Could Have Been Quotes - Page 12

• After a year's research, one realizes that it could have been done in a week.

  William Henry Bragg

  Years, Done, Research

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• I was an actor when I was a teenager and it could have been the direction that I headed in. But music and my relationship with music is quite deep, and it really is the nucleus of my creativity. So I gave up acting so I could pursue music fully, and I never thought about really going back. And then [director] Lee Daniels met me and wanted to work with me, and that's how it started.

  Lenny Kravitz

  Teenager, Creativity, Acting

  "Lenny Kravitz Shares His Acting 'Hunger'". Interview with Kelley L. Carter, www.ebony.com. November 20, 2013.

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• I'm glad that that era of stand-up is over, because I think it adversely affected a lot of people who could have been really, really great comedians. Because they unconsciously or subconsciously stifled their wild impulses, and were thinking about the five clean minutes for The Tonight Show, or the 20-minute sitcom pitch as a stand-up act.

  Patton Oswalt

  Thinking, People, Comedian

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I am the very slave of circumstance And impulse borne away with every breath! Misplaced upon the throne misplaced in life. I know not what I could have been, but feel I am not what I should be let it end.

  Lord Byron

  Thrones, Slave, Ends

  Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.1369, Delphi Classics

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• No husband of mine will say, "I could have been a drummer, but I had to think about the wife and kids. You know how it is." Nobody supports me at the expense of his own adventure.

  Maxine Hong Kingston

  Husband, Adventure, Kids

  Maxine Hong Kingston (2010). “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts”, p.57, Vintage

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• I often find things at thrift stores and library sales that I never could have been looking for. In those cases, the research is done after the fact to figure out what, exactly, I've found. It's surprising how much out there still has no online presence.

  Michael Dumontier

  Library, Done, Research

  Source: www.believermag.com

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• I could have been a Judge, but I never had the Latin for the judgin'. I never had it, so I'd had it, as far as being a judge was concerned... I would much prefer to be a judge than a coal miner because of the absence of falling coal.

  Peter Cook

  Latin, Fall, Coal Miners

  British comedy stage revue "Beyond the Fringe" written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller ("Sitting on the Bench", 1961), 1960-1966.

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• You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it's important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away.

  Barack Obama

  Pain, Son, Thinking

  " 'Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago', Obama says" by Paul Lewis, www.theguardian.com. July 19, 2013.

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• It could have been the whole thing where you stabbed him.

  Cassandra Clare

  Whole, Has Beens

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• It was a light that shone over our faces, our wounds and scars. It was a light so brilliant and white it could have been beamed from heaven, and Brian and I could have been angels, basking in it. But it wasn’t, and we weren’t.

  Scott Heim

  Angel, Light, Wounds And Scars

  Scott Heim (1995). “Mysterious skin: a novel”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• I understand the arguments about how the billions of dollars spent to put men on the moon could have been used to fight poverty and hunger on Earth. But, look, I'm a scientist who sees inspiration as the ultimate tool for doing good. When you use money to fight poverty, it can be of great value, but too often, you're working at the margins. When you're putting people on the moon, you're inspiring all of us to achieve the maximum of human potential, which is how our greatest problems will eventually be solved. Give yourself permission to dream.

  Randy Pausch

  Dream, Inspiration, Fighting

  "The Last Lecture".

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• I’m going to lie this one right on the line, right here, right now: I’m pro big pants. Strident feminism NEEDS big pants. Really big. I’m currently wearing a pair that could have been used as a fire blanket to put out the Great Fire of London at any point during the first 48 hours or so. They extend from the top of my thigh to my belly button, and effectively double up as a second property that I can escape to at weekends. If I were going to run for parliament, it would be solely on a platform of ‘Get Women In Massive Grundie’s’.

