Brass Quotes

• Polished brass will pass upon more people than rough gold.

  Lord Chesterfield

  People, Gold, Appearance

  Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope Earl of Chesterfield (1855). “The Works of Lord Chesterfield: Including His Letters to His Son, Etc : to which is Prefixed, an Original Life of the Author”, p.150

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• Brass shines as fair to the ignorant as gold to the goldsmiths.

  Elizabeth I

  Money, Shining, Ignorant

  Letter, 1581.

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• True love requires action. We can speak of love all day long, we can write notes or poems that proclaim it, sing songs that praise it, and preach sermons that encourage it but until we manifest that love in action, our words are nothing but sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

  Dieter F. Uchtdorf

  Song, Writing, Long

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• You don't need to be born with a silver spoon to reach for the brass ring

  Sandra Lee

  Needs, Spoons, Silver

  FaceBook post by Sandra Lee from Jan 14, 2013

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• Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.

  Thomas Beecham

  Funny, Music, Brass Bands

  “Readers recommend: best brass songs” by Peter Kimpton, www.theguardian.com. June 26, 2014.

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• Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.

  William Shakespeare

  Writing, Men, Evil

  'Henry VIII' (1613) act 4, sc. 2, l. 45

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• Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Organization, Wish

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2499, Delphi Classics

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• I have raised for myself a monument more durable than brass.

  Horace

  Raised, Monument

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• If you think that the brass is not blowing loud enough, mute it by a couple of degrees.

  Richard Strauss

  Couple, Thinking, Degrees

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• Brass, stay down all summer.

  Eugene Ormandy

  Funny, Summer, Orchestra

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• Swirls of antique stained glass, blazes of brass, forests of carved wood and waterfalls of crystal combine to make up the city's most fabulously festive interior.

  Mimi Sheraton

  Glasses, Cities, Antiques

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• Creative people tend to pass the responsibility for getting down to brass tacks to others.

  Theodore Levitt

  Responsibility, People, Creative

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• And write whatever Time shall bring to pass
  With pens of adamant on plates of brass.

  John Dryden

  Time, Writing, Plates

  John Dryden, Joseph Warton, John Warton (1811). “The Poetical Works of John Dryden: Containing Original Poems, Tales, and Translations”, p.77

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• Test of Metal: Will of Iron, Nerves of Steel, Heart of Gold, Balls of Brass.

  George Carlin

  Heart, Iron, Gold

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• When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill. If he shoots for a brass buckle, he is already nervous. If he shoots for a prize of gold, he goes blind or sees two targets - He is out of his mind! His skill has not changed. But the prize divides him. He cares. He thinks more of winning than of shooting- And the need to win drains him of power.

  Zhuangzi

  Archer, Caring, Thinking

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• Attempts to limit female mobility by hampering locomotion are ancient and almost universal. The foot-binding of upper-class Chinese girls and the Nigerian custom of loading women's legs with pounds of heavy brass wire are extreme examples, but all over the world similar stratagems have been employed to make sure that once you have caught a woman she cannot run away, and even if she stays around she cannot keep up with you. ... Literally as well as figuratively modern women's shoes are what keeps Samantha from running as fast as Sammy.

  Alison Lurie

  Girl, Running, Class

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• Custom is custom: it is built of brass, boiler-iron, granite; facts, reasonings, arguments have no more effect upon it than the idle winds have upon Gibraltar.

  Mark Twain

  Wind, Iron, Atheism

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.74, Courier Corporation

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• You look like gold. I've been fooled before, but now I know I've made the mistake in the past. But now I, now I know the difference from gold and brass.

  Ben Harper

  Mistake, Past, Differences

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• Faith and philosophy are air, but events are brass.

  Herman Melville

  Philosophy, Air, Events

  Herman Melville (2016). “Pierre; or The Ambiguities”, p.366, Herman Melville

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• Life's just a merry-go-round. Come on up. You might get a brass ring.

  Mae West

  Life, Might, Merry Go Round

  Mae West (1967). “The wit and wisdom of Mae West”

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• Titles of honour are like the impressions on coin; — which add no value to gold and silver, but only render brass current.

  Laurence Sterne

  Honor, Gold, Titles

  "The Works of Laurence Sterne".

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• He's arm'd without that's innocent within;
  Be this thy Screen, and this thy Wall of Brass.

  Horace

  Wall, Literature, Innocence

  "Imitations of Horace: With An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot and the Epilogue to the Satires".

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• Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
  But bad mortality o'ersways their power,
  How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
  Whose action is no stronger than a flower?

  William Shakespeare

  Flower, Science, Sea

  Sonnet 65

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• His locked, lettered, braw brass collar, Shewed him the gentleman and scholar.

  Robert Burns

  Gentleman, Apparel, Scholar

  Robert Burns (1863). “The Poetical Works”, p.228

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• In 'thinking up' music I usually have some kind of a brass band with wings on it in back of my mind.

  Charles Ives

  Thinking, Brass Bands, Wings

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