Ruins Quotes - Page 2

• We may seem competent, but by the end of next century there will be new deserts, new ruins.

  Edward Bond

  Insecurity, Desert, Literature

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• But you can build a future out of anything. A scrap, a flicker. The desire to go forward, slowly, one foot at a time. You can build an airy city out of ruins.

  Lauren Oliver

  Cities, Feet, Desire

  Lauren Oliver (2015). “Delirium Trilogy: Delirium, Pandemonium, Requiem”, p.341, Hachette UK

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• Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

  Franz Kafka

  War, Fate, Hands

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.262, Simon and Schuster

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• Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Mind, Noble

  'His Last Bow' (1917) 'The Dying Detective'.

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• A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Dream, Men, Awake At Night

  Nature ch. 8 (1836).

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• For, to make deserts, God, who rules mankind, Begins with kings, and ends the work by wind.

  Victor Hugo

  Kings, Wind, Desert

  Victor Hugo (1900*). “Works”

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• With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confusion worse confounded.

  John Milton

  Confusion, Confusing, Paradise Lost Book 2

  'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 2, l. 995

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• The rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another . . . But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit — in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.

  Garrett Hardin

  Believe, Men, Animal

  "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science, 13 Dec. 1968

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• Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.

  John Lennon

  Faith, Jesus, Rock And Roll

  Jeff Burger, John Lennon (2017). “Lennon On Lennon: Conversations With John Lennon”, p.15, Omnibus Press

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• A man is a god in ruins.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  God, Art, Philosophy

  Nature ch. 8 (1836).

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• Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Im Sorry, Apology, Positivity

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• There were thirst and hunger, and you were the fruit. There were grief and the ruins, and you were the miracle.

  Pablo Neruda

  Grief, Miracle, Fruit

  Pablo Neruda (2015). “The Poetry of Pablo Neruda”, p.25, Macmillan

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• Something in me will save me from utter ruin no matter what comes.

  Tennessee Williams

  Matter, No Matter What, Save Me

  Tennessee Williams, Margaret Bradham Thornton (2006). “Notebooks”, p.221, Yale University Press

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• What cities, as great as this, have... promised themselves immortality! Posterity can hardly trace the situation of some. The sorrowful traveller wanders over the awful ruins of others... Here stood their citadel, but now grown over with weeds; there their senate-house, but now the haunt of every noxious reptile; temples and theatres stood here, now only an undistinguished heap of ruins.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Weed, Cities, House

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 686-88, The Bee, No, IV. A City Night-Piece, 1922.

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• Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart and causing it to crumble into ruins.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Rain, Fall, Heart

  Gustave Flaubert (2005). “November: Fragments in a Nondescript Style”, Hesperus Press

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• We build our computer (systems) the way we build our cities: over time, without a plan, on top of ruins

  Ellen Ullman

  Cities, Way, Computer

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• Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Love, Literature, Springtime

  Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller (1980). “The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857”, p.83, Harvard University Press

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• Three things ruin a man: power, money, and women. I never wanted power. I never had any money, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now.

  Harry S. Truman

  Men, House, Three Things

  Harry S. Truman, Ralph Keyes (1995). “Wit and wisdom of Harry Truman”, Harpercollins

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• The reason is that nature has so created men that they are able to desire everything but are not able to attain everything: so that the desire being always greater than the acquisition, there results discontent with the possession and little satisfaction to themselves from it. From this arises the changes in their fortunes; for as men desire, some to have more, some in fear of losing their acquisition, there ensues enmity and war, from which results the ruin of that province and the elevation of another.

  Niccolo Machiavelli

  Art, War, Men

  "Discourses on Livy". Book by Niccolo Machiavelli, Book 1, Ch. 37, (as translated by LJ Walker and B Crick, 1517.

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• The chemistry of mind is different from the chemistry of love. The mind is careful, suspicious, he advances little by little. He advises “Be careful, protect yourself” Whereas love says “Let yourself, go!” The mind is strong, never falls down, while love hurts itself, falls into ruins. But isn’t it in ruins that we mostly find the treasures? A broken heart hides so many treasures.

  Shams Tabrizi

  Strong, Hurt, Fall

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• Oh, if I had been loved at the age of seventeen, what an idiot I would be today. Happiness is like smallpox: if you catch it too soon, it can completely ruin your constitution.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Birthday, Age, Today

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• To sleep around is absolutely wrong for a woman; it's degrading and it completely ruins her personality. Sooner or later it will destroy all that is feminine and beautiful and idealistic in her.

  Barbara Cartland

  Beautiful, Women, Sleep

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• When you look at the startling ruins of Nuremberg, you are looking at a result of the war. When you look at the prisoners on view in the courthouse, you are looking at 22 of the causes.

  Janet Flanner

  War, Views, Looks

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes.

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Success, Failure, Heaven

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• We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well. But the only way I can see of doing that is to use them to put up a lot of fine, well-designed buildings.

  Alfred Jarry

  Use, Way, Building

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