Cringe Quotes - Page 2

• I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?

  Irwin Shaw

  Song, Literature, Masters

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• During my last year of college I wrote the same ten pages over and over again. Those ten pages became the first few pages of my first novel. I can still recite the opening paragraph from memory - only now I cringe when I do it because they are - surprise! - a classic example of overwriting, in addition to being a more than a little pretentious.

  Patricia Briggs

  Memories, College, Years

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• Not only around our infancy Doth heaven with all its splendors lie; Daily, with souls that cringe and plot, We Sinais climb and know it not.

  James Russell Lowell

  Lying, Heaven, Soul

  James Russell Lowell (1871). “The poetical works of James Russell Lowell”, p.117

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• Braai Day is a slap in the face of our efforts to regain who we are. And should make any self respecting South African cringe.

  Simphiwe Dana

  Self, Effort, Who We Are

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• Success is feminine and like a woman, if you cringe before her, she will override you

  William Faulkner

  Feminine, Ifs

  1956 Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

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• The capitalists owned everything in the world, and everyone else was their slave. They owned all the land, all the houses, all the factories, and all the money. If anyone disobeyed them they could throw him into prison, or they could take his job away and starve him to death. When any ordinary person spoke to a capitalist he had to cringe and bow to him, and take off his cap and address him as 'Sir'

  George Orwell

  Jobs, Land, House

  George Orwell (2004). “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, p.83, Penguin UK

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• I am not very comfortable about dancing at weddings and New Year parties. Maybe it's because of the way I have been brought up; I wouldn't want my family to feel that cringe moment. Dance is an art for me.

  Deepika Padukone

  New Year, Art, Years

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• The one good thing about repeating your mistakes is that you know when to cringe

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Mistake, Good Things, Knows

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• The impoverished always try to keep moving, as if relocating might help. They ignore the reality that a new version of the same old problem will be waiting at the end of the trip- the relative you cringe to kiss.

  Markus Zusak

  Moving, Kissing, Reality

  Markus Zusak (2016). “The Book Thief: 10th Anniversary Edition”, p.24, Random House

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• Give me a hot coal glowing bright red, Give me an ember sizzling with heat, These are the jewels made from my beak. We fly between the flames and never get singed We plunge through the smoke and never cringe. The secrets of fire, its strange winds, its rages, We know it all as it rampages Through forests, through canyons, Up hillsides and down. We track it. We'll find it. Take coals by the pound. We'll yarp in the heart of the hottest flame Then bring back its coals an make them tame. For we are the colliers brave and beyond all We are the owls of the colliering chaw!

  Kathryn Lasky

  Heart, Fire, Glowing

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• You have to be an artist and a madman, a creature of infinite melancholy, with a bubble of hot poison in your loins and a super-voluptuous flame permanently aglow in your subtle spine (oh, how you have to cringe and hide!), in order to discern at once, by ineffable signs―the slightly feline outline of a cheekbone, the slenderness of a downy limbs, and other indices which despair and shame and tears of tenderness forbid me to tabulate―the little deadly demon among the wholesome children; she stands unrecognized by them and unconscious herself of her fantastic power.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Children, Artist, Flames

  Vladimir Nabokov (2011). “The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated”, p.72, Vintage

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• Behold the hands, how they promise, conjure, appeal, menace, pray, supplicate, refuse, beckon, interrogate, admire, confess, cringe, instruct, command, mock and what not besides, with a variation and multiplication of variation which makes the tongue envious.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Hands, Promise, Variation

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• Janie: Did you ever sell drugs? Cabel: Yes. Pot. Ninth and tenth grade. I was, uh...rather troubled back then. Janie: Why did you stop? Cabel: Got busted, and Captain made me a better deal. Janie: So you've been a narc since then? Cabel: I cringe at your terminology.

