Archer Quotes

• Archers are pretty focused.

  Geena Davis

  Focused

  52 Copy quote

• When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill. If he shoots for a brass buckle, he is already nervous. If he shoots for a prize of gold, he goes blind or sees two targets - He is out of his mind! His skill has not changed. But the prize divides him. He cares. He thinks more of winning than of shooting- And the need to win drains him of power.

  Zhuangzi

  Caring, Thinking, Winning

  33 Copy quote

• The arrow belongs not to the archer when it has once left the bow; the word no longer belongs to the speaker when it has once passed his lips, especially when it has been multiplied by the press.

  Heinrich Heine

  Arrows, Lips, Bows

  "Religion and Philosophy". Book by Heinrich Heine, 1852.

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• The Poet is like the prince of the clouds, who haunts the tempest and laughs at the archer. Exiled on the ground in the midst of the jeering crowd, his giant's wings keep him from walking.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Clouds, Wings, Laughing

  "Selected Poems".

  8 Copy quote

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• O! many a shaft, at random sent, Finds mark the archer little meant! And many a word, at random spoken, May soothe or wound a heart that's broken!

  Walter Scott

  Broken Heart, May, Littles

  'The Lord of the Isles' (1813) canto 5, st. 18

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• The archer who misses his mark does not blame the target. He stops, corrects himself and shoots again.

  Confucius

  Missing, Doe, Target

  71 Copy quote

• An ordinary archer practices until he gets it right. A ranger practices until he never gets it wrong.

  John Flanagan

  Practice, Ordinary, Rangers

  20 Copy quote

• I've been tremendously moved by a bunch of odd books. Ross McDonald is very important to me. I love the Lew Archer books.

  James Ellroy

  Book, Mcdonalds, Important

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• The Poet is a kinsman in the clouds Who scoffs at archers, loves a stormy day; But on the ground, among the hooting crowds, He cannot walk, his wings are in the way.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Clouds, Wings, Crowds

  Charles Baudelaire (2008). “The Flowers of Evil”, p.17, OUP Oxford

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• It concerns us to know the purposes we seek in life, for then, like archers aiming at a definite mark, we shall be more likely to attain what we want.

  Aristotle

  Life, Purpose, Want

  9 Copy quote

• The shot will go smoothly only when it takes the archer himself by surprise.

  Eugen Herrigel

  Crafts, Surprise, Shots

  30 Copy quote

• In archery we have something like the way of the superior man. When the archer misses the center of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure in himself.

  Confucius

  Character, Men, Missing

  Confucius (2016). “Delphi Collected Works of Confucius - Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism (Illustrated)”, p.28, Delphi Classics

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• We have all learned everything we know physically—from walking to running a marathon—by trial and error, so there's no reason to become our own worst enemies when we suffer a setback. From time to time everyone falls short of their goals. It's an illusion to believe that champions succeed because they do everything perfectly. You can be certain that every archer who hits the bull's-eye has also missed the bull's-eye a thousand times while learning the skill.

  Amby Burfoot

  Running, Believe, Fall

  Amby Burfoot (2009). “Runner's World Complete Book of Running: Everything You Need to Run for Weight Loss, Fitness, and Competition”, p.176, Rodale

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• As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.

  Gautama Buddha

  Wise, Wisdom, Buddhist

  7 Copy quote

• The system wants you to be either a bow or an arrow; refuse both, because there is a third choice: To be an archer!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Arrows, Choices, Want

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• Each time we love,We turn a nearer and a broader markTo that keen archer, Sorrow, and he strikes.

  Alexander Smith

  Sorrow, Strikes, Turns

  Alexander Smith (1857). “City Poems”, p.163

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• I am a very good archer. I use archery as my way of meditation. I cannot sit down and just meditate in the classical sense. I am very active. So, I use archery. I have my bow, my arrow and I use this tension and relaxation in the second after throwing the arrow. And it is my way to meditate and this is the only thing that clears my mind. When I do archery, I am totally there with my bow, my target, my arrow, and I don't think, I am communion with the universe.

  Paulo Coelho

  Thinking, Arrows, Meditation

  "Best selling author of The Alchemist". Interview with Amina Chaudary, www.theislamicmonthly.com. November 3, 2014.

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• As the arrow, loosed from the bow by the hand of the practiced archer, does not rest till it has reached the mark, so men pass from God to God. He is the mark for which they have been created, and they do not rest till they find their rest in him.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Men, Hands, Arrows

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• I must only warn you of one thing. You have become a different person in the course of these years. For this is what the art of archery means: a profound and far-reaching contest of the archer with himself. Perhaps you have hardly noticed it yet, but you will feel it very strongly when you meet your friends and acquaintances again in your own country: things will no longer harmonize as before. You will see with other eyes and measure with other measures. It has happened to me too, and it happens to all who are touched by the spirit of this art.

  Eugen Herrigel

  Country, Art, Mean

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• Bowmen bend their bows when they wish to shoot: unbrace them when the shooting is over. Were they kept always strung they would break and fail the archer in time of need. So it is with men. If they give themselves constantly to serious work, and never indulge awhile in pastime or sport, they lose their senses and become mad.

  Herodotus

  Sports, Men, Giving

  Herodotus (2017). “The Histories of Herodotus”, p.133, Aegitas

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• Straight up from this road
  Away from the fitted particles of frost
  Coating the hull of each chick pea,
  And the stiff archer bug making its way
  In the morning dark, toe hair by toe hair,
  Up the stem of the trillim,
  Straight up through the sky above this road right now,
  The galaxies of the Cygnus A cluster
  Are colliding with each other in a massive swarm
  Of interpenetrating and exploding catastrophes.
  I try to remember that.

  Pattiann Rogers

  Morning, Dark, Hair

  Pattiann Rogers (2014). “The Expectations of Light”, p.35, Princeton University Press

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• An archer competing for a clay vessel shoots effortlessly, his or her skill and concentration unimpeded. If the prize is changed to a brass ornament, the hands begin to shake. If it is changed to gold, he or she squints as if going blind. The abilities do not deteriorate, but belief in them does, as he or she allows the supposed value of an external reward to cloud the vision.

  Zhuangzi

  Clouds, Hands, Skills

  34 Copy quote

• Archer reddened to the temples but dared not move or speak: it was as if her words had been some rare butterfly that the least motion might drive off on startled wings, but that might gather a flock if it were left undisturbed.

  Edith Wharton

  Moving, Butterfly, Wings

  Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.2116, Delphi Classics

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• But you must be patient and careful; nor should you expect to become an accomplished archer without long and severe training.

  Maurice Thompson

  Long, Training, Patient

  Maurice Thompson “The Witchery of Archery”, Lulu.com

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• What we feel most has no name but amber, archers, cinnamon, horses and birds.

  Jack Gilbert

  Horse, Names, Bird

  Jack Gilbert (2013). “The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992”, p.11, Knopf

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