Figure Quotes - 5
More Figure Quotes
Man is a singular creature. He has a set of gifts which makehimuniqueamong theanimals, sothat unlikethem he is not a figure in the landscapehe is the shaper of the landscape.
jacob bronowski— 1979 In The Listener.
You can't figure him out like a fact, because to Reagan themainfact was avision? He came fromtheheartland of the country, where people could be down-to-earth yet feel that the sky is the limitnot ashamed of, or cynical about, the American dream.
George P(ratt) Shultz— 1993 Of Ronald Reagan.Turmoil andTriumph.
Will she pass in a crowd? Will she make a figure in a country church?
jonathan swift— 1711Journal to Stella, 9 Feb.
[U]n symbole n'est, à proprement parler, ni vrai, ni faux; il est plus ou moins bien choisi pour signifier la réalité qu'il représente, il la figure d'une manière plus ou moins précise, plus ou moins détaillée...
pierre duhem— Now, a symbol is not, properly speaking, either true or false; it is, rather, something more or less well selected to stand for the reality it represents, and pictures that reality in a more or less precise, or a more or less detailed manner.
— Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem, translated by Philip P. Wiener (1991). The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton University Press. p. 168. ISBN 069102524X.
"It was sad to see his tall figure receding in the dark as we drove away, just like the other figures in New York and New Orleans: they stand uncertainly underneth inmense skies, and everything about them is drowned. Where go? what do? what for? — sleep."
jack kerouac— Part Two, Ch. 8
I watched and tried to figure out what he would have done. I was only sure of one thing: he wouldn't have left something like that sit there in the day room with his name tacked on it for twenty or thirty years so the Big Nurse could use it as an example of what can happen if you buck the system. I was sure of that.
ken kesey— "Chief, in Ch. 29
I don't know whether it's the governor's problem, or it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get ... on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now.
ray nagin— Interview with New Orleans radio station WWL, September 1, 2005
In my paintings, the question on whether figures are similar or not is not of any importance, the slightest change of figure or color can create a new painting and it doesn't really matter if a subject is revisited by an artist repeatedly. With enough time in between paintings, an artist can always bring to it something new.
guity novin— p. 4 (Ayandegan (1973))
I've sort of gotten into the habit of looking for the vulnerable guy, the guy who makes mistakes, the guy who can't figure things out all the time but keeps at it.
james (jimmy) stewart— On roles he looks for, as quoted in "Hollywood legend Jimmy Stewart dead at 89" at CNN (2 July 1997)
I figured out that my passion is not really for music. My passion is actually for people. So the exploration into different musics of different times has to do with trying to figure out who these people are, what this music represents and what context do we want to give it and what does it mean to us right now.
— National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday Jan. 14, 2007. NPR. Retrieved on 2009-02-03.
The Erie railroad kills 23 to 46; the other 845 railroads kill an average of one-third of a man each; and the rest of that million, amounting in the aggregate to that appalling figure of 987,631 corpses, die naturally in their beds! You will excuse me from taking any more chances on those beds. The railroads are good enough for me.
— Mark Twain, "The Danger of Lying in Bed", The Galaxy (February 1871), Volume 11, No. 2.
Malheureusement, ce portrait ne corrigera personne de la manie d’aimer de anges au doux sourire, à l’air rêveur, à figure candide, dont le cœur est un coffre-fort.
honoré de balzac— Unfortunately her portrait will cure no one of the addiction to loving sweetly smiling angels with dreamy looks, innocent faces, and a strong-box for a heart.La cousine Bette (1846), translated by Sylvia Raphael, ch. XXXVII: Moral reflections on immorality
Rien n'est-il si discret qu'un jeune visage, parce que rien n'est plus immobile. La figure d'une jeune femme a le calme, le poli, la fraîcheur de la surface d'un lac. La physionomie des femmes ne commence qu'à trente ans.
