Quality Quotes - Page 25

• Before, I was always trying to make my relationships work by means of willpower and forced affability. This time I didn't have to strive for anything. A quality of ease spread over us.

  Charles Baxter

  Mean, Always Trying, Ease

  "The Feast of Love: A Novel". Book by Charles Baxter, May 1, 2001.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• But we are living in a sceptical and, if I may use the phrase, a thought-tormented age: and sometimes I fear that this new generation, educated or hyper-educated as it is, will lack those qualities of humanity, of hospitality, of kindly humour which belonged to an older day.

  James Joyce

  Humanity, Age, Generations

  "Dubliners".

  75 Copy quote

  Show source

• Don’t worry, though, because Prince Hubert is very handsome and kind. That’s all you wanted in a boyfriend, wasn’t it?” “No,” I said. She raised an eyebrow. “It must be. If you had admired any other qualities you would have developed them in yourself, wouldn’t you?” Which was really too much. I put my hands on my hips. “Aren’t fairy godmothers supposed to be nice and make you feel better about yourself?” She rolled her eyes. “No, you’re confusing fairy god- mothers with sales clerks.

  Janette Rallison

  Mother, Nice, Eye

  Janette Rallison (2010). “My Fair Godmother”, p.88, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• From the first time he'd met her, he'd sensed an air of contradiction about her. She was very much a woman, but still retained a waiflike quality. She could be brash, and at times deliberately suggestive, yet she was painfully shy. She was incredibly easy to get along with, yet she had few friends. She was a talented artist in her own right, but so self-conscious about her work that she rarely completed a piece and preferred to work with other people's art and ideas.

  Charles de Lint

  Art, Ideas, Air

  5 Copy quote

• To say that she had a book is to say that her solitude did not press upon her; for her love of knowledge had a fertilizing quality and her imagination was strong. There was at this time, however, a want of lightness in her situation, which the arrival of an unexpected visitor did much to dispel.

  Henry James

  Strong, Book, Imagination

  Henry James (1994). “Henry James: selected works”, Random House Value Publishing

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I did not consider him to be any kind of a genius. I considered him deeply lacking in the area that mattered most in life. Star quality.

  Augusten Burroughs

  Stars, Genius, Kind

  6 Copy quote

• If one were to be a person of value that value could not be a condition subject to hazards of fortune. It had to be a quality that could not change. No matter what.

  Cormac McCarthy

  Hazards, Matter, Fortune

  Cormac McCarthy (2013). “The Border Trilogy”, p.223, Pan Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Around us the night creatures have their say. We are surrounded by a symphony of crickets and frogs. Neither of us feels the need to speak, and I suppose that is one of the qualities I find comforting in Kartik. We can be alone together.

  Libba Bray

  Night, Symphony, Comforting

  Libba Bray (2010). “The Sweet Far Thing”, p.152, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The truest art I would strive for in any work would be to give the page the same qualities as earth: weather would land on it harshly; light would elucidate the most difficult truths; wind would sweep away obtuse padding.

  Gretel Ehrlich

  Art, Nature, Light

  Gretel Ehrlich (1986). “The Solace of Open Spaces”, Penguin Group USA

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• But I have had enough melodrama in this life, and would willingly give my five senses if they could ensure us our present peace and security. Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind. Of course we have our moments of depression; but there are other moments too, when time, unmeasured by the clock, runs on into eternity and, catching his smile, I know we are together, we march in unison, no flash of thought or opinion makes a barrier between us.

  Daphne du Maurier

  Running, Giving, Mind

  9 Copy quote

• My working method has more often than not involved the subtraction of weight. I have tried to remove weight, sometimes from people, sometimes from heavenly bodies, sometimes from cities; above all I have tried to remove weight from the structure of stories and from language. . . . Maybe I was only then becoming aware of the weight, the inertia, the opacity of the world--qualities that stick to the writing from the start, unless one finds some way of evading them.

  Italo Calvino

  Writing, Cities, People

  "Six Memos For This Millennium" by Sam Cooney, therumpus.net. November 22, 2010.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• ...once I falsely hoped to meet the beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding.

  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  Excellent, Form, Unfolding

  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (2005). “Frankenstein”, p.184, Prestwick House Inc

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• In other words, it was a struggle with himself. And the product of that struggle: anger, bitterness, resentment, envy or transformation, aspiration, hope, decency..the product of that struggle is the quality of your life and the nature of your soul.

  Emma Forrest

  Struggle, Envy, Soul

  5 Copy quote

• The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they simply want what most people want, to be judged by the quality of their skills, not by the color of their skin. But the black conservatives overlook the fact that affirmative action policies were political responses to the pervasive refusal of most white Americans to judge black Americans on that basis.

  Cornel West

  Color, Skills, White

  7 Copy quote

• Money has lost its narrative quality the way painting did once upon a time. Money is talking to itself.

  Don DeLillo

  Talking, Once Upon A Time, Narrative

  Don DeLillo (2011). “Cosmopolis”, p.64, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• As Jack began to climb the stairs, Fiona looked up at her new home. Five stories of stately mansion rose above her head. Heavy molding around the large windows and doors bespoke a quality and craftsmanship that was obvious even in the dim night. “Good God! It’s massive!” Jack paused with his foot on the last step. “I do wish you’d keep those comments until we are in bed, love. I would appreciate them all the more there.

  Karen Hawkins

  Home, Night, Doors

  5 Copy quote

• People think me a sort of Florence Nightingale, but I have no heroic qualities. I simply don’t feel very much.

  Franny Billingsley

  Thinking, People, Florence Nightingale

  Franny Billingsley (2013). “Chime”, p.41, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I like women who haven’t lived with too many men. I don’t expect virginity but I simply prefer women who haven’t been rubbed raw by experience. There is a quality about women who choose men sparingly; it appears in their walk in their eyes in their laughter and in their gentle hearts. Women who have had too many men seem to choose the next one out of revenge rather than with feeling. When you play the field selfishly everything works against you: one can’t insist on love or demand affection. You’re finally left with whatever you have been willing to give which often is: nothing.

  Charles Bukowski

  Laughter, Revenge, Heart

  19 Copy quote

• The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice.

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, Rain, Heart

  'The Merchant of Venice' (1596-8) act 4, sc. 1, l. [182]

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Screw-top wine has improved the quality of life by about ten percent, wouldn't you say?

  Martin Amis

  Wine, Screws, Percent

  Martin Amis (2013). “The Pregnant Widow”, p.459, Random House

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• But I am constant as the Northern Star, Of whose true fixed and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament.

  William Shakespeare

  Stars, Firmament, Fixed

  'Julius Caesar' (1599) act 3, sc. 1, l. 59

  87 Copy quote

  Show source

• How many times have I wondered if it is really possible to forge links with a mass of people when one has never had strong feelings for anyone, not even one's own parents: if it is possible to have a collectivity when one has not been deeply loved oneself by individual human creatures. Hasn't this had some effect on my life as a militant--has it not tended to make me sterile and reduce my quality as a revolutionary by making everything a matter of pure intellect, of pure mathematical calculation?

  Antonio Gramsci

  Strong, People, Parent

  47 Copy quote

• It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them — the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Love, Heart, Character

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  42 Copy quote

  Show source

• Entertainment is a sacred pursuit when done well. When done well, it raises the quality of human life.

  Michael Chabon

  Done, Sacred, Entertainment

  4 Copy quote

• The mother...swinging the children by pulling on a length of string, while at the same time she kept and eye on them with that protective watchfulness, half animal, half angelic, which is the quality of motherhood.

  Victor Hugo

  Mother, Children, Eye

  7 Copy quote