Quotes & Sayings About Sidelines

Michael Vick almost got hurt on the sideline. — Mike Tirico

The Olympic dream was born in 2010 during the qualifications to Vancouver. And when I was watching those Olympics from the sidelines, I felt that I wanted to have my Games. I understood that it wouldn't be easy to make them, especially now that in Russia there are a lot of strong girls. — Adelina Sotnikova

My life became the lives of Day and June, and through them I saw my own fears, hopes and aspirations play out across their canvas. Now I've reached the point where our stories diverge. They are off to live beyond the confines of the trilogy; I am left waving to them from the sidelines. I don't know where they'll go but I think they're going to be okay. — Marie Lu

Do you know why our poetry today and especially our philosophy are such dead issues? Because they've cut themselves off from life. Now, Greece idealized on life's own level: an artist's life was already a poetic achievement; a philosopher's life was an enactment of his philosophy; and when they were a part of life that way, instead of ignoring each other, philosophy could nourish poetry, poetry express philosophy, and together achieve an admirable persuasiveness. Today beauty no longer acts; and action no longer bothers about being beautiful; and wisdom operates on the sidelines. — Andre Gide

I get appalled when I see good drivers being left on the sidelines because they haven't come up with the half million to a million to put themselves in a competitive car. — John Surtees

You can't outwit fate by standing on the sidelines placing little sidebets about the outcome of life. either you wade in and risk everything you have to play the game or you don't play at all. and if u don't play u can't win. — Judith McNaught

I had taken office during a raging intifada, with Yasser Arafat running the Palestinian Authority, Israeli leaders committed to a Greater Israel policy, and Arab nations complaining from the sidelines. By the time I left, the Palestinians had a president and prime minister who rejected terrorism. The Israelis had withdrawn from some settlements and supported a two-state solution. And Arab nations were playing an active role in the peace process. — George W. Bush

But he did say that the character would be on the sidelines in movies One and Two, and move into the middle with number Three, but I didn't realize he would move in with quite such a bang. — Ian McDiarmid

At a youth soccer game you'll probably hear parents and coaches on the sidelines yelling, 'Pass the ball! Pass the ball!' ... When we continually tell our young players to pass the ball, we're not allowing them to develop their full potential, especially those who have the ability to take their opponents on and beat them one-on-one. As a result, we run the risk of diminishing a player's artistry and potential. — Tony DiCicco

It is in the act of offering our hearts in faith that something in us transforms ... proclaiming that we no longer stand on the sidelines but are leaping directly into the center of our lives, our truth, our full potential. — Sharon Salzberg

I live to the rhythm of my country and I cannot remain on the sidelines. I want to be here. I want to be part of it. I want to be a witness. I want to walk arm in arm with it. I want to hear it more and more, to cradle it, to carry it like a medal on my chest. Activism is a constant element in my life, even though afterwards I anguish over not having written 'my own things.' Testimonial literature provides evidence of events that people would like to hide, denounces and therefore is political and part of a country in which everything remains to be done and documented. — Elena Poniatowska

Every year, there's some band that plays guitar-oriented pop music that has a single, but for the most part, it's kind of relegated to the sidelines. — Adam Schlesinger

I used to work as a volunteer in a hospice, but I don't have any nursing skills or cooking skills or anything, so I was what they call an escort. I would take people to the support groups every night, and I would have to sit sort of on the sidelines so I could take them back to hospice at the end of the meeting. — Chuck Palahniuk

..why sit on the sidelines of life at any age? — Dick Van Dyke

A poet's freedom lies precisely in the impossibility of worldly success. It is the freedom of one who knows he will never be anything but a failure in the world's estimation, and may do as he pleases. The poet is a man on the sidelines of life, sidelined for life. He belongs to the aristocracy of the outcast, the lowest of the low, below the salt of the earth. A member of the most ancient regime in the world. One that cannot, it seems, be overthrown. — Walter Martin

As the church watches from the sidelines, the ungodly elect atheists and homosexuals to school boards and legislatures to enact policies and laws that destroy our Christian children and discriminate against Christian families. — Robert Simonds

Rooting from the sidelines is the most democratic of sporting rites: no skyboxes, no tickets required, just an unabashed will to holler and wave. — Nancy Gibbs

People look at me and see a calm, cool guy on the sidelines and I want them to know that my Christian faith affects my coaching and everything I do. — Tony Dungy

I like the South because it is so much warmer on the sidelines than it is up North. — Tom Landry

