Quotes about spine

A collection of quotes on the topic of spine, likeness, man, down.

Quotes about spine

Elvis Presley photo
Carlos Ruiz Zafón photo
Nora Roberts photo
Rick Riordan photo
Vladimir Nabokov photo
Hunter S. Thompson photo

“It was wonderful, a stunning happy ending to what began as just another tragic rock & roll story, as if Bob Dylan had been arrested in Miami for jacking off in a seedy little XXX theater while stroking the spine of a fat young boy.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

2000s, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century (2004)

David Foster Wallace photo
William Gibson photo
Megan Abbott photo
Jodi Picoult photo
James Patterson photo
Janet Fitch photo
Lorrie Moore photo
Rick Riordan photo
Robert Anton Wilson photo
James Patterson photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

“When I'm out of politics I'm going to run a business, it'll be called 'rent-a-spine.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Quoted from an interview for the television programme "The Thatcher Years - Part 2" on BBC1 The Thatcher Years 2 of 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEYPKLyug5c (13 october 1993)
Post-Prime Ministerial

Patrick Rothfuss photo
Billy Graham photo

“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

"A Time for Moral Courage", Reader’s Digest (July 1964)
Variant: Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Cassandra Clare photo
David Bowie photo

“(Hey man) oh leave me alone you know
(Hey man) oh Henry, get off the phone, I gotta
(Hey man) I gotta straighten my face
This mellow thighed chick just put my spine out of place.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Suffragette City
Song lyrics, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)

“I’ve had 37 orthopedic operations. I ground my feet up into dust. I’ve got a new knee. I‘ve got a new spine. I’m the lucky one… I never thought going through all of it that I would be healthy at the end. And I almost wasn’t.”

"The Thing Bill Walton Still Can't Forgive Himself For" https://www.gq.com/story/bill-walton-back-from-the-dead-interview, interview with GQ (March 26, 2016).

Peter Greenaway photo
P. D. James photo

“I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism.”

P. D. James (1920–2014) English crime writer

Paris Review (1995), as cited in The Oxford Treasury of Sayings and Quotations (2011), ed. Susan Ratcliffe, Oxford University Press, p. 250 : ISBN 0199609128
Other

Charles Stross photo
Robert Patrick (playwright) photo

“For people like us it is necessary to be a bit stronger, more self-critical, more observant than the usual run. Whether we happen to come already enhanced with these qualities, as some have claimed, or whether our situation invests them in us, we have traditionally - and we do have a long and proud tradition - been a little finer, a little firmer, more sensitive and flexible than others… There will be times when only your own spine can support you, moments when only your own wit can inspire you, days when nothing but exacting self-control can raise you from bed, nights when nothing but your word can impel you into society. But of all these disciplines, there is nothing you must hold to more sternly than to be kind and sympathetic. The easiest armor to put on is always cruelty. That armor will, indeed, see you through everything. Vicious condescension toward those without your strength can make you feel momentarily superior. But that easy armor must be forgone. Don't ever curdle that creamy brow with lines of easy disdain, or curl those lips with a popular sneer. Of all the models available, the one of gentleman in our late war is most succinct: Face what you have to face with humor, dignity, and style; protect yourself with knightly grace; have contempt for your own weakness and never encourage it in others; but never, Ralph, never for an instant permit yourself to feel anything other than pity and deepest sympathy for unfortunate comrades who have, after all, fallen in the same battle.”

Robert Patrick (playwright) (1937) Playwright, poet, lyricist, short story writer, novelist

One of Those People
Untold Decades: Seven Comedies of Gay Romance (1988)

Ta-Nehisi Coates photo
Neil Young photo

“Well, people let me tell you, it sent a chill up and down my spine,
When I picked up the telephone and heard that he'd died out on the mainline.”

Neil Young (1945) Canadian singer-songwriter

Tonight's the Night
Song lyrics, Tonight's the Night (1975)

Halldór Laxness photo
Cormac McCarthy photo
Madonna photo

“I have the most perfect belly button. When I stick my fingers in it, I feel a nerve in the center of my body shoot up my spine.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Confessions of a Madonna, SPIN, 1985-05-01 https://books.google.ru/books?id=9ugCQfxwym0C,

Lytton Strachey photo
Mickey Spillane photo
Tallulah Bankhead photo
Ray Bradbury photo
William Gibson photo
Thomas Henry Huxley photo
Harry Reid photo

“Alberto Gonzales was never the right man for this job. He lacked independence, he lacked judgment, and he lacked the spine to say no to Karl Rove. This resignation is not the end of the story. Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House.”

Harry Reid (1939) American politician

Following the resignation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General
Gonzales resigns as U.S. attorney general, MSNBC.com, August 27, 2007, 2007-08-27 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20459457/,

Eminem photo

“My rhyming skills got you climbing hills, I'll travel through your mind into your spine like siren drills.”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Infinite"
1990s, Infinite (1996)

Charles Dickens photo

“Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine.”

Charles Dickens (1812–1870) English writer and social critic and a Journalist

The Signal-Man http://www.charles-dickens.org/three-ghost-stories-the-signal-man/ebook-page-04.asp (1866)

Stephen King photo
Robin Sloan photo
Nick Cave photo
Toni Morrison photo
Tom Lehrer photo

“Take your cigarette from its holder,
And burn your initials in my shoulder.
Fracture my spine,
And swear that you're mine,
As we dance to the Masochism Tango.”

