Wince Quotes
More Wince Quotes
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
samuel johnson— 1754, p. 72 (n. 4)Referring to critics.
...poets are sensitive to the challenge 'What is the moral justification of poetry?' because they are conscious of the intrinsic goodness of poetry. Goody-goody humanitarian causes draw them easily into membership by making them wince at the notion of all the injustices prevalent in the world of physical consciousness. Let it be declared as clearly as possible that the goodness of poetry is not moral goodness, the goodness of temporal action, but the goodness of thought, the loving exercise of the will in the pursuit of truth.
laura riding— Laura Riding and Robert Graves from "Poetry and Politics", reprinted in The Common Asphodel (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1949)
And so the blasts of calumny, howl they ever so fiercely over the good man's head, contribute to his juster appreciation and to his wider fame. Preserve only a good conscience toward God, and a loving purpose toward your fellow men, and you need not wince nor tremble, though the pack of the spaniel-hearted hounds snarl at your heels.
— William Morley Punshon, p. 215. (Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895))
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
— 1754 Of Edwards's criticism of Thomas Warburton. Quoted in James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.1.
When I read it, I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.
norman mailer— On Tough Guys Don't Dance as quoted in The New York Times (8 June 1984)
It's the kind of movie where you ask people how they liked it, and they say, "Well, it was well made," and then they wince.
roger ebert— Review of Dead Ringers (23 September 1988)
This will make widows wince. But fictive things Wink as they will. Wink most when widows wince.
wallace stevens— "A High-Toned Old Christian Woman" (1922)
