Bland Quotes - Page 5

• Why is the forecast so bland? Why instead of 'stormy' don't they just say the sea's 'a frothing maelstrom of terror and hopelessness'?

  Jeremy Clarkson

  Sea, Maelstrom, Hopelessness

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• Every fairy tale, it seems, concludes with the bland phrase "happily ever after." Yet every couple I have ever known would agree that nothing about marriage is forever happy. There are moments of bliss, to be sure, and lengthy spans of satisfied companionship. Yet these come at no small effort, and the girl who reads such fiction dreaming her troubles will end ere she departs the altar is well advised to seek at once a rational women to set her straight.

  Catherine Gilbert Murdock

  Girl, Dream, Couple

  Catherine Gilbert Murdock (2009). “Princess Ben”, p.338, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• When New Yorkers tell one about the dangers of their city, the muggings, the dinner parties to which no one turns up for fear of being attacked on the way, the traffic snarl-ups, the bland indifference of the city cops, they are unmistakably bragging.

  Jonathan Raban

  New York, Party, Cities

  Jonathan Raban (2017). “Soft City: Picador Classic”, p.17, Pan Macmillan

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• The moon is bland in color. I call it shades of gray. You know, the only color we see is what we bring or the Earth, which is looking down upon us all the time. And to find orange soil on the moon was a surprise.

  Gene Cernan

  Moon, Color, Orange

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• It's not great if someone gives you sort of bland praise without giving you clear direction and say, "This is good, let's try it like this." I have worked with someone who seemed quite inarticulate and just would say, "That's good, that's good." That's very frustrating because - it's nice to know something is good but you know it can always change.

  Ralph Fiennes

  Nice, Clear Direction, Giving

  Interview with Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub, collider.com. February 10, 2014.

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• I don't like the way most people dress on the golf course. I think it's pretty bland, pretty boring.

  Ian Poulter

  Golf, Thinking, People

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• Right now religion has the romantic aura of the forbidden - Christ is cool. We need to bring it into the schools, which kids already hate, and associate it firmly with boredom, regulation, condescension, makework and de facto segregation ... Prayer in the schools will rid us of the bland no-offense ecumenism that is so infuriating to us anticlericals: Oh, so now you say Jews didn't kill Christ - a little on the late side, isn't it?

  Katha Pollitt

  Prayer, Hate, School

  Katha Pollitt (2007). “Subject to Debate: Sense and Dissents on Women, Politics, and Culture”, p.30, Modern Library

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• In its flawless grace and superior self-sufficiency I have seen a symbol of the perfect beauty and bland impersonality of the universe itself, objectively considered, and in its air of silent mystery there resides for me all the wonder and fascination of the unknown.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Air, Self, Perfect

  George H. Scithers, P. D Cacek, H. P. Lovecraft (2010). “Cat Tales 2: Fantastic Feline Fiction”, p.143, Wildside Press LLC

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• The discipline, nonetheless, is exacting: everything that can be observed should be observed, even if it is only recalled as the bland background from which the intriguing bits pop out like Venus in the evening sky. The goal is always finding something new, hopefully unimagined and, better still, hitherto unimaginable.

  Karl Barry Sharpless

  Sky, Goal, Discipline

  "Searching for New Reactivity". Nobel Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 08, 2001.

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• I could start this review by stating that Dumb and Dumberer lives up to its name, or by calling it stupid, moronic, and idiotic, but I believe that approach is a trap, since a movie like this might relish being the object of such bland invectives. Instead, let me try a few that can't possibly be misconstrued as twisted praise: unfunny, boring, torturous, and unwatchable. ... [N]o movie could be more aptly compared to raw sewage than this film - Directed By Troy Miller.

  James Berardinelli

  Stupid, Believe, Names

  "Dumb and Dumberer (United States, 2003)". A movie review, www.reelviews.net. 2003.

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• No visiting angel, or explorer from another planet, could have guessed that this bland orb [Earth] teemed with vermin, with world-mastering, self-torturing, incipiently angelic beasts.

  Olaf Stapledon

  Angel, Self, World

  "Star Maker" by Olaf Stapledon, Dover Books, (p. 15), 1930.

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• [There was] only one news channel, overseen by a bland and complexly multicultural board of advisors. It broadcast in fifteen languages and was, as a rule, interesting in none of them.

  Robert Charles Wilson

  Interesting, Boards, News

  Robert Charles Wilson (2007). “Axis”, p.40, Macmillan

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• The boy may wrestle, when Night--working Fancy steals him to the arms Of nymph oft wish'd awake, and, 'mid the rage Of the soft tumult, ev'ry turgid cell Spontaneous disembogues its lucid store, Bland and of azure tinct.

