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, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it.”
Source: Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin ..., 1
“On the whole, we think that the greatest victories are yet to be won, the greatest deeds yet to be done, and that there are yet in store for our peoples, and for the causes that we uphold, grander triumphs than have ever yet been scored. But be this as it may, we gladly agree that the one plain duty of every man is to face the future as he faces the present, regardless of what it may have in store for him, turning toward the light as he sees the light, to play his part manfully, as a man among men.”
Source: The Works of Theodore Roosevelt: American ideals and other essays, social and political
“On the whole, we treat the Devil shamefully, and the worse we treat Him the more He laughs at us.”
Source: Fifth business
“On the whole, we're a murderous race. According to Genesis, it took as few as four people to make the planet too crowded to stand, and the first murder was a fratricide. Genesis says that in a fit of jealous rage, the very first child born to mortal parents, Cain, snapped and popped the first metaphorical cap in another human being. The attack was a bloody, brutal, violent, reprehensible killing. Cain's brother Abel probably never saw it coming. As I opened the door to my apartment, I was filled with a sense of empathic sympathy and intuitive understanding. For freaking Cain.”
Source: Dead Beat: A Novel of The Dresden Files
“On the whole, with scandalous exceptions, Democracy has given the ordinary worker more dignity than he ever had.”
Source: It Can't Happen Here
“On the whole, yes, I would rather be the Chief Justice of the United States, and a quieter life than that which becomes at the White House is more in keeping with the temperament, but when taken into consideration that I go into history as President, and my children and my children's children are the better placed on account of that fact, I am inclined to think that to be President well compensates one for all the trials and criticisms he has to bear and undergo.”
“On the whole, you can have a private life and be famous. But when milestones happen in your life like having children or getting married, privacy goes out of the window.”
“On the winding path of femininity, the loose stone you stumble over is another woman...”
Source: Exposition
“On the winding roads in the journey to your dreams, Intuition needs faith to follow.
Sensing the invisible and believing in it while it’s yet unprovable.”
“On the wings of fancy, gentle readers, bear yourselves into the mid-air, where by imagination you may form a large stupendous castle.”
Source: The cry (1754)
“On the wings of lies, man can only fly to the land of shame and lowness!”
“On the wings of light, dawn arrives,
a promise of life in the footsteps of morn,
as flowers greet the rising sun.
This soul of mine that wept all night,
now drinks from dawn, it's cup of light.”
“On the wisdom with which we bring science to bear in the war against disease, in the creation of new industries, and in the strengthening of our Armed Forces depends in large measure our future as a nation.”
Source: Science, the endless frontier: A report to the President
“On the word ''three'' all who were present broke into one simultaneous peal of laughter, a laughter in full chorus, a frightful laughter of the other world that is scarcely to be borne by the ears of men.”
Source: Steppenwolf
“On the world scene, it is our position that there is a resurgence of socialism taking place. The world's socialist and Communist forces are now on the move to restore socialism in the former socialist countries and to strengthen the existing socialist countries... there is a new socialist world on the horizon, a resurgence of the world revolutionary process.”
Source: Political Affairs
“On the worst days, I don't feel like an artist.”
“On the Writing Process:
"When in doubt, take it out.,”
Source: Resort to Murder
“On the wrong side of the mirror, you are never alone—only trapped with everything you’ve denied.”
Source: Wrong Side of the Mirror
“On the £20,000 Mercedes prizes for each winner at the World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart- Anyone good enough to win already has one.”
“On their best days, writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers, all alone in their studios, with no one watching.”
“On their deathbed men will speak true, they say.”
Source: Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth
“On their lonesome, even swans (sometimes) can be.”
Source: Looking For Your Tribe: Poems
“On their own, each [character] is a victim of no importance. But when you bring them together, they become a dangerous weapon. Jeanne is the vowel and Sophie the consonant. Psychologists know this phenomenon well. Each individual is harmless, but together they create an explosive chemical reaction. It's like Bonnie and Clyde, like Thelma and Louise.”
“On their return from a trip, it is wise to see friends promptly, before they've had time to get their pictures developed.”
Source: On Getting Old for the First Time
“On their side more men are standing, on ours more will fight!”
“On their sofas of spice and feathers, the concubines also slept fretfully. In those days the Earth was still flat, and people dreamed often of falling over edges.”
Source: Jitterbug Perfume
“On their way there, they're stopped by the Taliban, who extort money from them by threatening to take Sonita away. The little girl realizes something for the first time. She is viewed as merchandise.”
Source: Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World
“On their way to freedom, some people find riches, some people find death.”
Source: Lucy: A Novel
“On their way toward modern science human beings have discarded meaning. The concept is replaced by the formula, the cause by rules and probability.”
Source: Dialectic of Enlightenment
“On these feature films there are people on the staff who can draw 100 times better then I can, and animate better then I can, and light better then I can, write comedy better then I can. I basically am in the middle of kind of a creative typhoon and I'm just kind of talking the film up on to the screen. Minute to minute, meeting by meeting, day by day.”
“On these forgotten islands they rest, and the sand packs tight around them while their friends have gone on to other islands, to die on other beaches. The little invasions, the crumbs of global warfare, eventually to be remembered only by mapmakers and mothers.”
Source: The Pale Blonde of Sands Street
“On these little visual interpretations [Valentine's Day cards], no emblem is so common as the heart, — that little three-cornered exponent of all our hopes and fears, — the bestuck and bleeding heart ; it is twisted and tortured into more allegories and affectations than an opera hat. What authority we have in history or mythology for placing the head-quarters and metropolis of God Cupid in this anatomical seat rather than in any other, is not very clear ; but we have got it, and it will serve as well as any other. Else we might easily imagine, upon some other system which might have prevailed for any thing which our pathology knows to the contrary, a lover addressing his mistress, in perfect simplicity of feeling, " Madam, my liver and fortune are entirely at your disposal," or putting a delicate question, "Amanda, have you a midriff' to bestow?" But custom has settled these things, and awarded the seat of sentiment to the aforesaid triangle, while its less fortunate neighbours wait at animal and anatomical distance.”
