Browse 15972 quotes about Hands.
“Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.”
“When clouds are seen wise men put on their cloaks; When great leaves fall then winter is at hand.”
Source: The plays of William Shakespeare : accurately printed from the text of the corrected copy left by the late George Steevens: with a series of engravings, from original designs of Henry Fuseli, and a selection of explanatory and historical notes, from the most eminent commentators; a history of the stage, a life of Shakespeare, &c. by Alexander Chalmers
“Against self-slaughter There is a prohibition so divine That cravens my weak hand.”
“The language I have learnt these forty years, My native English, now I must forgo; And now my tongue's use is to me no more Than an unstringed viol or a harp, Or like a cunning instrument cased up Or, being open, put into his hands That knows no touch to tune the harmony.”
Source: Second Tetralogy In Plain and Simple English: Includes Richard II, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V
“A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd, Quoted, and sign'd, to do a deed of shame.”
Source: Select plays from Shakspeare; adapted for the use of schools and young persons: with notes from the best commentators. [6 plays
“In a trader-dominated society, the scribe is usually kept out of the management of affairs, but it given a more or less free hand in the cultural field. By frustrating the scribe's craving for commanding action, the trader draws upon himself the scribe's wrath and scorn.”
Source: Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
“The burning conviction that we have a holy duty towards others is often a way of attaching our drowning selves to a passing raft. What looks like a giving hand is often a holding on for dear life. Take away our holy duties and you leave our lives puny and meaningless. There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.”
Source: Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
“renown, n. A degree of distinction between notoriety and fame - a little more supportable than the one and a little more intolerable than the other. Sometimes it is conferred by an unfriendly and inconsiderate hand.”
Source: The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World
“Eternal rest sounds comforting in the pulpit; well, you try it once, and see how heavy time will hang on your hands.”
Source: The Complete Works of Mark Twain: All 13 Novels, Short Stories, Poetry and Essays
“A man may plan as much as he wants to, but nothing of consequence is likely to come of it until the magician circumstance steps in and takes the matter off his hands.”
Source: Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations
“I am living a new and exalted life of late. It steeps me in a sacred rapture to see a portrait develop and take soul under my hand. First, I throw off a study - just a mere study, a few apparently random lines - and to look at it you would hardly ever suspect who it was going to be; even I cannot tell, myself.”
Source: Mark Twain's works
“All art is propaganda; on the other hand, not all propaganda is art.”
“And lilies are still lilies, pulled By smutty hands, though spotted from their white.”
Source: Poetical works
“Sleep on, Baby, on the floor, Tired of all the playing, Sleep with smile the sweeter for That you dropped away in! On your curls' full roundness stand Golden lights serenely-- One cheek, pushed out by the hand, Folds the dimple inly.”
Source: Poetical works
“The important thing isn't the house. It's the ability to make it. You carry that in your brain and in your hands, wherever you go.”
“I read one psychologist's theory that said, "Never strike a child in your anger." When could I strike him? When he is kissing me on my birthday? When he's recuperating from measles? Do I slap the Bible out of his hand on Sunday?”
“The hand is the tool of tools.”
“The image is made to order, tailored to us. An ideal, on the hand, has a claim on us. It does not serve us, we serve it. If we have trouble striding toward it, we assume the matter is with us, and not the ideal.”
“Tools were made and born were hands, Every farmer understands.”
Source: Collected Poems
“Why do 'slow down' and 'slow up' mean the same thing? Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand?”
“There is an enormous redundancy in every well-written book. With a well-written book I only read the right-hand page and allow my mind to work on the left-hand page. With a poorly written book I read every word.”
“The ideal woman which is in every man's mind is evoked by a word or phrase or the shape of her wrist, her hand. The most beautiful description of a woman is by understatement. Remember, all Tolstoy ever said to describe Anna Karenina was that she was beautiful and could see in the dark like a cat. Every man has a different idea of what's beautiful, and it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree.”
“Holding occasion by the hand, Not over nice 'twixt weed and flower, Waiving what none can understand, I make mine hour.”
“Anger assists hands however weak.”