  John Armstrong

  Boys, Night, Nymphs

  John Armstrong, “The Oeconomy Of Love”

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• There are so many comics about violence. I'm not entertained or amused by violence, and I'd rather not have it in my life. Sex, on the other hand, is something the vast majority of us enjoy, yet it rarely seems to be the subject of comics. Pornography is usually bland, repetitive and ugly, and, at most, 'does the job.' I always wanted to make a book that is pornographic, but is also, I hope, beautiful, and mysterious, and engages the mind.

  Dave McKean

  Beautiful, Jobs, Sex

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• There's just no great rock albums anymore. There's a lot of rock music out there, but it's very bland and disposable.

  Marilyn Manson

  Rocks, Albums, Rock Music

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• Quoth the Ocean, "Dawn! O fairest, clearest, Touch me with thy golden fingers bland; For I have no smile till thou appearest For the lovely land.

  Jean Ingelow

  Ocean, Land, Lovely

  Jean Ingelow (1873). “Poems”, p.300

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• A shining isle in a stormy sea, We seek it ever with smiles and sighs; To-day is sad. In the bland To-be, Serene and lovely To-morrow lies.

  Mary C. Ames

  Lying, Sea, Shining

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• Being the first mid-size SUV for the brand, Dodge Nitro had to personify the bold, powerful and street-smart attitude of Dodge. In a world of mostly bland SUVs, the 2007 Dodge Nitro has the design, engineering and performance to inspire consumers and ignite the mid-size SUV market.

  George Murphy

  Powerful, Attitude, Smart

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• Cruel, but composed and bland,
  Dumb, inscrutable and grand,
  So Tiberius might have sat,
  Had Tiberius been a cat.

  Matthew Arnold

  Cat, Dumb, Might

  'Poor Matthias' (1885) l. 40

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• When you close the book, does the story end? No! That's such a bland way to read. Every story goes on forever in our imaginations, and its characters live on.

  Mizuki Nomura

  Book, Character, Imagination

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• Steve Sailer gives us the real Barack Obama, who turns out to be very, very different - and much more interesting - than the bland healer/uniter image stitched together out of whole cloth this past six years by Obama's packager, David Axelrod. Making heavy use of Obama's own writings, which he admires for their literary artistry, Sailer gives the deepest insights I have yet seen into Obama's lifelong obsession with 'race and inheritance,' and rounds off his brilliant character portrait with speculations on how Obama's personality might play out in the Presidency.

  John Derbyshire

  Real, Character, Writing

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• Photography is the easiest thing in the world if one is willing to accept pictures that are flaccid, limp, bland, banal, indiscriminately informative, and pointless. But if one insists in a photograph that is both complex and vigorous it is almost impossible

  John Szarkowski

  Photography, World, Impossible

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• I think the warning labels on alcoholic beverages are too bland. They should be more vivid. Here are a few I would suggest: "Alcohol will turn you into the same asshole your father was."; "Drinking will significantly improve your chances of murdering a loved one."; "If you drink long enough, at some point you will vomit up the lining of your stomach."; "Use this product and you may wake up in Morocco wearing a cowboy suit and tongue-kissing a transmission salesman."

  George Carlin

  Father, Drinking, Kissing

  George Carlin (2015). “3 x Carlin: An Orgy of George including Brain Droppings, Napalm and Silly Putty, and When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?”, p.657, Hachette UK

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• Nice writing isn't enough. It isn't enough to have smooth and pretty language. You have to surprise the reader frequently, you can't just be nice all the time. Provoke the reader. Astonish the reader. Writing that has no surprises is as bland as oatmeal. Surprise the reader with the unexpected verb or adjective. Use one startling adjective per page.

  Anne Bernays

  Nice, Writing, Oatmeal

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• Do you want to increase your hunger for the Lord? Try weaning yourself from the world's diet- be prepared for some withdrawal symptoms when you turn off the radio and the TV and eliminate unnecessary activities. Then begin feeding on the Word of God. At first, it may seem bland and boring; but in time, you will discover that it satisfies in a far deeper, richer way than those things you once thought were so filling.

  Nancy Leigh DeMoss

  Trying, May, Want

  Nancy Leigh DeMoss (2009). “A Place of Quiet Rest: Finding Intimacy with God Through a Daily Devotional Life”, p.130, Moody Publishers

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