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Whales Quotes

Browse 306 quotes about Whales.

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Whales Quotes

“Bubble gum angels swooped from top margins or scraped their wings between teeming paragraphs, maidens with golden hair dripped sea blue tears into the books spine, grape-colored whales spouted blood around a newspaper item (pasted in) listing arrivals to the endangered spieces list. Six hatchlings cried from shattered shells near an entry made on Easter. Cecilia had filled the pages with a profusion of colors and curlicues, candyland ladders and striped shamrocks.”

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Book:The Virgin Suicides: A Novel
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“Now behind the eyes and secrets of the dreamers in the streets rocked to sleep by the sea, see the titbits and topsyturvies, bobs and buttontops, bags and bones, ash and rind and dandruff and nailparings, saliva and snowflakes and moulted feathers of dreams, the wrecks and sprats and shells and fishbones, whale-juice and moonshine and small salt fry dished up by the hidden sea.”

DreamEyeSleepSecretBehindsSeaStreetsBonesBagsDreamerSaltBobAshesShellsFeathersJuiceWrecksWhalesSnowflakeMoonshineSaliva
Book:Under Milk Wood: A Play for Voices
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“If you lose touch with nature you lose touch with humanity. If there's no relationship with nature then you become a killer; then you kill baby seals, whales, dolphins, and man either for gain, for "sport," for food, or for knowledge. Then nature is frightened of you, withdrawing its beauty. You may take long walks in the woods or camp in lovely places but you are a killer and so lose their friendship. You probably are not related to anything to your wife or your husband.”

IfsMenLoveLifeMayLongTruthHumanitySportsLosesWalksWifeBabyHusbandGainsWoodsLovelyRelatedFrightenedCampsKillersWhalesSealsYour HusbandDolphinsLong WalksWithdrawingWalks In The Woods
Author:Jiddu Krishnamurti
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“I walk outside and scream at the top of my lungs, and it maybe travels two blocks. A whale unleashes his cry, and it travels hundreds or even thousands of miles. Every whale in the ocean will at one time or another run into that song. And I figure whales probably don't edit. If they think it, they say it...Whale talk is the truth, and in a very short period of time, if you're a whale, you know exactly what it is to be you.”

IfsThinkingKnowsTwoRunningSongWalksCryFiguresPeriodsOceanMilesBlockOne TimeScreamBe YouLungsEditsWhales
Author:Chris Crutcher
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“It was a real whale, a photograph of a real whale. I looked into its tiny wise eye and wondered where that eye was now. Was it alive and swimming, or had it died long ago, or was it dying now, right this second? When a whale dies, it falls down through the ocean slowly, over the course of a day. All the other fish see it fall, like a giant statue, like a building, but slowly, slowly.”

LongRealEyeDiesFallCoursesWiseAliveDyingBuildingOceanDiedPhotographFishesTinyGiantsSwimmingLong AgoStatuesFalling DownWhales
Book:No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories
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“The great American writer Herman Melville says somewhere in The White Whale that a man ought to be 'a patriot to heaven,' and I believe it is a good thing, this ambition to be a cosmopolitan, this idea to be citizens not of a small parcel of the world that changes according to the currents of politics, according to the wars, to what occurs, but to feel that the whole world is our country.”

MenWorldFeelsBelieveIdeasWarCountryWholeI BelieveHeavenWhiteOughtCitizensAmbitionGood ThingsCurrentsWhole WorldOur CountryPatriotWhalesGreat AmericanParcelAmerican WriterMelville
Author:Jorge Luis Borges
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“Most people, when they imagine New England, think about old colonial homes, white houses with black shutters, whales, and sexually morbid WASPs with sensible vehicles and polite political opinions. This is incorrect. If you want to get New England right, just imagine a giant mullet in paint-stained pants and a Red Sox hat being pushed into the back of a cruiser after a bar fight.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWantHomePoliticalFightingHouseBlackWhiteOpinionImagineRedEnglandPaintBarsGiantsHatsWhite HouseSensiblePantsVehiclePoliteSexuallyWhalesMorbidNew EnglandShuttersWaspsPolitical OpinionsMullets
Author:Matt Taibbi
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“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”

PeopleHumansGovernmentReligionPassionPoliticsReligiousLibertyMoralBreakMoralityAmbitionCapableConstitutionRevengeStrongestFoundingInadequateAvariceWhalesOur Founding FathersCordsUs Founding FathersForefathersFounding Fathers ReligionFounding Fathers ReligiousAmerican GovernmentReligious LibertyFounding AmericaAmerican Founding FathersFounding Fathers AtheistUs ConstitutionAmerican LibertyReligion And GovernmentMorality And ReligionContendingAmerica FreedomMoral VirtuesRevolution Founding FathersGallantryAmerican FreedomAmerican ConstitutionPower GovernmentAmerican PowerStrong GovernmentUnbridled Passion
Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“This morning I saw a coyote walking through the sagebrush right at the very edge of the ocean ― next stop China. The coyote was acting like he was in New Mexico or Wyoming, except that there were whales passing below. That’s what this country does for you. Come down to Big Sur and let your soul have some room to get outside its marrow.”

