Best half & dozen Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“I don't think there's more than half-a-dozen cartoons that I've been really truly happy with in all the time I've been doing it.”

Thinking Half Dozen Cartoon Truly Happy

Author:Pat Oliphant

“My first novel was turned down by half a dozen publishers. And even after having published five or six books, I wasn't making enough money to live on, and was beginning to think I'd have to give up the dream of being a full-time writer.”

Thinking Giving Firsts Book Enough Dream Half Novel Five Giving Up Six Dozen Publishers Turned Down

Author:Ian Rankin

“Wild Bill was anything but a quarrelsome man yet I have personal knowledge of at least half a dozen men whom he had at various times killed.”

Men Half Bills Various Dozen Personal Knowledge

Book:Buffalo Bill (Hon. Wm. F. Cody) and His Wild West Companions: Including Wild Bill, Texas Jack, California Joe, Capt. Jack Crawford and Other Famous Scouts of the Western Plains

Source: Buffalo Bill (Hon. Wm. F. Cody) and His Wild West Companions: Including Wild Bill, Texas Jack, California Joe, Capt. Jack Crawford and Other Famous Scouts of the Western Plains

“Excellence is THE trend of the '80s. Walk into any shopping mall bookstore, go to the rack where they keep the best-sellers such as Garfield Gets Spayed, and you'll see a half-dozen books telling you how to be excellent: In Search of Excellence, Finding Excellence, Grasping Hold of Excellence, Where to Hide Your Excellence at Night So the Cleaning Personnel Don't Steal It, etc.”

Book Night Walks Half Findings Humorous Excellence Stealing Excellent Etc Trends Shopping Dozen Cleaning 80s Bookstores Malls Grasping Sellers Racks Personnel Best Sellers Garfield

Author:Dave Barry

“For, what is order without common sense, but Bedlam's front parlor? What is imagination without common sense, but the aspiration to out-dandy Beau Brummell with nothing but a bit of faded muslin and a limp cravat? What is Creation without common sense, but a scandalous thing without form or function, like a matron with half a dozen unattached daughters? And God looked upon the Creation in all its delightful multiplicity, and saw that, all in all, it was quite Amiable.”

Form Order Bits Imagination Common Half Saws Fronts Creation Daughter Function Common Sense Aspiration Dozen Delightful Faded Multiplicity Amiable Parlor Scandalous Dandy

Author:Vera Nazarian

“How do you untell something? You can't. You can't put words back in your mouth. What you can do, is spread false gossip ... so people think that everything that's been said is untrue. Include that Stanley is having an affair. It's like the end of Spartacus. I have seen the movie half a dozen times, and I still don't know who the real Spartacus is. And, that is what makes that movie a classic whodunnit.”

People Thinking Knows Said Stills Real Ends Can Do Half Mouths Affair Spread Classic Gossip Dozen Untrue Stanley Spartacus

Author:Michael Scott

“Democracy...is a society in which the unbeliever feels undisturbed and at home. If there were only a half dozen unbelievers in America, their well-being would be a test of our democracy.”

Ifs Feels Wells Home Would Be America Half Democracy Tests Safety Well Being Dozen Unbelievers

Author:Alfred North Whitehead

“The paint has a skin to it, here taut and glossy, there wrinkled, abraded, scarred. It is pierced, abraded, scraped. A line drawn through it will go through half a dozen states, from the furry bloom of crusted charcoal to a blind furrow, cutting a channel in to soft paint below.”

States Lines Half Cutting Painting Skins Blind Paint Dozen Furry Charcoal

Author:Andrew Forge

“When I do an operation, it's half a dozen people. When it goes beautifully, it's like a symphony, with everybody playing their part.”

People Half Operations Dozen Symphony

Author:Atul Gawande

“Throughout his last half-dozen books, for example, Arthur Koestler has been conducting a campaign against his own misunderstanding of Darwinism. He hopes to find some ordering force, constraining evolution to certain directions and overriding the influence of natural selection. [...] Darwinism is not the theory of capricious change that Koestler imagines. Random variation may be the raw material of change, but natural selection builds good design by rejecting most variants while accepting and accumulating the few that improve adaptation to local environments.”

“Traveling across the United States, it's easy to see why Americans are often thought of as stupid. At the San Diego Zoo, right near the primate habitats, there's a display featuring half a dozen life-size gorillas made out of bronze. Posted nearby is a sign reading CAUTION: GORILLA STATUES MAY BE HOT. Everywhere you turn, the obvious is being stated. CANNON MAY BE LOUD. MOVING SIDEWALK IS ABOUT TO END. To people who don't run around suing one another, such signs suggest a crippling lack of intelligence.”

