Ai Weiwei Quotes

A land that rejects the truth, barricades itself against change and lacks the spirit of freedom is hopeless.

Ai Weiwei

• Truth
• Freedom

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Quotes to Explore

• Like many writers, I started by writing short stories. I needed to learn how to write and stories are the most practical way to do this, and less soul-destroying than working your way through a lengthy novel and then discovering it's rubbish.

  

  Kate Atkinson
  • Writing
  • Soul
  • Learn

• I will never sign to a major record label again. If, by some mega fluke, a record of mine looked like it might break big, I'd try and do it via an indie or somehow license it. I'm not having my music owned by those corporate bastards again.

  

  Malcolm Wilson
  • Music
  • Try
  • Again

• All my life I had feared to-morrow, until I decided to have faith and to live to-day in courage.

  

  Vash Young
  • Life
  • Live
  • Faith

• You don't go into politics unless you want to win.

  

  Rand Paul
  • Want
  • Politics
  • Win

• I believe in the free enterprise system.

  

  Ralph Norman
  • Believe
  • Free
  • I Believe

• This flattery has been rather slow in coming. I think all of sudden late in life now I'm getting some credit for what I've done. Which is gratifying, but it's kind of a little late.

  

  Jack Vance
  • Life
  • Done
  • Think

• The crisis of black politics can only be resolved through the development of multiclass, multiracial, progressive political structures.

  

  Manning Marable
  • Political
  • Black
  • Politics

• What people don't appreciate, when they picture Terminator-style automatons striding triumphantly across a mountain of human skulls, is how hard it is to keep your footing on something as unstable as a mountain of human skulls. Most humans probably couldn't manage it, and they've had a lifetime of practice at walking without falling over.

  

  Randall Munroe
  • People
  • Style
  • Practice

• It should be no surprise that religion in the non-western world has failed to disappear under the juggernaut of industrial capitalism, or that liberal democracy finds its most dedicated saboteurs among the new middle classes.

  

  Pankaj Mishra
  • World
  • Democracy
  • Religion

• People say you should go out at the top but I was enjoying my football so much. Robbie Fowler's exactly the same: he's not playing for money any more, he's playing for enjoyment. Why go out at the top if it's going to make you miserable? I just wanted to play as long as I could.

  

  Ian Rush
  • People
  • Long
  • Money

• It's hard because people often don't recognise shyness; they think it's just someone being rude. I have had to work to overcome that, especially if I'm meeting my readers at author events, because I don't want them to think I'm snooty or rude.

  

  Karin Slaughter
  • People
  • Work
  • Think

• Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with.

  

  Rachel Corrie
  • People
  • Trying
  • Military

• All Hollywood corrupts; and absolute Hollywood corrupts absolutely.

  

  Edmund Wilson
  • Hollywood
  • Corrupts

• I am proud of where I came from, and I am proud of what I've been able to achieve through hard work and perseverance. And I guarantee you that anyone who tries to say otherwise hasn't walked a day in my shoes.

  

  Wendy Davis
  • Work
  • Day
  • Proud

• I love Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton. I also love more cerebral poets like H.D. and Emily Dickinson. My parents subscribed to a monthly poetry periodical, and as a teenager I was introduced to Denise Levertov, who was an influence.

  

  Francesca Lia Block
  • Parents
  • Like
  • Poetry

• Public appearances are a headache. I hold mine down to a minimum.

  

  Jack Nicklaus
  • Down
  • Mine
  • Appearances

• The soul can split the sky in two and let the face of God shine through.

  

  Edna St. Vincent Millay
  • God
  • Soul
  • Sky

• Food is not a means toward resolution. It can't cure heartbreak or solve untenable dilemmas.

  

  Kate Christensen
  • Food
  • Resolution
  • Heartbreak

• Man cannot really improve himself without improving others.

  

  Charles Dickens
  • Man
  • Really
  • Improve

• I was named after the great emperor Cyrus as my father, Farokh Broacha, was a great admirer of the Persian emperor. Continuing the tradition, I have named my son after Mikhail Gorbachev, someone whom I admire. He gave his people freedom.

  

  Cyrus Broacha
  • People
  • Great
  • Father

• The effort to strive for truth has to precede all other efforts.

  

  Albert Einstein
  • Truth
  • Effort
  • Strive

• As every flower fades and as all youth departs, so life at every stage, so every virtue, so our grasp of truth blooms in its day and may not last forever. Since life may summon us at every age, be ready, heart, for parting, new endeavour, be ready bravely and without remorse to find new light that old ties cannot give. In all beginnings dwells a magic force for guarding us and helping us to live.

  

  Hermann Hesse
  • Truth
  • Light
  • Forever

• If you pursue the truth far enough you always wind up in the land of paradox. You reach a point where the apparent truth divides into two opposing truths and then you have to try to reach beyond them to grasp the ultimate truth, their synthesis.

  

  Susan Howatch
  • Truth
  • Paradox
  • Pursue

• A land that rejects the truth, barricades itself against change and lacks the spirit of freedom is hopeless.

  

  Ai Weiwei
  • Truth
  • Freedom