Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Famous, adj.: Conspicuously miserable.
The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character building values of the privation of the poor.
We shall say clearly that any symbol conspicuously displaying religious affiliation in school is prohibited.
Nothing stands out so conspicuously, or remains so firmly fixed in the memory, as something which you have blundered.
Equipped with cell phones, beepers, and handheld computers, the 'conspicuously industrious' blur the line between home and office by working anytime, anywhere.
The very provision of benches by the council or the corporation acknowledges the human need to be private in public, to be conspicuously idle, to have nothing better to do.
But picketing - picketing for or against something, and handing out literature - these are conspicuously formal actions. They have to be understood as indirect communication.
Of course it can be said of jails, too, that they try - by punishing the troublesome - to deter others. No doubt, in certain instances this deterrence actually works. But generally speaking it fails conspicuously.
It's nice to be recognized, but it's not great to have it too conspicuously recognized, if you see what I mean. Gold records on the wall, or titles after your name, it's just not something... I don't feel that great about it.
I don't know much about auctions. I sometimes go to previews and see art sardined into ugly rooms. I've gawked at the gaudy prices, and gaped at well-clad crowds of happy white people conspicuously spending hundreds of millions of dollars.
When people used to ask me what I missed about America, I would say, 'The optimism.' I grew up in the land of hope, then moved to one whose catchphrases are 'It's not possible' and 'Hell is other people.' I walked around Paris feeling conspicuously chipper.
My favorite affirmation when I feel stuck or out of sorts is: Whatever I need is already here, and it is all for my highest good. Jot this down and post it conspicuously throughout your home, on the dashboard of your car, at your office, on your microwave oven, and even in front of your toilets!
Many foreigners imagine that Latin American cuisine is spicy, but Chilean food, on the whole, is extremely bland: salt, vinegar, mayonnaise, and more salt are the four basic condiments. Black pepper is conspicuously absent, and not only from the food - it is also rarely available even on request.
Barack Obama is not a man of The Gut, and it is driving official Washington crazy. This is a good thing, because resisting The Gut is what the Constitution is all about, especially in its war powers, which this president is conspicuously contemplative about exercising, at least in every context except launching drones.
Canada has been conspicuously silent as other countries criticize the actions of Beijing and the World Health Organization in the response to COVID-19. In return for remaining silent, China calls us a 'fine partner' and reminds Canada that we are in line for medical supplies provided we have our cash ready when the planes arrive.
Americans' distrust of the conspicuously intellectual - a habit we learned, I suppose, on the frontier, but which remains a feature of the national character - has the virtue of puncturing the pretentious and exposing the fake, but it may also have impaired American listeners' patience for music that is especially complex or austere.