Reprieve Quotes

• We've traveled too far, and our momentum has taken over; we move idly towards eternity, without possibility of reprieve or hope of explanation.

  Tom Stoppard

  Time, Moving, Taken

  Tom Stoppard (1991). “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead”, Grove/Atlantic

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• We are all under sentence of death, but with a sort of indefinite reprieve.

  Victor Hugo

  Sentences

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• A man sentenced to death obtained a reprieve by assuring the king he would teach his majesty's horse to fly within the year - on the condition that if he didn't succeed, he would be put to death at the end of the year. "Within a year," the man explained later, "the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die. Furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to fly." My philosophy is like that man's. I take the long-range view.

  Bernard Baruch

  Horse, Kings, Philosophy

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• Consciousness is our only reprieve from Time.

  Mason Cooley

  Literature, Consciousness

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• Do not be misled by the fact that you are at liberty and relatively free; that for the moment you are not under lock and key: you have simply been granted a reprieve.

  Ryszard Kapuscinski

  Keys, Liberty, Locks

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• One thing evangelicals want is a reprieve from intolerance against their beliefs, values, and practices.

  Ronald H. Nash

  Christian, Religious, Practice

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• In his state of complete powerlessness the individual perceives the time he has left to live as a brief reprieve.

  Theodor Adorno

  Individual, States, Perceive

  Theodor W. Adorno (1978). “Minima Moralia”, p.165, Verso

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• She is all I could ever ask for, she is perfect, and right now, with those big, green eyes and pillowy lips and alabaster thighs, the idea of doing this for the rest of our lives doesn’t seem all that daunting. She’s the last reprieve. The stay of execution. She gives me hope. But times are tough for dreamers. And even if my dream is a simple one—all I want is for Her to be in love with me forever—I know it’s still a long shot. Life ruins everything.

  Pete Wentz

  Dream, Eye, Simple

  Pete Wentz, James Montgomery (2013). “Gray”, p.32, Simon and Schuster

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• What we need in fantasy is the sudden balm of clarity - a temporary reprieve from life's white noise and clamor of pain, a kind of time-out. Such clarity, a new perspective, is made possible by fantastic metaphor.

  Vera Nazarian

  Pain, White, Perspective

  Source: fantasyworlds.wordpress.com

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• Because without such a reprieve we cannot pause and regroup and with the newfound strength go on to initiate that very change which is sorely needed by all.

  Vera Nazarian

  Goes On, Needed, Initiate

  Source: fantasyworlds.wordpress.com

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• In psychiatry there is a certain condition known as delusion of reprieve. The condemned man, immediately before his execution, gets the illusion that he might be reprieved at the very last minute. No one could yet grasp the fact that everything would be taken away. all we possessed, literally, was our naked existence.

  Viktor E. Frankl

  Taken, Men, Execution

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• Alzheimer's disease locks all the doors and exits. There is no reprieve, no escape.

  Patti Davis

  Alzheimer's, Doors, Locks

  Patti Davis (2004). “The Long Goodbye”, Knopf

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• For myself the delay [in assuming the office of the President] may be compared with a reprieve; for in confidence I assure you, with the world it would obtain little credit that my movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution: so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an Ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities and inclination which is necessary to manage the helm.

  George Washington

  Ocean, Government, Skills

  Comment to General Henry Knox on the delay in assuming office, March 1789.

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• When you commit your life to something and it doesn't work out, it is a tough place to be. Suicide can be the spiritual reprieve of a faithless person. I knew I could always just end it, and there was solace in that.

  Marc Maron

  Suicide, Spiritual, Work Out

  "Q&A: Marc Maron on the Decline of Conversation, TV Stardom, Oligarchs, Self-Doubt & Cats". Interview with Eric Spitznagel, www.esquire.com. May 2, 2013.

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• I don't accept defeat as final. Only death is final - and even then I hope for a reprieve.

  Phil Gramm

  Finals, Defeat, Accepting

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• For the way loneliness is worse when you return to it after a reprieve—like the soul’s version of putting on a wet bathing suit, clammy and miserable.

  Laini Taylor

  Loneliness, Soul, Way

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• I had been living with dialysis for three years or so, and the new kidney felt like a reprieve, a new gift of life. I felt alive again and I guess that has had an effect on my use of colour.

  Peter Wright

  Life, Years, Three

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• Love, the deadliest of all things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don't. But that isn't it, exactly. The condemner and the condemned. The executioner; the blade; the last-minute reprieve; the gasping breath and the rolling sky above you and the thank you, thank you, thank you God. Love: It will kill you and save you, both.

  Lauren Oliver

  Sky, Thank You God, Lasts

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• The Lord said that He was giving us a new president who is better than we deserve. He represents a reprieve from a New World Order that the Church is not prepared to face at this time.

  Paul Cain

  Order, Giving, Church

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• Probably my eating disorder [is the hardest obstacle]. It ruled my life for years, and I didn't know how I could live with it forever, but I didn't know how I could live without it. It was a struggle to recover from, and it's only a daily reprieve, but as long as I stay spiritually centered, I don't veer off track or
  get tempted.

  Ashley Rickards

  Struggle, Years, Long

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• I get to work with incredibly talented young filmmakers and students, and their attitudes and relationship with film is still so pure. That re-inspires me and reminds me why I got into it and what I love about film, and allows me a little reprieve from the business side of it. And it rekindles my love of film.

  James Franco

  Attitude, Inspire, Littles

  "Can't Stop, Won't Stop: James Franco and Pamela Romanowsky on Drugs, S&M, and The Adderall Diaries". Interview with Emily Zemler, www.esquire.com. April 13, 2016.

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• I wish I could leave you certain of the images in my mind, because they are so beautiful that I hate to think they will be extinguished when I am. Well, but again, this life has its own mortal loveliness. And memory is not strictly mortal in its nature, either. It is a strange thing, after all, to be able to return to a moment, when it can hardly be said to have any reality at all, even in its passing. A moment is such a slight thing. I mean, that its abiding is a most gracious reprieve.

  Marilynne Robinson

  Beautiful, Memories, Hate

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• Blackthorne, beside the gates, was still turmoiled by his boundless joy at her reprieve and he remembered how his own will had been stretched that night of his near-seppuku, when he had had to get up as a man and walk home as a man unsupported, and became samurai. And he watched her, despising the need for this courage, yet understanding it, even honoring it.

  James Clavell

  Home, Night, Men

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• A letter is a barrier, a reprieve, a charm against the world, an almost infallible method of acting at a distance.

  Iris Murdoch

  Distance, Acting, World

  Iris Murdoch (2003). “The Black Prince”, p.65, Penguin

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• Many of us understand giving, but some of us may still be confused about the meaning of forgiveness. Some people may go through life in a groveling mode, mistakenly believing they have to receive forgiveness from others. Forgiveness offers more than a reprieve granted to us by another person. True forgiveness is a process of giving up the false for the true and allows us to rid our thinking of rigid ideas. We can develop the flexibility to change our mind and our behavior patterns to higher and greater expressions and find new avenues to freedom.

  John Templeton

  Giving Up, Confused, Believe

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