text:
Chris Martin

Christopher Anthony John Martin (born 2 March 1977) is the lead singer, pianist and occasional rhythm guitarist of the popular rock band Coldplay.

 * See also:
 * Coldplay

Quotes

 * I definitely believe in God. How can you look at anything and not be over-whelmed by the miraculousness of it?
 * Scaggs, Austin; Corbijn, Anton (2005-08-25), "COLDPLAY'S QUIET STORM". Rolling Stone. (981).

 * I do a lot of apologising but deep down I'm a very confident man. I'm confident in the fact that I make a lot of mistakes. source

 * Why do we write music, what does inspires us? Well, in the beginning it was just having instruments around and just loving music and bands and all that but then recently it just seems to me to be a point of existence, you know? I can't work at anything else in the world except at how to write songs and I think we all (the band) just escape into it, you know what I mean? source
 * "Life is miraculous. Even when it's disastrous, it's still incredible."
 * "To know where you come from makes where you are even more special."

 * They'd all left for America — they were short-term lets — so they'd always leave food and, cos we didn't have much money, we would eat the rest of their cornflakes and listen to Ricky (Gervais) on XFM. source source

 * Q: Everyone picks up a certain emotional vulnerability in your music.
 * Yeah, but I don’t think that’s just a feminine thing. All men are soft and vulnerable, as well. (...) I think we boys, we men, are actually much weaker and softer than we like to think. source

 * What's good about the way we write songs is that I never quite know what I'm doing cause I can't read music. source

 * Up until 23, the concept of death hadn't occurred to me, then someone asked me if I'd heard about Jonty, this friend from school. I said, "No, what?" "He's dead." I used to play football with him. That's amazing, isn't it? Life is right now. It's not a morbid realisation, it's exciting, I find that feeling of time constraint very liberating. Nobody has an answer. We all die in the end. So come on, let's do something now. source

 * “I always ring my dad when I want to quit, and he goes, [in a plummy voice] ‘Well I wouldn’t give up yet, boy.’ So I think, ‘All right then. I won’t.’ He’d be a brilliant boxing trainer. He sprays me down, rinses out my mouth and tells me to get back in the ring and sock that (Alan) McGee fella for six.” source

 * I think girls are amazing but I also feel really guilty about doing stuff with someone that you don't really like. I don't believe there is such a thing as casual sex. Someone always gets hurt and I hate that feeling. One thing about girls is that I get scared. I get scared of my feelings being in the hands of another person, I know that feeling of waiting for a girl to call. That's scary.
 * On an interview with Q Magazine, August 2002 issue.

 * I know I'm going to get shit for saying this, but yeah, I don't want to be too happy. To write I have to feel slightly sorry for myself. You have to be in a slightly self-obsessed state of mind to sit at a piano for six hours and not worry about meeting someone for a date. My best songs come when I have that feeling that I've left the party early. And the other reason our songs are all about struggling and worrying and being beleaguered is my dad. He's a terrible worrier. He's always after the next thing. And I am too. Luckily the other members are more relaxed. Three other members like me and we'd go nuts.

 * Radiohead gave me hope. They were the band who gave me permission. I'm a public schoolboy from Devon and I'm not supposed to be in a band. Well, they proved I could. I thought, I'm a bit like them. Jonny was OK because he's northern and so is Guy.

 * My mum always said to me she doesn't believe in sleeping with people before marriage. She's not being prissy. She's very rock 'n' roll--it means doing what you feel and damn everyone else--and she reckons waiting and committing leads to great sex. I didn't agree entirely, but I haven't slept with many people. I didn't lose my virginity until two years ago. If I was good with women I'd go and enjoy it. But also I'm obsessed with the band, so I refuse to commit to a relationship... I'm an ambitious little tosser.
 * On an interview with Q Magazine, August 2002 issue.

 * It was so terrifying, the plane was all over the place. Once a year, for a week, all this dust blows over from the Sahara Desert, you could not see a thing, I couldn't see the ground and as it turns out, nor could the pilot. I found out we were about 200 metres up. The plane dropped off violently to the right then way over to the left, it was lurching all over. But somehow the pilot pulled it off and landed. I don't know how he did it, I was convinced he wasn't going to. Did the pilot know Chris Martin was on board? I don't think he gave a flying f**k. My mind was racing and I thought, 'My daughter will have to get a stepdad.' I also thought, "I've written a will. The band have finished the album but they know how I want to finish certain songs."
 * To The Sun newspaper about a trip for Make Trade Fair, 2005. source

 * What keeps me going is that I could die tomorrow so I’m always trying to live every day. source

 * Q: Are you worried that if you start living it up you'll stop writing good songs?
 * A: No, I don't think you have to struggle to make good art. I think you have to be passionate to make good art. You have to believe in what you're doing. It just comes from when you lie awake at night. Do you think about what car you're going to buy or what tune you're going to do next? It comes from you. source

 * It’s hard to perfect a happy song. Pharrell managed it. Stevie Wonder managed it. Bill Withers managed it. I haven’t managed it yet.

 * I come from a farming community in the west of England, where the very idea of going to America was a golden dream. There’s still a part of me every morning can’t believe that we are allowed to be there. There is always a sense of possibility. Of course it has its challenges and its ups and downs, but there is always an optimism that I find exciting. Maybe it’s because the sun shines in LA every day and you are surrounded by lots of other creative people, but I feel a great sense of, ‘OK, what can we make?’ And it’s nice to be by the seaside. I feel very grateful. source

 * We did a song for Johnny Cash, we recorded it with Rick Rubin and everything and all that was missing was his vocals. He was going to fly out to LA the week after he died. It’s really sad. 2003 source source

 * I think when you're as talented as me or you, you don't need to have an ego. On a serious note, the people I most admire in the world in my field have never shown that much ego to me. source

 * The closest I got was in 1997. I was on a train; I’d just been to Devon to get braces fitted. I felt so self-conscious, I was like: ‘Shit, what am I going to do? I’m 19 and I’ve got braces.’ Then the train stopped at Castle Cary, and everybody from Glastonbury got on. And I just melted in the corner. [laughs] Did they all seem cool? They seemed so cool! I was just like: ‘Shit, how do you get that cool?’ So that was my closest experience to Glastonbury; being on a train and feeling like the nerdiest of nerds, because my mum had told me to get my wonky teeth fixed.
 * On his experience before being headliners for the Glastonbury Festival. source

 * Q: What if you're having a rough day and something has upset you, how do you go out? How do you overcome that?
 * A: You overcome... that is a good question... I'd like to avoid that out. I wish I knew the answer. It does sometimes creep up, you know? Halfway through a concert: “Oh man... those nachos were not good enough...” [background laughs] source

 * You can sometimes get your own feelings across more strongly if you pretend that you're singing it from someone else's angle. But it's always from me. It's just a new way of framing it. source

 * Before our albums are released I feel like we still own it, that we have control over our music. But once it's out there in the world it's no longer ours. source

 * Economically, unfair trade will benefit nobody in the long run, as poorer countries will be bled totally dry and will become unable to produce anything. source

 * Q: What’s the strangest place you’ve ever woken up?
 * A: I woke up once somewhere south of Chicago in a children’s playground at about five in the morning. I have a lot of trouble sleeping, and this is when we used to fight as a band, and I definitely remember taking too many Ambien, but I can’t quite work out how I got there. I think I must’ve done that thing where you take Ambien and you start wandering around but then you just fall asleep somewhere. I woke up in this playground, but it was really quite near our hotel. That’s not really a strange place. source

 * It's weird that whatever else is on your mind, whether it's the downfall of global economics or terrible environmental troubles, the thing that always gets you most is when you fancy someone. source

 * I think that the fact that a relationship becomes public is a bit of a bummer. Because it can distract from the real reason why you're together, which is that you just like each other. source

 * They grow cheap tomatoes in Ghana, but I saw market stalls stacked high with cheap tinned tomatoes shipped in from Italy. If Ghana tries to export to Italy they are whacked with tariffs. It doesn't make any sense. We are making money out of these people and they can't afford to send their kids to school. We've got to keep banging on about fair trade. If people knew what misery these trade laws created they would be shocked.
 * To The Sun newspaper about his five-day trip for Make Trade Fair, January 2005. source

 * Anyone who criticizes me for talking about fair trade is really a few pebbles short of a beach, because everybody should care about it, just like everyone should care about the environment: because we all live here. MTV, 2005. source

 * Being nice is a lot easier when you're loaded. Of course I can be a bastard, but it doesn't make me feel as good as not being one. What I'm saying is, sometimes people think you're nicer than you are just because you've got loads of money and you can pay for things.
 * On an interview with The Telegraph, October 2002. source

 * The whole rock star myth, which is 40 years old and basically nonsense, has nothing to do with being a rock star. Everybody gets trashed and breaks things. By that standard, plumbers and heating engineers are just as rock 'n' roll as rock stars.
 * Spin Magazine, 2008. source

 * Those have been the two biggest challenges of my life: trying to follow Radiohead, and trying to follow Brad Pitt.
 * Alluding to his marriage to Gwyneth Paltrow
 * Scaggs, Austin; Corbijn, Anton (2005-08-25), "COLDPLAY'S QUIET STORM". Rolling Stone. (981):40-46.

