Washing Quotes - Page 4

• Talk—half-talk, phrases that had no need to be finished, abstractions, Chinese bells played on with cotton-tipped sticks, mock orange blossoms painted on porcelain. The muffled, close, half-talk of soft-fleshed women. The men she had embraced, and the women, all washing against the resonance of my memory. Sound within sound, scene within scene, woman within woman—like acid revealing an invisible script. One woman within another eternally, in a far-reaching procession, shattering my mind into fragments, into quarter tones which no orchestral baton can ever make whole again.

  Anais Nin

  Memories, Men, Orange

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• Suddenly I realize that this is what I've been waiting for - a man who depends entirely on me... I dreamed for years of a man who couldn't live without me, a man who pictured my face when he closed his eyes, who loved me when I was a mess in the morning and when dinner was late and even when I overloaded the washing machine and burned out the motor. [My son] stares up at me as if I can do no wrong. I have always wanted someone who treats me the way he does; I just didn't know that I'd have to give birth to him.

  Jodi Picoult

  Morning, Eye, Son

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• Dad took moving pictures of us children washing dishes, so that he could figure out how we could reduce our motions and thus hurry through the task. Irregular jobs, such as painting the back porch or removing a stump from the front lawn, were awarded on a low-bid basis. Each child who wanted extra pocket money submitted a sealed bid saying what he would do the job for. The lowest bidder got the contract.

  Frank B. Gilbreth Jr.

  Jobs, Children, Dad

  FRANK B. GILBRETH JR. (1948). “CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN”

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• Watching a dog try to chew a large piece of toffee is a pastime fit for gods. Mr. Fusspot's mixed ancestry had given him a dexterity of jaw that was truly awesome. He somersaulted happily around the floor, making faces like a rubber gargoyle in a washing machine.

  Terry Pratchett

  Dog, Trying, Faces

  Terry Pratchett (2008). “Making Money: (Discworld Novel 36)”, p.141, Random House

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• I don't want to see anyone. I lie in the bedroom with the curtains drawn and nothingness washing over me like a sluggish wave. Whatever is happening to me is my own fault. I have done something wrong, something so huge I can't even see it, something that's drowning me. I am inadequate and stupid, without worth. I might as well be dead.

  Margaret Atwood

  Depression, Lying, Stupid

  Margaret Atwood (1988). “Cat's eye”, Doubleday, 1989

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• And watch two men washing clothes, one makes dry clothes wet. The other makes wet clothes dry. they seem to be thwarting each other, but their work is a perfect harmony. Every holy person seems to have a different doctrine and practice, but there's really only one work.

  Rumi

  Men, Practice, Two

  Rumi (2015). “Selected Poems”, p.128, Penguin UK

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• Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.

  Paulo Freire

  Peace, Honesty, Powerful

  Paulo Freire (1985). “The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation”, p.122, Greenwood Publishing Group

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• I had a really nice childhood; I had great parents. I earned my allowance by washing dishes, and in the summer I earned my allowance by working in daddy's garden.

  Nikki Giovanni

  Summer, Nice, Garden

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• He reached up t0 grab one and came down with several, and they kept coming, washing over him, floating all around him. Never have tampon strings seemed so beautiful as they rolled up and down with the wind, landing on the ground and then twirling and floating up again, falling and rising and falling and rising.

  John Green

  Beautiful, Fall, Wind

  John Green (2008). “An Abundance of Katherines”, p.178, Penguin

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• Everything gets horrible. Everything you see gets ugly. Lurid is the word. Doctor Garton said lurid, one time. That's the right word for it. And everything sounds harsh, spiny and harsh sounding, like every sound you hear all of a sudden has teeth. And smelling like I smell bad even after I just got out of the shower. It's like what's the point of washing if everything smells like I need another shower

  David Foster Wallace

  Smell, Doctors, Ugly

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• THE DEATH OF LEOPOLD GURSKY Leopold Gursky started dying on August 18, 1920. He died learning to walk. He died standing at the blackboard. And once, also, carrying a heavy tray. He died practicing a new way to sign his name. Opening a window. Washing his genitals in the bath. He died alone, because he was too embarrassed to phone anyone. Or he died thinking about Alma. Or when he chose not to.

