Recoil Quotes

• Revenge, at first though sweet, Bitter ere long back on itself recoils.

  John Milton

  Sweet, Revenge, Long

  John Milton (1826). “The Poetical Works of John Milton”, p.153

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• On a sudden open fly With impetuous recoil and jarring sound Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder.

  John Milton

  Doors, Sound, Thunder

  'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 2, l. 879

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• Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Peace, Truth, Fall

  Arthur Conan Doyle (2012). “The Sherlock Holmes Archives (incl. The Truth About Sherlock Holmes)”, p.551, Jazzybee Verlag

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• At man's core there is a voice that wants him never to give in to fear. But if it is true that in general man cannot give in to fear, at the very least he postpones indefinitely the moment when he will have to confront himself with the object of his fear... when he will no longer have the assistance of reason as guaranteed by God, or when he will no longer have the assistance of God such as reason guaranteed. It is necessary to recoil, but it is necessary to leap, and perhaps one only recoils in order to leap better.

  Georges Bataille

  God, Men, Order

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• Many readers judge of the power of a book by the shock it gives their feelings.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Book, Reading, Giving

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, J. D. McClatchy (2000). “Poems and Other Writings”, p.729, Library of America

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• Many readers judge of the power of a book by the shock it gives their feelings - as some savage tribes determine the power of muskets by their recoil; that being considered best which fairly prostrates the purchaser.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Funny, Reading, Book

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, J. D. McClatchy (2000). “Poems and Other Writings”, p.729, Library of America

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• Planted by your care? No! Your oppression planted them in America... nourished by your indulgence? They grew by your neglect of them... As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them... men whose behaviour on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them.

  Isaac Barre

  Son, Men, Blood

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• I thought this must be obvious to everyone else, as it seemed obvious to me; and that, if once it became apparent that we were on the edge, all the Great Powers would call a halt and recoil from the abyss.

  Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon

  Halt, Obvious, Abyss

  "Twenty-Five Years: 1892-1916". Book by Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, 1925.

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• Life presents itself in constantly changing ways, but you're able to accept the challenges, rather than recoil, throw up your hands, and go on a binge.

  Carnie Wilson

  Hands, Challenges, Goes On

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• It is hard, if not impossible, to snub a beautiful woman - they remain beautiful and the snub recoils.

  Winston Churchill

  Beautiful, Women, Impossible

  Sir Winston Churchill (1956). “Savrola: a tale of the revolution in Laurania”, Random

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• The stone often recoils on the head of the thrower.

  Elizabeth I

  Stones, Throwers

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• Thy soul is by vile fear assailed, which oft so overcasts a man, that he recoils from noblest resolution, like a beast at some false semblance in the twilight gloom.

  Dante Alighieri

  Twilight, Men, Soul

  Dante Alighieri (1998). “Inferno”, p.8, Wordsworth Editions

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• Among Negroes of my generation there was not only little direct acquaintance or consciously inherited knowledge of Africa, but much distaste and recoil because of what the white world taught them about the Dark Continent. There arose resentment that a group like ours, born and bred in the United States for centuries, should be regarded as Africans at all. They were, as most of them began gradually to assert, Americans. My father's father was particularly bitter about this. He would not accept an invitation to a 'Negro' picnic. He would not segregate himself in any way.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Father, Dark, White

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• All those instances to be found in history, whether real or fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted Nature recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the instruction of their youth.

  Edmund Burke

  Nature, Real, Historical

  Edmund Burke (1999). “The Portable Edmund Burke”, p.484, Penguin

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• I strongly oppose cloning, as do most Americans. We recoil at the idea of growing human beings for spare body parts or creating life for our convenience. And while we must devote enormous energy to conquering disease, it is equally important that we pay attention to the moral concerns raised by the new frontier of human embryo stem cell research. Even the most noble ends do not justify any means.

