A Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“About, about, in reel and rout the death fires danced at night.”
Source: Lyrical Ballads
“Above a certain level of income, the relative value of material consumption vis-a-vis leisure time is diminished, so earning a higher income at the cost of working longer hours may reduce the quality of your life. More importantly, the fact that the citizens of a country work longer than others in comparable countries does not necessarily mean that they like working longer hours. They may be compelled to work long hours, even if they actually want to take longer holidays.”
“Above, a vivid painting hung over the fireplace. Inside its frame, a woman was transforming into a tree.
The lower half of her body was bark and roots, plunging into soil, while her waist and chest arched upwards and her outstretched hands reached for the sky. The nymph's dark hair was a knotted mass of branches around her head, sprouting bright green leaves.
It was the myth of Daphne---the nymph who begged the river god to save her from Apollo and was turned into a laurel tree.
"It must be a terrible thing to lose," Hawthorne said, making her jump.
He looked up from where he crouched near the fire: to the woman in the frame. His left forearm was streaked with black ash.
"What's a terrible thing to lose?"
Hawthorne's eyes glittered as he studied the nymph. "Your humanity."
"But it was her choice," said Emeline, feeling defensive of Daphne. If the river god hadn't turned her into a laurel, she would have fallen prey to Apollo. "She asked to be saved."
Firelight flickered over Hawthorne's face as his gray-eyed gaze caught hers and held it.
"Saved," he murmured, considering this. "Is that really what the river god did? As a tree, her life is forfeit. She'll never be human again. She'll never laugh or sing, ponder or love, again. Don't you think she would have preferred the river god defeat Apollo, or at the very least warn him away, instead of taking something so precious from her?”
Source: Edgewood
“Above all, a game is an opportunity, an easy- to-understand instrument by which context is defamiliarized just enough to allow what Huizinga famously refers to as his “a magic circle” of play to occur.”
Source: Critical Play: Radical Game Design
“Above all, a man’s thought is his nostalgia.”
Source: The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
“Above all, a Technician must be dispassionate. The Reality Change he initiates may affect the lives of as many as fifty billion people. A million or more of these may be so drastically affected as to be considered new individuals. Under these conditions, an emotional make-up is a distinct handicap.”
Source: The End of Eternity
“Above all am I convinced of the need, irrevocable and inescapable, of every human heart, for God. No matter how we try to escape, to lose ourselves in restless seeking, we cannot separate ourselves from our divine source. There is no substitute for God.”
Source: Adventures in Two Worlds
“Above all, avoid lying, especially lying to yourself. Keep watching out for your lies, watch for them every hour, every minute. Also avoid disgust, both for others and yourself: whatever strikes you as disgusting within yourself is cleansed by the mere fact that you notice it.
Avoid fear, too, although fear is really only a consequence of lies. Never be afraid of your petty selfishness when you try to achieve love and don’t be too alarmed if you act badly on occasion.”
Source: The Brothers Karamazov
“Above all avoid taking the advice of men who have no brains and do not know what they are talking about.”
Source: Letters: selected and edited with an introd. and notes by Howard Mumford Jones, in association with Walter B. Rideout
“Above all be much in secret prayer and meditation. By this you will fetch the heavenly fire that must kindle your sacrifice: remember you cannot decline and neglect your duty to your own hurt alone, many will be losers by it as well as you.”
Source: The Practical Works of the Rev. Richard Baxter, with a Life of the Author, and a Critical Examination of His Writings
“Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.”
Source: The James Allen Companion
“Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.”
“Above all birds, the hummingbird gives me that feeling of the mystery and the wonder of life. Such a vibrant little body, such color, and wings that beat faster than thought. I felt as if I could watch the whole of life if I could hold a hummingbird in my hand once.”
Source: The book of Stillmeadow
“Above all Christians are not allowed to correct by violence sinful wrongdoings.”
“Above all, consider this: The greatest gift we can give ourselves, our children, and our world is to live well and love well.”
Source: Erotic Intelligence: Igniting Hot, Healthy Sex While in Recovery from Sex Addiction
“Above all do not ask that justice be just: It is just, because it is justice. The idea of a just justice could have originated only in the brain of an anarchist.”
“Above all, do not bribe, reward, or attempt to comfort with food. Food is for hunger, satisfaction, and nourishment. Help your children learn how to endure feelings. Let them know that their feelings are real and valued and that there are ways to be comforted without using food.”
Source: Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Program That Works
“Above all do not give yourself airs. Breaking the moment of past habits is the challenge here: In the life of the spirit you are always at the beginning.”
“Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete beastiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others and himself. A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. it sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn't it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked up on a word and made a mountain out of a pea--he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility...”
Source: The Brothers Karamazov
“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of well being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”
“Above all else , the devil can not stand to be mocked.”
“Above all else, guard your heart for it affects everything else you do.”
Source: Holy Bible: New International Version
“Above all else, he loves trilogies. There has never been a trilogy he didn't like, and if you don't understand why, I have three words for you: father, son, and Holy Spirit. Foremost among his favorites is the original Star Wars trilogy, which he fervently believes is about priests in space, and the first three Alien films, which he believes are about how all women are destined to be mothers. Currently he is obsessed with the Transformers movies, because the greatest Transformer of all . . . is Jesus Christ. He even sat me down one day to have a serious discussion about "moral choices the Transformers are forced to make." At no point did I interrupt him to say, "But Dad, they're cars." This means I am becoming an adult. Because truly, the Transformers are more than cars. Some of them are trucks.”
Source: Priestdaddy
“Above all else I am a dilettante in life.”
Source: Venus in Furs
“Above all else - I was his.
And he was mine.”
Source: Endless
“Above all else she mustn't think that using her body will help her attain her goal. Men use women who play seductively, and then they look down on them.”
“Above all else show the data.”
“Above all else stands the burning question of bipartisanship. Whatever else the politicians might say they're about, our news analysts know that this is the true object of the nation's desire, the topic to which those slippery presidential spokesmen need always to be dragged back.”
“Above all else, their eyes obsessed me. In the standing tanks on either side of them, different fishes showed me the simple stupidity of their handsome eyes so similar to our own. The eyes of the axolotls spoke to me of the presence of a different life, of another way of seeing.”
Source: Axolotl
“Above all else, [Benny Goodman] was a great player, one of the greatest American music has produced. He brought his absolute talent and his invincible love of music to the fore every time he played. There are many other things connected to society and ethnicity that are often mentioned in a discussion of Benny Goodman but all of them are connected to his overwhelming affection for the art of the music and the fairness it should be allowed to express.”
“Above all else, align with customers. Win when they win. Win only when they win.”
“Above all else, be consistent.”
“Above all else, be true to your heart. When you marry, whether it be a marquis or an estate manager (or both!), it will be for life. You must go where your heart leads and never forget that love is the most precious gift of all. Money and social status are poor substitutes for a warm, tender embrace, and there is little in life more fulfilling than the joy of loving and knowledge that you are loved in return.”
“Above all else, before playing in competitions a player must have regard to his health, for if he is suffering from ill-health he cannot hope for success. In this connection the best of all tonics is 15 to 20 days in the fresh air, in the country.”
Source: Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games
“Above all else, children need to know and feel they are loved, wanted, and appreciated. They need to be assured of that often. Obviously, this is a role parents should fill, and most often the mother can do it best.”
Source: The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson
“Above all else, deep in my soul, I'm a tough Irishwoman.”
Source: 'Tis Herself: An Autobiography
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
“Above all else, He loves you and chose to measure that love out not in words, but in blood. He loves you enough to give you the greatest gift conceivable. Would such a love allow you to suffer without purpose?”
Source: A Bend in the Road: Finding God When Your World Caves In
“Above all else, I had learned the one thing every person has to learn to make it through life: the only person you can truly count on is yourself.”
“Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that's why I made works of art.”
Source: Felix Gonzalez-Torres
“Above all else, know this: Be prepared at all times for the gifts of God and be ready always for new ones. For God is a thousand times more ready to give than we are to receive”
“Above all else, never think you're not good enough.”
“Above all else, philosophy ought to aim for clarification - of the self, one's place in the world, and the ways we make meaning. Philosophy, when practiced well, can be useful. It can enable us to grapple in productive ways with questions about the meaning of life and who I am and how I want to be in the world.”
“Above all else, products spread when they're useful and they're usable”
“Above all else, tragedy requires the finest appreciation by the writer of cause and effect.”
Source: The Collected Essays of Arthur Miller
“Above all else, we need a reaffirmation of political commitment at the highest levels to reducing the dangers that arise both from existing nuclear weapons and from further proliferation.”
Source: Wir die Völker
“Above all have respect for yourself.”
“Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.”
“Above all I ask leaders and legislators and the entire international community above all to confront the reality of those who have been displaced by force, with effective projects and new approaches in order to protect their dignity, to improve the quality of their life and to face the challenges that are emerging from modern forms of persecution, oppression and slavery.”
“Above all I commend the study of Christ. Let Him be your library.”
Source: Select Works