A Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“A story? No. No stories, never again.”
Source: Folie Du Jour
“A storybook marriage? No, not at all. What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage.”
Source: In This Together: My Story
“A storyteller is basically what actors and writers are.”
“A storyteller makes up things to help other people; a liar makes up things to help himself.”
Source: The Kings and Queens of Roam: A Novel
“A storyteller was supposed to remain neutral. The thing was, though, all judges secretly rooted for a team they liked. This was true for Bihyung as well.
Like a parent looking at his wonderfully-matured children, Bihyung stroked the faces appearing on the screen with a deeply moved expression.”
“A storyteller wins when his story inspires courage, laughter, beauty, and so much more.
The one whom they make a part of their life, on the same day that moment you win.
By the way, there is nothing like victory and defeat, if someone gets peace then it is fine, if not, it is also fine. All that matters is whether what you did made you happy or not. If yes, then you have won.”
“A stout heart breaks bad luck.”
Source: Don Quixote: Easyread Large Edition
“A stout heart may be ruined in fortune but not in spirit.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Victor Hugo (Illustrated)
“A stout heart, a clear conscience, and never despair.”
“A stove alone is useless; it's just a piece of metal. It only becomes useful when you throw something into it to burn! The human mind is like a stove; unless ideas are poured into it and it radiates useful heat, it becomes nothing more than a decorative empty stove in the room!”
“A straight dark-green Manchu gown, with black trimmings, is my favorite. For it just about takes off those fifteen pounds I don't need and adds those three inches I do.”
“A straight factor is important in any comedy, because you need something to tee it up and also to ground it.”
“A straight fight in an equal battle takes some bravery, but braver is he who, knowing that he would have to sacrifice ninety-five as against five of the enemy, faces death.”
“A straight line is not the shortest distance between two points.”
“A straight line is said to have been cut in extreme and mean ratio when, as the whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the lesser.”
Source: Euclid's Elements
“a straight line is the shortest possible line between any two points - an axiom equally true in morals as in mathematics.”
Source: Works
“A straight nose is a great help if one wishes to look serious'.”
Source: Cold comfort farm
“A straight oar looks bent in the water. It matters not merely that we see a thing, but how we see it.”
“A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.”
“A straightforward answer to a straightforward question will move you that much more forward in this world, that much faster.”
“A strange adventure befell me while I was playing my Sonata in B flat minor before some English friends. I had played the Allegro and the Scherzo more or less correctly. I was about to attack the March when suddenly I saw arising from the body of my piano those cursed creatures which had appeared to me one lugubrious night at the Chartreuse. I had to leave for one instant to pull myself together after which I continued without saying anything.”
“A strange alternative * * *Must women have a doctor or a dance?”
“A strange and somewhat impassive physiognomy is often, perhaps, an advantage to an orator, or leader of any sort, because it helps to fix the eye and fascinate the mind.”
Source: Human Nature and the Social Order
“A strange blue liquid filled a cylindrical glass container. The shrunken heads of other men who'd ventured inside this female lair of estrogen?”
Source: A Vast and Gracious Tide
“A strange cold fear gripped him as he looked down at that angelic face resting against his shoulder. Her thick dark lashes lay heavy against her perfect olive skin like two perfect dark crescent moons concealing those glorious starry green eyes burdened with anguish much too raw and intense for a teenager to bear. She was frail and tiny and much too beautiful, light as a feather in his arms, like a pure white dove. Things were only going to get worse before they were going to get better but that was okay because Logan was determined to be there for Sienna every step of the way.”
Source: Beautiful Bedlam
“A strange creature stands in front of her. About three feet tall with large pointy ears and yellow eyes, it looks up at her with shrewdness. It wears a wool cap and has a long white beard that passes its pudgy belly. The beard is filled with braids, beads, and a pocket watch.
She gasps, “Is that an elf?”
The creature draws itself up to its full height. “An elf! You call me an elf? I am no elf, little girl! I am no faery slave! I am a goblin! Finiki the Goblin!” It turns to the copper-haired man with a scowl. “Did you hear that, Tristan? An elf! Your girl called me an elf!”
Tristan runs a hand through his hair. “Leave her be, Finiki. Why don’t you go and check on Foresto – “
“The ogre?” Brie asks.
He hesitates before looking down at her with slightly widened eyes, seeming surprised she knew who he was speaking of. “The ogre,” he finally confirms, then adds, “You’re a fast learner.”
