Sidelines Quotes

The intellectual is and only can be a militant, engaged as a singularity among others, embarked on the project of co-research aimed at making the multitude. The intellectual is thus not 'out in front' to determine the movements of history or 'on the sidelines' to critique them but rather completely 'inside. ~ Michael Hardt

People keep pushing me to be the center of attention ... I would prefer to be on the sidelines, because that's where you see more. ~ Gong Li

People who don't construe their life and don't frame their own tale, stay on the sidelines, remain only an act without a story and turn into an "empty box". Out-of-the-box thinking and inventiveness remains then merely wishfull thinking. ( "Everybody his story" ) ~ Erik Pevernagie

I hope that people will see that we don't have to sit by the sidelines and watch as the two major parties limit their choices to slightly different flavors of the status quo. It is, in fact, possible to join the fray, stand up for principles and offer a real alternative. ~ Gary Johnson

LEADING LESSONS
Use your fears; don't let them direct or define you.

Fear sends your brain a message that it's time to make a decision--like when I decided I would ride that coaster. You can also decide to do nothing; you can stand watching the world zip by from the sidelines. I choose to see my fears as a green light. They mean go, not stop, and you're always in the driver's seat. Don't give fear any more power than it already has. As I said, I was often afraid of failure. But instead of letting the fear keep me from reaching my goals, I let it propel me. In the movie After Earth, Will Smith's character states that fear is simply made up by our own imaginations. "Danger is real, but fear is a choice." Who knew Will was such a gifted philosopher? I agree 100 percent. Why is one person afraid of something and another other person isn't? We're all humans, but we've all had different experiences and therefore we have different associations. It's personal. The possibility of freedom exists wherever fear lies. When you realize that it's you who is creating this fear, the fear loses its ability to control you. ~ Derek Hough

The crummy part of swimming is that while you're doing it you can't really see much: the bottom of the pool, certainly, a smudged and fleeting bit of the outside world as you turn your head to breathe. But you can't pick things out – a man's face, for example, watching from the sidelines when, for the first time in your life, you pull ahead and win. ~ David Sedaris

I don't want a job in the administration; I think I'm more effective carping from the sidelines. ~ Paul Krugman

Our forces will not be on the sidelines. ~ John Abizaid

After the merch booth has closed, I join the melee, but am nudged to the middle of the mob, and then the back, where I stand on my toes to watch person after person embrace my husband. Jeff's words from our pseudo-poker game rise to the surface of my consciousness and bob there, refusing to be silenced. This is the very definition of being a supporting character. But I don't really mind that I'm this far away - I can still see the smile on his face as bright as a spotlight, and his joy seems to vibrate across the distance. Surely everyone knows what a big deal this must be to him, but I still look at him and remember the subway musician hunched over his guitar, sitting on a narrow stool, guitar case open at his feet. And now here he is, wearing a suit, standing beside Ramón Martín, and getting the praise and adoration of an entire cast and crew. I'm still on the sidelines, but I helped make that happen. ~ Christina Lauren

..why sit on the sidelines of life at any age? ~ Dick Van Dyke

Well now, Jack," Hastings said from the sidelines. "I'm afraid you've been beheaded. Not a good start." He sounded amused. ~ Cinda Williams Chima

The four brothers and three sisters were by all accounts a formidable team who rarely lost a match, partly, it is said, because of the intimidation felt by opposing teams at the sight of Walter standing on the sidelines with a wand in one hand and a meat cleaver in the other. ~ J.K. Rowling

Your haters gather the most at the sidelines. ~ Johnnie Dent Jr.

God made us for more than just barely getting by. We weren't meant to sit on the sidelines of life because with God, we are on the winning team! ~ Joel Osteen

I usually play toffs and soldiers, with a sideline in mass murderers. ~ Samuel West

The ancient Greeks kept women athletes out of their games. They wouldn't even let them on the sidelines. I'm not sure but that they were right. ~ Avery Brundage

I wanted to pull away, remind him that I was a big girl, a highly trained operative, a spy - that I'd been training for this mission my entire life, and I wasn't going to be left on the sidelines. But in the dim space with Zach pressed tightly against me, only one thought came to mind. I kissed him - longer and deeper than I ever had before. The school was not watching us this time. There was nothing playful in the tone. We were just two people kissing as if for the first time, as if it might be the last.
And then I broke away. "So," I asked, as if I got kissed like that all the time (which, believe me, I don't), "where is it you're taking me again?"
"The tombs. ~ Ally Carter

