Instance Quotes - Page 27

• It is very useful, when one is young, to learn the difference between "literally" and "figuratively." If something happens literally, it actually happens; if something happens figuratively, it feels like it is happening. If you are literally jumping for joy, for instance, it means you are leaping in the air because you are very happy. If you are figuratively jumping for joy, it means you are so happy that you could jump for joy, but are saving your energy for other matters.

  Daniel Handler

  Mean, Jumping, Air

  "The Bad Beginning". Book by Daniel Handler, September 30, 1999.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• For some stories, it's easy. The moral of 'The Three Bears,' for instance, is "Never break into someone else's house.' The moral of 'Snow White' is 'Never eat apples.' The moral of World War I is 'Never assassinate Archduke Ferdinand.

  Daniel Handler

  War, White, Apples

  4 Copy quote

• One could mention many lovable traits in Smee. For instance, after killing, it was his spectacles he wiped instead of his weapon.

  James M. Barrie

  Pirate, Weapons, Killing

  James M. Barrie (2015). “Peter Pan: Top 100 Classic Novels”, p.44, 谷月社

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When you are young so many things are difficult to believe, and yet the dullest people will tell you that they are true--such things, for instance, as that the earth goes round the sun, and that it is not flat but round. But the things that seem really likely, like fairy-tales and magic, are, so say the grown-ups, not true at all. Yet they are so easy to believe, especially when you see them happening.

  E. Nesbit

  Believe, People, Magic

  E. Nesbit (2013). “Delphi Complete Novels of E. Nesbit”, p.1496, Delphi Classics

  48 Copy quote

  Show source

• The whole world is, to me, very much "alive" - all the little growing things, even the rocks. I can't look at a swell bit of grass and earth, for instance, without feeling the essential life - the things going on - within them. The same goes for a mountain, or a bit of the ocean, or a magnificent piece of old wood.

  Ansel Adams

  Ocean, Rocks, Feelings

  11 Copy quote

• There is, on the whole, nothing on earth intended for innocent people so horrible as a school. To begin with, it is a prison. But in some respects more cruel than a prison. In a prison, for instance, you are not forced to read books written by the warders and the governor. . . .In the prison you are not forced to sit listening to turnkeys discoursing without charm or interest on subjects that they don't understand and don't care about, and therefore incapable of making you understand or care about. In a prison they may torture your body; but they do not torture your brains.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Book, School, People

  12 Copy quote

• In love, as in life, one misheard word can be tremendously important. If you tell someone you love them, for instance, you must be absolutely certain that they have replied "I love you back" and not "I love your back" before you continue the conversation.

  Daniel Handler

  Love You, Important, Someone You Love

  4 Copy quote

• Under certain circumstances the fateful decisions in life, sometimes even in matters of life and death, are made with an almost indifferent ease. While the little things-for instance, the way people hang on to what is over-seem so important.

  Peter Høeg

  People, Life And Death, Decision

  Peter Høeg (2010). “Smilla's Sense of Snow: A Novel”, p.287, Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are certain things we must not pray about - moods, for instance. Moods never go by praying, moods go by kicking.

  Oswald Chambers

  Religious, Religion, Kicking

  Oswald Chambers (2011). “My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition”, p.291, Discovery House

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The word "truth" itself ceases to have its old meaning. It describes no longer something to be found, with the individual conscience as the sole arbiter of whether in any particular instance the evidence (or the standing of those proclaiming it) warrants a belief; it becomes something to be laid down by authority, something which has to believed in the interest of unity of the organized effort and which may have to be altered as the exigencies of this organized effort require it.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Effort, Unity, May

  "Der Weg zur Knechtschaft (The Road to Serfdom)". Book by Friedrich August von Hayek, reason.com. 1944.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Some other memories of the funeral have stuck in my mind. The old boy’s face, for instance, when he caught up with us for the last time, just outside the village. His eyes were streaming with tears, of exhaustion or distress, or both together. But because of the wrinkles they couldn’t flow down. They spread out, crisscrossed, and formed a smooth gloss on the old, worn face.

  Albert Camus

  Memories, Eye, Boys

  ALBERT CAMUS (1942). “THE Stranger”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• We know, for instance, that there is a direct, inverse relationship between frequency of family meals and social problems. Bluntly stated, members of families who eat together regularly are statistically less likely to stick up liquor stores, blow up meth labs, give birth to crack babies, commit suicide, or make donkey porn. If Little Timmy had just had more meatloaf, he might not have grown up to fill chest freezers with Cub Scout parts.

  Anthony Bourdain

  Suicide, Baby, Blow

  Anthony Bourdain (2010). “Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook”, p.87, Bloomsbury Publishing

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Anything beyond the limits and grasp of the human mind is either illusion or futility; and because your god having to be one or the other of the two, in the first instance I should be mad to believe in him, and in the second a fool.

