Oliver Quotes

I'm not really much of an actor, so when I started on 'The Daily Show,' I was just trying to adopt the faux authority of a newsperson. Having a British accent definitely gave me a sonic leg up on that because there is a faux authority to the British accent in and of itself. ~ John Oliver

He slid his hand onto Riley's bare abdomen. "I got to thinkin' that a few years down the line, when yer older, what if that was our baby and I could feel it right here under my hand. Feel the life we'd created."
Riley's eyes moistened. "Girl or boy?"
"Doesn't matter. If it's a girl, we can name her after my gran. Her name was Emily Rose."
"Hmm ... I like that. Maybe the boy could be Paul Arthur, like my dad."
"Yeah, that works. But that's all the way down the line, isn't it?" It might never come to pass. ~ Jana Oliver

I will not give up on you, Oliver. Sometimes the love we build is meant to survive. ~ Stewart Lewis

I wonder whether she was sorry for leaving us behind. ~ Lauren Oliver

He wanted to do, to be, to feel- and could not; he wanted sense, he wanted purpose- in Freud's words, 'Work and Love'. ~ Oliver Sacks

Owning a gun proves "In God we trust" is a lie. If you actually trusted in God, you wouldn't feel like you need a gun. ~ Oliver Markus Malloy

Everyone is asleep. They've been asleep for years. You seemed ... awake.
I'm tired of sleeping. ~ Lauren Oliver

I learned from Whitman that the poem is a temple--or a green field--a place to enter, and in which to feel. ~ Mary Oliver

I feel glad to be alive - "I'm glad I'm not dead!" sometimes bursts out of me when the weather is perfect. ~ Oliver Sacks

If Obama wanted to make radical changes to America's health long-term, all he has to do is treble the price of sugar and salt. ~ Jamie Oliver

Animals, I think. We're animals. ~ Lauren Oliver

The only way to stop a rebellion is to crush it with blood and fire, and to wound them so they'll never dare to raise a hand again. ~ Rachel Caine

I would never have thought I was capable of sitting on the bench as the number two man. And it showed me that you can really achieve everything in life, even the unthinkable, as long as you're willing to work on yourself a little bit. ~ Oliver Kahn

All of my high school male teachers were WWII and/or Korean War veterans. They taught my brothers and me the value of service to our country and reinforced what our dad had shown us about the meaning of service. ~ Oliver North

Who knows what will happen or where I will be sent, yet already I have given a great many things away, expecting to be told to pack nothing, except the prayers which, with this thirst, I am slowly learning. ~ Mary Oliver

I've never really had a party before." "Why did you have one now?" I say, just to keep him talking. He gives a half laugh. "I thought if I had a party, you would come. ~ Lauren Oliver

But the doctors in the past, as the review of the evidence showed, branded Jenner, Semmelweis, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Pasteur, Lister, Koch and Keen as charlatans ... Napoleon said that war is too important to be left to the generals. We go on the assumption in the Senate that foreign relations are too important to be left to the diplomats ... this question (on a novel cancer cure) is too important to leave purely to doctors ... ~ Paul Douglas

There are moments, and it is only a matter of five or six seconds, when you feel the presence of the eternal harmony ... a terrible thing is the frightful clearness with which it manifests itself and the rapture with which it fills you. If this state were to last more than five seconds, the soul could not endure it and would have to disappear. During these five seconds I live a whole human existence, and for that I would give my whole life and not think that I was paying too dearly ... ~ Oliver Sacks

Don't ever do that again, my intoxicating, wicked genius. ~ Tess Oliver

But what does he do to qualify as a sonovabitch?" Jenny asked.
"Make me", I replied.
"Beg pardon?"
"Make me", I repeated.
Her eyes widened like saucers. "You mean like incest?" she asked.
"Don't give me your family problems, Jen. I have enough of my own."
"Like what, Oliver?" she asked, "like just what is it he makes you do?"
"The 'right things'", I said.
"What's wrong with the 'right things'?" she asked, delighting in the apparent paradox. ~ Erich Segal

PERIODIC MOOD-CHANGES We have already spoken of the affective concomitants of common migraines - elated and irritable prodromal states, states of dread and depression associated with the main phase of the attack, and states of euphoric rebound. Any or all of these may be abstracted as isolated periodic symptoms of relatively short duration - some hours, or at most two or three days, and as such may present themselves as primary emotional disorders. The most acute of these mood-changes, generally no more than an hour in duration, usually represents concomitants or equivalents of migraine aura. We may confine our attention at this stage to attacks of depression, or truncated manic-depressive cycles, occurring at intervals in patients who have previously suffered from attacks of undoubted (classical, common, abdominal, etc.) migraine. ~ Oliver Sacks

If I had another life
I would want to spend it all on some
unstinting happiness.
I would be a fox, or a tree
full of waving branches.
I wouldn't mind being a rose
in a field full of roses.
Fear has not yet occurred to them, nor ambition.
Reason they have not yet thought of.
Neither do they ask how long they must be roses, and then what.
Or any other foolish question. ~ Mary Oliver

You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist. And there are many of us out there, more than you think. ~ Lauren Oliver

Don't we all die someday and someday comes all too soon? What will you do with your own wild, glorious chance at this thing we call life. ~ Mary Oliver

that was how plenty of people felt in 634 BC in Rome, as well, when they were convinced that the city was destined to collapse after 120 years of existence. It is how people have felt at countless points in history since then. Try searching Google's library of digitised manuscripts for the phrase 'these uncertain times', and you'll find that it occurs over and over, in hundreds of journals and books, in virtually every decade the database encompasses, reaching back to the seventeenth century. 'As a matter of fact,' Watts insisted, 'our age is no more insecure than any other. Poverty, disease, war, change and death are nothing new. ~ Oliver Burkeman

Color is not a trivial subject but one that has compelled, for hundreds of years, a passionate curiosity in the greatest artists, philosophers, and natural scientists. The young Spinoza wrote his first treatise on the rainbow; the young Newton's most joyous discovery was the composition of white light; Goethe's great color work, like Newton's, started with a prism; Schopenhauer, Young, Helmholtz, and Maxwell, in the last century, were all tantalized by the problem of color; and Wittgenstein's last work was his Remarks on Colour. And yet most of us, most of the time, overlook its great mystery. ~ Oliver Sacks

If a girl wants to sell her body, so be it. None of my business. Don't athletes sell their bodies, too? People can do behind closed doors whatever they want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. ~ Oliver Markus Malloy

I want to write something so simply about love or about pain that even as you are reading you feel it and as you read you keep feeling it and though it be my story it will be common, though it be singular it will be known to you so that by the end you will think - no, you will realize - that it was all the while yourself arranging the words, that it was all the time words that you yourself, out of your heart had been saying. ~ Mary Oliver

When a person has no need to borrow they find multitudes willing to lend. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

HE was standing across the street, staring at her with a look of shock and dismay. One look in Oliver's eyes and she knew he knew. But how? How could he have known? The'd been so careful to keep their love a secret. The grief etched all over his face was too much to bear. Schuyler felt the words catch in her throat as she crossed the stree to stand in front of him. "Ollie ... it's not ... " Oliver shot her a look of pure hatred, turned on his heel and began to run away. "OLIVER, please,let me explain.. ~ Melissa De La Cruz

Philosophy ... should not pretend to increase our present stock, but make us economists of what we are possessed of. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

I love you Denver Beck," she whispered. "I have for a long time." Then she stepped back. "Now it's your turn to decide if you love me. ~ Jana Oliver

The flip side of freedom is this: When you're completely free, you're also completely on your own. ~ Lauren Oliver

A room full of words that are nearly the truth but not quite, each note fluttering off the steam of its rose like a broken butterfly wing. ~ Lauren Oliver

We rationalize, we dissimilate, we pretend: we pretend that modern medicine is a rational science, all facts, no nonsense, and just what it seems. But we have only to tap its glossy veneer for it to split wide open, and reveal to us its roots and foundations, its old dark heart of metaphysics, mysticism, magic, and myth. Medicine is the oldest of the arts, and the oldest of the sciences: would one not expect it to spring from the deepest knowledge and feelings we have? ~ Oliver Sacks

Rate your individual acts as good or bad, if you like. Seek to perform as many good ones, and as few bad ones, as possible. ~ Oliver Burkeman

