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Odor Quotes

Browse 148 quotes about Odor.

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Odor Quotes

“But a smell shivered him awake. It was a scent as old as the world. It was a hundred aromas of a thousand places. It was the tang of pine needles. It was the musk of sex. It was the muscular rot of mushrooms. It was the spice of oak. Meaty and redolent of soil and bark and herb. It was bats and husks and burrows and moss. It was solid and alive - so alive! And it was close. The vapors invaded Nicholas' nostrils and his hair rose to their roots. His eyes were as heavy as manhole covers, but he opened them. Through the dying calm inside him snaked a tremble of fear. The trees themselves seemed tense, waiting. The moonlight was a hard shell, sharp and ready to ready be struck and to ring like steel. A shadow moved. It poured like oil from between the tall trees and flowed across dark sandy dirt, lengthening into the middle of the ring. Trees seem to bend toward it, spellbound. A long, long shadow...”

FearMagicAncientSmellSupernaturalForestPrimalOdorVisitationGreen ManHair Standing On EndOld GodSemiconscious
Book:The Dead Path
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“In the midst of the heavy, hot fragrance of summer, and of the clean salty smell of the sea, there was the odor of wounded men, a sickly odor of blood and antiseptics which marked the zone of every military hospital. All Athens quickly took on that odor, as the wounded Greek soldiers were moved out of hospitals and piled into empty warehouses to make way for German wounded. Now every church, every empty lot, every school building in Athens is full of wounded, and on the pathways of Zappion, the park in the heart of Athens, bandaged men in makeshift wheel chairs are to be seen wherever one walks. Zappion is a profusion of flowers, heavy-scented luxurious flowers; but even the flower fragrance is not as strong as that of blood.”

WarBloodFlowersFragranceAthensOdorMilitary Occupation
Book:Miracles in Hellas: The Greeks Fight On
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“Back inside, I’m shown an antique cabinet in which members of the community, famous for their homegrown produce, dried herbs. The Oneida Community was an upstate tourist attraction right from the start, second, Valesky says, to Niagara Falls. I’m taking the same guided tour offered a hundred and fifty years ago to prim rubbernecks who came here to peep at sex fiends. I wonder how many of my vacationing forebears went home disappointed? They thought they were taking the train to Gomorrah but instead they got to watch herbs dry. Valesky opens a drawer in the herb cabinet so I can get a whiff. He mentions that back in the day, when one tourist was shown the cabinet she rudely asked her community-member guide, “What’s that odor?” To which the guide replied, “Perhaps it’s the odor of crushed selfishness.” Valesky grins. “How about that for a utopian answer?” To my not particularly utopian nose, crushed selfishness smells a lot like cilantro.”

SelfishnessHerbsOdorSmellsCilantroOneida
Book:Assassination Vacation
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“They had named her Chutney because she smelled like a mix of too many things. None of them pleasant. It's how she had smelled from the day they had brought her home, an abandoned year-old puppy with balance issues. They had changed her diet several times, switched to feeding her homemade food, bathed her every day. Nothing worked. It was the slobber. There was just some sort of genetic thing that no vet could figure out how to mask. Tara had declared that there was something magical about having a dog with an odor problem living in a home that made incense.”

OdorSmellyPug
Book:Incense and Sensibility
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“Os aromas do Natal: Um deles é o Cacau. Gengibre tão especial E a canela é essencial. Quando chega às vésperas Açúcar cozido só nas peras. Cereja que se compra na feira E as tâmaras, é a caixa inteira. Mas aquele odor de pinho Proporciona mais carinho. É como acalentar o ninho E trazer amor no caminho. Qual cheiro mais te agrada Saído de um conto de fada? (Soneto de Natal by Ana Claudia Antunes )”

OdorEncantadoContoCerejaCheirosFadas Aromas NatalPinhoTamara
Book:As Quatro Fadas: O Vale Encantado
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“I leave to children exclusively, but only for the life of their childhood, all and every the dandelions of the fields and the daisies thereof, with the right to play among them freely, according to the custom of children, warning them at the same time against the thistles. And I devise to children the yellow shores of creeks and the golden sands beneath the water thereof, with the dragon flies that skim the surface of said waters, and and the odors of the willows that dip into said waters, and the white clouds that float on high above the giant trees.”

ChildrenSaidPlayWaterWhiteTreeChildhoodFieldsCloudsSurfaceGoldenGiantsSandDragonsCustomsShoreWarningYellowFloatsDipDaisiesOdorCreeksDandelionsThistlesWhite Clouds
Author:Williston Fish
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“The woman is not just a pleasure, nor even a problem. She is a meniscus that allows the absolute to have a shape, that lets him skate however briefly on the mystery, her presence luminous on the ordinary and the grand. Like the odor at night in Pittsburgh’s empty streets after summer rain on maples and sycamore.”