  Lisa McMann

  Drug, Captains, Pot

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• I used to look back at pictures and cringe but actually I'm quite proud that I've had fun with fashion and don't always look perfect. The only regret I have is when I look at something I wore when I was very young and it obviously looks like it belonged to someone else.

  Emma Watson

  Fashion, Fun, Regret

  "Emma Watson Reveals Her Only Fashion Regret" By Hilary Moss, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 5, 2011.

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• Of course, everyone's parents are embarrassing. It goes with the territory. The nature of parents is to embarrass merely by existing, just as it is the nature of children of a certain age to cringe with embarrassment, shame, and mortification should their parents so much as speak to them on the street.

  Neil Gaiman

  Children, Parenting, Age

  Neil Gaiman (2009). “Anansi Boys”, p.7, Harper Collins

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• To be a celebrity, I couldn't think of anything more cringe-worthy.

  Bryan Adams

  Thinking, Worthy

  "Bryan Adams on learning to deal with fame". Interview with Shirley Halperin, uk.reuters.com. March 22, 2011.

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• Music. – There is something very wonderful in music. Words are wonderful enough: but music is even more wonderful. It speaks not to our thoughts as words do: it speaks straight to our hearts and spirits, to the very core and root of our souls. Music soothes us, stirs us up; it puts noble feelings into us; it melts us to tears, we know not how: – it is a language by itself, just as perfect, in its way, as speech, as words; just as divine, just as blessed.

  Charles Kingsley

  Music, Blessed, Heart

  "The Good News of God".

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• The same amount of pride which makes a man treat haughtily his inferiors, makes him cringe servilely; to those above him.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Pride, Men, Treats

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• Being honest, if I had a daughter I wouldn't want her listening to a Nicki Minaj CD until she was a certain age. Even when I meet my fans and they tell me they are 12, I cringe a little. I always say, 'Listen. I don't want you saying the bad words, put school first.'

  Nicki Minaj

  Daughter, School, Cds

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• I always want my standup act to appeal to everybody in the room, and when I started standup, and I would see people talk about their kids and their wife, and I'd always cringe a little bit, like, 'I can't get a date, I don't know what you're talking about.'

  Jim Gaffigan

  Kids, Talking, People

  "Interview: Jim Gaffigan Talks Family, Food And Dad Is Fat". Interview with Samantha Abernethy, chicagoist.com. May 10, 2013.

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• My past behaviour makes me cringe.

  Denise Van Outen

  Past, Behaviour, My Past

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• Why get excited over this latest episode in the long, sad history of American anti-intellectualism? Let me suggest that, as patriotic Americans, we should cringe in embarrassment that, at the dawn of a new, technological millennium, a jurisdiction in our heartland has opted to suppress one of the greatest triumphs of human discovery.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Patriotic, Discovery, Long

  Stephen Jay Gould (2011). “I Have Landed”, p.215, Harvard University Press

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• The smartest people I know have that extra edge. The risk is always there that youll look terribly undignified and slobbering, and inside I cringe about that, but I should be more aggressive.

  Embeth Davidtz

  People, Risk, Looks

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• Your eyes are as a flame, but our brothers have neither hope nor fire. Your mouth is cut of granite, but our brothers are soft and humble. Your head is high, but our brothers cringe. You walk, but our brothers crawl. We wish to be damned with you, rather than blessed with all our brothers. Do as you please with us, but do not send us away from you.

  Ayn Rand

  Brother, Blessed, Humble

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Anthem”, p.40, Xist Publishing

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• Good art can come out of thieves, bootleggers, or horse swipes. People really are afraid to find out just how much hardship and poverty they can stand. They are afraid to find out how tough they are. Nothing can destroy the good writer. The only thing that can alter the good writer is death. Good ones don't have time to bother with success or getting rich. Success is feminine and like a woman; if you cringe before her, she will override you. So the way to treat her is to show her the back of your hand. Then maybe she will do the crawling.

  William Faulkner

  Art, Horse, Hands

  1956 Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

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