“They were empty gestures, the kind it was beginning to seem that these people were full of.”

“I only wish that wisdom were the kind of thing that flowed … from the vessel that was full to the one that was empty.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

“My house seems remarkably full of people," he observed. "Is it possible we were expected.”

Georgette Heyer book These Old Shades

“But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

“There were people everywhere on the city street, but the stranger could not have been more alone if it were empty.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

“Nor is anything empty: For what is empty is nothing. What is nothing cannot be.Nor does it move; for it has nowhere to betake itself to, but is full. For if there were aught empty, it would betake itself to the empty. But, since there is naught empty, it has nowhere to betake itself to.”

Melissus of Samos (-470–-430 BC) Eleatic philosopher

“Those full of fear were the most dangerous of people.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

“A grand gesture. But what does it period?
What does it osse? We were always adroiter
with objects than lives, and more facile
at courage than kindness: from the moment”

W. H. Auden (1907–1973) Anglo-American poet

“Hidden in hollows and behind clumps of rank brambles were large tents, dimly lighted with candles, but looking comfortable. The kind of comfort they supplied was indicated by pairs of men entering and reappearing, bearing litters; by low moans from within and by long rows of dead with covered faces outside. These tents were constantly receiving the wounded, yet were never full; they were continually ejecting the dead, yet were never empty. It was as if the helpless had been carried in and murdered, that they might not hamper those whose business it was to fall to-morrow.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

“To be full of things is to be empty of what matters. To be empty of things is to be full of freedom.”

Michael Elmore-Meegan (1959) British humanitarian