Stand Back Quotes

Rather than the strength it takes to not lose, it's the strength to stand back up after a loss that is sometimes more valuable. ~ Kyo Shirodaira

Stand back! I gotta get some rocket fuel out of the fridge! ~ Adam Savage

The first step away from being manipulated, and towards a more autonomous outlook, is to stand back from a set of responses and think. ~ Jonathan Glover

Poverty is a solved problem - all they have to do is abolish taxes and regulations which cripple those intelligent, capable, and responsible men and women and destroy their productive capacity, then stand back and watch the economy boom. ~ L. Neil Smith

The present is always unsettled, no one has had time to contemplate it in tranquillity . I was a painter before I was a writer and a painter never wants the subject right under his nose; he wants to stand back and study a landscape with half-closed eyes. ~ Isak Dinesen

All the conductor has to do is stand back and try not to get in the way. Mozart is doing all the work. ~ Colin R. Davis

I find so many opportunities to fall, to falter, and fail when I refuse to surrender to change. Change will come into my room and rearrange my tidy world. Then like dominoes, one things changed falls upon another until it feels like the world is collapsing around me. But when I yield, when I surrender to the necessary change, I can stand back and look at the beautiful picture created by what seemed to be my world falling apart. ~ Stella Payton

Stand back and accept.'...'Accept that you don't understand anything what is going on around you.'..'Accept that you have no way of even imagining what is happening. And accept your pain, too. And thank God for it. ~ Muriel Maufroy

Skewer is just too vague. I think if you say, 'Stand back or I'll stab him in the stomach,' then I have an idea about how serious you are. After all, Leif's stomach is his favorite body part so that's a decent threat. ~ Maria V. Snyder

Sisyphus, I. I cling to my rock, you don't have to chain me. Stand back! I roll it up - up, up. And ... down we go. I knew that would happen. See, I'm on my feet again. See, I'm starting to roll it up again. Don't try to talk me out of it. Nothing, nothing could tear me away from this rock. ~ Susan Sontag

We are in a tech-heavy society, plunging headlong into an unknown future. Science fiction is what allows you to stand back and analyze the impact of that and put it in context of how it affects people. ~ J. Michael Straczynski

I guess a drag queen's like an oil painting: You gotta stand back from it to get the full effect. ~ Harvey Fierstein

Witness and stand back from Nature, that is the first step to the soul's freedom. ~ Sri Aurobindo

There are times when all goes well, when I compose a sentence and stand back just to enjoy it. This sensation is like admiring a tall building I've designed. With luck, the building has no wasteful elements and every detail is noted and works. It blends in with the surrounding scenery and looks as if it was always meant to be here. These are the buildings I aim to construct. ~ Naoki Higashida

He's psychologically damaged, I suppose, if you stand back and look objectively at him, but then, who isn't? ~ Paul Darrow

If [the devil has] brought you down, make sure that with Christ's enabling you stand back up. ~ Alistair Begg

are we willing to demonize a population, declare a war against them, and then stand back and heap shame and contempt upon them for failing to behave like model citizens while under attack? ~ Michelle Alexander

Life's got to be a game we are playing, so stand back and check out your moves. ~ Jay Woodman

Never delay a prompting. When you honor a prompting and then stand back a pace, you realize that the Lord gave you the prompting. It makes me feel good that the Lord even knows who I am and knows me well enough to know that if He has an errand to be run, and He prompts me to run the errand, the errand will get done. ~ Thomas S. Monson

The physician's duty is not to stave off death or return patients to their old lives, but to take into our arms a patient and family whose lives have disintegrated and work until they can stand back up and face, and make sense of, their own existence. ~ Paul Kalanithi

We all are bound to those around us by glue, and to our pasts, and sometimes we need to dissolve it... They say you need to pull all the pieces apart and stand back to see how they fit together. Deconstruction. But what if then they can't be put back together? ~ Amanda Green

