Top 100 Tell Tale Quotes
#1. With the front casing removed, he fired up the boiler and showed him the colour of the gas flame. 'It should normally burn blue, but due to corrosion, the flame is blue to orange, which is a tell-tale sign of leaking carbon monoxide.
B.P. Smythe
#2. Wise men read very sharply all your private history in your look and gait and behavior. The whole economy of nature is bent on expression. The tell-tale body is all tongues. Men are like Geneva watches with crystal faces which expose the whole movement.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#3. Shun an inquisitive man, he is invariably a tell-tale.
Horace
#4. It won't happen yet, Ellen mused, mashing cooked carrots for Jill's lunch. Breakups seldom do. It will unfold slowly, one little tell- tale symptom after another like some awful, hellish flower.
Sylvia Plath
#5. Would it not be well if the people of God had always tell-tale faces, evincing the blessings and gladness of salvation so clearly that unconverted people might have to call conversion "becoming joyful" instead of "becoming serious"?
Hudson Taylor
#6. Introduction of deus ex machina is a tell-tale sign of sloppy plotting.
Mike Mehalek
#7. I get an incredible thrill and satisfaction from seeing somebody with Apple's tell-tale white earbuds. But I'm constantly haunted by thoughts of, is it good enough? Is there any way we could have made it better?
Jonathan Ive
#8. The TELL-TALE BRAIN A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human V. S. RAMACHANDRAN
V.S. Ramachandran
#9. Poe was such a tragic and brilliant figure; he's somebody whom I've been somewhat obsessed with my whole life. I first read 'The Tell-Tale Heart' at age four.
Rose McGowan
#10. One tell-tale sign of a Wingnut: they always confuse partisanship with patriotism.
John Avlon
#11. The pleased sea on a white-breasted shore
A shore that wears on her alluring brows Rare shells, far brought, the love-gifts of the sea, That blushed a tell-tale.
Alexander Smith
#12. We have concluded that the rocks here were once soaked in liquid water. It changed their texture, and it changed their chemistry. We've been able to read the tell-tale clues the water left behind, giving us confidence in that conclusion.
Steve Squyres
#13. In what bold relief stand out the lives of all walkers of the snow! The snow is a great tell-tale, and blabs as effectually as it obliterates. I go into the woods, and know all that has happened. I cross the fields, and if only a mouse has visited his neighbor, the fact is chronicled.
John Burroughs
#14. Here is the deeply unnerving thing: The heart, cut from the chest, keeps beating on its own. Did Poe know this when he wrote "The Tell-Tale Heart"? So animated are these freestanding hearts that surgeons have been known to drop them. "We wash them off and they do just fine,
Anonymous
#15. I think I hear someone on the stairs. The old wooden boards creak like crazy, and I hear the tell-tale sound of someone walking up the stairs. My heart is practically in my throat now. Then I hear the familiar sound of my old mahogany bedroom door swinging slowly open on squeaky hinges.
April Wilson
#16. Careful the spell you cast, not just on children. Sometimes the spell may last Past what you can see And turn against you ... Careful the tale you tell. That is the spell.
Stephen Sondheim
#17. The best of fiction, as we know, of course, doesn't tell the truth; it tales the truth.
Criss Jami
#18. I always wanted to tell the story of how Pearl Jam is the story of lightning striking twice. As well as being the flipside of the classic rock tale where great promise ends in tragedy. This is where tragedy begins great promise.
Cameron Crowe
#19. Why would you save me?
Because you, mouse, can tell Gregory a story. Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light.'
- A Tale of Despereaux, Kate Dicamillo - P. 81
Kate DiCamillo
#20. If I could read your mind, what a tale your thoughts could tell. Just like a paperback novel, the kind that drugstores sell.
Gordon Lightfoot
#21. Every interview with a public figure should include the question "What have you been wrong about, and how did that change your views?" The answer will tell us if the person is intellectually honest or a tale spinner with delusions of infallibility.
Stewart Brand
#22. The monument of death will outlast the memory of the dead. The Pyramids do not tell the tale which was confided to them; the living fact commemorates itself.
Henry David Thoreau
#23. The wordy tale, once told, were hard to tell again.
Homer
#24. I am the serpent that devours her own tail--her own tale. If you tell a tale well enough, it becomes a path to follow. I shed my skin and begin again.
Mary Sharratt
#25. I wish I could tell the tale of your beauty as my rough hands caress your face ...
