Sturdy Quotes - Page 3

• Oh, I never meant, in my old age, to become subject to the thrall of a love like this; it is almost dreadful, so absorbing, so stirring down to the deeps. For the tiny creature is so old and wise and sweet, and so fascinating in his sturdy common sense and clear intelligence; and his affection for me is a wonderful, exquisite thing, the sweetest flower that has bloomed for me in all my life through.

  Celia Thaxter

  Wise, Sweet, Flower

  Celia Thaxter (1896). “Letters of Celia Thaxter”

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• Of all trees, I observe God hath chosen the vine, a low plant that creeps upon the helpful wall; of all beasts, the soft and patient lamb; of all fowls, the mild and guileless dove. Christ is the rose of the field, and the lily of the valley. When God appeared to Moses, it was not in the lofty cedar nor the sturdy oak nor the spreading palm; but in a bush, a humble, slender, abject shrub; as if He would, by these elections, check the conceited arrogance of man.

  Owen Feltham

  Wall, Humble, Humility

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, 1895.

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• The human heart was such a complex organ, fragile and sturdy all at once.

  Susan Wiggs

  Heart, Organs, Humans

  Susan Wiggs (2008). “Just Breathe”, p.467, MIRA

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• Philosophy is a proud, sullen detector of the poverty and misery of man. It may turn him from the world with a proud, sturdy contempt; but it cannot come forward and say, here are rest, grace, pardon, peace, strength, and consolation.

  Richard Cecil

  Philosophy, Men, Grace

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• These are the hands whose sturdy labor brings The peasant's food, the golden pomp of kings; This is the page whose letters shall be seen, Changed by the sun to words of living green; This is the scholar whose immortal penSpells the first lesson hunger taught to men; These are the lines that heaven-commanded Toil Shows on his deed, - the charter of the soil!

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

  Life, Kings, Men

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• I became frustrated with myself for not being as sturdy and unquestioning as I knew a man in my position should be.

  Tullian Tchividjian

  Men, Frustrated, Should

  Source: www.lifeisstory.com

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• A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school,preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days and feels no shame in not "studying a profession," for he does not postpone his life, but lives already.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Team, Fall, School

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.129, Penguin

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• An authentic and genuine life grows like a sturdy tree. And like a tree, it grows slowly. Every time you make a different and better decision, it grows a little. Every time you choose to do the right thing, even when nobody would find out otherwise, it grows a little. Every time you act with compassion, relinquish your right to strike back, take a courageous stand, admit fault or accept responsibility, it grows a little.

  Steve Goodier

  Responsibility, Compassion, Decision

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• A cold and searching wind drives away all contagion, and nothing can withstand it but what has a virtue in it, and accordingly, whatever we meet with in cold and bleak places, as the tops of mountains, we respect for a sort of sturdy innocence, a Puritan toughness. All things beside seem to be called in for shelter, and what stays out must be part of the original frame of the universe, and of such valor as God himself.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Winter, Wind, Mountain

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1007, Delphi Classics

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• The first time someone I loved left me behind...I didn't know how my family would balance. We had been such a sturdy little end table, four solid legs. I was sure we would now be off-kilter, always unstable. Until one day I looked more closely, and realized that we had simply become a stool.

  Jodi Picoult

  Balance, One Day, Legs

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• Although its growth may seem to have been slow, it is to be remembered that it is not a shrub, or plant, to shoot up in the summerand wither in the frosts. The Red Cross is a part of us--it has come to stay--and like the sturdy oak, its spreading branches shall yet encompass and shelter the relief of the nation.

  Clara Barton

  Growth, Relief, Frost

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• I work within the framework of a very concerted, purely driven Protestant Christian mindset. I had dark early circumstances. I went inward. I have a sturdy will. I have a big heart. I'm a decent guy. And I have a great gift. It's blunted me to the world in many ways.

  James Ellroy

  Christian, Heart, Dark

  Interview by Chris Wallace, www.interviewmagazine.com. September 9, 2014.

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• Love is a tender plant; when properly nourished, it becomes sturdy and enduring, but neglected it will soon wither and die.

