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Firsts Quotes

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Firsts Quotes

“Revealed religion first informed thy sight, and reason saw not till faith sprung to light.”

Firsts Reason Light Saws Sight Scripture Sprung

Book:Dryden: Selected Poems

Source: Dryden: Selected Poems

“Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well; the chiefest part of which is to observe those excellencies which delight a reasonable reader.”

Firsts Wells Judging Reader Standards Criticism Delight Reasonable

Book:The Works of John Dryden, Volume XII: Plays Ambboyna, The State of Innocence, Aureng-Zebe

Source: The Works of John Dryden, Volume XII: Plays Ambboyna, The State of Innocence, Aureng-Zebe

“Certainly a chair can be just as interesting as a human being. But first the chair must be perceived by a human being... You should not paint the chair, but only what someone has felt about it.”

Should Firsts Humans Felt Interest Human Beings Interesting Paint Chairs

Author:Edvard Munch

“There are three aspects to perspective. The first has to do with how the size of objects seems to diminish according to distance: the second, the manner in which colors change the farther away they are from the eye; the third defines how objects ought to be finished less carefully the farther away they are.”

Firsts Seems Eye Three Objects Color Perspective Ought Aspect Thirds Distance Size Finished Diminish

Book:Leonardo da Vinci's advice to artists

Source: Leonardo da Vinci's advice to artists

“Do not fancy, as too many do, that thou canst praise God by singing hymns to Him in church once a week, and disobeying Him all the week long. He asks of thee works as well as words; and more, he asks of thee works first and words after.”

Firsts Wells Long Asks Church Week Singing Praise Thee Fancy Hymns Thanksgiving Day Praise God Disobeying Praises To God

Author:Charles Kingsley

“Depend upon it, a man never experiences such pleasure or grief after fourteen years as he does before, unless in some cases, in his first lovemaking, when the sensation is new to him”

Men Years Firsts Doe Age Pleasure Grief Cases Depends Sensations First Love Fourteen

Author:Charles Kingsley

“Even the country's first president chafed at the limits placed on him by the writers of the U.S. Constitution. From the nature of the Constitution, ... I must approve all the parts of a bill, or reject it in toto.”

Firsts Country President Limits Constitution Bills Rejects

Author:George Washington

“Order is Heaven's first law; and this confess, Some are and must be greater than the rest.”

Firsts Law Order Heaven Greater

Book:The Major Works

Source: The Major Works

“Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid.”

Firsts Taught Lovers Letters Aids Maids Captives

Book:The works of Alexander Pope, with notes and illustrations, by himself and others. To which are added, a new life of the author [&c.] by W. Roscoe

Source: The works of Alexander Pope, with notes and illustrations, by himself and others. To which are added, a new life of the author [&c.] by W. Roscoe

“The first requisite to happiness is that a man be born in a famous city.”

Men Firsts Born Cities

Author:Euripides

“There is nothing more hostile to a city that a tyrant, under whom in the first and chiefest place, there are not laws in common, but one man, keeping the law himself to himself, has the sway, and this is no longer equal.”

Men Firsts Law Common Cities Equal Tyranny One Man Tyrants Hostile

Book:The Tragedies of Euripides: Hercules furens. The Troades. Ion. Andromache. Suppliants. Helen. Electra. Cyclops. Rhesus

Source: The Tragedies of Euripides: Hercules furens. The Troades. Ion. Andromache. Suppliants. Helen. Electra. Cyclops. Rhesus

“If at great things thou would'st arrive, Get riches first, get wealth, and treasure heap, Not difficult, if thou hearken to me; Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand, They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain, While virtue, valor, wisdom, sit in want.”

Source: Paradise Regain'd: A Poem, in Four Books. To which is Added Samson Agonistes: and Poems Upon Several Occasions. The Author John Milton. A New Edition. With Notes of Various Authors, by Thomas Newton, ...

“Consider first, that great or bright infers not excellence.”

Firsts Excellence

Book:The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton

Source: The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton

“Nature's first great title--mind.”

Mind Firsts Titles

Book:Gems: Principally from the Antique

Source: Gems: Principally from the Antique

“California has become the first American state where there is no majority race, and we're doing just fine. If you look around the room, you can see a microcosm of what we can do in the world. . . . You should be hopeful on balance about the future. But it's like any future since the beginning of time -- you're going to have to make it.”

