Definite Quotes - Page 3

• White... is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black... God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Flower, Color White, Shining

  85 Copy quote

• Defense is a definite part of the game, and a great part of defense is learning to play it without fouling.

  John Wooden

  Games, Play, Defense

  "VIEWS OF SPORT; John Wooden: Basketball Is Fouling Out". New York Times interview, www.nytimes.com. August 20, 1989.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

  George Eliot

  Ignorance, Acquaintance, Persons

  George Eliot (2016). “Daniel Deronda: Top Novelist Focus”, p.93, 谷月社

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ill give you a definite maybe.

  Samuel Goldwyn

  Giving, Ill

  20 Copy quote

• The time was simply ripe for the disappearance of tonality. Naturally this was a fierce struggle; inhibitions of the most frightful kind had to be overcome, the panic fear, 'Is that possible, then?' So it came about that gradually a piece was written, firmly and consciously, that wasn't in a definite key any more.

  Anton Webern

  Struggle, Keys, Overcoming

  7 Copy quote

• I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact.

  Oscar Wilde

  Believe, Essence, Romance

  Oscar Wilde (2004). “The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings”, p.250, Penguin

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Since being a prisoner was a definite improvement over being dead, which was what she thought was going to happen when the Loundergs had attacked, Suzy was quite cheerful.

  Garth Nix

  Cheerful, Improvement, Prisoner

  4 Copy quote

• Last year, when Zora was a freshman, sophomores had seemed altogether a different kind of human: so very definite in their tastes and opinions, in ther loves and ideas. Zora woke up this morning hopeful that a transformation of this kind might have visited her in the night, but, finding it hadn't, she did what girls generally do when they don't feel the part: she dressed it instead.

  Zadie Smith

  Girl, Morning, Night

  Zadie Smith (2006). “On Beauty”, p.142, Penguin UK

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In Maycomb, if one went for a walk with no definite purpose in mind, it was correct to believe one's mind incapable of definite purpose.

  Harper Lee

  Believe, Mind, Purpose

  Harper Lee (1960). “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I had a definite sense of somehow being a passenger in an evil vehicle crusing through Paradise.

  Sam Shepard

  Evil, Paradise, Vehicle

  17 Copy quote

• I wished I could explain it to those I loved, my mother, to Japhy, but there just weren't any words to describe the nothingness and purity of it. "Is there a certain and definite teaching to be given to all living creatures?" was the question probably asked to beetle browed snowy Dipankara, and his answer was the roaring silence of the diamond.

  Jack Kerouac

  Mother, Teaching, Silence

  Jack Kerouac (1986). “The Dharma Bums”, p.157, Penguin

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Not everyone is born a witch or a saint. Not everyone is born talented, or crooked, or blessed; some are born definite in no particular at all. We are a fountain of shimmering contradictions, most of us. Beautiful in the concept, if we're lucky, but frequently tedious or regrettable as we flesh ourselves out.

  Gregory Maguire

  Beautiful, Blessed, Saint

  4 Copy quote

• The more specific idea of Evolution now reached is - a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.

  Herbert Spencer

  Ideas, Atheism, Matter

  Herbert Spencer (2016). “First Principles: Great Philosopher”, p.304, 北戴河出版

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Inspirational, Life, Happiness

  66 Copy quote

• The law condemns and punishes only actions within certain definite and narrow limits; it thereby justifies, in a way, all similar actions that lie outside those limits.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Lying, Law, Way

  8 Copy quote

• The cool peace and dewy sweetness of the night filled me with a mood of hope: not hope on any definite point, but a general sense of encouragement and heart-ease.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Encouragement, Heart, Night

  Charlotte Bronte (2016). “Villette”, p.109, Xist Publishing

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Gold was not sure of many things, but he was definite about one: for every successful person he knew, he could name at least two others of greater ability, better, and higher intelligence who, by comparison, had failed.

  Joseph Heller

  Successful, Names, Two

  Joseph Heller (1997). “Good as Gold”, p.71, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The universe danced towards life. Life was a remarkably common commodity. Anything sufficiently complicated seemed to get cut in for some, in the same way that anything massive enough got a generous helping of gravity. The universe had a definite tendency towards awareness. This suggested a certain subtle cruelty woven into the very fabric of space-time.

  Terry Pratchett

  Cutting, Space, Woven

  7 Copy quote

• One of the surprises of her unoccupied state was the discovery that time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace

  Edith Wharton

  Moving, Discovery, Pace

  Edith Wharton (2016). “The House of Mirth: Edith Wharton”, p.269, VM eBooks

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.

  Oscar Wilde

  Color, Soul, Different

  Oscar Wilde (2004). “The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings”, p.319, Penguin

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• Delight in smooth sounding platitudes, refusal to face unpleasant facts ... genuine love of peace and pathetic belief that love can be its sole foundation ... the utter devotion of the Liberals to sentiment apart from reality ...though free from wickedness or evil design, played a definite part in the unleashing upon the world of horrors and miseries [WWII]

  Winston Churchill

  Reality, Genuine Love, Evil

  6 Copy quote

• Every one has experienced how learning an appropriate name for what was dim and vague cleared up and crystallized the whole matter. Some meaning seems distinct almost within reach, but is elusive; it refuses to condense into definite form; the attaching of a word somehow (just how, it is almost impossible to say) puts limits around the meaning, draws it out from the void, makes it stand out as an entity on its own account.

  John Dewey

  Names, Matter, Void

  John Dewey (2015). “How We Think: Top American Authors”, p.136, 谷月社

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Because I never have any definite destination. This ship is not for going to places, but for getting away from them. When I stop at a port, it's only for the sheer pleasure of leaving it. I always think: here's one more place that can't hold me.

  Ayn Rand

  Thinking, Leaving, Ships

  Ayn Rand (2005). “The Fountainhead”, p.421, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world stands aside to let you pass.

  Napoleon Hill

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  64 Copy quote

• Was Mrs. Wilcox one of the unsatisfactory people- there are many of them- who dangle intimacy and then withdraw it? They evoke our interests and affections, and keep the life of the spirit dawdling around them. Then they withdraw. When physical passion is involved, there is a definite name for such behaviour- flirting- and if carried far enough, it is punishable by law. But no law- not public opinion, even- punishes those who coquette with friendship, though the dull ache that they inflict, the sense of misdirected effort and exhaustion, may be as intolerable. Was she one of these?

  E. M. Forster

  Passion, Flirting, Law

  E. M. Forster (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of E. M. Forster (Illustrated)”, p.585, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

  Show source