B Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with B. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“But as the priceless treasure too frequently hides at the bottom of well, it needs some courage to dive for it, especially as he that does so will be likely to incur more scorn and obloquy for the mud and water into which he has ventured to plunge, than thanks for the jewel he procures; as like in manner, she who undertakes the cleansing of a careless bachelor's apartment will be liable to more abuse for the dust she raises than commendation for the clearance she effects.”
Source: The Complete Novels Of The Bronte Sisters: Seven-Book Bundle
“But as the Professor continued going deeper into the abyss, he suddenly remembered a quotation by the philosopher Nietzsche that he had read in one of the lectures he had given in the last few days:
''... If you refuse to let your own suffering lie upon you for an hour and if you constantly try to prevent and forestall all possible stress ahead of time; if you experience suffering and displeasure as evil, hateful, worthy of annihilation, and as a defect of existence, then it is clear that besides your religion of pity you also harbour another religion in your heart that is perhaps the mother of the religion of pity: the religion of comfortableness. How little you know of human happiness, you comfortable and benevolent people, for happiness and unhappiness are sisters and even twins that either grow up together or, as in your case, remain small together...”
Source: Paceville and Metanoia
“But as the reality of their vulnerability tore through them, doubt and fear took root, casting long shadows over their once unshakable faith.”
Source: Arya and the Guardians of Azhira
“But as the Roman playwright Terence once wrote, From many a bad beginning great friendships have formed”
“But as the scissors snip-snapped through her hair and the razor shaved the rest, she realized with a sudden awful panic that she could no longer recall anything from the past. I cannot remember, she whispered to herself. I cannot remember. She's been shorn of memory as brutally as she'd been shorn of her hair, without permission, without reason... Gone, all gone, she thought again wildly, no longer even sure what was gone, what she was mourning.”
“But as the sun started to rise over the hills, they were off, on the wide-open road, heading for his home. The one he somehow needed to take this tight-assed woman to, along with her scrap of a mangy cat, the one with half an ear missing.
Because if he hadn’t wrangled her into coming, somehow, this time, in a very weird, unexpected way…
…it wouldn’t have felt as much like his home. At all.”
Source: A Real Man: The First Miracle
“But as the unthought-on accident is guilty To what we wildly do, so we profess Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies Of every wind that blows.”
“But as the work proceeded I was continually reminded of the fable about the elephant and the tortoise. Having constructed an elephant upon which the mathematical world could rest, I found the elephant tottering, and proceeded to construct a tortoise to keep the elephant from falling. But the tortoise was not more secure than the elephant, and after some twenty years of very arduous toil, I came to the conclusion that there was nothing more that I could do in the way of making mathematical knowledge indubitable.”
Source: Autobiography
“But as the world turns I learned life is hell, Livin' in the world no different from a cell...”
“But as the years passed, he missed her more, not less, and his need for her became a cut that would not scar over, would not stop leaking.”
Source: Shutter Island
“But as the years passed, Ned's silence grew and grew. It pressed upon his face and his body. It leaked into the house and spread outward into the yard. His silence had weight. It had substance and presence and teeth.”
Source: The Witch's Boy
“But as the years went on, I realised that what I really want to be, all told, is a human. Just a productive, honest, courteously treated human.”
“But as there is a keeping back, and quietly waiting, and a keeping out of willing or running, and haste, the spirit arises purely and stilly in the heart, and gives perfect evidence and full testimony of itself; so that there needs to be no doubting nor questioning of its motion; for it shows forth itself with full assurance of its own will.”
“But as they grew closer and closer, Sophie had opened Agatha's wings to a love so strong she thought it would last forever. It was she and Sophie against the world. But on that first day of school, watching Sophie with a prince, Agatha realized how blind she'd been. The bond between two girls, no matter how fierce or loyal, changed once a boy came between them.”
Source: The Last Ever After
“But as they say about sharks, it's not the ones you see that you have to worry about, it's the ones you don't see.”
“But as time goes on we not only remember specific things in relation to the people we have loved; their lives get built into our lives and finally the transference is complete. We are what we are because of them.”
