A Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“A discursive student is almost certain to fall into bad company. Ten minutes with a French novel or a German rationalist have sent a reader away with a fever for life.”
Source: Pleasures of Literature
“A discussion becomes destructive when it begins to generate more heat than light.”
“A discussion between Haldane and a friend began to take a predictable turn. The friend said with a sigh, 'It's no use going on. I know what you will say next, and I know what you will do next.' The distinguished scientist promptly sat down on the floor, turned two back somersaults, and returned to his seat. 'There,' he said with a smile. 'That's to prove that you're not always right.'”
“A discussion of the pie in movies would hardly be complete without mention of the classic comic device of custard-pie throwing, now legitimized and made semi-serious as the subversive political act of 'entarting'. 'Entarting' is delivering (by 'lovingly pushing', not throwing) a cream pie into the face of a deserving celebrity, preferably in full view of the world's media, in order to make a point.”
Source: Pie: A Global History
“A discussion should be a genuine attempt to explore a subject rather than a battle between competing egos.”
Source: How To Have A Beautiful Mind
“A disease is farther on the road to being cured when it breaks forth from concealment and manifests its power.”
“A disease is never a mere loss or excess. There is always a reaction on the part of the organism or individual to restore, replace or compensate for and to preserve its identity, however strange the means may be.”
Source: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: Picador Classic
“A disease is not a fate; it is merely a medical condition.”
Source: A Life of a Breast Cancer Patient
“A disease of the mind, [whose] germ is the idea that one may learn that which is valuable, or in any way acquire virtue, by the process of being shown things.”
“A disease that has never been seen before cannot be cured with every-day herbs.”
Source: Arrow of God
“A disease which new and obscure to you, Doctor, will be known only after death; and even then not without an autopsy will you examine it with exacting pains. But rare are those among the extremely busy clinicians who are willing or capable of doing this correctly.”
“A disease-free body, quiver-free breath, stress-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, obsession-free memory, ego that includes all, and soul which is free from sorrow is the birthright of every human being.”
“A disgraced wont attack on you when sees you have power and strength, will attack you when find out you are weak.”
“A dish around which I see too many people doesn't tempt me.”
“A dishonest gain of riches is easily spent lost and gone and never given into savings for interest of profits”
“A dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest.”
“A dishonest tongue stores truth in the heart. It's the reason why true colors are shown in moments of anger.”
“A dishonest yes is a no to yourself.”
“A dishwasher has a spinning blade inside, and that's like an internal helicopter of cleanliness. Next time, try hygiene and flying, which is to almost attain the status of The Duck.”
Source: Music is fluid, and my saxophone overflows when my ducks slosh in the sounds I make in elevators.
“A disk unbeknownst to the director can go to the producer in another city or in another office and that producer can edit behind the director's back much easier than in the old days. Since these dailies are now put on videotape, more kinds of people have access to dailies.”
“A disloyal friend is no friend.”
“A disobedient soul will win no victory, even if the Lord Jesus himself, in person, were to hear its confession.”
“A disorder is not a disorder if everything is in order.”
“A disordered currency is one of the greatest political evils.”
Source: Mr. Webster's Speeches in the Senate Upon the Question of Renewing the Charter of the Bank of the United States
“A disordered currency is one of the greatest political evils. It undermines the virtues necessary for the support of the social system, and encourages propensities destructive to its happiness. It wars against industry, frugality, and economy, and it fosters the evil spirits of extravagance and speculation.”
Source: Speeches in the convention to amend the constitution of Massachusetts ; Speeches in Congress
“A disorderly mob is no more an army than a heap of building materials is a house”
“A disorderly patient makes the physician cruel.”
“A disorganized workspace means disorganized work habits. A sloppy work environment equals sloppy results.”
Source: It's Called Work for a Reason!: Your Success is Your Own Damn Fault
“A disorienting change pleases no one yet it builds self made heroes.”
“A dispassionate white sun shone at the summit of the sky. I wanted to hone myself on it till I grew saintly and thin and essential as the blade of a knife.”