Otherwise, there were no long goodbyes or emotional scenes. That isn't part of foster care. You just leave and you just die a little bit. Just a little bit because a little bit more of you understands that this is the way it's going to be. And you grow hard around the edges, just a little bit. Not in some big way, but just a little bit because you have to, because if you don't it only hurts worse the next time and a little bit more of you will die. And you don't want that because you know that if enough little bits of you die enough times, a part of you leaves. Do you know what I mean? You're still there, but a part of you leaves until you stand on the sidelines of life, simply watching, like a ghost that everyone can see and no one is bothered by. You become the saddest thing there is: a child of God who has given up. — John William Tuohy

Why do you bother, Crispin? You married a fighter, so stop trying to convince her that the sidelines suit her better. — Jeaniene Frost

You can't outwit fate by trying to stand on the sidelines and place little side bets about the outcome of life. Either you wade in and risk everything to play the game, or you don't play at all. And if you don't play, you can't win. — Judith McNaught

She was climbing Mount Everest and the air was invigorating and wonderful. Even if every second verged on crisis, this was part of living - not just watching from the sidelines. — Jacqueline Susann

You're blindly following a tradition that says because women didn't leave behind voluminous records of their thoughts and deeds, then they didn't have any thoughts and deeds - they were just standing on the sidelines while history was made by men. Just because a woman didn't have a vote doesn't mean that she didn't have an informed opinion. It doesn't mean she was incapable of thinking or acting. — Christi Phillips

Writing is the main gig and teaching and performing are sidelines, an excuse for not writing more. Working on a novel and on an opera make me seriously want to retire and find a volunteer job as a docent at the zoo explaining to schoolchildren where frogs go in the winter. — Garrison Keillor

Three Denises wobbled in front of her, all of them watching her with fond concern. You're a sweetie. I appreciate you cheering me on from the sidelines. But I think I need to go to the bathroom now and throw up. — Sarah Mayberry

What worries me sometimes in the culture is that the role for music that actually challenges and enlightens the audience is being pushed to the sidelines. — Taylor Ho Bynum

Sitting on the sidelines in our interconnected world is not a sufficient response. — Dillon Burroughs

Matthew 11:12? "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it." Are you playing offense in your marriage? Or are you playing a prevent defense that leaves romance on the sidelines? — Mark Batterson

Prayer is picking a fight with the Enemy. It's spiritual warfare. Intercession transports us from the sidelines to the front lines without going anywhere. And that is where the battle is won or lost. Prayer is the difference between us fighting for God and God fighting for us. But we can't just hit our knees. We also have to take a step, take a stand. And when we do, we never know what God will do next. — Mark Batterson

The ancient Greeks kept women athletes out of their games. They wouldn't even let them on the sidelines. I'm not sure but that they were right. — Avery Brundage

We have a country that is $5 a gallon gas, $4 a gallon gas, we got unbearable unemployment and a federal government that is out of control. We have to take back this country and we've got to get off the sidelines and take it to President Obama. — Tim Pawlenty

The difference between being a church attender and a church member is commitment. Attenders are spectators from the sidelines; members get involved in the ministry. Attenders are consumers; members are contributors. Attenders want the benefits of a church without sharing the responsibility. They are like couples who want to live together without committing to a marriage. — Rick Warren

After being sworn in to office, vice presidents have usually been relegated to the sidelines, where they just don't get to do very much. — Mary Cheney

Perfect and bulletproof are seductive, but they don't exist in the human experience. We must walk into the arena, whatever it may be - a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation - with courage and the willingness to engage. Rather than sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgment and advice, we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen. This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly. — Brene Brown

Do not let fear keep you on the sidelines. Your number has been called, get in the game! It is your time to shine. — E'yen A. Gardner

For the most part, I've sat on the sidelines over the years during the endless debates about how we need to do more to encourage more women to start companies. — Michael Arrington

Without running, I would have missed the joy of rain. What could be considered an inconvenience or a bummer to the inexperienced is actually a gift. Without running, I would miss a lot of things-like seeing cities in a certain way, or knowing certain people all the way to the core. I'm glad we don't experience life through glass, under cover, or from the sidelines. Good things take miles. — Kristin Armstrong

One should never be exclusive of the other. If you have to choose between your dreams or your man ... always choose your dreams. The right man will love your strength and your passion. He'll join your cause or cheer you from the sidelines. The man who leaves would have probably left you anyway - he just would have picked another reason. — Anonymous

To discover your mission and put it into action - instead of worrying on the sidelines - is to find peace of mind and a heart full of love. — Scilla Elworthy

