Dumb Quotes - Page 38

• In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife!

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Hero, Battle, World

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1871). “The Poetical Works”, p.3

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The English are a dumb people. They can do great acts, but not describe them.

  Thomas Carlyle

  People, Dumb People, Can Do

  Thomas Carlyle (1843). “Past and Present”, p.93

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• No joy for which thy hungering heart has panted, No hope it cherishes through waiting years, But if thou dost deserve it, shall be granted For with each passionate wish the blessing nears. Tune up the fine, strong instrument of thy being To chord with thy dear hope, and do not tire. When both in key and rhythm are agreeing, Lo! thou shalt kiss the lips of thy desire. The thing thou cravest so waits in the distance, Wrapt in the silences, unseen and dumb: Essential to thy soul and thy existence-- Live worthy of it--call, and it shall come.

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

  Hope, Strong, Distance

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox (2016). “Complete Poetical Works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox (Delphi Classics)”, p.573, Delphi Classics

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Thou hast evoked in me profounder spells than the evoking one, thou face! For me, thou hast uncovered one infinite, dumb, beseeching countenance of mystery, underlying all the surfaces of visible time and space.

  Herman Melville

  Space, Faces, Mystery

  Herman Melville (2016). “Pierre; or The Ambiguities”, p.69, Herman Melville

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Now I wonder who is gonna be president: Tweedle Dumb, or Tweedle Dumber-- And who is gonna have the big block buster box office this summer.

  Ani DiFranco

  Summer, Block, Office

  4 Copy quote

• The world is always ending, and the end is always being averted, by love or foolishness or just plain old dumb luck.

  Neil Gaiman

  Luck, World, Ends

  Neil Gaiman, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlín R Kiernan, Elizabeth Bear (2014). “Lovecraft's Monsters”, p.21, Tachyon Publications

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Don't assume I'm dumb because I wear a suit and tie.

  David Mamet

  Ties, Suits, Assuming

  David Mamet (2015). “Mamet Plays: 2: Reunion; Dark Pony; A Life in the Theatre; The Woods; Lakeboat; Edmond”, p.254, Bloomsbury Publishing

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• [Footnote:] To give the Beaver his due, he does things because he has to do them, not because he believes that hard work per se will somehow make him a better Beaver -- the Beaver may be dumb, but he is not that dumb! The Beaver was made to gnaw, and gnaw he does. There you have him in a nutshell.

  Will Cuppy

  Believe, Hard Work, Giving

  "How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes". Book by Will Cuppy, 1931.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Prostitution reinforces all the old dumb clichés about women's sexuality; that they are not built to enjoy sex and are little more than walking masturbation aids, things to be done to, things so sensually null and void that they have to be paid to indulge in fornication, that women can be had, bought, as often as not sold from one man to another. When the sex war is won prostitutes should be shot as collaborators for their terrible betrayal of all women.

  Julie Burchill

  Sex, Betrayal, War

  "Damaged Gods: Cults and Heroes Reappraised". Book by Julie Burchill, 1986.

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• Criminals are dumb as stumps. If they were smart they could go be investment bankers. Or judges.

  Jeff Abbott

  Smart, Judging, Bankers

  Jeff Abbott (2002). “Black Jack Point”, Signet

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a bad sign when a new-born babe has not lungs enough to make itself heard over the whole house. It is equally a bad symptom when the new convert is born dumb, and cannot find his voice to praise God audibly.

  Theodore L. Cuyler

  Voice, House, Praise

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 562, 1895.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• People assume that I'm wiser than I am because I'm somewhat successful. Age does not bring you wisdom, age brings you wrinkles. If you're dumb when you're young, you're going to be dumb when you're old.

  Estelle Getty

  Successful, Wrinkles, People

  "Estelle Getty, ‘Golden Girls’ Matriarch, Dies at 84". The New York Times, July 23, 2008.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• The big Wall Street firms, seemingly so shrewd and self-interested, had somehow become the dumb money. The people who ran them did not understand their own businesses, and their regulators obviously knew even less.