  Nicole Krauss

  Thinking, Names, Phones

  Nicole Krauss (2006). “The History of Love: A Novel”, p.255, W. W. Norton & Company

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• I believe it is customary to get one's washing over first in baths and bask afterwards; personally, I bask first. I have discovered that the first few minutes are the best and not to be wasted-- my brain always seethes with ideas and life suddenly looks much better than did.

  Dodie Smith

  Believe, Ideas, Brain

  Dodie Smith (2017). “I Capture the Castle: Young Adult Edition”, p.56, St. Martin's Griffin

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• My father had put these things on the table. I looked at him standing by the sink. He was washing his hands, splashing water on his face. My mamma left us. My brother, too. And now my feckless, reckless uncle had as well. My pa stayed, though. My pa always stayed. I looked at him. And saw the sweat stains on his shirt. And his big, scarred hands. And his dirty, weary face. I remembered how, lying in my bed a few nights before, I had looked forward to showing him my uncle's money. To telling him I was leaving. And I was so ashamed.

  Jennifer Donnelly

  Brother, Uncles, Father

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• What is an adventure? That depends on where you are starting from. Little girls in your country, they hide in the gap between the washing machine and the refrigerator and they make believe they are in the jungle, with green snakes and monkeys all around them. Me and my sister, we used to hide in a gap in the jungle, with green snakes and monkeys all around us, and make believe that we had a washing machine and a refrigerator. You live in a world of machines and you dream off things with beating hearts. We dream of machines, because we see where beating hearts have left us.

  Chris Cleave

  Girl, Dream, Country

  Chris Cleave (2010). “Little Bee: A Novel”, p.211, Simon and Schuster

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• ..As always, she was carrying the washing. Rudy was carrying two buckets of cold water, or as he put it, two buckets of future ice.

  Markus Zusak

  Ice, Two, Water

  Markus Zusak (2013). “The Book Thief: Enhanced Movie Tie-in Edition”, p.164, RH Childrens Books

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• It's a vicious cycle. It's like a washing machine with the lid jammed down. -Christina Kratovac (pg 53)

  Jaclyn Moriarty

  Machines, Vicious, Cycles

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• If I wasn't writing poems I'd be washing my hands all the time.

  Sherman Alexie

  Writing, Hands, Ifs

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• Yes, we are [friends] and I do like to pass the day with you in serious and inconsequential chatter. I wouldn't mind washing up beside you, dusting beside you, reading the back half of the paper while you read the front. We are friends and I would miss you, do miss you and think of you very often. I don't want to lose this happy space where I have found someone who is smart and easy and doesn't bother to check their diary when we arrange to meet.

  Jeanette Winterson

  Friendship, Smart, Reading

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• Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine.

  Whoopi Goldberg

  Bullying, Fun, Normal

  "Whoopi Goldberg in full flight". Interview with Cole Morton, www.theguardian.com. April 17, 2009.

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• Buying phosphate-free soap allows you to say, 'My detergent doesn't have the harsh chemicals others do.' The question is, how are you washing with it? The very worst thing for the Earth about detergent is that we heat water to use it.

  Daniel Goleman

  Water, Use, Earth

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• Ah, Father! That’s words and only words! Forgive! If he’d not been run over, he’d have come home today drunk and his only shirt dirty and in rags and he’d have fallen asleep like a log, and I should have been sousing and rinsing till daybreak, washing his rags and the children’s and then drying them by the window and as soon as it was daylight I should have been darning them. What’s the use of talking forgiveness! I have forgiven as it is!

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Running, Children, Father

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (1999). “Crime and Punishment”, p.303, Modern Library

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• I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings on stone are worn down by water.

  Amy Tan

  Love, Pain, Years

  Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.67, Penguin

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• My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in our family is dead.

  Shirley Jackson

  Dog, Hands, Years

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• 

  Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Inspirational, Trust, Spiritual

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• I'm going to be a happy housewife. I'm going to be washing boxers and cooking and doing all those sorts of housewife duties. I just want to be happy and proud of every single day.

  Johnny Weir

  Cooking, Want, Proud

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