Used Quotes - Page 19

• The desire that is satisfied is not a great desire, nor has the shoulder used all its might that an unbreakable gate has never strained.

  William Butler Yeats

  Desire, Might, Unbreakable

  William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.415

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• For that which all men then did virtue call, Is now called vice; and that which vice was hight, Is now hight virtue, and so used of all: Right now is wrong, and wrong that was is right

  Edmund Spenser

  Men, Vices, Virtue

  1596 The Faerie Queen, bk.5, proem, stanza 4.

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• Far away, where the swallows take refuge in winter, lived a king who had eleven sons and one daughter, Elise. The eleven brothers--they were all princes--used to go to school with stars on their breasts and swords at their sides. They wrote upon golden slates with diamond pencils, and could read just as well without a book as with one, so there was no mistake about their being princes. Their sister Elise sat upon a little footstool of looking-glass, and she has a picture-book which had cost the half of a kingdom. Oh, these children were very happy; but it was not to last thus forever.

  Hans Christian Andersen

  Daughter, Brother, Stars

  Hans Christian Andersen (1993). “Andersen's Fairy Tales”, p.45, Wordsworth Editions

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• A person is not a democrat thanks to his ignorance of literature and the arts, nor an elitist because he or she has cultivated them. The possession of knowledge makes for unjust power over others only if used for that very purpose: a physician or lawyer or clergyman can exploit or humiliate others, or he can be a humanitarian and a benefactor. In any case, it is absurd to conjure up behind anybody who exploits his educated status the existence of an "elite" scheming to oppress the rest of us.

  Jacques Barzun

  Art, Ignorance, Physicians

  "Exeunt the Humanities". Essay by Jacques Barzun (1980) published in his book "The Culture We Deserve" (p. 117), 1989.

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• No one has ever used historical examples, near or remote, with the detail, precision, and directness to be found in every page of Shaw.

  Jacques Barzun

  Historical, Example, Details

  "Bernard Shaw in Twilight" by Jacques Barzun in "The Kenyon Review", Volume 5, No. 3 (pp. 321-345), Part IV, www.jstor.org. Summer 1943.

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• The best authorities are unanimous in saying that a war with H-bombs might possibly put an end to the human race. It is feared that if many H-bombs are used there will be universal death, sudden only for a minority, but for the majority a slow torture of disease and disintegration.

  Bertrand Russell

  War, Race, Majority

  Bertrand Russell, Andrew G. Bone (2003). “Man's Peril, 1954-55”, p.319, Psychology Press

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• I think people are always looking for gurus. It's the easiest thing in the world to become a guru. It's quite terrifying. I once saw something fascinating here in New York. It must have been in the early seventies--guru time. A man used to go and sit in Central Park, wearing elaborate golden robes. He never once opened his mouth, he just sat. He'd appear at lunchtime. People appeared from everywhere, because he was obviously a holy man, and this went on for months. They just sat around him in reverent silence. Eventually he got fed up with it and left. Yes. It's as easy as that.

  Doris Lessing

  New York, Men, Thinking

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• Lateral thinking... is the process of using information to bring about creativity and insight restructuring. Lateral thinking can be learned, practised and used. It is possible to acquire skill in it just as it is possible to acquire skill in mathematics.

  Edward de Bono

  Creativity, Thinking, Skills

  Edward De Bono (2010). “Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step”, p.3, Harper Collins

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• Your street, rich street or poor
  Used to always be sure, on your street
  There's a place in your heart you know from the start
  Can't be complete outside of the street
  Keep moving on through the joy and the pain
  Sometimes you got to look back
  To the street again
  Would you prefer all those castles in Spain?
  Or the view of your street from your window pane?

  Van Morrison

  Pain, Moving, Heart

  "Song: 'The Street Only Knew Your Name' ('Inarticulate Speech of the Heart')". 1983.

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• New York City has 2 million rats. We used to have 8 million rats. Now we're down to 2 million. You know what that means? We lose four electoral votes.

  David Letterman

  New York, Mean, Cities

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• You know Kim Jong Un, the evil dictator of North Korea? Apparently, a guy in his inner circle used his ashtray while smoking and Kim Jong Un had him executed. I remember the same thing happened when a guy used Martha Stewart's personal lemon zester.

  David Letterman

  Circles, Korea, Evil

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• If we're ever going to get the world back on a natural footing, back in tune with natural rhythyms, if we're going to nurture the Earth and protect it and have fun with it and learn from it - which is what mothers do with their children - then we've got to put technology (an aggressive masculine system) in its proper place, which is that of a tool to be used sparingly, joyfully, gently and only in the fullest cooperation with nature. Nature must govern technology, not the other way around.