Source: Me Talk Pretty One Day

“Ladies are always of great use to the party they espouse, and never fail to win over numbers to it. Lovers, according to Sir William Petty's computation, make at least the third part of sensible men of the British nation; and it has been an uncontroverted maxim in all ages, that though a husband is sometimes a stubborn sort of a creature, a lover is always at the devotion of his mistress. By this means, it lies in the power of every fine woman, to secure at least half a dozen able-bodied men to his Majesty's service.”

Source: The Freeholder. Swift's notes on the Free-holder. The Plebian, by Sir Richard Steele, with The Old whig, by Mr. Addison. The Lover

“An original mind is rarely understood, until it has been reflected from some half-dozen congenial with it, so averse are men to admitting the true in an unusual form; whilst any novelty, however fantastic, however false, is greedily swallowed.”

Men Mind Has Beens Form Half Understood Originals Fantastic Unusual Dozen Novelty Admitting

Book:Lectures on Art, and Poems

Source: Lectures on Art, and Poems

“In the arts, people are always waiting for someone or some movement to "fulfill her/its/his promise." Then, half-a-dozen or a dozen years on, others begin to realize that, really, something extraordinary was actually happening.”

People Years Art Waiting Realizing Half Movement Promise Happenings Extraordinary Dozen Always Waiting

Book:Conversations with Samuel R. Delany

Source: Conversations with Samuel R. Delany

“I do not think he [Reagan] put names and faces together but for a small group of people. There were a few, perhaps half a dozen reporters, that Reagan recognized, including my colleague Lou Cannon, and some from television and the wire services. The rest of us were faces.”

People Thinking Together Faces Names Half Groups Television Including Dozen Reporters Colleagues Wire Small Groups Cannons

Author:David E. Hoffman

“The wisest man I ever knew in my whole life could not read or write. At four o'clock in the morning, when the promise of a new day still lingered over French lands, he got up from his pallet and left for the fields, taking to pasture the half-dozen pigs whose fertility nourished him and his wife.”

Men Writing Stills Whole Left Half Morning Four Wife Land Fields Promise Whole Life Clock Dozen Pigs New Day Wisest Fertility Pastures Wisest Man Pallets

Author:Jose Saramago

“[Vathek] has, in parts, been called, but to some judgments, never is, dull: it is certainly in parts, grotesque, extravagant and even nasty. But Beckford could plead sufficient "local colour" for it, and a contrast, again almost Shakespearean, between the flickering farce atrocities of the beginning and the sombre magnificence of the end. Beckford's claims, in fact, rest on the half-score or even half-dozen pages towards the end: but these pages are hard to parallel in the later literature of prose fiction.”

“... To this day I would rather see a fish, creep up to him and watch his rise to my fly than catch half a dozen fish unseen until they take.”

Half Watches Sea Rivers Fishes Boat Lakes Fishing This Day Dozen Unseen Creeps

Author:Roderick Haig-Brown

“Yes, I actually have a portable fly-tying kit in my vest. I spent hours putting it all together, with a special emphasis on midge materials as well as enough fur and feathers to whip out a half dozen of virtually every conceivable dry pattern nature can throw at me. I have used it once, in 1993.”

Wells Enough Together Used Hours Half Sea Special Materials Rivers Patterns Fishes Boat Dry Lakes Fishing Dozen Emphasis Feathers Whips Fur Vests Midges

Author:Jack Ohman

“You can take Hollywood for granted like I did, or you can dismiss it with the contempt we reserve for what we don't understand. It can be understood too, but only dimly and in flashes. Not half a dozen men have ever been able to keep the whole equation of pictures in their heads.”

Men Whole Able Film Half Understood Hollywood Granted Contempt Dozen Flash Reserves Equations

Book:The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works

Source: The Complete Works of F. Scott Fitzgerald: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Articles, Letters, Plays & Screenplays: From the author of The Great Gatsby, The Side of Paradise, Tender Is the Night, The Beautiful and Damned, The Love of the Last Tycoon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and many other notable works

“Do you know what makes a movie work? Moments. Give the audience half a dozen moments they can remember, and they'll leave the theatre happy.”

Knows Giving Moments Remember Half Audience Theatre Movie Do You Know Dozen

Author:Rosalind Russell

“There have been many times when I have been so entirely sickened of life it was very hard to work to keep on, a half dozen times I have been tempted to suicide, but I am glad I did not give way, for I have always felt that the last half of my life would somehow atone for the first half, and I still think it may ... It is not possible to live in this world without suffering unless one is a born stone. But it is also possible to have a great deal of happiness in spite of the suffering.”

