Few Words Quotes - Page 3

• I have a notebook with me all the time, and I begin scribbling a few words. When things are going well, the walk does not get anywhere; I finally just stop and write.

  Mary Oliver

  Notebook, Writing, Journey

  Interview with Renee Olander, www.awpwriter.org. September, 1994.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The most basic barrier was language itself, very few Americans in Iraq whether soldiers or diplomats or news paper reporters could speak more than a few words of Arabic. A remarkable number of them didn't even have translators. That meant for many Iraqis the typical 19 year old army corporal from South Dakota was not a youthful innocent carrying Americas good will, he was a terrifying combination of firepower and ignorance.

  Dexter Filkins

  Ignorance, Army, Years

  4 Copy quote

• The little saying, 'Be still and know that I Am God' ... contains the entire wisdom of religion in those few words.

  Eckhart Tolle

  Littles, Stills, Knows

  8 Copy quote

• The main characteristic of Nature's farming can therefore be summed up in a few words. Mother earth never attempts to farm without live stock; she always raises mixed crops; great pains are taken to preserve the soil and to prevent erosion; the mixed vegetable and animal wastes are converted into humus; there is no waste; the processes of growth and the processes of decay balance one another; ample provision is made to maintain large reserves of fertility; the greatest care is taken to store the rainfall; both plants and animals are left to protect themselves against disease.

  Albert Howard

  Mother, Pain, Taken

  SIR ALBERT HOWARD, C.l.E., M.A. (0101). “An Agricultural”, p.12, Prabhat Prakashan

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• I must say a few words about memory. It is full of holes. If you were to lay it out upon a table, it would resemble a scrap of lace. I am a lover of history . . . [but] history has one flaw. It is a subjective art, no less so than poetry or music. . . . The historian writes a truth. The memoirist writes a truth. The novelist writes a truth. And so on. My mother, we both know, wrote a truth in The 19th Wife– a truth that corresponded to her memory and desires. It is not the truth, certainly not. But a truth, yes . . . Her book is a fact. It remains so, even if it is snowflaked with holes.

  David Ebershoff

  Mother, Art, Memories

  4 Copy quote

• Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.

  Orson Scott Card

  Parenting, Language Words, Silence

  94 Copy quote

• Now comes what I perhaps inflatedly call my philosophy of knitting. Like many philosophies, it is hard to express in a few words. Its main tenets are enjoyment and satisfaction, accompanied by thrift, inventiveness, an appearance of industry, and, above all, resourcefulness.

  Elizabeth Zimmermann

  Philosophy, Knitting, Satisfaction

  23 Copy quote

• Unfortunately, I have dedicated great effort to the task of compiling this ‘sensitive words glossary,’ and I have mastered my filtering skills. I knew which words and sentences had to be cut, and I accepted the cutting as if that was the way it should be. In fact, I will often take it on myself to save time and cut a few words. I call this ‘castrated writing’ - I am a proactive eunuch, I have already castrated myself before the surgeon raises his scalpel.

  Murong Xuecun

  Writing, Cutting, Skills

  "Words We Can Use, and Those We Can Not". www.nytimes.com. February 24, 2011.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Truth is something which can't be told in a few words. Those who simplify the universe only reduce the expansion of its meaning.

  Anais Nin

  Truth, Reality, Expansion

  10 Copy quote

• When you make as many speeches and you talk as much as I do and you get away from the text, it's always a possibility to get a few words tangled here and there.

  Dan Quayle

  Tangled, Here And There, Speech

  10 Copy quote

• And be silent for the most part, or else make only the most necessary remarks, and express these in few words. But rarely, and when occasion requires you to talk, talk, indeed, but about no ordinary topics. Do not talk about gladiators, or horseraces, or athletes, or things to eat or drink - topics that arise on all occasions; but above all, do not talk about people, either blaming, or praising, or comparing them.

  Epictetus

  Communication, Athlete, People

  Epictetus (1925). “The Discourses as reported by Arrian: the Manual, and fragments”

  59 Copy quote

  Show source

• A few words of Hindi appear here or there, but it's all Urdu. I feel that if the popular culture, which is what Hindi films are, uses Urdu, it's not going to diminish.

  Ismail Merchant

  Halloween, Culture, Use

  60 Copy quote

• Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.

  Tim O'Reilly

  Running, Business, Entrepreneur

  19 Copy quote

• Shields Green was not one to shrink from hardships or dangers. He was a man of few words, and his speech was singularly broken; but his courage and self-respect made him quite a dignified character.

  Frederick Douglass

  Character, Men, Self

  Frederick Douglass (2012). “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass”, p.228, Courier Corporation

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• This Lullaby is only a few words, a simple run of chords, quiet here in this spare room, but you can hear it, hear it, wherever you may go, even if I let you down, this lullaby plays on.

  Sarah Dessen

  Running, Simple, Play

  Sarah Dessen (2004). “This Lullaby”, p.231, Penguin

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sometimes, life seems to have a higher meaning. Events unfold in uncanny sequences. Long-forgotten acquaintances turn up with news that changes lives. A stranger appears and speaks a few words of wisdom, solving a previously insoluble problem, or something in a recent dream transpires in reality. Suddenly the existence of God seems confirmed.

  Dean Koontz

  Dream, Life Changing, Reality

  32 Copy quote

• It's very interesting, the joke comes first and then the wording comes within five seconds, maybe ten seconds. My thing is to get the joke across in as few words as possible. However, sometimes a word that's not really needed does help the rhythm of it. It's a gut feeling.

  Steven Wright

  Interesting, Feelings, Doe

  7 Copy quote

• The thing about the 600 words, I mean some day, you can do a very, very, very hard day's work and not write a word, just revising, or you would scribble a few words.

  J. K. Rowling

  Writing, Mean, Scribbles

  4 Copy quote

• I still understand a few words in life, but I no longer think they make a sentence.

  Jean Rostand

  Thinking, Understanding, Sentences

  Jean Rostand (1962). “The substance of man”

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in a few words.

  Samuel Johnson

  Truth, Expression, Excellence

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.76

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• Men can become twins with age. The past was their common womb; the six months of rain and the six months of sun was the period of their common gestation. They needed only a few words and a few gestures to convey their meaning. They had graduated through the same fevers, they were moved by the same love and contempt.

  Graham Greene

  Love, Rain, Men

  Graham Greene (1973). “The Portable Graham Greene”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sometimes you only need to have a few words with a person to know you would like to have many more.

  Roger Ebert

  Relationship, Needs, Sometimes

  9 Copy quote

• Do you feel gloomy? Lift your eyes. Stand on your feet. Say a few words of appreciation and love to the Lord. Be positive.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Gratitude, Appreciation, Eye

  5 Copy quote

• When you can have anything you want by uttering a few words, the goal matters not, only the journey to it.

  Christopher Paolini

  Journey, Goal, Want

  Christopher Paolini (2014). “The Inheritance Cycle Complete Collection: Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, Inheritance”, p.966, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The essence of Taoism is really expressed by these few words. Taoism is the way of the child, the way of the fool, the way of someone who doesn't need to be noticed.

  Frederick Lenz

  Children, Essence, Taoism

  4 Copy quote