  Michael Lewis

  Wall, Self, People

  Michael Lewis (2015). “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (movie tie-in)”, p.254, W. W. Norton & Company

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have more dumb luck thank anybody I know. There must be a convey of guardian angels working twenty-four hours a day looking after me[...] Like the night I first got to Nashville that I laid down in the middle of Broadway, waiting to get run over. It didn't happen [...] I could swear they were keeping me alive just to see what I'd get next, I'm glad they feel that way. I'm trying to help them a little more this days.

  Willie Nelson

  Running, Angel, Night

  "The Facts of Life: And Other Dirty Jokes". Book by Willie Nelson and Larry McMurtry, 2003.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• I had no idea what to expect moving to New York. It's embarrassing to say, but I didn't even realize that people bought contemporary art... that people actually paid for it... I know that's really dumb. I was really naive. I had no idea artists made money.

  Wade Guyton

  Money, Art, New York

  8 Copy quote

• The only reason why we wish to exchange thoughts is that we are different. If we were all the same, we would die dumb. No thought would be expressed after we found that our thoughts were precisely alike. We differ-our thoughts are different. Therefore the commerse that we call conversation.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Wish, Different, Would Be

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.2190, Library of Alexandria

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I could start this review by stating that Dumb and Dumberer lives up to its name, or by calling it stupid, moronic, and idiotic, but I believe that approach is a trap, since a movie like this might relish being the object of such bland invectives. Instead, let me try a few that can't possibly be misconstrued as twisted praise: unfunny, boring, torturous, and unwatchable. ... [N]o movie could be more aptly compared to raw sewage than this film - Directed By Troy Miller.

  James Berardinelli

  Stupid, Believe, Names

  "Dumb and Dumberer (United States, 2003)". A movie review, www.reelviews.net. 2003.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• With Batman&Robin, the fourth entry in the recent Batman movie series, the profitable franchise appears poised to take a nosedive. This film, which places yet another actor in the batsuit, has all the necessary hallmarks of a sorry sequel - pointless, plodding plotting; asinine action; clueless, comatose characterization; and dumb dialogue. Batman&Robin moves at a dizzying pace, yet goes absolutely nowhere.

  James Berardinelli

  Sorry, Moving, Clueless

  "Batman and Robin (United States, 1997)". Movie Review, www.reelviews.net.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I actually feel most at home when I find people who make me feel really dumb, who are brilliant at their particular things. And then I gather these people, put them in a room and watch incredible things come out of it.

  Mick Ebeling

  Home, People, Watches

  6 Copy quote

• The pace of digital innovation is astonishing. It's impossible to imagine life without the web, smartphones, social networks. And yet the consumer products and everyday objects all around us are still essentially dumb.

  Andy Hobsbawm

  Smartphones, Everyday Objects, Innovation

  4 Copy quote

• I am not fitted to give concerts. The audience intimidates me, I feel choked by its breath, paralyzed by its curious glances, struck dumb by all those strange faces.

  Frederic Chopin

  Music, Giving, Faces

  "It'll be alright on the night: how musicians cope with performance stress" by David Cox, www.theguardian.com. September 8, 2015.

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• The thought of people in this day and age sitting down to listen to a radio variety show on Saturday evening is rather implausible and was even more so in 1974 when we started “A Prairie Home Companion.” Thank goodness Minnesota Public Radio was too poor to afford good advice or the show never would've got on the air. We only did it because we knew it would be fun to do. It was a dumb idea. I wish I knew how to be that dumb again.

  Garrison Keillor

  Fun, Home, Air

  14 Copy quote

• John McCain, who once called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson 'forces of evil', has now come out for teaching intelligent design. That is sad, when smart people have to pretend to be so dumb to get elected.

  Bill Maher

  Smart, Teaching, Intelligent

  5 Copy quote

• Television is a constant stream of fact, opinions, lies, moral dilemmas, plots: an infinitely complex and sophisticated torrent of information. How could it not make you cleverer? The only people who ever thought television rotted the brain and made kids dumb were those with a vested interest in other ways of learning, or those who were intellectually insecure, usually about books.

  A. A. Gill

  Lying, Book, Kids

  55 Copy quote

• The poor lack money. They lack money because they do not know the secret of productive wealth. They know it is possible to be old, unemployed, uneducated, lazy - even halt, deaf, dumb, and blind-and still be excessively rich. But you have to be in on the secret, and the poor by definition are not.

  Louis O. Kelso

  Wisdom, Secret, Lazy

  4 Copy quote