  Marquis de Sade

  Believe, Two, Mad

  Marquis de Sade (2016). “Dialogue Between a Priest and a Dying Man”, p.7, BoD – Books on Demand

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• A submissive spirit might be patient, a strong understanding would supply resolution, but here was something more; here was that elasticity of mind, that disposition to be comforted, that power of turning readily from evil to good, and of finding employment which carried her out of herself, which was from nature alone. It was the choicest gift of Heaven; and Anne viewed her friend as one of those instances in which, by a merciful appointment, it seems designed to counterbalance almost every other want.

  Jane Austen

  Strong, Evil, Heaven

  Jane Austen (2013). “Persuasion In Modern English”, p.300, BookCaps Study Guides

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• What does she (J. K. Rowling) hope people will take with them about this time? “When all the fuss and hoopla dies away, and when all the press commentary dies away, I think it will be seen that this phenomenon was generated, in the first instance, by kids loving a book. A book went on shelves, and a few people loved it. When all of the smoke and lights die away, that’s what you’ll be left with. “And that’s the most wonderful thought for an author.

  Melissa Anelli

  Book, Kids, Thinking

  Melissa Anelli (2011). “Harry, A History - Enhanced with Videos and Exclusive J.K. Rowling Interview: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life”, p.313, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think one of the most important differences between us is that you are excellent at living in a way that is commensurate with your values, whereas I am not. For instance, I didn’t recycle until I watched An Inconvenient Truth and I’m still sort of iffy on it. And also, I didn’t vote in 2000, even though I could have voted in Florida *hits self on head repeatedly* Ahh George Bush! It’s all my fault! God! So stupid! *sigh* Let’s change the subject. Also, we have vastly different happy dances.

  John Green

  Stupid, Thinking, Florida

  4 Copy quote

• Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal. John's, for instance, had a lagoon with flamingos flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it. John lived in a boat turned upside down on the sands, Michael in a wigwam, Wendy in a house of leaves deftly sewn together. John had no friends, Michael had friends at night, Wendy had a pet wolf forsaken by its parents.

  James M. Barrie

  Night, House, Parent

  40 Copy quote

• Blue does not go with everything," Will told her. "It does not go with red, for instance." "I have a red and blue striped waistcoat," Henry interjected, reaching for the peas. "And if that isn't proof that those two colors should never be seen together under Heaven, I don't know what is.

  Cassandra Clare

  Blue, Color, Two

  Cassandra Clare (2013). “The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess”, p.165, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we look more closely, we see that any violent display of power, whether political or religious, produces an outburst of folly in a large part of mankind; indeed, this seems actually to be a psychological and sociological law: the power of some needs the folly of others. It is not that certain human capacities, intellectual capacities for instance, become stunted of destroyed, but rather that the upsurge of power makes such an overwhelming impression that men are deprived of their independent judgment, and...give up trying to assess the new state of affairs for themselves.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Religious, Giving Up, Independent

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2011). “Letters Papers from Prison”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• We define our identity always in dialogue with, sometimes in struggle against, the things our significant others want to see in us. Even after we outgrow some of these others—our parents, for instance—and they disappear from our lives, the conversation with them continues within us as long as we live.

  Charles Taylor

  Struggle, Long, Parent

  Charles Taylor (1995). “Philosophical Arguments”, p.230, Harvard University Press

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• My own view of myself was that I was small and innocuous, a marshmallow compared to the others. I was a poor shot with a 22, for instance, and not very good with an ax. It took me a long time to figure out that the youngest in a family of dragons is still a dragon from the point of view of those who find dragons alarming.

  Margaret Atwood

  Dragons, Views, Long

  Margaret Atwood (2002). “Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing”, p.9, Cambridge University Press

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• As with any turning point or instance when a new road is chosen and an old one forsaken, there are consequences.

  Michael J. Fox

  New Roads, Forsaken, Chosen

  4 Copy quote

• in love: a momentary instance of bein almost interested in someone else as in oneself!

  Belle de Jour

  Oneself, Momentary

  9 Copy quote

• For instance, dragons are deeply revered by the Chinese. According to legend they have megapowers that include weather control and life creation. And they’re seen as kind, benevolent creatures. Funny. Every fairy tale I’d ever heard involving dragons starred daring knights trotting off to kill said dragons. Probably the real reason every time East meets West they get pissed off and throw tea in our faces.

  Jennifer Rardin

  Real, Knights, Dragons

  Jennifer Rardin (2011). “Another One Bites The Dust: Book two in the Jaz Parks sequence”, p.33, Hachette UK

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing” is a phrase that refers to times when people ought to know, but don’t know, about something that is happening very close to them. For instance, you ought to know about the man who watches you when you sleep.

  Daniel Handler

  Sleep, Men, Hands

  4 Copy quote