Describing Quotes - Page 7

• A man of my acquaintance once wrote a poem called "The Road Less Traveled", describing a journey he took through the woods along a path most travelers never used. The poet found that the road less traveled was peaceful but quite lonely, and he was probably a bit nervous as he went along, because if anything happened on the road less traveled, the other travelers would be on the road more frequently traveled and so couldn't hear him as he cried for help. Sure enough, that poet is dead.

  Daniel Handler

  Lonely, Journey, Men

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• How does a person feel when looking at the sky? He thinks that he doesn't have enough tongues to describe what he sees. Nevertheless, people have never stopping describing the sky, simply listing what they see.

  Umberto Eco

  Thinking, Sky, People

  "We Like Lists Because We Don't Want to Die". Interview with Susanne Beyer and Lothar Gorris, www.spiegel.de. November 11, 2009.

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• I got live tweeted once by someone who was opposite my home in some rented accommodation. He was actually describing on twitter what I was doing. 'I took a shirt off, I went to the window, I put a shirt back on... ' And I've got blinds in my flat!

  Benedict Cumberbatch

  Home, Opposites, Window

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• Judy Blume excels at describing how it feels to be invisible. So how poetic is it that Blume herself is suddenly everywhere?

  Diablo Cody

  Poetic, Invisible, Feels

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• I'm not in the business of telling people what to do. I'm much more in the business of describing things, situations and stuff like that and leaving them out there, and you can make up your minds about them.

  Nick Cave

  People, Leaving, Mind

  "Nick Cave is not in the business of telling people what to do". Interview with Christopher Kompanek, music.avclub.com. April 8, 2013.

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• What men don't want, in fact what anyone who's any sort of thrill-seeking, intelligent adult doesn't want, is some crushing bore describing their emotions in real time every waking hour.

  Julie Burchill

  Crush, Real, Intelligent

  "What I know about men". www.theguardian.com. September 9, 2007.

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• Being 'at the mercy of legislative majorities' is merely another way of describing the basic American plan: representative democracy.

  Robert Bork

  Democracy, Majority, Way

  Robert H. Bork (2009). “The Tempting of America”, p.49, Simon and Schuster

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• When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.

  Niels Bohr

  Inspirational, Creating, Poetry

  Niels Bohr's response to questions on the nature of language during his first meeting with Werner Heisenberg (Summer 1920), as quoted in "Discussions about Language", 1933, in Robert J. Pranger "Defense Implications of International Indeterminacy" (p. 11), 1972, and in Steve Giles "Theorizing Modernism: Essays in Critical Theory" (p. 28), 1993.

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• I do not at all have the mind of a bully... in my mind bullies are intolerant of contrary opinion, domineering and rather cowardly. I would hope that none of those terms could be fairly used in describing me.

  Conrad Black

  Anti Bullying, Mind, Opinion

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• Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.

  Steven Biko

  Fighting, Black, Use

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• Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.

  James A. Baldwin

  Truth, Roots, Literature

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• Completeness? Happiness? These words don't come close to describing my emotions. There truly is nothing I can say to capture what motherhood means to me, particularly given my medical history.

  Anita Baker

  Mom, Mother, Mean

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  The pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon.

  Francis Bacon

  Jobs, Affliction, Ghost

  'Essays' (1625) 'Of Adversity'

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• Simplicity is not the absence of clutter, that's a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product. The absence of clutter is just a clutter-free product. That's not simple.

  Jonathan Ive

  Philosophical, Simple, Simplicity

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• 'Hamlet' is the best description of grief I've read because it dramatizes grief rather than merely describing it.

  Meghan O'Rourke

  Grief, Description

  "The Long Goodbye" by Meghan O'Rourke, www.slate.com. March 12, 2009.

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• He read me extracts from a medical journal describing the progress of a staphylococcus aureus infection. And then he pleasured me with a potato.

  Grant Morrison

  Progress, Potatoes, Medical

  "The Invisibles". Comic Book Series, Volume 3, 1999 - 2000.

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• The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon Earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.

  Edward Gibbon

  Errors, Race, Long

  Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.237, Modern Library

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• And all the books you've read have been read by other people. And all the songs you've loved have been heard by other people. And that girl that's pretty to you is pretty to other people. and that if you looked at these facts when you were happy, you would feel great because you are describing 'unity.

  Stephen Chbosky

  Girl, Song, Book

  Stephen Chbosky (2013). “The Perks of Being a Wallflower YA edition”, p.94, Simon and Schuster

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• Even before string theory, especially as physics developed in the 20th century, it turned out that the equations that really work in describing nature with the most generality and the greatest simplicity are very elegant and subtle.

  Edward Witten

  Nature, Simplicity, Physics

  "Viewpoints on String Theory: Edward Witten". "NOVA" interview, www.pbs.org. July 2003.

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• Of course, politicians always say they're just describing their opponents' positions, even if they are in fact offering absurd caricatures, if not outright lies.

  James Surowiecki

  Lying, Offering, Opponents

  "Stand Up For Your Budget, Paul Ryan". www.newyorker.com. April 4, 2012.

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• Pleasure is often spoiled by describing it.

  Stendhal

  Pleasure, Spoiled

  Stendhal (1955). “The private diaries of Stendhal [pseud.]”

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• I really love baseball. The guys and the game, and I love the challenge of describing things. The only thing I hate - and I know you have to be realistic and pay the bills in this life - is the loneliness on the road.

  Vin Scully

  Baseball, Hate, Loneliness

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• Why, listening to Obama talk about his economic triumphs over the last three years might make you want to move to the country he was describing. Too bad that country exists primarily in his own head.

  John Podhoretz

  Country, Moving, Years

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• Describing certain sounds, there's a common language that guitar players have.

  Joe Perry

  Player, Guitar, Sound

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• There is nothing wrong with describing Conservatism as protecting the Constitution, protecting all things that limit government. Government is the enemy of liberty. Government should be very restrained.

  Ron Paul

  Government, Enemy, Liberty

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