I do believe any hero is a person that can be knocked down. A failure isn't a person who gets knocked down; a failure is a person who stays down, and to me, the great heroes take the beating, get knocked down and stand back up again. Perseus is defined as one of the great heroes in literature, so you gotta take that on board. ~ Sam Worthington

To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can. ~ Og Mandino

We do it for those tiny moments when the world opens up and we're no longer alone. Those moments when we realize that we aren't the center of the universe, but to one single person, we're their entire existence. We are what they live for and we matter to them more than anything. No matter how hard we get knocked down, we stand back up, and we face the darkness that's inside us and we raise our fist at it and tell it, not today. You won't have me yet. I won't let you take that last bit of my soul. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon

Hold these tears inside
Don't have the energy to cry
Stand back and breathe
Ice freezes in your veins ~ Alysha Speer

I don't see how we can compromise on this. I need to fight my fights. Can you stand back and let me? ~ Annette Marie

We must, like a painter, take time to stand back from our work, to be still, and thus see what's what ... True repose is standing back to survey the activities that fill our days. ~ William McNamara

The butterfly needs the hardship to make it strong enough to fly. The struggle pumps fluid to its wings and gives it the strength to survive. If I were to help it by cutting away the chrysalis, it would die. So all we can do is stand back and observe its own efforts to free itself. ~ Colleen Coble

In the frantic search for an elusive 'cure,' few researchers stand back and ask a very basic question: why does cancer exist? What is its place in the grand story of life? ~ Paul Davies

In an environment where there are too many choices, too many decisions, too much information, and too many demands on our cognition, it pays to be judicious about the complexity we voluntarily sign up for. When we make the decision to streamline our lives, we also create time and room to think with focus and intent. In a complex world, time to stand back and look at the big picture, time to consider our options more carefully, time to make more deliberate decisions, and time to breathe are necessities for survival. ~ Rebecca D. Costa

You can stand back and look at this planet and see that we have the money, the power, the medical understanding, the scientific know-how, the love, and the community to produce a kind of human paradise. ~ Terence McKenna

If life hands you lemons turn around and make grape juice then stand back and watch while everyone try's to figure out how the fuck you did it. ~ Emma O'Connor

I don't really analyze my stuff when I write. I write about stuff that I'm interested in, that I'm feeling at that particular time. When I stand back and look at the complete work, I might see themes that run through the whole film, but I'm not really conscious of it when I'm doing it. ~ Spike Lee

There is a gesture he has, a motion, that always reminds me of a great batter leaning into a hit. He has a way of throwing one foot forward, putting his head down a bit as he silently runs the valves, and then the cheeks bloom out in the way that has mystified his dentist for years, and he hits into the solo. When that foot goes forward like that, you know that John Birks Gillespie is no longer clowning. Stand back. ~ Gene Lees

As a child, I once suffered a bad fall that resulted in scratched palms and scraped knees. I remember how badly it stung, the cold air hitting my bleeding wounds; I felt that I couldn't stand up for the pain. Through a veil of tears, I recall a kind hand reaching for me and helping me to my feet. My knees and palms were washed clean, and I remember thinking that for the rest of my life, I wanted to help people stand back up. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Jude says it's because that's the way I look at life_ it's so much more exciting when you don't know what's on the other side of the day you're in. you just expect the best, deal with the bumps, and pray that your boat doesn't fall apart under the big waves ...
(re driftwood) It will remind me of him and life in general. Because if you think about it, every day is full of wrong turns and roads that take us nowhere. But when you stand back and look at it, you can see how beautiful it all turned out and that you're standing where you're supposed to be. ~ Karen White

It's funny how you can't ask difficult questions in a familiar place, how you have to stand back a few feet and see things in a new way before you realize nothing that is happening to you is normal. The trouble with you and me is we are used to what is happening to us. We grew into our lives like a kernel beneath the earth, never able to process the enigma of our composition ... Nothing is normal. It is all rather odd, isn't it, our eyes in our heads, our hands with five fingers, the capacity to understand beauty, to feel love, to feel pain. ~ Donald Miller