Ifs World Should Firsts Looks States Can Do Rooms Race Fine Balance Majority California Hopeful Microcosm

Author:William J. Clinton

“The first thing you ought to do when you find yourself in a hole is quit digging. . . . Instead they are looking for a bigger shovel.”

Firsts Ought Bigger Quitting Holes Finding Yourself Digging Shovels

Author:William J. Clinton

“L'absurde est la notion essentielle et la premie' re ve? rite? . The absurd is the fundamental idea and the first truth.”

Firsts Ideas Fundamentals Notion Absurd Absurdity Rite

Author:Albert Camus

“We have to discard the past / and, as one builds / floor by floor, window by window, / and the building rises, / so do we keep shedding - first, broken tiles, / then proud doors... and each new day / gleams / like an empty / plate.”

Firsts Past Doors Building Broken Proud Window Empty Plates Renewal New Day Gleam Tiles Each New Day

Book:I explain a few things: selected poems

Source: I explain a few things: selected poems

“If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad.”

Ifs Firsts Believe Wish Goodness Be Good

Book:Enchiridion

Source: Enchiridion

“Whom Jupiter would destroy he first drives mad.”

Firsts Mad Insanity Jupiter

Author:Sophocles

“Getting ahead in a difficult profession - singing, acting, writing, whatever requires avid faith in yourself. You must be able to sustain yourself against staggering blows and unfair reversals. When I think back to those first couple of years in Rome, those endless rejections, without a glimmer of encouragement from anyone, all those failed screen tests, and yet I never let my desire slide away from me, my belief in myself and what I felt I could achieve.”

“The first duty of a government is to give education to the people.”

People Giving Firsts Government Duty

Author:Simon Bolivar

“When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you come to your work and warm as you write.”

Writing Firsts Book Stories Light Work Morning Cold Warm Every Morning Daily Work

Author:Ernest Hemingway

“I think the first order of business after the vote on the articles of impeachment is censure.”

Thinking Firsts Order Vote Articles Censure Impeachment

Author:John Breaux

“We're comfortable financially, so it wasn't a financial issue that I voted Conservative. Basically, it was for the same reason we voted for Diefenbaker. First it was Mackenzie King, then St. Laurent -- Christ, the Liberals were in something like 20 years in a row (22 actually) --and we simply needed a change. It was getting like a dictatorship. Whether elected or not, that's not good for the country. I didn't go to war for a dictatorship.”

Years Firsts War Country Reason Christ Issues Kings Needed Comfortable Financial Conservative Dictatorship

Author:Don Drysdale

“All baseball fans can be divided into two groups: those who come to batting practice and the others. Only those in the first category have much chance of amounting to anything.”

Firsts Two Chance Practice Groups Fans Baseball Categories Divided Batting Baseball Fans Batting Practice

Book:How life imitates the World Series: an inquiry into the game

Source: How life imitates the World Series: an inquiry into the game

“If I didn't have this affliction, I would be the first. As a rule the if-clause contains an unfulfillable condition, or the patient's own arrangement, which only he can change.”

Ifs Firsts Would Be Conditions Patient Arrangements Affliction Clauses

Author:Alfred Adler

“There was an ancient Roman lawyer, of great fame in the history of Roman jurisprudence, whom they called Cui Bono, from his having first introduced into judicial proceedings the argument, "What end or object could the party have had in the act with which he is accused."”

Firsts Ends Law Party Objects Fame Argument Ancient Lawyer Accused Judicial Proceeding Jurisprudence

Author:Edmund Burke

“A library is the first step of a thousand journeys, portal to a thousand worlds.”

World Firsts Steps Journey Thousand Library First Steps Portal

Author:Orson Scott Card

“Think of the man who first tried German sausage.”

Thinking Men Firsts He Man Eating Sausage

Book:Three Men in a Boat

Source: Three Men in a Boat

“These [the senses] we trust, first, last, and always.”

Firsts Lasts Senses

Author:Lucretius

“My first advice (on how not to grow old) would be to choose you ancestors carefully.”

Firsts Would Be Age Grows Advice Ancestor Ice Age

Author:Bertrand Russell

“If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would do it.”

Ifs Giving Firsts Book Law Months Six Six Months

Author:Bertrand Russell

“The welfare of our children is our main concern, and their best interests are our first priority.”

Firsts Children Interest Concern Our Children Priorities Welfare

Author:Eddie Murphy

“I am younger each year at the first snow.”

