Top 91 Quotes About Figuratively
#1. Speaking figuratively, they were soon chronic alcoholics, men who lived by violence, through extreme action and sensation, through drowning daily in a perpetual nervous agitation. From
Richard Wright
#2. What I do miss that I don't get anymore? You're going to think I'm crazy, but you want the truth, so here it is. The lights! I miss the spotlights. I don't mean it figuratively. I mean it literally. I love the feeling of lights.
Barbara Mandrell
#3. In youth, we get plenty of exercise through games and running around, but as middle life approaches, we settle down, literally and figuratively.
Gene Tunney
#4. To put it figuratively, the role played by a logotherapist is rather that of an eye specialist than of a painter. A painter tries to convey to us a picture of the world as he sees it, an ophthalmologist tries to enable us to see the world as it really is.
Viktor E. Frankl
#5. Even if we take Nietzsche figuratively (which he would have much preferred anyway), fifty years of research on stress shows that stressors are generally bad for people,3 contributing to depression, anxiety disorders, and heart disease.
Jonathan Haidt
#6. It all seems more reasonable and possible until you put it figuratively, until the metaphorical end, which is always the muzzle if you come down to it, blasts you in the face.
Norman Mailer
#7. People see me on TV and I'm this calm, level headed guy. Honestly, that's the furthest thing from who I am. For a long time I struggled with anger and stress. It was killing me, figuratively and literally.
Tom Bergeron
#8. I tell you, we would be hard put to determine what is more evil
religion or the pure idea. The intervention of the supernatural or the elegant abstract solution! Both have bathed this earth in suffering; both have brought the human race literally and figuratively to its knees.
Anne Rice
#9. Anybody who's serious about their passion in life gets doors slammed in their face, literally and figuratively.
Leeza Gibbons
#10. What is the distance between here and there, between now and then, between right and wrong? In Greg Baxter's pellucid first novel, 'The Apartment,' it may be simply the length of a day - but a day in which one travels surprisingly far, literally and figuratively.
Stacey D'Erasmo
#11. Applied war is where the money's at. I don't mean that figuratively. Defense is 140% of the UVE budget. Offense is twice that. This is possible because there is no budget for math education.
Zach Weinersmith
#12. Speaking figuratively, the study of theology often produces overgrown youths whose internal organs have not correspondingly developed. This is a characteristic of adolescence. There is actually something like theological puberty.
Helmut Thielicke
#13. Hang Mortmain," said Will. "And I mean that literally, of course, but also figuratively.
Cassandra Clare
#14. Once I have fairly seized you, to have and to hold, I'll just -figuratively speaking - attach you to a chain like this' (touching his watchguard). 'Yes, bonny wee thing, I'll wear you in my bosom, lest my jewel I should tyne.
Charlotte Bronte
#15. I believe - figuratively, but in a very real way - we need to tent the White House!
Pat Boone
#16. No. See, when you throw up you're vomiting, but when you throw down you're starting a fight, as in throwing down the gauntlet."
"Ohhhh," he said. "I thought you were speaking literally."
"I do beg your pardon. Let's literally throw up, but figuratively throw down.
Kevin Hearne
#17. Lipstick is really magical. It holds more than a waxy bit of color - it holds the promise of a brilliant smile, a brilliant day, both literally and figuratively.
Roberta Gately
#18. SIREN, n. One of several musical prodigies famous for a vain attempt to dissuade Odysseus from a life on the ocean wave. Figuratively, any lady of splendid promise, dissembled purpose and disappointing performance.
Ambrose Bierce
#19. I call upon all of you to wage a second American nonviolent revolution, to use civil disobedience, and to demand that this president leave town, to get up, to put the Quran down, to get up off his knees, and to figuratively come out with his hands up,
Larry Klayman
#20. The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively
because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a 'box' around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?
Frank Zappa
#21. I knew that I had to find my own voice, both figuratively and literally.
David Sylvian
#22. Every time you take someone figuratively by the hand and introduce him or her to Jesus Christ, you will feel how deeply our Savior loves you and loves the person whose hand is in yours.
Clayton Christensen
#23. Your English style will no doubt put all the other gentlemen to bed. I speak figuratively, of course.
