Thorns Quotes - Page 6

• The bird with the thorn in its breast, it follows an immutable law; it is driven by it knows not what to impale itself, and die singing. At the very instant the thorn enters there is no awareness in it of the dying to come; it simply sings and sings until there is not the life left to utter another note. But we, when we put the thorns in our breasts, we know. We understand. And still we do it. Still we do it.

  Colleen McCullough

  Law, Bird, Singing

  Colleen McCullough (2013). “The Thorn Birds”, p.610, Head of Zeus

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• If a painting of a tree was only the exact representation of the original, so that it looked just like the tree, there would be no reason for making it; we might as well look at the tree itself. But the painting, if it is of the right sort, gives something that neither a photograph nor a view of the tree conveys. It emphasizes something of character, quality, individuality. We are not lost in looking at thorns and defects; we catch a vision of the grandeur and beauty of a king of the forest.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Kings, Character, Views

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• In using the strong hand, as now compelled to do, the government has a difficult duty to perform. At the very best, it will by turns do both too little and too much. It can properly have no motive of revenge, no purpose to punish merely for punishment's sake. While we must, by all available means, prevent the overthrow of the government, we should avoid planting and cultivating too many thorns in the bosom of society.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Strong, Revenge, Mean

  Abraham Lincoln (1922). “Abraham Lincoln; Complete Works, Comprising His Speeches, Letters, State Papers, and Miscellaneous Writings”

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• Upon my weary heart was showered smiles, plaudits and flowers, but beyond them I saw troubles and thorns innumerable.

  Jefferson Davis

  Flower, Heart, Saws

  Jefferson Davis, Hudson Strode (1966). “Private Letters, 1823-1889”, New York : Harcourt, Brace & World

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• Are you not moved to tears and bitter compassion, when you behold the only Son of God seized by the most impious, dragged away, mocked, scourged, buffeted, spit upon, crowned with thorns, hung upon the infamous cross between two thieves, finally in such a horrible and execrable manner suffering death, for your salvation and that of the world?

  Peter Abelard

  Son, Compassion, Two

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• We have not faith, we have not patience to see this. We trust the man in the street; but there is one being in the universe we never trust and that is God. We trust Him when He works just our way. But the time will come when, getting blow after blow, the self - sufficient mind will die. In everything we do, the serpent ego is rising up. We are glad that there are so many thorns on the path. They strike the hood of the cobra.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Patience, Perseverance, Blow

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2644, Manonmani Publishers

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• ... continual hard labor deadens the energies of the soul, and benumbs the faculties of the mind; the ideas become confined, the mind barren, and, like the scorching sands of Arabia, produces nothing; or, like the uncultivated soil, brings forth thorns and thistles. Again, continual hard labor irritates our tempers and sours our dispositions; the whole system become worn out with toil and fatigue; nature herself becomes almost exhausted, and we care but little whether we live or die.

  Maria W. Stewart

  Ideas, Soul, Mind

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• The strong hands of God twisted the crown of thorns into a crown of glory; and in such hands we are safe.

  Charles Williams

  Strong, Hands, Crowns

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• Remember that every guilty compliance with the humors of the world, every sinful indulgence of our own passions, is laying up cares and fears for the hour of darkness; and that the remembrance of ill-spent time will strew our sick-bed with thorns, and rack our sinking spirits with despair.

  Reginald Heber

  Passion, Sick, Remembrance

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 547), 1895.

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• Reign of blows cascading down upon your shoulders Far too many men dressed up as soldiers The lamb is brought to the ground Under the weight of the Crown A crown of thorns and dark deeds The swastika and the hammer and sickle Are symbols that reap only weeds

  Andy Partridge

  Weed, Dark, Men

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• I plucked a honeysuckle where The hedge on high is quick with thorn, And climbing for the prize, was torn, And fouled my feet in quag-water; And by the thorns and by the wind The blossom that I took was thinn'd, And yet I found it sweet and fair.

