I love to read and mull over a well-turned phrase. I enjoy some of them so much that I've written them down in notebooks to refer to them. One of my favorites was written by a regional author, Frederick Manfred, in his book Duke's Mixture. This scene comes from a gathering of some fellow authors at a lake: "One day Robert Bly was holding forth, and after a half hour got about a wild horse and began riding over us all with his provocative theories and strong opinions... Finally Tom McGrath had enough. Robert happened to touch on one of Tom's territories with his sharp hooves..." I still remember when I read it for the first time and how well I thought the author used his words to explain how the participants reacted in this setting. Here are some more from a variety of sources.
- I saw FEAR in front of me like a monster.
- He possessed a bull-huge heart.
- Voices can become as angry as a blizzard...
- Knowledge is an island. The larger we make that island, the longer becomes the shore where knowledge is lapped by mystery.
- For the first time I became sensitive to things unsaid, that the waves of sandhills rolling toward the town held a stormy and faintly ominous look.
- And I realized that those golden wild horses of other days had slipped more deftly out of my uncle's rope than he knew, and would never be caught again.
- I await myself in the future. Anguish is the fear of not finding myself there.
- Let us cross the river and rest under the shade of the trees.
- Some day you will be one of those who lived long ago.
- The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
- Why, a good rain would keep these folks entertained for weeks.
- Where you see a man plowing there will be gulls following him and pecking at the furrow.
