The Contest Quotes

#1. Peter was lost. More than lost, really. Spectacularly, hopelessly, "tell the search party not to get their hopes up" lost. If there was a contest for getting lost being held at that moment, Peter wouldn't win because he wouldn't be able to find it. That's how lost he was.

Mark Hill

#2. And yet what manner of man would I be, who has so much to say in the contest of words, if now I shirked this contest of blood?

Geraldine Brooks

#3. A meaningful life is not a popularity contest. Do what in your heart you believe to be the right thing, and you may or may not get immediate approval from the world. Do it anyway.

Marianne Williamson

#4. That is my problem with life, I rush through it, like I'm being chased. Even things whose whole point is slowness, like drinking relaxing tea. When I drink relaxing tea I suck it down as if I'm in a contest for who can drink relaxing tea the quickest.

Miranda July

#5. There was no question about it- the girl in the photograph was staggeringly beautiful. She was Miss Canal Zone, a runner-up in the Miss Universe Contest
and in fact far more beautiful than the winner of the contests. Her beauty had frightened the judges.

Kurt Vonnegut

#6. Lesson one, bitch. Don't start a pissing contest with someone who has the strength and temper to hurt you.

Anne Bishop

#7. Every author these days is an award-winning novelist. Why? Because they set up an award contest and they dub themselves the winner.

Karen E. Quinones Miller

#8. Excuse me, Scopus," Beric said quietly, "I am perfectly ready to fight with this bragadocio, and challenge him to a contest; a few hard knocks will do neither of us any harm, therefore let us go into the school and have it out, It is much better so than to have perpetual quarrelling.

G.A. Henty

#9. The woman of tomorrow will be efficacious, seductive and without contest superior to man. It is for this woman that I conceive my designs.

Paco Rabanne

#10. In every contest, there comes a moment that separates winning from losing. The true warrior understands and seizes that moment.

Pat Riley

#11. The contest of world's tallest skyscraper is a childish thing.
Whereas with similar budget, they could construct flying building.

Toba Beta

#12. Mention the name George W. Bush in mixed company, and you're likely to spark a lot of debate and emotion - hot and cold, good and bad. Not a lot of neutral reaction. He was elected in the most controversial contest in American electoral history and governed during one of the most tumultuous decades.

Mark McKinnon

#13. After the snap, Chad took off like a gazelle and the quarterback hurled a 30-yard bomb that rocketed straight to him. Fast as Chad was, Joshua ran him down like a Discovery Channel cheetah. It was no contest.

C. Michael Forsyth

#14. You do this, perhaps, with a good intention,' said the Cardinal, 'but, in my opinion, it were wiser in you, and perhaps better for you, not to engage in so ridiculous a contest with a Fool.'

Thomas More

#15. I'm still going to love you, always. And in the rock-paper-scissors of life, love is rock. fear, anger, everthing else ... no contest.

Sara Zarr

#16. Lutherans, whose arguments and mistakes will not be difficult to contest or discover, do not want to attribute any value to works, and they do not understand enough the scope of the justification.

Michael Servetus

#17. Finn."
"Victor."
"Awkward." I looked at both their faces but neither seemed to really notice I was there. The second pissing for distance contest began.
You were going to ask him!

Michelle Flick

#18. What I loved in the man was his health, his unity with himself; all people and all things seemed to find their quite peaceable adjustment with him, not a proud domineering one, as after doubtful contest, but a spontaneous-looking peaceable, even humble one.

Thomas Carlyle

#19. I entered a poem in a poetry contest around 1987, and the poem won and I received $1,000 for it. That made me realize that maybe what I was writing was worth reading to people. After that, for some reason, I turned to novels and I've written mainly novels ever since.

Sharon Creech

#20. To try something longer, I entered a half-hour radio drama contest with the national public broadcaster, CBC. To my surprise, I won. And that opened doors in film and television, because that broadcaster was looking to cultivate new Canadian talent, especially women who could write.

Karen Walton

#21. In 1800, in the first interparty contest, the Federalists warned that presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson, because of his sympathy expressed at the outset of the French Revolution, was 'the son of a half-breed Indian squaw' who would put opponents under the guillotine.

Robert Dallek

#22. The worthy gentleman who has been snatched from us at the moment of the election, and in the middle of the contest, whilst his desires were as warm and his hopes as eager as ours, has feelingly told us what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue.

Edmund Burke

#23. 'American Idol' is sometimes lumped with reality shows and it has that element - folks-next-door battling it out in a contest. But instead of fighting leeches, bugs, parasites and each other, as on CBS's 'Survivor' and other shows that imitate it, the 'American Idol' contestants, of course, sing.

