Fancy Quotes - Page 17

• Indeed, so far from being humorous, the male American is the most abnormally serious creature who ever existed.. It is only fair to admit that he can exaggerate, but even his exaggeration has a rational basis. It is not founded on wit or fancy; it does not spring from any poetic imagination.

  Oscar Wilde

  Spring, Humorous, Imagination

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• To paint things as they are requires a minute attention, and employs the memory rather than the fancy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Memories, Reality, Attention

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper”, p.309

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• Do not fancy, as too many do, that thou canst praise God by singing hymns to Him in church once a week, and disobeying Him all the week long. He asks of thee works as well as words; and more, he asks of thee works first and words after.

  Charles Kingsley

  Hymns, Long, Singing

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writer" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 456, 1895.

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• When we read, we fancy we could be martyrs; when we come to act, we cannot bear a provoking word.

  Hannah More

  Bears, Martyr, Provoking

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• We fancied even that the bushes smelt unpleasantly.

  Charles Darwin

  Charles Darwin (1860). “Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world, under the command of Capt. Fitz Roy: Tenth thousand”, p.374

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• I've never fancied myself as a pole dancer.

  Glenn Roeder

  Dancer

  "Roeder balances ambition with discretion" by Louise Taylor, www.theguardian.com. April 23, 2006.

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• Fancy being remembered around the world for the invention of a mouse!

  Walt Disney

  World, Fame, Invention

  c.1966 Comment to his wife during his last illness. Quoted in Leonard Mosley Disney's World (1985).

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• An enthusiastic desire of visiting the Old World haunted me from early childhood. I cherished a presentiment, amounting almost to belief, that I should one day behold the scenes, among which my fancy had so long wandered.

  Bayard Taylor

  Long, Childhood, Desire

  Bayard Taylor, Nathaniel Parker Willis (1850). “Views A-foot: Or, Europe Seen with Knapsack and Staff”, p.1

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• I remember making a videotape in a fancy hair salon in Beverly Hills. The soundtrack in the salon had a whole worldview behind it - I was interested in things like that.

  David Salle

  Hair, Beverly Hills, Remember

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• The author brings to the table a healthy skepticism of the conventional wisdom, an admirable ability to separate fact from fancy, and an undisguised repugnance for the mumbo-jumbo that's the curse of so much commentary on anything to do with economics or investment. A World of Wealth is not only a lively read, but an exceptionally enlightening and rewarding one to boot.

  Alan Abelson

  Healthy, Boots, World

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• And oft I thought (my fancy was-so strong) That I, at last, a resting-place had found: 'Here: will I dwell,' said I,' my whole life long, Roaming the illimitable waters round; Here will I live, of all but heaven disowned. And end my days upon the peaceful flood - To break my dream the vessel reached its bound; And homeless near a thousand homes I stood, And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food.

  William Wordsworth

  Dream, Strong, Home

  William Wordsworth (1847). “The Poems of William Wordsworth”, p.20

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• It seems to me that life's circumstances, being ephemeral, teach us less about durable truths than the fictions based on those truths; and that the best lessons of delicacy and self-respect are to be found in novels where the feelings are so naturally portrayed that you fancy you are witnessing real life as you read.

  Madame de Stael

  Real, Self, Feelings

  "Delphine". Book by Madame de Stael, 1802.

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• No disease of the imagination is so difficult to cure, as that which is complicated with the dread of guilt : fancy and conscience then act interchangeably upon us, and so often shift their places, that the illusions of one are not distinguished from the dictates of the other.

  E. M. Forster

  Imagination, Guilt, Disease

  E. M. Forster (1987). “Commonplace Book”, p.76, Stanford University Press

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• Whatever is placed beyond the reach of sense and knowledge, whatever is imperfectly discerned, the fancy pieces out at its leisure; and all but the present moment, but the present spot, passion claims for its own, and brooding over it with wings outspread, stamps it with an image of itself. Passion is lord of infinite space, and distant objects please because they border on its confines and are moulded by its touch.