DoeSoulCountryBigsNextRoomsActingMorningSawsWalkingOceanEdgesChinaPassingPassingsYour SoulMexicoWhalesMarrowCoyotesWyomingNew MexicoBig Sur
Book:Richard Brautigan's A Confederate General from Big Sur, Dreaming of Babylon, and The Hawkline Monster: Three Books in the Manner of Their Original Editions
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“Television screens saturated with commercials promote the utopian and childish idea that all problems have fast, simple, and technological solutions. You must banish from your mind the naive but commonplace notion that commercials are about products. They are about products in the same sense that the story of Jonah is about the anatomy of whales.”

MindIdeasStoriesProblemSimpleTelevisionProductsSolutionsNotionScreensTechnologicalNaiveCommonplaceWhalesAnatomyUtopianJonahSaturated
Book:Conscientious Objections: Stirring Up Trouble About Language, Technology and Education
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“It's like you said the other day," said Adam. "You grow up readin' about pirates and cowboys and spacemen and stuff, and jus' when you think the world's full of amazin' things, they tell you it's really all dead whales and chopped-down forests and nucular waste hangin' about for millions of years. 'Snot worth growin' up for, if you ask my opinion.”

IfsThinkingWorldYearsSaidAsksGrowsStuffOpinionMillionsGrowing UpLike YouWasteForestsAdamCowboyPirateWhales
Author:Neil Gaiman
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“A large section of the idling classes of England get their incomes by believing that Jesus was born of a virgin and that Jonah swallowed a whale; and with the progress of science they were naturally finding this more and more difficult. A school of ingenious Bible-twisters arose, to invent symbolical and literary meanings for fairy tales, in order that people who no longer believed could continue with good conscience to collect the salaries of belief.”

PeopleBelieveSchoolOrderJesusBeliefDifficultBornClassProgressFindingsConscienceEnglandIncomeTalesFairyFairy TaleSectionsVirginsSalaryWhalesIngeniousJonahTwister
Author:Upton Sinclair
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“Brooding, she changed the pool into the sea, and made the minnows into sharks and whales, and cast vast clouds over this tiny world by holding her hand against the sun, and so brought darkness and desolation, like God himself, to millions of ignorant and innocent creatures, and then took her hand away suddenly and let the sun stream down.”

WorldMadeHandsMillionsDarknessSunSeaChangedCreaturesCloudsCastsTinyIgnorantInnocentStreamsPoolSharksWhalesDesolationBroodingMinnows
Book:To the Lighthouse
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“We look high and low for God, but somehow He's not there. So we blame Him and tell ourselves that He must have forgotten us. Or else we decide that He left us long ago, if He was ever around." "How strange," the little fish said, "to miss what is everywhere." "Very strange," the old whale agreed. "Doesn't it remind you of fish who say they're thirsty?”

IfsLooksLittlesLongSaidLeftMissingStrangeLowsBlameForgottenFishesLong AgoWhalesThirstyHighs And Lows
Author:Michael Jackson
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“Pirate Dreams Needles and pins, Needles and pins, Sew me a sail to catch me the wind. Sew me a sail strong as the gale, Carpenter, bring out your hammers and nails. Hammers and nails, hammers and nails, Build me a boat to go chasing the whales. Chasing the whales, sailing the blue Find me a captain and sign me a crew. Captain and crew, captain and crew, Take me, oh take me to anywhere new.”

DreamStrongWindBlueBoatTake MeNailsSailCaptainsCrewSailingChasingHammersFind MePinsNeedlesPirateWhalesCarpenterGaleCatch Me
Author:Shel Silverstein
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“When did you get so smart?" He tapped his forehead. "Brain transplant. They put in a whale's. I'm passing all my classes with my eyes closed now, but I just can't get over this craving for krill." He shrugged. "And I feel sorry for the whale that got my brain. Probably swimming around Florida now trying to catch glimpses of girls in bikinis.”

FeelsTryingEyeGirlBrainClassSmartSorryPassingPassingsSwimmingFloridaGet OverGlimpseCravingForeheadsWhalesBikinisTransplants
Author:Maggie Stiefvater
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“I don’t know. There are times when I get the feeling he can’t tell me from Nynia. I think he loves her more than me. (Sunshine) No offense, but that’s stupid. You and Talon are soulmates. He will always love you no matter who or what you are. You, my friend, could come back as a humpback whale and he would love you. He can’t help it. The two of you are destined for each other. (Psyche)”

ThinkingKnowsTwoMatterHelpingFeelingsLove YouStupidMy FriendsSunshineOffenseSoulmateDestinedWhalesTalonsAlways Love YouWill Always Love YouHumpback Whales
Book:Night Embrace
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“All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life. And if you be a philosopher, though seated in the whale-boat, you would not at heart feel one whit more of terror, than though seated before your evening fire with a poker, and not a harpoon, by your side.”

