Tension Quotes - Page 29

• To be human and to be adult means constantly to be in the grip of opposing emotions, to have daily to reconcile apparently conflicting tensions. I want this, but need that. I cherish this, but I adore its opposite too.

  Stephen Fry

  Mean, Opposites, Adults

  Stephen Fry's BAFTA annual television lecture, www.theguardian.com. June 16, 2010.

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• It's not white versus black any more, it's haves versus have-nots. Unless the black middle-classes unite to promote the interests of the black underclass, tension between them is inevitable. What we, the black middle class have to do, is think of a strategy to avert that.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Thinking, Class, White

  "The biggest brother". Interview with Sean O'Hagan, www.theguardian.com. July 20, 2003.

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• It's very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems.

  Nhat Hanh

  Inspirational, Life, Change

  "Exclusive Interview With Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh". Interview with Marianne Schnall, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 21, 2010.

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• Color is a plastic means of creating intervals... color harmonics produced by special relationships, or tensions. We differentiate now between formal tensions and color tensions, just as we differentiate in music between counterpoint and harmony.

  Hans Hofmann

  Mean, Color, Creating

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• The difference with Cleveland is that the racial tension was not a casual taste of it. It was outlandish.

  Terrence Howard

  Differences, Cleveland, Taste

  "Terrence Dashon Howard: A rising star". Interview with Jason Zingale, www.bullz-eye.com. August 5, 2005.

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• I have realized that I hate going to the premieres of the movies that I'm in. Because I feel this tension after the movie is over that everyone feels obligated to say something nice to you. It's so unnatural and uncomfortable.

  Amanda Seyfried

  Movie, Hate, Nice

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• I've been on sets where things weren't relaxed because someone was creating tension for no reason.

  Kevin Spacey

  Creating, Reason, Relaxed

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• Pessimism and optimism are slammed up against each other in my records, the tension between them is where it's all at, it's what lights the fire.

  Bruce Springsteen

  Fire, Light, Optimism

  "Bruce Springsteen: 'What was done to my country was un-American'". Interview with Fiachra Gibbons, www.theguardian.com. February 17, 2012.

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• Prom has all the elements of a popular story. It reeks of all-Americanness, tension, drama. It has romance. Pretty dresses. Dancing. Limos. High school. Coming of age.

  Adora Svitak

  Drama, School, Dancing

  "Prom: An American Tradition Gone Awry" by Adora Svitak, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 22, 2011.

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• The tension between the essence of spiritual teachings and the harmful fundamentalism that often arises in the name of religion is an issue that has engaged my mind practically as far back as I can remember.

  Radhanath Swami

  Spiritual, Teaching, Essence

  "Becoming Hindu and Finding the Essence of All Spiritual Paths" by Radhanath Swami, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 10, 2011.

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• It might be useful to be able to predict war. But tension does not necessarily lead to war, but often to peace and to denouement.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  War, Doe, Might

  "The new sage of Wall Street" by Edward Helmore, www.theguardian.com. September 27, 2008.

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• I learned very early that an audience would relax and look at things differently if they felt they could laugh with you from time to time. There's an energy that comes through the release of tension that is laughter.

  Twyla Tharp

  Happiness, Art, Laughter

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• What man needs is not just the persistent posing of ultimate questions, but the sense of what is feasible, what is possible, what is correct, here and now. The philosopher, of all people, must, I think, be aware of the tension between what he claims to achieve and the reality in which he finds himself.

  Hans-Georg Gadamer

  Reality, Men, Thinking

  Hans-Georg Gadamer (2013). “Truth and Method”, p.35, A&C Black

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• Leo and Soledad simultaneously gave out a sort of half laugh, half snort. It was loud, and it was relieved, and it broke the tension and caused Pierre to bark again, indignantly. All of which meant that neither of them heard it when Zach turned to Lucy in that same second and whispered: There's something else you need to know. I'm not just your friend. I am completely in love with you.

