A Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Approaching and achieving what one wants through a third party is a pure risk of failure, whether sooner or later; it also shows a lack of confidence and ability. In this context, one can figure out that the United Nations and its Security Council indeed fall under such third-party exactly.”
“Approaching any movie with a three in the title you know you are not going to get a political polemic. You are not going to get some sort of political statement or ultra-deep message.”
“Approaching difficult situations with an open mind and viewing challenges as opportunities for growth can shape one's purpose, learning and development.”
“Approaching Elegy
It's hard to believe you are dying: like looking
at a Jamesian scene, skipping past happiness
to a garden bench beyond the trees. You fill the form
of heroine: you sit in your black dress, too tired to imagine
the rest of yourself.
An old suitor appears, grabs you possibly
too forcefully by the wrists (he is still impossibly
in love—). You disengage your wrists. He leans forward, looks
into your eyes, which you close—as if you were all by yourself.
He moves closer, talking very fast about happiness.
He places his cloak on your shoulders, imagines
he'll rescue you. Around you, forms
grow darker: house, branch, hydrangea. Above you, freckled
expanses of leaves form
the beginnings of barbed, lopsided shrouds—a possible
solace. If only his kiss could please you, I wouldn't need to imagine
past the clean architecture of the story. And perhaps it is wrong to look
past that. Wrong to ask about happiness.
Past midnight, he continues to offer himself.
Before, he had offered aimless passion, but now (you see it for yourself)
he has an idea: he points into the darkness. He is grave, formal.
The dark has swallowed the long shadows of the oaks (though not
your unhappiness)
—and it is about to swallow you. Soon, it will no longer be possible
(there is just one more page to turn) for me to look
through your eyes, so I would like to imagine
for you: something past tragedy. Just as I would like to imagine
that we are not in danger, that we have selves
more solid than stars, that we are safe in the pages of books we can
reopen to look
at each other. Except that we are not women formed
of words, but of impossible
longings. What was it that you wanted besides happiness?
You are dying. I have no ideas about happiness
and no patience to imagine
it possible.
Soon you will not be the heroine; you will not be yourself.
And it's not that you've lost the formula; your form
is losing you. Look
at how brave you are: I imagined the great point was to be happy,
as happy as possible
with the quick forms that imagine us—but the last time I looked
there you were—distant and bright in the not so blue darkness,
imagining yourself.”
Source: Granted
“Approaching forty, I had a singular dream in which I almost grasped the meaning and understood the nature of what it is that wastes in wasted time.”
“Approaching new people, never being afraid to ask questions, clearly expressing emotions, moving, playing and laughing. There is a lot we can learn from our children.”
“Approaching others with a loving heart enables you to be more caring, compassionate, and empathetic. What’s not to love about that?”
Source: The Art of Being: 8 Ways to Optimize Your Presence & Essence for Positive Impact
“Approaching people is not - it's ironic that it's what I do - but it's not necessarily what I enjoy doing. Later on, I'm fine. Once we get talking I have a great time but not in the beginning.”
“Approaching subject matter to photograph is like meeting a person and beginning a conversation. How does one know ahead of time where that will lead, what the subject matter will be, how intimate it will become, how long the potential relationship will last? Certainly, a sense of curiosity and a willingness to be patient to allow the subject matter to reveal itself are important elements in this process.”
“Approaching the Cenotaph again, we stop so a group of school-children can stand for an unobstructed photo by the shallow memorial pool.
Each holds a paper crane in their hands, and they all look so proud. It reminds me of the class photograph from 1945. The children in today’s class also look no older than five or six, and their smiles beam just as bright. And hearing their laughter as the teacher tries to get them to settle long enough to take the photo, I recall something Mom said years after she returned from Angola: ‘No matter what language you speak or what nationality you are, tears and laughter always sound the same.”
Source: Beautiful Shining People
“Approaching the forest from the west was no army, but a delegation of Grailsundanian master surgeons on their way to an appendix conference . . . But that isn't the craziest part of the story - oh, no, my boy, for approaching from the east was a party of itinerant watchmakers bound for the pocket-watch fair at Wimbleton . . . But not even that is the craziest part of the story! For apporaching from the south were over a hundred armourers and locksmiths on their way to Florinth, where some power-hungry prince had commissioned them to build a monstrous war machine . . . Well, that would be enough crazy coincedences for an averagely crazy story but the battle of Nurn Forest involved the most improbable coincedences in the history of Zamonia. For entering the forest, this time from the north came a delegation of alchemists.”
Source: Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures
“Approaching the Start of Civil Exams
Perhaps I was once a young Chinese scholar
approaching the start of civil exams,
my mind grown weary and sad from seclusion
with books on syntax and poetic style.
All that I knew were the mist-covered mountains
and sweet white blossoms of mountain apples
that grew in the valleys of my province.
But I had been gone over six years
busy with studies in the Heavenly City
empty and thin despite my work.
I showed my verses to an older poet
who told me a truth I longed to believe:
all knowledge is futile and barren
which does not open the love of your friends.”
“Approaching the stove, she would don a voluminous apron, toss some meat on a platter, empty a skillet of its perfectly cooked a point vegetables, sprinkle a handful of chopped parsley over all, and then, like a proficient striptease artist, remove the apron, allowing it to fall to the floor with a shake of her hips.”
“Approaching the treadmill I tell myself, 'Okay, it's just 10 minutes, after that you can get off the thing'. That's no time at all.”
“Approaching the writing process as one of my favorite games and adjusting its design so that I couldn’t wait to engage in working on the book was of big help and enormous fun.”
“Approaching this day with optimism and fire, with patience and determination, with compassion and love.”
“Approaching today with the mindset of yesterday will only leave us with sub-par results.”
