The Monument Quotes

As the rays of sunlight strengthened, the golden glow engulfed the entirety of the thirty-three-hundred-pound capstone. The mind of man ... receiving enlightenment. The light then began inching down the monument, commencing the same descent it performed every morning. Heaven moving toward earth ... God connecting to man. ~ Dan Brown

Within the shadows of honor, courage often walks in silence.
-Engraved on the monument Clay built ~ Lorraine Heath

The greatest regret of my military career was as Commanding General of the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq in 2004-2005, he later wrote of the decision he made. I lost 169 soldiers during that year-long deployment. However, the monument we erected at Fort Hood, Texas, in memoriam lists 168 names. I approved the request of others not to include the name of the one soldier who committed suicide. I deeply regret my decision. ~ David Finkel

I landed in London on a wintry autumn evening. It was dark and raining, and I saw more fog and mud in a minute than I had seen in a year. I walked from the Custom House to the Monument before I found a coach; and although the very house-fronts, looking on the swollen gutters, were like old friends to me, I could not but admit that they were very dingy friends. ~ Charles Dickens

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

The greater the monument, the greater the man. The stone the Greeks quarry for his grave is huge and white, stretching up to the sky. A C H I L L E S, it reads. It will stand for him, and speak to all who pass: he lived and died, and lives again in memory. ~ Madeline Miller

I should be proud to have my memory graced, but only if the monument be placed ... here, where I endured three hundred hours in line before the implacable iron bars. ~ Anna Akhmatova

Ignorance fears all things, falling, terror-stricken before the passing wind. Superstition stands as the monument to ignorance, and before it kneel all who realize their own weakness who see in all things the strength they do not possess ~ Manly P. Hall

A tractor-trailer overturned on U.S. 129 in Gainesville, Ga., "the poultry capital of the world," back in January. None of the drivers involved in the accident were hurt, but avian passengers in the trailer were killed, and Sarah Segal has asked the Georgia Department of Transportation for permission to a build a ten-foot-tall tombstone in their honor. The monument would read, "In memory of the dozens of terrified chickens who died as a result of a truck crash. Go Vegan." It would include an image of a chicken. PETA supports her initiative. Monty Python could not be reached for comment. ~ Anonymous

The monument I want after I am dead is a monument with two legs going around the world-a saved sinner telling about the salvation of Jesus Christ. ~ Dwight L. Moody

And the story is told that a young woman taking an examination for a Communist party post was unsure of the answer to a question asking the inscription on a certain monument. She wrote the words of Marx quoted above and when the examination was over hurried to the monument to check. Reading the inscription "Religion is the opiate of the people," she fell to her knees, saying, "Thank God. ~ Roberson

At any moment, man must decide, for better or for worse, what will be the monument of his existence. ~ Viktor E. Frankl

America acknowledged the greatness of Confucius through a trio of ancient lawgivers - Moses flanked by Confucius to his right and Solon on his left - on the monument to "Justice, the Guardian of Liberty" displayed on the eastern pediment of the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. ~ Patrick Mendis

I beseech those whose piety will permit them reverently to petition, that they will pray for this union, and ask that He who buildeth up and pulleth down nations will, the mercy preserve and unite us. For a Nation divided against itself cannot stand. I wish, if this Union must be dissolved, that its ruins may be the monument of my grave, and the graves of my family. I wish no epitaph to be written to tell that I survive the ruin of this glorious Union. ~ Sam Houston

The name Peace River itself is the monument of a successful effort on the part of the Company to bring about a better understanding between the Crees and the Beavers. ~ Ernest Thompson Seton

I really do not care what the white world is doing. I care about black people building the monument on slavery. ~ Haile Gerima

The wheels rolled on, and rolled down by the Monument, and by the Tower; and by the Docks; down by Ratcliffe, and by Rotherhithe; down by where accumulated scum of humanity seemed to be washed from higher grounds, like so much moral sewage, and to be pausing until its own weight forced it over the bank and sunk it in the river. ~ Charles Dickens

Does it follow that the house has nothing in common with art and is architecture not to be included in the arts? Only a very small part of architecture belongs to art: the tomb and the monument. Everything else that fulfils a function is to be excluded from the domain of art. ~ Adolf Loos

The graphic emphasis placed on those first lines is rather hard to square with the proposition that the monument expresses no particular religious preference. ~ John Paul Stevens

