Decline Quotes - Page 22

• Osbert was the only one who didn't seem suspicious. He was so interested in the Decline of Western Civilization that he missed the version of it taking place under his nose.

  Meg Rosoff

  Civilization, Noses, Western

  Meg Rosoff (2005). “How I Live Now”, p.43, Penguin UK

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I believe in courtesy. It is the way we avoid hurting people's feelings. She thought that maybe, just maybe, western civilization was in decline because people did not take time to take tea at four o'clock.

  E. L. Konigsburg

  Hurt, Believe, Civilization

  E. L. Konigsburg (1999). “The View from Saturday”, p.125, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Because there’s a clock attached to every beautiful woman. From the second she comes into her own, she begins to decline, because she begins to age. Aging is every beautiful woman’s kryptonite. And so, yes, it’s ridiculous and no, you don’t have much time and of course it’s not fair. Those three statements are the essence of beauty.

  Paul Rudnick

  Beautiful, Essence, Kryptonite

  Paul Rudnick (2013). “Gorgeous”, p.57, Scholastic Inc.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• I rather think the cinema will die. Look at the energy being exerted to revive it - yesterday it was color, today three dimensions. I don't give it forty years more. Witness the decline of conversation. Only the Irish have remained incomparable conversationalists, maybe because technical progress has passed them by.

  Orson Welles

  Thinking, Color, Years

  22 Copy quote

• And over time, I think, as Iraqi security capacity builds, you'll see American and coalition presence there decline.

  John Abizaid

  Thinking, Capacity, Coalitions

  Interview with Jim Lehrer, www.pbs.org. March 4, 2004.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are like a judge confronted by a defendant who declines to answer, and we must determine the truth from the circumstantial evidence.

  Alfred Wegener

  Truth, Judging, Judgement

  Alfred Wegener (1966). “The Origin of Continents and Oceans”, p.8, Courier Corporation

  195 Copy quote

  Show source

• The age of the proof is in decline, it is the hour of 'witness' that is coming, hour of the 'marturioa', very calm and very complete: a hope which seems close to being realised.

  Henri de Lubac

  Being Real, Age, Classic

  28 Copy quote

• Labour leaders lead us all, though we know they bleed us all. Cheer our new Decline and Fall, Gibbon might have dreamed it all.

  Noel Coward

  Cheer, Fall, History

  5 Copy quote

• Court the society of a superior, and make much of the opportunity; for in the company of an equal thy good fortune must decline.

  Saadi

  Opportunity, Association, Fortune

  5 Copy quote

• Growing old is not a gradual decline, but a series of drops, full of sorrow, from one ledge to another below it.

  Logan Pearsall Smith

  Sorrow, Age, Ledges

  Logan Pearsall Smith (1931). “Afterthoughts”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• You can't teach people to write well. Writing well is something God lets you do or declines to let you do.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Writing, People, Teach

  4 Copy quote

• Apples taste sweetest when they're going.

  Seneca the Younger

  Apples, Taste, Sweetest

  4 Copy quote

• England totally disarmed and an easy prey to hostile forces! Can you think of anything more likely to excite cupidity and hostile intention? We should sink to the level of a fifth rate Power, our Colonies would be stripped from us, our commerce would decline, famine and unemployment would stalk the land... I have yet to learn that the cause of peace can be served by rendering our country impotent.

  Stanley Baldwin

  Country, Thinking, Land

  "Semi-detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations". Book by Martin Ceadel, p. 271, 2000.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Although the Irish language is connected with the many recollections that twine around the hearts of Irishmen, yet the superior utility of the English tongue, as the medium of all modern communication, is so great that I can witness without a sigh the gradual decline of the Irish language.

  Daniel O'Connell

  Communication, Heart, History

  41 Copy quote

• Pulitzer's Gold is a goldmine of inspiration for both journalists and non-journalists. Those in the newspaper business, who now find themselves obsessing about staff cutbacks and circulation declines, should embrace this book as a reminder of the highest ideals, and the absolute thrills, to be found in their profession. As for regular readers, Pulitzer's Gold offers marvelous storytelling, real-life adventures, and absolute proof that journalism can change our world for the better.

  Jeffrey Zaslow

  Real, Book, Inspiration

  4 Copy quote

• In light of the strong correlation between female education and demographic decline, a purely empirical perspective on Malala Yousafzai, the poster girl for global female education, may indicate that the Taliban's attempt to silence her was perfectly rational and scientifically justifiable.

  Theodore Beale

  Girl, Strong, Light

  11 Copy quote

• People decline invitations when they are "indisposed" physically, and I wish they would do likewise when they feel indisposed emotionally. A person has no more right to attend a party with a head full of venom than with a throat full of virus.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Party, People, Wish

  6 Copy quote

• Whenever the average intellect of the clergy declines in the balance with the average intellect of the people the churches will be shut up and a new order of things [will] begin.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Thinking, Average, Order

  "Emerson: The Mind on Fire". Book by Robert D. Richardson (p. 77), March 6, 1995.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The unambitious sluggard pretends that the eminence is not worth attaining, declines altogether the struggle, and calls himself a philosopher. I say he is a poor-spirited coward.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Struggle, Coward, Philosopher

  William Makepeace Thackeray (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of William Makepeace Thackeray (Illustrated)”, p.387, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• You must have the discipline and temperament to resist your impulses. Human beings have precisely the wrong instincts when it comes to the markets. If you recognise this, you can resist the urge to buy into a rally and sell into a decline. It’s also helpful to remember the power of compounding. You don’t need to stretch for returns to grow your capital over the course of your life.

  Irving Kahn

  Discipline, Needs, Return

  9 Copy quote

• The imminent demise of the church has been predicted since the middle of the 18th century. This is the regular secular mantra if churchgoing declines. I could take you to plenty of churches that are full to bursting and new churches being built.

  N. T. Wright

  Church, Demise, Century

  "N.T. Wright: On Jesus and Writing". Interview with Marcia Z. Nelson, www.publishersweekly.com. November 23, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Language is in decline. Not only has eloquence departed but simple, direct speech as well, though pomposity and banality have not.

  Edwin Newman

  Simple, Departed, Speech

  Edwin Newman (1974). “Strictly Speaking: Will america be the Death of English?”

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• He should be envied Who when his strength is spent lays down his life. Old age reserves a melancholy fate For noble souls before their life is done.

  Pierre Corneille

  Fate, Soul, Age

  4 Copy quote

• Wherever there is degeneration and apathy, there also is sexual perversion, cold depravity, miscarriage, premature old age, grumbling youth, there is a decline in the arts, indifference to science, and injustice in all its forms.

  Anton Chekhov

  Art, Miscarriage, Grumbling

  Letter to A.S. Suvorin, December 27, 1889.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.

  Samuel Johnson

  Respect, Giving, Attention

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source