Quotes & Sayings About Birmingham

They had been products of their time, and walking in Birmingham now, Marcus was an accumulation of these times. That was the point. — Yaa Gyasi

The words 'bad timing' came to be ghosts haunting our every move in Birmingham. Yet people who used this argument were ignorant of the background of our planning ... they did not realize that it was ridiculous to speak of timing when the clock of history showed that the Negro had already suffered one hundred years of delay. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Used to Sears, JC Penney, and Woolworth's, Birmingham's stores sounded foreign: Gucci, Jacobson's, and Dittrich Furs. Underground parking kept the shoppers flawlessly coifed and dry - a scene from a Hollywood movie. — Claudia Whitsitt

I write late into the night at the Tutweiler in downtown Birmingham, and try hard to turn down that second cheeseburger at Milo's over by UAB, which has the best one in the whole wide world. — Rick Bragg

I was born in segregated Birmingham, Alabama. I didn't have a white classmate till we moved to Denver. — Condoleezza Rice

Unfortunately for the Culver Creek Nothings, we weren't playing the deaf-and-blind school. We were playing some Christian school from downtown Birmingham, a team stocked with huge, gargantuan apemen with thick beards and a strong distaste for turning the other cheek. — John Green

We should never forget that everything Adolph Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighers did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Liberals want to set up social welfare committees to help whites and West Indians love each other in Birmingham. But all such efforts are doomed to failure. For the strong the weak are just too much of a temptation; and in all fairness it seems to me quite wicked for black people to have tempted the powerful with so much powerless-ness for so long. The obvious answer is to redress this imbalance in power. — Lewis Nkosi

The provincial intellectual is doomed to arguing at low level ... there is still no Australian literary world, not in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide. It is some consolation to realise that there is no literary world in Birmingham or Los Angeles either. I have heard there is one in Montreal, but I don't believe it. The literary world is in London and New York, the only cities big enough to sustain magazines which can afford to reject copy. — Clive James

You can only get to where you want to be, through where you are now. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

The most I have to fear while hiking in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, the two historic British counties closest to my city home in Birmingham, is whether or not the mud awaiting me in the narrow lanes ahead is deep enough to foul my socks. — Jim Crace

The love of money is the root of all evil, therefore selfishness must be the seed. — M.D. Birmingham

I admire Tom Ades: he's a brilliant conductor, and he gets just the right hard, brilliant sound from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for Russian music. — Charles Hazlewood

When the injunction was issued in Birmingham, our failure to obey it bewildered our opponents. They did not know what to do. We did not hide our intentions. In fact, I announced our plan to the press, pointing out that we were not anarchists advocating lawlessness, but that it was obvious to us that the courts of Alabama had misused the judicial process in order to perpetuate injustice and segregation. Consequently, we could not, in good conscience, obey their findings. I intended to be one of the first to set — Martin Luther King Jr.

The Birmingham campaign was a repeat of SCLC's 1961 campaign in Albany, Georgia, which turned out a complete failure. King was banking on being able to fill up the jails and still have recruits willing to engage in civil disobedience, shutting the system down, but the authorities simply made their jails "bottomless" by shipping detainees elsewhere. A couple years later, black residents of Albany rioted, suggesting what they thought about their experience with nonviolence (these riots are not mentioned in most chronologies of the movement). — Anonymous

There were six men in Birmingham
In Guildford there's four
That were picked up and tortured
And framed by the law
And the filth got promotion
But they're still doing time
For being Irish in the wrong place
And at the wrong time

In Ireland they'll put you away in the Maze
In England they'll keep you for seven long days
God help you if ever you're caught on these shores
The coppers need someone
When they walk through that door

You'll be counting years
First five, then ten
Growing old in a lonely hell
Round the yard and a stinking cell
From wall to wall, and back again

A curse on the judges, the coppers and screws
Who tortured the innocent, wrongly accused
For the price of promotion
And justice to sell
May the judged be their judges when they rot down in hell — Shane MacGowan

We shouldn't have all these campaigns to get the Birmingham Six released if they'd been hanged. They'd have been forgotten and the whole community would be satisfied. — Alfred Denning, Baron Denning

Dost thou verily think that the Earl of Birmingham is low enough to plead for his life?' Sir Robert returned angrily, the wrathful blood coloring his handsome face. 'I wouldst scorn in the knowledge that I owed my life and liberty to a scurrilous murderer and knave. Do with me what thou wilt, surly knave, but rest in the knowledge that no plea for mercy shall be wrung from my lips. — Alicia A. Willis

