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Firsts Quotes

“I have been writing poetry since 1975. My first poetry book was published in 1986.”

Writing Firsts Has Beens Book Writing Poetry

Author:Taslima Nasrin

“First of all, just to get Diner made would have been an achievement in that I got a chance to direct.”

Firsts Has Beens Made Chance Achievement Direct Diners

Author:Barry Levinson

“Working-class Americans have waited too long, close to a decade in fact, for an increase in the minimum wage. This has been the second longest period without a pay raise since the Federal minimum wage law was first enacted in 1938.”

Firsts Long Has Beens Facts Law Pay Class Periods Increase Raises Decades Minimum Working Class Minimum Wage

Author:Bill Pascrell

“Cold-turkey deficit reduction would cause a significant recession. A recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that going headlong over the cliff would cause our gross domestic product, which has been growing at an annual rate of around 2 percent, to fall at a rate of 2.9 percent in the first half of 2013.”

“I have been studying women’s political behavior since the early 1970s and first identified the gender gap in 1980 with the help of legendary pollster Louis Harris.”

Firsts Has Beens Helping Political Study Behavior Gender Gaps Legendary Gender Gap

Author:Eleanor Smeal

“I'm not the first player to have their home Grand Slam and not perform. There have been a few Australians and French players, you name it. It's a tough thing. But it is one of those things. Would I rather have a Grand Slam in my country than not? I would.”

Firsts Has Beens Country Home Names Player Tough Slam Tough Things

Author:Samantha Stosur

“Let us be satisfied simply with what sustains our present life, not with what pampers it. Let us pray to God for this, as we have been taught, so that we may keep our souls unenslaved and absolutely free from domination by any of the visible things loved for the sake of the body. Let us show that we eat for the sake of living, and not be guilty of living for the sake of eating. The first is a sign of intelligence, the second proof of its absence.”

Firsts May Has Beens Soul Shows Body Christian Taught Praying Eating Sake Proof Absence Satisfied Guilty Visible Orthodox Domination Praying To God Present Life

Author:Maximus the Confessor

“I was under the assumption that the first job you get out of college is the job you have for the rest of your life. That's how my parents were; my parents have been teachers for as long as I've known 'em. I was worried that I'd gotten into something that I was going to hate.”

Firsts Long Has Beens Jobs Hate Parent Known Teacher College Worried Assumption Ems Rest Of Your Life

Author:Jack McBrayer

“Man, people have been waiting for me to fall off my whole career. From the first time I stepped on the court. It probably made people sick to their stomachs watching my whole career, watching the things that I've done in my career.”

People Men Firsts Has Beens Made Done Whole Fall Waiting Careers First Time Sick Court

Author:Allen Iverson

“The male has been persuaded to assume a certain onerous and disagreeable role with the promise of rewards -- material and psychological. Women may in the first place even have put it into his head. BE A MAN! may have been, metaphorically, what Eve uttered at the critical moment in the garden of Eden.”

Source: The Essential Wyndham Lewis: An Introduction to His Work

“Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed by the great majority of men. Every valuable thing that has been added to the store of man's possessions has been derided by them when it was new, and destroyed by them when they had the power. They have fought every new truth ever heard of, and they have killed every truth-seeker who got into their hands.”

Men Firsts Humans Has Beens Hands Steps Progress Heard Majority Possession Valuable Stores Destroyed Abyss Seekers Every Step Stirring Human Progress Valuable Things Truth Seekers

Author:H. L. Mencken

“If these precedents are to stand unimpeached, and to provide sanctions for the continued conduct of America affairs-the Constitution may be nullified by the President and officers who have taken the oath and are under moral obligation to uphold it....they may substitute personal and arbitrary government-the first principle of the totalitarian system against which it has been alleged that World War II was waged-while giving lip service to the principle of constitutional government.”

