Quotes: Q

174 quotations.

Qua

It is with Shelley's biographers qua biographers that we have to deal.
— London Spectator.

Quack

Quacks political; quacks scientific, academical.

Quad

Sooth play, quad play, as the Fleming saith.

Quadrate

Figures, some round, some triangle, some quadrate.
— Foxe.
At which command, the powers militant That stood for heaven, in mighty quadrate joined.
The objections of these speculatists of its forms do not quadrate with their theories.

Quaff

They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy.
Twelve days the gods their solemn revels keep, And quaff with blameless Ethiops in the deep.

Quail

The atheist power shall quail, and confess his fears. I. Taylor. Stouter hearts than a woman's have quailed in this terrible winter.

Quaint

Clerks be full subtle and full quaint.
Every look was coy and wondrous quaint.
To show bow quaint an orator you are.
Some stroke of quaint yet simple pleasantry.
An old, long-faced, long-bodied servant in quaint livery.

Quake

She stood quaking like the partridge on which the hawk is ready to seize.

Quaker

Fox's teaching was primarily a preaching of repentance . . . The trembling among the listening crowd caused or confirmed the name of Quakers given to the body; men and women sometimes fell down and lay struggling as if for life.

Qualification

There is no qualification for government but virtue and wisdom, actual or presumptive.

Qualificative

How many qualificatives, correctives, and restrictives he inserteth in this relation.

Qualify

He had qualified himself for municipal office by taking the oaths to the sovereigns in possession.
It hath no larynx . . . to qualify the sound.
I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire, But qualify the fire's extreme rage.
In short space he has them qualified.

Quality

We lived most joyful, obtaining acquaintance with many of the city not of the meanest quality.
I made that inquiry in quality of an antiquary.
He had those qualities of horsemanship, dancing, and fencing which accompany a good breeding.
I shall appear at the masquerade dressed up in my feathers, that the quality may see how pretty they will look in their traveling habits.

Qualm

thousand slain and not of qualm ystorve [dead].
For who, without a qualm, hath ever looked On holy garbage, though by Homer cooked?
— Roscommon.

Quantification

The quantification of the predicate belongs in part to Sir William Hamilton; viz., in its extension to negative propositions.

Quantity

The quantity of extensive and curious information which he had picked up during many months of desultory, but not unprofitable, study.

Quarl

The jellied quarl that flings At once a thousand streaming stings.
— J. R. Drake.

Quarrel

To shoot with arrows and quarrel.
— Sir J. Mandeville.
Two arblasts, . . . with windlaces and quarrels.
I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant.
— Lev. xxvi. 25.
On open seas their quarrels they debate.
Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him.
— Mark vi. 19.
No man hath any quarrel to me.
He thought he had a good quarrel to attack him.
— Holinshed.
Our people quarrel with obedience.
But some defect in her Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed.
Beasts called sociable quarrel in hunger and lust.
I will not quarrel with a slight mistake.
— Roscommon.

Quarried

Now I am bravely quarried.

Quarry

The wily quarry shunned the shock.

Quart

Camber did possess the western quart.

Quarter

Scouts each coast light-armed scour, Each quarter, to descry the distant foe.
Swift to their several quarters hasted then The cumbrous elements.
The banter turned as to what quarters each would find.
He magnified his own clemency, now they were at his mercy, to offer them quarter for their lives.
Cocks and lambs . . . at the mercy of cats and wolves . . . must never expect better quarter.
In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom.
I knew two that were competitors for the secretary's place, . . . and yet kept good quarter between themselves.
Then sailors quartered heaven.
They mean this night in Sardis to be quartered.
This isle . . . He quarters to his blue-haired deities.
Every creature that met us would rely on us for quartering.

Quash

The whales Against sharp rocks, like reeling vessels, quashed, Though huge as mountains, are in pieces dashed.
Contrition is apt to quash or allay all worldly grief.

Quaternion

Delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers.
— Acts xii. 4.
Ye elements, the eldest birth Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run.
The triads and quaternions with which he loaded his sentences.

Quaver

We shall hear her quavering them . . . to some sprightly airs of the opera.

Queasy

Some seek, when queasy conscience has its qualms.

Queen

In faith, and by the heaven's quene.

Queencraft

Elizabeth showed much queencraft in procuring the votes of the nobility.

Quell

Yet he did quake and quaver, like to quell.
Winter's wrath begins to quell.
The ducks cried as [if] men would them quelle.
The nation obeyed the call, rallied round the sovereign, and enabled him to quell the disaffected minority.
Northward marching to quell the sudden revolt.
Much did his words the gentle lady quell.

Quench

Ere our blood shall quench that fire.
The supposition of the lady's death Will quench the wonder of her infamy.
Dost thou think in time She will not quench!

Quern

They made him at the querne grind.

Querulous

Enmity can hardly be more annoying that querulous, jealous, exacting fondness.

Query

I shall conclude with proposing only some queries, in order to a . . . search to be made by others.
Each prompt to query, answer, and debate.

Quest

Upon an hard adventure yet in quest.
Cease your quest of love.
There ended was his quest, there ceased his care.
Gad not abroad at every quest and call Of an untrained hope or passion.
The senate hath sent about three several quests to search you out.
What lawful quest have given their verdict ?
If his questing had been unsuccessful, he appeased the rage of hunger with some scraps of broken meat.