“Approaching us through a haze of dust that overhung the road was a long column of men - a slovenly column that marched irregularly and out of step, so that it had the look of a gigantic centipede whose feet hurt.”
Source: Oliver Wiswell
“Approche donc et découvre, petit dragonnet,
Les sept ennemis que tu dois redouter.
Prends garde à l'Orgueil qui assombrit l'esprit
Et te leurre sur la vraie taille de ton ennemi.
N'envie pas aux autres dragons pouvoir, richesses et biens
Car intrigues et complots seront la fin des tiens.
Même percé de lances, évite la Colère
Car elle tuera la ruse, qu'il te faudra entière.
Un dragon doit dormir mais, toi, fuis la Paresse
Nos assassins profitent des longues années de sieste.
'Quel mal à l'avarice ?' dira le dragon sot.
Les voleurs de trésors voleront aussi sa peau.
Tu connaîtras la faim et devras l'apaiser
Mais Gourmandise rend gras, empêche de décoller.
Dragonne, joyaux, gloire ou or,
Luxure a conduit bien des draques à la mort.
Apprends par cœur ceci, mon précieux dragonnet,
Tu seras sûr de vivre encore de longues années”
Source: Dragon Champion
“Approfondement is a French word that means 'playing easily in the deep.'”
“Appropriate action means to advance your own goals, without unintentional harm to anyone else.”
Source: The Book of Dragon: Dragon and Issola
“Appropriate boundaries create integrity.”
“Appropriate. The absurdity of the word struck me and I almost scoffed aloud. What, if anything, in our life was appropriate? We killed to live, we lied and cheated and took lovers, we slipped from town to town like ghosts, draining the populace of their money and blood before moving on. Not a month ago we had brought two young men home with us from the streets and taken our pleasure with them before draining them dry in our wedding bed. I had given up appropriate when I had given up my ability to eat mortal food, to walk abroad in the sun.”
Source: A Dowry of Blood
“Appropriate to the occasion" means choosing what to wear based on what you know is appropriate to wear for each given situation.”
Source: Beyond Your Wardrobe: A Biblical Approach to Understanding Modesty, Why We Wear Clothes, and How to Adorn Ourselves Appropriately
“Appropriated to justice, to security, to reason, to restraint; where there is no respect of persons; where will is nothing and power is nothing and numbers are nothing, and all are equal and all secure before the law.”
Source: Addresses and Orations of Rufus Choate
“Appropriately, as an entity specifically designed to support audiences to chart paths out of confusion toward clarity, the Qur’an holds the keys to its own unlocking. It likens itself to a Hadi, a trailblazing guide helping travelers navigate out of seeming dead ends toward their desired destination.”
Source: The Life of the Qur'an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy
“Appropriation is the idea that ate the art world. Go to any Chelsea gallery or international biennial and you'll find it. It's there in paintings of photographs, photographs of advertising, sculpture with ready-made objects, videos using already-existing film.”
“Appropriation was the language of my generation in many ways. It came out of Duchamp, Warhol, Johns, Lichtenstein.”
“Approval bends to the crowd; authenticity bows to none.”
“Approval is a greater motivator than disapproval, but we have to disapprove on occasion when we correct. It’s necessary. I make corrections only after I have proved to the individual that I highly value him. If they know we care for them, our correction won’t be seen as judgmental. I also try to never make it personal.”
“Approval is a weapon that I hand to everyone I know hoping they are a pacifist.”
Source: Untruthful
“Approval is overrated...Approval and disapproval alike satisfy those who deliver it more than those who receive it. I don't care for approval, and I don't mind doing without.”
“Approval isn’t necessary. It’s nice when you get it, but it’s not going to stop us from being who we are. I mean, if I’d have listened to approval, I’d never have made it one day onstage. But to be criticized, if there’s validity, as upset as you are, you can learn from it.”
“Approval of what is approved of
Is as false as a well-kept vow.”
Source: Collected Poems
“Approval or blame will follow in the world to come.”
“Approval shifts with others; authenticity stays with you.”
“Approve not of him who commends all you say.”
Source: The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac
“Approved attributes and their relation to face make every man his own jailer; this is a fundamental social constraint even though each man may like his cell.”
Source: Where the action is: three essays
“Approved valor is made precious by natural courtesy.”
“Approving some religious claims while deeming others unworthy of accommodation could be 'perceived as favoring one religion over another,' the very 'risk the [Constitution's] Establishment Clause was designed to preclude.”
“Approximately 1 in 4 people in the USA cannot afford their prescription drugs.”
“Approximately 4% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients have folate deficiency.”
Source: Long COVID Supplements
“Approximately 400 cuts - that would make 25 percent of the total - use CGI. I worked on the Steamboy's animation production based on the usual handwriting method. Digital animation is just supplementary. I didn't do anything surprising, because the idea is to overcome the limitation of expressions done by handwriting with the help of CGI.”
“Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.”
“Approximately 82% of the American people believe labeling should take place with regard to genetically engineered ingredients. All over this country people are increasingly concerned about the quality of the food they are ingesting and the food they are giving to their kids. People want to know what is in their food, and I believe that is a very reasonable request.”
“Approximately four years ago, we were told that Jerry Rice would be a free agent and there were people who felt that he no longer could contribute.”
“Approximately half a million people had registered their objection to the biologically toxic Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) in October 2023 when it received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF).”
“Approximately half the airport passengers in the TSA gate area have no airline tickets because their airplanes have landed and their tickets have expired. Do you see the police officers harassing them out of the gate area because they are no longer ticketed passengers?”
“Approximately seventy percent of the female population is on a diet at any given time. More women diet than vote.”
“Approximately two out of three fake-dating situations will eventually involve room-sharing; 50 percent of room-sharing situations will be further complicated by the presence of only one bed.”
Source: The Love Hypothesis