Quicksand Quotes - Page 3

• I think I'm still just as conflicted about the war as I always was. On the one hand, I was a soldier carrying out his duty, following his allegiance to his country and to the mission at hand. But yet, there was always this unease plaguing me. "What are we doing here?" "Are we really fixing this country or are we doing more harm than good?" And the most pressing question: "How do we pull ourselves out of this quicksand?" I think I'm still there in that white space you mentioned, trying to get clarity for myself on what this war did to us as a nation.

  Dave Abrams

  Country, War, Thinking

  Source: therumpus.net

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Kevin [Drew] beat me to the punch because when he first sent "Sister OK" and I'm listening to it, it took me to a place that I had not been to in a long time. It took me to a place when you're a teenager. I understand it all now, but in a moment of confusion, in a moment of trying to find some kind of solid ground in an environment that was quicksand in my life, it's that first line just kills me all the time: "Well it's just that your sister said you'd be OK."

  Andy Kim

  Teenager, Long, Confusion

  Source: www.popmatters.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Capitalism now seems more likely a swamp, a bog, a quicksand in which humanity is presently flailing about, unable to extricate itself, perhaps doomed to perish within a few generations from the long term effects of the technology which seemed to Marx its greatest gift to humanity.

  Allen W. Wood

  Technology, Long, Humanity

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• And so I began to read,' Sorkar said. 'And at first the complete works were like a jungle, the language was quicksand. Metaphors turned beneath my feet and became biting snakes, similes fled from my grasp like frightened deer, taking all meaning with them. All was alien, and amidst the hanging, entangling creepers of this foreign grammar, all sound became a cacophany. I feared for myself, for my health and sanity, but then I thought of my purpose, of where I was and who I was, of pain and I pressed on.

  Vikram Chandra

  Pain, Snakes, Feet

  Vikram Chandra (2011). “Red Earth and Pouring Rain”, p.277, Faber & Faber

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Generally the impulse to find justice through punitive measures can be a kind of quicksand. What James Whitman, the scholar I cite in the chapter of my book, talks about as an urge to level down, I think you see that everywhere. We're going to be a punitive society, so we might as well level out that punitiveness. Bankers and college swim stars and everyone face that same kind of wrath.

  Chris Hayes

  Book, College, Thinking

  Source: www.macleans.ca

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think about some of the novels I love - The Stranger, Disgrace, Quicksand and Passing, Giovanni's Room, The Talented Mr. Ripley. I think I'm more intrigued by characters who don't do the right thing and where we are allowed to identify with their shame/dishonesty/envy... whatever.

  Danzy Senna

  Character, Thinking, Envy

  Source: therumpus.net

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Lord is near! You're not alone. You may feel alone. You may think you're alone. But there's never a moment in which you face life without help. God is near. God repeatedly pledges his proverbial presence to his people. Don't assume God is watching from a distance. Avoid the quicksand that bears the marker "God has left you!" Don't indulge this lie. If you do, your problem will be amplified by a sense of loneliness. It's one thing to face a challenge, but to face it all alone? Isolation creates a downward cycle of fret.

  Max Lucado

  Distance, Loneliness, Lying

  Source: www.biblegateway.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The genius of poetry must work out its own salvation in a man; it cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation and watchfulness in itself. That which is creative must create itself - In Endymion, I leaped headlong into the sea, and thereby have become better acquainted with the soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable sdvice.

  John Keats

  Silly, Men, Sea

  Letter to James Hessey, October 9, 1818.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Shyness is a curious thing, because, like quicksand, it can strike people at any time, and also, like quicksand, it usually makes its victims look down.

  Daniel Handler

  People, Musician, Novelists

  6 Copy quote

• You should climb around inside my brain, Dan. It's like this dark room surrounded by quicksand." "I know what you mean," her brother said quietly. "I hate being in my brain sometimes. I have to get out." "What do you do?" Amy asked. Dan shrugged "I go to other places. My toes. My shoulders. But mostly here." He tapped his chest and immediately reddened. "I know. It's stupid." "Not really," Amy said. "I wish I could do that, too.

  Peter Lerangis

  Brother, Stupid, Hate

  4 Copy quote

• I testify to you today that turning away from God brings broken covenants, shattered dreams, and crushed hopes. Such a quagmire of quicksand I plead with you to avoid. You are of a noble birthright. Eternal life in the kingdom of our Father is your goal.

  Thomas S. Monson

  Dream, Father, Broken

  5 Copy quote

• Beauty is a dangerous word. Beauty becomes slightly indulgent for me. It's a snatched kind of moment for me because I'm entitled to a nice day in my life but beauty creeps close to narcissism, which I really dislike, particularly in human beings who were born with good looks, who cash in on it. It's a bit of a dodgy word for me. I look at it with caution. It can be a bit like walking into quicksand; it can get you in to all kinds of trouble.

  Don McCullin

  Nice, Narcissism, Kind

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• ...I leaped headlong into the Sea, and thereby have become more acquainted with the Soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable advice.

  John Keats

  Silly, Rocks, Sea

  Letter to James Hessey, 8 October 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) 'The Letters of John Keats' (1958) vol. 1, p. 374

  32 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is not a single loophole or curveball or open trench to fall into for the man or woman who walks the path that Christ walks. When He says, "Come, Follow Me" (Luke 18:22), He means that He knows where the quicksand is and where the thorns are and the best way to handle the slippery slope near the summit of our personal mountains. He knows it all, and He knows the way. He is the way.

  Jeffrey R. Holland

  Fall, Mean, Men

  46 Copy quote

• In the godforsaken, obscene quicksand of life, there is a deafening alleluia rising from the souls of those who weep, and of those who weep with those who weep. If you watch, you will see The hand of God putting the stars back in their skies one by one.

  Ann Weems

  Death, Stars, Prayer

  Ann Weems (1999). “Psalms of Lament”, p.22, Westminster John Knox Press

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity—and until they do (and find the cure), all ideal plans will fall into quicksand.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Real, Philosophical, Fall

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.279, Princeton University Press

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• Most autumns, the water is low from the long dry summer, and you have to get out from time to time and wade, leading or dragging your boat through trickling shallows from one pool to the long channel-twisted pool below, hanging up occasionally on shuddering bars of quicksand, making six or eight miles in a day's lazy work, but if you go to the river at all, you tend not to mind. You are not in a hurry there; you learned long since not to be.

  John Graves

  Summer, Autumn, Rivers

  John Graves (1960). “Goodbye to a river: a narrative”, Alfred a Knopf Inc

  44 Copy quote

  Show source