A Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“A panic that has seized on a few sheep will soon extend to the whole flock.”
Source: Gyan Publishing House The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind
“A panoramic vision of Bob Dylan, his music, his shifting place in American culture, from multiple angles. In fact, reading Sean Wilentz's Bob Dylan in America is as thrilling and surprising as listening to a great Dylan song.”
“A panther poised in the cypress tree about to jump is a
panther poised in a cypress tree about to jump.
The panther is a poem of fire green eyes and a heart charged
by four winds of four directions.
The panther hears everything in the dark: the unspoken
tears of a few hundred human years, storms that will break
what has broken his world, a bluebird swaying on a branch a
few miles away.
He hears the death song of his approaching prey:
I will always love you, sunrise.
I belong to the black cat with fire green eyes.
There, in the cypress tree near the morning star.”
Source: Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems
“A pantry neatly stocked to capacity with a colorful array of empty containers might have the appearance of being full, but appearances won’t feed anyone.”
“A paparazzi is merely an extremely nosy nobody with a camera—and bills to pay.”
Source: The Confessions of a Misfit
“A paper clip could best the catch, but when a woman shuts you out, picking the lock won't let you back in.”
Source: An American Marriage
“A paper town for a paper girl.”
Source: Paper Towns
“A parabatai. Like he was. And Jace knew, too, what that faded rune meant: a parabatai whose other half was dead. He felt his sympathy leap toward Brother Zachariah, as he imagined himself without Alec, with only that faded rune to remind him where once he had been bonded to someone who knew all the best and worst parts of his soul.”
Source: City of Heavenly Fire
“A parable: A man was examining the construction of a cathedral. He asked a stone mason what he was doing chipping the stones, and the mason replied, "I am making stones." He asked a stone carver what he was doing. "I am carving a gargoyle." And so it went, each person said in detail what they were doing. Finally he came to an old woman who was sweeping the ground. She said. "I am helping build a cathedral." ...Most of the time each person is immersed in the details of one special part of the whole and does not think of how what they are doing relates to the larger picture.”
“A parabola opens at a certain direction, allowing for infinitely many points to reside inside the area from which it opens. As a student, I do not like to specialize in a single discipline; specialization seems unfulfilling in my own mind. Hence, the graph of a straight line is not an appropriate analogy to the depths of my curiosity. A line only goes in one direction, and unlike a parabola, a line cannot encase that infinite amount of white space on a coordinate plane—it can only pass through it.
Rather than being like a rigid line, I try to be more open to a wider variety of academic subjects. I do admit—a parabola still opens in a certain direction, and of course, my interests are still skewed toward particular subjects. However, the open curve of the parabola can still encompass infinitely many points as the graph extends, the same way my curiosity can still expand to multiple different subjects. This is why I see myself more in the curvaceous parabola than the rigid line.”
Source: For the Intellect
“A parade is the worst form of transportation known to man.”
“A parade looks like a bunch of people are excited about being in traffic.”
“A paradigm is a powerful theoretical and methodological framework which defines the working lives of thousands of intelligent and disciplined minds. And paradigms do not attract the loyalty of such minds unless they 'work'. One of the first things a graduate student learns is that if there is a discrepancy between the paradigm and what he or she has discovered, then the automatic assumption is that the paradigm is right and the student wrong. Just as a good workman never blames his tools, so the diligent student never blames his paradigm”
“A paradigm is no more than a paradigm. Brake it if you want, and make sure when you find another one; it just remains another paradigm.”
“A paradigm shift is not the same as a small change. A small change is a minor adjustment in our behaviour or habits, while a paradigm shift is a complete overhaul of our way of thinking and acting. A small change may lead to temporary improvements, but it won't have the same long-term impact as a paradigm shift.”
Source: Paradigm Shift: Change Your Mindset and Live the Life of Your Dreams
“A paradigm shift is the best a scientist can hope for. Whenever I smell an opportunity like that, I go after it. You have a new discovery that something's working in a different way than you thought. And this is particularly true in molecular and cell biology, which is structural biology and has the least potential for controversy and partisanship among the biological scientists. You're dealing with a concrete object that's either there or not there.”
