say or write this statement?  And if the statement is proven genuine (sourced) or at least believed in assumed good faith to be genuine (unsourced), is it also something that would generally be considered notable?  This last question is of, course, fairly subjective.  There is, however, no standard of neutrality in Wikiquote as there is in Wikipedia.  If you feel that a Wikiquote article has an unfair selection of quotes, you have the solution at hand to this problem, and one that requires no one else to serve as arbiter.  Simply add some more notable quotes that, as you believe, put the person in question in a more balanced or nuanced light.  In this way, everyone benefits.  The editors will have attained a more balanced article without the edit wars and monitored disputes that are the plague of Wikipedia.  At the same time, the general public who read the article will have a more rounded, complex portrait of the person who is the subject of the article.  Since a Wikiquote article is simply a collection of quotes by people who have chosen what they think is interesting, it does not aim at the sort of encyclopedic completeness and balance that are the goals of Wikipedia.  As with Wikipedia, however, we have a similar faith in gradualism: i.e., that in time each article will be added to and improved until the ideals of completeness and balance will be naturally reached.  As for quotes being accused of lacking context, keep in mind that a quote should always be self-sufficient.  It should be chosen because it makes sense on its own and does not require explanation or argumentation.  We've found from experience, especially in articles about political or religious leaders, that there is tendency to buttress quotes with labored commentary.  Since people with differing beliefs will rarely agree on whether a quote is taken out of context, there would be no end in sight to the  additions and deletions on contextual grounds.  Explanations of a quote should therefore only be a last resort; they should be exceedingly brief, should stick to matters of fact and should not presume to offer the reader an interpretation. - InvisibleSun 03:14, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree. I don't really support Stephen Harper, but I still know there are lots of quotes out there that would show him in a more positive light.

I live in Canada and watch the news from multiple sources daily. I know these to be legitimate quotes, and I'll allow it. Positive light? Nah. Nobody with a sense of decency seriously places full support behind the Iraq war. 64.231.220.59 00:25, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

NPOV tag
I removed the NPOV tag because this page is not POV. These are Harper's statements and are not disputable. --FWN 22:16, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

This page is nothing more than a collection of out-of-context quotes designed to falsely show the Prime Minister in a bad light. There is not so much as a shred of balance here. It's is little more than biased lib-left propaganda that falls well below Wiki's standards.

Has it struck you yet that he hasn't exactly made a number of quotes that show him in a 'good' light?

 * And actually, a lot of the things being complained about are things that diehard Tories and neocons and ex-Reformers and other supporters/backers find "positive"; it's the majority of Canadians who find them negative/offensive and "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and beauty that ain't; unless you're a supporter; only p.r. hacks would object, knowing how distasteful they are to non-supporters. But complaining that they are being reported here is not the fault of Wikiquote; it's the fault of his own mouth (and those of his handlers who let him say such things).....if the views represented are "unbalanced", it's not the fault of reporters and others quoting them; it's him, for having "unbalanced" views and policies and being vocal about asserting them....223.205.215.104 16:06, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

missing item
Maybe I missed it by searching for the wrong word, but one of his more infamous quotes, delivered to a GOP meeting or another conservative group in the US, is "you won't recognize Canada when I'm done with it". I'd venture that since the Contempt of Parliament charge, the Duffy-Wright affair, aka Senate Scandal, and the recent war-mongerer talk about Ukraine and Israel, this page is in serious need of updating. I've de-watchlisted him on Wikipedia and am not in the mood to source all the many things that could be added here, but "you won't recognize Canada when I'm done with it" is blatantly missing.223.205.215.104 04:56, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

 * The thing you have to remember about Harper which really explains everything he does is that he's a fucking asshole.UncleCanuck (talk) 13:30, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Stephen Harper


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Talk:Robert Burns

Was Scotland's National Bard A Fool For Love?
A Rosebud By My Early Walk - Verse 1

A rosebud by my early walk, Adown a corn-encloséd bawk, Sae gently bent its thorny stalk, All on a dewy morning. Ere twice the shades o' dawn are fled, In a its crimson glory spread, And drooping rich the dewy head, It scents the early morning.

