Laurence Quotes

Laurence," Granby said at his shoulder, "in the hurry, the ammunition was all laid in its usual place on the left, though we are not carrying the bombs to balance it out; we ought to restow."
"Can you have it done before we engage? Oh, good Lord," Laurence said, realizing. "I do not even know the position of the convoy; do you?" Granby shook his head, embarrassed, and Laurence swallowed his pride and shouted, "Berkley, where are we going?"
A general explosion of mirth ran among the men on Maximus's back. Berkley called back, "Straight to Hell, ha ha!" More laughter, nearly drowning out the coordinates that he bellowed over. ~ Naomi Novik

I'm a secular priest ordained by training, experience, and, most important, the willingness to accept the mantle of command. That willingness encompasses the realization that failure is easy, and such failure could kill me or, worse, kill someone else. ~ Laurence Gonzales

Unfortunately, there is no rule saying a city must be a nice place to live in order to attract fast population and economic growth. Parks, good governance, and smoothly flowing traffic are optional, not required. Sometimes cities grow at an astonishing rate, despite being hell on Earth. ~ Laurence C. Smith

Heat is in proportion to the want of true knowledge. ~ Laurence Sterne

There is no definitive list of the duties of a stage manager that is applicable to all theaters and staging environments. Regardless of specific duties, however, the stage manager is the individual who accepts responsibility for the smooth running of rehearsals and performances, on stage and backstage. ~ Laurence Sterne

Special effects are characters. Special effects are essential elements. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there. ~ Laurence Fishburne

I'm a very good packer, but I probably take too much in the way of toiletries. You only really need a toothbrush, as most places you go to have a bar of soap and some shampoo. ~ Laurence Fox

Americans think anything you do not get paid for is not worth doing. As a consequence, the things that don't get done are often the most worthwhile. ~ Laurence Overmire

I wish I could tell you it doesn't matter. I wish I could hold you close and tell that you will be loved for what you do, that you are incredible and unique. I wish you knew how much you were needed, how much I miss you. I wish. You dream of desires and hopes, and that is why I dream of you - because you are my desire and hope. ~ Matthew Laurence

If death, said my father, reasoning with himself, is nothing but the separation of the soul from the body;
and if it is true that people can walk about and do their business without brains,
then certes the soul does not inhabit there. ~ Laurence Sterne

All you've got is the word of a fool dog. It's been my experience that a bloodhound is the foolishest dog that is. I don't remember of anybody ever keeping a bloodhound for a yard dog. They're such dad blasted fools. ~ Laurence Stallings

We get forwards in the world not so much by doing services, as receiving them: you take a withering twig, and put it in the ground; and then you water it, because you have planted it. ~ Laurence Sterne

Nicely, thank you, Mr. Laurence. But I am not Miss March, I'm only Jo," returned the young lady.
"I'm not Mr. Laurence, I'm only Laurie."
"Laurie Laurence, what an odd name."
"My first name is Theodore, but I don't like it, for the fellows called me Dora, so I made them say Laurie instead."
"I hate my name, too, so sentimental! I wish every one would say Jo instead of Josephine. How did you make the boys stop calling you Dora?"
"I thrashed 'em."
"I can't thrash Aunt March, so I suppose I shall have to bear it." And Jo resigned herself with a sigh ~ Louisa May Alcott

As monarchs have a right to call in the specie of a state, and raise its value, by their own impression; so are there certain prerogative geniuses, who are above plagiaries, who cannot be said to steal, but, from their improvement of a thought, rather to borrow it, and repay the commonwealth of letters with interest again; and may wore properly be said to adopt, than to kidnap a sentiment, by leaving it heir to their own fame. ~ Laurence Sterne

Slump, and the world slumps with you. Push and you push alone. ~ Laurence J. Peter

Look into the world
how often do you behold a sordid wretch, whose straight heart is open to no man's affliction, taking shelterbehind an appearance of piety, and putting on the garb of religion, which none but the merciful and compassionate have a title to wear. ~ Laurence Sterne

A man convinced against his will is not convinced. ~ Laurence J. Peter

Every obstruction of the course of justice,
is a door opened to betray society, and bereave us of those blessings which it has inview ... It is a strange way of doing honour to God, to screen actions which are a disgrace to humanity. ~ Laurence Sterne

Shit happens, and if we just want to restrict ourselves to things where shit can't happen... we're not going to do anything very interesting. ~ Laurence Gonzales

