Witness Quotes - Page 38

• Though you be sprung in direct line from Hercules, if you show a lowborn meanness, that long succession of ancestors whom you disgrace are so many witnesses against you; and this grand display of their tarnished glory but serves to make your ignominy more evident.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Long, Lines, Ancestry

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• It is important to act as if bearing witness matters.

  Maxine Kumin

  Important, Matter, Bearing Witness

  Maxine Kumin (2000). “Always Beginning: Essays on a Life in Poetry”

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• [John Craske] painted like a man giving witness under oath to a wild story.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Artist, Men, Giving

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• In what region of the earth ever so remote from us, in what corner of creation ever so far out of the range of our communication, does not some burden lightened, some bond loosened, some yoke lifted, some labor better remunerated, some new hope for despairing hearts, some new light or new liberty for the benighted or the oppressed, bear witness this day, and trace itself, directly or indirectly, back to the impulse given to the world by the successful establishment and operation of free institutions on this American continent?

  Robert Charles Winthrop

  Communication, Heart, Successful

  Robert Charles Winthrop (1878). “Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions: 1869-1879 [i.e. 1878”

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• Heaven alone, not earth, is destined to witness the repose of faith.

  Moses Harvey

  Faith, Heaven, Earth

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• To lovers of the long and intricate history of language the disuse and final death of certain words is a matter of regret. Yet every age bears witness to the inevitableness of such loss.

  Mary Ellen Chase

  Regret, Loss, Long

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• There is something in the heart of man which will bend under moral suasion. There is a swift witness for truth in his bosom, which will respond to truth when it is uttered with calmness and dignity.

  Angelina Grimke

  Heart, Men, Moral

  Sarah Grimke, Angelina Grimke (2015). “On Slavery and Abolitionism: Essays and Letters”, p.102, Penguin

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• Permit me then to recommend from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country's cause, a Declaration of Independence, and call upon the world and the Great God who governs it to witness the necessity, propriety and rectitude thereof.

  Nathanael Greene

  Country, Heart, Independence

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• ... the precedents for feminine self-expression run back through all the ages since the art of writing was invented. ... The era may witness the first female engineer, motor truck chauffeur, radio broadcaster, head of an aviation school, or federal prohibition officer, but it has not produced the first thinking, creative, and writing woman by any means.

  Mary Ritter Beard

  Running, Art, Writing

  Mary Ritter Beard, Ann J. Lane (1977). “Making Women's History: The Essential Mary Ritter Beard”, p.133, Feminist Press at CUNY

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• When we go to the desert, it's pure nagual. There you witness stupendous and incredible acts of power that your reason cannot possibly deal with.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Desert, Incredibles

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• When you're in the desert you witness acts of power. When you're in the world of the tonal, drop all that nonsense, become logical and orderly and have fun with that.

  Frederick Lenz

  Fun, Buddhism, Desert

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• Ghosts cannot be put on the witness stand, or have their fingerprints taken. They are completely proof against proof.

  Ariana Franklin

  Taken, Ghost, Proof

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• I am convinced that the first lyric poem was written at night, and that the moon was witness to the event and that the event was witness to the moon. For me, the moon has always been the very embodiment of lyric poetry.

  Mary Ruefle

  Night, Moon, Lyric Poetry

  Mary Ruefle (2012). “Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures”, p.12, Wave Books

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• I want to be a witness to my own time because I've had a sneaking suspicion lately that I'm gonna live a lot longer than most of the people I meet. If I'm gonna be the only one still around to say what happened, I'd better pay close attention now.

  Sarah Schulman

  People, Attention, Want

  Sarah Schulman (2010). “Rat Bohemia (Large Print 16pt)”, p.5, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• I guess a witness is all I am. I think as a writer, you're pretty removed. Writing is a very selfish, individualistic pursuit. So in that sense I'm a witness because I'm not participating.

  Sherman Alexie

  Selfish, Writing, Thinking

  Interview with Joelle Fraser, ir.uiowa.edu. 2000.

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• I live to the rhythm of my country and I cannot remain on the sidelines. I want to be here. I want to be part of it. I want to be a witness. I want to walk arm in arm with it. I want to hear it more and more, to cradle it, to carry it like a medal on my chest. Activism is a constant element in my life, even though afterwards I anguish over not having written 'my own things.' Testimonial literature provides evidence of events that people would like to hide, denounces and therefore is political and part of a country in which everything remains to be done and documented.

  Elena Poniatowska

  Country, People, Political

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• Human justice is very prolix, and yet at times quite mediocre; divine justice is more concise and needs no information from the prosecution, no legal papers, no interrogation of witnesses, but makes the guilty one his own informer and helps him with eternity's memory.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Memories, Divine Justice, Paper

  "Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, Against Cowardliness". Book by Soren Kierkegaard, p. 351,

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• Woodstock happened in August 1969, long before the Internet and mobile phones made it possible to communicate instantly with anyone, anywhere. It was a time when we werent able to witness world events or the horrors of war live on 24-hour news channels.

  Richie Havens

  War, Phones, August

  "Commentary: Woodstock, world's biggest family reunion" by Richie Havens, www.cnn.com. August 12, 2009.

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• Jesse Marcel's unproven story was now primetime mythology. This remote New Mexico town had hit the jackpot. It didn't matter that there wasn't a shred of credible evidence to support the claim that a flying saucer crashed here. It didn't matter that there were no credible witnesses to alien bodies.

  Peter Jennings

  Support, Flying, Mexico

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• Life without a friend is death without a witnesse.
  [Life without a friend is death without a witness.]

  George Herbert

  Spanish Proverb

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• Let everyone witness how many different cards fortune has up her sleeve when she wants to ruin a man.

  Benvenuto Cellini

  Men, Different, Cards

  Benvenuto Cellini (1956). “The Autobiography”

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• I've always sensed for myself an obligation to bear witness to my time.

  Athol Fugard

  Bears, Obligation, My Time

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• "Mine ain't a selfish affection, you know," said Mr. Toots, in the confidence engendered by his having been a witness of the Captain's tenderness. "It's the sort of thing with me, Captain Gills, that if I could be run over - or - or trampled upon - or - or thrown off a very high place -or anything of that sort - for Miss Dombey's sake, it would be the most delightful thing that could happen to me."

  Charles Dickens

  Love, Running, Selfish

  Charles Dickens (1890*). “Works”

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• "Vell," said Mr. Weller, "Now I s'pose he'll want to call some witnesses to speak to his character, or p'raps to prove a alleybi. I've been a turnin' the bis'ness over in my mind, and he may make his-self easy, Sammy. I've got some friends as'll do either for him, but my adwice 'ud be this here-never mind the character, and stick to the alleybi. Nothing like a alleybi, Sammy, nothing."

  Charles Dickens

  Funny, Humorous, Rap

  Charles Dickens (1838). “The Posthumous papers of the Pickwick club”, p.45

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• While travelling near Tampa, Florida I passed the "Jehovah's Witness Assembly Hall" and was struck by the fact that that must be where they make them.

  Gene Spafford

  Christian, Religious, Florida

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