James Fenton Quotes

Metrics are not a device for restraining the mad, any more than 'open form' or free verse is a prairie where a man can do all kinds of manly things in a state of wholesome unrestrictedness.

James Fenton

• Free
• Mad

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Quotes to Explore

• For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe. Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • Friends
  • Together
  • Trust

• I think it's always easy to be sympathetic to parts of the government in detail; in their concrete manifestations. Because obviously, we don't have government for no reason.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Think
  • Government
  • Easy

• I once went to one of those parties where everyone throws their car keys into the middle of the room. I don't know who got my moped, but I drove that Peugeot for years.

  

  Victoria Wood
  • Know
  • Car
  • Everyone

• I lost 'The X Factor,' and I lost 'Deal or No Deal' twice. I'm good at losing game shows.

  

  Olly Murs
  • Good
  • Game
  • Lost

• Christianity, democracy, science, education, wealth, and the cumulative inheritance of a thousand years, have not preserved us from the vain repetition of history.

  

  Ralph Adams Cram
  • History
  • Science
  • Education

• Venus favors the bold.

  

  Ovid
  • Bold
  • Favors
  • Venus

• Only through loving and supporting one another, even in the face of unbearable pain and suffering, will this cycle of violence end.

  

  Mandy Patinkin
  • Pain
  • Violence
  • Suffering

• We're on the verge of a financial collapse unless we balance the budget, and that means some really, really tough decisions.

  

  Gary Johnson
  • Balance
  • Financial
  • Decisions

• We're going to test with the same car, but we have a new car ready.

  

  Larry Dixon
  • Car
  • Same
  • Test

• Old Etonians are the most charming people in the world. It's not just the analytic ability and the great education; there is a really easy confidence to them that draws people to them and makes their passage though the world a little easier.

  

  Laura Wade
  • People
  • World
  • Great

• The tech genie is out of the bottle; you can't put it back in.

  

  Gavin Newsom
  • You
  • Back
  • Bottle

• Let's take care of the necessities first: give people jobs, and find a way to get us out of poverty.

  

  Eartha Kitt
  • People
  • Care
  • Poverty

• I would love to play a superhero. I wish I could be in 'The Avengers,' kicking butt.

  

  Taraji P. Henson
  • Love
  • Play
  • Superhero

• Men! The only animal in the world to fear.

  

  D. H. Lawrence
  • World
  • Men
  • Fear

• Girls like to be played with, and rumpled a little too, sometimes.

  

  Oliver Goldsmith
  • Like
  • Sometimes
  • Little

• Because there is something helpless and weak and innocent - something like an infant - deep inside us all that really suffers in ways we would never permit an insect to suffer.

  

  Jack Henry Abbott
  • Never
  • Deep
  • Innocent

• If I get to wrapped up in how I have to be, or what I have to do, things gradually get worse and worse.

  

  Namie Amuro
  • Up
  • Things
  • Worse

• Then after I saw the scoreboard that we were tied, I was really happy, because I really wanted to win.

  

  Carly Patterson
  • Happy
  • Win
  • saw

• We live in a world of easy friendships - people here for you when it's easy, 'so-sorry-but-I-have-an-errand-to-do-now' when it's not.

  

  Marianne Williamson
  • People
  • World
  • Live

• The process of composition, messing around with paragraphs and trying to make really good prose, is hardwired into my personality.

  

  Rick Moody
  • Personality
  • Around
  • Paragraphs

• In a word, the heavy weight upon his spirits kept everything in order, not merely within his own system, but wheresoever the iron accents of the church clock were audible.

  

  Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Church

• It's hard to write a comedy sketch.

  

  Kate McKinnon
  • Comedy
  • Write
  • Sketch

• To see how many Italians are going out of Italy, the sort of exodus, a great generation leaving my country, I think is the worst nightmare for me as prime minister but also for the country, of course.

  

  Enrico Letta
  • Great
  • Country
  • Leaving

• Metrics are not a device for restraining the mad, any more than 'open form' or free verse is a prairie where a man can do all kinds of manly things in a state of wholesome unrestrictedness.

  

  James Fenton
  • Free
  • Mad