People forget that many of the aspects of the Selma campaign were laid out in response to the church bombing in Birmingham. — Andrew Aydin

After an extensive interview he arranged for my weaknesses in foreign languages to be over-looked and so I started a Biology degree at Birmingham in 1967. — Paul Nurse

Love is found in the small, as in the big things of life. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

As far as I'm concerned, that is the end of the matter. We have a big game against Birmingham on Saturday and that is where our focus lies. — Bryan Robson

And I know there are plenty of other "colored" things I could do besides telling my stories or going to Shirley Boon's meetings- the mass meetings in town, the marches in Birmingham, the voting rallies upstate. But truth is, I don't care that much about voting. I don't care about eating at a counter with white people. What I care about is, if in ten years, a white lady will call my girls dirty and accuse them of stealing the silver. — Kathryn Stockett

We have taken a major step forward in providing a new high quality education facility at Longbridge. Not only will the new Bournville College shape Birmingham's learning environment, it will also form the first phase of the new Longbridge town centre and, therefore, represents a milestone in a new future for Longbridge. — Mike Murray

Our strengths are built not with our words but with our actions,
Our fears are faced through those actions,
Our lives are shaped by these experiences
and our experiences are driven by our passions.
Where is your heart taking you... — Catherine Louise Birmingham

Your energy is louder than your words. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

Push to achieve your dreams. Don't let anyone push you out of dreamland. — Christy Birmingham

Even if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Redditch: Christ, I hadn't even expected to be here. I was only standing in Redditch 'cause I was told it was a no-hoper. They bloody-well lied. Needles everywhere, you know that? Half the world's needles, made in sodding..

I was holding out for Cheam, or Chester. A 'ch' place, a nice little English 'ch' place. Not 'Redditch', listen to that. It's not a name, it's a fucking noise. What is it, 'Redditch'? Sounds like a frog vomiting.

And they told me it was Worcestershire, another lie!

Atkins: It is Worcestershire.

Redditch: Oh Humphrey, it's Birmingham. Everyone knows it is, listen to the sodding accent. I imagined meadows and steeples and farmyards and haystacks. Well, do you know what, shall I tell you something? You can't find a haystack in Redditch cause of all the fucking needles! — James Graham

In Birmingham, Manchester or Liverpool there are white gangs that share the same backgrounds - they come from broken homes, completely dysfunctional, mums for the most part unable to cope, the fathers of these kids completely not in the scene. — Iain Duncan Smith

Every drama school in the country turned me down, and so I was lucky to study drama at all, even if it was lowly Birmingham University. But even when I came out with my degree, my mother promptly insisted I go straight to secretarial college to have something to fall back on, just in case - which didn't exactly fill me with confidence. — Tamsin Greig

Every year I teach dozens of students at the University of Birmingham. Most of the students on the gender and sexuality courses are women. I guess this is because the boys don't think that gender applies to them: that it's a subject for girls. — Louise Brown

I did a drama degree, went to secretarial college, then got a job with a theatre company in Birmingham. It's been a slow burn, which doesn't seem to have gone out. — Tamsin Greig

I started in the kitchen of a Holiday Inn in Birmingham. I wanted to be a sponge, wanted to learn and progress. I knew I didn't want to work in a hotel forever, but I had some good teachers there. — April Bloomfield

It's not like, I don't know, if Madonna has a new record out, then everybody from Bangkok to Birmingham knows what its called and can buy it the same week. But our stuff is not in that mass market. — Evan Parker

Let's go for our dreams and be stronger than any obstacles. — Christy Birmingham

When I go across the country, whether it's Albuquerque, New Mexico, whether it's Birmingham, Alabama or Milwaukee, Wisconsin, there are always forces at play that I choose to relate to and extract inspiration from, and as long as they stay committed to the struggle against poverty, I find a role for myself. — Harry Belafonte

I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. — Martin Luther King Jr.

