Quotes about ground
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“A tree growing out of the ground is as wonderful today as it ever was. It does not need to adopt new and startling methods.”

Robert Henri (1865–1929) American painter

Tree

“I don't like you two going off on you won. Just remember: behave. If I hear about any funny business, I will ground you until the Styx freezes over.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Business

“All the bitchy girls in the world are just a training ground for what men can do to you.”

Sarah Dessen book Keeping the Moon

Source: Keeping the Moon

Men, World, Girl, Training

“The snow was too light to stay, the ground too warm to keep it. And the strange spring snow fell only in that golden moment of dawn, the turning of the page between night and day.”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

Source: Palace of Stone

Spring, Light, Night

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out

Love, God

“Graves are for the living, not the dead. It gives us something to concentrate on instead of the fact that our loved one is rotting under the ground.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Guilty Pleasures

Source: Guilty Pleasures

Love, Dead

“He let her get almost all the way there, just staring, before he stumbled towards her. They ended in a rush and then fell to the ground together, arms locked around each other, each holding on as tightly as possible. Niether of them said a word.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Dark Reunion

Way

“The rain that fell on the city runs down the dark gutters and empties into the sea without even soaking the ground”

Haruki Murakami book Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

Source: Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

Sea

“Now Bella, you know Jacob adores you. He naturally wants to protect you. He literally worships the ground you walk on."

"Ha ha," Bella said dryly. "Earth demon. Worship the ground. Cute. Really cute.”

Jacquelyn Frank (1968) writer

Source: Gideon

Nature

“I am grateful for the blessings of wealth, but it hasn't changed who I am. My feet are still on the ground. I'm just wearing better shoes.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Shoe, Change, Wealth

“Love falls to earth, rises from the ground, pools around the afflicted. Love pulls people back to their feet. Bodies and souls are fed. Bones and lives heal. New blades of grass grow from charred soil. The sun rises.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers

Love, People, Soul, Affliction

“[Gold] gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

People

“Here's to another year and let's hope it's above ground.”

Carol Shields The Stone Diaries

Source: The Stone Diaries

Hope

“They took a baseball bat
and whacked open his head.
Mummy Boy fell to the ground;
he finally was dead.
Inside of his head
were no candy or prizes,
just a few stray beetles
of various sizes.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Source: The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories

Boy, Dead

“When I break into the clearing, she's on the ground, hopelessly entangled in a net. She just has the time to reach her hand through the mesh and say my name before the spear enters her body.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Time

“Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

Stupidity

“What I love most about reading: It gives you the ability to reach higher ground. And keep climbing.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Source: What I Know For Sure

Love, Reading

“… love must be regarded as one of the religious and dangerous experiences, because it lifts people out of the arms of reason and sets them afloat with no ground under their feet.”

Robert Musil (1880–1942) Austrian writer

Source: The Man Without Qualities: Vol. 1

Love, People

“Poppies bleed petals of sheer excess. You and I, this sweet battle ground.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

“Do not make your mind a dumping ground for other people's garbage.”

Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

People

“We burned not a home, but a symbol.
We burned a symbol to the ground.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Home

“On motionless wing they emerge from the lifting mists, sweep a final arc of sky, and settle in clangorous descending spirals to their feeding grounds. A new day has begun on the crane marsh.”

Aldo Leopold book A Sand County Almanac

Source: A Sand County Almanac

“I don't like people who like me because I'm a Negro; neither do I like people who find in the same accident grounds for contempt. I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. I think all theories are suspect, that the finest principles may have to be modified, or may even be pulverized by the demands of life, and that one must find, therefore, one's own moral center and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Autobiographical Notes (1952)
Context: I don't like people who like me because I'm a Negro; neither do I like people who find in the same accident grounds for contempt. I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. I think all theories are suspect, that the finest principles may have to be modified, or may even be pulverized by the demands of life, and that one must find, therefore, one's own moral center and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright. I consider that I have many responsibilities, but none greater than this: to last, as Hemingway says, and get my work done.
I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

Love, Life, People, World

“You can do anything when it's not real.
When it is real, nothing breaks your fall. Nothing gets between you and the ground.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: Getting the Girl

“For a moment the two of them looked at each other, wordless, as if they were asleep and their dreams had converged on common ground, a place where sound was alien.”

