Quotes about term
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“People are fond of using military terms to describe what they do.
We call it bombing when we go out painting, when of course it's more
like entertaining the troops in a neutral zone, during peacetime in a
country without an army.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Source: Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall

People, Painting, Country

“Every couple needs to argue now and then. Just to prove that the relationship is strong enough to survive. Long-term relationships, the ones that matter, are all about weathering the peaks and the valleys.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Strong, Weather, Relationship, For Wife

“In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me.”

John Fowles (1926–2005) British writer

Way

“Even as the nineteenth century had to come to grips with the notion of human descent from apes, we must now come to terms with the fact that those apes were stoned apes.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Source: Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge

“As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

1783, p. 519
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

“Grab some caviar from the kitchen. You wouldn't believe the muck they feed us in Bartleby's for ten thousand a term.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Arctic Incident

“He knew that Dr. Argon would advise him against bottling up his emotions as it would lead to psychological scarring in the long term.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Last Guardian

“Because I’ve got a lot more terms of endearment to use. Honey pie. Sugarplum. Bread pudding."

“Why are they all high-calorie foods?”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Food, Cute

“No, this trick won't work. The same trick does not work twice. How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

A comment to T. H. Morgan, as recalled by Henry Borsook. Einstein was visiting Cal Tech where Morgan and Borsook worked, and Morgan explained to Einstein that he was trying to bring physics and chemistry to bear on the problems of biology, to which Einstein gave this response. Borsook's recollection was published in Symposium on Structure of Enzymes and Proteins (1956), p. 284 http://books.google.com/books?id=H4QjXb4gnEIC&q=%22so+important+a+biological%22#search_anchor, as part of a piece titled "Informal remarks 'by way of a summary'". Context for this story is also given in The Molecular Vision of Life by Lily E. Kay (1993), p. 95 http://books.google.com/books?id=vEHeNI2a8OEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA95#v=onepage&q&f=false <br class="br">Attributed in posthumous publications

Love

“Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music, I get most joy in life out of music.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Life, Music, Joy

“If you haven’t the strength to impose your own terms upon life, then you must accept the terms it offers you.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Life

“Homework is a term that means grown up imposed yet self-afflicting torture.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: School's Out—Forever

Affliction

“But if we are talking in terms of making progress in life, we must understand that "good enough" is very different from "best.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Life, Understanding

“the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Men

“There is certainly a satisfaction and dignity to be gained in coming to terms with the mistakes one has made in the course of one’s life”

Kazuo Ishiguro book An Artist of the Floating World

Source: An Artist of the Floating World

Life

“Being locked up is one thing, but to have no concept of confinement, to be ignorant of its terms and never understand that struggle is useless - that's what hell must be like.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

Hell, Understanding

“Life is about coming to terms with the mistakes made. Learning to live with them even when they cut soul deep.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Silence

Life, Soul, Learning

“You simply collapsed, sir. In layman's terms, your body revoked its permission for you to continue heaping abuse upon it.”

Scott Lynch The Lies of Locke Lamora

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.”

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) novelist

Animals

“As my mom has said, when one person is unhappy, it usually means two people are unhappy but that one has not come to terms with it yet.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

People, Moms, Personality

“There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is idiot.”

S.M. Stirling book Conquistador

Conquistador (2003)

Books

“I choose my battles, Dresden. Not you." She looked up at me calmly. "Let me put this in terms that will get through your skull: My friend is going to save a child from monsters. I'm going with him. That's what friends do, Harry.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

“Aimless extension of knowledge, however, which is what I think you really mean by the term curiosity, is merely inefficiency. I am designed to avoid inefficiency.”

Isaac Asimov book The Caves of Steel

Source: The Caves of Steel

Knowledge, Thinking

“Sleep is not on good terms with broken hearts. It will have nothing to do with them.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Sleep, Heart

“We are not long-term beings. Not heroes of romances in many volumes. For one gesture, for one word alone, we shall make the effort. We openly admit: our creations will be temporary. We shall have this as our aim: a gesture.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Tree of Codes

Source: Tree of Codes

Effort

“He was a worried man (I'm stretching the term a bit here, I know. By now, in his mid to late teens, he might just about have passed for a man. When seen from behind. At a distance. On a very dark night).”

