Hummingbird Weekly Quote. 2023-2024 Edition

May 13

May 13 Hummingbird Weekly Quote. 2023-2024 Edition

Editor’s Note: Hummingbird is pleased to continue our collection of eminently quotable people and their thoughts. Each week a new one will be added. The quote might be ripped out of today’s headlines, or possibly sage words from writers we have known over time. Regardless, the purpose is to engage and entertain you--to present something you might agree or disagree with; maybe laugh (or cry) about.

May 13, 2024
“They haven’t learned to drive yet, but they are excellent travelers.” Shell Lewis, dog owner from Illinois re: Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
May 6, 2024
“We also do not want to deprive thousands of students and their families and friends of a graduation celebration. Many of them are the first in their families to earn a university degree. We owe it to all of our graduates and their loved ones to honor their achievement.” Nemat Shafik, PhD, President Columbia University
April 29, 2024
“The only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a cease-fire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly. I'm hopeful that they will make the right decision.” Anthony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State
April 22, 2024
“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” Golda Meir, Former Israeli Prime Minister
April 15, 2024
“Retail sales aren’t increasing just because prices are going up. Americans are actually buying more stuff. This is one of the strongest retail sales reports we’ve seen in the past couple of years.” Ted Rossman, Senior Industry Analyst, Bankrate.
April 8, 2024
“Today, in one of the greatest one-day migrations in history, humans flocked by the millions to a swath of North America that was briefly cast in a shadow of darkness and wonder. They crowded into airplanes, buses and trains, braved traffic jams, and slept in overpriced hotels, in tents and in their cars. For a cosmic moment, they were connected across the millennia with every other person who has ever experienced an eclipse, witnessing the light die and then be reborn as a dazzling ring.” Dennis Overbye, NYT
April 1, 2024
“Easter reminds us of the power of hope and renewal, sacrifice and resurrection, but mainly love and grace toward one another.
It’s a time to pray for one another, to cherish the blessings and the possibilities that we have as Americans.” Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President, United States of America
March 25, 2024
“‘Forced civility.’ Frank Bryan, a retired University of Vermont professor who wrote a book about town meetings, coined that term to describe the way people dealing with disagreements in person are compelled to recognize each other’s common humanity in a way that larger-scale political interactions do not allow.” By Nick Perry and Lisa Rathke, Associated Press
March 18, 2024
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana, 1905
March 11, 2024
“I’m a very proud Irish man standing here tonight. We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb and for better or for worse we’re all living in Oppenheimer’s world, so I’d really like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere.” Cillian Murphy, Best Actor, Oscars 2024
March 4, 2024
“Pistol taught me how to dribble. Caitlin taught me to dream.” Hand-made sign made for Clark's last regular season game by Two 14 Year Old Georgia Caitlin Clark fans that flew to Iowa for the game.
February 26, 2024
“We have terrific medical students, but this will open it up for many other students whose economic status is such that they wouldn’t even think about going to medical school. That’s what makes me very happy about this gift. I have the opportunity not just to help Phil, but to help Montefiore and Einstein in a transformative way — and I’m just so proud and so humbled — both — that I could do it.” Dr. Ruth Gottesman, former professor at Einstein, upon making a donation of $1 billion to Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the largest made to any medical school in the United States. (“The donation is notable not only for its staggering size, but also because it is going to a medical institution in the Bronx, the city’s poorest borough.” NYT)
February 19, 2024
“I know it feels impossible to do any more, but we have to — to come together in one strong fist and strike with it at this maddened regime, at Putin, at his friends and his bandits in uniform, at these thieves and killers who have crippled our country.” Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny
February 12, 2024
”The coach is a big, jolly genius. The quarterback had one shaky outburst but doesn't get in trouble off the field, is greatly respected by almost everyone who comes in contact with him, and is the biggest cheerleader on the team. The tight end (you know which one) may have been a jerk earlier in his career but isn't now. His girlfriend (you know the one) seems like one of the most laid-back superstars we've ever seen. So do all of her friends. There's likeability all over this Super Bowl. There's so much of it, it overrides how bad the NFL is. I mean, the NFL is really hated, and Usher and Kansas City are so likeable they make even the corporate monstrosity that is the NFL likeable. That is quite the feat.” Mike Freeman, USA Today
February 5, 2024
“But the culture wars that divide us so deeply elsewhere seemed, perhaps fleetingly, far away Sunday night. The song, during Chapman and Combs’s five-minute performance, felt incredibly spacious — larger than the limitations of genre, welcoming and expansive enough to hold every single person it had ever touched, regardless of the markers of identity that so often divide us. It was a rare reminder of music’s unique ability to obliterate external differences.” Lindsay Zoladz, NYT
