People From London

"Images "stand in" to represent what is in fact unknowable, non-ceptual and non-evidential to us, who are negatively situated on this side of consciousness. Such images can only be real in themselves, however, in so far as they represent, or re-present, the eternal reality of THAT. When they become real in themselves, then we are only over-stating them and have become idolaters guilty of the error of the Sanskrit word upadhi, which is treating THAT as if it is only this, and so confusing the lesser with the greater."

"THAT was the frame of reference for the Druids, which is what makes them so different from our experience now, which is determined, not by the truth of THAT, but by our anxious need for more security, more gain, less loss, and more power over the other."

"Trees hold their living energy in a specially vivid and visual image of design: forest and clearing, root and branch, seed and fruit, spring and autumn, each tells the rhythm of a balanced and cyclical harmony."

"We learn one lesson from the seed that diamonds have never taught us. For seeds, unlike diamonds, are for spending--for throwing away, almost. For unless the seed falls into the ground, dying buried in the darkness of the earth for due season, there can be no spring nor harvest. The image of the seed is the living message of truth for all of us: that death of some kind is the cause of all renewal. 'Death', albeit in inverted commas, is a cause; and life its consequence. Thus sleep is a little death: but so are looking and listening, which require a condition of self-emptying, or 'dying to know', before communication from the other can be received. So, 'expiring' with every breath, we may grow continuously, until the time arrives when we must all experience the irreversible state of change, called death."

"If I were a politician who said, I've never learnt anything and I don't look around me and see that circumstances change [...] then people would say, this person does not deserve to be a Member of Parliament. How can you be responsive to people and allow your own politics and ideas to develop if you don't take on change."

"We used to go in the chamber and sit next to each other when one of us spoke to support the speaking member, because the catcalls across the chamber were designed, as they always are, to undermine you and put you off."

"[On her earlier membership of the Campaign Group of left-wing MPs] I was hell-raising. I'm not saying I haven't made my mistakes but I don't regret anything: it's all been part of my learning curve."

"Or does the Prime Minister's advice to women simply consist of following her example and finding herself a wealthy husband?"

"What is this National Marriage Week? [...] I don't know why my colleagues are suddenly so fond of the word."

"[Primarolo was married to her second husband] [So] you could say I'm into the institution. When I was a single mother my son happily described our family as me, him, our dog and our cats."

"If the two great nations, India and England, cannot be united by political chords, the ties of spiritual and intellectual co-operation will certainly prove a stronger bond of union."

"There is, however, another reason why Apollonius is of importance to us. He was an enthusiastic admirer of the wisdom of India. Here again a subject of wide interest opens up. What influences, if any, had Brahmanism and Buddhism on Western thought in these early years? It is strongly asserted by some that they had great influence; it is as strongly denied by others that they had any influence at all. It is, therefore, apparent that there is no really indisputable evidence on the subject."

"H. P. Blavatsky is dead, but H. P. B., our teacher and friend, is alive, and will live forever in our hearts and memories. In our present sorrow, it is this thought especially that we should keep ever before our minds. It is true that the personality we know as H. P. Blavatsky will be with us no longer; but it is equally true that the grand and noble individuality, the great soul that has taught all of us men and women to live purer and more unselfish lives, is still active."

"[Referring to his wife] a little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night [was] was not really illegal if it's only a little bit."

"I had to ring my private secretary in the Foreign Office saying 'can you cancel meetings because I need to go home', and he said 'is everything okay minister?' I tried to say Susie might have cancer, I just couldn't get the words out, I couldn't speak - I like to talk, but I just couldn't speak. I said I'll text you, and, you know, this organisation is amazing. Liz Truss was my boss at the time, she was absolutely amazing. I went home, Susie and I talked it through, and I tried to ring again to explain what was going on - and I still couldn't say a word. For the next couple of hours everything was done on WhatsApp, and it really hit me, I never felt anything like that before."

"[Ensuring a long marriage means your wife is] someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there."

"I disregard much of what Nigel [Farage] says. He's a showman. He likes getting attention. He does things and says things so broadcasters like you ask serious politicians like me questions like this. And, the bottom line is, I'm just not going to play Nigel's game. He does these things to get attention. And, just like a spoiled child, I don't think he should be rewarded for doing so."

"They want to make sure that football fans are safe, secure and enjoy themselves, and they know that that means they are going to have to make some compromises in terms of what is an Islamic country with a very different set of cultural norms to our own. One of the things I would say for football fans is, you know, please do be respectful of the host nation. They are trying to ensure that people can be themselves and enjoy the football, and I think with a little bit of flex and compromise at both ends, it can be a safe, secure and exciting World Cup."

"We need to get back on track but before we can do that, there's something we need to say: sorry. Sorry on behalf of the Conservative parliamentary party who let you down, and we have to be better, much better, and under my leadership, we will be. The British people are never wrong. The British people told us to go and sort ourselves out. Let’s not make them tell us again."

"Let’s be enthusiastic, relatable, positive, optimistic. Let's be more normal."

"I approach every character with the intention of making them as complicated as we all are."

"I had that accent which prejudices people against you so instantly, or makes them respect you so falsely."

"When asked which parts I would most like to play, I always say Richard III and Hamlet. But everyone expects me to say St Joan."

"Dreams don’t show up on government surveys or school league tables, but they are the fuel that makes us want to get up and get on. For young people to feel that the low road is the only one available to them is nonsense. We won’t climb out of recession, or meet the challenges of climate change, by thinking small."

"I want to inspire the next generation of scientists, and especially girls, and let them know that STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] is for them."

"It’s funny how you don’t realise that you’ve been missing something until you see it in the flesh."

"Heidi is what got me started in reading."