Thanks for helping me clean up. Still can't understand a man willing to help out in the kitchen, though. You sure it wasn't just so you could question me?"
"I'm sure. Why do you find that so hard to believe?"
He stood directly in front of her, so close Willow could feel his warm breath on her cheek. "I..." Her heart burst into a drumroll. A rush of hot blood spilled into all the places she'd always considered private. What was this magic? Without so much as a light caress, he stole her senses and left her trembling with an unnameable desire.
She struggled against the sudden heightening of her senses. What was it I'd been about to say? Oh,yes. "Well," she began, "you're a man."
Rider chuckled softly, the sound rippling down her spine. "You noticed that, did you?"
She exhaled in exasperation. "Be quiet and let me finish. And stand back." She pushed against his chest, then yanked her hands away as if burnt. "I can't breathe with you caging me in like this."
He arched a dark eyebrow but politely stepped to her side and leaned his shoulder against the house. "Better?"
"It'll do." He was still too close as far as Willow was concerned, but she'd be damned if she'd let him know how he affected her. "You got me off the subject, Sinclair."
"I did?"
"Yes,you...Never mind. ~ Charlotte McPherren

Little about your work, tease and titillate with alluring, even contradictory comments, then stand back and let others try to make sense of it all. ~ Robert Greene

Let's form a committee tasked with exploring why committees are so ineffective. Then we'll stand-back and watch it argue and self-destruct. ~ Ryan Lilly

They all watched as Genya checked his pulse, his breathing. She shook her head.

"Zoya," said Sturmhond. His voice had the ring of command.

Zoya sighed and pushed up her sleeves. "Unbutton his shirt."

"What are you doing?" Kaz asked as Genya undid Kuwei's remaining buttons. His chest was narrow, his ribs visible, all of it spattered with the pig's blood they'd encased in the wax bladder.

"I'm either going to wake up his heart or cook him from the inside out," said Zoya. "Stand back."

They did their best to obey in the cramped space. "What exactly does she mean by that?" Kaz asked Nina.

"I'm not sure," Nina admitted. Zoya had her hands out and her eyes closed. The air felt suddenly cool and moist.

Inej inhaled deeply. "It smells like a storm."

Zoya opened her eyes and brought her hands together as if in prayer, rubbing her palms against each other briskly.

Nina felt the pressure drop, tasted metal on her tongue. "I think … I think she's summoning lightning."

"Is that safe?" asked Inej.

"Not remotely," said Sturmhond.

"Has she at least done it before?" said Kaz.

"For this purpose?" asked Sturmhond. "I've seen her do it twice. It worked splendidly. Once." His voice was oddly familiar, and Nina had the sense they'd met before.

"Ready?" Zoya asked.

Genya shoved a thickly folded piece of fabric between Kuwei's teeth and ~ Leigh Bardugo

I prefer long-distance relationships. If we were dating, would you be offended if I asked you to stand back a few feet? ~ Jarod Kintz

Because I was dying.
　　And Warner could've let me die. He was angry and hurt and had every reason to be bitter. I'd just ripped his heart out; I'd let him believe something would come of our relationship. I let him confess the depth of his feelings to me; I let him touch me in ways even Adam hadn't. I didn't ask him to stop.
　　Every inch of me was saying yes.
　　And then I took it all back. Because I was scared, and confused, and conflicted. Because of Adam.
　　Warner told me he loved me, and in return I insulted him and lied to him and yelled at him and pushed him away. And when he had the chance to stand back and watch me die, he didn't.
　　He found a way to save my life.
　　With no demands. No expectations. Believing full well that I was in love with someone else, and that saving my life meant making me whole again only to give me back to another guy.
　　And right now, I can't say I know what Adam would do if I were dying in front of him. I'm not sure if he would save my life. And that uncertainty alone makes me certain that something wasn't right between us. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I think it's just yet another piece to cause confusion and I think that the 'so-called scientific debate' is very silly now - It's like a bunch of theologians arguing over how many angels you can stick on the head of a needle. When you've got a side that changes from global warming, global warming, global warming to climate change, which is intuitive - the climate has always been changing since the beginning of time - and then just begins to claim every answer is the correct answer, you often stand back, and I don't care who you are, you have to question as to what the real motive is in this. ~ Joe Bastardi

