Baroness Quotes & Sayings

It is only when we are very happy that we can bear to gaze merrily upon the vast and limitless expanse of water, rolling on and on with such persistent, irritating monotony, to the accompaniment of our thoughts, whether grave or gay. — Baroness Orczy

There are only two forces that can withstand the force of the war's spirit when it seizes upon the world. The one is the force of an independently thinking, free, and articulate democracy. The other is the force of an instructed and enlightened public opinion. — Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence

I have never consciously exploited the fact that I am a woman. I wouldn't dare try that even if I knew how to. I have too much respect for my male colleagues to think they would be particualrly impressed. — Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle Of Blackburn

Our physical unity has gone far ahead of our moral unity. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as its other creatures do. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

It has been claimed that the aim of the present war is to end war. But war cannot end war, neither can militarism destroy militarism. — Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence

It is only when people begin to shake loose from their preconceptions, from the ideas that have dominated them, that we begin to receive a sense of opening, a sense of vision ... That is the sort of time we live in now. We ... live in an epoch in which the solid ground of our preconceived ideas shakes daily under our uncertain feet. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

Faith will not be restored in the West because people believe it to be useful. It will return only when they find that it is true. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

Well, I am rather afraid of that visit," said Clifford. "It seems to me it will be rather like going to school again."
The Baroness looked at him a moment.
"My dear child," she said, "there is no agreeable man who has not, at some moment, been to school to a clever woman
probably a little older than himself. And you must be thankful when you get your instructions gratis. With me you would get it gratis. — Henry James

[To the cultures of Asia and the continent of Africa] it is the Western impact which has stirred up the winds of change and set the processes of modernization in motion. Education brought not only the idea of equality but also another belief which we used to take for granted in the West-the idea of progress, the idea that science and technology can be used to better human conditions. In ancient society, men tended to believe themselves fortunate if tomorrow was not worse than today and anyway, there was little they could do about it. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

Jews were the first to believe that history itself has meaning and that progress, not repetition, is the law of life. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

But there was no plan.
For the first time in her pirating life, someone had bested her.
It's not him, Andi's mind whispered. It can't be him.
And yet, the Marauder was a corpse. It was already growing cold in the cabin, Andi's breath appearing before her in the white clouds.
Do something, Andi's mind screamed. Get us out of this. You can't go back, Andi, you can never go back.
Fear spiked through her, in and around, trying to still her like the ship.
But she was the Bloody Baroness. She was the captain of the Marauder, the greatest starship in Mirabel, and she had a crew waiting on her word. — Sasha Alsberg

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility, or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can't remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law, or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.
You see? If all you remember in years to come is the 'gay wizard' joke, I've come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self-improvement. — J.K. Rowling

The gaps in power, the gaps in wealth, the gaps in ideology which hold the nations apart also make up the abyss into which mankind can fall to annihilation. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

Now, when their glances met, they understood one another. The power that lay within both their souls had met, and, as it were, clasped hands. They accepted one another's sacrifice. Hers, mayhap, was the more complete of the two, because for her his absence would mean weary waiting, the dull heartache so terrible to bear. — Emmuska Orczy

Troubles, like babies, grow larger by nursing. — Elizabeth Fox, Baroness Holland

We cannot cheat on DNA. We cannot get round photosynthesis. We cannot say I am not going to give a damn about phytoplankton. All these tiny mechanisms provide the preconditions of our planetary life. To say we do not care is to say in the most literal sense that "we choose death." — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

The most obvious feature of the brain is that it is not homogeneous, but composed of different regions. There are no intrinsic moving parts, no obvious way of knowing where to start to understand what is actually happening, or what functions are taking place. — Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield

Since then her life had been peaceful and happy. She had allowed herself to be worshipped by that strangely captivating lover of hers, whose passionately willful temperament, tempered by that persistent, sunny gaiety, she had up to now only half understood. — Emmuska Orczy

