Top Fish Quotes
Browse top 2684 famous quotes and sayings about Fish by most favorite authors.
Favorite Fish Quotes
1. "Movement turns dead dogs into maggots and daisies, and flour butter sugar an egg and a tablespoon of milk into Abernethy biscuits, and spermatozoa and ovaries into fishy little plants growing babyward if we take no care to stop them."
Author: Alasdair Gray
2. "This was a consequence of increasing prosperity, which, curiously enough, just seemed to bring out greed and selfishness."
Author: Alexander McCall Smith
3. "Then, quick, he flips the fish out onto the bank. It flops and gasps for air, its body slick.We all watch the fish die."
Author: Ally Condie
4. "What do I say to a whale, Galen?" I hiss."Tell him to come closer.""No way.""Fine. Tell him to back up."I nod. "Right. Okay." I lace my fingers together to keep from wringing my hands raw. Even more than terror, I feel the insanity of the situation. I'm about to ask a fish the size of my house to make a U-turn. Because Galen, the man-fish behind me, doesn't speak humpback. "Uh, can you please back away from me?" I say. I sound polite, like I'm asking him to buy some Girl Scout cookies.I feel better in the few moments afterward because Goliath doesn't move. It proves Galen doesn't know what he's talking about. It proves this whale can't understand me, that I'm not some Snow White of the ocean. Except that, Goliath does start to turn away.I look back at Galen. "That's just a coincidence."Galen sighs. "You're right. He probably mistook us for a relative or something. Tell him to do something else, Emma."
Author: Anna Banks
5. "Their diet is basically boiled vegetables, fish and rice. No fat, no sugar. You notice when you live there that there are no fat people."
Author: Arsene Wenger
6. "... on the historical scale, the damages wrought by individual violence for selfish motives are insignificant compared to the holocausts resulting from self-transcending devotion to collectively shared belief-systems. It is derived from primitive identification instead of mature social integration; it entails the partial surrender of personal responsibility and produces the quasi-hypnotic phenomena of group-psychology."
Author: Arthur Koestler
7. "Henry had never felt so happy. Freshperson year had been one thing, an adventure, an exhilaration, all in all a success, but it had also been exhausting, a constant struggle and adjustment and tumult. Now he was locked in. Every day that summer had the same framework, the alarm at the same time, meals and workouts and shifts and SuperBoost at the same times, over and over, and it was that sameness, that repetition, that gave life meaning. He savored the tiny variations, the incremental improvements--tuna fish on his salad instead of turkey; tow extra reps on the bench press. Every move he made had purpose."
Author: Chad Harbach
8. "The reward for living my life in this manner? An existence like that of a seagull picking up scraps from the back of a fishing boat. Surviving day to day. Nothing left for tomorrow and no idea what tomorrow should be."
Author: Chris Murray
9. "The wrong words. They were true a hundred times over, yet they sounded like a lie. Hadn't he always know it? Words were useless. At times they might sound wonderful, but they let you down the moments you really needed them . You could never find the right words, never, and where would you look for them? The heart is a silent as a fish, however much the tongue tries to give it a voice."
Author: Cornelia Funke
10. "Fishing is much less about the fishing, and much more about the time alone with your kid, away from the hustle and bustle of the everyday."
Author: Dan Pearce
11. "The city needs a car like a fish needs a bicycle."
Author: Dean Kamen
12. "Safe! All I wanted to do was keep them safe. How do you protect your brothers at eight-fucking-teen? How do you make enough money, get enough respect to do that? I wasn't smart, Eve. I'm a big, dumb fucking bastard. I couldn't even get a job as a bagger at the A&P. I wanted to make their lives worth living. That's what they'd done for me—made my life worth living. They're my family. I can't…I just can't." Beckett pounded his chest."They would've been better off without me," he continued. "Blake would still be homeless, but Cole made his own damn way. But I wanted in. I wanted to belong. I was too fucking selfish to walk away. I should have walked away. But I didn't and now—" Beckett choked on a deep, angry sob. "Now, they're paying for it. All my stupid decisions. They'll die tonight. They'll both die, and I can't stop it. I can't plug it with money. I can't bring them back from the dead, even if I act tough or kill more people."
Author: Debra Anastasia
13. "A fish may love a bird, but where would they live?"
Author: Drew Barrymore
14. "I watched as Humphrey Bogart's character used beans as a metaphor for the relative unimportance in the wider world of his relationship with Ingrid Bergman's character, and chose logic and decency ahead of his selfish emotional desires. The quandary and resulting decision made for an engrossing film. But this was not what people cried about. They were in love and could not be together. I repeated this statement to myself, trying to force an emotional reaction. I couldn't. I didn't care. I had enough problems of my own."
