A Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Aegean Islands 1940-41
Where white stares, smokes or breaks,
Thread white, white of plaster and of foam,
Where sea like a wall falls;
Ribbed, lionish coast,
The stony islands which blow into my mind
More often than I imagine my grassy home;
To sun one's bones beside the
Explosive, crushed-blue, nostril-opening sea
(The weaving sea, splintered with sails and foam,
Familiar of famous and deserted harbours,
Of coins with dolphins on and fallen pillars.)
To know the gear and skill of sailing,
The drenching race for home and the sail-white houses,
Stories of Turks and smoky ikons,
Cry of the bagpipe, treading
Of the peasant dancers;
The dark bread
The island wine and the sweet dishes;
All these were elements in a happiness
More distant now than any date like '40,
A. D. or B. C., ever can express.”
“Aegis-bearing Zeus has a design for each occasion, and mortals find this hard to comprehend.”
Source: Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield
“Aegistheus, the kings have another secret.... Once liberty has exploded in the soul of a man, the Gods can do nothing against that man. It is a matter for men to handle amongst themselves, and it is up to other men and to them alone to let him flee or to destroy him.”
“Aegon had made the seven kingdoms one with fire and blood.”
Source: Fire & Blood
“Aeithales. That’s ancient Greek for evergreen, if I recall correctly.”
Source: The Burning Maze
“Aela hesitated, terrified for her friend. This was treason. "Mason -"
"Go, damn it. I've lost my king. I won't lose my friend too.”
Source: Anarchist Underground: An epic fantasy political intrigue
“Aelfric once told me that strong passionate loves always destroy themselves. They are kindled of a fire that burns so hot that no amount of fuel can sustain it. Those loves, Aelfric said, either dwindle with contact—unable to burn bright through the dreary intercourse of daily life—or suffocate with distance. Only a small and steady flame, he said, can last a lifetime. Though I haven’t loved before now, I’ve found it to be true of other passions. Those who fall headlong into obsessions do so often, and always quickly move on to new obsessions.”
Source: Three Days and Two Knights
“Aelia, please stop worrying. You look beautiful. We've had large parties before and you haven't been nervous." There was the clink of cosmetic pots and bottles of nard used to perfume the forehead.
"I wasn't nervous until you mentioned Ovid would be coming," Aelia said.
Aelia was not alone in her love of Ovid's poetry. Passia had read every word the man had ever written. He was considered to be one of Rome's experts on both love and beauty, and most women I knew owned several of his books. When Passia heard he would be in attendance I thought she might swoon.
There was the ruffle of a scroll being unraveled. "Could this be one of the sources of your concern? Women's Facial Cosmetics?"
I remembered the book. Apicius had bought it and other Ovid titles for Aelia two years earlier as a Saturnalia gift.
"I know, I shouldn't worry. But if he didn't know so much, how could he write it down? It is as though he were the mouthpiece for Venus herself!”
Source: Feast of Sorrow
“Aelin drew her eyes away from the beauty of their magic, the beauty of them, and found his face to be the most beautiful of all.”
“Aelin frightens everyone…But not him. I think that’s why she fell in love with him, against her best intentions. Rowan beheld all Aelin was and is, and he was not afraid”
Source: Tower of Dawn
“Aelin frightens everyone." He snorted. "But not him. I think that's why she fell in love with him, against her best intentions. Rowan beheld all Aelin was and is, and he was not afraid.”
“Aelin Galathynius smiled at her, hand still outreached. "Get up." the princess said.
Celaena reached across the earth between them and brushed her fingers against Aelin's.
And arose.”
Source: Heir of Fire
“Aelin hissed, "Need I remind you Captain, that you went to Endovier and did not blink at the slaves and the mass graves? Need I remind you that I was starved and chained and you let Duke Perrington force me to the ground at Dorian's feet while you did nothing? And now you have the nerve to accuse me of not caring, when many of the people in this city have profited off the blood and misery of the very people you ignored?”
Source: Queen of Shadows
“Aelin’s eyes furled her fingers into a fist. Light leaked through her clenched fingers. Cold white light. Tendrils flickered — silver flame ...”
Source: Empire of Storms
“Aelin's hand wavered slightly over his wound. "What's your shield made of, then?"
Fenrys tried and failed to shrug. But Gavriel muttered from where he worked on the still-whimpering pirate, "Arrogance."
Aelin snorted, but didn't dare take her eyes off Fenrys's injury as she said, "So you do have sense of humor, Gavriel."
The Lion of Doranelle gave a wary smile over his shoulder. The rare-sighted, restrained twin to Aedion's own flashing grins. Aelin had called him Uncle Kitty-Cat all of one time before Aedion had snarled viciously enough to make her think carefully before using the term again. Gavriel, to his credit, had merely given Aelin a long-suffereing sigh that seemed to be used only when she or Fenrys were around.
"That sense of humor only appears about once every century," Fenrys rasped, "so you'd better hope you Settle, or else that's the last time you'll see it.”
Source: Empire of Storms
“Aelin said to Fenrys, “We’ll only invite him to Orynth on holidays.” “So he can ruin the festivities?” Fenrys scowled. “I, for one, cherish my holidays. I don’t need a misanthrope raining on them.”
Source: Kingdom of Ash
“Aelin sighed. 'This place has been shut down for months, and yet I swear I can still hear the music floating in the air.'
Rowan angled his head, studying the dark with those immortal senses. 'Perhaps the music does live on, in some form.'
The thought made her eyes sting.”
“Aelin took a step forward.
One step, as if in a daze.
She loosed a shuddering breath, and a small, whimpering noise came out of her - a sob.
And then she was sprinting down the alley, flying as though the winds themselves pushed at her heels.
She flung herself on the male, crashing into him hard enough that anyone else might have gone rocking back into the stone wall.
But the male grabbed her to him, his massive arms wrapping around her tightly and lifting her up. Nesryn made to approach, but Aedion stopped her with a hand on her arm.
Aelin was laughing as she cried, and the male was just holding her, his hooded head buried in her neck. As if he were breathing her in.
"Who is that?" Nesryn asked.
Aedion smiled. "Rowan.”
Source: Queen of Shadows
“Aelin was laughing as she cried, and the male was just holding her, his hooded head buried in her neck. As if he were breathing her in.
"Who is that?" Nesryn asked.
Aedion smiled. "Rowan.”
“Aelin wiped her hands. “Well, that’s over and done with,” she announced, and strode to the desk and map. “Shall we discuss where you all plan to march once we beat the living shit out of this army?”
Source: Kingdom of Ash
“Aemon’s blind white eyes came open. “Egg?” he said, as the rain streamed down his cheeks. “Egg, I dreamed that I was old.”
Source: George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 5-Book Boxed Set (Song of Ice and Fire Series): A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and and A Dance with Dragons
“Aeneas carried his aged father on his back from the ruins of Troy and so do we all, whether we like it or not, perhaps even if we have never known them.”
Source: Shaking a Leg: Collected Writings
“Aeneas comes to her court a suppliant, impoverished and momentarily timid. He is a good-looking man. If anything, his scars emphasize that. The aura of his divine failure wraps around him like a cloak. Dido feels the tender contempt of the strong for the unlucky, but this is mixed with something else, a hunger that worms through her bones and leaves them hollow, to be filled with fire.”
“Aeneas' mother is a star?"
"No; a goddess."
I said cautiously, "Venus is the power that we invoke in spring, in the garden, when things begin growing. And we call the evening star Venus."
He thought it over. Perhaps having grown up in the country, among pagans like me, helped him understand my bewilderment. "So do we, he said. "But Venus also became more...With the help of the Greeks. They call her Aphrodite...There was a great poet who praised her in Latin. Delight of men and gods, he called her, dear nurturer. Under the sliding star signs she fills the ship-laden sea and the fruitful earth with her being; through her the generations are conceived and rise up to see the sun; from her the storm clouds flee; to her the earth, the skillful maker, offers flowers. The wide levels of the sea smile at her, and all the quiet sky shines and streams with light..."
It was the Venus I had prayed to, it was my prayer, though I had no such words. They filled my eyes with tears and my heart with inexpressible joy.”
