O Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with O. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Once upon a time, in the strange town of Balar, there were two handsome brothers, Pierre and Mathéo.”
Source: The Curse of Balar
“Once upon a time,’ is code for ‘I’m lying to you.’ We experience stories as lies and truth at the same time. We learn to empathize with real people via made-up people. The most important thing that fiction does is it lets us look out through other eyes, and that teaches us empathy—that behind every pair of eyes is somebody like us.”
“Once upon a time is now.”
“Once upon a time, Isola Wilde was watching late-night television with her eldest brother, Alejandro, when Channel 12 broadcast a live suicide.”
Source: Fairytales for Wilde Girls
“Once upon a time; it was an intriguing, communicative time - at the time, when there was no Facebook and Twitter - it was splendid, at the time, because we talked to each other all the time.”
“Once upon a time it was not safe to be born a girl. It is important to remember that time does not exist. Once upon a time, all of time, it was not safe to be a girl. Lecherous men would disguise themselves as kittens left for dead by their mothers so that little girls would pick them up and kiss their eyes into vision and then the kittens would grow and grow until they were bigger and fiercer than lions and they would eat the girls in one bite, bones and skin and hair and all. Once upon a time it was not safe to be born a girl because either you were the kitten abandoned in a dumpster or you were devoured by it. Once upon a time it was not safe to be a girl because girls have fires inside of them and men who are cold cling to their warmth until they leech it from the bones of women and then burn them to death with their own matches.”
Source: Advice for Taxidermists and Amateur Beekeepers
“Once upon a time, Jack wouldn't have been caught dead in a princess rescue.”
Source: Half Upon a Time
“Once upon a time, loss of love, rejection, weakness and loss of territory all meant death. Now it just feels that way.”
Source: A Model for Living
“Once upon a time man conceived the belief that this universe, with its many worlds swinging through space, was created for him. He fancied that the sun shone by day to warm and vivify him; that the stars of night were none other than lamps to his feet; that the other animals existed to afford him food and clothing—and sport; that the very flowers of the field blossomed and fruited and were beautiful for his gratification. In fact, man conceived the belief that instead of being the wise brother and helper of this creation amidst which he moves, he was the great central pivot upon which all revolves.
A sorry lesson, surely, for man to read into the broad, open page of Nature’s great book. Small wonder that to him in his meanness its message came as “the painful riddle of the earth.” But it was the best he could do: the best any of us can do until we have learned the great lesson of the ancient Wise One has written out for us—which she will teach us, in time, through death, if we will not let her teach it through life: the lesson that use is not appropriation; that appropriation sets use to groan and sweat under fardels of evil.”
Source: This then is upland pastures: being some out-door essays dealing with the beautiful things that the spring and summer bring
“Once upon a time men were possessed by devils. Now they are not less obsessed by ideas”
Source: Psychology and religion: West and East
“Once upon a time millions applauded and supported Adolf Hitler; ignorant masses often cannot see the simple truths and evidently they do not have the ability to see the very clear ends! The stupidity of the ignorant masses has been proven thousands of times in the history! Each time they follow the wrong leader and in the end fall in the cesspool!”
“Once upon a time, my father told me, fine dining meant baked lobster and cocktails. Not all restaurants could be counted on to have wine lists. But at Peasant Stock, they made osso bucco and cassoulet, and for dessert things like macaroon soufflé with apricot-brandy sauce. They never served ice cream, but some far more fascinating item called granita, in potent infusions of espresso or huckleberry or blood orange.”
Source: Charlotte Au Chocolat: Memories of a Restaurant Girlhood
“Once upon a time, my government turned my city into a police state, kidnapped me, and tortured me. When I got free, I decided that the problem wasn’t the system, but who was running it. Bad guys had gotten into places of high office. We needed good apples. I worked my butt off to get people to vote for good apples. We had elections. We installed the kind of apples everyone agreed would be the kind of apples we could be proud of. They said good things. A few real dirtbags like Carrie Johnstone lost their jobs.
And then, well, the good apples turned out to act pretty much exactly like the bad apples. Oh, they had reasons. There were emergencies. Circumstances. It was all really regrettable.
But there were always emergencies, weren’t there?”