 * It takes a long time to get to know Guy and Will. That's why often people think [Coldplay is] just me. If you sit with us for half an hour, I'm the only one you'll get an impression of because I'm a loudmouth idiot. They're my best friends really. source

 * My entire life is spent trying to push him forward at photoshoots. He's our packaging, he's a handsome bastard. source
 * Martin about his band mate Guy Berryman.

 * Q: And you decided to be a rock star, when?
 * A: "Well, I don't like the word 'rock star,' the two words, 'rock star.' Not even 'soft rock star', [laughs] not even 'limestone star'. I don't like those words."

 * Q: Why?
 * A: "Because I don't wear the right pants for that. You gotta wear the right trousers if you're gonna be a rock star." source

 * Coldplay is for people with great taste, intelligence, incredible good lookingness, talent, ability, success, grabbing of life. Coldplay's for people who know what life's about. They're always entertaining. Delightful to talk to. Sweet, charming, incredibly good in bed. Virile. They have incredible success with girls, or boys, or both. They're generally just the world's best citizens. Maybe I'm biased, but I'm definitely right.
 * In an interview with Andrew Denton on Enough Rope, 3 July 2006.

 * To be a frontman you have to be half very driven and half a total knob. I like to think I'm both.
 * On a Time Out London interview, June 8-15, 2005.

 * Q: Do you think of your band as a gang or a family?
 * A: It’s one and the same, especially if it’s an italian gang. source

 * I think as people listen to the album more it'll become its own thing more, but it'll also become apparent how much we've plagiarised. To me, really, at the end of our album we should've had a bibliography.
 * "The Best Moments from the Chris Moyles Show, 2016", on X&Y.

 * Whether you're 15 or you are 55 or 80, it’s like, well I'm whole, I don’t have a missing piece, you’ve just got to find that wholeness within. Does that make any sense? source

 * Say what you like about him [Jonny Buckland], he does incredible guitar animal impressions (Side note – Cow like noise during A rush of blood to the head). source

 * I’m not a big fan of people putting birds in cages because to me, that thing can fly, how can you do that? It's crazy. source

 * ‘Well, okey, something got broken but hey, what you're gonna do? You're not gonna give up, you're never gonna give up.’ That’s the best thing my dad ever taught me. source

 * There's too much information (on social media). Everything you do is available all the time, so the only thing you can rely on is not being false. source

 * One day in Haiti I was talking to a farmer. I said, 'I don't have any solution to these problems.' He said, 'Of course you don't! You're a singer.' He was right. Music is what I live for - and as Coldplay, our main job is to make the best music we can. But I hope that in our small way we can do something to raise awareness.
 * On Fair Trade, 2003. source

 * He (Jonny) just has a way of writing melodies that is perfect… I just love his playing so much. And in that song, we are always saying go and do a solo one day and he’s like, "I don’t do solo’s" and we sort of got him to do… And that’s his standing-on-a-mountain moment. That’s why being in a band is the best job in the world because your best friends bring in bits of music that you wouldn’t thought of and you piece it all together and you get Optimus Prime! source

 * We are very much a band and we always have been, and we are more than ever. In our personal lives and our professional lives, there’s this thing that links us where we would do anything for the others and its a very powerful feeling, to go have gone through everything we’ve been through with the same group of people. We knew each other when we had nothing. source

 * Life is beautiful in all its colors, even the darker ones, they’re here for a reason.
 * On the Live 2012 concert documentary.

 * "He's (Paul McCartney) almost a saintly figure in England, it's hard to not think of him as a mythical figure. He'll give you a nod and doesn't leave, he called us a ‘good little band’."

 * Q: Hey, isn't that how McCartney describes the Beatles?
 * "Yeah, I know." source

 * Q: Do you think that the key in the new rock is going back to the electronic sound?
 * A: "I don't consider music in terms of rock or pop, or categories. It's music. I feel the music without terms or bareers. The less the limits, the better. I think everything can be mixed up and to me, that's the key." source

 * Even though some of the things I do can come across nerdy or unprofessional, it's at least true to me. Now more than ever, pretending not to be myself would end even worse. source

 * It’s more egalitarian on the Internet, anyone can put anything up. But in terms of the money it takes to allow a band to get good, there’s less of it to invest. Music is split up now into little pockets. source

 * The thing I really believe deep down is that everybody has a gift for something. Our job as adults is to make sure all children have the opportunity to find their gift.
 * On Times of India interview, 2016. source

 * Men should always change diapers, it’s a very rewarding experience. It’s mentally cleansing. It’s like washing dishes, but imagine if the dishes were your kids, so you really love the dishes. source

 * The reason why I wouldn’t commit suicide… well, the main reason now is ’cos I have a baby and I would never commit suicide because of her. But to me, committing suicide from a nihilistic point of view is pointless, because we’re all gonna die anyway, so why not just hang around and see what happens? D’you know what I mean? If something is inevitable, why board the plane early? source

 * I've never hit anyone. I've tripped someone up, I got in trouble about that. He was chasing after somebody and I didn't like it, so we were running along together and he fell over. I wasn't put in a police cell, but I got fingerprinted. Police stations are terrifying. I'm petrified about losing any of the things I care about: family, band, hair, freedom. All I'll say is that they're fucking bastards - not the police, the paparazzi. source

 * I do an hour's yoga and go running every day. Then I see a picture of myself and I still look like a skinny, potbellied idiot - and I thought I had turned into this superhunk! source

 * Going through something difficult in your life, music for me is always a friend and something that helps you to figure things out. source

 * I love him, I really do. How much? Well, you know Leningrad in Russia. They should name it Lennongrad in honour of him.
 * On John Lennon (Q Magazine, November 2005, Page 88)

 * A band's only unique thing is its chemistry, especially if none of you are prodigious players or particularly handsome, the one thing you have is your uniqueness, so we hold on to that. source

 * There’s an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where they get the text of an obituary wrong, and instead of saying “beloved aunt,” it says “beloved cunt.” And I always think that would kind of sum up the two sides of my life, the two sides of the coin. I’d like that.
 * Talking about death, RollingStone Magazine 2008. source

 * She can turn anything into gold with that voice, here's the thing: if you speak to a good singing teacher about great opera singers, they will talk about consistency of tone. Or there's a book by Alfred Tomatis about why some people like certain people's voices and other people hate them, like Bob Dylan or me or whoever, some people say, 'Oh, I hate that voice', so there's a thing about people's frequency responses, what they are pleased by. Rihanna has this thick tone, so it's very hard to annoy anybody.
 * On an interview with The Guardian, June 2016.

 * I’m never going to be as adept lyrically as Jay Z or Morrissey.
 * On a Zane Lowe interview, 2014. source

 * He (David Bowie) said, 'I'm really sorry, but it's not your best (song).' He was very kind about it. I was like, 'You know what? You're probably right'. It might have been written by sleeping pills so I wasn't too personally offended. source

 * Music comes from a place we don't know, it sort of comes through the fingers and toes.
 * Chris Martin to the New York Times, October 2011. source

 * Some people misconstrue our band just to be just a commercial venture, they question the soulfulness of Coldplay because we’ve done okay. Maybe it’s because I’m English, but in terms of how people perceive us I only pick up on the negative side of it. I always feel like the big bad outside world just fucking hates us.
 * Chris Martin to Spin Magazine, October 2011. source

 * The word 'campaigning' makes me uncomfortable. At the time I was writing things on my hand, we were definitely campaigning (Make Trade Fair). Now we do it more subtly. You can see who we support at a concert or on our website, but we don't like to shove it down people's throats. I want to scale it back. I'd rather it's like, if you want to know what we think, then you can find it, rather than, 'Here's what I think!'. source

 * Not cool. Ever. I’ve never been cool and I don’t really care about being cool. It’s just an awful lot of time and hair gel wasted. At school I was a medium-clever geek. If you’re at public school (Sherbourne) and you’re not that good at rugby, you spend quite a few important years of your life feeling like a real loser. We’ve never been about cool. What’s happened to us is more about showing that the geeks at school can get there in the end. And you have to stay true to who you are, the root of all this is to do with our friendship. source

 * What changed for me was – I don’t want to go through life being scared of it, being scared of love, being scared of rejection, being scared of failure.
 * On a Zane Lowe interview, 2014.  source

 * Ever since our band came out, we have been a very polarising group because we do a certain thing very well.
 * On the Zane Lowe interview, 2014. source

 * I don’t think being 13 to 15 is an easy time for any boy. It’s like a big puberty race, and if you’re coming in last, it’s not such a great race to be in. I was a hyper-religious, quite naive and very judgmental kid. I was unpopular for three years, and then it all kind of switched when I was 16. But I had already been marked with the “I’m going to fucking get out of here and show you bastards what’s what” tag. So I’m very grateful for that period of challenge between 13 and 16, facing the blinkeredness of that kind of schoolboy mentality of, like, “You’re gay, you’re bad at sports, you’re this, you’re that.” Because it did make me think: “I don’t want to end up in some bank, where I’m going to have to take this kind of shit off these same people for the rest of my life. I need to get out of this fucking treadmill 'public school, into university, into a bank, into a summer house in France'.”
 * On Rolling Stone Magazine interview 2008. source

 * [As a teenager] I felt like there must be more to life than rugby and cheap cider on the weekends.
 * On Rolling Stone Magazine interview 2008. source

 * If you don't let love really in then you can't really give it back. source

 * It does something to your brain which is odd... you have to work really hard not to be a real d**k (in personal life). source
 * Martin on being a lead singer.