John Geddes
#26. I shall stay and tell my tale, hope that it may serve some purpose, that eyes shall see it and learn, that the future will not repeat the mistakes of the past. That is my prayer, but what use is prayer to a god that has abandoned all things . . .
John Gwynne
#27. I can't beleive I'm here to tell the tale, this was my first brush with death, and God must have been looking after us and obviously, it wasn't our time.
Samantha Fox
#28. What they don't know is that I went over the edge years ago, and lived to tell the tale.
Rebecca Wells
#29. You don't necessarily need a script or actors to tell a compelling tale. Finding a person at a key moment in his life and rendering the truth as you see it - that's the truest form of drama.
D. A. Pennebaker
#30. To tell a tale so great as to tear the soul inside out
Sara Niles, Torn From the Inside Out
Sara Niles
#31. You see if you tell yourself the same tale over and over again enough times then the tellings become separate stories and you will generally fool yourself into forgetting you started with one solitary season out of your life.
Kaye Gibbons
#32. Father may have been wanting in some things, but here he was masterful. Night upon night, I marveled at his power to hold listeners in rapt attention. He could tell a story with such detail, such flourish, that afterwards a man could swear it had been his own memory, and not a tale at all.
Seth Grahame-Smith
#33. I am not a storyteller ... not like the others. I only have one tale to tell.
Kate Morton
#35. Let me tell you the tale of a poet who hanged himself with promises ...
C.S. Friedman
#36. I tell you this as a cautionary tale: beware of getting what you want. It's bound to disappoint you.
Jodi Picoult
#37. Voices in the forest tell of dark and twisted enchantments - as dark and twisted as the roots and grasping branches of the trees themselves. Even the most gnarled tree is eloquent in the telling of its own tale.
Brian Froud
#38. Tell me, the poet says, the lie I need to feel safe, and tell me in your own voice, so I believe you. One more tale to stay alive.
Louise Gluck
#39. What had been a shared moment was private now, and always would be. Even if he were to tell the story, it would be a tale told and not the thing itself. The difference between those two was the division between life and death: a lived moment and one entombed.
Daniel Abraham
#40. I'll not be lyin' if I tell ya that I fancy ya a bit myself."
"The fancy feelings are mutual."
A grin curved her lips right before Declan pressed a kiss to them.
Sara Humphreys
#41. My wife was of slight stature and weighed no more than a box of old books. Folded as she was, she fitted snugly into the trunk.
Stephen Livingston
#42. Well when I write my book, and tell the tale of my adventures
all these little stars that shake out of my cloak
I must save those to use for asterisks!
Edmond Rostand
#43. The mind's passion is all for singling out. Obscurity has another tale to tell.
Adrienne Rich
#44. He has not yet become an elder statesman, though his foreign policy credentials are considerable, but he is certainly our ancient mariner, forever tugging at our sleeve to let him tell his tale of what really happened.
Ronald Steel
#45. At the end of the day, acting is all about telling lies. We are professional imposters and the audience accept that. We've made this deal that we tell you a tale and a pack of lies, but there will be a truth in it. You may enjoy it, or it will disturb you.
Pete Postlethwaite
#46. If you could read my mind love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell...
Regina O'Connell
#47. Could he hold up a hand, tell them he had spent a thousand years learning this trick and others, tell them of the guns and the blood that had blessed them? Not with his mouth. But his hands could speak their own tale.
Stephen King
#48. You could tell 'The Handmaid's Tale' from a male point of view. People have mistakenly felt that the women are oppressed, but power tends to organise itself in a pyramid. I could pick a male narrator from somewhere in that pyramid. It would interesting.
Margaret Atwood
#49. A tale, like the universe, they tell us, expands ceaselessly each time you examine it, until there is finally no telling exactly where it begins, where it ends, or where it places you now.
Chang-rae Lee
#50. Layla. You've overcome so many obstacles in your short life already. If anyone can do this with grace and dignity, it's you. It'll be scary in a strange place with no one to turn to, but you've faced scarier things before, and you're still kickin' to tell the tale.
B.C. Burgess
#51. The framed tale is, in my opinion, one of the most natural ways to tell a story. If you think of it, the conceit of the frame-less story is actually the odd way of doing things. Without the frame, how do you know the context for a story?
Patrick Rothfuss
#52. Each time I'm starting to work on a film, even if I love to settle the plot in the real world, I start to think about the plot as a fairy tale, or a dream, or a nightmare ... As if it was the best way to tell the truth about characters or narration, instead of realism.