John Gielgud
#24. I work for Fox News as a commentator. I say whatever I want. I'm the blonde on the left, figuratively and literally - the one who's usually smiling because it's T.V., not the Supreme Court or Congress, and I find civility more effective in any event.
Susan Estrich
#25. Our argument is not flatly circular, but something like it. It has the form, figuratively speaking, of a closed curve in space.
Willard Van Orman Quine
#26. Since loans are getting more expensive and there's less money available, we're seeing a commensurate decline in growth. Higher costs and lower growth, in turn, translate into lower profits. Figuratively speaking, in the future, we won't be able to run as far or jump as high as we used to.
Paul Achleitner
#27. H-h-holy mackeral, he was hotter than a two-dollar pistol. Literally and figuratively. He radiated heat like a blast furnace. And he was straight-up, pantiesonthefloor, legsintheair, haveatmebigboy sssssmokin' sexy.
Julie Ann Walker
#28. Maybe you could take us to meet them," says Delon. She raises her eyebrows. "When I called you a fool earlier, I meant it figuratively. Now you're making me think I might have a been a bit too generous." "But you know how to contact them." "Why would I do that?" Delon
Richard Kadrey
#29. A fine remedy for our anxieties over our low status in society may be to travel - whether literally or figuratively, by viewing works of art - through the gigantic spaces of the world.
Alain De Botton
#30. I don't think I'd volunteer to have a dick that big. How the hell did he get it to fit in his pants?
[ ... ]
Yeah, and here I thought he was figuratively a horse's ass. Who would have ever thought he actually had anatomical similarities?
Adrienne Wilder
#31. The only problem I see is that you're as stubborn as a mule, but I'm sure I'll find a way to whip that right out of you." "Literally or figuratively?" "That's entirely up to your pain tolerance.
Kira Barker
#33. Please. The boy gets a boner every time you walk into the room.
My eyes pop back open. Does she mean that figuratively or has she actually seen something? No. Focus, Anna.
Stephanie Perkins
#34. I love the wry motto of the Paleontological Society, meant both literally and figuratively, for hammers are the main tool of our trade: Frango ut patefaciam - I break in order to reveal.
Stephen Jay Gould
#35. I thought you were talking figuratively! I kept asking and you kept saying, "An entrance to Hell," so I thought, Very well, Cabal, have your moment of melodrama now and bathos later when it turns out your talking about Ipswitch or somewhere, but you meant it. You actually meant it literally.
Jonathan L. Howard
#36. One of my best friends, Stephen Sprouse, Bill Dugan, and I worked designing clothes, doing every conceivable thing. New York was a really intoxicating period for me, literally and figuratively. There was a lot of overlap with Andy Warhol, Studio 54, and Halston.
Dennis Christopher
#37. There were a lot of fences and walls existing in my life, literally and figuratively, and that was really not indicative of the kind of person that I'd always been. So, when I moved back to Seattle, the first thing I said was, "I will never live in fear again."
Ben Gibbard
#38. Interest can turn into disgust when the person with whom your are romantically involved, and whose scent you find evocative, betrays you and then, with shocking speed, they just "stink" both literally and figuratively.
Anonymous
#39. In 'A Scandalous Woman,' the eventually distraught narrator watches as her high-spirited friend is beaten down - literally and figuratively - by Ireland's pious customs.
Alan Cheuse
#40. Pseudo-critics prefer to direct their remarks to the artist - Heaven forgive them - but one due rather to a common impression that such an attitude is the correct one, that all paintings should be figuratively mutilated, and that all artists are fair game, or really grateful perhaps for a few tips.
Walter J. Phillips
#41. But Julia hasn't a bit of tact; and men, I find, require a great deal. They purr if you rub them the right way and spit if you don't. (That isn't a very elegant metaphor. I mean it figuratively.)
Jean Webster
#42. Therefore, to teach them [women] at least an outline of economics and law is the first requirement after giving them a general education. Figuratively speaking, it will be like providing the women of civilized society with a pocket dagger for self-protection.
Fukuzawa Yukichi
#43. Habim had told Iseult once, War is senseless. She'd always thought he'd meant it figuratively. Now she knew he'd meant it exactly as he'd said. War was senseless, overwhelming her sight, her touch, her hearing. Even her witchery. Every piece of Iseult was crushed. Crumbled. Shattered to shreds.
