Tinsel Quotes - Page 2

• Oho, now I know what you are. You are an advocate of Useful Knowledge.... Well, allow me to introduce myself to you as an advocate of Ornamental Knowledge. You like the mind to be a neat machine, equipped to work efficiently, if narrowly, and with no extra bits or useless parts. I like the mind to be a dustbin of scraps of brilliant fabric, odd gems, worthless but fascinating curiosities, tinsel, quaint bits of carving, and a reasonable amount of healthy dirt. Shake the machine and it goes out of order; shake the dustbin and it adjusts itself beautifully to its new position.

  Robertson Davies

  Knowledge, Order, Healthy

  Robertson Davies (1952). “Tempest-tost”, Clarke Irwin

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• She's not my type,' Carter says. 'So what is your type?' 'Tall, skinny, black hair, blue eyes, freckly nose. Blue tinsel wig and snowflakes optional.' 'Skinny?' I squeal. 'Definitely. Pretending to be shy, sensible and stand-offish when really you're mad about me.' 'You sure about that?' 'No, but I'm hoping.

  Cathy Cassidy

  Eye, Hair, Blue

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• Unfortunately, the headlights of the car were bright enough for them to see Mae's outfit quite clearly. "Oh my God," said Nick, and shut his eyes. Jamie gave a small, nervous laugh. "What?" Mae demanded. "Alan told us that we were supposed to dress as we truly are!" "And you felt that what you truly are is a Christmas tree with too much tinsel." Nick grinned. "Huh.

  Sarah Rees Brennan

  Eye, Laughing, Car

  Sarah Rees Brennan (2009). “The Demon's Lexicon”, p.83, Simon and Schuster

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• In our worship of certainty we must distinguish between the sound certainty and the sham, between what is gold and what is tinsel; and then, when certainty is attained, we must remember that it is not the only good; that we can buy it at too high a price; that there is danger in perpetual quiescence as well as in perpetual motion; and that a compromise must be found in a principle of growth.

  Benjamin Cardozo

  Growth, Gold, Sound

  "The Growth of the Law". Book by Benjamin N. Cardozo, 1924.

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• If you choose the liberty and pride and strength of the single soul, and the free fraternization of men, as the purpose which your life is to make manifest then do not sell it for tinsel. Think that your soul is strong and will hold its way; and slowly, through bitter struggle perhaps the strength will grow.

  Voltairine de Cleyre

  Strong, Struggle, Pride

  Voltairine de Cleyre (2012). “Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine de Cleyre -- Anarchist, Feminist, Genius”, p.122, SUNY Press

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• Silent night, holy
  night, when the bough flies from the tree
  and is hung everywhere, when
  from tables the crusts fly,
  when the gifts begin to tremble
  because lovelessness walks through the world,
  because it snarls at you, barks at you from the snow,
  and the silver ribbons rip and the tinsel rustles silvery,
  and the silver and gold, and a golden word
  come to you on which you choke
  because you have been sold and betrayed,
  and because it does not suffice that for you
  one is redeemed who once died.

  Ingeborg Bachmann

  Rip, Night, Snow

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• Time, which runs through the world like an endless tinsel thread, seemed to pass through the centre of this room and through the centre of these people and suddenly to pause and petrify, stiff, still and glittering... and the objects in the room drew a little closer together.

  Robert Musil

  Running, People, Together

  Robert Musil, Eithne Wilkins, Ernst Kaiser (1986). “Five Women”, p.124, David R. Godine Publisher

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• Life would be no better than candlelight tinsel and daylight rubbish if our spirits were not touched by what has been.

  George Eliot

  Past, Daylight, Rubbish

  George Eliot (1873). “Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life”, p.186

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• I knew that I would speak in the language of the vanquished No more durable than old customs, family rituals, Christmas tinsel, and once a year the hilarity of carols.

  Czeslaw Milosz

  Years, Hilarity, Language

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• Go out of the house to see the moon, and 't is mere tinsel; it will not please as when its light shines upon your necessary journey. The beauty that shimmers in the yellow afternoons of October, who could ever clutch it? Go forth to find it, and it is gone: 't is only a mirage as you look from the windows of diligence.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Beauty, Knowledge, Moon

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.38, Penguin

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• An Englishman, Irishman and Scotsman were invited to a Christmas party. The Englishman brought a bag of tinsel, the Scotsman brought a bag of holly and they asked the Irishman: "What have you brought?" He said: "I brought a pair of knickers." They asked: "What has that got to do with Christmas?" He said "They're Carol's."

  Frank Carson

  Funny, Party, Humor

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• You couldn't make yourself stop feeling a certain way, no matter what the other person did. You had to just wait. Eventually the feeling went away because others came along. Or sometimes it didn't go away but got squeezed into something tiny, and hung like a piece of tinsel in the back of your mind.

  Elizabeth Strout

  Life, Waiting, Feelings

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• I believe the message in the hymn "Rise Up, O Men of God" (Hymns, no. 324) is a plea, a call, a divine invitation for us to rise above the telestial tinsel of our time; to deny ourselves of ungodliness and clothe ourselves in the mantle of holiness; to reach and stretch and grasp for that spiritual direction and sacred empowerment promised to the Lord's agents, to those charged to act in the name of our Principal, Jesus Christ; and to point the way to salvation and deliverance and peace in a world that finds itself enshrouded in darkness, a world that yearns for spiritual leadership.

  Robert L. Millet

  Spiritual, Jesus, Believe

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• Go out of the house to see the moon, and't is mere tinsel; it will not please as when its light shines upon your necessary journey.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Moon, Journey, Light

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.39, Harvard University Press

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• someone had tried to warn me of the kind of catastrophe that is likely to occur when you involve yourself too closely in one of those destinies that is ringed around by the transient tinsel of human applause.

  Mary Deasy

  Destiny, Kind, Fame

  Mary Deasy (1955). “The Boy who Made Good”

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