  William Hazlitt

  Passion, Wings, Space

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1283, Delphi Classics

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• How would you know? Everything’s like sex. It’s the universal metaphor. To pick a lock, let me guess, you have to go slow at first, but then you have to pull off some fancy moves, and you have to stay concentrated, and you have to stick something in something, right?

  Ned Vizzini

  Sex, Moving, Firsts

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• A long poem is a test of invention which I take to be the Polar star of poetry, as fancy is the sails, and imagination the rudder.

  John Keats

  Stars, Long, Imagination

  Letter to Benjamin Bailey, 8 October 1817, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) 'The Letters of John Keats' (1958) vol. 1, p. 170

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• I can scarcely fancy myself to ask a superior to publish a volume of my verse and I own that humanly there is very little likelihood of that ever coming to pass. And to be sure if I chose to look at things on one side and not the other I could of course regret this bitterly. But there is more peace and it isthe holier lot to be unknown than to be known.

  Gerard Manley Hopkins

  Regret, Looks, Littles

  1881 Letter to Richard Watson Dixon, 29 Oct. Collected in C C Abbott (ed) The Correspondence of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Richard Watson Dixon (1935).

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• I go through the text making sure I haven't used any big words. If I find any fancy adjectives have crept in, I replace them with small words like 'nice' and 'big'. I've liked these words ever since I was told not to use them in English class at school. After that, I check that the sentences are short so as people won't get confused and I shorten all the chapters so they won't get bored. I can't read anything complicated these days, my attention span is too short. Everyone else probably feels the same.

  Martin Millar

  Confused, Nice, School

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• God is alpha and omega in the great world: endeavor to make him so in the little world; make him thy evening epilogue and thy morning prologue; practice to make him thy last thought at night when thou sleepest, and thy first thought in the morning when thou awakest; so shall thy fancy be sanctified in the night, and thy understanding rectified in the day; so shall thy rest be peaceful, thy labors prosperous, thy life pious, and thy death glorious.

  Francis Quarles

  God, Morning, Night

  Francis Quarles (1856). “Enchiridion: Containing Institutions Divine Contemplative Practical: Moral Ethical Oeconomical Political”, p.59

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• Lo! the poor toper whose untutored sense, Sees bliss in ale, and can with wine dispense; Whose head proud fancy never taught to steer, Beyond the muddy ecstasies of beer.

  George Crabbe

  Wine, Beer, Proud

  'Inebriety' (in imitation of Pope, 1775) pt. 1, l. 132.

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• Imagination in poetry, as distinguished from mere fancy is the transfiguring of the real or actual to the ideal.

  Alfred Austin

  Real, Imagination, Distinguished

  "The Bridling of Pegasus: Prose Papers on Poetry". Book by Alfred Austin, 1910.

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• What is called chance is the instrument of Providence and the secret agent that counteracts what men call wisdom, and preserves order and regularity, and continuation in the whole, for ... I firmly believe, notwithstanding all our complaints, that almost every person upon earth tastes upon the totality more happiness than misery; and therefore if we could correct the world to our fancies, and with the best intentions imaginable, probably we should only produce more misery and confusion.

  Horace Walpole

  Believe, Men, Order

  Horace Walpole (1904). “The letters of Horace Walpole: fourth earl of Orford”

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• I think sometimes that people assume because I'm on television I'm an expert, but I think the whole point of what I do is that I'm not and I don't have any training. My approach isn't about a fancy ingredient or style. I cook what I love to eat.

  Nigella Lawson

  Thinking, People, Style

  "British Sensation Lawson Says Cooking Should Be About Fun, Family". Oakland Tribune, June 04, 2003.

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• It is not tricks of sense But the time's fright within me which distracts Least fancies into violence

  Richard Wilbur

  Violence, Tricks, Fright

  1969 Walking to Sleep, 'On the Marginal Way'.

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• Opponents fancy they refute us when they repeat their own opinion and pay no attention to ours.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Attention, Opponents, Pay

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Maxims and Reflections”, p.135, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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