Whittling Quotes

• It's about whittling. It's about taking something and whittling and whittling and getting it sharp and perfect. Then you've got something.

  James Victore

  Perfect, Design

  55 Copy quote

• I've got a lot of cutting and pasting to do, gentlemen, so why don't you please return to your porch rockers and resume whittling.

  Albert Rosenfeld

  Cutting, Gentleman, Return

  "Fictional character: Albert Rosenfeld". "Twin Peaks". Season 1, Episode 4, April 26, 1990.

  54 Copy quote

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• I've always known that the best part of writing occurs before you've picked up a pen. When a story exists only in your mind, its potential is infinite; it's only when you start pinning words to paper that it becomes less than perfect. You have to make your choices, set your limits. Start whittling away at the cosmos, and don't stop until you've narrowed it down to a single, ordinary speck of dirt. And in the end, what you've made is not nearly as glorious as what you've thrown away.

  Carolyn Parkhurst

  Writing, Perfect, Choices

  8 Copy quote

• Yes, take a little time to play And look at life the other way. God rested when the world was made: Rest now, old friend; be not afraid. But think not that your work is over, That you are now a foot-free rover, A rambler upon idle ways, Whittling away the golden days. For in the road climb to the goal There's no long furlough for a soul. There's no long pause: on every height Another summit swims in sight. The long road rises, scene by scene, With little restings in between.

  Edwin Markham

  Thinking, Sight, Golden Days

  11 Copy quote

• The only guarantee of the Bill of Rights which continues to have any force and effect is the one prohibiting quartering troops on citizens in time of peace. All the rest have been disposed of by judicial interpretation and legislative whittling.

  H. L. Mencken

  Rights, Bills, Troops

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.254, Knopf

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• A great deal of what is being published by writers in the religious tradition is a scandal and is actually turning people away from the church. The liberal writers who are continually accommodating and whittling down the truth of the Gospel are responsible.

  C. S. Lewis

  Religious, People, Church

  Source: www.teachingbooks.net

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• Trying to find the story within the story was hard. Filmmaking is such a reductive process in a strange way and you keep whittling away to what is essential.

  Mark Ruffalo

  Trying, Stories, Way

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Hillary's trying to appear downhome. Earlier today she was sitting on the front porch of a general store whittling a pantsuit.

  David Letterman

  Trying, Today, Sitting

  4 Copy quote

• Men can't be trusted with pruning shears any more than they can be trusted with the grocery money in a delicatessen . . . They are like boys with new pocket knives who will not stop whittling.

  Phyllis McGinley

  Boys, Men, Knives

  6 Copy quote

• I'm one of those guys where you know, I'm 23 years into this and I love the road more than ever and rather than whittling down my schedule to just play the major cities, I've actually expanded the amount of places that I go to because I want to see a bunch of stuff. You know, plan it as I can while I'm still young enough to travel.

  Bill Burr

  Years, Play, Cities

  "Interview with comedian Bill Burr". Interview with Riley Coven, www.smudailycampus.com. September 17, 2015.

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• The market has a simple way of whittling all excessive pride and overblown egos down to size. After all, the whole idea is to be completely objective and recognize what the marketplace is telling you, rather than try to prove that the thing you said or did yesterday or six weeks ago was right. The fastest way to take a bath in the stock market or go broke is to try to prove that you are right and the market is wrong.

  William O'Neil

  Pride, Simple, Ideas

  57 Copy quote

• I didn't want to do eight seasons of How To Build A Fire. The intention was to make something fun and dynamic and about self rescue, not about whittling.

  Bear Grylls

  Fun, Fire, Eight

  "​I Went Camping With Bear Grylls, And Survived". Interview with Wes Siler, gizmodo.com. November 20, 2014.

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• In the old days, a TV sync was perceived as not so cool or whittling away at your indie cred. Now it's seen as much more of an opportunity than a sellout, as a way to find fans who wouldn't have ordinarily come across their genre of music.

  Alexandra Patsavas

  Opportunity, Fans, Way

  4 Copy quote

• The preaching of the faith has lost nothing of its relevance in our times. The Church has a sacred duty to proclaim it without any whittling-down, just as Christ revealed it, and no consideration of time or circumstance can lessen the strictness of this obligation.

  Pope Pius XII

  Church, Sacred, Christ

  53 Copy quote

• Why should we girls not have the same privileges as men? Why do we police ourselves so stringently- whittling each other down with cutting remarks or holding ourselves back from greatness with a harness woven of fear and shame and longing? If we do not deem ourselves worthy first, how shall we ever ask for more?

  Libba Bray

  Girl, Cutting, Greatness

  Libba Bray (2015). “The Gemma Doyle Trilogy”, p.1487, Delacorte Press

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• Increasing pressure on students to subject themselves to ever more tests, whittling themselves down to rows and rows of tight black integers upon a transcript, all ready to goose-step straight into a computer.

  Leah Hager Cohen

  Black, Tests, Pressure

  Leah Hager Cohen (2003). “Heart, You Bully, You Punk”, Viking Press

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