Parried Quotes & Sayings

Certain kinds of people, and a fortiori certain kinds of writers, have always experienced the world around them in the Gothic manner, I'm almost positive. Perhaps there was even some little stump of an apeman who witnessed prehistoric lightning as it parried with prehistoric blackness in a night without rain, and felt his soul rise and fall at the same time to behold this sublime and terrifying conflict. Perhaps such displays provided inspiration for those very first imaginings that were not born of our daily life of crude survival, who knows? Could this be why all our primal mythologies are Gothic - that is, fearsome, fantastical, and inhuman? — Thomas Ligotti

With care, and skill, and cunning art, She parried Time's malicious dart, And kept the years at bay, Till passion entered in her heart and aged her in a day! — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists. It is no answer to say, with a distant optimism, that the scheme is only in the air. A blow from a hatchet can only be parried while it is in the air. — G.K. Chesterton

Peter was a superb swordsman, and parried with dazzling rapidity; ever and anon he followed up a feint with a lunge that got past his foe's defense, but his shorter reach stood him in ill stead, and he could not drive the steel home — J.M. Barrie

The Northwestern Carpathians, in which I was raised, were a hard place, as unforgiving as the people who lived there, but the Alpine landscape into which Zlee and I were sent that early winter seemed a glimpse of what the surface of the earth looked and felt and acted like when there were no maps or borders, no rifles or artillery, no men or wars to claim possession of land, and snow and rock alone parried in a match of millennial slowness so that time meant nothing, and death meant nothing, for what life there was gave in to the forces of nature surrounding and accepted its fate to play what role was handed down in the sidereal march of seasons capable of crushing in an instant what armies might--millennia later--be foolish enough to assemble on it heights.

And yet there we were, ordered to march ourselves, for God, not nature, was with us now, and God would deliver us, in this world and next, when the time came for that. — Andrew Krivak

Yet it would be unfair to the generality of our kind to ascribe to their intellectual and moral weakness the gradual divergence of Buddhism and Christianity from their primitive patterns. For it should not be forgotten that by their glorification of poverty and celibacy both these religions struck straight at the root not merely of civil society but of human existence. The blow was parried by the wisdom or the folly of the vast majority of mankind, who refused to purchase a chance of saving their souls with the certainty of extinguishing the species. — James G. Frazer

Who says they're all criminals? -he parried- some might actually be innocent. others may need someone to explain them. there are reasons why we become the way we are, which often aren't apparent on the surface of our lives — Richard North Patterson

Have you always been a swordsman?' I asked.
He parried my overhead cut. 'I've been many things. — Rick Riordan

I just think you can't be so quick to be so sure of other people's situations. Examine your own situation. You also have a lot of choices. It's not always easier for other people. It doesn't work like that. — Jennifer Close

Religion really means to rejoin that which seems to be separate. — Charlotte Joko Beck

Get a room at the hotel," he added, grinning roguishly. "I apologized for my error, but I could lose control of myself again," he hinted, rolling to his side and propping on his left elbow to observe her. "Error? You call what you did a simple error?" she demanded sarcastically, emerald eyes narrowed in outrage and distress. "My first one," he informed her, as if shocked himself, then chuckled at her expression. "I guess I'm not perfect after all," he added. Incensed, Calinda snapped. "You're despicable!" "I've been called worse," he casually parried her insult. "You are," she added, gritting her teeth at her helpless position.

-Lynx & Calinda — Janelle Taylor

Oh, he said. He was trying to smile, but it was a brave smile, a sickroom smile, and I was sorry I had caused it. I had apparently taken the wind out of his sails. His discouragement wasn't a good sign. Men should stand up to me more than that. They have to fight back to satisfy me. They have to face me down. — Charles Baxter

Many times what cannot be refuted by arguments can be parried by laughter. — Desiderius Erasmus

Doss dear," said Cousin Georgiana mournfully, "some day you will discover that blood is thicker than water."
"Of course it is. But who wants water to be thick?" parried Valancy. — L.M. Montgomery

Her own questions about her mother could not have been parried, as she grew up, without the complete shrouding of the past which would have made a painful barrier between their minds. — George Eliot

Eventually, Aristotle appeared among the Greeks. He improved the methods of logic and systematized its problems and details. He assigned to logic its proper place as the first philosophical discipline and the introduction to philosophy. Therefore he is called the First Teacher. — Ibn Khaldun

I'd learned that loving someone, being in love with someone, and being dependent upon someone are three separate things. — Rae Hachton

I grew up with the Beatles and they are still to this day my top band played in my iTunes. — Greg Laswell

Much has seen said of the wisdom of old age. Old age is wise, I grant, for itself, but not wise for the community. It is wise in declining new enterprises, for it has not the power nor the time to execute them; wise in shrinking from difficulty, for it has not the strength to overcome it; wise in avoiding danger, for it lacks the faculty of ready and swift action, by which dangers are parried and converted into advantages. But this is not wisdom for mankind at large, by whom new enterprises must be undertaken, dangers met, and difficulties surmounted. — William C. Bryant

I refuse to say things behind people's backs. — Marilyn Manson

There is a very easy and very peaceful way to get rid of a dictator: Get out of the system! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

It was May's idea," Quentin added.

"I'm sure it was," I said. Sylvester started circling. I dropped into a defensive position. "I'm not really comfortable with this, May."

"Cope," she said.

"Maybe an audience will make you shape up," Sylvester said, and lunged.

I parried. "Maybe an audience will distract me and get me gutted."

"Let's see some carnage!" hollered May, pumping her fist in the air.

"This isn't professional wrestling!" I snapped, trying to hit Sylvester's ankle. He blocked, turning my thrust aside and nearly disarming me. "And I swear if you shout 'take it off,' I am coming over there."

"Take what off?" asked Sylvester.

"Nothing, Your Grace," Quentin and I said in unison. — Seanan McGuire

Much that is terrible we do not know. Much that is beautiful we shall still discover. Let's sail till we come to the edge. — Thomas M. Disch

One charming characteristic of many flank attacks I could mention is that they do not very often lead to simplification: if the attack is parried, there usually are still opportunities left for initiating action in another sector. — Bent Larsen

There's branches of science which I don't understand; for example, physics. It could be said, I suppose, that I have faith that physicists understand it better than I do. — Richard Dawkins