Arnaud Desplechin
#53. Some say the tale related here Is amplified and twisted; Some say it isn't very clear That William Tell existed; Some say he freed his country so, The Governor demolished. Perhaps he did. I only know That taxes aren't abolished!
P.G. Wodehouse
#54. In his dream she was sick and he cared for her. The dream bore the look of sacrifice but he thought differently. He did not take care of her and she died alone somewhere in the dark and there is no other dream nor other waking world and there is no other tale to tell.
Cormac McCarthy
#55. I can't marry Tove!"
"Why ever not?" She batted her dark lashes at me.
"Because I don't love him!"
"Love is a fairy tale that manks tell their children so they'll have grandchildren," Elora said, brushing me off.
Amanda Hocking
#56. Fairy tales dont tell you that dragons are real, but that they can be defeated!
Kate DiCamillo
#57. I have a story to tell. It is a tale for those who can still see, can still question.
A story of where you are and how you got here. A tale foretold by your poets and prophets through the ages. Read their words, their thoughts, so that you may understand.
W.H. Wisecarver
#58. Nonsense!" growled the Wolf. "I tell you that it is all the fault of the Government, and if you don't believe me I shall eat you." The Wolf had a thoroughly practical mind, and was never at a loss for a good argument.
Oscar Wilde
#59. You have a tale to tell, you are ancient, and deeply broken. I feel love for you and cherish that it is what it is and nothing more.
Anne Rice
#60. I'm going to try to tell stories and let each tale skate its own way into dark or light territory as the needs of the story steer me.
Ed Greenwood
#61. Steve MCQueen created an entire family to tell one man's tale and I am delighted that so many of this family have also been recognised today. I am hugely grateful to the Academy for this great honour, and, of course, to Solomon Northup for sharing his story through his breathtaking book.
Chiwetel Ejiofor
#62. My family were great story-tellers. My mum was one of 12 and they were all fighting to tell stories. You have to tell a good tale or no one is going to listen. You have to make it entertaining and interesting. That's how I learned to tell stories.
Denise Mina
#63. I cannot tell how the truth may be; I say the tale as it was said to me.
Walter Scott
#64. Now will I rehearse before you a very ancient Breton Lay. As the tale was told to me, so, in turn, will I tell it over again, to the best of my art and knowledge. Hearken now to my story, its why and its reason.
Marie De France
#65. Can you tell me what happened?"
Her lips thinned as she shook her head. "'Tis not a happy tale."
"You have me reading a book about a girl who tries to kill an entire town. Anything else at this point would be a pick me up.
Jenny B. Jones
#66. The point of a fairy tale is never in the details. The point is that it's easy to remember, to carry, to tell. We'll continue telling until the stones fall down, and then we'll rebuild and start again.
Miranda Richmond Mouillot
#67. I love to be scared. Not, 'Hey, I think I smell smoke ... ' scared, but creepy, paranoid, what's-that-out-there-in-the-dark, ghost story scared. It's no surprise that I was the girl who got invited to the slumber parties because I could be counted on to tell a tale to scare the bejesus out of you.
Libba Bray
#68. A bitter reality of truth
can be wisely told
in a sweet tale of lullaby.
Toba Beta
#69. The explorer who will not come back or send back his ships to tell his tale is not an explorer, only an adventurer; and his sons are born in exile.
Ursula K. Le Guin
#70. So we make stories of our own, in fevered and envious imitation of our Maker, hoping that we'll tell, by chance, what God left untold. And finishing our tale, come to understand why we were born.
Clive Barker
#71. For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness.
James Baldwin
#72. And now it appears to me that the tale I have to tell, spanning a million years, doesn't change all that much from beginning to end. In the beginning, as in the end, I find myself speaking of human beings, regardless of their brain size, as fisherfolk.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
#73. I could tell you a tale about something,' Miach offered, rubbing her hand absently. 'If you like.'
She frowned thoughtfully. 'What sort of something?'
'Something that would soothe you,' he promised. 'I'm sure there would be swords involved. Bloodshed. Peril. That kind of thing.
Lynn Kurland
#74. Someday, when I am nothing but dust and wind, what tale will they tell about me? Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.
Marie Lu
#75. I'll tell you a secret.
Old storytellers never die.
They disappear into their own story.
Vera Nazarian
#76. A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct; The language plain, and incidents well link'd; Tell not as new what ev'ry body knows; and, new or old, still hasten to a close.