Source: the bell jar
“A display cake read JUNETEENTH! in red frosting, surrounded by red, white, and blue stars and fireworks. A flyer taped to the counter above it encouraged patrons to consider ordering a Juneteenth cake early: We all know about the Fourth of July! the flyer said. But why not start celebrating freedom a few weeks early and observe the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation! Say it with cake! One of the two young women behind the bakery counter was Black, but I could guess the bakery's owner wasn't. The neighborhood, the prices, the twee acoustic music drifting out of sleek speakers: I knew all of the song's words, but everything about the space said who it was for. My memories of celebrating Juneteenth in DC were my parents taking me to someone's backyard BBQ, eating banana pudding and peach cobbler and strawberry cake made with Jell-O mix; at not one of them had I seen a seventy-five-dollar bakery cake that could be carved into the shape of a designer handbag for an additional fee. The flyer's sales pitch--so much hanging on that We all know--was targeted not to the people who'd celebrated Juneteenth all along but to office managers who'd feel hectored into not missing a Black holiday or who just wanted an excuse for miscellaneous dessert.”
Source: The Office of Historical Corrections
“A display connected to a digital computer gives us a chance to gain familiarity with concepts not realizable in the physical world. It is a looking glass into a mathematical wonderland.”
“A display of indifference to all the actions and passions of mankind was not supposed to be such a distinguished quality at that time, I think, as I have observed it to be considered since. I have known it very fashionable indeed. I have seen it displayed with such success, that I have encountered some fine ladies and gentlemen who might as well have been born caterpillars.”
Source: The Personal History of David Copperfield
“A display of reason rather than a threat of force should be the determining factor in the intercourse among nations.”
“A disposable society is only fit for disposable people.”
Source: Voice of Reason
“A disposition to dwell on the bright side...is like gold to its possessor.”
“A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman.”
Source: The Beauties of the Late Right Hon. Edmund Burke: Selected from the Writings, &c. of that Extraordinary Man, Alphabetically Arranged ... to which is Prefixed, a Sketch of the Life, with Some Original Anecdotes of Mr. Burke
“A disproportional focus on money serves as the most effective derailer of a firm’s higher purpose and eternal ambitions.”
“A disputant no more cares for the truth than the sportsman for the hare.”
Source: A Supplementary Volume to the Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: Containing Pieces of Poetry, Not Inserted in Warburton's and Warton's Editions : and a Collection of Letters, Now First Published
“A dispute about race devolves into racism.”
“A disquieting loneliness came into my life, but it induced no hunger for friends of longer acquaintance: they seemed now like a salt-free, sugarless diet.”
Source: Breakfast at Tiffany's
“A disrespectful young woman...something I was called more than once. Something ever woman of quality is called sooner or later, by a man who feels they do not know their place. As we do not, because our place is as lofty as we may aspire to climb. It is the language of men who fear women.”
Source: Chill Factor
“A disruption of the circadian cycle—the metabolic and glandular rhythms that are central to our workaday life—seems to be involved in many, if not most, cases of depression; this is why brutal insomnia so often occurs and is most likely why each day’s pattern of distress exhibits fairly predictable alternating periods of intensity and relief.”
Source: Darkness visible: a memoir of madness
“A dissection of music perception and creation that starts slowly and inexorably builds to a grand finish. I loved reading that listening to music coordinates more disparate parts of the brain than almost anything else--and playing music uses even more! Despite illuminating a lot of what goes on this book doesn't "spoil" enjoyment- it only deepens the beautiful mystery that is music.”
“A dissenting minority feels free only when it can impose its will on the majority: what it abominates most is the dissent of the majority.”
“A dissolute and intemperate youth hands down the body to old age in a worn-out state.”
Source: Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero with His Treatises on Friendship and Old Age; Letters of Pliny the Younger
“A dissolute character is more dissolute in thought than in deed. And the same is true of violence. Our violence in word and deed is but a feeble echo of the surging violence of thought in us.”
Source: Glorious Thoughts of Gandhi: Being a Treasury of about Ten Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thougths of Mahatma Gandhi, Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects
“A distant cousin sent me some genealogy report on my father's side, and it's sort of what I suspected. Coal miners for generations... four or maybe five generations.”
“A distant, eerie howl had risen out of the floor, from far beneath. Silent, absolutely still, she waited, and at last it came again, indefinably closer, but muffled, as if layers of stone-rooms, dungeons, cellars-were between her and it. Not human. She crouched down with her ear to the stone slabs. Somewhere down there, unguessable levels below,something prowled.”
Source: The Lost Heiress
“A distant enemy is always preferable to one at the gate.”