 * One of our big conversations that we always have in this band is, we don't see rock & roll as being about coke-taking, leather-trouser-wearing rebellion, because that to us is not rebellion anymore. The spirit of rock & roll is freedom. It's about following what you believe in and not caring what anyone else says. And if that means writing something on your hand, then you've got to write something on your hand. It doesn't matter if you don't look as cool as the Ramones - you're never going to, anyway. So I know that we'll be ridiculed for this and look stupid for that. But as long as we believe in what we're doing, we can't apologize for it.
 * On the Rolling Stone Magazine, 2008. source

 * No human being is only positive or negative. White or black, we all have both sides, the bright and the dark. There are no angels, it's a myth, nobody is a single thing, it's easy to fall into cynicism because wherever you look there are aggressions, war, destruction. I get it, ok? And it's true that for some Imagine [song by John Lennon] will tell you absolutely nothing. And if you have lost your cousin in an attack you would not want to hear it, you would be furious.
 * Chris Martin on interview with El Mundo, 2015. source

 * I guess it's maybe because the industry has been struggling and you don't sell 50 million in your first production, all the numbers are different from when we all started. I see that there's quite good camaraderie (between musicians). Obviously, there are those who want to stay out of it. I don't know about music, but in backstage or at airports, everyone seems to get along very well. source

 * I always felt that, as a musician, we show up for one day for a cause and we really believe in what we’re talking about, but then the next day we have our own concerns. I want to try to have a more long-term relationship between artists and people who are really trying to affect change in the world.
 * On his job as the curator of Global Citizen Festival. source

 * There is no music that has full meaning for everyone. It's what we have learned from the world: that no one thinks the same thing.
 * On interview with El Mundo, 2015.  source''

 * As a rule, I take a piece of paper and a pencil and for 12 minutes nothing is written in your head without editing, without censorship, just to get it out of your mind. After that it gets read and the paper is destroyed immediately. It's very good to write a song with what has been left in your memory, without reading it again. It's as if you chose the best, the memory is that selective... Do you know what is also good for creativity? Write fast. Once a week, don't eat for 24 or 30 hours. Your brain becomes very lucid about ideas.
 * On interview with Wall Street Journal, 2015.

 * I have been reading recently about synesthesia, in this case, the association of music and other sensory information with colors and I realized that I probably have a little or a lot of that current. I don't think it's unusual for songwriters. When I think of other people's songs or albums, a color comes to my mind.
 * On interview with Wall Street Journal, 2015. source

 * If you can give someone the pleasure of not liking you, maybe that’s as valid as the pleasure of liking you, some people want to assert themselves by showing the things they don’t like. It’s a form of positioning yourself. We all do that. I get it. But I’m more focused on the people who do like what we do, and there’s a few of them. I like hanging out with those people. If you ever liked Coldplay, then we’re going to really deliver on our promise over the next year or so. It’s not guarded music. It’s about very open things and that might not resonate with some people. But I don’t want to obscure our music behind coolness or cynicism just to avoid criticisms. Because for some people it really connects, and I need it, too.
 * On interview with Wall Street Journal, 2015. source

 * You get summoned to their castle, then you wait for about a week in a small room where you're just fed very minimally and if you survive that stage about fifteen another people, whoever survives that gets through the next stage where you get to play tennis with Jay and if you beat him twice you get sent through to meet the rest of Destiny's Child. They check you for lice and bugs and if they deem you cleaned up then you can meet Beyoncé behind the screen.
 * On the colaboration with Beyoncé. source

 * If I listen to a song that I like, my first instinct is to find out who made it. "Oh, these were the Sherman brothers who wrote 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' and a lot of Disney songs." That kind of thing. There is a part of me that wants nobody to know anything about me, but it is not realistic, what is even more strange to me is some things that are said about me. Because it comes from a fake quote or rumors. But I am guilty of it. If I listen (for example) to a new Rihanna song that I like, I want to know who made it.
 * On interview with Wall Street Journal about the connection between his personal life and songwriting, 2015. source

 * We've made a choice or I've made a choice recently to really say how I feel about the world and love and togetherness, and what I think would be great, you know? And I think when you sing about a very positive thing like that it's not fashionable until you die if I can be totally honest. It's not taken seriously until you're gone, but that's okay. (...) In the moment when you're alive saying it some people would say "Oh, fuck off." source

 * Every phrase can be a good lyric if it has the good rhythm.
 * On interview with Wall Street Journal, 2015. source

 * After we did the Super Bowl, we took so much s*it, and then we went on the biggest tour we’ve ever been on, it made me realize: okay some people really like what we do and some people really don’t – and we love them equally. I’m just happy and grateful to be a human, I don’t mind if you don’t love what we do but we do love what we do. source

 * How it did - in terms of commercial performance, is not how it feels to us. At the time it felt like this is not quite finished and not quite right. source
 * On the X&Y album.

 * I think a band by its very nature is only as good as the chemistry between the players. None of us in rock bands, or whatever kind of bands we’re in, are virtuosos, otherwise we’d be concert pianists. So the only thing you have in your favor as a band is your unique chemistry. source

 * Without the support of our fans, Coldplay would be nowhere and we wouldn't be able to produce our art, I'm not saying that I don't appreciate the awards and all the glamour that come with being a touring band but seriously without the fans, we would be nothing.

 * There's stuff going on in the world right now, which you can't imagine why is this happening; it's crazy. I don't know what the answer is, but if you didn't have faith in the universe that somehow something great would arrive at the end, then we'd all give up, and that would be a waste of everyone's time.

 * Just because a romantic relationship ends doesn't mean that the other facets of your relationship have to end... or, indeed, doesn't mean they can't get better.

 * I'm happy in L.A., but I will live wherever my kids are, and I don't really mind where it is. source

 * Celebrity culture has gone crazy, and I think the reason is that real news is just not bearable, and it also seems impossible to change anything.

 * I’ve been banging the drum on that sort of thing, environment sustainability, for a long time – and getting some flack for it along the road – so yes I’m pleased other artists are starting to get on board with it too, but listen, really taking flack is what we do – it’s ok, I’m cool with that. source

 * [After the last tour] it was like, 'OK, we've got to that place, we've got to that job description, now what are we going to do with it? And I hadn't felt that we'd got there until the end of that tour. Nothing is left in terms of career aspirations. You're just left with, 'Well, our job is to translate the songs that we receive and get out there and be of use to people if they want it.' We've got to be a service, like a TV station. Or a tap. source source

 * My mom was always interested in [social and environmental justice movements]. Life on this planet becomes more joyful when you become less afraid of people who look or speak different than you.

About Chris Martin

 * Undeniably handsome, Martin has a floppy, slightly fey quality that leaves women feeling divided between mauling and mothering him. source

 * Madonna: Yeah he's great! I think he's incredibly talented. source

 * Kylie Minogue: Chris just turns me to jelly. He's a really sexy singer. source

 * Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has found his niche in making the sound of solitude a triumphant experience, like Good Will Hunting: The Musical.
 * John Mayer from his January 1, 2005 column in Esquire magazine.

 * He is a sensitive soul.
 * Craig McLean from his May 28, 2005 article in The Guardian.

 * In contrast to the soothing, warm-blanket vibe of Coldplay's music, Martin is almost unnervingly intense: He has an endearing, Hugh Grant-like stammer, but when he feels strongly about what he's saying, which is often, his eyes give off little sparks, like he's a mad scientist detailing plans for world domination.
 * Brian Hiatt from his June 26, 2008 article on Rolling Stone.