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Book:Moby-Dick: World Classics
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“It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own.”

MenWorldDoeSeemsIndividualStrongVirtueBloodThis WorldWallModelsSeasonsWarmAdmireIcePeterThickInteriorsVitalityThyselfTemperatureFluidWhalesBeing CoolDomesEquatorSpaciousnessSt PeterStrong Individuals
Book:Moby Dick
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“This is a world where everybody’s gotta do something. Ya know, somebody laid down this rule that everybody’s gotta do something, they gotta be something. You know, a dentist, a glider pilot, a narc, a janitor, a preacher, all that . . . Sometimes I just get tired of thinking of all the things that I don’t wanna do. All the things that I don’t wanna be. Places I don’t wanna go, like India, like getting my teeth cleaned. Save the whale, all that, I don’t understand that . . .”

ThinkingKnowsWorldSometimesIndiaTiredTeethPilotsPreacherWhalesDentistJanitor
Author:Charles Bukowski
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“But I'll never see any of those fish," said Maxie."Or those whales. Or any lions or tigers. I'm never going to set foot in a rain forest now, am I? I won't even be able to watch old DVD's about them without electricity. What does the future hold? It's like going back to the middle ages. Nobody knowing what was going on beyond their front doorstep. All I'll ever know is this. This little bit of London.”

KnowsLittlesDoeSaidAgeAbleBitsWatchesKnowingFeetMiddleFrontsLittle BitRainFishesLondonForestsLionsElectricityTigersMiddle AgesWhalesDvdsDoorstep
Author:Charlie Higson
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“Suddenly the full long wail of a ship's horn surged through the open window and flooded the dim room—a cry of boundless, dark, demanding grief; pitch-black and glabrous as a whale's back and burdened with all the passions of the tides, the memory of voyages beyond counting, the joys, the humiliations: the sea was screaming.”

LittlesLongJoyNightPassionBlackMemoriesDarkRoomsGriefSeaCryWindowShipsTidesThirstHumiliationHornsCountingVoyagesBoundlessWhalesGlitterFrenzyNectarConveyingPitch Black
Author:Yukio Mishima
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“What have we been doing all these centuries but trying to call God back to the mountain, or, failing that, raise a peep out of anything that isn't us? What is the difference between a cathedral and a physics lab? Are not they both saying: Hello? We spy on whales and on interstellar radio objects; we starve ourselves and pray till we're blue.”

TryingDifferencesFailingCenturyObjectsPrayingMountainRaisesBlueRadioPhysicsHelloSpyWhalesLabsCathedralsInterstellarSaying Hello
Book:Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters
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“Explore me' you said and I collected my ropes, flasks and maps, expecting to be back home soon. I dropped into the mass of you and I cannot find the way out. Sometimes I think I’m free, coughed up like Jonah from the whale, but then I turn a corner and recognise myself again. Myself in your skin, myself lodged in your bones, myself floating in the cavities that decorate every surgeon’s wall. That is how I know you. You are what I know.”

ThinkingKnowsWaySaidSometimesHomeTurnsWallMassSkinsCornersBonesMapsExpectingFloatingRopeRecogniseSurgeonsWhalesBack HomeJonahFlasks
Book:Written On The Body
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“Once upon a time, when men and women hurtled through the air on metal wings, when they wore webbed feet and walked on the bottom of the sea, learning the speech of whales and the songs of the dolphins, when pearly-fleshed and jewelled apparitions of Texan herdsmen and houris shimmered in the dusk on Nicaraguan hillsides, when folk in Norway and Tasmania in dead of winter could dream of fresh strawberries, dates, guavas and passion fruits and find them spread next morning on their tables, there was a woman who was largely irrelevant, and therefore happy.”

MenDreamSongPassionNextMorningAirSeaFeetSpeechMen And WomenTablesWingsFruitBottomWinterFolksSpreadMetalsIrrelevantWhalesOnce Upon A TimeDuskDolphinsStrawberriesTexanNorwayApparitionsTasmania
Author:A. S. Byatt
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“Solitary. But not in the sense of being alone. Not solitary in the way Thoreau was, for example, exiling himself in order to find out where he was; not solitary in the way Jonah was, praying for deliverance in the belly of the whale. Solitary in the sense of retreat. In the sense of not having to see himself, of not having to see himself being seen by anyone else.”

WayOrderExamplePrayingSolitaryRetreatBellyWhalesDeliveranceJonah
Book:The Invention of Solitude
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