Sentences Quotes - Page 25

• Doing a thing by law, or according to law, is only carrying the law into execution. And punishing a man by, or according to, the sentence or judgment of his peers, is only carrying that sentence or judgment into execution.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Law, Peers

  Lysander Spooner (2004). “An Essay on the Trial by Jury”, p.27, The Minerva Group, Inc.

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• Salman Rushdie, indeed any writer who abuses the prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death.

  Cat Stevens

  Islamic, Law, Abuse

  "Yussuf Islam, Formerly Cat Stevens, Expresses Support For Rushdie Death Sentence". The Christian Science Monitor, 1989.

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• A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

  William Strunk, Jr.

  Writing, Should Have, Drawing

  The Elements of Style ch. 2 (1918)

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• Don't forget that the only two things people read in a story are the first and last sentences. Give them blood in the eye on the first one.

  Herbert Bayard Swope

  Eye, Blood, Two

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• Making films can be absolutely fantastic, but it can also be incredibly dull. You spend the whole day sitting by yourself in your trailer and then you get called to deliver one sentence - then you're told to come back and do it again at 5:30 the following morning.

  Kristin Scott Thomas

  Morning, Sitting, Dull

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• With sixty staring me in the face, I have developed inflammation of the sentence structure and definite hardening of the paragraphs.

  James Thurber

  Birthday, Sarcastic, Writing

  1955 In the New York Post, 30 Jun.

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• Sometimes, reading a blog, which I do infrequently, I see that generations of Americans have been wilfully crippled, and can no longer spell or write a sentence.

  Alice Walker

  Reading, Writing, Generations

  Alice Walker (2013). “The Cushion in the Road: Meditation and Wandering as the Whole World Awakens to Being in Harm's Way”, p.20, New Press, The

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• I was told to challenge every spiritual teacher, every world leader to utter the one sentence that no religion, no political party, and no nation on the face of the earth will dare utter: 'Ours is not a better way, ours is merely another way.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Spiritual, Teacher, Party

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• In general, shorter is better. If you can encapsulate your idea into a single captivating sentence, you're halfway home.

  Len Wein

  Home, Ideas, Lenses

  "Speaking with...LEN WEIN". Interview with Marv Wolfman, www.marvwolfman.com.

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• Censorship is saying: "I'm the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine." But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word – even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.

  Ai Weiwei

  Quiet Voice, People, Tree

  "China's censorship can never defeat the internet" by Ai Weiwei, www.theguardian.com. April 15, 2012.

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• I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning, or destroyed it altogether.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Matter, Juxtaposition, Deals

  Alfred North Whitehead, Lucien Price (2001). “Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead”, p.225, David R. Godine Publisher

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• The Internet lets women use words, which is their natural tool. Little girls speak in more complex, grammatical sentences than little boys do, and women never lose that superiority in verbal ability.

  Helen Fisher

  Girl, Boys, Tools

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• All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much.

  Colm Toibin

  Writing, Manipulation, Realizing

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• The problem is once you've written the opening paragraph and worked out how the rest of the story will go in your head, there's nothing in it for you. I write in longhand using disposable fountain pens on the right-hand side of the notebook for the first draft, then I rewrite some of the sentences and paragraphs on the left-hand side.

  Colm Toibin

  Notebook, Writing, Hands

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• Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Bible, Spiritual, Reading

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• The Queen's Pride was his ship, and he loved her. (That was the way his sentences always went: It is raining today and I love you. My cold is better and I love you. Say hello to Horse and I love you. Like that.)

  William Goldman

  Horse, Queens, Rain

  William Goldman (2013). “The Princess Bride”, p.50, A&C Black

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• Equations are the devil's sentences.

  Stephen Colbert

  Devil, Belief, Equations

  "The Colbert Report". www.imdb.com. 2005 - 2015.

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• I always thought old age would be a writer’s best chance. Whenever I read the late work of Goethe or W. B. Yeats I had the impertinence to identify with it. Now, my memory’s gone, all the old fluency’s disappeared. I don’t write a single sentence without saying to myself, ‘It’s a lie!’ So I know I was right. It’s the best chance I’ve ever had.

  Samuel Beckett

  Memories, Lying, Writing

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• A book no more contains reality than a clock contains time. A book may measure so-called reality as a clock measures so-called time; a book may create an illusion of reality as a clock creates an illusion of time; a book may be real, just as a clock is real (both more real, perhaps, than those ideas to which they allude); but let's not kid ourselves - all a clock contains is wheels and springs and all a book contains is sentences.

  Tom Robbins

  Spring, Real, Book

  Tom Robbins (2003). “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”, p.121, Bantam

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• [her] mind blackens. The blackness is not a thought, but if it could be pressed into a thought, if a chemical from a dropper could be dripped onto it causing its color and essence to become visible, it would take the shape of this sentence: Why does no one want me?

  Steve Martin

  Color, Essence, Mind

  Steve Martin (2001). “Shopgirl”, Wheeler Pub Incorporated

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• The anguished suspense of watching the lips you hunger for, framing the words, the death sentence, of sheer triteness!

  Evelyn Waugh

  Suspense, Lips, Hunger

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• Oh, Cathy! Oh, my life! how can I bear it?" was the first sentence he uttered, in a tone that did not seek to disguise his despair. And now he stared at her so earnestly that I thought the very intensity of his gaze would bring tears into his eyes; but they burned with anguish: they did not melt.

  Emily Bronte

  Eye, Tears, Despair

  Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte (2009). “The Bronte Sisters: Three Novels: Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; and Agnes Grey (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.480, Penguin

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• Maugham then offers the greatest advice anyone could give to a young author: "At the end of an interrogation sentence, place a question mark. You'd be surprised how effective it can be."

  Woody Allen

  Giving, Advice, Ends

  "Reminiscences: Places And People". www.newyorker.com. December 29, 1975.

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• It is time to browse through the precious books that have meant the most to you that you may rediscover illuminating phrases and sentences to light your pathway to the future.

  Wilferd Peterson

  Book, Light, Pathways

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• If you cannot read all your books...fondle them---peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them, at any rate, be your acquaintances.

  Winston Churchill

  Book, Fall, Eye

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