Standing Still Quotes

Time is standing still; space is changing. ~ Debasish Mridha

You can't isolate yourself, because that's the worst thing you can do. There's no healing if there's no movement, and isolation is the same as standing still. ~ Andrea Speed

Time is on its eternal journey at the same time it is motionless, emotionless and standing still. ~ Debasish Mridha

It's always strange to read the things you've hoped for in the past because by now those hopes may be spoken for or gone, transformed or altogether forgotten. Like time, hope can be so senseless. It can carry us up mountains or lie us in the quicksand. But like time, hope is unstoppable, inevitable, and blind. Sometimes we travel fast, hurdling towards the unknown, sometimes the unknown comes hurdling towards us while we watch time standing still. ~ Andrew McMahon

Your automatic guidance system cannot guide you when you're standing still. ~ Maxwell Maltz

The only way you can check Gretzky is to hit him when he is standing still singing the national anthem. ~ Harry Sinden

Failure in life does not matter; the greatest misfortune is standing still. ~ Hazrat Inayat Khan

If I'm doing some weird tick with my mouth, or not standing still or something, I'll be the first person to notice it, and then want to change that. I think it's important just to maintain trajectory, to not just use your same tricks over and over. ~ Neil Patrick Harris

The only thing lonelier than travelling is standing still. ~ Sam Gayton

Time is standing still. We are measuring ourselves by how far we are going. ~ Debasish Mridha

Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God's warriors than standing still. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Be not afraid of growing slowly; be only afaid of standing still. ~ Chineese Proverb

Not feeling like I belong anywhere has made me crave constant motion; standing still feels risky, like asking to be a target. ~ Julie Buxbaum

The Bible is full of dubious scientific impossibilities, from Jonah living inside a whale, to the sun standing still in the sky for Joshua. ~ Lawrence M. Krauss

He would never be any different and now Scarlett realize the truth and accepted it without emotion - that until he died Gerald would always be waiting for Ellen, always listening for her. Her was in some dim borderline country where time was standing still and Ellen was always in the next room. The mainspring of his existence was taken away when she died and with it has gone his bounding assurance, his impudence and his restless vitality. Ellen was the audience before which the blustering drama of Gerald O'Hara had been played Now the curtain had been rung down forever, the footlights dimmed and the audience suddenly vanished, while the stunned old actor remained on his empty stage, waiting for his cues. ~ Margaret Mitchell

There is no neutral position in the Lord. You are either becoming more like Christ every day or you're becoming less like Him. That's because whether you realize it or not, you're never standing still. ~ Stormie O'martian

Try to imagine, Robert says, what it feels like when they release the bulls. The noise is incredible. Your whole body's shaking. It's like your heart's racing but standing still at the same time. And then, when the people around you start moving and you know the bulls are coming, it just gets worse and worse. You hear the bulls coming closer. You feel the ground shaking beneath your feet. And when you see that first bull and it's time to run, everyone starts screaming. You can't even think. All you can do is run as fast as your legs will carry you. ~ Jan Van Mersbergen

I could hear the human noise as were standing still in between the spaces of silence. ~ Truth Devour

Be not afraid of rowing slowly. Be afraid of standing still. ~ Hannah Whitall Smith

Well, I've been to London and I've been to gay Paris

I've followed the river and I got to the sea

I've been down on the bottom of a world full of lies

I ain't looking for nothing in anyone's eyes

Sometimes my burden seems more than I can bear

It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

I was born here and I'll die here against my will

I know it looks like I'm moving, but I'm standing still

Every nerve in my body is so vacant and numb

I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from

Don't even hear a murmur of a prayer

It's not dark yet, but it's getting there

-Bob Dylan, "Not Dark Yet" (1997) ~ Bob Dylan

Forever, time is standing still. We are flying away with the wings of desire we call life. ~ Debasish Mridha

In New York, just standing still on the sidewalk is a weird feeling. You have this incessant need to do things. Los Angeles is about kicking back, relaxing, your inner child, peace. ~ Esai Morales