Source: Plant Dreaming Deep
“But as to our country and our race, as long as the well compacted structure of our church and state, the sanctuary, the holy of holies of that ancient law, defended by reverence, defended by power, a fortress at once and a temple, shall stand inviolate on the brow of the British Sion—as long as the British Monarchy, not more limited than fenced by the orders of the State, shall, like the proud Keep of Windsor, rising in the majesty of proportion, and girt with the double belt of it’s kindred and coeval towers, as long as this awful structure shall oversee and guard the subjected land—so long the mounds and dykes of the low, fat, Bedford level will have nothing to fear from all the pickaxes of all the levellers of France. As long as our Sovereign Lord the King, and his faithful subjects, the Lords and Commons of this realm, the triple cord, which no man can break; the solemn, sworn, constitutional frank-pledge of this nation; the firm guarantees of each others being, and each others rights; the joint and several securities, each in it’s place and order, for every kind and every quality, of property and of dignity—As long as these endure, so long the Duke of Bedford is safe: and we are all safe together—the high from the blights of envy and the spoliations of rapacity; the low from the iron hand of oppression and the insolent spurn of contempt.”
Source: A Letter To A Noble Lord
“But as to the affection which anyone may have for us, it is the first demand of duty that we do most for him who loves us most; but we should measure affection, not like youngsters, by the ardour of its passion, but rather by its strength and constancy.”
“But as to the influence of the death of someone near on those he leaves behind, it has long seemed to me that this ought to be no other than a higher responsibility. Does the person who passes away not leave all the things he had begun in hundreds of ways to be continued by those who outlive him, if they had shared any kind of inner bond at all? In recent years I had to live through so many close experiences of death, but not one person has been taken from me without my having found the tasks around me increased. The weight of this unexplained and perhaps greatest event, which only due to a misunderstanding has gained the reputation of being arbitrary and cruel, presses us (I think increasingly) more evenly and more deeply into life and places the utmost obligations on our slowly growing strengths.”
Source: The Dark Interval: Letters on Loss, Grief, and Transformation
“But as to women, who can penetrate the real sufferings of their she condition? Man's very sympathy with their estate has much of selfishness and more suspicion. Their love, their virtue, beauty, education, but form good housekeepers, to breed a nation.”
Source: DON JUAN
“But as to your writing me that I don’t love you very much, I don’t know whether you’re saying this in earnest or whether I should realise that you’re joking with me. Still, what you say disturbs me. You are measuring a very healthy expression of a wife’s loyalty by the standard of the insincere flattery of well-worn phrases. But I shall love you, my husband. What does it mean to you that you reassure me with those trivial little compliments? Do you want me to believe that you expect me to comb my hair in a stylish fashion for your homecoming? Or to feign adoring looks with a painted face? Let women without means, who worry and have no confidence in their virtue, flutter their eyelashes and play games to gain favour with their husbands. This is the adulation of a fox and the birdlime of deceitful bird hunting. I don’t want to have to buy you at such a price. I’m not a person who lays more stock in words than duty. I am truly your Laura, whose soul is the same one you in turn had hoped for.”
“But as usual there's no answer to this. As usual, that's just how it is.”
Source: The Time Traveler's Wife
“But as Van casually directed the searchlight of backthought into that maze of the past where the mirror-lined narrow paths not only took different turns, but used different levels (as a mule-drawn cart passes under the arch of a viaduct along which a motor skims by), he found himself tackling, in still vague and idle fashion, the science that was to obsess his mature years - problems of space and time, space versus time, time-twisted space, space as time, time as space - and space breaking away from time, in the final tragic triumph of human cogitation: I am because I die.”
“But as was so often the case, it was the one person missing who you thought about more than the ones who were right in front of you.”
Source: The Moon and More
“But as we all know, rock ‘n’ roll will never die, and education too, as Henry Adams always sez, keeps going on forever.”
Source: Slow Learner
“But as we are looking toward our future, I'm not sure it matters what we want to be but rather who we want to be. Someone honest or deceitful?Someone kind or cruel?Someone loyal or unfaithful? In any profession we can elect to be any of those things. I think this assignment is not only about what we choose to do but about who we choose to be. I choose to always be loyal to myself. -Raven Madison”
“But as we do not light up our houses with our brightest lamps for all comers, so neither did she emit from her eyes their brightest sparks till special occasions for such shining had arisen.”
Source: The Prime Minister: Trollope's Works
“But as we learn to trust, we take more risks.
He touched me with what I can only think to describe as authority--so different from my sexual experiences so far, those incoherent collegiate rumblings.
Jude turned to me, rolling onto his side. He brushed the sand from my cheek and said, Sleep with me tonight.
I thought I just did.
I don't mean fucking, he said, and I marveled at the word in his mouth--not a curse or a blunt force but somehow spoken with lightness, worn in with the warmth of many years.
I mean come home with me. Spend the night. I want to be able to reach for you.”
Source: Thirst for Salt
“But as we move from this period of what many Iraqis regard as perceived occupation, we need to move towards one of partnership.”
