Pistol Quotes
More Pistol Quotes
A pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.
Charles Lamb— 1833 Of puns. Last Essays of Elia,'Popular Fallacies', no.9.
The 1911 pistol remains the service pistol of choice in the eyes of those who understand the problem. Back when we audited the FBI academy in 1947, I was told that I ought not to use my pistol in their training program because it was not fair. Maybe the first thing one should demand of his sidearm is that it be unfair.
jeff cooper— Guns & Ammo magazine, January 2002
If you put a pistol against my head and ask which I think is worse, Muslims or Mexicans, I'd have to think a moment, then I'd say the Muslims because they've broken my balls.
oriana fallaci— As quoted in "The Agitator: Oriana Fallaci directs her fury toward Islam" by Margaret Talbot, in The New Yorker (5 June 2006)
There is no arguing with Johnson: for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.
Oliver Goldsmith— From James Boswell's Life of Johnson (1791), October 26, 1769.
The situation was uncomfortable for the people and for [Eutimio], so I ended the problem giving him a shot with a .32 pistol in the right side of the brain, with exit orifice in the right temporal [lobe]. He gasped for a little while and was dead. Upon proceeding to remove his belongings I couldn't get off the watch tied by a chain to his belt, and then he told me in a steady voice farther away than fear: "Yank it off, boy, what does it matter." I did so and his possessions were now mine.
ernesto 'che' guevara— Diary entry from Sierra Maestra on the execution of Eutimio Guerra as an anti-revolutionary spy (January 1957), quoted in Che Guevara : A Revolutionary Life (1997) by Jon Lee Anderson
Whenever I go and see the Führer, I've got a loaded pistol in my pocket.
franz halder— Explaining his fear of Hitler, from "The Guardian," July 11, 2004
You know, it's quite all right to give the underdog a hand, but only one hand. Keep the other hand on your pistol - or he'll try to eat the one you gave him!
h. beam piper— A Slave is a Slave (1962)
Every person, whether in wartime or not, should keep a pistol and rifle in his house at all times. If a person is not going to protect himself, and wishes the government to do it for him, how can he complain when the government decides to protect itself against him, and executes him?
william powell— Chapter Three: "Natural, Nonlethal, and Lethal Weapons", P.93
Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
Mae West— She Done Him Wrong (1933)
It has a strange, quick jar upon the ear,That cocking of a pistol, when you knowA moment more will bring the sight to bearUpon your person, twelve yards off or so.
lord byron— Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto IV, Stanza 41.
If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there."
Anton Chekhov— Ilia Gurliand Reminiscences of A. P. Chekhov, in Teatr i iskusstvo 1904, No 28, 11 July, p. 521. commonly known as Chekhov's dictum or Chekhov's gun.
A pun is a pistol let off at the ear; not a feather to tickle the intellect.
Charles Lamb— Popular Fallacies: IX, That the Worst Puns Are the Best.
The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-bye to the Bill of Rights.
h. l. mencken— On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe (1920-1936), p. 279
The clock of doom had struck as fated; the poet, without a sound, let fall his pistol on the ground.
aleksandr pushkin— Ch. 6, st. 30
It has a strange, quick jar upon the ear, That cocking of a pistol, when you know A moment more will bring the sight to bear Upon your person, twelve yards off or so.
lord byron— Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto IV, Stanza 41.
The clock of doom had struck as fated; the poet, without a sound, let fall his pistol on the ground.
— Ch. 6, st. 30 (Eugene Onegin (1823))
[Prophet of Truth: You cannot hope to kill them all!] You're right. [She draws her pistol and points it to Johnson's head] [Sergeant Johnson: Do it. Me...then you... Now!] [Thruth shoots Miranda in the back, killing her.] [Sergeant Johnson: No!]
— Who: Miranda Keyes
— Notes: The Prophet of Truth needs a human to activate the Halo array. When Miranda realizes she can't save Johnson or herself, she prepares to shoot Johnson and herself. Due to her hesitation, Truth kills her first.
The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's goodbye to the Bill of Rights.
— H.L. Mencken, “A Time to be Wary” (1933), collected in A Carnival of Buncombe.
The American elite does not have any real image of peace other than as an uneasy interlude existing precariously by virtue of the balance of mutual fright. The only seriously accepted plan for peace is the full loaded pistol. In short, war or a high state of war-preparedness is felt to be the normal and seemingly permanent condition of the United States.
— C. Wright Mills The Power Elite (1956).
The American elite does not have any real image of peace other than as an uneasy interlude existing precariously by virtue of the balance of mutual fright. The only seriously accepted plan for peace is the full loaded pistol. In short, war or a high state of war-preparedness is felt to be the normal and seemingly permanent condition of the United States.
— C. Wright Mills in The Power Elite (1956).
[...] The image superimposed on Ricci's field of view by his visor display showed a pair of guards in hooded parkas, goggles, and wool scarves taking relaxed strides along their patrol of the building's north side. Their shoulder-slung FN P90 assault weapons fired the same ammunition as his FN Five-seveN pistol: small rounds, big punch. [...]
— Tom Clancy, Jerome Preisler, Martin H. Greenberg; Bio-Strike (2000), p. 405.
Wang pulled a pistol out from under his jacket. "You know what this is? Boland eyed the large, uniformly gray, space-gun-looking Belgian weapon. "FN Five-seveN." "No, it's a mata policias ." "Cop killer." Wang nodded. "Every Mexican criminal wants one of these. [...]"
— Don Pendleton, Devil's Mark (2010), chapter 3.
[...] The image superimposed on Ricci's field of view by his visor display showed a pair of guards in hooded parkas, goggles, and wool scarves taking relaxed strides along their patrol of the building's north side. Their shoulder-slung FN P90 assault weapons fired the same ammunition as his FN Five-seveN pistol: small rounds, big punch. [...]
— Tom Clancy, Jerome Preisler, Martin H. Greenberg; Bio-Strike (2000), p. 405.
If somebody says, "I love you", to me, I feel as though I had a pistol pointed at my head. What can anybody reply under such conditions but that which the pistol-holder requires? "I love you, too".
— Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. in Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons, "Address at Dedication of Wheaton College Library, 1973" (1974).
