Stale Quotes
The Warrior Within: The Philosophies of Bruce Lee (1996, pg. 48).
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More Stale Quotes
Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen.
Willa Sibert Cather— 1918 My Antonia, bk.2, ch.7.
The morning comes to consciousness Of faint stale smells of beer From the sawdust-trampled street.
— 1917 Prufrock and Other Observations,'Preludes', pt.2.
Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen. On the farm the weather was the great fact, and men's affairs went on underneath it, as the streams creep under the ice. But in Black Hawk the scene of human life was spread out shrunken and pinched, frozen down to the bare stalk.
willa cather— Book II, Ch. 7
We have to face the fact that most men and women out there are more stale than they know, more bored than they care to admit.
john w. gardner— Quoted in "Self Renewal" (1964).
Would I had phrases that are not known, utterances that are strange, in new language that has not been used, free from repetition, not an utterance that has grown stale, which men of old have spoken.
Khakheperresenb— Quoted in The Burden of the Past and the English Poet (1970) by Walter Jackson Bate.
A family portrait not too stale to recordOf a pleasant old buffer, nephew to a lord,Who believed that the bank was mightier than the sword,And that an umbrella might pacify barbarians abroad:Just like an old liberalBetween the wars.
william plomer— "Father and Son: 1939", line 1.
Innovation implies high risk, and with high risk comes failure, so you’ve got to be prepared for that, but if you don’t risk, then your business goes stale very quickly.
— Michael Grade, British broadcasting executive. From the transcript of his interview with Martyn Lewis, in his book, Reflections on Success (1997)
The word "souvenir" has, of course, slightly extended itself in meaning until it now denotes almost anything either breakable or useless; but even today, ninety per cent of the items covered by the word are forgettable objects in which cigarettes can be left to go stale.
alan coren— "And Though They Do Their Best To Bring…"
That phrase, "loss of innocence," has become stale with overuse and diminishing returns; no other culture is so addicted to this narcissistic impression of itself as having any innocence to lose in the first place.
christopher hitchens— "The Road to West Egg" (2000)
Age could not wither nor custom stale her infinite monotony: in fact, neither Age nor Custom could do anything (as they said, their voices rising) with the American novelist Gertrude Johnson.
Randall Jarrell— Chapter 1, p. 9
When all the world is old, lad, And all the trees are brown; And all the sport is stale, lad, And all the wheels run down; Creep home, and take your place there, The spent and maimed among: God grant you find one face there, You loved when all was young.
Charles Kingsley— Song II, st. 2.
stale is stale and borrowed is borrowed, no matter how original your models may have been.
robert silverberg— Introduction to New Dimensions 1, edited by Robert Silverberg
Innovation implies high risk, and with high risk comes failure, so you’ve got to be prepared for that, but if you don’t risk, then your business goes stale very quickly.
— Michael Grade, British broadcasting executive. From the transcript of his interview with Martyn Lewis, in his book, Reflections on Success (1997)
Fish and guests in three days are stale.
john lyly— John Lyly, Euphues (1579).
She sits tormenting every guest, Nor gives her tongue one moment's rest, In phrases batter'd, stale, and trite, Which modern ladies call polite.
jonathan swift— Jonathan Swift, The Journal of a Modern Lady.
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (1600s), Act II, scene 2, line 240.
Fish and guests in three days are stale.
john lyly— John Lyly, Euphues (1579).
A Court of equity which is never active in relief against conscience, or public convenience, has always refused its aid to stale demands where the party has slept upon his right, and acquiesced for a great length of time. Nothing can call forth this Court into activity, but conscience, good faith and reasonable diligence; where these are wanting, the Court is passive and does nothing.
pratt, charles, 1st earl camden— Smith v. Clay (1767), 3 Bro. Ch. Ca. 639 n.
It is the constant practice of Courts of equity to discourage stale demands.
— Sir Thomas Plumer, M.R., Att.-Gen. v. Mayor of Exeter (1822), Jacob's Rep. 448.
Some jay of Italy, Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him: Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, Cymbeline (1611), Act iii, Scene 4.
Would I had phrases that are not known, utterances that are strange, in new language that has not been used, free from repetition, not an utterance that has grown stale, which men of old have spoken.
— Quoted in The Burden of the Past and the English Poet (1970) by Walter Jackson Bate.
I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia
— Sam Walton, in Michael Bergdahl The 10 Rules of Sam Walton: Success Secrets for Remarkable Results, John Wiley & Sons, 17 December 2010, p.41
Some jay of Italy, Whose mother was her painting, hath betray’d him: Poor I am stale, a garment out of fashion.
— Imogen, scene iv
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety...
— William Shakespeare, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act II, sc. 2, Enobarbus
stale is their gladness who were never sad.
— 'Sonnet XIII', collected in C W Salier (ed) Rosa: Love Sonnets to Mary Doyle (1949).
