Upright Quotes

A man should be upright, not be kept upright. (Marcus Aurelius)
O conscience, upright and stainless, how bitter a sting to thee is a little fault! View quote
Dante Alighieri
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left us in a bad time. View quote
E. B. White
The little reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over. View quote
Aesop
It's not magic! It's physics. The speed of the turn is what keeps you upright. It's like a spinning top. View quote
Deborah Bull
A monarch's neck should always have a noose around it. It keeps him upright. View quote
Robert A. Heinlein
I run upright mostly when I see daylight, so if you watch film you'll see I don't get hit in the chest much. View quote
Eric Dickerson
I gave up on this stuff. I gave up on my species and ... I gave up on my countrymen. Because I think we squandered great gifts. I think humans were given great great gifts: walking upright, binocular vision, opposable thumb, large brain ... We grew. We had great gifts, and we gave it all up for both money and God ... We gave it all up to superstition, primitive superstition, primitive shit ... Invisible man in the sky, looking down, keeping track of what we do, make sure we don't do the wrong thing, if we do, he puts us in hell, where we burn forever. That kind of shit is very limiting for this brain we have. So we keep ourselves limited. And then we want a toy and a gizmo and gold and we want shiny things, and we want something to plug in that will make big big big things for us... And all that shit is nothing! It's nothing. View quote
George Carlin
I love to read the dedications of old books written in monarchies-for they invariably honor some (usually insignificant) knight or duke with fulsome words of sycophantic insincerity, praising him as the light of the universe (in hopes, no doubt, for a few ducats to support future work); this old practice makes me feel like such an honest and upright man, by comparison, when I put a positive spin, perhaps ever so slightly exaggerated, on a grant proposal. View quote
Stephen Jay Gould
There is only one position for an artist anywhere; and that is upright. View quote
Dylan Thomas
I took the frets out of my bass after I was getting into jazz a lot and I wanted to have that upright sound. (Jaco Pastorius)
We have reason to believe that man first walked upright to free his hands for masturbation. View quote
Lily Tomlin
A man is whole only when he takes into account his shadow as well as himself - and what is a man's shadow but his upright astonishment? View quote
Djuna Barnes
I ask no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy. View quote
Sarah Grimké
This life we live nowadays! It's not life, it's stagnation, death-in-life. Look at all these bloody houses, and the meaningless people inside them! Sometimes I think we're all corpses. Just rotting upright. View quote
George Orwell
May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true. May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong. May you stay forever young. View quote
Bob Dylan
All sanity depends on this that it should be a delight to feel heat strike the skin, a delight to stand upright, knowing the bones are moving easily under the flesh. View quote
Doris Lessing
The Sun shineth as well on the good as the bad: God from on high beholdeth all the workers of iniquity, as well as the upright of heart. View quote
Thomas Nashe
The more the Jew is a Jew, the more universalist will his views and aspirations be, the less aloof will he be from anything that is noble and good, true and upright, in art or science, in culture or education; the more joyfully will he applaud whenever he sees truth and justice and peace and the ennoblement of man prevail and become dominant in human society. View quote
Samson Raphael Hirsch
And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That to the highth of this great Argument I may assert th' Eternal Providence, And justifie the wayes of God to men. View quote
John Milton
Everyone knew that democracy - direct rule by all the people - required such spartan, soul-denying virtue on the part of all the people that it was likely to survive only where poverty made upright behavior necessary for the perpetuation of the race. (Bernard Bailyn)
You know, bicycling isn't just a matter of balance," I said. "it's a matter of faith. You can keep upright only by moving forward. You have to have your eyes on the goal, not the ground. I'm going to call that the Bicyclist's Philosophy of Life. View quote
Susan Vreeland
So Pa sold the little house. He sold the cow and calf. He made hickory bows and fastened them upright to the wagon box. Ma helped him stretch white canvas over them. View quote
Laura Ingalls Wilder
If you cannot stand a spoon upright in the cup, then the coffee is too weak. View quote
Lawrence Block
Someone skipped on the rent and they left behind a huge upright piano, which got moved into our apartment so the other apartment could get rented out. I took to it and started playing. View quote
Cy Coleman
📖 Upright Proverbs