Shake Hands Quotes

None of us offered to shake hands. There was no advantage to letting somebody get hold of you. ~ Robert B. Parker

...you can always agree on one thing. You can shake hands, smile, and say, 'Yes...we will have to agree to disagree. ~ Ken Poirot

That's called business, let's shake hands and .... we just made one great deal. ~ Deyth Banger

Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta HUG!!! ~ Chris Farley

He called back with an incredible report: there were people lined up around the store already.
Wow, I thought.
Wow!
Wow didn't begin to cover it. People lined up on two floors of the store to talk to Chris and get their books signed, hours before he was even scheduled to arrive. Chris was overwhelmed when he got there, and so was I. The week before, he'd been just another guy walking down the street. Now, all of a sudden he was famous.
Except he was still the same Chris Kyle, humble and a bit abashed, ready to shake hands and pose for a picture, and always, at heart, a good ol' boy.
"I'm so nervous," confided one of the people on the line as he approached Chris. "I've been waiting for three hours just to see you."
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Chris. "Waitin' all that time and come to find out there's just another redneck up here."
The man laughed, and so did Chris. It was something he'd repeat, in different variations, countless times that night and over the coming weeks.
We stayed for three or four hours that first night, far beyond what had been advertised, with Chris signing each book, shaking each hand, and genuinely grateful for each person who came. For their part, they were anxious not just to meet him but to thank him for his service to our country-and by extension, the service of every military member whom they couldn't personally thank. From the moment the book was published, Chris became the son, the brother, the nephew, the cousin, ~ Taya Kyle

The people in your life will either help you shake hands with yourself or they'll teach you what you don't want. Everyone, eventually, does one or the other. All pain transforms to learning. All love transforms to self-awareness. ~ Vironika Tugaleva

Was often told what I should do. He expected honesty and integrity in all aspects of life, but I was also told to hold doors for women and children, to shake hands with a firm grip, to remember people's names, and to always give the customer a little more than expected. ~ Nicholas Sparks

You know what they do in San Francisco? Some in the gay community there, they want to get people. So if they got the stuff they'll have a ring, you shake hands and the ring's got a little thing where you cut your finger. Really. It's that kind of vicious stuff, which would be the equivalent of murder. ~ Pat Robertson

Wife?'said Hallie. Wife? That'd teach her to shake hands with strangers. Nicholas Cooper's smile was lazy. His mother's was hopefull. Probably they were both mad. ~ Kelly Hunter

People with clenched fists can not shake hands. ~ Indira Gandhi

Now that I'm in 'Nashville,' the thing that I'm loving the most is co-writing. You walk into the room and you shake hands with someone you've never met before and you walk out four hours later and you've got this thing ... sharing ideas and everything, it's almost magical, like a miracle. ~ Chip Esten

Leonard Aster thanked Fighting Prawn and the Mollusk tribe for their hospitality.
"You mean," said Fighting Prawn, "for not killing you?"
"Yes," said Leonard. "It was very gracious of you."
"Do you," said Leonard, "I mean, does you tribe, shake hands?"
"No," said Fighting Prawn. "We kiss on the lips."
"Oh," said Leonard, looking very alarmed. ~ Dave Barry

When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her. ~ Oscar Wilde

They love their land, because it is their own, And scorn to give aught other reason why; Would shake hands with a king upon his throne, And think it kindness to his majesty. - Fitz ~ Fitz-Greene Halleck

We reached to shake hands, and as soon as we touched, it felt like a current ran between the two of us. My heart sped up. Our eyes met. Nathaniel cleared his throat, and I realized he was trying to take his hand back and I was holding on to it with a death grip. I dropped his hand like it was a burning log. Oh God, I was turning into a stepbrother groper. He was nice to me, and the next thing he knew, I was hanging off him like a parasite. He was most likely grateful I hadn't thrown myself at his face for a tongue kiss. ~ Eileen Cook

So tell me, why would I shake hands with a wildfire when I can just sit back and watch it run out of things to consume?"
I nod and dangle the bait.
"Fire can be useful. ~ Pierce Brown

Ladies don't shake hands," She said finally.

