Home / Topics / Refrain Quotes

Refrain Quotes

Browse 283 quotes about Refrain.

Related topics

Refrain Quotes

“You needn't love your enemy, but if you refrain from telling lies about him, you are doing well enough.”

Ifs Love Wells Enough Lying Enemy Refrain Love Your Enemies Telling Lies

Author:E. W. Howe

“How powerful social mores are! Only a spider's web lies across the volcano, yet it refrains from erupting.”

Lying Social Powerful Spiders Refrain Volcanoes

Book:Dicta and Contradicta

Source: Dicta and Contradicta

“Refrain from following the example of those whose craving is for attention, not their own improvement.”

Attention Example Following Improvement Craving Refrain

Author:Seneca the Younger

“When I take photographs, my body inevitably enters a trancelike state. Briskly weaving my way through the avenues, every cell in my body becomes as sensitive as radar, responsive to the life of the streets... If I were to give it words, I would say: "I have no choice... I have to shoot this... I can't leave this place for another's eyes... I have to shoot it... I have no choice." An endless, murmuring refrain.”

Ifs Way Giving I Can States Body Eye Choices Streets Photograph Endless Cells My Way Sensitive Avenues Refrain Radar Weaving Murmuring

Author:Daido Moriyama

“Sometimes it takes all my resolution and power of self-control to refrain from butting my head against the wall. I want to howl and foam at the mouth but I daren't.”

Want Self Sometimes Wall Mouths Resolution Self Control Refrain Howl Foam

Book:The Complete Works of Joseph Conrad: 20 Novels & 26 Short Stories (Including Memoirs, Essays & Letters in One Single Edition): Classics of World Literature from One of the Greatest English Novelists: Heart of Darkness, The Duel, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, The Shadow-Line & Under Western Eyes

Source: The Complete Works of Joseph Conrad: 20 Novels & 26 Short Stories (Including Memoirs, Essays & Letters in One Single Edition): Classics of World Literature from One of the Greatest English Novelists: Heart of Darkness, The Duel, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, The Shadow-Line & Under Western Eyes

“God must act and pour himself into you the moment he finds you ready. Don't imagine that God can be compared to an earthly carpenter, who acts or doesn't act, as he wishes; who can will to do something or leave it undone, according to his pleasure. It is not that way with God: where and when God finds you ready, he must act and overflow into you, just as when the air is clear and pure, the sun must overflow into it and cannot refrain from doing that.”

Way Moments Wish Pleasure Sun Clear Imagine Air Ready Pure Imagine That Undone Refrain Carpenter Overflow

Author:Meister Eckhart

“So often we give God a partial obedience. We do not dare to disobey, but we do not care to obey fully. So we compromise. We do some of what we should, thus removing the stigma of disobedience. But we refrain from the most difficult or objectionable or uncomfortable part, and thus try to get the best of both worlds.”

World Giving Should Trying Care Difficult Dare Compromise Obedience Uncomfortable Disobedience Stigma Refrain Best Of Both Worlds

Author:Ebenezer Erskine

“Because we can expect future generations to be richer than we are, no matter what we do about resources, asking us to refrain from using resources now so that future generations can have them later is like asking the poor to make gifts to the rich.”

Matter Poor Rich Generations Resources Asking No Matter What Future Generation Refrain Using Resources

Book:The Ultimate Resource 2

Source: The Ultimate Resource 2

“This is a photograph, so it is as you see: there are no lies and no deceptions. One can detect here, elevated to an incomparably higher level, the same pathetic emotional appeal that lies concealed in every fake spiritualist photograph, every pornographic photograph; one comes to suspect that the strange, disturbing emotional appeal of the photographic art consists solely in that same repeated refrain: this is a true ghost... this is a photograph, so it is as you see: there are no lies, no deceptions.”

Art Lying Levels Emotional Strange Higher Photograph Ghost Appeals Deception Fake Suspects Disturbing Pathetic Concealed Refrain Higher Level Emotional Appeal

Author:Yukio Mishima

“This spirit of freedom is expanding even where it must struggle against the external obstacles of governments that misunderstand their own function. Such governments are illuminated by the example that the existence of freedom need not give cause for the least concern regarding public order and harmony in the commonwealth. If only they refrain from inventing artifices to keep themselves in it, men will gradually raise themselves from barbarism.”