When any part of humanity is sidelined, the rest of us cannot sit on the sidelines. ~ Hillary Clinton

I like playing the guy on the sidelines. They have more fun. ~ Peter Dinklage

Sorry, investing was pretty boring and I really missed being part of building something. I felt like I was always standing on the sidelines, so Zappos ... really liked the people there and got involved full-time and I've been full-time ever since. ~ Tony Hsieh

After graduating early from high school, I carefully listened to the quarterback during my first play in college spring ball. My mind was on the very basics of football: alignment, assignment, and where to stand in the huddle.

The quarterback broke the huddle and I ran to the line, meeting the confident eyes of a defensive end - 6-foot-6, 260- pound Matt Shaughnessy.

I was seventeen, a true freshman, and he was a 23-year-old fifth-year senior, a third-round draft pick. Huge difference between the two of us. Impressing the coach was not on my mind. Survival was. "Oh, Jesus," I said. I wasn't cursing. I was praying for help.

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray ( James 5:13).

That day Matt came off the ball so fast. Bam! Next thing I knew, I was flat on my back, thrown to the ground. I got up and limped back to the huddle.

Four years later...standing on the sidelines in my first NFL game, bouncing on my toes, waiting for my chance to go in, one of the tight ends went down. My time to shine! Where do I stand? Who do I have? I look up and meet the same eyes I met on my first play in college football.
Matt Shaughnessy! ... ~ Jake Byrne

No longer can America afford to have its citizenry sit on the sidelines of the community watching while "activists" and others take over the nation, reshaping it into a distinctly destructive environment. ~ Daniel Rundquist

Sitting on the sidelines, cribbing and moaning is a lost opportunity. I don't know how people who engage in that don't commit suicide. ~ Bertie Ahern

Maybe the critics are right. Maybe there's no escaping our great political divide, an endless clash of armies, and any attempts to alter the rules of engagement are futile. Or maybe the trivialization of politics has reached a point of no return, so that most people see it as just one more diversion, a sport, with politicians our paunch-bellied gladiators and those who bother to pay attention just fans on the sidelines: We paint our faces red or blue and cheer our side and boo their side, and if it takes a late hit or cheap shot to beat the other team, so be it, for winning is all that matters.
But I don't think so. They are out there, I think to myself, those ordinary citizens who have grown up in the midst of all the political and cultural battles, but who have found a way-in their own lives, at least- to make peace with their neighbors, and themselves.
...I imagine they are waiting for a politics with the maturity to balance idealism and realism, to distinguish between what can and cannot be compromised, to admit the possibility that the other side might sometimes have a point. They don't always understand the arguments between right and left, conservative and liberal, but they recognize the difference between dogma and common sense, responsibility and irresponsibility, between those things that last and those that are fleeting. They are out there, waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them. ~ Barack Obama

But he did say that the character would be on the sidelines in movies One and Two, and move into the middle with number Three, but I didn't realize he would move in with quite such a bang. ~ Ian McDiarmid

Joe didn't like talking so much. He had already used more words in this room than he had in the past month. But he had no choice but to continue. Self-doubt began to creep into his consciousness, like a black storm cloud easing over the top of the mountains. He wasn't sure this was a job he could do well, a role he could play competently. Joe liked working the margins, keeping his mouth shut, observing from the sidelines. He did his best to block out the image of the thunderhead rolling over. ~ C.J. Box

We do not serve a distant and detached God who spouts encouraging cliches safely from the sideline. Instead, he enters into our suffering. Jesus did it in the Incarnation and his Spirit does it in us now. God will never leave us alone in our suffering. ~ Rick Warren

I get appalled when I see good drivers being left on the sidelines because they haven't come up with the half million to a million to put themselves in a competitive car. ~ John Surtees

The doughy-faced woman has been forced to sit on the sidelines of culture for too long, and it's now time for us to stand up with our big round faces like the moon and say we have things to say, too. We have a round-faced agenda we want to push. ~ Caitlin Moran

The myth that if you don't start early, you might as well not start, tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The music-making world that young people confront reminds me a lot of the world of school sports. After a lot of weeding out, in the end you've got a varsity with a few performers and an awful lot of people on the sidelines thinking, "Gee, it's too bad I wasn't good enough." We need to be careful about that. There seems to be an unspoken idea, in instruction of the young, that the people who start the fastest will go the farthest. But that's not only an unproven theory; it's not even a tested theory. The assumption that the steeper the learning curve, the higher it will go, is also unfounded. If we did things a little differently, we might find out that people whose learning curves were much slower might later on go up just as high or higher. ~ John Holt

Then I hear Willard on the sidelines: "Are we supposed to keep pretending they're actually talking about the book?"