 * Wayne Coyne: Well, I really think that there’s an authenticity and a truth in Chris in the way that he sings to the audience. And even though you’d have to think there has to be some difference between playing to a couple of hundred people when they started and playing to literally tens of thousands of people now, I still see that in him. That’s why I like them so much, because he is the real deal. He’s not faking it when he gets up there and that enthusiasm still effects him. So in that way, I think they’re virtually unchanged. They haven’t become these unapproachable mega rock stars. source

 * Natalie Imbruglia: If Chris Martin calls with two songs, you don’t think, you say, ‘Yes’. He’s a great songwriter. ... I feel very lucky to have it (the song called 'Fun'). When I went into the studio and he said: 'I've finished the song', and he sang it to me, I nearly did one of those ugly cries because it's so beautiful. ... It's one thing to be a fan of a band’s music but it’s another thing to have them call up and say they wanna songwrite! source source source

 * Chris Martin might be a famous non-drinker, but he’s not opposed to getting out of his mind. Signing on Roxy Music star and general musical oddball Brian Eno as producer for the Viva la Vida and Mylo Xyloto albums, Martin and the band consented to being hypnotised to write the records. “Brian knew a hypnotist and we thought it might get some interesting results,” guitarist Jonny Buckland told Entertainment Weekly. “We all went upstairs, sat down, and he walked around us. He got us into some strange kind of trance, and we came down and played some more.” “It did work, actually,” Martin confirms in the same interview. “We came up with a lot of interesting noises, which we used.” source

 * Chris Martin can still seem embarrassed by his status as one of the planet's most recognizable rock stars. His band's music is completely and utterly grand in ambition and sentiment yet, offstage, Martin is mostly immune to the groan-worthy platitudes and shameless chest-puffing typical of his stadium-filling brethren.
 * Ryan Dombal from October 31, 2011 article on Pitchfork.

 * They balance each other out. Chris and I are like Jay and Beyonce; two paranoid ironists and two calm grounded people. source
 * Gwyneth Paltrow to Q Magazine on the friendship they share with Jay Z & Beyoncé, 2011.

 * A wonderful Zimbabwean connection at Paralympic closing ceremony - Coldplay's Chris Martin's mum and gran are from Harare - plenty of Zim cousins!! source

 * Coldplay's Chris Martin once revealed to RollingStone that his mother comes from Zimbabwe and that he spent a lot of time here. He also claimed that (the song) “Strawberry Swing” was inspired by his experience on Zimbabwe. source

 * People often think that fires only happen to vulnerable people but young professionals have a quarter of all house fires in London. Chris will know that fires can develop almost at the Speed of Sound so it's important that when they're cooking, people don't have A Rush of Blood to the Head and leave their cooking unattended causing a lot of Trouble. source
 * London Fire Brigade's head of operations, prevention and response Dave Brown about the efforts of Martin in the kitchen that resulted in 999 calls.

 * Taylor Swift: I've been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it'd be awesome to work with him. He's really kind, and he's been really encouraging when we've met.

 * A great songwriter.
 * Peter Gabriel on his own induction at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from April 10, 2014.

 * Harry Styles: He's the nicest guy. And he doesn't make me feel nervous, but when you have so much respect for someone... it's difficult not to. source

 * Bono: We were playing with (Every Breaking Wave) for the last album and Chris talked us out of it. He said, ‘That one deserves to be finished.’ The half-baked version would have denied us this, so we owe him for that… He's a genius and a very self-effacing guy. He's one of our bodyguards. source

 * Queen Latifah: So we start trying to get the room to bid on this thing. And we get it up to like €133,960.27 ($150,000) for this piano. So we pay this, and then I find out that the guy who I'm bidding with was Chris Martin from Coldplay. (...) He pays €89245.89 ($100,000) on the piano, I pay €44,653.42 ($50). He gives me the piano. He is the salt of the earth as far I'm concerned. source

 * Britain thought he could now go back to being just some English bloke and eating chips. It turns out this notion is utterly wrong, because when Martin walks into a room, I am rather startled to find that a stellar quality enters with him. His energy hits you from across the room: the intense stare, the piercing blue eyes, the feet that are usually barefoot nowadays.
 * Sophie Heawood from 23 June, 2016 article on The Guardian.

 * In the British vacuum of passive-aggressive public transport and mumbled apologies, Chris Martin’s stomach-ribbing charisma on stage can be as nauseating as doing star jumps right after lunch, and it’s not hard to see how the everlasting hate for Coldplay was born. But when we hate on them, are we just acknowledging that we want to experience more from life? Or are we negating the fact we feel these everyday – average, yet no less meaningful – emotions deep down, too? I think it’s a bit of both.
 * Ryan Bassil, February 11 2016. source

 * Chris Martin of Coldplay was spot-on when he burst on to Graham Norton’s set and described the karmic moment represented by Donald Trump’s success in being elected President of the United States. Mr. Martin said, in terms, that Trump expressed the feelings of millions of people, and that doing so is a refreshing and crucial part of democracy. source

 * Dua Lipa: It was surreal to sit at the piano with him. He's so distinctive in the way he works - the second he sits down and is playing piano, you're like, 'S***, that's Coldplay!'. ... It was so surreal, Chris Martin dancing to my music, I remember saying to him, 'You've written one of my favorite songs ever, the Nelly Furtado song 'All Good Things (Must Come To An End),' and he was like, 'God, I forgot I wrote that.' source source

 * Liam Gallagher: I didn’t hang around the get my back patted, we were out of there. It was like, look, it was good to do. And Chris? I went, ‘listen, I'm sorry about all that shit, that I keep fucking slagging you off. You know I don’t fucking mean it’. He’s going 'nah, nah, no worries, we love it mate, carry on!' He was cool. But I’ve not heard fucking back from him since. He’s fucked me right off now. source

 * Jay Z: We are good friends, but what I got to say has nothing to do with our friendship. I have been in the industry long enough to know when I’m in the presence of a genius… and Chris Martin is just that. In years to come, Britain will look back at him as a modern day Shakespeare, he is an incredible recording artist, an incredible songwriter, but where he really comes alive is performing live. If you get the chance to see Coldplay live, do it, you ain’t gonna regret it. source

 * Lily Allen: I’m not super-close to Chris Martin, but I’ll always be grateful that what he did was say to me, “No Lily, I don’t see you like that. I don’t want to f*ck you. I care about you. I want to be friends with you. I want to help you.” He and Gwyneth had just broken up, but they were together in LA doing their conscious uncoupling thing. They asked me over for Sunday lunch. I wasn’t very chatty with Chris, but he and Gwyneth did put me in touch with their marriage counsellor. I didn’t go, but it was the wake-up call I needed. I realised I was ill. source source

 * It’s no accident that so many fabled rock ensembles have had two contrasting leaders (Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, Plant and Page, Bono and The Edge) to play off each other and cross-pollinate and, at times, butt heads. But Chris Martin completely dominates Coldplay; there’s no yin to his smiley enraptured yang. He’s the rock-king superstar the other band members all worship, humbly, as the genius who made their fates possible, and almost every moment of the band’s creative energy is organized around what Chris is going to do next: the piano chords he’s playing around with, the lyrics he’s writing, his endless studio perfectionism. source

 * Stormzy: And the person was getting closer, and it was Chris Martin. I’m looking around… but he’s walking towards me. We had a wicked, wicked conversation, a very inspirational conversation. That was a moment where it was like, woah, you’re Chris Martin! He watched the whole (show), and he had very kind words for me. source

 * Elton John: He is the kindest and most gracious friend, along with being a fantastic musical force of nature. source

 * Guy Berryman: Chris is always working, I think he is the biggest workaholic that I know. His capacity for making music and writing songs is boundless, almost. source

 * I can't remember a time when he (Chris) wasn't making music, he'd write songs about anything. Spaghetti. My gerbils. It didn't matter. Everybody believed in his talent and drive, but we were from a village in Devon and that sort of thing doesn't happen from places like that.
 * Nicola Martin on her brother. source

 * Wayne Coyne: Chris Martin is such a sweet, thoughtful guy, and he gave me a cool book and all this stuff. But part of it was that we thought, “Well, we’ll meet them, and then we’ll stay for a couple songs, and then we’ll go get something to eat, and it’ll be a great night, who cares?” And we stayed the whole show. The show was phenomenal. And when it ended, we stood there like, “It can’t be over!” It was like two hours of just sheer joy. And then when it stopped, we didn’t want it to stop. How many times are you at a concert where that happens? source

 * Chris is proof of how wonderful humans can be when they really put their minds to it.
 * Will Champion on BBC Radio 2, November 28 2019.