  George W. Bush

  Life, Mean, Science

  Remarks on Stem Cell Research, delivered 9 August 2001

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• Archer was too intelligent to think that a young woman like Ellen Olenska would necessarily recoil from everything that reminded her of her past. She might believe herself wholly in revolt against it; but what had charmed her in it would still charm her even though it were against her will.

  Edith Wharton

  Believe, Archer, Intelligent

  Edith Wharton (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Edith Wharton (Illustrated)”, p.2047, Delphi Classics

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• We are all freaks. Yes! Alone in our rooms at night, we are all weirdoes and outcasts and losers. That is what being a teenager is all about! Whether you admit it or not, you are all worried that the others won’t accept you, that if they knew the real you, they would recoil in horror. Each of us carries with us a secret shame that we think is somehow unique…And if we are, each of us, freaks – then can’t we accept what’s different in each other and move on?

  James St. James

  Real, Teenager, Moving

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• For even satire is a form of sympathy. It is the way our sympathy flows and recoils that really determines our lives. And here lies the vast importance of the novel, properly handled. It can inform and lead into new places our sympathy away in recoil from things gone dead. Therefore the novel, properly handled, can reveal the most secret places of life: for it is the passional secret places of life, above all, that the tide of sensitive awareness needs to ebb and flow, cleansing and freshening.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Sympathy, Lying, Ebb And Flow

  D. H. Lawrence, Michael Squires (2002). “Lady Chatterley's Lover and A Propos of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'”, p.101, Cambridge University Press

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• Sole and self-commanded works,
  Fears not undermining days,
  Grows by decays,
  And, by the famous might that lurks
  In reaction and recoil,
  Makes flames to freeze, and ice to boil.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Self, Flames, Ice

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.48, Graphic Arts Books

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• The promise of God is that you are His son. Her offspring. Its likeness. His equal. Ah...here is where you get hung up. You can accept "His son," "offspring," "likeness," but you recoil at being called "His equal." It is too much to accept. Too much bigness, too much wonderment-too much responsibility. For if you are God's equal, that means nothing is being done to you-and all things are created by you. There can be no more victims and no more villains-only outcomes of your thought about a thing.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Inspirational, Religious, Mean

  "Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue". Book by Neale Donald Walsch, 1995.

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• Analysis takes back with one hand what it gives with the other. I recoil in fear and loathing from that deplorable evil: continuous functions with no derivatives.

  Charles Hermite

  Hands, Evil, Giving

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• Most Americans instinctively recoil from the claim that there is an antireligious bias running through the underlying assumptions with which their society approaches church-state issues. However, there is persuasive evidence that among some influential segments of the population, there is a very real antireligious strain.

  Stephen V Monsma

  Christian, Running, Religious

  Stephen V. Monsma (1995). “Positive Neutrality: Letting Religious Freedom Ring”, Baker Publishing Group

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• Coercive measures may have a restraining effect for a time, but can never subdue an untractable spirit: it is only by engaging the affections and enlarging the understanding, that the heart can be meliorated or principles be formed; for like a bow forcibly bent, the mind recoils from oppression with elastic power.

  Mary Hays

  Heart, Understanding, Mind

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• This it is that gives a majesty so pure and touching to the historic figure of Christ; self-abandonment to God, uttermost surrender, without reserve or stipulation, to the guidance of the Holy Spirit from the Soul of souls; pause in no darkness; hesitation in no perplexity, recoil in no extremity of anguish, but a gentle unfaltering hold of the invisible Hand, of the Only Holy and All Good--these are the features that have made Jesus of Nazareth the dearest and most sacred image to the heart of so many ages.

  James Martineau

  Jesus, Heart, Invisible Hand

  James Martineau (1905). “A Martineau year book: Extracts from sermons”

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• We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. Like the images the photographer plunges into a golden bath, our sentiments take on color; and only then, after that recoil and that trans-figuration, do we understand their real meaning and enjoy them in all their tranquil splendor.

  Georges Duhamel

  Memories, Real, Color

  "The Heart's Domain". Book by Georges Duhamel, 1919.

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