Comment Quotes
More Comment Quotes
But because we live in a liberal democracy and therefore have certain double standards to maintain, any criticism of Islam or of Muslims always draws the immediate accusation of Islamophobia, a dishonest word which seeks to portray legitimate comment as some kind of hate crime.
— Pat Condell, YouTube video (16 March 2007, from YouTube)
The simplest comment on my book came from my ballet teacher. She said, "I wish you hadn’t made every line funny. It’s so depressing."
Quentin Crisp— Ch. 24 (The Naked Civil Servant (1968))
The division created by the English educated scholars who separate the Vedas and the Upanishads from the Puranas and thus make a distinction between the Vedic dharma and the Puranic dharma is a mistake born of ignorance . The Puranas are accepted as an authority on the Hindu dharma because they explain the knowledge contained in the Veda and the Upanishads to the average man, comment upon it, discuss it at great length and endeavour to apply it to the commonplace details of life .
— Sri Aurobindo, in "Sri Aurobindo Writings in Bengali Translated into English".
In brief, where the Scripture is silent, the church is my text; where that speaks,'tis but my comment; where there is a joint silence of both, I borrow not the rules of my religionfrom Rome or Geneva, butthe dictates of my own reason.
— 1634-5 Religio Medici (published1643), pt.1, section 5.
There was a young belle of old Natchez Whose garments were always in patchez. When comment arose On the state of her clothes, She drawled, When Ah itchez, Ah scratchez.
— 1938 I'm a Stranger Here Myself,'Requiem'.
The general election of 1983 has produced one important result that has passed virtually without comment in the media. It is that, for the first time since 1945, a political party with an openly socialist policy has received the support of over eight and a half million people. This is a remarkable development by any standards and it deserves some analysis ... the 1983 Labour manifesto commanded the loyalty of millions of voters and a democratic socialist bridge-head in public understanding and support can be made.
tony benn— The Guardian (20 June 1983)
Théâtre des ris et des pleursLit! où je nais, et où je meurs,Tu nous fais voir comment voisinsSont nos plaisirs et chagrins.
— In bed we laugh, in bed we cry;And, born in bed, in bed we die.The near approach a bed may showOf human bliss to human woe.Translated by Samuel Johnson, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
My major aim was to shape a book which would make its own comment, a wordless statement: to talk through the way it was shaped.As I have said, this was not noticed
doris lessing— Introduction (1971 edition)
The meaning of the First Amendment has been, and will be, shaped by each American generation: by judges, political leaders, citizens. There will always be authorities who try to make their own lives more comfortable by suppressing critical comment.… But I am convinced that the fundamental American commitment to free speech, disturbing speech, is no longer in doubt.
anthony lewis— Lewis, Anthony (2007). Freedom for the Thought That We Hate; A Biography of the First Amendment. Basic Books. p. xv. ISBN 0465039170.
I don't believe in that "no comment" business. I always have a comment.
— Quoted by Nigel Rees in his book Why Do We Say ...? (1987), ISBN 0-7137-1944-3.
The oft-heard comment that Leonardo [da Vinci]'s genius managed to transcend the culture of his time is amply justified. But his was not a science-fiction voyage into the future as much as a plunge into the past.
lucio russo— 11.2, "The Renaissance", p. 336
In movies you can shoot a guy 3,000 times and get a 'PG-13', but if you say the 'F' word twice it's automatically an 'R'. I'll let that be its own comment.
tom shadyac— Director's commentary for Dragonfly
Voici la conclusion de ce voyage sous les mers. Ce qui se passa pendant cette nuit, comment le canot échappa au formidable remous du Maelstrom, comment Ned Land, Conseil et moi, nous sortîmes du gouffre, je ne saurai le dire.
jules verne— Thus ends the voyage under the seas. What passed during that night — how the boat escaped from the eddies of the maelstrom — how Ned Land, Conseil, and myself ever came out of the gulf, I cannot tell.Part II, ch. XXIII: Conclusion
Meek Nature's evening comment on the shows That for oblivion take their daily birth From all the fuming vanities of earth.
william wordsworth— Sky-Prospect from the Plain of France.
