O Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with O. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Once they left school, Mark and Lucy stopped being religious. Instead of embodying the discourse and practices of the Catholic Church, they embodied the discourse and practice of love, sex and romance. Instead of going to church, they went to pubs and discos. Instead of embracing piety, humility and chastity, they embraced each other. Instead of kneeling down and praying, they shook their bodies to the rhythms of popular music. Instead of putting up pictures of holy men and women, they put up pictures of music and film stars. Instead of reading about the lives of saints, they read about the lives of celebrities. Instead of listening to hymns, they listened to songs about love and romance. Mark and Lucy were part of a new breed of people that began to emerge, particularly during the twentieth century, who believed more in themselves than God. They believed in the pursuit of happiness and pleasure more than in self-sacrifice. They saw passion and sex not as dangerous, but as central to living a fulsome life.”
Source: Love
“Once they met, the rest of it, the love between them, was inevitable”
Source: The Sun Is Also a Star
“Once they said they can only stop me with a pistol but today you need a machine gun to stop Messi.”
“Once they were all finally gone, I turned around and noticed Adeena and Elena looking like the "Jessica Fletcher eating popcorn" gif as they shared a bucket of popcorn while enjoying the drama.
"OK, I get that we're at a corn festival, but how did you get the popcorn so fast? Do you travel with props for moments like this?"
Adeena winked. "You know how dedicated I am when it comes to a bit. But no, your sweet boyfriend left when things started getting heated and returned with snacks for us."
Jae turned red as he held out a cone full of cornick from my aunt, a disk of corn tempura from our friend Yuki's booth, and other yummy corn-related snacks. "It was getting uncomfortable, and I figured I might as well make myself useful. I know what happens when you all get hungry, so I figured I'd grab food for you before it gets too crowded."
"He's a keeper, all right," Elena said, grinning at him as she dipped the corn tempura disk into the accompanying sauce.”
Source: Guilt and Ginataan
“Once they were both naked and pressed together again, with Christian’s mouth on one of Max’s nipples and Max’s hands on Christian’s inner thighs, Christian was struck by how intense it was, how urgent and powerful and deep this wanting went. All his life he was raised to believe—wanted to believe—that desire was a superficial thing, something you worked through and, if you were disciplined and moral, ultimately put aside in favour of deeper, more important pursuits.”
Source: Apple Polisher
“Once they were gone, Syn lifted his head to look at his Lieutenants. He knew how close he’d been to putting a bullet in that bastard’s head, because all he kept picturing were that man’s hands wrapped around Furi’s throat. Syn hadn’t lost control in a long time, and he wondered what that meant. How deep did his feelings for Furi run?
“Go home,” Day said, clasping him on the shoulder. “We’ll handle the rogue bitch clan at the station.”
“I can do my job, Day,” Syn snapped back at his boss.
“We know that. We’ll let Sasha Pain; aka porn bitch sit on ice and interrogate her in the morning see if there’s any connection with this ex-husband and BTNS.” God gestured with his head. “Go check on your man, you know that’s where you want to be.”
Syn was taken aback. God said nothing about him dating a prior suspect in a case they were still working, or about dragging them into a back alley fight while he took his revenge. God was actually being compassionate. Well, damn. Syn was astonished to see that side of him.
“Besides, you won’t be worth shit to me with a hard on all night.”
And he’s back. Well, that compassion sure was short-lived.”
“Once they were librarians, but that is a subject they will only discuss if heavily intoxicated.”
Source: The Night Circus
“Once they were safely ensconced, Dani released his arm and turned to face him, but drew up short when she saw how close he actually was, with only inches between them. He was staring down at her with a new intensity that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She swallowed and broke away from his gaze, but found she didn't know where else to look. His lips, soft and parted ever so slightly, were a definite no-go. Her eyes traced down the column of this throat, the sharp edge of his collarbone just below his open collar, the spot over his heart where hours ago, in another life, she'd rested her hand and felt the rhythm of his pulse.
"How are we going to get Zephyr out of the dungeon?" she asked his chest.”
Source: Fire with Fire
“Once they witnessed one of his painting sold at auction for $100,000. And asked how you do it, he said, 'I feel as a horse must feel when the beautiful cup is given to the jockey.'”
“Once they're on paper, they're gone. I like to do as much with the words, as far as image goes, so that it's really left open for a lot of things, even though I remember a specific impression of something I had at the time. I can't say a song is about this or that; in fact, I wouldn't even want to. I just prefer to have people live it anyway they want. Because it's theirs after that. There's nothing I can do about it anymore”
“Once they're on paper, they're gone. I like to do as much with the words, as far as image goes.”
