Eavesdropping Quotes

• There is nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.

  Thornton Wilder

  Truth, Honesty, Different

  Thornton Wilder (1966). “Three Plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Matchmaker”

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• Listeners ne'er hear good of themselves.

  John Ray

  Listeners

  John Ray (1737). “A compleat Collection of English Proverbs, also the most Celebrated Proverbs of the Scotch, Italian, French, Spanish and other Languages”, p.59

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• The English press, are so nosy, and the English seem to love that eavesdropping

  Michael Hutchence

  Seems, Presses

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Nothing good was ever learned from eavesdropping, so mind your business and let others mind theirs.

  Maryrose Wood

  Mind

  Maryrose Wood (2014). “Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place 3-Book Collection: Book I, Book II”, p.45, Harper Collins

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• We're no longer in the Cold War. Eavesdropping on friends is unacceptable.

  Vladimir Putin

  War, Cold, Cold War

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• The key to good eavesdropping is not getting caught.

  Daniel Handler

  Keys, Caught

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• Eavesdropping is such a regular-person activity.

  Franny Billingsley

  Persons, Activity

  Franny Billingsley (2013). “Chime”, p.75, A&C Black

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• It's lonely to listen to the pleasure of others, not that I've made a habit of that kind of eavesdropping. There's joy and passion in the next room, in the next bed, but it's not yours.

  Ben Marcus

  Lonely, Passion, Joy

  "This week in fiction:Ben Marcus" by Deborah Treisman, www.newyorker.com. May 11, 2013.

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• Sounds like you kids have some talking to do. I'll be eavesdropping from the kitchen.

  Jill Shalvis

  Kids, Talking, Kitchen

  Jill Shalvis, Jacquie D'Alessandro, Jamie Sobrato (2008). “Heating Up the Holidays: All He Wants for Christmas...\My Grown-Up Christmas List\Up on the Housetop”, p.64, Harlequin

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• Everyone in the world is impacted by the United States' Big Brother attitude toward the world. We need countries to say no to the United States. The United States is the dominant power in the universe, with its eavesdropping abilities, cyber abilities. And the world is in danger with our tyranny.

  Oliver Stone

  Country, Brother, Attitude

  "Oliver Stone Tells European Audience on Fourth of July 'The World is in Danger With Our Tyranny'" by Noel Sheppard, www.newsbusters.org. July 4, 2013.

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• It's difficult to talk to people who whisper even at home, afraid of Americans eavesdropping on them. It's not a figure of speech, not a joke, I'm serious.

  Vladimir Putin

  Home, People, Speech

  "Ask the President! Some of Putin’s Very Best Hotline Answers". Answer during the "Direct Line with Vladimir Putin", sputniknews.com. April 15, 2015.

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• Any place is good for eavesdropping, if you know how to eavesdrop.

  Tom Waits

  Know How, Knows, Ifs

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• I shouldn't have eavesdropped, but sometimes, that's the only way to find out the truth.

  Jodi Picoult

  Way, Sometimes

  Jodi Picoult (2009). “Handle with Care: A Novel”, p.472, Simon and Schuster

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• Gandalf: Confound it all, Samwise Gamgee. Have you been eavesdropping? Sam: I ain't been droppin' no eaves sir, honest. I was just cutting the grass under the window there, if you'll follow me. Gandalf: A little late for trimming the verge, don't you think? Sam: I heard raised voices. Gandalf: What did you hear? Speak. Sam: N-nothing important. That is, I heard a good deal about a ring, and a Dark Lord, and something about the end of the world, but... Please, Mr. Gandalf, sir, don't hurt me. Don't turn me into anything... unnatural.

  J. R. R. Tolkien

  Hurt, Cutting, Dark

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• Any conversation including the mention of Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury, or Emily Dickinson is one worth getting into or at least eavesdropping.

  Don Roff

  Rays, Conversation, Bradbury

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• Literature is eavesdropping.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Literature

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1969). “The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1838-1842”, p.121, Harvard University Press

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• Every cell in your body is eavesdropping on your thoughts.

  Deepak Chopra

  Cells, Body, Your Body

  Deepak Chopra (2015). “Quantum Healing (Revised and Updated): Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine”, p.25, Bantam

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• Writing fiction is a solitary occupation but not really a lonely one. The writer's head is mobbed with characters, images and language, making the creative process something like eavesdropping at a party for which you've had the fun of drawing up the guest list. Loneliness usually doesn't set in until the work is finished, and all the partygoers and their imagined universe have disappeared.

  Hilma Wolitzer

  Lonely, Fun, Loneliness

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• Drug offenses ... may be regarded as the prototypes of non-victim crimes today. The private nature of the sale and use of these drugs has led the police to resort to methods of detection and surveillance that intrude upon our privacy, including illegal search, eavesdropping, and entrapment. Indeed, the successful prosecution of such cases often requires police infringement of the constitutional protections that safeguard the privacy of individuals.

  John Kaplan

  Successful, Police, Drug

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• Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.

  Walker Evans

  Knowing, Long, Staring

  Walker Evans (2004). “Many are Called”, p.202, Yale University Press

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• Whenever I read the psalms, I feel like I am eavesdropping on a saint having a personal conversation with God.

  R. C. Sproul

  Saint, Conversations With God, Psalms

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• Spying on people by magic is the same as spying on them in any other way.

  C. S. Lewis

  People, Magic, Way

  C. S. Lewis (1997). “The voyage of the Dawn Treader”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Is all literature eavesdropping, and all art Chinese imitation? our life a custom, and our body borrowed, like a beggar’s dinner, from a hundred charities?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Chinese, Literature

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2612, Delphi Classics

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• Your brain is always eavesdropping on your thoughts. As it listens, it leans. If you teach it about limitation, your brain will become limited...Teach your brain to be unlimited.

  Deepak Chopra

  Brain, Unlimited, Teach

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• Radio listeners are voyeurs: lurking, invisible, eavesdropping.

  Paul Fleischman

  Radio, Invisible, Listeners

  Paul Fleischman (2003). “Seek”, p.141, Simon and Schuster

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