“From my cold, dead hands” – Charlton Heston’s most famous and infamous words

On May 19, 2001, actor Charlton Heston (1924-2008), was elected to an unprecedented fourth term as the president of the National Rifle Association.

He gave a rousing acceptance speech that day to NRA members attending the group’s annual convention in Kansas City.

He praised them as defenders of freedom, saying, “You are of the same lineage as the farmers who stood at Concord Bridge” at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Then, holding a Revolutionary War-style Brooks flintlock rifle over his head, Heston uttered what quickly became his most famous quotation that wasn’t a movie line.

It also became Heston’s most infamous quote.

Referring to Democratic Presidential candidate Al Gore and other people who supposedly wanted to take away Americans’ right to own guns, he said:

       “I have only five words for you: From my cold, dead hands.”

Earlier in his career, Heston took public stands on other controversial political issues.

He marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights activists in the 1960s to support equal rights for African Americans.

He also defended First Amendment free speech rights.

But, fairly or not, Heston’s most remembered political stand is the one he took on gun rights later in life.

His high profile leadership of the NRA made him a hero to gun rights advocates and a pariah to people who want fewer guns and more gun control.

And, of course, like any notable quote, his “cold, dead hands” phrase has been recycled and repurposed in many ways since 2001.

The snarkiest example is the headline run by The Onion after Heston died on April 5, 2008.

It said: “Charlton Heston’s Gun Taken From His Cold, Dead Hands.”

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Comments? Questions? Corrections? Post them on my quotations Facebook group.

Further reading… Buchanan’s Dictionary of Quotations for Right-minded Americans By Mike Buchanan, author of The Fraud of the Rings

“It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.”

Most people don’t dwell much on death until they have some reason to ponder it, due to advancing age, health problems, the passing of a loved one or some life-threatening situation.

But death has always seemed to loom large in the mind and works of comedian, writer, actor and director Woody Allen, even when he was a young man.

One of Allen’s quips about death is a famous quote cited in hundreds of books:

    “It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

This line comes from an imaginary one-act play Allen wrote in his late thirties, titled Death (A Play).

It first appeared in his book Without Feathers, a collection of short stories and two plays (Death and God) published 36 years ago today, on May 12, 1975.

Death is said to be Allen’s humorous homage to Eugene Ionesco’s 1959 “Theatre of the Absurd” play The Killer.

Years later, he used Death as the basis for his 1992 film Shadows and Fog.

The title of Allen’s book Without Feathers is a satiric twist on words written by Emily Dickinson.

It’s a take-off on the first line of Dickinson’s poem “Hope,” published posthumously in 1891:

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune – without the words,
And never stops at all.”

Titling his book Without Feathers was Allen’s subtle way of noting that his dark-humored view of the world was the opposite of what Dickinson expressed in her syrupy poem.

His quote about death from Without Feathers has been immortalized by it’s inclusion in many books of famous quotations.

But I suspect Woody’s reaction to that might be something like another famous line he used back in the days when he did stand up comedy:

“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.”

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Comments? Questions? Corrections? Post them on the Facebook page for this blog.

Further reading: books by and about Woody Allen…

Dr. Mardy Grothe’s NEVERISMS – a highly-recommended new book of quotations…

Every once in a while, I depart from the usual format of this blog to tell readers about new books of quotations that I particularly like and personally recommend.

Today’s post is about one of those books — Neverisms: A Quotation Lover's Guide to Things You Should Never Do, Never Say, or Never Forget.

Neverisms is the latest in a series of books about quotations by quote maven, psychologist and management consultant Dr. Mardy Grothe.

Previous books in the series include: 
      • Ifferisms: An Anthology of Aphorisms That Begin with the Word “IF” (2009); 
      • I Never Metaphor I Didn’t Like: A Comprehensive Compilation of History’s Greatest Analogies, Metaphors, and Similes (2008); 
      • Viva la Repartee: Clever Comebacks and Witty Retorts from History's Great Wits and Wordsmiths (2005); and 
      • Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit & Wisdom From History's Greatest Wordsmiths (2004)

As those titles suggest, Grothe’s approach to books of quotations is clever, unique and entertaining.

Neverisms is no exception. It’s a one-of-a-kind collection of quotes, illuminated with background written by Grothe, that’s simultaneously fun to read and educational, often humorous and sometimes quite thought-provoking.

Like Grothe’s previous books, Neverisms includes quotations related to the book’s topic. In this case, as the subtitle indicates, the topic is quotes about “Things You Should Never Do, Never Say, or Never Forget,”

Grothe coined the term neverisms as a short (and memorable) term for such quotes. His new book collects and discusses more than 2,000 neverism quotations by nearly as many people, from every era of history and every walk of life.

The quotes are organized into chapters based on some aspect they have in common. Sometimes it’s a topic, such as sex, sports, politics or business. In other cases, it’s a linguistic similarity, such as quotes beginning with a certain phrase, like “never underestimate” or “never trust.”

Each chapter includes interesting introductory comments and fascinating “back stories” about the quotes written by Grothe.

This approach, which Grothe has used in his previous books, makes Neverisms hard to pigeonhole. It’s a great compilation of quotes, but it’s much more than just a compilation. It’s educational, but not at all dry. It’s fun reading — and you’re guaranteed to learn a lot of facts you didn’t know about a lot people and subjects.

For example, here are a couple of entries from the Stage & Screen chapter of Neverisms:

               Never confuse the improbable with the impossible: “Burke’s Law.”
                          GENE BARRY, as Captain Amos Burke, in a 
                          1963 episode of the TV series Burke’s Law

    In this popular 1960s television series, Gene Barry played a dapper Los Angeles millionaire who had been named chief of detectives for the L.A. Police Department. As he fought crime from his chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, Burke was famous for dispensing proverbial sayings to his young detectives, always ending them in his trademark manner: “Burke's Law.” The series also included these neverisms:

Never walk away from a long shot.
Never call your captain unless it’s murder.
Never drink martinis with beautiful suspects.
Never give your girl and dog the same kind of jewelry.

               Never resist an impulse, Sabrina. Especially if it’s terrible.
                          HUMPHREY BOGART, to Audrey Hepburn, 
                          in the 1954 Billy Wilder classic Sabrina 
                          (screenplay by Wilder & Samuel A. Taylor)

    This is the reply that business executive Linus Larrabee (Bogart) makes to the beautiful Sabrina Fairchild (Hepburn), after she waltzes into his office and announces, “All night long I’ve had the most terrible impulse to do something.”

I’ve collected and read hundreds of books of quotations and I rate Dr. Mardy Grothe’s new book Neverisms as one of the best. I give it my highest recommendation.

If you like books of quotations, or just like reading interesting books, I’m sure you’ll enjoy Neverisms.

By the way, if you’re a quote lover, you’ll also enjoy Dr. Mardy’s free weekly newsletter. You can subscribe to it by visiting his website at drmardy.com.

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Comments? Questions? Corrections? Post them on my quotations Facebook group.

Further reading: quotation books by Mardy Grothe...