People From London

"For it was not a union such as bound torn Poland to Russia, or uncrowned Venice to Austria. Such unions may enlarge a frontier; they do not create a nation. It added to both nations concerned power, wealth, and honour; it cost no drop of blood, no shadow of shame. As regarded Scotland, it was like nothing so much as a poor man marrying an heiress: mortifying to pride at first; irksome perhaps occasionally; in the long run harmonious because founded on interest; eventually it may be moulded into love by the beauty of its offspring."

"[The British Empire is] the greatest secular agency for good now known to mankind."

"Fate sits on these dark battlements and frowns, And as the portal opens to receive me, A voice in hollow murmurs through the courts Tells of a nameless deed."

"But hark! what shriek of death comes in the gale, And in the distant ray what glimmering sail Bends to the storm?—Now sinks the note of fear! Ah? wretched mariners!—no more shall day Unclose his cheering eye to light ye on your way!"

"...that new spirit which is passing from municipal into Imperial politics, which aims more at the improvement of the lot of the worker and the toiler than at those great constitutional effects in which past Parliaments have taken as their pride...It is all very well to make great speeches and to win great divisions. It is well to speak with authority in the councils of the world and to see your navies riding on every sea, and to see your flag on every shore. That is well, but it is not all. I am certain that there is a party in this country not named as yet that is disconnected with any existing political organization, a party which is inclined to say, "A plague on both your Houses, a plague on all your parties, a plague on all your politics, a plague on your unending discussions which yield so little fruit." (Cheers.) "Have done with this unending talk and come down and do something for the people." It is this spirit which animates, as I believe, the great masses of our artisans, the great masses of our working clergy, the great masses of those who work for and with the poor, and who for the want of a better word I am compelled to call by the bastard term of philanthropists."

"One thing that happens with gothic novels is the idea of the evil Other. That’s quite clear if you read Walpole or Radcliffe. It’s often an evil Italian or an evil Spaniard. Catholicism is mixed with that. It’s like these exotic evil Catholic people that are coming to pervert us."

"There are two supreme pleasures in life. One is ideal, the other real. The ideal is when a man receives the seals of office from the hands of his Sovereign. The real pleasure comes when he hands them back."

"It is always possible that that may happen here which has happened in Belgium—the elimination of Liberalism, leaving the two forces of Socialism and Reaction face to face. Whether that shall happen here depends on the Liberal Party."

"It is beginning to be hinted that we are a nation of amateurs."

"...what would be most extraordinary is this, that anybody who considered the state of the Liberal party then [1896] and now should expect me voluntarily to return to the Liberal party. (Laughter.) I left the Liberal party because I found it impossible to lead it, in the main owing to the divisions to which I referred in my letter. (Hear, hear.) The Liberal party in that respect is no better now, but rather worse; and it would indeed be an extraordinary evolution of mind if, after having left the Liberal party on that ground, I were to announce my intention of voluntarily returning to it in its present condition. No, gentlemen, so far as I am concerned, I must repeat what I have said on that subject in all my speeches, that for the present, at any rate, I must proceed alone. I must plough my furrow alone."

"The nation which is satisfied is lost. The nation which is not progressive is retrograding. "Rest and be thankful" is a motto which spells decay. The new world seems to possess more of this quality in its crude state, at any rate, than the old. In individuals it sometimes seems to be carried to excess. I do not by this mean the revolutions which periodically ravage the Southern and Central American Republics. I think more of the restless enterprise of the United States, with the devouring anxiety to improve existing machinery and existing methods, and the apparent impossibility of accumulating any fortune, however gigantic, which shall satisfy or be sufficient to allow of leisure and repose. There the disdain of finality, the anxiety for improving on the best seems almost a disease; but in Great Britain we can afford to catch the complaint, at any rate in a mitigated form, and give in exchange some of our own self-complacency, for complacency is a fatal gift. "What was good enough for my father is good enough for me" is a treasured English axiom which, if strictly carried out, would have kept us to wooden ploughs and water clocks. In these days we need to be inoculated with some of the nervous energy of the Americans."

"It makes sense that the bands first show took place in Seattle because as much as L.A. was our address, we had as much in common with the average "L.A." band as Seattle's weather has with Southern California."

"The truth is, all we ever cared to do was top the bullshit hair metal bands that enjoyed undue success for their subpar existence."

"Everyone in the band wore their influences on their sleeves and there was not a bit of the typical L.A. vibe going on where the goal is to court a record deal. There was no concern for the proper poses or goofy choruses that might spell pop-chart success; which ultimately guaranteed endless hot chicks. That type of calculated rebellion wasn't an option for us; we were too rabid a pack of musically like-minded gutter rats. We were passionate, with a common goal and a very distinct sense of integrity. That was the difference between us and them."