“It is through our technology that we have been able to fly far away from earth to learn, in truth, how precious it is. It is no coincidence that our awakening to the special nature of our world and to its uniquely balanced environment and its limitations coincided with our first glimpse of earth from outer space, through the eyes of astronauts, television cameras and photographic equipment.”

“All material Things seem to have been composed of the hard and solid Particles ... variously associated with the first Creation by the Counsel of an intelligent Agent. For it became him who created them to set them in order: and if he did so, it is unphilosophical to seek for any other Origin of the World, or to pretend that it might arise out of a Chaos by the mere Laws of Nature.”

Source: Isaac Newton: Philosophical Writings

“Indeed, what is there that does not appear marvelous when it comes to our knowledge for the first time? How many things, too, are looked up on as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?”

Firsts Doe Has Beens Impossible First Time Marvelous

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder (Illustrated)

“TEDIUM, n. Ennui, the state or condition of one that is bored. Many fanciful derivations of the word have been affirmed, but so high an authority as Father Jape says that it comes from a very obvious source --the first words of the ancient Latin hymn _Te Deum Laudamus_. In this apparently natural derivation there is something that saddens.”

Firsts Has Beens States Father Natural Conditions Source Authority Ancient Obvious Bored Fancy Latin Hymns Ennui Tedium

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)

“Twenty-one years ago today Saddam Hussein was first elected president of Iraq and he has been re-elected ever since. Apparently they have the same electoral process we do, you don't need the popular vote to win.”

Needs Years Firsts Has Beens Today Winning Process President Years Ago Vote Twenties Iraq Saddam Hussein Twenty One Popular Vote Electoral Process

Author:Jay Leno

“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 own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying . . . one must ruthlessly suppress everything that is not concerned with the subject. If, in the first chapter, you say there is a gun hanging on the wall, you should make quite sure that it is going to be used further on in the story.”

Ifs Should Firsts Has Beens Ends Stories Used Lying My Own Written Subjects Wall Gun Concerned Crosses Chapters Hanging On

Author:Anton Chekhov

“To read a newspaper for the first time is like coming into a film that has been on for an hour. Newspapers are like serials. To understand them you have to take knowledge to them; the knowledge that serves best is the knowledge provided by the newspaper itself.”

Firsts Has Beens Film Hours First Time Newspapers Serials

Book:The Enigma of Arrival

Source: The Enigma of Arrival

“All art is erotic. The first ornament to have been invented, the cross, was of erotic origin. It was the first work of art. A horizontal stroke: the woman lying down. A vertical stroke: the male who penetrates her.”

Firsts Has Beens Art Lying Art Is Crosses Males Works Of Art Strokes Erotic Penetrate Ornaments Vertical Horizontal Lying Down

Author:Adolf Loos

“In many ways, it was much, much harder to get the first book contract. The hardest thing probably overall has been learning not to trust people, publicists and so forth, implicitly.”

People Way Firsts Has Beens Book Literature Harder Hardest Contracts Hardest Thing Publicists

Author:Neil Gaiman

“This is tremendous. The labels have been saying all along that they can't compete with free, but there is a way to compete with free: high value content that's virus- free and gives people the chance to be first in line to buy expensive concert tickets. This is like loyalty clubs at the supermarkets.”

People Way Giving Firsts Has Beens Values Lines Chance Clubs Loyalty Labels Expensive Concerts Tickets Viruses Supermarkets

Author:Jonathan Potter

“The first half of fiscal 2006 has been exceptional for Cochlear. Importantly, Cochlear capitalized on a number of opportunities in this half with worldwide market share estimated to be in excess of 70%.”

Firsts Has Beens Opportunity Numbers Half Share Importance Excess Exceptional

Author:Chris Roberts

“We are very excited with the roster of skaters that are coming. It's the first time New Jersey has been awarded an event of this caliber in the skating world. It's definitely important to the area because we hear all the time that there are not enough major sporting events in South Jersey. It's a great opportunity to have such an event.”

