Firsts Quotes

If the function of the artist is to see, the first duty of the critic is to understand what the artist saw.

My first idea of movement, of the dance, certainly came from the rhythm of the wave.

Your first duty as a writer is to write to please yourself. And you have no duty towards anyone else.

First is first, and second is nowhere.

I was so shy when I was younger. When I first went to Liverpool I didn't say a word for a year.

The first step of letting go: To remove what obstructs your experience of wholeness and peace, you must first look at the obstruction.

I never abandoned either forms or freedom. I imagine that most of what could be called free verse is in my first book. I got through that fairly early.

Writing is like the relationship with your bowels. First you can, then you can't. Finally, you must. Only then should you reach for the paper.

Women are tenacious, and all of them should be tenacious of respect; without esteem they cannot exist; esteem is the first demand that they make of love.

In the first woman we love, we love everything. Growing older, we love the woman only.

The First Lady role is really difficult. It has no job description... You have to create it for yourself.

'Show up at the desk' is one of the first rules of writing, but for 'Wolf Hall' I was about 30 years late.

The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man, and then qualifies it with a But.

The woman and the soldier who do not defend the first pass will never defend the last.

I'll never forget my first words in the theatre. "Peanuts. Popcorn."

In a long race, if I'm worried about fatigue, my concentration is the first thing to go.

However, I began to submit poems to British magazines, and some were accepted. It was a great moment to see my first poems published. It felt like entering a tradition.

The nightingale appear'd the first, And as her melody she sang, The apple into blossom burst, To life the grass and violets sprang.

The first world we find ourselves in is a family that is not of our choosing.

[W]e have ceased to see the life in which we live. It is my intent to cause the viewer to revisit the gifts we are surrounded by and see them as if for the first time.

For the first time since life appeared on earth, one species- us- is single-handedly altering the physical, chemical and biological nature of earth. We have become a force of nature

... probably all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed.

My first rule: I don't believe anything the government tells me.

There are two kinds of charlatan: the man who is called a charlatan, and the man who really is one. The first is the quack who cures you; the second is the highly qualified person who doesn't.

When I evaluate a candidate, one of the most important criteria is what I call “the first derivative.” Is this person learning? Is this candidate moving forward, or have they stagnated.

Every corporate security may be best viewed, in the first instance, as an ownership interest in, or a claim against, a specific business enterprise.

In 1995 the whole political situation was very complicated. I was the first deputy prime minister, and at the same time I had very low influence in the government.

The first time, where Fox Mulder and Scully met, she stands up for herself. She stands right there and gives it to him and that was extremely attractive.

Courts are places where the ending is written first and all that precedes is simply vaudeville.

My first impression of Van Halen was that David Lee Roth was a god, and that so was Eddie.

love be damned now as love was damned when it first arrived.

First impression is unfair, because a first impression of somebody is guarded, and you don't know the person.

If we were all given by magic the power to read each other's thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships.

Looking beauty in the world, is the first step of purifying the mind.

I was ten when I got my first serious beating. It was rough.

The calculus is the story this [the Western] world first told itself as it became the modern world.

Freedom in education has many aspects. There is first of all freedom to learn or not to learn. Then there is freedom as to what to learn. And in later education there is freedom of opinion.

I'm still an amateur, of course, but I became rugby's first millionaire five years ago.

When I first met Sean Connery he was as charming and wonderful as I first anticipated. I left Rome thinking: even if I don't do this, at least I have had a day with Sean.

This is the Hour of Lead- Remembered, if outlived, As freezing persons, recollect the Snow- First-Chill-then Stupor- then the letting go---

Well, it seems to me Lincoln, I suppose, is kind of a model of a particular sort of presidency, a presidency that first of all is elected by a minority of the votes.

The first ideas of religion arose, not from contemplation of the works of nature, but from a concern with regard to the events of life.

At first sight, one does not see what relations there can be between religion and logic.

The first show I ever worked on was The Killing, which was a whodunit crime show.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

A theatre receives recognition through its initiative, which is indispensable for first-rate performances.

The first time I heard a Billie Holiday record, I thought, 'What's so great about Billie Holiday?'

Habit is a second nature, which destroys the first.

Your first obligation, I suppose, is to your God. Your second is to your family. And your third is to your community. And you ought to try to fulfill all of those in your life.

With me it's always about first impressions.