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neck quotes

  • Behold theturtle, itonlymakesprogresswhen it sticksits neckout.

    -Anonymous
    Favourite saying of Harvard's president  James B Conant. Quoted in  James G Hershberg James B Conant (1993).

  • After all, it is not where one washes one's neck that counts but where one moistens one's throat.

    - Djuna Barnes
      'Greenwich Village  As It Is', in Pearson's Magazine, Oct.

  • And it cameto pass, when hemade mention of thearkof God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Samuel 4:18.

  • Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valleyand rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Job 39:19^21.

  •    Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves'eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead. Thy teeth are like a flockof sheep that are evenshorn, whichcameup from the washing; whereof every one bear twins, and none is barren among them. Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks. Thy neck is like the tower of David builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Thy two breasts are liketwo young roesthat aretwins, which feed among the lilies.Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and tothehill of frankincense.Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.

    -Bible (Old Testament)
    Song of Solomon 4:1^7.

  • And whoso shall receive onesuch little child in my name receiveth me.But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

    -Bible (NewTestament)
    St Matthew18:5^6.

  • Utinam populus Romanus unam cervicem haberet! Would that the Roman people had but one neck!

    -Caligula properly GaiusJulius Caesar Germanicus
    c.40  AD  Quoted in Suetonius Lives of theTwelve Caesars,'Gaius Caligula', section 30.

  • When I warned the French that Britain would fight on alone,General Weygand told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinetthat inthreeweeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken. Some chicken, some neck!

    - Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill
      Speech to the Canadian Parliament, 30 Dec.

  • But afterall it's not the winning that matters, is it? Or is it? It'sto coinawordtheamenitiesthatcount: thesmell of the dandelions, the puff of the pipe, the click of the bat, the rain on the neck, the chill down the spine, the slow, exquisite coming on of sunset and dinner and rheumatism.

    - (Alfred) Alistair Cooke
    Quoted in Helen Exley Cricket Quotations (1992).

  • It's naked child against hungry wolf; it's playing bowls upon a splitting wreck; it's walking on a string across a gulf with millstones fore-and-aft about your neck; but the thing is daily done by manyand many a one; and we fall, face forward, fighting, on the deck.

    -John Davidson
      Ballads and Songs,'Thirty Bob a Week', stanza16.

  • Ihave eyes like a bullfrog, a neck like anostrich and long, limp hair.You just have to be good to survive with that equipment.

    - Bette originally Ruth Elizabeth Davis Davis
    Attributed.

  • Millstones around our neck.

    - Benjamin, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield Disraeli
    Of the colonies. Quoted in Robert Blake The Conservative Party from Peel to Churchill (1970).

  • A full bosom is actually a millstone around a woman's neck.

    - Germaine Greer
      The Female Eunuch,'Body: Curves'.

  • And naked to the hangman's noose The morning clocks will ring A neck God made for other use Than strangling in a string.

    - A(lfred) E(dward) Housman
      A Shropshire Lad, no.9.

  • Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent And round his heart one strangling golden hair. 698

    - Dante Gabriel Rossetti
    The House of Life,'Body's Beauty', pt.2.

  • Every known class of refusal was successfully exhibited. Onehorse endeavoured to climbtherailsintothe Grand Stand; another, having stoppeddeadatthecritical point, swung round, and returned in consternation to the starting-point, with hisrider hanging likea locket around his neck. Another, dowered with a sense of humour

    -Martin Ross
    Nicaraguan   dictator,   educated   in   the   US.   As   Chief   of   the National  Guard  he  established  himself  in  supreme  power  in the  early 1930s,  and  retained  it  until  assassinated,  when  the rule passed to his sons.

  • A short neckdenotes a good mind† You see, the messages go quicker to the brain because they've shorter to go.

    - Dame Muriel Sarah ne  e  Camberg Spark
      The Ballad of Peckham Rye, ch.7.

  • I opened a tin of Bologna sausage and broke a cake of chocolate, and that was all I had to eat. It may sound offensive, but I ate them together, bite by bite, by way of bread and meat. All I had to wash down this revolting mixture was neat brandy; a revolting beverage in itself. But I was rare and hungry; ate well, and smoked one of thebestcigarettesinmyexperience.Then Iput a stonein my straw hat, pulled the flap of my fur cap over my neck and eyes, put my revolver ready to hand, and snuggled well down among the sheepskins.

    - Robert Louis Stevenson
      Travels with a Donkey.

  • Prends l'e  loquence et tords-lui son cou! Take eloquence and break its neck!

    - Paul Verlaine
      Jadis et nague'  re,'Art poe  tique'.

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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