I cannot judge my work while I am doing it. I have to do as painters do, stand back and view it from a distance, but not too great a distance. How great? Guess. ~ Blaise Pascal

For me as a midfielder, Paul Scholes was the best possible teacher. When people ask me my hardest opponent, I always refer to Paul in training. Facing him improved me so much because his astonishing quality gave me something to aim for. He never gave the ball away, he could nutmeg you, he could make you look a fool, his range of passing was remarkable, his touch and awareness, everything was top notch. Seeing Scholesy made you stand back and realize you had a long way to go, because he was awesome. ~ Darren Fletcher

I needed time to stand back and go through a lot more experience in life. Then I have something to write about, joke or to animate. ~ Howie Mandel

When you meditate you can stand back from your desire. When you silence the mind and there is stillness, only then can you tell if a desire is dharma. ~ Frederick Lenz

But
no
splendid is not the right word. they are splendid, but they are
they are so friendly. Oh dear!' she said, and looked up at him, half laughing, half embarassed. 'How childish that sounds! But so many of the beatiful things in the rooms beneath us
push you away
tell you to stand back
order you to admire and be abashed. These
these draw you in. These make you want to stay and
and have them for company. Yes, that's right. But I
I am still making them sould like a
like
sort of comfortable, though, am I not? Like a bowl of warm bread and milk and an extra pillos, and that's not it at all. They are not comfortable. Indeed, I feel that if I lived with them for long, I should have to learn to be ... better, or greater, myself. If this Queen of the Heavenly Mountain looked down at me from my bedroom wall every day, soon I should have to go looking for the path to her domain. I wouldn't be able to help myself. ~ Robin McKinley

Emil glowered and shot back, "Like you didn't leave her in shambles. How could you claim to love her, yet stand back and watch as she went through that kind of pain? Don't act so noble. You know you're the reason she came to me. To me, Night, she wanted me." Emil's entire countenance changed, even his voice.
Everything about him became darker. ~ Angela Corbett

How easy it was to capitalize on a person's own bent for self-destruction; how simple to nudge them into non-being, then to stand back and shrug and agree that it had been the inevitable result of a chaotic, catastrophic life. ~ Robert Galbraith

In my mind, the men and women of NASA are history's modern pioneers. They attempt the impossible, accept failure, and then back to the drawing board while the rest of us stand back and criticize. ~ Dan Brown

As a matter of fact, I constantly tell audiences all over the world that the single greatest icon of American culture from the publication of "To Kill A Mockingbird" was that novel so that if we say, what conversation can we have that would lead us on a road of tolerance, and teachers have decided that if you're going to teach values in a school in America, the answer that American teachers at all kinds of schools have come up with, just let Harper Lee teach "To Kill A Mockingbird." And then all the teacher has to do is stand back and guide the discussion. ~ Wayne Flynt

Shouldn't we stand back to back or something?" "What? Why?" "I don't know. In movies that's what they do in this kind of ... situation. ~ Cassandra Clare

My father was a public figure all my life, and so the presidency was an extension of that. I guess you get used to it, though you can stand back occasionally and think, 'Boy, this is really weird!' ~ Ron Reagan

And I declare myself free
from ignorant love. You easy lovers
and forgivers of mankind, stand back!
I will love you at a distance,
and not because you deserve it.
My love must be descriminate
or fail to bear its weight. ~ Wendell Berry

