Shilly Quotes & Sayings

You importune me, Tucca, to present you with my books. I shall not do so; for you want to sell, not to read, them. — Martial

She had always found platypuses irresistible proof that God likes a joke as much as anyone else. — Kerry Greenwood

Digression is the soul of wit. — Ray Bradbury

Although our feelings may at times seem like a major inconvenience, especially when it comes to our digestive health, when you pay attention your gut can be a source of excellent psychic information. — Catherine Carrigan

I hope I number patience among my virtues, but shilly-shallying, when nothing is to be gained by delay, is not a virtue. — Elizabeth Peters

Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd. Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids. I consider it morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others. Health is the primary duty of life. — Oscar Wilde

When people talk, they lay lines on each other, do a lot of role playing, sidestep, shilly-shally and engage in all manner of vagueness and innuendo. We do this and expect others to do it, yet at the same time we profess to long for the plain truth, for people to say what they mean, simple as that. Such hypocrisy is a human universal. — Steven Pinker

Please drop a note to the clerk of the weather, and have a good, rousing snow-storm
say on the twenty-second. None of your meek, gentle, nonsensical, shilly-shallying snow-storms; not the sort where the flakes float lazily down from the sky as if they didn't care whether they ever got here or not, and then melt away as soon as they touch the earth, but a regular business-like whizzing, whirring, blurring, cutting snow-storm, warranted to freeze and stay on! — Kate Douglas Wiggin

Perhaps there is a predetermined time for each person's life, and we should be happy for the time we had. — Courtney Sheinmel

Waste no time lamenting with regard to what is lacking. In such instances, immediately turn focus toward what is to be ... and remain poised to receive that which is due. — T.F. Hodge

Our evening-long tango of stares had my head spinning. — Jennifer Comeaux

Now I am an axolotl. — Julio Cortazar

Until the age of thirteen, I tortured the waiting worlds of book illustration and professional football by shilly-shallying over which of them was going to get the benefit of my inestimable talents. — Glen Duncan

Wore out from all that, I did what we call shilly-shally. Poking round up to no good. — Sue Monk Kidd

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the victims and heroes of September 11th. As we commemorate the anniversary of 9-11, we must also remember that the threat is still very real today. — Michael McCaul

And at the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney on Sixty Minutes, have you ever wondered why we say fiddle-faddle and not faddle- fiddle? Why is it ping-pong and pitter-patter rather than pong-ping and patter-pitter? Why dribs and drabs, rather than vice versa? Why can't a kitchen be span and spic? Whence riff-raff, mish-mash, flim-flam, chit-chat, tit for tat, knick-knack, zig-zag, sing-song, ding-dong, King Kong, criss-cross, shilly-shally, see-saw, hee-haw, flip-flop, hippity-hop, tick-tock, tic-tac-toe, eeny-meeny-miney-moe, bric-a-brac, clickety-clack, hickory-dickory-dock, kit and kaboodle, and bibbity-bobbity-boo? The answer is that the vowels for which the tongue is high and in the front always come before the vowels for which the tongue is low and in the back. — Steven Pinker

Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity. — Idries Shah

Every soul seeks happiness, Socrates believes, and there is a clearly defined path to achieving happiness, though many don't choose to take it. The only people who are truly happy are those who are virtuous and wise, who live reflective, "examined" lives and strive to behave rightly and justly in every area of their lives. These people create souls that are good, wise, and courageous and as a result they achieve genuine and lasting happiness. — Pearson

I like the word 'evil'. Scramble it a little and you will get 'vile' and 'live'. 'Good', on the other hand, is just a command to 'go do'. — Jodi Picoult