J. G. Ballard
J. G. Ballard

The uneasy marriage of reason and nightmare which has dominated the 20th century has given birth to an increasingly surreal world.

Hans Urs von Balthasar
Hans Urs von Balthasar

The Church does not dispense the sacrament of baptism in order to acquire for herself an increase in membership but in order to consecrate a human being to God and to communicate to that person the divine gift of birth from God.

John Banville
John Banville

So vivid is my recollection of the birth of Benjamin Black that surely, I feel, a cunning artificer has been at work, fashioning a surreally realistic picture of something that happened quite differently from what I seem to remember. Consider that light falling on the sea, how effulgent and steady it is; consider the trees, improbably full-leafed for the time of year – and look at those birds!

Has Madam Memory really such a piercing eye for detail, are her powers of recall so comprehensive?

Frederic Bastiat
Frederic Bastiat

In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects.

Menahem Begin
Menahem Begin

Upon completion of the centennial of your birth – and this time only – we have come to address some remarks at your graveside. We report to you, Rosh Betar, that Jerusalem, the city that has become bound together, the eternal capital of Israel and of the Land of Israel, shall not be subjected to any division and is our liberated and indivisible capital and so it shall remain from generation to

generation.
The western part of the Land of Israel is entirely under our control and it shall not be partitioned anymore. No part of this land shall be given over to a foreign administration, to foreign sovereignty.
We believe that a day will come when the two parts of the Land of Israel shall establish, peacefully, in agreement and understanding a covenant of alliance, a free confederation,

for the purpose of join cooperation

Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac
Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac

Tell me, is the cabbage you mention not as much a creature of God as you? Do you not both have God and potentiality for your father and mother? For all eternity has God not occupied His intellect with the cabbage's birth as well as yours? It also seems that He has necessarily provided more for the birth of the vegetable than for the thinking being… Will anyone say that we are born in the image

of the Sovereign Being, while cabbages are not?

Annie Besant
Annie Besant

And so this great Teacher has traced out for us the Qualifications demanded for passing through the first portal of Initiation, for that Birth of the Christ in the human Spirit, which is the passing of that doorway. I have run over, roughly and inadequately I know, the wonderful teaching which comes from Him to illuminate us, but none the less you can see it is an exacting demand, none the

less you will see how you must shake yourself free from many prejudices, customs, thoughtless ways of life, if you would find the Master and be reckoned by Him among His disciples. p. 82

Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce

Generous, adj. Originally this word meant noble by birth and was rightly applied to a great multitude of persons. It now means noble by nature and is taking a bit of a rest.

Steve Biko
Steve Biko

The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity.

Marsha Blackburn
Marsha Blackburn

President Obama says that conservatives hate women, that there’s a war on women, and that the only thing that women care about is birth control. Oh, Mr. President bless your heart. Which man in your administration came up with that one? Women aren’t a cheap date. Women want a little more out of life than contraceptives. Just the other day I got a call from a friend back home. She’s

64-years-old. She told me her insurance company contacted her to say that under Obamacare they would pay for contraceptives but not for her blood pressure medication. She told them to put it in writing so she could share it with her congressman. What women want is not free contraceptives. We want opportunity. We want all the potential of the American economy unlocked for us. We want the government

to stay out of our way … stay out of our wallets… and stay out of our emails. We want to have choice. Not the type of choice that men in the Democratic Party talk about, but real choice.