Source: Perpetual Peace and Other Essays: on Politics, History, and Morals

“We hear the same refrain all the time from people: I have no life. I get up in the morning, daycare, eldercare, a 40 minute commute to work. I have to work late. I get home at night, there's laundry, bills to pay, jam something into the microwave oven. I'm exhausted, I go to sleep, I wake up and the routine begins all over again. This is what life has become in America.”

People Home America Night Sleep Pay Morning Minutes Late Wake Up Bills Get Up Routine Exhausted Jam Going To Sleep Refrain Laundry Ovens Microwaves Daycare Bills To Pay

Author:Gerald Celente

“I'm interested in the limits of personality, in the possibility of change, and the saving power of art. Do powerful works of art raise our consciousness to such a degree that we refrain from sliding into moral hazard? Do we take note? Or are we doomed to repetition?”

Art Powerful Consciousness Moral Possibility Personality Limits Degrees Raises Notes Saving Works Of Art Doomed Repetition Refrain Hazards Possibility Of Change Moral Hazard

Author:Adam Ross

“I encourage young people to refrain from putting themselves in dangerous situations in the name of validating themselves sexually.”

People Young Names Situation Dangerous Sexually Refrain Dangerous Situations

Author:Christopher Rice

“Limericks don't come from Limerick. But it comes from that between the verses when they used to have those competitions that they would put in the refrain, "follow me up, follow me up, follow me up to Limerick Town."”

Used Towns Competition Verses Refrain Follow Me Limerick

Author:Malachy McCourt

“Often you've read another poem that you think is so beautiful that you'd like to make something like that. And so you try to make a sonnet that works in a certain kind of way, or you try to make something that's songlike, or you create a refrain, or you love the way a poem works in two line stanzas and you try to do that.”

Thinking Way Trying Kind Two Beautiful Certain Lines Sonnet Refrain

Author:Edward Hirsch

“If you're going to live in a community, you have to refrain from killing one another and stealing from one another. You must have honor and honesty in your dealings with one another. But I think the deeper thing that we need to do is to become so fully human that we don't grasp at life; we give life away. We give love away. We give being away. That is the ultimate work of religion.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Giving Humans Community Honesty Honor Ultimate Killing Deeper Stealing Refrain Dealings

Author:John Shelby Spong

“Sadly, because of the enormous gap between rich and poor, some mothers can afford helpers, but many can't. Those who can would be kinder to refrain from criticizing other women.”

Would Be Mother Inspiring Poor Rich Enormous Criticize Gaps Mothers Day Rich And Poor Refrain Kinder Helpers Criticizing Others

Author:Erica Jong

“The best we can do is strive to minimize the amount of harm we cause by living. We need to eat in order to live, and there is no moral or ethical code that dictates that we should refrain from eating and allow ourselves to die for some higher purpose.”

Needs Should Purpose Order Dies Causes Can Do Moral Amount Higher Eating Strive Harm Code Ethical Refrain Higher Purpose

Author:Sharon Gannon

“One should refrain from contempt for the baser specimens of humanity, for whom liberation amounts to shaving the heads of women who have slept with Germans.”

Should Humanity Amount Liberation Contempt Refrain Shaving

Author:Coco Chanel

“I'll refrain from making any more comments on any ongoing people involved in the judicial process.”

People Process Involved Comment Ongoing Refrain Judicial

Author:Bill Belichick

“Nowhere is it written that NATO had to accept certain countries. All that would have been required to refrain from doing so was the political will. But people didn't want to.”

People Want Has Beens Country Political Certain Accepting Written Refrain Nato Political Will

Author:Vladimir Putin

“Question the Chestnuts. Chestnuts: the new name for boobs? No. NO. Why would you even say that? Get your mind out of the gutter. No, by "chestnuts" I mean, "those old pieces of writing advice that you hear as common refrain." 'Write what you know.' 'Adverbs give Baby Jesus hemorrhoids.' 'If you write a prologue, an orphan loses his sight.' All the "old saws" need to be put on the chopping block.”

“If I simply refrain from making a judgment in cases where I do not perceive the truth with sufficient clarity and distinctness, then it is clear that I am behaving correctly and avoiding error.”