"I'm sorry," I said as I drew my hand back. "No one told me you were a lady. ~ Jana Deleon

I feel the American's eyes on me, looking as though I'm more than an amputee, a number, a chore. He crosses over to me, his strides large, a broad smile on his lips. "Veda? Did I say your name right?" "Yes, Doctor." "Call me Jim. Please." His left hand in his pocket, he holds his right hand out to me. As though we're equals. "Thank you, Doctor - I mean - just Jim," I say. He chuckles. "Haven't done anything yet." He has. No older man ever invited me to shake hands. No other adult ever asked me to call them by name. He even said "please" although I'm a patient. ~ Padma Venkatraman

We stood facing each other, but it seemed absurd to shake hands, so we just smiled, like two strangers who had collided by accident. ~ Michael Nava

I do not shake hands from a sanitary standpoint. ~ Victoria Woodhull

Never would have imagined it in my entire life. But I guess just because I can't imagine something doesn't mean it can't happen - that's the solipsist's flaw! The truth of things is right out there. All you have to do is open the door and there it is, all of it, everything I can't imagine, right there for you to reach out and shake hands with." Her voice broke. The ~ Jason Mott

Would you shake hands with the monster that lives in your closet? ~ Claire Amber

I'm still walking around New York like a tourist staring up at all the skyscrapers. I wave at people, I shake hands, I help ladies with strollers. ~ Jack McBrayer

And in this simple moment, I suddenly began to wonder if perhaps we shake hands with God in agreement to the lives we live, before we are ever born. ~ L.C. Barlow

But now you must give me your hand, an agreement of this sort needs to be confirmed with a handshake. Will she shake hands with me? ~ Franz Kafka

In the 50s and 60s, kids were taught how to shake hands. They were taught how to have manners. There needs to be a lot more of that kind of stuff because the autistic mind doesn't pick up social things and subtle cues. ~ Temple Grandin

There's power in the touch of another person's hand. We acknowledge it in little ways, all the time. There's a reason human beings shake hands, hold hands, slap hands, bump hands.

"It comes from our very earliest memories, when we all come into the world blinded by light and color, deafened by riotous sound, flailing in a suddenly cavernous space without any way of orienting ourselves, shuddering with cold, emptied with hunger, and justifiably frightened and confused. And what changes that first horror, that original state of terror?

"The touch of another person's hands.

"Hands that wrap us in warmth, that hold us close. Hands that guide us to shelter, to comfort, to food. Hands that hold and touch and reassure us through our very first crisis, and guide us into our very first shelter from pain. The first thing we ever learn is that the touch of someone else's hand can ease pain and make things better.

"That's power. That's power so fundamental that most people never even realize it exists. ~ Jim Butcher

Men shake hands after they beat each other up; we eat chocolate. ~ Nora Roberts

Vampires are pretty frightening. Knowing they can 'glamor' you is pretty weird. And you shake hands or hug them and they're cold. I wouldn't like that. ~ Todd Lowe

We are all the same person trying to shake hands with our self. ~ Wavy Gravy

Just across from Bismarck stood Fort Lincoln where friends and relatives of Custer's dead cavalrymen still lived, and these emigrating Sioux could perceive such bitterness in the air that one Indian on the leading boat displayed a white flag. Yet, in accordance with the laws of human behavior, the farther downstream they traveled the less hostility they encountered, and when the tiny armada reached Standing Rock near the present border of South Dakota these Indians were welcomed as celebrities. Men, women and children crowded aboard the General Sherman to shake hands with Sitting Bull. Judson Elliot Walker, who was just then finishing a book on Custer's campaigns, had to stand on a chair to catch a glimpse of the medicine man and reports that he was wearing "green wire goggles." No details are provided, so green wire goggles must have been a familiar sight in those days. Sitting Bull mobbed by fans while wearing green wire goggles. It sounds like Hollywood. ~ Evan S. Connell

When men shake hands with time, time crushes
Them like tumblers; little pieces of glass. ~ Abū Al-ʿAlāʾ Al-Maʿarrī

