Offhanded Quotes & Sayings

My daughter is very strong-willed and is a great kid. She doesn't drink. She doesn't smoke. She doesn't fold to peer pressure. I think how affectionate my wife and I have been with her over the years all plays into that. She realizes the more people she is exposed to that kids who have both parents around grow up to be much better people. — Doug Flutie

It was the breeze that made her look up, a change in the texture of the unseen, a change in the texture of her heart. She was ready. Charlotte moved with firm footing around a stand of beech trees and onto a moonbeam path. A pearly, full moon glowed over Red Mountain, burning back the curtains of night. — Rachel Hauck

On the field of battle, the spoken word does not carry far enough; hence the institution of gongs and drums ... banners and flags. Gongs and drums, banners and flags, are means whereby the ears and eyes of the host may be focused on one particular point. — Sun Tzu

Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone. — Martina Navratilova

In a similar vein, Jared Diamond has observed: Personally, I can't fathom why Australia's giants should have survived innumerable droughts in their tens of millions of years of Australian history, and then have chosen to drop dead almost simultaneously (at least on a time scale of millions of years) precisely and just coincidentally when the first humans arrived. — Elizabeth Kolbert

Hold onto your dicks."
"We don't all have dicks, dickhead," Kasyanov muttered. — Tim Lebbon

I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States. — Tim Hardaway

The charade of politics is to make voters think that the personal narrative of the candidate affects the operation of the corporate state. It doesn't really matter on the fundamental issues whether the President is Republican or Democratic. — Chris Hedges

Her youthful habit of consuming a picture just inches from its aromatic surface died a long time ago. Sebastian, when they were first dating, had once called it an affectation and she could never bring herself to do it again. His offhanded comment should have been a sign of future cruelties and standards of perfection, but instead she'd quickly agreed with his assessment and was grateful for his candor. She — Dominic Smith

Maths was "the one true thing," according to Nancy.
"Not love?" Teddy said.
"Oh, love, of course," Nancy said, in an offhanded way. "Love is crucial, but it's an abstract and numbers are absolute. Numbers can't be manipulated." An unsatisfactory answer, surely, Teddy thought. It seemed to him that love should be the absolute, trumping everything. Did it? For him? — Kate Atkinson

Habits begin as offhanded remarks, ideas and images. And then, layer upon layer, through practice, they grow from cobwebs into cables that shackle or strengthen our lives. — Denis Waitley

She could remember feeling that disorienting first rush of love, as bright and light as if no one else had ever felt it, as if you were looking down into the ultimate pool of emotional revelation. She also remembered how stupid it made you. — Lucy Dillon

Anything that is excellent or praiseworthy stands moment by moment on the cutting edge and must be constantly fought for. Well placed priorities always sit on the edge. — Ross Perot

If someone says you are not capable or can't have something, keep pushing because you can. And it's not because you're special, but it's because everyone possesses the ability to be awesome. The reason people say, 'No, you can't,' 'God doesn't want you to,' or they make laws is because they know that you have that in you. And they are scared to lose their superior standing. — Philip DeFranco

A man who writes for a living does not have to go anywhere in particular, and he could rarely afford to if he wanted. — C.S. Forester

Iranians also see external reasons for caution. Analyst Foad Izadi at Tehran University says Iranians only need to look at the chaos plaguing the region to see how easily popular demands for change can get out of hand. — Lourdes Garcia-Navarro