Manchester Quotes

To think that the new economy is over is like somebody in London in 1830 saying the entire industrial revolution is over because some textile manufacturers in Manchester went broke. ~ Alvin Toffler

That first group of Manchester players allowed me to enjoy coaching at a very young age that motivated me to do it. If it wasn't good, I might have made a career change. ~ Steve Alford

Even though I support the blue side of Manchester's football heritage, I don't really mind that wherever I go in the world it's not Manchester City that starts the conversation. 'Ah, yes, Manchester United,' is the response when I say where I come from. It's commonplace everywhere - in Europe, Africa, Asia and even the U.S. ~ Lucy Powell

Paul Scholes is my favourite player. He epitomises the spirit of Manchester United and everything that is good about football. ~ Bobby Charlton

I have no desire whatsoever to desecrate the grave of seminal Manchester pop group the Stone Roses. ~ John Squire

I live in Wales but spend quite a lot of time in London - I stay with my brother. When I get home after being in Manchester or London for a bit, I forget how dark the sky is, and I won't have seen stars for ages. ~ Kimberley Nixon

He emphasized once again that all action and adventure with moments of meaning happen in a place called elsewhere, and never in the sad soil of Manchester. ~ Morrissey

Exeter City's trip to Old Trafford will be a great day for their fans but that is about it - they won't get the result they want against Manchester United. ~ Mark Lawrenson

She was the first woman to be hanged at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, ~ Sylvia Perrini

If only people realized Corbusier is pure nineteenth century, Manchester school utilitarian, and that's why they like him. ~ Evelyn Waugh

In England, they say that Manchester is the city of rain. It's main attraction is considered to the timetable at the railway station, where trains leave for other, less rainy cities. ~ Nemanja Vidic

These inventions became, incidentally, increasingly revolting to me, for I was ineradicably marked by a touch of the old cavalryman's primitive evaluation. I admit that in the earliest times the horseman had a considerable advantage over the foot soldier. (On the other hand considerably higher expenses were involved.) But the advantage was balanced by the invention of gunpowder, so rightly lamented by Ariosto. It was the end of glorious armies like those led by Charles the Bold. Cavalry charges still took place of course – and I cannot consider it unfair for the infantryman to load and fire two or three times before he received his comeuppance – but after that, death came to the cavalry.

The old Centaurs were overpowered by the new Titan. I had seen my own conqueror at close hand when I lay bleeding on the grass. He had unhorsed me – a sickly fellow, a pimply lad from the suburbs, some cutler from Sheffield or weaver from Manchester. He cowered behind his rubble heap, one eye shut, the other aiming at me across the machine gun, which did the damage. In a pattern of red and gray, he wove an evil cloth. This was the new Polyphemus or, rather, one of his lowest messenger boys with a wire mask before his one-eyed face. This was how the present masters looked. The beauty of the forests was past. ~ Ernst Junger

He shook out a copy of The Manchester Guardian. He had noticed that conservative newspapers sometimes inspired confidence in the shy. ~ John Cheever

I moved to Manchester to join a band and ended up getting into acting, and I moved back to London to become an actor and ended up joining a band. ~ Jim Sturgess

If there is one thing we try to teach our students when they first arrive at the University of Manchester, ready to learn to be physicists, it is that everyone gets confused and stuck. Very few people understand difficult concepts the first time they encounter them, and the way to a deeper understanding is to move forward with small steps. In the words of Douglas Adams: 'Don't panic! ~ Brian Cox

Remember every team wants to beat Chelsea, probably even more than Manchester United or Arsenal because they believe we have an unfair advantage. ~ Frank Lampard

Welbeck is not the standard required at Manchester United. ~ Louis Van Gaal

We like annoying people. It's a Manchester thing. It's a trait. We just like pissing people off. ~ Noel Gallagher

It is the definition of an egoist that whatever occupies his attention is, for that reason, important. ~ William Manchester