Tom Shales

#24. In those days, boxing was very glamorous and romantic. You listened to fights on the radio, and a good announcer made it seem like a contest between gladiators.

Joseph Barbera

#25. What I hate most in life are people who are not really the peach of the day but who want to be young and sexy. You can fool nobody. There is a moment when you have to accept that somebody else is younger and fresher and hotter. Life is not a beauty contest.

Karl Lagerfeld

#26. Where two discourse, if the anger of one rises, he is the wise man who lets the contest fall.

Plutarch

#27. The story grew, got way bigger than the contest rules called for, and next thing I knew I had a book.

Leslie Banks

#28. To put is still more plainly: the desire for security and the feeling of insecurity are the same thing. To hold your breath is to lose your breath. A society based on the quest for security is nothing but a breath-retention contest in which everyone is as taut as a drum and as purple as a beet.

Alan W. Watts

#29. Pakistan would be confident after their series win over England. The series will be a very close and good contest and if all the players play to their potential we're in for some wonderful cricket.

Greg Chappell

#30. Asia is the continent rhythm forgot. At best Asian music is off-brand American pop, like Sonny Bono in a karaoke bar. At worst Asian music sounds as if a truck full of wind chimes collided
with a stack of empty oil drums during a birdcall contest.

P. J. O'Rourke

#31. The difficulty that contestation must be done in the name of an authority is resolved this: I contest in the name of contestation what experience itself is.

Georges Bataille

#32. Science today is a highly collaborative exercise, and to convert it into a contest, as the Nobel does, is a bad way to look at science.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan

#33. When Bob came through Cincinnati, he wanted a girl singer to be on his show. There was a local contest, and my sister and I entered, but Bob said, Gee, I wouldn't break up the team.

Rosemary Clooney

#34. It was a revolving door that kept going in circles. I got to the point where I thought, "Man, none of this is doing it." but I'd keep repeating the same actions. I'd go win another contest, open another company, invent a new maneuver.

Christian Hosoi

#35. Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision.

Norman Mailer

#36. Sadie and I locked eyes. We had a brief, silent exchange, something like:
You ask her.
No, you.
Of course Sadie's better at giving dirty looks, so I lost the contest.

Rick Riordan

#37. Infinite Jest is an endurance contest. You manage to get through it and you have no choice but to say you like it. Otherwise, you have to deal with the fact that you just wasted weeks of your life,

Gabrielle Zevin

#38. Linda Heavner Gerald has been selected as a contestant in the Author's Show!

Linda Heavner Gerald

#39. There is a contest old as Eden, which still goes on - the conflict between right and wrong, between error and truth. In this conflict every human being has a part.

Matthew Simpson

#40. You stand up straw men," Nynaeve said. "We have a saying in the Two Rivers. 'Whether the bear beats the wolf or the wolf beats the bear, the rabbit always loses.' Take your contest somewhere else and leave Emond's Field folk out of it.

Robert Jordan

#41. The funny thing is, I sometimes think my mother loves my father more than he loves her. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah, I guess so. Maybe. Is love a contest?"
"What does that mean?"
"Maybe everyone loves differently. Maybe that's all that matters.

Benjamin Alire Saenz

#42. Ninety-five percent of the time when I run a contest I've purchased the giveaway prizes with advertising money.

Ree Drummond

#43. Children must be considered in a divorce considered valuable pawns in the nasty legal and financial contest that is about to ensue.

P. J. O'Rourke

#44. Why don't the Grammys matter? Because it feels rigged and cheap - like a popularity contest that the insiders club has decided.

Trent Reznor

#45. Pipers at the Edinburgh contest were using two-droned pipes up until 1821, when such pipes were forbidden, because they allegedly gave an unfair advantage over other competitors playing the three-droned pipe.

Alistair Campsie

#46. In an archery contest, when the stakes are earthenware tiles a contestant shoots with skill. When the stakes are belt buckles he becomes hesitant, and if the stakes are pure gold he becomes nervous and confused. There is no difference as to his skil.

Zhuangzi

#47. Ethnic life in the United States has become a sort of contest like baseball in which the blacks are always the Chicago Cubs.

Ishmael Reed

#48. At the end of the day it's not a weight contest, it's a visual contest. And it doesn't matter what you say you weigh, if you don't look that big then you don't look that big.

Dorian Yates

#49. It is in the contest that Fred Friendly, onetime CBS News president, made it clear that before any questions of "who controls the master switch.

