Quite Quotes

1. "It was a masterly piece of work. But once you began admitting explanations in terms of purpose— well, you didn't know what the result might be. It was the sort of idea that might easily decondition the more unsettled minds among the higher castes—make them lose their faith in happiness as the Sovereign Good and take to believing, instead, that the goal was somewhere beyond, somewhere outside the present human sphere; that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge. Which was, the Controller reflected, quite possibly true. But not, in the present circumstance, admissible."
Author: Aldous Huxley

2. "It is quite rare for God to provide a great man at the necessary moment to carry out some great deep, which is why when this unusual combination of circumstance does occur, history at once records the name of the chosen one and recommends him to the admiration of posterity."
Author: Alexandre Dumas

3. "I am quite girly."
Author: Alexei Sayle

4. "In Egypt, I loved the perfume of the lotus. A flower would bloom in the pool at dawn, filling the entire garden with a blue musk so powerful it seemed that even the fish and ducks would swoon. By night, the flower might wither but the perfume lasted. Fainter and fainter, but never quite gone. Even many days later, the lotus remained in the garden. Months would pass and a bee would alight near the spot where the lotus had blossomed, and its essence was released again, momentary but undeniable."
Author: Anita Diamant

5. "You have a grand gift for silence, Watson. It makes you quite invaluable as a companion."
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle

6. "I think that I was quite a grown-up child, and I have been a pretty childish adult."
Author: Arundhati Roy

7. "Don't you dare," Lem barked."What?" Anderson pulled his hand to his chest. Not quite sure of the infraction he was about to commit."You were going to pick that flower."Anderson smiled and reached for it again. "It's pretty."Lem slapped his hand away. "It's endangered. Just look, don't pick.""That's what they told me about you," Anderson said, bumping Lem with his shoulder."
Author: Brandon Shire

8. "Nellie was a good girl, and I think had a sort of quiet respect for old Fagg's unobtrusiveness. But her fancy was already taken captive by Rattler's superficial qualities, which were obvious and pleasing. I don't think Nellie was any worse than you or I. We are more apt to take acquaintances at their apparent value than their intrinsic worth. It's less trouble, and, except when we want to trust them, quite as convenient."
Author: Bret Harte

9. "I like to do little obsessed losers, or people who are in over their head, or people who are trying to figure stuff out, or guys whose girlfriends leave them and they don't quite get it. Guys who just don't quite get it."
Author: Bruce McCulloch

10. "The persons on whom I have bestowed my dearest love, lie deep in their graves; but, although the happiness and delight of my life lie buried there too, I have not made a coffin of my heart, and sealed it up, fore ever, on my best affections. Deep affliction has but strengthened and refined them." As the old gentleman said this in a low voice: more to himself than to his companion: and as he remained silent for a short time afterwords: Oliver sat quite still."
Author: Charles Dickens

11. "Was there anything quite so under-rated in this shallow, plastic, global-corporate, tall-skinny-late, kiddy-meal-and-free-toy, united-colours-of-fuck-you-too world, than a good old-fashioned, no-frills, retail blow-job?"
Author: Christopher Brookmyre

12. "To be the father of growing daughters is to understand something of what Yeats evokes with his imperishable phrase 'terrible beauty.' Nothing can make one so happily exhilarated or so frightened: it's a solid lesson in the limitations of self to realize that your heart is running around inside someone else's body. It also makes me quite astonishingly calm at the thought of death: I know whom I would die to protect and I also understand that nobody but a lugubrious serf can possibly wish for a father who never goes away."
Author: Christopher Hitchens

13. "At the moment, I'm enjoying John Grisham quite a bit."
Author: Danielle Steel

14. "The horse, it must be said, was quite surprised."
Author: Douglas Adams

15. "Homo sapiens have left themselves few places and scant ways to witness other species in their own worlds, an estrangement that leaves us hungry and lonely. In this famished state, it is no wonder that when we do finally encounter wild animals, we are quite surprised by the sheer truth of them.Each time I look into the eye of an animal...I find myself staring into a mirror of my own imagination. What I see there is deeply, crazily, unmercifully confused.There is in that animal eye something both alien and familiar. There is in me, as in all human beings, a glimpse of the interior, from which everything about our minds has come.The crossing holds all the power and purity of first wonder, before habit and reason dilute it. The glimpse is fleeting. Quickly, I am left in darkness again, with no idea whatsoever how to go back."
Author: Ellen Meloy

16. "When in the puppet-show of dreams we hold in hand the strings of quite a number of actors, controlling their actions and their speech, we are not aware of this being so. Only one of them is myself, the dreamer. In him I act and speak immediately, while I may be awaiting eagerly and anxiously what another one will reply"
Author: Erwin Schrödinger