Bonnie Peggy Alison - Verse 1

When in my arms, wi’ a’ thy charms, I clasp my countless treasure, O! I seek nae mair o’ Heaven to share Than sic a moment’s pleasure, O!

Clarinda, Mistress Of My Soul - Verse 1

Clarinda, mistres of my soul, The measur'd time is run! The wretch beneath the dreary pole So marks his latest sun.

Eppie Adair - Verse 1

By love and by beauty, By law and by duty, I swear to be true to My Eppie Adair!

Farewell To Eliza - Verse 1

From thee, Eliza, I must go, And from my native shore; The cruel fates between us throw A boundless ocean's roar: But boundless oceans, roaring wide, Between my love and me, They never, never can divide My heart and soul from thee.

See more Burns Works - Please feel free to have a browse Join a new Burns community- Robert Burns Forum

Auld Lang Syne
Hi,

It's a common misconception that Auld Lang Syne is by Robert Burns. It's traditional and predates him by several years. I can offer no other info than that, sorry.

Bo Downing

title: Talk:Robert Burns


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User talk:The Ungovernable Force~enwikiquote

Welcome
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Your account will be renamed
Hello,

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

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

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

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User talk:Goldfndr

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User talk:Eroll64

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User talk:Simplenimkar

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User talk:Wikiquotian27

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User talk:Wikipediatechie

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User talk:Bradipus~enwikiquote

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Hello,

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

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

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User talk:Museo8bits

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User talk:Aussiepete

Welcome
Hi. Welcome to English Wikiquote. Enjoy! ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:47, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
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title: User talk:Aussiepete


text:
User talk:Chun034

Welcome
Hi. Welcome to English Wikiquote. Enjoy! ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:47, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
 * For a quick overview of what Wikiquote is, read Wikiquote.
 * To ask for help or to talk with another editor, visit our Village pump.
 * To browse Wikiquote, take a look at our browsing start page.
 * To sign with a date, write four tildes (~~) and save.
 * Before creating new articles, consult our guide. You may practice how to edit a page at Sandbox.
 * Be bold.

title: User talk:Chun034


text:
User talk:Amit.ahuja

Welcome
Hi. Welcome to English Wikiquote. Enjoy! ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:48, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
 * For a quick overview of what Wikiquote is, read Wikiquote.
 * To ask for help or to talk with another editor, visit our Village pump.
 * To browse Wikiquote, take a look at our browsing start page.
 * To sign with a date, write four tildes (~~) and save.
 * Before creating new articles, consult our guide. You may practice how to edit a page at Sandbox.
 * Be bold.

title: User talk:Amit.ahuja


text:
User talk:Jcwhitt~enwikiquote

Welcome
Hi. Welcome to English Wikiquote. Enjoy! ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:48, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
 * For a quick overview of what Wikiquote is, read Wikiquote.
 * To ask for help or to talk with another editor, visit our Village pump.
 * To browse Wikiquote, take a look at our browsing start page.
 * To sign with a date, write four tildes (~~) and save.
 * Before creating new articles, consult our guide. You may practice how to edit a page at Sandbox.
 * Be bold.

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

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

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

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

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:27, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 05:49, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Jcwhitt~enwikiquote


text:
User talk:Davecampbell

Welcome
Hi. Welcome to English Wikiquote. Enjoy! ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:48, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
 * For a quick overview of what Wikiquote is, read Wikiquote.
 * To ask for help or to talk with another editor, visit our Village pump.
 * To browse Wikiquote, take a look at our browsing start page.
 * To sign with a date, write four tildes (~~) and save.
 * Before creating new articles, consult our guide. You may practice how to edit a page at Sandbox.
 * Be bold.

title: User talk:Davecampbell


text:
User talk:DavidAA~enwikiquote

Welcome
Hi. Welcome to English Wikiquote. Enjoy! ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:48, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
 * For a quick overview of what Wikiquote is, read Wikiquote.
 * To ask for help or to talk with another editor, visit our Village pump.
 * To browse Wikiquote, take a look at our browsing start page.
 * To sign with a date, write four tildes (~~) and save.
 * Before creating new articles, consult our guide. You may practice how to edit a page at Sandbox.
 * Be bold.

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

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

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

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

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:20, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

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

title: User talk:DavidAA~enwikiquote