honoré de balzac— Nothing is so discreet as a young face, for nothing is less mobile; it has the serenity, the surface smoothness, and the freshness of a lake. There is no character in women’s faces before the age of thirty.Ch. VI: The Old Age of a Guilty Mother
I never perceived a contradiction in the political revolutionary field between the ideas I maintained and the idea of that symbol, that extraordinary figure who had been so familiar to me since I began to reason.
fidel castro— On Jesus Christ, as quoted in Fidel and Religion (1985) by Frei Betto
A CIA officer's name was blown and there was a leak and we needed to figure out how that happened, who did it, why, whether a crime was committed, whether we could prove it, whether we should prove it. Given national security was at stake, it was especially important that we find out accurate facts.
patrick fitzgerald— CIA probe 'not over' after Cheney's top aide indicted on CNN.com (October 28, 2005)[1]
One can say that the author is an ideological product, since we represent him as the opposite of his historically real function. (When a historically given function is represented in a figure that inverts it, one has an ideological production.) The author is therefore the ideological figure by which one marks the manner in which we fear the proliferation of meaning.
Michel Foucault— "What is an author?" (1984)
I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.
— H.G. Wells, British author (1866–1946) (from: [21]).
All words at every level of prose and poetry and all devices of language and speech derive their meaning from figure / ground relation.
Marshall McLuhan— quoted in McLuhan: A Guide for the Perplexed by W. Terrence Gordon, 2010, p. 167
I wish I could promise I'll Be there when you dream I wish that when you spoke to me I'd know what you mean But you can't bring me comfort By filling up my eyes They don't stay dry Hard as I try Can't figure why Made I this choice
happy rhodes— "If Wishes Were Horses, How Beggars Would Ride" - YouTube video
..it was with the utmost reluctance that I found the figure could not serve my purposes.. ..But a time came when none of us could use the figure without mutilating it. (1959, looking back to the 1930s, fh)
mark rothko— Abstract Expressionism, Davind Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990, p. 143
But to the world no bugbear is so great, As want of figure and a small estate.
Alexander Pope— Alexander Pope, First Book of Horace, Epistle I, line 67.
Miller was staring at him like an entomologist trying to figure out exactly where the pin went.
— Chapter 45 (p. 457) (Leviathan Wakes (2011))
A year ago this time, the third quarter figure for 2012... we were talking about negative growth of more than 3%.
— Tomohiko Taniguchi, Japan's councillor of the cabinet secretariat, quoted on BBC News, "Japan's economic growth slows down", November 14, 2013.
Have I not hideous death within my view, Retaining but a quantity of life Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax Resolveth from its figure 'gainst the fire?
— King John (1598), Act V, scene 4, line 22.
Besides promoting a religious movement of unusual fervour, Sri Basaveshwara was also a great literary figure and was one of the makers of Kannada literature.
— Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India quoted in Gandhi, Indira (1985). Selected Thoughts of Indira Gandhi: A Book of Quotes. Mittal Publications. pp. 35–. GGKEY:A2GGQ58B3WF.
The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
robert frost— Robert Frost, The Figure a Poem Makes (1939) Preface to Collected Poems.
Interestingly, modern science has estimated that the age of the earth is about 4 billion years. Scholars feel it is uncanny that the Vedic Aryans could have conceived of such a vast span of time over 3,500 years ago that would be similar to the same figure estimated by science today.
subhash kak— Dr. Subhash Kak, The Eastern Answers to the Mysteries of Life, page 25
The style of living is ascertained to have a powerful effect in modifying the human figure in the course of generations, and this even in its osseous structure.
— p.280 (Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844))
That he is mad, 'tis true; 'tis true 'tis pity; And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure; But farewell it, for I will use no art.
— Polonius, scene ii
Dale: I work at a college as a janitor even though I feel like I'm smarter than most of the people who go there. Sometimes I see an equation written on a blackboard, like half an equation and... I just figure it out.
Therapist: Is this Good Will Hunting?
Dale: No.
Therapist: It sounds a lot like the plot of Good Will Hunting.
Dale: Yeah, anyway. My best friend is Ben Affleck...
— Step Brothers (2008), John C. Reilly, Ian Roberts
