Closing Quotes
More Closing Quotes
The era of free speech is closing down. The freedom of the press in Britain was always something of a fake, because in the last resort, money controls opinion; still, so long asthe legal right tosay what you like exists, there are always loopholes for an unorthodox writer.
— 1938 In the New Leader, 24 Jun.
Politics is just like show business?a hell of an opening, you coast for a while, you have a hell of a closing.
— 1995 In the NewYorkTimes, 23 Apr.
Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during a moment.
Carl Sandburg— 1923 'Poetry Considered', in the Atlantic Monthly, Mar.
The enemies of the Soviet state calculate that the heavy loss we have borne will lead to disorder and confusion in our ranks. But their expectations are in vain: bitter disillusionment awaits them. He who is not blind sees that our party, during its difficult days, is closing its ranks still more closely, that it is united and unshakable.
lavrentiy beria— Quoted in “The Current Digest of the Soviet Press – Page 9 – by Joint Committee – World Politics – 1953
I will venture to assert, that a just translation of any ancient poet in rhyme is impossible. No human ingenuity can be equal to the task of closing every couplet with sounds homotonous, expressing at the same time the full sense, and only the full sense of his original.
william cowper— The Iliad of Homer: translated into English blank verse (1791), "Preface".
Go at it boldly, and you'll find unexpected forces closing round you and coming to your aid.
basil king— Chapter I : Fear And The Life-Principle, § XI, p. 29; sometimes paraphrased: "Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid."
The punctuation of anniversaries is terrible, like the closing of doors, one after another between you and what you want to hold on to.
anne morrow lindbergh— Diary entry on the first anniversary of the kidnapping and death of her son Charles Augustus Lindbergh III (1 March 1932); later published in Locked Rooms and Open Doors (1974) ISBN 0156529564
The days of wine and roses laugh and run away like a child at playThrough the meadow land toward a closing doorA door marked "nevermore" that wasn't there before
johnny mercer— Song The Days of Wine and Roses
Technology is closing the gap between what one can imagine and what one can do and as a result the equality of opportunity is unmatched in human history.
matt mullenweg— Steppin' off the Edge, Podcast Interview, January 2011
We are in a state where these semi-literate clerics are closing the minds of people.
pervez musharraf— Pakistan's President Says Muslim Nations Should Stop Blaming Others May 2007
We knew that by closing the Gulf of Aqaba it might mean war with Israel. [If war comes] it will be total and the objective will be to destroy Israel.
gamal abdel nasser— As quoted in the Washington Post (27 May 1967)
But dinner is dinner, a meal at which not so much to eat — it becomes difficult to eat much at it as you grow older — as to drink, to talk, to flirt, to discuss, to rejoice "at the closing of the day". I do not think anything serious should be done after it, as nothing should before breakfast.
george saintsbury— A Scrap Book (1922, p. 31)
The palmist looks at the wrinkles made by closing the hand and says they signify character. The philosopher reads character by what the hand most loves to close upon.
ambrose bierce— p. 360 (Epigrams)
Night had come on like the closing of a great but gentle eye.
ray bradbury— Here There Be Tygers (1951)
From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: When nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay, And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high, 'Arise, ye more than dead!' Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry, In order to their stations leap, And Music's power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: From harmony to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in Man.
john dryden— St. 1. (A Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1687))
[My mother] closed the school the next day [after a visit from Castro's soldiers], because she knew that the purpose of education was the broadening and opening of children's minds. And she couldn't be a party to the systematic closing of minds, borders, freedoms and ideals.
gloria estefan— Address to LULAC (July 1, 2005)
The whole wood seemed running now, running hard, hunting, chasing, closing in round something or somebody? In panic, he began to run too, aimlessly, he knew not whither.
Kenneth Grahame— Ch. 3 (The Reluctant Dragon)
It was as if, at moments, we were perpetually coming into sight of subjects before which we must stop short, turning suddenly out of alleys that we perceived to be blind, closing with a little bang that made us look at each other for, like all bangs, it was something louder than we had intended the doors we had indiscreetly opened.
Henry James— Ch. XIII (The Turn of the Screw (1898))
You go down to the pick up station Craving warmth and beauty You settle for less than fascination A few drinks later you're not so choosy When the closing lights strip off the shadows On this strange new flesh you've found Clutching the night to you like a fig leaf You hurry To the blackness And the blankets To lay down an impression And your loneliness.
joni mitchell— "Down to You" from Court and Spark
With a wracking head and literally my whole body shaking as with ague I write this and tell you I have just this afternoon early finished Clavicembalisticum... The closing 4 pages are so cataclysmic and catastrophic as anything I've ever done the harmony bites like nitric acid the counterpoint grinds like the mills of God...
kaikhosru shapurji sorabji— Letter to his friend the Scots composer Erik Chisholm (1904-65) upon completion of Opus clavicembalisticum, 1930; quoted by pianist John Ogdon.
Over me, around me, closing in on me, embracing me ever nearer, was the Eternal; that which was before the beginning, and that which triumphs over the end; that enormous void in which all light and life and being is but the thin and vanishing splendour of a falling star, the cold, the stillness, the silence the infinite and final Night of space.
— The First Men in the Moon (1901), Ch. 19
This B-17 met a head-on attack by three Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighters. The gunners exploded two of them, and the top turret poured a stream of shells into the cockpit of the third. With a dead man at the controls, the fighter screamed in, and at a closing speed of 550 miles per hour smashed head-on into the number-three engine.
— Martin Caidin, in his book Black Thursday (1960)
The act the act must not be a revenge. It must be a calm, weary renunciation, a closing of accounts, a private, rhythmic deed. The last remark.
cesare pavese— Cesare Pavese, This Business of Living, 1950-05-10
Beware of that which becomes the slanderer's life, of magnifying every speck of evil and closing the eye to goodness, till at last men arrive at the state in which generous, universal love (which is heaven) becomes impossible, and a suspicious, universal hate takes possession of the heart, and that is hell.
— Frederick William Robertson, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 402.
Two hands rise, separating into y?n and yáng Left and right like a y?n and yáng fish Movement springs from extreme stillness, opening then closing Relax the shoulders and sit on the leg as if embracing the moon Two hands form into y?n and yáng palms Two palms crossed over for locking joints Wait for opportunity before moving, watch for changes Create opportunity by following the opponent's force
— Wu Jianquan, son of Wu Quanyou - from a didactic poem quoted by his son Wu Gongzao in Wu Family T'ai Chi Ch'uan (?), Hong Kong, 1980 (originally published in Changsha, 1935)
The armourers, accomplishing the knights, With busy hammers closing rivets up, Give dreadful note of preparation.
— Act IV. Chorus, line 12. "With clink of hammers closing rivets up." Colley Cibber's altered version of Richard III, Act V, scene 3.
From harmony, from heavenly harmony, This universal frame began: From harmony, to harmony Through all the compass of the notes it ran, The diapason closing full in man.
— John Dryden (1631–1700), A Song for St. Cecilia's Day, line 11. Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 147-148.
