Quotes about chair

A collection of quotes on the topic of chair, likeness, doing, use.

Quotes about chair

Alan Rickman photo
Joseph Louis Lagrange photo
Michael Jackson photo

“Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…
Virginia Woolf photo
Derek Landy photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Stephen King photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Virginia Woolf photo
Kathleen E. Woodiwiss photo
Daniel Handler photo
Nikolai Gogol photo

“Of course, Alexander the Great was a hero, but why smash the chairs?”

Epigraph; said of a history teacher who smashed a chair in his excitement when discussing the conqueror
The Inspector General (1836)

Claude Monet photo
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis photo
Kelly Rowland photo
H.P. Lovecraft photo

“As for your artificial conception of "splendid & traditional ways of life"—I feel quite confident that you are very largely constructing a mythological idealisation of something which never truly existed; a conventional picture based on the perusal of books which followed certain hackneyed lines in the matter of incidents, sentiments, & situations, & which never had a close relationship to the actual societies they professed to depict... In some ways the life of certain earlier periods had marked advantages over life today, but there were compensating disadvantages which would make many hesitate about a choice. Some of the most literarily attractive ages had a coarseness, stridency, & squalor which we would find insupportable... Modern neurotics, lolling in stuffed easy chairs, merely make a myth of these old periods & use them as the nuclei of escapist daydreams whose substance resembles but little the stern actualities of yesterday. That is undoubtedly the case with me—only I'm fully aware of it. Except in certain selected circles, I would undoubtedly find my own 18th century insufferably coarse, orthodox, arrogant, narrow, & artificial. What I look back upon nostalgically is a dream-world which I invented at the age of four from picture books & the Georgian hill streets of Old Providence.... There is something artificial & hollow & unconvincing about self-conscious intellectual traditionalism—this being, of course, the only valid objection against it. The best sort of traditionalism is that easy-going eclectic sort which indulges in no frenzied pulmotor stunts, but courses naturally down from generation to generation; bequeathing such elements as really are sound, losing such as have lost value, & adding any which new conditions may make necessary.... In short, young man, I have no quarrel with the principle of traditionalism as such, but I have a decided quarrel with everything that is insincere, inappropriate, & disproportionate; for these qualities mean ugliness & weakness in the most offensive degree. I object to the feigning of artificial moods on the part of literary moderns who cannot even begin to enter into the life & feelings of the past which they claim to represent... If there were any reality or depth of feeling involved, the case would be different; but almost invariably the neotraditionalists are sequestered persons remote from any real contacts or experience with life... For any person today to fancy he can truly enter into the life & feeling of another period is really nothing but a confession of ignorance of the depth & nature of life in its full sense. This is the case with myself. I feel I am living in the 18th century, though my objective judgment knows better, & realises the vast difference from the real thing. The one redeeming thing about my ignorance of life & remoteness from reality is that I am fully conscious of it, hence (in the last few years) make allowances for it, & do not pretend to an impossible ability to enter into the actual feelings of this or any other age. The emotions of the past were derived from experiences, beliefs, customs, living conditions, historic backgrounds, horizons, &c. &c. so different from our own, that it is simply silly to fancy we can duplicate them, or enter warmly & subjectively into all phases of their aesthetic expression.”

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author

Letter to Frank Belknap Long (27 February 1931), in Selected Letters III, 1929-1931 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, p. 307
Non-Fiction, Letters, to Frank Belknap Long

Darius Milhaud photo
Karl Dönitz photo
José Saramago photo

“Sometimes I say that writing a novel is the same as constructing a chair: a person must be able to sit in it, to be balanced on it. If I can produce a great chair, even better. But above all I have to make sure that it has four stable feet.”

José Saramago (1922–2010) Portuguese writer and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature

Interview with Katherine Vaz, José Saramago http://bombsite.com/issues/999/articles/3565, BOMB Magazine, June 2001.

James A. Michener photo
George Washington photo
Robin Williams photo

“I wonder what chairs think about all day: "Oh, here comes another asshole."”

Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian

Reality...What a Concept (1979)

Gabriel Iglesias photo

“The next thing I know, I'm on the set of the movie Magic Mike. The movie is directed by a director named Steven Soderbergh, who's an amazing, amazing director, he's done a lot of great films. And, of course, Channing Tatum's in the movie. In addition, there's an actor by the name of Matthew McConaughey, who's attached to the movie. [Several audience members cheer] I'm a huge fan of Matthew McConaughey, okay? When I found out that I was gonna work with him, I was so excited, you know? People ask me, "Really, you get star-struck?" Hell yeah! I'm a comedian, not an actor. So, I show up, and, immediately, they send me to the makeup trailer that's outside. So, I go into the makeup trailer, I sit down, they start working on my hair, they start putting makeup on me, and in comes Matthew McConaughey, and he sits down on the chair right next to me. And I start freaking out, "Oh, my God, that's Matthew McConaughey!" [Stutters excitedly] And, now, I decide to introduce myself before I did or said something stupid, right? So, I look over to him, and I say, "Excuse me, Mr. McConaughey? How are you doing? My name's Gabriel Iglesias, I'm going to be playing the role of Tobias, the club DJ, and I just wanted to say Hello, and that it's an honor to work with you." And, in my head, I'm thinking, "I hope he's the same guy. I hope he's the same person in the movies, I hope his voice is the same, I hope his accent's the same." And he turns to me, and he says, [Imitating Matthew McConaughey] "All riiight." [Audience cheers] "How you doin' there, big man? You doin' good?" "I'm doing good." "All riiight."”

Gabriel Iglesias (1976) American actor

And, I'm spazzing out. [Gives excited gibberish]
Aloha, Fluffy (2013)

Ernest Bramah photo
Edvard Munch photo
The Mother photo

“I started contemplating or doing my Yoga from the age of 4. There was a small chair for me on which I used to sit still, engrossed in my meditation. A very brilliant light would then descend over my head and produce some turmoil inside my brain. Of course I understood nothing, it was not the age for understanding. But gradually I began to feel, "I shall have to do some tremendously great work that nobody yet knows."”

The Mother (1878–1973) spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo

In Birth and Girlhood http://www.searchforlight.org/TheMother_lifeSketch1.htm, during her childhood days in when she was aware of her special purpose of life, her mission on earth, and also in On the Mother Divine by Pasupati Bhattacharya (1968) http://books.google.co.in/books?id=1loqAAAAYAAJ, p. 10

Phil Ochs photo

“In the courtroom, watch the balance of the scales
If the price is right, there's time for more appeals
The strings are pulled, the switch is stayed
The finest lawyers fees are paid
And a rich man never died upon the chair”

Phil Ochs (1940–1976) American protest singer and songwriter

Iron Lady" http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/iron-lady.html"The from I Ain't Marching Anymore (1965)
Lyrics

Aurelius Augustinus photo

“Number the priests in the very chair of Peter,
And see in that order of fathers who succeeded the other”

Venite fratres, si vultis ut inseramini in vite; Dolor est cum vos videmus praecisos ita jacere. Numerate sacerdotes vel ab ipsa Petri sede; Et in ordine illo Patrum quis cm successit videte. Ipsa est petra, quam non vincunt superbae inferorum portae. (PL 43:30 [http://books.google.com/books?id=SXPYAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PT3]).

Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher

Publications of the Catholic Truth Society (1895), Catholic Truth Society, London, vol. 24, p. 42. http://books.google.com/books?id=uIYQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA42
Alternate translation: Come brethren, if you have a mind to be ingrafted in the vine,
It is a pity to see you lopped off in this manner From the stock.
Reckon up the prelates in the very see of Peter;
And in that order of fathers see which has succeeded which.
This is the rock over which the proud gates of hell prevail not. (A reference to Matthew 16:18 http://biblehub.com/matthew/16-18.htm.)
Our Church, Her Children and Institutions (1908), Henry Coyle, et al, Angel Guardian Press, Boston, Mass. P. 98. http://books.google.com/books?id=WaposfecSRUC&pg=PA94
Psalmus Contra Partem Donati - Psalm Against the Donatists (c. 393)
Context: Come, brethren, if you wish to be engrafted in the vine.
It grieves us to see you thus lie cut off.
Number the priests in the very chair of Peter,
And see in that order of fathers who succeeded the other.
This is the rock which the proud gates of hell overcome not.