When I went on anyway, my body began to grow cold, and I thought I
was dead. Face pale, my dead self sat down on a bench and began to turn
toward my real self, who was watching this hallucination on the screen of the
night. My dead self came nearer, just as if it might want to shake hands with my
real self. That's when I panicked and tried to run. But my dead self pursued me
and finally caught me, entered me and controlled me. I'd felt then just the way I
felt now. I felt as if a hole had opened in my head from which consciousness
and memory leaked out and in their place the rash crowded in, and a cold like
spoiled roast chicken. But that time before, shaking and clinging to the damp
bench, I'd told myself, Hey, take a good look, isn't the world still under your
feet? I'm on this ground, and on this same ground are trees and grass and ants
carrying sand to their nests, little girls chasing rolling balls, and puppies running. ~ Ryu Murakami

Never shake hands with a scorpion. ~ Beau Johnston

I have vowed that rather than let Alzheimer's take me, I would take it, i would live my life as ever to the full and die, before the disease mounted its last attack, in my own home, in a chair on the lawn, with a brandy in my hand to wash down whatever modern version of the Brompton Cocktail some helpful medic could supply. And with Thomas Tallis on my iPod, I would shake hands with death. ~ Terry Pratchett

Students huddled against the wall and under their chairs, probably thinking they were all about to die.
"Nothing to worry about, everyone!" Jesper called. "Just a little target practice in the courtyard."
"This way," said Wylan, ushering them through a door covered in elaborate scrollwork.
"Oh, you mustn't," said the scholar rushing after them, robes flapping. "Not the rare books room!"
"Do you want to shake hands again? ~ Leigh Bardugo

When I return to the world, I will be a man. I will walk among you. I will lick my lips with my small, dexterous tongue. I will shake hands with other men, grasping firmly with my opposable thumbs. And I will teach all people that I know. And when I see a man or a woman or a child in trouble, I will extend my hand, both metaphorically and physically. I will offer my hand. To him. To her. To you. To the world. I will be a good citizen, a good partner in the endeaver of life that we all share. ~ Garth Stein

The distance between capital and labor is not a great gulf over which is swung a Niagara suspension bridge; it is only a step, and the laborers here will cross over and become capitalists and the capitalists will cross over and become laborers. Would to God they would shake hands while they are crossing, these from one side, and those from the other side. ~ Thomas De Witt Talmage

Although I wasn't invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn't invited to the White House to shake hands with the President either. ~ Jesse Owens

That transactions at the market, at the rice seller, in the narrow archways of the gold bazaar were belaboured exchanges of tuts and hisses, whispered offers with lowered eyes, counter-offers protested while patting empty wallets in pockets. That upon agreeing a suitable price, buyer and seller would shake hands three times, reach into stashes of tightly rolled banknotes tucked into nylon socks and secret compartments hand-sewn into underpants. ~ Jennifer Klinec

But in the end it's still a game of golf, and if at the end of the day you can't shake hands with your opponents and still be friends, then you've missed the point. ~ Payne Stewart

If we shake hands with icy fingers, it is because we have burnt them so horribly before. ~ Logan Pearsall Smith

Lady Chesney was a tolerant soul. She tolerated the lowly people who jammed her sitting room at these meetings. She tolerated the off-the-peg clothes they wore. She tolerated their accents and the way they had to work for a living. She was even willing to shake hands with one or two of them, if they seemed important enough. Were any of them as grateful as they should have been? She doubted it. ~ Terry Jones

I am still ready to shake hands with anyone who designs a better assault rifle than mine. ~ Mikhail Kalashnikov

I was hesitant to go around and shake hands, just go up and stick my hand out to strangers. Then I learned to stick my hand out. ~ Jim Edgar

OLIVER DAVENANT did not merely read books. He snuffed them up, took breaths of them into his lungs, filled his eyes with the sight of the print and his head with the sound of words. Some emanation from the book itself poured into his bones, as if he were absorbing steady sunshine. The pages had personality. He was of the kind who cannot have a horrifying book in the room at night. He would, in fine weather, lay it upon an outside sill and close the window. Often Julia would see a book lying on his doormat.

As well as this, his reading led him in and out of love. At first, it was the picture of Alice going up on tiptoe to shake hands with Humpty Dumpty; then the little Fatima in his Arthur Rackham book, her sweet dusky face, the coins hanging on her brow, the billowing trousers and embroidered coat. Her childish face was alive with excitement as she put the key to the lock. "Don't!" he had once cried to her in loud agony.