Ah, jeez ... She really is a cheerleader.' And it seemed suddenly that this was true- not because she was an airhead or a hottie or a nonjock, but because she could throw herself so wholeheartedly into someone else's cause, because she could care so much and try so hard from the sidelines. — Margaret Peterson Haddix

Mr. Steinmeier's meeting with Mr. Kerry, expected to take place Sunday in Vienna on the sidelines of nuclear talks with Iran, would be the highest-level face-to-face meeting between the U.S. and Germany since a year-long controversy over U.S. intelligence activities in Germany erupted anew last week. Authorities have launched investigations of a Federal Intelligence Service worker and a Defense Ministry official both suspected of passing secrets to the U.S. — Anonymous

Sitting on the sidelines, cribbing and moaning is a lost opportunity. I don't know how people who engage in that don't commit suicide. — Bertie Ahern

Ruth's story helped me see that neither I nor any of God's daughters belong on the sidelines, while our brothers build his kingdom without us. He means for us to work alongside our brothers, and he is doing great things through his daughters, even though we, like Ruth and Naomi, may never live to see the full significance of our contributions. — Carolyn Custis James

Perfectionists often position themselves on the sidelines, from which they point out that nothing is good enough. — Rebecca Solnit

I don't like work like that. I am the silent partner. I work through events, I live on the sidelines, I dabble in causes and effects, I watch how the misbegotten creatures of this world live their lives. — Gregory Maguire

In theory man is put at the center of everything but in practice he is barely allowed to sit on the sidelines — Bangambiki Habyarimana

Active people make lots of mistakes, and wise ones grow from them (Hebrews 5:14). They try something, experience a limit, and adapt. They experience the depth of God's forgiveness because they do things for which they need to be forgiven. Passive people have trouble learning because they are afraid to take risks. Because of this, they also have a harder time taking charge of their lives and boundaries. God is not pleased with those who "shrink back" in passivity (Hebrews 10:38). He wants his people to participate in life with him, not wait on the sidelines. — Henry Cloud

The people who don't give you a standing ovation for the hurdles you cross are just afraid that you might win the race. They do not cheer you but they sit, lurking on the sidelines, biting their fingernails hoping you will stumble before the end. They secretly wish you will never win this race. But watch out for them, they will be the firstto stand and cheer you when you stand on that podium of success. — Crystal Evans

Life gives us choices. You either grab on with both hands and just go for it, or you sit on the sidelines. — Christine Feehan

The doughy-faced woman has been forced to sit on the sidelines of culture for too long, and it's now time for us to stand up with our big round faces like the moon and say we have things to say, too. We have a round-faced agenda we want to push. — Caitlin Moran

I never planned any of this, so I don't even think about getting acting jobs. If they call, they call. I sure don't sit on the sidelines waiting to be asked, like a nice little Catholic girl at the dance. I keep myself extremely busy. I've written 91 plays! I love to read. And I always have something to clean. — Robert Michael Morris

Everything has changed. The instant the car slid across the wet tarmac, my whole life changed. I can see everything clearly, as though I am standing on the sidelines. I can't go on like this. — Clare Mackintosh

I have a 16 year-old son, so I'm now a soccer mom. I stand on the sidelines and I hear the things parents are saying, so I want them to understand what it is their kids are feeling in any sports environment. — Brandi Chastain

As a government leader, I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and watch all these other sectors innovate. I'm going to do everything I can as a leader to be in that innovation, to be a provocateur for that innovation. — Cory Booker

Because when the legends get written, I didn't want to be remembered for standing on the sidelines. I want my future offspring to know that I was there, and that I fought against her at the end, even if I couldn't do anything useful." I blinked, this time not at the brightness of the sun. "Because," he went on, his eyes locked with mine, "I didn't want you to fight alone. Or die alone. — Sarah J. Maas

For me, getting off the sidelines means women making a difference by letting their voices be heard on the issues they care about. — Kirsten Gillibrand

I don't want to be a princess who sits on the sidelines; I want to be present and actively involved. It's a life with a purpose. — Charlene, Princess Of Monaco

No one gets to the top, if they sit on the sidelines, or if they don't believe in themselves. — Sheryl Sandberg

I don't like writing straight-up thrillers. I like writing about families hurled into crisis and danger - soccer moms and regular dads and husbands who might have to rescue their daughters or who are, say, hedge fund managers and have one foot on the sidelines watching their kids and the other in nefarious cover-ups and conspiracies. — Andrew Gross

It was not the first time people had taken a good square look at Armaggedon and decided that they would prefer it to happen to somebody else. Ever since Noah built the Ark, the seductive notion that it is possible to opt out, to stand on the sidelines whilst global cataclysm passess you by, has exercised a strong pull. — Ben Elton

And I suppose it's a woman's place to simper on the sidelines and cheer as idiots rack up the casualties?"

"We all find ourselves cheering for idiots from time to time, that's a fact of life. There really is no point heaping scorn on my subordinates. If a person is worthy of contempt, they'll bury themselves soon enough without help. — Joe Abercrombie

Sometimes, I feel like one who is on the sidelines, who has missed life itself. — Nelson Mandela

Under my leadership the Liberal Democrats would not be making polite interjections from the sidelines, we would be hammering on the doors of power. — Menzies Campbell

I've never been more hopeful about our future. I have never been more hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope. I'm not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. I'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight. I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting. — Barack Obama

We can either continue to collectively stand on the sidelines and debate what is causing autism and if it is an epidemic or we can get on the field and start addressing the real problem - a generation of children with autism. We are not focusing enough on prevention, treatments and support services. — Jenny McCarthy

People keep pushing me to be the center of attention ... I would prefer to be on the sidelines, because that's where you see more. — Gong Li

None of this is important in itself, but I feel somewhere that it has a lot to do with why I have always felt separate, why I have always felt unable to join in, to let go, to become part of the tribe, why I have always sniped or joked from the sidelines, why I have never, ever, lost my overwhelmingly self-conscious self-consciousness. — Stephen Fry

God is never on the sidelines of His children's lives. He goes before them. He leads them, guides them, protects and saves them. — Monica Johnson

The sidelines may be safer but life is played on the field — Wendy Mass

In every country, those who were against war had been overruled. The Austrians had attacked Serbia when they might have held back; the Russians had mobilized instead of negotiating; the Germans had refused to attend an international conference to settle the issue; the French had been offered the chance to remain neutral and had spurned it; and now the British were about to join in when they might easily have remained on the sidelines. — Ken Follett

God made us for more than just barely getting by. We weren't meant to sit on the sidelines of life because with God, we are on the winning team! — Joel Osteen

Marriage is about compromising,' he told me. 'Families are about compromising, being anything other than a hermit is about compromising. Parliamentary democracy certainly is.' He snorted. 'Nothing but.' He drained his glass. 'You either learn to compromise or you resign yourself to shouting from the sidelines for the rest of your life.' He looked thoughtful. 'Or you arrange to become a dictator. There's always that, I suppose.' He shrugged. 'Not a great set of choices, really, but that's the price we pay for living together. And it's that or solitude. Then you really do become a wanker. Another drink? — Iain Banks

Life is not meant to be lived on the sidelines or the edge of the pool. It is meant to be embraced, inhaled, and devoured. It is meant to be tasted, chewed and swallowed, savoring each and every experience as if it were the most delicious delicacy ever eaten. — Monica E. Tunnell

Time after time, on matters great and small, we are still standing on the sidelines, mutely accepting what is decided elsewhere instead of raising our voices and making our own choices. Scotland's much vaunted partnership of Jonah and the whale. — Winnie Ewing

Obama was elected on a slogan of hope and change because both were in short supply: the military exhausted by two wars, the banks failing their public trust, the U.S. Congress a comedy of dysfunction, and a federal government that seemed designed to idle on the sidelines. — Nancy Gibbs

Dexter Blake liked a woman with some junk in her trunk. And the tall, curvy chick on the sidelines was packing a whole lot of booty.

She had one of those itty-bitty waists, too. And her cups floweth'd over.

Staring at her chest was practically a religious experience. — Amy Andrews

she could begin again and not become so entangled in this long, horrible war, would she watch from the sidelines as a spectator this time? Would she choose differently, take fewer risks? Caroline — Austin, Lynn

My idea of a good hit is when the victim wakes up on the sidelines with train whistles blowing in his head ... I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault. — Jack Tatum

I like playing the guy on the sidelines. They have more fun. — Peter Dinklage

In one of the verses of Lal Ded, or Lalla, a fourteenth-century mystic from Kashmir, Lalla says: "At the end of a crazy-moon night the love of God rose. I said "It's me, Lalla."
"It's me, Lalla," becomes "It's me ... whoever you are," proclaiming that we no longer stand on the sidelines but are leaping directly into the center of our lives, our truth, our full potential. No one can take that leap for us; and no one has to. This is our journey of faith. — Sharon Salzberg

My group ridiculed and made fun of anyone who was not like us, and that comprised almost everyone! People with negative identity drop out and stand on the sidelines of life, making fun of everyone else. In actuality I was terrified of life. — John Bradshaw

Women in sports television are allowed to read headlines, patrols sidelines, and generally facilitate conversation for their male colleagues. Sometimes, they even let us monitor the Internet from a couch. — Katie Nolan

Whether you are right in the middle of a glamorous event or watching it from the sidelines, the red carpet Oscar events set the stage to showcase the latest designs and styles for those watching around the world. — Brad Goreski

There are conversations going on about the Church constantly. Those conversations will continue whether or not we choose to participate in them. But we cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what our Church teaches ... We are living in a world saturated with all kinds of voices. Perhaps now, more than ever, we have a major responsibility as Latter-day Saints to define ourselves, instead of letting others define us. — M. Russell Ballard

I'll give my heart and soul whenever I step on that field and even when I'm on the sidelines. And at the end of the day, that's really all you can ask of someone. — Tim Tebow

Reality TV is to popular because it allows so many people to sit on the sidelines and just watch somebody else's life. God is saying, 'Don't sit on the sidelines of life. I have put so much in you, but you have got to be strong and very courageous. You have got to step out in faith.' — Victoria Osteen

I don't want to sit on the sidelines and not value the gift of being here. Instead of the idea of time ticking away, the grains of sand running out, I try to think of time as giving me another grain of sand, another gift. So time passing is an accumulation, rather than a diminishing. — Tori Amos

My heart throbs and aches and, for once, it's not for myself. It's for all of us. It's for everyone who knows what it's like to be helpless, to have to watch on the sidelines, to be paralyzed, literally unable to do anything. — Sarah Wylie

I suppose I'm like most coaches now, standing on the sideline hoping somebody asks them a question. — Bobby Bowden

Twenty unsettling minutes later she dropped the
pen on her stack of papers, and then leaned back in her chair. The time seemed to be dragging like a immobile car without tires hooked to a tow-truck with square wheels traveling cautiously down a road of fresh gravel. Tess struggled to maintain focus, similar to how an alternator belt would struggle if it had to try to keep traction on a turn spindle that had been lubricated after an antifreeze leak. And similar to the - would be - alternator on the sidelines of that metaphor, Tess's enthusiasm for her after hours work was having difficulty in keeping charged up also. — Calvin W. Allison

Instead of sitting on the sidelines, President Obama has made it clear that the US is ready to lead a global effort to combat climate change. — Valerie Jarrett

I am willing for the participant to commit or not commit himself to the group. If a person wishes to remain psychologically on the sidelines, he has my implicit permission to do so. The group itself may or may not be willing for him to remain in this stance but personally I am willing. One skeptical college administrator said that the main things he had learned was that he could withdraw from personal participation, be comfortable about it, and realize that he would not be coerced. To me, this seemed a valuable learning and one that would make it much more possible for him actually to participate at the next opportunity. Recent reports on his behavior, a full year later, suggest that he gained and changed from his seeming nonparticipation. — Carl R. Rogers

How did high schools all over the country decide that athletes needed pep rallies to boost their pride and self-esteem? Isn't it enough that people actually pay money to see these kids compete in games? That people cheer from the sidelines? And they get their names in the paper? Why don't they take all the lonely ghost floaters in every high school and have a pep rally for them? Make all the most popular kids in school sit on the hard bleachers and cheer until their asses hurt like hell? — Matthew Quick

As the world's largest economy and second-largest carbon emitter, as a country with unsurpassed ability to drive innovation and scientific breakthroughs, as the country that people around the world continue to look to in times of crisis, we've got a vital role to play. We can't stand on the sidelines. We've got a unique responsibility. — Barack Obama

I wanted to pull away, remind him that I was a big girl, a highly trained operative, a spy - that I'd been training for this mission my entire life, and I wasn't going to be left on the sidelines. But in the dim space with Zach pressed tightly against me, only one thought came to mind. I kissed him - longer and deeper than I ever had before. The school was not watching us this time. There was nothing playful in the tone. We were just two people kissing as if for the first time, as if it might be the last.
And then I broke away. "So," I asked, as if I got kissed like that all the time (which, believe me, I don't), "where is it you're taking me again?"
"The tombs. — Ally Carter

To me, I was always just standing on the sidelines because up until issue 50, we were just doing Spawn. I wasn't recruiting anybody because I didn't have any books for people to work on. — Todd McFarlane

Michelle Tafoya - best NFL sideline reporter - period. She is always prepared and professional. — Megan Alexander

The sidelines are not where you want to live your life. The world needs you in the arena! — Tim Cook

And I did what I do best. I watched, alone, from the sidelines. I saw. — Belle Whittington