Invented Quotes - 4

... And I, who timidly hate life, fear death with fascination. I fear this nothingness that could be something else, and I fear it as nothing and as something else simultaneously, as if gross horror and non-existence could coincide there, as if my coffin could entrap the eternal breathing of a bodily soul, as if immortality could be tormented by confinement. The idea of hell, which only a satanic soul could have invented seems to me to have derived from this sort of confusion - a mixture of two different fears that contradict and contaminate each other.
Fernando Pessoa
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Flesh was the reason why oil painting was invented.

willem de kooning

— 1980  In Bulletin, Pittsburgh International Museum.

Tags: Flesh, reason, oil, painting

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If only to be born were being invented Merely, or, better still, to concoct oneself From an antique alembic, a receipt. How splendid To take the phial cleanly from its shelf; Powders and liquids, all one's favourite hues Making the being one would be, the looker at stars Or storks on the spires of Denmark, drinker of dews, Or an eye simply.


— 'Phials', collected in Quadrant,1964.

Tags: born, better, concoct, oneself, antique, alembic, receipt, splendid, phial

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Accurst be he that first invented war.

Christopher Marlowe

— 1587  Tamburlaine the Great (published1590), pt.1, act 2, sc.4.

Tags: first, war

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Honesty was a cheat invented first To bind the hands of bold deserving rogues, That fools and cowards might sit safe in power, And lord it uncontroll'd above their betters.

thomas otway

— 1682  Venice Preserved, or a Plot Discovered, act1, sc.1.

Tags: Honesty, cheat, first, bind, hands, bold, deserving, rogues, fools

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Bolaño's narrative style is fragmented and loaded. It is also full of a strange kind of gallows humour, as we are swept along by stories that are invented and presented entirely convincingly, only to be suddenly brought up short by a reminder that this has not been done innocently.

roberto bolaño

— Nick Caistor in The Guardian

Tags: Bolao's, narrative, style, fragmented, loaded, full, strange, kind, gallows

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When I finally gathered, invented, stole, simplified, borrowed, and found a publisher for a clutch of reasonably foolproof recipes, I learned I had friends I hadn't known about—more proof that a mutual dislike can be quite as sound a basis for friendship as a mutual devotion.

Peg Bracken

— I Didn't Come Here to Argue, "My Feud With Food," page 22.

Tags: When, finally, gathered, stole, simplified, borrowed, found, publisher, clutch

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I have closely studied the figured documents of all ages and of all the great masters, but I have never seen in them any representations of human beings walking on the extremity of the toes or raising the leg higher than the head. These ugly and false positions in no way express that state of unconscious Dionysiac delirium which is necessary to the dancer. Moreover movèments, just like harmonies in music, are not invented; they are discovered.

isadora duncan

— As quoted in Modern Dancing and Dancers (1912) by John Ernest Crawford Flitch, p. 106

Tags: closely, studied, figured, documents, ages, great, masters, never, seen

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Reflecting an amalgam of economics, monetary, and psychological factors, the stock market represents possibly the most subtly intricate game invented by man.

richard arnold epstein

— Chapter Nine, Weighted Statistical Logic And Statistical Games, p. 296

Tags: Reflecting, amalgam, economics, monetary, psychological, factors, stock, market, represents

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Not very long ago some one invented the assertion that there were only "Four Hundred" people in New York City who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen — the census taker — and his larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the "Four Million."

o. henry

— Preface

Tags: long, one, assertion, there, Four, Hundred, people, New, York

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It must not be forgotten that the rules of Courts of equity are not, like the rules of the common law, supposed to have been established from time immemorial. It is perfectly well known that they have been established from time to time — altered, improved, and refined from time to time. In many cases we know the names of the Chancellors who invented them.

george jessel

— In re Hallett's Estate (1880) 13 Ch.D. 696, 710.

Tags: forgotten, rules, Courts, equity, common, law, supposed, been, established

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...Far beyond the confines of a novel; at a single stroke he invented and perfected a new form. No man could write the gigantic story that lies behind 'Company K,' but William March, by a brilliant refinement of form, has given us its essence and its broad sweep, flashes of its intensity and rich variety.

william march

— Harold Strauss, from the 1933 Review of Company K for the New York Times.

Tags: Far, beyond, confines, novel, single, stroke, perfected, new, form

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Art... is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.


— Ch. 42 (Of Human Bondage (1915))

Tags: Art, refuge, ingenious, when, supplied, food, women, escape, tediousness

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The invariable sign of doctrines invented by men is confusion, contradiction, absurdity, and obscenity Idleness, theft, and viciousness dishonor your mother who in pain bore you.

mark rosenfelder

— Some of the original tenets in Jippirasti, another Almean religion

Tags: invariable, sign, doctrines, men, confusion, contradiction, absurdity, obscenity, Idleness

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We have been housekeeping a fortnight, now long enough to have learned how to pronounce the servants' names, but not how to spell them. We shan't ever learn to spell them; they were invented in Hungary and Poland, and on paper they look like the alphabet out on a drunk.

mark twain

— p. 121. (Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (2010))

Tags: We, been, fortnight, now, long, enough, learned, pronounce, servants'

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Since Switzerland has nothing else to identify it…and since both its national products, snow and chocolate, melt, the cuckoo clock was invented solely in order to give tourists something solid to remember it by.

alan coren

— "And Though They Do Their Best To Bring…"

Tags: Switzerland, nothing, identify, itand, both, national, products, snow, chocolate

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Plato and his objectivistic successors … preserved the awareness of differences that pragmatism has been invented to deny the difference between thinking in the laboratory and in philosophy, and consequently the difference between the destination of mankind and its present course.

max horkheimer

— p. 53 (Eclipse of Reason (1947))

Tags: Plato, objectivistic, successors, preserved, awareness, differences, pragmatism, been, deny

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Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.

henry miller

— Tropic of Capricorn (1939)

Tags: Confusion, word, we, order, understood

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A professional is one who believes he has invented breathing.

peter porter

— "Japanese Jokes", p. 62.

Tags: professional, one, who, believes, breathing

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You learn nothing if you carry with you a journalistic system of values, which is invented to save reporters from experience.

kenneth rexroth

— "Cub Reporter"

Tags: You, learn, nothing, carry, journalistic, system, values, save, reporters

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I suspect that the word (art) was invented by second-rate intelligences to describe the incomprehensible activities of their betters.

jack vance

— Chapter 10 (p. 111)

Tags: suspect, word, art, secondrate, intelligences, describe, incomprehensible, activities, betters

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Nothing that Shakespeare ever invented was to equal Lincoln's invention of himself and, in the process, us.

gore vidal

— "Lincoln and the Priests of Academe"

Tags: Nothing, Shakespeare, equal, Lincoln's, invention, himself, process, us

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I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.

marilyn monroe

— American actress and model (1926 - 1962)

Tags: lot, him, owe, women, all, but, heels, high, who

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I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of "agnostic." It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the "gnostic" of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant. To my great satisfaction the term took.


— Thomas Huxley, in ''Christianity and Agnosticism: A Controversy (1889)

Tags: thought, what, conceived, appropriate, title, agnostic, head, antithetic, gnostic

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What was invented two thousand years ago was the spirit of Christianity.


— Book II, Chapter XVIII. (Crowds (1913))

Tags: What, two, thousand, years, spirit, Christianity

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Fussing about split infinitives is one of the more tiresome pastimes invented by nineteenth-century grammarians.


— Barbara Strang in Modern English Structure

Tags: split, infinitives, one, more, tiresome, pastimes, nineteenthcentury, grammarians

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According to Eudemus, the Pythagoreans invented the problems concerning the application of areas, including the cases of defect and excess, as in Euclid, VI. 28 , 29 .


— p. 22 (The Greeks)

Tags: Eudemus, Pythagoreans, problems, concerning, application, areas, including, cases, defect

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DHCP was invented by a rabid gerbil on speed.


— Kees J. Bot Minix DHCPD manpage

Tags: rabid, speed

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I am sure that as soon as speech was invented, efforts to suppress and control it began, and that process of suppression continues unabated.


— Gilbert S. Merritt, Jr., (Speech at the University of Oregon, 2004). — cited in: Gilbert S. Merritt, Speech at the University of Oregon, Nashville, TN: 2004. cited in — Merritt, Gilbert S. (2006). "The Lesson of Sullivan Has Been Forgotten". in Edelman, Rob. Freedom of the Press. Greenhaven Press. p. 75. .

Tags: soon, speech, efforts, suppress, control, process, suppression, continues, unabated

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There is a very good saying that if triangles invented a god, they would make him three-sided


— Charles de Montesquieu, Lettres persannes.

Tags: There, good, triangles, god, him

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The NIH syndrome (Not invented Here) is a disease.

linus torvalds

— Shankland, Stephen (2004-12-21). "Newsmaker: Torvalds: A Solaris skeptic". CNet. Retrieved on 2006-08-28. 

Tags: syndrome, Here, disease

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