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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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 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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• 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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• 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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• Among friends one has the privilege of saying nothing; the civility consists in the assumption that one's silence will be civilly understood. I can imagine a small gathering of friends who say nothing all evening: they recoil from saying anything that the others don't want to hear; and their silence would be the subtlest courtesy.

  Allen Tate

  Friendship, Silence, Gathering

  Allen Tate (1967). “T. S. Eliot: The Man and His Work”, London : Chatto & Windus

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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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• Wonder has no opposite; it springs up already doubled in itself, compounded of dread and desire at once, attraction and recoil, producing a thrill, the shudder of pleasure and of fear.

  Marina Warner

  Spring, Opposites, Desire

  Marina Warner, Sophie Herxheimer, Gilbert Adair (1994). “Wonder Tales”, p.3, Oxford University Press on Demand

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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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• SOME GIRLS WEAR PRADA. SOME GIRLS WEAR GLOCK 17 SHORT RECOIL SPRING-LOADED SEMIAUTOMATIC PISTOLS WITH A LOADED CHAMBER INDICATOR AND A NONSLIP GRIP. - T-SHIRT

  Darynda Jones

  Girl, Spring, Pistols

  Darynda Jones (2012). “Second Grave On The Left: Number 2 in series”, p.92, Hachette UK

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• Lying is, almost by definition, a refusal to cooperate with others. It condenses a lack of trust and trustworthiness into a single act. It is both a failure of understanding and an unwillingness to be understood. To lie is to recoil from relationship.

  Sam Harris

  Lying, Understanding, Definitions

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• Sensing us, the trees tremble in their sleep, The living leaves recoil before our fires, Baring to us war-charred and broken branches, And seeing theirs, we for our own destruction weep.

  Kathleen Raine

  War, Sleep, Fire

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• It is a sad moment when the first phlox appears. It is the amber light indicating the end of the great burst of early summer and suggesting that we must now start looking forward to autumn. Not that I have any objection to autumn as a season, full of its own beauty; but I just cannot bear to see another summer go, and I recoil from what the first hint of autumn means.

  Vita Sackville-West

  Summer, Mean, Autumn

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• What I question is the extent to which any of us truly knows what the facts really are. I mistrust every ideal cherished in western democratic civilization. The words that make others smile and nod in agreement cause me to recoil.

  Boyd Rice

  Agreement, Civilization, Causes

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• Let's do what you fear most That from which you recoil But which still makes your eyes moist

  Lou Reed

  Eye, Stills

  Song: Some Kinda Love

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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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• To stop short in any research that bids fair to widen the gates of knowledge, to recoil from fear of difficulty or adverse criticism, is to bring reproach on science. There is nothing for the investigator to do but go straight on, 'to explore up and down, inch by inch, with the taper his reason;' to follow the light wherever it may lead, even should it at times resemble a will-o'-the-wisp.

  William Crookes

  Knowledge, Science, Light

  "Address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science". "Nature", No. 1506, Vol. 58, (p. 438), September 8, 1989.

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• Perhaps my dynamite plants will put an end to war sooner than your [pacifist] congresses. On the day two army corps can annihilate each other in one second all civilized nations will recoil from war in horror.

  Alfred Nobel

  Military, War, Army

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