Ralph Keyes Quotes

Writing about something was not the moral equivalent of doing it, ~ Ralph Keyes

When members of the London Poetry Society asked Browning to interpret a particularly difficult passage of Sordello, he read it twice, frowned, then admitted, "When I wrote that, God and I knew what I meant, but now God alone knows."
Rather than risk sounding dense, readers, colleagues, and critics who can't figure out what a writer is trying to say but think it sounds intelligent will typically resort to calling such work "daring," "provocative," or "complex." An unholy alliance of writers and readers is at work here. ~ Ralph Keyes

Willa Cather said that she write best when she stopped trying to write and began simply to remember. ~ Ralph Keyes

I'm tempted to say that the top three reasons for hopelessness are rejection, rejection, rejection. But let's cast our net wider. 1) Not being able to write as well as we hoped we could. 2) Not being able to write at all. 3) Rejection. ~ Ralph Keyes

Anxiety is not only an inevitable part of the writing process but a necessary part. If you're not scared, you're not writing. ~ Ralph Keyes

Serious writers write, inspired or not. Over time they discover that routine is a better friend than inspiration. ~ Ralph Keyes

I think that simply nudging yourself into unfamiliar settings - physical or emotional - can produce surprising results on the writing front. ~ Ralph Keyes

Aspiring only to second-place goals is a first-rate way to hedge our bets. Among the least appreciated reasons for doing superficial, second-rate work of any kind is the comfort of knowing that it's not our best that's on the line. Far more is at risk when we do what we really want to do rather than something less. I don't think we'll ever fully appreciate the role of not daring to risk a shattered dream in limiting people to second-choice careers and third-choice lives. ~ Ralph Keyes

Quotations are powerful tools. Michel de Montaigne, the father of all essayists, observed, 'I quote others only to better express myself.' Intrepid quotations detective Ralph Keyes helps us to discover the clear truth about exactly what was said and who exactly said it. ~ Richard Lederer

Ralph Keyes calls quotation collectors "quotographers," the men and women who gather catchwords, watchwords, war words, winged words, maxims, mottos, sayings, and quips into books of a thousand pages. Through the centuries quotation collectors have saved quotations that would otherwise be lost. ~ Willis Regier

Be as creative in your tactics as you are in your writing. Find what gets your engine going, no matter how peculiar it may seem to others. ~ Ralph Keyes

Those who generate fog are Wizards of Oz hoping desperately that nobody pulls the curtain to reveal a trembling little writer behind it. This seldom happens. Readers who dare to point out that incomprehensible writing can't be comprehended risk being told that the problem is theirs. ~ Ralph Keyes

The research in Ralph Keyes' The Quote Verifier is impressive, and each conclusion is like the solution to a real-life historical mystery. Who knew a reference book could be so entertaining? ~ Will Shortz

Fear and courage are like lightning and thunder; they both sart out at the same time, but the fear travels faster and arrives sooner. If we just wait a moment, the requisite courage will be along shortly. ~ Ralph Keyes

Authors always feel in danger of being abandoned by loved ones. This is a potent fear. Yet it's as inevitable as writer's cramp when we presume to write words for others to read. ~ Ralph Keyes

Wrote Lawrence Block. "Someone once told me that fear and courage are like lightning and thunder; they both start out at the same time, but the fear travels faster and arrives sooner. If we just wait a moment, the requisite courage will be along shortly." (quoted from Write for Your Live by Lawrence Block) ~ Ralph Keyes

One of the most fundamental of human fears is that our existence will go unnoticed. ~ Ralph Keyes

Fear is felt by writers at every level. Anxiety accompanies the first word they put on paper and the last. ~ Ralph Keyes

I'm the first to admit that I never achieved my potential as an actress. ~ Evelyn Keyes

When you meet women, don't pretend to be anything that you're not. ~ Ralph Fiennes