Jonathan Stroud book Ptolemy's Gate

Source: Ptolemy's Gate

Night

“Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

TIME magazine Vol. 149, No. 2 (13 January 1997) http://web.archive.org/web/20000619135050/http://www.time.com/time/gates/gates7.html <br class="br">1990s

Religion, Time

“All we could get out of them was that they were taking us to 'Kurokuma'. We didn't know if that was a place or a person. What does it mean, by the way?'
'I'm told it's a term of great respect,' Horace said, unwilling to admit that he didn't know.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

Way, Personality

“It is clear that the world is purely parodic, in other words, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
Ever since sentences started to circulate in brains devoted to reflection, an effort at total identification has been made, because with the aid of a copula each sentence ties one thing to another; all things would be visibly connected if one could discover at a single glance and in its totality the tracings of Ariadne’s thread leading thought into its own labyrinth.
But the copula of terms is no less irritating than the copulation of bodies. And when I scream I AM THE SUN an integral erection results, because the verb to be is the vehicle of amorous frenzy.
Everyone is aware that life is parodic and that it lacks an interpretation. Thus lead is the parody of gold. Air is the parody of water. The brain is the parody of the equator. Coitus is the parody of crime.”

Georges Bataille book The Solar Anus

The Solar Anus (1927)

Life, World, Effort, Water

“Screwy," I said. "Is that a medical term?" "Of course.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bites

“Liz cleared her throat. "Isn't there a more polite term we're supposed to use nowadays? Like…. little person, or vertically challenged, or-"
"I'm not going to call myself the god of vertically challenged people," Bes grumbled. "I'm a dwarf!”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

God, People, Personality

“I don’t think Will Herondale and a sense of responsibility are even on speaking terms”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Thinking, Sense

“Long-term relationships--the ones that matter--are all about weathering the peaks and valleys.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Jo, Chapter 33, p. 259
Source: 2009, Safe Haven (2010)

Weather, Relationship, For Wife

“The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term, is the indispensable prerequisite for success.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Success

“There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot'.”

Larry Niven (1938) American writer

“Charity even for one person does not make sense except in terms of an effort to love all Creation in response to the Creator's love for it.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Love, Sense, Effort, Personality

“If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.”

Anna Quindlen (1952) journalist, Novelist

World, Feeling, Success, Heart

“Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.”

Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist

“Do you find coming to terms with the mindless tedium of it all presents an interesting challenge?”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Me and normal have never really been on speaking terms.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ill Wind

“What planet are you from? Obviously Planet Insanity was missing a local, long-term resident.' (Nick)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

“A toast, Jedediah, to love on my terms. Those are the only terms anybody ever knows - his own.”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

Source: Citizen Kane

Love

“I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft landing is never guaranteed.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Love, Faith

“We were not a hugging people. In terms of emotional comfort it was our belief that no amount of physical contact could match the healing powers of a well made cocktail.”

David Sedaris Naked

Source: Naked

People

“But really, the term “forgive and forget” doesn’t make sense to me. Forgiving does allow us to stop dwelling on an issue, which isn’t always healthy. But if we forget, we don’t learn from our mistakes. And that can be deadly.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Abandon

Forgiveness, Sense, Learning, Forgetting

“In our world, I rank music somewhere between hair ribbons and rainbows in terms of usefulness. At least a rainbow gives you a tip about the weather.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

World, Music, Weather

“If evil means to be self-motivated, to be the center of one’s own universe, to live on one’s own terms, then every artist, every thinker, every original mind, is evil.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Motivation, Universe, Evil

“I am a drifter, and as lonely as that can be, it is also remarkably freeing. I will never define myself in terms of anyone else.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“Do your own thing on your own terms and get what you came here for”

Oliver James (1953) British psychologist

“In terms of evolutionary history, it was only yesterday that men learned to walk around on two legs and get in trouble thinking complicated thoughts. So don't worry, you'll burn out.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Men, History, Thinking, Learning

“In terms of doing things I take a fairly scientific approach to why things happen and how they happen. I don't know if there's a god or not, but I think religious principles are quite valid.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

PBS interview with David Frost (November 1995)
1990s

God, Thinking

“The term "political correctness" has always appalled me, reminding me of Orwell's "Thought Police" and fascist regimes.”

Helmut Newton (1920–2004) German-Australian photographer

American Photo (January/February 2000), p. 90
Context: Since the commercialization and banality of editorial magazine pages have made this work uninteresting, advertising has become an increasingly important part of my work. It is interesting to compare European and American mores in regard to my work. One will notice that most of my European images have a stronger sexual content that those destined for American publication. The term "political correctness" has always appalled me, reminding me of Orwell's "Thought Police" and fascist regimes.

