#description

Show Pleasant Riderhood a Wedding in the street, and she only saw two people taking out a regular license to quarrel and fight. Show her a Christening, and she saw a little heathen personage having a quite superfluous name bestowed upon it, inasmuch as it would be commonly addressed by some abusive epithet; which little personage was not in the least wanted by anybody, and would be shoved and banged out of everybody's way, until it should grow big enough to shove and bang. Show her a Funeral, and she saw an unremunerative ceremony in the nature of a black masquerade, conferring a temporary gentility on the performers, at an immense expense, and representing the only formal party ever given by the deceased. Show her a live father, and she saw but a duplicate of her own father, who from her infancy had been taken with fits and starts of discharging his duty to her, which duty was always incorporated in the form of a fist or a leathern strap, and being discharged hurt her. All things considered, therefore, Pleasant Riderhood was not so very, very bad. ↗

— Charles Dickens

#good-writing #nature

I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no... ↗

— J.R.R. Tolkien

#description

I attribute the little I know to my not having been ashamed to ask for information, and to my rule of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that form their own peculiar professions and pursuits. ↗

— John Locke

#ask #attribute #been #conversing #descriptions

For better or worse, I've been involved in the description of political conflict. ↗

— John le Carre

#better #conflict #description #i #involved

Descriptions of my work depress me. They make me feel pinned down. ↗

— Thom Mayne

#descriptions #down #feel #make #me

I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall. ↗

— Eleanor Roosevelt

#against #bed #catalogue #description #fine

I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there. ↗

— Charles de Secondat

#descriptions #go #i #make #paradise

I've been keeping a diary for thirty-three years and write in it every morning. Most of it's just whining, but every so often there'll be something I can use later: a joke, a description, a quote. It's an invaluable aid when it comes to winning arguments. 'That's not what you said on February 3, 1996,' I'll say to someone. ↗

— David Sedaris

#been #comes #description #diary #every

She left her keys in the teeth of the lock where they would dangle all day. ↗

— Karen Thompson Walker

#age

Trinity Park lies directly across from the library, Trinity Church rising like a midieval thought amidst the glass and steel towers. ↗

— Nick Flynn

#boston #description #ethereal #architecture