O Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with O. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“On the whole, she reflected with a loopy clarity while pain clanged back and forth in her head and the guard held her upright, she liked being rescued. It was better than not being rescued. Definitely.”
Source: The Mirror of Her Dreams
“on the whole the American theater, dominated by men, does not perceive women fighting for their lives as a central issue.”
“On the whole, the longing for solitude is a sign that there still is spirit in a person and is the measure of what spirit there is. [...] In antiquity as well as in the Middle Ages there was an awareness of this longing for solitude and a respect for what it means; whereas in the constant sociality of our day we shrink from solitude to the point (what a capital epigram!) that no use for it is known other than as a punishment for criminals.”
Source: The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening
“On the whole the modern world has been conditioned to have a chip on its shoulder against devoutly religious people. I disagree with this in some instances - particularly in, believe it or not, matters of integrity. Deep down I often rather believe the man who honestly thinks - or better yet even, prefers - that he has an omnipotent Judge breathing down his neck, holding his every word and his every move accountable, than the man who much like his modern peers, and ironically enough, claims or wishes to bask in complete independence. As it appears actually, the former is more free of guilt than the latter.”
Source: Healology
“On the whole … archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the reliability of the Scriptural record. More than one archaeologist has found his respect for the Bible increased by the experience of excavation in Palestine. Archaeology has in many cases refuted the views of modern critics.”
“On the whole, age comes more gently to those who have some doorway into an abstract world-art, or philosophy, or learning-regions where the years are scarcely noticed and the young and old can meet in a pale truthful light.”
Source: The Journey's Echo: Selections
“On the whole, and providing one is in good spirits and feeling reasonably bright, it is not hard to converse for a short space of time on subjects about which one knows little, and it is indeed often amusing to see how cunningly one can steer the conversational barque, hoisting and lowering her sails, tacking this way and that to avoid reefs, and finally racing feverishly for home with the outboard engine making a loud and cheerful noise.”
“On the whole, anything that gets you writing and keeps you writing is a good thing. Anything that stops you writing is a bad thing.”
“On the whole, at least in the author's experience, the preparation of species-specific antiserum fractions and the differentiation of closely related species with precipitin sera for serum proteins does not succeed so regularly as with agglutinins and lysins for blood cells. This may be due to the fact that in the evolutional scale the proteins undergo continuous variations whereas cell antigens are subject to sudden changes not linked by intermediary stages.”
“On the whole, British actors star in theater, and I think there's something quite grounding about that.”
“On the whole, dialogue is the most difficult thing, without any doubt. It's very difficult, unfortunately. You have to detach yourself from the notion of a lifelike quality. You see, actually lifelike, tape-recorded dialogue like this has very little to do with good novel dialogue. It's a matter of getting that awful tyranny of mimesis out of your mind, which is difficult.”
“On the whole, Flora liked it better when they were silent, though it did rather give her the feeling that she was acting in one of the less cheerful German highbrow films.”
Source: Cold comfort farm
“On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him.”
Source: A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
“On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him. Nobody can always have devout feelings: and even if we could, feelings are not what God principally cares about. Christian Love, either towards God or towards man, is an affair of the will.”
Source: A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
“On the whole, however, it is only out of pride or gross ignorance, or cowardice, that we refuse to see in the present the lineaments of times to come.”
“On the whole, however, the conclusions I have drawn from the proofs quoted may, I believe, safely be relied on. Assuredly they will not be disturbed either by the lays of a poet displaying the exaggeration of his craft, or by the compositions of the chroniclers that are attractive at truth's expense; the subjects they treat of being out of the reach of evidence, and time having robbed most of them of historical value by enthroning them in the region of legend.”
Source: History of Greece
“On the whole, however, the critic is far less of a professional faultfinder than is sometimes imagined. He is first of all a virtue-finder, a singer of praise. He is not concerned with getting rid of dross except in so far as it hides the gold. In other words, the destructive side of criticism is purely a subsidiary affair. None of the best critics have been men of destructive minds. They are like gardeners whose business is more with the flowers than with the weeds.”
“On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.”
“On the whole, I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirms the worth of life as an end in itself, as against the saints who deny it.”
“On the whole, I don't want to think too much about why I write what I write. If I know what I'm doing ... I can't do it.”
