B Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with B. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“But I, Caesar, have not sought to amass wealth by the practice of my art, having been rather contented with a small fortune and reputation, than desirous of abundance accompanied by a want of reputation.”
Source: The Architecture of M. Vitruvius Pollio in Ten Books, Translated from the Latin by J. Gwilt
“But I, for one, am not interested in a harmless truth or a harmless God. Give me a truth that works, and a God who makes me tremble.”
Source: The Bravehearted Gospel: The Truth Is Worth Fighting For
“But I, in the chilling twilight stand and wait At the portcullis, at thy castle gate, Longing to see the charmed door of dreams Turn on its noiseless hinges, delicate sleep!”
Source: The Writings of Thomas Bailey Aldrich
“But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty To strut before a wanton ambling nymph.”
“But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks, Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass; I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty To strut before a wanton ambling nymph; I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up, And that so lamely and unfashionable That dogs bark at me as I halt by them,-- Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace, Have no delight to pass away the time, Unless to spy my shadow in the sun.”
“But I, when I undress me Each night, upon my knees Will ask the Lord to bless me With apple-pie and cheese.”
“But ice-crunching and loud gum-chewing, together with drumming on tables, and whistling the same tune 70 times in succession, because they indicate an indifference on the part of the perpetrator to the rest of the world in general, are not only registered on the delicate surfaces of the brain but eat little holes in it until it finally collapses or blows up.”
Source: Benchley Lost and Found: 39 Prodigal Pieces
“But Id say that probably 70 percent of the bunkering is more to give you an idea of the direction that you want to go or to save your ball from going into worse places.”
“But ideal cities are very much the product of their own ages. Designed as complete urban statements, they bear the unmistakable imprint of their own culture and world view in every street and building. And yet to be successful a city has to be open to continuous development, free to evolve and grow with the demands of new times. Like science fiction accounts of the future, ideal cities quickly become outmoded.”
“But ideas can be true although men die,
And we can watch a thousand faces
Made active by one lie:
And maps can really point to places
Where life is evil now:
Nanking; Dachau.”
Source: Journey to a War
“But if a few awake, you can't say there is no hope of destroying the iron house.”
Source: Diary of a Madman and Other Stories
“But if a man be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”
Source: Nature
“But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things.”
Source: The Annotated Emerson
“But if a mirror ever makes
you sad
you should know
that it does
not know
you.”
“But if a peaceful world is beyond politics it is also beyond religions as these presently exist. A change is needed in every phase of human life. This lies mainly in recognition that the micro phase, the particular or national traditions, must find their context and fulfillment in the macro phase, the global or panhuman phase of human existence.”
Source: Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community
“But if a person has never experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is.”
Source: Kitchen
“But if a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is. I'm grateful for it.”
Source: Kitchen
“But if a stranger in the train asks me my occupation, I never answer "writer" for fear that he may go on to ask me what I write, and to answer "poetry" would embarrass us both, for we both know that nobody can earn a living simply by writing poetry.”
“But if a villain can be made, then they can be unmade.”
“But if all maximizing models are really arguing is that “people will always seek to maximize something,” then they obviously can’t predict anything, which means employing them can hardly be said to make anthropology more scientific. All they really add to analysis is a set of assumptions about human nature. The assumption, most of all, that no one ever does anything primarily out of concern for others; that whatever one does, one is only trying to get something out of it for oneself. In common English, there is a word for this attitude. It’s called “cynicism.” Most of us try to avoid people who take it too much to heart. In economics, apparently, they call it “science.”
Source: Toward An Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams
“But if all of the evil in the world makes you think that there might be a devil, Chris, how do you account for all the good?”
Source: The Exorcist
“But if all they did was kill time, time would end up killing them.”
Source: Gone Series Complete Collection: Gone, Hunger, Lies, Plague, Fear, Light
“But if all this time between them had taught him anything, it was that they were orbiting the same fate. Together, always together, even when physically apart.”
Source: Return to Poughkeepsie
“But if America recalls for a moment what Europe has meant to her and still means to her, what Europe, the mother of art and of knowledge, in spite of everything, still is and still will be, will she not reject these counsels of indifference and isolation, and interest herself in what may prove decisive issues for the progress and civilization of all mankind?”
Source: The Economic Consequences of the Peace
“But if an actress asks me my opinion, I would tell her there are a million different designers who make faux fur. If you like that look, wear faux fur. If you're doing it on the red carpet, you're doing it for how it looks. Faux fur and real fur look the same on camera.”
“But if anyone so much as threatened them because of what Kaia had once done, she would turn the Slumber Party Massacre into Blood, Bath and Beyond, a documentary by Kaia Skyhawk.”
Source: The Darkest Surrender
“But if anyone supposes that there was no commercial fraud in the Middle Ages, let him study the commercial legislation of England for that period, and his mind will be satisfied, if he has a mind to be satisfied and not only a fancy to run away with him.”
Source: Lectures and Essays
“But if anyone were to conduct his life by reason He would find great riches in living a peaceful life And being contented; one is never short of a little But men want always to be powerful and famous So that their fortune rests on a solid foundation And they can spend a placid life in opulence. There isn't a hope of it; to attain great honours You have to struggle along a dangerous way And even when you reach the top there is envy Which can strike you down like lightning into Tartarus. For envy, like lightning, generally strikes at the top Or any point which sticks out from the ordinary level.”