P. J. O'Rourke photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“Dear Sir: Yours of the tenth received. I am well acquainted with Mr. __, and know his characteristics. First of all, he has a wife and baby; together they ought to be worth $50,000 to any man. Then he has an office, in which there will be a table worth $1.50, and three chairs worth, say, $1. Last of all, there is in one corner a rat-hole which will bear looking into.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Attributed at an unspecified date when Lincoln was a young lawyer, apparently first reported in the Prairie Farmer (March 13, 1886), Volume 58, p. 176. The quote, taken as a whole, has been explained to mean that Lincoln was giving a negative character reference, implying that the subject of that reference was not financially stable, and prone to let details slip.
Posthumous attributions

RuPaul photo

“I have been discriminated against by white people for being black, by black people for being gay, by gay people for peing too fem. Did I let them stop me from getting to this chair?”

RuPaul (1960) Actriz de Televisa, dueña y señora de los ejidos cacaoahuateros

RuPaul's Drag Race - S10E13 (2018)

Warren Ellis photo

“Listen to the Chair Leg of Truth! It does not lie!”

Warren Ellis (1968) English comics and fiction writer

Source: Transmetropolitan, Vol. 9: The Cure

Markus Zusak photo
Edna St. Vincent Millay photo
F. Scott Fitzgerald photo

“She longed to throw something at him. A chair. Herself.”

Loretta Chase (1949) American writer

Source: Silk Is for Seduction

Martha Graham photo
Anne Lamott photo
Richelle Mead photo
Kelley Armstrong photo
Georgette Heyer photo
Henry David Thoreau photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Holly Black photo
Ellen DeGeneres photo

“Leaning forward in your chair when someone is trying to squeeze behind you isn't enough. You also have to move the chair.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

Patrick Rothfuss photo
Jasper Fforde photo
Edgar Lee Masters photo
Rick Riordan photo
Charles Bukowski photo
Graham Chapman photo

“Bring out… The Comfy Chair!!!!”

Graham Chapman (1941–1989) English comedian, writer and actor
Barbara Kingsolver photo
Richelle Mead photo
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Frances Hodgson Burnett photo
Eoin Colfer photo
Henry Miller photo
Edna O'Brien photo

“Let’s talk.” I pinned Red to his chair with my stare. I did deranged quite well, when the occasion required.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Nancy Pearl photo
E.M. Forster photo
Bill Bryson photo
Lenny Bruce photo
Raymond Carver photo
Albert Einstein photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Janet Fitch photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Elizabeth Gilbert photo
Arthur Conan Doyle photo
Jodi Picoult photo
Steven Wright photo
Peter Greenaway photo

“Get the Titanic sailing correctly before you worry about the deck chairs.”

Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director

"105 Years of Illustrated Text" in the Zoetrope All-Story, Vol. 5 No. 1.
105 Years of Illustrated Text

Robert Southwell photo

“This stable is a prince's court,
The crib his chair of state;
The beasts are parcel of his pomp,
The wooden dish his plate.”

Robert Southwell (1561–1595) English Jesuit

"New Prince, New Pomp", line 17; p. 96.

Ossip Zadkine photo

“The signs on Bell’s door read “J. Bell” and “M. Bell.” I knocked and was invited in by Bell. He looked about the same as he had the last time I saw him, a couple of years ago. He has long, neatly combed red hair and a pointed beard, which give him a somewhat Shavian figura. On one wall of the office is a photograph of Bell with something that looks like a halo behind his head, and his expression in the photograph is mischievous. Theoretical physicists’ offices run the gamut from chaotic clutter to obsessive neatness; the Bells’ is somewhere in between. Bell invited me to sit down after warning me that the “visitor’s chair” tilted backward at unexpected angles. When I had mastered it, and had a chance to look around, the first thing that struck me was the absence of Mary. “Mary,” said Bell, with a note of some disbelief in his voice, “has retired.” This, it turned out, had occurred not long before my visit. “She will not look at any mathematics now. I hope she comes back,” he went on almost plaintively; “I need her. We are doing several problems together.” In recent years, the Bells have been studying new quantum mechanical effects that will become relevant for the generation of particle accelerators that will perhaps succeed the LEP. Bell began his career as a professional physicist by designing accelerators, and Mary has spent her entire career in accelerator design. A couple of years ago Bell, like the rest of the members of CERN theory division, was asked to list his physics speciality. Among the more “conventional” entries in the division such as “super strings,” “weak interactions,” “cosmology,” and the like, Bell’s read “quantum engineering.””

Jeremy Bernstein (1929) American physicist

Quantum Profiles (1991), John Stewart Bell: Quantum Engineer

Max Beckmann photo
Alex Jones photo
Stuart A. Umpleby photo