Susan Dennard
#44. Well it seems you have me by the balls both literally and figuratively, don't you now?
K. Bromberg
#45. If you often feel alone, ignored, or forgotten, think about this: closing the door and locking yourself in won't change anything - literally and figuratively.
Richelle E. Goodrich
#46. Fighting the wild branches of a haunted tree is not something that every actor is confident enough to attack, literally and figuratively.
Mick Garris
#47. Examine what you do and examine what other women do. Examine the dreams that men hold of you and how they force you in a corner, literally and figuratively.
Frederick Lenz
#48. There is, literally and figuratively, not a gold standard. That's almost as big a problem in art as in the financial world. How do you affix a value to something that only has value because a certain number of people agree to believe in that value?
John Currin
#49. Don't use metaphors in fantasy; your readers will take them literally. Or they may take them figuratively - but if so, they'll also take your magics and transformations figuratively. Either way, you're in trouble.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
#50. Lazy breathing converts the lungs, literally and figuratively speaking, into a cemetery for the deposition of diseased, dying and dead germs as well as supplying an ideal haven for the multiplication of other harmful germs.
Joseph Pilates
#51. Nothing happens for a week. I don't mean this figuratively like there is a shortage of significant events. I mean that no things occur. Total stasis. It's sort of heavenly, to tell you the truth
John Green
#52. He was hers.
To have and hold. Not forever, maybe
not forever, for sure
and not figuratively. But literally. And now. Now, he was hers. And he wanted her to touch him. He was like a cat who pushes its head under your hands.
Rainbow Rowell
#53. Once upon a time, there was a safe, private place to take your controversial stand for Jesus. No more. If you are going to stand, you will be shot at - either figuratively or literally.
John Piper
#54. Dude! Get a fucking grip, it's just a song!
When had I turned into a 5-yr-old girl? At the very least, I needed to get my libido under control before the song finished, because I didn't think that my raging hard-on would be a good icebreaker. Well, figuratively speaking anyway, I thought smugly.
M.C. Lavocat
#55. Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to raise, kill, and eat animals the way we do.
Michael Pollan
#56. There is one day that has brought me unspeakable pain, & the effects of that day continue to cover & erode my world like rust. I suspect that someday the rust will eat through the joists & posts of my life & I will topple, literally as well as figuratively.
Richard Paul Evans
#57. I have no desire to crow over anybody or to see anybody eating crow, figuratively or otherwise. We should all get together and make a country in which everybody can eat turkey whenever he pleases.
Harry S. Truman
#58. As we figuratively sit beside ourselves and inquire, listen and name our experience, we see Mara clearly and open our heart in tenderness for the suffering before us.
Tara Brach
#59. It is possible to take the story of Noah figuratively, although virtually every Near East ancient civilization has its own version of the flood story (including the amoral epic of Gilgamesh).
Ben Shapiro
#60. I fall in love. More figuratively speaking, I am walking along the road one day when out of nowhere I am struck by lightning.
Ali Smith
#61. We were, literally and figuratively, in the same boat.
Yann Martel
#62. I am a distance runner, a marathoner ... literally and figuratively.
Al Jarreau
#63. A man ought to look up to a woman, literally or figuratively, because that is the proper mode of worship, and worship is the very least he can do.
Loretta Chase
#64. Induratize (v.) To harden the heart. Among the inevitabilities of old age are that the heart is hardened twice; first figuratively, through experience and loss, and then literally, in the form of atherosclerosis.
Ammon Shea
#65. He was figuratively following along beside her as she walked the fence, ready to catch her if she should fall.
F Scott Fitzgerald
#66. Edward Isaac Bickert in never one to blow his own horn - figuratively - he is one of the most modest and unassuming men in Jazz. But literally - he blows up a storm .
Frank Rutter
#67. I'm an idiot. I'm ten times an idiot. God, I could just die." Then I forged ahead because the last comment was too close for comfort these days. "Not die die, as in not-breathing die, but die figuratively, if you know what I mean." Lee was grinning.
