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Shovels Quotes

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Shovels Quotes

“The Germans have an inhuman way of cutting up their verbs. Now a verb has a hard time enough of it in this world when it's all together. It's downright inhuman to split it up. But that's just what those Germans do. They take part of a verb and put it down here, like a stake, and they take the other part of it and put it away over yonder like another stake, and between these two limits they just shovel in German. from "Disappearance of Literature”

WorldWayTwoHardEnoughTogetherLiteratureCuttingThis WorldLimitsHard TimesStakesSplitsVerbsInhumanDisappearanceShovels
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)
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“The weight of the old world is stifling, and trying to shovel its weight off your life is tiring just to think about. The constant shuttling of opinions is tiring, and the shuffling of papers across desks, the chopping of logic and the trimming of attitudes. There must, somewhere, be a simpler, more violent world.”

ThinkingWorldTryingLife IsAttitudeOpinionPaperLogicWeightConstantViolentDesksPapersTireOld WorldShovelsStiflingChoppingShufflingTrimming
Book:Three-Book Edition: A Place of Greater Safety; Beyond Black; The Giant O’Brien
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“A short time later, when the carpenter was taking measurements for the coffin, through the window they saw a light rain of tiny yellow flowers falling. They fell on the town all through the night in a silent storm, and they covered the roofs and blocked the doors and smothered the animals who slept outdoors. So many flowers fell from the sky that in the morning the streets were carpeted with a compact cushion and they had to clear them away with shovels and rakes so that the funeral procession could pass by.”

LightNightFallAnimalMorningClearSawsDoorsSkyStreetsFlowerRainWindowTownsSilentStormTinyCoveredFuneralYellowRoofMeasurementShort TimeCoffinsBlockedCarpenterCompactShovelsCushionsProcessionRakesYellow Flower
Author:Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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“I love the performance of a craft, whether it is modest or mean-spirited, yet I walk away when discussions of it begin - as if one should ask a gravedigger what brand of shovel he uses or whether he prefers to work at noon or in moonlight. I am interested only in the care taken, and those secret rehearsals behind it. Even if I do not understand fully what is taking place.”

IfsShouldMeanUseCareAsksWalksSecretBehindsTakenPerformancesCraftsBrandsDiscussionModestMoonlightRehearsalNoonSpiritedShovelsMean SpiritedGravediggers
Book:Divisadero
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“If Hunter hadn't been there, I would've picked up the phone to call Eric. I would've asked him to bring a shovel and come to help me dig a body up. That was what a boyfriend should do, right? But I couldn't leave Hunter alone in the house, and I would've felt terrible if I'd ask Eric to go out in the woods by himself, even though I knew he wouldn't think anything about it. In fact, probably he'd have sent Pam.”

IfsThinkingShouldFactsHelpingBodyAsksHouseFeltTerriblePhonesWoodsHelp MeHuntersEricShovels
Author:Charlaine Harris
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“Tell you what," I said. "After the testing after the Demon Days, when things settle down -" "Things won't settle down." "- I'm going to take you to the mall." She blinked. "The mall? For what reason?" "To hang out," I said. "We'll get some hamburgers. See a movie." Zia hesitated. "Is this what you'd call a 'date'?" My expression must have been priceless, because Zia actually cracked a smile. "You look like a cow hit with a shovel.”

LooksHas BeensSaidReasonExpressionSettlingDemonHanging OutCowsTestingPricelessCrackedMallsSettling DownHamburgersShovels
Book:The Kane Chronicles, The, Book One: Red Pyramid
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“After the last shovel of dirt was patted in place, I sat down and let my mind drift back through the years. I thought of the old K. C. Baking Powder can, and the first time I saw my pups in the box at the depot. I thought of the fifty dollars, the nickels and dimes, and the fishermen and blackberry patches. I looked at his grave and, with tears in my eyes, I voiced these words: "You were worth it, old friend, and a thousand times over.”

