Quotessence
Home / Topics / Single Sentence Quotes

Single Sentence Quotes

Browse 48 quotes about Single Sentence.

Related topics

SentencesIfsStoriesWriting

Single Sentence Quotes

“Two kisses in one kiss was all it took, a comfort, a warmth, perhaps temporary, perhaps false, but reassuring nonetheless, and mine, and theirs, ours, all three of us giggling, insane giggles and laughter with still more kisses on the way, and I remember a brief instant then, out of the blue, when I suddenly glimpsed my own father, a rare but oddly peaceful recollection, as if he actually approved of my play in the way he himself had always laughed and played, great updrafts of light, burning off distant plateaus of bistre & sage, throwing him up like an angel, high above the red earth, deep into the sparkling blank, the tender sky that never once let him down, preserving his attachment to youth, propriety and kindness, his plane almost, but never quite, outracing his whoops of joy, trailing him in his sudden turn to the wind, followed then by a near vertical climb up to the angles of the sun, and I was barely eight and still with him and yes, that was the thought that flickered madly through me, a brief instant of communion, possessing me with warmth and ageless ease, causing me to smile again and relax as if memory alone could lift the heart like the wind lifts a wing, and so I renewed my kisses with even greater enthusiasm, caressing and in turn devouring their dark lips, dark with wine and fleeting love, an ancient memory love had promised but finally never gave, until there were too many kisses to count or remember, and the memory of love proved not love at all and needed a replacement, which our bodies found, and then the giggles subsided, and the laughter dimmed, and darkness enfolded all of us and we gave away our childhood for nothing and we died and condoms littered the floor and Christina threw up in the sink and Amber chuckled a little and kissed me a little more, but in a way that told me it was time to leave.”

JoyFatherSexRegretKissingMemoryMoodEuphoriaSingle SentenceThreesome
Book:House of Leaves
Create image

“If you can't do it, don't pledge to do it. Don't be a liar; say only what you can do. It's better for you to have a "single sentence" manifesto about your life which is fulfilled than to have 25 chapters' theories about your visions that remain undone!”

LifeCan DoVisionFood For ThoughtIsraelmore AyivorFulfillmentLiePledgeBetterSingleYou CanUndoneVisionsLiarFulfillTheoriesRemainSingle SentenceManifesto25 Chapters
Book:The Great Hand Book of Quotes
Create image

“A few words worthy to be remembered suffice to give an idea of a great mind. There are single thoughts that contain the essence of a whole volume, single sentences that have the beauties of a large work, a simplicity so finished and so perfect that it equals in merit and in excellence a large and glorious composition.”

GivingMindIdeasWholePerfectEssenceExcellenceSimplicityWorthySentencesFinishedRememberedMeritGloriousVolumeCompositionFew WordsGreat MindsSingle Sentence
Book:Some of the
Create image

“The Declaration of Independence is the all-time masterpiece of ideological simplification. There in a single sentence of self-evident truth, the founding Fathers put into clear, easily understandable focus, the broad basis of man's relationship to God, to government, and to his fellow man.”

MenSelfGovernmentFatherHistoryClearFocusBasesFellowsIndependenceSentencesAll TimeBroadsEvidentDeclarationMasterpieceFoundingFellow ManIdeologicalDeclaration Of IndependenceSimplificationSingle Sentence
Author:Clarence Manion
Create image

“If I have to reduce all of the laws of war into a single sentence, it is this. You divide the world into two, combatants and noncombatants. You can attack deliberately combatants, but not deliberately noncombatants. Israel acts that way. It attacks combatants and accidentally kills noncombatants. But in the case of the terrorists, it's the exact opposite. They deliberately attack combatants - noncombatants, civilians, deliberately.”

IfsWorldWayTwoWarLawCasesOppositesIsraelSentencesTerroristDividesCiviliansSingle Sentence
Author:Benjamin Netanyahu
Create image

“I always thought old age would be a writer’s best chance. Whenever I read the late work of Goethe or W. B. Yeats I had the impertinence to identify with it. Now, my memory’s gone, all the old fluency’s disappeared. I don’t write a single sentence without saying to myself, ‘It’s a lie!’ So I know I was right. It’s the best chance I’ve ever had.”

KnowsWritingWould BeAgeLyingMemoriesChanceGoneLateSentencesOld AgeFluencySingle SentenceYeatsImpertinence
Author:Samuel Beckett
Create image

“To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To condense the diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by itself...Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.”

WritingIdeasLightWrittenOughtAchievementPaperPagesDifficultyWorthySentencesPrizeFlashCompositionRight PlaceParagraphLuminousRight WordsSingle SentenceSquanderingWriting WordsDifficulty Of Writing
Author:Mark Twain
Create image

“I found that many gifted people are so afraid of writing a poor story that they cannot summon the nerve to write a single sentence for months. The thing to say to such people is: "See how *bad* a story you can write. See how dull you can be. Go ahead. That would be fun and interesting. I will give you ten dollars if you can write something thoroughly dull from beginning to end!" And of course, no one can.”