Children like their mothers especially to be standing still and watching them, even if they are sleeping. At least that's how I felt. There's nothing wrong with the self-interest of children; it's just the way they are. ~ Jamaica Kincaid

No I did not call in sick to work today
No I'm not out hanging with my friends
There's no more wasting time
On what I think I'm supposed to do
My clock is standing still so
I can have my dream life life
With the ones I love
Playing all day long
Laying back by the water side
With nowhere to go
And the music on
I'm working hard for my dream life
To be my real life
And that can't be wrong
All I have is this life
So I'm making it what I want ~ Colbie Caillat

She felt as though her nerves were strings being strained tighter and tighter on some sort of screwing peg. She felt her eyes opening wider and wider, her fingers and toes twitching nervously, something within oppressing her breathing, while all shapes and sounds seemed in the uncertain half-light to strike her with unaccustomed vividness. Moments of doubt were continually coming upon her, when she was uncertain whether the train were going forwards or backwards, or were standing still altogether; whether it were Annushka at her side or a stranger. "What's that on the arm of the chair, a fur cloak or some beast? And what am I myself? Myself or some other woman?" She was afraid of giving way to this delirium. But something drew her towards it, and she could yield to it or resist it at will. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Always remember there is more to be lost from standing still than there ever was from risking it all. ~ Martha R. Carr

Courage is standing still even though you want to run. Courage is planting yourself and turning towards the thing that scares you, whether it's your leg or your friends or the guy who could break your heart again. It's opening your eyes and staring that fear down. ~ A J Betts

In point of fact there are a certain number of values and of forces which are of decisive importance in our world civilization: the primacy of production, the continual growth of the power of the State and the formation of the National State, the autonomous development of technics , etc. These, among others far more than the ownership of the means of production or any totalitarian doctrine are the constitutive elements of the modern world. So long as these elements continue to be taken for granted, the world is standing still. ~ Jacques Ellul

They were one flame made out of two people, with a love that had endured all the challenges and tragedies of life. But they were still standing, still alive, and still whole. ~ Danielle Steel

Many a false step is made standing still. ~ Patti LaBelle

There is no standing still because time is moving forward. ~ Greg Lake

If I can hit a curveball, why can't I hit a ball that is standing still on a course? ~ Larry Nelson

Standing still is never a good option. Not in the ring, and not in life ... When you stop moving, you're done. ~ Georges St-Pierre

If you wait for certainty, you will spend your whole life standing still.
And if you grow discouraged and give up when things get rough, you'll miss out on your best possible destiny. So the secret is to be excited about what is in your power to control, be accepting of what's not in your power to control, and then move with certainty into an uncertain future. ~ Kevin Hart - I Can't Make This Up

Admirals extolled for standing still, or doing nothing with a deal of skill. ~ William Cowper

When God says go forward, don't even think about standing still. ~ Beth Moore

Have you noticed," she asked him, "how standing still can sometimes be no different from moving backward? For the whole world moves on and leaves one behind. ~ Mary Balogh

The academic mind reflects infinity, and is full of light by the simple process of being shallow and standing still. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Life is a nomadic journey. A road without trees to shelter us from the rain, without shoulders on which to rest, without lighthouses to show us the way when we are lost. I can't waste the life I've been given by standing still and lamenting the past until my days run out. I must get up and fight; I must keep providing for my family. I must keep moving forward, not just for myself, but also for my daughter and for all those who are no longer with us. Because in the end, that's why we're here, right? The only reason we are given life is to live it. ~ Miquel Reina

Swamps where cedars grow and turtles wait on logs but not for anything in particular; fields bordered by crooked fences broken by years of standing still; orchards so old they have forgotten where the farmhouse is. In the north I have eaten my lunch in pastures rank with ferns and junipers, all under fair skies with a wind blowing. ~ E.B. White

The breath must be enticed or cajoled, like catching a horse in a field, not by chasing after it, but by standing still with an apple in one's hand. ~ B.K.S. Iyengar

