Pastime Quotes - Page 3

• And if our book consumption remains as low as it has been, at least let us admit that it is because reading is a less exciting pastime than going to the dogs, the pictures or the pub, and not because books, whether bought or borrowed, are too expensive.

  George Orwell

  Dog, Book, Reading

  George Orwell, Ian Angus, Sheila Davison (1998). “The Complete Works of George Orwell: Smothered under journalism, 1946”

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• Everybody now has a camera, whether it is a professional instrument or just part of a phone. Landscape photography is a pastime enjoyed by more and more. Getting it right is not an issue. It is difficult to make a mistake with the sophisticated technology we now have. Making a personal and creative image is a far greater challenge.

  Michael Kenna

  Photography, Mistake, Technology

  Source: www.smh.com.au

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• Music is a pastime, a relaxation from more serious occupations.

  Alexander Borodin

  Music, Relaxation, Occupation

  Letter to V. A. Krylov, 1867.

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• I had discovered that love might be a pastime as well as a tragedy, and I gave myself to it with pagan innocence.

  Isadora Duncan

  Love, Tragedy, Might

  Isadora Duncan (2013). “My Life (Revised and Updated)”, p.224, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Disparagement of television is second only to watching television as an American pastime.

  George Will

  Television, Watching Television

  George F. Will (1978). “The pursuit of happiness, and other sobering thoughts”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Leisure was the sine qua non of the full Renaissance. The feudal nobility, having lost its martial function, sought diversion all over Europe in cultivated pastimes: sonneteering, the lute, games and acrostics, travel, gentlemanly studies and sports, hunting and hawking, treated as arts.

  Mary McCarthy

  Sports, Art, Hunting

  Mary McCarthy (1956). “Venice observed”

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• My favorite pastime is staring out the window. When I go on tour, I can spend hours and hours just staring out the window, thinking about nothing. I love all that.

  Noel Gallagher

  Thinking, Goes On, Window

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• The Phenomenon of Man stands square in the tradition of Naturphilosophie, a philosophical indoor pastime of German origin which does not seem even by accident (though there is a great deal of it) to have contributed anything of permanent value to the storehouse of human thought.

  Peter Medawar

  Philosophical, Men, Squares

  "Review of Teilhard de Chardin's 'The Phenomenon of Man'". "Mind", Vol 70, pp. 99-105, 1961.

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• There is that American pastime known as "kidding" - with the result that everyone is ashamed and hangdog about showing the slightest enthusiasm or passion or sincere feeling about anything.

  Brenda Ueland

  Passion, Feelings, Enthusiasm

  Brenda Ueland (2013). “If You Want to Write”, p.6, Simon and Schuster

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• For within livin structures defined by profit, by linear power, by institutional dehumanization, our feelings were not meant to survive. Kept around as unavoidable adjuncts or pleasant pastimes, our feelings were expected to kneel to thought as women were expected to kneel to men. But women have survived. As poets.

  Audre Lorde

  Men, Feelings, Poet

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.39, Crossing Press

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• Our society accepts the book as a given, but the act of reading -- once considered useful and important, as well as potentially dangerous and subversive -- is now condescendingly accepted as a pastime, a slow pastime that lacks efficiency and does not contribute to the common good.

  Alberto Manguel

  Book, Reading, Important

  Alberto Manguel (2011). “The Library at Night”, p.209, Vintage Canada

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• And usually [the philosopher] philosophizes either in order to resign himself to life, or to seek some finality in it, or to distract himself and forget his griefs, or for pastime and amusement.

  Miguel de Unamuno

  Grief, Order, Amusement

  Miguel de Unamuno (2012). “Tragic Sense of Life”, p.29, Courier Corporation

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• Contrary to what certain comedians have led you to believe, the national French pastime is picnicking.

  Bob Hope

  Funny, Humorous, Believe

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• I did some thinking.” “That is a very dangerous pastime,” Ghastek said.

  Ilona Andrews

  Thinking, Said, Dangerous

  Ilona Andrews (2011). “Magic Slays”, p.98, Penguin

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• Today, to allege corruption seems to be the pastime of most people. All kinds of allegations are leveled. I think it is self-defeating.

  P. Chidambaram

  Past, Thinking, Self

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• Chess may be the deepest, least exhaustible of pastimes, but it is nothing more. As for a chess genius, he is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise.

  George Steiner

  Genius, May, Littles

  "The Sporting Scene: White Knights of Rekjavik". Book by George Steiner, 1972.

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• Looking at you has been my favorite pastime from the moment you asked me to describe your face," he said solemnly, looking straight into her eyes.

  Judith McNaught

  Eye, Faces, Moments

  Judith McNaught (2016). “Until You”, p.256, Simon and Schuster

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• My favorite travel pastime is writing music, either with my guitar or on my computer.

  Alexander Ludwig

  Writing, Guitar, Computer

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• Jocelyn recognized reading as a sacred pastime and usually wouldn't interrupt Clary in the middle of a book, even to yell at her.

  Cassandra Clare

  Book, Reading, Sacred

  Cassandra Clare (2012). “Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments Series (5 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls”, p.30, Simon and Schuster

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• I don't think I'd like to argue with you," I say. "I think it would be a very dissatisfying pastime.

  Maggie Stiefvater

  Thinking, Would Be, Arguing

  Maggie Stiefvater (2011). “The Scorpio Races”, p.278, Scholastic UK

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• Indeed, the maligned American pastime of baseball may be by-far the greatest and best sport by one criterion, when it comes to emulating and training for genuinely useful Neolithic skills! Think about it. The game consists of lots of patient waiting and watching (stalking), throwing with incredible accuracy and speed, sprinting, dodging... and hitting moving objects real hard with clubs! And arguing. Hey, what else could you possibly need? Now, tell me, how do soccer or basketball prepare you to survive in the wild, hm?

  David Brin

  Basketball, Soccer, Sports

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• I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.

  Gary Gygax

  Fun, Playing Games, Guy

  Interview with Allen Rausch, pc.gamespy.com. August 16, 2004.

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• We should leave people alone about their weight. Being skinny for a while (provided you actually eat food and don't take pills or smoke to get there) is a perfectly fine pastime. Everyone should try it once, like a super-short haircut or dating a white guy.

  Tina Fey

  White, People, Dating

  "Tina Fey: 'Ugly, pear-shaped and bitchy? I prefer offbeat, business class-assed and exhausted" by Tina Fey, www.theguardian.com. April 18, 2011.

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• ... he trotted down the hallway on all fours and started in on his second favorite pastime, conversations with plumbing. Just what I needed: Stone, the Toilet Whisperer.

  Devon Monk

  Toilets, Stones, Conversation

  Devon Monk (2009). “Magic in the Shadows: An Allie Beckstrom Novel”, p.290, Penguin

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• You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.

  Khalil Gibran

  Peace, Heart, Thinking

  Khalil Gibran (2014). “The Prophet - Der Prophet”, p.96, Lulu.com

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