As for all the little people who call themselves Marquis de Cambremerde or de Gotoblazes, there is no difference between them and the humblest rookie in your regiment. Whether you go and do wee-wee at the Countess Cack's or cack at the Baroness Wee-wee's, it's exactly the same, you will have compromised your reputation and have used a shitty rag instead of toilet paper. Which is unsavoury. — Marcel Proust

I cannot figure out what Dadaism is. But if the baroness is to be a keystone for it, then I think I can possibly know when it is coming and how to avoid it. — Hart Crane

Think, think, think. It will hurt like hell at first, but you'll get used to it. — Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle Of Blackburn

Hers was the perfect love that dwells on the other's happiness, and not on its own. She knew that, though for the time being he would find bliss and oblivion in her arms, he would soon repine in inactivity whilst others fought for that which he held sublime. — Emmuska Orczy

I learned that economics was not an exact science and that the most erudite men would analyze the economic ills of the world and derive a totally different conclusion. — Edith Summerskill, Baroness Summerskill

To love, for us men, is to clasp one woman with our arms, feeling that she lives and breathes just as we do, suffers as we do, thinks with us, loves with us, and, above all, sins with us. — Baroness Orczy

It is clearly absurd that it should be possible for a woman to qualify as a saint with direct access to the Almighty, while she may not qualify as a curate. — Mary Stocks, Baroness Stocks

Fate is usually swift when she deals a blow. — Baroness Orczy

Why get rid of Chamberlain to put in Halifax? It's like getting rid of the organ-grinder to put in the monkey. — Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle Of Blackburn

I want to see that our older people still feel useful, and our younger people feel engaged in our wider society, and I want to feel that we can bond people from disparate backgrounds, ages and communities together in a greater project, which they get engaged in for the sake of others. Volunteering, in all sorts of ways, seems to me likely to be able to achieve some of that — Julia Neuberger, Baroness Neuberger

And who have we here?" Nick turned to Ellen and flashed her a charming smile. Val performed the introductions. "Ellen, may I make known to you Nick Haddonfield, the biggest scamp in the realm, and since his marriage, the happiest. Nick, Ellen Markham, Baroness Roxbury, my neighbor and friend." "Baroness." Nick executed a very proper bow but kissed Ellen's hand - a shocking presumption - rather than merely bowing over it. "Ignore him," Axel warned. "Any attempt to chide, flirt, or comment only encourages him, and this is after he has found a woman willing to marry him." "And bear my children," Nick added, eyes twinkling. Talk — Grace Burrowes

Having been a lobbyist myself you can't overstate how easy it is to get things done your way. It's a complicated policy and many lobbyists are trying to wreck amendments as we speak. — Bryony Worthington, Baroness Worthington

She had seen them in turmoil all round her
love, hatred, vengeance, treachery
she herself practically the pivot around which they raged. Out of the deadly strife she had emerged pure, happy in the arms of the man whom her wondrous adventures as much as his brilliant personality had taught her to love. — Emmuska Orczy

To love is to be afraid. You are frightened, deathly terrified, that something will happen to those you love. Think of the possibilities. Does your heart clench with each thought? That, my friend, is love. And love enslaves us all, for you cannot have love without fear. — Marie Lu

If we continue with what is surely our greatest Western temptation, and think that in some way history owes us a solution, that we can, by pursuing our own most parochial self-interest, achieve in some miraculous way a consummation of world order, then we are heading not simply towards great disappointments, but towards disaster and tragedy as well. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

The distinction between rich nations and poor nations is one of the great dominant political and international themes of our century. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

I have the impression that when we talk so confidently of liberty, we are unaware of the awful ... servitude of poverty when means are so small that there is literally no choice at all ... — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

To me, one of the proofs that there is a moral governance in the universe is the fact that when people and governments work intelligently and far-sightedly for the good of others, they achieve their own prosperity, too. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

Nagging is the repetition of unpalatable truths. — Edith Summerskill, Baroness Summerskill

The raw material from which social institutions are fashioned is always more or less recalcitrant and any human society will tend to produce a caricature of itself. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

