Robert Peterson > Robert's Quotes

“A man with a scant vocabulary will almost certainly be a weak thinker. The richer and more copious one's vocabulary and the greater one's awareness of fine distinctions and subtle nuances of meaning, the more fertile and precise is likely to be one's thinking. Knowledge of things and knowledge of the words for them grow together. If you do not know the words, you can hardly know the thing.”
― Henry Hazlitt, Thinking as a Science

“The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.”
― Henry Hazlitt

“I figured out something, Lorie,” he said. “I figured out why you and me get along so well. You know more than you say and I say more than I know. That means we’re a perfect match, as long as we don’t hang around one another more than an hour at a stretch.”
― Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

“Ride with an outlaw, die with him," he added. "I admit it's a harsh code. But you rode on the other side long enough to know how it works. I'm sorry you crossed the line, though."
Jake's momentary optimism had passed, and he felt tired and despairing. He would have liked a good bed in a whorehouse and a nice night's sleep.
"I never seen no line, Gus," he said. "I was just trying to get to Kansas without getting scalped.”
― Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

“Listening to women ain't the fashion in this part of the country."--Augustus McCrae”
― Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

“The crimes the law can understand are not the worst crimes.”
― Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

“I think we spent our best years fighting on the wrong side.”
― Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

“People got opinions, that's all they've got.”
― Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

“If you only come face-to-face with your own mistakes once or twice in your life it’s bound to be extra painful. I face mine every day—that way they ain’t usually much worse than a dry shave.”
― Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove

“The smartest man alive can’t learn much about a woman in two weeks.”
― Larry McMurtry, The Lonesome Dove Series

“I don’t know anything about babies,” he said. “No, and you’ve never lived any place but Arkansas,” Clara said. “But you ain’t stupid and you ain’t nailed down. You can live other places and you can learn about children—people dumber than you learn about them.”
― Larry McMurtry, The Lonesome Dove Series

“Having to read footnotes resembles having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love.”
― Noel Coward

“Thousands of people have talent. I might as well congratulate you for having eyes in your head. The one and only thing that counts is: Do you have staying power?”
― Noel Coward

“Work is more fun than fun.”
― Noel Coward

“Work hard, do the best you can, don't ever lose faith in yourself and take no notice of what other people say about you.”
― Noel Coward

“I have a memory like an elephant. In fact, elephants often consult me. ”
― Noel Coward

“AMANDA: I think very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives.”
― Noel Coward, Private Lives an Intimate Comedy in Three Acts

“You kissed me because you were awfully nice and I was awfully nice and we both liked kissing very much. It was inevitable.”
― Noël Coward, Hay Fever - A light comedy

“Television is for appearing on - not for looking at.”
― Noël Coward

“Time is the reef upon which all our mystic ships are wrecked.”
― Noël Coward, Blithe Spirit

“If by any chance a playwright wishes to express a political opinion or a moral opinion or a philosophy, he must be a good enough craftsman to do it with so much spice of entertainment in it that the public get the message without being aware of it.”
― Noël Coward, A talent to amuse: A biography of Noël Coward

“Entering an white tie and tails party wearing an ordinary suit, he announced,"Please, I don't want anyone to apologize for over dressing.”
― Noel Coward

“There are dark times just around the corner. There are dark clouds travelling through the sky. And it's no good whining about a silver lining. For we know from experience they won't roll by.”
― Noel Coward

“CHRISTMAS is at our throats again.”
― Noël Coward

“Success is far more perilous than failure, isn’t it? You’ve got to be doubly strong and watchful and wary.”
― Noël Coward, Design for Living

“Couldn't you see that all my flippancy was only a mask, hiding my real emotions--crushing them down desperately!”
― Noël Coward, Hay Fever - A light comedy

“Criticism and Bolshevism have one thing in common. They both seek to pull down that which they could never build.”
― Noël Coward

“You'll never decide what you want until you've decided who you are.”
― Noël Coward