He was looking backwards, and that was an entirely different thing. Looking backwards was
important, even when you were standing still. He had to see what was there. There was something
back there, and even if everybody else didn't see it, he had to. ~ Aelius Blythe

Nothing on this earth is standing still. It's either growing or it's dying. No matter if it's a tree or a human being. ~ Lou Holtz

I played a lot of baseball growing up, and I always hit better if I kept moving before the pitch instead of standing still in the batter's box. I think a waggle does the same thing in the golf swing. It keeps you relaxed and gets your body ready to hit the ball. ~ Jason Dufner

I dreamily and digestively drowse. I have time, between synaesthesias. And it's extraordinary to think that, if I were asked right now what I want for this short life, I could think nothing better than these long slow minutes, this absence of thought and emotion, of action and almost o sensation itself, this inner sunset of dissipated desire. And then it occurs to me, almost without thinking, that most if not all people live like this, with greater or lesser consciousness, moving forward or standing still, but still with the very same indifference towards ultimate aims, the same renunciation of their personal goals, the same watered-down life. ~ Fernando Pessoa

We waste a lot of time running after people we could have caught by just standing still. ~ Mignon McLaughlin

You know when you're on a train at a station and there's another train opposite and the other train starts moving and there's that utterly convincing illusion that it's your train that is moving and you feel a bit disorientated when you realise you're still standing still. That's what my life has been like since Freddie left. ~ Glenn Haybittle

My tides were fluctuating, too - back and forth, back and forth - sometimes so fast they seemed to be spinning. They call this 'rapid cycling.' It's a marvel that a person can appear to be standing still when the mood tides are sloshing back and forth, sometimes sweeping in both directions at once. They call that a 'mixed state.' ~ Jane Pauley

But however fast the world was spinning, time was standing still for Celine and Oliver, held in a magic moment they would never forget. ~ Betty Neels

It's more comfortable standing still thinking of nothing. ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

We all think we're going to be great and we feel a little bit robbed when our expectations aren't met. But sometimes our expectations sell us short. Sometimes the expected simply pales in comparison to the unexpected. You got to wonder why we cling to our expectations, because the expected is just what keeps us steady. Standing. Still. The expected's just the beginning, the unexpected is what changes our lives. ~ Shonda Rhimes

They want a woman who is a canvas, white and empty. Standing still, existing for no other purpose than to serve as a mute object onto which they can paint their own hopes and desires. They want their brides veiled. They want a demure, blank space they can fill with whatever they desire."
"Miss Lowell, you magnificent creature, I want you to paint your own canvas. I want you to unveil yourself. ~ Courtney Milan

He could scarcely distinguish between sleep and wakefulness now, on the third day, found no important differences, either, between walking and standing still. ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I changed my headlights the other day. I put in strobe lights instead! Now
when I drive at night, it looks like everyone else is standing still ... ~ Steven Wright

if you're wrong, you will die. But most companies don't die because they are wrong; most die because they don't commit themselves. They fritter away their valuable resources while attempting to make a decision. The greatest danger is in Standing still ~ Andrew S. Grove

Do you know its meaning, Caladan?'
'Pur Rakess Calas ne A'nom. Roughly, Strength in Standing Still.'
'A'nom', said the Son of Darkness, frowning.
'Perhaps,' the Azathanai said, 'as a babe, you were quick to stand.'
'And Rakess? Or Rake, as you would call me?'
'Only what I see in you, and what all others see in you. Strength.'
'I feel no such thing.'
'No one who is strong does. ~ Steven Erikson

Standing still is never an option so long as inequities remain embedded in the very fabric of the culture. ~ Tim Wise