Roberto Bolaño book 2666

Source: 2666

Dreams

“Stand your ground!" Stheno yelled. "I've got free samples!”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“Sorry. I have technical difficulties making it through a room without bumping into something. Thank God my clumsiness is only restricted to the ground. I’d probably kill myself diving if I was this bad underwater. (Tory)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

God

“You are going to end up as one of those sad old men who poke around in rubbish bins.”

“I’m going to end up in a hole in the ground… And so are you. So are we all.”

J.M. Coetzee book Disgrace

Source: Disgrace

Men, Sadness

“Show me a girl with her feet planted firmly on the ground and I'll show you a girl who can't put her pants on.
-Annik Marchand”

Ann Brashares book Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood

Source: Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood

Girl

“The grass as bristly and stout as chives and me wondering when the ground will break and me wondering how anything fragile survives”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

Grass

“I pass with relief from the tossing sea of Cause and Theory to the firm ground of Result and Fact.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Story of the Malakand Field Force

Early career years (1898–1929)
Source: The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898), Chapter III.

Sea

“If your feet are firmly planted on the ground you'll never be able to dance.”

Iris Johansen (1938) Novelist

Source: Countdown

Dance

“Some people say "if we split up, we can cover more ground"-with blood”

Seth Grahame-Smith (1976) US fiction author

Source: How to Survive a Horror Movie

People

“Elena gasped back, "I can touch the ground!"
"I can see you touching it!", Bonnie exclaimed with tears of joy.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Dark Reunion

Tear, Joy

“His quiet certainty made the ground beneath my feet feel solid. Like someday everything might actually be okay.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Blue-Eyed Devil

Feeling

“Once the world was pulled out from beneath your feet, did you ever get to stand on firm ground again?”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

World

“Did you know I have always suspected that men were idiots," Daphne ground out, "but I was never positive until today.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Duke and I

Men

“Tennessee's a hillbilly dumping ground, and Georgia's a lousy state too.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

“The Poet is a kinsman in the clouds
Who scoffs at archers, loves a stormy day;
But on the ground, among the hooting crowds,
He cannot walk, his wings are in the way.”

Charles Baudelaire book Les Fleurs du mal

Le Poète est semblable au prince des nuées Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l’archer ; Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées, Ses ailes de géant l’empêchent de marcher. "L’Albatros" [The Albatross] (translated by James McGowan, Oxford University Press, 1993) http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/L%E2%80%99Albatros Les fleurs du mal (Flowers of Evil) (1857) Source: Les Fleurs Du Mal

Love, Way

“Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground.”

Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) English poet

“Clary curled up on the ground seeing in front of her not the shell of a destroyed town but the eyes of the brother and the sister that she would never have.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Sister

“Don’t take the high ground and assume you already know what you’ll do. The truth is, when it comes to someone you love, you’ll find there isn’t anything you won’t do.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Love, Truth

“What miracle is this? This giant tree.
It stands ten thousand feet high
But doesn't reach the ground. Still it stands.
Its roots must hold the sky.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Tree

“You know, bicycling isn't just a matter of balance," I said. "it's a matter of faith. You can keep upright only by moving forward. You have to have your eyes on the goal, not the ground. I'm going to call that the Bicyclist's Philosophy of Life.”

Susan Vreeland (1946–2017) US author

Source: Clara and Mr. Tiffany

Life, Faith

“my father asked.“If you build a tower in Lawrenceville, I will smash it, set it on fire, and salt the ground it stood on.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Shifts

“A tattoo is a true poetic creation, and is always more than meets the eye. As a tattoo is grounded on living skin, so its essence emotes a poignancy unique to the mortal human condition.”

V. Vale (1942) American writer

Source: Modern Primitives: An Investigation of Contemporary Adornment and Ritual

Tattoo

“If this were a movie, I would bust a secret move so fierce the entire place would be razed to the ground. I'd finish with something snappy like "And don't forget my soda, punk" while I strolled off into the night.”

Libba Bray Going Bovine

Source: Going Bovine

Secret, Night, Forgetting

“There seemed to be some heavenly support beneath his shoulder blades that lifted his feet from the ground in ecstatic suspension, as if he secretly enjoyed the ability to fly but was walking as a compromise to convention.”

Zelda Fitzgerald book Save Me the Waltz

Source: Save Me the Waltz

Support, Flying

“You think my kids just popped out of the ground?”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Dead Witch Walking

Thinking

“In every marriage more than a week old, there are grounds for divorce. The trick is to find and continue to find grounds for marriage.”

Robert Anderson (1917–2009) American playwright, screenwriter, and theater producer

Marriage

“There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion
that if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble
Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret,
Spilled on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Life, Secret, Water, Chance

“Nico jumped into the crowd, kicking groins, smacking faces with the flat of his blade, bashing helmets with his pommel. In ten seconds, the Romans all lay groaning and dazed on the ground.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

“Love is not an equation… It is not a contract, and it's not a happy ending. It is the slate under the chalk and the ground buildings rise from and the oxygen in the air.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

Love, Happiness

“Like dry ground welcoming the rain, he let the solitude, silence, and loneliness soak in.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: Kino

Solitude, Silence, Loneliness

“On Gandhi: Don’t ever forget, that we were not lead by a saint with his head in clouds, but by a master tactician with his feet on the ground.”

Shashi Tharoor book The Great Indian Novel

The Great Indian Novel (1989)

Forgetting

“Keep it up, wise guy. I'm always going to be taller than you once you're lying unconscious on the ground.”

Jim Butcher book Small Favor

Source: Small Favor

Guy, Lying

“He understands now why kisses in movies are filmed the way they are, with the camera endlessly circling, circling: the ground is unsteady under his.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Way, Understanding, Kiss

“I stood my ground. "You evil scientist are all the same--evil. Count me out."

Fang and I brushed past Mr. God and walked quickly but smoothly to the exit. It was barely noon, and I'd already made a huge enemy.

Dang, I'm good.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Fang

God, Evil, Past

“(Jeez, get a locked room on unsanctified ground, you two.)”

Cassandra Clare book The Shadowhunter's Codex

Source: The Shadowhunter's Codex

“My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Understanding Our Mind: 50 Verses on Buddhist Psychology

“to know a piece of grass, you’ve got to see the ground that grew it. Maybe that’s why I remember every detail of that night, every inch of ground we covered, as I followed Zach to the place that had made him, seeing them both with fresh eyes.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

Grass, Night

“No doubt Jack the Ripper excused himself on the grounds that it was human nature.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

Nature

“The last time I was at a supernatural shindig, I got poisoned and then everything there tried to kill me. So I burned the whole place to the ground.”

Jim Butcher book Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

Time

“And we must fight back! President Snow says he's sending us a message? Well, I have one for him. You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground, but do you see that? Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (pp. 105-106)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: "I want to tell the rebels that I am alive. That I'm right here in District Eight, where the Capitol has just bombed a hospital full of unarmed men, women, and children. There will be no survivors. [... ] I want to tell people that if you think for one second the Capitol will treat us fairly if there's a cease-fire, you're deluding yourself. Because you know who they are and what they do. [... ] This is what they do! And we must fight back! [... ] President Snow says he's sending us a message? Well, I have one for him. You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground, but do you see that?" We're with the camera, tracking to the planes burning on the roof of the warehouse. Tight on the Capitol seal on a wing, which melts back into the image of my face, shouting at the president. "Fire is catching! And if we burn... you burn with us!"

Fight

“She (Annabeth) put her hand on my spine, and my skin tingled. I (Percy) moved her fingers to the one spot that grounded me to my mortal life. A thousand volts of electricity seemed to arc through my body.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Life

“If you are trying to transform a brutalized society into one where people can live in dignity and hope, you begin with the empowering of the most powerless. You build from the ground up.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

People, Hope

“I was cold, hungry, and in a hole in the ground. But at least I had my elven porn, damnit!”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Black Magic Sanction

“the fallen leaves in the forest seemed to make even the ground glow and burn with light”

Malcolm Lowry (1909–1957) British writer

Source: October Ferry To Gabriola

Light

“The ground we stand on looks solid enough, but if something happens it can drop right out from under you.”

