Figures Of Speech Quotes - Page 2

• I’d heard Bones threaten to beat someone with their own limb before, but I’d always assumed that was a figure of speech. Apparently not.

  Jeaniene Frost

  Qualms About, Speech, Bones

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• Anderson sent me to give you this he said. I believe the subtext was kiss and makeup. This time I was sure I made a face. "I rather kiss a copperhead." I grabbed the envelop from his hand. He laughed and held up his hands in surrender. Don't worry. It was only a figure of speech.

  Jenna Black

  Believe, Kissing, Makeup

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• It is Barack Obama who is at war with this country. Recent events prove it. This is not a cliche. It's not a figure of speech. Obama is at war with the U.S. economy.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Country, War, Events

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• Prayer is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but earnestness of soul.

  Hannah More

  Prayer, Soul, Feelings

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• It takes talent to please the people in a sermon by a flowery style, a cheerful ethic, brilliant sallies and lively descriptions; but such a talent is inadequate. A better sort of talent neglects these extraneous ornaments, unworthy to be used in the service of the Gospel: such a preacher's sermon will be simple, strong and Christian.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Christian, People, Style

  "Of The Pulpit". "Characters", Book by Jean De La Bruyère, www.ourcivilisation.com. 1688.

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• Metaphor has traditionally been regarded as the matrix and pattern of the figures of speech.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Speech, Patterns, Metaphor

  "Laws of Media: The New Science". p. 231. Book by Marshall McLuhan and Eric McLuhan, 1988.

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• Bones didn’t share any of my qualms about suddenly holding an arm that wasn’t attached to a body anymore. He just grabbed the ghoul by his other arm and began thumping him over the head with the loose limb. I’d heard Bones threaten to beat someone with their own limb before, but I’d always assumed that was a figure of speech. Apparently not.

  Jeaniene Frost

  Ghouls, Qualms About, Body

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• However and wherever war begins, it persists, it spreads, it propagates itself through time and across space with the terrifying tenacity of a beast attached to the neck of living prey. This is not an idly chosen figure of speech. War spreads and perpetuates itself through a dynamic that often seems independent of human will. It has, as we like to say of things we do not fully understand, 'a life of its own.

  Barbara Ehrenreich

  War, Independent, Space

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• But that wasn't fancy enough for Lord Byron, oh dear me no, he had to invent a lot of figures of speech and then interpolate them,
  With the result that whenever you mention Old Testament soldiers to
  people they say Oh yes, they're the ones that a lot of wolves dressed up in gold and purple ate them.

  Ogden Nash

  Purple, People, Soldier

  Ogden Nash (1935). “The primrose path”

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• To invoke a Kierkegaardesque figure of speech, the beauty of the language of the Bible can be like a set of dentist's instruments nearly laid out on a table and hanging on a wall, intriguing in their technological complexity and with their stainless steel highly polished--until they set to work on the job for which they were originally designed. Then all of a sudden my reaction changes from "How shiny and beautiful they all are!" to "Get that damned thing out of my mouth!

  Jaroslav Pelikan

  Beautiful, Bible, Jobs

  Jaroslav Pelikan (2006). “Whose Bible Is It?: A Short History of the Scriptures”, p.229, Penguin

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• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

  George Orwell

  Thinking, Everyday, Phrases

  George Orwell (1958). “Selected writings”

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• Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

  Patrick Henry

  Death, Sweet, Freedom

  Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Va., 23 Mar. 1775.

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• Originally, the atoms of carbon from which we're made were floating in the air, part of a carbon dioxide molecule. The only way to recruit these carbon atoms for the molecules necessary to support life-the carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins, and lipids-is by means of photosynthesis. Using sunlight as a catalyst the green cells of plants combine carbon atoms taken from the air with water and elements drawn from the soil to form the simple organic compounds that stand at the base of every food chain. It is more than a figure of speech to say that plants create life out of thin air.

  Michael Pollan

  Taken, Mean, Simple

  Michael Pollan (2009). “The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World”, p.15, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• There are three estates in Parliament but in the Reporters' Gallery yonder there sits a Fourth Estate more important far than they all. It is not a figure of speech or witty saying, it is a literal fact, very momentous to us in these times.

  Edmund Burke

  Witty, Knowledge, Important

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• I do not know what might be the most fitting description.... I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner. And this is what I said when they asked me if I would accept my election as pontiff: I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit of penance.

  Pope Francis

  Jesus, Literary Genre, Speech

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• It's difficult to talk to people who whisper even at home, afraid of Americans eavesdropping on them. It's not a figure of speech, not a joke, I'm serious.

  Vladimir Putin

  Home, People, Speech

  "Ask the President! Some of Putin’s Very Best Hotline Answers". Answer during the "Direct Line with Vladimir Putin", sputniknews.com. April 15, 2015.

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• So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Courage, Badass, Military

  Address at the Sorbonne, Paris, 23 Apr. 1910. Richard M. Nixon quoted this passage in his address to the nation announcing his decision to resign the presidency, 8 Aug. 1974. See Theodore Roosevelt 1; Theodore Roosevelt 2; Theodore Roosevelt 5

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• Does it ever give thee pause that men used to have a soul? Not by hearsay alone, or as a figure of speech, but as a thruth that they knew and acted upon. Verily it was another world then, but yet it is a pity we have lost the tidings of our souls. We shall have to go in search of them again or worse in all ways shall befall us.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Men, Giving, Soul

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• He gave me a look of great contempt; as I supposed, for venturing, even by implication, to draw a parallel between a lack of affluence that might, literally, affect my purchase of rare vintages, and a figure of speech intended delicately to convey his own dire want for the bare necessities of life. He remained silent for several seconds, as if trying to make up his mind whether he could ever bring himself to speak to me again; and then said gruffly: 'I've got to go now.'

  Anthony Powell

  Delicate Life, Vintage, Mind

  Anthony Powell (2010). “A Question of Upbringing: Book 1 of A Dance to the Music of Time”, p.188, University of Chicago Press

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