Emancipation is the demand of civilization. That is a principle; everything else is an intrigue. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The line of beauty is the line of perfect economy. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The whole of what we know is a system of compensation. Every defect in one manner is made up in another. Every suffering is rewarded; every sacrifice is made up; every debt is paid. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We write from aspiration and antagonism, as well as from experience. We paint those qualities which we do not posses. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Time dissipates to shining ether the solid angularity of facts. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We rail at trade, but the historian of the world will see that it was the principle of liberty; that it settled America, and destroyed feudalism, and made peace and keeps peace; that it will abolish slavery. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is one of the biggest blessing that you can be stupid with your true friends and behave like you shame to do elsewhere ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Speak the truth, and all things alive or brute are vouchers, and the very roots of the grass underground there, do seem to stir and move to bear you witness. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The relations of the soul to the divine spirit are so pure, that it is profane to seek to interpose helps. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

To me, however, the question of the times resolved itself into a practical question of the conduct of life. How shall I live? We are incompetent to solve the times. Our geometry cannot span the huge orbits of the prevailing ideas, behold their return, and reconcile their opposition. We can only obey our own polarity. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Excellence is not a skill, it's an attitude. ~ Ralph Marston

I think Bob [Dylan] told me that he turned down twenty interviews that year, and I was the only one that he sat down and did an interview with. And, he said that it was one of his highlights, and it was one of my highlights. And, I was very glad to talk with Bob. I found out that he was a good fan of mine, and that tickled me. ~ Ralph Stanley

Throughout the ages there have always been those who have been willing to go beyond the norms and reach for that unknown and distant star. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cowardice shuts the eyes till the sky is not larger than a calf-skin: shuts the eyes so that we cannot see the horse that is running away with us; worse, shuts the eyes of the mind and chills the heart. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beware of charisma ... Representative Men; was Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1850 phrase for the great men in a democracy ... Is there some common quality among these Representative Men who have been most successful as our leaders? I call it the need to be authentic-or, as our dictionaries tell us, conforming to fact and therefore worthy of trust, reliance or belief. While the charismatic has an uncanny outside source of strength, the authentic is strong because he is what he seems to be. ~ Daniel J. Boorstin

To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same fields, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Man sheds grief as his skin sheds rain. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Art, in the artist, is proportion, or, a habitual respect to the whole by an eye loving beauty in details. And the wonder and charm of it is the sanity in insanity which it denotes. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men succeed when they realize that their failures are the preparation for their victories. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is a remedy for every wrong and a satisfaction for every soul. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Surprised, Ralph looked down at the card again. There was a second number there, marked J.W. "Day or night," Wyzer said. "Really. You won't disturb my wife; we've been divorced since 1983. ~ Stephen King

Let us stun and astonish the intruding rabble of men and books and institutions by a simple declaration of the divine fact. Bid the invaders take the shoes from off their feet, for God is here within. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Whenever people open their hearts to God in some way, the Lord wants to do something good. Even if it just got scheduled randomly for that day, I'm sure [Pope Francis] sees significance in that. ~ Ralph Martin

If we could have any security against moods! If the profoundest prophet could be holden to his words, and the hearer who is readyto sell all and join the crusade, could have any certificate that to-morrow his prophet shall not unsay his testimony! ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The True Artist has the planet for his pedestal; the adventurer, after years of strife, has nothing broader than his shoes. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everything runs to excess; every good quality is noxious if unmixed. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men do not believe in the power of education. We do not think we can speak to divine sentiments in man, and we do not try. We renounce all high aims. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing divine dies. All good is eternally reproductive. The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind, and not for barren contemplation, but for new creation. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We cannot let our angels go; we do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

A dilettantism in nature is barren and unworthy. A fop of fields is no better than his brother on Broadway. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The doctrine of Necessity or Destiny is the doctrine of Toleration. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the best material, you always should be able to somehow make a case for a story to be transposed to any other time. ~ Ralph Fiennes