January 29, 2024
“What you get is everybody’s best shot. So every week, you’re gonna get the best shot. There are no games off for that stuff. Not in the NFL anyway, but they’re no games off. There’s no light opponent. You’ve got to bring it every week. So, again, to be in this position, that tells you a little bit something about the mental makeup of this football team.” Andy Reid, Head Coach, Kansas City Chiefs
January 22, 2024
“America doesn’t do coronations. We believe in choices. We believe in democracy, and we believe in freedom.” Nikki Haley, former Governor of South Carolina, Republican Candidate for President 2024
January 15, 2024
“The time is always right to do what is right.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,Oberlin College, October 22, 1964
January 8, 2024
“This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented in our stories told by ourselves in our own words with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from within from each other.” Lily Gladstone, Winner, 2024 Globe Award Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama, Killers of the Flower Moon
December 26, 2023
“We are worried. We don't forget for a second that he is in custody of the very people who tried to kill him three-and-a-half years ago and that he is Putin's very personal political prisoner.” Leonid Volkov, Alexei Navalny's Chief of Staff
December 18, 2023
“Snoopy's, of course, been the favorite, I would have to say, of characters in the Peanuts comic strip...Charlie Brown is the guy who has those losses that we all can relate to ... But Snoopy is the one who's got a better imagination. He's what we want to be.” Gina Huntsinger, director of the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center
December 11, 2023
“We live in a world where funerals are more important than dead, marriage is more important than love and looks are more important than the soul. We live in a packaging culture that despises content.” Jodie foster
December 4, 2023
“The world has to decide who to believe. Do we believe the Hamas spokesperson who said rape is forbidden therefore it couldn't possibly have happened on Oct. 7? Or do we believe the women whose bodies tell us how they spent the last minutes of their lives? Rape should never be used as ‘an act of war.’ Silence is complicity.” Sheryl Sandberg, former Meta CEO and founder of the nonprofit group Lean In
November 27, 2023
“There's over 100 billion pounds of produce waste in this country every year; we only need seven billion to drive food insecurity to zero. We're very happy to have this opportunity. We get to support farmers, we get to fight hunger with an apple. It's one of the most nutritional items we can get into the hands of the food insecure.” Mike Meyer, head of advocacy, The Farmlink Project
November 20, 2023
“You find yourself in dens and around tables by virtue of your blood, or someone’s ill-advised marriage. You may not always like who’s there. You may not always like yourself.” Joumana Khatib
November 13, 2023
“Being kind is less self-serving. A kind person is acting out of compassion and genuine concern for another.” Dr. Ash Nadkarni, Associate Psychiatrist, Director of Wellness, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
November 6, 2023
“One is, we should never ever give up.”
“Two is, you’re never too old to chase your dreams.”
“Three is, it looks like a solitary sport, but it’s a team.”
Diana Nyad
October 30, 2023
“Santos' many deceptions coupled with the ever-expanding legal case against him further strengthen my long held belief that he is unfit to serve in Congress,” Republican Representative Anthony D'Esposito, NY
October 23, 2023
“There’s this growing sentiment that Native Hawaiians are actually really sick and tired of listening to stories about the banyan tree.” Adam Keawe Manalo-Camp
October 16, 2023
“We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” Golda Meir
October 9, 2023
“I’ve come here today to declare our independence from the tyranny of corruption which robs us of affordable lives, our belief in the future, and our respect for each other. But to do that I must first declare my own independence. Independence from the Democratic Party and from all other political parties.” Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
October 2, 2023
“We’re not perfect, and there are some dark patches in our past, but what makes us special is that we recognize these evils, we come to grips with them, and we fix them.” Dianne Feinstein
September 25, 2023
“There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough.” Ted Chiang
September 18, 2023
“One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.” John Steinbeck
September 11, 2023, We Will Never Forget.
“My father, Norberto, was a pastry chef at Windows on the World in Tower One. For 10 years, he made many fancy and famous desserts, but the sweetest dessert he made was the marble cake he made for us at home. … Whenever we parted, Poppi would say, ‘Te amo. Vaya con Dios.’’And this morning, I want to say the same thing to you, Poppi. I love you. Go with God.” Catherine Hernandez comments at the World Trade Center site in 2008
September 4, 2023
“I could wind up like a lot of my friends did, burned out or dead, or redirect the energy. I’m not old, but I’m getting older. That period of my life is over. It was fun — all that hard drinking, hard drugging. No apologies. I still have a very happy life, I just don’t do the things I used to do.” RIP Jimmy Buffet
August 28, 2023
“The fire was just traveling too fast, and too hot and next thing you know Lahaina town is gone, literally gone.” Mark Steel, as reported in the NYT
August 21, 2023
“Age is just a number. It's totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.” Dame Judi Dench
August 14, 2023
Q: The three secrets of happiness?