On Laurence Olivier as Hamlet in a 1948 film: Olivier's idea of introspection was to hood his eyes, dentalize his consonants and let the camera circle his blondined head like a sparrow looking for a place to deposit its droppings. ~ Robert Brustein

I am positive I have a soul; nor can all the books with which materialists have pestered the world ever convince me to the contrary. ~ Laurence Sterne

A sexual athlete is not likely to find sufficient energy for work of another athletic kind, and the acting of great parts most definitely was and always will be athletic, depending on inner if not on visible energy. Members of other professions that depend on the expenditure of physical energy must, I believe, find similar difficulties when attempting to double up on their energies. One has often heard that the most magnificent specimens of boxers, wrestlers and champions in almost every branch of athletic sport prove to be disappointing upon the removal of that revered jockstrap. ~ Laurence Olivier

With our short sight we affect to take a comprehensive view of eternity. Our horizon is the universe. ~ Paul Laurence Dunbar

I reserve the right to evolve. What I think and feel today is subject to revision tomorrow. ~ Laurence Overmire

All of our ancestors live within each one of us whether we are aware of it or not. ~ Laurence Overmire

There is a plain distinction to be made betwixt pleasure and happiness. For tho' there can be no happiness without pleasure
yet the converse of the proposition will not hold true.
We are so made, that from the common gratifications of our appetites, and the impressions of a thousand objects, we snatch the one, like a transient gleam, without being suffered to taste the other. ~ Laurence Sterne

FRIAR LAURENCE: Thou fond mad man, hear me but
speak a word.
ROMEO: O, thou wilt speak again of banishment.
FRIAR LAURENCE: I'll give thee armour to keep off
that word:
Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,
To comfort thee, though thou art banished.
ROMEO: Yet "banished"? Hang up philosophy!
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom,
It helps not, it prevails not: talk no more.
FRIAR LAURENCE: O, then I see that madmen
have no ears.
ROMEO: How should they, when that wise men
have no eyes?
FRIAR LAURENCE: Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.
ROMEO: Thou canst not speak of that thou dost not feel:
Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,
An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
Doting like me and like me banished,
Then mightst thou speak, then mightst thou
tear thy hair,
And fall upon the ground, as I do now,
Taking the measure of an unmade grave. ~ William Shakespeare

Every man serves a useful purpose: a miser, for example, makes a wonderful ancestor. ~ Laurence J. Peter

You're telling me that if i keep dropping bombs into a junkyard, someday all the pieces will blast together into a perfect Mercedes. that's what the big bang proposes. that's what evolution teaches. That chaos gave rise to perfection. But we know it works the other way round don't we? ~ Laurence B. Brown

Reality is for people who can't face drugs. ~ Laurence J. Peter

They remain shadows. Two sepia shadows on an old snapshot, two barely moving shadows in my head, shadows whose few
remaining words and acts I have invented. Perhaps I only want their forgiveness for having forgotten them. I remember their deaths, but not their lives. Yet they're inside me, flowing unknown in my blood and moving unrecognized in my skull. ~ Margaret Laurence

Autograph-hunting is the most unattractive manifestation of sex-starved curiosity. ~ Laurence Olivier

The federal government may not disarm individual citizens without some unusually strong justification. ~ Laurence Tribe

Egypt: Where the Israelites would still be if Moses had been a bureaucrat. ~ Laurence J. Peter

America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there. ~ Laurence J. Peter

A final caution to students: in making judgments on literature, always be honest. Do not pretend to like what you really do not like. Do not be afraid to admit a liking for what you do like. A genuine enthusiasm for the second-rate is much better than false enthusiasm or no enthusiasm at all. Be neither hasty nor timorous in making your judgments. When you have attentively read a poem and thoroughly considered it, decide what you think. Do not hedge, equivocate, or try to find out others' opinions before forming your own. But having formed an opinion and expressed it, do not allow it to petrify. Compare your opinion then with the opinions of others; allow yourself to change it when convinced of its error: in this way you learn. Honestly, courage, and humility are the necessary moral foundations for all genuine literary judgment. ~ Laurence Perrine

I'm looking for a person who understands my language and speaks it. A person who, without being a pariah, will question not only the rights and the values of the marginalized, but also those of the people who claim to be normal. ~ Xavier Dolan

