Admirable Quotes - Page 3

• Good writing is a kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go, and is only right admirable when to all its beauty and speed a subserviency to the will, like that of walking, is added.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Writing, Skating, Kind

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1954). “Basic Selections from Emerson: Essays, Poems & Apothegms”

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• It is admirable to die the victim of one's faith; it is sad to die the dupe of one's ambition.

  Alphonse de Lamartine

  Ambition, Dupes, Victim

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• Woman was formed to admire; man to be admirable. His are the glories of the sun at noonday; hers the softened splendors of the midnight moon.

  Philip Sidney

  Moon, Men, Quality

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• When grace combines with wrinkles, it is admirable. There is an indescribable light of dawn about intensely happy old age. . . . The young person is handsome, but the old, superb.

  Victor Hugo

  Wrinkles, Light, Grace

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• Someone who plays hard every shift, it's pretty admirable for a young guy.

  Marty Turco

  Play Hard, Guy, Young

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• The Bible is not merely a book-it is a living power. . . . Nowhere as in the Bible can be found such a series of beautiful ideas and admirable maxims which pose before us like the battalions of a celestial army. . . . The soul can never go astray while it has this book for its guide.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Life, Beautiful, Book

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• [There are m]oral precepts that we consider really important, such as 'don't pick your nose' or 'don't eat peas with a knife'. There may, for ought I know, be admirable reasons for eating peas with a knife, but . . . early persuasion has made me completely incapable of appreciating them.

  Bertrand Russell

  Knives, Appreciate, Important

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Power: A New Social Analysis”, p.221, Psychology Press

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• Americans are overreaching; overreaching is the most admirable and most American of the many American excesses.

  George Will

  Excess, Overreaching

  George F. Will (1984). “Statecraft as Soulcraft”, p.98, Simon and Schuster

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• McDonald's is almost 50 years old. For 47 years we had a pretty consistent track record of being able to deliver admirable sales.

  Jim Cantalupo

  Mcdonalds, Years, Track

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• An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher.

  John W. Gardner

  Education, Teacher, Philosopher

  Dr. John W. Gardner (2015). “Excellence: Can We Be Equal And Excellent Too?”, p.97, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• Suddenly Po shot into the courtyard from the north vestibule whooping. Katsa, seeing him, broke into a run and they tore at each other through the wash. Just before the moment of impact, Po shifted to one side, crouched, scooped Katsa up, and, with admirable precision, propelled them both sideways into the pool. ... Katsa and Po were trying to drown each other and, judging from their hoots of laughter, enjoying it immensely.

  Kristin Cashore

  Running, Laughter, Impact

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• I'd say that all nations have contact with the truth, and all religions have admirable people.

  Jon Voight

  People, Contact, Nations

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• Makes sense to me. Sometimes starting over is exactly what a person needs. And I think it's admirable. A lot of people don't have the courage it takes to do something like that.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Thinking, People, Starting Over

  Nicholas Sparks (2013). “Safe Haven”, p.14, Hachette UK

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• An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher. The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

  John Gardner

  Philosophy, Humble, Water

  "Excellence, Can We be Equal and Excellent Too?" by John W. Gardner, (p. 86), 1961.

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• The letter . . . What did your lords make of it, I wonder?” Stannis snorted. “Celtigar pronounced it admirable. If I showed him the contents of my privy, he would declare that admirable as well.

  George R. R. Martin

  Letters, Wonder, Lord

  George R. R. Martin (2011). “A Game of Thrones 4-Book Bundle: A Song of Ice and Fire Series: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows”, p.873, Bantam

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• I like all the families in the U.K. But what I like about the idea of the royal family is... they seem like they're well educated and there's something admirable about them. And the Queen... she reminds me of my grandma.

  will.i.am

  Queens, Grandma, Ideas

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Poirot," I said. "I have been thinking." "An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it.

  Agatha Christie

  Exercise, Thinking, Said

  Agatha Christie (2010). “Peril at End House (Poirot)”, p.21, HarperCollins UK

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• In this statement, my Scipio, I build on your own admirable definition, that there can be no community, properly so called, unless it be regulated by a combination of rights. And by this definition it appears that a multitude of men may be just as tyrannical as a single despot and indeed this is the most odious of all tyrannies, since no monster can be more barbarous than the mob, which assumes the name and mask of the people.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Men, Rights, Names

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• Her fluency was marvelous. She would say things at random, intricate, flamelike, or slide off into a parenthetical limbo peppered with fireworks-- admirable linguistic feats which a practiced writer might struggle for hours to achieve.

  Henry Miller

  Struggle, Might, Fluency

  Henry Miller (2007). “Sexus: The Rosy Crucifixion I”, p.17, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• I envied women with signature hair-dos, signature perfumes, signature sign-offs. Novelists who tell Vogue Magazine: “I can’t live without my Smythson notebook, Pomegranate Noir cologne by Jo Malone and Frette sheets”. In the grip of madness, materialism begins to look like an admirable belief system.

  Emma Forrest

  Notebook, Hair, Vogue Magazine

  Emma Forrest (2012). “Your Voice in My Head”, p.30, A&C Black

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• It now lately sometimes seemed a black miracle to me that people could actually care deeply about a subject or pursuit, and could go on caring this way for years on end. Could dedicate their entire lives to it. It seemed admirable and at the same time pathetic. We are all dying to give our lives away to something, maybe.

  David Foster Wallace

  Caring, Years, People

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• Maybe it’s not, in the end, the virtues of others that so wrenches our hearts as it is the sense of almost unbearably poignant recognition when we see them at their most base, in their sorrow and gluttony and foolishness. You need the virtues, too—some sort of virtues—but we don’t care about Emma Bovary or Anna Karenina or Raskolnikov because they’re good. We care about them because they’re not admirable, because they’re us, and because great writers have forgiven them for it.

  Michael Cunningham

  Heart, Sorrow, Needs

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• You know, Qhuinn's an interesting character." Saxton reached out with an elegant hand and picked up his port. "He's one of my favorite cousins, actually. His nonconformity is admirable and he's survived things that would crush a lesser male. Don't know that being in love with him would be easy, however." Blay didn't go near that one. "So do you come here often?" Saxton laughed, his pale eyes glinting, "Not for discussion, huh.

  J.R. Ward

  Crush, Cousin, Eye

  J.R. Ward (2010). “Lover Mine: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood”, p.263, Penguin

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• The familiar material objects may not be all that is real, but they are admirable examples.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Real, Example, May

  Willard Van Orman Quine, Patricia S. Churchland, Dagfinn Føllesdal (2013). “Word and Object”, p.3, MIT Press

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• When you get down to the bottom of it, only about half of what we remember really happened. We tend to modify things to make ourselves look better in our own eyes and in the eyes of others. Then, if what we did wasn't really very admirable, we tend to forget that it ever happened. A normal human being's grasp on reality is very tenuous at best. Our imaginary lives are usually much nicer.

  David Eddings

  Eye, Reality, Normal

  David Eddings, Leigh Eddings (1997). “Polgara the Sorceress”, Del Rey

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