Whatever power of the earth rampages, we turn to it dazed but anonymous eyes; whatever the name of the catastrophe, it is never the opposite of love. ~ Mary Oliver

Hell is the impossibility of reason. ~ Oliver Stone

Are you ever afraid to go to sleep? Afraid of what comes next?"
He smiles a sad little smile and I swear it's like he knows. "Sometimes I'm afraid of what I'm leaving behind," he says. ~ Lauren Oliver

Friend, you're HOPELESSLY hooked! ~ Oliver James

Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. ~ Mary Oliver

Stephanie had been raped, beaten and left for dead on the Atlantic City Boardwalk several times. You'd think she would have hit rock bottom after those experiences. But no. None of that made her quit. It just made her want to use even more drugs, to forget her miserable life. As long as she could get high, she didn't care if she was being raped in a dark alley. At this point in her life, a lethal overdose probably would have felt like her salvation. ~ Oliver Markus

Most of us retain enough of the theological attitude to think that we are little gods. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

The life of a scholar seldom abounds with adventure. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

Visual illusions, too, fascinated me; they showed how intellectual understanding, insight, and even common sense were powerless against the force of perceptual distortions. Gibson's inverting glasses showed the power of the mind to rectify optical distortions, where visual illusions showed its inability to correct perceptual ones. ~ Oliver Sacks

Sometimes I feel like she deserves a best friend who is just a little more special. ~ Lauren Oliver

Bereaved people who make the most effort to avoid feeling grief, research suggests, take the longest to recover from their loss. ~ Oliver Burkeman

I believe my woman shouldn't work outside the home. ~ Oliver Reed

Believe me, if anybody has a job and starts at 9, there's no reason why they can't get up at 4:30 or five and write for a couple of hours, and give their employers their second-best effort of the day - which is what I did. ~ Mary Oliver

Of course I am thinking the Lord was once young and will never in fact be old.
And who else could this be, who goes off down the green path,
Carrying his sandals, and singing? ~ Mary Oliver

The Indian is but a sketch in red crayon of a rudimental manhood. To the problem of his relation to the white race, there is one solution: extermination. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

I got four volumes of the letters and speeches of Oliver Cromwell. He is prominent among the great unread, and treated so oddly by history that I wanted to hear his side of things. ~ Marilynne Robinson

Truly evil persons do not recognize their own malevolence. They perceive themselves as generous, good-hearted, friendly sorts, who sometimes have to resort to unpleasant tactics for the general betterment of society. Even the historical monsters seem to have had no second thoughts about the damage they were causing. It was that way with Hitler and Oliver Moresby, just as it was with the Greer Avenue Strangler. ~ Jack McDevitt

Knowledge-it excites prejudices to call it science-is advancing as irresistibly, as majestically, as remorselessly as the ocean moves in upon the shore. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Resisting a task is usually a sign that it's meaningful-which is why it's awakening your fears and stimulating procrastination. You could adopt "Do whatever you're resisting the most" as a philosophy of life. ~ Oliver Burkeman

I think there's probably always been visions and voices, and these were variously ascribed to the divine or demonic or the muses. I think many poets still feel they depend on an inner voice, or a voice which tells them what to do. ~ Oliver Sacks

don't hate a nerd if your good at it! ~ Kayla Oliver

Now that is a sword," Freddy said in awe as he went to look at an impressive saber hanging from the hat rack near the door.
"Stay away from it," she cautioned. "I'm sure it's sharper than yours."
As usual, Freddy ignored her. "Just think what I could do with this," he said as he lifted it off its hook.
"So far I haven't seen you do anything with a sword, my boy," Oliver remarked dryly. "Though I shudder to think what your cousin would attempt."
Maria glared at Oliver, which only made him laugh. Meanwhile, Freddy unsheathed the saber with a flourish.
"Curse it, Freddy, put it back," Maria ordered.
"What a fine piece of steel." Freddy swished it through the air. "Even the one Uncle Adam gave me isn't near so impressive."
Maria appealed to Oliver. "Do something, for pity's sake. Make him stop."
"And get myself skewered for the effort? No, thank you. Let the pup have his fun."
Freddy cast him a belligerent glance. "You wouldn't call me a pup if I came at you with this."
"No, I'd call you insane," Oliver drawled. "But you're welcome to try and see what happens."
Don't encourage him," Maria told Oliver.
The door opened suddenly, and Freddy whirled with the sword in hand, knocking a lamp off the desk. As the glass chimney shattered, spilling oil in a wide arc, the wick lit the lot, and fire sprang to life.
Maria jumped back with a cry of alarm while Oliver leaped out of his chair to stamp it out, first with his boots a ~ Sabrina Jeffries