Source: De rerum natura
“But if anything in thy own dispositiongives thee pain, who hinders thee from correcting thy opinion? And even if thou art pained because thou art not doing some particular thing which seems to thee to be right, why dost thou not rather act than complain?- But some insuperable obstacle is in the way?- Do not be grieved then, for the cause of its not being done depends not on thee.- But it is not worth while to live if this cannot be done.- Take thy departure then from life contentedly, just as he dies who is in full activity, and well pleased too with the things which are obstacles.”
Source: Stoic Six Pack: Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Golden Sayings, Fragments and Discourses of Epictetus, Letters from a Stoic and The Enchiridion
“But if anything will turn me off, it's a very practiced approach, as if the man has done it a thousand times before, to a lot of different women. Which always seems to imply that I am no different from all the rest. Not flattering.”
Source: Obsidian Butterfly: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
“But if applause throws off your timing, then you're not the kind of comedian I would like to see. All you have to do is stand there and take it.”
“But if arming Iran to support Israel was insane, the flip side of the policy, in the long run at least, was truly demented: Weinberger and Shultz favored defending Saudi Arabia and the enormous U.S. oil interests there by secretly bolstering the brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. As a result of their efforts, billions of dollars in aid and weapons were funneled to Saddam's regime.”
Source: House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties
“But if art is not a dangerous adventure, then what is it, and what is its justification? No, free artists cannot enjoy comfort any more than free people can. Free artists are those who, with great difficulty, create order themselves. The more chaos they must bring order to, the stricter their rules will be, and the more they will have affirmed their freedom. Gide said something that I have always agreed with, even though it might be misunderstood: “Art lives from constraint and dies from freedom.” That is true, but we must not draw the conclusion that art should be controlled. Art only lives through the constraints it places upon itself: it dies from any others. On the other hand, if art does not control itself, it descends into madness and is enslaved by its own illusions. The most liberated form of art, and the most rebellious, will thus be the most enduring; it will glorify the greatest effort. If a society and its artists do not accept this long, liberating task, if they yield to the comforts of entertainment or conformity, to the diversions of art for art’s sake or the moralizing of realistic art, its artists will remain entrenched in nihilism and sterility. Saying this means that a rebirth in art today depends on our courage and our desire to see clearly.”
Source: Create Dangerously
“But if as you read this book you're saying to yourself: "I'd rather be miserably married than be alone." Well young lady, take out your clown shoes and buckle your seat belt - it's going to be a very bumpy one-woman circus.”
Source: Impossible Is Stupid
“But if at church they would give some ale. And a pleasant fire our souls to regale. We'd sing and we'd pray all the live long day, Nor ever once from the church to stray.”
Source: Complete writings: with variant readings
“But if by some freak of history communism had caught up with this country, I would have been one of the first people thrown in jail.”
“But if by some miracle, and all our struggle, the Earth is spared, only justice to every living thing (and everything is alive) will save humankind
Essay: Only Justice Can Stop a Curse”
Source: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose
“But if by some miracle and all our struggle, the earth is spared, only justice to every living being will save humankind.”
“But if capitalism had built up science as a productive force, the very character of the new mode of production was serving to make capitalism itself unnecessary.”
Source: Marx and science
“But if Christianity really gives peace, and we really want peace, patriotism is a survival from barbarous times, which must not only not be evoked and educated, as we now do, but which must be eradicated by all means, by means of preaching, persuasion, contempt, and ridicule.”
“But if Christians don’t get Jesus right, what chance is there that other people will bother much with him?”
Source: Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters
“But if conceptual knowledge is fallible, what other instrument shall we use in order to grasp reality? According to Buddhism, one can only reach reality through direct experience. Study and speculation are based on concepts. In conceptualizing we cut up reality into small pieces which seem to be independent of one another. This manner of conceiving things is called imaginative and discriminative knowledge (vikalpa) in the Vijnanavada Mahayanist sect. The faculty which, on the contrary, directly experiences reality without passing through concepts is called non-discriminative and non-imaginative Wisdom (nirvikalpajnana). This Wisdom is the fruit of meditation. It is a direct and perfect knowledge of reality, a form of knowledge in which one does not distinguish subject and object, a form of Inowledge that cannot be conceived by the intellect and expressed by language.”
Source: Zen Keys: A Guide to Zen Practice
“But if Crake wanted her to stay longer on any given night, do it again maybe, she'd make some excuse—jet lag, a headache, something plausible. Her inventions were seamless, she was the best poker-faced liar in the world, so there would be a kiss goodbye for stupid Crake, a smile, a wave, a closed door, and the next minute there she would be, with Jimmy.”
Source: Oryx And Crake
“But if each man and woman were defined solely by their greatest sin, what hope would there be for any of us?”
Source: The Heart's Charge
“But if each man could have his own house, a large garden to cultivate and healthy surroundings - then, I thought, there will be for them a better opportunity of a happy family life”
“But if ever these lines should be read in the land of Israel, which I shall never see, will someone there please say a khaddish for me?”
“But if everybody's trying to stay safe, then you never really create something new and different and surprising.”
“But if everything's already decided, then what's the point of living?”
Source: Curse of the Bane
“But if everything was always smooth and perfect, you'd get too used to that, you know? You have to have a little bit of disorganization now and then. Otherwise, you'll never really enjoy it when things go right.”
Source: The Truth About Forever
“But if fashion were easy, wouldn't everybody look great ?”