 * Jacob Collier: Chris is one of the most brilliantly-minded musicians I think I’ve ever encountered, and so, so joyous. To be completely honest with you, I think there are very few musicians nowadays who are making music from the perspective of just being open and joyful. source

 * Don Johnson: He's a lovely man, I'll tell you that. But it's not my place; they have their own thing. It would be like asking Chris Martin: “How's Don's relationship with his wife?” source

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

title: Chris Martin


text:
User:Michael Myburgh Newman

Right answers in life are only a mirage, so right questions are more right than right answers.

title: User:Michael Myburgh Newman


text:
User talk:Michael Myburgh Newman

The value of love given to someone is only as much as the perception of its recipient

title: User talk:Michael Myburgh Newman


text:
Kenny Rogers

Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, actor, record producer, and entrepreneur. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted more than 420 hit singles across various genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide during his lifetime, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. His fame and career spanned multiple genres: jazz, folk, pop, rock, and country.

Quotes
Where we were born, I see the place We were raised, I see all the things you wanted That I never gave. I see sadness, I see sorrow, I see pain in your face, But I just can't see A stranger in my place.
 * I see the town
 * "A Stranger in My Place" (co-written with Kin Vassy), on Something's Burning (1970)

Where you might grow tired of dreams That don't come true, I can see where I have fallen short Of the things I promised you. I can see now through my tear filled eyes no love on your face, I must get used to seein' strangers in my place.
 * I can see now
 * "A Stranger in My Place" (co-written with Kin Vassy), on Something's Burning (1970)

You even had me singin' along right with you, you said "I need you", then you changed the words and added harmony Then you sang the song you had written for me to someone new
 * You touched my soul with your beautiful song

Oh, but nobody sings a love song quite like you do Oh, and nobody else can make me sing along Nobody else can make me feel things are right When I know they're wrong, Nobody sings a love song quite like you.
 * "Sweet Music Man", on Daytime Friends (1977) · Kenny Rogers performance · Tribute cover by Dolly Parton and Alison Krauss

 * Sing your song sweet music man, I believe in you.
 * "Sweet Music Man", on Daytime Friends (1977)

It's cheap but it ain' free Love or somethin like it's got a hold on me.
 * Something's got a hold on me
 * "Love or Something Like It" (co-written with Steven Glassmeyer), on Love or Something Like It (1978)

And he thinks he's got just what he needs Life will deliver, a shot that will shiver him Drivin him down to his knees Make him start giving, living, livin' again.
 * Right when a man's, doin all that he planned

Well it's your mind, that tricks you in believin' everytime Love will turn you around, turn you around Well it's your heart, that talks you into stayin' where you are Love will turn you around, turn you around.
 * "Love Will Turn You Around" (co-written with Thom Schuyler, David Malloy and Even Stevens), on Love Will Turn You Around (1982)

There is nothing in this world for me. I guess I'm crazy Crazy for you can't you see.
 * When you're not here by my side
 * "Crazy" (co-written with Richard Marx) on What About Me? (1984)

Go looking in the mountains If you wanna find silver Go digging in stones If you wanna find heaven Go reading in the Bible If you wanna find love Go looking at home.
 * If you wanna find gold
 * "If You Want to Find Love" (co-written with Skip Ewing and Max D. Barnes), on Back Home Again (1991)

 * A smart man isn't necessarily one who knows all the answers, but knows where to find them.
 * Kenny Rogers Going Home (1995)

Quotes about Rogers

 * You never know how much you love somebody until they’re gone. I’ve had so many wonderful years and wonderful times with my friend Kenny, but above all the music and the success I loved him as a wonderful man and a true friend.
 * Dolly Parton, as quoted in "Legendary country singer Kenny Rogers dies at 81" by Christina Maxouris and Alta Spells, CNN (21 March 2020)

title: Kenny Rogers


text:
Liberalism

 is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, and.

A

 * Ultraliberalism today translates into a whimpering isolationism in foreign policy, a mulish obstructionism in domestic policy, and a pusillanimous pussyfooting on the critical issue of law and order.
 * Spiro Agnew, speech before Illinois Republican meeting, Springfield, Illinois (September 10, 1970); reported in Collected Speeches of Spiro Agnew (1971), p. 193

 * [W]e claim to start from and to maintain in all our political action this fundamental principle—that the interests of the community as a whole ought to be paramount over the interests of any class, any interest, or any section which that community contains. That is the root and spring of Liberalism.
 * H. H. Asquith, speech in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (30 January 1895), quoted in The Times (31 January 1895), p. 6

B

 * He that defers his charity 'till he is dead, is (if a man weighs it rightly) rather liberal of another man's, than of his own.
 * Francis Bacon, Francisci Baconi Baronis de Verulamio … Opera Omnia Quatuor (1730), p. 298. Compare: The English Theophrastus: or, The manners of the age (1702), p. 268: "He that defers Charity till Death, is rather Liberal of another Man's, than of his own".

 * The doctrine was liberalism, which criticised and finally demolished the traditional conception of the nation-state as a collective organism, a community; and asserted instead the primacy of the individual. According to liberal thinking a nation was no more than so many human atoms who happened to live under the same set of laws. From such a belief it followed that the State, instead of being the embodiment of a national community as it had been under the Tudors and the Commonwealth, was required to dwindle into a kind of policeman, standing apart from the national life, and with the merely negative task of keeping the free-for-all of individual competition within the bounds of decorum.
 * Correlli Barnett, The Collapse of British Power (1972), p. 91

 * The parties which assumed the names of liberals were, or became in due course, simple guardians of capitalism.
 * Eduard Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism (1899)

 * A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.
 * Leonard Bernstein, statement of 1953, quoted in A Wonderful Life : 50 Eulogies to Lift the Spirit (2006) by Cyrus M. Copeland, p. 190

To all alike, may do a good by chance, But never out of judgment.
 * He that's liberal
 * Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, The Spanish Curate, Act I, scene 1

 * Liberality consists less in giving a great deal than in gifts well timed.
 * Jean de La Bruyère, in Les Caractères (1688), Aphorism 47 as translated in The Characters of Jean de La Bruyère (1929) by Henri van Laun
 * Variant translations:
 * Liberality consists rather in giving seasonably than much.
 * Generosity lies less in giving much than in giving at the right moment.

C

 * What do we mean by this Liberalism of which we talk? … I should say it means the acknowledgement in practical life of the truth that men are best governed who govern themselves; that the general sense of mankind, if left alone, will make for righteousness; that artificial privileges and restraints upon freedom, so far as they are not required in the interests of the community, are hurtful; and that the laws, while, of course, they cannot equalise conditions, can, at least, avoid aggravating inequalities, and ought to have for their object the securing to every man the best chance he can have of a good and useful life.
 * Henry Campbell-Bannerman, The Liberal Magazine (January 1898), p. 530, quoted in John Wilson, C.B.: A Life of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Constable, 1973), p. 232

 * In retrospect it was important to have sincere liberals around. Someone needs to fret about the excesses of capitalism. When liberals stopped doing that, the country lost a needed counterbalance. In an ecosystem, every species has a role to play, even the pests. If you succeeded in eliminating the mosquitos, birds would starve. When the last liberal stopped sobbing about unfairness, American society became less fair.
 * Tucker Carlson, Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution (2018)
 * Liberalism, for all its virtues, has begun to develop a sense of entitlement, and needs time to rediscover its soul.
 * Stephen L. Carter, Trump and the Fall of Liberalism,  (November 11, 2016)

 * Liberalism in its political instantiation, for all of its appeal, is so powerful a theory that it probably works better in opposition than in government. Modern liberalism has become what liberal philosophers not long ago would have derided as a “comprehensive view” — a theory that believes itself able to give an account of how every institution of the society should operate, and even, alas, how people should think. Add to that a dash of triumphalism, and you wind up with a government impatient with the tendency of human beings to resist having too much forced on them at once.
 * Stephen L. Carter, Trump and the Fall of Liberalism,  (November 11, 2016)

 * Humanity cannot be made equal by declarations on paper. Unless the material conditions for equality exist, it is worse than mockery to pronounce men equal.
 * Voltairine de Cleyre, "In Defense of Emma Goldman and the Right of Expropriation" (1893).

