Tag: facts

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The Vikings: 300 Quotes, Facts and Sayings About the Norse Warriors of Ancient Scandinavia

Discover the Epic Quotes and Wisdom of One of History’s Most Fascinating Warrior Cultures, The Vikings.

From the rugged and icy lands of ancient Scandinavia was forged the seafaring, axe-wielding, long bearded Vikings. But what is myth and what is fact? Were these Norse peoples just simple ale drinking, pillaging savages as they are so often depicted? The truth may surprise you, that under this falsely portrayed stereotype, lay one of history’s most unique and interesting cultures. The Vikings were a deeply spiritual, family oriented, honorable people, the majority of whom lived simple lives as farmers,fishermen, traders and explorers. There are grand poems and stories of epic heroes, frightful beasts, and mighty Gods. Viking explorers reached North America centuries before Columbus. Merchants traded their goods as far east as Baghdad, and their infamous raiding warriors settled new lands, with their descendants even becoming great Kings of Western Europe. There are many untold tales and mysteries to be solved in this book, and I hope to shed some new light on a culture that still fascinates us today.

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The Spartans: 300 Quotes, Facts and Sayings of History’s Greatest Warriors.

Discover the Fascinating Way of Life of History’s Most Elite Soldiers, The Spartans.

The Spartans. The famous warrior society of ancient Greece. Renowned for their ferocity in battle, rigid self-discipline, and their legendary wit and terseness. These rugged, crimson clad soldiers knew a lifestyle that few of us today could imagine or endure. Both Spartan men and woman, from the day they were born, to their often early deaths, constantly trained their bodies and minds to be as hard and immovable as stone.

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Bernard Shaw: Quotes & Facts

This book is an anthology of 217 quotes from George Bernard Shaw and 73 selected facts about George Bernard Shaw.   George Bernard Shaw receives a Nobel Prize for Literature 1925. Between 1879 and 1883 George Bernard Shaw earned only £6 from his writings. His wife Charlotte resolved to have no children and abstained from sex completely throughout the marriage. As a music critic, George Bernard Shaw championed the German composer Richard Wagner. George Bernard Shaw is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938) for work on transcribing Pygmalion (adaptation of his play of the same name). At the age of 16, George Bernard Shaw lived through the breakup of his parent’s marriage, as his mother left to live with her singing coach. Shaw stayed with his father. Shaw actually hated the George in his name, and used just Bernard Shaw. George Bernard Shaw was known to dislike aristocrats and nobleman. One time he received invitation from local lord stating: “Lord C. Will be home Tuesday between 4 and 6”. Bernard Shaw returned invitation and wrote down: “George Bernard Shaw too”. Shaw’s views on sex, marriage, and domestic bliss stemmed from his seduction, at 29, by Jenny Paterson, a woman he later described as “sexually insatiable.” George Bernard Shaw was a vegetarian.   “I’m an atheist and I thank God for it.” “Lack of money is the root of all evil.” “Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.” “There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.” “The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.” “A book is like a child: it is easier to bring it into the world than to control it when it is launched there.” “A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.” “A fool’s brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.” “A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.” “A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” “A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” “A learned man is an idler who kills time by study.”

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Ernest Hemingway: Quotes & Facts

This book is an anthology of 160 quotes from Ernest Hemingway and 70 selected by Blago Kirov facts about Ernest Hemingway. It grants Hemingway’s reflections on subjects ranging from the Old Man to the Sea; in addition, the book shows the personality of Ernest Hemingway into more human light:   Ernest Hemingway proposed the following epitaph for his tombstone: “Pardon me for not getting up.” Hemingway never wrote for the movies. Hemingway’s maternal grandparents were from England. Throughout his lifetime, Hemingway lived in Oak Park, Kansas City, Italy, Toronto, Chicago, Paris, Key West, Cuba, and Idaho. Hemingway often drank with James Joyce in Paris. In 1948, in Venice, Hemingway fell in love with the then 19-year-old Adriana Ivancich. The love affair inspired the novel Across the River and Into the Trees. Hemingway preferred to work standing up, spending hours and hours at a time on his feet, moving only to shift his weight from one leg to the other.     “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” “Fish,” he said softly, aloud, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.” “Fish,” he said, “I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.” “Never sit a table when you can stand at the bar.” “Show the readers everything, tell them nothing.” “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” “There isn’t always an explanation for everything.” “Work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up and bite on the nail.”

