People From Bristol

"If you want someone to be ignored, then build a life-size bronze statue of them and stick it in the middle of town..."

"Think from outside the box, collapse the box and take a fucking knife to it."

"We don’t need any more heroes; we just need someone to take out the recycling."

"People who should be shot: Fascist thugs, religious fundamentalists, people who write lists telling you who should be shot."

"Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can’t even finish my second apple pie."

"I used to tell everyone I meant to be an artist..... I don't do that any more."

"We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves."

"I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me."

"Some people become cops because they want to make the world a better place, some people become vandals because they want to make the world a better looking place."

"On Tuesday I went around San Francisco dressed in overalls designating large parts of it as legal graffiti areas."

"Policemen and security guards wear hats with a peak that comes down low over their eyes. Apparently this is a psychological technique, because eyebrows are very expressive, they let you down if you're lying or trying to bully somebody. You have far more authority if you keep them covered up. The advantage of this is that if makes it difficult for your average cop to see anything more than six foot off the ground. Which is why painting rooftops and bridges is so easy."

"There's nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place."

"I was concerned the piece was a bit too much like a legitimate sign and told my mate I thought it went over people's heads. 'It's not that it goes over people's heads,' he said, 'it's just that they all fucking ducked.'"

"On my first day of work as a pork butcher the boss showed me a side of meat and said 'just treat the animal like you treat the ladies.' He then hacked off part of the rib cage with a swing of his cleaver, threw it in a polystyrene tray, pulled some cellophane tightly around it, bounced it off his knee and threw it over his shoulder into a bucket. It turned out he hadn't had a girlfriend for over two years."

"Painting something that defies the law of the land is good. Painting something that defies the law of the land and defies the law of gravity at the same time is really good."

"All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?"

"There are four basic human needs: food, sleep, sex and revenge."

"Last year there was a story on the news that went 'A man arrested in Central London today was found to be carrying over a hundred British passports, twenty birth certificates and more than three hundred driving licenses. Police say they have not yet been able to identify the man...'"

"Being yourself is overrated anyway. It doesn't help. People say 'I'm just being myself' as if that's some kind of fucking achievement. That's not an achievement, that's not honesty, it's just a lack of imagination and cowardice."

"Nobody ever listened to me and I used to think that was their fault. Eventually I got to realise maybe it was the fact I was boring and paranoid that was the problem. But you find that people who know you rarely listen to a word you say, even though they'll happily take as gospel the word of a man they've never met if it's on a record or in a book. If you want to say something and have people listen then you have to wear a mask. If you want to be honest then you have to live a lie."

"From his brimstone bed, at break of day, A-walking the Devil is gone, To look at his little, snug farm of the World, And see how his stock went on."

"And everybody praised the Duke Who this great fight did win." "But what good came of it at last?" Quoth little Peterkin. "Why, that I cannot tell," said he, "But 'twas a famous victory."

"But what they fought each other for I could not well make out."

"'Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he, "Who fell in the great victory."

"He came to ask what he had found, That was so large, and smooth, and round."

"It was a summer evening, Old Kaspar's work was done, And he before his cottage door Was sitting in the sun, And by him sported on the green His little grandchild Wilhelmine."

"In my days of youth, I remembered my God, And he hath not forgotten my age."

"You are old, Father William." the young man cried, "The few locks which are left you are grey; You are hale, Father William—a hearty old man: Now tell me the reason, I pray."

"Cold is thy heart and as frozen as Charity!"

"If you would be pungent, be brief ; for it is with words as with sunbeams—the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn."

"At this good news, so great The Devil's pleasure grew, That, with a joyful swish, he rent The hole where his tail came through."

"Thou hast confessions to listen, And bells to christen, And altars and dolls to dress; And fools to coax, And sinners to hoax, And beads and bones to bless; And great pardons to sell For those who pay well, And small ones for those who pay less."

"He passed a cottage with a double coach-house, A cottage of gentility; And he owned with a grin That his favorite sin Is pride that apes humility."

"How, then, was the Devil dressed? Oh! he was in his Sunday's best; His coat was red, and his breeches were blue, And there was a hole where his tail came through."

"Ye vales and hills, whose beauty hither drew The poet's steps, and fixed him here, on you His eyes have closed; and ye, loved books, no more Shall Southey feed upon your precious lore, To works that ne'er shall forfeit their renown, Adding immortal labors of his own; Whether he traced historic truth with zeal For the state's guidance, or the church's weal; Or Fancy, disciplined by studious Art, Informed his pen, or Wisdom of the heart Or Judgments sanctioned in the patriot's mind By reverence for the rights of all mankind. Large were his aims, yet in no human breast Could private feelings find a holier nest. His joys, his griefs, have vanished like a cloud From Skiddaw's top, but he to heaven was vowed Through a life long and pure, and steadfast faith Calmed in his soul the fear of change and death."