Kristen Ashley
#68. When I see Liz Taylor with those Harry Winston boulders hanging from her neck I get nauseated. Not figuratively, but nauseated! All I can think of are how many dog shelters those diamonds could buy.
Doris Day
#69. God gave us cats so that we would have an example of how we treat Him-mainly that we totally ignore Him as we go about our lives, but when we want something we will start to purr and figuratively rub ourselves against His legs to gain His attention for our wants.
Jeff Miller
#70. He didn't miss a beat. "Is this an interview?"
"Yes."
"What job am I applying for?"
"The job of my dance and life partner - figuratively, literally, horizontally, vertically, and hopefully, laterally. And, depending on how flexible you are, diagonally.
Penny Reid
#71. I gave you up once. It killed me. it was figuratively but it still killed me. I'm not doin' that shit again.
Kristen Ashley
#72. You're looking...good enough to eat. Figuratively speaking, I'm strictly vegan.
Marv Wolfman
#73. The name of a great writer is usually bigger than the title of his book. Both literally and figuratively.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
#74. I've asked around and haven't found a B.A. yet who doesn't still have nightmares (and I don't speak figuratively) about not being able to find the room where the exam is to be given or about realizing at the last moment that he has not once attended the course.
Elizabeth Savage
#75. HEART, n. Figuratively, this useful organ is said to be the seat of emotions and sentiments ... It is now known that sentiments and emotions reside in the stomach, being evolved from food by chemical action of the gastric fluid.
Ambrose Bierce
#76. A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.
Susan Orlean
#77. When kids look at broccoli, they call it 'little trees,' because they see it not just for the word 'broccoli.' They see it for what it looks like, the image. We, as adults, forget to think like that. We forget to think figuratively and have to be reminded.
Natasha Trethewey
#78. In that house, you will find my heart. You must break in, Henri, and get it back for me.'
Was she mad? We had been talking figuratively. Her heart was in her body like mine. I tried to explain this to her, but she took my hand and put it against her chest.
Feel for yourself.
Jeanette Winterson
#79. An abusive relationship is worse than being in prison. I mean literally, not figuratively.
Joe Biden
#80. Though Emerson is a firm believer in the equality of the female sex, he has some secret reservations, and one of them involves the car. (There is something about these machines that makes men want to pound their chests and roar like gorillas. I speak figuratively, of course.)
Elizabeth Peters
#81. Particularly with MFA students, who have so much invested - literally and figuratively - I feel like honest criticism is something they're owed. It's not going to be easier in the real world, surely.
Tod Goldberg
#82. No one is yet using figuratively to mean literally; the confusion, such as it is, is all in one direction.
Ammon Shea
#83. When it rains, it pours - figuratively and literally.
John Cornyn
#84. RIGHT, he said, PESTILENCE, OPEN ANOTHER PACK OF CARDS. I'M GOING TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS IF IT KILLS ME, FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING OF COURSE. Rincewind grabbed Twoflower and pulled
Terry Pratchett
#85. There is an aspect of my character that tends to latch on to one difficult but potentially solvable problem, rather than grapple with the vast and unsolvable problem that would be all I could see, if I were to look up, figuratively speaking, from my small blue notebooks.
Ben H. Winters
#86. To have and hold. Not forever, maybe-not forever, for sure-and not figuratively. But literally. And now. Now, he was hers.
Rainbow Rowell
#87. It was like being asleep when you were awake and awake when you were asleep. I'd pinch myself, figuratively speaking - I had to keep pinching myself. Then I'd wake up kind of in reverse; I'd go back to the nightmare I had to live in. And everything would be clear and reasonable.
Jim Thompson
#88. Figuratively, they escaped from Cout Olaf and their miserable existence. They did not literally escape, because they were still in his house and vulnerable to Olaf's evil in loco parentis ways.
Lemony Snicket
#89. Luckily, my husband is my business partner as well as my life partner, so I never had to do the heavy lifting alone, literally or figuratively.
Josie Maran
#90. It was an instant weight lifted off my chest - both literally and figuratively.
Ariel Winter
#91. Few now would associate de-roofing with the police, but the verb 'to detect' originated in detegere - a detective raises the roof, figuratively.
Lucy Sussex
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