"Most of the girls who dated us back then were these innocent chicks whose lives were changed forever after one of us came into it for however long it lasted. We were like a vacuum back then that sucked people up and spit them out; a ton of people around us fell by the wayside that way. Some people died, not because of anything we did, but as a side effect of being too close to the flame. People would get attracted to our fucked-up weird life and just get it wrong and drown in our riptide."

"The guitar players that inspire me today are basically all the same guitar players that inspired me when I first started. That hasn't really changed, but additionally I think that Tom Morello, Jack White & Jerry Cantrell are great and are some of the really inspiring lead guitar players that have come out in the last 20 years."

"I've always had to do things my way; I've gotten high my way, I've gotten clean my way, I've been in and out of relationships my way. I've taken myself to the edges of life my way. And I'm still here. Whether or not I deserve to be is another story."

"I recognized my own creative voice filtered through those six strings, but it was also something else entirely. Notes and chords have become my second language and, more often than not, that vocabulary expresses what I feel when language fails me."

"With whisper of her mellowing grain, With treble of brook and bud and tree, Earth joys for ever to sustain The bass eternal of the sea."

"Ah! what if some unshamed iconoclast Crumbling old fetish raiments of the past, Rises from dead cerements the Christ at last? What if men take to following where He leads, Weary of mumbling Athanasian creeds?"

"I'd like to dedicate this song real quick, and I'm not going to say anything offensive so that we can make it on TV. This song isn't dedicated to drinking or drug addiction [...]. It's basically about a walk in the park. This is something called 'Nightrain'."

"Some people think I always wear the hat, but that's not true. Sometimes I don't wear the hat. It makes me laugh that some people think I always wear the hat, because obviously I don't wear the hat all the time. What about when I sleep or take a shower? I don't wear the hat then. Also, I don't wear the hat to go to Millets."

"Of science and logic he chatters, As fine and as fast as he can; Though I am no judge of such matters, I’m sure he’s a talented man."

"John Bull was beat at Waterloo! They’ll swear to that in France."

"I remember, I remember How my childhood fleeted by,— The mirth of its December And the warmth of its July."

"His partners at the whist-club said That he was faultless in his dealings."

"Dame Fortune is a fickle gipsy, And always blind, and often tipsy; Sometimes for years and years together, She ’ll bless you with the sunniest weather, Bestowing honour, pudding, pence, You can’t imagine why or whence;— Then in a moment—Presto, pass!— Your joys are withered like the grass;"

"And oh! I shall find how, day by day, All thoughts and things look older; How the laugh of pleasure grows less gay, And the heart of friendship colder."

"She was our queen, our rose, our star; And then she danced—O Heaven, her dancing!"

"Some lie beneath the churchyard stone, And some before the speaker."

"...It is sad and discouraging that the reports of dear Leopold show no improvement, & I am sure it must be a worry to you. All one can say, is that one has tried all for the best, & one must bear in mind that possibly it may be some time still before he can use his legs properly after such repeated attacks & that paralysis..."

"It was the calm and silent night! Seven hundred years and fifty-three Had Rome been growing up to might, And now was queen of land and sea. No sound was heard of clashing wars, Peace brooded o’er the hushed domain; Apollo, Pallas, Jove, and Mars Held undisturbed their ancient reign In the solemn midnight, Centuries ago."

"The light of other days is faded, And all their glories past."

"I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls, With vassals and serfs at my side."

"But I also dreamt, which pleased me most, That you lov'd me still the same."

"The heart bowed down by weight of woe To weakest hope will cling."

"God felt sorry for actors, so he gave them a place in the sun and a lot of money. All they had to sacrifice was their talent."

"He was a great influence on me. I don't know what happened to him. I think he failed and went to America."

"What a monstrous tail our cat has got!"

"Of all the girls that are so smart, There's none like pretty Sally."

"Genteel in personage, Conduct, and equipage; Noble by heritage, Generous and free."

"Of all the days that's in the week I dearly love but one day, And that's the day that comes betwixt A Saturday and Monday."

"Aldeborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?"

"God save our gracious king! Long live our noble king! God save the king!"

"His cogitative faculties immersed In cogibundity of cogitation."

"Let the singing singers With vocal voices, most vociferous, In sweet vociferation out-vociferize Even sound itself."

"To thee, and gentle Rigdom Funnidos, Our gratulations flow in streams unbounded."

"The king shall eat, though all mankind be starved."

"Go call a coach, and let a coach be called; And let the man who calleth be the caller; And in his calling let him nothing call But “Coach! Coach! Coach! Oh for a coach, ye gods!”"

"It can't be Nature, for it is not sense."