"A considerable stir was being made (1795) by two youthful advocates of revolution, who were trying to rouse the people of Bristol. These two young men who protested boldly against the war, the ministry and the established church and social order were Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Colerige."

"Not the last struggles of the Sun, Precipitated from his golden throne, Hold darkling mortals in sublime suspense; But the calm exod of a man Nearer, tho’ far above, who ran The race we run, when Heaven recalls him hence."

"It was only one of a formidable list of reforms demanded by Southey, a catalogue of which is given by his son. It includes national education, the diffusion of cheap and good literature, an organized system of colonization, with especial attention to the provision of female immigrants, a “wholesome training for the children of poverty”, the establishment of Protestant sisters of charity and of a better class of hospital nurses, setting up of savings banks, abolition of flogging in the Services except in extreme cases, reform of the game laws, reduction in the number of capital crimes, execution of criminals within prison walls, reform of the factory system, establishment of national works in time of distress, allotments for labourers, employment of paupers in cultivating waste lands, commutation of tithes, an increase in the number of clergy, more colleges, and a more adequate judicial system. To these might be added various reforms for which he pleaded in the name of humanity, such as the abolition of bull-baiting and cock-fighting, improvements in prison conditions, more reputable ale-houses, and finally the cause of the little chimney-sweeps. He gives a prominent place to law reform, allows that over-severe laws defeat their own ends; that the game laws are iniquitous, and that entail should be limited."

"Of all the Tory reformers in the early years of the nineteenth century none was so fecund of schemes, and often sound schemes, for improving the lot of the people as Robert Southey. He often seems to us cold and unattractive, but for his life of hard work, his unflinching honour, and his practical pity for the unfortunate he deserves a sympathetic understanding which is more often given to frailer brethren of the pen."

"Bob Southey! You're a poet—Poet-laureate, And representative of all the race; Although 'tis true that you turn'd out a Tory at Last—yours has lately been a common case; And now, my Epic Renegade! what are ye at? With all the Lakers, in and out of place? A nest of tuneful persons, to my eye Like "four and twenty Blackbirds in a pye;"Which pye being open'd they began to sing" (This old song and new simile holds good), "A dainty dish to set before the king," Or Regent, who admires such kind of food; And Coleridge, too, has lately taken wing, But like a hawk encumber'd with his hood, Explaining Metaphysics to the nation— I wish he would explain his Explanation.*You, Bob! are rather insolent, you know, At being disappointed in your wish To supersede all warblers here below, And be the only Blackbird in the dish; And then you overstrain yourself, or so, And tumble downward like the flying fish Gasping on deck, because you soar too high, Bob, And fall, for lack of moisture quite a-dry, Bob!"

"Already in 1829 the poet laureate, Southey, was preaching the tenets of philanthropic collectivism, and his Colloquies showed an antipathy to laissez-faire which was to influence Lord Shaftesbury. The literary tradition of Southey was continued in the novels of Kingsley and Mrs. Gaskell, of Dickens and Charles Reade; and it appears, if in new forms, in the philippics of Carlyle and the delicate satire of Arnold."

"Wild dreams! but such As Plato lov'd; such as with holy zeal Our Milton worshipp'd. Blessed hopes! awhile From man with-held, even to the latter days When Christ shall come, and all things be fulfill'd."

"Somebody has been sitting in my chair!"

"And then she went to the porridge of the Little, Small, Wee Bear, and tasted that; and that was neither too hot nor too cold, but just right."

"Write poetry for its own sake — not in a spirit of emulation, and not with a view to celebrity; the less you aim at that the more likely you will be to deserve and finally to obtain it."

"Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be."

"No sooner was the Baltic open to our merchants, than corn was bought up there for importation into England; at the same time the continent was glutted with English goods, which, because the supply greatly exceeded the demand, were sold at less than their prime cost, and upon which the foreign governments soon laid new duties...to prevent the ruin of their own manufactures. This might have been a salutary lesson, if nations were ever rendered wise by experience; it might have taught us that, however willing one part of this nation might be to see the other ruined by the free admission of foreign grain, foreign governments would never consent to have their fabrics destroyed by the unrestricted introduction of British goods. It is a sound maxim in politics, whatever it may be in morals, that charity begins at home."

"And so never ending, but always descending, Sounds and motions forever and ever are blending All at once and all o'er, with a mighty uproar, — And this way the water comes down at Lodore."

"Rising and leaping, Sinking and creeping, Swelling and sweeping, Showering and springing, Flying and flinging, Writhing and ringing, Eddying and whisking, Spouting and frisking, Turning and twisting, Around and around With endless rebound: Smiting and fighting, A sight to delight in; Confounding, astounding, Dizzying and deafening the ear with its sound."

"It runs through the reeds, And away it proceeds, Through meadow and glade, In sun and in shade, And through the wood-shelter, Among crags in its flurry, Helter-skelter, Hurry-skurry."