YearsMindFirstsEyeLastsSawsTearsThousandFirst TimeDown AndDollarsBoxesGravesSatFiftyDirtWorth ItPatchesBakingOld FriendsFishermanDimesPowderThrough The YearsShovelsNickelsBlackberriesPupsTears In My Eyes
Book:Where the Red Fern Grows
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“There was something about a man with a shovel, and the sweat on his neck might as well have been chocolate sauce. It wasn't fair. Brains and brawns should be two separate categories, not bundled into one irresistible package. She needed to pull herself together before she went after him with a spoon. But where to start?”

MenShouldWellsHas BeensTwoMightTogetherBrainNeededFairsNecksChocolateCategoriesSweatPackagesIrresistibleSauceSpoonsShovels
Author:Susan Elizabeth Phillips
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“You're beautiful, every part of you. I love your hair, the way it looks, the way it feels. I love touching it, smelling it. I love the way you wrinkle your nose when you laugh. It makes me laugh, too, every time. And I love watching you eat. Sometimes you can't shovel it in fast enough, but when you get interested in a conversation, you forget there's anything in front of you. God knows, I love making love with you. I can't even talk about that without wanting you. I love your pathetic attachment to those seniors. I love how hard you work.”

KnowsWayFeelsLooksI CanSometimesHardEnoughBeautifulForgetLaughingLove YouFrontsHairConversationNosesAttachmentTouchingMaking LoveSeniorGod KnowsPatheticWrinklesLove MakingMake Me LaughShovelsYou Re BeautifulWanting YouWay I Love You
Author:Susan Elizabeth Phillips
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“I didn't get fired." "You didn't punch your boss and get fired from the Tribune? That's what I heard." "I punched what could loosely be called a colleague for cribbing my notes on a story and since the editor–who happened to be the asshole's uncle–took his word over mine, I quit." "To write books. Is it fun?" "I guess it is." "I bet you killed the asshole in the first one you wrote." "You'd be right. Beat him to death with a shovel. Very satisfying.”

WritingFirstsBookStoriesFunHappenedHeardMinesBeatsNotesQuittingBossEditorsSatisfyingUnclesColleaguesI QuitShovels
Author:Nora Roberts
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“This time is difficult. Wait for me. We will live it out vividly. Give me your small hand: we will rise and suffer, we will feel, we will rejoice. We are once more the pair who lived in bristling places, in harsh nests in the rock. This time is difficult. Wait for me with a basket, with a shovel, with your shoes and your clothes. Now we need each other, not only for the carnations' sake, not only to look for honey — we need our hands to wash with, to make fire.”

NeedsGivingFeelsLooksHandsEyeSufferingWaitingDifficultFireFourRocksClothesGive MeShoesSakePairsHoneyInfinityRejoiceHarshDifficult TimesNestsBasketsShovelsWait For MeWe Need Each OtherSmall HandsCarnations
Author:Pablo Neruda
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“Sometimes I’d get mad because things didn’t work out so well, I’d spoil a flapjack, or slip in the snowfield while getting water, or one time my shovel went sailing down into the gorge, and I’d be so mad I’d want to bite the mountaintops and would come in the shack and kick the cupboard and hurt my toe. But let the mind beware, though the flesh be bugged, the circumstances of existence are pretty glorious.”

WantMindWellsSometimesWaterHurtExistenceCircumstancesMadWork OutFleshKicksGloriousBitesOne TimeSlipsToesSailingSpoilShovelsCupboardsShackGorgesFlapjacks
Book:The Dharma Bums
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“It's too early for there to be any coffee. I stare dully at the empty pot in the common room, while Sam picks up a jar of instant grounds. "Don't," I warn him. He scoops up a heaping spoonful and, heedlessly, shovels it into his mouth. It crunches horribly. Then his eyes go wide. "Dry," he croaks. "Tongue...shriveling." I shake my head, picking up the jar. "It's dehydrated. You're supposed to add water. Good thing you're mostly made of water." He tries to say something. Brown powder dusts his shirt. "Also," I tell him, "that's decaf.”