Real, constructive mental power lies in the creative thought that shapes your destiny, and your hour-by-hour mental conduct produces power for change in your life. Develop a train of thought on which to ride. The nobility of your life as well as your happiness depends upon the direction in which that train of thought is going. ~ Laurence J. Peter

As a genealogist, I have seen the Big Picture as very few have. Most people now living have no clue who they are or where they come from. We are all descended from the ancient kings of our various cultures. There is nothing unique about it. And let's be honest, most of those kings were pretty ruthless individuals. What's important for us today is that we wake up to the fact that we are all literally cousins. How would our world change if we honored that relationship and started treating one another as family? ~ Laurence Overmire

Men should be judged, not by their tint of skin,
the Gods they serve, the Vintage they drink,
nor by the way they fight, or love, or sin,
But by the quality of the thought they think. ~ Laurence Hope

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk? ~ Laurence J. Peter

I know what the caged bird feels, alas! ~ Paul Laurence Dunbar

To survive, you must develop secondary emotions that function in a strategic balance with reason. ~ Laurence Gonzales

The life spent in doing what you love is a different life indeed from putting yourself out for hire to the highest bidder. The only way you can say it makes no difference is to say life makes no difference. ~ Laurence Boldt

A free press is one that prints a dictator's speech but doesn't have to. ~ Laurence J. Peter

Love is the great truth we all know in our hearts and must eventually recognize. ~ Laurence Overmire

There is no such thing as real happiness in life. The justest definition that was ever given of it was "a tranquil acquiescence under an agreeable delusion"
I forget where. ~ Laurence Sterne

I like multinational companies. They may have 40 to 60 percent of their engines of growth in the United States, but I do like the diversification of being more global. ~ Laurence D. Fink

Who wants tea and sympathy? Let's have coffee and sex, Stacey, eh? ~ Margaret Laurence

And, as the tiny lights drift into the blackness, the people pray that others around the world will remember Hiroshima and work for world peace.

The atom bomb is too terrible a weapon.

It must not drop again. ~ Laurence Yep

Plutarch has a fine expression, with regard to some woman of learning, humility, and virtue;
that her ornaments were such as might be purchased without money, and would render any woman's life both glorious and happy. ~ Laurence Sterne

If at first you don't succeed, lie, lie again. ~ Laurence J. Peter

Every time I've been to Los Angeles, I've hated it. My brother works there, so I usually go each year for a holiday. ~ Laurence Fox

Hollin was still sitting with Levitas's head in his lap, a bucket now beside him; he was squeezing water from a clean cloth into the dragon's open mouth. He looked at Rankin without bothering to hide his contempt, but then he bent over and said, "Levitas, come along now; look who's come."
Levitas's eyes opened, but they were milky and blind. "My captain?" he said uncertainly.

Laurence thrust Rankin forward and down onto his knees, none too gently; Rankin gasped and clutched at his thigh, but he said, "Yes, I am here." He looked up at Laurence and swallowed, then added awkwardly, "You have been very brave." There was nothing natural or sincere in the tone; it was as ungraceful as could be imagined.

But Levitas only said, very softly, "You came." He licked at a few drops of water at the corner of his mouth. The blood was still welling sluggishly from beneath the dressing, thick enough to slightly part the bandages one from the other, glistening and black. Rankin shifted uneasily; his breeches and stockings were being soaked through, but he looked up at Laurence and did not try to move away.

Levitas gave a low sigh, and then the shallow movement of his sides ceased. Hollin closed his eyes with one rough hand.

Laurence's hand was still heavy on the back of Rankin's neck; now he lifted it away, rage gone, and only tight-lipped disgust left. "Go," he said. "We who valued him will make the arrangements, not you." He did not even look ~ Naomi Novik

The great end of all religionis to purify our hearts
and conquer our passions
and in a word, to make us wiser and better men
better neighbours
better citizens
and better servants of GOD. ~ Laurence Sterne

I am happy that I am a unique individual, endowed with unique talents and abilities. I never spend my precious time and energy comparing my talents with those of others. ~ Laurence Boldt

When something horrible is done to you, the natural impulse is to strike back. ~ Laurence Yep