“But as we went on, and you keep practicing and rehearsing more and more fight scenes, it clicks and you just get it. It's almost like a soccer game. If you take enough shots on target, one of them is going to go in. As soon as it does, something happens and it just registers. I found it a lot easier after that, which was about three-quarters of the way through the shoot.”
“But as we were fixing lunch, and for no apparent reason, she laughed in such a way that I kissed her.”
Source: The Stranger
“But as well may you, when urging a man up-hill with a heavy load upon his back, and with your lash also upon his back, tell him, that be has nothing to do either with the load or the lash.”
Source: Speeches of Gerrit Smith in Congress
“But as when an authentic watch is shown, Each man winds up and rectifies his own, So in our very judgments.”
Source: The Poems, Plays and Other Remains of Sir John Suckling
“But as with Maxwell's Demon, so now. Either she could not communicate, or he did not exist.”
Source: The Crying of Lot 49
“But as you age, you lose other, even more important things, like friends-hopefully only bad friends, who maybe weren't as good for you as you once thought. With luck, you'll be able to hang on to your true friends, the ones who were always there for you....even when you thought they weren't. Because friends like that are more precious then all the tiaras in the world”
Source: Crowning Glory
“But as you get older, your courage attracts gunk and crusty things and dirt and fear and knowing how bad things can get and what pain feels like. By the time you're half-grown, your courage barely moves at all, it's so grunged up with living. So every once in a while, you have to scrub it up and get the works going or else you'll never be brave again. Unfortunately, there are not so many facilities in the world that proveide the kind of services we do. So most people go around with grimy machinery, when all it would take is a bit of spit and polish to make them paladins once more, bold knights and true.”
Source: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
“But as you say in English, c'est la vie!”
“But, as you watch the sun rise again tomorrow morning, think to yourself: past performance is not a predictor of future results. And then force a smile, drink another cup of coffee, and try not to look down as you walk across the soil that will eventually fill your lifeless lungs and repurpose your corpse.”
Source: Mostly Void, Partially Stars
“But Ash, I can't continue to want you from a distance. To love you and not have you. I'd end up in jail if anyone tried to touch you and God forbid you tried to date someone.”
Source: The Vincent Boys Extended and Uncut Collection: The Vincent Boys -- Extended and Uncut; The Vincent Brothers -- Extended and Uncut
“But ask yourself this Eragon: If gods exist, have they been good custodians of alagaesia? Death, sickness, poverty, tyranny and countless other miseries stalk the land. If this is the handiwork of divine beings, then they are to be rebelled against and overthrown, not given obeisance, obedience, and reverance.”
“But assuming the same premises, to wit, that all men are equal by the law of nature and of nations, the right of property in slaves falls to the ground; for one who is equal to another cannot be the owner or property of that other.”
“But assuredly Fortune rules in all things; she raised to eminence or buries in oblivion everything from caprice rather than from well-regulated principle.
[Lat., Sed profecto Fortuna in omni re dominatur; ea res cunctas ex lubidine magis, quam ex vero, celebrat, obscuratque.]”
“But, astonishingly, I'm not broken. I'm not destroyed. Terrified witless, shaking, retching with fear, yes. But no longer insecure. Because during my search for how you died, I somehow found myself to be a different person. ... Living my life. And it wouldn't be my grief for you that toppled the mountain, but love.”
Source: Sister
“But Astrid had always hated this view of herself. Uptight, Unable to let go- cold. Everything Isabella Parker Green embodied. Everything Astrid didn't want to be, but felt trapped into being anyway.”
Source: Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail
“But at 42, 1 don't care what critics think.”
“But at [soccer] tournaments you tend to see novel, unanticipated trends coming through, with everyone watching each other like hawks and immediately copying anything new. What is really important for every team is to be aware of its own capabilities and find a style which plays to one's own strengths.”
“But at a certain point in our lives, we cannot passively allow our upbringing to define us. We must choose it or choose other.”
Source: Hope and Red
“But at a certain point we turn round, almost instinctively,
and see that a gate has been bolted behind us, barring our way back (...)
Then we understand that time is passing and that one day or another the road must come to an end.”
Source: The Tartar Steppe
“But at a certain point you've gotta be ruthless with the movie because you can have these great scenes, but they aren't specifically building the story that needs to be built at that moment.”
“But at a certain point, and I don't really know... people have asked me this. I don't know exactly what it was that pushed me towards directing, but I think it was a naive notion that if I directed I would be able to play all the roles. A kind of greed.”