Holzer Quotes & Sayings

Just a week earlier, coincidentally, he had quietly terminated a little known year-and-a-half-long stint as silent co-owner of Springfield's German language newspaper. Lincoln had invested $400 in the publication in 1859 to ensure its total loyalty to the Republican party. Mission accomplished, he now turned over full ownership of the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger, presses, type, and all, to his neighbor, editor Theodore Canisius. (Later, Lincoln further rewarded Canisius with a more valuable commodity: the consulate in Vienna.) — Harold Holzer

James M. McPherson spoke for a later generation of scholars when he asserted in 1988 that Lincoln's entire, public inaugural journey might have been a "mistake," because in his effort to avoid "a careless remark or slip of the tongue" that might "inflame the crisis further," the president-elect "indulged in platitudes and trivia," producing "an unfavorable impression on those who were already disposed to regard the ungainly president-elect as a commonplace prairie lawyer. — Harold Holzer

There's a fine line between information and propaganda. — Jenny Holzer

A positive attitude means all the difference in the world. — Jenny Holzer

Savor kindness because cruelty is always possible later. — Jenny Holzer

One of my symptoms included my obsession with ghosts and law enforcement
I carry around a police badge with me, for example. I became obsessed by Hans Holzer, the greatest ghost hunter ever. That's when the idea of my film Ghostbusters was born. — Dan Aykroyd

With all the holes in you already there's no reason to define the outside environment as alien. — Jenny Holzer

I KNOW WHO YOU ARE
AND IT DOES ME
NO GOOD AT ALL — Jenny Holzer

It's necessary to start most work alone. But I'm tickled to death when I can pull somebody in or join someone, whether it's borrowing poetry or traveling with an associate. — Jenny Holzer

I'm the only English thing they can vent their anger on. — Harold Holzer

Expressing anger is necessary. — Jenny Holzer

Lincoln received one more painful reminder that he was still a target for criticism. Walking between his home and office, he noticed a group of young boys teasing an agitated stray goat. When the animal hungrily spied the taller target, it turned from the children and tried butting Lincoln instead, until he was forced to seize it by the horns in self-defense. As the youngsters watched in delight, the president-elect of the United States gave his first post-election speech - to an angry goat. He might as well have been speaking to the South when he shouted: "I didn't bother you. It was the boys. Why don't you go and butt the boys. I wouldn't trouble you. — Harold Holzer

IT'S NO FUN WATCHING PEOPLE WOUND
THEMSELVES SO THAT THEY CAN HOLE UP,
NURSE THEMSELVES BACK TO HEALTH,
AND REPEAT THE CYCLE.
THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO. — Jenny Holzer

Not everyone was laughing. Ascribing "incapacity, stupidity, imbecility, gross ignorance and habitual venality" to the stalemated Congress, the New York Herald angrily concluded that "no remedy whatever is to be looked for from their representatives." Sounding eerily like President Buchanan in his December annual message, it blamed not Southern extremism but "republican fanaticism" for the current "avalanche of destruction. — Harold Holzer

Lincoln must have welcomed the chance that evening to escape from such friends, if only to submit to a final fitting for the recently delivered inaugural suit from the Chicago tailors Titsworth & Brother. — Harold Holzer

How could Lincoln reply to such comments, without offending abolitionists or frightening slave-owning Unionists from the Upper South? Placating words were likewise out of the question. A plea from Virginia suggesting Lincoln need do no more than assure Southerners they had the right to bring their property into all American territories reminded the dubious president-elect of an apt story. It concerned a little girl who begged her mother to let her play outside. The mother repeatedly said no, the child persisted, and the mother finally lost patience and gave her a whipping, "upon which," Lincoln chortled, "the girl exclaimed: 'Now, Ma. I can certainly run out. — Harold Holzer

Food won't go down when you know your mother didn't want you, never liked to feed you, always hated you in her rooms. You were wrong to clutch and swallow and move your mouth. You must not be flushed, layered in fat or ripe from meat or she will despise your sight. Your skeleton cries, "I make no demands, I am ashamed of my needs, I am unworthy. I'm aware of those more deserving, those with prior and urgent claims to food." Skeleton says, "My safety is in slightness, my pride is denial. My victory is no gluttony, no guilt. — Jenny Holzer