 * Reality has a well-known liberal bias.
 * Stephen Colbert, in his address at the Hilton Washington hotel, Washington, D.C. (29 April 2006)

 * I didn't realize quite how liberal I was until I was asked to make passionate comedic choices as opposed to necessarily successful comedic choices.
 * Stephen Colbert "Fresh Air" NPR interview (24 January 2005)

 * [ John Casey ] claimed that the liberal tradition was defective in its explanation of the citizen's attachment to the state itself since it ignored his patriotic allegiance to the "continuity of institutions, shared experience, language, custom and kinship" which the state presupposed. What was pernicious...Casey was saying, was that it had undermined such pieties and replaced them with a "rootless individualism".
 * Charles Covell, The Redefinition of Conservatism: Politics and Doctrine (1986), pp. 27-28

 * Liberalism is essentially the belief that there can be a reconciliation of all difficulties and differences, and since there can't, it is a misleading way to approach politics.
 * Maurice Cowling, quoted in Naim Attallah, Singular Encounters (1990), p. 136

D

 * The tone and tendency of Liberalism cannot be long concealed. It is to attack the institutions of the country under the name of Reform, and to make war on the manners and customs of the people of this country under the pretext of Progress.
 * Benjamin Disraeli, speech to the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in Crystal Palace, London (24 June 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), p. 524

E

 * That Liberalism may be a tendency towards something very different from itself, is a possibility in its nature. For it is something which tends to release energy rather than accumulate it, to relax, rather than to fortify. It is a movement not so much defined by its end, as by its starting point; away from, rather than towards, something definite. Our point of departure is more real to us than our destination; and the destination is likely to present a very different picture when arrived at, from the vaguer image formed in imagination. By destroying traditional social habits of the people, by dissolving their natural collective consciousness into individual constituents, by licensing the opinions of the most foolish, by substituting instruction for education, by encouraging cleverness rather than wisdom, the upstart rather than the qualified, by fostering a notion of getting on to which the alternative is a hopeless apathy, Liberalism can prepare the way for that which is its own negation: the artificial, mechanised or brutalised control which is a desperate remedy for its chaos.
 * T. S. Eliot, The Idea of a Christian Society (London: Faber and Faber, 1939), pp. 15–16

 * In the sense in which Liberalism is contrasted with Conservatism, both can be equally repellent: if the former can mean chaos, the latter can mean petrification. We are always faced both with the question 'what must be destroyed?' and with the question 'what must be preserved?' and neither Liberalism nor Conservatism, which are not philosophies and may be merely habits, is enough to guide us.
 * T. S. Eliot, The Idea of a Christian Society (London: Faber and Faber, 1939), p. 17

 * I have never seen a class so deeply demoralised, so incurably debased by selfishness, so corroded within, so incapable of progress, as the English bourgeoisie; and I mean by this, especially the bourgeoisie proper, particularly the Liberal, Corn Law repealing bourgeoisie. For it nothing exists in this world, except for the sake of money, itself not excluded. It knows no bliss save that of rapid gain, no pain save that of losing gold. In the presence of this avarice and lust of gain, it is not possible for a single human sentiment or opinion to remain untainted.
 * Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845)

 * Any liberal system must proceed from the assumption that freedom is one and indivisible and that elementary human freedom in all spheres of life must go hand in hand with political, religious, economic and spiritual freedom. The strategy of collectivist thinking has always been to split up this most essential and most universal of human values as a means of making inroads into the free system itself.
 * Ludwig Erhard, The Economics of Success (1963), pp. 291–292

F

 * I am a Liberal, because liberalism seems to me to mean faith in the people, and confidence that they will manage their own affairs far better than those affairs are likely to be managed for them by others.
 * Millicent Fawcett, quoted in Why I Am a Liberal: Being Definitions and Personal Confessions of Faith by the Best Minds of the Liberal Party, ed. Andrew Reid (1885), p. 43

 * Liberalism, moreover, which currently plays a dominant role in the life of European peoples and states, is by no means to be understood as the system of popular freedom in general, but as a system in the special interest of quite specific elements of society which are assembled in the commercial and industrial middle class. The liberal state in this conventional sense is the state which represents the interest of this social group. But that does not in any sense mean that it must also represent the interest of all other classes of the population or even only the interest of the true majority of the people.
 * Julius Fröbel, Theorie der Politik, als Ergebniss einer erneuerten Prüfung demokratischer Lehrmeinungen (2 vols., 1861–1864), Vol. I, p. 258, quoted in Theodore S. Hamerow, Social Foundations of German Unification, 1858–1871, Volume I: Ideas and Institutions (1969), p. 136

 * [T]here are two justifications for it. One... is pragmatic and the other... is moral. The pragmatic justification is that liberalism is... a political doctrine that seeks to enable societies to govern themselves over diversity. It arose in the minds of thinkers like Thomas Hobbes or John Locke or Samuel Pufendorf... as a result of the European wars of religion following the Protestant Reformation.'''
 * Francis Fukuyama, 2020 Owen Harries Lecture (2020) as quoted in a YouTube Creative Commons video, 7:53.

 * In the ... a third of the population of central Europe were killed in a bloody struggle between different Christian religious sects, and the pragmatic part of liberalism was to take final ends [defined by religions] out of political discussion... and to lower the sights of politics to defend life itself, and not "the good life"... as defined by a particular sect of a particular religion, and therefore tolerance of diversity, of people that don't believe the same thing that you do, has always been at the core of this pragmatic project to enable diverse populations to live with one another.
 * Francis Fukuyama, 2020 Owen Harries Lecture (2020) as quoted in a YouTube Creative Commons video, 8:28.

G

 * It came to me a little while ago what we really are, we liberals. We demand reforms, we want to improve the situation of the underprivileged — why? To make them better off materially? Nuts. It's only to make ourselves feel less guilty. We rend our garments, we're eager to show how willing we are to accept any outrageous demand so long as it's black, or youthful, or put up by someone who thinks he's got a grievance. We want to appease everybody — you know what a liberal is? A liberal is a guy who walks out of the room when the fight starts.
 * Brian Garfield, Death Wish (1972), Ch. 7, p. 68

 * I think that the principle of the Conservative Party is jealousy of liberty and of the people, only qualified by fear; but I think the principle of the Liberal Party is trust in the people, only qualified by prudence.
 * William Ewart Gladstone, speech at the opening of the Palmerston Club, Oxford (December 1878) as quoted in "Gladstone's Conundrums; The Statesman Answers Sundry Interesting Questions" in The New York Times (9 February 1879)

 * Much of Biko's energy is devoted to criticizing the liberal in both the condescending white and the idiotic black forms. The black liberal is idiotic because black people lack power in a white-controlled system. The white liberal, on the other hand, operates from the vantage point of having something—perhaps a great deal—to lose in the event of progressive social change. The white liberal's offer to help has an air of condescension because it masks a profound existential investment in the continuation of the racist system. Thus, the white liberal always insists on offering the theoretical or interpretive strategies against antiblack racism, but such strategies often act to preserve the need for white liberals as the most cherished members or overseers of values in their society. In Biko's words: "I am against the superior-inferior white-black stratification that makes the white man a perpetual teacher and the black a perpetual pupil (and a poor one at that.)"
 * Lewis Gordon, describing the view of Steve Biko, introduction to I Write What I Like, p. vii

H

 * The difference between a free Government and a Government which is not free is principally this—that a Government which is not free interferes with everything it can, and a free Government interferes with nothing except what it must. A despotic Government tries to make everybody do what it wishes; a Liberal Government tries, as far as the safety of society will permit, to allow everybody to do as he wishes. It has been the tradition of the Liberal party consistently to maintain the doctrine of individual liberty. It is because they have done so that England is the place where people can do more what they please than in any other country in the world.
 * William Harcourt, speech in Oxford town hall (30 December 1872), quoted in The Times (31 December 1872), p. 5

 * Liberalism is a doctrine about what the law ought to be, democracy a doctrine about the manner of determining the law. Liberalism regards it as desirable that only what the majority accepts should in fact be law, but it does not believe that this is therefore necessarily good law. Its aim, indeed, is to persuade the majority to observe certain principles. It accepts majority rule as a method of deciding, but not as an authority for what the decision ought to be. To the doctrinaire democrat the fact that the majority wants something is sufficient ground for regarding it as good; for him the will of the majority determines not only what is law but what is good law.
 * Friedrich Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty (Chicago: 1960), pp. 103-104

 * Liberalism, which Luxemburg called by its more appropriate name—“opportunism”—is an integral component of capitalism. When the citizens grow restive, it will soften and decry capitalism’s excesses. But capitalism, Luxemburg argued, is an enemy that can never be appeased. Liberal reforms are used to stymie resistance and then later, when things grow quiet, are revoked on the inevitable road to capitalist slavery. The last century of labor struggles in the United States provides a case study for proof of Luxemburg’s observation. The political, cultural and judicial system in a capitalist state is centered around the protection of property rights. And, as Adam Smith pointed out, when civil government “is instituted for the security of property, [it] is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.” The capitalist system is gamed from the start. And this makes Luxemburg extremely relevant as corporate capital, now freed from all constraints, reconfigures our global economy, including the United States’, into a ruthless form of neofeudalism.
 * Chris Hedges, "Reform or Revolution," May 22, 2016

