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Muttering Quotes

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Muttering Quotes

“Elderly gentlemen, gentle in all respects, kind to animals, beloved by children, and fond of music, are found in lonely corners of the downs, hacking at sandpits or tussocks of grass, and muttering in a blind, ungovernable fury elaborate maledictions which could not be extracted from them by robbery or murder. Men who would face torture without a word become blasphemous at the short fourteenth. It is clear that the game of golf may well be included in that category of intolerable provocations which may legally excuse or mitigate behavior not otherwise excusable.”

MenWellsKindMayChildrenFacesFoundGamesAnimalClearBehaviorLonelyMurderBlindGolfExcuseCornersGentleGrassBelovedGentlemanTortureCategoriesElderlyFuryHackingRobberyProvocationMutteringMalediction
Author:A. P. Herbert
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“The lights of Saxon England were going out, and in the gathering darkness a gentle, grey-beard prophet foretold the end. When on his death-bed Edward spoke of a time of evil that was coming upon the land his inspired mutterings struck terror into the hearers.”

EndsLightEvilDarknessLandBedEnglandInspiredTerrorGentleProphetSpokesGoing OutGreyGatheringBeardDeath BedMuttering
Book:History of the English Speaking Peoples: Based on the Text of 'A History of the English-speaking Peoples' by Sir Winston Churchill
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“Hollywood's two polar types are the cynically drunken writer aggressively nursing a ten-year-old reputation and the theatrically self-conscious hermit who strides the boulevard in sandals, home-made shorts and a prophetic beard, muttering against the Age of the Machines.”

YearsMadeTwoSelfHomeAgeTypeTenConsciousHollywoodMachinesReputationLos AngelesBeardNursingSelf ConsciousStridePropheticShortsHermitsSandalsBoulevardMuttering
Book:Exhumations: Stories, Articles, Verses
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“Many strange-looking people obviously dress according to deep convictions that are not shared by on-lookers - they clearly do not know how they actually look, but are satisfied with what their clothes make them feel and believe about their looks. These people may be the true originals, even though they are certainly not the best appreciated. The famous messages of dress, the well-known language of clothes, is very often not doing any communicating at all; a good deal of it is a form of private muttering.”

PeopleKnowsFeelsBelieveWellsLooksMayFormLanguageDealsKnownKnow HowStrangeMessagesClothesOriginalsDressesCommunicateConvictionSatisfiedWell KnownAppreciatedMuttering
Book:Sex and Suits: The Evolution of Modern Dress
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“And when it has got in; as one not finding what it seeks, whatever that may be, it wails and howls to issue forth again: and not content with stalking through the aisles, and gliding round and round the pillars, and tempting the deep organ, soars up to the roof, and strives to rend the rafters: then flings itself despairingly upon the stones below, and passes, muttering, into the vaults.”

MayIssuesFindingsStonesStriveRoundsOrgansRoofStrifeSoarPillarsStalkingHowlTemptingFlingSpookyAisleVaultsGlidingMutteringRafters
Book:Dickens' Christmas Spirits: A Christmas Carol and Other Tales
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“The nineteenth and twentieth centuries have given us as much terror as we can take. We have paid a high enough price for the nostalgia of the whole and the one, for the reconciliation of the concept and the sensible, of the transparent and the communicable experience. Under the general demand for slackening and for appeasement, we can hear the mutterings of the desire for a return of terror, for the realization of the fantasy to seize reality. The answer is: Let us wage a war on totality; let us be witnesses to the unpresentable; let us activate the differences.”

WarEnoughWholeRealityDesireGivenDifferencesAnswersFantasyCenturyReturnDemandConceptsPaidTerrorNostalgiaRealizationWitnessSensibleReconciliationTransparentTwentieth CenturyTotalityActivateAppeasementMuttering
Author:Jean-Francois Lyotard
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“Not a lot of contemporary fiction is written about brothers and sisters. Salinger's Franny and Zooey was an inspiration for me. In Franny and Zooey, the sister gets in trouble and the brother comes to help her out. But I wanted to make sure that in my novel the sister had more to do than lie around on a sofa muttering, which is what Franny does for two-thirds of Salinger's novel.”