Naval officers were not mother's sort; very few people were her sort in those days, and that was her trouble - a very authentic, human, and plausible difficulty, which made Mother's life one of much suffering. She did not have the self-assurance for wide human experience; she needed to feel liked, admired, surrounded by the approved and familiar. Her haughtiness and chilliness came from apprehension. She would start talking like a grande dame and then stand back rigid and faltering, as if she feared being crushed by her own massively intimidating offensive. ~ Robert Lowell

us to comprehend, for we are ourselves part of wyrd and cannot stand back to observe it as if it were a separate force. ~ Brian Bates

All dwelling in one house are strange brothers three,
as unlike as any three brothers could be,
yet try as you may to tell brother from brother,
you'll find that the trio resemble each other.
The first isn't there, though he'll come beyond doubt.
The second's departed, so he's not about.
The third and the smallest is right on the spot,
and manage without him the others could not.
Yet the third is a factor with which to be reckoned
because the first brother turns into the second.
You cannot stand back and observe number three,
for one of the others is all you will see.
So tell me, my child, are the three of them one?
Or are there but two? Or could there be none?
Just name them, and you will at once realize
that each rules a kingdom of infinite size.
They rule it together and are it as well.
In that, they're alike, so where, do they dwell? ~ Michael Ende

To paint is to know how to put nothing on canvas, and have it look like something when you stand back. ~ Robert Henri

You have to teach 'em not to mess with you. You gotta be the big guy don't let him hurt you. If he hits you stand back up and beat the shit out of him. ~ Skye Perez

Shane and Claire quickly moved to stand back to back. So did Eve and Michael. Among the
four of them, they were covering every angle.
"Lurking isn't answering," Shane said. "Oliver? Little help?"
Instead, one of the shapes stepped forward into the light. Morley. Claire felt relieved, and
annoyed. Of course it was Morley. Why had she ever doubted it? He was the champion lurker
of all time. ~ Rachel Caine

If the day should ever come when we must go, if some day we are compelled to leave the scene of history, we will slam the door so hard that the universe will shake and mankind will stand back in stupefaction.. ~ Joseph Goebbels

Grief is a kick in the chest. It steals your breath, hits you so hard you think you'll never stand back up again. And it's not just because you're grieving death or heartbreak or loss – you're grieving change. You're grieving the life that might have been, if it hadn't all gotten fucked up along the way. ~ Julie Johnson

If you look at Japanese film, it is made up of collage or bricolage, it is made up of lists, and suddenly when you stand back from the lists you begin to see the pattern of a life. ~ Michael Ondaatje

When life gives you lemons, the best thing to do is make orange juice and let the rest of the world stand back and wonder how you did it."
-Unknown ~ -Unknown

This was exactly why holidays were so valuable, he told himself: they allowed you to stand back a bit, and see where you were going rusty. ~ Colin Dexter

Develop the ability to stand back as a witness to your thoughts. This will make your mind strong. ~ Mata Amritanandamayi

We do what we want to do. We write songs. We try not to repeat ourselves too much. We have our own sound and our own way of doing things. Up until now it has always been enjoyable. None of the members have ever got to the point where they don't want to be involved in it ... It's not entirely possible for me to stand back and look at the Rolling Stones because being a part of it you can't. I wish that I could just sit in the audience for one night and see the show. Everyone in the band has said that at some point. But then you wouldn't be seeing the whole band. And that's the problem with that. ~ Keith Richards

If you stand before a canvas, up close, almost to the point where your nose touches paint, you will see nothing but a blurred image; an image composed of thousands of tiny dots of paint. Stand back from the canvas and all those points of color merge to form an image of beauty recognizable to the human heart. Life is composed of thousands of tiny moments of time. Stand back and you will see a life of beauty, capable of touching the human heart. ~ Pen

