Terry Jones

Terry Jones in 2007

Terence Graham Parry Jones (1 February 1942 – 21 January 2020) was a Welsh comedian, actor, screenwriter, film director, political commentator, children's writer, and Chaucerian scholar. Jones is known for his performances with the comedy troupe Monty Python.

Quotes

• A Horse, a Bucket and a Spoon.
  • Chapman, Graham (1980). A Liar's Autobiography. London: Eyre Methuen. p. 152. 
  • Jones' suggested title for the show that was eventually named Monty Python's Flying Circus.

• It took 200 years for the Crusaders to create [this] Muslim fanaticism. It was the exact imitation of Christian intolerance.
  • Crusades, episode 4; first broadcast in January 1995. Co-written with Alan Ereira.

• Saying "We will destroy terrorism" is about as meaningful as saying: "We shall annihilate mockery."
  • The Daily Telegraph (11 December 2001).

• What is meant by: "We mustn't give in to the terrorists"? We gave in to them the moment the first bombs fell on Afghanistan.
  • The Daily Telegraph (1 December 2001).

• Ludicrous concepts…like the whole idea of a "war on terrorism". You can wage war against another country, or on a national group within your own country, but you can't wage war on an abstract noun. How do you know when you've won? When you've got it removed from the Oxford English Dictionary?
  • The Observer, (23 February 2003).

• Why do I feel so exercised about what we think of the people of the Middle Ages?...I guess it's because so many of their voices are ringing vibrantly in my ears – Chaucer's, Boccaccio's, Henry Knighton's, Thomas Walsingham's, Froissart's, Jean Creton's... writers and contemporary historians of the period who seem to me just as individual, just as alive as we are today. We need to get to know these folk better in order to know who we are ourselves.
  • The Observer (8 February 2004).

• The thing was, there's nothing funny about what Christ said. What's funny, really, is the fact that, you know, Christ said all these really good things about "Love thy neighbor" and everything, and for the next 2,000 years people are killing each other and torturing each other because they can't quite decide how he said it.
  • Monty Python Live at Aspen - TV special (1998)