Adage Quotes

I've always believed in the adage that the secret of eternal youth is arrested development. (Alice Roosevelt Longworth)

Every time is a time for comedy in a world of tension that would languish without it. But I cannot confine myself to lightness in a period of human life that demands light... We all know that, as the old adage has it, "It is later than you think."..., but I also say occasionally: "It is lighter than you think." In this light let's not look back in anger, or forward in fear, but around in awareness.

James Thurber

The old adage that polite conversation should not include talk of politics or religion is understandable because both subjects are so heavily laden with emotion that discussion can quickly turn to shouting. Blood is shed over politics, religion and the two in combination.

John Danforth

That adage about genius being 5 percent inspiration and 95 perspiration - it's true.

Yanni

What concerns me fundamentaly is a meteoric burlesk melodrama, born of the immemorial adage love will find a way.

E. E. Cummings

An ancient adage warns, "Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three."

Fred Brooks

Regardless of the difficulties we may face individually, in our families, in our communities and in our nation, the old adage is still true - you can make excuses or you can make progress, but you cannot make both! The America I know doesn't make excuses.

Mia Love

There's an adage that a lot of coaches have, that I completely disagree with, is if you make the Olympic team too early you become complacent.

Natalie Coughlin

I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film's abrasive and wrongfoots people then, y'know, that's great. But I hope it involves an audience.

Paul Thomas Anderson

There's that old adage about how there's only seven plots in the world and Shakespeare's done them all before.

Terri Windling

The major part of our species seems able to undergo any trauma without significantly re-examining its household mantras, including "everything happens for a reason,” "the show must go on,” "accept the things you cannot change,” and any other adage that gets people to keep their chins up. (Thomas Ligotti)

It is trifling to believe in what you do or in what others do. You should avoid simulacra and even "realities"; you should take up a position external to everything and everyone, drive off or grind down your appetites, live, according to a Hindu adage, with as few desires as a "solitary elephant.

Emil Cioran

I hope telling stories though 'Making a Difference' - as in my academic work and nonprofit work - will help me to live my grandmother's adage of 'Life is not about what happens to you, but about what you do with what happens to you.'

Chelsea Clinton

The old adage which says that it is ‘whom you know that counts' is far off the mark. It is what you know about whom you know that truly makes difference.

Judith McNaught

There is a homely adage which runs, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick you will go far.' If the American nation will speak softly and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far.

Theodore Roosevelt

Bad books on writing tell you to "WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW", a solemn and totally false adage that is the reason there exist so many mediocre novels about English professors contemplating adultery.

Joe Haldeman

Shortly after 9/11 a French spokesman for the activist group ATTAC quoted the adage: "He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind." French prime minister Lionel Jospin seemed to be pointing in this direction when he asked, "What lesson are the Americans going to draw from what has happened?" The lesson, Jospin indicated, should be for the U.S. to moderate her unilateralism. For Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German Bishops' Conference, the lesson to be drawn from terrorism was that "the West must not seek to dominate the rest of the world."

Jean-François Revel

Although the adage "If you find a good move, look for a better one" is often attributed to Lasker, it actually dates earlier.

Emanuel Lasker

There's an old saying that states something about leaving the best for last. [Writer/producer] George Lucas certainly didn't follow that adage when crafting the original Star Wars trilogy. Return of the Jedi, the final installment of the series, is easily the least innovative and most hokey of the three films. In fact, most of the enjoyment derived from this motion picture comes from the simple act of getting together with old friends and enemies one more time. If Luke, Han, Leia, and Vader were replaced by nameless, faceless characters, Return of the Jedi wouldn't be a whole lot more interesting than Independence Day.

James Berardinelli

I consider myself to be a true friend of the Israeli people. But I define friendship as someone who takes care of a friend, who just doesn't use or exploit a friend. And, you know, there's that old adage: 'Friends don't let friends drive drunk.

Scott Ritter

Everyone admits that "the truth hurts" but no one applies this adage to himself - and as soon as it begins to hurt us, we quickly repudiate it and call it a lie. It is this tendency toward self-deception (more than any active sin) that makes human progress slow and almost imperceptible. (Sydney J. Harris)

Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.

Milan Kundera

Dictators during the entire history of this planet have used similar techniques. By not letting the people of their country know what conditions existed outside their boundaries, they could get the people to fight to stay in those conditions. It was the old adage: Convince a slave that he's free, and he will fight to maintain his slavery.

Samuel R. Delany

You know the old adage that the customer's always right? Well, I kind of think that the opposite is true. The customer is rarely right.

Charlie Trotter

I went with the old adage that you should write what you know. What I knew was 18th century Britain, so what I decided I would do is write a novel based on my dissertation research.

David Liss

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