What urge will save us now that sex won't? — Jenny Holzer

A little knowledge can go a long way. — Jenny Holzer

The desperate things seem to require attention, the lovely things seem to elicit celebration. If I had to choose, I would go to the awful in the hope that doing something could yield a happier result. — Jenny Holzer

I'd paint long strips of canvas and abandon them on the beach, or put bread out in geometric patterns for the pigeons downtown. I wanted people to find something nice and intriguing to puzzle over. Then I'd go back to see if the things were still there, or if anyone would notice. — Jenny Holzer

His secretary heard Lincoln authoritatively remind a caller on November 15 that "this government possesses both the authority and the power to maintain its own integrity." Here was Jacksonian firmness to spare. "That, however, is not the ugly point of this matter," Lincoln added grimly. "The ugly point is the necessity of keeping the government by force, as ours ought to be a government of fraternity. — Harold Holzer

I WALK IN / I SEE YOU / I WATCH YOU / I SCAN YOU / I WAIT FOR YOU / I TICKLE YOU / I TEASE YOU / I SEARCH YOU / I BREATHE YOU / I TALK / I SMILE / I TOUCH YOUR HAIR / YOU ARE THE ONE / YOU ARE THE ONE WHO DID THIS TO ME / YOU ARE MY OWN / I SHOW YOU / I FEEL YOU / I ASK YOU / I DON'T ASK / I DON'T WAIT / I WON'T ASK YOU / I CAN'T TELL YOU / I LIE / I AM CRYING HARD / THERE WAS BLOOD / NO ONE TOLD ME / NO ONE KNEW / MY MOTHER KNOWS / I FORGET YOUR NAME / I DON'T THINK / I BURY MY HEAD / I BURY YOUR HEAD / I BURY YOU / MY FEVER / MY SKIN / I CANNOT BREATHE / I CANNOT EAT / I CANNOT WALK / I AM LOSING TIME / I AM LOSING TIME / I AM LOSING GROUND / I CANNOT STAND IT / I CRY / I CRY OUT / I BITE / I BITE YOUR LIP / I BREATHE YOUR BREATH / I PULSE / I PRAY / I PRAY ALOUD / I SMELL YOU ON MY SKIN / I SAY THE WORD / I SAY YOUR NAME / I COVER YOU / I SHELTER YOU / I RUN FROM YOU / I SLEEP BESIDE YOU / I SMELL YOU ON MY CLOTHES / I KEEP YOUR CLOTHES — Jenny Holzer

Killing is unavoidable but is nothing to be proud of — Jenny Holzer

FEW CAN IGNORE A BABY'S CRIES,
EVEN IF THE RESPONSE IS IRRITATION.
THIS IS ONE OF THE BUILT IN SAFEGUARDS
THAT IS SUPPOSED TO GUARANTEE
THE SURVIVAL OF THE RACE. — Jenny Holzer

Historian David M. Potter pointed out in 1942 that as president-elect, Lincoln was no more than "simply a lawyer from Springfield, Illinois - a man of great undeveloped capacities and narrowly limited background. He was more fit to become President than to be President. — Harold Holzer

The revelers in the State House, however, had no intention of retiring for the night. Instead they emptied into the streets and massed outside the telegraph office, shouting "New York 50,000 majority for Lincoln - whoop, whoop hurrah!" The entire city "went off like one immense cannon report, with shouting from houses, shouting from stores, shouting from house tops, and shouting everywhere. — Harold Holzer

One writer may speak of something more lasting than Horace Greeley when he writes of that editor that his secular philanthropy drifted into autocratic ambition. — Harold Holzer

Lincoln jibed that a general INVADED Canada without resistance and out-vaded it without pursuit. — Harold Holzer

President-elect Lincoln to his confidants: "The people of the South do not know us. They are not allowed to receive Republican papers down there. — Harold Holzer

Greeley knew no language but his, but of that, he possessed a most extraordinary mastery. An employee — Harold Holzer