Ifs Cases Clear Judgment Errors Clarity Perceive Sufficient Avoiding Refrain

Author:Rene Descartes

“Eva [Braun] also cried when [Adolf Hitler] would leave her for long periods. She was inconsolable without him, that was a never-changing refrain.”

Long Periods Cried Refrain

Author:Gretl Braun

“[Antonio] Gramsci's words and actions explain their assessment, though I think we should refrain from using the term "model intellectual" for him or others.”

Thinking Should Action Term Intellectual Models Refrain Assessment Words And Actions Antonio

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I encourage you to seek the help of the Savior to resist temptation and to refrain from behavior that would cause you to have to repent or to have your Church membership called into question.”

Helping Causes Church Behavior Temptation Savior Repent Refrain Membership Church Membership

Author:Dallin H. Oaks

“We urge persons with same-gender attractions to control those and to refrain from acting upon them, which is a sin, just as we urge persons with heterosexual attractions to refrain from acting upon them until they have the opportunity for a marriage recognized by God as well as by the law of the land. That is the way to happiness and eternal life.”

Way Wells Persons Law Opportunity Sin Acting Land Eternal Gender Attraction Urges Eternal Life Refrain

Author:Dallin H. Oaks

“Obama believes the cops are the problem. That's why his new philosophy is to have them withdraw and refrain and not be seen because just their presence is provocative.”

Believe Philosophy Problem Cop Refrain Provocative

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue or heart. And heart is real important.”

Heart Important Real Violence Tongue Fists Refrain

Author:Alveda King

“Every man has his moral backside which he refrains from showing unless he has to and keeps covered as long as possible with the trousers of decorum.”

Men Long Moral Morality Every Man Covered Refrain Trousers Decorum Backsides

Author:Georg C. Lichtenberg

“I actually regard Facebook as a huge bore, but I cannot refrain from participating in it. I guess I crave the feeling of hope it gives me to think that today will be different from yesterday, that I will find an interesting comment or poke or video, and on the extremely rare occasion when that happens, I am just thrilled.”

Thinking Giving Different Feelings Happens Today Interesting Huge Give Me Regard Yesterday Video Occasions Comment Bores Crave Refrain Participating Poke Rare Occasion

Author:Roseanne Barr

“There is a one-in-300 chance that Earth will be struck on March 16, 2880, by an asteroid large enough to destroy civilization and possibly cause the extinction of the human race. But, on the bright side, Prince could re-release his hit song with the new refrain 'We're gonna party like its twenty-eight seventy-nine.'”

Humans Enough Earth Song Causes Sides Chance Party Race Civilization Twenties Eight Nine Release Human Race March Seventies Extinction Refrain Bright Side Asteroids

Author:Nathan Myhrvold

“Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?”

Love Heart Known Courage Love You Making Love Refrain Macbeth Play Courage To Love Lady Macbeth

Book:Macbeth

Source: Macbeth

“As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking when awake.”

Inspirational Care Example Smoke Awake Smoking Marijuana I Care Moderation Refrain

Book:Great Speeches by Mark Twain

Source: Great Speeches by Mark Twain

“An opera singer is like an athlete before a match. An athlete cannot overdo anything. In order to perform at the highest possible level, you need to refrain from activities so as to be able to express this power.”

Needs Able Order Levels Activity Highest Athlete Singers Opera Refrain Opera Singers

Author:Andrea Bocelli

“It is part of the irony of life that the strongest feelings of devoted gratitude of which human nature seems to be susceptible, are called forth in human beings towards those who, having the power entirely to crush their earthly existence, voluntarily refrain from using that power.”

Humans Feelings Seems Human Beings Existence Human Nature Gratitude Irony Crush Strongest Devoted Refrain Susceptible Irony Of Life

Book:The Subjection of Women

Source: The Subjection of Women

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”

Source: The Sense of Wonder

“Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel yet in this, That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery That aptly is put on. Refrain tonight, And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence; the next more easy; For use almost can change the stamp of nature.”

Ifs Giving Kind Use Action Next Easy Virtue Habit Devil Angel Fairs Assuming Monsters Tonight Customs Stamps Refrain Abstinence Easiness Hamlet Love

Author:William Shakespeare

“Forget the suffering You caused others. Forget the suffering Others caused you. The waters run and run, Springs sparkle and are done, You walk the earth you are forgetting. Sometimes you hear a distant refrain. What does it mean, you ask, who is singing? A childlike sun grows warm. A grandson and a great-grandson are born. You are led by the hand once again. The names of the rivers remain with you. How endless those rivers seem! Your fields lie fallow, The city towers are not as they were. You stand at the threshold mute.”