TryingMadeEyeWaterRoomsCommonMouthsPicksEmptyAddGood ThingsWideTongueCoffeeDustStaringShirtsInstantHis EyesDryShakesBrownPotJarsPowderShovelsCrunch
Author:Holly Black
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“If you want to marry me, here's what you'll have to do: You must learn how to make a perfect chicken-dumpling stew. And you must sew my holey socks, And soothe my troubled mind, And develop the knack for scratching my back, And keep my shoes spotlessly shined. And while I rest you must rake up the leaves, And when it is hailing and snowing You must shovel the walk...and be still when I talk, And-hey-where are you going?”

IfsWantMindStillsWalksPerfectShoesSnowHeyChickensSockMarriage AdviceMarry MeKnackShovelsStewRakesDumplings
Author:Shel Silverstein
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“Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a shovel. By virtue of this curious loophole in the rules, any clodhopper may say: Let there be a tree - and there will be one.”

IfsKnowsNeedsMayKnow HowVirtueTreeExampleCreationPoetPlantFolksCuriousRestrictionReservedShovelsLoopholes
Book:A Sand County Almanac
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“A strong woman is a woman at work, cleaning out the cesspool of the ages, and while she shovels, she talks about how she doesn't mind crying, it opens the ducts of the eyes, and throwing up develops the stomach muscles, and she goes on shoveling with tears in her nose.”

MindEyeAgeStrongJusticeCryTearsGoes OnDiversitySocial JusticeNosesMusclesStomachThrowingStrong WomenCleaningShovelsWorking ManThrowing Up
Book:Moon Is Always Female
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“Notwithstanding all that has been discovered since Newton's time, his saying that we are little children picking up pretty pebbles on the beach while the whole ocean lies before us unexplored remains substantially as true as ever, and will do so though we shovel up the pebbles by steam shovels and carry them off in carloads.”

ChildrenLittlesHas BeensWholeScienceLyingOceanRemainsBeachNewtonSteamPebblesShovelsUnexplored
Book:Collected Papers
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“Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work- I am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at Gettysburg. And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years,and passengers ask the conductor- What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass. Let me work.”

YearsTwoWarBodyAsksTenConflictLet MeGrassTwo YearsPassengersConductorShovelsGettysburgWaterloo
Author:Carl Sandburg
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“Some of us are like a shovel brigade that follow a parade down Main Street cleaning up.”

StreetsCleaningParadesShovelsCleaning UpMain Street
Book:Iran-Contra investigation: joint hearings before the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran and the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, One Hundredth Congress, first session, 100-10, July 30, 31, and August 3, 1987 : testimony of Donald T. Regan and Caspar W. Weinberger
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“I have been one who believes that abortion is the taking of a human life . . . . The fact that they could not resolve the issue of when life begins was a finding in and of itself. If we don't know, then shouldn't we morally opt on the side that it is life? If you came upon an immobile body and you yourself could not determine whether it was dead or alive, I think that you would decide to consider it alive until somebody could prove it was dead. You wouldn't get a shovel and start covering it up. And I think we should do the same thing with regard to abortion.”

IfsThinkingKnowsShouldBelieveHumansHas BeensFactsBodyReligionSidesIssuesAliveMoralityProveFindingsRegardDetermineHuman LifeAbortionResolveCoveringProve ItShovels
Author:Ronald Reagan
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“When some remote ancestor of ours invented the shovel, he became a giver: He could plant a tree. And when the axe was invented, he became a taker: He could chop it down. Whoever owns land has thus assumed, whether he knows it or not, the divine functions of creating and destroying plants.”

KnowsTreeLandDivineCreatingFunctionPlantDestroyingAncestorGiverPlant A TreeShovels
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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