  Tom Robbins

  Mother, Children, Fun

  "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues". Book by Tom Robbins, 1976.

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• Force is the antithesis of freedom, but force must be used, if only to defend against other force.

  Thomas Sowell

  Black, Force, Antithesis

  Thomas Sowell (1996). “Knowledge And Decisions”, p.116, Basic Books

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• That's the problem, we do get used to things.

  Paulo Coelho

  Problem

  "The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession". Book by Paulo Coelho, 2005.

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• Europeans used to say Americans were puritanical. Then they discovered that we were not puritans. So now they say that we are obsessed with sex.

  Mary McCarthy

  Sex, Puritan, Obsessed

  "Lady with a Switchblade". Life Magazine, September 20, 1963.

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• I remember an old Singer sewing machine at home that belonged to my grandmother. It had a pedal. My mom taught me how to use it when I was 12 years old. I used to find it so intriguing, how a flat piece of material could be made into an object that had so many uses.

  Bibhu Mohapatra

  Mom, Home, Grandmother

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• My engineer dad is where my technical acumen comes from. I remember him taking me to the factories to see how what works. Often he used to open up his motorbike to fix things and I saw how the wheels worked. His car used to be open for dissection very regularly. All this taught me and inspired me to look beyond what I could see on the skin.

  Bibhu Mohapatra

  Dad, Car, Skins

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• Back at the Chateau Windsor there was a rat-like scratching at the door of my room. Vinod, the youngest servant, came in with a soda water. He placed it next to the bag of toffees. Then he watched me read. I was used to being observed reading. Sometimes the room would fill like a railway station at rush hour and I would be expected to cure widespread boredom

  Tahir Shah

  Reading, Doors, Water

  FaceBook post by Tahir Shah from Apr 17, 2013

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• I wasn't used to children and they were getting on my nerves. Worse, it appeared that I was a child, too. I hadn't known that before; I thought I was just short.

  Florence King

  Children, Nerves, Known

  Florence King (1990). “Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady”, p.59, Macmillan

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• I feel like the beauty of this age of filmmaking is that there are more tools at your disposal, but it doesn’t mean that any of these new tools are automatically the right tools. And there are a lot of situations where we went very much old school and in fact used CG more to remove things than to add things.

  J. J. Abrams

  School, Mean, Age

  "Exclusive: J.J. Abrams Talks STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS and That New Lightsaber" by Adam Chitwood, collider.com. February 5, 2015.

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• I have become a bit obsessed with eyebrows, I used to never have any and then I realised big eyebrows are good and now I'm an eyebrow fiend. Everyone comes to me to get their eyebrows done.

  Jessie J

  Eyebrows, Done, Obsessed

  "EXCLUSIVE! Jessie J: 'If I wasn't a singer I'd probably do make-up'". Interview with Rebecca Cox, www.glamourmagazine.co.uk. July 5, 2013.

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• Inequalities of wealth, unjustly established, have assuredly injured the nation in which they exist during their establishment; and, unjustly directed, they injure it yet more during their existence. But inequalities of wealth justly established, benefit the nation in the course of their establishment; and, nobly used, aid it yet more by their existence.

  John Ruskin

  Benefits, Wealth, Aids

  John Ruskin (2001). “Unto this Last”, p.29, Electric Book Company

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• Childhood is the world of miracle or of magic: it is as if creation rose luminously out of the night, all new and fresh and astonishing. Childhood is over the moment things are no longer astonishing. When the world gives you a feeling of "déjà vu," when you are used to existence, you become an adult.

  Eugene Ionesco

  Inspirational, Children, Night

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• I've always felt that my relationship to the United States is analogous to a marriage. I love this country. I hate it. I get angry at it. I feel close to it. I'm charmed by it. I'm repelled by it. And it's a marriage that's gone on for let's say at least 50 years of my writing life, and in the course of that, what's happened? It's gotten worse. It's not what it used to be.

  Norman Mailer

  Country, Hate, Writing

  "Mailer Tells a Lot. Not All, but a Lot.; His Longest Love Affair Is With the U.S." by Bernard Weinraub, www.nytimes.com. October 4, 2000.

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• The word "God" is used in most cases as by no means a term of science or exact knowledge, but a term of poetry and eloquence, a term thrown out, so to speak, as a not fully grasped object of the speaker's consciousness -- a literary term, in short; and mankind mean different things by it as their consciousness differs.

  Matthew Arnold

  Mean, Different, Consciousness

  Matthew Arnold (1874). “Literature & Dogma: An Essay Towards a Better Apprehension of the Bible”, p.12

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