These days, I like to think of sentences as workers. Only one of their jobs is to look and sound good. Sentences are the carriers of plot. They're the conjurers of images, the conveyors of tone and meaning and voice. The best sentences surprise us.
They think the banjo can only be happy, but that's not true.
One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds.
Not a single man on earth knows from his own experience the how and where of his birth, only from tradition, which is often very uncertain.
The goal of long-run economic growth without asset price bubbles is not only achievable, but is something we should expect if we put a sound regulatory framework in place and if policymakers remain vigilant.
A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.
It is a true miracle when a man finally sees himself as his only opposition.
It's the only way I really know how to tell the story is to be able to kind of live through the characters. So when I find something that resonates with me, it's usually because it cuts to something very real inside of me; something that I've gone through or experienced.
Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity.
Only we, the public, can force our representatives to reverse their abdication of the war powers that the Constitution gives exclusively to the Congress.
It won't make for a quiet life but it will make for an interesting paper vastly more significant because it is doing something only a daily paper can do.
The desire definitely comes from within. There are only a few people who make it to this level and those are the ones who have that innate desire.
Life is the only real counselor; wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissue.
Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses.
Even the recognition of an individual whom we see every day is only possible as the result of an abstract idea of him formed by generalization from his appearances in the past.
It's no good trying to keep up old friendships. It's painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.
But Paul, in his preaching of the Gospel, is a debtor to deliver the word not to Barbarians only, but also to Greeks, and not only to the unwise, who would easily agree with him, but also to the wise.
The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.
Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
Do I think it's OK to fight authority as long as you're only talking about the high school teacher? No.
Sly Stone doesn't make good albums: only good records. His style is so infinite and revolves around so many crucial aspects that it has only come together perfectly on a handful of his singles.
The conqueror is regarded with awe; the wise man commands our respect; but it is only the benevolent man that wins our affection.
My friends call me a 'pace-setter.' Sometimes I am impatient, I think, but you must be fast and flexible in business because uncertainty is the only certainty in life.
I was only a bridesmaid for my sister, and it was very calm and small, so I didn't have any tragedy.
There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.
I do like to cook. But I only cook a few things, but those few things I do really well.
Social democracy... is only the advance guard of the proletariat, a small piece of the total working masses; blood from their blood, and flesh from their flesh.
There is a number among us, young and old, of all sorts almost among us, that swarm up and down towns, and woods, and fields, whose care and work hitherto hath been like bees, only to get honey to their own hive.
Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.
The only dangerous scene is when James Cromwell put a stake in my chest. But other than that, it turned out to be quite a punch. I didn't think much of it.
Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.
People who think they are free eventually end up slaves to their own desires, and those who give their freedom away to the only One you can trust with that freedom eventually get it back.
I went to SXSW in 2011. God, that was awful. I mean, I only went because my publisher wanted me to promote the book and the organizers invited me and it seemed silly not to go, especially for a relatively unknown first-time author. This is just not my cup of tea; the fewer such events I do on an annual basis, the happier I feel.
The only reason I felt like I could sing a song like 'Blown Away' is because I have definitely lived through my fair share of trips to the cellar in the spring. We were no stranger to that. I still ask my mom, 'Is the cellar cleaned out now? Is everything OK?' Even in my new house, I had something built in it that's like a storm shelter.
Going to salsa clubs may be popular, but I feel we're really missing something as a society by overlooking ballroom dancing. If only we could persuade schools to teach it or there was somewhere young people could go on a Saturday night to learn it.
The abjection of our political situation is the only true challenge today. Only facing up to this situation in all its desperation can help us get out of it.
