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danger quotes

  • The Knight in the triumph of his heart made several 6 reflections on thegreatness of the British Nation; as, that one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen; that we could never be in danger of Popery so long as we took care of our fleet; that theThames was thenoblest river in Europe; that London Bridge was a greater piece of work than any of the Seven Wonders of the World; with many other honest prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart of a true Englishman.

    -Joseph Addison
      In The Spectator, no.383, 20 May.

  • A neurotic can perfectly well be a literary genius, but his greatest danger isalwaysthat hewill not recognize when he is dull.

    - Louis Stanton Auchincloss
      Pioneers and Caretakers:  A Study of Nine American Women Novelists.

  • A real, honest, old-fashioned Boarding-school, where a reasonable quantity of accomplishments were sold at a reasonable price, and where girlsmight be sent to be out of the wayand scramblethemselves into a little education, without any danger of coming back prodigies.

    -Jane Austen
      Emma, ch.3.

  • Neither run into any kind of danger.

    -Book of Common Prayer
    Morning Prayer, Third Collect, for Grace.

  • There's death in the cupsae beware! Nay, morethere is danger in touching; But wha can avoid the fell snare? The man and his wine's sae bewitching!

    - Robert Burns
      'Inscription on a Goblet'.

  • Danger, the spur of all great minds.

    - George Chapman
      The Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois, act 5, sc.1.

  • The French will only be united under the threat of danger. How else can one govern a country that produces 246 different types of cheese?

    - Charles de Gaulle
      Speech. Quoted in Les Mots du Ge  ne  ral (1962).

  • Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high He sought the storms; but for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.

    -John Dryden
      Alluding to  Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury, leader of the Exclusion forces.  Absalom and Achitophel, pt.1, l.160^2.

  • Of course I realized there was a measure of danger. Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going.Once faced and settled there really wasn't any good reason to refer to it.

    -Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry
      20 Hours: 40 MinutesOur Flight in the Friendship, ch.5. US actor and director. He achieved fame initially for his roles in westerns,    but    more    recently    has    directed    several    well- respected  films,  including  Unforgiven  (1992)  and  Mystic River (2003).

  •   Thegrouseare inno dangerat all from peoplewhoshoot grouse.

    - Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
      Quoted in Private Eye, no.693, 8  Jul.

  • Like dancers on the ropes poor poets fare, Most perish young, the rest in danger are.

    - Sir George Etherege
      The Man of Mode or, Sir Fopling Flutter, prologue.

  • If I were reincarnated, I'd want to come back as a buzzard.Nothing hates him or envies him or wants him or needs him. He is never bothered or in danger, and he can eat anything.

    -William Harrison Faulkner
      Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

  • It is upon those who say that it is necessary to exclude forty-nine fiftieths of the working classes [from the vote] toshowcause, and Iventuretosay that every manwho is not presumably incapacitated by some consideration of personal unfitness or of political danger, is morally entitled to come within the pale of the Constitution.

    -W(illiam) E(wart) Gladstone
      House of Commons,11 May.

  • That feeling of exhilaration which a measure of danger brings to the visitor with a return ticket.

    - (Henry) Graham Greene
      The Quiet  American, introduction.

  • Motor racing is dangerous; but what is danger? It is dangerous to climb a mountain. It is dangerous to cross main roads. It is dangerous to explore a jungle.One cannot frame regulations to make everything safe.

    - Mike Hawthorn
      Shortly before his death. Quoted in Colin  Jarman The Guinness Dictionary of Sports Quotations (1990).

  • This [Magna Carta] has been forced from the King. It constitutes an insult to the Holy See, a serious weakening of the royal power, a disgrace to the English nation, a danger to all Christendom, since this civil war obstructs the crusade. Therefore†we condemn the charter and forbid the King to keep it, or the barons and their supporters to make him do so, on pain of excommunication.

    -Pope Innocent III originally Lotario de' Conti di Segni
      Papal Bull, 24  Aug.

  • Yet hope not life from grief or danger free, Nor think the doom of man reversed for thee: Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause awhile from letters, to be wise; There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail.

    - Samuel known as Dr Johnson Johnson
      The Vanity of Human Wishes, l.155^60.

  • He has no faith in physic. He does think Most of your doctors are the greater danger, And worse disease, t'escape.

    - Ben Jonson
      Volpone, act1, sc.4.

  • 'Tis grown almost a danger to speak true Of any good mind, now:There are so few.

    - Ben Jonson
      The Forest,'Epistle to Katherine, Lady Aubigny'.

  • A'sound' banker, alas! is not one who foresees danger and avoidsit, but onewho, whenheisruined, isruined in a conventional and orthodox wayalong with his fellows, so that no one can really blame him.

    -John Maynard, 1st Baron Keynes (of Tilton)
    Essays in Persuasion.

  • In every city there is a group of middle-aged and elderly women who in fact run it. The extent to which they are formally organised is no gauge of their real power. The way in which they respond to danger is that gauge; and from the frankness with which they express their intentions can be measured the extent of the danger.

    - Doris May ne  e Tayler Lessing
      A Proper Marriage, pt.3, ch.1.

  • One would be in less danger From the wiles of a stranger If one's own kin and kith Were more fun to be with.

    - (Frederic) Ogden Nash
    Hard Lines,'Family Court'.

  • Thank Heaven! the crisis The danger is past, And the lingering illness Is over at last And the fever called 'Living' Is conquered at last.

    - EdgarAllan Poe
      'ForAnnie'.

  • The best way to avoid danger is to meet it plump.

    - Sir Boyle Roche
    Quoted in SirJonah Barrington Personal Sketches and Recollections of his ownTimes (1827).

  • There can be no danger in sweetness and youth Where love is secured by good nature and truth, On her beauty I'll gaze, and of pleasure complain, While every kind look adds a link to my chain.

    -JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
    'The Submission', l.13^16 (published1680).

  • A society†which is riven by a dozen oppositions along lines running in every direction, mayactually be in less danger of being torn with violence or falling to pieces than one split along just one line. For each new cleavage contributes to narrow the cross clefts, so that one might say that society is sewn together by its internal conflicts.

    - Edward Alsworth Ross
      The Principles of Sociology.

  • The more rhymethere isin poetry the more dangerof its tricking the writer into something other than the urge in the beginning.

    - Carl Sandburg
    Quoted inTheComplete Poems of Carl Sandburg (1986),'Notes for a Preface'.

  • The bright face of danger.

    - Robert Louis Stevenson
      Across the Plains,'The Lantern-Bearers', pt.4.

  • Whenindanger, ponder. Whenintrouble, delegate. And when in doubt, mumble.

    - Robert Ferdinand,Jr Wagner
      In the NewYorkTimes,17 Feb.

  • I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is a struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world standsmoment by moment on the razor-edge ofdangerand must be fought forwhether it's a field, or a home, or a country.

    -Thornton Niven Wilder
      The Skin of OurTeeth, act 3.

  • Ninety-ninepercent of the people inthe world are fools, and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.

    -Thornton Niven Wilder
      The Matchmaker, act1.

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2010 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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