Standing Apart Quotes

• Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
  For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
  And stand together yet not too near together:
  For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
  And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

  Khalil Gibran

  Marriage, Wedding, Heart

  Khalil Gibran “Selected Short Works of Khalil Gibran”, Library of Alexandria

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• ...we were like two people standing apart on separate mountain peaks, recklessly leaning forward to throw stones at one another, unaware of the dangerous chasm that separated us.

  Amy Tan

  Mountain Peaks, Two, People

  Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.120, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The writer is a person who is standing apart, like the cheese in 'The Farmer in the Dell' standing there alone but deciding to take a few notes. You’re outside, but you can see things up close through your binoculars. Your job is to present clearly your viewpoint, your line of vision. Your job is to see people as they really are, and to do this, you have to know who you are in the most compassionate possible sense. Then you can recognize others.

  Anne Lamott

  Jobs, People, Vision

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.97, Anchor

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• All too willingly man sees himself as the centre of the universe, as something not belonging to the rest of nature but standing apart as a different and higher being. Many people cling to this error and remain deaf to the wisest command ever given by a sage, the famous "Know thyself" inscribed in the temple of Delphi.

  Konrad Lorenz

  Men, Errors, People

  Konrad Lorenz (2005). “On Aggression”, p.99, Routledge

  116 Copy quote

  Show source

• The tension between standing apart, and being fully involved; that is what makes a writer.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Tension, Standing, Involved

  Nadine Gordimer (1983). “Selected Stories”, Viking Press

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• If a principle exists it must be immutable, for that is what a principle is - a truth standing apart from the mood of the times.

  Jeff Cooper

  Principles, Mood, Ifs

  Jeff Cooper (2006). “Principles of Personal Defense: Revised Edition”, p.8, Paladin Press

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The question we must ask ourselves as a culture is whether we want to embrace the change that must come, or resist it. Are we so attached to the dietary fallacies with which we were raised, so afraid to counter the arbitrary laws of eating taught to us in childhood by our misinformed parents, that we cannot alter the course they set us on, even if it leads to our own ruin? Does the prospect of standing apart or encounttering ridicule scare us even from saving ourselves?

  Howard Lyman

  Law, Childhood, Parent

  "Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat". Book by Howard Lyman and Glen Merzer, 1998.

  54 Copy quote

  Show source

• An historian should yield himself to his subject, become immersed in the place and period of his choice, standing apart from it now and then for a fresh view.

  Samuel Eliot Morison

  Yield, Views, History

  Samuel Eliot Morison (1964). “Vistas of history”, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Suddenly he saw himself as others in the crowd must surely see him; a silent, solitary figure, standing apart from the rest. He looked out at the hoardes of singing, laughing people and felt more alone than he'd ever felt in his life. Was this how it was going to be then? Was this who he was? A man apart from his fellows, making the journey through life alone?

  Mary Lawson

  Journey, Men, People

  4 Copy quote

• I believe - I know (there are not many things I should care to dogmatize about, on the subject of writing) that writers need solitude, and seek alienation of a kind every day of their working lives. (And remember, they are not even aware when and when not they are working.) ... The tension between standing apart and being fully involved; that is what makes a writer.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Believe, Writing, Solitude

  Nadine Gordimer (1983). “Selected Stories”, Viking Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source