Okay, stand outa the way. Sometimes when I go to exertin' myself I use up all the air nearby and grown men faint from suffocation. Stand back. There's liable to be crackin' cement and flying steel. Get the women and kids someplace safe. Stand back ... ~ Ken Kesey

Now, you just stand back and let me give you a lesson in how to be a passive aggressive Southern bitch." ~ Lila Bruce

I've always said it takes more courage to stand back there and throw a ball knowing you're fixing to get drilled than anything I can think of in football. ~ Bobby Bowden

Writing a novel is like building a snowman. You know the basic shape at the beginning but it doesn't come all at once. You pack on a handful of snow, shape it, smooth it, stand back and look at it. Then you add more snow, one handful at a time. ~ Trevor A. Dutcher

Everything seems overwhelming when you stand back and look at the totality of it. I build a lot of stuff and it would all seem impossible if I didn't break it down piece by piece, stage by stage. The best gift you can give yourself is some drive
that thing inside of you that gets you out the door to the gym, job interviews, and dates. The believe-in-yourself adage is grossly overrated. ~ Adam Carolla

It's OK to stand back. But it's also good to demonstrate that it's fun to be involved. As long as you are willing to say, 'This looks fun. I'd like to try this, too,' your child will mimic your example of openness, playfulness and optimism. ~ Julia Cameron

Equal rights meant just that, rights for both blacks and women, with the association working for both at the same time. Women should not be told to "stand back and wait." [Frederick] Douglas said that women should be generous and allow the Negro to get his vote first. A young woman in the audience replied that she did not think it generous "to compel women to yield on all questions ... simply because they are women. ~ Miriam Gurko

Adversity is a good test of our resiliency, our ability to cope, to stand back up, to recover from misfortune. Adversity is a painful pedagogue. ~ Charles R. Swindoll

The way I paint is similar to rock in that you don't stand around and say, 'Gee, what are they talking about?' Rock is simple, blunt, colorful. Same with my paintings. You don't stand back and wonder what it is. That's Jim Morrison, that's a panda, that's a scene on the West Coast. It's not abstract. ~ Grace Slick

The Art Snob will stand back from a picture at some distance, his head cocked slightly to one side ~ Russell Lynes

But she was already in. Gareth couldn't help but stand back in admiration. Hyacinth Bridgerton was clearly a natural born athlete.
Either that or a cat burglar. ~ Julia Quinn

I'm a bowling pin, even when I fall I'll always stand back up. ~ Jay Park

I couldn't stand back and watch the strong economy that my father envisioned go to ruins. ~ Park Geun-hye

Outside the street's on fire In a real death waltz Between what's flesh and fantasy And the poets down here Don't write nothin at all They just stand back and let it all be And in the quick of the night They reach for their moment And try to make an honest stand But they wind up wounded Not even dead Tonight in Jungle Land. - Bruce Springsteen ~ Stephen King

This is your last chance to do the right thing.'
'Do you want to attack first, or will I?'
Skulduggery held up a finger. 'Do you mind if I confer with my colleague for a moment?'
'By all means.'
Skulduggery leaned in towards Valkyrie. 'Damn,' he whispered. 'She's not going to do the right thing.'
'Did you really think she would?'
'I was really hoping.'
'Can we beat her?' Valkyrie asked.
'I don't like our chances.'
'What are our chances?'
'We don't have any,' Skulduggery admitted. 'Do you think you can take Craven on your own?'
'No.'
'Me either. Do you want to leave him to me then, and you can take her?'
'I like that idea even less.'
'I don't blame you.'
She sighed. 'We're going to get killed, aren't we?'
'It looks likely. Our only hope is a surprise attack.'
'They're staring right at us.'
'Dammit.' Skulduggery straightened up. 'We have discussed the situation,' he said to them, 'and decided that it would be in everyone's best interests for me to fight you, Melancholia, and for both Valkyrie and Cleric Craven to stand back and cheer or boo as they see fit. ~ Derek Landy

