Firsts Quotes - Page 305

In order to die, you must first have lived.

How imperceptibly the first springing takes place!

If Columbus was the first to discover the islands, Americus Vespucius and Cabot, and the Puritans, and we their descendants, havediscovered only the shores of America.

Tom Hyde, the tinker, standing on the gallows, was asked if he had anything to say. "Tell the tailors," said he, "to remember to make a knot in their thread before they take the first stitch." His companion's prayer is forgotten.

Undoubtedly, in the most brilliant successes, the first rank is always sacrificed.

First come, first served.

The first reaction is, get defensive. Second reaction is, what are we going to do about it?

Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents has been always tragic, chiefly as an almost indecent excitement at first, and a worse reaction afterwards; but also because no mind is so well balanced as to bear the strain of seizing unlimited force without habit or knowledge of it; and finding it disputed with him by hungry packs of wolves and hounds whose lives depend on snatching the carion.

When I first saw China, there were no automobiles. There were no supermarkets. There were no high-rise buildings. There were no consumer goods. There were no restaurants that were at least accessible that foreigners could see. It was a Stalinist society, and a very poor Stalinist society. So the economic system has totally changed, and the private sector in the economic system is now the dominant sector. It didn't exist at all as late as 1979.

The first reactions are often instinctive. So one of the first things we said was that the Chinese had no right to inspect the plane, and that we had a sovereign right to. I don't know what the legal position is, but it was surely psychologically absolutely the unwise thing to do.

To understand is to possess the thing understood, first by sympathy and then by intelligence.

Sympathy is the first condition of criticism; reason and justice presuppose, at their origin, emotion.

But one always returns to one's first loves. [Fr., Mais on revient toujours A ses premieres amours.]

When ignorance mobilizes, it's always the free minds it destroys first.

I believe kids shouldn't be taught Shakespeare. They should experience it first by seeing a great production.

I had a great start in television; the first thing I did was an episode of Performance called The Entertainer with Michael Gambon playing Archie Rice.

First, I thought, almost despairing, This must crush my spirit now; Yet I bore it, and am bearing- Only do not ask me how.

There are some writers who are done when they finish a draft because they've thought it through beforehand. Whereas I'll finish a first draft and I'm nowhere near done.

I don't know anyone who ever got deferred pay. I'm the first of my friends to ever actually get a deferred paycheck.

I know it sounds absurd, but 11 months old, I did my first commercial.

My first record came out in 1961 and then I had one come out in 1962 and then I had two that came out in 1964.

The first successful salesperson was not a man, it was Eve.

By then running had entered the realm of the metaphysical. First there came the action of running, and accompanying it there was this entity known as me. I run; therefore I am.

Bobby Orr was a star when they played the National Anthem in his first game.

The first thing you've got to do is know your craft, and then you can do something else with it.