L Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with L. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Literature works from mind to mind and is more progenitive. It is at once more universal and more poignantly particular. If it speaks of bread or wine or stone or tree, it appeals to the whole of these things, to their ideas; yet each hearer will give to them a peculiar personal embodiment in his imagination. Should the story say 'he ate bread', the dramatic producer or painter can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own. If a story says 'he climbed a hill and saw a river in the valley below', the illustrator may catch, or nearly catch, his own vision of such a scene; but every hearer of the words will have his own picture, and it will be made out of all the hills and rivers and dales he has ever seen, but especially out of The Hill, The River, The Valley which were for him the first embodiment of the word.”
Source: Tolkien On Fairy-stories
“Literature, art, like civilization itself, are only accidents.”
Source: Expensive People
“Literature, at least good literature, is science tempered with the blood of art. Like architecture or music.”
“Literature, fiction, poetry, whatever, makes justice in the world. That's why it almost always has to be on the side of the underdog.”
“Literature, it seems to me, is wisdom.”
“Literature, like anything else, can become a wearisome business if you make a lifetime specialty of it. A healthy, wholesome man would no more spend his entire life reading great books than he would packing cookies for Nabisco.”
Source: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
“Literature, like magic, has always been about the handling of secrets, about the pain, the destruction, and the marvelous liberation that can result when they are revealed. If a writer doesn't give away secrets, his own or those of the people he loves, if he doesn't court disapproval, reproach and general wrath, whether of friends, family or party apparatchiks... the result is pallid, inanimate, a lump of earth.”
“Literature, like memory, selects only the vivid patches.”
Source: Selected Writings
“Literature, like nobility, runs in the blood.”
Source: Table talk
“Literature, not scripture, sustains the mind and - since there is no other metaphor - also the soul.”
Source: God is Not Great
“Literature, properly so called, draws its sap from the deep soil of human nature's common and everlasting sympathies, the gathered leaf-mound of countless generations, and not from any top dressing capriciously scattered over the surface.”
“Literature, real literature, must not be gulped down like some potion which may be good for the heart or good for the brain—the brain, that stomach of the soul. Literature must be taken and broken to bits, pulled apart, squashed—then its lovely reek will be smelt in the hollow of the palm, it will be munched and rolled upon the tongue with relish; then, and only then, its rare flavor will be appreciated at its true worth and the broken and crushed parts will again come together in your mind and disclose the beauty of a unity to which you have contributed something of your own blood.”
“Literature, taken in all its bearings, forms the grand line of demarcation between the human and the animal kingdoms.”
Source: The Enquirer: Reflections on Education, Manners and Literature, in a Series of Essays
“Literature, the study of literature in English in the 19th century, did not belong to literary studies, which had to do with Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, but instead with elocution and public speaking. So when people read literature, it was to memorize and to recite it.”
“Literature, whether handed down by word or mouth or in print, gives us a second handle on reality.”
Source: Hopes and impediments: selected essays
“Literature... is condemned (or privileged) to be forever the most rigorous and, consequently, the most reliable of terms in which man names and transforms himself.”
“Literature: proclaiming in front of everyone what one is careful to conceal from one's immediate circle”
“Literatuur is de neerslag of het verslag van een geestelijk avontuur in een taal die eigen, levend en origineel is.”
“Literatuur is verbonden verbeelding.”
Source: Voor altijd geleden
“Literatuur wordt door zieken gemaakt. Wie gezond is, schrijft geen boeken.”
“Literatūra mums padeda prasismelkti į kitų žmonių sąmonę ir pažvelgti į pasaulį jų akimis. O paskui knygoje - mes sustojame anksčiau, nei numirštame, ar numirštame svetima mirtim, o gyvenime už romano ribų perverčiame puslapį ar užverčiame knygą. Mes grįžtame į savo gyvenimą. Gyvenimą, kuris panėši į visus kitus ir lieka nė į vieną panašus.”
Source: American Gods: Tenth Anniversary
“Lithium is like a beautiful lady, very much sought and pursued, especially in Bolivia. There is data indicating Bolivia has the largest reserves of lithium in the world.”
“Lithium regulates the proteins that control the body’s inner clock. This clock runs, oddly, on DNA, inside special neurons deep in the brain. Special proteins attach to people’s DNA each morning, and after a fixed time they degrade and fall off. Sunlight resets the proteins over and over, so they hold on much longer. In fact, the proteins fall off only after darkness falls—at which point the brain should “notice” the bare DNA and stop producing stimulants. This process goes awry in manic-depressives because the proteins, despite the lack of sunlight, remain bound fast to their DNA. Their brains don’t realize they should stop revving. Lithium helps cleave the proteins from DNA so people can wind down. Notice that sunlight still trumps lithium during the day and resets the proteins; it’s only when the sunlight goes away at night that lithium helps DNA shake free. Far from being sunshine in a pill, then, lithium acts as “anti-sunlight.” Neurologically, it undoes sunlight and thereby compresses the circadian clock back to twenty-four hours—preventing both the mania bubble from forming and the Black Tuesday crash into depression.”