There are certain scenes in the edit you're playing with it and certain scenes don't put back together the way you imagined. Sometimes they're better and sometimes they don't have that thing, so it's never foolproof. But you certainly get an idea that here we've got enough and we've got to move on because you're always against time and money there. Whatever the budget is, you have to get practical about it. ~ Oliver Parker

The heart of every man lies open to the shafts of correction if the archer can take proper aim. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

amplified siren. I make it to the old subway entrance. ~ Lauren Oliver

I decided very early that I wanted to write. But I didn't think of it as a career. I didn't even think of it as a profession ... It was the most exciting thing, the most powerful thing, the most wonderful thing to do with my life. ~ Mary Oliver

There is unspeakable pleasure attending the life of a voluntary student. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

The gospel of St. Marx is just the old Judaeo-Christian mythology with the supernatural sanctions left out ~ Revilo P. Oliver

I start to back away before I do something wildly inappropriate, like jump on top of him. ~ Lauren Oliver

She smells better," Claire said. "And she made me cookies. ~ Rachel Caine

A good deal of editing a manuscript looks like mechanical work, as if anyone with time on their hands and a magnifying glass could do it. But at a certain point, you need a strong interpretive conviction and, as you say, an "intangible" relationship to what you are doing. ~ Oliver Harris

He has given me a time and a place. He's telling me to meet him. ~ Lauren Oliver

He knew Kandinsky by heart: every trickle of red, slash of black ink, and hemorrhage of gold. Each dissonant note in its allegro, the harmony in its adagio, and its deep blue intermezzo, formed a symphony he had memorized in his body. He couldn't say if Fragment 2 symbolized the Deluge, the Last Judgment, or the Resurrection. But it had become his religion, offering both redemption and pain.. ~ Kelly Oliver

We're killers, all of us: We kill our lives, our past selves, the things that mattered. We bury them under slogans and excuses. ~ Lauren Oliver

Optimism is a psychological disorder exhibited by those out of touch with reality ~ Oliver Pell

What did Saturday's used to taste like? Like eggs and fried ham and the bitter smell of hair in heavy rollers. Like long quiet hours and making up after a fight. Like ointment and bruising. Like waiting, especially, for something - anything - to happen. ~ Lauren Oliver

Oliver: You turned me down. So why, I wonder, did you decide Amelie would be a better choice?
Claire: She smells better. And she made me cookies. ~ Rachel Caine

In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stagecoach. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

Everyone just wasting time because they have so much of it to waste, minutes slipping by on who's with who and did you hear. ~ Lauren Oliver

What would you pack for Armageddon? Sunscreen and shades? Flame-proof underwear? Maybe a travel guide to the Underworld? ~ Jana Oliver

I've wanted to be an actor since I was 6 years old. I was literally picked off the streets of Paris ... while I was modeling there. I was asked to audition for Oliver Stone's 'Alexander.' I didn't get the part, but that led to commercials and roles in South Africa. ~ Tanit Phoenix

DAISIES

It is possible, I suppose that sometime
we will learn everything
there is to learn: what the world is, for example,
and what it means. I think this as I am crossing
from one field to another, in summer, and the
mockingbird is mocking me, as one who either
knows enough already or knows enough to be
perfectly content not knowing. Song being born
of quest he knows this: he must turn silent
were he suddenly assaulted with answers. Instead

oh hear his wild, caustic, tender warbling ceaselessly
unanswered. At my feet the white-petalled daisies display
the small suns of their center piece, their -- if you don't
mind my saying so -- their hearts. Of course
I could be wrong, perhaps their hearts are pale and
narrow and hidden in the roots. What do I know?
But this: it is heaven itself to take what is given,
to see what is plain; what the sun lights up willingly;
for example -- I think this
as I reach down, not to pick but merely to touch --
the suitability of the field for the daisies, and the
daisies for the field. ~ Mary Oliver

