Axiomes:
Les honneurs déhonorent ;
Le titre dégrade ;
La fonction abrutit.
Écrivez ça sur les murs.

(Gustave Flaubert à Guy de Maupassant dans une lettre, 15 janvier 1879)

There may, indeed, be other applications of the system than its use as a logic.

(Alonzo Church, 1932)

It has not escaped our attention that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.

(Watson and Crick, 1953)

Zahlen, natürliche: Null ist eine natürliche Zahl. Jede natürliche Zahl besitzt genau einen unmittelbaren Nachfolger. Jede natürliche Zahl ist unmittelbarer Nachfolger höchstens einer natürlichen Zahl. Null ist kein Nachfolger einer natürlichen Zahl.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung vom 14.10.2001

C [head of Brintain's foreign intelligence service] reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

From the Downing Street Memo - a document containing meeting minutes transcribed during the British Prime Minister's meeting on July 23, 2002. The Sunday Times, May 1, 2005.

Louis: Who's that?
Ordell: That's Beaumont.
Louis: Who's Beaumont?
Ordell: An employee I had to let go.
Louis: What'd he do?
Ordell: He put himself in the position where he was going to have to do ten years in prison, that's what he did. If you know Beaumont, you know there ain't no goddamn way he gonna do ten years. And if you know that, you know that Beaumont is gonna do anything Beaumont can to keep from doing them ten years, including telling the federal government any, and every motherfucking thing about my black ass. Now that, my friend, is a clear cut case of him or me, and you best believe, it ain't gonna be me.

(Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino, 1997)

Projekte, schnaubte Gauß. Gerede, Pläne, Intrigen. Palaver mit zehn Fürsten und hundert Akademien, bis man irgendwo ein Barometer aufstellen dürfe. Das sei nicht Wissenschaft.
Ach, rief Humboldt, was sei Wissenschaft denn dann?
Gauß sog an der Pfeife. Ein Mann allein am Schreibtisch. Ein Blatt Papier vor sich, allenfalls noch ein Fernrohr, vor dem Fenster der klare Himmel. Wenn dieser Mann nicht aufgebe, bevor er verstehe. Das sei vielleicht Wissenschaft.

(Daniel Kehlmann, Die Vermessung der Welt, 2005)

»Schmeckt's?«
»I hob scho a besseres Gulasch gegessen.«
»Aber bei mir ned.«

(Kotan ermittelt)

Don't be frightened. Mr. Gould is here, he will appear in a moment. I am not, as you know, in the habit of speaking on any concert except the Thursday night previews, but a curious situation has arisen which merits, I think, a word or two. We are about to hear a rather, shall we say, unorthodox performance of the Brahms D Minor Concerto, a performance distinctly different from any I've ever heard, or even dreamt of for that matter, in its remarkably broad tempi and its frequent departures from Brahms' dynamic indications. I cannot say I am in total agreement with Mr. Gould's conception and this raises the interesting question: "What am I doing conducting it?" I'm conducting it because Mr. Gould is so valid and serious an artist that I must take seriously anything he conceives in good faith and his conception is interesting enough so that I feel you should hear it, too. But the age old question still remains: "In a concerto, who is the boss, the soloist or the conductor?" The answer is, of course, sometimes the one and sometimes the other, depending on the people involved. But almost always, the two manage to get together by persuasion or charm or even threats to achieve a unified performance. I have only once before in my life had to submit to a soloist's wholly new and incompatible concept and that was the last time I accompanied Mr. Gould. But THIS time, the descrepencies between our views are so great that I feel I must make this small disclaimer. Then why, to repeat the question, am I conducting it? Why do I not make a minor scandal -- get a substitute soloist, or let an assistant conduct? Because I am FASCINATED, glad to have the chance for a new look at this much played work. Because, what's more, there are moments in Mr. Gould's performance that emerge with astonishing freshness and conviction. Thirdly, because we can ALL learn something from this extraordinary artist who is a THINKING performer, and finally because there IS in music what Dimitri Mitropoulos used to call "the SPORTIVE element", that factor of curiousity, adventure, experiment, and I can assure you that it HAS been an adventure this week collaborating with Mr. Gould on this Brahms concerto and it's in this spirit of adventure that we now present it to you.

Leonard Bernstein's introduction to the Brahms D Minor Concerto Op. 15, recorded April 9, 1962 in New York City. Leonard Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Soloist: Glenn Gould.

The piano is not an instrument for which I have any great love as such.

Glenn Gould

I probably play melodies better than anybody else in jazz.

Keith Jarrett, DIE ZEIT, 20.10.2007.

Das Cembalo klingt, als wenn man rhythmisch mit einer Gabel gegen einen Vogelkäfig schlägt.