The professional must learn to be moved and touched emotionally, yet at the same time stand back objectively: I've seen a lot of damage done by tea and sympathy. ~ Anthony Storr

You are going to experience hurt, fear, pain, and possibly even heartache, but that's life. You stand back up, and you begin again. It's not easy. It sucks. And it might damage you, but that's how you build a thick skin. You take what life hands you , and you do your damn best to survive. ~ Brooke Cumberland

There is a place in you that you don't even know exists, where you can simply stand back and watch without feeling any pain. ~ Jodi Picoult

You blast me open and then
You stand back and watch
My feeble attempts
To deal with myself.
Where do I turn
In my now desperate need for love?
You are not there.
There is no one else to turn to
For I have made you my Everything.
And in my exhaustion
From my desperate moments,
I slip into myself
And there I find God waiting for me
To love Him to love me to love you
Because you are the matchmaker.
I thought He was leading me to you
But, surprise surprise,
You were leading me to Him. ~ Kate McGahan

Stand back far enough, and the absurdity of this enterprise makes you wonder about the sanity of our species. But consider: When millers mill wheat, they scrupulously sheer off the most nutritious parts of the seed - the coat of bran and the embryo, or germ, that it protects - and sell that off, retaining the least nourishing part to feed us. In effect, they're throwing away the best 25 percent of the seed: The vitamins and antioxidants, most of the minerals, and the healthy oils all go to factory farms to feed animals, or to the pharmaceutical industry, which recovers some of the vitamins from the germ and then sells them back to us - to help remedy nutritional deficiencies created at least in part by white flour. A terrific business model, perhaps, but terrible biology. Surely ~ Michael Pollan

Even for the very clever it can be like breaking bones to stand back from something that's been in front of you all your life. ~ Paul Hoffman

The history of philosophy, and perhaps especially of moral, social and political philosophy, is there to prevent us from becoming too readily bewitched. The intellectual historian can help us to appreciate how far the values embodied in our present way of life, and our present ways of thinking about those values, reflect a series of choices made at different times between different possible worlds. This awareness can help to liberate us from the grip of any one hegemonal account of those values and how they should be interpreted and understood. Equipped with a broader sense of possibility, we can stand back from the intellectual commitments we have inherited and ask ourselves in a new spirit of enquiry what we should think of them. ~ Quentin Skinner

The media ... is like an oil painting. Close up, it looks like nothing on Earth. Stand back and you get the drift. ~ Bernard Ingham

The people's instincts are still right. You see them come to the rescue of someone-a child who falls down a well-hundreds of people rush to help, and labor and equipment are volunteered without any thought of who's going to pay for it. This is a basic feeling in Americans. They don't stand back in such a circumstance and ask what the government's going to do about it. ~ Ronald Reagan

I could throw a pass to a spot as well as anyone who ever lived - But that's a God-given talent. I could never stand back and flick the ball 60 yards downfield with my wrists like Dan Marino does. ~ Otto Graham

Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge. ~ Ray Bradbury

There's not a season set aside for pondering and reveries. It will not les us hesitate or rest; it does not wish us to stand back and comment on its comeliness or devise a song for it. It has no time to listen to our song. It only asks us not to tire in our hard work. It wants to see us leathery, our necks and fore-arms burnt as black as chimney oak; it wants to leave us thinned and sinewy from work. It taxes us from dawn to dusk, and torments us at night; that is the taxing that the thrush complains about. Our great task each and every year is to defend ourselves against hunger and defeat with implements and tools. ~ Jim Crace

I'm not one of those James Joyce intellectuals who can stand back and look at the whole edifice ... It was a slow process for me to just crawl out of it, like a snake leaving his skin behind. ~ Frank McCourt

In many ways, home is an image for the power of stories. With both, we need to live in them if they are to take hold, and we need to stand back from them if we are to understand their power ~ J. Edward Chamberlin

I don't stand back and judge - I do. ~ John Lennon