DoeTwoHelpingInspirationWantedLyingFictionNovelWrittenTroubleBrotherThirdsContemporaryBrothers And SistersContemporary FictionSofasMutteringSalinger
Author:K. M. Soehnlein
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“All morning, Spence has been a well-oiled machine of activity. Everyone doing her bit, quietly and efficiently. It's strange how deliberate people are after a death. All the indecision suddenly vanishes into clear, defined moments--changing the linens, choosing a dress or a hymn, the washing up, the muttering of prayers. All the small, simple, conscious acts of living a sudden defense against the dying we do every day.”

PeopleWellsHas BeensMomentsBitsPrayerSimpleMorningClearDyingStrangeActivityConsciousMachinesDressesDefenseDefinedDeliberateWashingHymnsIndecisionLinenMutteringSmall SimpleWell Oiled Machines
Book:A Great and Terrible Beauty
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“Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats 5 Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question … 10 Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit. In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo.”

NightCertainAsksRoomsHalfTalkingSkyStreetsArgumentTablesPatientSpreadEveningRestaurantsHotelOverwhelmingShellsRetreatRestlessComes And GoesOne NightTediousOystersDesertedInsidiousMutteringSawdustRestless Nights
Author:T. S. Eliot
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“Advice,' Doña Vorchenza chuckled. 'Advice. The years play a sort of alchemical trick, transmuting one's mutterings to a state of respectability. Give advice at forty and you're a nag. Give it at seventy and you're a sage.”

GivingYearsStatesPlayAdviceExperienceTricksFortyLife ExperienceSageSeventiesRespectabilityMuttering
Book:The Gentleman Bastard Series 3-Book Bundle: The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas Under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves
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“Nothing that had ever happened to him, not the shooting of Oyster, or the piteous muttering expiration of John Wesley Shannenhouse, or the death of his father, or internment of his mother and grandfather, not even the drowning of his beloved brother, had ever broken his heart quite as terribly as the realization, when he was halfway to the rimed zinc hatch of the German station, that he was hauling a corpse behind him”

HeartMotherFatherBehindsHappenedBrotherBrokenRealizationShootingBelovedStationsGrandfatherDrowningHalfwayCorpsesOystersMutteringInternmentZincBeloved Brother
Author:Michael Chabon
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“...she's leaving now. ... Janis attacks the back door of the school gym and finds herself in a heavy cloud of smoke. She realizes she's found the Goths' hangout. Who knew? "Oof," someone says. She keeps walking, muttering, "sorry" to whomever it was she hit with the flying door. *** Cabel: ... That was the Goth stage where I decided I'd never get the girl of my dreams because of my scars. Not to mention the hairstyle. (pause) But then she slammed a door handle into my gut. And, when a girl does that to a boy, it means she likes him.”

MeanDoeDreamSchoolGirlFoundRealizingBoysDoorsStageWalkingDecidedSorryLeavingCloudsHeavyFlyingLikesHandleSmokeGutsGymScarPausesHairstylesGothBack DoorsMutteringGirl Of My Dreams
Author:Lisa McMann
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“Magnus stood up and went to the window. He pushed the curtain back, letting in just enough light to silhouette his hawklike profile. "Blood," he said, half to himself. "I had a dream two nights ago. I saw a city all of blood, with towers made of bone, and blood ran in the streets like water." Simon slewed his eyes over to Jace. "Is standing by the window muttering about blood something he does all the time?" "No," said Jace, "sometimes he sits on the couch and does it.”

DoeMadeSaidTwoSometimesEnoughDreamLightEyeNightWaterCitiesHalfSawsBloodStreetsStandingWindowBonesRanHis EyesTowersJaceCurtainsCouchesProfileStood UpI Had A DreamSilhouettesMuttering
Book:Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series (4 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels
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“She suffers as a miser. She must be miserly with her pleasures, as well. I wonder if sometimes she doesn't wish she were free of this monotonous sorrow, of these mutterings which start as soon as she stops singing, if she doesn't wish to suffer once and for all, to drown herself in despair. In any case, it would be impossible for her: she is bound.”

