Tricks Quotes - Page 25

• He was not my boyfriend. On the other hand, he wasn't just a friend either. Instead, our relationship was elastic, stretching between those two extremes depending on who else was around, how much either of us had to drink, and other varying factors. This was exactly what I wanted, as commitments had never really been my thing. And it wasn't like it was hard, either. The only trick was never giving more than you were willing to lose.

  Sarah Dessen

  Commitment, Hands, Two

  "Lock and Key". Book by Sarah Dessen, 2008.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• I also remembered that you were beautiful." "Memory does play tricks on us." "No. Your face is the same, but I don't remember what beautiful means anymore.

  Orson Scott Card

  Beautiful, Memories, Mean

  Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.178, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A short story is the ultimate close-up magic trick -- a couple of thousand words to take you around the universe or break your heart.

  Neil Gaiman

  Couple, Heart, Magic

  8 Copy quote

• For a moment she turned in a circle, staring at her hands, which she held high and useless, close to her breast. She bobbed and shambled like an ape doing a trick, and her face was the silly, bewildered face of a joker's victim. And yet she could make no move that was not beautiful. Her trapped terror was more lovely than any joy that Molly had ever seen, and that was the most terrible thing about it.

  Peter S. Beagle

  Beautiful, Silly, Moving

  Peter S. Beagle (2003). “A fine and private place: The last unicorn”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'd never been a tall guy, and the girls I'd dated had all been my height--teenaged girls grow faster than guys, which is a cruel trick of nature.

  Cory Doctorow

  Girl, Guy, Height

  Cory Doctorow (2010). “Little Brother”, p.188, Macmillan

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• She had one of those charming faces which, according to the angle from which you see them, look either melancholy or impertinent. Her eyes were grey; her trick of narrowing them made her seem to reflect, the greater part of the time, in the dusk of her second thoughts. With that mood, that touch of arriere pensee, went an uncertain, speaking set of lips.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Eye, Looks, Faces

  8 Copy quote

• I have written it before and am not ashamed to write it again. Without Wodehouse I am not sure that I would be a tenth of what I am today -- whatever that may be. In my teenage years, his writings awoke me to the possibilities of language. His rhythms, tropes, tricks and mannerisms are deep within me. But more than that, he taught me something about good nature. It is enough to be benign, to be gentle, to be funny, to be kind.

  Stephen Fry

  Teenage, Writing, Years

  15 Copy quote

• Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question "What on earth is he up to now?" will intrude. It lays one's devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, "I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.

  C. S. Lewis

  Dog, Mean, Men

  C.S. Lewis (1996). “Joyful Christian”, p.81, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I believe the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God. I was into habit.

  Donald Miller

  Christian, Religious, Believe

  Donald Miller (2012). “Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality”, p.13, Thomas Nelson Inc

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The plot is so tired that even this reviewer, who in infancy was let drop by a nurse with the result that she has ever since been mystified by amateur coin tricks, was able to guess the identity of the murderer from the middle of the book.

  Dorothy Parker

  Book, Tired, Nurse

  Dorothy Parker (1970). “A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by "Constant Reader"”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Anyway, how are you and Ramona doing?' Uh... you know. Pretty good.' Have you said the L-Word yet?' The L-Word? You mean? Lesbian?' Uh... No. The other L-Word.' ?' Okay. Uh, It's "love." I wasn't trying to trick you or anything.

  Bryan Lee O'Malley

  Mean, Trying, Said

  4 Copy quote

• ... It's perfect! Locke would appreciate it." "Bug," Calo said, "Locke is our brother and our love for him knows no bounds. But the four most fatal words in the Therin language are 'Locke would appreciate it.'" "Rivalled only by 'Locke taught me a new trick,'" added Galo. "The only person who gets away with Locke Lamora games ..." "... is Locke ..." "... because we think the gods are saving him up for a really big death. Something with knives and hot irons ..." "... and fifty thousand cheering spectators.

  Scott Lynch

  Brother, Cheer, Thinking

  9 Copy quote

• Advice,' Doña Vorchenza chuckled. 'Advice. The years play a sort of alchemical trick, transmuting one's mutterings to a state of respectability. Give advice at forty and you're a nag. Give it at seventy and you're a sage.

