Monument Quotes

“My religious convictions and scientific views cannot at present be more specifically defined than as those of a believer in creative evolution. I desire that no public monument or work of art or inscription or sermon or ritual service commemorating me shall suggest that I accepted the tenets peculiar to any established church or denomination nor take the form of a cross or any other instrument of torture or symbol of blood sacrifice.

[From the will of GBS]”
― George Bernard Shaw

“In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars, and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest monuments sleeps the dust of murder.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll, Humboldt From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'

“I understood monuments now. Some were built of stone and sweat, and others were built of dreams, but they were all made of the things we didn't want to forget.”
― Mary E. Pearson, The Kiss of Deception

“Si monumentum requiris circumspice

(If you seek his monument, look around.)

[Epitaph on Wren's tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral]”
― Christopher Wren

“It is good to recall that three centuries ago, around the year 1660, two of the greatest monuments of modern history were erected, one in the West and one in the East; St. Paul's Cathedral in London and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Between them, the two symbolize, perhaps better than words can describe, the comparative level of architectural technology, the comparative level of craftsmanship and the comparative level of affluence and sophistication the two cultures had attained at that epoch of history. But about the same time there was also created—and this time only in the West—a third monument, a monument still greater in its eventual import for humanity. This was Newton's Principia, published in 1687. Newton's work had no counterpart in the India of the Mughals.”
― Abdus Salam, Ideals and Realities: Selected Essays of Abdus Salam

“His true monument lies not on the shelves of libraries, but in the thoughts of men, and in the history of more than one science.

{Gibbs's obituary for scientist Rudolf Clausius}”
― Josiah Willard Gibbs

“There’s a monument due me by rank already
I’d blow the damn thing up with dynamite
So strongly I hate every kind of dead thing
So much I adore every kind of life!”
― Vladimir Mayakovsky

“What is the end of Fame? 't is but to fill
A certain portion of uncertain paper:
Some liken it to climbing up a hill,
Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour;
For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill,
And bards burn what they call their 'midnight taper,'
To have, when the original is dust,
A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust.”
― Lord Byron, Don Juan

“Moreover, the sciences are monuments devoted to the public good; each citizen owes to them a tribute proportional to his talents. While the great men, carried to the summit of the edifice, draw and put up the higher floors, the ordinary artists scattered in the lower floors, or hidden in the obscurity of the foundations, must only seek to improve what cleverer hands have created.”
― Charles Augustin De Coulomb

“The father who has selflessly poured himself into the life of his children may leave no other monument than that of his children. But as for a life well lived, no other monument is necessary.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“What are the hopes of man? Old Egypt's King
Cheops erected the first pyramid
And largest, thinking it was just the thing
To keep his memory whole, and mummy hid;
But somebody or other rummaging,
Burglariously broke his coffin's lid:
Let not a monument give you or me hopes,
Since not a pinch of dust remains of Cheops.”
― Lord Byron, Don Juan

“The Great Stone at the center of the Somme memorial has this inscription: “Their name liveth for evermore.” The memorial contains 73,077 names, the names of young men who were robbed of life. Note that we often say that they gave their lives, but of course, this is not true; their lives were taken from them. It is not outrageous to consider the carving of their names and the false promise of “evermore” another act of violence.”
― Nel Noddings, Peace Education: How We Come to Love and Hate War

“...if he fell, well, he fell—but if he survived he would become a monument, not carved in stone or encased in brass, but one of those New York monuments that made you say: Can you believe it? With an expletive. There would always be an expletive in a New York sentence. Even from a judge. Soderberg was not fond of bad language, but he knew its value at the right time. A man on a tightrope, a hundred and ten stories in the air, can you possibly fucking believe it?”
― Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

“Modern architects and engineers are still trying to understand how the ancient Greeks were able to build the Parthenon in ten years when the restoration of the monument has continued for more than three decades and is still not complete. What they have learned and shared along this arduous path of rediscovery is that the Greeks were highly skilled at building visual compensations into their structures. Columns were crafted and positioned to compensate for how the eye interprets what it sees at a distance. Subtle variances in the surface of platforms, columns, and colonnades provide the appearance of geometric proportion, whereas if they had worked from the perspective of a flat datum surface, the brain would interpret the results as being slightly skewed.”
― Christopher Dunn, Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt: Advanced Engineering in the Temples of the Pharaohs