Source: The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
“Lithium tweaks many mood-altering chemicals in the brain, and its effects are complicated. Most interesting, lithium seems to reset the body’s circadian rhythm, its inner clock. In normal people, ambient conditions, especially the sun, dictate their humors and determine when they are tuckered out for the day. They’re on a twenty-four-hour cycle. Bipolar people run on cycles independent of the sun. And run and run.”
Source: The Disappearing Spoon...and other true tales from the Periodic Table
“Lithuania is a small country, so our contribution would not be that large. We are not afraid of our responsibility. We receive 25 percent of our national budget from the European Union. We understand the value of solidarity.”
“Lithuanian bishops have been heroic!”
“Lithuanian citizens are the rudest and most animalistic I have ever seen in Europe. They have no moral, no values, and no manners. They are always starring at others, judging with their eyes of ignorance and their very small conscience, they are very rude, they are impolite wherever you go, and their customer service is horrible. They never say sorry for anything and even offend you when you complain about their mistakes and lack of proper attitude. Besides, eating in Lithuania is a huge disaster. Food is often rotten, and commonly comes with either hair, stones of even glass, as I have found many times. These people should be ashamed to be part of Europe and be removed from the European Union. They waste money as I have never seen anywhere else and are very abusive in prices. Their prices are high but their quality level is not even suitable for animals. They represent a waste on foreign investments. Their youngest generation is also a disaster: Extremely ignorant, without any respect or education, they deserve to be unemployed and starve to death. Nobody in his right mind should ever employ a Lithuanian, marry a Lithuanian or be friend with a Lithuanian. Lithuanias are always trying to use their friendships to take advantage of others, especially if such people are outsiders. Lithuanian women are gold diggers and extremely promiscuous, especially towards men of other cultures, as if their pride was built on the number of sex partners they can have from the widest variety of nations from around the globe, especially if such men are wealthy. Nevertheless, Lithuanians are also extremely racist and ignorant about the planet they live in. They are selfish, sadistic and parasitic. Probably the same could be said about all baltic countries, namely, Latvia, but for now, it is suffice to say this statement is an undoubted fact for the country in analysis. If Latvian and Lithuanian sovereignty ever end within this generation due to major unemployment, massacres and civil wars, and the vast majority of its people perish, I would say Divine justice has been made on both nations.”
“Litigant. A person about to give up his skin for the hope of retaining his bones.”
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary
“Litigants obey the verdict of a tribunal solely on the premise that there is an objective rule of conduct, which they both accept.”
Source: Atlas Shrugged
“Litigare con i luoghi è litigare con una parte di sé che non trova la strada per assestarsi.”
Source: Buongiorno mezzanotte, torno a casa
“Litigation can become as great a passion as gambling.”
Source: La flor de lis y el león
“Litigation is a tool used by negotiators.”
“Litigation is notoriously time-consuming, inefficient, costly and unpredictable.”
“Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess.”
“Litigation only makes lawyers fat.”
“Litigation takes the place of sex at middle age.”
“Litigation: A form of hell whereby money is transferred from the pockets of the proletariat to that of lawyers.”
“Litigation: A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)
“Litle stickes kindle the fire; great ones put it out.”
Source: The Complete Works of George Herbert: Prose
“Litmus test: If you can't describe Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage and explain why people find it counterintuitive, you don't know enough about economics to direct any criticism or praise at "capitalism" because you don't know what other people are referring to when they use that word.”
“Little Alice fell d o w n the hOle, bumped her head and bruised her soul”
“Little Alice, all hollowed out, so easy to smash into a million little pieces.”
“Little Arin has missed me. I will not be parted from him."
"Would you consider changing his name?"
"No."
"What if I begged?"
"Not a chance."
"Roshar, the tiger has grown."
"And what a sweet big boy he is.”
Source: The Winner's Kiss
“Little as she was addicted to solitude, there had come to be moments when it seemed a welcome escape from the empty noises of her life.”
Source: House of Mirth and the Age of Innocence
“Little as we know about the way in which we are affected by form, by color, and light, we do know this, that they have an actual physical effect.”
Source: Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not
“Little assistance is better than the largest intention.”
Source: Wealth of Words
“Little attention was paid, because the German people, no matter how hungry, remained obedient.”
Source: The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
“Little attention was paid to current events. The view was taken that if a man knew Marx's Theory of Value and the progress of society from early times he was equipped to analyze anything.”
“Little Bird if you do not sing for me, I will wait for you”
“Little Bird if you don't sing for me I will make you sing”