Knowing yourself lets you understand others. — Jenny Holzer

Sloppy thinking gets worse over time. — Jenny Holzer

I get up about four times a night and go back to sleep, or not. Then I swill tea around 8 a.m. I answer e-mail, while I stall thinking about whatever scares me. — Jenny Holzer

The epiphany for me was that I wasn't a writer, and I had to do something with these texts. I put them in the streets as posters. — Jenny Holzer

The press-savy Lincoln looked not to the future, but to the past. — Harold Holzer

Being alone with yourself is increasingly unpopular. — Jenny Holzer

It is embarrassing to be caught and killed for stupid reasons — Jenny Holzer

Success does not bring happiness. Success brings success. — Joanie Holzer Schirm

Any surplus is immoral. — Jenny Holzer

How do you resign yourself to something that will never be? You stop wanting just that thing. You go numb. Or you kill the agent of desire. — Jenny Holzer

Even more secretively, Lincoln took up his pen around this same time to write a deeply felt manifesto of principle that he shared with absolutely no one, certainly not sculptor Thomas Jones, in whose presence he likely composed it. Secret or not, it bracingly confirms Lincoln's steadfast determination to preserve - and ultimately, extend - not only the permanence of the Union, but also its guarantee of liberty. He had thought much about these questions in recent days, pondering concepts that went well beyond the planks of the Republican platform he so often cited. The result was an appeal not just to reason but also to emotion, a heartfelt justification for resisting any compromise that reneged on the original promise of American freedom. — Harold Holzer

Lincoln likely concluded - was, as Jackson had put it, "fallacious" in its justifications and, "in direct violation of their duty as citizens of the United States, contrary to the laws of their country, subversive of its Constitution, and having for its object the destruction of the Union." As Jackson had bluntly concluded: "Disunion by armed force is treason. — Harold Holzer

FEMALE VOICE: 'The truth is people are pushed around by two men who move all the bodies on earth into patterns that please them.'

MALE VOICE: 'I love my mind when it is fucking the cracks of events.'

MALE VOICE: 'What I give to all the people who do not want to live with me is arithmetic.'

FEMALE VOICE: 'Everyday, I do nothing important because I am scared blank and lazy. But then the men come. I put my mouth on them. I spit and write with the wet.'

MALE VOICE: 'I was not born live. This body grew but I did not feel cells split. — Jenny Holzer

Southern newspapers hungry for fodder to roil the secession debate fed their subscribers the most inciteful material they could unearth in the Northern press. Northern journals scoured Southern papers for similarly provocative reports designed to confirm hotheaded Southern disloyalty. — Harold Holzer

In March 1861 alone - Lincoln's first month in office - the U.S. Senate would receive for its advice and consent some sixty pages of names submitted for civilian and military appointments ranging from secretary of state to surveyor-general of Minnesota. — Harold Holzer

A ghost is a human being who has passed out of the physical body, usually in a traumatic state and is not aware usually of his true condition. We are all spirits encased in a physical body. At the time of passing, our spirit body continues into the next dimension. A ghost, on the other hand, due to trauma, is stuck in our physical world and needs to be released to go on. — Hans Holzer

One of Lincoln's intimates as a presidential candidate urged him to make no promises and not to part with those kind words which could be interpreted as promises. — Harold Holzer

The will to disbelieve is the strongest deterrent to wider horizons. — Hans Holzer

I wanted to support things that are helpful to people and maybe bash what I think is dangerous. So I switched from being everybody to being myself. — Jenny Holzer

It's good to be employable, but I hope to show the truth. The paintings seem true because nobody wants me to do them. — Jenny Holzer

One of the cost of holding a Federal office was geographic isolation in the nation's capital. — Harold Holzer

Go where people sleep and see if they are safe — Jenny Holzer

Alienation produces eccentrics or revolutionary. — Jenny Holzer

Around the same time, the president-elect opened an equally chilling letter from yet another anonymous enemy in Washington: "Caesar had his Brutus. Charles the First his Cromwell. And the President may profit by their example." The letter was signed "Vindex" - the name of the first Roman governor to rebel against Nero - "one of a sworn band of 10, who have resolved to shoot you in the inaugural procession on the 4th of March, 1861. — Harold Holzer