“Kilometa mbili na ushei kidogo kutoka katika sanamu la Yesu Mtoto liitwalo Niñopa, katika Kanisa la Parokia ya Manispaa ya Xochimilco ('Sochimiliko') la Iglesia de San Bernardino de Siena, Mexico City, kulikuwa na nyumba ndogo ya siri ('safe house') ya Kolonia Santita iliyojengwa bila uzio wa ukuta au seng’enge isipokuwa miti iliyopandwa kuizunguka bila mpangilio wowote. Ndani ya nyumba hiyo Mpelelezi Maarufu Duniani John Murphy alikuwa akiteswa na magaidi kumi na mbili; waliokuwa wakiendelea kushangaa jinsi alivyookoka katika ajali ya ndege iliyoua watu zaidi ya mia tatu huko Uholanzi, na jinsi alivyoweza kuingia katika ofisi ya siri ya Panthera Tigrisi, kitu kilichomchanganya akili Tigrisi na makompade wote wa Kolonia Santita duniani kote. Bila Mtoto wa Rais wa Meksiko Debbie Patrocinio Abrego, na mwanasesere wa nyoka wa Mtoto wa Mwanasheria Mkuu wa Serikali Lisa Madrazo Graciano, John Murphy angeanguka.”
― Enock Maregesi

“They should build a monument,” Cary said. “All the times I got my ass beat to a pulp so the youth of today could get dolled up like faggots to go out in public.”
― Nell Zink, Mislaid

“It was a small church. No large cathedral towers overshadowed the purpose of the house of worship. It was a monument to faith rather than a monument to man’s triumph over nature.”
― Richard W. Kelly, Testament

“It does not seem possible to me to conceive anything sadder than a monument composed of a smooth, naked and unadorned surface, of a light absorbent material, absolutely bare of details, and of which the decoration is formed by a composition of shadows, drawn by shadows still darker.”
― Aldo Rossi

“I want to make of your life a monument
For the days you lingered in sadness
With high towers and wide gardens
With stones engraved and carved marble
For our names illustrated as immortal souls
For your joy constantly reflected in my joy.”
― Emmanuelle Soni-Dessaigne

“Some people approached me saying they would like to raise a monument to me like they do in Turkmenistan for Turkmenbashy, I asked, what for? Astana is my memorial.”
― Nursultan Nazarbayev

“He that looks for urns and old sepulchral relicks, must not seek them in the ruins of temples, where no religion anciently placed them. These were found in a field, according to ancient custom, in noble or private burial; the old practice of the Canaanites, the family of Abraham, and the burying-place of Joshua, in the borders of his possessions; and also agreeable unto Roman practice to bury by highways, whereby their monuments were under eye:--memorials of themselves, and mementoes of mortality unto living passengers; whom the epitaphs of great ones were fain to beg to stay and look upon them,--a language though sometimes used, not so proper in church inscriptions.”
― Thomas Browne, Urne Burial

“The first anomalous structure that was discovered at Yonaguni lies below glowering cliffs of the southern shore of the island. Local divers call it Iseki Point ('Monument Point'). Into its south face, at a depth of about 18 metres, an area of terracing with conspicuous flat planes and right-angles has been cut. Two huge parallel blocks weighing approximately 30 tonnes each and separated by a gap of less than 10 centimetres, have been placed upright side by side at its north-west corner. In about 5 metres of water at the very top of the structure there is a kidney-shaped 'pool' and near by is a feature that many divers believe is a crude rock-carved image of a turtle. At the base of the mnoument, in 27 metres of water, there is a clearly defined stone-paved path oriented towards the east.”
― Graham Hancock, Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization

“En dehors des statues finies de Michel-Ange, j'ai la certitude que son atelier serait encore quelque
chose de suggestif et de grand. Même la sciure de son marbre, n'aurait-elle pas un aspect auguste ? C'est une impression de cet ordre que vous causera ce gros volume de cinq cent cinquante pages, où il y a de la sciure de ces idées qui, depuis, sont devenues des monuments !”
― Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Joseph de Maistre, Blanc de Saint-Bonnet, Lacordaire, Gratry, Caro

“Netherton was looking at the oversized bronze head of a bearded man, its neck having been crudely severed from whatever figure it must once have topped. “Lee,” said Fearing, noting the direction of Netherton’s gaze. “Robert E.” The name meaning nothing to Netherton.”
― William Gibson, Agency

“Move around! You are not a monument; you are an Usher.”
― Utibe Samuel Mbom, The Event Usher’s Handbook

“「哈哈哈哈⋯⋯」沈華北大笑起來，失重的虛弱使他站立不穩，但在精神上他已亢奮到極點，「長城和金字塔都是完全失敗的超級工程，前者沒能擋住北方騎馬民族的入侵，後者也沒能使其中的法老木乃伊復活，但時間使這些都無關重要，只有凝結在其上的人類精神永遠光彩照人！」他指指身後高高聳立的地球隧道南極站，「與這條偉大的地心長城相比，你們這些哭哭啼啼的孟姜女是多麼可憐！哈哈哈哈⋯⋯」”
― Liu Cixin, 地球大炮（Chinese Edition）