Thinking World Way Giving Firsts May Has Beens Stills Hard Lasts Suffering Felt Born Deals Half This World Stones Suicide Glad Spite Dozen Tempted

Book:Letters of Katherine Anne Porter

Source: Letters of Katherine Anne Porter

“I do believe that half a dozen commonplace attorneys could so mystify and misconstrue the Ten Commandments, and so confuse Moses' surroundings on Mount Sinai, that the great law-giver, if he returned to this planet, would doubt his own identity, abjure every one of his deliverances, yea, even commend the very sins he so clearly forbade his people.”

People Ifs Believe Law Sin Half Doubt Identity Planets Ten Dozen Commandments Surroundings Giver Moses Commonplace Attorney Deliverance Ten Commandments Sinai

Author:Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“But I make a distinction between the doctrines of the Church, which matter, and the structure invented by half a dozen Italians who got to be pope and which is of very little use to anybody.”

Littles Matter Use Church Half Structure Doctrine Distinction Dozen Pope

Author:Bernadette Devlin

“A first book often has enough material in it for half a dozen.”

Firsts Book Enough Half Materials Dozen

Author:Caroline Gordon

“When you have so many projects to nurture, one or two get real excited and raise their hands. The reaction from it tells when it's time and where to go. I usually have about a half a dozen titles in development; researchers researching and people doing cover. I'm exploring musical vocabularies I want to explore, different genres, and constantly reading things.”

People Want Two Different Real Hands Reading Half Development Projects Raises Musical Excited Reactions Titles Genre Dozen Exploring Nurture Vocabulary Get Real Researchers Different Genres

Author:Frank Wildhorn

“I know them, yea, And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple; Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys, That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave, and slander, Go antickly, and show outward hideousness, And speak off half a dozen dangerous words, How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst; And this is all.”

Ifs Knows Shows Might Lying Speak Hurt Half Enemy Boys Fashion Dangerous Rings Dozen Boast Slander Scruples Cogs

Book:Much ado about nothing. Love's labour's lost. Midsummer night's dream. Merchant of Venice. As you like it. Taming of the shrew. All's well that ends well. Twelfth night

Source: Much ado about nothing. Love's labour's lost. Midsummer night's dream. Merchant of Venice. As you like it. Taming of the shrew. All's well that ends well. Twelfth night

“I don't play polo anymore because I am too old. But we still have a half a dozen horses - a couple of young horses we are teaching how to play polo and older horses that are real trustworthy when you get them up in the mountains.”

Stills Real Play Young Half Teaching Couple Mountain Horse Dozen Trustworthy Polo

Author:William Devane

“You must all know half a dozen people at least who are no use in this world, who are more trouble than they are worth. Just put them there and say Sir, or Madam, now will you be kind enough to justify your existence? If you can't justify your existence, if you're not pulling your weight in the social boat, if you're not producing as much as you consume or perhaps a little more, then, clearly, we cannot use the organizations of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can't be of very much use to yourself.”

People Ifs Knows World Kind Littles Doe Enough Use Purpose Social Existence Half Alive Trouble This World Benefits Organization Weight Boat Our Society Justify Be Kind Dozen Pulling

Author:George Bernard Shaw

“I just love the days when you come out of the archives with half a dozen excellent descriptions or poignant accounts of personal experiences.”

Half Accounts Excellent Description Dozen Personal Experiences Poignant Archives

Author:Antony Beevor

“Guy Savelli's role in the War on Terror began when half-a-dozen strangers, within days of one another, contacted him via e-mail and telephone in the winter of 2003. They asked him if he had the power to psychically kill goats. Guy was bewildered. He did not go around publicizing this. Who were these men? How did they know about the goats? He feigned a casual tone of voice and said, 'Sure I can.'Then he phoned Special Forces.”

Ifs Knows Men Said I Can War Guy Force Voice Half Roles Special Winter Terror Stranger Tone Dozen Mail Telephones Casual Goats War On Terror Bewildered Special Forces

Author:Jon Ronson

“I don't remember who was there, except Dora. I have not the least idea what we had for dinner, besides Dora. My impression is, that I dined off Dora, entirely, and sent away half-a-dozen plates untouched. I sat next to her. I talked to her. She had the most delightful little voice, the gayest little laugh, the pleasantest and most fascinating little ways, that ever led a lost youth into hopeless slavery. She was rather diminutive altogether. So much the more precious, I thought.”

Source: Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].

“What drivel it all is!... A string of words called religion. Another string of words called philosophy. Half a dozen other stringscalled political ideals. And all the words either ambiguous or meaningless. And people getting so excited about them they'll murder their neighbours for using a word they don't happen to like. A word that probably doesn't mean as much as a good belch. Just a noise without even the excuse of gas on the stomach.”