 * A liberal will defend to the death your right to agree with her. Disagree with her, and she will call the police.
 * Peter Hitchens, The Broken Compass (2009), p. ix
 * It is a false liberalism that interprets itself into the government operation of commercial business.  Every step of bureaucratizing of the business of our country poisons the very roots of liberalism -- that is, political equality, free speech, free assembly, free press, and equality of opportunity.  It is the road not to more liberty, but to less liberty.  Liberalism should be found not striving to spread bureaucracy but striving to set bounds to it.  True liberalism seeks all legitimate freedom first in the confident belief that without such freedom the pursuit of all other blessings and benefits is vain.  That belief is the foundation of all American progress, political as well as economic. Liberalism is a force truly of the spirit, a force proceeding from the deep realization that economic freedom cannot be sacrificed if political freedom is to be preserved.  Even if governmental conduct of business could give us more efficiency instead of less efficiency, the fundamental objection to it would remain unaltered and unabated.  It would destroy political equality.  It would increase rather than decrease abuse and corruption.  It would stifle initiative and invention.  It would undermine the development of leadership.  It would cramp and cripple the mental and spiritual energies of our people.  It would extinguish equality and opportunity.  It would dry up the spirit of liberty and progress.  For these reasons primarily it must be resisted.  For a hundred and fifty years liberalism has found its true spirit in the American system, not in the European systems.
 * Herbert Hoover, Campaign Speech, 22 October 1928

 * A Liberal is one who seeks to secure for everyone the same rights, political, social or religious, which he claims for himself.
 * George Holyoake, quoted in Ian Bradley, The Optimists: Themes and Personalities in Victorian Liberalism (1980), p. 76

I

 * But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.
 * Isaiah 32:8, The Bible (King James Version)

K
Herrod: (Entering, with drinks.) And a conservative is a liberal who just got mugged. Tarian: Oh, Rex. Thanks. For the drinks and for the definition. But couldn't you also say a liberal is a conservative who just got arrested?
 * Tarian: A liberal is just the opposite of a conservative.
 * A liberal is one who says that it's all right for an 18-year-old girl to perform in a pornographic movie as long as she gets paid the minimum wage.
 * Irving Kristol, Two Cheers for Capitalism (1978)
 * Irving Kristol, Two Cheers for Capitalism (1978)

 * When then is liberalism correctly understood? Liberalism is not an exclusvely political term. It can be applied to a prison reform, to an economic order, to a theology. Within the political framework, the question is not (as in a democracy) “Who should rule?” but “How should rule be exercised?” The reply is “Regardless of who rules—a monarch, an elite, a majority, or a benevolent dictator—governments should be exercised in such a way that each citizen enjoys the greatest amount of personal liberty.” The limit of liberty is obviously the common good. But, admittedly, the common good (material as well as immaterial) is not easily defined, for it rests on value judgments. Its definition is therefore always somewhat arbitrary. Speed limits curtail freedom in the interests of the common good. Is there a watertight case for forty, forty-five, or fifty miles an hour? Certainly not. ... Freedom is thus the only postulate of liberalism—of genuine liberalism. If, therefore, democracy is liberal, the life, the whims, the interests of the minority will be just as respected as those of the majority. Yet surely not only a democracy, but a monarchy (absolute or otherwise) or an aristocratic (elitist) regime can be liberal. In fact, the affinity between democracy and liberalism is not at all greater than that between, say, monarchy and liberalism or a mixed government and liberalism. (People under the Austrian monarchy, which was not only symbolic but an effective mixed government, were not less free than those in Canada, to name only one example.)
 * Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Leftism Revisited (1990), p. 21

L

 * [L]iberalism has been, in the last four centuries, the outstanding doctrine of Western Civilisation.
 * Harold Laski, The Rise of European Liberalism: An Essay in Interpretation [1936] (1962), p. 5

 * The world crisis which began in 1929, the longest ever known, caused people entirely unconnected with and even hostile to the working-class movement to speak of 'crisis' and even of the 'collapse of capitalism'. [...] Liberalism observed with horror that the actual course of ignored all its good advice. Today the doctrine of liberalism is practically dead, but, at least, its few remaining defenders can console themselves by noting the disastrous effects of.
 * Lucien Laurat, Marxism and Democracy, 1940, published by the ', Victor Gollancz Ltd, London; translated by Edward Fitzgerald. Text online at the '.

 * But then the inevitable reaction set in, sparked by the liberal curse of being able, however belatedly, to see both sides of any question.
 * Fritz Leiber, The Oldest Soldier, in George H. Scithers & Darrell Schweitzer (eds.) Another Round at the Spaceport Bar, p. 106. Originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1960

 * Liberalism itself is, on all matters connected with Church and Education, only a kind of corporate and 'respectable' ungodliness.
 * Henry Liddon, letter to C. T. Redington (January 13, 1879), in John Octavius Johnston, Life and Letters of Henry Parry Liddon (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1904), p. 229

 * New Deal liberalism broke with progressivism in many if not most respects. Progressives wanted technocratic economic planning. By the 1940s, New Dealers dropped planning for Keynesianism. Most progressives were nativists who supported immigration restriction on ethnic or cultural grounds. New Deal liberals celebrated the melting pot and liberalized American immigration laws in the 1960s. Woodrow Wilson resegegrated Washington. Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Franklin D. Roosevelt created Social Security and Johnson created Medicare. Wilson opposed national health insurance.
 * Michael Lind, "Glenn Beck’s partisan historians", Salon, Apr 6, 2010

 * As to the having and possessing of things, teach them to part with what they have, easily and freely to their friends, and let them find by experience that the most liberal has always the most plenty, with esteem and commendation to boot, and they will quickly learn to practise it.
 * John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) Sec. 110

 * Covetousness, and the desire of having in our possession, and under our dominion, more than we have need of, being the root of all evil, should be early and carefully weeded out, and the contrary quality of a readiness to impart to others, implanted. This should be encourag'd by great commendation and credit, and constantly taking care that he loses nothing by his liberality.
 * John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) Sec. 110

 * Let him sensibly perceive, that the kindness he shews to others, is no ill husbandry for himself; but that it brings a return in kindness both from those that receive it, and those who look on. Make this a contest among children, who shall out-do one another in this way: and by this means, by a constant practise, children having made it easy to themselves to part with what they have, good nature may be settled in them into a habit, and they may take pleasure, and pique themselves in being kind, liberal and civil, to others.
 * John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) Sec. 110

M

 * Liberalism rejects ideological struggle and stands for unprincipled peace, thus giving rise to a decadent, Philistine attitude.
 * Mao Zedong, "Combat Liberalism" (1937)
 * Liberalism, as a set of ideals, is still viable, and even compelling to Western men. That is one reason why it has become a common denominator of American political rhetoric; but there is another reason. The ideals of liberalism have been divorced from any realities of modern social structure that might serve as the means of their realization. Everybody can easily agree on general ends; it is more difficult to agree on means and the relevance of various means to the ends articulated. The detachment of liberalism from the facts of a going society make it an excellent mask for those who do not, cannot, or will not do what would have to be done to realize its ideals.
 * C. Wright Mills, "Liberal Values in the Modern World"

 * The project of liberalism in the broadest sense is to ensure personal liberty.
 * Cindy Milstein,

 * Let's run it on down. White males are most responsible for the destruction of human life and environment on the planet today. Yet who is controlling the supposed revolution to change all that? White males (yes, yes, even with their pasty fingers back in black and brown pies again). It just could make one a bit uneasy. It seems obvious that a legitimate revolution must be led by, made by those who have been most oppressed: black, brown, and white women–with men relating to that as best they can. A genuine Left doesn't consider anyone's suffering irrelevant, or titillating; nor does it function as a microcosm of capitalist economy, with men competing for power and status at the top, and women doing all the work at the bottom (and functioning as objectified prizes or "coin" as well). Goodbye to all that.
 * Robin Morgan, "Goodbye to All That" (1970) in Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist (1977), p 123

 * Define it as we may, faith in Progress has been the mainspring of Liberalism in all its schools and branches.
 * John Morley, 'Democracy and Reaction', Miscellanies: Fourth Series (1908), p. 293

 * Respect for the dignity and worth of the individual is its root. It stands for pursuit of social good against class interest or dynastic interest. It stands for the subjection to human judgment of all claims of external authority, whether in an organised Church, or in more loosely gathered societies of believers, or in books held sacred. In law-making it does not neglect the higher characteristics of human nature, it attends to them first. In executive administration, though judge, gaoler, and perhaps the hangman will be indispensable, still mercy is counted a wise supplement to terror.
 * John Morley, Recollections: Volume I (1917), p. 21

 * Liberalism cannot be defined in the abstract in any helpful way. Liberalism in politics can best be defined in terms of specific issues. Political liberalism should also be defined in terms of objectives. A major objective is the protection of the economic weak and doing it within the framework of a private-property economy. The liberal, emphasizing the civil and property rights of the individual, insists that the individual must remain so supreme as to make the state his servant.
 * Wayne Morse, U.S. senator, New Republic (22 July 1946)