Author: Graeme Simsion
15. "Religion! Is what you hear at church religion? Is that which can bend and turn, and descend and ascend, to fit every crooked phase of selfish, worldly society, religion? Is that religion which is less scrupulous, less generous, less just, less considerate for man, than even my own ungodly, worldly, blinded nature? No! When I look for religion, I must look for something above me, and not something beneath."
Author: Harriet Beecher Stowe
16. "You don't make me feel like you used to.That's why I'm leavingThat's why people leave each otherThey come to their senses and get selfish again."
Author: Henry Rollins
17. "Being down in Orlando, Florida, where we filmed the movie, I learned how to bass fish. Jerry Reed, who plays the villain in the movie, taught me how to bass fish."
Author: Henry Winkler
18. "Though the only spout in sight was that of a Fin-Back, belonging to the species of uncapturable whales, because of its incredible power of swimming. Nevertheless, the Fin-Back's spout is so similar to the Sperm Whale's, that by unskilful fishermen it is often mistaken for it. And consequently Derick and all his host were now in valiant chase of this unnearable brute. The Virgin crowding all sail, made after her four young keels, and thus they all disappeared far to leeward, still in bold, hopeful chase.Oh! many are the Fin-Backs, and many are the Dericks, my friend."
Author: Herman Melville
19. "Yes, of course, there's something fishy about describing people's feelings. You try hard to be accurate, but as soon as you start to define such and such a feeling, language lets you down. It's really a machine for making falsehoods. When we really speak the truth, words are insufficient. Almost everything except things like "pass the gravy" is a lie of a sort. And that being the case, I shall shut up. Oh, and... pass the gravy."
Author: Iris Murdoch
20. "Choose a life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers... Choose DSY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit crushing game shows, stucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away in the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself, choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?"
Author: Irvine Welsh
21. "I like to catch fish and release them. I probably haven't killed a fish that I've caught in sport fishing for 20 years. No reason to kill it. You know, just take it and release it."
Author: Jack Nicklaus
22. "How fishy on the fishiness scale? Ten is a stickleback and one is a whale shark.""A whale isn't a fish, Thursday.""A whale shark is--sort of.""All right, it's as fishy as a crayfish.""A crayfish isn't a fish.""A starfish, then.""Still not a fish.""This is a very odd conversation, Thursday."
Author: Jasper Fforde
23. "There's nothing sweeter than a real friend:Not only is he prompt to lend—An angler delicate, he fishesThe very deepest of your wishes,And spares your modesty the taskHis friendly aid to ask.A dream, a shadow, wakes his fear,When pointing at the object dear."
Author: Jean De La Fontaine
24. "My mother called me Silver. I was born part precious metal part pirate. I have no father. There's nothing unusual about that -even children who do have fathers are often surprised to see them. My own father came out of the sea and went back that way. He was crew on a fishing boat that harboured with us one night when the waves were crashing like dark glass. His splintered hulll shored him for long enough to drop anchor inside my mother.Shoals of babies vied for life.I won."
Author: Jeanette Winterson
25. "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
Author: John Kenneth Galbraith
26. "Happiness begins where selfishness ends."
Author: John Wooden
27. "Sometimes you lie, Forest. Sometimes its the right thing to do.""I don't believe that, Ben.""And why is that?""Because it always catches up with you.""It doesn't, not always.""It does.""Bullshit.""It's the truth, Ben.""No, Forest, it's another kind of lie. If Lizzie draws you a picture of a catfish and it looks like a big hairy turd, what do you tell her? That it looks like shit? That you could draw a better fucking catfish with a crayon up your asshole? No, Forest, you tell her it's the most beautiful catfish you ever saw, don't you? Of course you do. Truth's a slippery slope sometimes."
Author: Jonathan Evison
28. "It's true, I am afraid of dying. I am afraid of the world moving forward without me, of my absence going unnoticed, or worse, being some natural force propelling life on. Is it selfish? Am I such a bad person for dreaming of a world that ends when I do? I don't mean the world ending with respect to me, but every set of eyes closing with mine."
Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
29. "The Lachrymose Leeches,' Aunt Josephine said, 'are quite different from regular leeches. They each have six rows of very sharp teeth ad one very sharp nose - they can smell even the smallest bit of food from far far away. The Lachrymose Leeches are usually quite harmless, preying only on small fish. But if they smell food on a human they will swarm around him"
Author: Lemony Snicket
30. "In my mind, I gave the woman gifts. I gave her a candle stub. I gave her a box of wooden kitchen matches. I gave her a cake of Lifebuoy soap. I gave her a ceilingful of glow-in-the-dark planets. I gave her a bald baby doll. I gave her a ripe fig, sweet as new wood, and a milkdrop from its stem. I gave her a peppermint puff. I gave her a bouquet of four roses. I gave her fat earthworms for her grave. I gave her a fish from Roebuck Lake, a vial of my sweat for it to swim in."
