Shrift Quotes & Sayings

It is natural if you feel as strongly as most decent people do about racial discrimination to welcome books that give it short shrift; but to assess books on their racial attitude rather than their literary value, and still more to look on books as ammunition in the battle, is to take a further and still more dangerous step from literature-as-morality to literature-as-propaganda - a move toward conditions in which, hitherto, literary art has signally failed to thrive.

("Didacticism in Modern Dress" from Only Connect (2nd ed., 1980). — John Rowe Townsend

Then I got back to the house, and all I worried about was my story and the people in it
bags of bones which were putting on flesh daily. — Stephen King

AHA!" interrupted Officer Shrift, making another note in his little book. "Just as I thought: boys are the cause of everything. — Norton Juster

Women get the short shrift in history. It's been largely written and dictated by men, or at least men believe that we own it, and women have really been in those quieter moments at the edge of history. But, really, they're the ones who are turning the cogs and the wheels and allowing things like the peace process to happen. — Colum McCann

We should every night call ourselves to an account;
What infirmity have I mastered today?
What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abort of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift. — Seneca.

Time rarely weighed upon him, for he had many methods of passing it. — Truman Capote

We don't know how to identify intelligence over interstellar distances, so what we do instead is use technology for a proxy. — Jill Tarter

The amount of money that is in your bank at the time of your death is the extra work you did which wasn't necessary — Adolf Hitler

Ever since I can remember, I've worn big black boots. They are super warm and get me where I need to go. — Penelope Mitchell

Violence and resistance are the only answer. Empire has to feel pain or it will never stop devouring you. It is only when a gun is put in a person's face that anything changes. All empires are hungry cannibals ... — Rawi Hage

Short shrift is made of the Jews in all eastern occupied areas. Tens of thousands of them are liquidated. — Joseph Goebbels

I learned about choices and consequences and responsibility. I learned that we all have choices, even when we don't recognize them, and that those choices have consequences, not just for ourselves, but for others. We must assume responsibility for those consequences. — John Sheridan

If Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist wasn't addicted to the pain-killing drug his doctor prescribed, but instead it was just that the drug had 'established an interrelationship with the body, such that if the drug is removed precipitously, there is a reaction,' you needn't question that his decisions might have been influenced by his drug addiction. — William Lutz

I realized that my money would do vastly more good for others than it could for me and decided to make a commitment to donating to the most effective charities I could find. Many people contacted me asking how they could do this as well, and so I set up giving what we can. — Toby Ord

Christianity is word-centered because God rules through his gospel word. — Tim Chester

A lady of honor may be raped once, but it strengthens her virtue. — Voltaire

Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those
in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed. Suffer them if you can't escape them, but once you have steered clear of them, give them the shortest shrift possible. Above all, try to avoid telling stories about the unjust treatment you received at their hands; avoid it no matter how receptive your audience may be. Tales of this sort extend the existence of your antagonists ... — Joseph Brodsky

First ladies, you know, we look at Michelle Obama, and we look at most first ladies, and they seem like they have it all. You know, they live in the White House, they go to state dinners, they ride on Air Force One, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But first ladies do often feel that they are given short shrift or forgotten or left at the margins. — Jodi Kantor

Sitcoms are usually given short shrift by the acting profession, but it's quite an amazing job. — Lea Thompson

If you're a freelance writer and aren't used to being ignored, neglected, and generally given short shrift, you must not have been in the business very long.
— Poppy Z. Brite

And so, as generally happens, those who have most give least, and those with less somehow make shrift to share. — Geraldine Brooks

Consensus is something you have if you cannot have agreement. — Forbes Burnham