Plies Quotes

• Is it not in the most absolute simplicity that real genius plies its pinions the most wonderfully?

  E. T. A. Hoffmann

  Real, Simplicity, Genius

  E. T. A. Hoffmann (2015). “Old and New Church Music (Fantasy and Horror Classics)”, p.12, Read Books Ltd

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• On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble;His forest fleece the Wrekin heaves;The wind it plies the saplings double, And thick on Severn snow the leaves.

  A. E. Housman

  Wind, Snow, Saplings

  'A Shropshire Lad' (1896) no. 31

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• Until the end of the Middle Ages, and in many cases afterwards too, in order to obtain initiation in a trade of any sort whatever--whether that of courtier, soldier, administrator, merchant or workman--a boy did not amass the knowledge necessary to ply that trade before entering it, but threw himself into it; he then acquired the necessary knowledge.

  Philippe Aries

  Boys, Order, Soldier

  Philippe Ariès (1962). “Centuries of childhood: a social history of family life”, Vintage

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• For this is the truth about our soul, he thought, who fish-like inhabits deep seas and plies among obscurities threading her way between the boles of giant weeds, over sun-flickered spaces and on and on into gloom, cold, deep, inscrutable; suddenly she shoots to the surface and sports on the wind-wrinkled waves; that is, has a positive need to brush, scrape, kindle herself, gossiping.

  Virginia Woolf

  Sports, Weed, Wind

  Virginia Woolf (1996). “Mrs Dalloway”, p.117, Wordsworth Editions

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• Wherever a ship ploughs the sea, or a plough furrows the field; wherever a mine yields its treasure; wherever a ship or a railroad train carries freight to market; wherever the smoke of the furnace rises, or the clang of the loom resounds; even in the lonely garret where the seamstress plies her busy needle--there is industry.

  James A. Garfield

  Lonely, Yield, Sea

  11 Copy quote

• England is, after all, the land where children are beaten, wives and babies bashed, football hooligans crunch, and Miss Whip and Miss Lash ply their trade as nowhere else in the western world.

  Colin MacInnes

  Football, Baby, Sweet

  "Out of the way: later essays".

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• I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, "Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Men, Years

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.200

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• Our freedom is also incomplete, dear compatriots, as long as we are denied our security by criminals who prey on our communities, who rob our businesses and undermine our economy, who ply their destructive trade in drugs in our schools, and who do violence against our women and children.

  Nelson Mandela

  Children, School, Long

  12 Copy quote

• The wounded surgeon plies the steel
  That questions the distempered part;
  Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
  The sharp compassion of the healer's art
  Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.

  T. S. Eliot

  Art, Compassion, Hands

  'Four Quartets' 'East Coker' (1940) pt. 4

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• The only free mind is one that, pure of all intimacy with beings or objects, plies its own vacuity.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Mind, Intimacy, Vacuity

  "The Temptation to Exist". Book by Emile M. Cioran, 1956.

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• I want the seals of power and place, the ensigns of command, charged by the people's unbought grace, to rule my native land. Nor crown, nor scepter would I ask but from my country's will, by day, by night, to ply the task her cup of bliss to fill.

  John Quincy Adams

  Country, Night, Land

  John Quincy Adams, “The Wants Of Man”

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• Wine it is the milk of Venus, And the poet's horse accounted: Ply it and you all are mounted.

  Ben Jonson

  Horse, Wine, Venus

  Ben Jonson (2014). “Epicoene or The Silent Woman”, p.63, A&C Black

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• It is for homely features to keep home,- They had their name thence; coarse complexions And cheeks of sorry grain will serve to ply The sampler and to tease the huswife's wool. What need a vermeil-tinctur'd lip for that, Love-darting eyes, or tresses like the morn?

  John Milton

  Love, Sorry, Home

  'Comus' (1637) l. 745

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• I prefer musicals, because I am the best dancer who ever lived. The best plies, the best sashays, and by far the best-smelling Capezios.

  Adam Sandler

  Dancer, I Am The Best

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• WEATHERS This is the weather the cuckoo likes, And so do I; When showers betumble the chestnut spikes, And nestlings fly; And the little brown nightingale bills his best, And they sit outside at 'The Traveller's Rest,' And maids come forth sprig-muslin drest, And citizens dream of the south and west, And so do I. This is the weather the shepherd shuns, And so do I; When beeches drip in browns and duns, And thresh and ply; And hill-hid tides throb, throe on throe, And meadow rivulets overflow, And drops on gate bars hang in a row, And rooks in families homeward go, And so do I.

  Thomas Hardy

  Dream, Weather, Shepherds

  Late Lyrics and Earlier (1922) "Weathers"

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• No one expects a woman busy at her sewing to pay attention to what’s being said around her. Nevermind if a man’s mother and sister showerd them they heard everything while they stictched, he’ll still think a woman who plies her needles saves all her brains for the work. You’re a far better spy hemming sheets than if you clank with daggers.

  Tamora Pierce

  Mother, Men, Thinking

  Tamora Pierce (2014). “Trickster's Duet”, p.240, Random House Books for Young Readers

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• We go in withering July
  To ply the hard incessant hoe;
  Panting beneath the brazen sky
  We sweat and grumble, but we go.

  Ruth Pitter

  Summer, July, Sky

  Ruth Pitter (1969). “Collected poems”

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• Every time a player goes out to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be smart to be Number One in any business. But more important, you've got to play with you heart - with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.

  Vince Lombardi

  Smart, Heart, Athlete

  7 Copy quote

• This doesn't mean you're getting a discount." Audrey heaved a mock sigh. "Oh well. I guess I'll have to ply you with sexual favors, then." Gnome choked on the soup. "I'm old enough to be your grandfather!" Audrey winked at him, gathering the empty bags. "But you're not.

  Ilona Andrews

  Mean, Grandfather, Gathering

  Ilona Andrews (2011). “Fate's Edge”, p.19, Penguin

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• All men of conscience or prudence ply to windward, to maintain their wars to be defensive.

  Roger Williams

  War, Men, Prudence

  Roger Williams (1963). “Complete Writings”

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• Lay down the axe; fling by the spade;
  Leave in its track the toiling plough;
  The rifle and the bayonet-blade
  For arms like yours were fitter now;
  And let the hands that ply the pen
  Quit the light task, and learn to wield
  The horseman's crooked brand, and rein
  The charger on the battle-field.

  William C. Bryant

  War, Light, Hands

  8 Copy quote

• Peace was the third emotion. Love. Hate. Peace. Three emotions made the ply of human life.

  Virginia Woolf

  Hate, Three, Emotion

  Virginia Woolf (2016). “Between the Acts”, p.64, Virginia Woolf

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• The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.

  Seamus Heaney

  Effort, Community, Poet

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• When you find a chillness upon your souls, and that your former heat begins to abate, ply yourselves with warm clothes, get those good books that may acquaint you with such truths as may warm and affect your hearts.

  Thomas Watson

  Book, Heart, Clothes

  6 Copy quote

• I suddenly feel a vague pity for all those writers who have to ply their trade from sleepy American suburbs, writing divorce scenes symbolized by the very slow washing of dishes.

  Teju Cole

  Writing, Divorce, Sleepy

  Interview with Christopher Bollen, www.interviewmagazine.com. March 21, 2014.

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