"Wait," Annie responds, "they're not talking about the book?"

Willard pats Annie's head. "You're so pretty. ~ Emma Chase

For TOO LONG you have allowed the past to affect you!
For TOO LONG you have taken personally what others say about you!
For TOO LONG you have stood on the sidelines watching others thrive!
For TOO MANY NIGHTS you have gone to bed worrying about what may be.
For TOO LONG you have held a fear in your heart.
For TOO LONG you have settled for second best!!
NOW is the time to awaken!
NOW is the time to shine!
NOW is the time to ACCEPT that you are DIVINE!!
This is my message for you - allow it to touch the deepest parts of your being - to help you awaken to the truth - that you do deserve to live a GREAT life - and whatever that means for you! ~ Lee-Anne Peters

After being sworn in to office, vice presidents have usually been relegated to the sidelines, where they just don't get to do very much. ~ Mary Cheney

One of the central elements of resilience, Bonanno has found, is perception: Do you conceptualize an event as traumatic, or as an opportunity to learn and grow? "Events are not traumatic until we experience them as traumatic," Bonanno told me, in December. "To call something a 'traumatic event' belies that fact." He has coined a different term: PTE, or potentially traumatic event, which he argues is more accurate.

The theory is straightforward. Every frightening event, no matter how negative it might seem from the sidelines, has the potential to be traumatic or not to the person experiencing it. Take something as terrible as the surprising death of a close friend: you might be sad, but if you can find a way to construe that event as filled with meaning - perhaps it leads to greater awareness of a certain disease, say, or to closer ties with the community - then it may not be seen as a trauma. The experience isn't inherent in the event; it resides in the event's psychological construal.

It's for this reason, Bonanno told me, that "stressful" or "traumatic" events in and of themselves don't have much predictive power when it comes to life outcomes. "The prospective epidemiological data shows that exposure to potentially traumatic events does not predict later functioning," he said. "It's only predictive if there's a negative response." In other words, living through adversity, be it endemic to your environment or an acute negative event, doesn't guarant ~ Maria Konnikova

I think my father was sick of being on the sidelines watching a bunch of incompetents in his mind. And in our world, in our business world, these people wouldn't last five minutes in real companies, and he's sick of them making decisions that are costing our children, their children behind them, trillions of dollars and really giving up the great power that we've built up over the last 200 years. ~ Donald Trump, Jr.

Because when you're watching from the sidelines, invisible, it's easy to see clearly. ~ Cassandra Clare

Michelle Tafoya - best NFL sideline reporter - period. She is always prepared and professional. ~ Megan Alexander

I was a college football fanatic, and I wanted to play, not sit on the sidelines. It's tough when you know you're just a project. ~ Chad Pennington

My heart throbs and aches and, for once, it's not for myself. It's for all of us. It's for everyone who knows what it's like to be helpless, to have to watch on the sidelines, to be paralyzed, literally unable to do anything. ~ Sarah Wylie

We can't always be the star player. We have to sit on the sidelines to replenish what we've lost. ~ Charlena E. Jackson

I'll give my heart and soul whenever I step on that field and even when I'm on the sidelines. And at the end of the day, that's really all you can ask of someone. ~ Tim Tebow

I have watched Occupy Wall Street mostly from the sidelines. ~ Jami Attenberg

Ruth's story helped me see that neither I nor any of God's daughters belong on the sidelines, while our brothers build his kingdom without us. He means for us to work alongside our brothers, and he is doing great things through his daughters, even though we, like Ruth and Naomi, may never live to see the full significance of our contributions. ~ Carolyn Custis James

For me, getting off the sidelines means women making a difference by letting their voices be heard on the issues they care about. ~ Kirsten Gillibrand

