Gerald Kaufman quotes

“The longest suicide note in history.”
-- Gerald Kaufman

Source : Describing the Labour Party's 'New Hope for Britain' (1983), in Denis Healey 'The Time of My Life' (1989) ch. 23

#Suicide Quotes #Notes Quotes #Suicide Note Quotes

“Israel was born out of Jewish Terrorism”
-- Gerald Kaufman

Source : House of Commons Debates, publications.parliament.uk. January 15, 2009.

#Israel Quotes #Terrorism Quotes #Born Quotes

“My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town .. a German soldier shot her dead in her bed. “My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians.”
-- Gerald Kaufman

Source : "Commons debate on Gaza - live" by Andrew Sparrow, www.theguardian.com. January 15, 2009.

#Home Quotes #Grandmother Quotes #Government Quotes

“Bush, himself the most intellectually backward American president of my political lifetime, is surrounded by advisers whose bellicosity is exceeded only by their political, military and diplomatic illiteracy.”
-- Gerald Kaufman

Source : "Bush aide cites case for Saddam's removal". www.theguardian.com. August 15, 2002.

#Military Quotes #Political Quotes #President Quotes

“It is time to remind Sharon that the star of David belongs to all Jews, not to his repulsive Government. His actions are staining the star of David with blood. The Jewish people, whose gifts to civilised discourse include Einstein and Epstein, Mendelssohn and Mahler, Sergei Eisenstein and Billy Wilder, are now symbolised throughout the world by the blustering bully Ariel Sharon, a war criminal implicated in the murder of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila camps and now involved in killing Palestinians once again.”
-- Gerald Kaufman

Source : Speech to the House of Commons, April 2002.

#Stars Quotes #War Quotes #Government Quotes

“From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia...could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.”

“When neither high purpose nor the categorical imperatives of religion will do, the only argument against suicide is life itself. You pause and attend: the heart beats in your chest; outside, the trees are thick with new leaves, a swallow dips over them, the light moves, people are going about their business.”

Source : Al Alvarez (2013). “The Savage God: A Study of Suicide”, p.152, Bloomsbury Publishing

“But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.”

“Thus I draw from the absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. By the mere activity of consciousness I transform into a rule of life what was an invitation to death—and I refuse suicide.”

“Thoughts of suicide have got me through many a bad night.”

“Note, besides, that it is no more immoral to directly rob citizens than to slip indirect taxes into the price of goods that they cannot do without.”

“DISCRIMINATE, v.i. To note the particulars in which one person or thing is, if possible, more objectionable than another.”

“God is patiently transfiguring all the notes of my life into the song of His Son.”

“Two or three notes of music can instantly make you feel sad or tense or afraid or angry. To do that in words is much more difficult.”

“Gaiety alone, as it were, is the hard cash of happiness; everything else is just a promissory note.”