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Thomas Jefferson: Quotes & Facts

This book is an anthology of 205 quotes from Thomas Jefferson and selected by Blago Kirov facts about Thomas Jefferson. It grants his reflections on subjects ranging from Happiness and Americans to Art of Life; in addition, the book shows the personality of Thomas Jefferson into a different than legend, more human light: Thomas Jefferson had 12 grandchildren, and many of them lived with him at the same time. Thomas Jefferson wrote about 19,000 letters during his lifetime. Thomas Jefferson used a machine called a polygraph that made copies as he wrote. Thomas Jefferson kept pet mockingbirds. His favorite bird was named Dick. Thomas Jefferson was a very gifted violin player. “I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” “Eat to live, don’t live to eat.” “1.Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. 2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself. 3. Never spend your money before you have it. 4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you. 5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold. 6. We never repent of having eaten too little. 7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 8. How much pain has cost us the evils which have never happened. 9. Take things always by their smooth handle. 10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, a hundred.”

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Frida Kahlo: Quotes & Facts

This book is an anthology of 90 quotes from Frida Kahlo and 60 selected by Blago Kirov facts about Frida Kahlo. It grants her reflections on subjects ranging from Hope, Joy and Painting to Pain Pleasure and Deaht; in addition, the book shows the personality of Frida Kahlo into a different light. When Frida Kahlo married Diego Rivera, Diego was 42 years old, and 300 pounds; Frida was 22 years old, and just 98 pounds. In 1928 Frida painted a portrait of a woman who went on to have an affair with her husband Diego Rivera. The woman was her sister Cristina. Frida have a love affair with Leon Trotsky in 1937. Trotsky’s fame and Diego’s admiration for him, coupled with Frida’s desire to hurt Diego after he had an affair with her sister, led Frida to have an affair with Trotsky. By the end of her life, Frida had drawn more than fifty self-portraits. In Mexico, Frida Kahlo is known as “la heroina del dolor” (the heroine of pain). The last words in Frida’s diary read “I hope the end is joyful and I hope never to come back.” “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?” “Tree of Hope, stay strong!” “I am female, but I have talent!” “I was born a bitch. “I was born a painter.” “Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are a bourbon biscuit.” “You are all the combinations of numbers…” “They are a bunch of coo coo, lunatic, sons of bitches surrealists.” “Doctor, if you let me take this tequila, I promise you not to drink at my funeral.”

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Thomas Edison: Quotes & Facts

This book is an anthology of 92 quotes from Thomas Edison and 70 selected facts about Thomas Edison. I start where the last man left off. Everyone steals in commerce and industry. I’ve stolen a lot, myself. But I know how to steal! They don’t know how to steal! All bibles are man-made. Great ideas originate in the muscles. I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure. Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success. Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business. Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous. Be brave as your fathers before you. Have faith! Go forward! Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing Discontent is the first necessity of progress. Thomas Edison was home-schooled. The Edison’s kinetoscope was a machine where you put in a coin, look through a peephole in a cabinet, and watch a short motion picture. When Thomas Edison lay dying at his home in New Jersey, newspaper reporters were anxiously awaiting a sign from his wife of his death. She signaled Edison’s passing by turning a light on, not off, in his bedroom. Thomas Edison reportedly drank “wine coca” – a medicinal tonic made from coca leaves, the same type of coca that cocaine is extracted from – during marathon research sessions that ran into the night. Using a primitive cylinder and foil device, Thomas Edison created the first known recording of a human voice: his own, reciting the poem “Mary Had A Little Lamb”. Thomas Edison was close friend of Henry Ford. In 1931, when Thomas Edison died, his estate was estimated at well over $12 million. His estate included shares of Thomas A. Edison, Inc. valued at more than $10 million, $1,342,000 in United States bonds, $48,000 in railroad bonds, $48,000 in cash, and 76,000 shares in 37 different companies that no longer exist. Nikola Tesla briefly worked for Edison as a technician but quit after arguing with Thomas Edison one too many times. Thomas Edison built his own science laboratory at the age of 10. This was built in the basement of his home.