It is a quaint comment on the notion that the English are practical and the French merely visionary, that we were rebels in arts while they were rebels in arms.
gilbert keith chesterton— Ch I: The Victorian Compromise and Its Enemies (p. 8)
I should like to begin with a philosophical comment. I do not think that when one is speaking of hardships or benefits one can reasonably speak in terms of classes or social groups but only in terms of individuals.
john james cowperthwaite— March 29, 1963, page 135.
But, the people who criticized these people were ... what? I am so disgusted with people who think free speech is defined as being able to say what you think without being criticized." (In reference to Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks comment at the 49th Grammy Awards that "People are using their freedom of speech tonight [by giving us] all these awards. I'm very humbled.
jonah goldberg— ([3])
There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability. The sternest comment that can be made against employers as a class lies in the fact that men of Ability usually succeed in showing their worth in spite of their employer, and not with his assistance and encouragement.
elbert hubbard— The Philistine magazine, August 1901"The Crying Need", in A Message to Garcia, and Thirteen Other Things (1901), p. 163
Frost says in a piece of homely doggerel that he has hoped wisdom could be not only Attic but Laconic, Boeotian even “at least not systematic”; but how systematically Frostian the worst of his later poems are! His good poems are the best refutation of, the most damning comment on, his bad: his Complete Poems have the air of being able to educate any faithful reader into tearing out a third of the pages, reading a third, and practically wearing out the rest.
Randall Jarrell— “To the Laodiceans”, p. 37
[Robert] Frost says in a piece of homely doggerel that he has hoped wisdom could be not only Attic but Laconic, Boeotian even “at least not systematic”; but how systematically Frostian the worst of his later poems are! His good poems are the best refutation of, the most damning comment on, his bad: his Complete Poems have the air of being able to educate any faithful reader into tearing out a third of the pages, reading a third, and practically wearing out the rest.
Randall Jarrell— “To the Laodiceans”, p. 21
I'm very glad that there was, in fact, a consequence. I think that this kind of coarse language doesn't belong anywhere in reasonable dialogue between reasonable people. ... It gets ruined by this disgusting -- and I'll use the word 'disgusting' -- comment which doesn't belong in any polite company and certainly doesn't belong on any radio station that I would listen to.
condoleezza rice— Interview by Michael Medved, April 13, 2007
En aimant tant la gloire, comment pouvez-vous vous obstiner à un projet qui vous la fera perdre?
voltaire— While loving glory so much how can you persist in a plan which will cause you to lose it?Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great (New York: Brentano's, 1927), transl. Richard Aldington, letter 130 from Voltaire to Frederick II of Prussia, October 1757. [3]
:;: No comment, since this is still hovering (see Larry's reply). Flutter, flutter.
larry wall— Usenet article <20031213005325.GE7605@wall.org> (2003)
Théâtre des ris et des pleurs Lit! où je nais, et où je meurs, Tu nous fais voir comment voisins Sont nos plaisirs et chagrins.
— In bed we laugh, in bed we cry;
And born in bed, in bed we die;
The near approach a bed may show
Of human bliss to human woe.
— Isaac de Benserade, Dr. Johnson's translation.
There will always be authorities who try to make their own lives more comfortable by suppressing critical comment.
— Lewis, Anthony (2007). Freedom for the Thought That We Hate; A Biography of the First Amendment. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 9780465039173.
— Cited in: Williams, Bill (February 10, 2008). "The majesty of the First Amendment". The Hartford Courant (The Hartford Courant Co.): p. G4; Section: Arts.
Counsel are frequently induced, and they are justified in taking the most favourable view of their clients' case; and it is not fair to pass over any piece of evidence they find difficult to deal with, provided they cite, fairly and correctly, those parts of the evidence they comment upon.
— Lord Kenyon, Case of Earl of Thanet and others (1799), 27 How. St. Tr. 940.
Without losing ourselves in a wilderness of definitions, we can all agree that the most obvious characteristic of an aphorism, apart from its brevity, is that it is a generalization. It offers a comment on some recurrent aspect of life, couched in terms which are meant to be permanently and universally applicable.
— John Gross, English journalist, writer and literary critic. ‘Introduction’, The Oxford Book of Aphorisms (1983)
I'm not great at the advice. Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?
Chandler Bing— Friends, Season 8, Episode 17: "The One With the Tea Leaves", played by Matthew Perry.