Source: Lavinia
“Aeons passed . . . worlds spun and whirled . . . Time was motionless . . . It stood still—it passed through a thousand ages . . .”
Source: And Then There Were None
“Aerial flight is one of that class of problems with which man will never be able to cope.”
“Aerial flight is one of that class of problems with which man will never be able to cope. . . . The example of the bird does not prove that man can fly. Imagine the proud possessor of the aeroplane darting through the air at a speed of several hundred feet per second. It is the speed alone that sustains him. How is he ever going to stop?”
“Aerial perspective has nothing to do with line, but concerns tones and colours, by the delicate manipulation of which an artist can suggest infinite distance.”
“Aerial spirits, by great Jove design'd To be on earth the guardians of mankind: Invisible to mortal eyes they go, And mark our actions, good or bad, below: The immortal spies with watchful care preside, And thrice ten thousand round their charges glide: They can reward with glory or with gold, A power they by Divine permission hold.”
Source: The British Poets: Including Translations. In One Hundred Volumes. LXXXVIII
“Aeriel felt her heart grow troubled. "I know," she said. "I know that he is evil, but his beauty unmakes me. Every time he looks at me, I die.”
“AERIN is saturated with the qualities that have surrounded me my entire life, many of which came from my grandmother, Estee: passion, style, hard work, family, and, of course, all things beautiful.”
“Aerobic dancing is already adjusting to injury problems and will probably phase out to some extent.”
“Aerobics is a really whacked-out way to get going. The loud rock 'n' roll music and the teachers standing before you, doing the exercises and screaming into the microphone, "Go! Go! Go for the burn!"”
“Aerodynamically there isn’t much you can do to enhance your Beetle’s handling. The Porsche style whale tale – um, tail is just that – a load of nonsense. It does no aerodynamic spoiling at all except to spoil your car ergonomically, and quite frankly, it looks like crap. It goes with blue LED lights under the car and (yuk) fur on the dashboard.”
Source: Bugspray
“Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway.”
“Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines.”
“Aerodynamics is for those who cannot manufacture good engines.”
“Aeronautics confers beauty and grandeur, combining art and science for those who devote themselves to it. . . . The aeronaut, free in space, sailing in the infinite, loses himself in the immense undulations of nature. He climbs, he rises, he soars, he reigns, he hurtles the proud vault of the azure sky . . .”
“Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle.”
“Aeroplane journeys give me quiet time to read and sleep; it's like being unplugged from the earth.”
“Aeroplanes are not designed by science, but by art in spite of some pretence and humbug to the contrary. I do not mean to suggest that engineering can do without science, on the contrary, it stands on scientific foundations, but there is a big gap between scientific research and the engineering product which has to be bridged by the art of the engineer.”
“Aerosmith is such a powerful band; I mean, it's like a steam locomotive.”
“Aerosmith's 'Rocks' is on the list of my top favorite albums of all time.”
“Aerosmith-one of the 10 best bands today? Yeah definitely.”
“Aerric’s skill as a fighter, along with the fact that he could not be killed, made him the ultimate weapon. Morrigan and Brighid had used the hide of a phoenix and a bit of Pandra’s dragon blood to create him.”
Source: Redemption
“Aerric took another sip of his whiskey as his manservant left the room. His thoughts had distracted him from the truth of the moment…. His mate, his love, and how she had betrayed him. He wasn’t sure if he could find his way back, no matter how much he loved her. Aerric waved his hand and the fire in the hearth died out. He sat in his pitch-black office, hoping the memories of her and their love would become like the room… perfect darkness.”
Source: Redemption
“Aeschylus and Plato are remembered today long after the triumphs of Imperial Athens are gone. Dante outlived the ambitions of thirteenth century Florence. Goethe stands serenely above the politics of Germany, and I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over cities, we too will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.”
“Aeschylus writes, "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
Source: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
“Aesop, that great man, saw his master making water as he walked. "What!" he said, "Must we void ourselves as we run?" Use our timeas best we may, yet a great part of it will still be idly and ill spent.”
“Aesthetes never do anything but what they are told.”