“A paradigm shift of viewing palliative care or hospice as a gift instead of seeing it as giving up has the potential to change the way we experience advanced age.”
Source: A Chance to Say Goodbye: Reflections on Losing a Parent
“A paradigm shift, where, in addition to, physical inputs for farming, a focused emphasis placed on knowledge inputs, can be a promising way forward. This knowledge based approach will bring immense returns particularly in Rainfed and Dryland farming areas.”
“A paradise of inward tranquility seems to be faith's usual result.”
Source: Writings, 1902-1910
“A paradisiacal lagoon lay below them. The water was an unbelievable, unreal turquoise, its surface so still that every feature of the bottom could be admired in magnified detail: colorful pebbles, bright red kelp, fish as pretty and colorful as the jungle birds. A waterfall on the far side fell softly from a height of at least twenty feet. A triple rainbow graced its frothy bottom. Large boulders stuck out of the water at seemingly random intervals, black and sun-warmed and extremely inviting, like they had been placed there on purpose by some ancient giant.
And on these were the mermaids.
Wendy gasped at their beauty.
Their tails were all colors of the rainbow, somehow managing not to look tawdry or clownish. Deep royal blue, glittery emerald green, coral red, anemone purple. Slick and wet and as beautifully real as the salmon Wendy's father had once caught on holiday in Scotland. Shining and voluptuously alive.
The mermaids were rather scandalously naked except for a few who wore carefully placed shells and starfish, although their hair did afford some measure of decorum as it trailed down their torsos. Their locks were long and thick and sinuous and mostly the same shades as their tails. Some had very tightly coiled curls, some had braids. Some had decorated their tresses with limpets and bright hibiscus flowers.
Their "human" skins were familiar tones: dark brown to pale white, pink and beige and golden and everything in between. Their eyes were also familiar eye colors but strangely clear and flat. Either depthless or extremely shallow depending on how one stared.
They sang, they brushed their hair, they played in the water. In short, they did everything mythical and magical mermaids were supposed to do, laughing and splashing as they did.
"Oh!" Wendy whispered. "They're-" And then she stopped.
Tinker Bell was giving her a funny look. An unhappy funny look.
The mermaids were beautiful. Indescribably, perfectly beautiful. They glowed and were radiant and seemed to suck up every ray of sun and sparkle of water; Wendy found she had no interest looking anywhere else.”
Source: Straight On Till Morning
“A paradox arises: the only way to meaning in freedom is through boundaries. The only way that boundaries make any sense at all is through freedom.”
“A paradox! By going astray, one reaches the goal the fastest.”
Source: Yet Another New Land
“A paradox is a seeming contradiction, always demanding a change on the side of the observer. If we look at almost all things honestly we see everything has a character of paradox to it. Everything, including ourselves.”
“A paradox is a storm that rains on itself.”
“A paradox is a truth in absolute defiance of the instant powers of logic to communicate it.”
Source: Why I Am a Muslim: And a Christian and a Jew
“A paradox is only a truth standing on its head to attract attention.”
Source: Talking Zen
“A paradox of life; be it good or bad, joy or sorrow, comfort or discomfort, appointment or disappointment, encouragement or discouragement, deception or loyalty, faithfulness or unfaithfulness, a good day or a bad day, things in life never remains static. Things keep moving and things keep changing. Seconds keep galloping, minutes keep changing into hours and hours keep turning into days. Free your mind from such things which are capable of crippling it from thinking distinctively. Notwithstanding the situation, keep moving to the purposeful land.”
“A Paradox, the doughnut hole. Empty space, once, but now they've learned to market even that. A minus quantity; nothing, rendered edible. I wondered if they might be used-metaphorically, of course-to demonstrate the existence of God. Does naming a sphere of nothingness transmute it into being?”
Source: The Blind Assassin: A Novel
“A paradox: the same century invented history and photography. But history is a memory fabricated according to positive formulas, a pure intellectual discourse which abolishes mythic time; and the photograph is a certain but fugitive testimony.”