  Scott Lynch

  Years, Play, Giving

  Scott Lynch (2015). “The Gentleman Bastard Series 3-Book Bundle: The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves”, p.414, Del Rey

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If I saw something once that I can't explain, that doesn't make them real. And if a trick of the dark gave me a chill, that doesn't make them real. And if a madman says what's at the core of us all is a senseless, flapping quiver of black shade, that's just one more reason not to believe.

  Charlie Huston

  Real, Believe, Dark

  Charlie Huston (2009). “My Dead Body: A Novel”, p.45, Del Rey

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a way, watching an attractive, potentially dangerous guy play guitar is a little like watching a tiger agree to do tricks for his trainer. You know that they could just turn and kill you. But you're so flattered and pleased that instead they agreed to stand on a decorative box and wave and count for the crowd that for a while you forget how big the scary part of them really is.

  Merrill Markoe

  Guitar, Play, Guy

  4 Copy quote

• It was like that. Sometimes I'd go for a period—days or weeks—without feeling the full sweep of my loss, and then as unexpected as a thunderclap, the realization would rip the protective coating from my senses. Maybe that's the way it is with trick knees and aging griefs. Totally pain free one moment and absorbingly painful the next.

  Bette Greene

  Pain, Rip, Grief

  Bette Greene (1988). “Morning is a long time coming”, Starfire

  45 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tally sighed, tipping her feet again to follow. "Maybe that's because they have better stuff to do than kid tricks. Maybe partying in town is better than hanging out in a bunch of old ruins." Shay's eyes flashed. "Or maybe when they do the operation-when they grind and stretch your bones to the right shape, peel off your face and rub all your skin away, and stick in plastic cheekbones so you look like everyone else-maybe after going through all that you just aren't very interesting anymore.

  Scott Westerfeld

  Party, Kids, Eye

  6 Copy quote

• It was no mean trick doing the wiring with those mittens on. But I managed it and crawled out, batting spiders into the shadows. I could hear a thud as they hit the floor joists, then a scuttling sound, then, worst of all, the silence of spiders.

  Bailey White

  Mean, Silence, Shadow

  Bailey White (2009). “Mama Makes Up Her Mind: And Other Dangers of Southern Living”, p.18, Da Capo Press

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Do you think it makes people nasty to be loved? You know it doesn’t! Then why should it make them nice to be loathed? While you’re being persecuted, you hate what’s happening to you, you hate the people who are making it happen; you’re in a world of hate. Why, you wouldn’t recognize love if you met it! You’d suspect love! You’d think there was something behind it—some motive—some trick.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Hate, Nice, Love You

  Christopher Isherwood (2012). “A Single Man”, p.54, Random House

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• How to get rid of ego as dictator and turn it into messenger and servant and scout, to be in your service, is the trick.

  Joseph Campbell

  Inspirational, Ego, Messengers

  Joseph Campbell, Phil Cousineau, Stuart L. Brown (1990). “The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work”, p.226, New World Library

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• There was something stubborn in me that didn't want to lose weight to attract a man. If the right man came along, he'd be able to see my virtues magically. Once he kissed me, the frog would turn into a prince. I had become a trick question, a heavy disguise, but behind the disobliging exterior was the welcoming child I would always be. Of course, what I'd forgotten was that he was not Parsifal and I was not the Grail; the medievalism of my imagination was not sufficiently up-to-date to recognize that the lover was a shopper and I a product.

  Edmund White

  Children, Men, Imagination

  7 Copy quote

• Self-consciousness, that's what it is. Always my abiding vice. I keep seeing myself. Me watching myself watching others watch me. How do you lose that? What's the trick?

  Stephen Fry

  Self, Vices, Abiding

  7 Copy quote

• It has sunk him, I cannot say how much it has sunk him in my opinion. So unlike what a man should be!-None of that upright integrity, that strict adherence to truth and principle, that distain of trick and littleness, which a man should display in every transaction of his life.

  Jane Austen

  Integrity, Men, Principles

  Jane Austen (2016). “Emma”, p.386, Re-Image Publishing

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I remember the time an older man asked me when I was young, "Do you know what you are doing now?" I thought it was some kind of trick question. Tell me," I said. You are building your memories," he replied, "so make them good ones.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Memories, Men, Kind

  FaceBook post by Ravi Zacharias from Oct 24, 2015

  60 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy.

  Joseph Pulitzer

  Dodge, Vices, Doe

  c.1910 Quoted in Alleyne Ireland An Adventure with a Genius, ch.4.

  84 Copy quote

  Show source