Wilhelm Furtwängler

Bill: Once upon a time in China, some believe, around the year one double-aught three, head priest of the White Lotus Clan, Pai Mei, was walking down the road, contemplating whatever it is that a man of Pai Mei's infinite power contemplates - which is another way of saying "who knows?" - when a Shaolin monk appeared, traveling in the opposite direction. As the monk and the priest crossed paths, Pai Mei, in a practically unfathomable display of generosity, gave the monk the slightest of nods. The nod was not returned. Now was it the intention of the Shaolin monk to insult Pai Mei? Or did he just fail to see the generous social gesture? The motives of the monk remain unknown. What is known, are the consequences. The next morning Pai Mei appeared at the Shaolin Temple and demanded of the Temple's head abbot that he offer Pai Mei his neck to repay the insult. The Abbot at first tried to console Pai Mei, only to find Pai Mei was inconsolable. So began the massacre of the Shaolin Temple and all sixty of the monks inside at the fists of the White Lotus. And so began the legend of Pai Mei's five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique.
The Bride: And what, pray tell, is the five-point-palm-exploding-heart technique?
Bill: Quite simply, the deadliest blow in all of martial arts. He hits you with his fingertips at five different pressure points on your body. And then he lets you walk away. But after you've taken five steps, your heart explodes inside your body, and you fall to the floor, dead.

(Kill Bill 2, Quentin Tarantino, 2003)

Ich war nie privat krankenversichert. Ich bin nicht aus der Kirche ausgetreten, um Steuern zu sparen. Und ich werde niemals eine Partei wählen, nur weil die mir verspricht, den Spitzensteuersatz zu senken.

(Jürgen Klopp, Trainer von Mainz 05, in DIE ZEIT vom 23.3.2005)

Answer: »I was not a member of any communist party.«
Question: »Your answer is that you have never been member of any communist party?«
Answer: »That is correct.«
Question: »Is it true that you have written a number of very revolutionary poems and plays and other writings?«
Answer: »I have written a number of poems and songs and plays in the fight against Hitler and of course they can be considered therefore as revolutionary; I of course was for the overthrow of that governement.«

(BB giving evidence to the Committee on Un-American Activities, October 1947)

Two days later I came up to the recording session and Frank Zappa was sitting in the control room. I walk up and said »How'd you do, my name is Ian Underwood and I like your music and I'd like to play with your group.« Frank Zappa says »What can you do that's fantastic?«

(Ian Underwood on Uncle Meat, 1969)

Dann spielte mir Adorno, während ich zuschauend bei ihm am Flügel stand, die Sonate opus 111 vollständig und auf höchst instruktive Art. Ich war nie aufmerksamer gewesen.

(Entstehung des Doktor Faustus)

Zum Abendessen bei Adorno's. Wundervoller Pfälzer. Schlechtes Klavierspiel A.'s.

(Tagebuch)

Das »Köln-Concert« musste ich nicht kaufen. Diese Platte lief bei allen Leuten zu Hause.

(Irène Schweizer, 2002)

Journalist: »Surely you agree that a film must have a beginning, middle and an end?«
Jean-Luc Godard: »Yes, but not necessarily in that order.«
We always solo and we never solo.

(Joseph Zawinul about Weather Report)

Irrelevant is OK. Some of my best friends work on structural complexity theory.

(Bill Pugh, Is Code Optimization Research Relevant?)

Programs like Isabelle are not products: when they have served their purpose, they are discarded.

(Lawrence C. Paulson, Isabelle: The Next 700 Theorem Provers, 1990)

Die Erkenntnis tötet das Handeln, zum Handeln gehört das Umschleiertsein durch die Illusion.

(Friedrich Nietzsche, Die Geburt der Tragödie)

Oper ist in meinen Augen eine nicht geglückte Kunstform.

(Helmut Schmidt im ZEIT MAGAZIN vom 19.12.2007)

Ich habe mich immer nur für die Substanz interessiert, nie für Blendwerk. Ich könnte zum Beispiel keine Oper von Rossini aufführen, auch wenn sie noch so toll komponiert ist. Als Rossini zum ersten Mal in Wien war und dirigiert hat, ich glaube, es war 1816, hat Wien schlagartig alles vergessen, was bisher war. Da gab's kein Haydn und kein Mozart und kein Beethoven mehr. In dieser halben Stunde hat sich die Katastrophe der Wiener Klassik abgespielt! Das ist für mich ein Schlüssel. Ich kann mich hineinversetzen in Beethoven und Schubert, die sich gesagt haben müssen: Dafür haben wir also jetzt jahrelang etwas aufgebaut, und dann kommt einer, macht ,,Baff'', und alles ist weg. Diese halbe Stunde findet immer wieder statt. Dann wird Substanz gegen Blendwerk gewogen, und es gewinnt immer das Blendwerk.