IfsWellsSometimesWould BeSufferingWishPleasureWonderCasesImpossibleSorrowDespairSingingBoundsMonotonousMisersMuttering
Book:Nausea
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“Mister Dresden," he said. "And Miss Rodriguez, I believe. I didn't realize you were an art collector." "I am the foremost collector of velvet Elvii in the city of Chicago," I said at once. "Elvii?" Marcone inquired. "The plural could be Elvises, I guess," I said. "But if I say that too often, I start muttering to myself and calling things 'my precious,' so I usually go with the Latin plural.”

IfsBelieveArtSaidI BelieveRealizingCitiesMissingCallingLatinChicagoCollectorsVelvetDresdenMutteringCity Of Chicago
Book:The Dresden Files Collection 1-6
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“I matched my heated tone with one of pure ice. "I believe I did attempt to relate to you the facts of my calls and you interrupted me with a rather magnificent display of temper much as you are doing now. If you do not have all the facts of the case perhaps you have no one but yourself to blame." Brisbane opened his mouth and shut it with a snap. His mouth remained closed but I could hear him muttering under his breath. "What are you saying?" "I am counting. To one hundred. In Cantonese.”

IfsBelieveFactsI BelieveCasesPureMouthsHundredBreathsBlameIceRelateToneTemperDisplayMagnificentCountingSnapsInterruptedMatchedMuttering
Author:Deanna Raybourn
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“He snatched the book from me and replaced it hastily on its shelf, muttering that if one brick was removed the whole library was liable to collapse.”

IfsBookWholeLibraryCollapseReplacedShelvesBricksLiableMuttering
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
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“...Zedar was gone...As an owl, though, I was able to drift silently from tree to tree until I caught up with him...He wasn't really hard to follow, since he'd conjured up a dim, greenish light to see by --and to hold off the boogiemen. Did I ever tell you that Zedar's afraid of the dark? That adds another dimension to his present situation, doesn't it? He was bundled to the ears in furs, and he was muttering to himself as he floundered along through the snow. Zedar talks to himself a lot. He always has. ...I drifted to a nearby tree and watched him --owlishly. Sorry. I couldn't resist that.”

HardLightAbleDarkSituationGoneTreeEarsAddSorryCaughtSnowDimensionsCaught UpFurOwlMutteringPresent Situation
Author:David Eddings
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“Bones glanced behind me, with just the barest inclination of his head. I walked away from him, muttering, "Don't worry, you don't need to have Mencheres break out the invisible straitjacket again. I haven't gone crazy. I just didn't understand until now." He still looked like he was debating having Mencheres lay the power whammy on me, so I sat down by Kira in a very deliberate manner, folding my hands in my lap. There. Didn't I look calm and sane?”

NeedsLooksStillsHandsBehindsBreakWorryGoneCrazyHavensLaysCalmBonesInvisibleSatSaneInclinationDeliberateLapBreak OutFoldingMutteringKiraGone CrazyMencheres
Author:Jeaniene Frost
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“Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, / The muttering retreats / Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels / And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: / Streets that follow like a tedious argument / Of insidious intent / To lead you to an overwhelming question.../ Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' / Let us go and make our visit"' 'I'm in love with you,' he said quietly.”

SaidNightCertainAsksHalfStreetsLove YouArgumentRestaurantsHotelOverwhelmingShellsRetreatRestlessOne NightTediousOystersDesertedInsidiousMutteringSawdustRestless Nights
Book:The Fault in Our Stars
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“Are you kidding?" She looked at me as if I'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red. "What's the problem now?" I demanded. "Me, go with you to the...the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?" "Who's going to see you?" But my face was burning now, too. Leave it to a girl to make everything complicated. "Fine," I told her. "I'll do it myself." But when I started down the side of the pool, she followed me, muttering about how boys always messed things up.”

IfsProblemFacesGirlSidesBoysSawsFineMoonRedComplicatedBurningWhat IfPoolCheeksThrillEmbarrassingMuttering
Author:Rick Riordan
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“Oh...my...god,"Drew whimpered."Who..." Anubis ignored her (bless him for that) and held out his elbow for me - a sweet old-fashioned gesture. " May I have this dance?" "I suppose," I said,as non committally as I could. I looped my arm through his, and we left the Plastic Bags behind us, all of them muttering,"Oh my god! Oh my god!" No ,actually, I wanted to say. He's my amazingly hot boy god. Find your own.”