Tom Lehrer (1928) American singer-songwriter and mathematician

"The Masochism Tango"
An Evening (Wasted) With Tom Lehrer (1959)

Robert T. Bakker photo
David Weber photo

“Son, you'll know you're in love when a woman's voice settles into your spine.”

David Weber (1952) author

a remembered quote from Victor Cachat's father
"Honorverse", Crown of Slaves (2004)

Rahm Emanuel photo
Charles Lyell photo
Jack Kerouac photo
Rose McGowan photo
Margaret Thatcher photo

“The trouble with you John, is that your spine does not reach your brain.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

On Conservative backbencher John Whittingdale after being summoned to her room to urge MPs to vote against the Maastricht Treaty. Whittingdale was reported to have emerged from the room in tears. (The Times 26 November 1992)
Post-Prime Ministerial

John Banville photo
Roger Ebert photo
Elton John photo

“In the instant that you love someone,
In the second that the hammer hits,
Reality runs up your spine,
And the pieces finally fit.”

Elton John (1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist

The One
Song lyrics, The One (1992)

John Galt (novelist) photo
George Gissing photo

“Women, he held, had never been treated with elementary justice. To worship them was no less unfair than to hold them in contempt. The honest man, in our day, should regard a woman without the least bias of sexual prejudice; should view her simply as a fellow-being, who, according to circumstances, might or not be on his own plane. Away with all empty show and form, those relics of barbarism known as chivalry! He wished to discontinue even the habit of hat-doffing in female presence. Was not civility preserved between man and man without such idle form? Why not, then, between man and woman? Unable, as yet, to go the entire length of his principles in every-day life, he endeavoured, at all events, to cultivate in his intercourse with women a frankness of speech, a directness of bearing, beyond the usual. He shook hands as with one of his own sex, spine uncrooked; he greeted them with level voice, not as one who addresses a thing afraid of sound. To a girl or matron whom he liked, he said, in tone if not in phrase, "Let us be comrades." In his opinion this tended notably to the purifying of the social atmosphere. It was the introduction of simple honesty into relations commonly marked — and corrupted — by every form of disingenuousness. Moreover, it was the great first step to that reconstruction of society at large which every thinker saw to be imperative and imminent.
But Constance Bride knew nothing of this, and in her ignorance could not but misinterpret the young man's demeanor. She felt it to be brusque; she imagined it to imply a purposed oblivion of things in the past.”

George Gissing (1857–1903) English novelist

Source: Our Friend the Charlatan (1901), Ch. II

Glenn Beck photo
Ray Comfort photo
William S. Burroughs photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“I couldn't stand the pain. All the doctors said there was nothing wrong with my spine because there was nothing they could see. But the chiropractors said they thought they could help and they did.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

From his 1971 World Series MVP acceptance speech, recalling the time in 1957 when he considered quitting baseball, as quoted in "Pittsburgh's Clemente Honored" https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19711021&id=66lOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=tQkEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7211,3919174 by United {Press International, in The Wilmington Star-News (Thursday, October 21, 1971), p. 1-D
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

Walt Disney photo

“Actually, if you could see close in my eyes, the American flag is waving in both of them and up my spine is growing this red, white and blue stripe.”

Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman

The Quotable Walt Disney (2001)

Roberto Clemente photo

“I have made a great study of the spine ever since I had my spine trouble, and now I know what to do and it doesn’t involve doctors, operations or anything like that. Why, in Puerto Rico last winter I helped 29 people who had back trouble and one of them was a doctor who couldn’t get medical relief. Ask Willie (Stargell), ask Danny Murtaugh what I did for them. They had back trouble and I fixed them, not by any tricks or anything, but because I know how to manipulate and bring relief. A lot of people think if you have a pain or tightness here, it can be worked out by rubbing that area. It can’t. The way to do it is to know the trigger points. Sometimes you have to manipulate a few inches from the spot that’s hurting because that's maybe where the muscle that controls the soreness is. It’s all very complicated, but believe me, it works.

I was suffering so bad I could hardly walk [in 1957]. All the x-rays and medical doctors couldn’t find out what was wrong. Then a man in St. Louis, a chiropractor, called me and offered to help. The ballclub was against it and said they wouldn’t be responsible, but I was desperate and the pain was driving me crazy. But the man, who told me I had a curvature of the spine, was able to fix me up. It was after that I became interested in studying the human back and ever since I’ve never had trouble I couldn't take care of. Back trouble is a painful thing and people who don’t have the problem don’t know how lucky they are.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Clemente a Doc" by Red Foley, in The New York Daily News (October 10, 1971), pp. 69, 75
Other, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>

St. Vincent (musician) photo

“I wish I had a gentle mind and a spine made up of iron.”

St. Vincent (musician) (1982) American singer-songwriter

"Marrow"
Actor (2009)

Roberto Clemente photo
Adam Goldstein photo
John Cheever photo
Thomas Merton photo
Robin Sloan photo

“We believe that when this secret is finally unlocked, every member of the Unbroken Spine who ever lived…will live again.”

Robin Sloan (1979) American writer

A Messiah, a first disciple, and a rapture. Check, check, and double-check. Penumbra is, right now, teetering right on the boundary between charmingly weird old guy and disturbingly weird old guy. Two things tip the scales toward charm: First, his wry smile, which is not the smile of the disturbed, and micromuscles don’t lie. Second, the look in Kat’s eyes. She’s enthralled. I guess people believe weirder things than this, right? Presidents and popes believe weirder things than this.
Source: Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (2012), Chapter 15 “The Strangest Clerk in Five Hundred Years” (p. 136)

Marilyn Ferguson photo
Peter Hammill photo