Retract Quotes & Sayings

I let out a huff and forced a smile. "You're a vampire."
I stated.
Dean tilted his chin up and smiled. "I have no fangs."
He said through his teeth.
I examined the glistening white canines. They were
normal, just like mine. "You retract them when you don't
need them." I said.
Dean moved across the table and put his face up to
mine. His mouth was a torturous breath away from my
own. "Then why haven't I sucked your blood Lina?" He
whispered right before pressing his soft lips against mine.
Then he inched towards my neck and lingered his lips on
my pulse. His soft breathing tickled my skin and triggered
a chill that shot up my spine. My blood jumped to a rush
and began to throb for him. If he were a vampire, I swear
I'd let him suck me. "Why aren't I biting you right now?"
He whispered. It took everything I had in me not to melt
into the seat and land as a puddle on the ground.
-Mindy- — E.M. Jade

I think the bottom line for me and for Newsweek is that there were a lot of - we did retract this specific matter about the Koran and the toilet for the reasons that you just cited. — Michael Isikoff

We can't retract the decisions we've made, we can only affect the decisions we're going to make from here. — Jamie Foxx

With 'swift-boating' now being used by the ignorant as a synonym for false charges, it's worth remembering that it was John Kerry who had to retract his statement about his secret Christmas mission to Cambodia, despite it having allegedly been 'seared, seared' into his memory. — Glenn Reynolds

In a political campaign, you can never ever retract anything or admit a mistake."
"Obviously, John subscribes to the Napoleon school of politics," Sophie says. "And look where he ended up... — Maria Malonzo

My friend, blood shaking my heart
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed
Which is not to be found in our obituaries
Or in memories draped by the beneficent spider
Or under seals broken by the lean solicitor
In our empty rooms — T. S. Eliot

summer ends and autumn begins. The trees retract their sap in a hurry and the resulting bright colours must be a panic-stricken response to the sudden withdrawal of that life-blood. Because the sight's so beautiful, you forget what this gorgeous display actually represents. Decay and death. If only human death were so glorious. — Linda Gillard

And you did all of this before I awakened?'
'Not all of us can afford to be layabouts ... You upper class types are all the same. Sleep until noon and then fritter your nights away.'
She narrowed her eyes. 'I do not fritter my nights away.'
'Really? And what do you do at night?'
'I go to social events. Parties or galas. Sometimes a musicale. Or a charity event,' she tacked on with satisfaction.
'Well, I must retract my frittering comment in that case.'
'It's not frittering. It's surviving. — Anne Mallory

Roger Daltrey had been expelled for smoking, but was still impudently showing up on campus to visit his various cronies. I'd first met him after he won a playground fight with a Chinese boy. I thought his tactics were dirty and when I shouted as much, he came over & forced me to retract. — Pete Townshend

Disclaimer: If anyone disagrees with anything I say, I am quite prepared to not only retract it, but also to deny under oath I ever said it. — Tom Lehrer

It's a most peculiar psychology - this business of 'Science is based on faith too, so there!' Typically this is said by people who claim that faith is a good thing. Then why do they say 'Science is based on faith too!' in that angry-triumphal tone, rather than as a compliment? And a rather dangerous compliment to give, one would think, from their perspective. If science is based on 'faith', then science is of the same kind as religion - directly comparable. If science is a religion, it is the religion that heals the sick and reveals the secrets of the stars. It would make sense to say, 'The priests of science can blatantly, publicly, verifiably walk on the Moon as a faith-based miracle, and your priests' faith can't do the same.' Are you sure you wish to go there, oh faithist? Perhaps, on further reflection, you would prefer to retract this whole business of 'Science is a religion too! — Eliezer Yudkowsky

What does it mean, anyway, to 'retract' what you've said? How can anyone state categorically that a thought he once had is no longer valid? In modern times a thought can be refuted, yes, but not retracted. (p. 179) — Milan Kundera

She really liked you, Noah,'
'Yeah, well, maybe I'm just an asshole.'
I realize my hand is still in his hair and I retract it quickly. He grabs it, holds it against him. You're not an asshole I'm thinking, but for some reason I can't say it. It would be like admitting something else; like the fact that he's an asshole to every girl who likes him, but never to me. And then I'd have to really think about why that is and that's not something I'll ever be comfortable with at all, even though his eyes are like maps and his words are like anchors and his songs are like personal messages and I love all that.
- Chloe — Becky Wicks

People say the most stupid things on the spur of the moment that they then have to retract. — Michael Palin