Tim Wu

#50. Infinite Jest is a masterpiece," Harvey had said. "Infinite Jest is an endurance contest. You manage to get through it and you have no choice but to say you like it. Otherwise, you have to deal with the fact that you just wasted weeks of your life," A.J.

Gabrielle Zevin

#51. I won contest after contest until finally I realized, "Ok, I am the best in the world, but now what?" So I opened my own company, but there was still that feeling of, "What else do I need to do?"

Christian Hosoi

#52. We're surrounded by violence, and we see so much of it on TV, especially the news programs. We almost become numb. And that forces filmmakers to try to outdo themselves ... They say, 'Look what I can do,' and it becomes like a showoff thing. To me, that's ridiculous. Filmmaking isn't a contest!

Jan De Bont

#53. No matter how fast weapons and technology evolve in the 21st century, one thing remains constant is that war is a human endeavor, a grueling contest between two learning and adaptive forces. Victory, therefore rests on how smart, how tough, and how dedicated our boots on the ground.

Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono

#54. Behold a contest worthy of a god, a brave man matched in conflict with adversity.

Seneca The Younger

#55. Archery is still a matter of life and death to the extent that it is a contest of the archer with himself;

Eugen Herrigel

#56. I am planning to return and contest the October elections in Pakistan.

Benazir Bhutto

#57. If you sent me to cover a pie-baking contest on Mother's Day, I'm going to ask dear old Mom why she used artificial sweetener or stole the apples!

Sam Donaldson

#58. To proportion the eagerness of contest to its importance seems too hard a task for human wisdom. The pride of wit has kept ages busy in the discussion of useless questions, and the pride of power has destroyed armies, to gain or to keep unprofitable possessions.

Samuel Johnson

#59. The music teacher thought I sang like a goat. It was kind of devastating. A few months after that, I participated in a music contest and won. I took my little trophy to school and rubbed it in his nose. I said to him, "What do you say now?"

Shakira

#60. Grandiosity is when we are wrapped up in winning life's false contest. This happens only when we live to impress the abusive parents in our heads, not when we are soberly and philosophically working to advance civilization.

Steven Franssen

#61. Uh, yeah. Hello? Are you the contest winner?"
His Irish brogue is thick, punctuated by irritation. I pull my proverbial shit together and nod. "Yeah."
"About bloody time. Did you stop to sign autographs?

Tessa Bailey

#62. As the contest proceeded, public interest increased and the entire country watched to see which company would win the big government subsidies through the mountains.

John Moody

#63. If I could make the same amount of money doing standup it would be no contest. The problem is that if you do make that kind of money doing standup, it's not in clubs, it's in big auditoriums and large venues, and I really think something is lost when you do standup for a big crowd.

Joe Rogan

#64. In 1970, at the age of 14, I entered a short story contest offering a grand prize of one dollar. I won. This was my first foray into writing fiction. I loved reading and thought that it shouldn't be so hard to write a story.

David Bergen

#65. As we are now engaged in this contest, all my wishes, all my desires and all the energies of my hand and heart will be given to the cause of my state. Whether we have the right of secession or revolution, I want to see my state triumphant.

Jubal Early

#66. Brady was staring at me from across the table. Unmoving. Unblinking. Not speaking. It was like an old Western. The house was too quiet as I stared back at him. He was winning this contest. And I'd had no idea we were even in one to begin with. Break, kid. Break

Amber L. Johnson

#67. Charlie Chaplin and I would have a friendly contest: Who could do the feature film with the least subtitles?

Buster Keaton

#68. Great contest follows, and much learned dust Involves the combatants; each claiming truth, And truth disclaiming both.

William Cowper

#69. The poet and the painter are only truly great by the mutual influences of their studies, and the jealousy of glory has only produced an idle contest.

Isaac D'Israeli

#70. Less than seventy-five years after it officially began, the contest between capitalism and socialism is over: capitalism has won.

Robert Heilbroner

#71. I was able to participate in New York Fashion Week and walk down the runway. I participated in a pizza contest in Canada.

Takeru Kobayashi

#72. I really don't feel like I'm in any kind of contest. Except, maybe, with myself. Just want to learn and create and grow. Get better all the time with these filmmaking tools. I don't expect perfection from myself. Just progress.

Angela Bettis

#73. If there were such a thing as an inter-city thieving contest, Ankh-Morpork would bring home the trophy and probably everyone's wallets.

Terry Pratchett

#74. Success happened little by little for me. I tasted the flavor of fame in small doses: I started at 10 years old when I won a music contest; I was performing at birthday parties, company meetings.