World Firsts Has Beens Important Enough Opportunity Events Majors First Time Areas South Excited Jersey Skating New Jersey Great Opportunity Skater Caliber Sporting Events Rosters

Author:Susan Ward

“I remember as a ranger the first time I stood alone on Inspiration Point over at Canyon Station looking out over this beautiful land. I thought to myself how lucky I was that my parents' and grandparents' generation had the vision and the determination to save it for us. Now it is our turn to make our own gift outright to those who will come after us, 15 years, 40 years, 100 years from now. I want to be as faithful to my grandchildren's generation as Old Faithful has been to ours. What better way can we add a new dimension to our third century of freedom?”

“. . . you [film critics] always overstress the value of images. You judge films in the first place by their visual impact instead of looking for content. This is a great disservice to the cinema. It is like judging a novel only by the quality of its prose. I was guilty of the same sin when I first started writing for the cinema. . . . Now I feel that only the literary mind can help the movies out of that cul de sac into which they have been driven by mere technicians and artificers.”

Feels Writing Mind Firsts Has Beens Helping Film Values Sin Quality Novel Judging Impact Mere Critics Driven Guilty Crafts Cinema Visuals Prose Technicians Disservice Film Critics

Author:Orson Welles

“War affected my family a lot, and I was quite curious about it. I first went off to war in the early 90's as a journalist, partly out of curiosity and partly because I needed a career. War reporting has been very glamorous and exciting, and everything else that young men like.”

Men Firsts Has Beens War Young Careers Needed My Family Exciting Curiosity Curious Journalist Young Man Affected Glamorous

Author:Sebastian Junger

“Since Martin Luther closed his eyes, no such son of our people has appeared again. It has been decided that we shall be the first to witness his reappearance.... I think the time is past when one may not say the names of Hitler and Luther in the same breath. They belong together; they are of the same old stamp.”

People Thinking Firsts May Has Beens Eye Together Past Names Son Decided Breaths Witness His Eyes Stamps Luther

Author:Bernhard Rust

“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution. That will not happen overnight and it will not happen at a single conference on climate change, be it COP 15, 21, 40 - you choose the number. It just does not occur like that. It is a process, because of the depth of the transformation.”

“I came to my first Colts training camp in July of 1950, and it was murder, absolute murder. We had a coach named Clem Crow who must have been nuts. You got to remember that I'd been a Marine, had gone through basic training and spent 26 months in the Pacific during WWII, but the Marine drill instructors had nothing on Clem.”

Firsts Has Beens Remember Gone Months Training Murder Absolutes Coaches Camps Nuts Marine July Wwii Crow Pacific Drills Instructors Training Camp Colts Basic Training

Author:Art Donovan

“Gold and Silver have been the predominant currency for 4,500 years, but they became money in Lydia, in about 680 B.C. When they were minted into coins of equal weight in order to make trade easier and smoother. But it was when coinage first made its appearance in Athens that it truly flourished.”

Years Firsts Has Beens Made Order Easier Equal Gold Weight Trade Appearance Silver Currency Coins Athens Gold And Silver

Author:Michael Maloney

“First, what does truth require? It requires us to face the facts as they are, not to involve ourselves in self-deception; to refuse to think merely in slogans. If we are to work for the future of the city, let us deal with the realities as they actually are, not as they might have been, and not as we wish they were.”

Ifs Thinking Firsts Doe Has Beens Self Facts Reality Might Truth Faces Dies Wish Deals Cities Refuse Deception Might Have Been Slogans Self Deception

Author:John F. Kennedy

“First, Poland has been again overrun by two of the great powers which held her in bondage for 150 years but were unable to quench the spirit of the Polish nation. The heroic defense of Warsaw shows that the soul of Poland is indestructible, and that she will rise again like a rock which may for a spell be submerged by a tidal wave but which remains a rock.”