I ask myself, 'Do you want to sit on the sidelines of life or do you want to be on the field?' I suppose all those years of building thicker skin has made it easy to endure criticism. ~ Don Watson

The human heart was created in the context of the perfection of the garden of Eden. But we don't live there now.
This is why our instincts keep firing off the lie that perfection is possible. We have pictures of perfection etched into the very DNA of our souls.
We chase it. We angle our cameras trying to catch it. We take twenty shots hoping to find it. And then even our good photos have to be color corrected, filtered, and cropped.
We do our very best to make others think this posted picture is the real deal. But we all know the truth. We all see the charade. We all know the emperor is naked. But there we are, clapping on the sidelines, following along, playing the game. Trying to believe that maybe, just maybe, if we get close to something that looks like perfection it will help us snag a little of its shine for ourselves.
But we know even the shiniest of things is headed in the direction of becoming dull. New will always eventually become old. Followers unfollow. People who lift us up will let us down. The most tightly knit aspects of life snag, unravel, and disintegrate before our very eyes.
And we are epically disappointed.
But we aren't talking about it. ~ Lysa TerKeurst

I curl up inside and freeze when I have to act. I much prefer sitting on the sidelines and trying to get the best out of other people. ~ Mel Ferrer

A poet's freedom lies precisely in the impossibility of worldly success. It is the freedom of one who knows he will never be anything but a failure in the world's estimation, and may do as he pleases. The poet is a man on the sidelines of life, sidelined for life. He belongs to the aristocracy of the outcast, the lowest of the low, below the salt of the earth. A member of the most ancient regime in the world. One that cannot, it seems, be overthrown. ~ Walter Martin

When we mention the 1 percent and the 99 percent, everybody now knows what we are talking about. It's part of our vocabulary. How quickly these numbers jumped from the sidelines to the center. ~ Madeleine M. Kunin

Sometimes, I feel like one who is on the sidelines, who has missed life itself. ~ Nelson Mandela

I live to the rhythm of my country and I cannot remain on the sidelines. I want to be here. I want to be part of it. I want to be a witness. I want to walk arm in arm with it. I want to hear it more and more, to cradle it, to carry it like a medal on my chest. Activism is a constant element in my life, even though afterwards I anguish over not having written 'my own things.' Testimonial literature provides evidence of events that people would like to hide, denounces and therefore is political and part of a country in which everything remains to be done and documented. ~ Elena Poniatowska

People look at me and see a calm, cool guy on the sidelines and I want them to know that my Christian faith affects my coaching and everything I do. ~ Tony Dungy

God is never on the sidelines of His children's lives. He goes before them. He leads them, guides them, protects and saves them. ~ Monica Johnson

When cancer first came into my life, people all around me treated it as the enemy. I was told I had to join the medical team and we'd fight together to defeat it. This was the wrong thing to say to someone who was the last one to be picked for any team. I was much happier sitting on the sidelines and encouraging the other players. I was totally unskilled at defeating anything. So I secretly went my own way and decided that I was free to choose the meaning of the healing experience. I decided I would develop a friendly relationship with the cancer, which was something I was good at. ~ Dawna Markova

Never forget that turning a blind eye to oppression and watching from the sidelines is itself opression ~ Harun Yahya

You will find it will almost always be more comfortable to sit on the sidelines and critique the builders from afar. But at the end of the day, the people who make a difference, the people who shape history, are not the haters. ~ Wendy Kopp

If you genuinely care about someone, you won't let them ruin themselves. It's as simple as that.
Don't use your 'supportive friend' excuse to justify your ignorance.
If someone in your life is living a self-destructive lifestyle, don't encourage them. Don't stand on the sidelines and watch. Do something.
Tell them they're worth more than that. That they're bigger than what they're facing. Tell them there are better ways to heal. Better ways to grow.
Tell them they can be friends with better people.Tell them there's no escape from reality but it only gets better if you face it. Tell them they're killing themselves slowly by intaking drugs.
Tell them you love them and don't want them to get hurt. Tell them that you care.

