Wince Quotes

• Maybe they notice me wincing whenever I hear them say it, but I don't know: there are all sorts of reasons I could be wincing. Life is a wince-a-thon.

  Frank Portman

  Life Is, Reason, Thon

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• I just think lots of words have physicality. How about the word 'wobble?' You think that's arbitrary? When you say the word 'wince,' you wince. How about that?

  Roy Blount, Jr.

  Thinking, Arbitrary, Physicality

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• The fact is that woman was taken from a rib.

  Pope Francis

  Taken, Ribs, Facts

  "Pope Francis jokes 'woman was from a rib' as he avoids vow to reform church". www.theguardian.com. June 29, 2014.

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• When I read it ["Tough Guys Don't Dance"], I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.

  Norman Mailer

  Book, Writing, Literature

  The New York Times, June 8, 1984.

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• Will you tell me my fault, frankly as to yourself, for I had rather wince, than die. Men do not call the surgeon to commend the bone, but to set it, Sir.

  Emily Dickinson

  Men, Editing, Editors

  Emily Dickinson (1986). “Selected Letters”, p.176, Harvard University Press

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• A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

  Samuel Johnson

  Horse, Pet, Criticism

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 1, p. 263, n. 3 (1754)

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• It is necessary to broaden the opportunities for a stronger presence of women in the church.

  Pope Francis

  Opportunity, Church, Stronger

  Pope Francis (2017). “Happiness in This Life: A Passionate Meditation on Material Existence and the Meaning of Life”, p.80, Pan Macmillan

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• Let the galled jade wince; our withers are unwrung.

  William Shakespeare

  Jade

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 3, sc. 2, l. [255]

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• The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belongs to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.

  Graham Greene

  Happiness, Pain, Identity

  Graham Greene (1951). “The End of the Affair”, London Heinemann [1951]

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• I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  W. E. B. Du Bois (2014). “The Souls of Black Folk: The Oxford W. E. B. Du Bois”, p.80, Oxford University Press

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• For me, anything goes when I pick up a mike. I'm not trying to hurt people - I try not to get too personal - but I look at myself as a reporter. If you can report on anything that has to do with pop culture, then why can't I make jokes about it? Yes, it hurts. But I figure that laughter sometimes starts from pain. You might wince, but then I know that I'm doing my job. The only thing I can do wrong is not be funny.

  Chris Rock

  Hurt, Jobs, Laughter

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• When a society is criticised by outsiders, its members wince but shrug their shoulders. 'What you can expect from strangers?' is the feeling. When the attack comes from within, no such indulgence is shown. 'He was one of us,' runs the refrain.

  Michela Wrong

  Running, Feelings, Ministry

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• I want to apologize for plaguing you with so many telephone calls last November and December. When the 'enthusiasm' is coming on me it is accompanied by a feverish reaching out to my friends. After its over I wince and wither.

  Robert Lowell

  Depression, Bipolar, Want

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• There's a certain edge about cruelty. If you're honest about it, most people wince, but say it had to be said.

  Pete Waterman

  People, Honest, Said

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• Things can be funny when people are uneasy. It softens them up and stops them falling asleep on the sofa. I like those moments where people half-smile and half-wince.

  Mark Haddon

  Fall, People, Half

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• I always wince a little bit when I send me to each of my new books. I wince at submitting myself to my father's judgment. But, of course, he's such a fond father that he always writes back, saying it's the greatest thing ever written.

  Emma Donoghue

  Father, Book, Writing

  "Emma Donoghue's New Novel Follows "The Wonder" Of Starvation". Interview with Scott Simon, www.npr.org. September 17, 2016.

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• There are moments in life when all we can bear is the sense that our friend is near us; our wounds would wince at the touch of consoling words, that would reveal the depths of our pain.

  Honore de Balzac

  Sympathy, Pain, Depth

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• The movies I made when I was 14 or 15, I have a hard time looking at those. Those were the awkward years. I don't know if anybody can look at something they did when they were 14 and not wince.

  Jodie Foster

  Hard Times, Years, Awkward

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• Hugo attacked me." Clary tried not to wince as the astringent liquid stung her wounds. Hugo?" Luke blinked. Hodge's bird. I think it was his bird, anyway. Maybe it was Valentine's." Hugin," Luke said softly. "Hugin and Munin were Valentine's pet birds. Their names mean 'Thought' and 'Memory.'" Well they should mean 'Attack' and 'Kill,'" said Clary. "Hugo almost tore my eyes out.

  Cassandra Clare

  Memories, Valentine, Mean

  Cassandra Clare (2010). “Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series (3 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass”, p.351, Simon and Schuster

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• I need to talk to you. I had a weird dream." "Let me guess. You got tied up by lady ninjas. With big hooters." "Uh, no." I take a sip of coffee and wince. It was ridiculously strong. My grandfather shoves a strip of bacon in his mouth with a grin. "Guess it would have been kind of weird if we'd had the same dream." I roll my eyes. "Well, you'd better not tell me anything else. Don't ruin the surprise in case I have it tonight.

  Holly Black

  Dream, Strong, Coffee

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• He (Jace) glanced down at his bound hands. His wrists and shoulders had gone from aching to hard, stabbing pain, but he didn’t wince as the inquisitor regarded one of the blades, named it Jophiel, and plunged it into the polished wooden floorboards at her feet. He waited, but nothing happened. “Boom,” he said eventually. “Was something supposed to happen there?” ~pg.303~

  Cassandra Clare

  Pain, Hands, Feet

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• Okay, okay.” I set my hand on top of his and guide it to my chest, so it’s right over my heart. “Feel my heartbeat. Can you feel it?” “Yes.” “Feel how steady it is?” “It’s fast.” “Yes, well, that has nothing to do with the box.” I wince as soon as I’m done speaking. I just admitted to something. Hopefully he doesn’t realize that.

  Veronica Roth

  Heart, Hands, Done

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• Where did you go?" "To the end of the driveway," my mother says. "I was nine months pregnant; that was the maximum distance I could waddle without feeling as if my uterus was falling out." I wince. "Do you have to be quite so graphic?" "What would you like me to call it, Zoe? A fetal living room?

  Jodi Picoult

  Mother, Distance, Fall

  Jodi Picoult (2014). “Sing You Home: A Novel”, p.16, Simon and Schuster

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• Everything I said he agreed with, which was trying, and his flute playing would make the deaf wince, but I think the real problem with Hyacinth was that he reminded me of myself. He read poetry. He flinched at loud noises. In addition to having no musical skills, he had no martial skills. He avoided any situation that might require physical effort on his part. Seeing him, I found it no wonder that my father despised me.

  Megan Whalen Turner

  Father, Real, Reflection

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• An increasing number of people who lead mental lives of great intensity, people who are sensitive by nature, notice the steadily more frequent appearance in them of mental states of great strangeness ... a wordless and irrational feeling of ecstasy; or a breath of psychic pain; a sense of being spoken to from afar, from the sky or the sea; an agonizingly developed sense of hearing which can cause one to wince at the murmuring of unseen atoms; an irrational staring into the heart of some closed kingdom suddenly and briefly revealed.

  Knut Hamsun

  Pain, Heart, Sea

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