Sing, if you can sing, and it not still be
musical inside yourself. ~ Mary Oliver

We are not to judge the feelings of others by what we might feel in their place. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

Every choice is limited,' I snap. 'That's life. ~ Lauren Oliver

Anger is useful only to a certain point. After that, it becomes rage, and rage will make you careless. ~ Lauren Oliver

Sometimes it is necessary that individuals are sacrificed for the the health of the whole. ~ Lauren Oliver

Listen
are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? ~ Mary Oliver

As long as you're dancing, you can
Break the rules.
Sometimes breaking the rules is just
Extending the rules.
Sometimes there are no rules. ~ Mary Oliver

("It seemed to be the principle employment of both armies to look at each other with spyglasses," wrote the eminent Loyalist Peter Oliver, former chief justice of the province.) ~ David McCullough

I haven't been falling all this time. I've been flying ~ Lauren Oliver

My work is loving the world. ~ Mary Oliver

All that a husband or wife really wants is to be pitied a little, praised a little, and appreciated a little. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

And e'en while fashion's brightest arts decoy, The heart distrusting asks if this be joy. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

Do you ever think about him? About the boy who infected you?"
Images flash in the darkness: a crown of auburn hair, like autumn leaves burning; the blur of a body, a shape running next to me; a dream-figure. "I try not to," I say.
"Why not?" Julian's voice is quiet.
I say, "Because it hurts. ~ Lauren Oliver

I have occasionally - if ever I do interviews that are difficult or nerve-wracking - I take my wife's dog tags and have them in my pocket because it's a very quick way to realize that what I'm doing is not that important. It's not really worth getting stressed about because it's not, you know, war. ~ John Oliver

It's a blessed thing to die daily. For what is there in this world to be accounted of! The best men according to the flesh, and things, are lighter than vanity. I find this only good, to love the Lord and his poor despised people, to do for them and to be ready to suffer with them ... and he that is found worthy of this hath obtained great favour from the Lord; and he that is established in this shall ( being conformed to Christ and the rest of the Body) participate in the glory of a resurrection which will answer all. ~ Oliver Cromwell

The secret to good writing is to use small words for big ideas, not to use big words for small ideas. ~ Oliver Markus Malloy

It's part of my game to occasionally send a message, one that may be unpopular to the outside world, but can be important for the team. ~ Oliver Kahn

People are like ants: Just a few of them give all the orders. And most of them spend their lives getting squashed. ~ Lauren Oliver

patients with aphasia and left-hemisphere lesions, says they have lost 'abstract' and 'propositional' thought - and compares them with dogs (or, rather, he compares dogs to patients with aphasia). ~ Oliver Sacks

Dear poor white people, I have bad news for you: super rich white people are not your friends. They became super rich by exploiting people like you. That's not what friends do. ~ Oliver Markus Malloy

He's rumored to have more bravery than sense."
"Then he and Gabe make a good pair," Oliver growled.
"Lay off of him, will you?" Jarret told Oliver. Closest to being a blend of their parents, he had black hair but blue-green eyes and no trace of Oliver's Italian features. "You've been ragging him ever since that stupid carriage race. He was drunk. It's a state you ought to be familiar with."
Oliver whirled on Jarret. "Yes, but you were not drunk, yet you let him-"
"Don't blame Jarret," Gabe put in. "Chetwin challenged me to it. He would have branded me a coward if I'd refused."
"Better a coward than dead." Oliver had no tolerance for such idiocy. Nothing was worth risking one's life for-not a woman, not honor, and certainly not reputation. A pity that he hadn't yet impressed that upon his idiot brothers.
Gabe, of all people, ought to know better. The course he'd run was the most dangerous in London. Two large boulders flanked the path so closely that only one rig could pass between them, forcing a driver to fall back at the last minute to avoid being dashed on the rocks. Many was the time drivers pulled out too late.
The sporting set called it "threading the needle." Oliver called it madness. ~ Sabrina Jeffries