  Hugh B. Brown

  Love Is, Plant, Endure

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• We admire Chaucer for his sturdy English wit.... But though it is full of good sense and humanity, it is not transcendent poetry.For picturesque description of persons it is, perhaps, without a parallel in English poetry; yet it is essentially humorous, as the loftiest genius never is.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Humorous, Humanity, Genius

  Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.462, Modern Library

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• unless I can shake myself free of my dog, my flag,
  of my desk, my mind, I find life a bit of a drag.
  Not always, mind you. Usually I'm like my frying pan
  useful, graceful, sturdy and with no caper, no plan.

  Anne Sexton

  Dog, Boredom, Mind

  Anne Sexton, Diane Wood Middlebrook, Diana Hume George (2000). “Selected Poems of Anne Sexton”, p.263, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• These commonplace categories - wife, mother, housewife, teacher - are in fact teleological referents. They gesture to profound states of being that animate, absorb and saturate the subject, like indelible dyes spilled repeatedly over a plain fabric. No matter if the fabric is sturdy or delicate, translucent or opaque, those dyes will stain. They will color the days and years and life.

  Shirley Geok-lin Lim

  Mother, Teacher, Color

  "Walking with Her Muse: An Interview with Shirley Geok-lin Lim". Contemporary Women's Writing, Volume 8, Issue 2, 1 July 2014, Pages 123 - 135, academic.oup.com. June 22, 2013.

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• I don't think public life in and of itself can destroy you. I think it's the way people react to it, and some people are more sturdy than others... I don't think any one faction can be blamed for a person's self destruction - a certain amount of that has to be innate.

  Patti Smith

  Thinking, Self, People

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• If we want to understand the actions of a man in the early 1860's, put yourself back there in his shoes. As a young man he began piloting steamboats on the Mississippi, a job he loved and wanted to do the rest of his life, he said. The Civil War ended traffic on the River and his job. He wrote about it in A History of A Campaign That Failed. He said: "I joined the Confederacy, served for two weeks, deserted, and the Confederacy fell." His attachment to the Southern ideal of slavery does not appear very sturdy.

  Hal Holbrook

  Jobs, War, Men

  "Hal Holbrook of MARK TWAIN TONIGHT, Coming to Riverside's Fox Performing Arts Center". Interview with Audrey Liebross, www.broadwayworld.com. January 12, 2015.

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• No man can do both effective and decent work in public life unless he is a practical politician on the one hand, and a sturdy believer in Sunday-school politics on the other. He must always strive manfully for the best, and yet, like Abraham Lincoln, must often resign himself to accept the best possible.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  School, Sunday, Men

  Theodore Roosevelt (1967). “Writings”

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• Behavior runs in deep channels that were cut during early childhood, and it is very difficult to alter them. In order to change a deeply ingrained pattern, you have to build a sturdy dam, dig another canal and reroute the river in the new direction. That effort is rarely successful over the long haul.

  James Dobson

  Running, Cutting, Successful

  James C. Dobson (1995). “Life on the Edge”, W Publishing Group

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• The cross of Christ is the all-sufficient ground for the salvation of sinners. It claims to be sturdy enough to support the whole weight of our guilt all by itself. Therefore, to boast in the cross properly at all is to boast in the cross alone.

  Philip Graham Ryken

  Support, Guilt, Weight

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• We are in a very strange way going back to the mentality of the time when Americans went in covered wagons. I imagine they had a piece of cloth, and the piece of furniture they carried with them meant to be a good piece of wood, and sturdy. We're going back to that.

  Emilio Pucci

  Pieces, Woods, Way

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• How strange and abandoned and unsettled I am. Like a snowdome paper weight that's been shaken. There's a blizzard in my bubble. Everything in my world that was steady and sure and sturdy has been shaken out of place, and it's now drifting and swirling back down in a confetti of debris. (p30)

  Craig Silvey

  World, Paper, Weight

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• Body have to physically strong and sturdy. Spiritually balanced fi clean and purge me. Mentally advanced fi always urge me. Read a couple books and challenge the clergy. Read a couple psalms up in the morning early.

  Damian Marley

  Strong, Morning, Couple

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• We need a barn or one of those storage areas for the Broken vehicles." "A garage?" He gave her a short nod. "A private, relatively remote location, with thick walls to dampen the sound and preferably a sturdy door I could bolt from the inside, keeping your grandmother, your brothers, and all other painfully annoying spectators out..." Rose began to laugh. A make-out bunker... "I'm glad you find our dilemma hilarious.

  Ilona Andrews

  Brother, Wall, Grandmother

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