Byrd, the former Klu [sic] Klux Klan Kleagle, is taking a stand over states' rights, or his rights over State, or some such. Whatever the reason, the sight of an old Klansman blocking a little colored girl from Birmingham from getting into her office contributed to the general retro vibe that hangs around the Democratic Party these days. — Mark Steyn

Well, rest assured, Doc, that my team will not disregard you because you're a woman. We'll just do it because you talk shit.' The woman offered her a cold stare. 'Now, that was a joke.' 'Oh, got it, Brummie humour.' 'Oh no, no, no and talk like that will get you killed. The Black Country is most definitely not Birmingham.' And that wasn't a joke. — Angela Marsons

While growing up in Birmingham around a lot of West Indian people, reggae and calypso were big influences early on but Otis Redding was the one person who made me wanna sing myself. — Roland Gift

I'm in the process of brainstorming with my marketing team and all that stuff, trying to come up with a concept for a late-night restaurant for people in Birmingham. — Ruben Studdard

You're doing great,' she said. 'You're in Birmingham .' Scullion wanted to say this was a contradiction in terms but he couldn't speak. — Andrew O'Hagan

As in riding, so is it in life. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

Tis true, Dr. Buzzard, that a silver bullet must be of the largest and heaviest sort to travel with any amount o' range or accuracy. But after yon hellhound took no notice o' my challenge or my first discharge, I said what was fitting with lead buckshot well-washed with silver that I've got from the most particular little shop in Birmingham.
It didn't like it. — Rob S. Rice

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham. — Winston Churchill

Question and Answer
Durban, Birmingham,
Cape Town, Alabama,
Johannesburg, Watts,
The earth around
Struggling, fighting,
Dying
for what?
A world to gain.
Groping, hoping,
Waiting
for what?
A world to gain.
Dreams kicked asunder,
Why not go under?
There's a world to gain.
But suppose I don't want it,
Why take it?
To remake it. — Langston Hughes

If the Universe is playing a beautiful song, each one of our lives is a note in that song. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

This kind of music was just hitting England, so we were getting this following in clubs in Birmingham just cause we were trying to do something different. — Jim Capaldi

Disappointed Englishman.

Several Englishmen who were inveigled by a mountain guide in eastern Tyrol into climbing the Drei Zinnen with him were so disappointed, after reaching the highest of the three peaks, with what Nature had to offer them on this highest peak that then and there they killed the guide, a family man with three children and, it seems, a deaf wife. When, however, they realized what they had actually done, they threw themselves off the peak, one after the other. After this, a newspaper in Birmingham wrote that Birmingham had lost its most outstanding newspaper publisher, its most extraordinary bank director, and its most able undertaker. — Thomas Bernhard

That her son had developed all the latent characteristics of a three-dollar bill escaped her notice - all she knew was that she was glad he lived in Birmingham because he was oppressively devoted to her, which meant that she felt obliged to make an effort to reciprocate, which she could not with any spontaneity do. — Harper Lee

Love never had a stronger pull, then from Souls coming together for a joint purpose. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

Growth requires courage, strength and the willingness to go beyond fear. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

I lived in the Quarter for two years, but in the end I got tired of Birmingham businessmen smirking around Bourbon Street and the homosexuals and patio connoisseurs on Royal Street. — Walker Percy

Listen to your fears, they are the doorway to your freedom. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

On Thursday morning, May 2, 1963, nine-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks woke up with freedom on her mind. But, before she could be free, there was something important she had to do. "I want to go to jail," Audrey had told her mother. Since Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks thought that was a good idea, they helped her get ready. — Cynthia Levinson

The ultimate tragedy of Birmingham was not the brutality of the bad people, but the silence of the good people. — Martin Luther King Jr.

I love Birmingham, Michigan. It's lovely - you know, it's very similar to the Hamptons. — Elaine Stritch

If you live in Birmingham, then being awake is not necessarily a desirable state. — Tony Wilson

The Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, and Martin Luther King's 'Letter from the Birmingham Jail' all have their metaphysical roots in the biblical concept of the imago dei ((i.e. humans bearing the image of God). If pro-lifers are irrational for grounding basic human rights in the concept of a transcendent Creator, these important historical documents--all of which advanced our national understanding of equality--are irrational as well. — Scott Klusendorf

South Africa used to seem so far away. Then it came home to me. It began to signify the meaning of white hatred here. That was what the sheets and the suits and the ties covered up, not very well. That was what the cowardly guys calling me names from their speeding truck wanted to happen to me, to all of me: to my people. That was what would happen to me if I walked around the corner into the wrong neighborhood. That was Birmingham. That was Brooklyn. That was Reagan. That was the end of reason. South Africa was how I came to understand that I am not against war; I am against losing the war. — June Jordan

True connection with the world and others, can only come about when one has begun to connect with themselves. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

She's remarkably refined." "You told me she slung Miss Birmingham over her shoulder and tossed her into a carriage. — Jen Turano

I flew over to Birmingham and did half a dozen scenes or so as a pastor in the film. I had a great time. I look forward to seeing the final version. I also am good friends with the Erwin Brothers who are co-directing and producing the film with Kevin. They also helped with Courageous. It's kind of a small little family in this arena and we love helping each other out. — Alex Kendrick