MaySaidWantedLeftBehindsBoysSweetArmsHotBagsBlessGesturesPlasticIgnoredOld FashionedElbowsPlastic BagsMutteringAnubis
Book:The Serpent's Shadow (The Kane Chronicles Book 3)
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“Jordan followed, buttoning his jeans and muttering about how there was nothing strange about having a pattern of dancing penguins on your underwear.”

StrangeDancingPatternsJeansUnderwearJordanPenguinsMuttering
Book:Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments Series (5 books): City of Bones; City of Ashes; City of Glass; City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls
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“What are the two of you whispering about?” Alaric demanded irritably. She glanced over to see the warrior watching her, his eyes narrow with suspicion. “If I wanted you to know, I’d have spoken louder,” she said calmly. He turned away muttering what she was sure were more blasphemies about annoying females. “You must make the priest weary with the length of your confessions,” she said. He raised one eyebrow. “Who says I confess anything?”

IfsKnowsSaidTwoEyeWantedFemaleRaisedWarriorHis EyesPriestsLengthAnnoyingConfessionSuspicionWearyEyebrowsWhisperingBlasphemyMuttering
Book:In Bed with a Highlander
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“Wallace's sales agent, back in London, heard mutterings from some naturalists that young Mr. Wallace ought to quit theorizing and stick to gathering facts. Besides expressing their condescension toward him in particular, that criticism also reflected a common attitude that fact-gathering, not theory, was the proper business of all naturalists.”

FactsYoungCommonAttitudeHeardParticularTheoryOughtCriticismSticksLondonQuittingAgentsGatheringNaturalistCondescensionMuttering
Book:The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions
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“Why do so many of us not give ourselves permission to be alive until we are absolutely assured that we will die? ...If we are not in [this present millisecond of life and conscious experience], we are not alive; we are merely thinking our lives. Yet we have seen so many die, looking back over their shoulders at their lives, shaking their heads and muttering in bewilderment, "What was that all about?"”

IfsThinkingLifeGivingDiesOur LivesAliveMindfulnessConsciousShouldersPermissionLooking BackAssuredShakingBewildermentMuttering
Author:Stephen Levine
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“Wracked with a hangover I do my muttering over a Black Velvet, a union of champagne and stout. Don't be swindled into believing there's any cure for a hangover. I've tried them all: iced tomatoes, hot clam juice, brandy peaches. Like the common cold it defies solution. Time alone can stay it. The hair of the dog? That way lies folly. It's as logical as trying to put out a fire with applications of kerosene.”

WayTryingBelieveLyingBlackCommonFireDogHairColdSolutionsHotUnionsCuresFollyLogicalApplicationJuiceChampagneMe AloneVelvetTomatoesHangoverPeachesAlone TimeStoutBrandyMutteringClamsCommon Cold
Book:Tallulah: My Autobiography
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“The backwoodsmen are muttering about making Britain's draconian union laws - already among the toughest in Europe - harsher still. And parts of the media will continue to attack public service pensions, as if school meals staff, refuse collectors and healthcare workers have no right to a decent retirement.”

IfsStillsSchoolLawMediaEuropeUnionsWorkersRefuseMealsDecentBritainRetirementHealthcareStaffPublic ServiceCollectorsPensionMutteringDraconian
Author:Frances O'Grady
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“Sometimes I heard voices muttering in my head, and a lot of the time the world seemed to smolder around its edges. but I was in a little better physical shape every day, I was getting my looks back, and my spirits were rising, and this was all in all a happy time for me. All these weirdos, and me getting a little better right in the midst of them. I had never known, never even imagined for a heartbeat, that there might be a place for people like us.”

PeopleWorldLooksLittlesSometimesMightSpiritVoiceKnownHeardShapesEdgesRisingMidstHeartbeatWeirdoMutteringHappy Times
Author:Denis Johnson
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