Happiness was the responsibility you dreaded, it required the kind of rational discipline you did not value yourself enough to assume - and the anxious staleness of your days is the monument to your evasion of the knowledge that there is no moral substitute for happiness, that there is no more despicable coward than the man who deserted the battle for his joy, fearing to assert his right to existence, lacking the courage and the loyalty to life of a bird or a flower reaching for the sun. Discard the protective rags of that vice which you called a virtue: humility - learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness - and when you learn that pride is the sum of all virtues, you will learn to live like a man. ~ Ayn Rand

That man is not yet a finished creation but rather a challenge of the spirit; a distant possibility dreaded as much as it is desired; that the way towards it has only been covered for a short distance and with terrible agonies and ecstasies even by those few for whom it is the scaffold today and the monument tomorrow - all this the Steppenwolf, too, suspected. ~ Hermann Hesse

Two hundred and fifty years of nameless, faceless, forgotten individuals. Yes, they were America's founding fathers and mothers as much as the bewigged white men who laid the whips upon their backs. Why didn't Lina know their names? Why hadn't she studied their histories? Where was the monument? Where was the museum? What had they wished for and worked for and loved? ~ Tara Conklin

What earnest worker, with hand and brain for the benefit of his fellowmen, could desire a more pleasing recognition of his usefulness than the monument of a tree, ever growing, ever blooming, and ever bearing wholesome fruit? ~ Washington Irving

My father is an architect, so I often think like a designer or an architect. I remember when I was admiring buildings, I would look up at them and see this perspective and this awesome power of the monument in front of me. ~ Platon

The monument of death will outlast the memory of the dead. The Pyramids do not tell the tale which was confided to them; the living fact commemorates itself. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Then was the monument called "Stonehenge," which stands, as all men know, upon the plain of Salisbury to this very day. ~ Knowles James Knowles

There was movement along the fringe of Chauncey's vision, and he snapped his head to the left. At first glance what appeared to be a large angel topping a nearby monument rose to full height. Neither stone nor marble, the boy had arms and legs. His torso was naked, his feet were bare, and peasant trousers hung low on his waist. He hopped down from the monument, the ends of his hair dripping rain. It slid down his face, which was dark as a Spaniard's. ~ Becca Fitzpatrick

Honorius Hatchard had been old Miss Hatchard's great-uncle; though she would undoubtedly have reversed the phrase, and put forward, as her only claim to distinction, the fact that she was his great-niece. For Honorius Hatchard, in the early years of the nineteenth century, had enjoyed a modest celebrity. As the marble tablet in the interior of the library informed its infrequent visitors, he had possessed marked literary gifts, written a series of papers called "The Recluse of Eagle Range," enjoyed the acquaintance of Washington Irving and Fitz-Greene Halleck, and been cut off in his flower by a fever contracted in Italy. Such had been the sole link between North Dormer and literature, a link piously commemorated by the erection of the monument where Charity Royall, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, sat at her desk under a freckled steel engraving of the deceased author, and wondered if he felt any deader in his grave than she did in his library. ~ Edith Wharton

Sometimes he did not know if he slept or just thought about sleep. ~ Mark Strand

When I spoke at the St. Lawrence Seaway ceremonies in 1969, I borrowed some words from the monument there which I had joined Queen Elizabeth in dedicating just 10 years before. That monument, as its inscription puts it, 'bears witness to the common purpose of two nations whose frontiers are the frontiers of friendship, whose ways are the ways of freedom, whose works are the works of peace'. ~ Richard M. Nixon

When you drive down Cemetery Road, the angel appears to be looking directly at you. Yet once you pass the monument and look back over your shoulder, the angel is still looking at you. Thus the appellation: the Turning Angel. ~ Greg Iles

Power had preyed on weakness here: all kinds of power - local, racial, tribal, royal, national, global, economic - on all kinds of weakness, stopping at nothing, not even at the smallest girl child. But power does that everywhere. The world is saturated in blood. Every tribe has their blood-soaked legacy: here was mine. I waited for whatever cathartic feeling people hope to experience in such places, but I couldn't make myself believe the pain of my tribe was uniquely gathered here, in this place, the pain was too obviously everywhere, this just happened to be where they'd placed the monument. I gave up and went in search of Lamin. ~ Zadie Smith

Live a life as a monument to your soul. ~ Ayn Rand

Before one actually visits them, everyone tends to think of their favorite countries as one grand Disneyland filled with national monuments and historical treasures conveniently laid out for easy viewing, when what they really are filled with, of course, is people going to work, laundromats and places to buy rat poison. ~ Bette Midler