Ponder and his fellow students watched Hex carefully.
'It can't just, you know, stop,' said Adrian 'Mad Drongo' Tumipseed.
'The ants are just standing still,' said Ponder. He sighed. 'All right, put the wretched thing back.'
Adrian carefully replaced the small fluffy teddy bear above Hex's keyboard. Things immediately began to whirr. The ants started to trot again. The mouse squeaked.
They'd tried this three times.
Ponder looked again at the single sentence Hex had written.
+++ Mine! Waaaah +++
'I don't actually think,' he said, gloomily, 'that I want to tell the Archchancellor that this machine stops working if we take its fluffy teddy bear away. I just don't think I want to live in that kind of world.'
'Er,' said Mad Drongo, 'you could always, you know, sort of say it needs to work with the FTB enabled...
'You think that's better?' said Ponder, reluctantly. It wasn't as if it was even a very realistic interpretation of a bear.
'You mean, better than "fluffy teddy bear"?'
Ponder nodded. 'It's better,' he said. ~ Terry Pratchett

Nothing is ever solved, or created, by standing still. Movement is the process of the Universe. So move. Do something. Anything. But do not stand still. Do not fence sit. Put your foot down on one side or the other, swing the opposite leg over and start walking. You'll know before you take ten steps if you're going in the right direction. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

Time is standing still; we are moving with the waves of life. ~ Debasish Mridha

It was then that I began to understand that everything in the room had stopped, like the watch and the clock, a long time ago. I noticed that Miss Havisham put down the jewel exactly on the spot from which she had taken it up. As Estella dealt the cards, I glanced at the dressing-table again, and saw that the shoe upon it, once white, now yellow, had never been worn. I glanced down at the foot from which the shoe was absent, and saw that the silk stocking on it, once white, now yellow, had been trodden ragged. Without this arrest if everything, this standing still of all the pale decayed objects, not even the withered bridal dress on the collapsed form could not have looked so like grave-clothes, or the long veil so like a shroud. ~ Charles Dickens

Nothing stands today where it stood yesterday. The choice which life presents is ever more between growth and decay, perfection and deterioration. There is no standing still, not can be. Advance or recede, occupy or give place, are the stern and inoperative alternatives, [the] self-existing and self-enforcing law of life, from the cradle to the grave.

He who despairs of progress despises the hope of the world, and shuts himself out from the chief significance of assistance -- and is dead while he lives. ~ Frederick Douglass

I know life well enough to know you can't count on things staying around or standing still, no matter how much you want them to. You can't stop people from dying. You can't stop them from going away. You can't stop yourself from going away either. I know myself well enough to know that no one else can keep you awake or keep you from sleeping. ~ Jennifer Niven

I've always been better moving than I am standing still. ~ Neil Young

'The Machinist' changed me. I learned that I really enjoy, literally, not saying a damned word for days at a time, except for what was in the scene. Whole days of ... nothing. Just ... standing still. I know a lot of people found it bizarre, because they'd be standing right next to me thinking, 'Why aren't we talking? What's going on?' ~ Christian Bale

But it is relevant. Because is and was is the difference between time standing still, and time moving forward. ~ Jay McLean

A man with no children can easily be lulled into a sense that time is standing still. It's not. It's marching past us, relentlessly. Having a child growing and changing before your eyes makes this unavoidably clear. ~ Jonathan V. Last

What I am trying to say is that it is not without any value. The value of copies is that they can direct us towards the original. I was recently at the Louvre Museum and I was filming people who were viewing the Mona Lisa. I noticed the number of ordinary people, astonished, mouths agape, standing still for long stretches looking at the work, and I wondered, "Where does this come from? Are these people all art connoisseurs?" They are like me; through the years, we've seen this work in our schoolbooks or art history books, but when we stand before the original, we hold our breath. ~ Abbas Kiarostami

Like most people, you are not able to face more than one fear during your lifetime. You also spend your life fleeing from your first fear towards your first hope. Be careful that you do not, through your own wiliness, end up always in the same position in which you began. I do not advise you to spend your life surrounding yourself with those things which you term necessary to your existence, regardless of whether or not they are objectively interesting in themselves or even to your own particular intellect. I believe sincerely that only those men who reach the stage where it is possible for them to combat a second tragedy within themselves, and not the first over and over again, are worthy of being called mature. When you think someone is going ahead, make sure that he is not really standing still. In order to go ahead, you must leave things behind which most people are unwilling to do. Your first pain, you carry it with you like a lodestone in your breast because all tenderness will come from there. You must carry it with you through your whole life but you must not circle around it. You must give up the search for those symbols which only serve to hide its face from you. You will have the illusion that they are disparate and manifold but they are always the same. if you are only interested in a bearable life, perhaps this letter does not concern you. For god's sake, a ship leaving port is still a wonderful thing to see. ~ Jane Bowles

