I Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with I. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Is it a simple form of madness to lose a hundred thousand sesterces, and not have a shirt to give to a shivering slave?”
Source: The Sixteen Satires
“Is it a sin to hold something more important than your life? Should I be condemned for that?”
“Is it a small thing to quench the flames of hell with the holy tears of pity -- to unbind the martyr from the stake -- break all the chains -- put out the fires of civil war -- stay the sword of the fanatic, and tear the bloody hands of the Church from the white throat of Science?
Is it a small thing to make men truly free -- to destroy the dogmas of ignorance, prejudice and power -- the poisoned fables of superstition, and drive from the beautiful face of the earth the fiend of fear?”
“Is it a spiral of water in the tragic gleam of a revolver, an egg, a glistening arc or the floodgate of reason, a keen ear attuned to a mineral hiss, or a turbine of algebraic formulas? (On Man Ray's first photograms, 1921.)”
“Is it a stale remark to say that I have constantly found the interest excited at a playhouse to bear an exact inverse proportion to the price paid for admission?”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Charles and Mary Lamb (Illustrated)
“Is it a surprise that into the vessel, in which the mercury has no inclination and no repugnance, not even the slightest, to being there, it should enter and should rise in a column high enough to make equilibrium with the weight of the external air which forces it up?”
“Is it a surprise then that on our first date, I am disappointed to see Yameen in the flesh? By this, I do not mean the way he looks, but the fact that he has a body, with a specific shape and size. A body, that circumscribes his limitations and contains his impact. To me, he has been the limitless, amorphous voice who speaks to me about love. His voice has been my guiding light to The Thing.”
Source: Beloved Strangers: A Memoir
“Is it a time for you, you I say, to dwell in your roofed-in houses?' (Haggai 1:4). The reply might have been that it was unreasonable to expect anyone to live in a roofless house, but the question made its point. What worth did they set on their God, when they left His Temple in ruins?”
“Is it a toy?" asked Button-Bright softly.
"No, dear," answered Dorothy; "it's better than that. It's the fairy dwelling of a fairy prince.”
Source: The Road to Oz
“Is it a wart?" said Malcolm. "I can cure that, but it'll cost you."
"Why does everyone always think it's a wart?”
Source: Lady Midnight
“Is it a weakness not being able to hate? Or is it preparation for what is inevitable, the ability only to love.”
Source: The Frowny Face Cow
“Is it a wolf I hear,
Howling his lonely communion
With the unpiloted stars,
Or merely the self importance and servitude
In the bark of a dog?
How many millenia did it take,
Twisting and torturing
The pride from the one
To make a tool,
The other?
And how do we measure the distance from spirit to spirit?
And who do we find to blame?”
Source: Altered Carbon
“Is it a world in the making
that turns as it whistles to the depths of my being
It is burning
Suppose it were to appear
A bleeding rosary at the window
a sun setting on the marshlands
("Silver Clasp")”
Source: The Cubist Poets in Paris: An Anthology
“Is it Abstract, Fauvism, Expressionism, Mannerism, Impressionism? Close but no, this is Naturalistic Fantasy. A movement where science, fantasy, philosophy and art come together. Is it possible to mirror our fantasy, which often is based on nature, then turn it to an art work, which once is complete become nature again? Should we call it Fantaisie Naturaliste?”
Source: Naturalistic Fantasy
“Is it absurd compulsively to labor in an effort to express the present crucible of our earthly reality conjoined with our punch-holed dreams? Does penal work on a chain gang dull the senses or does all honest work give birth to a person’s creative sensibilities? Must we actively participate in all the evocative activities of life or risk becoming forever stymied by indifference, self-doubt, and by the petrifying summons of self-loathing? Is it absurd to dismiss ourselves and dejectedly resign ourselves to occupying a windowless soul? Must I accept living as an emotional midget? Should I capitulate to stumbling along frozen in a daze of bewildering hopelessness? Alternatively, can I impose a moratorium upon my present suffering and attempt to discern a better way to live? What is the correct path to end suffering and discover joy? No one else is interested in my story, but I still feel an irrepressible need to shape the tale of my travails into a storyboard format.”
Source: Dead Toad Scrolls
“Is it absurd to imagine that our social behavior, from amoeba to man, is also planned and dictated, from stored Information, by the cells? And that the time has come for men to be entrusted with the task, through heroic efforts, of bringing life to other worlds?”
“Is it acting a true vocation?... I say it is a gift...And fame? Neither sought nor expected... still confounds and amazes and disturbs. Whatever the reason... I am so very delighted that it did happen... I would not have missed it for the world.”
“Is it adultery if I’m committing it at one end of a guy and he’s committing it at the other end of that same guy?”
“Is it advisable to spread out all the conveniences of culture before people to whom a few steps up a stair to a library is a sufficient deterrent from reading?”
Source: The Journals of Ayn Rand
“Is it against justice or reason to love ourselves? And why is self-love always a vice?”
“Is it against the law to kill a reporter?”
“Is it all right for the government to allow the murder of an innocent human being? From the moment of conception, a new life comes into being with a complete genetic blueprint. The sex is determined. The blood type is determined. The moment that I learned the unborn was not part of the woman's body but its own individual human being, I have no choice but to defend the most vulnerable among us.”
“Is it alright to believe in the future where everyone can live in happiness?”
“Is it always in the interest of the public safety to seek the prosecutor's traditional solution -- the harshest penalty possible? Or is the public best served by finding ways to change a kid's lot in life for the better, even if that means opening the prison door?”