“Once things get back to normal, we all need to take a long hard look at what we have been accepting as normal”
“Once this is all over, we’ll be a proper family, you’ll see.”
“Once this is over,' he says, 'there are some things I want to tell you. Some explanation I have to give.'
'Like what?' I ask, keeping my voice low.
He looks away, toward the edge of the pine forest. 'I let you believe- well, something that's untrue.'
I think about the feeling of Oak's breath against my neck, the way his fox eyes looked with the pupils gone wide and black, the way it felt to bite his shoulder almost hard enough to break skin. 'Tell me, then.'
He shakes his head, looking pained, but so many of his expressions are masks that I can no longer tell what is real. 'If I did, it would serve nothing but to clear my conscience and would put you in danger.'
'Tell me anyway,' I say.
But Oak only shakes his head again.
'Then let me tell you something,' I say. 'I know why you smile and jest and flatter, even when you don't need to. At first I thought it was to make people like you, then I thought it was to keep them off-balance. But it's more than that. You're worried they're scared of you.'
Wariness comes into his face. 'Why ever would they be?'
'Because you terrify yourself,' I say. 'Once you start killing, you don't want to stop. You like it. Your sister may have inherited your father's gift for strategy, but you're the one who got his bloodlust.'
A muscle moves in his jaw. 'Are you afraid of me?'
'Not because of that.'
The intensity of his gaze is blistering.
It doesn't matter. It feels good to pierce his armour, but it doesn't change anything.”
Source: The Stolen Heir
“Once thoroughly our own, the knowledge ceases to give us pleasure.”
“Once through this ruined city did I pass
I espied a lonely bird on a bough and asked
‘What knowest thou of this wilderness?’
It replied: 'I can sum it up in two words:
‘Alas, Alas!”
Source: Delhi
“Once time is lit, it will burn whether or not you're breathing it in. Even after smoke becomes air, there is the memory of smoke. I am seeing as if by the light of a match, a glimpse of my life and having it feel right.”
Source: The Realm of Possibility
“Once time is lost, it can never be earned by any means”
Source: No One Is Better Than You
“Once to die is better than length of days in sorrow without end.”
“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.”
“Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight, And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light.”
“Once to every person and nation come the moment to decide. In the conflict of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.”
“Once to swim I sought the sea-side,
There to sport among the billows;
With the stone of many colors
Sank poor Aino to the bottom
Of the deep and boundless blue-sea,
Like a pretty son-bird, perished.
Never come a-fishing, father,
To the borders of these waters,
Never during all thy life-time,
As thou lovest daughter Aino.
Mother dear, I sought the sea-side,
There to sport among the billows;
With the stone of many colors,
Sank poor Aino to the bottom
Of the deep and boundless blue-sea,
Like a pretty song-bird perished.
Never mix thy bread, dear mother,
With the blue-sea's foam and waters,
Never during all thy life-time,
As thou lovest daughter Aino.
Brother dear, I sought the sea-side,
There to sport among the billows;
With the stone of many colors
Sank poor Aino to the bottom
Of the deep and boundless blue-sea,
Like a pretty song-bird perished.
Never bring thy prancing war-horse,
Never bring thy royal racer,
Never bring thy steeds to water,
To the borders of the blue-sea,
Never during all thy life-time,
As thou lovest sister Aino.
Sister dear, I sought the sea-side,
There to sport among the billows;
With the stone of many colors
Sank poor Aino to the bottom
Of the deep and boundless blue-sea,
Like a pretty song-bird perished.
Never come to lave thine eyelids
In this rolling wave and sea-foam,
Never during all thy life-time,
As thou lovest sister Aino.
All the waters in the blue-sea
Shall be blood of Aino's body;
All the fish that swim these waters
Shall be Aino's flesh forever;
All the willows on the sea-side
Shall be Aino's ribs hereafter;
All the sea-grass on the margin
Will have grown from Aino's tresses.”
Source: The Kalevala
“Once Tony Daley opens his legs you've got a problem.”
“Once torched by truth...a little thing like faith is easy.”
“Once torture is justified in rare cases, it is easier to justify it in others: Let's torture not only this bastard we are sure knows where the bomb is, but this other bastard who might know where the bomb is, and also this bastard who might have some general information that could be useful in five years, and also this other guy who might be a bastard only we aren't sure.”
Source: Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts
“Once trained, the LLM is ready for inference. Now given some sequence of, say, 100 words, it predicts the most likely 101st word. (Note that the LLM doesn’t know or care about the meaning of those 100 words: To the LLM, they are just a sequence of text.) The predicted word is appended to the input, forming 101 input words, and the LLM then predicts the 102nd word. And so it goes, until the LLM outputs an end-of-text token, stopping the inference. That’s it!
An LLM is an example of generative AI. It has learned an extremely complex, ultra-high-dimensional probability distribution over words, and it is capable of sampling from this distribution, conditioned on the input sequence of words. There are other types of generative AI, but the basic idea behind them is the same: They learn the probability distribution over data and then sample from the distribution, either randomly or conditioned on some input, and produce an output that looks like the training data.”
Source: Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI
“Once trapped in the belief that you are a victim, you surrender your birthright to compete for the prizes of life.”
“Once traveling, it's remarkable how quickly faith erodes. It starts to look like something else--ignorance, for example. Same thing happened to the Israelites. Sure it's weak, but sometimes you'd rather just have a map.”
Source: Peace Like a River
“Once Trump got his hands around this promising idea, he basically strangled it.”
“Once trust is built, distance cannot kill it. Time and space alone cannot destroy authentic connection.”
“Once trust is tarnished, it is hard to restore it to its original glow.”
“Once turn to practice, error and truth will no longer consort together.”
Source: Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Collected and Republished
“Once two persons are tied together freedom is lost and anger arises. When freedom is lost everything becomes ugly. Love means that freedom remains intact: marriage means that freedom has been dropped. You have bargained for permanence, for security, and you have paid for it with freedom.”
“Once Understanding is unveiled, then victory is won and Peace established in the heart for ever and anon. An understanding heart is ever at peace even amid a war-dazed world. An ignorant heart is a dual heart. A dual heart makes for a dual world. A dual world breeds constant strife and war. Whereas an understanding heart is a single heart. A single heart makes for a single world. A single world is a world at peace. For it takes two to make a war.”
Source: The Book of Mirdad: The strange story of a monastery which was once called The Ark
“Once unhinged (by 'the good life') a lot of women are like one-way traffic. They don't look back…until they hit a bump.”
“Once unpacked, I saw my family downstairs. Each step released something spidery inside me: the sick-making terror of need.”
Source: Supper Club
“Once unpacked, I saw my family downstairs. Each step released something spidery inside me: the sick-making terror of need. Needing the accumulative, impervious love of being forced to eat all your broccoli even when it is making you retch and gag to put it in your mouth. The love of the TV being turned off past eleven. The love of being asked to say hello to the dog over the telephone. I’d always seen my mum and aunt from knee height, never quite managed to meet them as equals. It occurred to me how ludicrous it was that families slept in separate bedrooms, not piled on top of one another like lazily sunbathing lions.”
Source: Supper Club
“Once upon a Lammas Night
When corn rigs are bonny,
Beneath the Moon's unclouded light,
I held awhile to Annie...
The time went by with careless heed
Between the late and early,
With small persuasion she agreed
To see me through the barley...
Corn rigs and barley rigs,
Corn rigs are bonny!
I'll not forget that happy night
Among the rigs with Annie!”
“Once upon a long ago time I was a girl with hopeful halos in my eyes—not unlike you—not a typical beauty but beautiful nonetheless, as all young girls tend to be in their prime, even if they don’t tend to know it.”
Source: Small Town Demons
“Once upon a midnight dreary”
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore —
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door —
Only this and nothing more.”
Source: The Raven
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore —
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore —
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door —
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; —
This it is, and nothing more."
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"— here I opened wide the door; —
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" —
Merely this, and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice:
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore —
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; —
'Tis the wind and nothing more."
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door —
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door —
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore —
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
Much I marveled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning— little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door —
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore.”
Source: The Raven
“once upon a midnight dreary, while i pondered, weak and weary...QUOTH the raven, NEVERMORE.”
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, O’er a plan to venge myself upon that cursed Thursday Next- This Eyre affair, so surprising, gives my soul such loath despising, Here I plot my temper rising, rising from my jail of text. “Get me out!” I said, advising, “Pluck me from this jail of text- or I swear I’ll wring your neck!”
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.”
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore--While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As if some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--Only this and nothing more.”
“Once upon a perfect night, unclouded and still, there came the face of a pale and beautiful lady. The tresses of her hair reached out to make the constellations, and the dewy vapours of her gown fell soft upon the land.”
“Once upon a real time, there were two girls, sisters. The little one followed the elder like night follows day, and they were as different from each other as sun and moon, but like the sun and moon, neither would be the same without the other...."
The Unicorn Quest.”
“Once upon a time . . . What time are we upon and where do I belong?”
Source: Witch Baby