Former Quotes - Page 29

• Never, ever ask a former clergyman to say the blessing over a holiday dinner. Not if you like your dinner warm, anyway.

  Mary Kay Andrews

  Holiday, Blessing, Dinner

  "Blue Christmas". Book by Mary Kay Andrews, 2006.

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• In the Somme valley, the back of language broke. It could no longer carry its former meanings. World War I changed the life of words and images in art, radically and forever. It brought our culture into the age of mass-produced, industrialized death. This, at first, was indescribable.

  Robert Hughes

  Art, War, Forever

  Robert Hughes (2015). “The Spectacle of Skill: New and Selected Writings of Robert Hughes”, p.29, Vintage

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• Accepting the reality of our sinfulness means accepting our authentic self. Judas could not face his shadow; Peter could. The latter befriended the impostor within; the former raged against him.

  Brennan Manning

  Mean, Reality, Self

  Brennan Manning (2015). “Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging”, p.26, NavPress

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• A lot of what we're doing here deals with perception rather than truth. Many would argue that reality depends more on the former than the latter.

  Carrie Vaughn

  Reality, Perception, Arguing

  Carrie Vaughn (2010). “Kitty's House of Horrors”, p.103, Hachette UK

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• I loved you: and, it may be, from my soul The former love has never gone away, But let it not recall to you my dole; I wish not sadden you in any way. I loved you silently, without hope, fully, In diffidence, in jealousy, in pain; I loved you so tenderly and truly, As let you else be loved by any man.

  Alexander Pushkin

  Pain, Men, Gone Away

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• I heard there are no male sidhe-seers." Where did you hear that?" Around." And which one of those are you in doubt about Ms. Lane?" Which one of what?" Whether I see the Fae, or whether I'm a man. I believe I've laid your mind to rest on the former; shall I relieve it on the latter?" He reached for his belt. Oh, please." I rolled my eyes. "You're a leftie, Barrons." Touche, Ms. Lane," he murmered.

  Karen Marie Moning

  Believe, Eye, Men

  FaceBook post by Karen Marie Moning from Oct 03, 2012

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• Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to mathematics in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep or cows or such and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses his skills to enrich the future, the historian uses his to enrich the past. Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit.

  Tom Robbins

  Science, Animal, Past

  Tom Robbins (2003). “Another Roadside Attraction”, p.127, Bantam

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• And the distinction between violent and non-violent action is that the former is exclusively bent upon the destruction of the old, and the latter is chiefly concerned with the establishment of something new.

  Hannah Arendt

  Action, Violent, Something New

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• I turned to books for comfort. (Former First Lady, Laura Bush)

  Laura Bush

  Book, Comfort, Firsts

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• ...but Dimitri...well, my former lover and instructor was in a category all his own. His fighting skills were beyond anyone else's, and he was using them all in defense of me. "Stay back," he ordered me. "They aren't laying a hand on you.

  Richelle Mead

  Fighting, Hands, Skills

  Richelle Mead (2013). “Vampire Academy: The Complete Collection”, p.1090, Penguin

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• Of four infernal rivers that disgorge/ Into the burning Lake their baleful streams;/Abhorred Styx the flood of deadly hate,/Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep;/Cocytus, nam'd of lamentation loud/ Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegethon/ Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage./ Far off from these a slow and silent stream,/ Lethe the River of Oblivion rolls/ Her wat'ry Labyrinth whereof who drinks,/ Forthwith his former state and being forgets,/ Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain.

  John Milton

  Pain, Hate, Grief

  John Milton, “Paradise Lost: Book 02”

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• An old joke has an Oxford professor meeting an American former graduate student and asking him what he's working on these days. 'My thesis is on the survival of the class system in the United States.' 'Oh really, that's interesting: one didn't think there was a class system in the United States.' 'Nobody does. That's how it survives.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Thinking, Class, Oxford

  Christopher Hitchens (2010). “Hitch 22: A Memoir”, p.216, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• His crush went from exciting to depressing, as if he'd gone from the first blush of infatuation to the terminal nostalgia of a former lover without even the temporary relief of an actual relationship in between.

  Lev Grossman

  Crush, Depressing, Relief

  Lev Grossman (2015). “The Magicians Trilogy”, p.57, Penguin

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• The prospect of an early death sits differently upon each person. In some it gifts maturity far outweighing their age and experience: calm acceptance blossoms into a beautiful nature and soft countenance. In others, however, it leads to the formation of a tiny ice flint in their heart. Ice that, though at times concealed, never properly melts. Rose, though she would have liked to be one of the former, knew herself deep down to be one of the latter.

  Kate Morton

  Beautiful, Heart, Acceptance

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• I can again thy former light restore, Should I repent me: but once put out thy light, Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature, I know not where is that Promethean heat That can thy light relume.

  William Shakespeare

  Light, Patterns, Heat

  'Othello' (1602-4) act 5, sc. 2, l. 1

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• I never thought I'd have to give you-a former Sunday School teacher-a lecture on ethics." "Former Sunday School teachers don't go around without their underwear." "You show me where it says that in the Bible.

  Susan Elizabeth Phillips

  Teacher, School, Sunday

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• Pride and curiosity are the two scourges of our souls. The latter prompts us to poke our noses into everything, and the former forbids us to leave anything unresolved and undecided.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Pride, Two, Soul

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Essays”

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• And I specialize in fixing things up and restoring them to their former glory.” She wondered if that talent extended to humans, maybe even humans who never really had a former glory.

  Jill Shalvis

  Fixing Things, Talent, Glory

  Jill Shalvis (2010). “Simply Irresistible”, p.61, Hachette UK

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• Thus our own age is essentially one of understanding, and on the average, perhaps, more knowledgeable than any former generation, but it is without passion. Every one knows a great deal, we all know which way we ought to go and all the different ways we can go, but nobody is willing to move.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Moving, Passion, Average

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• ʺWho′s a spirit user?ʺ said Robert. ʺFormer spirit user,ʺ said Victor, ʺShe became a Strigoi to get away from it.ʺ ʺYes . . . always a lure to that . . . kill to live, live to kill. Immortality and freedom from these chains, but oh, what a loss . . .ʺ said Robert.

  Richelle Mead

  Loss, Spirit, Immortality

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• But in Republics there is a stronger vitality, a fiercer hatred, a keener thirst for revenge. The memory of their former freedom will not let them rest; so that the safest course is either to destroy them, or to go and live in them.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Memories, Revenge, Hatred

  Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Moore (2010). “Machiavelli, More & Luther”, p.19, Cosimo, Inc.

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• He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. "Where is it? What death?" There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Light, No Fear, Fear Of Death

  Leo Tolstoy (2010). “The Death of Ivan Ilych: English-Russian Parallel Text Edition”, p.122, Lulu.com

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• Human will is the strongest will ever created. There are those who are born to succeed and those who are determined to succeed. The former fall into it, and the latter pursue it at all costs. They won’t be denied. Nothing daunts them.

  Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Fall, Determined To Succeed, Cost

  Sherrilyn Kenyon (2011). “Invincible: The Chronicles of Nick”, p.162, St. Martin's Griffin

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• It looks too new and pristine ever to have been read by anyone else, but it has been: it keeps falling open at the most delightful places as the ghost of its former owner points me to things I've never read before.

  Helene Hanff

  Fall, Looks, Ghost

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• I'm coming to believe that there are two kinds of people... those who choose to be masters of their own fate and those who wait in chairs while other dance. I would rather be one of the former than the latter.

  Lisa Kleypas

  Believe, Fate, Two

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