Source: Essays of Elia and Last Essays of Elia
“On these magic shores children at play are for ever beaching their coracles. We too have been there; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more.”
Source: Peter Pan: Top 100 Classic Novels
“On these matters of specific fact, like is the mushroom an extraterrestrial and that sort of thing, I haven't the faintest idea. The mushroom itself is such a mercurial, elusive, Zen sort of personality that I never believe a word it says. I simply entertain its notions and try and sort through them, and I found that to be the most enriching approach to it.”
“On these pages are ruminations on identity past and present.
The key to a coorie life is right in front of us - all that's needed is the desire to build on an awareness of Scotland.”
Source: The Art of Coorie: How to Live Happy the Scottish Way
“On these sands and in the clefts of the rocks, in the depths of the sea, in the creaking of the pines, you'll spy secret footprints and catch far-off voices from the homecoming celebration. This land still longs for Odysseus.”
“On things like censorship, I think everything should be allowed on television. You know, I mean anything. I don’t know who believes that anymore. Every left wing party says there should be some degree of censorship, that some things are bad taste. But it’s unjustifiable for anyone to decide what is bad taste.”
“On things she had to pack before leaving her home in advance of a forest fire, 1996. Childhood pictures and pictures of my life. Do you know how many pictures that is? Not just this life; I have pictures from 13,000 lives.”
“On thinking about Hell, I gather
My brother Shelley found it was a place
Much like the city of London. I
Who live in Los Angeles and not in London
Find, on thinking about Hell, that it must be
Still more like Los Angeles.”
Source: Poems
“On Thirty-Seventh I spot a church. I climb the stairs and try the door, but it's locked. God must be sleeping in. I look left and right. Still no Sign. I'm looking for something subtle, along the lines of a long-haired man turning water into wine and holding a placard proclaiming himself to be Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.”
Source: The Sun Is Also a Star
“On this 101st FA Cup Final day, there are just two teams left”
“On this account I feel always, on a Saturday night, as though I also were released from some yoke of labour, had some wages to receive, and some luxury of repose to enjoy. For the sake, therefore, of witnessing, upon as large a scale as possible, a spectacle with which my sympathy was so entire, I used after, on Saturday nights, after I had taken opium, to wander forth, without much regarding the direction or the sistance, to all the markets, and other parts of London, to which the poor resort on a Saturday night, for laying out their wages. Many a family party, consisting of a man, his wife, and sometimes one or two of his children, have I listened to, as they stood consulting on their ways and means, or the strength of their exchequer, or the price of household articles. Gradually I became familiar with their wishes, their difficulties, and their opinions. Sometimes there might be heard murmers of discontent: but far oftener expressions on the countenance, or uttered in words, of patience, hope, and tranquillity. And taken generally, I must say, that, in this point at least, the poor are far more philosophic than the rich - that they show a more ready and cheerful submission to what they consider as irremediable evils, or irreparable losses. Whenever I saw occasion, or could do it without appearing to be intrusive, I joined their parties; and gave my opinion upon the matter in discussion, which, if not always judicious, was always received indulgently. If wages were a little higher, or expected to be so, or the quartern loaf a little lower, or it was reported that onions and butter were expected to fall, I was glad: yet, if the contrary were true, I drew from opium some means of consoling myself. For opium (like the bee, that extracts its materials indiscriminately from roses and from the soot of chimneys) can overrule all feelings into a compliance with the master key. Some of these rambles lead me to great distances: for an opium-eater is too happy to observe the motion of time.”
Source: Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Analects From John Paul Richter
“On this ancient and miraculous world, where such beautiful natural and living things have evolved, something has gone wrong when life itself is used as a manufacturing process.”
“On this basic - being right and doing right the whole world can unite.”
Source: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
“On this basis, which was originally financial and goes back to George Peabody, there grew up in the twentieth century a power structure between London and New York which penetrated deeply into university life, the press, and the practice of foreign policy.”
“On this battlefield man has no better weapon than his intelligence, no other force but his heart.”
“On this, both right-libertarians and left-libertarians agree...the doctrine of self-ownership. Each person has exclusive ownership of herself [or himself] and nobody has any property rights in another person.”
Source: The Origins of Left-Libertarianism: An Anthology of Historical Writings
“On this cliff, I can almost touch the night sky; it hovers so close and puts a distance between me and the things threatening my conscience. I lay on a blanket in the damp grass and enfold myself in the drama of other worlds. The Big and Little Dipper tilt toward me, as if ready to spill their contents, and Scorpius curls its tail, ready to strike. The problems of my little life shrink under the majesty of such an expanse.”
Source: Blue Moon
“On this clove of earth,
there's no time to go to school, quitting
crushing stones into grits;
there is no enthusiasm to think, laying
the hunger down; there's no patience
to speak mellifluously, giving up
slogans and processions;
there's no need to wear
a single thing, taking politics out;
there's no time to live, stopping
schlepping life along.”
“On this day, 02|15|1991
I dreamt. From this dream, I wrote.
A story long and winding.
So it would be forgotten, just as they do when a mystery lingers beyond measure within their universe.
When it is finished, I will unwrite the final stroke from the epilogue—and descend into endless rest.
To this dream, I will return, and I will stay...
for eternity.”