I am standing still," Kelly said. "What, does that thing not work when I'm talking? It gets distracted? It's a metal detector with ADD? ~ Abigail Roux

He had been standing still; for an artist, one of the more painful forms of death. ~ Irving Stone

The Master Speed No speed of wind or water rushing by but you have speed far greater. You can climb back up a stream of radiance to the sky, and back through history up the stream of time. And you were given this swiftness, not for haste nor chiefly that you may go where you will, but in the rush of everything to waste, that you may have the power of standing still
off any still or moving thing you say. Two such as you with such a master speed From one another once you are agreed that life is only life forevermore together wing to wing and oar to oar. ~ Robert Frost

The feeling of Sunday is the same everywhere, heavy, melancholy, standing still. Like when they say, As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. ~ Jean Rhys

I wish I knew I was doing this right," Cheris said, "but there's nothing to it but to move forward."

"The only unforgivable sin in war is standing still," Jedao said. "It's better to be doing the wrong thing wholeheartedly than freeze. ~ Yoon Ha Lee

Some primary reasons that both Plato and Aristotle had for believing in God were utterly erroneous - simple errors caused by our being stuck to the planet and misled by the sensation that the planet is standing still. If they had been aware that the Earth spins, they would have understood that, by and large, we are making our own light show in the night sky. As it was, the precision of the movements of all the stars seemed astonishing. If we knew how we lined up among the planets, their motion would not seem so strange and willful. Also, had the philosophers been able to leave planet Earth for a jaunt in outer space, they could have seen that, at a distance from gravity and atmosphere, moving things tend to keep moving, without any need for an impelling force. From out there, the motion of the planets would seem natural as well. ~ Jennifer Michael Hecht

Moving forward implies MOTION when in all actuality it may be simply standing STILL and seeing the salvation of the Lord. ~ John Paul Warren

[S]torytelling, in ancient and modern practice, is always a contemplation of the experience of time passing. A story depends on things not standing still, on the built-in condition of impermanence. ~ Joan Silber

Which would you prefer? To be perpetually standing still or perpetually running? ~ Benjamin Lebert

It may look like I'm moving but I'm standing still. ~ Bob Dylan

I didn't answer him and didn't open my eyes, and there was a moment of perfect vertigo, when I heard the whooshing of the surf again and felt I was part of it, swirling with it and also standing still, swept up an sewn into the sea and into the universe, but also very, very alone. ~ Paula McLain

Time is a very rum thing, as Shakespeare knew--ambling, trotting, galloping and sometimes standing still; though why he had to add "withal" to these interesting facts we cannot explain. Perhaps he could not explain either, but wrote whatever came into his head. ~ Angela Thirkell

It's only when movement becomes the most natural state in our lives that we can finally begin to enjoy the motion. And it's only when standing still becomes impossible that we can finally embrace the kinds of changes that are inevitable in our lives.
We were not designed to stand still. If we were, we'd have at least three legs. We were designed to move. Our bodies are bodies that have walked across vast continents. Our bodies are bodies that have carried objects of art and war over great distances. We are no less mobile than our ancestors. We are athletes. We are warriors. We are human. ~ John Bingham

Don't make the mistake of doing nothing. Standing still is not an acceptable option. You can be like a deer on the highway caught in the headlights--freezing in your tracks until life passes you by--or you can move. If you move, you increase the odds of living longer and better. ~ Art E. Berg

I'm as deadly as a marine, when compared to marine plant life. It took lots of water, sunlight, and standing still to get this badass. ~ Jarod Kintz

CLEOPATRA
Did you see Octavia?

MESSENGER
Yes, revered Queen.

CLEOPATRA
Where?

MESSENGER
In Rome, Madam. I saw her face as she walked with her brother and Mark Antony.

