Stumbling Quotes

One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty. (Jane Austen)
The Bible and the Church have been the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of women's emancipation. View quote
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude. View quote
Julia Child
Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down. View quote
Charles Kettering
There are in fact four very significant stumbling blocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge. View quote
Roger Bacon
Advocates for a single line of progress encounter their greatest stumbling block when they try to find a smooth link between the apparently disparate designs of the invertebrates and vertebrates. View quote
Stephen Jay Gould
When Sir Winton Turnbull [who represented a large rural seat], a slow and sometimes stumbling speaker, was raving and ranting on the adjournment and shouted: "I am a Count–ry member". I interjected "I remember". Sir Winton could not understand why, for the first time in all the years he had been speaking in the House, there was instant and loud applause from both sides. View quote
Gough Whitlam
Well, Fitz, I looked all through that bible, it was in very fine print and stumbling on that great book Ecclesiastics, read it aloud to all who would listen. Soon I was alone and began cursing the bloody bible because there were no titles in it -- although I found the source of practically every good title you ever heard of. But the boys, principally Kipling, had been there before me and swiped all the good ones so I called the book Men Without Women hoping it would have a large sale among the fairies and old Vassar Girls. View quote
Ernest Hemingway
When we first broke into that forbidden box in the other dimension, we knew we had discovered something as surprising and powerful as the New World when Columbus came stumbling onto it. View quote
Ken Kesey
Writing a story or a novel is one way of discovering sequence in experience, of stumbling upon cause and effect in the happenings of a writer's own life. View quote
Eudora Welty
It is clear that all verbal structures with meaning are verbal imitations of that elusive psychological and physiological process known as thought, a process stumbling through emotional entanglements, sudden irrational convictions, involuntary gleams of insight, rationalized prejudices, and blocks of panic and inertia, finally to reach a completely incommunicable intuition. (Northrop Frye)
What wondrous life in this I lead! Ripe apples drop about my head; The luscious clusters of the vine Upon my mouth do crush their wine; The nectarine and curious peach Into my hands themselves do reach; Stumbling on melons, as I pass, Ensnared with flowers, I fall on grass. View quote
Andrew Marvell
I have grown into a Bestsellasaurus Rex - a big, stumbling book-beast that is loved when it shits money and hated when it tramples houses... I started out as a storyteller; along the way I became an economic force. View quote
Stephen King
Youth is fair, a graceful stag, Leaping, playing in a park. Age is gray, a toothless hag, Stumbling in the dark. View quote
Isaac Leib Peretz
In point of fact, Western philosophy has never set itself free of Christianity: wherever Christianity did not have a hand in the construction of modern philosophy it served instead as a stumbling block. View quote
Jacques Maritain
Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all. View quote
Pericles
The rest of the world in which I lived was still stumbling about in search of a weapon with which to exterminate this monster [homosexuality] whose shape and size were not yet known or even guessed at. It was thought to be Greek in origin, smaller than socialism but more deadly, especially to children. View quote
Quentin Crisp
America now is stumbling through the darkness of hatred and divisiveness. Our values, our principles, and our determination to succeed as a free and democratic people will give us a torch to light the way. And we will survive and become the stronger - not only because of a patriotism that stands for love of country, but a patriotism that stands for love of people. View quote
Gerald Ford
Look, I need to tell you something,' I continued. The words came stumbling out of me. 'I couldnt stand it if... I dont want you to---' Percy?' she said. 'You look like you're going to be sick.' And that's how I felt. View quote
Rick Riordan
The only thing that I know is that, growing up, I came across stumbling blocks, and I always said to myself, 'If I ever get into a position to do something about this, I would like to, so that somebody does not deal with what I went through. View quote
Chandra Wilson
A stepping-stone can be a stumbling block if we can't see it until after we have tripped over it. (Cullen Hightower)
I admit that I am hopelessly hooked on the printed newspaper. I love turning the pages and the serendipity of stumbling across a piece of irresistible information or a photograph that I wasnt necessarily intending to read. View quote
Jill Abramson
Stumbling upon the next great invention in an; ah-ha! moment is a myth. View quote
James Dyson
In the end, it all comes to choices to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones. View quote
Amber Frey
Racism may be as systemic as it always was. It is the great problem of America. It's the one stumbling block that I don't believe was ever smoothed over. View quote
Robert Guillaume