Biographical Quotes

“You are more to me than any of them has any idea; you are the atmosphere of beauty through which I see life; you are the incarnation of all lovely things...I think of you day and night. ~ Letter to Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas”
― Oscar Wilde

“Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”
― John Newton, Amazing Grace

“Now I must give one smirk, and then we may be rational again." Catherine turned away her head, not knowing whether she might venture to laugh. "I see what you think of me," said he gravely -- "I shall make but a poor figure in your journal tomorrow."

My journal!"

Yes, I know exactly what you will say: Friday, went to the Lower Rooms; wore my sprigged muslin robe with blue trimmings -- plain black shoes -- appeared to much advantage; but was strangely harassed by a queer, half-witted man, who would make me dance with him, and distressed me by his nonsense."

Indeed I shall say no such thing."

Shall I tell you what you ought to say?"

If you please."

I danced with a very agreeable young man, introduced by Mr. King; had a great deal of conversation with him -- seems a most extraordinary genius -- hope I may know more of him. That, madam, is what I wish you to say."

But, perhaps, I keep no journal."

Perhaps you are not sitting in this room, and I am not sitting by you. These are points in which a doubt is equally possible. Not keep a journal! How are your absent cousins to understand the tenour of your life in Bath without one? How are the civilities and compliments of every day to be related as they ought to be, unless noted down every evening in a journal? How are your various dresses to be remembered, and the particular state of your complexion, and curl of your hair to be described in all their diversities, without having constant recourse to a journal? My dear madam, I am not so ignorant of young ladies' ways as you wish to believe me; it is this delightful habit of journaling which largely contributes to form the easy style of writing for which ladies are so generally celebrated. Everybody allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female. Nature may have done something, but I am sure it must be essentially assisted by the practice of keeping a journal.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“There was no private ownership of land. "You could own a knife, or you could own a horse, but you couldn't own ground any more than you could own the sun or the wind. The Earth was their mother and part of the Cosmos given to all creatures by the Great Spirit.”
― John-Paul Cernak, The Odyssey of a Hippie Marijuana Grower

“The Black Prince is entombed at Canterbury Cathedral. His effigy reads: “Such as thou art, sometimes was I, Such as I am, such thou shalt be, I thought little on hour of death, So long as I enjoyed breath, On earth I had great riches, Land, houses, great treasure, Horses money and gold, But now a wretched captive am I, Deep in the ground, lo I lie, My beauty great, is all quite gone, My flesh is wasted to the bone.”
― Michael G. Kramer, Isabella Warrior Queen

“This is the tale of Magic Alex, the man who was everywhere: with Leonard Cohen in Hydra; in Crete with Joni Mitchell; in a Paris bathroom when Jimmy Morrison went down; working as a roadie setting up the Beatles last rooftop gig; an assistant to John and Yoko when they had a bed-in at the Amsterdam Hilton; with the Stones when they were charged for pissing against a wall; the first to find and save Dylan after the motorcycle accident; having it off with Mama Cass hours before she choked the big one; arranging the security at Altamont; at Haight-Ashbury with George Harrison and the Grateful Dead; and in the Japanese airport with McCartney after the dope rap. He was the guy Carly Simon was really singing about and the missing slice of ‘Bye, Bye Miss American Pie’.”
― Harry F. MacDonald, Magic Alex and the Secret History of Rock and Roll

“He could not understand how a person born in the United States who knew the English language and culture and was educated with at least a high school degree failed to provide for his own subsistence without government assistance.”
― Rafael Polo, Growing Up American

“The Earl of Lancaster loudly spoke, “Piers Gaveston, this court finds you guilty of treason, of sodomy and sedition as well as many other crimes against God! You shall be taken to Blacklow Hill, which shall by your place of execution, and you shall be put to death by two of my Welsh soldiers! May God have mercy upon your soul!”
― Michael G. Kramer, Isabella Warrior Queen

“At last, he fully understood that change comes from within. It was up to him to get up and fight for a better life.”
― Rafael Polo, Growing Up American

“When you feel unprotected, unsupported and unprepared to take care of yourself, your insides will feel if you have been through a train wreck. The best way to describe this experience is that you are having a head on body collision between your wannabe and your can never be.”
― Iyanla Vanzant, Peace from Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You're Going Through

“The Scottish scout called Hamish Plenderlief spoke to his superior saying, “Sir, I have just returned from a patrol around Tynemouth Priory. My second scout and myself observed that the English King Edward II has been joined in his illegal invasion of Scotland by his queen, Isabella!”
― Michael G. Kramer, Isabella Warrior Queen

