Quotes
Quotes about Accident
There are two good reasons for writing much, if one can. The first is the need to earn; the second is the fear of an untimely death, which will prevent the half-formed books in one's mind from being realized. We know not the day nor the hour. I may be killed in a train accident when taking this present book to my publisher in London. You can see whether or not this happened by reading the blurb on the dust jacket -- The Novel Now
Dear God, Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?
The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, the best of circumstances. -- Cato (act V, sc. 1)
The Salt Merchant and His Ass A peddler drove his Ass to the seashore to buy salt. His road home lay across a stream into which his Ass, making a false step, fell by accident and rose up again with his load considerably lighter, as the water melted the sack. The Peddler retraced his steps and refilled his panniers with a larger quantity of salt than before. When he came again to the stream, the Ass fell down on purpose in the same spot, and, regaining his feet with the weight of his load much diminished, brayed triumphantly as if he had obtained what he desired. The Peddler saw through his trick and drove him for the third time to the coast, where he bought a cargo of sponges instead of salt. The Ass, again playing the fool, fell down on purpose when he reached the stream, but the sponges became swollen with water, greatly increasing his load. And thus his trick recoiled on him, for he now carried on his back a double burden.
The Astronomer An astronomer used to go out at night to observe the stars. One evening, as he wandered through the suburbs with his whole attention fixed on the sky, he fell accidentally into a deep well. While he lamented and bewailed his sores and bruises, and cried loudly for help, a neighbor ran to the well, and learning what had happened said: Hark ye, old fellow, why, in striving to pry into what is in heaven, do you not manage to see what is on earth?'.
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, in so far as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen, and is not apt to fall. -- Meditations. vii. 61.
Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power.
Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power.
Man blames fate for other accidents but feels personally responsible for a hole-in-one.
The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.
One of the most striking parts of the Day of Atonement is that of the scapegoat. The high priest placed both his hands on the head of a goat and confessed all the sins of the nation. Then the goat carrying the sins of the people is sent off into the wilderness. But it is not just a piece of history! There is in the modern world a quest for scapegoats though with one enormous difference. Whenever there is an accident or a tragedy, there is a search for someone to blame. Often all the modern means of communication join in; accusations, resignations, demands for compensation and the rest. If a guilty person is found, then an orgy of condemnation and vilification. Rarely a sense of, there but for the grace of God go I. Instead of dealing gently with one another's failure because of our own vulnerability to criticism, there is the presumption that we are in a fit condition to judge and to condemn. The enormous difference? The original scapegoat followed a confession of the sins of the people. There was no blaming of someone else, but an admission of guilt and a quest for the forgiveness of God. The goat wasn't hated, but was a dramatic picture of the carrying away sins. It was the very opposite of a selfrighteous victimisation of someone else. Ever since 200 A.D., Christians have seen the scapegoat as a picture of Jesus. As it was led out to die in the wilderness bearing the sins of the people, so he was crucified outside Jerusalem for our sins. We are to be both forgiven and forgiving people.
Chapter of accidents. -- Notes for Speeches (vol. II, p. 426), (1852 edition)
How comes it to pass, if they be only moved by chance and accident, that such regular mutations and generations should be begotten by a fortuitous concourse of atoms. -- Select Discourses (III, p. 48)
Fame, we may understand, is no sure test of merit, but only a probability of such: it is an accident, not a property of a man. -- Essay--Goethe
To accomplish our destiny it is not enough to merely guard prudently against road accidents. We must also cover before nightfall the distance assigned to each of us.
The Act of God designation on all insurance policies; which means, roughly, that you cannot be insured for the accidents that are most likely to happen to you.
To be born free is an accident; To live free a responsibility; To die free is an obligation.
Accidents will occur in the best-regulated families.
Accidents will occur in the best regulated families. -- The Personal History of David Copperfield (ch. XXVIII)
Accidents will occur in the best regulated families. -- David Copperfield. Chap. xxvii.
Great collections of books are subject to certain accidents besides the damp, the worms, and the rats; one not less common is that of the borrowers, not to say a word of the purloiners. -- Curiosities of Literature--The Bibliomania
I never did anything worth doing entirely by accident and none of my inventions came about totally by accident. They came about by hard work.
History is an illogical record. It hinges on nothing. It is a story that changes, and has accidents, and recovers with scars.
We are the men of intrinsic value, who can strike our fortunes out of ourselves, whose worth is independent of accidents in life, or revolutions in government: we have heads to get money, and hearts to spend it.
Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.
Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.
Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.
We try not to have ideas, preferring accidents. To create, you must empty yourself of every artistic thought.
Noble bold is an accident of fortune; noble actions characterize the great. [It., Il sangue nobile e un accidente della fortuna; le azioni nobili caratterizzano il grande.] -- Pamela (I, 6)
To what happy accident is it that we owe so unexpected a visit? -- Vicar of Wakefield (ch. XIX)
To what happy accident is it that we owe so unexpected a visit? -- The Hermit. Chap. xix.
Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.
Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.
Humiliating to human pride as it may be, we must recognize that the advance and even the preservation of civilization are dependent upon a maximum of opportunity for accidents to happen.
I am the inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot. Men are not superior by reason of the accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart--the best brain. The superior man ... stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.
Dad, I'm in some trouble. There's been an accident and you're going to hear all sorts of things about me from now on. Terrible things.
Our wanton accidents take root, and grow To vaunt themselves God's laws. -- Saint's Tragedy (act II, sc. 4)
The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and to have it found out by accident.
Nothing under the sun is accidental, least of all that of which the intention is so clearly evident. [Ger., Nichts unter der Sonne ist Zufall--am wenigsten das wovon die Absicht so klar in die Augen leuchtet.] -- Emilia Galotti (IV, 3)
At first laying down, as a fact fundamental, That nothing with God can be accidental. -- Christus--The Golden Legend (pt. VI)
The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined.
So unlucky that he runs into accidents which started out to happen to somebody else.
Whose foot is on the treadle/That turns the burning stars/Has spun the world half way round/Since last I called/Come down, come down. That stars that in September/Looked through the mournful rain/Now set their sight again/Upon a world half night, half light Men of distant years have said/That much depends on change of seasons/On solstices and equinox/And they have given reasons. I disagree./Too much turns on inadvertence/On what seems to be/An accident of hand and knee/A chance sunrise/A glance of eyes.
By many a happy accident. -- No Wit, no Help, like a Women's (act IV, sc. 1)
By many a happy accident. -- No Wit, no Help, like a Woman's. Act ii. Sc. 2.
Vegans need no pricegouging animal abusing Pfizer Vegans want no domestic battering accident causing Budweiser* Vegans need no services from corrupt Impermanente Kaiser.
Union Carbide desecrated India with killer insecticides brought to Bhopal They violated Hinduism All bugs are sacred to Ahimsa's Gopal *** (the biggest industrial accident of all time.. involved several thousand deaths ..as killer insecticide gas killed humans.. ) Ahimsa nonviolence Gopal.. name for Krishna as protector of cows and all beings.
A beautiful lady is an accident of nature. A beautiful old lady is a work of art.
Chapter of accidents. -- Letter, Feb. 16, 1753.
Accidental and fortuitous concourse of atoms. -- on the combination of parties led by Disraeli and Gladstone
Alexander wept when he heard from Anaxarchus that there was an infinite number of worlds; and his friends asking him if any accident had befallen him, he returns this answer: "Do you not think it a matter worthy of lamentation that when there is such a vast multitude of them, we have not yet conquered one?" -- On the Tranquillity of the Mind.
EEYORE: I'm not saying there won't be an Accident now, mind you. They're funny things, Accidents. You never have them till you're having them.
Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
I think it a very happy accident. -- Don Quixote. Part ii. Chap. lviii.
What the reason of the ant laboriously drags into a heap, the wind of accident will collect in one breadth. [Was der Ameise Vernunft muhsam, zu Haufen schleppt, jagt in einem Hui der Wind des Zufalls zusammen. -- Fiesco (act II, sc. 4)
Of moving accidents by flood and field. -- Othello the Moor of Venice (Othello at I, iii)
Her father loved me; oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have passed.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days,
To the very moment that he bade me tell it:
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach,
Of being taken by the insolent foe
And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence
And portance in my travels' history;
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven,
It was my hint to speak,--such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline. -- Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.
So shall you hear Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts, Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters, Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause, And, in this upshot, purposes mistook Fall'n on th' inventors' heads. -- Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Horatio at V, ii)
If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work; And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents. -- King Henry the Fourth, Part I (Prince Henry at I, ii)
The accident of an accident. -- in a speech in reply to Lord Grafton
The chapter of accidents is the longest chapter in the book. -- in a speech in reply to Lord Grafton
The accident of an accident. -- Speech in Reply to the Duke of Grafton. Butler's Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 142.
Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion.
Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion.
The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing, it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of Divine accident. -Sir Hugh Walpoe.