“A Paragon of Virtue defines and upholds core values with integrity, leads with emotional mastery and wisdom, and navigates human behavior and power dynamics using psychological insights ethically. This approach enhances leadership effectiveness and influence through understanding, strategic response, and empathy, not manipulation. It elevates you beyond just a man, making you a Legend.”
“A paragraph's existence owes itself to the words contained in the sentences within.”
“A parallel between color and music can only be relative – just as a violin can give warm shades of tone, so yellow has shades, which can be expressed by various instruments.”
“A parallel comparison helps to capture the similarities between existentialism (especially Nietzsche's) and Daoism (especially Zhuangzi's). Both discover the practical pointlessness of universal or absolute meaning (purpose). Nietzsche, from his perspective as a disappointed Christian yearning for absolute, transcendent, dependence on God, experiences this awareness with existentialist angst, a sensation of looking off a cliff into a bottomless abyss. The angst is caused by the vertigo impulse, the fear we will jump or drop off our perch into that nothingness. Zhuangzi, from his Daoist sense of the constraint of conventional authority, does not think of any cliff as a reference point. If the abyss is bottomless, then there is no such thing as falling. The cliff and Zhuangzi are both floating free. Leaving the cliff and entering the abyss is weightlessness―free flight―not falling. From his relativistic perspective, the cliff is floating away. Zhuangzi's reaction is not "Oh no!" but "Whee!”
Source: A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: A Philosophical Interpretation
“A parallel to this system of punishment is the trauma caused by enforced unemployment in capitalist society. Add to this an inability for the unemployed to find any imaginable alternative occupation, and the extent of the effects of network exclusion becomes clear.”
Source: The Netocrats
“A paralyzed man who wants to walk OR an agile man who does not want to walk will both remain neutral in nature.”
“A paranoiac, like a poet, is born, not made.”
“A paranoid is someone who has all the facts.”
“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on.”
“A paranoid thinks that sinister forces are out to get him, not realizing that they are out to get everybody.”
“A parceria com o movimento comunitário nos ajudou a ver a situação dessas mulheres sob uma lente que analisa a violência contra a mulher por meio de uma perspectiva sociopolítica.”
Source: The Vagina Monologues
“A pardon for Edward Snowden would be good for America and would help burnish the president's legacy as one of the primary defenders of human rights.”
“A parent asked me today, "How do you get your children to pray in church?" My response? "Pray at home."”
“A parent being called to the school because their child had misbehaved was as serious as a parent being called to the police station because their child had robbed a bank.”
“A parent can give a child no greater gift than beautiful manners.”
“A parent can give a child the perfect childhood and take his adulthood.”
“A parent can seem very kind and gentle, but as any child knows, as soon as that parent gets stressed, they can suddenly turn and get a bit angry.”
“A parent-child combo might pop up at the crest of the old country road, wan and wary, and Mark Spitz shrank from these, no matter how well outfitted they were. Parenthood made grown-ups unpredictable. They hesitated at the key moment out of consideration for their kid’s abilities or safety, they were paranoid he wanted to rape or eat their offspring, they slowed him down with their baby steps or kept him distracted as he pondered their erraticism. They were worse than the bandits, who only wanted your stuff and sometimes managed to take it, on the spot, or at gunpoint later when the opportunity presented itself, when you were sleeping or taking a piss. The parents were dangerous because they didn’t want your precious supplies. They possessed the valuables, and it hobbled their reasoning.”
Source: Zone One
“A parent does everything for his/her children. A mom gives her life.”
“A parent does not do everything for their kid. A parent that does everything for their kid produces a kid with no self-confidence.”
“A parent does not do everything for their kid. A parent that does everything for their kid produces a kid with no self-confidence. If our parents fixed everything for us and did not allow us to do anything on our own, or intervened every single time, we would all grow up to be completely dependent. The reason we grow up to be healthy adults is because our parents played this game of giving us responsibility, disciplining us when necessary, letting us try, letting us fail.”