Everything drifts. Everything is slowly swirling, philosophies tangled with the grocery lists, unreal-real anxieties like rose thorns waiting to tear the uncertain flesh, nonentities of thoughts floating like plankton, green and orange particles, seaweed
lots of that, dark purple and waving, sharks with fins like cutlasses, herself held underwater by her hair, snared around auburn-rusted anchor chains. ~ Margaret Laurence

liked the simple language and that nothing much happened. It wasn't all fancy but almost like an episode, like a summer holiday story, and ~ Laurence Fearnley

And all of a sudden I saw that if life seems awfully petty most of the time, every now and then there is something noble and beautiful and almost pure that lifts us suddenly out of the pettiness and lets us share in it a little. ~ Laurence Yep

He slept once again in the small tent by his side, even though he thought Temeraire was well over his distress, and was rewarded in the morning by being woken early, Temeraire peering into the tent with one great eye and inquiring if perhaps Laurence would like to go to Dover and arrange for the concert today.
"I would like to sleep until a civilized hour, but as that is evidently not to be, perhaps I will ask leave of Lenton to go," Laurence said, yawning as he crawled from the tent. "May I have my breakfast first?"
"Oh, certainly," Temeraire said, with an air of generosity. ~ Naomi Novik

I was acquainted once with a gallant soldier who assured me that his only measure of courage was this: upon the first fire, in an engagement, he immediately looked upon himself as a dead man. He then bravely fought out the remainder of the day, perfectly regardless of all manner of danger, as becomes a dead man to be. So that all the life or limbs he carried back again to his tent he reckoned as clear gains, or, as he himself expressed it, so much out of the fire. ~ Laurence Sterne

Of all the things I've done in life, directing a motion picture is the most beautiful. It's the most exciting and the nearest than an interpretive craftsman, such as an actor can possibly get to being a creator. ~ Laurence Olivier

Life is not a matter of choices! Life is handed to you, a couple of cards that have cycled through the grimy hands of hundreds of players before you. There are no aces hidden up your sleeve. There is no shortcut to success and happiness. Sleight of hand will only earn you a bloody nose and a thrashing in the alley outback. So instead, you play the few good cards you have and do what you can with the bad, and you play fair. There is no choice. ~ Kelseyleigh Reber

Part of her had hoped she would come home to find him looking like a cast member of Duck Dynasty. It would have been easy to ignore him then. But his looking like he did made it hard to focus on why she couldn't like him anymore. ~ Andrea Laurence

I saw A Little Romance [and] I was so in love with Laurence Olivier. I watched that movie over and over and just fell in love with love. ~ Jennifer Aniston

The inexperienced reader wants the essentially familiar combined with superficial novelty. Each story must have a slightly new setting or twist or "gimmick," though the fundamental features of the characters and situations remain the same. He evaluates a story not by its truth but by its twists and turns and surprises, by its suspense or its love interest. He wants his stories to be mainly pleasant. Evil, danger, and misery may appear in them, but not in such a way that they need be taken really seriously or are felt to be oppressive or permanent. He wants reading that slips easily and smoothly through his mind, requiring little mental effort. Most of all, he wants something that helps sustain his fantasy life, providing ready-made daydreams in which he overcomes his limitations, thwarts his enemies, and wins success or fame or the girl. ~ Laurence Perrine

I figure there are a few actors like Marlon Brando, George C. Scott and Laurence Olivier who have been touched by the hand of God. I'm in the next bunch. ~ John Forsythe

My forebears played a significant part in making me who I am. I honor their legacy. I will never forget what they gave me. I will love them until the day I die. And no one can take them away from me. ~ Laurence Overmire

Life is enthusiasm, zest. ~ Laurence Olivier

Welcome to the figurative world of poetry where nothing is 'real,' but everything matters. ~ Laurence Overmire

Upon the present theological computation, ten souls must be lost for one that is saved. At which rate of reckoning, heaven can raise but its cohorts while hell commands its legions. From which sad account it would appear, that, though our Saviour had conquered death by the resurrection, he had not yet been able to overcome sin by the redemption. ~ Laurence Sterne

- My brother Toby, quoth she, is going to be married to Mrs. Wadman.
- Then he will never, quoth my father, be able to lie diagonally in his bed again as long as he lives. ~ Laurence Sterne

I picked up a book on wilderness survival by Laurence Gonzalez and found in it this telling sentence: "The plan, a memory of the future, tries on reality to see if it fits." His point is that when the two seem incompatible, we often hang onto the plan, ignore the warnings reality offers us and plunge into trouble. Afraid of the darkness of the unknown, the spaces in which we see only dimly, we often choose the darkness of closed eyes, of obliviousness. (Woolf's Darkness) ~ Rebecca Solnit