Years Firsts Snow First Snow

Book:Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters

Source: Anne Sexton: A Self-portrait in Letters

“Trying to imagine E. M. Forster, who found Ulysses indecorous, at a London performance of Lenny Bruce—to which in fact he was once taken. Trying to imagine the same for a time-transported Nathaniel Hawthorne—who during his first visit to Europe was even shocked by the profusion of naked statues.”

Trying Firsts Facts Found Taken Imagine Europe Performances London Naked Shocked Statues Ulysses Hawthorne

Book:The Last Novel

Source: The Last Novel

“My big advantage was to have my father accept me as first-generation.”

Firsts Bigs Father Accepting Generations Advantage Accept Me

Author:Mukesh Ambani

“All of us, in a sense, struggle continuously all the time, because we never get what we want. The important thing which I've really learned is how do you not give up, because you never succeed in the first attempt.”

Want Giving Firsts Important Struggle Succeed Giving Up Important Things Not Giving Up

Author:Mukesh Ambani

“Zeno first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defence against a knave.”

Firsts Doctrine Defence Knaves Knavery

Book:Plutarch's Morals

Source: Plutarch's Morals

“When Demosthenes was asked what was the first part of Oratory, he answered, "Action," and which was the second, he replied, "action," and which was the third, he still answered "Action.”

Firsts Stills Action Thirds Oratory

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Plutarch (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Plutarch (Illustrated)

“He (Cato) used to say that in all his life he never repented but of three things. The first was that he had trusted a woman with a secret; the second that he had gone by sea when he might have gone by land; and the third, that had passed one day without having a will by him.”

Firsts Might Used Three Secret Gone Sea Land One Day Thirds Repentance Trusted Three Things Cato

Book:Lives, Translated from the Original Greek: With Notes, Historical and Critical; and a Life of Plutarch

Source: Lives, Translated from the Original Greek: With Notes, Historical and Critical; and a Life of Plutarch

“Nothing exists in the intellect that has not first gone through the senses.”

Firsts Gone Intellect Senses

Author:Plutarch

“Every good piece of art... involves first essentially the evidence of human skill, and the formation of an actually beautiful thing by it.”

Firsts Humans Art Beautiful Pieces Skills Evidence Very Good Beautiful Things Formation

Book:Selections and Essays

Source: Selections and Essays

“People go through four stages before any revolutionary development: 1. It's nonsense, don't waste my time. 2. It's interesting, but not important. 3. I always said it was a good idea. 4. I thought of it first.”

People Firsts Said Important Ideas Change Interesting Four Stage Development Waste Revolutionary My Time Nonsense Good Ideas Wasting My Time Don't Waste My Time

Author:Arthur C. Clarke

“It is well known that "problem avoidance" is an important part of problem solving. Instead of solving the problem you go upstream and alter the system so that the problem does not occur in the first place.”

Firsts Wells Doe Important Problem Known Problem Solving Well Known Avoidance

Book:Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas

Source: Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas

“I always was fascinated with China, because I was born in Europe, and for us, China had this fascination and mystery. The first time I came here was in 1989. They were on bicycles, and the speed of the growth has been incredible.”

Firsts Has Beens Growth Born Mystery First Time Europe Incredibles China Speed Fascinated Fascination Bicycle

Author:Diane von Furstenberg

“My first few weeks in New York were an initiation into the kingdom of guts.”

Firsts Week New York Kingdoms Guts Initiation

Author:Shirley MacLaine

“To Harry Secombe: I hope you die first as I don't want you singing at my funeral.”

Want Firsts Dies Singing Funeral

Author:Spike Milligan

“For the first time ever we are capable of removing abject poverty, illiteracy and the diseases of poverty from the human condition. The current intensification of global economic integration has demonstrated that there is enough knowledge, technology and capital to bring development to all the people of the world.”

People World Firsts Humans Enough Poverty Technology Economic Conditions Development Disease Capable First Time Currents Human Condition Integration Illiteracy Economic Integration

Author:Clare Short

“How about this miracle... God says if you plant the seed I will make the tree. Wow, you can't have a better arrangement than that. First, it gives God the tough end of the deal. What if you had to make a tree? That would keep you up late at night trying to figure out how to make a tree. God says, "No, leave the miracle part to me. I've got the seed, the soil, the sunshine, the rain and the seasons. I'm God and all this miracles stuff is easy for me. I have reserved something very special for you and that is to plant the seed.”

Ifs Giving Trying Firsts Ends Night Easy Stuff Deals Tree Special Figures Late Tough Rain Seasons Miracle Plant Seeds Soil Sunshine What If Wow Arrangements Reserved

Author:Jim Rohn