Do. Everything. You. Can.
Because even if they may not listen, at least you'll know you tried. ~ Ambu

None of this is important in itself, but I feel somewhere that it has a lot to do with why I have always felt separate, why I have always felt unable to join in, to let go, to become part of the tribe, why I have always sniped or joked from the sidelines, why I have never, ever, lost my overwhelmingly self-conscious self-consciousness. ~ Stephen Fry

There is a point in every contest when sitting on the sidelines is not an option. ~ Dean Smith

You didn't get a choice in what happened to you. Neither did
we. But you have a choice in what happens now. We don't. You're the one in control and all we can do is sit on the sidelines and watch, even if you
keep making the wrong calls over and over again." We're obviously veering into sports metaphor territory. "We're not going to force you to do
anything you aren't ready to do. You've had enough forced on you. But you have to make a decision about how long you're going to let this define
your life. ~ Katja Millay

It's a lonesome walk to the sidelines, especially when thousands of people are cheering your replacement. ~ Fran Tarkenton

In Europe, Murrow observed to his wife, people were dying and "a thousand years of civilization [were] being smashed" while America remained on the sidelines. How could one possibly be objective or neutral about that? ~ Lynne Olson

Reading a book is like living a deep and fulfilling life. Watching a movie is like being a paralyzed person: watching others live their lives while you observe from the sidelines. ~ Charbel Tadros

You miss a lot watching life from the sidelines--and letting fear hold you back. ~ Irene Hannon

Writing is the main gig and teaching and performing are sidelines, an excuse for not writing more. Working on a novel and on an opera make me seriously want to retire and find a volunteer job as a docent at the zoo explaining to schoolchildren where frogs go in the winter. ~ Garrison Keillor

Skylar laughed a lot in these scenes. He was happy. He was always helping people too - a whole section depicted him playing hero to the art majors as they gazed at him adoringly, and Xander glowered jealously on the sidelines. That made Skylar laugh in real life. There were so many scenes of him helping people. He was Mr. Friendly, according to Xander.
This was such a better painting.
This was how Xander saw him?
This was beautiful.
This is who I want to be instead.
"I love this," Skylar said as Xander cleaned his brush.
"Oh, I'm not done."
Xander got out a small round brush and reached for the pink.
He began to paint delicate, beautiful cherry blossoms all over Skylar's body.
There was writing too - Xander explained each kanji to him, that they meant he was magnificent, sensitive, sensual, artistic, charming, loyal, steadfast - he lost track of the words
because while they were wonderful and the script breathtaking, it was the blossoms that did him in. He sees me as a cherry tree. A blooming, beautiful cherry tree.
Skylar sobbed.
"I love you," Skylar cried, trying not to spill tears because Xander was painting cherry blossoms across his face.
"I love you too, my sakura. ~ Heidi Cullinan

It is important that artists are not outside the equation, we don't stand on the sidelines. Artists are part of the story of a response, we cannot stand aside and let others make the response. ~ Anish Kapoor

Females with ASDs often develop 'coping mechanisms' that can cover up the intrinsic difficulties they experience. They may mimic their peers, watch from the sidelines, use their intellect to figure out the best ways to remain undetected, and they will study, practice, and learn appropriate approaches to social situations. Sounds easy enough, but in fact these strategies take a lot of work and can more often than not lead to exhaustion, withdrawal, anxiety, selective mutism, and depression. -Dr. Shana Nichols ~ Liane Holliday Willey

My group ridiculed and made fun of anyone who was not like us, and that comprised almost everyone! People with negative identity drop out and stand on the sidelines of life, making fun of everyone else. In actuality I was terrified of life. ~ John Bradshaw

Perfect and bulletproof are seductive, but they don't exist in the human experience. We must walk into the arena, whatever it may be - a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation - with courage and the willingness to engage. Rather than sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgment and advice, we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen. This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly. ~ Brene Brown

Instead of sitting on the sidelines, President Obama has made it clear that the US is ready to lead a global effort to combat climate change. ~ Valerie Jarrett

Lena studied the faces of the girls on the sidelines. She could tell that Kostos owned the lust of what few local teenage girls there were in Oia, but instead he chose to dance with all the grandmothers, all the women who had raised him, who had poured into him the love they couldn't spend on their own absent children and grandchildren. ~ Ann Brashares

Sometimes this fear of speculation masquerades as skepticism. We see this in people who delight in shooting down any theory or explanation before it gets anywhere. They are trying to pass off skepticism as a sign of high intelligence, but in fact they are taking the easy route - it is quite simple to find arguments against any idea and knock it down from the sidelines. ~ Robert Greene

