Spanish Inquisition Quotes

• Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

  Graham Chapman

  Peace, Holy Grail, Monty

  "Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Spanish Inquisition". TV Series, www.imdb.com. 1970.

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• No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

  Neil Innes

  Inquisition

  53 Copy quote

• No one expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise, fear and surprise; two chief weapons, fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency! Er, among our chief weapons are: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, and near fanatical devotion to the Pope! Um, I'll come in again.

  Graham Chapman

  Two, Weapons, Surprise

  8 Copy quote

• After Galileo was convicted (for heresy by the Spanish Inquisition) for his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun, ... he replied, `Still, the Earth is moving.'

  Junichiro Koizumi

  Moving, Earth, Sun

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• Socialism" is no more an evil word than "Christianity." Socialism no more prescribed Joseph Stalin and his secret police and shuttered churches than Christianity prescribed the Spanish Inquisition. Christianity and socialism alike, in fact, prescribe a society dedicated to the proposition that all men, women, and children are created equal and shall not starve.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Children, Men, Evil

  Kurt Vonnegut (2013). “If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young”, p.64, RosettaBooks

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• The decent moderation of today will be the least of human things tomorrow. At the time of the Spanish Inquisition, the opinion of good sense and of the good medium was certainly that people ought not to burn too large a number of heretics; extreme and unreasonable opinion obviously demanded that they should burn none at all.

  Maurice Maeterlinck

  Numbers, People, Progress

  6 Copy quote

• It was a perfectly normal gerbil. It appeared to be living in an exciting construction of cylinders, spheres and treadmills, such as the Spanish Inquisition would have devised if they'd had access to a plastics molding press.

  Neil Gaiman

  Perfectly Normal, Spheres, Cylinders

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• I believe that one day the world will judge the witch hunt against homosexuals just as harshly as it judges the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust.

  Mae West

  Believe, Judging, Holocaust

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• This was a good example of the fascist policing of public discourse in this country by nominal liberals who have become as unthinkingly wedded to dogma as any junior member of the Spanish Inquisition.

  Camille Paglia

  Country, Example, Politics

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• ... when the Spaniards persecuted heretics they may have been crude, but they were not being unreasonable or unpractical. They were at least wiser than the people of to-day who pretend that it does not matter what a man believes, as who should say that the flavour and digestibility of a pudding will have nothing to do with its ingredients.

  Rebecca West

  Believe, Men, Ideas

  Rebecca West (1928). “The strange necessity: essays by Rebecca West”

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• It was like a page torn from a history book, from some historical novel about the captivity of babylon or Spanish Inquisition.

  Elie Wiesel

  Book, Historical Novels, Captivity

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• Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government.

  Graham Chapman

  Lying, Government, Holy Grail

  "Fictional character: Dennis". "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", www.imdb.com. March 14, 1975.

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• Always look on the bright side of life.

  Graham Chapman

  Positive Attitude, Positivity, Good As It Gets

  Graham Chapman (2001). “Monty Python's the life of Brian (of Nazareth)”, Methuen Pub Ltd

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• And now for something completely different...

  John Cleese

  Nudge Nudge, Holy Grail, Different

  "Q&A: And now for something completely John Cleese". Interview with Ian Brown, www.theglobeandmail.com. November 21, 2014.

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