If I Could Quotes - Page 19

• If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Party, Political, Heaven

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1859). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence”, p.585

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• When I start to write, words have become physical presence. It was to see if I could bring that private world to life that found its first expression through reading. I really dislike the romantic notion of the artist.

  John McGahern

  Romantic, Reading, Writing

  "The whole world in a community" by Robert McCrum, www.theguardian.com. January 5, 2002.

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• If I could meet anybody? The prophet Muhammad.

  Muhammad Ali

  Prophet Muhammad, Ifs, Muhammad

  "Muhammad Ali: What I've Learned" by Cal Fussman, January 17, 2012.

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• All my life, I have been sickened by everything connected with meat-, fish-, and poultry eating. As a child, I saw apparently nice, kind people wring the necks of fowls, and I thought it foul; and I wondered if I could ever exert any influence to help bring such unworthiness to an end.

  Percy Grainger

  Children, Nice, People

  "How I Became a Meat-Shunner". American Vegetarian, Vol. V no. 4, p. 4, December 1946.

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• I should not like to contemplate an existence, especially one that is going to continue forever, if I could not enjoy that existence with those whom I love. And so we build temples in the name of the Lord.

  Hugh B. Brown

  Names, Forever, Temples

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• I would kick this bad world's ass if I could just get on my feet

  Jon Bon Jovi

  Feet, World, Ass

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• When I first became famous, I didn't know if I could go where I wanted to because I didn't know how people were going to act. Some folks would scream and holler, and I didn't know what to do with that.

  Jill Scott

  People, Firsts, Scream

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• If I could change the attitude of young men toward literature, I would want them to read not just for escape, but because literature can be more truthful about things like sex, commitment, and aging. It can be more truthful about the stuff that our parents lied to us (and themselves) about, and the stuff that everyone has to lie about. It can all be dealt with truthfully in fiction and poetry.

  Lorin Stein

  Sex, Attitude, Lying

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• If I could be any animal I would be a pony because then I could have sex with ponies.
  Pony, what a funny word. Say it, pony. PO-KNEE. Now ah've made myself giddy with delight. Towards the ponies *laughs*

  Thom Yorke

  Sex, Animal, Laughing

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• What’s the impulse behind art? It’s saying in whatever language is the language of your work, “If I could move you as much as it moved me … if I can move anyone a tenth as much as that moved me, if I can spark the same sense of mystery and awe and surprise as that sparked in me, well that’s why I do what I do.”

  Greil Marcus

  Art, Moving, Sparks

  "Greil Marcus on How the Division of High vs. Low Robs Culture of Its Essence" by Maria Popova, www.brainpickings.org. May 13, 2013.

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• I believed that if I was to call myself a writer, I should live on writing. If I could not live on it, even simply, I should destroy every scrap, every trace, every notebook and live some other way.

  Mavis Gallant

  Notebook, Writing, Way

  Mavis Gallant (2016). “The Collected Stories”, p.58, Everyman's Library

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• I was always too mature for my age - and not very happy. I had no young friends. I wish I could go back to those days. If I could only live it all again, how I would play and enjoy other girls. What a fool I was.

  Maria Callas

  Girl, Play, Young Friends

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• If I could have done anything more, it would have been less

  Artie Shaw

  Done, Has Beens, Ifs

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• If there is anything that I could get you to do, it would be to spend ten to fifteen minutes each morning planning your day. If I could get you to do that, you'd not only scare yourself, you'd intimidate everybody on your block.

  Hyrum W. Smith

  Inspirational, Morning, Block

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• I'd like to get something together - like a Handel, Bach, Muddy waters, flamenco type of thing. If I could get that sound, I'd be happy

  Jimi Hendrix

  Music, Water, Together

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• I've got a bike. You can ride it if you like. It's got a basket, a bell that rings and things to make it look good. I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it...

  Syd Barrett

  Giving, Looks, Bells

  "Song: Bike (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)". August 5, 1967.

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• Oh, if I could put some of my reckless spirit into these discreet cautious lazy men!

  Mary Boykin Chesnut

  Men, Lazy Man, Laziness

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• All my lies are only wishes / I know I would die if I could come back new.

  Jeff Tweedy

  Lying, Wish, Knows

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• If I could straighten it out (his golf swing), I'd be pitching at Dodger Stadium tonight.

  Sandy Koufax

  Golf, Swings, Tonight

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• I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.

  Edward Everett

  War, Ideas, Two

  Svend Petersen, Edward Everett (1963). “The Gettysburg addresses: the story of two orations”

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• My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Believe, Struggle

  Letter to Horace Greeley, 22 Aug. 1862

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• In politics I am growing indifferent - I would like it, if I could now return to my planting and books at home

  Ulysses S. Grant

  Book, Home, Growing

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• I wouldn't mind leaving myself behind if I could, but I don't know the way out.

  Gregory Maguire

  Leaving, Mind, Way

  Gregory Maguire (2013). “The Wicked Years Complete Collection: Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz”, p.104, Harper Collins

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• I remember, when I have preached at different times in the country, and sometimes here, that my whole soul has agonized over men, every nerve of my body has been strained and I could have wept my very being out of my eyes and carried my whole frame away in a flood of tears, if I could but win souls

  Charles Spurgeon

  Country, Eye, Winning

  Spurgeon, Charles H. “The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 44: Sermons 2549-2602”, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

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• If I could apologise and go back and change history I would do. But the goal is still a goal, Argentina became world champions and I was the best player in the world

  Diego Maradona

  Player, Goal, Champion

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