The mid-19th century was noted for a partisan, rather than a consensus press, but this partisanship was able to turn out voters consistently. — Harold Holzer

HOW DO YOU FIND THE RIGHT POSITION
TO LIE DOWN WITH PEOPLE
OR EVEN ANIMALS?
OFTEN ONE OF THE PARTNERS IS
SMOTHERED OR CONTORTED.
WHEN DONE PROPERLY, THOUGH,
EVERYONE IS HAPPY. — Jenny Holzer

That's the test of street art - to see if anybody stopped. People would cross out ones they didn't like and would star others. I liked that people would engage with them. — Jenny Holzer

Fighting newspaper editors for the last word was a losing proposition. — Harold Holzer

Stupid people shouldn't breed. — Jenny Holzer

Fear is the greatest incapacitator. — Jenny Holzer

The harried Lincoln made clear to Sumner that he believed compromise would simply open the door for further demands and more concessions: "Give them personal liberty bills, and they will pull in the slack, hold on, and insist on the border-state compromises. Give them that, they'll again pull in the slack and demand Crittenden's compromise. That pulled in, they will want all that South Carolina asks." He "would sooner go out into his backyard and hang himself." Then Lincoln punctuated his resolve with a down-home pledge: "By no act or complicity of mine shall the Republican party become a mere sucked egg, all shell and no principle in it. — Harold Holzer

I'd been doing projects outdoors for the public. I made pigeons eat geometry by putting bread out in rhomboids and triangles. I don't know if this activity made sense, but the work was available. — Jenny Holzer

A sense of timing is the mark of a genius. — Jenny Holzer

General literature without the humbug," was the New Yorker's original mission. — Harold Holzer

Slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparison — Jenny Holzer

I wanted to be an abstract painter, but I was rotten at it. — Jenny Holzer

Exceptional people deserve special concessions. — Jenny Holzer

And Indiana's John Defrees expressed his belief that the inclusion of Winfield Scott of Virginia, Alexander Stephens of Georgia, and Edward Bates of Missouri "would do much to bring about a re-action among the people of all the Southern States except S. Carolina, which is insane beyond hope of cure."134 (Stephens himself later branded as "totally groundless" the "rumor" that he had ever discussed a cabinet appointment with the president-elect. — Harold Holzer

Irritably, Piatt replied that "in ninety days the land would be whitened by tents." But Lincoln would not take the bait. He merely replied: "Well, we won't jump that ditch until we come to it," pausing before he added: "I must run the machine as I find it." Piatt left dinner wondering why the "strange and strangely gifted" Lincoln remained "so blind. — Harold Holzer

At times inactivity is preferable to mindless functioning. — Jenny Holzer

Samuel FB Morse's SECOND question over the telegraph was, "Have you any news? — Harold Holzer

Faithfulness is a social not a biological law. — Jenny Holzer

In all my years of Ghost Hunting I have never been afraid, after all, a ghost is only a fellow human being in trouble — Hans Holzer

THE IMPULSE IS TO SQUEEZE AND
FONDLE BABY WILD ANIMALS
BUT THEN THEY'D BE BROKEN AND
WHAT GOOD WOULD THEY BE? — Jenny Holzer

SPIT ALL OVER SOMEONE WITH A MOUTHFUL OF MILK IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT SOMETHING ABOUT THEIR PERSONALITY FAST. — Jenny Holzer

I seldom have my stuff up unless I'm testing it. If I'm worrying about a painting, I put it up and see if I detest it quickly or slowly. Otherwise I have things by other artists. — Jenny Holzer

In state after state, one portentous incident after another, breathlessly reported in newspapers throughout the country in the days following the election, alarmed even confident Republicans who had insisted that a Lincoln victory could never loosen the bonds that held the Union together. As early as November 9, pro-secession placards appeared on the streets of New Orleans, calling for the formation of a defense corps of Minutemen. Dissidents unfurled palmetto flags in Charleston, where artillery saluted their appearance by opening fire with a defiant fifteen-gun cannonade. — Harold Holzer