Question

There arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.
— John iii. 25.
It is to be to question, whether it be lawful for Christian princes to make an invasive war simply for the propagation of the faith.
He that was in question for the robbery. Shak. The Scottish privy council had power to put state prisoners to the question.
But this question asked Puts me in doubt. Lives there who loves his pain ?
He that questioneth much shall learn much.
I pray you, think you question with the Jew.
And most we question what we most desire.
With many holiday and lady terms he questioned me.

Questionable

Thou com'st in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee.
It is questionable whether Galen ever saw the dissection of a human body.T.
— Baker.

questionless

What it was in the apostles' time, that, questionless, it must be still.

Quibble

Quibbles have no place in the search after truth.

Quich

He could not move nor quich at all.

Quick

Not fully quyke, ne fully dead they were.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.
— 2 Tim. iv. 1.
Man is no star, but a quick coal Of mortal fire.
Oft he to her his charge of quick return Repeated.
The bishop was somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much offended.
The air is quick there, And it pierces and sharpens the stomach.
They say that women are so quick.
If we consider how very quick the actions of the mind are performed.
The works . . . are curiously hedged with quick.
This test nippeth, . . . this toucheth the quick.
How feebly and unlike themselves they reason when they come to the quick of the difference !

Quicken

The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead.
Like a fruitful garden without an hedge, that quickens the appetite to enjoy so tempting a prize.
The heart is the first part that quickens, and the last that dies.
And keener lightnings quicken in her eye.
When the pale and bloodless east began To quicken to the sun.

Quickness

Touch it with thy celestial quickness.
This deed . . . must send thee hence With fiery quickness.
His mind had, indeed, great quickness and vigor.
Would not quickness of sensation be an inconvenience to an animal that must lie still ?

Quicksand

Life hath quicksands, -- Life hath snares!

Quickset

Dates and pomegranates on the quickset hedges.

Quid

They invited him to come to-morrow, . . . and bring half a quid with him.
— Charles Reade.

Quiddit

By some strange quiddit or some wrested clause.

Quiddity

The quiddity or characteristic difference of poetry as distinguished from prose.
We laugh at the quiddities of those writers now.

Quiescence

Deeds will be done; -- while be boasts his quiescence.
— R. Browning.

Quiescent

In times of national security, the feeling of patriotism . . . is so quiescent that it seems hardly to exist.
— Prof. Wilson.

Quiet

They . . . were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.
— Judg. xvi. 2.
That son, who on the quiet state of man Such trouble brought.
The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.
— 1 Pet. iii. 4.
I will sit as quiet as a lamb.
And join with thee, calm Peace and Quiet.
Quiet yourselves, I pray, and be at peace.

Quietness

I would have peace and quietness.

Quietus

When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin.

Quill

He touched the tender stops of various quills.
His cravat seemed quilled into a ruff.

Quilt

The beds were covered with magnificent quilts.

Quintessence

Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung from the deep.

Quip

Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles.
He was full of joke and jest, But all his merry quips are o'er.
The more he laughs, and does her closely quip.

Quipu

The mysterious science of the quipus . . . supplied the Peruvians with the means of communicating their ideas to one another, and of transmitting them to future generations.

Quire

A quire of such enticing birds.

Quirk

We ground the justification of our nonconformity on dark subtilties and intricate quirks.
Some odd quirks and remnants of wit.

Quit

The owner of the ox shall be quit.
— Ex. xxi. 28.
To quit you of this fear, you have already looked Death in the face; what have you found so terrible in it?
— Wake.
There may no gold them quyte.
God will relent, and quit thee all his debt.
The blissful martyr quyte you your meed.
Enkindle all the sparks of nature To quit this horrid act.
Before that judge that quits each soul his hire.
Be strong, and quit yourselves like men.
— 1 Sam. iv. 9.
Samson hath quit himself Like Samson.
Never worthy prince a day did quit With greater hazard and with more renown.
Such a superficial way of examining is to quit truth for appearance.
Does not the earth quit scores with all the elements in the noble fruits that issue from it?

Quitch

To pick the vicious quitch Of blood and custom wholly out of him.

Quite

Man shall not quite be lost, but saved who will.
The same actions may be aimed at different ends, and arise from quite contrary principles.
— Spectator.
He really looks quite concerned.
The island stretches along the land and is quite close to it.
— Jowett (Thucyd. ).

Quittance

Omittance is no quittance.

Quitture

To cleanse the quitture from thy wound.

Quiver

The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind.
And left the limbs still quivering on the ground.
Beside him hung his bow And quiver, with three-bolted thunder stored.

Quixotic

The word “quixotic” . . . has entered the common language, with the meaning “hopelessly naive and idealistic,” “ridiculously impractical,” “doomed to fail.” That this epithet can be used now in an exclusively pejorative sense not only shows that we have ceased to read Cervantes and to understand his character, but more fundamentally it reveals that our culture has drifted away from its spiritual roots.
— Simon Leys (N. Y. Review of Books, June 11, 1998, p. 35)

Quiz

He quizzed unmercifully all the men in the room.

Quod

“Let be,” quod he, “it shall not be.”

Quodlibet

These are your quodlibets, but no learning.
— P. Fletcher.

Quoit

To quoit, to run, and steeds and chariots drive.

Quotationist

The narrow intellectuals of quotationists.

Quotha

To affront the blessed hillside drabs and thieves With mended morals, quotha, -- fine new lives !