“Choice word and measured phrase, above the reach
Of ordinary men.”

Stanza 14.
Resolution and Independence (1807)

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William Wordsworth306

English Romantic poet 1770–1850

John Hollander (1929–2013) American poet

“In the time of Pythagoras that proverbial phrase Ipse dixit was introduced into ordinary life.”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

Pythagoras, 25.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 8: Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

“Outward simplicity befits ordinary men, like a garment made to measure for them; but it serves as an adornment to those who have filled their lives with great deeds”

Jean de La Bruyère book Les Caractères

Aphorism 17
Les Caractères (1688), Du mérite personnel
Context: Outward simplicity befits ordinary men, like a garment made to measure for them; but it serves as an adornment to those who have filled their lives with great deeds: they might be compared to some beauty carelessly dressed and thereby all the more attractive.

“A man fell in love with Jeanne, and she tried to love him. But she complained that he uttered such ordinary words, that he could never say the magic phrase which would open her being.”

Anaïs Nin book Under a Glass Bell

Source: Under a Glass Bell

“The same good sense, that directs men in the ordinary occurrences of life, is not hearkened to in religious matters, which are supposed to be placed altogether above the cognizance of human reason.”

David Hume book Four Dissertations

Four Dissertations (1757)

“In political practice, therefore, they join in all coercive measures against the working class; and in ordinary life, despite the high-falutin phrases, they stoop to pick up the golden apples, and to barter truth, love, and honour for traffic in wool, beet-root sugar, and potato spirits.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Section 3, paragraph 9.
The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848)

“For a while" is a phrase whose length can't be measured. At least by the person who's waiting.”

Haruki Murakami book South of the Border, West of the Sun

Source: South of the Border, West of the Sun

“Oh, I'd reach beyond the comma of you
To the invisible phrase, the dangling Omega!”

Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) American science fiction writer

"Black Squirrel on Cottonwood Limb's Tip" in Skyhook #23 (Winter 1954-55); re-published in Pearls From Peoria (2006)
Context: Oh, I'd reach beyond the comma of you
To the invisible phrase, the dangling Omega! No use. No act
Of mine or mind denies the ante-cerebellum fact
Of furry you, poised fleetingly, bright flex,
Black reflex, too leaping for me to ink and fix
As period to end what has no period, no, no
End...