N

 * Now by Liberalism I mean false liberty of thought, or the exercise of thought upon matters, in which, from the constitution of the human mind, thought cannot be brought to any successful issue, and therefore is out of place. Among such matters are first principles of whatever kind; and of these the most sacred and momentous are especially to be reckoned the truths of Revelation. Liberalism then is the mistake of subjecting to human judgment those revealed doctrines which are in their nature beyond and independent of it, and of claiming to determine on intrinsic grounds the truth and value of propositions which rest for their reception simply on the external authority of the Divine Word.
 * John Henry Newman, Note A, ‘Liberalism’ (1865), quoted in Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua, ed. Martin J. Svaglic (1967), pp. 255–56

O

 * Hungary was led to bankruptcy by a government of former communists pursuing liberal policy. This example strengthens the conviction that in fact there is no such thing as a liberal: a liberal is nothing more than a communist with a university degree. If we had taken their advice, right now Hungary would be in the intensive care ward, with the tubes of IMF and Brussels credit attached to every limb. And the fingers on the valves regulating the flow of credit would belong to George Soros. This is no exaggeration.
 * Viktor Orbán, State of the Nation speech (2020)

P

 * Too many well-meaning liberals are clinging with ten fingernails to the idea that their institutions are robust enough to withstand fascism. They believe, because the belief is soothing, that the marketplace of ideas cares about the value, durability, and quality of its wares rather than how shiny the packaging is, how catchy the jingle, how many times it shows up in your peripheral brand awareness until it’s the one you reach for on the shelf.
 * Laurie Penny, No, I Will Not Debate You

 * Moderate liberalism cherishes the idea of “civility” because it allows it to believe in its own goodness and relevance.
 * Laurie Penny, No, I Will Not Debate You

R

 * Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions: first, they are to be attached to positions and offices open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity; and second, they are to be to the greatest benefit to the least-advantaged members of society.
 * John Rawls, Political Liberalism, p. 6

S

 * Dealing with the Liberals, it was like trying to grab quicksilver.
 * Alex Salmond, Alex Salmond: The new king of Scotland,  (9 August 2008)

 * The essence of liberalism is negotiation, a cautious half measure, in the hopes that the definitive dispute, the decisive bloody battle, can be transformed into a parliamentary debate and permit the decision to be suspended forever in an everlasting discussion. Dictatorship is the opposite of discussion.
 * Carl Schmitt, Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (1985), translated by George Schwab, Chicago: University of Chicago Press

 * I have yet to meet a liberal who can withstand the attrition of prolonged discussion of the inessentials.
 * Tom Sharpe, Porterhouse Blue (1974)

 * It is an inevitable mark of what the late Sir Edwyn Hoskyns used to call the ‘tyranny of liberalism’ that the liberal is not only convinced that he is right; he is also convinced that other people secretly agree with him—how could they do otherwise?—and are only restrained from saying so by unworthy motives arising from worldly prudence, material interest, and so forth.
 * C. H. Smyth, 'The Importance of Church Attendance' in The Recall to Religion (1937), p. 120

 * Among the political attitudes that prevail in Germany today, only socialism has the potentiality of inner value and integrity. Liberalism is for the simple-minded, for those who like to chat a great deal about things they can never achieve. That is how we Germans are; we cannot possibly be like the English, we can only be caricatures of them—and that we have been often enough. Every man for himself: that is an English idea. Every man for every other man: that is the Prussian way. Liberalism, however, means "the state for itself, and every man for himself." That is a formula impossible to follow unless one is willing to take the liberal course, which is to say one thing while being dead set against its opposite, but in the end to let the opposite take over anyway.
 * Oswald Spengler, Prussianism and Socialism 1919, translated by Donald O. White

 * We must face the fact that, though the free intelligence and the spirit of community are at once the goal and an essential means, they may be not only ineffectual but actually harmful, unless they are combined with a full measure of that hot indignation against tyranny, that devoted service in the struggle for the new order, which is characteristic of the best minds of the political Left. On the other hand, the political Left, if it is to capture the imagination and allegiance of the people of this country and sweep them forward to victory, must, I believe, learn a more liberal spirit. I mean, of course, liberal not in the political but in the cultural sense, namely, loyalty to the free critical intelligence and respect for the human individual.
 * Olaf Stapledon, Philosophy and Living (1939)

T

 * Liberalism only works when citizens see and treat each other as individuals with equal value and rights regardless of their gender, religion, sexual orientation or skin color. The famous dream of Martin Luther King seems almost painfully antiquated these days.
 * , "The New Socialist Realists" (4 November 2016), City Journal
 * As Part IV of this book will chart, the financial and economic crisis of 2007–2012 morphed between 2013 and 2017 into a comprehensive political and geopolitical crisis of the post–cold war order. And the obvious political implication should not be dodged. Conservatism might have been disastrous as a crisis-fighting doctrine, but events since 2012 suggest that the triumph of centrist liberalism was false too. As the remarkable escalation of the debate about inequality in the United States has starkly exposed, centrist liberals struggle to give convincing answers for the long-term problems of modern capitalist democracy. The crisis added to those preexisting tensions of increasing inequality and disenfranchisement, and the dramatic crisis-fighting measures adopted since 2008, for all their short-term effectiveness, have their own, negative side effects. On that score the conservatives were right. Meanwhile, the geopolitical challenges thrown up, not by the violent turmoil of the Middle East or “Slavic” backwardness but by the successful advance of globalization, have not gone away. They have intensified. And though the “Western alliance” is still in being, it is increasingly uncoordinated. In 2014 Japan lurched toward confrontation with China. And the EU—the colossus that “does not do geopolitics”—“sleepwalked” into conflict with Russia over Ukraine. Meanwhile, in the wake of the botched handling of the eurozone crisis, Europe witnessed a dramatic mobilization on both Left and Right. But rather than being taken as an expression of the vitality of European democracy in the face of deplorable governmental failure, however disagreeable that expression may in some cases be, the new politics of the postcrisis period were demonized as “populism,” tarred with the brush of the 1930s or attributed to the malign influence of Russia. The forces of the status quo gathered in the Eurogroup set out to contain and then to neutralize the left-wing governments elected in Greece and Portugal in 2015. Backed up by the newly enhanced powers of the fully activated ECB, this left no doubt about the robustness of the eurozone. All the more pressing were the questions about the limits of democracy in the EU and its lopsidedness. Against the Left, preying on its reasonableness, the brutal tactics of containment did their job. Against the Right they did not, as Brexit, Poland and Hungary were to prove.
 * Adam Tooze Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World (2018)

 * The key-note of all Liberalism [is] the paramount and unlimited authority of popular control.
 * George Trevelyan, lecture (1871), quoted in Brian Harrison, Drink and the Victorians: The Temperance Question in England, 1815–1872 (1971), p. 249

 * Liberalism is the philosophy for our time, because it does not try to conserve every tradition of the past, because it does not apply to new problems the old doctrinaire solutions, because it is prepared to experiment and innovate and because it knows that the past is less important than the future.
 * Pierre Trudeau, Defining liberalism at the 1968 Liberal leadership convention, as quoted in "History of the Liberal Party of Canada" (PDF at the Liberal Party website)

W

 * The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
 * George Washington, From George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, 18 August 1790, .

 * I never use the words Democrats and Republicans. It's liberals and Americans.
 * James G. Watt, in a statement of November 1981, quoted in New York Times (10 October 1983); also quoted in Energy and Environment : The Unfinished Business (1986) by Congressional Quarterly, Inc., p. 91

 * It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.
 * Robert Anton Wilson, in The Illuminati Papers (1980), p. 111

 * What bothers me about today's "liberals" is this: through the ages, those called liberal fought to take the power away from the kings and the emperors and to give it to the parliaments; now it is the "liberals" who are anxious to give more and more power to the executive, at the expense of the legislative branch.
 * Burton K. Wheeler, Yankee from the West (1962), chapter 19, p. 428

title: Liberalism


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User talk:137.240.136.82

—Jeremy Hanson 19:38, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:137.240.136.82


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User talk:206.231.91.2

I don't agree with your liberalism quote, but thanks for it, anyway! —Jeremy Hanson 19:42, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:206.231.91.2


text:
User talk:Newsreporter~enwikiquote

—Jeremy Hanson 19:44, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Your contributions
Hi. I have significantly modified several of your articles:

 * Chris Martin -> I've redirected into Lyrics, and properly sourced the lyrics. In general, lyrics for a song by a band are better attributed to the band, and if a band only has one or two lyrics quote, it is better to put them on lyrics than create a whole page. Later, of course, the quotes can be moved into a seperate page.
 * Maya Santos -> Moved to Maya & Miguel. In general, TV characters should not have their own page unless they have an extraordinary amount of quotes. Otherwise, the quotes can be edited to an article about the TV series.
 * Muffy Crosswire -> Moved to Arthur. See above.

When you are using input box, please take care to remove all boiler plate text that you do not use. Thanks ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 06:53, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

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Hello,

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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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title: User talk:Newsreporter~enwikiquote