“Love, and do what you will. If you keep silence, do it out of love. If you cry out, do it out of love. If you refrain from punishing, do it out of love.”

Ifs Silence Cry Refrain

Author:Saint Augustine

“To you who think you are lost or without hope, or who think you have done too much that was too wrong for too long, to every one of you who worry that you are stranded somewhere on the wintry plains of life and have wrecked your handcart in the process, we call out "Jehovah's unrelenting refrain, "My hand is stretched out still" (Isaiah 5:25: 9:17,21). "...His mercy endureth forever, and His hand is stretched out still. His is the pure love of Christ, the charity that never faileth, that compassion which endures even when all other strength disappears".”

Thinking Long Stills Done Hands Lost Process Christ Compassion Worry Forever Too Much Pure Mercy Charity Endure Disappear Refrain Jehovah Pure Love Without Hope Stranded Unrelenting

Author:Jeffrey R. Holland

“This symmetrical composition--the same motif at the beginning and at the end--may seem quite "novelistic" to you, and I am willing to agree, but only on condition that you refrain from reading such notions as "fictive," "fabricated," and "untrue to life" into the word "novelistic." Because human lives are composed in precisely such a fashion.”

Humans May Ends Seems Reading Conditions Fashion Willing Agree Notion Human Life Composition Refrain Untrue Motifs Symmetrical

Author:Milan Kundera

“It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else’s shoes and understand the other’s different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them.”

Ifs Different Literature Individual Sides Becoming Aspect Murder Shoes Oneself Dimensions Spheres Contradictory Ruthless Refrain Tehran Different Dimensions

Author:Azar Nafisi

“For we live with those retrievals from childhood that coalesce and echo throughout our lives, the way shattered pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope reappear in new forms and are songlike in their refrains and rhymes, making up a single monologue. We live permanently in the recurrence of our own stories, whatever story we tell.”

Way Stories Form Pieces Our Lives Childhood Glasses Echoes Rhyme Shattered Refrain Making Up Monologues Kaleidoscope Recurrence

Author:Michael Ondaatje

“You are well aware of your effect on women, and I'm sure it gratifies you no end to watch them sigh and salivate over your magnificent physique. I do not wish to spoil your fun, Dain, but I do ask you to consider my pride and refrain from embarrassing me in public." Women...sighing and salivating...over his magnificent physique. Maybe the brutal bedding had destroyed a part of her brain.”

Wells Ends Asks Fun Wish Brain Watches Effects Pride Destroyed Brutal Magnificent Sigh Embarrassing Spoil Refrain Physique Bedding

Author:Loretta Chase

“To be angry is to yield to the influence of Satan. No one can make us angry. It is our choice. If we desire to have a proper spirit with us at all times, we must choose to refrain from becoming angry. I testify that such is possible.”

Ifs Spirit Desire Choices Influence Becoming Anger Angry All Time Satan Yield Refrain Our Choices

Author:Thomas S. Monson

“True and false fears let us refrain, Let us love nobly, and live, and add again Years and years unto years, till we attain To write threescore ; this is the second of our reign.”

Love Writing Years Time Add Reign Refrain True And False

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“Wait on the Lord" is a constant refrain in the Psalms, and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting. He is not in such a hurry as we are, and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. When action is needed, light will come.”

Way Needs Giving Light Action Waiting Lord Steps Doubt Trust Needed Constant Guides Refrain Psalms When In Doubt One Step At A Time

Author:J. I. Packer

“Really now: If you can't get me my newspaper on time, how can you expect me to refrain from killing people?”

People Ifs Killing Newspapers Refrain

Book:Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

“"If you’d refrain from slamming my face any more into this dirty rock floor, I’ll do whatever you like," was his even reply. "Fancy letting my head go?" "Sure," I said with an unpleasant snicker, not relinquishing an ounce of pressure. "How about I let you floss with my jugular as well? I don’t think so."”

Ifs Thinking Wells Said Faces Rocks Cat Pressure Dirty Fancy Refrain Spades Relinquishing Snickers

Author:Jeaniene Frost