His OFELLUS in the Art of Living in London, I have heard him relate, was an Irish painter, whom he knew at Birmingham, and who had practiced his own precepts of economy for several years in the British capital. He assured Johnson, who, I suppose, was then meditating to try his fortune in London, but was apprehensive of the expence, 'that thirty pounds a year was enough to enable a man to live there without being contemptible. He allowed ten pounds for cloaths and linen. He said a man might live in a garret at eighteen-pence a week; few people would inquire where he lodged; and if they did, it was easy to say, "Sir, I am to be found at such a place." By spending three-pence in a coffee-house, he might be for some hours every day in very good company; he might dine for six-pence, breakfast on bread and milk for a penny, and do without supper. On clean-shirt day he went abroad, and paid visits. — James Boswell

Life is like riding, you will only have harmony once you stop fighting it. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

This is a sensible response to employer concerns that the minimum wage is starting to have a damaging impact on competitiveness. — Digby Jones, Baron Jones Of Birmingham

Working in Birmingham for the first time was the best thing, especially as it was round the corner from my mum's house in Harborne! — Kate Ashfield

I grew up in Birmingham, but my parents are originally from Barbados. My dad, Romeo, was a long-distance lorry driver, and my mother, Mayleen, worked in catering. — David Harewood

I remember what a thrill it was to go from the back streets of Birmingham to Madison Square Garden in New York ... it's like playing on Mars. You can't buy that. — Ozzy Osbourne

The Dean of St Pauls talks absolute balls, The Dean of Westminster showed his to a spinster The Dean of Oswestry frisks girls in the vestry The Bishop of Birmingham buggers boys while confirming 'em, The Bishop of Norwich makes them come in his porridge, The Dean of West Ham smears their bottoms with jam. — Jean Findlay

She's a skank. He's a player. He's cute but almost OD'd last year, so he's a bad bet. She's a two-faced, lying, cheating witch. That's right, Trina, I'm talking to you," she shouted. "By the way," she added just for me, "Trina cusses, which means cussing is trashy, which means my golden rule is to never cuss. I have class. Unlike Trina, the skank of Birmingham." The last part was, of course, shouted. — Gena Showalter

Each year they threw open the grounds of the manor house for a party attended by children from some of the roughest districts of Birmingham. They built a large hall known as The Barn in the park to provide tea and refreshments for up to seven hundred children. George Sr., with his love of nature, believed strongly that every child should have access to playing outside in clean air. Games were organized in the open fields, but the star attraction was the open-air baths. More than fifty children could bathe at any one time, and for the young visitors, most of whom had no access to a bath, it was thrilling. The sun on their backs, the sparkling water always inviting, the boys from the inner cities had no desire to leave and would stay in all day, until they were blue and shivering and cleaner than they had been in years. — Deborah Cadbury

As a young singer, you have to get experience somehow, to try things out and grow as a singer. They way you do that is by going through the ranks and singing at companies like Opera Birmingham. It's a perfect place to foster a career. — Susanna Phillips

Nobody wants a house in Osaka,' he said, and it was strange to hear him switch suddenly to foreign pronunciation in the middle of his English. 'It would mean you had to live in Osaka.'

'What's wrong with it?'

'It's like . . . Birmingham. — Natasha Pulley

You do not give your precious body to the billy clubs of Birmingham sheriffs, nor to the insidious activity of the streets. — Ta-Nehisi Coates

Statistically, to embrace this level of socio-cultural change will invariably lead to the enforcement of Sharia Law on the major towns and cities in Europe and Britain, (such as London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Lincolnshire etc.) Any area, in which Sharia Law is already borderline enforced near no-go zones. — Anita B. Sulser PhD

The saddest face I ever saw on Martin Luther King was at the funeral of the four little girls slain in Birmingham, Alabama. — James A. Forbes

I was in college, but I got kicked out. It was a very free school, but I created a "bad impression." Like I was a bit more fiery in those days. At the time I got kicked out, I knew exactly what I was going to do and didn't even bother to go back for a leaving certificate. Then I was singing in folk clubs around Birmingham and playing jazz in clubs on Sundays. — Steve Winwood

African Americans had been compelled to work in Alabama mines prior to the Great Depression. His grandfather, once a coal miner himself, had told him stories of a similar burial field near the family home place south of Birmingham. — Douglas A. Blackmon

We have a dire need to get onto the page as a sustainable country — Digby Jones, Baron Jones Of Birmingham

I first played the Royal Albert Hall when I was 14. I was a violinist with the Birmingham Schools Concert Orchestra, and we travelled down from the Midlands for the last night of the School Proms. We played some pieces from the Harry Potter films, and the violin parts were really hard. — Laura Mvula

My family is from Liverpool, so I have some of those vowel sounds, I've got the slack tone of someone from Birmingham, and then I was raised in Bedford, which is just north of London. So my accent, if it's possible, makes even less sense to a Brit than to an American. — John Oliver

Cycling to work is an important issue for business - the more who do it, the more our communities will support it. Healthy and green, cycling is worthy of the support of every business in the land. — Digby Jones, Baron Jones Of Birmingham

The thing that you think to be limiting you right now, could be the thing that will liberate you. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

He never had nothing of his own before, except the kid, and he can't claim but half the credit, there, maybe less. T.J.'s blond like his mamma, and stubborn, too. Won't let nobody hold him except her. Cries every time his daddy picks him up. Every time he looks in those wet blue eyes, he nearly loses it. His own son hates him. Can't blame the kid for having an opinion. — Nadria Tucker

When I first began visiting West Germany in the early 1980s, I was startled by the contrast between Birmingham, where I went to school, and affluent Cologne. My host family, the lovely Schumachers, always had an opulent array of grapes on the table; they were better dressed than anyone I knew in Britain. — Luke Harding

All I've got on my iPod is every single Queen song and every single Judas Priest song. Queen were an incredible heavy metal band. I saw them on their first ever tour, at Birmingham Town Hall. They just blew me away. — Rob Halford

Nobody black had learned anything from the 'Letter from the Birmingham Jail' or from the 'I Have a Dream' speech. That was a revelation of white people. — Andrew Young

Note for Americans and other aliens: Milton Keynes is a new city approximately halfway between London and Birmingham. It was built to be modern, efficient, healthy, and, all in all, a pleasant place to live. Many Britons find this amusing. — Neil Gaiman

300 million people turned into jelly by The Wave and Rupert Murdoch wasn't one of them. There is no god. — John Birmingham

If you want to feel and know everything the horse is doing, begin by feeling and knowing everything you are doing. — Catherine Louise Birmingham

I grew up in Birmingham, where they made useful things and made them well. — Lee Child

Birmingham City Council was playing third time lucky with the design of the city's celebrated Victoria Square ... — Tom Holt

Pittsburg is like Birmingham in England; at least its townspeople say so. Setting aside the streets, the shops, the houses, waggons, factories, public buildings, and population, perhaps it may be. It certainly has a great quantity of smoke hanging about it, and is famous for its iron-works. Besides the prison to which I have already referred, this town contains a pretty arsenal and other institutions. It is very beautifully situated on the Alleghany River, over which there are two bridges; and the villas of the wealthier citizens sprinkled about the high grounds in the neighbourhood, are pretty enough. We lodged at a most excellent hotel, and were admirably served. As usual it was full of boarders, was very large, and had a broad colonnade to every story of the house. — Charles Dickens

I don't know if that result's enough to life Birmingham off the bottom of the table, although it'll certainly take them above Sunderland — Mike Ingham

I would not hesitate to say that it is unfortunate that so-called demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham at this time, but I would say in more emphatic terms that it is even more unfortunate that the white power structure of this city left the Negro community with no other alternative. — Martin Luther King Jr.

One of my colleagues in Birmingham University, where I come from,' said Trevair, 'is a moral philosopher. He taught me that one of the ways to judge a course of action is to consider what company it puts one in. I doubt if that's very good philosophy, but I find it a good rule of thumb. — Jill Paton Walsh

Down in the valley, valley so low
Hang your head over, hear the wind blow
Hear the wind blow, love, hear the wind blow
Hang your head over, hear the wind blow"
"Roses love sunshine, violets love dew
Angels in heaven know I love you
Know I love you, love, know I love you
Angels in heaven know I love you."

Write me a letter, send it by mail
Send it in care of the Birmingham jail
Birmingham jail, love, Birmingham jail
Send it in care of the Birmingham jail."

Build me a castle, forty feet high
So I can see her as she rides by
As she rides by, dear, as she rides by
So I can see her as she rides by — Amy Harmon

He felt as if he'd woken up, weak and confused, only to be told that he'd spent the last three weeks in bed with a fever
and that during his illness, Queen Victoria had abdicated the throne and run off with a lion-tamer from Birmingham. The world seemed an entirely different place. — Courtney Milan