“First, there’s no secret. Second, there’s not just three points. Third, it takes a whole life, but it is the most worthy thing you can do. I’m happy to feel I am on the right track. I cannot imagine feeling hate or wanting someone to suffer.” Matthieu Ricard, Ordained Buddhist Monk
August 7, 2023
“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
July 31, 2023
“Ultimately, we’re at the World Cup — this is where everybody wants to be, whether you’re playing 90 minutes or whether you’re a game-changer or whatever. I think it’s a lot similar to what I thought it would be, bringing all the experience that I can, all the experience that I have, and ultimately being ready whenever my number is called up.” Megan Rapinoe
July 24, 2023
“I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.” Joan Didion
July 17, 2023
“Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't...” Peter Paul Manufacturing Company
July 10, 2023
“Boulders were flying off the side of the mountain, cars were being swept across the street. It looked like something out of a horror movie.” Peter Deverin, a 20-year-old R.O.T.C. cadet in Highland Falls, NY
July 3, 2023
“FYI. Ketchup. Goes. In. The. Fridge!!!” Kraft Heinz
June 26, 2023
“I’m going to solve the Rubik’s Cube 3,700 meters below sea at the Titanic.” Suleman Dawood, 19 year old victim in submersible implosion
June 19, 2023
“Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory or an acceptance of the way things are. It’s a celebration of progress. It’s an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, change is possible—and there is still so much work to do.” Barack Obama
June 12, 2023
“Vive la old age!” Joni Mitchell
June 5, 2023
“I will not seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024. The stakes are too high for a crowded field to hand the nomination to a candidate who earns just 35 percent of the vote, and I will help to ensure this does not happen.” Chris Sununu, New Hampshire Governor
May 30, 2023
“Our flag doesn’t fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.”  Unknown
May 23, 2023
“The burden of protecting youth has fallen predominantly on children, adolescents, and their families. That’s a lot to ask of parents — to take a new technology that’s rapidly evolving and that fundamentally changes how kids perceive themselves and ask parents to manage it. So we’ve got to do what we do in other areas where we have product safety issues, which is to set in place safety standards that parents can rely on, that are actually enforced.” Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General
May 15, 2023
“So, when the offer came, I thought, ‘I can do this. I don’t have to give in to convention.’ How else would I, as an 81-year-old, have talked myself into feeling good about getting into a bathing suit?”
Martha Stewart
May 8, 2023
“When we so cheapen the concept of human life that we can be permissive to the occasional bomb or bullet, I think we've taken a giant step back into the Dark Ages. And I don't think there's a light at the end of that tunnel.” Rod Serling, as quoted by Anne Serling in her memoir.
May 1, 2023
“Right from the beginning, when Silicon Valley started to collapse, the screens were run and the weak players were identified. I think the conclusion of First Republic at this point should alleviate a lot of the concerns about the banking crisis. All these banks are in stronger hands now.“ Steve Biggar, Banking Sector Analyst, Argus Research
April 24, 2023
“The sun spit off a big blob of plasma. It got our magnetosphere pretty revved up.” Robert Steenburgh, Space Scientist, NOAA
April 17, 2023
“It is a little embarrassing that, after forty-five years of research and study, the best advice I can give to people is to be a little kinder to each other.” Aldous Huxley
April 10, 2023
“When carrying a jar of honey to give to a friend for his birthday, don't stop and eat it along the way.” Winnie-the-Pooh (Joan Powers, “Pooh's Little Instruction Book”)
April 3, 2023
“Sometimes, what you're looking for is already there.” Aretha Franklin
March 27, 2023
“The shooting at a Christian school in Nashville on Monday in which a woman killed six people, including three children, prompted an outpouring of condolences that spanned party lines — but also a big dose of frustration that gun violence continues to plague American life.” Ben Shpigel
March 20, 2023
“This is one of the few things in life where they told me how good it was and, somehow, it’s better.” Furman Coach Bob Richey
March 13, 2023
“My mom is 84 years old and she’s at home watching. Mom, I just won an Oscar! My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. And somehow I ended up here on Hollywood’s biggest stage. They say stories like this only happen in the movies. I cannot believe it’s happening to me. This – THIS – is the American dream.
“Dreams are something you have to believe in. I almost gave up on mine. To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive. Thank you so much for welcoming me back.”  Ke Huy Quan
March 6, 2023
“In one of the few studies that’s been done on pickleball, researchers found that compared to walking at a self-selected pace for half an hour, people who played doubles pickleball for half an hour had 14 percent higher heart rates and burned 36 percent more calories.”  Juno DeMelo
February 27, 2023
“Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.” Robert L. Stevenson
February 20, 2023
“In jazz improvisation, if you make one mistake, you deliberately make another, until you make a whole tune composed of mistakes, like life.” Roger Rosenblatt
February 13, 2023
“Forget Thanksgiving. Super Bowl Sunday is America’s true unleashing of its national id, the day the country gorges itself on beer and chicken wings, patriotism, pop culture, hero worship, machismo, fireworks, sanctioned violence and consumerist yearning.” Mike Wilson
February 6, 2023
“What’s burning out health care workers is less the grueling conditions we practice under, ‌and more our dwindling faith in the systems for which we work.” Dr. Eric Reinhart
January 30, 2023
“Finding a Republican who would be supportive of public transit versus finding a Democrat who wants to build more roads? They’ve been extinct for years. You can’t find them.” Michael Bitzer, professor of History and Politics Department Chair, Catawba College
January 23, 2023
“The less life you have left, the more you treasure it.” David Crosby
January 16, 2023
“The time is always right to do what is right.” Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
January 9, 2023
“We played the macho role, but in our heart of hearts it was constantly, ‘Lord, I need you, please be by my side.’” Bill Curry, College Football Coach
January 2, 2023
“She rattled a lot of cages before women were even allowed into the zoo.” Katie Couric