“Now, if you have never been hit by a flying burrito, count yourself lucky. In terms of deadly projectiles, it's right up there with grenades and cannonballs.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Variant: Ever had a flying burrito hit you? Well, it's a deadly projectile, right up there with cannonballs and grenades.
Source: The Titan's Curse

Flying

“He who becomes a Prince through the favour of the people should always keep on good terms with them; which it is easy for him to do, since all they ask is not to be oppressed”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince

People

“Free women," said Anna, wryly. She added, with an anger new to Molly, so that she earned another quick scrutinizing glance from her friend: "They still define us in terms of relationships with men, even the best of them.”

Doris Lessing book The Golden Notebook

Source: The Golden Notebook

Women, Men, Anger

“In the short term, it would make me happy to go play outside. In the long term, it would make me happier to do well at school and become successful. But in the VERY long term, I know which will make better memories.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: It's a Magical World: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection

Happiness, School, Memory, Success

“I prefer the term ‘sexual deviant’ myself,” Saiman said.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Strikes

“I emphasize in it [my Orientalism] accortdingly that neither the term Orient nor the concept of the West has any ontological stability; each is made up of human effort, partly affirmation, partly identification of the Other.”

Edward Said (1935–2003) Professor of English and literature

Effort

“I believe that the community - in the fullest sense: a place and all its creatures - is the smallest unit of health and that to speak of the health of an isolated individual is a contradiction in terms. (pg. 146, Health is Membership)”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Health, Communication, Sense

“To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

The Miracle of Mindfulness (1999)
Source: The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
Context: To think in terms of either pessimism or optimism oversimplifies the truth. The problem is to see reality as it is. A pessimistic attitude can never create the calm and serene smile which blossoms on the lips of Bodhisattvas and all those who obtain the way.

Truth, Optimism, Problem, Thinking

“She had not really a sensitive soul, but to put it in exact terms, was possessed by an uncontrollable feeling of mind”

Alessandro Baricco book Ocean Sea

Source: Ocean Sea

Feeling, Soul

“The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty percent is the figure usually given. When, momentarily, there is a flash of greater power, it is termed a hunch, or insight, or intuition.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation and Empire

Source: Foundation and Empire

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. … I cannot tell if I would have done any creative work of importance in music, but I do know that I get most joy in life out of my violin.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1920s, Viereck interview (1929)

Life, Music, Thinking, Joy

“You kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire. He had wondered once why love was always phrased in terms of burning. The conflagration in his own veins, now, gave the answer.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love

“A demon, if you prefer the term; although to be honest, the difference between god and a demon is really only a matter of perspective.”

Joanne Harris book The Gospel of Loki

Source: The Gospel of Loki

God

“The entire ball game, in terms of both the exam and life, was what you gave attention to vs. what you willed yourself to not.”

David Foster Wallace book The Pale King

Source: The Pale King

Life, Game

“The term “starvation diet” refers to 900 calories a day. I was on one-third of a starvation diet. What do you call that? One word that comes to my mind: “suicide.”

Marya Hornbacher book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Source: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Suicide

“What term do you employ when you speak of your progenitor?"
I answered with the term I'd always wanted to employ.
"Sonovabitch."
"To his face?" she asked.
"I never see his face."
"He wears a mask?"
"In a way, yes. Of stone. Of absolute stone.”

Erich Segal book Love Story

Source: Love Story

Way

“What the devil is Chocho?' Will whispered.
Horace's grin broadened. 'You are. It's what the men call you,' he said. Then he added, 'It's a term of great respect.'
Behind them, Halt nodded confirmation. 'Great respect,' he agreed.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

Men

“What is this Chocho business?' Will muttered to himself. But his friends overheard the comment.
'It's a term of great respect,' they chorused, and he glared at them.
'Oh, shut up,' he said.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

Business

“The happy people are failures because they are on such good terms with themselves they don't give a damn.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

Happiness, People, Failure

“It is clearly absurd to limit the term 'education' to a person's formal schooling.”

Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) American economist of the Austrian School, libertarian political theorist, and historian

Source: Education, Free & Compulsory

Education, School, Personality

“The message of "The Winner Takes It All" is straightforward: It argues that the concept of relationships ending on mutual terms is an emotional fallacy. One person is inevitably okay and the other is inevitably devastated.”

Chuck Klosterman Eating the Dinosaur

Source: Eating the Dinosaur

Personality

“When I work, I'm just translating the world around me in what seems to be straightforward terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that's not familiar. But I'm not trying to manipulate reality. This is just what I see and hear.”

