O Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with O. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Over the years I have been told many secret methods for determining the sex of day-old ducklings. When tested, these techniques have proven to be only 50 percent accurate at best.”
Source: Storey's Guide to Raising Ducks: Breeds, Care, Health
“Over the years, I have cared for loved ones with advanced Alzheimer, late stage cardiovascular and renal disease and Stage 4 cancer. But none of those experiences prepared me for being a carer for a Severe or Very Severe ME patient. The breadth, severity and unprediciability of the symptoms and dysfunction from one person ro the next and from one day to the next can be hard to comprehend and mainstream medical education doesn't help.”
Source: Severe ME : Notes for Carers
“Over the years, I have chased that glow but in vain. I sometimes feel we don’t chase after new things. Often, while sifting through new attractions, we seek the peace we once knew, living in an unhurried time where we were what we were.”
Source: Fourteen Springs of Separation
“Over the years I have clashed with a number of people over differences, only to set aside disputes in favor of the common good; an ultimate goal that is far more important than how I "feel" about your stance on an issue. We can always rise above to get ahead. Never compromise your integrity, but put egos away to get results. There is value in this responsible adulting thing.”
Source: You Have a Superpower: Mindi Pi Meets Ava "Why Can't I Go Outside"
“Over the years I have come to believe that life is full of unchosen circumstances, that being human has to do with the evolution of our individual consciousness and with it, responsibilities for choice. Pain and joy both come with life. I believe that how we respond to what happens to us and around us shapes who we become and has to do with the psyche or the soul's growth.”
“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”
“Over the years I have come to realize we just can't know how or when resolution will come ...
As a dedicated follower, I have been privleged to witness and support the wisdom that emerges ...
I expect to be surprised by what the next people will teach me as they pursue their unique path towards resolution and open to inhabiting their inherent health.”
Source: The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships
“Over the years I have come to understand three things about the police: 1) They cover up virtually everything involving a police officer. 2) They will not enforce the laws for people that they do not like. 3) They will target people that they do not like for prosecution using various techniques that include unwarranted stops, drug testing, faked police reports, tickets, fines, blatantly mislead the judge at court, and removal of USA federal rights.”
“Over the years I have developed a picture of what a human being living humanely is like. She is a person who understand, values and develops her body, finding it beautiful and useful; a person who is real and is willing to take risks, to be creative, to manifest competence, to change when the situation calls for it, and to find ways to accommodate to what is new and different, keeping that part of the old that is still useful and discarding what is not.”
“Over the years I have developed and employed a variety of such coping mechanisms, mostly focusing around a philosophy I call, “Live Because.”
“Live Because” is in contrast to what I’ve termed “Live Despite,” which is the idea that people can live rich, full lives in spite of their physical or emotional barriers. “Live Because” takes this a step further by suggesting that in many cases, patients can live a more fulfilling life with their illness than they could ever have done without it.
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome has transformed me from a frequently petty and self-absorbed person into the person I am today (still somewhat self-absorbed, but a lot less petty, and with a clearly defined purpose of alleviating whatever suffering I can). I am better because of my illness, and not just in spite of it.
But this process was, and still is, a journey. Chronic illness is nearly always accompanied by depression, and the need to constantly remain one step ahead of my illness has left me fearful and exhausted. I could never go through this alone...
A part of me will always be angry; such is the process of mourning the pieces of oneself that are lost to chronic disease. I have learned to accept the duality of being bitter and at peace; ignorant and enlightened... while still laying a foundation of hope for the possibility that I can still realize my personal dreams and ambitions, even if not in the exact ways I had expected.”
“Over the years I have discovered that fairytales did not exist for the whole of humanity, that not every person discovers their soulmate, their forever, their red-fated string. I had never entertained the thought that I might belong in that category of people.”
Source: Strings of Fate
“Over the years I have discovered that ideas come through an intense desire for them; continually desiring, the mind becomes a watchtower on the lookout for incidents that may excite the imagination.”
“Over the years I have forged intimate familial ties with these characters, who are reflections of a portion of myself. Consequently, even a character who appeared only once in a short story waits now in the wings, concealed by the curtain, for his next appearance on-stage. Not one of them has ever broken free of his familial ties with me and disappeared for ever - at least, not within the confines of my heart.”
“Over the years I have found one of my best strengths is my ability to recognise talent and trust them.”
“Over the years I have found that many of the richest people in the world began their lives with the habit of tithing.”
“Over the years, I have found that my brain works best when I give my body a mindless physical task that can be accomplished entirely on autopilot, in an environment where I don’t have to pay much attention to my surroundings or get bombarded by external stimuli.”
Source: Orders of Battle
“Over the years, I have grown to love airports, despite all the travel inconveniences which are getting worse every year. I don’t know why I have this strong desire to depart; to always be somewhere else. Maybe getting displaced and being forced out of my home as a result of war has turned me into a permanent nomad? Since I left Iraq for the first time in 2005, I almost always have a plane, bus, or train ticket to go somewhere. Sometimes I think of the mothers who abandon their unwanted babies at the doors of churches and mosques. I imagine that my mother, too, had left me at the door of an airport with a plane ticket instead of a pacifier in my mouth! And since then, I have been moving everywhere and arriving nowhere. Could it be that disillusion takes place precisely at the moment we arrive at a certain destination?”
“Over the years I have had much occasion to ponder this word, the intelligentsia. We are all very fond of including ourselves in it—but you see not all of us belong. In the Soviet Union this word has acquired a completely distorted meaning. They began to classify among the intelligentsia all those who don't work (and are afraid to) with their hands. All the Party, government, military, and trade union bureaucrats have been included. All bookkeepers and accountants—the mechanical slaves of Debit. All office employees. And with even greater ease we include here all teachers (even those who are no more than talking textbooks and have neither independent knowledge nor an independent view of education). All physicians, including those capable only of making doodles on the patients' case histories. And without the slightest hesitation all those who are only in the vicinity of editorial offices, publishing houses, cinema studios, and philharmonic orchestras are included here, not even to mention those who actually get published, make films, or pull a fiddle bow.
And yet the truth is that not one of these criteria permits a person to be classified in the intelligentsia. If we do not want to lose this concept, we must not devalue it. The intellectual is not defined by professional pursuit and type of occupation. Nor are good upbringing and good family enough in themselves to produce and intellectual. An intellectual is a person whose interests in and preoccupation with the spiritual side of life are insistent and constant and not forced by external circumstances, even flying in the face of them. An intellectual is a person whose thought is nonimitative.”
Source: The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, Books III-IV
“Over the years I have learned not to get into arguments with incompetents.”
“Over the years I have learned that creating art has made me happy. I used to be a lawyer and I'm much happier being an artist.”
“Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it.”
“Over the years I have learned that when I need answers to deal with crises, people, and issues, I must go to God. God will help us in everything we do if we stay in tune and if we will call on him. We must each plan our future with him in our homes, our families, and our relationships with others. If we make him our senior partner, our lives can be successful.”
“Over the years I have met a lot of important people, but no one as important as Elvis Presley.”
“Over the years I have met and made friends who believe in different gods. Many of my friends are common Christians. Some are Catholic. And others are born-again Christians. I have a circle of friends who believe in Allah. And others believe in the Hindu gods. I also have a few friends who believe in Bhudda. I have friends who believe in the ancestors. And yes, I have friends who do not believe in any god. They are unwavering atheists. The goal is to accept others without being changeable from my beliefs.”
“Over the years, I have noticed that the child who learns quickly is adventurous. She's ready to run risks. She approaches life with arms outspread. She wants to take it all in. She still has the desire of the very young child to make sense out of things. She's not concerned with concealing her ignorance or protecting herself. She's ready to expose herself to disappointment and defeat. She has a certain confidence. She expects to make sense out of things sooner or later. She has a kind of trust.”
“Over the years I have often prayed for my children’s character to flourish. I have experienced over time that God is more interested in our character than in us having a comfortable life. It is, of course, through the hard times that we grow. We cannot experience the glory without the suffering. I have noticed that when my children go through challenging experiences, they mature in different areas of their lives.”
Source: Parenting with Courage: Shaping Lives, Leaving a Legacy
“Over the years I have photographed thousands of people. I have never stopped being curious and trying to discover new worlds. I have used my camera as a mirror for my subjects as well. I remember photographing a woman in her 80s for my book, Wise Women, who told me it had been a long time since anyone had really been interested in "seeing" or photographing her. When she saw the picture, she burst into tears. She saw something in the photograph, an inner beauty and soul, she felt had long ago vanished.”
“Over the years I have realized that the mistakes and forgetfulness is what makes live shows more endearing.”
“Over the years, I have sat with many very poor mothers and fathers as they have shared their stories of surviving genocide, slavery, murder, torture, humiliating rapes, and abuse. The pain they describe is unfathomable – and mental temptation is to imagine that the people who endure it are somehow fundamentally different from me. Maybe, somehow, they just don’t feel things like I do. Maybe they expect less, care less, hope for less, want less or need less. But painfully, over time, I have seen that they are exactly like me.”
Source: The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence
“Over the years I have tried to develop something which is technically assured.”
“Over the years I have waited for a miracle,
Though it has already happened.
Thus, today I say a grateful prayer,
For those who left us in the stillness of nature.
Now I see our stars through their eyes,
Set down upon the deep universe.
So I can finally relax and shed another tear,
As I understand the essence of living.
And just when I thought it was over,
Today I saw death again, and I learned!”
“Over the years I have written creative non-fiction related to the curricula I produced, first as an elementary school art instructor, then for nearly two decades as a museum education curator. While any curriculum I wrote was based on facts as well as best and accepted practices, to add imaginative interest and encourage my students’ engagement I put those facts in the context of stories, invented situations that brought to life the remote or unfamiliar”
“Over the years I hope I've become more of a musican and less of a guitarist.”
“Over the years I knew her she always looked at me like that - as though I was a quite pleasant but amusing object - and it always did the same thing to me. It's difficult to put into words but perhaps I can best describe it by saying that if I had been a little dog I'd have gone leaping and gambolling around the room wagging my tail furiously.”
Source: Let Sleeping Vets Lie
“Over the years, I learned to smile or laugh when I was supposed to. I kept my true self hidden; I did not need to unleash my pain on the world around me. Instead, I taught myself to ignore it. I did not realize that the pain was eating away at my soul.”
“Over the years I must have spent thousands of hours silently brushing on the liquid coatings, preparing each sheet in anticipation of reaching the perfect print.”
Source: Irving Penn: Small Trades
“Over the years, I questioned why I met someone so evil. I questioned God. Eventually, I came to a conclusion by studying the writings of Origen: do we really understand evil? Can evil be much more than a psychiatric disorder?”
Source: Origen: A True Story Of Evil
“Over the years I realized the damage fundamentalism did to my own spiritual and mental health. I've spend time recovering, studying scripture, sessions with a therapist, twelve step recovery.”
“Over the years, I've come to realize that determination makes one to punch above one's weight.”
“Over the years, I’ve discovered that as the years go by, sometimes we are energized and enlighten and sometimes we are demoralized and disheartened to realize that in some situations our beginning is our end and in others our end is our beginning.”
“Over the years I've done everything from small organization units in condo closets with sliding doors, to one massive one-thousand-square-foot duplex closet for a pamper socialite that included a wall of climate-controlled storage for her substantial fur collection, and no lie, a CIA-level fingerprint lock on the door. The only thing that was ever more fun was doing a panic room for a paranoid woman who had recently lost her husband. She wanted to be sure that if someone broke into her Gold Coast brownstone she could survive in comfort for at least a week. We referred to her as the Preppy Prepper, giving her a large panic room with en suite bathroom, which included a mini kitchen stocked with canned caviar and smoked oysters and splits of vintage champagne, completely upholstered in a huge-scale blowsy floral chintz.”
Source: Recipe for Disaster
“Over the years I’ve dreamt occasionally about that day and evening at Teotihuacan. It’s always the same: Moctezuma and I sit close together, huddled on stone steps at the bottom of the Pyramid of the Sun. His magnificent iridescent headdress bobs in the twilight as we talk, as he gestures. All is well.”
Source: What Awaits?
“Over the years I’ve felt: Kindness, sure—but first let me finish this semester, this degree, this book; let me succeed at this job, and afford this house, and raise these kids, and then, finally, when all is accomplished, I’ll get started on the kindness. Except it never all gets accomplished. It’s a cycle that can go on … well, forever.”
Source: Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness
“Over the years, I’ve met scores of people who have come and gone from the locanda, living quiet lives, trying to make ends meet, traveling with their families, or seeking adventures on their own. I think all of these people are their own heroes, doing their best and what they can to survive in a world that isn’t fair. When the world is sometimes frightening, surviving is its own kind of art form.”
Source: Graceless Heart
“Over the years I've noticed that, on hearing birds that are out of sight, I've gone from asking "What's there?" to "Who's there?”
Source: How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
“Over the years I've really believed when you think you're in danger, you are probably not and when you have no idea, you probably are.”
“Over the years, I’ve used plenty of alcohol and drugs (both legal and illegal) in order to get numb or high—but not nearly at the level that I have used people. I don’t actually need alcohol and drugs to alter my consciousness, because the pharmacy built right into my brain churns out enormous amounts of dopamine as a reward for the experience of sexuality, physical closeness, and emotional arousal—and at a rate that is esti mated to be ten times higher than that of a so-called normal person. And it’s not only dopamine that my brain overproduces when I’m infatuated with someone; it’s also adrenaline, oxytocin, serotonin, and norepinephrine. When combined in a powerful rush, these hormones fill me with an almost godlike sense of euphoria, removing my ability to feel pain or calculate risk, warping my perception of reality, and taking away my desire for sleep, food, and fulfillment of other basic life-supporting needs. Other people might experience pleasurable sensations from romance, fantasy, or sex; I get wasted.”
Source: All the Way to the River
“Over the years I would learn that sharing money with love and in solidarity is a delicate process, far more difficult than hoarding it. But until we live in a more equal world, sharing (responsibly) is the best you can do.”
Source: Mother Mary Comes to Me
“Over the years I've become more confident in people's ability to recognize a good thing.”
“Over the years I've grown more comfortable with making people uncomfortable because that is when growth can happen. You need a little conflict. You need a little tension. And that is part of my calling. A little tough love goes a long way!”