Englishing Quotes & Sayings

The Second Law of Thermodynamics defines the ultimate purpose of life, mind, and human striving: to deploy energy and information to fight back the tide of entropy and carve out refuges of beneficial order. An underappreciation of the inherent tendency toward disorder, and a failure to appreciate the precious niches of order we carve out, are a major source of human folly. — Steven Pinker

I've always felt that stylists such as you have in America are ashamed of a car and are preoccupied with making it look like something else, like a submarine or an airship ... As an engineer, I revolt against this. — Alec Issigonis

A brawl was in progress near the threshold of the tavern, a writhing mixture of arms, legs, flying hats, and bottles and canes. Anytime there was a fight, the greatest likelihood was that her brother had started it.
"Merripen," she said anxiously, "you know how Leo is when he's foxed. He's probably in the middle of the fray. If you would be so kind - "
Before she had even finished, Merripen made to leave the carriage.
"Wait," Rohan said. "You'd better let me handle it."
Merripen gave him a cold glance. "You doubt my ability to fight?"
"This is a London rookery. I'm used to the kind of tricks they employ. If you - " Rohan broke off as Merripen ignored him and left the carriage with a surly grunt. "So be it," Rohan said, exiting the carriage and standing beside it to watch. — Lisa Kleypas

You don't have to be very brilliant. You don't have to have such a wonderful education. You can be an outstanding success if you will only take what little you have, whether it's little or much, and start using it, putting it into operation, doing something about it, and doing something with it. And, of course, that calls for initiative. — Napoleon Hill

Money is to be sought for first of all; virtue after wealth.
[Lat., Quaerenda pecunia primum est; virtus post nummos.] — Horace

I would let myself be taken until I was nothing more than his creation, a poetic body, the divine alternative to womankind. — Laura Elizabeth Woollett

I'm thinking only of my illness and my health, though both, the first as well as the second, are you. — Franz Kafka

My only criticism about Quentin Crisp is that the subversive must be ready to subvert themselves. I may dress for myself, but I undress for everybody else, whereas he never did that - he was never prepared to drop a bomb on everything he did. — Sebastian Horsley

A republic - if you can keep it - is about limitation, and for good reason, because we are mortal and our actions are imperfect. — Mike Pence

These our great natural rights we keep to ourselves; we will not have them tampered with; respecting them we give to you no commission whatsoever. — Caleb Cushing

If curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought it back. — Holly Black

The Empire might have demanded that they sacrifice their souls, but at one point, the majority of those people had been no worse than any others. All that was good in them had been lost to the Empire and to the war; surely that was worth grieving for. — Claudia Gray