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Oscar Wilde: Quotes & Facts

This book is an anthology of 230 brilliant quotes and aphorisms from Oscar Wilde and selected facts about Oscar Wilde. It grants his reflections on subjects ranging from Genius to Stupidity; in addition, the book shows the personality of Oscar Wilde into a different, more human light:   Oscar Wilde’s mother wanted a girl and often dressed the young Oscar in girls’ clothing.  Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray was based on John Gray, an incredibly handsome blond poet that Wilde met in 1889. Oscar Wilde’s mother was a feminist. Oscar Wilde died bankrupt, and his friends could only afford a sixth-class burial. Wilde married Constance Lloyd, daughter of wealthy Queen’s Counsel Horace Lloyd, on May 29, 1884 and had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan. Wilde’s intimate association with Alfred Douglas led to his trial on charges of homosexuality, then illegal in Britain. He was sentenced two years hard labor for the crime of sodomy. Oscar Wilde changed his name by the time of his death to Sebastian Melmoth. He called himself Sebastien because he loved a portrait of St Sebastien and Melmoth after the book “Melmoth the Wanderer”, which was written by his mother’s uncle. Oscar Wilde’s father had three illegitimate children before he married Jane Francesca Elegee.   “I have nothing to declare except my genius.” “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” “I love to talk about nothing. It’s the only thing I know anything about.” “There is no sin except stupidity.” “Some things are too important to be taken seriously.” “Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.” “Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.” “Every woman is a rebel.” “Everything popular is wrong.” “Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.” “The world is a stage and the play is badly cast.” “Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.”

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Nikola Tesla: Quotes & Facts

This book is an anthology of 80 quotes from Nikola Tesla and 80 selected facts about Nikola Tesla.   Nikola Tesla was born around midnight, between July 9 and July 10, 1856 during a fierce lightning storm. Tesla was 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) tall and weighed 142 pounds (64 kg), with almost no weight variance from 1888 to about 1926. Tesla’s eyes were gray-blue. Nikola Tesla was fluent in many languages besides his native Serbian; he also spoke English, French, German, Italian, Czech, Hungarian and Latin. Nikola Tesla was good friends with Mark Twain. Tesla’s father Milutin was a Serbian Orthodox priest. Before entering a building Nikola Tesla would circle the block 3 times. Tesla had a terrific sense of humor. Nikola Tesla invented the radio before Guglielmo Marconi, who would receive the Nobel Prize for it. Nikola Tesla lived many years in New York City, and spent his last decade living there in the Hotel New Yorker. He lived in room 3327, a two-room suite on the 33rd floor. On January 7, 1943: Nikola Tesla died penniless and alone in room #3327 of the Hotel New Yorker. After learning of Tesla’s death, the FBI ordered the Alien Property Custodian to seize all of Tesla’s belongings.   It seems that I have always been ahead of my time. I had to wait nineteen years before Niagara was harnessed by my system, fifteen years before the basic inventions for wireless which I gave to the world in 1893 were applied universally. Money does not represent such a value as men have placed upon it. All my money has been invested into experiments with which I have made new discoveries enabling mankind to have a little easier life. Archimedes was my ideal. I admired the works of artists, but to my mind, they were only shadows and semblances. The inventor, I thought, gives to the world creations which are palpable, which live and work. I have harnessed the cosmic rays and caused them to operate a motive device. The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.