17. "Egg has the truth of it. Aerion's quite the monster. He thinks he's a dragon in human form, you know. That's why he was so wroth at that puppet show. A pity he wasn't born a Fossoway, then he'd think himself an apple and we'd all be a deal safer, but there you are."
Author: George R.R. Martin

18. "Willie experienced the strange sensations of the first days of a new captain: a shrinking of his personal identiy, and a stretching out of his nerve ends to all the spaces and machinery of the ship. He was less free than before. He developed the apprehensive listening ears of a young mother; the ears listened on in his sleep; he never quite slept, not the way he had before."
Author: Herman Wouk

19. "Well, it has been rather hectic since the 11th of September. And even before then it was quite busy."
Author: Hugh Shelton

20. "I'm not quite as cool as I would like to be, really."
Author: Ian Mckellen

21. "But she was funny sometimes, and never boring. God, it would almost be worth it to see her face when she realized that I had saved her ass again. Actually it was quite a nice ass, come to think of it. In fact, my memory of the ass and its owner seemed to be remarkably clear."
Author: Ilona Andrews

22. "She had always told herself that she did hti job because she wanted to help others; afterall, hadn't Maurice told her once that the most important question any individual could ask was, "How might I serve?" If her response to that question had been pure, surely she would have coninued with the calling to be a nurse.... But that role hadn't been quite enough for her. She would have missed the excitement, the thrill when she embarked on the work of collecting clues to support a case."
Author: Jacqueline Winspear

23. "And then I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to China in 1980, which was quite early."
Author: John Pomfret

24. "We believe that worship is far more than prayer and preaching and gospel performance. The supreme act of worship is to keep the commandments, to follow in the footsteps of the Son of God, to do ever those things that please Him. It is one thing to give lip service to the Lord; it is quite another to respect and honor His will by following the example He has set for us."
Author: Joseph Fielding Smith

25. "We live in a dark and romantic and quite tragic world."
Author: Karl Lagerfeld

26. "I felt slightl superior to student politics, for instance. I had no reason to think this, but I thought of myself as slightly more seasoned. I became quite cynical talking to my student friends."
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

27. "Now, what am I to do with this creature when I get it home?" when it grunted again, so violently, that she looked down into its face in some alarm. This time there could be no mistake about it: it was neither more nor less than a pig, and she felt that it would be quite absurd for her to carry it any further. | So she set the little creature down, and felt quite relieved to see it trot away quietly into the wood. "If it had grown up," she said to herself, "it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes a rather handsome pig, I think." And she began thinking over other children she knew, who might do very well as pigs, and was just saying to herself, "if one only knew the right way to change them--" when she was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off."
Author: Lewis Carroll

28. "I am quite sure ... I have no race prejudice, and I think I have no color prejudices, nor caste prejudices. Indeed, I know it. I can stand any society. All I care to know is that a man is a human being—this is enough for me; he can't be any worse."
Author: Mark Twain

29. "True writers know that writing is not something they feel required to do,or to make a living they must do, it is quite frankly like breathing. Somecan breathe often and fluently, some short breaths, some a long exhaleand for many of us it is the patient steady breathing surrounding life."
Author: Milissa R. Bailey

30. "The truth is that my grandfather was quite wealthy, a shipbuilder."
Author: Mohamed Al Fayed

31. "Some writers are more natural public performers than others; personally I find it quite strange giving interviews. But everyone has parts of their job that they like more than others. You can't complain if you get to do what you love doing most of the time, can you?"
Author: Monica Ali

32. "Well I travelled quite a lot in the east, and one of the things that impressed me greatly was the buddhist notion of the continuity of things, the wheel of life which is what we're talking about, the ever turning wheel."
Author: Morris West

33. "What a refreshing mind you have, young man. There really is nothing quite like total ignorance, is there?"
Author: Neil Gaiman

34. "The dreams were the troubling kind where I thought the action and events were genuine while asleep; upon waking and in retrospect I realized they were obviously completely implausible.The one I remembered most intensely upon waking was about losing my teeth. The fragments of bone continually fell out of my mouth every time I opened it to speak; and they ran away- though they had no legs- which, in the dream, sent me into a panic.There is nothing quite like watching one's own legless teeth running away."
Author: Penny Reid

35. "Ysandre hasdestroyed more lives than you can begin to imagine, starting with her own.'' Myrnin's eyes were dark and very, very serious. ‘‘Ifshe wants Shane, let her have him. She'll be done with him soon enough. Amelie won't allow her to kill him.''‘‘I think she wants other things,'' Claire said.‘‘Ah. Sexual, then. Or some version of it. Ysandre has always been a bit—odd.''‘‘How do I stop her?''Myrnin slowly shook his head. ‘‘I'm sorry. I can't help you. My only suggestion—which I'm quite certain you won't like—is tolet him deal with this in his own way. She'll leave him alive, and largely intact, unless he resists her.''‘‘You're right. I don't like it.''‘‘Complain to the management, my dear."
Author: Rachel Caine