Source: No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court
“Is it always like that?" I ask, breathless. “No,” he says. “It's never like that.” I hear the wonder in his voice. And just like that, everything changes.”
Source: Everything, Everything
“Is it always like this?” I asked. “What is it?”
“What is the dish, your grace?” asked the wit. “Why, it’s called curry, don’t you
know? Kills the taste of old meat.”
“If that’s all it kills, I’m surprised,” says I, disgusted. “No decent human being
could stomach this filth.”
“We stomach it,” said another. “Ain’t we human beings?”
“You know best about that,” I said. “If you take my advice you’ll hang your
cook.”
Source: Flashman
“Is it always so sensitive?"
He took moments to answer as though it cost him an effort. "It's never been before." Lifting her fingers, he kissed them, and then spoke against them. "It's your hands, they're magic."
Heat rose in her cheeks. "I can't believe I actually asked you if you knew what my hands were worth."
There it was again, that laugh. Deep and husky and perfect. "If only I'd known.”
Source: Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors
“Is it always this awkward?" Sara asked. Her voice was hushed.
Derek turned to look at her, his gaze falling to the white rose in her hands. She had taken it from the arrangement of hothouse flowers. Nervously her fingers ruffled the fragile petals.
Self-consciously Sara sniffed the pale blossom and began to insert it back into the huge vase. "It's nice to have roses in January," she murmured. "Nothing in the world has such a lovely scent."
She was so innocently beautiful, with the disordered waves of her hair falling around her face. His muscles tightened in response. He would like to have her painted this way, standing by the table with her head turned toward him, the white flower caught in her fingers. "Bring it here," he said.
She obeyed, coming to him and handing him the rose. He closed his fingers around the plump head of the flower and pulled gently, freeing the petals from their tenuous moorings. Tossing aside the desecrated stem, he opened his hand over the bed. The petals scattered in a fragrant shower. Sara drew in a quick breath, staring at him as if mesmerized.”
Source: Dreaming of You
“Is it always this miserable saying goodbye?”
“Is it always to be a winners-losers world, or can we keep everyone in the game? Do we still have what it takes to find a better way?”
Source: Maybe (Maybe Not): Second Thoughts from a Secret Life
“Is it an accident that astronomy is the oldest science and psychology is the youngest? To some people, exploring the external universe seems far safer than exploring our own inner universe.”
Source: Exploring Psychology
“Is it an eggageration to say Clement Soup and Sourdough saved me? At night, instead of fitfully reviewing the day's error while my stomach swam and churned, I... fell asleep. My course steadied. I had taken on ballast in the form of spicy broth and fragrant bread and, maybe, two new friends, or sort-of-friends, or something.”
Source: Sourdough
“Is it an original idea? Or is it something where you're literally a creative collagist? You're taking pieces of the world that you see around you and that are inside of you and put them together in a way that you see fit.”
“Is it an unseen force that propels you and me toward each other?
Often when I look at the Sky, I wonder should I ask the Sky this question?
Maybe, the Sky feels the same unseen force for the Moon, just as I feel for you?”
“Is it any more moral to dilute the value of the purchasing power of the money you hold in your wallet than it is for the farmer to dilute the milk supply with water?”
“Is it any wonder somebody like Donald Trump is racing through the presidential primary process?”
“Is it any wonder that for millions of men the only intimacy is physical, silent, and predictable?”
Source: Donahue, my own story
“Is it any wonder that I loved my regiment?”
Source: The Rough Riders
“Is it any wonder that Socrates was outraged at the accusation he took money to teach? Even then, philosophers saw clearly the inevitable direction the professionalization of teaching would take, that of pre-empting the teaching function, which, in a healthy community, belongs to everyone.”
Source: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
“Is it any wonder that to this day this Galilean is too much for our small hearts?”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of H. G. Wells
“Is it any wonder the power this man held over me - this man who did not run from his demons like most of us do, but embraced them as his own, clutching them to his heart in a choke-hold grip. He did not try to escape them by denying them or drugging them or bargaining with them. He met them where they lived, in the secret place most of us keep hidden. Warthrop was Warthrop down to the marrow of his bones, for his demons defined him; they breathed the breath of life into him; and without them, he would go down, as most of us do, into the purgatorial fog of a life unrealized.”
Source: The Monstrumologist: The Isle of Blood
“Is it any wonder why Princes & Kings, Are clowns that caper in their sawdust rings, When ordinary people who are like you and me, Are the builders of their destiny...”
“Is it any wonder, since, when near the fire, I was melted and burned, if now that it's extinguished outside me, it besets and consumes me inside, and bit by bit reduces me to ashes?”
“Is it any wonder, why the approval ratings of the Congress go up every time we go into recess?”
“Is it appropriate still for a German to have a gun? I only use that as an example of a country that's still deeply involved and engaged in the conversations about how to come to terms with the past. Certainly for that country, it's not forgotten.”
“Is it arrogance if one is truly superior?”
Source: Undone: Outcast Season, Book One
“Is it as plainly in our living shown,
By which way the wind hath blown?”
“Is it at all surprising that the number of those who hold the opinions of the Church in light esteem should so rapidly increase? How can that be received as a trustworthy guide in the invisible, which falls into so many errors in the visible?”
“Is it bad that I sort of want you to fuck me against the door so I'm sure they'll all hear?”
Source: Black Gold
“Is it bad to like the way the scars look on my skin? Oh, the way they feel under my hands. My body’s protecting itself, saying, “No, this barrier of scar tissue is to keep you out.”
Source: Sixteenth Notes: the breaking of the rose-colored glasses