An even more important philosophical contact was with the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who began as my pupil and ended as my supplanter at both Oxford and Cambridge. He had intended to become an engineer and had gone to Manchester for that purpose. The training for an engineer required mathematics, and he was thus led to interest in the foundations of mathematics. He inquired at Manchester whether there was such a subject and whether anybody worked at it. They told him about me, and so he came to Cambridge. He was queer, and his notions seemed to me odd, so that for a whole term I could not make up my mind whether he was a man of genius or merely an eccentric. At the end of his first term at Cambridge he came to me and said: "Will you please tell me whether I am a complete idiot or not?" I replied, "My dear fellow, I don't know. Why are you asking me?" He said, "Because, if I am a complete idiot, I shall become an aeronaut; but, if not, I shall become a philosopher." I told him to write me something during the vacation on some philosophical subject and I would then tell him whether he was complete idiot or not. At the beginning of the following term he brought me the fulfillment of this suggestion. After reading only one sentence, I said to him: "No, you must not become an aeronaut." And he didn't.
The collected papers of Bertrand Russell: Last Philosophical Testament ~ Bertrand Russell

That special Manchester rain that manages to be both vertical and horizontal at the same time. ~ Mhairi McFarlane

Is this good for English football? In the short run, Chelsea's rise has broken up what was turning into an irritating Arsenal-Manchester United duopoly. But football leagues (look at Scotland, look at Spain) can get along OK with duopolies. A monopoly, however, is a disaster. Everyone else in the Premiership has to operate on some kind of business footing, and the terror stalking Highbury and Old Trafford is that Chelsea will be immune from financial discipline forever. ~ Matthew Engel

Scholes was playing tiki-taka football when nobody in England knew what it was. He was another of those players, like Denis Law or Bobby Moore, who at 15 probably looked as if he wouldn't make it. Too small, you would think - can't run, dumpy little ginger nut - but then the ball would come to him and he would dazzle you. He was the best footballer in that Manchester United midfield, better than Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane. ~ Harry Redknapp

I spent most of my youth in Manchester, in clubs and football grounds and the Manchester Apollo. ~ John Simm

John Dalton's records, carefully preserved for a century, were destroyed during the World War II bombing of Manchester. It is not only the living who are killed in war. ~ Isaac Asimov

A man can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using it and tiring it ... the tired parts of the mind can be rested and strengthened, not merely by rest, but by using other parts ... . It is only when new cells are called into activity, when new stars become lords of the ascendant, that relief, repose, refreshment are afforded. ~ William Manchester

I understand the intensity of the supporters. I wonder how they could turn up for work on Monday morning after we lost 5-1 to Manchester City. ~ Alex Ferguson

It is true that despite occasional gleams of Churchillian eloquence he [Gen. Douglas MacArthur] usually spoke poorly. He was far more effective in conversations a deux. But those who dismiss him as shallow because his rhetoric was fustian err. ~ William Manchester

Manchester City are built on sand and I don't mean that because their owners are from the Arab countries. ~ Kevin Keegan

If ever there was one player, anywhere in the world, that was made for Manchester United, it was Cantona. He swaggered in, stuck his chest out, raised his head and surveyed everything as though he was asking: 'I'm Cantona. How big are you? Are you big enough for me?' ~ Alex Ferguson

One strange feeling, which I remember clearly, was a powerful link with the slain, particularly those that had fallen within the past hour or two. There was so much death around that life seemed almost indecent. Some men's uniforms were soaked with gobs of blood. The ground was sodden with it. I killed, too. ~ William Manchester

Today's Europeans and Americans who reached the age of awareness after midcentury when the communications revolution lead to expectations of instantanaiy are exasperated by the slow toils of history. They assume that the thunderclap of cause will be swiftly followed by the lightening bolt of effect. ~ William Manchester

The country life near Manchester I really love. ~ Ruud Van Nistelrooy

I'm no longer thinking of Madrid. That dream is dead. The only thing I dream about now is Manchester United and winning the Champions League again in Rome. ~ Cristiano Ronaldo

Ten things you should always do when you form a group

1. Work with your friends
2. Find like-minded people
3. Have ultimate self-belief
4. Write great songs
5. Get a great manager
6. Live in Manchester
7. Support each other through thick and thin
8. Realise no one person is bigger than the group (thanks to Gene Simmons for that one)
9. Watch where the money goes
10. Always get separate legal advice for everything before you sign; failing that, ask your mam and dad ~ Peter Hook

The idea that you can vote yourself into prosperity is one of the most ludicrous that was ever entertained. ~ William Manchester

At Performa in New York, there are a lot of commissions, but Manchester Festival is the only festival where everything is fully produced by the festival. ~ Hans Ulrich Obrist