In London, he would go every Saturday morning to the Public Library to look at a picture of Lorna Doone. Some Saturdays it was not there, and he would go home again, wondering who had borrowed her, in what kind of house she found herself that week-end. On his last Saturday, he went to say good-bye and the book was not there, so he sat down at a table to await its return. Just before the library was to be shut for lunch-time, he went to the shelf and kissed the two books which would lie on either side of his Lorna when she was returned an ~ Elizabeth Taylor

If every person is to be banished from society who runs into debt and cannot pay - if we are to be peering into everybody's private life, speculating upon their income, and cutting them if we don't approve of their expenditure - why, what a howling wilderness and intolerable dwelling Vanity Fair would be! Every man's hand would be against his neighbor in this case, my dear sir, and the benefits of civilization would be done away with. We should be quarreling, abusing, avoiding one another. Our houses would become caverns, and we should go in rags because we cared for nobody. Rents would go down. Parties wouldn't be given any more. All the tradesmen of the town would be bankrupt. Wine, wax-lights, comestibles, rouge, crinoline-petticoats, diamonds, wigs, Louis-Quatorze gimcracks, and old china, park hacks, and splendid high-stepping carriage horses - all the delights of life, I say, - would go to the deuce, if people did but act upon their silly principles and avoid those whom they dislike and abuse.
Whereas, by a little charity and mutual forbearance, things are made to go on pleasantly enough: we may abuse a man as much as we like, and call him the greatest rascal unhanged - but do we wish to hang him therefore? No. We shake hands when we meet. If his cook is good we forgive him and go and dine with him, and we expect he will do the same by us. Thus trade flourishes - civilization advances; peace is kept; new dresses are wanted for new assemblies every week; and the las ~ William Makepeace Thackeray

A human being's first responsibility is to shake hands with himself. ~ Henry Winkler

There could be whole antiworlds and antipeople made out of antiparticles. However, if you meet your antiself, don't shake hands! You would both vanish in a great flash of light. ~ Stephen Hawking

He was one of those guys that think they're being a pansy if they don't break around forty of your fingers when they shake hands with you. God I hate that stuff. ~ J.D. Salinger

Every street has two sides, the shady side and the sunny. When two men shake hands and part, mark which of the two takes the sunny side; he will be the younger man of the two. ~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Let's shake hands and be friends, but please, I beg you, stop farting like that, becuase I'm beinning to hallucinate and in my dreams I see Comrade Josepg Stalin doing the charleston. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Do you remember what Douglas said when Marmion, his guest, offered to shake hands with him?" "Yes," said Father Brown. "'My castles are my king's alone, from turret to foundation stone,'" said Musgrave. "'The hand of Douglas is his own.'" He ~ G.K. Chesterton

Shake hands, kids," Jack said. "Remember, humble in victory, gracious in defeat." He grinned up at her. "I feel very humble, don't you? ~ Kristan Higgins

I will settle, in the short term," said Dumbledore, with a bite of impatience in his voice, "for a lack of open hostility. You will shake hands. You are on the same side now. Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth stand united, there is no hope for any of us. ~ J.K. Rowling

I have a secret handshake, like the Masons. Except mine is like a true secret in that nobody else knows about it, which is why I never shake hands. ~ Jarod Kintz

The chemist in America has in general been content with what I have called a loafer electron theory. He has imagined the electrons sitting around on dry goods boxes at every corner [viz. the cubic atom], ready to shake hands with, or hold on to similar loafer electrons in other atoms. ~ Robert Andrews Millikan

Will have to shake hands with the devil to save the innocent. ~ Cameron Jace

Whatever made you hate me so much?" He stilled. "I don't hate you. Why would you say such a thing?" "Ever since I shot your rifle at that picnic, you only look at me out of the corner of your eye, as if sizing me up. You talk to me only when you have to. So if you want me to be like every other woman on the planet, maybe you should treat me like every other woman on the planet. At church, I've seen you shake hands with, smile at, and greet other women willingly. So why not me?" "But that's not because I hate you," he said slowly. Sure ~ Melissa Jagears