CLEOPATRA
Is she as tall as I am?

MESSENGER
She is not, madam.

CLEOPATRA
Did you hear her speak? Is her voice pitched high or low?

MESSENGER
Madam, I heard her speak. She has a low-pitched voice.

CLEOPATRA
That's not so good. He cannot like her long.

MESSENGER
Like her? Oh, Isis, that's impossible.

CLEOPATRA
You're right. Charmian, she's both dull-spoken and dwarfishly little. - Did she carry herself with majesty? Compare her to any memory you might have of royalty.

MESSENGER
She creeps along. Moving or standing still, her bearing is about the same. She has a body, not a life. She's more like a statue than a living, breathing human being.

CLEOPATRA
Is this true?

MESSENGER
If not, then I have no powers of observation.

CHARMIAN
There aren't three people in all of Egypt who could do better.

CLEOPATRA
He's very observant. I can tell. She doesn't have anything going for her so far. This messenger is wise.

CLEOPATRA
(to MESSENGER ) How old do you think she is?

MESSENGER
She was a widow previously, madam

CLEOPATRA
A widow? Do you h ~ William Shakespeare

Because, sir, the way I look at it is that we are all drawing on to the bottom of the hill, whatever age we are, on account of time never standing still for a single moment. So let us always do a kindness, and be over-rejoiced. To be sure! ~ Charles Dickens

Life is like riding a bike. It is impossible to maintain your balance while standing still. ~ Linda Brakeall

The reality is that SXSW is packed with brilliant entrepreneurs, investors and partners. They're everywhere, zipping back and forth like thousands of atoms. Your chances of colliding with one actually improve just by standing still. ~ Ryan Holmes

Dude, you're creeping me out," Kevin said, reaching for his shorts.
Before he could pull them back on I dropped the hose and bee-lined toward him, wrapping him in a bear hug. "You really are my brother."
"Huh?" Kevin asked, standing still as a statue.
"Shhh…just let me love you."
"What exactly is going on out here?" Dre asked from the porch, flipping on the light. I still didn't let go.
"He's my brother. I'm sure of it now," I informed her.
"I Have no idea what's going on," Kevin said, wigging from my grip.
"Oh yeah? … How are you so sure?"
I stepped back and pointed down to Kevin's massive cock. "Because of that! ~ T.M. Frazier

Life is constantly whirring, dancing; it creates sparks, sparks that are beautiful, some which can burn. Life is many things. Above all else, life is movement. It is not stagnant. If you want to live, join the dance. Catch up to life. Standing still and waiting for life to happen is fruitless, you will merely see it pass you by in its swirling light. ~ Lila Lockhart

I've always had this thing where I can't stop. I hate standing still. ~ Charlie Fink

There are two types of panicking: standing still and not saying a word, and leaping all over the place babbling anything that comes into your head. ~ Lemony Snicket

It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change. ~ Miles Davis

Time is standing still like the sun. We are the ones moving around time like planets orbiting the sun. ~ Debasish Mridha

There is no such thing as standing still; you either move forward or regress. ~ Bohdi Sanders

You say to yourself, 'How can a little girl be a grandmother.' It takes some little time to accept and realize the fact that while you have been growing old, your friends have not been standing still, in that matter. ~ Mark Twain

Yes, I do. The ones who aren't growing and evolving, who are standing still. They're the ones who rarely got better.' 'Yes, that was it,' said Gamache. 'They waited for life to happen to them. They waited for someone to save them. Or heal them. They did nothing for themselves.' 'Ben,' said Peter. ~ Louise Penny

The largest locomotive in the world can be held in its tracks while standing still simply by placing a single one-inch block of wood in front of each of the eight drive wheels. The same locomotive moving at 100 miles per hour can crash through a wall of steel-reinforced concrete five feet thick. That ~ Zig Ziglar

Now time is standing still. We've torn it in two. Now only we two are here; we two, you and me and no one else. ~ Erich Maria Remarque

This is what a memorial is: standing still, staring at something that isn't ther ~ David Levithan