Occasions Quotes - Page 24

• The key to all sciences is unquestionably the question mark. To the word How? we owe most of our greatest discoveries. Wisdom in life may perhaps consist in asking ourselves on all occasions: Why?

  Honore de Balzac

  Keys, Discovery, Asking

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• Garlic, like perfume, must be used with discretion and on the proper occasions.

  Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

  Food, Garlic, Used

  Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1996). “Cross Creek Cookery”, p.99, Simon and Schuster

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• God is the only being who has time enough; but a prudent man, who knows how to seize occasion, can commonly make a shift to find as much as he needs.

  James Russell Lowell

  Time, Men, Needs

  James Russell Lowell (2016). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Illustrated)”, p.1776, Delphi Classics

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• Decide not rashly. The decision made
  Can never be recalled. The gods implore not,
  Plead not, solicit not; they only offer
  Choice and occasion, which once being passed
  Return no more. Dost thou accept the gift?

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Choices, Decision, Return

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.878, Delphi Classics

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• Rising glory occasions the greatest envy, as kindling fire the greatest smoke.

  Edmund Spenser

  Fire, Envy, Rising

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• I have often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortunes.

  Washington Irving

  Endurance, Fortitude, Fortune

  Washington Irving (2014). “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories”, p.33, Penguin

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• For the most part, we should pray rather in aspiration than petition, rather by hoping than requesting; in which spirit also we may breathe a devout wish for a blessing on others upon occasions when it might be presumptuous to beg it.

  Leigh Hunt

  Prayer, Blessing, Wish

  Leigh Hunt (1853). “The Religion of the Heart: A Manual of Faith and Duty”, p.55

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• Words are often things also, and very precious, especially on the gravest occasions. Without "words," and the truth of things that is in them, what were we?

  Leigh Hunt

  Leigh Hunt (2016). “Leigh Hunt: Selected Writings”, p.178, Routledge

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• Anger and the thirst of revenge are a kind of fever; fighting and lawsuits, bleeding,--at least, an evacuation. The latter occasions a dissipation of money; the former, of those fiery spirits which cause a preternatural fermentation.

  William Shenstone

  Revenge, Anger, Fighting

  William Shenstone, Samuel Johnson, Robert Dodsley (1807). “Essays on men and manners; with aphorisms, criticisms, impromptus, fragments, etc”, p.151

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• The nowadays ruling that no word is unprintable has, I think, done nothing whatever for beautiful letters. ... Obscenity is too valuable a commodity to chuck around all over the place; it should be taken out of the safe on special occasions only.

  Dorothy Parker

  Beautiful, Taken, Thinking

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• Contempt of others is the truest symptom of a base and bad heart,--while it suggests itself to the mean and the vile, and tickles there little fancy on every occasion, it never enters the great and good mind but on the strongest motives; nor is it then a welcome guest,--affording only an uneasy sensation, and bringing always with it a mixture of concern and compassion.

  Henry Fielding

  Heart, Mean, Compassion

  Henry Fielding (1916). “The Works of Henry Fielding”, p.299, Library of Alexandria

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• The raillery which is consistent with good-breeding is a gentle animadversion of some foible, which, while it raises the laugh in the rest of the company, doth not put the person rallied out of countenance, or expose him to shame or contempt. On the contrary, the jest should be so delicate that the object of it should be capable of joining in the mirth it occasions.

  Henry Fielding

  Joining In, Laughing, Mirth

  Henry Fielding, Thomas Roscoe (1851). “The Works of Henry Fielding: Complete in One Volume”, p.643

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• It is with jealousy as with the gout. When such distempers are in the blood, there is never any security against their breaking out, and that often on the slightest occasions, and when least suspected.

  Henry Fielding

  Jealousy, Blood, Gout

  Tom Jones Bk II, Ch. 3

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• In old days the public didn't really mind much about accuracy, but nowadays readers take it upon themselves to write to authors on every possible occasion, pointing out flaws.

  Agatha Christie

  Writing, Mind, Flaws

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• many of the guests will eventually leave the table to watch football on television, which would be a rudeness at any other occasion but is a relief at Thanksgiving and probably the only way to get those people to budge.

  Judith Martin

  Thanksgiving, Football, People

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• My advice to you, if you should ever be in a hold up, is to line up with the cowards and save your bravery for an occasion when it may be of some benefit to you.

  O. Henry

  Bravery, Advice, Coward

  O. Henry (1995). “100 Selected Stories”, p.435, Wordsworth Editions

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• Whenever anything is spoken against you that is not true, do not pass by or despise it because it is false; but forthwith examine yourself, and consider what you have said or done that may administer a just occasion of reproof.

  Plutarch

  Done, May, Despise

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• Euripides was wont to say, silence was an answer to a wise man; but we seem to have greater occasion for it in our dealing with fools and unreasonable persons; for men of breeding and sense will be satisfied with reason and fair words.

  Plutarch

  Wise, Men, Silence

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• If any man think it a small matter, or of mean concernment, to bridle his tongue, he is much mistaken; for it is a point to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.

  Plutarch

  Mean, Men, Thinking

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• If you light upon an impertinent talker, that sticks to you like a bur, to the disappointment of your important occasions, deal freely with him, break off the discourse, and pursue your business.

  Plutarch

  Disappointment, Light, Break Off

  Plutarch, Matthew Morgan (1718). “Plutarch's Morals”, p.64

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• Just as we are often moved to merriment for no other reason than that the occasion calls for seriousness, so we are correspondingly serious when invited too freely to be amused.

  Agnes Repplier

  Laughter, Serious, Reason

  Agnes Repplier (1924). “Under dispute”

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• Just as a person who is always asserting that he is too good-natured is the very one from whom to expect, on some occasion, the coldest and most unconcerned cruelty, so when any group sees itself as the bearer of civilization this very belief will betray it into behaving barbarously at the first opportunity.

  Simone Weil

  Opportunity, Civilization, Firsts

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• Discord occasions a momentary distress to the ear, which remains unsatisfied, and even uneasy, until it hears something better. I am convinced...that provided the ear be at length made amends, there are few dissonances too strong for it. Disharmony, to paraphrase Bergson's statement about disorder, is simply a harmony to which many are unaccustomed.

  John Cage

  Music, Strong, Ears

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• With regard to manner, be careful to speak in a soft, tender, kind and loving way. Even when you have occasion to rebuke, be careful to do it with manifest kindness. The effect will be incalculably better.

  Hosea Ballou

  Kindness, Way, Speak

  "Biography of Rev. Hosea Ballou. By his youngest son, Maturin M. Ballou". Book by Maturin Murray Ballou, 1854.

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• All music, even if its occasion be a gay one, renders us pensive.

  Madame de Stael

  Music, Gay, Pensive

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