Messieurs," interjects the Baroness. "If you insist on communicating sotto voce, we might as well adjourn to my lodgings." A light pinking in her cheek as she ponders the implications. "In my younger days, I should have balked at bringing two gentlemen home. I'm now at the age when it might ectually enhance my reputation. — Louis Bayard

My Lady Baroness, who weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, consequently was a person of no small consideration; and then she did the honors of the house with a dignity that commanded universal respect. Her daughter was about seventeen years of age, fresh-colored, comely, plump, and desirable. The Baron's son seemed to be a youth in every respect worthy of the father he sprung from. Pangloss, the preceptor, was the oracle of the family, and little Candide listened to his instructions with all the simplicity natural to his age and disposition. — Voltaire

The government and the opposition need to think about their people, if they actually went out and saw the conditions in which their people are living, it might actually mean that they would pause and think again about the importance of peace. — Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos

Fear can indeed be the beginning of wisdom. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

It is a fact of history that those who seek to withdraw from its great experiments usually end up being overwhelmed by them. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

I will fight for what I believe in until I drop dead. And that's what keeps you alive. — Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle Of Blackburn

As for the bitter herbs ... To see everyone with tears coursing down their faces, laughing and gasping at the same time, is fun and also makes the point - bitter herbs must be really bitter to experience the suffering ... — Julia Neuberger, Baroness Neuberger

Every single ancient wisdom and religion will tell you the same thing - don't live entirely for yourself, live for other people. Don't get stuck inside your own ego, because it will become a prison in no time flat. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

To act without rapacity, to use knowledge with wisdom, to respect interdependence, to operate without hubris and greed are not simply moral imperatives. They are an accurate scientific description of the means of survival. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

She said nothing, and Sir Andrew, too, was silent, yet those two young people understood one another, as young people have a way of doing all the world over, and have done since the world began. — Emmuska Orczy

There are two parties involved in every corrupt transaction, typically a government official and a business person. Yet those who pay bribes are often depicted as innocent victims ... The reality is that both parties conspire to defraud the public. — Lynda Chalker, Baroness Chalker Of Wallasey

Whatever. There is a natural order to things, a hierarchy. And no less so in man. For man may be the master of nature, but he is also part of it. Every living thing, from the greatest of all men to the lowliest earthworm has its place. It is very important that the groundhog not think he is tiger, nor a sparrow believe he is a hawk. A frog would not make a very good shark, would it? One must know their place in the world" ~ Baroness von Berge, Greta Greaves of Austria — Austin Scott Collins

It is good to see two women from Britain's minority ethnic communities fighting in seats that Labour won at the last election. — Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos

The baroness swept into the room like an avenging black angel, her cape streaming out behind her. If looks could kill, we'd have been sprawled on the carpet. — Rhys Bowen

If a man has lived in a tradition which tells him that nothing can be done about his human condition, to believe that progress is possible may well be the greatest revolution of all. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

He made her laugh always made her taste a strange and exquisite bliss when he held her in his arms. — Emmuska Orczy

On the one hand, we are faced with the stewardship of this beautiful, subtle, incredibly delicate, fragile planet. On the other, we confront the destiny of our fellow man, our brothers. How can we say that we are followers of Christ if this dual responsibility does not seem to us the essence and heart of our religion? — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

And among them all Taurus Antinor, praefect of Rome, with his ruddy hair and bronzed skin, his massive frame clad in gorgeously embroidered tunic. — Orczy Emmuska Baroness

Casually, unconsciously, but with deadly effectiveness, western man all round the globe destroyed the traditional gods and the ancient societies with his commerce and his science ... Does it mean nothing to him if great areas of the world, where western influence has been predominant, emerge from this tutelage unable to return to the old life, yet unfitted for the new? It is hard to believe that the future could ever belong to men demonstrating irresponsibility on so vast a scale. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

Large motorway flyovers are the cathedrals of the modern world. — Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle Of Blackburn