William Cowper
#77. Ladies and gentlemen, attention, please!
Come in close where everyone can see!
I got a tale to tell, it isn't gonna cost a dime!
(And if you believe that,
we're gonna get along just fine.)
Stephen King
#78. If you stretch your imagination, I'll tell you all a tale, about a time when everything wasn't up for sale.
Tom Petty
#79. Perhaps the only happily ever after is to survive to tell the story
Kat Howard
#80. I've decided to skip 'holistic'. I don't know what it means, and I don't want to know. That may seem extreme, but I followed the same strategy toward 'Gestalt' and the 'Twist', and lived to tell the tale.
Calvin Trillin
#81. Honour' is just a word. You can't eat it or drink it and yet everywhere I go men talk of it endlessly, and they all tell a different tale of what it actually means.
Anthony Ryan
#82. Adieu the clang of war's alarms! To other deeds my soul is strung, And sweeter notes shall now be sung; My harp shall all its powers reveal, To tell the tale my heart must feel; Love, Love alone, my lyre shall claim, In songs of bliss and sighs of flame.
Kathleen Baldwin
#83. Tell the story that's been growing in your heart, the characters you can't keep out of your head, the tale story that speaks to you, that pops into your head during your daily commute, that wakes you up in the morning.
Jennifer Weiner
#84. Whether this tale be true or false, none can tell, for none were there to witness it themselves.
Marjane Satrapi
#85. What couldn't I do now, having already committed such a breach of fashion logic and lived to tell the tale? Why couldn't I pretend to be a woman with a solid core of self-worth, who likes herself no matter what the nearest handsome man or evil mother thinks of her?
Laurie Viera Rigler
#86. Smartass Disciple: Master, I don't need a fairytale.I need you to tell me the truth.
Master of Stupidity: It is not funny if you just found it. No drama if no lost at first.
Toba Beta
#87. Marx did not recognize that our desire to connect with a transcendent power runs even deeper than our drive for economic satisfaction. Each of us seeks. How we honor each other's search will tell the tale of the next millennium.
Jeffrey Klein
#88. No," Roland said, "but it's a fair tale. Tell it to the end, please." Eddie did, finishing with the required They lived happily ever after, and the gunslinger nodded. "No one ever does live happily ever after, but we leave the children to find that out for themselves, don't we?" "Yeah," Jake said.
Stephen King
#89. Don't just tell me a mystery; give me a world. Suzanne Myers delivers a hurricane-ravaged island shimmering with atmosphere and dense with secrets. This tight, terrific tale had me turning pages all night long.
Judy Blundell
#90. Think of me,' she said because it seemed like something a girl in a fairy tale might say. Think of me. Remember me. Love me. Turn me into a story you tell again and again. The sister who was good as gold and became a queen.
Jennifer McMahon
#91. The literature of women's lives is a tradition of escapees, women who have lived to tell the tale.
Phyllis Rose
#92. Rumour was the messenger
Of defamation, and so swift, that none
Could be the first to tell an evil tale.
Robert Pollok
#93. But history has been adapted here, re-spun to tell Jan's tale: the story of a boy caught up in a world of change and opportunity, trickery and wonder. A story inspired by a city and its legends.
Joanne Owen
#94. If you want to make your children brilliant, tell them fairy tales. If you want to make them more brilliant, tell them more fairy tales.
Albert Einstein
#95. A Kitchen Prayer Thank God for dirty dishes, They have a tale to tell; While others may go hungry We're eating very well. With home, health, and happiness, I shouldn't want to fuss; By the stack of evidence, God's been very good to us! ~ Anonymous ~
Darlene Schacht
#96. But as she continued and finished her tale, I could tell that her heart was elsewhere, and when she excused herself to go to bed, she left without saying good night. After that, the princesses in her stories were always beautiful. Always.
Kelly Barnhill
#97. There are so may ways to kills yourself, they're just old-fashioned with their permanganate: do you think I'd take permanganate? I wouldn't want to burn my insides out and live to tell the tale as well: idiots! It's simple, I'd drown myself ... Why be in misery at the last?
Christina Stead
#98. Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale.
Frank McCourt
#99. To be alive today is to have a story to tell. To be alive is precisely to be the hero, the center of a life story. When you can be nothing more than a minor character in somebody else's tale, it means that you are truly dead.
Daniel Mendelsohn
#100. I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.
Edgar Allan Poe