Great. We just blow torched a national monument. ~ Rick Riordan

Mama, don't forget to put a little monument on my tomb when I'm dead ~ Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich Of Russia

Whoever uplifts civilization is rich though he die penniless, and future generations will erect his monument. ~ Orison Swett Marden

There is nothing in this world as invisible as a monument ~ Robert Musil

A young woman in love always looks like Patience on a monument Smiling at Grief. ~ Jane Austen

Our public lands - whether a national park or monument, wildlife refuge, forest or prairie - make each one of us land-rich. It is our inheritance as citizens of a country called America. ~ Terry Tempest Williams

Si monumentum requiris circumspice
(If you seek his monument, look around.)
[Epitaph on Wren's tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral] ~ Christopher Wren

I started to draw buildings. I called them Proposed Colossal Monuments - they weren't for real, not for actual building. It was more a critique of architecture. ~ Claes Oldenburg

There is an elegant memorial in Washington to Jefferson, but none to Hamilton. However, if you seek Hamilton's monument, look around. You are living in it. We honor Jefferson, but live in Hamilton's country, a mighty industrial nation with a strong central government. ~ George F. Will

There will be a monument," she said to Abraxos, to Manon. "Should you wish it, I will build a monument right there. So no one shall ever forget what was given. Who we have to thank. ~ Sarah J. Maas

I like a kid who holds nothing back. ~ Emmy Laybourne

Man passes away; his name perishes from record and recollection; his history is as a tale that is told, and his very monument becomes a ruin. ~ Washington Irving

Sir Patrick Rackrent lived and died a monument of old Irish hospitality. ~ Maria Edgeworth

A broken heart is a monument to a love that will never die; fulfillment is a monument to a love that is already on its deathbed. ~ George Jean Nathan

But monument themselves memorials need. ~ George Crabbe

I have raised for myself a monument more durable than brass. ~ Horace

If I have done any deed worthy of remembrance, that deed will be my monument. If not, no monument can preserve my memory. ~ Agesilaus II

James Joyce buried himself in his great work. _Finnegan's Wake_ is his monument and his tombstone. A dead end. ~ Edward Abbey

If you love someone, your situation look like patience on monument smiling greaf ~ Abhishek Vicky

Why not laugh again, and let your joy be my monument? ~ Stephanie Roberts

Every monument of civilization is a monument of barbarism ~ Walter Benjamin

There is great incongruity in this idea of monuments, since those to whom they are usually dedicated need no such recognition to embalm their memory; and any man who does, is not worthy of one. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Sculpture may be almost anything: a monument, a statue, an old coin, a bas-relief, a portrait bust, a lifelong struggle against heavy odds. ~ Malvina Hoffman

You [future first ladies] will feel that you are no longer clothing yourself, you are dressing a public monument. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Artists do not need monuments erected for them because their works are their monuments. ~ Antonio Gaudi

I am neither an economist nor a photographer of monuments, and I am not much of a journalist either. What I am trying to do more than anything else is to observe life. ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

Most monuments are not something you're going to keep me out of. And I go to a lot of monuments. ~ Rob Huebel

If I have done any honorable exploit, that is my monument; but if I have done none, all your statues will signify nothing. ~ Agesilaus II

After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one. ~ Marcus Porcius Cato

Sadly, a prize for peace is a rarity in this world. Most nations have monuments or memorials to war, bronze salutations to heroic battles, archways of triumph. But peace has no parade, no pantheon of victory. ~ Kofi Annan

MONUMENT, n. A structure intended to commemorate something which either needs no commemoration or cannot be commemorated. ~ Ambrose Bierce

All civilization comes through literature now, especially in our country. A Greek got his civilization by talking and looking, and in some measure a Parisian may still do it. But we, who live remote from history and monuments, we must read or we must barbarise. ~ William Dean Howells

No man ever raised a monument to a cynic or wrote a poem about a man without faith. ~ Louis L'Amour

One of them, at least. Look at it." I look. "That is one straight-up, upstanding, powerful word. Unique, original, and kind of stealthy because it doesn't really sound like what it is. It's a word that surprises you and makes you think, Oh. All right then. It commands respect, but it's also modest. Not like 'monument' or 'tower.' " He shakes his head. "Pretentious bastards. ~ Jennifer Niven

Because I'm so big, you have to look at me. I think of myself as a monument. But sometimes I like to feel small. ~ Shaquille O'Neal

My patience has dreadful chilblains from standing so long on a monument. ~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning