A Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“A mortician can make a dead man look better than he ever did when he was alive. So churches like Sardis may appear very much alive when they are dead in the sight of the Lord. God knows the difference.”
“A mosaic of memories takes me back to my own childhood, and then to my children. My earliest memory of St. Augustine was a day trip from Jacksonville; a day with some neighbors who were nice enough to purchase me a plastic toy-tugboat with a blue superstructure and white hull. Other accounts meld into my adult years. With its history and attractions, The Ancient City is pristine and picturesque by most accounts; but from the Newer Jail (not the Old Jail) , the perspective is very different.”
“A moss-covered path tended its way around the magnolia tree. Mark started along it, his leg brushing against the perennial border where cheerful yellow daffodils nodded their heads in greeting.”
Source: Love The Gift
“A moss which leaves its ocean becomes pale and dries up and a man which leaves his mother country is a moss which leaves it ocean!”
“A most burning question of time, though. It burns in every nook and cranny of the ethnological world, burning, bright, brightly, in the fullest blaze, and it burns all around, huge fire! and no one lifts a hand.”
“A Most Dangerous Hurricane
Columbus was aware of dangerous weather indicators that were frequently a threat in the Caribbean during the summer months. Although the barometer had not yet been invented, there were definitely other telltale signs of an approaching hurricane.
Had the governor who detested Columbus, listened to his advice and given him some leeway, he could have saved the convoy that was being readied for a return trans-Atlantic crossing. Instead, the new inexperienced governor ordered a fleet of over 30 caravels, laden, heavy with gold, to set sail for Spain without delay. As a result, it is estimated that 20 of these ships were sunk by this violent storm, nine ran aground and only the Aguja, which coincidently carried Columbus’ gold, survived and made it back to Spain safely. The ferocity of the storm claimed the lives of five hundred souls, including that of the former governor Francisco de Bobadilla.
Many of the caravels that sank during this horrific hurricane were ships that were part of the same convoy that Governor Ovando, had traveled with from Spain to the West Indies. However he felt about this tragedy, which could have been prevented, he continued as the third Governor of the Indies until 1509, and became known for his brutal treatment of the Taíno Indians.
Having taken adequate precautions, Columbus’ ships fared somewhat better in that terrible storm, and survived with only minor damage. Heaving in their anchors, Columbus’ small fleet of ships left Hispaniola to explore the western side of the Caribbean.”
“A most deplorable sight," she said, folding her arms across her chest. "Someone who has lost everything. You know, minstrel, it is interesting. Once, I thought it was impossible to lose everything, that something always remains. Always. Even in times of contempt, when naivety is capable of backfiring in the cruellest way, one cannot lose everything. But he... he lost several pints of blood, the ability to walk properly, partial use of his left hand, his witcher's sword, the woman he loves, the daughter he had gained by a miracle, his faith... Well, I thought, he must have been left with something. But I was wrong. He has nothing now. Not even a razor."
Dandelion remained silent. The dryad did not move.
"I asked if you had a hand in this," she began a moment later. "But I think there was no need. It's obvious you had a hand in it. It's obvious you are his friend. And if someone has friends, and he loses everything in spite of that, it's obvious the friends are to blame. For what they did, or for what they didn't do.”
Source: Czas pogardy
“a most excellent man, though I could have wished his trousers not quite so tight in some places and not quite so loose in others.”
Source: British Classics: Great Expectations
“A most extraordinary device for catching dragon-flies is used by the children of the province of Kii. They get a long hair, - a woman's hair, - and attach a very small pebble to each end of it, so as to form a miniature "bolas"; and this they sling high into the air. A dragon-fly pounces upon the passing object; but the moment that he seizes it, the hair twists round his body, and the weight of the pebbles brings him to the ground.”
Source: A Japanese Miscellany: Strange Stories, Folklore Gleanings, Studies Here & There
“A most important, but also most elusive, aspect of any tool is its influence on the habits of those who train themselves in its use. If the tool is a programming language this influence is, whether we like it or not, an influence on our thinking habits.... A programming language is a tool that has profound influence on our thinking habits.”
Source: A Discipline of Programming
“A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity.”
Source: Freedom from Fear: And Other Writings
“A most mechanical and dirty hand. I shall have such revenges on you...both. The things I will do, what they are, yet I know not. But they will be the terrors of the earth”
“A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lillies of the swamp.”
Source: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: And Collected Short Stories
“A most noble mantra is Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, but the complete destruction of Life's individuality and of Liberty comes when a government insists on how you are to think, then insists on what you say and how you say it, and then once done immediately begins to insist on how you are to behave. After which the pursuit of Happiness becomes a forlorn quest.”
“A most obstinate misconception associated with the gospel of Jesus Christ is that the gospel is welcome in this world. The conviction endemic among church folk persists that, if problems of misapprehension and misrepresentation are overcome and the gospel can be heard in its own integrity, the gospel will be found attractive by people, become popular and even be a success of some sort.
This idea is curious and ironical because it is bluntly contradicted in Scripture, and in the experience of the continuing biblical witness in history from the event of Pentecost unto the present moment. During Jesus' earthly ministry, no one in His family and not a single one of the disciples accepted Him, believed His vocation or loved the gospel He bespoke and embodies.
Since the rubrics of success, power, or gain are impertinent to the gospel, the witness of the saints looks foolish where it is most exemplary.”
“A most tremendous inertia which sprang from the paralysis of a will too long suppressed shackled her. She could do nothing. The habit of living each day as it came, grateful, after it had passed, for any hours that gave even the appearance of concord, had rendered her incapable of forethought. She had achieved this state with much painless suffering, committing murder by proxy. In truth, at the deepest level, she did not know what to do, and knew what she would do.”
Source: The Watch Tower
“A most unfailing experience... of the excitement of sublunary (that is, human) natures by the conjunctions and aspects of the planets has instructed and compelled my unwilling belief.”
“A most unsuitable match was that Miss Barton for either of them, and Mrs. Rivers felt that a week-end of dodging from side to side, protecting Julian and Mr. Foster against Alice, pushing Phoebe towards Mr. Foster and now, too annoying, having to see that Phoebe didn’t spend all her time with that Miss Barton’s brother, was more than she could stand. And all the time she wanted to get on with her Work, but what with arranging the games and unsuccessfully chivying the young people, her heroine was still wandering, guide-book in hand, at Angkor Wat, only too conscious that her heart was blossoming at the sound of the Corsican savant’s voice.”
Source: Pomfret Towers
“A most useful approach to meditation practice is to consider it the most important activity of each day. Shedule it as you would an extremely important appointment, and unfailingly keep your appointment with the infinite.”
“A moth was a caterpillar, once, but it no longer is a caterpillar. It cannot break itself back down, cannot metamorphose in reverse. To try to eat leaves again would mean starvation. Crawling back into the husk would provide no shelter. It is a paradox -- the impossibility of reclaiming that which lies behind, housed within a form comprised entirely of the repurposed pieces of that same past. We exist where we begin, yet to remain there is death... I could not have predicted each version of me that I shifted into, but through my history, one constant has always remained true: change itself... I did not know who she was, the one waiting for me to start moving toward her. I was curious about her, all the same. I was eager to meet her.”
Source: To Be Taught, If Fortunate
“A mother, a daughter, a teacher, a coworker, that Tai, a friend, your girlfriend or a wife!
That lady who comes daily and cooks for you. That old nurse who took your baby in her arms when you were born.
That girl child, holding whom, your heart had skipped a beat one fine day.
Wouldn't it be true if I say we come across a hundreds of women in our life, who change us and sometimes our lives, who brings joy, makes us smile!”
“A mother always thinks twice: for herself and for the child”
“A mother and daughter are an edge.
Edges are ecotones, transitional zones,
places of danger or opportunity.
House-dwelling tension.
When I stand on the edge of the land and sea,
I feel this tension, this fluid line of transition.
High tide. Low tide.
It is the sea's reach and retreat
that reminds me
we have been human
for only a very short time.”
Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
“A mother becomes a true grandmother the day she stops noticing the terrible things her children do because she is so enchanted with the wonderful things her grandchildren do.”
Source: Funny, You Don't Look Like a Grandmother
“A mother beyond compare Have a lovely day Mom”
“A mother can exert an influence unequaled by any other person in any other relationship.”
“A mother can legitimately be said to 'have a baby' - but in a civilization such as ours, she can never claim to own a teenager.”
Source: American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie
“A mother can replace everyone but none can replace a mother.”
“A mother can translate baby-talk: she comprehends incomprehensible noises. Even so doth our Father in heaven know all about our poor baby talk, for our prayer is not much better.”
Source: Encouraged to Pray: Classic Sermons on Prayer
“A mother cannot truly respect her child as long as she does not realize what deep shame she causes him with an ironic remark, intended only to cover her own uncertainty. Indeed, she cannot be aware of how deeply humiliated, despised, and devalued her child feels, if she herself has never consciously suffered these feelings, and if she tries to fend them off with irony.”
Source: The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self
“A mother cares for her children.”
“A Mother & Daughter's Love Is Never Separated”
Source: The Charm Bracelet
“A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.”
“A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship - and you know what, a father does, too. It's time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a 'Mad Men' episode.”
“A mother does not become pregnant in order to provide employment to medical people. Giving birth is an ecstatic jubilant adventure not available to males. It is a woman's crowning creative experience of a lifetime.”
“A mother enters a story. But how does she enter? How does she walk across the pages of a book?”
Source: Unearthing
“A mother experiences more than one death, even though she herself will only die once. She fears for her husband; she fears for her children; again she fears for the women and children who belong to her children. ... For each of these-whether for loss of possessions, bodily illness, or undesired misfortune-she mourns and grieves no less than those who suffer.”
“A mother gives you a life, a mother-in-law gives you her life.”
Source: Wealth of Words
“A mother has a unique perspective. Nobody sees the life of the child the way the child’s mother does—not even the father. This is Mary’s perspective of Jesus life. It seems to me that every genuine Christian, not just Catholics, should be interested in that perspective—and not just interested, but fascinated. In the rosary we ponder the life of Jesus through the eyes of his mother. This is an incredibly powerful experience if we enter into it fully”
“A mother has far greater influence on her children than anyone else, and she must realize that every word she speaks, every act, every response, her attitude, even her appearance and manner of dress affect the lives of her children and the whole family.”
“A mother has the best of all smiles; she is a wonderful friend, lover and adviser.”
“A mother has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”
“A mother is a bank where I deposit all my worries and hurts”
“A mother is a child's first looking glass into the world.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“A mother is a mother all of your life,but a father is a father only when he has a wife.”
“A mother is a mother from the moment her baby is first placed in her arms until eternity. It didn't matter if her child were three, thirteen, or thirty.”
“A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive.”
Source: The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Volume 4 (Part II): The Friend
“A mother is a school. Empower her; and you empower a great nation.”
“A mother is a story with no beginning. That is what defines her.”
“A mother is always a mother, since a mother is a biological fact, whilst a father is a movable feast.”