Don DeLillo (1936) American novelist, playwright and essayist

World, Reality

“There are times when it will go so wrong that you will barely be alive, and times when you realise that being barely alive, on your own terms, is better than living a bloated half-life on someone else's terms.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Life, Time

“We are coming up on the Sumerian apokalypsi–. (Artemis)
I don’t think they use that word. (Kat)
Who cares what word they use? End of the world is end of the world regardless of whatever term you use for it! (Artemis)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

World, Thinking

“In terms of morals there is no such thing as ‘state.’ Just men. Individuals. Each responsible for his own acts.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Source: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Men

“Charlie, you’re one of the most gifted people I’ve ever known. And I don’t mean in terms of my other students. I mean in terms of anyone I’ve ever met.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

People

“Magic could not be measured and explained in scientific terms, for magic grew through destroying the very natural principles that made science as people knew it impossible.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bites

People, Nature, Science

“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

God, Friendship, Faith

“Since I was five, I've known that I was adopted, which is a politically correct term for being clueless about one's own origins.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

“Whaddaya mean 'old maids,' ha? The term is 'unclaimed treasure,' buddy, 'unclaimed treasure!”

Laurie Notaro American writer

Source: Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood

“And is it all about the pay?”
“Hence the term mercenary.” He chucked her under the chin. “Try to keep up, halfling.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dark Desires After Dusk

“Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Intelligence

“The whole idea of god is absurd. If anything, '2001' shows that what some people call 'god' is simply an acceptable term for their ignorance. What they don't understand, they call 'god' -Stanley Kubrick, interview, 1963”

Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor

God, People, Idea, Understanding

“They say you are not you except in terms of relation to other people. If there weren't any other people there wouldn't be any you because what you do, which is what you are, only has meaning in relation to other people.”

Robert Penn Warren book All the King's Men

Source: All the King's Men

People

“Self-esteem comes from being able to define the world in your own terms and refusing to abide by the judgments of others.”

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

World

“You get to define the terms of your life.”

Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Source: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Life

“Chaos is what we've lost touch with. This is why it is given a bad name. It is feared by the dominant archetype of our world, which is Ego, which clenches because its existence is defined in terms of control.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

World, Fear

“Anyway, maybe there weren't any solutions. Human society, corpses and rubble. It never learned, it made the same cretinous mistakes over and over, trading short-term gain for long-term pain.”

Margaret Atwood book Oryx and Crake

Source: Oryx and Crake

Pain, Learning

“I mean, if the relationship can't survive the long term, why on earth would it be worth my time and energy for the short term?”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

Time, Relationship

“He describes him in general terms, as the most incomprehensible and formidable among men; as engaged in schemes, reasonably suspected to be, in the highest degree, criminal, but such as no human intelligence is able to unravel: that his ends are pursued by means which leave it in doubt whether he be not in league with some infernal spirit: that his crimes have hitherto been perpetrated with the aid of some unknown but desperate accomplices: that he wages a perpetual war against the happiness of mankind, and sets his engines of destruction at work against every object that presents itself.”

Charles Brockden Brown (1771–1810) American novelist, historian and editor

Wieland; or, the Transformation (1798)

Men, War, Happiness, Intelligence

“Were it not for Occam's Razor, which always demands simplicity, I'd be tempted to believe that human beings are more influenced by distant causes than immediate ones. This would especially be true of overeducated people, who are capable of thinking past the immediate, of becoming obsessed by the remote. It's the old stuff, the conflicts we've never come to terms with, that sneaks up on us, half forgotten, insisting upon action.”

Richard Russo book Straight Man

Source: Straight Man (1997), Ch. 2.

People, Thinking, Distant, Past

“The Chinese system must be classified as a syllabic system of writing. More specifically, it belongs to the subcategory that I have labeled meaning-plus-sound syllabic systems or morphosyllabic systems. I use the term morphosyllabic in two senses. The first applies to the Chinese characters taken as individual units. Individual characters are morphosyllabic in the sense that they represent at once a single syllable and a single morpheme (except for the 11 percent or so of meaningless characters that represent sound only). In this usage the term is intended to replace the more widely used expressions logographic, word-syllabic, and morphemic, all of which are applied to individual characters taken as a unit. The second sense of the term refers to the structure of Chinese characters and is intended to draw attention to the fact that, in most cases, a character is composed of two elements, a phonetic grapheme which suggests the syllabic pronunciation of the full character, and a semantic element which hints at its meaning.”

John DeFrancis (1911–2009) American linguist

Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems (1989, pp. 115-116) http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/visible/index.html <br class="br">Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems (1989)

Sense, Drawing