Brief Moments Quotes - Page 2

• No matter whether failure came A thousand different times, For one brief moment of success, Life rang its golden chimes.

  George Eliot

  Failure, Different, Matter

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• The overall commentary on what I'm doing is saying, 'Hey look! I get to create whatever persona I want to, and it's all up to me. And the truth is, we are all - basically the universe - pretending to be humans for a brief moment of time. With a little self-induced amnesia.

  RuPaul

  Self, Looks, Hey

  "RuPaul: Famous, Fierce And Fashion Forward". "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. February 2, 2012.

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• When white men first effect contact with some unspoilt race of savages, they offer them all kinds of benefits, from the light of the gospel to pumpkin pie. These, however, much as we may regret it, most savages receive with indifference. What they really value among the gifts that we bring to them is intoxicating liquor which enables them, for the first time in their lives, to have the illusion for a few brief moments that it is better to be alive than dead.

  Bertrand Russell

  Regret, Men, Light

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.165, Routledge

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• Sometimes when you look back on a situation, you realize it wasn't all you thought it was. A beautiful girl walked into your life. You fell in love. Or did you? Perhaps, it was only a childish infatuation, or maybe just a brief moment of vanity.

  Henry Bromell

  Love, Beautiful, Girl

  "Fictional character: Maurice J. Minnifield". TV Series "Northern Exposure" ("The Big Kiss", 1991), 1990-1995.

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• I just have this fear that I'll get on stage and there'll be that brief moment of adrenalin and I'll forget my line.

  Daniel Radcliffe

  Lines, Forget, Moments

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• There was a brief moment after 9/11 when Colin Powell said we "should not rush to satisfy the desire for revenge." It was a great moment, an extraordinary moment, because what he was actually asking people to do was to stay with a sense of grief, mournfulness, and vulnerability.

  Judith Butler

  Revenge, Grief, Extraordinary Moments

  "Judith Butler". Interview with Jill Stauffer, www.believermag.com. May, 2003.

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• According to the Buddhist belief, you can go on and on indefinitely, so you see your life as just a brief moment in time.

  Pema Chodron

  Buddhist, Goes On, Belief

  Interview with Oprah Winfrey, www.oprah.com. February, 2008.

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• Writers are doubters, compulsives, self-flagellants. The torture only stops for brief moments.

  Erica Jong

  Self, Doubters, Moments

  Erica Jong (2006). “Fear of Fifty”, p.143, Penguin

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• The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during election of members of parliament; as soon as the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use of that freedom that it deserves to lose it.

  Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  Freedom, Believe, People

  "Of The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by G. D. H. Cole, III, Ch. 15, 1913.

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• For one brief moment victory was within our grasp!" "And then the game started!

  Charles M. Schulz

  Games, Victory, Moments

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• Puck stopped his drumming [on his belly] for a brief moment and grinned at Sabrina. I hear they have a lot of plastic surgeons in New York City. If I were you I'd make an appointment for that face as soon as you get there," he quipped. Sabrina scowled and shook a fist at him. "Keep it up, stinkpot, and you're going to need a plastic surgeon yourself." Puck winked. "No need to get all mushy on me, Grimm.

  Michael Buckley

  New York, Cities, Needs

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• As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious, because it’s only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark, and then it’s gone forever.

  J. Michael Straczynski

  Inspirational, Motivational, Atheist

  "Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5: "Passing Through Gethsemane"/jms speaks". www.midwinter.com. July 13, 2004.

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• Can't you just thank me and get over it?" "Thank you." I waited, fuming and expectant. "You're not going to let it go, are you?" "No." "In that case . . . I hope you enjoy disappointment." We scowled at each other in silence. I was the first to speak, trying to keep myself focused. I was in danger of being distracted by his livid, glorious face. It was like trying to stare down a destroying angel. "Why did you even bother?" I asked frigidly. He paused, and for a brief moment his stunning face was unexpectedly vulnerable. "I don't know," he whispered.

  Stephenie Meyer

  Disappointment, Angel, Silence

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• In the silence, she felt the past and the present shift and mix, but that was a mirage. There was no way to comfort the lost boy he'd been back then. But she had the grown male. She had him right in her arms, and for a brief moment of whimsy, she imagined that she was never, ever going to let him go.