Historically the opposition to abortion and birth control ... stemmed from the urgency of the need to decrease the mortality and morbidity rates and to increase the population ... in the matter of abortion the human rights of the mother with her family must take precedence over the survival of a few weeks' old foetus without sense or sensibility. — Edith Summerskill, Baroness Summerskill

There is such wonderful balm in self-imposed sacrifice. — Baroness Orczy

So far I have restrained myself. For how much longer, I do not know.
I have never known such happiness, shot through with such misery. Only four days have passed, they tell me. But that is not true. It has been decades since I saw
you last.
You will find me a stooped old man when we meet again. Perhaps I might even need a pair of spectacles to recognize your veil.
But I remain always,
Your servant,
C.
One of Christian's onesided letters to the Baroness — Sherry Thomas

There is no human failure greater than to launch a profoundly important endeavour and then leave it half done. This is what the West has done with its colonial system. It shook all the societies in the world loose from their old moorings. But it seems indifferent whether or not they reach safe harbour in the end. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

I have a letter from a police inspector, retired after some 30 years in rural Derbyshire, alerting me to the potential impact of a total ban on hunting on relationships between the police and the community in rural areas - a particularly significant consideration in current circumstances. Is it, I ask myself, sensible to divert valuable police time to enforce a ban on hunting when they are under so much pressure from violent crime? — Hazel Byford, Baroness Byford

Business shouldn't be like sports, separating the men from the women. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

If you are ever attacked in the street do not shout 'help!', shout 'Fire!'. People adore fires and always come rushing. Nobody will come if you shout 'help. — Jean Barker, Baroness Trumpington

Another time, talking about his books, the baroness confessed that she had never bothered to read any of them, because she hardly ever read 'difficult' or 'dark' novels like the ones he wrote. With the years, too, this habit had grown entrenched, and once she turned seventy the scope of her reading was restricted to fashion or news magazines. — Roberto Bolano

The modern world is not given to uncritical admiration. It expects its idols to have feet of clay and can be reasonably sure that the press and camera will report their exact dimensions. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

During the investigation evidence of the vulnerability of women in the modelling profession was startling and models are at high risk of eating disorders. — Denise Kingsmill, Baroness Kingsmill

Judaism tells us in many ways how to listen and say 'Hinneni', I am here. — Julia Neuberger, Baroness Neuberger

[On women as priests:] It has always seemed very odd to me that this particular sphere of activity should remain a male closed shop, seeing that, to judge from church attendance, women are the more religious sex - while our criminal statistics make quite clear that they are the least wicked. — Mary Stocks, Baroness Stocks

It is a truism that one person who wants something is a hundred times stronger than a hundred who want to be left alone. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitized and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf ... Perhaps future generations will recoil with similar horror at the messiness, unpredictability and immediate personal involvement of a three-dimensional, real-time interaction. — Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield

He should have told her that whatever her station in life - cook, housekeeper, companion, governess, whatever, it mattered naught to him so long as she exchanged it for the position of his baroness. And — Grace Burrowes

In the home we make certain distinctions about functions of rooms and corridors; we do not deliver the groceries straight into the baby's crib. In hospitals we do not take the food trolleys right through the operating chamber, and we rarely have the recreation room next to the convalescent room. We sort out the functions. We have to sort out the functions of the city and the streams of traffic and re-create arterial systems that allow us to breathe ... the shape, pattern and sense of community which you expect if it were a home. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

Is the noble Lord aware that, at the age of 80, there are very few pleasures left to me, but one of them is passive smoking? — Jean Barker, Baroness Trumpington

Ben isn't hard to manage, but Blix's wife, Karen, likes the title too much to part with it. He's made her a baroness." She sighed. "The whole thing has got rather baroque. Karen and I are friends, or were, in any case. Blix asked her for a divorce and told her he was in love with me, probably thinking it would soften the blow." She shook her head. "Now she won't speak to me. — Paula McLain

In modern society, fear of unemployment remains the darkest of the shadows thrown by the past. In an industrial order, a man out of work is almost a man out of life. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