"People take the sky for granted, they don’t look up enough"

"Know your strengths and weaknesses and work towards your strengths and improve your weaknesses and have that crazy dream that will drive you on. There will always be people who will tell you that you can’t do something or that a certain path is not for you, but work out what you can do and go for it."

"I want everybody within the university and beyond to be reaching for the stars.To work out what works for them, what they love and to have a career in that area, because if you work at what you love it's hardly working at all."

"The Marquis [of Hartington] was more fashioned [than his father], but with an impatience to do everything, and a fear to do anything, he was always in a hurry to do nothing. His discretion was so great that he would sooner whisper to a man's prejudice, than openly deliver a harmless opinion; and these whispers had the more effect as he was too civil ever to own himself an enemy. Nor was this all malice; if he had had reflection enough to design all the mischief he did he would have been less capable of doing it. They are the tales of the gentle and the good that stab."

"He was eminently a fit man for the post; his rank as a born leader of the whigs, his experience in the House of Commons, and his popularity in Ireland all recommended him, and he was sworn in as first lord of the treasury on 16 Nov. 1756. He was not, however, a success in his new capacity; his leader of the House of Commons, Sir Thomas Robinson, only excited the risibility of Pitt, and Pitt himself soon recognised the necessity of making up his differences with the Duke of Newcastle. In May 1757, therefore, Devonshire...resigned to the Duke of Newcastle, and was appointed lord-chamberlain of the household, a post which he held until 1762."

"Unfortunately there was no really effective secondary leaders to deputize for Pitt. The obvious man for the role, the eminently sensible and highly respected Duke of Devonshire, had died in 1764, a mortality which...left a marked gap in the ranks of the Minority...[and] effectively destroyed a generation in the 'Old Whig' leadership."

"[The Duke of Devonshire is] the great engine, on whom the whole turns at present."

"Devonshire had been a moderate among men of great political passion. If scarcely a spectator in the play of events, he had never bestrode the stage. His death, coming just after those of Hardwicke and Legge, deprived the Whigs of three material men. Given health, he might have returned to office in the Crown's restless pursuit of ministers up to 1770. He had been a man with a concern for king and country. He died the acknowledged leader of the Whigs."

"The plan is undoubtedly the best that could be formed, the only difficulty will be to make it hold...the utmost of my abilities are to see an administration settled that will endeavour with firmness and unanimity to extricate this country out of the dangerous situation it is in at present."

"My scheme is if possible to govern this country [Ireland] without a party and make those that receive favours from the Crown think themselves obliged to it and not to their party here: for as Lords Lieutenant are often changed, whoever has any favours to ask, endeavours to obtain it by the means of some powerful person here, and if they carry their point think themselves more obliged to the person that recommended them than they are to the government that has given it them."

"My view is to reduce the power of that office [Speaker of the Irish House of Commons] and to suffer no person or party to grow so powerful as to presume to dictate to government, and in order to do so, I would break the present parties and then keep a strict eye to prevent any others from growing too powerful."

"I just want these kids to have a mental frame of mind that is open to work as opposed to being people who just sit around and wait for things to be done. So that's why I do it."

"You can't change a child's life, but those are the small things that can motivate them, give them a little push to keep them going."

"But there are things you get from participating in sport that will give you more substance. That's the message we need to be bringing out: you'll be healthy and happy. This is far better than anything else."

"The only thing I have in my armoury is that I know I'll fight. Whatever it takes, I'll fight. Even if I'm tired, I'll fight."

"Whilst there are of course plenty of dissident Jews in Britain, my observation is that neither the vast majority of individual members of JVL nor the organisation itself can really be said to be part of the Jewish community since the organisation was set up to oppose the conclusion that I'm afraid that every significant Jewish community organisation has arrived at about the Labour Party. I do think it is possible to eradicate antisemitism in the Labour Party and to defend the Labour Left's project but not by denial of the problem within the Labour Party."

"I’ve always believed that you have to share and pass it on. That’s who I am as a person. But I don’t like my kindness to be mistaken for weakness. I do it as initiatives and I do it around the world.…I love working with new young photographers, young designers and a new generation of models."

"JVL behaves as if it speaks for Jewish socialists. It does not. And too many of its members self-define as 'Jews' only to attack other Jews."

"I do accept that there were antisemitic left activists around the country, and undoubtedly, they were there in Riverside and Liverpool. I wish we'd never had Momentum branches. It was never our decision to set them up – they set themselves up. We didn't have the resources for a compliance unit."

"I immersed myself at an early age in the history of centuries of Jewish suffering. Expulsion from England in 1290, from Spain in 1492 alongside the Muslims. On and on until the ultimate destruction, before, finally, sanctuary arrived with the 1947 UN decision to partition Palestine and create a refuge for Holocaust survivors."

"In the 1960s, the left backed Israel. Aged 10 in 1967, I cut out news stories each day of the six-day war. In 1973, Israel, caught off guard by Egyptian and Syrian forces in the Yom Kippur war, was again the underdog, supported in Britain by the Labour opposition but not by the Heath government."

"The Labour Party breached the Equality Act by committing unlawful harassment against Jews by employing antisemitic tropes and by characterising complaints of antisemitism as fake smears. The cases adjudicated, says the EHRC report, were "the tip of the iceberg"."

"One key fact about contemporary antisemitism is that it must not be mentioned. Antiracists are educated to assume that talk about antisemitism is an indicator of a Zionist attempt to silence the oppressed Palestinians; it is mis­recognized as the mobilisation of Jewish victim­power, the playing of the Holocaust card. The left is not hostile to Jews when they are powerless and stateless; but it finds it hard to shake the idea that Jews are untrustworthy and are connected to money. The image today is that the Jews have managed to strike a bargain with the American and capitalist devil; instead of playing their role as the symbol of the oppressed, they are conceived of as having saved themselves at the expense of everybody else."