“A wound will perhaps become tolerable with length of time; but wounds which are raw shudder at the touch of the hands.”
“Woe to the youth whom Fancy gains, Winning from Reason's hand the reins, Pity and woe! for such a mind Is soft contemplative, and kind.”
Source: The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott
“Since form is emptiness and emptiness is form, then instead of a hand grasping at nothing, it is better to grasp at someone's nose because this is closer to reality.”
“So our future is in our own hands. What greater free will do we need?”
Source: Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great Perfection
“An artist must have his measuring tools not in the hand, but in the eye.”
Source: The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti: Based on Studies in the Archives of the Buonarroti Family at Florence
“Such is the effect of the grace of God in the heart of a pilgrim; while on one hand he sees the propensity of his evil nature to every sin which has been committed by others, and is humbled; he also confesses, that, by no power of his own, is he preserved, but ever gives the glory to the God of all grace, by whose power alone he is kept from falling.”
Source: The Select Works of John Bunyan: Containing the Pilgrim's Progress ... with a Life of the Author
“To draw true beauty shows a master's hand.”
Source: Poetical works
“My hands are guilty, but my heart is free.”
Source: Selections from the poetry of Dryden, including his plays and translations. [The editor's preface signed: C. B., i.e. Charles Bathurst.]
“Still the race of hero spirits pass the lamp from hand to hand.”
Source: Andromeda: And Other Poems
“An unhappy gentleman, resolving to wed nothing short of perfection, keeps his heart and hand till both get so old and withered that no tolerable woman will accept them.”
Source: Mosses from an Old Manse
“A feather in hand is better then a bird in the ayre.”
Source: The Complete Works of George Herbert: Prose
“Flag of the free heart's hope and home! By angel hands to valour given, Thy stars have lit the welkin dome; And all thy hues were born in heaven.”
Source: The Culprit Fay: And Other Poems
“An idler is a watch that wants both hands; As useless if it goes as when it stands.”
Source: The poetical works of William Cowper: Complete ed., with memoir, explanatory notes etc
“I venerate the man whose heart is warm, Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life, Coincident, exhibit lucid proof That he is honest in the sacred cause.”
Source: The Life and Works of William Cowper: His life and letters by William Hayley. Now first completed by the introduction of Cowper's private correspondence
“Sin let loose speaks punishment at hand.”
Source: Table talk
“Who know but He, whose hand the lightning forms, Who heaves old ocean, and who wings the storms, Pours fierce ambition in a Caesar's mind.”
Source: The Works of Alexander Pope: With a Memoir of the Author, Notes, and Critical Notes on Each Poem
“But would you sing, and rival Orpheus' strain. The wond'ring forests soon should dance again; The moving mountains hear the powerful call. And headlong streams hand listening in their fall!”
“Judges who take the law into their own hands, who make up constitutional 'rights' in order to strike down laws they oppose, undermine the people's right to have their values shape public policy and define the culture.”
“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, ...
“These eyes, tho' clear To outward view of blemish or of spot, Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot, Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not Against Heaven's hand or will, not bate a jot Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer Right onward.”
Source: I. Prose Works: Poetical works. II.
“I've lately had two spiders Crawling upon my startled hopes-- Now though thy friendly hand has brushed 'em from me, Yet still they crawl offensive to mine eyes: I would have some kind friend to tread upon 'em.”
“Organizations cannot make a genius out of an incompetent. On the other hand, disorganization can scarcely fail to result in efficiency.”
Source: The white house years: mandate for change 1953-1956
“Writing poetry, we live among the wild beasts, and when we touch a man, the stuff of someone in whom we believed, and he goes to pieces like a rotten pie, you... gather together whatever can be salvaged, while I cup my hands around the live coal of life.”
Source: Windows that open inward: images of Chile
“Better one byrde in hand than ten in the wood.”
Source: The proverbs and epigrams of John Heywood: with an app. of variations
“Men of perverse opinion do not know the excellence of what is in their hands, till someone dash it from them.”
Source: Dramas of Sophocles
“Not all the labour of the earth Is done by hardened hands.”