When you question a man's motives, when you say they are acting out of greed, they are in the pocket of an interest group, et cetera. It's awful hard to reach consensus. It's awful hard to reach across the table and shake hands. No matter how bitterly you disagree, though, it is always possible if you question judgment and not motive. ~ Joe Biden

The other Dons in the room applauded and rose to shake hands with everybody in sight and to congratulate Don Corleone and Don Tattaglia on their new friendship. It was not perhaps the warmest friendship in the world, they would not send each other Christmas gift greetings, but they would not murder each other. That was friendship enough in this world, all that was needed. ~ Mario Puzo

The Brigadier had no wish to shake hands with the improbable young man in the ridiculous frock-coat. ~ Peter Grimwade

Shake hands with Pain, give greeting unto Grief, Those angels in disguise, and thy glad soul From height to height, from star to shining star, Shall climb and claim blest immortality. ~ Thomas Jefferson

When you come to the king, and he asks for the beautiful princess, you must say, "Here she is!" Then he will be very joyful; and you will mount the golden horse that they are to give you, and put out your hand to take leave of them; but shake hands with the princess last. Then lift her quickly on to the horse behind you; clap your spurs to his side, and gallop away as fast as you can. ~ Jacob Grimm

When I'm in social situations I always hold onto my glass. It makes me feel comfortable and secure, and I don't have to shake hands ~ Larry David

On a visit or vacation to Toba Lake,
you may say 'Horas' to Batak people,
when we meet, visit and shake hands. ~ Toba Beta

Peace be with you," he says softly, kissing me on the cheek, and I tell him the same. Then, we shake hands with everyone around us. My eyes fill with tears of joy as I look around at the smiling people, all sharing ~ Kristina Ludwig

Philip Roth is a good writer, but I wouldn't want to shake hands with him. ~ Jacqueline Susann

This takes a bit of getting used to," he said. "All this smiling and good spirits. You've never been one of those lighthearted fellows."
"I'm not lighthearted, I'm . . . wholehearted."
Severin smiled reflectively as they stood to shake hands. "It must be nice," he mused, "to be any kind of hearted. ~ Lisa Kleypas

It is better to hug than shake hands. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

When a man walks into a room and you shake hands with him, you do not feel that you are shaking hands with him. Death changes that. This is the body of X, not this is X. The syntax is entirely different. Now we are talking about two things instead of one, implying that the man continues to exist, but only as an idea, a cluster of images and memories in the minds of the other people. As for the body, it is no more than flesh and bones, a heap of pure matter. ~ Paul Auster

Business colleagues who have not seen each other for a long time but who have a good relationship can always shake hands warmly and grab each other's right upper arm or shoulder with their free left hand. Men and women executives should not kiss each other in public. ~ Letitia Baldrige

Gates got up, but not fast or jerkily, with the same slowness that had always characterized him. He wiped the sweat off his palms by running them lightly down his sides. As though he were going to shake hands with somebody.
He was. He was going to shake hands with death.
He wasn't particularly frightened. Not that he was particularly brave. It was just that he didn't have very much imagination. Rationalizing, he knew that he wasn't going to be alive anymore ten minutes from now. Yet he wasn't used to casting his imagination ten minutes ahead of him, he'd always kept it by him in the present. He couldn't visualize it. So he wasn't as unnerved by it as the average man would have been.
("3 Kills For 1") ~ Cornell Woolrich

The mayor finishes the dreary Treaty of Treason and motions for Peeta and me to shake hands. His are as solid and warm as those loaves of bread. Peeta looks me right in the eye and gives my hand what I think is meant to be a reassuring squeeze. Maybe it's just a nervous spasm.
We turn back the crowd as the anthem of Panem plays.
Oh well, I think. There will be twenty-four of us. Odds are someone else will kill him before I do.
Of course, the odds have not been very dependable of late. ~ Suzanne Collins

Rationality is the way to lead life. So high time,
let's stop feeding our dreams and shake hands with the reality. ~ Parul Wadhwa

I'm not extra sensitive to handshakes. I shake hands all the time. ~ Amy Schumer

Shake hands with yourself. Forgive yourself and you can learn to love yourself and others in the manner that brings you the greatest fulfillment of all. With love, all things are truly possible. - Charmainism ~ Charmaine Smith Ladd

Women say hello and then put their hands down my trousers. I thought it was my hand they were supposed to shake. ~ Simon Cowell

Forgive me if I don't shake hands. ~ Doc Holliday

He's not a bad guy really, except he's so crooked, you shake hands with him you better count your fingers afterwards. ~ Ian Fleming

When I take up a book I have read before, I know what to expect; the satisfaction is not lessened by being anticipated. I shake hands with, and look our old tried and valued friend in the face,
compare notes and chat the hour away. ~ William Hazlitt

Gray is not a substitute for black and white. You don't bump into people without saying you're sorry. When you shake hands, it's supposed to mean something. If someone is in trouble, you reach out. ~ Jon M. Huntsman Sr.

Opposing sports teams shake hands when the game is over. Dead soldiers just rot. ~ Dan Sheehan

One of the biggest reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all. They were coming in the goddam window. For instance, they had this headmaster, Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I ever met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer. On Sundays, for instance, old Haas went around shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to school. He'd be charming as hell and all. Except if some boy had little old funny-looking parents. You should've seen the way he did with my roommate's parents. I mean if a boy's mother was sort of fat or corny-looking or something, and if somebody's father was one of those guys that wear those suits with very big shoulders and corny black-and-white shoes, then old Haas would just shake hands with them and give them a phony smile and then he'd go talk, for maybe a half an hour, with somebody else's parents. I can't stand that stuff. It drives me crazy. It makes me so depressed I go crazy. I hated that goddam Elkton Hills ~ J.D. Salinger

If somebody had told me in the 1980s that Gerry Adams would shake hands with Ian Paisley or Peter Robinson I would have said put that man in a white suit and lock him up in a padded cell. ~ Barry McGuigan

One thing is certain, You can't shake hands with a fist. ~ David Allan Coe

Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part,
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me,
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free.
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of Love's latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies,
When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And Innocence is closing up his eyes,
Now, if thou wouldst, when all have giv'n him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover. ~ Michael Drayton

If I shake hands with anti-Me it will be the end of me. ~ Siren Waroe

I can't memorize names and shake hands at the same time. ~ Scott Adams

I am falling apart. My hand is falling apart. I can't shake hands. I had arthritis, and I had an operation for it. ~ Cilla Black

The first time I ever met Stephen King, he came up to me, and we went to shake hands, and he had, like, this fake rubber rat that he kind of, you know, shook at me. You know, and I said, 'No, this is a cliche - this can't be. Stephen King is trying to scare me with a fake rat?' It was just really weird. ~ Rob Reiner

You." "Likewise." They shake hands, head back to the elevator. Groff ~ Michael Cunningham

Once you shake hands with the devil, you have to accept they are in control. ~ Alex Ferguson

I'm a very physical person. I hug people, more so than shake hands. ~ Jaimie Alexander

Sorry? You expect to destroy my world, then shake hands? - Bruce Wayne ~ Greg Cox

If you want to get elected, shake hands with 25, 000 people between and November 7. ~ Harry S. Truman

How do you greet a god? If there's an etiquette guide for that, I haven't read it. I'm never sure if I'm supposed to shake hands, kneel, or bow and shout, "We're not worthy!" I knew Hermes better than most of the Olympians. Over the years, he'd helped me out several times. Unfortunately last summer I'd also fought his demigod son Luke, who'd been corrupted by the Titan Kronos, in a mortal combat smack-down for the fate of the world. Luke's death hadn't been entirely my fault, but it still put a damper on my relationship with Hermes. I decided to start simple. "Hi. ~ Rick Riordan

He turns to me with open arms - expecting a hug of course. Because I have a vagina.
...
penises shake hands, vaginas hug. Not this one, buddy. ~ Emma Chase

These dogs didn't bother to bond with us, but stuck out their paws, not to shake hands but so we could slit their wrists and get it the hell over with. (p.51) ~ Stephanie Powell Watts

The congressmen in the room just wanted to see them, to use their position to arrange a personal audience, to gaze upon them with their own eyes across the committee table, no more than four feet away, to shake hands with them, occupy the same space on this earth with them for and hour or so, fawn over them, pay homage to them, bathe in their magical aura, feel the radiation of their righteous stuff, salute them, wish upon them the smile of God... ~ Tom Wolfe