  Dante Gabriel Rossetti

  Sweet, Climbing, Wind

  Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Clive Wilmer (2014). “Selected Poems”, p.91, Routledge

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• My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns;Love is the fire and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals;The metal in this furnace wrought are men's defiled souls.

  Robert Southwell

  Blow, Love Is, Men

  Robert Southwell (1856). “Poetical Works”, p.98

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• Life is a pilgrimage and if you don't play by the rules you don't find the Road to Damascus, you find the Crown of Thorns.

  Anita Brookner

  Life, Play, Crowns

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• O ye dead Poets, who are living still Immortal in your verse, though life be fled, And ye, O living Poets, who are dead Though ye are living, if neglect can kill, Tell me if in the darkest hours of ill, With drops of anguish falling fast and red From the sharp crown of thorns upon your head, Ye were not glad your errand to fulfill?

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Fall, Crowns, Errands

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2012). “Favorite Poems”, p.100, Courier Corporation

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• ... the death of the spirit which threatens every man unless he is conscious of the danger and has a real purpose which can keep it alive and enable it to thrust its way through the choking weeds and thorns to the air and to the sun

  Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper

  Inspirational, Weed, Real

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• I have seen one shrike occupy himself for hours in sticking up on thorns, a number of small fishes that the fishermen had thrown on the shore. The fishes dried up and decayed.

  John Bachman

  Numbers, Hours, Fisherman

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• Ah me! we wound where we never intended to strike; we create anger where we never meant harm; and these thoughts are the thorns in our cushion. - William Makepeace Thackeray

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Harm, Strikes, Cushions

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1872). “The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray”, p.40

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• Focus on the roses: 'A person who gathers honey will not escape being stung by bees. A person who gathers roses will not escape being scratched by thorns.' The positive things in life also have negative aspects. Keep your focus on the beautiful roses of the world, and the thorns will seem trivial and inconsequential.

  Zelig Pliskin

  Beautiful, Gratitude, Things In Life

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• No traveler e'er reached that blest abode who found not thorns and briers in his road.

  William Cowper

  Acceptance, Found, Abode

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• Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man.

  Teresa of Avila

  Men, Mind, Rich

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• The secret of improved plant breeding, apart from scientific knowledge, is love. While I was conducting experiments to make spineless cacti, I often talked to the plants. . . . "You have nothing to fear," I would tell them. "You don't need your defensive thorns. I will protect you." Gradually the useful plant of the desert emerged in a thornless variety.

  Luther Burbank

  Love, Secret, Needs

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• How are you to meet the swarm of foolish attachments, triflings, and undesirable inclinations which beset you? By turning sharply away, and thoroughly renouncing such vanities, flying to the Saviour's Cross, and clasping His Crown of thorns to your heart, so that these little foxes may not spoil your vines. Beware of entering into any manner of treaty with the Enemy; do not delude yourself by listening to him while intending to reject him.

  Saint Francis de Sales

  Heart, Vanity, Attachment

  Saint Francis de Sales, Catholic Way Publishing (2015). “The Saint Francis de Sales Collection [16 Books]”, p.249, Catholic Way Publishing

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• Sovereign of beauty, like the spray she grows;Compass'd she is with thorns and canker'd bower.Yet, were she willing to be pluck'd and worn,She would be gather'd, though she grew on thorn.

  Robert Greene

  Sovereign, Would Be, Compass

  Robert Greene, “Fawnia”

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• There were two saints in the desert, who had sewed thorns into all their clothes; and we seek for nothing but comfort!

  John Vianney

  Attachment, Two, Clothes

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• Hope is like a harebell, trembling from its birth,Love is like a rose, the joy of all the earth,Faith is like a lily, lifted high and white,Love is like a lovely rose, the world's delight.Harebells and sweet lilies show a thornless growth,But the rose with all its thorns excels them both.

  Christina Rossetti

  Sweet, Love Is, White

  Christina Rossetti (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Christina Rossetti (Illustrated)”, p.303, Delphi Classics

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