... so long as a man rides his Hobby-Horse peaceably and quietly along the King's highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him,
pray, Sir, what have either you or I to do with it? ~ Laurence Sterne

Success is a dangerous element in any endeavor. Embrace the struggle. Beware the achievement. For it steals your caution even as it leads you down the next unknown pathway. ~ Laurence Gonzales

Is it not an amazing thing, that men shall attempt to investigate the mystery of the redemption, when, at the same time that it is propounded to us as an article of faith solely, we are told that "the very angels have desired to pry into it in vain"? ~ Laurence Sterne

We think we believe what we know, but we only truly believe what we feel. ~ Laurence Gonzales

How many thousands of [lives] are there every year that comes cast away, (in all civilized countries at least)
and consider'd asnothing but common air, in competition of an hypothesis. ~ Laurence Sterne

While I was in high school, I discovered and began writing science fiction. ~ Laurence Yep

With a group of people, it's easer to say, I want this, this and this. It's different with the soloists, because they are the ones who will be in the spotlight. You can't force an interpretation on them. With soloists, it's all about diplomacy. ~ Laurence Equilbey

When I want your opinion I'll give it to you. ~ Laurence J. Peter

You can learn to change the world or go on being changed by it. ~ Laurence Yep

The chaste mind, like a polished plane, may admit foul thoughts, without receiving their tincture. ~ Laurence Sterne

I often derive a peculiar satisfaction in conversing with the ancient and modern dead, - who yet live and speak excellently in their works. My neighbors think me often alone, - and yet at such times I am in company with more than five hundred mutes - each of whom, at my pleasure, communicates his ideas to me by dumb signs - quite as intelligently as any person living can do by uttering of words. ~ Laurence Sterne

From the ages of five to twelve, I attended the Saint Laurence O'Toole elementary school in Lawrence, a city next to Methuen, and was taught by sisters of the Catholic order of Notre Dame de Namour. I enjoyed all my subjects there. I do not remember ever learning any science, except for mathematics. ~ Elias James Corey

There are many ways of inducing sleep
the thinking of purling rills, or waving woods; reckoning of numbers; droppings from a wet sponge fixed over a brass pan, etc. But temperance and exercise answer much better than any of these succedaneums. ~ Laurence Sterne

We want splendid books ... books that prove to us that love is at work in the world next to evil, right up against it, at times indistinctly, and that it always will be ... ~ Laurence Cosse

Things are going to happen that you can't control. You can't let it bother you. You have to try your best. ~ Laurence Yep

My brother used to say that I wrote faster than he could read. He wrote two books - of poems - better than all mine put together. ~ Laurence Housman

The brave only know how to forgive. ~ Laurence Sterne

Be present, be concentrated, and be strong. ~ Laurence Boldt

Middle age is when it takes longer to rest than to get tired. ~ Laurence J. Peter

Philosophy has a fine saying for everything.-For Death it has an entire set. ~ Laurence Sterne

What is this thing? Did you make it?"
"I am a chemist, aren't I?" Laurence says.
"You own a meth-lab," Benjamin says. "That does not qualify you as a chemist. ~ Sam Hunter

We all cry out that the world is corrupt,
and I fear too justly,
but we never reflect, what we have to thank for it, and that itis our open countenance of vice, which gives the lye to our private censures of it, which is its chief protection and encouragement. ~ Laurence Sterne

I had had an affair with the moon, in which there was neither sin nor shame. ~ Laurence Sterne

There are few instances of the exercise of particular virtues which seem harder to attain to, or which appear more amiable and engaging in themselves, than those of moderation and the forgiveness of injuries. ~ Laurence Sterne

Harriet, to hide her excitement, had turned to the bookshelves in the corner between the windows and the fireplace. The books, untidily arranged, some standing, some piled on their sides, with newspapers and magazines wedged among them, confused her. There were no sets and a great many were paper-backed. She saw friends - Mr. Dickens was present - and nodding acquaintances - Laurence Sterne, for instance, and Theodore Dreiser - but they were among strangers: Henry Miller, Norman Douglas, Saki, Ronald Firbank, strangers all. ~ Jack Iams

Art is always, even at its most repulsive, an impassioned cry of love. ~ Laurence Overmire