Author: Lewis Nordan
31. "With an ashamed sigh, I confessed, "You have seen nothing but the worst of me since then, Aeron. I've been a bitter, defiant, irrational shrew…and now I'm selfishly dragging you into a hopeless situation against your better judgment. What would possibly entice you to make good on a marriage proposal under such circumstances?""You would…" his voice was gentle, as his troubled eyes searched mine. "If what I've seen is the worst of you…then it will be a miracle if I ever find a way to deserve you."
Author: M.A. George
32. "But the problem was, Sacks wasn't comparing herself to all the students in the world taking Organic Chemistry. She was comparing herself to her fellow students at Brown. She was a Little Fish in one of the deepest and most competitive ponds in the country—and the experience of comparing herself to all the other brilliant fish shattered her confidence. It made her feel stupid, even"
Author: Malcolm Gladwell
33. "In this world, whenever there is light, there are also shadows. As long as the concept of winners exist, there must also be losers. The selfish desire of wanting to maintain peace causes wars and hatred is born to protect love."
Author: Masashi Kishimoto
34. "If you want to maintain a sustainable supply of fish you have to farm the fish, rather than mine them. So putting your money into fishing fleets that are going to exacerbate the problem by over-fishing is not the way to preserve the underlying asset."
Author: Maurice Strong
35. "I like to be sort of grounded with Fish. But, at the same time, I think probably what's unique about us is the way other dynamics happen, where I'll play off Trey for awhile. When we start playing a jam, I don't usually know what's going to happen, I don't have a plan."
Author: Mike Gordon
36. "I agree with Rand that human nature is selfish, that we should help ourselves first and foremost. . . . Where I differ with her is that I think we can and should help ourselves and others at the same time as a conscious goal."
Author: Robert Peate
37. "I could feed you a line about how I want that because I think you need somebody to show you you're not broken, how you're beautiful and sexy and if you're dirty it's only in the good way, the way everybody is dirty. I could tell you that, and it would be true, but what's really true is that I'm selfish and I want you. I don't know how to stop wanting you. I'm just really fucking tired of trying."
Author: Robin York
38. "I think oysters are more beautiful than any religion,' he resumed presently. 'They not only forgive our unkindness to them; they justify it, they incite us to go on being perfectly horrid to them. Once they arrive at the supper-table they seem to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the thing. There's nothing in Christianity or Buddhism that quite matches the sympathetic unselfishness of an oyster."
Author: Saki
39. "To act upon something so basic as love is not selfish. Everybody has the right to love whomever he happens to love."
Author: Scylar Tyberius
40. "I change my mind so much, I'm better going on my own. Shopping is a selfish activity anyway."
Author: Sophie Kinsella
41. "Love is an activity, not a feeling…True love is not the helpless desire to possess the cherished object of one's fervent affection; true love is the disciplined generosity we require of ourselves for the sake of another when we would rather be selfish."
Author: Stephen L. Carter
42. "People told me not to get married; I didn´t listen. No one ever listens, it seems to me now. Perhaps people should stop trying to communicate. N was not a communicator; early on, I´d insisted on communication. Now I see his point acutely. I would love to have him back to not communicate with me. I would never ask for communication again, I would simply go elsewhere for the deep fish. Also, I´m not at all sure I want to hear what he has to say in this new vista. This works out well."
Author: Suzanne Finnamore
43. "And the new day was a great big fish"
Author: Terry Pratchett
44. "I need a penny," Pauline said. "Quickly, give me a penny." He fished in his pocket and produced a coin, then dropped it in her outstretched hand. She peered at it. "This isn't a penny. It's a sovereign." "I don't have anything smaller." She rolled her eyes. "Dukes and their problems. I'll be along in a moment."
Author: Tessa Dare
45. "I don't ask for an apology because it's only tomorrow's fish-and-chip paper."
Author: Tracey Emin
46. "I've dated athletes before but it's too tough because we have the same job, we deal with the same problems and both do a very selfish sport."
Author: Tyson Gay
47. "Time is a river of passing events and we are the fish searching for an ocean."
Author: Vikrant Parsai
48. "A certain man once lost a diamond cuff-link in the wide blue sea, and twenty years later, on the exact day, a Friday apparently, he was eating a large fish - but there was no diamond inside. That's what I like about coincidence."
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
49. "HAMLET [...] we fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service, two dishes, but to one table; that's the end.CLAUDIUS Alas, alas.HAMLET A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.CLAUDIUS What dost thou mean by this?HAMLET Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar."
Author: William Shakespeare
50. "They plan and they fix and they do, and then some kitchen-dwelling fiend slips a scorchy, soggy, tasteless mess into their pots and pans…So when the bread didn't rise, and the fish wasn't quite done at the bone, and the rice was scorched, he slapped Janie until she had a ringing sound in her ears and told her about her brains before he stalked on back to the store."
Author: Zora Neale Hurston