W Quotes
Browse famous quotes beginning with W. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.
“Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.”
Source: Kahlil Gibran: Masterpieces
“Would that I could discover truth as easily as I can uncover falsehood.”
“Would that I knew what others ignore,
Such as has not been repeated,
To say it and have my heart answer me,
To inform it of my distress.
Shift to it the load on my back,
The matters that afflict me.
Relate to it of what I suffer
And sigh “Ah" with relief!
of meditate on what has happened,
The events that occur throughout the land: Changes take place, it is not like last year,
One year is more irksome than the other.
The land breaks up, is destroyed.
Becomes [a wasteland].
Order is cast out,
Chaos is in the council hail ;
The ways of the gods are violated,
Their provisions neglected.
The land is in turmoil.
There is mourning everywhere;
Towns, districts are grieving,
All alike are burdened by wrongs.
One turns one’s back on dignity.
The lords of silence are disturbed;
As dawn comes every day.
The face recoils from events.
I cry out about it,
My limbs are weighed down,
I grieve in my heart.
It is hard to keep silent about it,
Another heart would bend;
But a heart strong in distress:
It is a comrade to its lord.
Had I a heart skilled in hardship,
I would take my rest upon it.
Weigh it down with words of grief.
Lay on it my malady!
He said to his heart:
Come, my heart, I speak to you.
Answer me my sayings!
Unravel for me what goes on in the land,
Why those who shone are overthrown.
I meditate on what has happened:
While trouble entered in today,
And turmoil will not cease tomorrow,
Everyone is mute about it.
The whole land is in great distress,
Nobody is free from erime;
Hearts are greedy.
He who gave orders takes orders,
And the hearts of both submit.
One wakes to it every day.
And the hearts do not reject it.
Yesterday's condition is like today’s
None is wise enough to know it,
None angry enough to cry out,
One wakes to suffer each day.
My malady is long and heavy.
The sufferer lacks strength to save himself
From that which overwhelms him.
It is pain to be silent to what one hears,
It is futile to answer the ignorant.
To reject a speech makes enmity;
The heart does not accept the truth,
One cannot bear a statement of fact,
A man loves only his own words.
Everyone builds on crookedness,
Right-speaking is abandoned.
I spoke to you, my heart, answer you me,
A heart addressed must not be silent,
Lo, servant and master fare alike,
There is much that weighs upon you!”
Source: Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
“Would that I were a dry well, and that the people tossed stones into me, for that would be easier than to be a spring of flowing water that the thirsty pass by, and from which they avoid drinking.”
“Would that I were the heaven, that I might be all full of love-lit eyes to gaze on thee.”
“Would that I would be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.”
Source: The Prophet
“Would that it were so! ... That the American military were targeting journalists.”
“Would that it were true, would that all the poems and paintings of the world were but a mirror of such hopeful splendor.”
Source: The Vampire Armand
“Would that men might come at last to see that it is quite impossible to reach the thicket of the riches and wisdom of God except by first entering the thicket of much suffering, in such a way that the soul finds there its consolation and desire. The soul that longs for divine wisdom chooses first, and in truth, to enter the thicket of the cross.”
“Would that our harsh judgments could be restrained, our impatience checked, our selfishness broken down, our passions controlled, our waste of time and life in worthless or unworthy objects corrected, by the thought that there is One in whose hands we are, who cares for us with a parent's love, who will judge us hereafter without the slightest tinge of human' infirmity, the All-Merciful and the All-Just.”
“Would that the dead were not dead! But there is grass that must be eaten, pellets that must be chewed, hraka that must be passed, holes that must be dug, sleep that must be slept.”
Source: Watership Down
“Would that the Roman people had but one neck!”
“Would that the Roman people had but one neck!
[Lat., Utinam populus Romanus unam cervicem haberet!]”
“Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, might be laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate the tone of politics and trade till public and private honor become identical.”
Source: At home and abroad: or, Things and thoughts in America and Europe. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller
“Would that there were an award for people who come to understand the concept of enough. Good enough. Successful enough. Thin enough. Rich enough. Socially responsible enough. When you have self-respect, you have enough.”
“Would that thy love, beloved, had less trust in me, that it might be more anxious!”
Source: The Letters of Abélard and Héloïse
“Would that we could at once paint with the eyes! In the long way from the eye through the arm to the pencil, how much is lost!”
“Would that we loved the ancients more and copied them less! It has been said that the Greeks were great because they never drew from the antique.”
Source: The Book of Tea
“Would that well-thinking people should be replaced by thinking ones.”
“Would the atheist continue such, let him beware how he admits Love into his breast: for God will surely come along with him.”
“Would the boy you were be proud of the man you are?”
“Would the cook were o' my mind!”
Source: The New Oxford Shakespeare: Modern Critical Edition: The Complete Works
“Would the Element be a car for people who like hip-hop, or for people waiting for a hip-op?”
“Would the fish have ever been caught if it had kept it’s mouth shut?”
“Would the Gardners and the workers at the Yerkes Primate Center be remembered dimly as legendary folk heroes or gods of another species? Would there be myths, like those of Prometheus, Thoth, or Cannes, about divine beings who had given the gift of language to the apes?”
Source: The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
“Would the guy who saves the world really beat up a sixteen year old girl and steal her dog?!”
Source: Generation Why
“Would the hand of Providence permit such an irony of bleakness to prevail?...If so, to what purpose and end result?...Regardless of the answers, she now found herself in an imperfect union, with an imperfect family. They had real flaws and a myriad of complex emotions... She had little choice but to adjust accordingly if they were each to survive within it.”
Source: Persecution & Providence
“Would the Holy One, Blessed is he, dispense judgment without justice? But we may say that he whom God loves will be chastised. For since the day the Holy Temple was destroyed, the righteous are seized by death for the iniquities of the generation”
Source: Triumph of Survival: The Story of the Jews in the Modern Era 1650-1990
“Would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself? I trust not.”
“Would the Iraq War have occurred without WMD? I doubt it.”
Source: Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight
“Would the last animal, eating garbage and living on the last scrap of land, his mate dead, would he still forgive you?”
Source: Light Action in the Caribbean: Stories
“Would the Lord send one of the Twelve Apostles halfway around the world to help just one person? The answer is YES. He does it all the time.”
“Would the media insist on having a Holocaust-denier to balance any report about the Second Word War?”
“Would the people in her life still love her if they knew the whole truth about her? Perhaps, but would they love her the same?”
Source: Bad Girl by Night
“Would the potential attraction to Mormonism by simply having a Mormon in the White House threaten traditional Christianity by leading more Americans to a church that some Christians believe misleadingly calls itself Christian, is an active missionary church, and a dangerous cult?”
“Would the war dehumanize me so that I, too, could "field trip" enemy dead with such nonchalance?”
Source: With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
“Would the world be in the mess it is if we were loyal to love and not to countries?”
Source: The Portable Graham Greene
“Would the world ever have been made if its maker had been afraid of making trouble? Making life means making trouble. Theres only one way of escaping trouble; and thats killing things. Cowards, you notice, are always shrieking to have troublesome people killed.”
Source: Pygmalion
“Would the world ever have been made if its maker had been afraid of making trouble?Making life means making trouble. There’s only one way of escaping trouble; and that’s killing things.”
Source: Pygmalion
“Would there be a little space, she wondered, a little time, some way to hold off eventfulness, to push busyness into the corners of the room and just stand there a minute or two.”
Source: Beloved
“Would there be any truth in saying that psychology was created by the sophists to sow distrust between man and his world?”
Source: Parables of Sun Light: Observations on Psychology, the Arts, and the Rest
“Would there be extra payment for my services?” Leah tried not to appear too eager. “Is money all you Jews ever think about?” Vaselik asked. “It’s easy to be so offhand about money when you have it,” she replied coldly.”
Source: Sown in Tears: A Historical Novel of Love and Struggle
“Would there be this eternal seeking if the found existed?”
“Would there be trees if we didn't see them?”
Source: The Years
“Would there not be the greatest reason to apprehend, that error in the first sentence would be the parent of error in the second sentence? That the strong bias of one decision would be apt to overrule the influence of any new lights, which might be brought to vary the complexion of another decision? Those, who know any thing of human nature, will not hesitate to answer these questions in the affirmative.”
Source: The Origin of the Nation: Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and Other Amendments, Federalist Papers & Common Sense: Creating America - Landmark Documents that Shaped a New Nation
“Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?”
“Would they not fear that citizens not less tenacious than conscious of their rights would flock from the remotest extremes of their respective states to the places of election, to overthrow their tyrants, and to substitute men who would be disposed to avenge the violated majesty of the people?”
Source: The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus
“Would they quarrel so much, if they were indifferent?”
“Would they retreat or move forward? Could they do this thing they were on the verge of doing? Did they have it in them to make a wrong decision just because it felt right?”
Source: Heart of the Matter
“Would they see through my artificial cool and realize that 50 percent of the songs I'd chosen had come from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack?”
Source: Wow, No Thank You.: Essays