Retrospect Quotes - Page 6

Yet Irina had once tucked away, she wasn't sure when or why, that happiness is almost definitionally a condition of which you are not aware at the time. To inhabit your own contentment is to be wholly present, with no orbiting satellite to take clinical readings of the state of the planet. Conventionally, you grow conscious of happiness at the very point that it begins to elude you. When not misused to talk yourself into something - when not a lie - the h-word is a classification applied in retrospect. It is a bracketing assessment, a label only decisively pasted onto an era once it is over.

Lionel Shriver

Lying, Reading, Elude You

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I know you have not thought about it. Italians always act without thinking, it's the glory and the downfall of your civilisation. A German plans a month in advance what his bowel movements will be at Easter, and the British plan everything in retrospect, so it always looks as though everything occurred as they intended. The French plan everything whilst appearing to be having a party, and the Spanish...well, God knows. Anyway, Pelagia is Greek, that's my point.

Louis de Bernieres

Easter, Party, Thinking

Louis de Bernieres (2012). “Corelli's Mandolin: A Novel”, p.412, Vintage

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The act of sending a letter is an act of generosity, even if, in retrospect, it might seem reckless. Why regret one's generosity? Why regret one's impulsiveness, one's misjudgment of others? The inevitable discovery that someone is selling letters you'd written in trust is simply to discover an obvious human truth: there are those who don't cherish us as we'd cherished them, and had wished to be cherished by them.

Joyce Carol Oates

Regret, Discovery, Generosity

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You’re the one who unleashed him. (Savitar) Yeah, well, let’s move on from the blame game. I was having suicidal thoughts and it seemed like a good idea at the time. In retrospect, not so much. (Stryker)

Sherrilyn Kenyon

Moving, Suicidal, Games

Sherrilyn Kenyon (2011). “One Silent Night”, p.75, Hachette UK

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In retrospect Hank I don't know why I spent four years writing this book when I could have just made a hit sing-a-ma-jig album.

John Green

Book, Writing, Years

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When I was a teenager I felt like we were always being stereotyped as being really intense and dramatic and passionate and hopelessly romantic and excitable, now in retrospect I think I need to let you know those things are amazing. I hope you never lose those things.

Taylor Swift

Teenager, Thinking, Needs

"Teen Choice Awards 2011: Taylor Swift Nabs Ultimate Choice Award" by Sophie Schillaci, www.hollywoodreporter.com. July 08, 2011.

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...stupidity is one of the two things we see most clearly in retrospect. The other is missed chances.

Stephen King

Two, Stupidity, Chance

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Seen in retrospect, evolution as a whole doubtless had a general direction, from simple to complex, from dependence on to relative independence of the environment, to greater and greater autonomy of individuals, greater and greater development of sense organs and nervous systems conveying and processing information about the state of the organism's surroundings, and finally greater and greater consciousness. You can call this direction progress or by some other name.

Theodosius Dobzhansky

Simple, Names, Independence

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No thoughtful man ever came to the end of his life, and had time and a little space of calm from which to look back upon it, who did not know and acknowledge that it was what he had done unselfishly and for others, and nothing else, that satisfied him in the retrospect, and made him feel that he had played the man.

Woodrow Wilson

Love, Thoughtful, Men

Woodrow Wilson (1915). “When a man comes to himself”, p.12, Рипол Классик

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In retrospect, the Millennium marked only a moment in time. It was the events of September 11 that marked a turning point in history, where we confront the dangers of the future and assess the choices facing humankind.

Tony Blair

Choices, September 11, Events

Address at the Labour Party Conference, delivered 2 October 2001

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My mother would never let me in the kitchen. I always wanted to cook, but I was never allowed to. Her view of the world was, "Cooking is my job, and studying is your job." I think, in retrospect, she didn't like the chaos. She was very orderly. It had to be her way.

Ina Garten

Mother, Jobs, Thinking

"Thanksgiving With Ina Garten". Interview with Rosemary Ellis, www.goodhousekeeping.com. October 11, 2011.

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I mourn my old life here. We barely scraped by, but I knew where I fit in, I knew what my place was in the tightly interwoven fabric that was our life. I wish I could go back to it because, in retrospect, it seems so secure compared to now, when I am so rich and famous and so hated by the authorities in the capitol.