...a husband cannot be guilty of the rape of his wife because the wife hath given up herself in this kind to her husband, which she cannot retract. Sex in matrimony cannot be rape as the defense shall prove in this trial; and that Bode Ross is a fine, understanding and sweet husband who won't perpetrate such a dastardly act. — S.A. David

My message to the Pope would be, don't take sides on the science. Don't make the same mistake as seven out of 10 judges in the trial of Galileo, when they invited him to retract his views. — Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton Of Brenchley

Wow, pretty doesn't quite cut it where you're concerned. You are gorgeous," Breccan said, smiling back at her. "Damn, I said that out loud, didn't I?" he asked not expecting an answer. His face didn't flush. He didn't retract his comments or seem embarrassed by what he said. He wasn't the least bit ashamed at his boldness. That was simply Breccan — Madison Thorne Grey

I think I've always been aware of it with my music. I think growing up basically and having a lot to deal with and just slowing down and having something to say and something to retract from, I think I just knew that what I was doing was extremely honest. — Justin Vernon

In our marriage - in every marriage? - no annoyed glance holds only the displeasure of the moment. Each one reflects all the irritated glances he's ever shot at me for all of my transgressions: for lacking discipline, for being brittle and sharp, for overreacting, for swearing all the time, even in front of Hannah, for letting my worst self porcupine out before I retract my quills. Every exasperated look Chris gives me - and there have been plenty - carries the sediment of all the displeasure that has accumulated over the past fifteen years. — Lauren Fox

In all determinations of morality, this circumstance of public utility is ever principally in view; and wherever disputes arise, either in philosophy or common life, concerning the bounds of duty, the questions cannot, by any means, be decided with greater certainty, than by ascertaining, on any side, the true interests of mankind. If any false opinion, embraced from appearances, has been found to prevail; as soon as farther experience and sounder reasoning have given us juster notions of human affairs, we retract our first sentiment, and adjust anew the boundaries of moral good and evil. — David Hume

As all error is meanness, it is incumbent on every man who consults his own dignity, to retract it as soon as he discovers it. — Samuel Johnson

If you meet life squarely, you are likely to make mistakes, do things you wish you hadn't, say things you wish you could retract or phrase more felicitously, and, in short, fumble your way along. Those "mature" people whose lives are even without a single sour note or a single mistake, who never fumble, manage only at the cost of original thought and original action. They do without the successes as well as the failures. — Alexei Panshin

Sometimes, I have to retract what I say.. Sometimes, I have to apologize for being absolutely right, but totally wrong on my delivery, sometimes I have to apologize when I know I'm not wrong.... And ALL THE time, I have to forgive and show love...
It gets exhausting and you won't win them all, but the peace you have, knowing you did the right thing, is priceless. — Jennifer M. Malone

Never retract, never explain, never apologize; get things done and let them howl. — Nellie L. McClung

Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love truth. — Joseph Joubert

At least we know we tend to be afraid. If you object to my plural noun, I'll retract it. — Janis Joplin

Unless therefore I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture or by the clearest reasoning, unless I am persuaded by means of the passages I have quoted, and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the word of God, I cannot and I will not retract, for it is unsafe for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand, I can do no other; may God help me. Amen.-Martin Luther — Ellen G. White

We admire Freud for his serious dedication, his willingness to retract, the stylistic tentativeness of some of his assertions, his lifelong review of his pet notions. We admire him for his very deviousness, his hedging,s and his misgivings, because they seem to make him more of an honest scientist, reflecting truthfully the infinite manifold of reality. But this is to admire him for the wrong reason. A basic cause for his own lifelong twistings was that he would never cleanly leave the sexual dogma, never clearly see or admit that the terror of death was the basic repression. — Ernest Becker

The Gods hate hubris in a man almost more than any trait. Remember the boastful words of Odysseus to Poseidon after the fall of Troy? He paid for it with ten years of his life, and the lives of all his men. Retract your boast before something bad happens! — Gary Corby

The trouble is if we take no new steps to try a new challenge, our comfort zone doesn't seem just to stay still, but retract. — Philippa Perry

Hiding is not an option and you're going to step out and you're going to make mistakes. I'm going to look stupid. I'm going to say things I want to retract. I'm going to sing notes I wish I could have back, there's just no getting around the stumble, but if you stumble enough times you're going to fall off the edge and have no choice but to freakin' fly. — Ben Harper

see, now, that it was wrong for me to curse your particular blood to a diseased eternity of suffering. In an attempt at magnanimity I extend an apology and retract my sanguinary execration. — Joseph Fink

I can't think of a major story that we have broken that was incorrect. But we have had to correct some things that were false; we have had to retract things. — Mary Hart

I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that 'while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the Acts of Congress.' If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it. — Abraham Lincoln

Think of the moment you count
most foul in your life;
conjure it,
supplicate,
pray to it;
your face is bleak, you retract,
you dare not remember it. — Hilda Doolittle

What have we given?
My friend, blood shaking my heart
The awful daring of a moment's surrender
Which an age of prudence can never retract
By this, and this only, we have existed. — T. S. Eliot

We lock eyes and he addresses me. "Godchild Andromedus, I am Ragnar Volarus, the Stained firstborn of my mother, Alia Snowsparrow of the Valkyrie Spires north of the Dragon's Spine, south of the Fallen City, where the Winged Horror flies, brother of Sefi the Quiet, breaker of Tanos, which once stood by the water, and I make you an offering of stains." He splays out his gigantic bloodstained hands and then reaches through the door with his right hand. His ionBlades retract into his armor. The razor still juts out of his ribs. I'm pissing my bloodydamn suit. "Well, frag me blind," Sevro mutters. — Pierce Brown

No one said a word; it was as if they were waiting for me to retract my question. Jan's hand found mine and held it.
"What the hell is this? A wake?" My grandpa came out of the house carrying a tray of buns. — Bentley Little

The last decade has seen a powerful counterassault on women's rights, a backlash, an attempt to retract the handful of small and hard-won victories that the feminist movement did manage to win for women. This counterassault is largely insidious: in a kind of pop-culture version of the Big Lie, it stands the truth boldly on its head and proclaims that the very steps that have elevated women's position have actually led to their downfall. — Susan Faludi

I while yet a youth wrote in a quite large volume three books of magical things, which I called De occulta philosophia, in which whatever was then erroneous because of my curious youth, now, more cautious, I wish to retract by this recantation, for formerly I spent much time and goods on these vanities. — Cornelius Agrippa

In our time we have less severe standards. We tell children about Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy for reasons we think emotionally sound, but then disabuse them of these myths before they're grown. Why retract? Because their well-being as adults depends on them knowing the world as it really is. We worry, and for good reason, about adults who still believe in Santa Claus. — Carl Sagan

Never explain, never retract, never apologize. Just get the thing done and let them howl. — Nellie L. McClung

I snapped my teeth at him making him retract his fingers to a safe distance away from my choppers. I grinned as I turned around and made a move to grab my duvet so I could shake it out and make my bed, only to find I couldn't because Storm was lying on top of it.

I didn't even hear him come in.

"Hello, my baby boy," I cooed.

Alec gasped from behind me. "How does he fucking do that?"

I smiled as I leaned over and scratched behind Storm's ears. "Because he is a cool dog."

"This is not funny, he doesn't make a fucking sound... it's not right, not right at all!"

I grinned. "I told you," I said as I turned around to face Alec again. "He is a ninja dog. — L.A. Casey

I am better able to retract what I did not say than what I did. — Solomon Ibn Gabirol

If the claws didn't retract, cats would be like Velcro — Bruce Fogle

Your fangs are showing, Miss Lyndon."
"Are they?" she asked, reaching up to touch her face. "I shall have to remember to retract them."
Charles burst out laughing. "You, Miss Lyndon, are a treasure."
"That's what I keep telling everyone," she said with a shrug and a wicked smile, "but no one seems to believe me. — Julia Quinn

It is dangerous not to conform with people's image of us, because they do not readily retract their opinions. — Jean Cocteau

During a Facebook discussion awhile back, I posted something to the effect that we didn't need GMOs and that no one did. While this was a generalization, I refused to retract it when a friend of a friend argued that I shouldn't speak for everyone, and that we shouldn't, "throw out the baby with the bathwater." I would argue that the last thing we need on this planet, is a lot of two-headed babies. Toss the water, and whatever's in it. GMOs simply have not, and I would argue further, probably never will be demonstrated to be safe, and we do not need them. — Steve Bivans

The pressure to make public retractions of past statements - there's something medieval about it. What does it mean, anyway, to 'retract' what you've said? How can anyone state categorically that a thought he once had is no longer valid? In modern times an idea can be refuted, yes, but not retracted. — Milan Kundera

Hannah searches the clouds, the gulls, the sun. She wants to leave and she wants to stay. She wants to raise her hand to the heavens and command that everything top, that time stills, that the rules and the laws retract their grip so nature can have her way. Hannah wants to sit up off her towel and look across her friend's lined-up bodies, frozen in time beneath the sky, and she wants to pull Baker out of their midst, out of time, and walk with her along the shoreline, following the infinite ocean, nothing moving on the whole green earth except for the two of them and the water and the sky. — Kelly Quindlen

The awful daring of a moment's surrender which an age of prudence
can never retract.
by this, and only this, we have existed. — T. S. Eliot

I have nothing to regret, to retract or take back ... I can only say; God Save Ireland! — Edward Condon

I said that the greatest female writers, with almost no exceptions, have been childless. A fact. And I have said that women generally, by virtue of their desire to mother, are incapable of the necessarily single-minded focus anyone must bring to the creation of literature, true literature. I don't retract a word. That is a fact. — Robert Galbraith

Young men, in the conduct and manage of actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few principles, which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not to innovate, which draws unknown inconveniences; use extreme remedies at first; and, that which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready horse, that will neither stop nor turn. — Francis Bacon

Daniel: What do you think of the idea?
Sternlight: I'll tell you man, I think it's a fantastic idea. Fuck me if I'm consistent. I told your sister if she had all that bread to pass on for a bail fund or a free school or any good shit like that, I would retract everything I said about your parents. Not only that, I would actually change my opinion. I would think differently. OK?
Daniel: OK.
Sternlight: discards the poster.
Sternlight: That's the one question you shouldn't have asked.
Daniel: Maybe so.
Sternlight: And I've been pretty easy on you, too. Susan never mentioned you. Except once. She said she had a brother who was politically undeveloped. She made it sound like undescended tesicles.
Baby: Come on, Artie.
Sternlight: gets up, turns on the television squats in front of it. — E.L. Doctorow

People make you retract spoken words but they do not understand [know] that speech is a record, so how can anyone retract it? — Dada Bhagwan

The story of technology seems to go up and then retract into simplicity again. — Ze Frank

Besides the neutral expression that she wore when she was alone, Mrs. Freeman had two others, forward and reverse, that she used for all her human dealings. Her forward expression was steady and driving like the advance of a heavy truck. Her eyes never swerved to left or right but turned as the story turned as if they followed a yellow line down the center of it. She seldom used the other expression because it was not often necessary for her to retract a statement, but when she did, her face came to a complete stop, there was an almost imperceptible movement of her black eyes, during which they seemed to be receding, and then the observer would see that Mrs. Freeman, though she might stand there as real as several grain sacks thrown on top of each other, was no longer there in spirit. — Flannery O'Connor

Gascoigne, Ben Jonson, Greville, Raleigh, Donne,
Poets who wrote great poems, one by one,
And spaced by many years, each line an act
Through which few labor, which no men retract.
This passion is the scholar's heritage — Yvor Winters

When you're in doubt about the future and you're in doubt about how solid this thing is that you're laying your life and your soul on the line for, you will probably retract into yourself a little bit and think, No, there's only so much I can give to something that everyone doesn't believe in. There's been chipping away, people have been chipping away at it, so it's just you in the spotlight in front of all these people. — Richard Ashcroft

It was always too late to retract, to try and retrieve what one had done. — Margaret Irwin

In politics ... never retreat, never retract ... never admit a mistake. — Napoleon Bonaparte

Wolf, are you asking me to be ... your alpha female?"
He hesitated.
Scarlet couldn't help it - she burst into laughter. "Oh - I'm sorry. That was mean. I know I shouldn't tease you about this."
Still grinning, she made to retract her hand, but he was suddenly gripping it, refusing to relinquish the touch. "You just look so scared, like I'm going to disappear any minute. We're stuck on a spaceship, Wolf. I'm not going anywhere."
His lips twitched, his nervousness beginning to ease away, though his hand stayed tense over hers.
"Alpha female," he murmured. "I sort of like that."
Beaming, Scarlet gave a mild shrug. "It could grow on me. — Marissa Meyer

It was early in my career, and I had been seeing Mary, a shy, lonely, and physically collapsed young woman, for about three months in weekly psychotherapy, dealing with the ravages of her terrible history of early abuse. One day I opened the door to my waiting room and saw her standing there provocatively, dressed in a miniskirt, her hair dyed flaming red, with a cup of coffee in one hand and a snarl on her face. "You must be Dr. van der Kolk," she said. "My name is Jane, and I came to warn you not to believe any the lies that Mary has been telling you. Can I come in and tell you about her?" I was stunned but fortunately kept myself from confronting "Jane" and instead heard her out. Over the course of our session I met not only Jane but also a hurt little girl and an angry male adolescent. That was the beginning of a long and productive treatment. — Bessel A. Van Der Kolk