Quotes about edge
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“They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.”

Edward Lear The Owl and the Pussycat

St. 3.
Source: The Owl and the Pussycat (1871)

Light, Dance

“The two girls grew up at the edge of the ocean and knew it was paradise, and better than Eden, which was only a garden.”

Eve Babitz (1943) American author

Source: Sex and Rage: Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time: A Novel

Girl

“There's a fine edge to new grief, it severs nerves, disconnects reality--there's mercy in a sharp blade. Only with time, as the edge wears, does the real ache begin.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Reality, Time

“He returns years later, has no demands.
He wants only one, most precious thing:
To see, purely and simply, without name,
Without expectations, fears, or hopes,
At the edge where there is no I or not-I.”

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator

Fear, Hope

“We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges.”

Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer

Source: Shadow & Claw

Truth

“Zaphod felt he was teetering on the edge of madness and wondered if he shouldn't just jump over and have done with it.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Source: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Madness

“They weren’t a centuries old hunter and a seventeen year old girl, sitting here at the edge of the world. They were just two people, Bonnie and Damon.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Dark Reunion

People, World, Girl

“That's the way it ends. The thin edge of the wedge.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Way

“Another thing is no matter how much you think you love somebody, you'll step back when the pool of their blood edges up too close.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Variant: No matter how much you think you love somebody, you'll step back when the pool of their blood edges up too close.
Source: Invisible Monsters

Love, Thinking

“Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Variant: Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, — else it is none.
Source: Culture, Behavior, Beauty, Books, Art, Eloquence, Power, Wealth, Illusions
Context: Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, — else it is none. The doctrine of hatred must be preached as the counteraction of the doctrine of love when that pules and whines. I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim. I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation. Expect me not to show cause why I seek or why I exclude company.

“It is at the edge of the
petal that love waits”

William Carlos Williams book Spring and All

Source: Spring and All

Love, Waiting

“What I really want to tell him is to pick up that baby of his and hold her tight, to set the moon on the edge of her crib and to hang her name up in the stars.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

For Father, Star, Baby

“Prayer begins at the edge of emptiness.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

Variant: Prayer begins where our power ends.

“I don't like my language watered down, I don't like my edges rounded off.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Water

“every pleasure's got an edge of pain, pay your ticket and don't complain”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Pain, Pleasure

“I know what my heart is like
Since your love died:
It is like a hollow ledge
Holding a little pool
Left there by the tide,
A little tepid pool,
Drying inward from the edge.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

Source: Second April

Love, Heart

“The city glitters past us with its sharp edges, reminding us of how tiny, how weak, how totally unimportant we are.”

Joe Meno (1974) American writer

Source: Demons in the Spring

Past

“Come a day there won’t be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all. This job goes south, there well may not be another. So here is us, on the raggedy edge. Don’t push me, and I won’t push you. Dong le ma?”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Men

“And that was it. All this buildup to a great leap, and I didn't fall or fly. Instead I found myself back on the edge of the cliff, blinking, wondering if I'd ever jumped at all. It's not supposed to be like this.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Flying

“We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running some pure hazard in order to sharpen the edge of life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work desperately for a moment at no matter what.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

Life, Solitude, Holiday

“The sky was electric blue above the trees but the yard felt dark. Stephanie went to the edge of the lawn and sat her forehead on her knees. The grass and soil were still warm from the day. She wanted to cry but she couldn't. The feeling was too deep.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Feeling, Tree, Grass, Cry

“If she was broken, she would slash him with her jagged edges, reckless as a drunkard with a shattered bottle.”

Diana Gabaldon book A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Source: A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.”

Rachel Carson (1907–1964) American marine biologist and conservationist

Beauty, Sea

“It isn't running away they're afraid of. We wouldn't get far. It's those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“I lie on the floor, washed by nothing and hanging on. I cry at night. I am afraid of hearing voices, or a voice. I have come to the edge, of the land. I could get pushed over.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Source: CAT'S EYE.

Lie, Cry, Night

“They came to sit & dangle their feet off the edge of the world & after awhile they forgot everything but the good & true things they would do someday.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

World

“You're the one who doesn't understand, I've been standing on the edge with you for years.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

Source: The Impossible Knife of Memory

Understanding

“the beautiful are found in the edge of a room
crumpled into spiders and needles and silence
and we can never understand why they
left, they were so
beautiful.

they dont make it,
the beautiful die young
and leave the ugly to their ugly lives.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Beauty, Understanding, Silence

“I think that's what finally stopped me. I slid right to the edge. My legs were hanging over. And I could feel it too. I don't know how. There was no wind, no sound, no change of temperature. There was just this terrible emptiness reaching up for me.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Feeling, Thinking, Change

“My mother… she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel. I want to grow old and be like her.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Mother's Day, For Mother, Beauty

“When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you'll be taught how to fly!”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Light, Flying

“From the outer edge of his life, looking back, there was only one remorse, and that was only that he wished to go on living.”

Ray Bradbury book The Illustrated Man

Source: The Illustrated Man

Life

“Beauty walks a razor's edge, someday I'll make it mine.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Shelter from the Storm

Beauty

“My life is not packaged,
Not tidy. There are leftover strands and jagged
Edges that cut even my friends.”

Walter Dean Myers (1937–2014) American writer

Source: Street Love

Life

“If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water's edge.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Variant: If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it...

Water

“And he has to live like this on the edge of destruction, alone, with nobody at all to understand or pity him”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: The Death of Ivan Ilych

Understanding

“O God, I love you to the edge of madness, Venetia, but I'm not mad yet--not so mad that I don't know how disastrous it might be to you--to us both! You don't realize what an advantage I should be taking of your innocence!”

Georgette Heyer book Venetia

Source: Venetia

Love, God, Madness

“The Order of Merciful Aid provided merciful aid, usually on the edge of a blade or the burn of a bullet.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

“A vet! I started laughing weakly and had to sit on the edge of the tub. A vet. Wait till they found out how appropriate that was.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Waiting

“One more dance along the razor's edge finished. Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today.”

Robert Jordan Lord of Chaos

Variant: Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today.
Source: Lord of Chaos

Dance, Dead

“Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.”

J. Michael Straczynski (1954) American writer and television producer

Truth, Understanding

“The queen was settling on the edge of the bed, ungainly with hesitation and at the same time exquisite in her grace, like a heron landing in a treetop.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Time

“I'll never forget my first time with you' Min said as she edged the doughnut off her finger. 'The earth moved, and then my mother asked my father who he was going down on at lunch.”

Jennifer Crusie book Bet Me

Source: Bet Me

Time, Forgetting

“We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom.
We lived in the gaps between the stories.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

People, Freedom

“… and the distance between them, millimeters only, the space of a breath, opened up and deepened, became a cavern at whose edge he stood.”

Kim Edwards book The Memory Keeper's Daughter

Source: The Memory Keeper's Daughter

“Al was cruel, vindictive, angry, elegant, powerful. He gave me strength, he gave me wisdom, not only about magic, but about myself. He was a lot like Trent, only harsher around the edges.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Ever After

Wisdom

“Life is a traveling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Life, Travel, Knowledge

“His steady gaze held hers. His blue eyes were very dark, uniquely so. She had known people before with blue eyes, but they had always been light blue. Will's were the color of the sky just on the edge of night.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

People, Color, Light, Night

“She turned and looked at him. "Ducks?" she said again.
A smile tugged the edge of his mouth. "I hate ducks. Don't know why. I just always have.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Hate, Smile

“Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life.”

James Clavell book Shōgun

Source: Shōgun (1975), Ch. 56

Life, Death, Understanding, Joy

“Yeah, my bad," Leo muttered. "I should've crashed on one of the other islands. Oh, wait-there aren't any!"
She [Calypso] snarled and kept walking along the edge of the water.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Water, Waiting

“I survive at the edge of friends circles.”

Holly Black book Red Glove

Source: Red Glove

“After a while, though, even the deepest sorrow faltered, even the most penetrating despair lost its scalpel edge.”

Richard Matheson (1926–2013) American fiction writer

Source: I Am Legend and Other Stories

Despair

“Though I play at the edges of knowing,
truly I know
our part is not knowing,
but looking, and touching, and loving”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: Why I Wake Early

Love, Parting

“Still clutching each other by the arm, they turned to watch the last stones plummet over the edge.

“I don't know how many times a day I can stand to watch you almost die,” Seregil gasped.

“Twice is my limit,” croaked Alec, sinking to his knees.”

Lynn Flewelling Luck in the Shadows

Source: Luck in the Shadows

Time

“The Word of God I think of as a straight edge, which shows up our own crookedness. We can't really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

God, Thinking

“This won't look so good in my obituary," Schaffer said dolefully. There was a perceptible edge of strain under the lightly-spoken words."Gave his life for his country in a ladies' lavatory in Upper Bavaria.”

Alistair MacLean book Where Eagles Dare

Source: Where Eagles Dare

Life, Country

“even after all these winters, I see you sitting there, perched at the edge of sunlight, feeling like the invitation of spring”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Feeling, Spring, Winter

“Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Idea, Heart

“What they don't know is that I went over the edge years ago, and lived to tell the tale.”

Rebecca Wells book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Variant: I have been to the edge and lived to tell the tale..
Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

“Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its jagged edges.”

Herman Melville book Billy Budd, Sailor

Source: Billy Budd

Truth

“Meet me inside the Edge of the Icepack penguin enclosure in at four fifteen" she says, sounding just like Kim Possible. If Kim Possible ever asked people to meet her inside a penguin enclosures.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Forever Princess

People

“The distinction between sanity and insanity is narrower than the razor's edge, sharper than a hound's tooth, more agile than a mule deer. It is more elusive than the merest phantom. Perhaps it does not even exist; perhaps it is a phantom.”

Philip K. Dick book VALIS

Source: VALIS (1981)

“Develop the winning edge; small differences in your performance can lead to large differences in your results.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

“Me, I was still in the pygmy hippo in a skirt, singing lusty songs about Solomon's private life and a giant stone back and forth through the air as I climbed out of the quarry at the edge of the site.”

Jonathan Stroud book The Ring of Solomon

Source: The Ring of Solomon

Life, Singing

“We all live in a kind of continuous dream,” I told him. “When we wake, it is because something, some event, some pinprick even, disturbs the edges of what we’ve taken as reality.”

Jeff VanderMeer book Annihilation

Source: Annihilation

Dreams, Reality

“A firm rule must be imposed upon our nation before it destroys itself. The United States needs some theology and geometry, some taste and decency. I suspect that we are teetering on the edge of the abyss.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces

“Open the book. (The gilt rubs off the edges of the pages and pollinates the fingertips.)”

Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) American poet

Books

“Sometimes I think the human heart is just a simple shelf. There is only so much you can pile onto it before something falls off an edge and you are left to pick up the pieces.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Source: House Rules

Thinking, Heart

“The farther you go… the harder it is to return. The world has many edges and it's easy to fall off.”

Anderson Cooper (1967) journalist and author

Variant: The farther you go, however, the harder it is to return. The world has many edges, and it's easy to fall off.
Source: Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival

World

“Some bridges you crossed on your own, no matter who drove you to the edge”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover