[Razor] Phrases

[Razor]

Okay, here's what we're doing. In literature especially, phrases sometimes stand out to you for whatever reason as beautiful, profound, alluring. Give at least one example of what you consider to be a beautiful phrase. It can be as short as two words, or as long as an entire sentence. Then, if you so choose, tell why you think that highly of those words. Please remember that while meaning is an issue in this, we are not looking for profound sentences pertaining to life lessons or anything like that; we are concentrating on the beauty of words and combinations of words alone. Connected meaning of these words should not be the main reason you pick them; connotations of the words should be.

 

Now, GO! This is gonna be fun. I'll post some of my own after I make a list.

[Bondwriter]

"(...) la parole humaine est comme un chaudron f

[Jack Frost]

"(...) la parole humaine est comme un chaudron f

[Rigel]

"And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"

 

The conclusion of the Book of Jonah (4:11)

 

It's a profound ending for a tale with this description of a city with 120,000 dyslexics, but the last words--"and also much cattle"--are a strange and wonderful shift of the image, hanging there defying easy comprehension like some Zen koan.

 

--Rigel

[Lugh]

I dunno why but for some reason

 

It was the best of times, and the worst of times... (A Tale of Two Cities)

 

always stuck in my head..

[PatrickOBrien]

The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed.

-Stephen King, The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

 

First line of such an epic story. I love it!

[infernari]

"...Into this wilde Abyss, The Womb of Nature and perhaps her Grave," -From John Milton's Paradise Lost

 

It is just an immensely powerful phrase to me. Also, I'd like to add:

 

"Release the penguins"

 

Because anyone who's ever seen the Faerie's Aire and Death Waltz will understand.

[PatrickOBrien]

YOU'VE NEVER SEEN MY PENIS!

 

-John Dies at the End

[Conner]

...

two roads diverged in a wood, and I --

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

 

Robert Frost from Road Not Taken

 

This one is for all you rebels and your dreams.

 

And...because I'm a big baseball fan...here's Yogi Berra's version..

 

"If you come to a fork in the road, take it."

[Razor]

"A thousand clever lies unread on clever napkins."

 

"spiderwebs of razor tracery"

 

"...I can only tell you that this world calls for you to cry."

 

"Laine's mouth tasted delicately salty, like tears."

 

"The children have king cake parties... The baby represents the infant Christ, and children seldom choke on it. Jesus loves little children."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, that's all my gothicness for now. So I'm a little weird.

[Conner]

I studied Latin in high school. My favourite line was...

 

"Veni, Vidi, Vicci" which translated means, I came, I saw, I conquered. Attributed to Big Julie.

[Razor]

Hehe, this one time a guy named Larry Mills, a friend of my dad's left a note on our door that absolutely cracked me the hell up.

 

"I came, I did not see, therefore I did not conquer.

 

-Larry of Mills"

 

I have no clue why it was so funny, but it made me giggle.

[eliotmoore]

There's a blaze of light

In every word

It doesn't matter which you heard

The holy or the broken Hallelujah

 

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

(Leonard Cohen)

 

 

That a man can stand up

 

A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?

 

Passionate tears from a stone

 

------------------------------------------------------------

My soul sings Hallelujah that I have forgotten a multitude of fine words over the years and that as I continue to live more will cascade around me like the shimmering droplets of a fine verbal mist swirling joyfully in the sunshine of literature.

[PatrickOBrien]

Dark for fear of failure.

An inner gloom as wide as an eye and fermenting.

Roiling hate.

Death grip in my veins.

Unveiling rancid petals.

Flowering forth foul nectar.

The space between a blink and a tear.

Death blooms.

 

-Mudvayne

[eliotmoore]

Mudvayne... powerful language

[Andy]

I dunno why, maybe just cause I'm listening to it at the moment but.

 

 

"Objects in the rearview mirror may appear closer than they are"

 

I like it.. no real reason, but it is just a nice phrase taken from everyday life and given more meaning by the addition of some drums and some piano and some context.

[PatrickOBrien]

Need worldwide genocide.

Planetary suicide.

And when the whole damn world is dead,

There's your f---ing peace!

 

-Mudvayne

 

I like that one because, technically, it's a perfectly viable plan for world peace. lol i'm morbid, i know.

[PatrickOBrien]

Deeper,

Deeper,

Deeper,

As I'm Trying to

Live a life that seems to be,

A lost reality,

Where I can never find

A way to reach my

Inner self esteem

And low,

How deep can I go?

In the ground that I lay

If I don't find a way to

See through the gray that clouds my mind,

This time I look to see what's between the lines.

-Jonathan Davis of KoRn

[Razor]

Make sure.

 

 

 

I like it because normally when you make something, you create a tangible object. In this case, you create a state of being if you take the action in the sentence. It's just one of those examples of how nifty the English language is in how you can phrase things.

[Ieshwar]

I'v been itching to say this so here it goes-

 

Perversion of religion.

 

My french teacher told us this months ago and it got stuck in my head.

 

Ieshwar

[Camy]

Not a phrase but a stanza from the Edward FitzGerald Translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

To me it encapsulates everything. Apposite for writers too

 

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

[Conner]

William Blake. 1757

[Menzoberranzen]

William Blake. 1757

[Ieshwar]

I got another one today when I was in the bus.

 

"Love isn't bind; it just sees everything but accepts it anyway."

 

Sweet, isn't it?

 

Ieshwar

[BeaStKid]

agar firdaus barrooe zaminast; haminasto haminasto haminast

 

inscription on diwan-e-khas at the Red Fort, New Delhi.

 

it is in urdu, i think and translates into--

 

If there is heaven on earth; it is here, it is here, it is here.

 

diwan-e-khas (court of the important people)

 

 

BSK