Trying to be subtle as to not turn his short temper onto her, she tilts her head towards the stout creature that stands in front of them. “You people have a goblin. An ogre isn’t that far-fetched.”
Source: The Return of Light
“A strange effect of marriage, such as the nineteenth century has made it! The boredom of married life inevitably destroys love, when love has preceded marriage. And yet, as a philosopher has observed, it speedily brings about, among people who are rich enough not to have to work, an intense boredom with all quiet forms of enjoyment. And it is only dried up hearts, among women, that it does not predispose to love.”
Source: The Red and the Black: World Classics
“A strange enigma is man”
“A strange fact of life is that usually people who are counted out somehow transform into the action figures doing the toughest of times that people can count on.”
“A strange fanaticism fills our time: the fanatical hatred of morality, especially of Christian morality.”
“A strange feeling spreads through Avery’s chest, a slow, honeyed warmth he can’t ignore. It seeps over the fear, the sorrow, the bitter wretched dread that has always lived inside him, and it clings like a stain against his ribcage.
This feeling that is somehow terrible and holy and beautiful all at once.
He is not alone.”
Source: The Kings of Nowhere
“A strange haven that gave me strength and comfort”
Source: The Siren
“A strange landscape stared back at her. Delphine gasped and let the tree support her weight as she slowly took in the sight of of the forest drawn tight around the ring of moss surrounding the linden. The trees were skeletal and pale as bone, branches gnarled and twining in complicated knotwork that might have been intentionally woven or might have been the wild striving of trees reaching for the sky. There were no leaves, but a thick hoarfrost of silver coated every branch, every twig, every barren bud. Bracken grew tangled at the roots of the trees; it, too, was layered in sparkling pale beauty.
The ground was covered in the same thick silver, which Delphine slowly appreciated was not cold at all, but still as fragile and sharp as frost. No grass grew on the ground, only a thick carpet of the same moss surrounding the tree. The silver didn't pass through the circle, fading to a film near the green encircling the linden tree.”
Source: The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill
“A strange lot this, to be dropped down in a world of barbarians - men who see clearly enough the barbarity of all ages except their own.”
“A Strange melancholy pervades me to which I hesitate to give the grave and beautiful name of sorrow. The idea of sorrow has always appealed to me but now I am almost ashamed of it's complete egoism. I have known boredom, regret, and occasionally remorse, but never sorrow. Today it envelops me like a silken web, enervating and soft, and sets me apart from everybody else.”
Source: BONOUR TRISTESSE
“A strange passion is moving in my head My heart has become a bird which searches in the sky. Every part of me goes in different directions. Is it really so that the one I love is Everywhere?”
“A strange pity came over him. Were these children of sin and misery predestined to their ends, as he to his? Were they, like him, merely the puppets of a monstrous show?”
Source: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime
“A strange skin tag grew on right side of my belly in my early forties. My doctors did not pay any attention to it and it was only years later that I discovered through experimentation with supplements that I had a DHEA hormone deficiency.”
“A strange smile was playing about his face, and Wendy saw it and shuddered. While that smile was on his face no one dared address him; all they could do was to stand ready to obey.”
“A strange species we are, We can stand anything God and nature can throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much, and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy, sick. --John Steinbeck to Adlai Stevenson”
Source: America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction
“A strange structure untangled itself out of the background like a hallucination, not part of the natural landscape. It was a funny-shaped, almost spherical, green podlike thing woven from living branches of trees and vines. A trellis of vines hung down over the opening that served as a door.
Wendy was so delighted tears sprang to her eyes.
It was her Imaginary House!
They all had them. Michael wanted his to be like a ship with views of the sea. John had wanted to live like a nomad on the steppes. And Wendy... Wendy had wanted something that was part of the natural world itself.
She tentatively stepped forward, almost swooning at the heavy scent of the door flowers. Languorously lighting on them were a few scissorflies, silver and almost perfectly translucent in the glittery sunlight. Their sharp wings made little snickety noises as they fluttered off.
Her shadow made a few half-hearted attempts to drag back, pointing to the jungle. But Wendy ignored her, stepping into the hut.
She was immediately knocked over by a mad, barking thing that leapt at her from the darkness of the shelter.
"Luna!" Wendy cried in joy.
