Sinister Quotes - Page 2

• But I think Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang really got that thing where, if a movie reads really funny and then has some dramatic or violent or sinister stuff in it, you can't forget that primarily it has to be even funnier than you read it or that other stuff doesn't work.

  Robert Downey, Jr.

  Kissing, Thinking, Stuff

  "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Robert Downey Jr interview". IndieLondon interview, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.

  Learned Hand

  Money, Patriotic, Government

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• The North American system only wants to consider the positive aspects of reality. Men and women are subjected from childhood to an inexorable process of adaptation certain principles, contained in brief formulas are endlessly repeated by the Press, the radio, the churches, and the schools, and by those kindly, sinister beings, the North American mothers and wives. A person imprisoned by these schemes is like a plant in a flowerpot too small for it he cannot grow or mature.

  Octavio Paz

  Mother, School, Reality

  Octavio Paz (1985). “The Labyrinth of Solitude: And the Other Mexico ; Return to the Labyrinth of Solitude ; Mexico and the United States ; The Philanthropic Ogre”, p.25, Grove Press

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• I regret trusting The Guardian. I didn't want to do an interview, but the journalist was persistent. [The writer] was masked as a fan, but was hiding sinister ambitions and angles. Maybe he's actually the boring one looking for something interesting to write about.

  Lana Del Rey

  Regret, Writing, Ambition

  "Lana Del Rey has a problem with our interview ... but why?" by Tim Jonze, www.theguardian.com. June 20, 2014.

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• Our very best friends have a tincture of jealousy even in their friendship; and when they hear us praised by others, will ascribe it to sinister and interested motives if they can.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Lost Friendship, Motive, Ifs

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.72

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• The term "bend sinister" means a heraldic bar or band drawn from the left side (and popularly, but incorrectly, supposed to denote bastardy). This choice of title was an attempt to suggest an outline broken by refraction, a distortion in the mirror of being, a wrong turn taken by life, a sinistral and sinister world. The title's drawback is that a solemn reader looking for "general ideas" or "human interest" (which is much the same thing) in a novel may be led to look for them in this one.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Taken, Mean, Ideas

  "Bend Sinister" by Vladimir Nabokov, (p. 6), 1963.

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• There's something very sinister about a woman who is predatory but has an absurd voice working as a disservice to her.

  Claudia Black

  Voice, Absurd, Predatory

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• He was never more sinister than when he was most polite.

  James M. Barrie

  Polite

  James M. Barrie (2013). “Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy) (Annotated Edition)”, p.55, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Nothing sinister. Just getting exercise. Although some might consider that sinister.

  Marian Keyes

  Exercise, Might

  Marian Keyes (2007). “Anybody Out There”, p.236, Penguin UK

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• For long the two enemies looked at one another, Hook shuddering slightly, and Peter with the strange smile upon his face. "So, Pan," said Hook at last, "this is all your doing." "Ay, James Hook," came the stern answer, "it is all my doing." "Proud and insolent youth," said Hook, "prepare to meet thy doom." "Dark and sinister man,“For long the two enemies looked at one another, Hook shuddering slightly, and Peter with the strange smile upon his face. "Dark and sinister man," Peter answered, "have at thee.

  James M. Barrie

  Dark, Men, Two

  James M. Barrie (2013). “Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy) (Annotated Edition)”, p.135, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Nothing has a more sinister effect on art than the artist's desire to prove that he's good. The terrible temptation of idealism!

  Philip Roth

  Art, Temptation, Desire

  Philip Roth (1998). “I Married a Communist”, p.230, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Anything seen on TV is, in a subtle and sinister sense, thereby endorsed.

  Dick Cavett

  Tvs, Subtle

  Dick Cavett (2010). “Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets”, p.67, Macmillan

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• Pulls readers in with an ironic, breezy portrait of sinister high school competitiveness. Deft and extraordinarily accomplished.

  Michael Cadnum

  School, Ironic, Portraits

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• A good argument diluted to avoid criticism is not nearly as good as the undiluted argument, because we best arrive at truth through a process of honest and vigorous debate. Arguments should not sneak around in disguise, as if dissent were somehow sinister... For it is bravery that is required to secure freedom.

  Clarence Thomas

  Courage, Truth, Justice

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• I am not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion, I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually the case.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Religious, Atheist, Thinking

  Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.55, Basic Books

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• New York is the city of privilege. Here is the seat of the Invisible Power represented by the allied forces of finance and industry. This Invisible Government is reactionary, sinister, unscrupulous, mercenary, and sordid. It is wanting in national ideals and devoid of conscience... This kind of government must be scourged and destroyed.

  William Jennings Bryan

  New York, Cities, Government

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• All through my life I've had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was." "No," said the old man, "that's just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the Universe has that.

  Douglas Adams

  Men, Perfectly Normal, Feelings

  Douglas Adams (2012). “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Trilogy of Five”, p.125, Pan Macmillan

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• A lot of Appalachian music has a certain haunted, foggy feel to it; a certain sinister quality. And that transcends who is singing it. I think it's good if an artist can represent some kind of culture that they either aspire to ignite, or that they themselves experience.

  Bradford Cox

  Thinking, Artist, Singing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Women are not in control of their bodies; nature is. Ancient mythology, with its sinister archetypes of vampire and Gorgon, is more accurate than feminism about the power and terror of female sexuality.

  Camille Paglia

  Vampire, Feminism, Female

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Vamps & Tramps: New Essays”, p.30, Vintage

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• I can never quite decide whether the anti-Columbus movement is merely risible or faintly sinister. It is sinister, though, because it is an ignorant celebration of stasis and backwardness, with an unpleasant tinge of self-hatred.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Self, Hatred, Ignorant

  "Minority Report". The Nation, October 19, 1992.

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• The reading public isn't born that doesn't think foreigners are either funny or faintly sinister.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Reading, Thinking, Born

  Christopher Hitchens (2014). “For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports”, p.309, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• ...she moved about in a mental cloud of many-coloured idealities, which eclipsed all sinister contingencies by its brightness.

  Thomas Hardy

  Clouds, Brightness, Contingency

  Thomas Hardy (2016). “Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman”, p.257, Thomas Hardy

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• This surpassed the fear of death. Death would be a mercy if it would make the feeling stop, the uncontrollable panic mingling with the mind-scrambling certainty of something sinister approaching, something with no need to hurry, something that would not be so kind as to let him die. The fear was palpable, suffocating, irresistible.

  Brandon Mull

  Feelings, Mind, Would Be

  Brandon Mull (2008). “Rise of the Evening Star”, p.228, Simon and Schuster

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• It's nothing sinister but my private life belongs to me.

  MyAnna Buring

  Private Life

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• Where is Polonius? HAMLET In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

  William Shakespeare

  Heaven, Noses, Messengers

  William Shakespeare (2013). “Making Sense of Hamlet! a Students Guide to Shakespeare's Play (Includes Study Guide, Biography, and Modern Retelling)”, p.253, BookCaps Study Guides

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