36. "There were large and small ones too. And some quite in-between. But all of equal nastiness.And smelliness and ghastliness.For they would eat a fellow up, as one might fish and chips"
Author: Robert Rankin

37. "Everything's the same; I'm living with cancer and it's not going to stop me. But until you really test yourself and challenge yourself, I don't think you quite know."
Author: Robin Roberts

38. "There is a vast expanse of time before the Norman Conquest in 1066, from which fragments of literary texts remain, although these fragments make quite a substantial body of work. If we consider that the same expanse of time has passed between Shakespeare's time and now as passed between the earliest extant text and 1066, we can begin to imagine just how much literary expression there must have been. But these centuries remain largely dark to us, apart from a few illuminating flashes and fragments, since almost all of it was never written down, and since most of what was preserved in writing was destroyed later, particularly during the 1530s."
Author: Ronald Carter

39. "I can't think, if people want gods, why not the Greek ones; they were so useful in emergencies, and such enterprising and entertaining companions. Capricious, of course, but helpful, unless one offended them. I don't know why paganism has so quite gone out in England."
Author: Rose Macaulay

40. "Aa is for animals, friends, not food. We don't eat our friends. They would find it quite rude!"
Author: Ruby Roth

41. "I put quite a few trees in last autumn. A lot of silver birch and a couple of native trees - just generally doing gardening, putting plants in and hedges in. It takes quite a lot of time and I love it."
Author: Sean Bean

42. "My parents were quite liberal with us, always encouraging us to be our own person and be creative."
Author: Sienna Miller

43. "He leans forward and his mouth brushes brieflyagainst mine, and I feel... nothing.I was hoping our first kiss would trigger all sorts of memories or sensations, maybe a sudden image of Paris or our wedding, or our first snog. But as he draws away I feel totally, one hundred percent blank.I can see the anticipation in Eric's face and quickly search for something encouraging to say."That was lovely! Very..." I trail off, unable to think of a single word other than quick, which I'm not sure hits the right note. "It didn't bring back any memories?" Eric is studying my face."Well...no," I say apologetically. "But, I mean, that doesn't mean it wasn't really... I mean it was... I feel quite turned on!" The words come out before I can stop them.What the hell did I say that for? I don't feel turned on."Really?" Eric lights up and he puts his briefcase down.Oh no. No no no. Nooo."
Author: Sophie Kinsella

44. "First love is unrequited ultimately because it's so huge.It's such an act of giving and it requires so much back that it can never be given back. It's like an atom bomb. It's like… It's all the energy of who you are and who you want to be and what you love and what you hope to be explodes. It is impossible for a single... human being to offer that back to you in a mutual way."
Author: Stephen Fry

45. "California is going to be quite good for the Democrats. But the rest of the country is a draw."
Author: Stuart Rothenberg

46. "Not only should the conventional "rules" of marriage not apply necessarily to individual wives, but the euphoria of Phase One is old news. We being to learn that while nothing is as good as it seems, nothing is quite as dire as it appears."
Author: Susan Shapiro Barash

47. "Naphta loathed the bourgeois state and its love of security. He found occasion to express this loathing one autumn afternoon when, as they were walking along the main street, it suddenly began to rain and, as if on command, there was an umbrella over every head. That was a symbol of cowardice and vulgar effeminacy, the end product of civilization. An incident like the sinking of the Titanic was atavistic, true, but its effect was most refreshing, it was the handwriting on the wall. Afterward, of course, came the hue and cry for more security in shipping. How pitiful, but such weak-willed humanitarianism squared very nicely with the wolfish cruelty and villainy of slaughter on the economic battlefield known as the bourgeois state. War, war ! He was all for it – the universal lust or war seemed quite honorable in comparison."
Author: Thomas Mann

48. "Well," I ask, leaning over him, "do you wish to stay?""I do.""And why is that, Cole?" I say, tipping toward him so that our noses nearly brush."Well," he says with a smile, "the weather's quite nice."
Author: Victoria Schwab

49. "One last word are you quite quite ure that - well not tomorrow of course and not after tomorrow but - well - some day any day you will not come to live with me I will create a brand new God and thank him with piercing cries if you give me that microscopic hope."
Author: Vladimir Nabokov

50. "To love is surely to support and to encourage--but not necessarily to approve. Quite the contrary! If we love one another we will help one another fight against our evil dreams."
Author: William Sloane Coffin

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