I am delighted to be involved in the digital divide campaign to ensure that every school is made aware of what steps it can take to address the digital divide as it affects local children, and provide a range of opportunities for ICT suppliers, government agencies, charities and other organisations to make a contribution. — Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris Of Yardley

A change of heart is the essence of all other change, and it has brought about me a reeducation of the mind. — Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence

A mother cat is rightfully called a Queen. Personally, I think it would be great if pregnant women were also called Queens. If the gay community protested too much we might possibly accept Baroness, Duchess or Fairy Princess. Anything instead of those glamour-sapping medical terms Gravida, Multigravida and the dreaded Geriatric Multigravida. — Helen Brown

Similarly, when you lose yourconsciousness, when you go to sleep at night or when you're anesthetized, youdon't really think that you're really going to be losing your mind. — Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield

I mean there is an assumption made that Islam is about submission, and I think that the submission that we have is to God. — Haleh Afshar, Baroness Afshar

And so, you know, you can be - and I hope that I am - a thinking Muslim. — Haleh Afshar, Baroness Afshar

It is very much easier for a rich man to invest and grow richer than for the poor man to begin investing at all. And this is also true of nations. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

The Baroness Lindenberg, as I found afterwards, had long been accustomed to sacrifice the interests of others to her own, and her wish to send Claude to Strasbourg blinded her to the danger of the undertaking. Accordingly, — Matthew Gregory Lewis

Music is the most absorbing of all the arts. It absorbs the mind of the artist, whether creator or executant, to the exclusion of every other consideration outside his own immediate necessities or desires. — Baroness Orczy

Domestic work, is, after all, both tedious and repetitive, and it is not surprising that most women and all men avoid as much of it as possible. — Mary Stocks, Baroness Stocks

Man's oldest and least reputable occupation - war. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

You can't?" Cyprian barked out a laugh. "The Bloody Baroness does whatever she wants. Even if it means stealing a starship in the middle of the night, crashing it into the side of a mountain, and slaughtering an innocent girl in the process. — Sasha Alsberg

Tis only in the future you can prove your true worth. — Emmuska Orczy

I am not good at dealing with the modern media. I have not felt I have been as effective as I should be. — Estelle Morris, Baroness Morris Of Yardley

The wealthy white western minority of the world could not hope to prosper if most of the rest of mankind were foundering in hopeless poverty. Islands of plenty in a vast ocean of misery never have been a good recipe for commercial success. — Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson Of Lodsworth

It's important to look neat and tidy and not be too flashily dressed. If you look untidy, you're considered to have an untidy mind - it's as simple as that! — Lynda Chalker, Baroness Chalker Of Wallasey

They seek him here, they seek him there
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere
Is he in heaven or is he in hell?
That demned elusive Pimpernel — Emmuska Orczy

However, no human being - and certainly no man - has the right to define for me what my understanding of God is. — Haleh Afshar, Baroness Afshar

He wondered, as her blades crackled in the too quiet room, and waves of electricity spiraled around them, if he'd made a mistake. He hadn't seen her in years, but he'd heard the rumors. He hadn't truly known if she could wield those weapons with the glory and grace that drew blood and split bones.
But now, as Androma hissed, "I'm going to kill you," and her words sent a slice of fear charging through Dex's heart, he knew.
Gone was the girl he'd once known, that shivering thing he;d found bruised and broken in the wilderness of Adhira.
In her place stood the warrior he'd trained and hardened and turned into something devilishly delicious.
He reached for his gun as the Bloody Baroness attacked. — Sasha Alsberg

The Baroness found it amusing to go to tea; she dressed as if for dinner. The tea-table offered an anomalous and picturesque repast; and on leaving it they all sat and talked in the large piazza, or wandered about the garden in the starlight. — Henry James

The question of how the ebb and flow of a highly developed mind can be catered to by a physical brain, and the related question of how the one impacts the other, are the hardest-ever challenges to human ingenuity and imagination. — Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield

Even the worst moments and the weariest journeys must come to an end ... — Baroness Orczy