Shakira

#75. But slaves that once conceive the glowing thought Of freedom, in that hope itself possess All that the contest calls for; spirit, strength, The scorn of danger, and united hearts, The surest presage of the good they seek.

William Cowper

#76. From its earliest beginnings, golf has been a gentleman's game - to be played as much for the sake of the game as for the contest.

Tony Lema

#77. You know, the Bible says God never puts more on you than you can bear, right? You are carrying as much as you can right now. Whether or not that's more or less than what I can handle is irrelevant. Suffering is not a contest

Paula Wiseman

#78. It is a struggle; for though the white man of the South may be too proud to admit it, he is, nevertheless, using in the contest his best energies; he is devoting to it the greater part of his thought and much of his endeavor.

James Weldon Johnson

#79. The period of debate is closed. Arms, as a last resource, must decide the contest.

Thomas Paine

#80. To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.

Thomas Jefferson

#81. There is a big risk for the Republicans in a race, especially with Hillary Clinton as a likely Democratic nominee in a contest that will focus on the possibility of the first woman president to be six months suspending up the nomination of a black woman, who is imminently qualified.

Barack Obama

#82. China has announced that ... it will hold the beach volleyball contest at the site of the 1989 massacre. Even Hitler didn't have the chutzpah to stage the 100-yard dash at Dachau.

Don Feder

#83. It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.

Sam Harris

#84. My working life has always been wrapped up in doing my job to the best of my abilities and doing the best for my family. It is not a contest between the two.

Johann Lamont

#85. The company calls it 'downsizing' or 'rightsizing.' My own informal "Name the Layoff" contest produced some other euphemisms: Retroactive Hiring Freeze, Resume Revision Days, Amway Opportunity Time, and Corporation Lite.

Dale Dauten

#86. Addiction, obesity, starvation (anorexia nervosa) are political problems, not psychiatric: each condense and expresses a contest between the individual and some other person or persons in his environment over the control of the individual's body.

Thomas Szasz

#87. Blitzen and Hearthstone collapsed at the bow. They started arguing with each other about which of them had taken the stupider risks, but they were so tired the debate deteriorated into a half-hearted poking contest, like a couple of second-graders.

Rick Riordan

#88. I don't think anybody says to Coetzee or Dostoyevsky or Kafka, "Your characters aren't likeable." It's not about your character winning a popularity contest. That's not the writer's job.

Lynne Tillman

#89. The Internet is a contest between people with the same name to be the person who dominates that online space.

Joshua Cohen

#90. The next time, Mr. Potter, that you choose to escalate a contest rather than lose, you may lose all the stakes you place on the table.

Eliezer Yudkowsky

#91. Diversity and independence are important because the best collective decisions are the product of disagreement and contest, not consensus or compromise.

James Surowiecki

#92. Thus they in mutual accusation spent
The fruitless hours, but neither self - condemning;
And of their vain contest' appeared no end.
(The closing lines of Book Nine, which illuminates The Fall.)

John Milton

#93. I thought it might be a good move to get into a beauty contest so I tried for Miss Pennsylvania and won. I think that helped me get noticed, at least by the people of Pennsylvania.

Sharon Stone

#94. Our human landscape is overburdened with competitions and contests. Art need not be a contest. Art is a personal quest for quality. Quality is the forerunner of acceptance. Character is the forerunner of quality. Be your own discriminating connoisseur.

Robert Genn

#95. A contest was held in 1994 to rename the Los Angeles Convention and Exhibition Center after an extensive renovation and expansion. The winning name, chosen from over ten thousand entries, was the Los Angeles Convention Center.

James Frey

#96. We can see clearly that the end of following Christ wholeheartedly is to share, very possibly, in his very end. We can have great confidence that multitudes of fellow pilgrims have won the contest, fought the good fight, and endured martyrdom before the watching hosts of heaven.

Greg Gordon

#97. And I don't want to be a part of the 'who's got the bigger sword?' contest you two have going on, either. I don't do cockfights. I just want to do my job and do it well.

Lisa Renee Jones

#98. There are many men who would have done better than I did under the circumstances in which I found myself. If I had never held command, if I had fallen, there were 10,000 behind who would have followed the contest to the end and never surrendered the Union.

Ulysses S. Grant

#99. The buffalo beauty contest ultimately
Is the judgement of the buffaloes on beauty
As well as the judgment of the jury
If they are as smart as the buffaloes.

(Honor of grassland)

Siwakarn Patoommasoot

#100. The intimate contest for self-command never ends, and lifetime happiness requires finding the right balance between present impulses and future well-being.

Virginia Postrel