Offhandedly Quotes & Sayings

For an author nothing is as dead as a book once it is written. — Rumer Godden

Turned my back to dip the cloth into the bowl, and said offhandedly over my shoulder, "Er, I did my legs, too." I stole a quick glance over my shoulder. The original shock was fading into a look of total bewilderment. "Your legs dinna smell like anything," he said. "Unless you've been walkin' knee-deep in the cow-byre. — Diana Gabaldon

If I miss anything about the sport, it's the camaraderie of old teammates. — Bo Jackson

Little by little people are understanding that we need to change, but whatever we decide to do in next 10 to 15 years will decide the future of biodiversity on Earth. — Anthony D. Barnosky

I had a friend who was a heavy drinker. If somebody asked him if he'd been drunk the night before, he would always answer offhandedly, 'Oh, I imagine.' I've always liked that answer. It acknowledges life as a dream. — Kurt Vonnegut

I once offhandedly mentioned that I wanted to pick out my own ring, something I have to look at every day, but there is something decidedly unromantic and a little bit depressing about having a symbol of love reduced to such scientific classifications - especially classifications focusing on imperfections. — Emily Giffin

I'm going to enjoy every second, and I'm going to know I'm enjoying it while I'm enjoying it. Most people don't live; they just race. They are trying to reach some goal far away on the horizon, and in the heat of the going they get so breathless and panting that they lose sight of the beautiful, tranquil country they are passing through; and then the first thing they know, they are old and worn out, and it doesn't make any difference whether they've reached the goal or not. — Jean Webster

At a certain age our parents offhandedly start telling us things we've never heard before, about themselves and their families, their upbringing and history. They're turning their lives into stories, trying to make sense of them in retrospect and pass them on while there's still time. You begin, embarrassingly belatedly, to see them as people with lives long preceding your own. — Tim Kreider

I swore never to use the emoticon ever ... until one day, offhandedly and without much thought, I used my first and, shortly thereafter, in spite of my initial resistance, became a regular staple of my daily correspondence — Joshua Ferris

But Lily pushed on. "Why do you think that is, that you love these people you don't know?"
Adri shook her head. "I don't. I'm just curious."
Lily shrugged. Offhandedly, as they were leaving the room, she said, "Maybe it's because you're invisible to them. Maybe that's why you let them in." She tapped on the wall on her way out, as if for good luck. "It's less scary that way. — Jodi Lynn Anderson

I have to save them. They are my world to me. But what if I can't? What if I fail? — Claudia Caren

The most common mistake you'll make is forgetting to keep your own scorecard. Very little at work reinforces your ability to do this, so you will have to be vigilant. When evaluators give you an assessment, they are just guessing at who you are; they certainly are not the ones who know your potential. They can rate you and influence you, but they don't get to define you. That's your most honorable assignment: to define, every day through the way you deliver your work, the scope and nature of your inherent abilities. — Charlotte Beers

No one should think he can quickly dispose of questions posed here offhandedly. It was precisely because writers were in the habit during the time of the Reformation of theologizing with a hammer that the split in the Church became irreparable. And to work at overcoming this split means much effort. Only the patient need apply. — Hans Urs Von Balthasar

Yesterday, when you said you told everyone, what did you mean?"
"Everyone important, I guess. I mean, I didn't rush out to inform my mailman or anything."
"Oh, he knows," Nate said offhandedly.
"Oh. Okay," I said, thrown. "Well, I guess I can cross him off the list. — Cary Attwell

What's unique about Wright's disdain for endlessly proliferating microdefinitions inspired by and based on other microdefinitions is that he eventually, casually, and seemingly offhandedly suggests at the end of his article that we could simply rewrite the law altogether and eliminate the crime known as burglary. Some men just want to watch the world burn. His logic rests on the fabulous conclusion that, legally speaking, architecture is a form of "magic," one that has no place in an otherwise rational system. Architecture is the "magic of four walls," he writes, referring to its power to fundamentally transform how certain crimes are judged — Geoff Manaugh

In a sense, I am a moralist, insofar as I believe that one of the tasks, one of the meanings of human existence - the source of human freedom - is never to accept anything as definitive, untouchable, obvious, or immobile. No aspect of reality should be allowed to become a definitive and inhuman law for us. We have to rise up against all forms of power - but not just power in the narrow sense of the word, referring to the power of a government or of one social group over another: these are only a few particular instances of power. Power is anything that tends to render immobile and untouchable those things that are offered to us as real, as true, as good. — Michel Foucault

Finding a pattern when there is none; missing a pattern when there is one. — Anonymous

Simon laughed heartily. "I'm afraid the rest of us have to find talents to get our women into bed. Of course once they're there, I have other talents that keep them right where they are."
"Handcuffs hardly count," Christian said offhandedly.
"If you mean the ladies cuffing me to the bed so they can explore Hunt Island," he said, rubbing his chest, " ... then point taken. These hands are capable of making any female climax by the mere brush of a pinky across her bare breast."
"I must have gone to the wrong island," I said with a private laugh. — Dannika Dark

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and today -- all without seeing him. It is a long time to be alone; still, it is better to be alone that unwelcome. I had to have company -- I was made for it, I think -- so I made friends with the animals. — Mark Twain

Tragic and painful state of being separated from his true self, to which doctors refer offhandedly as depression. — Alice Miller

To me, Texas is Austin, a bunch of cool people trying to make a difference. — Bill Hicks

In recent weeks, I have heard former Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier on Fox News twice asserting, quite offhandedly, that President George W. Bush 'lied us into war in Iraq.' — Laurence Silberman

If it won't respond to humans, then it will have to be killed," Dorian said offhandedly, and a spark went through Celaena. "Kill it? Kill it? For what reason? What did it do to you? — Sarah J. Maas

When I interview candidates, I like to go where they live, so I can see them in their environment, not just in mind. — Sherry Turkle

She remembered one of her boyfriends asking, offhandedly, how many books she read in a year. "A few hundred," she said.
"How do you have the time?" he asked, gobsmacked.
She narrowed her eyes and considered the array of potential answers in front of her. Because I don't spend hours flipping through cable complaining there's nothing on? Because my entire Sunday is not eaten up with pre-game, in-game, and post-game talking heads? Because I do not spend every night drinking overpriced beer and engaging in dick-swinging contests with the other financirati? Because when I am waiting in line, at the gym, on the train, eating lunch, I am not complaining about the wait/staring into space/admiring myself in reflective surfaces? I am reading!
"I don't know," she said, shrugging. — Eleanor Brown

She was the kind of person who took care of things by herself. She'd never ask anybody for advice or help. It wasn't a matter of pride, I think. She just did what seemed natural to her. — Haruki Murakami

I learned embroidery," Kaede said, "But you can't kill anyone with a needle."
"You can," Shizuka said offhandedly. "I'll show you one day. — Lian Hearn

the media, at least in the U.S., tends to focus on pain pill use, abuse, and addiction by people who do not have chronic pain.
Even if these stories offhandedly mention that these pills are used to treat pain in people whose physical pain does not go away, however, the stories of those who use pain medicine responsibly -- or, worse, accused of drug-seeking behavior because they need certain types of pills for chronic pain -- are usually overshadowed by the "How can we prevent pain pill addiction?" concern, instead of asking, "How can we treat chronic pain more effectively? — Anna Hamilton

Anoia, Goddess of Things That Get Stuck in Drawers," said the woman. "Pleased to meet you." She took another puff at the flaming cigarette, and there were more sparks. Some of them dropped on the floor but didn't seem to do any damage. "There's a goddess just for that?" said Tiffany. "Well, I find lost corkscrews and things that roll under furniture," said Anoia offhandedly. "Sometimes things that get lost under sofa cushions, too. They want me to do stuck zippers, and I'm thinking about that. But mostly I manifest whensoever people rattle stuck drawers and call upon the gods." She puffed on her cigarette. "Got any tea? — Terry Pratchett