I SAW THEIR STUNNING BODIES GO SLACK
AND GET HAIR IN THE WRONG PLACES
AND I VOWED I WOULD NOT PERMIT
THAT TO HAPPEN TO ME. — Jenny Holzer

But no opposition grumbling could spoil the moment for the new president-elect. He donned his overcoat, thanked the telegraph operators for their hard work and hospitality, and stuffed the final dispatch from New York into his pocket as a souvenir. It was about time, he announced to one and all, that he "went home and told the news to a tired woman who was sitting up for him. — Harold Holzer

Well, I think in trying to make life seem real enough that one is moved to do something about the more atrocious things. By going really far afield into a completely fake world, maybe there's a chance to make things resonant somehow - or in this case, truly terrifying. To make it as bad as the real stuff that's happening. — Jenny Holzer

Only a writer "with Bennett's craft and brass could manage to praise and insult his readers at the same time. — Harold Holzer

The author observers that better technology actually increased division because rival outlets funded by rival parties could get their slant to the partisans — Harold Holzer

WHEN YOU'RE TRYING SOMETHING NEW,
YOU'RE TORN BETWEEN
ANTICIPATING A DELIGHTFUL SURPRISE
AND THINKING YOU'RE A FOOL TO
IGNORE WHAT YOU KNOW YOU LIKE. — Jenny Holzer

BY YOUR RESPONSE TO DANGER IT IS
EASY TO TELL HOW YOU HAVE LIVED
AND WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO YOU.
YOU SHOW WHETHER YOU WANT TO STAY ALIVE,
WHETHER YOU THINK YOU DESERVE TO,
AND WHETHER YOU BELIEVE
IT'S ANY GOOD TO ACT. — Jenny Holzer

All things are delicately interconnected. — Jenny Holzer

MANY DOGS RUN WILD IN THE CITY.
SOME ARE ABANDONED BY THEIR OWNERS
AND OTHERS ARE BORN TO LOST DOGS.
STRAYS HAVE A LIMITED LIFE EXPECTANCY
EVEN WHEN THEY BAND TOGETHER IN PACKS.
THEY ARE PREY TO DISEASE, PARASITES,
WEATHER AND AUTOMOBILES.
THEY TEND TO BE FRIGHTENED AND VICIOUS.
THEY ARE UNABLE TO PROTECT THEMSELVES
OR ANYONE ELSE. — Jenny Holzer

TRYING TO BE POPULAR IN HIGH SCHOOL IS LIKE TRYING TO BE MAYOR OF A CITY THAT WON'T EXIST IN FOUR YEARS. — Jenny Holzer

On the worst days, I don't feel like an artist. — Jenny Holzer

John J. Hendee of Blackman, Michigan, argued that he was entitled to a job simply because he was "governed by the principles" outlined on an enclosed card. Labeled, "God's Commands," the manifesto called on its bearers to worship God, tell the truth, abstain from "intoxicating drinks," and avoid marrying "blood relation[s]." The list of commandments ended with the warning: "Waste not your strength in any unnatural manner" - in other words, do not masturbate. — Harold Holzer

I really like doing the laundry, because I succeed at it. But I loathe putting it away. It is already clean. — Jenny Holzer

I moved to New York in the 1970s and started writing when I was at the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. — Jenny Holzer

Lincoln on a desire to hear Horace Greeley speak: "In print, every one of his words seems to weigh about a ton. — Harold Holzer

One paper boasted that its subscription and advertising numbers proved that America did not need the social change it rival paper advocated. — Harold Holzer

In 1945 I help liberate Berlin. I was six years in Red Army," Rogov said, his eyes gleaming with the memory. — Erika Holzer

Raise boys and girls the same way. — Jenny Holzer

If you have many desires your life will be interesting. — Jenny Holzer

From "boyhood up," as Lincoln once confided to his old friend Ward Hill Lamon, "my ambition was to be President. — Harold Holzer

The firmament breaks up. In black eclipse Light after light goes out. One evil star, Luridly glaring through the smoke of war, As in the dream of the Apocalypse, Drags others down. — Harold Holzer

I'm always trying to bring unusual content to a different audience - a non-art-world audience. — Jenny Holzer