...I was more than just the sum of my experiences, and I had the ability to become an active participant in life instead of just standing on the sidelines. ~ S.H. Kolee

The war takes place in black and white. For those on the sidelines that is. For those who are actually in it there are many different colours, excessive colours, too bright, too red and orange, too liquid and incandescent, but for the others the war is like a newsreel- grainy, smeared, with bursts of staccato noise and large numbers of grey-skinned people rushing or plodding or falling down, everything elsewhere. ~ Margaret Atwood

If you were to ask any children of any politician, when you've been part of a political life, you are not on the sidelines. There is no such thing as a member of a political family who is only a spectator. You see the wheeling and the dealing. That doesn't intimidate me. I'll do a little of that myself, on behalf of my constituents. ~ Lucille Roybal-Allard

At a youth soccer game you'll probably hear parents and coaches on the sidelines yelling, 'Pass the ball! Pass the ball!' ... When we continually tell our young players to pass the ball, we're not allowing them to develop their full potential, especially those who have the ability to take their opponents on and beat them one-on-one. As a result, we run the risk of diminishing a player's artistry and potential. ~ Tony DiCicco

Elizabeth," he said, trying not to laugh. "At a wedding reception, the guests cannot leave until the bride and groom retire. If you look over there, you'll notice my great-aunts are already nodding in their chairs."
"Oh!" she exclaimed, instantly contrite. "I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"Because," he said, taking her elbow and beginning to guide her from the ballroom, "I wanted you to enjoy every minute of our ball, even if we had to prop the guests up on the shrubbery."
"Speaking of shrubbery," she teased, pausing on the balcony to cast a last fond look at the "arbor" of potted trees with silk blossoms that occupied one-fourth the length of the entire ballroom, "everyone is talking about having gardens and arbors as themes for future balls. I think you've stared a new 'rage.'"
"You should have seen your face," he teased, drawing her away, "when you recognized what I had done."
"We are probably the only couple," she returned her face turned up to his in laughing conspiracy, "ever to lead off a ball by dancing a waltz on the sidelines." When the orchestra had struck up the opening waltz, Ian had led her into the mock "arbor," and they had started the ball from there.
"Did you mind?"
"You know I didn't," she returned, walking beside him up the curving staircase.
He stopped outside her bed chamber, opened the door for her, and started to pull her into his arms, then checked himself as a pair of servants came marching down ~ Judith McNaught

Ah, jeez ... She really is a cheerleader.' And it seemed suddenly that this was true- not because she was an airhead or a hottie or a nonjock, but because she could throw herself so wholeheartedly into someone else's cause, because she could care so much and try so hard from the sidelines. ~ Margaret Peterson Haddix

Seasoned leaders rarely regret having taken risks. Even the risks that didn't pay off directly are viewed as a necessary part of the journey. A leader's regrets generally revolve around missed opportunities, not risks taken. Many of those missed opportunities would not have been missed had they been willing to push through their fear and embrace what could be. Fear, not a lack of good ideas, is usually what keeps a man or woman standing on the sidelines. ~ Andy Stanley

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

I am willing for the participant to commit or not commit himself to the group. If a person wishes to remain psychologically on the sidelines, he has my implicit permission to do so. The group itself may or may not be willing for him to remain in this stance but personally I am willing. One skeptical college administrator said that the main things he had learned was that he could withdraw from personal participation, be comfortable about it, and realize that he would not be coerced. To me, this seemed a valuable learning and one that would make it much more possible for him actually to participate at the next opportunity. Recent reports on his behavior, a full year later, suggest that he gained and changed from his seeming nonparticipation. ~ Carl R. Rogers

Hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it. Hope is the belief that destiny will not be written for us, but by us, by the men and women who are not content to settle for the world as it is, who have the courage to remake the world as it should be. ~ Barack Obama

Perfectionists often position themselves on the sidelines, from which they point out that nothing is good enough. ~ Rebecca Solnit

You, my righteous little sister? You left me to suffer our father alone. Do you know what it was like for me, to lie bleeding on the floor, while he showered you with dresses in the next bedchamber? Do you know what it was like for our father to threaten to kill me, and then for me to murder him in return? No, you don't. You stand on the sidelines and wait for me to do your dirty work. You hide in the shadows so that I can bleed for you. You give me your pitiful look when I kill, but you do not stop me. And now you judge me for that? ~ Marie Lu

