Juste Quotes & Sayings

Lieutenant Harry Kim was, without doubt, the most optimistic individual she had ever known. No matter how close the darkness came, his determination to overcome it and certainty that goodness would prevail was refreshing. Conlon — Kirsten Beyer

I've been working hard on [Ulysses] all day," said Joyce.
Does that mean that you have written a great deal?" I said.
Two sentences," said Joyce.
I looked sideways but Joyce was not smiling. I thought of [French novelist Gustave] Flaubert. "You've been seeking the mot juste?" I said.
No," said Joyce. "I have the words already. What I am seeking is the perfect order of words in the sentence. — James Joyce

Before the scene, before the paragraph, even before the sentence, comes the word. Individual words and phrases are the building blocks of fiction, the genes that generate everything else. Use the right words, and your fiction can blossom. The French have a phrase for it - le mot juste - the exact right word in the exact right position. — Nancy Kress

Now I know you should listen to what your body is telling you. — Delta Goodrem

I hope that all critical Muslims read the ruling in full, because it states very clearly what freedom of expression in Denmark is about. — Carsten Juste

I felt," he said, "irritated. It seemed a waste, I suppose. To come so far. To cross the sea. To die for ... " He shrugs. "God knows why. — Hilary Mantel

The French call mot juste the word that exactly fits. Why is this word so hard to find? The reasons are many. First, we don't always know what we mean and are too lazy too find out. — Jacques Barzun

A further reason for my hatred of ... ideologies is quite a primitive one. I have an aversion to killing people for the fun of it. What the fun is, I did not quite understand at the time, but in the intervening years the ample exploration of revolutionary consciousness has cast some light on this matter. The fun consists in gaining a pseudo-identity through asserting one's power, optimally by killing somebody - a pseudo-identity that serves as a substitute for the human self that has been lost ... A good example of the type of self that has to kill other people in order to regain in an Ersatzform what it has lost is the famous Saint-Juste, who says that Brutus either has to kill other people or kill himself.
... I have no sympathy whatsoever with such characters and have never hesitated to characterize them as murderous swine. — Eric Voegelin

Armies aren't very good about carrying libraries with them. I can't imagine why. We'd fight so much less if everyone would juste sit down and read — Cynthia Hand

It is a great thing, indeed, to make a proper use of the poetical forms, as also of compounds and strange words. But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learnt from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars. — Aristotle.

He loved his family. But he was not proud of them. Their principal achievement was survival. It would take him a lifetime to appreciate what an achievement that was. — Richard Flanagan

I guess we are juste two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl," I say.
Her eyes narrow. "I've heard that somewhere before."
I smile and point at her briefly. "Pink Floyd. But it's the truth."
"You think we're lost?"
I tilt my head back a little and look up at the stars behind her and say, "In society maybe. But together, no. I think we're right where we need to be. — J.A. Redmerski

Nobody tells you what you can and can't do. — Dan Brown

We apologize for the fact that the cartoons undeniably have offended many Muslims. — Carsten Juste

We seek immortality in mortal things. Even the strongest of our desires is bound to die after sometime. What should remain in the end is only the willpower. — Sarita Singh

If it involves mountains, breakfast food, coffee or campfires- I'm in. — Unknown

Islamophobia: a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons. — Christopher Hitchens

But this post-college world felt different from everything that had come before it; art was still central, but now everyone had to think about making a living too, and they did so with a kind of scorn for money except as it allowed them to live the way they wanted to live. — Meg Wolitzer

How do you answer, "Daddy, why are you a stand-up chameleon?" or "Why don't dogs get the chicken pops?" When my son Jack was four, he pointed to a car antenna and said, "Look, Daddy, stick." I clarified: "Actually, that is an antenna." Jack then asked, "What's an antenna?" After realizing I had no idea how an antenna worked, I explained, "It's a ... stick. A metal stick. You nailed it, buddy." Even — Jim Gaffigan

But you pashed Jonah Griggs and he's the leader of the enemy. — Melina Marchetta

I was a news reporter for 16 years, seven of them a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. Perhaps the most useful equipment I acquired in that time is a lack of preciousness about the act of writing. A reporter must write. There must be a story. The mot juste unarriving? Tell that to your desk. — Geraldine Brooks

Faith is not a means of getting man's will done in heaven; it is the means of getting God's will done on earth. Faith does not put God at our beck and call; rather it puts us at his. — Ronald Dunn

What puzzles most of us are the things which have been left in the movies rather than the things which have been taken out. — Agnes Repplier

Like everyone else, I grew up loving the Anne books, but L.M. Montgomery is so much more. Like Jane Austen, she has an eye for the absurd and a gift for the 'mot juste.' — Lauren Willig

When you go to Rome, do as Rome does. Rome will be a ugly customer to you, if you don't. I'm your Rome, you know. — Charles Dickens

Engineering, like poetry, is an attempt to approach perfection. And engineers, like poets, are seldom completely satisfied with their creations. They notice, even if no one else does, the world that is not quite le mot juste, or the hairline crack that blemishes the structure. — Henry Petroski

The daily quota I've set for myself is 500 words or approximately a page and a half double-spaced. Which isn't much, except that I'm extremely slow, extremely meticulous. 'Le mot juste' haunts me. On a good day, I will finally secrete the 500th word at about 5 o'clock, and I'll reward myself by going to Housing Works Bookstore to read. — Said Sayrafiezadeh

There are good things I see on Samsung phones that I wish were in my iPhone. I wish Apple would use them and could use them, and I don't know if Samsung would stop us. — Steve Wozniak