There are two types of men when it comes to approaching lone pretty women in bars. The shit type and the don't-have-the-balls-to-be-a-shit jealous type, and I was the latter and in situations like this the prey becomes the hunter and it's all just an under-stocked meat market trading in egos, tits and shame. ~ John Bowie

I once bought a Manchester United hat, which I think was 12 shillings, and somebody ran up behind me and pulled it off and just ran ahead. I thought, 'It's a very cruel world, I'm not prepared for this'. And I decided to get my revenge on society. ~ Steven Morrissey

If I had a Paul Scholes in my team, everything would be around him. At Manchester United, they saw it like that, but I think Paul Scholes is one of the best I've played against in this league, and seen anywhere. ~ Thierry Henry

I remember seeing Eric Cantona play for Manchester United. The way he used to control games was special to watch. ~ Ronaldinho

Actually I was born in 1940 in Blackpool because my family lived in Manchester but Manchester was being bombed. So my mother was sent away to Blackpool to have me and then went back; so I lived my first eighteen years in Manchester and then emigrated to the States when I was eighteen. ~ John Mahoney

Social security was the most emotional issue that session. Republicans protested that if the administration bill were passed, children would no longer support their parents, the payroll tax would discourage workmen so much that they would quit their jobs, and that, taken all in all, the measure would remove the romance of life. ~ William Manchester

Councils of war breed timidity and defeatism. ~ William Manchester

Sometimes defeats are the best outcomes. To react to adversity is a quality. ~ Alex Ferguson

If I was to transfer abroad at some stage, then it would only be to Manchester United ~ Mats Hummels

In Parliament a fellow MP whispered to him that his trousers were unfastened. "It makes no difference," Winston replied wryly. "The dead bird doesn't leave the nest. ~ William Manchester

I was very fortunate that a teacher saw that I read a lot and got bored very easily and had a lot of energy, so she said, 'You've got to go to this youth theater.' I joined Manchester Youth Theatre when I was really young, and I just loved putting on and being involved in plays and telling stories. ~ Justin Chadwick

The atmosphere generated by the fans in Celtic's stadium for our visit was the most impressive I've ever witnessed. The grounds of Liverpool and Manchester United are good and the hostile feeling of playing against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu is also excellent, but the atmosphere against Celtic was the best. ~ Xavi

There is no doubt that I would have won more honours had I signed for Manchester United as a youngster. ~ Michael Owen

I like the city late at night, the blasts of music and the splashes of light cast from bars that are still open, shoals of brightly-dressed clubber, the beeping taxis and the greasy, savoury smell of meat and onions from the burger vans. ~ Mhairi McFarlane

All the sources are secondary, and few are new; I have not mastered recent scholarship of the early sixteenth century. ~ William Manchester

I staggered into a Manchester bar late one night on a tour and the waitress said "You look as if you need a Screaming Orgasm". At the time this was the last thing on my mind ... ~ Terry Pratchett

If you're going to win the Premier League, you're going to have to finish ahead of Chelsea and Manchester City. ~ Graeme Souness

There was one or two offers that did come along during my time at United, but I always came back to this point; why would you leave United? Where is the bigger challenge? And the thing about challenges is, once you have won something, you can't live on that. Not at Manchester United - you have got to win the next one. And that's the challenge. Maintaining that consistency of winning which is a mentality that I have had. ~ Alex Ferguson

was an eighth cousin of Churchill, and a sixth cousin, once removed, of FDR - and three of World War II's great leaders were thus linked by American intermarriages. ~ William Manchester

Madrid and United are the two biggest clubs in the world and it's a real 50-50. It could go either way. Manchester was my home and still is in my heart. I love it. Because when people treat you very well you never forget that. And I will never forget United, the people who work there and the supporters. So I am so happy to be going back to Manchester. ~ Cristiano Ronaldo

I was at a book convention, in a cab. On one side of me was Arthur Schlesinger; on the other side was William Manchester - real heavyweights. All they were doing was asking me about Charles Manson. The only thing that enables me not to be bored is the people talking about it - they're so interested. ~ Vincent Bugliosi

He lived in a fantasy world. There was not a day when he didn't add some Mickey Mouse story about a club that wanted him. First of all, he came in and told me that Arsenal wanted to buy him, then the next week it was Manchester Utd, then the next week it was Real Madrid. He made it clear that he did not want to be at the club so, in the end, there was only one thing I could do - send him to Wigan. ~ Joe Kinnear