Source: The Churchill War Papers: At the Admiralty, September 1939-May 1940

“How many of us have been first attracted to reason, first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism from Rochefoucauld or La Bruyere.”

Thinking Firsts Has Beens Reason Moral Draws Conclusion Folly Aphorism Dazzling Drawing Conclusions

Author:Bill Vaughan

“Book burning is a charming old custom, hallowed by antiquity. It has been practiced for centuries by fascists, communists, atheists, school children, rival authors, and tired librarians. Like everything of importance since the invention of the cloak and the shroud, its origins are cloaked in mystery and shrouded in secrecy. Some scholars believe that the first instance of book burning occurred in the Middle Ages, when a monk was trying to illuminate a manuscript. All agree that book burning was almost non-existent during the period when books were made of stone.”

“To many of us now, computers, silicon chips, data processing, cybernetics, and all the other innovations of the dawning high technology age are as mystifying as the workings of the combustion engine must have been when that first Model T rattled down Main Street, U.S.A. But as surely as America's pioneer spirit made us the industrial giant of the 20th century, the same pioneer spirit today is opening up on another vast front of opportunity, the frontier of high technology.”

“I have really seen the best in people and I've absolutely seen the worst in people. And I'm happy to say that most of the time I have been seeing the best of people in the first congressional district and connecting with voters and seeing what's important to them hearing their stories and what they want to see happen.”

People Want Firsts Has Beens Important Stories Happens Seeing Worst Hearing Voters Connecting What's Important

Author:Rob Zerban

“Today I arrived by train in New York City, which I'd never seen before, walked through the grandeur of Grand Central Terminal, stepped outside, got my first look at the city and instantly fell in love with it. Silently, inside myself, I yelled: I should have been born here!”

Should Firsts Looks Has Beens Today Born Cities New York Should Have Train New York City Should Have Been Grandeur Terminal

Book:A Diary of the Century: Tales from America's Greatest Diarist

Source: A Diary of the Century: Tales from America's Greatest Diarist

“You say men ought to be hung for the way they are executing the law; I say the way it is being executed is quite as good as any of its antecedents. It is being executed in the precise way which was intended from the first, else why does no Nebraska man express astonishment or condemnation? Poor Reeder is the only public man who has been silly enough to believe that anything like fairness was ever intended, and he has been bravely undeceived.”

Men Way Firsts Believe Doe Has Beens Enough Law Poor Ought Silly Fairness Hung Precise Condemnation Astonishment Executing Nebraska

Book:LINCOLN – Complete 7 Volume Edition: Biographies, Speeches and Debates, Civil War Telegrams, Letters, Presidential Orders & Proclamations: Including the Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt & 3 Biographies: The Every-day Life of the President, Lincoln by Carl Shurz and Abraham Lincoln by Joseph H. Choate

Source: LINCOLN – Complete 7 Volume Edition: Biographies, Speeches and Debates, Civil War Telegrams, Letters, Presidential Orders & Proclamations: Including the Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt & 3 Biographies: The Every-day Life of the President, Lincoln by Carl Shurz and Abraham Lincoln by Joseph H. Choate

“And you are entirely free from head-ache? That is good -- good -- considering it is the first spring you have been free from it since we were acquainted. I am afraid you will get so well, and fat, and young, as to be wanting to marry again.”

Firsts Wells Has Beens Young Spring Fats Considering Ache

Book:Abraham Lincoln, a Documentary Portrait Through His Speeches and Writings

Source: Abraham Lincoln, a Documentary Portrait Through His Speeches and Writings

“English children have lost their innocence, for their first lessons have been in the exploitation of their adult slave.”

Firsts Children Has Beens Lost Lessons Adults Slave Innocence Exploitation

Author:Germaine Greer

“Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that.”

Firsts Has Beens Fun Amount Blind Cancer Poison Breasts Massive Breast Cancer Blind Date

Author:Molly Ivins