  Nancy Werlin

  Love You, Laughing, Half

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• It was like certain dinners I remember from the war. There was much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent happening. Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people.

  Ernest Hemingway

  War, Nice, Wine

  Ernest Hemingway (2016). “The Sun Also Rises”, p.74, Hamilton Books

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• It's experiences in life that give us something to write about, and since good fiction is applied tension, you'll have an arsenal of good material if life hasn't been peachy (and not a whole lot if it has).

  Wendelin Van Draanen

  Writing, Giving, Fiction

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• Tension pulled my eyes open when her fingers traced a trail down my neck. Sensation blossomed, and I threw my head back and sucked in the air. Her arm slipped around my waist, catching me before I fell.

  Kim Harrison

  Eye, Air, Arms

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• You picked that out?” Caine asked. “That pink, plastic toy?” I turned to look at him. “I happen to have been a little girl, once upon a time, detective. I know what they like. Every little girl wants to be a princess.” A thoughtful frown overcame the angry tension on Caine’s rugged face. “And what happens when they grow up?” I thought of my mother and sisters and all the horrors that had happened the day they’d died. A bitter laugh escaped from my tight lips. “Then they just want to be little girls again.

  Jennifer Estep

  Girl, Mother, Growing Up

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• The tension of opposites: Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.

  Morrie Schwartz

  Hurt, Tuesdays With Morrie, Opposites

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• I felt like I was some kind of primitive spring-loaded machine, placed under far more tension than it had ever been built to sustain, about to blast apart at great danger to anyone standing nearby. I imagined my body parts flying off my torso in order to escape the volcanic core of unhappiness that had become: me.

  Elizabeth Gilbert

  Spring, Order, Flying

  Elizabeth Gilbert (2010). “The Complete Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Committed; The Last American Man; Stern Men & Pilgrims”, p.22, A&C Black

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• Slowly his resistance ebbed. She felt the change in his body, the relaxing of tension, his shoulders curving around her as if he could draw her into himself. Murmuring her name, he brought her hand to his face and nuzzled ardently into her palm, his lips brushing the warm circlet of her gold wedding band. “My love is upon you,” he whispered…and she knew then that she had won.

  Lisa Kleypas

  Love Is, Hands, Names

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• Well, thanks. It was nice of you to give me anything." The tension between them seemed to press down on her like humid air. "Better than a bath in spaghetti any day." He said darkly, "If you share that little bit of personal information with anyone, I may have to kill you." "Well, when I was five, I wanted my mother to let me go around and around inside the dryer with the clothes," Clary said. "The difference is, she didn't let me." "Probably because going around and around inside a dryer can be fatal," Jace pointed out, "whereas pasta is rarely fatal. Unless Isabelle makes it.

  Cassandra Clare

  Mother, Nice, Differences

  Cassandra Clare (2012). “Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments Series (5 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls”, p.300, Simon and Schuster

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• My inner world seems largely to consist of three rotating emotions: embarrassment, rage, and tension. Sometimes I feel excited, but I think that's just positive tension.

  Carrie Fisher

  Thinking, Three, World

  Carrie Fisher (2011). “Postcards From the Edge”, p.52, Simon and Schuster

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• You put on such a brave front. But I know if I took another step toward you, you'd wet your pants." "With your blood." I brandished my knife. But I couldn't keep a straight face; the boast sounded ridiculous even to my own ears. I snickered. She laughed. The release of tension made me giddy, and soon I was laughing and crying.

  Maria V. Snyder

  Blood, Knives, Laughing

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• Rust, corrosion, wind, rain. The nibbling teeth of mice and the acrid droppings of insects and the devouring jaws of years. The was of nature upon machines, of the planet's chaotic forces upon the works of humankind. The energy that man had pulled from the earth was being inexorably pulled back into it, sucked like water down a drain. Before long, if it hadn't happened already, not a single high-tension pole would be left standing on the earth. Mankind had built a world that would take a hundred years to die. A century for the last light to go out.

  Justin Cronin

  Rain, Men, Light

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