PeopleIfsGivingWritingEndsStoriesWould BeCoursesFoundFunInterestingPoorMonthsTenDollarsSentencesDullNervesGiftedSingle Sentence
Author:Brenda Ueland
Create image

“Charles de Foucauld, the found of the Little Brothers of Jesus, wrote a single sentence that's ahad a profound impact on my life. He said, "The one thing we owe absolutely to God is never to be afraid of anything." Never to be afraid of anything, even death, which, after all, is but that final breakthrough into the open, waiting, outstretched arms of Abba.”

LittlesSaidFoundJesusFearWaitingOne ThingBrotherArmsImpactProfoundFinalsSentencesBreakthroughLittle BrotherAbbaSingle Sentence
Book:The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out
Create image

“Good writing is the hardest form of thinking. It involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear. If the writing is good, then the result seems effortless and inevitable. But when you want to say something life-changing or ineffable in a single sentence, you face both the limitations of the sentence itself and the extent of your own talent.”

IfsThinkingWantWritingSeemsFacesFormLanguageDifficultResultsClearTalentSentencesHardestLimitationInevitableLife ChangingVisibleAgonyUniformsFittingGood WritingEffortlessIneffableSingle Sentence
Author:Pat Conroy
Create image

“If I had to define a major depression in a single sentence, I would describe it as a "genetic/neurochemical disorder requiring a strong environmental trigger whose characteristic manifestation is an inability to appreciate sunsets.”

IfsStrongMajorsAppreciateEnvironmentalSentencesManifestationCharacteristicsSunsetDisorderInabilityTriggersSingle Sentence
Book:Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping - Now Revised and Updated
Create image

“He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.”

LongStillsEndsWholeEarthFacesSleepSawsFrontsExpressionQuietArmyLaysWesternCalmSentencesGladFallenReportsConfinedOctoberSingle Sentence
Author:Erich Maria Remarque
Create image

“I have devoted my whole life to the study of Nature, and yet a single sentence may express all that I have done. I have shown that there is a correspondence between the succession of Fishes in geological times and the different stages of their growth in the egg,-this is all. It chanced to be a result that was found to apply to other groups and has led to other conclusions of a like nature.”

MayDifferentDoneWholeScienceFoundGrowthNatureResultsStudyGroupsStageEvolutionFishesSentencesWhole LifeConclusionEggsDevotedSuccessionGeologyCorrespondenceSingle SentenceGeological Time
Book:Agassiz on Evolution: Methods of study in natural history
Create image

“All things are made of atoms - little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied.”

KnowsWorldLittlesMadeStatesMovingScienceKnowledgeInformationAmountAll ThingsDistanceValuableSentencesEnormousAtomsPerpetualSuggestionsHypothesisParticlesScientific KnowledgeOne SentenceSingle SentencePerpetual MotionRepellingDistance Apart
Author:Richard P. Feynman
Create image

“'They fell in love.' Such a rare and special event cannot be done justice by one statement; it involves so much more than that single sentence could explain: it means two people that were brave enough to show their scars, vulnerability, rough edges, happiest thoughts, along with their worst fears, and find a mutual respect, appreciation, and fondness for one another; they achieved a gift that not many people get to experience in their lifetime in its truest form.”

PeopleLoveMeanTwoDoneEnoughShowsFormJusticeWorstSpecialEventsBraveLifetimeEdgesAppreciationSentencesStatementsVulnerabilityMutualRoughScarTruestMutual RespectFondnessSingle SentenceWorst FearRough EdgesSpecial Events
Author:Carlos Salinas
Create image

“Alethea Black can drop you into a dream with a single sentence, then convince you it's real. Her characters' best hopes and worst fears usually come to pass, often in fabulous ways, but their adventures feel inevitable and true-not only because Ms. Black richly imagines her people, but because she loves them. I Knew You'd Be Lovely is a lovely debut, with masterful prose and inspired invention on every page.”

PeopleWayFeelsRealCharacterDreamBlackImagineWorstAdventurePagesInspiredSentencesLovelyInventionInevitableProseConvinceFabulousHoping For The BestDebutSingle SentenceWorst Fear
Author:Ralph Lombreglia
Create image

“In the light of her son's comment she reconsidered the scene at the mosque, to see whose impression was correct. Yes it could be worked into quite an unpleasant scene. The doctor had begun by bullying her, had said Mrs Callendar was nice, and then - finding the ground safe - had changed; he had alternately whined over his grievances and patronized her, had run a dozen ways in a single sentence, had been unreliable, inquisitive, vain. Yes, it was all true, but how false as a summary of the man; the essential life of him had been slain.”

MenWaySaidLightRunningNiceChangedHe ManSonSceneSafeEssentialsFindingsDoctorsSentencesImpressionVainBullyingCommentDozenGrievanceMosquesUnreliableSummaryInquisitiveSingle Sentence
Author:E. M. Forster
Create image

“And how deeply do I let business considerations affect [screenwriting] choices that might otherwise be more or less esthetic? . . . Do I choose the upbeat rather than the downer ending because I know it will score better at the preview? Can the idea be sold in a single sentence? Can it compete with space aliens and tornadoes and missions impossible?”

KnowsIdeasMightChoicesSpaceImpossibleMissionsSentencesCraftsAliensScoreConsiderationScreenwritingTornadoesUpbeatSingle SentencePreviewDownersSpace AliensMission Impossible
Author:Edward Zwick
Create image