Circumstances Quotes - Page 38

• Imagination is the supreme endowment of the poet and romanticist. It is a kind of second sight, which conveys the owner of it to places he has never seen, and surrounds him with strange circumstances of which he is merely the spiritual eyewitness.

  Marie Corelli

  Spiritual, Sight, Imagination

  5 Copy quote

• The policy of adapting one's self to circumstances makes all ways smooth.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  Self, Way, Smooth

  4 Copy quote

• My mother imparted her daily truths so she could help my older brothers and me rise above our circumstances. We lived in San Francisco's Chinatown. Like most of the other Chinese children who played in the back alleys of restaurants and curio shops, I didn't think we were poor. My bowl was always full, three five-course meals every day, beginning with a soup full of mysterious things I didn't want to know the names of.

  Amy Tan

  Family, Mother, Brother

  Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.89, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• An established government has an infinite advantage, by that very circumstance of its being established--the bulk of mankind being governed by authority, not reason, and never attributing authority to anything that has not the recommendation of antiquity.

  David Hume

  Government, Infinite, Reason

  David Hume, Knud Haakonssen (1994). “Hume: Political Essays”, p.221, Cambridge University Press

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• The highest greatness, surviving time and stone, is that which proceeds from the soul of man. Monarchs and cabinets, generals and admirals, with the pomp of court and the circumstance of war, in the lapse of time disappear from sight; but the pioneers of truth, though poor and lowly, especially those whose example elevates human nature, and teaches the rights of man, so that "a government of the people, by the people, for the people, may not perish from the earth;" such a harbinger can never be forgotten, and their renown spreads co-extensive with the cause they served so well.

  Charles Sumner

  War, Greatness, Men

  8 Copy quote

• In various and different circumstances certain objects and individuals are going to turn out to be vital. The wager of survival cannot, by its nature, reveal which, in advance of events.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Survival, Events, Different

  Nadine Gordimer (2012). “July's People”, p.7, A&C Black

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• To rush in upon an event before its significance has had time to separate from the surrounding circumstances may be enterprising, but is it useful? ... The recent prevalence of these hot histories on publishers' lists raises the question: Should - or perhaps can - history be written while it is still smoking?

  Barbara Tuchman

  History, Smoking, Events

  Barbara W. Tuchman (2011). “Practicing History: Selected Essays”, p.25, Random House

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When those closest to us respond to events differently than we do, when they seem to see the same scene as part of a different play, when they say things that we could not imagine saying in the same circumstances, the ground on which we stand seems to tremble and our footing is suddenly unsure.

  Deborah Tannen

  Play, Events, Different

  11 Copy quote

• The pleasures of intimacy in friendship depend far more on external circumstances than people of a sentimental turn of mind are willing to concede; and when constant companionship ceases to suit the convenience of both parties, the chances are that it will be dropped on the first favourable opportunity.

  Hester Lynch Piozzi

  Friendship, Party, Opportunity

  Hester Lynch Piozzi (1861). “Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains of Mrs. Piozzi (Thrale)”, p.100

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have no sympathy for those who, under any pressure of circumstances, sacrifice their heart's-love for legal prostitution.

  Harriet Martineau

  Heart, Sacrifice, Pressure

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.167

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• With everything that happens to you, with everyone you meet who is important to you, you either die a little or are born.

  Rumer Godden

  Important, Littles, Born

  6 Copy quote

• History unravels; circumstances, following their natural inclination, prefer to remain ravelled.

  Penelope Lively

  History, Natural, Following

  Penelope Lively (2007). “Moon Tiger”, p.11, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Day and night, and every moment, there are voices about us. All the hours speak as they pass; and in every event there is a message to us; and all our circumstances talk with us; but it is in Divine language, that worldliness misunderstands, that selfishness is frightened at, and that only the children of God hear rightly and happily.

  William Mountford

  God, Children, Night

  William Mountford (1874). “Euthanasy: Or, Happy Talk Towards the End of Life”, p.503

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Magnanimity is above circumstance; and any virtue which depends on that is more of constitution than of principle.

  Jane Porter

  Principles, Constitution, Virtue

  Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”, p.5

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a notable circumstance that mothers who are themselves open to severe comments as to their, moral character, are generally most solicitous as to the virtuous behavior of their daughters.

  Antoine Rivarol

  Daughter, Mother, Character

  5 Copy quote

• People have the natural capacity to affirm and embrace life in the most difficult of circumstances.

  Rachel Naomi Remen

  Courage, People, Natural

  6 Copy quote

• I endeavor to drink deep of philosophy, and to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content with what cannot be mended, and patient where there is no redress. The mighty can do no more, and the wise seldom do as much. ... I am resolved to make the best of all circumstances around me, that this short life may not be half lost in pains ... Between the periods of birth and burial, I would fain insert a little happiness, a little pleasure, a little peace: to-day is ours, yesterday is past, and to-morrow may never come.

  Elizabeth Montagu

  Wise, Wisdom, Pain

  8 Copy quote

• ... I have always been a disappointment to my friends. I have no gift of talk, not much to say; and though I have always been an excellent listener, that only succeeds under auspicious circumstances.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Disappointment, Succeed, Excellent

  Margaret Oliphant (2002). “The Autobiography of Margaret Oliphant”, p.185, Broadview Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's just as possible to live to the full in a narrow corner as it is in bigness.

  Sylvia Ashton-Warner

  Corners

  6 Copy quote

• I think that if I get into the habit of writing a bit about what happens, or rather doesn't happen, I may lose a little of the sense of isolation and desolation which abides with me. My circumstances allowing of nothing but the ejaculation of one-syllabled reflections, a written monologue by that most interesting being, myself, may have its yet to be discovered consolations.

  Alice James

  Writing, Thinking, Reflection

  6 Copy quote

• No accident of environment or circumstance need cut us off from nature. ... It does not matter how shut in we are. Opportunity for wide experience is of small acccount in this as in other things; it is depth that brings understanding and life.

  Mary Webb

  Nature, Cutting, Opportunity

  6 Copy quote

• The dead carry our thoughts to another and nobler existence. They teach us, and especially by all the strange and seemingly untoward circumstances of their departure from this life, that they and we shall live in a future state forever.

  Orville Dewey

  Future, Forever, Departure

  4 Copy quote

• Slander is perhaps the only vice which no circumstance can palliate, as well as being one which we are most ingenious in concealing from ourselves.

  Jean Baptiste Massillon

  Vices, Slander, Wells

  7 Copy quote

• While all the pomp and circumstance of war animated others, it only saddened me; and all of past reflection, all of future dread, made the whole grandeur of the martial scene, and all the delusive seduction of martial music, fill my eyes frequently with tears.

  Fanny Burney

  War, Eye, Past

  Frances Burney, Fanny Burney (2015). “Complete Works of Frances Burney (Delphi Classics)”, p.5192, Delphi Classics

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is a knowingness that is as much a part of us as flesh and blood and bones. It's intuition, the deepest natural knowing. ... Intuition is the voice within forever pressing us to stretch ourselves, to take risks, to keep loving and giving birth to a new self, regardless of circumstances.

  Susan L. Taylor

  Blood, Voice, Knowing

  17 Copy quote