Suzanne Collins

Wish, Fabric, Fit

Suzanne Collins (2011). “The Hunger Games Trilogy”, p.494, Scholastic Inc.

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When seen in retrospect, fashions seem to express their era. Although it is more difficult to draw conclusions from contemporary clothes, the same principles which hold for the clothes of the past must hold for clothes of the present and the future.

James Laver

Fashion, Past, Clothes

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When you have committed an action that you cannot bear to think about, that causes you to writhe in retrospect, do not seek to evade the memory: make yourself relive it, confront it repeatedly over and over, till finally, you will discover, through sheer repetition it loses its power to pain you. It works, I guarantee you, this sure-fire guilt-eradicator, like a homeopathic medicine - like in small doses applied to like. It works, but I am not sure that it is a good thing.

Mary McCarthy

Pain, Memories, Thinking

"How I Grew". Book by Mary McCarthy, 1987.

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A graceful and blessed old age must have three elements in it: a happy retrospect, a peaceful present, and an inspiring future. And old age cannot have either one of these three if the youth has been wasted and manhood has been misspent.

Lyman Abbott

Blessed, Peaceful, Age

Ernest Hamlin Abbott, Lyman Abbott, Francis Rufus Bellamy, Hamilton Wright Mabie (1898). “The Outlook”

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Freedom... refer[s] to a social relationship among people-namely, the absence of force as a prospective instrument of decision making. Freedom is reduced whenever a decision is made under threat of force, whether or not force actually materializes or is evident in retrospect.

Thomas Sowell

Freedom, People, Decision

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Meanwhile, as we read, two little girls slept as if couched on zephyrs on the south side of the parlor floor, in a room that had bunny wallpaper...and a bookcase crammed with the collected Beatrix Potter. Snow White was in a youth bed and Rose Red was in a crib, and next to them was the little blue and white guest room that one of them would have one day. Because I recognize emotions only in retrospect, I didn't know that I was happy. As always, there was something nagging at my mind's corners. But I did know that I had all that it is proper in this world to wish for.

Mary Cantwell

Happiness, Girl, Blue

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Self-righteousness in retrospect is easy--also cheap.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Self, Easy, Righteousness

"What would Andrew Jackson think of Donald Trump?" by Chris Cillizza, edition.cnn.com. May 2, 2017.

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So this is why I write. Because most times, your life isn’t funny the first time through. Most times, you can hardly stand it. That’s why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. And writing makes you look back. Because since you can’t control life, at least you can control your version.

Chuck Palahniuk

Writing, Looks, Firsts

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I'll not deny I am impressed by your mastery of six warrens, Quick Ben. In retrospect, you should have held back on at least half of what you command." The man made to rise. "But, Bauchelain," the wizard replied, "I did.

Steven Erikson

Men, Should Have, Mastery

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In retrospect, golf for me was an apparent attempt to emulate the person I looked up to more than anyone: my father. He was instrumental in helping me develop the drive to achieve, but his role, as well as my mother's, was one of support and guidance, not interference.

Tiger Woods

Mother, Father, Golf

"Training a Tiger: A Father's Guide to Raising a Winner in Both Golf and Life". Book by Earl Woods, Pete McDaniel, www.sfgate.com. April 3, 1997.

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How ungenerously in later life we disclaim the virtuous moods of our youth, living in retrospect long, summer days of unreflecting dissipation.

Evelyn Waugh

Summer, Long, Youth

Evelyn Waugh (2012). “Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder”, p.64, Penguin UK

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In retrospect, I think a lot of '80s fashion shoots are the ones that look the most modern. The fitness-based ones that are really minimal. It's clean, healthy, t-shirt, beach hair... it's athleisure.

Christy Turlington

Fashion, Beach, Thinking

Source: www.elle.com

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It was in D.C., and I couldn't believe how they were just three guys, but they sounded like six guys. It was amazing. I got spoiled, because that was my first concert. I wish in retrospect I had seen someone like Air Supply, and then my expectations could keep rising. Nothing against Air Supply. "I'm All Out Of Love" is still a classic.

Rich Fulcher

Believe, Love Is, Air

Source: www.avclub.com

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People steal into one's consciousness and occupy what seems, in retrospect, to have been their place all along.

Paula Fox

People, Consciousness, Stealing

Paula Fox (2011). “The God of Nightmares”, p.79, W. W. Norton & Company

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