  Caitlin Moran

  Running, Lying, Weekend

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• Closing his eyes, he sent up a prayer to anyone who was listening, asking please, for God's sake, stop sending him signals that they were right for each other. He'd read that book, seen the movie, bought the soundtrack, the DVD, the T-shirt, the mug, the bobble-head, and the insider's guide. He knew every reason they could have been lock and key. But just as he was aware of all that aligned them, he was even clearer on how they were damned to be ever apart.

  J.R. Ward

  Prayer, Book, Eye

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• I don’t think any girl in all of Illéa could have been smiling more than me.

  Kiera Cass

  Girl, Thinking, Ill

  Kiera Cass (2015). “The Selection Series 4-Book Collection: The Selection, The Elite, The One, The Heir”, p.20, HarperCollins

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• In the garden there was nothing which was not quite like themselves - nothing which did not understand the wonderfulness of what was happening to them - the immense, tender, terrible, heart-breaking beauty and solemnity of Eggs. If there had been one person in that garden who had not known through all his or her innermost being that if an Egg were taken away or hurt the whole world would whirl round and crash through space and come to an end... there could have been no happiness even in that golden springtime air.

  Frances Hodgson Burnett

  Hurt, Taken, Heart

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• This result could have been achieved either by his [God] endowing my intellect with a clear and distinct perception of everything about which I would ever deliberate, or simply by impressing the following rule so firmly upon my memory that I could never forget it: I should never judge anything that I do not clearly and distinctly understand.

  Rene Descartes

  Memories, Judging, Perception

  Rene Descartes (1999). “Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy”, p.86, Hackett Publishing

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• God, I wish you could have been there.

  J. D. Salinger

  Wish, Wish You, Has Beens

  J.D. Salinger (1951). “The Catcher in the Rye”

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• I had been alone more than I could have been had I gone by myself.

  Sylvia Plath

  Gone, Has Beens

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• Emerald green eyes studied us from a face that could have been sculpted by one of the classical artists I so admired. Shocked, I dismissed the comparison as soon as it popped into my head. This was a vampire, after all. It was ridiculous to admire him the way I would some hot human guy.

  Richelle Mead

  Eye, Artist, Guy

  Richelle Mead (2011). “Bloodlines”, p.34, Penguin

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• We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren't, or of moments that could have been found but were forever hidden in the sands.

  Paulo Coelho

  Heart, Thinking, Forever

  Paulo Coelho (1998). “The Alchemist - 10th Anniversary Edition”, HarperSanFrancisco

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• Every letter was a love letter. Of course, as love letters went, this one could have been better. It was not very promising, for instance, that Madeleine claimed not to want to see him for the next half-century.

  Jeffrey Eugenides

  Half, Letters, Want

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• But I know that I'm not who I was supposed to be. Who I could have been. And I know it's because I was too afraid for too long.

  Nancy Werlin

  Life, Long, Supposed To Be

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• We wish we could have been there for you. We didn't have many role models of our own--we latched on to the foolish love of Oscar Wilde and the well-versed longing of Walt Whitman because nobody else was there to show us an untortured path. We were going to be your role models. We were going to give you art and music and confidence and shelter and a much better world. Those who survived lived to do this. But we haven't been there for you. We've been here. Watching as you become the role models.

  David Levithan

  Art, Giving, Role Models

  David Levithan (2014). “Two Boys Kissing”, p.113, Egmont UK

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• The old system where every child was locked away and set into nonstop, daily cut throat competition with every other child for silly prizes called grades is broken beyond repair. If it could be fixed it could have been fixed by now. Good riddance.

  John Taylor Gatto

  Children, Silly, Learning

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• I wonder if I could have been here before as I drive up the Roman road the Theater seems familiar - perhaps I headed a legion up that same white road... I passed a chateau in ruins which I possibly helped escalade in the middle ages. There is no proof nor yet any denial. We were, We are, and we will be.

  George S. Patton

  Army, White, Age

  Letter to his mother from Chamlieu, France, November 20, 1917.

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