(Nicolaus Harnoncourt, DIE ZEIT, 13.10.2001)

Der ZEIT-Leser ist natürlich zu intelligent, um nach dem starken Mann zu rufen, aber auch er wünscht sich einen aufgeklärten Monarchen, mit anderen Worten: Helmut Schmidt.

(Harald Schmidt, DIE ZEIT, 28.3.2008)

The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrongs moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newts evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks were deaf, dumb and dangerous.

(Garrison Keillor in Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts From the Heart of America, 2004)

I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

(Dirty Harry, 1971)

«Ich erkläre euch für überführt und schuldig: des Ehebruchs und des Einverständnisses mit dem Mord an Bi Sün, dem Ehemann eurer Geliebten. Für dieses Verbrechen sieht das Gesetz die Todesstrafe durch Erdrosselung vor. Ob die Strafe durch langsame Erdrosselung vollzogen oder ob sie in Anbetracht eures akademischen Grades in schnelle Erdrosselung gemildert wird, will ich dem Obersten Gericht zur Entscheidung überlassen.»

(Aus Merkwürdige Kriminalfälle des Richters Di)

Schalke 05

(Carsten Thomas im Aktuellen Sportstudio, 21.7.1973)

Thank you. If you appreciate the tuning so much I hope you'll enjoy the playing more.

(Ravi Shankar, The Concert for Bangladesh, 1971)

Elfriede Jelinek ist eine Heilige der menschlichen Schlachthöfe und hat für ihre inbrünstigen Ekstasen des Negativen Lob und Ehre verdient. Dennoch sieht es in diesem Fall ganz so aus, als habe man einem Hamster im Laufrad den weltweit bedeutendsten Preis für Langstreckenlauf verliehen.

(Iris Radisch in DIE ZEIT vom 14.11.2004)

My favorite music is the music I haven't yet heard.
I don't hear the music I write.
I write in order to hear the music I haven't yet heard.

(John Cage, An Autobiographical Statement)

The English at Shahjehanpoor spoke highly of the excellence of the bread made in this district. It answers, indeed, the beau ideal of Anglo-Indian bread, being excessively white, utterly tasteless, and as light as powder-puff; when toasted and eaten dry with tea it is tolerably good, but I would as soon bestow butter on an empty honey-comb, which it marvelously resembles in dryness, brittleness, and apparent absence of all nourishing qualities. It is lamentable to see fine wheat so perversely turned into mere hair-powder.

(Bishop Heber, Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-1825)

They are so vulgar, ignorant, rude, familiar & stupid as to be disgusting and intolerable; especially the ladies, not one of whom, by the bye, is even decently good looking.

(Lord Wellesley, Governor-General of India 1798-1805, about his compatriots in Calcutta)

When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.

(Ian McEwan in The Guardian, 20/9/2005)

«Oh, I remember seeing the Mahavishnu Orchestra around that time ['71], and that was something. That really was something. ... first of all, it was just the loudest thing I had ever heard in my entire life! It was like an earthquake!»

(Pat Metheny, in Guitar Extra!, Spring 1990)

«Während der Idiot Reagan gefährlich, aber nicht eigentlich dumm war, sieht die Sache bei dem Idioten George W. Bush schon anders aus: Das Land wird heute von einem Menschen regiert, der gefährlich und dumm ist. George W. Bush fäll komplett aus dem Rahmen dessen heraus, was Sie und ich unter einem sozialisierten Menschen verstehen. Er kann nicht reden. Er kann nicht lesen. Er ist Legastheniker. Und jetzt kommt das Beste: Er ist unser Präsident.»

(Larry Hagman ("Dallas"), SZ vom 24./25. 8. 2002)

Can we have everything louder than everything else?

(Ian Gillan, 1972)

During the first night of the 1961 Blackhawk enggagement, I asked Miles, »Where's the big guy with the big saxophone?,« and Miles said, »You mean Trane?,« and I said, »Yes.« Miles looked at me and said, »He's lost his mind and can't play no more.«

(Miles Davis according to Eddie Henderson, liner notes to Someday My Prince Will Come, 1999)

»Im Allgemeinen sind ja leider die Stücke von mir angenehmer als ich, und findet man weniger daran zu korrigieren.«

(Brahms am 29. August 1885 an Elisabet von Herzogenberg)

»Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever.
Not even when I'm a hundred.«
Pooh thought for a little.
»How old shall I be then?«
»Ninety-nine.«
Pooh nodded.
»I promise,« he said.

(The House at Pooh Corner, A.A. Milne)

Ich fürchte mich vor nichts mehr als vor dem Tode, nur aber nicht vor meinem eigenen, sondern vor dem Tode der Geliebten.

(Jean Paul, Ideen-Gewimmel)

Ich bin. Aber ich habe mich nicht. Darum werden wir erst.

(Ernst Bloch, Spuren)