The wolf pup, which she had rescued in one of her earliest stories, stood triumphantly on her chest, drooling very visceral, very stinky dog spit onto her face.
"Oh, Luna! You're real!" Wendy hugged the gray-and-white pup as tightly as she could, and it didn't let out a single protest yelp.
Although...
"You're a bit bigger than I imagined," Wendy said thoughtfully, sitting up. "I thought you were a puppy."
Indeed, the wolf was approaching formidable size, although she was obviously not yet quite full-grown and still had large puppy paws. She was at least four stone and her coat was thick and fluffy. Yet she pranced back and forth like a child, not circling with the sly lope Wendy imagined adult wolves used.
You're not a stupid little lapdog, are you?" Wendy whispered, nuzzling her face into the wolf's fur. Luna chuffed happily and gave her a big wet sloppy lick across the cheek. "Let's see what's inside the house!"
As the cool interior embraced her, she felt a strange shudder of relief and... welcome was the only way she could describe it. She was home.
The interior was small and cozy; plaited sweet-smelling rush mats softened the floor. The rounded walls made shelves difficult, so macramé ropes hung from the ceiling, cradling halved logs or flat stones that displayed pretty pebbles, several beautiful eggs, and what looked like a teacup made from a coconut. A lantern assembled from translucent pearly shells sat atop a real cherry writing desk, intricately carved and entirely out of place with the rest of the interior.
Wendy picked up one of the pretty pebbles in wonder, turning it this way and that before putting it into her pocket.
"This is... me..." she breathed. She had never been there before, but it felt so secure and so right that it couldn't have been anything but her home. Her real home. Here there was no slight tension on her back as she waited for footsteps to intrude, for reality to wake her from her dreams; there was nothing here to remind her of previous days, sad or happy ones. There were no windows looking out at the gray world of London. There was just peace, and the scent of the mats, and the quiet droning of insects and waves outside.
"Never Land is a... mishmash of us. Of me," she said slowly. "It's what we imagine and dream of- including the dreams we can't quite remember.”
Source: Straight On Till Morning
“A strange thing happened to me in my dream. I was rapt into the Seventh Heaven. There sat all the gods assembled. As a special dispensation I was granted the favor to have one wish. "Do you wish for youth," said Mercury, "or for beauty, or power, or a long life; or do you wish for the most beautiful woman, or any other of the many fine things we have in our treasure trove? Choose, but only one thing!" For a moment I was at a loss. Then I addressed the gods in this wise: "Most honorable contemporaries, I choose one thing — that I may always have the laughs on my side." Not one god made answer, but all began to laugh. From this I concluded that my wish had been granted and thought that the gods knew how to express themselves with good taste: for it would surely have been inappropriate to answer gravely: your wish has been granted.”
“A strange thing happens to me that I'm sure happens to a lot of actors when the camera starts rolling. I'm not 'me' any more.”
“A strange thing happens to parents, one day they suddenly sense their son turned into a stranger.”
Source: Wealth of Words
“A strange thing happens when you interview a robot. You feel an urge to be profound: to ask profound questions. I suppose it’s an inter-species thing. Although if it is I wonder why I never try and be profound around my dog.
‘What does electricity taste like?’ I ask.
‘Like a planet around a star,’ Bina48 replies.
Which is either extraordinary or meaningless - I’m not sure which”
“A strange thing has happened - while all the other arts were born naked, this, the youngest, has been born fully-clothed. It can say everything before it has anything to say. It is as if the savage tribe, instead of finding two bars of iron to play with, had found scattering the seashore fiddles, flutes, saxophones, trumpets, grand pianos by Erhard and Bechstein, and had begun with incredible energy, but without knowing a note of music, to hammer and thump upon them all at the same time.”
Source: The Essays of Virginia Woolf: 1925-1928
“A strange thing has happened as I've aged; I have felt my parents' love for me more strongly every year.”
“A strange thing has happened, do you know? I am in darkness. There is a person who, departing, took away the sun.”
Source: Les Misérables
“A strange thing is memory, and hope; one looks backward, and the other forward; one is of today, the other of tomorrow. Memory is history recorded in our brain, memory is a painter, it paints pictures of the past and of the day.”
“A strange thing surely that my Heart, when love had come unsought
Upon the Norman upland or in that poplar shade,
Should find no burden but itself and yet should be worn out.
It could not bear that burden and therefore it went mad.”
Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats