Quotessence
Home / Topics / Dust Quotes

Dust Quotes

Browse 1488 quotes about Dust.

Related topics

MenIfsKnowsWorldHeartWayEarthPeopleLittlesEyeTurnsThinkingWindBookLightMadeHandsAshesDreamSoulYearsAirMayWantFallFeetStillsLyingShouldStarsBodyGoldHas BeensSpecksLongLooksSaidFeelsMindSpiritFacesLeftLifeTryingEndsMatterWellsCloudsDryFirstsGivingHumansSettlingWritingBloodNamesReturnArtFlowerHeavenPastSkyWaterChildrenDeathDiesLastsMightNeedsNightSeemsSunBitsDarkDoeMomentsSelfAgeBreathsGoneHouseRememberStonesTreeUniverseBehindsEnoughFireGrowsKindPicksRunningSmellTwoWholeBlowForgetIdeasJoyRealmore

Dust Quotes

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

MenLifeInspirationalShouldTryingCharacterUsePlanetsWasteAmbitionFunctionLondonBrilliantDustPermanentMy TimeDrySparksAtomsWasting TimeAshesMagnificentGlowingSleepyWasted TimeSuperbBlazingBurn OutRottingDon't Waste Your TimeStiflingTime Of My LifeWasted LifeMeteorsBurned OutBurnt OutProlonging
Author:Jack London
Create image

“The point I would make is that the novelist and the historian are seeking the same thing: the truth – not a different truth: the same truth – only they reach it, or try to reach it, by different routes. Whether the event took place in a world now gone to dust, preserved by documents and evaluated by scholarship, or in the imagination, preserved by memory and distilled by the creative process, they both want to tell us how it was: to re-create it, by their separate methods, and make it live again in the world around them.”

WorldWantTryingDifferentProcessImaginationMemoriesGoneCreativeEventsMethodSeekingDustNovelistsHistorianCreative ProcessDocumentsRoutesScholarship
Book:The Civil War: A Narrative: Volume 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville
Create image

“We do not always remember the things that do no credit to us. We justify them, cover them in bright lies or with the thick dust of forgetfulness. All of the things that Shadow had done in his life of which he was not proud, all the things he wished he had done otherwise or left undone, came at him then in a swirling storm of guilt and regret and shame, and he had nowhere to hide from them. He was as naked and as open as a corpse on a table, and dark Anubis the jackal god was his prosector and his prosecutor and his persecutor.”

DoneRememberLyingLeftDarkRegretProudShadowShameTablesGuiltCreditStormNakedDustJustifyThickCorpsesUndoneForgetfulnessProsecutorJackalsAnubis
Author:Neil Gaiman
Create image

“And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too.”

PeopleKnowsHeartBodyDiesSportsLeadershipBloodKingsBattleWeakEnglandLaysKingdomsDustHeatMidstHonourRecreation
Author:Elizabeth I
Create image

“A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”

GivingDifferentShowsFearSoundWaterBehindsMorningSunTreeRocksBrokenBeatsShadowRedStonesDustEveningRisingDryReliefShelterCricketHandfulBehind YouWaste LandDead TreesSound Of WaterBroken Images
Author:T. S. Eliot
Create image

“Nobody can claim the name of Pedro, nobody is Rosa or María, all of us are dust or sand, all of us are rain under rain. They have spoken to me of Venezuelas, of Chiles and Paraguays; I have no idea what they are saying. I know only the skin of the earth and I know it has no name.”

KnowsIdeasEarthNamesRainSkinsClaimsDustNo IdeaSandMarsChileVenezuelaRosaParaguay
Book:Windows that open inward: images of Chile
Create image

“Death, only death, can break the lasting chain; And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain”

BreakColdDustChainsLasting
Book:The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope: In Three Volumes Complete : with His Last Corrections, Additions, and Improvements, Together with All His Notes, as They Were Delivered to the Editor a Little Before His Death : Together with the Commentary and Notes of Mr. Warburton
Create image

“When the heart is hard and parched up, come upon me with a shower of mercy. When grace is lost from life, come with a burst of song. When tumultuous work raises its din on all sides shutting me out from beyond, come to me, my lord of silence, with thy peace and rest. When my beggarly heart sits crouched, shut up in a corner, break open the door, my king, and come with the ceremony of a king. When desire blinds the mind with delusion and dust, O thou holy one, thou wakeful, come with thy light and thy thunder.”

MindHeartHardLightDesireSongLostSidesSilenceLordBreakGraceDoorsKingsHolyMercyRaisesCornersDustDelusionShut UpShowersThunderCeremony
Book:கீதாஞ்சலி: Kītāñcali
Create image

“Franny has the measles, for one thing. Incidentally, did you hear her last week? She went on at beautiful length about how she used to fly all around the apartment when she was four and no one was home. The new announcer is worse than Grant - if possible, even worse than Sullivan in the old days. He said she surely dreamt that she was able to fly. The baby stood her ground like an angel. She said she knew she was able to fly because when she came down she always had dust on her fingers from touching the light bulbs.”

IfsSaidHomeLightAbleLastsBeautifulUsedFourOne ThingWeekBabyAngelFingersDustLengthGrantsTouchingApartmentOld DaysBulbsLight BulbMeaslesAnnouncers
Author:J. D. Salinger
Create image

“I believe that there is one story in the world, and only one. . . . Humans are caught—in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. . . . There is no other story. A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well—or ill?”

MenWorldLifeBelieveHumansWellsHardDoneStoriesEvilLeftI BelieveKindnessAmbitionCleanHungerIllCaughtCrueltyDustGenerosityGood And EvilChipsEdenAvariceEast Of Eden
Author:John Steinbeck
Create image

“The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance, All our ignorance brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Bring us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.”

IdeasActionLostHeavenSilenceCenturyInformationIgnoranceSpeechTwentiesEndlessExperimentsInventionDustCyclesStillnessIdeas And Action
Book:The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot
Create image

“The eye of a man should be still more reverent before the rising of a young maiden than before the rising of a star. The possibility of touch should increase respect. The down of the peach, the dust of the plum, the radiated crystal of snow, the butterfly’s wing powdered with feathers, are gross things beside that chastity that does not even know it is chaste. The young maiden is only the glimmer of a dream and is not yet statue. Her alcove is hidden in the shadows of the ideal. The indiscreet touch of the eye desecrates this dim penumbra. Here, to gaze, is to profane.”

KnowsMenShouldDoeStillsDreamEyeYoungStarsPossibilityShadowIdealsIncreaseWingsSnowDustRisingButterflyFeathersGrossStatuesCrystalsChastityMaidensPeachesProfaneChastePlums
Book:Les Misérables
Create image

“[He] looked up and imagined the hand of God flinging stars like shining dust across the heavens. No. He was wrong to think such pagan thoughts, for God had only to utter a word and it was done. Only man had He shaped with His hands, using the dust He created to form His most precious and amazing creation. Only man was molded and loved into being, the breath of life in his lungs given by God.”

ThinkingMenDoneHandsFormGivenHeavenStarsCreationBreathsShiningDustLungsPaganHands Of God
Author:Francine Rivers
Create image

“This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

MenWorldLooksReasonSeemsActionEarthMovingFormAnimalFirePiecesAirAngelInfiniteBraveNobleGoldenDustExcellentFacultyRoofFoulAdmirableApprehensionCongregationFirmamentBeauty Of The WorldHamlet 2QuintessenceImportant HamletCanopyVapourParagon
Author:William Shakespeare
Create image

“As I swept the last bit of dust, I made a covenant with myself: I will accept. Whatever will be, will be. I have a life to lead. I recalled words a friend had told me, the philosophy of her faith. "Life is a journey and a struggle," she had said. "We cannot control it, but we can make the best of any situation." I was indeed in quite a situation. It was up to me to make the best of it.”

MadeSaidPhilosophyLastsLife IsBitsSituationAcceptingStruggleJourneyDustCovenantLife Is A JourneyMake The Best Of It
Author:Wangari Maathai
Create image

“Things are sweeter when they're lost. I know--because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it it turned to dust in my hand.”

KnowsHandsWantedDesireLostDustDots
Book:The Echoes of the Jazz Age Collection: The Beautiful and Damned, Winter Dreams, The Great Gatsby, Babylon Revisited, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and many more
Create image

“There's no beauty without poignancy and there's no poignancy without the feeling that it's going, men, names, books, houses--bound for dust--mortal--”

MenBookFeelingsHouseNamesBoundsDustMortalsPoignancy
Book:The Echoes of the Jazz Age Collection: The Beautiful and Damned, Winter Dreams, The Great Gatsby, Babylon Revisited, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and many more
Create image

“The magician seemed to promise that something torn to bits might be mended without a seam, that what had vanished might reappear, that a scattered handful of doves or dust might be reunited by a word, that a paper rose consumed by fire could be made to bloom from a pile of ash. But everyone knew that it was only an illusion. The true magic of this broken world lay in the ability of things it contained to vanish, to become so thoroughly lost, that they might never have existed in the first place.”

WorldFirstsMadeMightLostBitsAbilityFireMagicBrokenPromisePaperIllusionLaysRoseDustAshesTornMagicianHandfulConsumedDoveReunitedBroken World
Author:Michael Chabon
Create image

“I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather, C. S. Lewis.”

ThinkingStillsBookEnoughStoriesGirlReadingGrowsResultsBoundsTalesDustFairyFairy TaleShelvesDeafPrintedThat GirlAffectionateWords You Say
Book:The Chronicles of Narnia Complete 7-Book Collection with Bonus Book: Boxen
Create image

“I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the universe or if it is but a speck of dust lost in eternity. I know not and I care not. For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.”

IfsKnowsNeedsMeanEndsPhilosophyCareEarthHappinessPurposeUniverseLostGoalKnowingPossibilityWise WordsHigherEternityAimPhilosopherCoreDustI CareBeing HappyFinding HappinessNot CaringWise WomenSpecksObjectivismVindicated
Book:Anthem
Create image

“Time is a lot of the things people say that God is. There's always preexisting, and having no end. There's the notion of being all powerful-because nothing can stand against time, can it? Not mountains, not armies. And time is, of course, all-healing. Give anything enough time, and everything is taken care of: all pain encompassed, all hardship erased, all loss subsumed. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Remember, man, that thou art dust; and unto dust thou shalt return. And if time is anything akin to God, I suppose that memory must be the devil.”

PeopleIfsMenGivingArtEndsEnoughCarePainRememberCoursesMemoriesLossPowerfulHealingTakenReturnMountainDevilArmyNotionDustHardshipAshesEnough TimeGod Is ThereDust To Dust
Author:Diana Gabaldon
Create image