ProblemNightPleasureMysteryStreetsShapesSummerOrdinaryRainEmptyAbsolutesLuminousSkatesOdorPittsburghMapleSummer RainEmpty Streets
Book:The Dance Most of All: Poems
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“Under the desert sun, in the dogmatic clarity, the fables of theology and the myths of classical philosophy dissolve like mist. The air is clean, the rock cuts cruelly into flesh; shatter the rock and the odor of flint rises to your nostrils, bitter and sharp. Whirlwinds dance across the salt flats, a pillar of dust by day; the thornbush breaks into flame at night. What does it mean? It means nothing. It is as it is and has no need for meaning. The desert lies beneath and soars beyond any possible human qualification. Therefore, sublime.”

NeedsHumansMeanDoePhilosophyLyingNightBreakSunCuttingAirRocksCleanMythFleshTheologyBitterClarityDustDesertFlamesFlatsSaltSublimeSoarMistPillarsFablesQualificationsDogmaticOdor
Author:Edward Abbey
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“Odors can be highly transitory, depending on the air currents. If this is happening in your house, ask if there are any possessions of that deceased loved one still around. If it happens elsewhere, consider just how many millions of people use the same perfume or smoke the same brand of cigar as someone you knew.”

PeopleIfsStillsUseHappensAsksHouseMillionsAirHappeningsCurrentsPossessionBrandsSmokeLoved OnesElsewherePerfumeCigarTransitoryOdorDeceased
Author:Seth Shostak
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“Though I be shut in darkness, and become insentient dust blown idly here and there, I count oblivion a scant price to pay for having once had held against my lip life's brimming cup of hydromel and rue--for having once known woman's holy love and a child's kiss, and for a little space been boon companion to the Day and Night, Fed on the odors of the summer dawn, and folded in the beauty of the stars. Dear Lord, though I be changed to senseless clay, and serve the potter as he turns his wheel, I thank Thee for the gracious gift of tears!”

LifeChildrenLittlesNightTurnsStarsSpacePayKnownLordDarknessChangedTearsHolyKissingSummerLipsDearDustCupsTheeDawnWheelsFedsCompanionOblivionClayPottersHere And ThereGraciousDay And NightOdorBoonRueDear Lord
Book:The Works of Thomas Bailey Aldrich: Poems
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“Not a flower But shows some touch, in freckle, streak or stain, Of his unrivall'd pencil. He inspires Their balmy odors, and imparts their hues, And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes In grains as countless as the seaside sands, The forms with which he sprinkles all the earth Happy who walks with him!”

ShowsEyeEarthFormWalksInspireFlowerSandGrainPencilsStainsImpartStreaksHueOdorNectarFrecklesSprinkles
Book:The task, Table talk, and other poems: With critical observations of various authors on his genius and character, and notes, critical and illustrative
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“The scent of flowers does not travel against the wind; but the odor of good people travels; even against the wind: a good man pervades every place.”

PeopleMenDoeWindFlowerGoodnessGood ManGood PeopleScentOdor
Book:Sacred Books of the East: Including Selections from the Vedic Hymns, Zend-Avesta, Dhammapada, Upanishads, the Koran, and the Life of Buddha
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“None of us ever escape the first few years of our lives. They make a mould into which we are cast, and though it may be broken, and we turned loose, some remnant of it, some intangible evil or lovely thing or both, will remain with us, like the odor to a flower, or the smoothness to a piece of ivory. It is part of the immortality of youth.”

YearsFirstsMayEvilPiecesOur LivesChildhoodYouthFlowerBrokenCastsLovelyImmortalityIntangibleIvoryMouldOdorRemnantsLovely Things
Book:A Victorian Village: Reminiscences of Other Days
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“Odors from decaying food wafting through the air when the door is opened, colorful mold growing between a wet gym uniform and thedamp carpet underneath, and the complete supply of bath towels scattered throughout the bedroom can become wonderful opportunities to help your teenager learn once again that the art of living in a community requires compromise, negotiation, and consensus.”

ArtHelpingOpportunityCommunityGrowingWonderfulDoorsAirCompromiseTeenagerGymWetUniformsBedroomAdolescenceNegotiationCarpetConsensusBathsMoldColorfulArt Of LivingTowelsOdor
Author:Barbara Coloroso
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“It is universally allowed that, though nothing can be more interesting in itself than the conversation of two lovers, yet nothing can be more insipid in detail - just as the heavenly fragrance of the rose becomes vapid and sickly under all the attempts made to retain and embody its exquisite odor.”

MadeTwoInterestingLoversConversationRoseDetailsHeavenlyFragranceExquisiteOdorInsipidTwo LoversVapid
Book:The inheritance, by the author of Marriage. By the author of 'Marriage'. Revised by the author
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