“On the whole, I haven't found men unduly loath to say, 'I love you.' The real trick is to get them to say, 'Will you marry me?”
“On the whole, I prefer Christmas as an adult than I did as a child.”
“On the whole, I prefer not to be lectured on patriotism by those who keep offshore maildrops in order to avoid paying their taxes.”
“On the whole, I should say that the person who likes to lie should never, in any circumstances, be allowed to. Leave the lying to the people who hate it. You will not find them indulging often.”
Source: Modes and Morals
“On the whole, I tend not to listen to my peers.”
“On the whole, I think women wear too much and are to fussy. You can't see the person for all the clutter.”
“On the whole, I would bid you stand up to your work, whatever it may be, and not be afraid of it; not in sorrows or contradictions to yield, but to push on towards the goal.”
Source: The Works of Thomas Carlyle
“On the whole, it bums me out that lyrics seem to be written as afterthoughts nowadays. Not sure why this is, but hopefully things will come around again and bands will once again want to "communicate" "ideas" with their audience, and not just content themselves with providing attitude and atmosphere with clichés on top.”
“On the whole, it is patience which makes the final difference between those who succeed or fail in all things. All the greatest people have it in an infinite degree, and among the less, the patient weak ones always conquer the impatient strong.”
“On the whole, it seems to me that probably the American press is doing a better job of this mediation, so to speak, between the people and the administration than the press of any other country.”
“On the whole, life is unfair in the way it works out. It is a game played without an umpire!”
“On the whole, love comes with the speed of light; separation, with that of sound.”
Source: Watermark: An Essay on Venice
“On the whole, lying is a cheerful affair. Embellishments are intended to give pleasure. People long to tell you what they imagine you want to hear. They want to amuse you; they want to amuse themselves; they want to show you a good time. This is beyond hospitality. This is art.”
“On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.”
Source: The Plague
“On the whole, money does artists much more good than harm. The idea that one benefits from cold water, crusts and debt collectors is now almost extinct, like belief in the reformatory power of flogging.”
Source: The Spectacle of Skill: New and Selected Writings of Robert Hughes
“On the whole, more men had perhaps escaped into the war than from it.”
“On the whole, most biographies about literary women tend to diagnose them.”
“On the whole, my family had always adopted a reserved attitude toward Zionism; my great-uncle Edmond had acted on his own in generously supporting Jewish Palestine, for reasons more humanitarian and religious than political. But the devastation caused by the war and the extermination of six million Jews radically changed all of our former attitudes. The idea of a Jewish homeland acquired an intense emotional appeal; I myself became an ardent Zionist.”
Source: The Whims of Fortune: The Memoirs of Guy de Rothschild
“On the whole, my impression is that mercy bears richer fruits than any other attribute.”
Source: The Words Lincoln Lived By: 52 Timeless Principles to Light Your Path
“On the whole, our modern ritual is impoverished and does not fulfill man's need for collective art and ritual.”
Source: Sane Society Ils 252
“On the whole, show business is a hard business in which to be married”
“On the whole, stories don't write themselves.”
Source: Fragile Things
“On the whole, the enjoyment of leisure is something which decidedly costs less than the enjoyment of luxury. All it requires is an artistic temperament which is bent on seeking a perfectly useless afternoon spent in a perfectly useless manner.”
“On the whole, the evidence indicates that model trends in the troposphere are very likely inconsistent with observations.”
“On the whole, the great success of marriage in the States is due partly to the fact that no American man is ever idle, and partly to the fact that no American wife is considered responsible for the quality of her husband's dinners.”
Source: The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde
“On the whole, the life of a chess professional is not as easy as it appears at first sight. One needs to devote some ten hours a day to chess and to everything connected with it - physical and psycholgical preparation.”
“On the whole, the longing for solitude is a sign that there still is spirit in a person and is a measure of what spirit there is.”
“On the whole, the modern palette is the same as the one used by the artists of Pompeii... I mean it has not been enriched. The ancients used earths, ochres, and ivory-black - you can do anything with that palette.”
“On the whole, the psychological work of the last quarter of the nineteenth century emphasized the study of consciousness to the neglect of the total life of intellect and character”
Source: Animal Intelligence: Experimental Studies
“On the whole, the world was friendly. It chiefly depended on whether one were good or not.”