Source: Homeland
“Once upon a time my political opponents honored me as possessing the fabulous intellectual and economic power by which I created a worldwide depression all by myself.”
Source: Addresses Upon the American Road
“Once upon a time on a small, watery, excitable planet called Earth, in a small, watery, excitable country called Italy, a soft-spoken, rather nice-looking gentleman by the name of Enrico Fermi was born into a family so overprotective that he felt compelled to invent the atomic bomb.”
Source: Space Opera
“Once upon a time, on the MV Cavalla Mosquitoes were everywhere especially along the river. When I first arrived in West Africa I was used repellent and constantly swatted them. Most frequently they just sat there and, when slapped, splashed red blood in all directions. The seasoned TTTs would laugh making remarks about how the insects liked new blood. In time everyone contracted malaria! All the quinine and other derivatives only helped marginally to prevent malaria and actually caused some expats to cut short their contracts and return home early.
I, like many others, just put up with it, not really being aware of how dangerous the disease could be. Now it was Captain Turner’s turn to wind up in the hospital. Covering for him was different since the MV Cavalla was an old landing vessel that we didn’t even consider a ship. Be that as it may, on that occasion I had to take over for Captain John Turner who had graduated a year before me, from the New York State Maritime College, and had gone totally native. He had grown a long shaggy beard and although having been admonished on a number of occasions, wore nothing more than a loin cloth and a uniform cap. His dark tan added to his wild image but I felt that in time it could cause him a problem. He only had a few months left on his contract but insanely offered to stay longer. Now malaria got the best of him and he wound up in the hospital. My guess was that they would have sent him back early if they could of, but we weren’t that easy to replace.”
“Once upon a time our traditional goal in war and can anyone doubt that we are at war? - was victory. Once upon a time we were proud of our strength, our military power. Now we seem ashamed of it. Once upon a time the rest of the world looked to us for leadership. Now they look to us for a quick handout and a fence-straddling international posture.”
“Once upon a time, people completed each other.
Phones do that to us nowadays.”
“Once upon a time, people genuinely cared.”
“Once upon a time people talked about the infallibility of the pope; today it is that of the merchant which they wish to establish.”
“Once upon a time, people thought earth was flat-shaped.
Now I'm ready to perceive universe won't be as we think.”
“Once upon a time, pink dolphins swam not far from shore. He and Yas would wade out to see the newest calves and swim alongside Mira and Hira--- the names they'd given the sweetest two with matching crooked fins.”
Source: Forty Words for Love
“Once upon a time refugee meant somebody who has a refuge, found a place, a haven where he could find refuge.”
“Once upon a time she'd thought he'd had the most beautiful pair of eyes she'd ever seen. They were the color of a deep maple. She'd spent way too much time as a besotted teen trying to pinpoint the exact color. Molasses was too light, chocolate too dark.”
Source: A Legend in the Baking
“Once upon a time she had liked to dance. When she had been about the same age as the little brunette out there who kept lifting her dress up over her head. Now that was living. Just lift your dress if you wanted to get down and don't worry what anyone thought.”
Source: Jacked Up
“Once upon a time,' she says, looking straight into the camera, 'my grandmother fell in love on a train.' She hesitates, taking a sharp breath. 'Fifty years later, so did I.”
Source: Field Notes on Love
“Once upon a time
She tried so hard to fix him
And in the moment he was fixed
He simply left
She blossomed in the dirty pond
And still is a beautiful flower
She was drown
Trying to teach him how to swim”
Source: The Curved Rainbow
“Once upon a time Sister Mary Margaret had answered a loud knocking at the door of the orphanage. It was very early one morning, before the city was awake. All the pigeons had their heads tucked under their wings and all the rats were curled up tight behind the dustbins. All the cars and lorries were asleep in their garages and depots, and all the trains slumbered on their tracks at Connolly Station. All the boats bobbed gently in the harbor, dreaming of the high seas, and all the bicycles slept leaning along the fences. Even the angels were asleep at the foot of the O’Connell Monument, fluttering their wings as they dreamt, quite forgetting to hold still and pretend to be statues.”
Source: Himself
“Once upon a time slavery used to happen against a person's will. Today most of us willingly spend time and money on expensive education with the hopes of becoming indentured servants to someone else.”
Source: Inspirational Sayings: Get Super Motivated and Achieve Amazing Success through Inspirational Sayings!
“Once upon a time, slightly longer ago then before, there was a kingdom whose name and very existence have long since been forgotten. While the rest of the world was fighting for control of new lands across the seas, inventing ever more deadly weapons, and generously gifting their own religion to foreign people who didn't want it, this kingdom just splendidly was.
In happier years, because of its removed location in an out-of-the-way valley, it was a lodestone for the artistic, the different, the clever: les charmantes.”
Source: As Old as Time
“Once upon a time supporters of the Steinitz-Tarrasch school had a very high opinion of a queen-side pawn majority. Modern strategy on the other hand categorically denies that such a majority is an independent factor of any importance.”
“Once upon a time, tarot reading was about discovering what your future held. These days tarot helps you craft exactly the future you desire.”
Source: The Magic of Tarot: Your Guide to Intuitive Readings, Rituals, and Spells
“Once upon a time, the captive princess offered a demon a shard of the sun.”
Source: Between Sun and Shadow
“Once upon a time the English knew who they were.”
“Once upon a time the fairy tales begin. But then they end and often you don't know really what has happened, what was meant to happen, you only know what you've been told, what the words suggest.”
Source: The Mammoth Book of Modern Ghost Stories
“Once upon a time the future was supposed to be brighter, shinier and more fun. When did that vision pass? When did the word 'new' lose it's luster? Now the past is supposed to hold the hopes we once confided to the future. We're directing attachments that used to go forward backward.”
“Once upon a time the general problem of the City Chaotic looked so simple. Boulevards and civic monuments were going to create the City Beautiful. After that proved insufficient, regional plans were to create the City Sensible. These proved unacceptable and now we are struggling, sometimes it seems at the expense of everything else, to improvise the City Traversible.”
Source: Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs
“Once upon a time, the girl locked in the tower fell in love with the dragon...”
Source: Firestorm: Part 3
“Once upon a time, the grownups used to go far away every day to earn money, for without money you did not have a house or food or clothes. As time passed, the grownups went away for longer and longer and the money they brought home was less and less until finally there was no money left. Where did it all go? Money wasn’t a thing like clothes or parsnips. Money was a promise. And too many people broke that promise so people did not believe in money anymore. The grownups everywhere realized they had been cheated but even the cheats lost out when no one wanted to plough the field or teach the class or even stop the bad men.”
Source: If Then
“Once upon a time, the Heart of the Forest broke in two. And the two halves disappeared into the mortal world of the humans, bringing destruction and devastation with them. The husk that was left behind, the Heartless, poisoned the ground where it fell, and now Faery knows only war. But the war was over now. Everything was supposed to go back to normal, or so Here thought. He often thought it inconvenient that he wasn't alive before the war. He didn't have the proper image of what normal was. He blamed his harpy mother for that, but never out loud. Only in the safety of his own head.--The Harpy's Son”
Source: All Worlds Wayfarer: Through Other Eyes
“Once upon a time, the night was meant for sleep... Now, the night bears many tales.”
“Once upon a time, the planet Pagomènos stopped spinning.”
Source: Between Sun and Shadow
“Once upon a time the plural of 'wizard' was 'war'.”
“Once upon a time, the Threaded lived in a castle in the clouds.”
Source: Delphine and the Silver Needle
“Once upon a time, the towering pines and sturdy Carolina hemlock seemed like a protective barrier, the walls of a living sanctuary. But now, draped with morning mist and heaped with snow, my beloved woods appear a menacing maze of secrets and shadows.
The perfect hiding place for monsters.”
Source: Trashy Suspense Novel
“Once upon a time the world was a realm of unanswered questions and there was room in it for poetry. Man stood beneath the sky and he asked “why?”. And his question was beautiful.
The new world will be a place of answers and no questions, because the only questions left will be answered by computers, because only computers will know what to ask.
Perhaps that is the way it has to be.”
“Once upon a time the world was round, and you could go on it around and around.”
Source: The World Is Round
“Once upon a time the world was sweeter than we knew. Everything was ours; how happy we were then, but then once upon a time never comes again.”
“Once upon a time, there lived four friends. They were not just any friends; they were school friends!”
“Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster. This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome.”
Source: Laughter in the Dark