Haruki Murakami book After Dark

Source: After Dark

“I need some Starbucks. What about you? (Cassandra)
Always game for java. Give me ground-up beans or give me death. (Katra)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Kiss of the Night

Death, Game

“She felt as if the mosaic she had been assembling out of life's little shards got dumped to the ground, and there was no way to put it back together.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Crooked Little Heart

Life, Way

“Look, don’t get me wrong. I worship the ground this guy walks on. I’m excited to meet him tonight. I’m dying to meet him tonight. If he wanted to carry me off and make me his love slave, I’d do it, so long as I got advance copies of his books.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Blues

Love, Books, Guy

“A warrior takes his lot, whatever it may be, and accepts it in ultimate humbleness. He accepts in humbleness what he is, not as a grounds for regret but as a living challenge.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe, (1998), Quotations from "Tales of Power" (Chapter 10)

“Time can play all sorts of tricks on you. In the blink of an eye, babies appear in carriages, coffins disappear into the ground, wars are won and lost, and children transform, like butterflies, into adults.”

Brian Selznick book The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Source: The Invention of Hugo Cabret

War, Children, Appearance, Time

“Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut, that held its ground.”

David Icke (1952) English writer and public speaker

Variant: Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut, that held its ground.
Source: Davidicke.com

“For we are like tree trunks in the snow. In appearance they lie smoothly and a little push should be enough to set them rolling. No, it can't be done, for they are firmly wedded to the ground. But see, even that is only appearance.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Lie, Tree, Wedding, Appearance

“… The friends we have lost do not repose under the ground… they are buried deep in our hearts. It has been thus ordained that they may always accompany us…”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Heart

“Being unheard is the ground floor of giving up, and giving up is the ground floor of doing yourself in. It’s not so much, what’s the point? It’s more like, what’s the difference?”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

“Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

“Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: A Place on Earth

World

“Six hundred and forty fish later, the only thing I know is everything you love will die. The first time you meet someone special, you can count on them one day being dead and in the ground.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Love, Fish, Time, Dead

“Real devotion is an unbroken receptivity to the truth. Real devotion is rooted in an awed and reverent gratitude, but one that is lucid, grounded, and intelligent.”

Sogyal Rinpoche book The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Source: The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Truth, Intelligence, Gratitude

“You… are… a… fridge… with wings,' Fang ground out, punching an Eraser hard with every word. 'We're… freaking… ballet… dancers.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: School's Out—Forever

“Love is not an equation, it is not a contract, and it is not a happy ending. Love is the slate under the chalk, the ground that buildings rise, and the oxygen in the air. It is the place you come back to, no matter where your headed”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Love, Happiness

“I decided not to answer on the grounds that I might piss someone off.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book The Laughing Corpse

Source: The Laughing Corpse

“Everything that occurs out of necessity, everything expected, repeated day in and day out is mute. Only chance can speak to us. We read its message much as gypsies read the images made by coffee grounds at the bottom of the cup.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Coffee, Chance, Reading

“Strong relationships are not rocked by a truth that is grounded by resolute monogamy.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Truth, Strong

“Mrs. Ewing was a short woman who accepted the obligation borne by so many short women to make up in vivacity what they lack in number of inches from the ground.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Source: Men, Women And Dogs

Women

“I shall charm him with such force that when I am done, he will be left lying limply on the ground, trying to remember his own name.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Lying

“that's the funny thing about mazes: what's baffling on the ground begins to makes sense when you can begin to rise above it, the better to understand your history and fix yourself". (p. 717)”

Wally Lamb (1950) american novelist

Source: The Hour I First Believed

History, Understanding, Sense

“Daisies are like sunshine to the ground.”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer

“Lie down on the ground and feel the planet's heart beating.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Lie, Feeling, Heart

“My own view is that this planet is used as a penal colony, lunatic asylum and dumping ground by a superior civilization, to get rid of the undesirable and unfit. I can't prove it, but you can't disprove it either.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Source: god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

“You wanted to look at life for yourself — but you were not allowed; you were punished for your wish. You were ground in the very mill of the conventional!”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady (1881), Ch. LIV.

Life

“A battle can be won before it's ever fought by choosing the right ground.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Edward Carrington, Paris (27 May 1788) PTJ, 13:208-9 http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/natural-progress-things-quotation 1780s Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Nature