It isn't fate but fecklessness that has shoved Sarah Palin to the sidelines of national politics. The real tragedy is that she's taken a lot of other serious Republican women with her. ~ Dee Dee Myers

Most people live dejectedly in worldly joys or sorrows. They sit on the sidelines and do not join the dance. ~ Soren Kierkegaard

Women in sports television are allowed to read headlines, patrols sidelines, and generally facilitate conversation for their male colleagues. Sometimes, they even let us monitor the Internet from a couch. ~ Katie Nolan

Despite what those on the happily coupled sidelines might think, 99 percent of online dates weren't exciting enough to be fun or nerve-racking enough to be adventurous. They were just...awkward. Boring. An hour of small talk with someone you'd think twice about saving from a burning building. Online dating was like Russian roulette. Mostly misses. But sometimes, people Evie knew had met that all-too-rare bullet: a smart, aesthetically pleasing New Yorker who was still single. Maybe tonight, Evie thought, is the night I blow my brains out. ~ Georgia Clark

The people follow what the media say. So if you said that Bruno Dumont is fantastic, it follows that more people would go to see my films. I have no wish to remain on the sidelines. I have no wish to make films that are only seen by bohemians in London and Paris. ~ Bruno Dumont

Life is not meant to be lived on the sidelines or the edge of the pool. It is meant to be embraced, inhaled, and devoured. It is meant to be tasted, chewed and swallowed, savoring each and every experience as if it were the most delicious delicacy ever eaten. ~ Monica E. Tunnell

We have a country that is $5 a gallon gas, $4 a gallon gas, we got unbearable unemployment and a federal government that is out of control. We have to take back this country and we've got to get off the sidelines and take it to President Obama. ~ Tim Pawlenty

If we are to follow the Jesus who suffered with us and bled for us, we too must suffer. We must hold the dying in our arms. We must shed tears for hungry stomachs, trafficked children, and wandering souls. This is what He wants for us. It's the reason we are called to lay down our nets and take up our crosses to pursue the Suffering Servant. And it's the one thing we will avoid at all costs.
It is not enough to feel bad. Religion to me, has always been the routine of feeling guilty for all the things we should do but don't. We must act. This is where life happens, where we begin to participate in our stories. This is when we awaken. Not on the sidelines; not on the outside looking in. Life is lived right in the midst of all this mess. Incidentally, that's where mercy and the miraculous are found. That's where flowers begin to grow again. ~ Jeff Goins

It's one of the most progressive cities in the world. Shooting is only a sideline. ~ Will Rogers

Three Denises wobbled in front of her, all of them watching her with fond concern. You're a sweetie. I appreciate you cheering me on from the sidelines. But I think I need to go to the bathroom now and throw up. ~ Sarah Mayberry

I have a 16 year-old son, so I'm now a soccer mom. I stand on the sidelines and I hear the things parents are saying, so I want them to understand what it is their kids are feeling in any sports environment. ~ Brandi Chastain

The people who don't give you a standing ovation for the hurdles you cross are just afraid that you might win the race. They do not cheer you but they sit, lurking on the sidelines, biting their fingernails hoping you will stumble before the end. They secretly wish you will never win this race. But watch out for them, they will be the firstto stand and cheer you when you stand on that podium of success. ~ Crystal Evans

God wants his power in every person's life. He loves taking ordinary people and using them to do extraordinary things. It didn't take long, however, for Christians to make ministry a profession and hire a few folks to lead their churches. They called these people clergy and soon the rest of the body of Christ sat passively on the sidelines and watched. They could be part of a "church" without any real sacrifice or personal commitment to the well-being of the community. ~ Chris Hodges

Without running, I would have missed the joy of rain. What could be considered an inconvenience or a bummer to the inexperienced is actually a gift. Without running, I would miss a lot of things-like seeing cities in a certain way, or knowing certain people all the way to the core. I'm glad we don't experience life through glass, under cover, or from the sidelines. Good things take miles. ~ Kristin Armstrong

I like using one QB. If we have two that are relatively equal, then we can't afford to have one on the bench. They need to be on the field at running back, receiver or defensive back. I'm not going to waste an athlete on the sidelines. ~ Alan Chadwick