If someone states that Ajax played a negative game then maybe we are smarter than Manchester City. ~ Ronald Koeman

A handful of individual football stars - not necessarily the most talented, but those boasting good looks, beautiful wives and an animated private life - assumed a role in European public life and popular newspapers hitherto reserved for movie starlets or minor royalty. When David Beckham (an English player of moderate technical gifts but an unsurpassed talent for self-promotion) moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2003, it made headline television news in every member-state of the European Union. Beckham's embarrassing performance at the European Football Championships in Portugal the following year - the England captain missed two penalties, hastening his country's ignominious early departure - did little to dampen the enthusiasm of his fans. ~ Tony Judt

If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or, as it were, fondle them - peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on their shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that if you do not know what is in them, you will at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances. ~ William Manchester

There is no evidence that changing your managers repeatedly leads to success, but there is evidence at Manchester United, I was managing there for 26 years I won 38 trophies. ~ Alex Ferguson

When I think football, I think Manchester United. I still support United and always will. I will die with them in my heart. ~ Eric Cantona

I did a lot of theatre when I started out. It was the Lyceum, the Citz, the Tron and the Traverse. I came to London and did the Royal Court, the National, 'King Lear' at the Manchester Royal Exchange. I did little bits of comedy, like 'Rab C Nesbitt,' but I wasn't predominantly about comedy. ~ Ashley Jensen

As long as we are
successful on the pitch, then I
will be here-unless Manchester United put in a call. But I don't think Sir Alex
Ferguson is planning to step
down just yet! ~ Paul Ince

Maybe one small regret is that I never got to play with Paul Scholes - but I was never going to leave Barcelona and he was never going to leave Manchester United. ~ Xavi

My toughest opponent? Scholes of Manchester. He is the complete midfielder. ~ Zinedine Zidane

At all times it is a bewildering thing to the poor weaver to see his employer removing from house to house, each one grander than the last, till he ends in building one more magnificent than all, or withdraws his money from the concern, or sells his mill, to buy an estate in the country, while all the time the weaver, who thinks he and his fellows are the real makers of this wealth, is struggling on for bread for his children, through the vicissitudes of lowered wages, short hours, fewer hands employed, etc. And when he knows trade is bad, and could understand (at least partially) that there are not buyers enough in the market to purchase the goods already made, and consequently that there is no demand for more; when he would bear and endure much without complaining, could he also see that his employers were bearing their share; he is, I say, bewildered and (to use his own word) "aggravated" to see that all goes on just as usual with the millowners. Large houses are still occupied, while spinners' and weavers' cottages stand empty, because the families that once filled them are obliged to live in rooms or cellars. Carriages still roll along the streets, concerts are still crowded by subscribers, the shops for expensive luxuries still find daily customers, while the workman loiters away his unemployed time in watching these things, and thinking of the pale, uncomplaining wife at home, and the wailing children asking in vain for enough of food--of the sinking health, of the dyi ~ Elizabeth Gaskell

Paul Jewell's sides are always hard to break down, although Manchester United have a habit of breaking his sides down pretty easily. ~ Charlie Nicholas

You're asking if I'm happy? I've got 87 million in the bank, I've got a Rolls Royce, I've got 3 stalkers, I'm about to go on the board at Manchester City, I'm part of the greatest band in the world. Am I happy with that? No, I'm not! I want more! ~ Noel Gallagher

Manchester United have, since 1991, conquered Europe about as successfully as Head and Shoulders has conquered dandruff ~ Martin Samuel

Our number one opponents are not Liverpool, Arsenal or Manchester United. It is ourselves at Chelsea. ~ Didier Drogba

These are tough times and under this Tory-led government many people in Manchester are suffering and getting left behind. If elected I will use all my energy, skills, experience and knowledge to stand up for our communities and get things done for the better. ~ Lucy Powell

I was surprised we were playing in Manchester and have a referee from Greater Manchester. ~ Brendan Rodgers

I open the toilet door and step out, my internal fire re-stoked, ready to face my demons, fight if need be and win. I'm raging, focused like a jungle warrior after his second bowl of tiger-cock soup. ~ John Bowie

Why anyone would want to leave Everton is beyond me anyway. Even for Manchester United, Chelsea or anyone. This is the place to be. ~ Neville Southall