“I wanted Ole Miss to feel special, but mostly I felt that the Ole Miss crowd looked at me like I was just white trash from a town full of trailers.… All was not lost. I saw the movie All The President’s Men, mostly because Robert Redford was the star. The fast-paced world of the Washington Post…captivated me. Sitting in a dark theater that afternoon, I fell in love with the idea of becoming a reporter. That was the movie that clinched my plan to major in journalism and political science…. I'd started Ole Miss as a Lady Rebel but left more rebellious than ladylike.”
― Karen Hinton, Penis Politics: A Memoir of Women, Men and Power

“If only their life could continue as it was it would be enough. It had always been enough for her, but never enough to keep him from righting wrongs of far wider consequences.”
― Leslie K. Simmons, Red Clay, Running Waters

“It is true we enjoy self-government, but we live in fear. We find ourselves in the paw of a lion. Convenience may induce him to crush us, and with a faint struggle, we may cease to be.”
― Leslie K. Simmons, Red Clay, Running Waters

“We had come from lecture halls, school desks and factory workbenches, and over the brief weeks of training, we had bonded together into one large and enthusiastic group. Grown up in an age of security, we shared a yearning for danger, for the experience of the extraordinary. We were enraptured by war.”
― Ernst Junger, Storm of Steel

“I don’t remember anything about the accident that changed my life. All I knew was what seemed like an endless, foggy dream.”
― Karen Hinton, Penis Politics: A Memoir of Women, Men and Power

“There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism”
― Alexander Hamilton

“The story of how I threw up over John Lennon’s Beatle boots is worth telling.”
― Harry F. MacDonald, Magic Alex and the Secret History of Rock and Roll

“Out of that kitchen came food not only that I had never tasted, but that I hadn’t even dreamed of tasting. Gumbo, corn jacks and blackened fish was just the start of many dishes. It was like finding all the exotic scents in the world and wrapping as many of them as you can into a dish. Cumin and coriander, paprika, red peppers, anise and fennel, burnt orange peel and chili. It felt like the sailors from every port in the world from Morocco and Madagascar to the coast of Malabar had each brought a spice with them to throw into the cooking pot.”
― Harry F. MacDonald, Magic Alex and the Secret History of Rock and Roll

“Now you might remember the professor on the television show Gilligan’s Island. A really smart guy. He powered the island, developed a coconut clock, installed a plumbing and water system. He just never got around to fixing the boat. Brian was effective in just the same way.”
― Harry F. MacDonald, Magic Alex and the Secret History of Rock and Roll

“To now is to love, to see is a joy, but to lose is hurtful.”
― Rubye Armorer, Bam Bam's Story: A Celebrated Life: A Beloved Pet and Companion

“His father cultivated art and self-realisation; his mother went in for simplicity and hygiene. Hence the child, during his tenderer years, was wholly unacquainted with any drink between the extremes of absinth and cocoa, of both of which he had a healthy dislike.”
― G. K. Chesterton

“If the author of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea and the Nick Adams stories had been an undersized weed, asthmatic or phthisic, living out strong-man fantasies in the literature he produced, he would still be one of the great American writers.”
― Anthony Burgess, Ernest Hemingway

“Nothing You Encounter in Life is Too Difficult - It's There to Teach you a Lesson
Fred Cheshire, "There's Nothing I Can't Do - Fred's Story”
― Mariam Cheshire, There's Nothing I Can't Do - Fred's Story: Continuation of the Fred Cheshire biography, "Worries Won't Happen - Fred's Story"

“More and more, I longed for the brighter world I once knew. A world in which it was easier to convince myself of a power stronger than evil.”
― Elizabeth Hutchison Bernard from THE SEAFORTH HEIRESS: LADY OF THE LAST PROPHECY

“A life delayed, which I am destined to, is part of life never lived.”
― Ankur Basu Roy

“Discovering the history of an individual saves you a lot of time, energy, money, and many more towards your own goal(s) in life. Later, yours becomes the insight for others.”
― Isaac Nash, The Herok

“Si tener un concepto más elevado de nosotros mismos que el que debemos tener no es sano, tampoco lo es tener una autopercepción muy baja. Ni mayor ni menor, sino un nivel sensato.”
― Monica Lombo, Los ladrones del alma (Libroespejo del alma)

“Grandma saw our red dog road as a place where I might fall down and get hurt.

But I knew if I did, I'd get back up.

And that red dog road would lead me to every place I would ever go in my lifetime.”
― Drema Hall Berkheimer, Running on Red Dog Road: And Other Perils of an Appalachian Childhood

“The Involuntary Princeling by Stewart Stafford

The candle's blaze grows distant fast,
Quenched to an ember spark, unseen,
Carriage taken in larceny's grasp,
Darkness made far bank unclean.

Daubing a sovereign slogan,
In violet shadows unmasked,
A delinquent reunion reprieved,
A doggerel name outcast.

Trade winds howl to storming,
As fireballs 'neath seas seek to atone,
The red-crowned crest now stakes its claim,
On writhed Rosetta's key stone.

© Stewart Stafford, 2024. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford