Gnaw Quotes

#1. The chain of habit coils itself around the heart like a serpent, to gnaw and stifle it.

William Hazlitt

#2. Well, you may not know this, but there's things that gnaw at a man worse than dying.

Charlie Waite

#3. Elections decide which horde of rats gets to gnaw at the bones.

Lyndsay Faye

#4. I'm gonna make that asshole gnaw his own hand off that night, dammit.

Tammara Webber

#5. What ever is the natural propensity of a person is hard to overcome. If a dog were made a king, he would still gnaw at his shoes laces.

Bill Vaughan

#6. I feel that if I kept it secret it might grow in my mind (as poisonous things grow in the dark) and take its place with the other terrible thoughts that gnaw me

Oscar Wilde

#7. A bookworm-one of those men who are born to gnaw dead thoughts. His clothes, you see, are covered with the dust of libraries. He has no inward fountain of ideas ... " - "Earth's Holocaust", Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne

#8. When I have no idea, I gnaw my nails and invoke the aid of Providence.

Brander Matthews

#9. On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace! The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul! Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st, And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!

William Shakespeare

#10. And part of the soil is called to wash away In storms and streams shave close and gnaw the rocks. Besides, whatever the earth feeds and grows Is restored to earth. And since she surely is The womb of all things and their common grave, Earth must dwindle, you see and take on growth again.

Lucretius

#11. Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

Henry David Thoreau

#12. With Gnaw I was thinking about traditional sculpture, about carving. I was also interested in figurative sculpture. I put those two ideas together and decided that rather than describing the body, I would use the body, my body, as a tool for making art.

Janine Antoni

#13. You coming in here?" I asked.
"Afraid I'll gnaw on your stepmother?

Devon Monk

#14. To gnaw on is human, towards digest, divine.

Mark Twain

#15. I don't know very many people in the art world, only socialise with the few I like, and have little time to gnaw my nails with anxiety about any criticism I hear about.

Charles Saatchi

#16. It is like sitting in a traffic jam on the San Diego Freeway with your windows rolled up and Portuguese music booming out of the surround-sound speakers while animals gnaw on your neck and diseased bill collectors hammer on your doors with golf clubs.

Hunter S. Thompson

#17. The truth is, everybody falls into an incinerator of some measure or other. Not literally one. The question is what are you going to do with those bad times? Are you just going to let them gnaw at you?

Michael Winter

#18. The sort of man who likes to spend his time watching a cage of monkeys chase one another, or a lion gnaw its tail, or a lizard catch flies, is precisely the sort of man whose mental weakness should be combated at the public expense, not fostered.

H.L. Mencken

#19. No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg.

Frederica Mathewes-Green

#20. Like an animal caught in a trap, trying to gnaw off its own leg, a woman who seeks abortion is trying to escape a desperate situation by an act of violence and self-loss. Abortion is not a sign that women are free, but a sign that they are desperate.

Frederica Mathewes-Green

#21. It's easy to be far away from people you love when you think everyone's happy. But when you find out someone needs you and you can't be there, it makes the distance grow claws and teeth and start to gnaw at your heart.

Katie Kacvinsky

#22. Afterwards I learned, that the best way to manage some kinds of pain fill thoughts, is to dare them to do their worst; to let them lie and gnaw at your heart till they are tired; and you find you still have a residue of life they cannot kill.

George MacDonald

#23. Unresolved grief is created when we don't allow ourselves to work through feelings as they arise. If we deny having painful feelings or put them on a shelf, they don't simply evaporate. Rather, unresolved feelings gnaw at our energy, prey on our emotions, and generally debilitate us.

Sue Patton Thoele

#24. Oh, boy! A bone! I love bones. I take it over to gnaw on in front of the cube door. This is the best place to see the entire yard.

Lea Kirk

#25. Tonight
A friendly breeze
Will agitate roots of meanings.
Wonder will flap its wings.

Deep in the night, an insect
Will gnaw
At the green portion of solitude.
Morning will fall
Into the word of morning.

Sohrab Sepehri

#26. I do half the cooking, and by 'half' I mean three quarters," Dad pointed out. "And if you're going to turn up your nose at all my carnivorous delights, ingrate child, you can sit under the table and gnaw sadly on a raw Brussels sprout at mealtimes.

Sarah Rees Brennan

#27. The wicked will gnaw their tongues for anguish and pain; they will curse God and look upwards. There the dogs of hell, pride, malice, revenge, rage, horror, despair, continually devout them.

John Wesley

#28. It is not elegant to gnaw Indian corn. The kernels should be scored with a knife, scraped off into the plate, and then eaten with a fork. Ladies should be particularly careful how they manage so ticklish a dainty, lest the exhibition rub off a little desirable romance.

Charlie Day

#29. We shall be reduced to gnaw the very crust of the earth for nutriment.

Henry David Thoreau

#30. It's really hard when people write nasty things about you all the time. As much as good things are said about you, it's always those one or two bad comments that really stay with you and gnaw at you. I try not to read that stuff if I can.

Jordin Sparks

#31. The parasite of art, the virus of art, never ceases to gnaw awat at your brain, never ceases to torture you with the knowledge that whatever you're doing could be done more beautifully, more powerfully, more stirringly, more disturbingly, more deeply.

Brian Morton

#32. A brave man could conquer fear, he had learned that, but perhaps only for a time. It was something the young did not understand, the way it could gnaw at a man, the way it came back stronger every time, until you were alone and gasping for breath.

Conn Iggulden

#33. In life there are certain sores that, like a canker, gnaw at the soul in solitude and diminish it.

Sadegh Hedayat

#34. ( ... ) I do want to leave, in the desperate way that an animal wants to escape a trap. Wild and rabid. Ready to gnaw through bone.

Veronica Roth

#35. Guilt doesn't follow the rules of time. Most things fade with time, regret, eyesight, memories. But guilt feeds on time, and as it feeds, it grows, and when it runs out of time, it begins to gnaw on the guilty.

J.D. Mason

#36. He hurt because she was hurting. He wanted to lick her face and find a meaty bone for her to gnaw on. He wanted to entice her into a game so she would think about something else. But

Anne Bishop

#37. You have to gnaw the bone that's thrown you.

Michael Schmicker

#38. I would gnaw, gnaw at myself with my teeth, inwardly, secretly, tear and suck at myself until the bitterness finally turned into some shameful, accursed sweetness.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#39. [Footnote:] To give the Beaver his due, he does things because he has to do them, not because he believes that hard work per se will somehow make him a better Beaver
the Beaver may be dumb, but he is not that dumb! The Beaver was made to gnaw, and gnaw he does. There you have him in a nutshell.

Will Cuppy

#40. I had nixed the idea of having children when I was myself a child, having learned in the 1960s that human overpopulation was literally crowding other species off the planet. Why create another mouth to gnaw at the overburdened earth?

Sy Montgomery

#41. Anger punishes the bearer's heart. Who remains angry suffers most. For many, the search for perfection virtually guarantees it will be found, and disregarded in order to continue the search. Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps.

Emo Philips

#42. It is easier to gnaw through bone. Than the hide of the heart.

Diane Glancy

#43. Men talk about Bible miracles because there is no miracle in their lives. Cease to gnaw that crust. There is ripe fruit over your head.

Henry David Thoreau

#44. Been here sooner," growled Wolfe, calling the pack off with a quick gesture. "But that bitch tied me up. Had to wait for the dogs to gnaw through my ropes.

Richelle Mead

#45. If you want to gnaw greenery in the morning for health reasons, do it in your own home with the curtains drawn.

Victoria Coren Mitchell

#46. A mighty oak can be felled by even the tiniest of insects when one allows them to continually gnaw at it. (Callie's Mother)

Kinley MacGregor

#47. Books gnaw at me from around the edges of my life, demanding more time and attention. I am always left hungry.

Pamela Paul

#48. None of what I know is out of books ... I prefer tactual learning. Touching, on the quick of the sore nail, of present, mobile life. To toy, to gnaw, to tear: at the living element of pain. Like at a living drumstick.

Caitlin Thomas

#49. We have experienced the truth of this prophecy, for England has become the habitation of outsiders and the dominion of foreigners. Today, no Englishman is earl, bishop, or abbott, and newcomers gnaw away at the riches and very innards of England; nor is there any hope for an end of this misery.

William Of Malmesbury

#50. You talk of the scythe of Time, and the tooth of Time: I tell you, Time is scytheless and toothless; it is we who gnaw like the worm - we who smite like the scythe. It is ourselves who abolish - ourselves who consume: we are the mildew, and the flame.

John Ruskin

#51. The memory of sustenance is a terrible thing. Far worse, I think, than actual starving. Starving just kills you. Longing can gnaw away at you forever.

Terri Cheney

#52. For if the talent or individuality is there, it should be expressed. If it doesn't find its way out into the air, it can be turned inward and gnaw like the fox at the Spartan boy's belly.

Shirley Maclaine

#53. A royal spirit escaped from a prison: why should we rend our garments and how should we gnaw our hands?
Since they were monarchs of the (true) religion, 'twas the hour of joy (for them) when they broke their bonds.

Rumi

#54. I keep going over a sentence. I nag it, gnaw it, pat and flatter it.

Janet Flanner

#55. I wondered, what other gifts I got bottled up inside me? That question had started to gnaw on me some.

Susan Crandall

#56. My understanding is, the fans are so ravenous in Canada, they gnaw on the stars.

William Shatner