Mind you, I have had in my sojourn on earth as good a time of it as any man, so I can speak with some knowledge. A writer in the Manchester Guardian who is unknown to me lately described me as "the richest man in the world." That sounds a pretty big order, but when I come to think it out I believe he is not far wrong. A rich man is not necessarily a man with a whole pot of money but a man who is really happy. And I am that. ~ Robert Baden-Powell

The heart of the other quotation, from Lincoln, was: "If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, these shops might as well be closed to any other business. I do the very best I know how, and I mean to keep doing so to the end. ~ William Manchester

The present is never tidy, or certain, or reasonable, and those who try to make it so once it becomes the past succeed only in making it seem implausible. ~ William Manchester

The Greatest" is a bite-your-tongue-book. Ultimately a tragic tale it is also immensely uplifting and easily the best footballer biography I have ever read. ~ Mike Parry

People in south Manchester overwhelming want to be able to recycle more than they currently can - especially cardboard and plastics - and want more frequent and accessible collections, particularly for those living in flats. ~ Lucy Powell

I wondered vaguely if this was when it would end, whether I would pull up tonight's darkness like a quilt and be dead and at peace evermore. ~ William Manchester

If you want me to rule out ever being Manchester United manager, I can't. Special clubs need special managers, so in theory it could work. ~ Jose Mourinho

There's only two teams in Manchester. City and City reserves!" How right he was! ~ Dante Friend

It was always a wish for me to work in the Premier League. To work as a manager for Manchester United, the biggest club in the world, makes me very proud. I have managed in games at Old Trafford before and know what an incredible arena Old Trafford is and how passionate and knowledgeable the fans are. This club has big ambitions; I too have big ambitions. Together I'm sure we will make history. ~ Louis Van Gaal

I think now, more than anytime I can remember, bands are sounding pretty similar whether they're English or American, from Manchester or London ... or Leeds or Welsh or Irish. ~ Graham Coxon

I look at what is happening with Ryan Giggs at Manchester United now and I am dismayed that Liverpool are letting that experience leave, ~ Jamie Carragher

I do love to perform. And I'm ever so grateful that this has turned into a job with a future. ~ Melissa Manchester

Manchester United could have any goalkeeper in the world. I was a 23-year-old kid from New Jersey who, from an early age, had to cope with Tourette's Syndrome, a brain disorder that can trigger speech and facial tics, vocal outbursts and obsessive compulsive behavior. ~ Tim Howard

Spending time with her father was like showering with a cheese grate - it got more painful each time. ~ Steven Manchester

Out of everyone at Manchester United, I would pick out Scholes, he is the best midfielder of his generation. I would had loved to play alongside him. ~ Pep Guardiola

I romanticised Mancunian despair, W says. I didn't realise that Mancunian despair is only the desire to leave Manchester ~ Lars Iyer

I would like to apologize to the relatives of the fan who gave me 29 books to sign in Odyssey 7, Manchester. I'm a little twitchy towards the end of a day of signing and did not mean to kill and eat him. ~ Terry Pratchett

They (the press) have a hatred of Manchester United. ~ Alex Ferguson

And now International Soccer Special, Manchester United v Southampton ~ David Coleman

It's not like there's no work in Scotland, but speak to any actor, and they'll tell you it's limited. So you have to go to London or Manchester to broaden your horizons. ~ Greg McHugh

Churchill warned them now: "When you are drifting down the stream of Niagara, it may easily happen that from time to time you run into a reach of quite smooth water, or that a bend in the river or a change in the wind may make the roar of the falls seem far more distant. But" - his voice dropped a register, and only those who strained could hear - "your hazard and your preoccupation are in no way affected thereby. ~ William Manchester

Dr. Weiss stood. "There are two things you need to know right off the bat: The first is that it takes great courage to admit fear or that you need hep. Just by being here, you've proven that you have the courage. And the second id that we never get what we wish for - ever." He shrugged. "We get what we work for." He looked into David's eyes. "Are you prepared to put in the work, David McClain? ~ Steven Manchester

Manchester United and Liverpool have been bought with huge leverage, and we've got Roman Abramovich at Chelsea who can turn his loans into shares. It is really important for the Premier League to ask itself: if a club is being bought on such a mountain of debt, isn't that a possible recipe for disaster for the future? ~ Gordon Taylor