  J.R. Ward

  Boys, Past, Silence

  J.R. Ward (2011). “J.R. Ward The Black Dagger Brotherhood Novels 5-8”, p.2677, Penguin

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• My life has been like all the lives, long and hard and full of sadness and confusion and horror, a frightening, difficult dream punctuated by brief moments of joy. And as is the case with all people's lives, the moments of joy are never often enough and never long enough.

  James Frey

  Dream, Sadness, Long

  James Frey (2011). “The Final Testament”, p.39, Hachette UK

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• Poetry is perhaps this: an Atemwende, a turning of our breath. Who knows, perhaps poetry goes its way—the way of art—for the sake of just such a turn? And since the strange, the abyss and Medusa’s head, the abyss and the automaton, all seem to lie in the same direction—is it perhaps this turn, this Atemwende, which can sort out the strange from the strange? It is perhaps here, in this one brief moment, that Medusa’s head shrivels and the automaton runs down? Perhaps, along with the I, estranged and freed here, in this manner, some other thing is also set free?

  Paul Celan

  Running, Art, Lying

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• I was blinded by stupidity for a brief moment in our life, for a flicker in the eternity in which you and I live, and I stumbled.

  Paullina Simons

  Stupidity, Moments, Eternity

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• Allie would love what you've done," he remarked. "She was always a softie when it came to things like this." I folded my hands in my lap. "I wish she could be there this weekend." Noah glanced at the stack of letters. I knew he was imagining Allie, and for a brief moment, he looked strangely younger. "So do I," he said.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Weekend, Hands, Wish

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• When you see such photos, you can't help but wonder at just how sweet and sad and innocent all moments of life are rendered by the tripping of a camera's shutter, for at that point the future is still unknown and has yet to hurt us, and also for that brief moment, our poses are accepted as honest.

  Douglas Coupland

  Sweet, Hurt, Cameras

  Douglas Coupland (2015). “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”, p.28, Hachette UK

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• But something cannot be made out of nothing. Dust rose in the air, caught the rays of the sun for a brief moment and sparkled, and then returned to the earth as mere dust.

  David Klass

  Air, Dust, Rose

  David Klass (2007). “You Don't Know Me”, p.199, Macmillan

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• We can see the film stars of yesterday in yesterday’s films, hear the voices of poest and singers on a record, keep the plays of dead dramatists upon our bookshelves, but the actor who holds his audience captive for one brief moment upon a lighted stage vanishes forever when the curtain falls.

  Daphne du Maurier

  Stars, Fall, Play

  Daphne Du Maurier (1980). “The Rebecca notebook and other memories”, Book Sales

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• He loves me, and I reward his love by forcing on him something he hates. In the evening, after we dance, he rarely returns to the throne; he dances with others or moves from place to place through the room. The court thinks he is trying to be gracious, sharing his attention. Only I see that he moves always to the empty spot and the court always moves after him. He is like a dog trying to escape his own tail. He indulged himself in one brief moment of privacy, and almost died of it. Relius, he hates being king.

  Megan Whalen Turner

  Dog, Kings, Hate

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• There would be no one there to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistance with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

  Kate Chopin

  Powerful, Believe, Men

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• There was a brief moment of weightlesssness: a balancing point between air and earth, dirt and heaven. How strange, I thought, how like the moment between sleeping and falling when everything is beautifully surreal and nothing is corporeal. How like floating towards completion. But as often happens in that time between existing in the world and fading into dreams, this moment over the edge ended with the ruthless jerk back to awareness.

  Andrew Davidson

  Dream, Fall, Sleep

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• How can I say what it was like to breathe again? I felt newborn. I staggered in the light of the world and took deep gulps of fresh sea air. It was late in the day: the wet mouth of the afternoon was full on my face. My soul blossomed in that brief moment as they led me out of doors. I fell, my skirts in the mud, and I turned my face upwards as if in prayer. I could have wept from the relief of light.

  Hannah Kent

  Prayer, Light, Air

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