ball

I bowl so slow that if after I have delivered the ball and don't like the lookof it,I can run after it and bring it back.

—Barrie, SirJ(ames) M(atthew)

As fattening is the first duty of fashionable female life, it must be duly enforced by the rod if necessary. I got up a bit of flirtation with missy, and induced her to rise and shake hands with me. Her face was lovely, but her body was as round as a ball.

—Speke,John Hanning

Conversation is like playing tennis with a ball made of Krazy Putty that keeps coming back over the net in a different shape.

—Lodge, David John

If the wild bowler thinks he bowls Or if the batsman thinks he's bowled, They know not, poor misguided souls, They too shall perish unconsoled. I am the batsman and the bat, I am the bowler and the ball, The umpire, the pavilion cat, The roller, pitch, and stumps and all. See Emerson 313:39.

—Lang, Andrew

The big houses sat in self-congratulatory propinquity on their level green lawns†stout matrons seated elbow to elbow, implacably chaperoning a ball.

—Gill, Brendan

What can you expect of a girl who was allowed to wear black satin at her coming-out ball?

—Wharton, Edith Newbold ne¤  e Jones

   All winter long, I am one for whom the bell is tolling; I can arouse no interest in basketball, Indoor fly casting or bowling; The sports pages are strictly no soap! And until the cry Play Ball! I simply mope.

—Nash, (Frederic) Ogden

Here lies, bowl'd out by Death's unerring ball, A cricketer renowned, by name John Small; But though his name was small, yet great was his fame, For nobly did he play the'noble game'. His life was like his inningsölong and good; Full ninety summers had Death withstood, At length the ninetieth winter cameöwhen (Fate Not leaving him one solitary mate) This last of Hambledonians, old John Small, Gave up his bat and ballöhis leather, wax and all.

—Egan, Pierce

Village cricket spread fast through the land.In those days, before it became scientific, cricket was the best game in the world to watchöeach ball a potential crisis.

—Trevelyan, George Macaulay

Every ball isfor methe first ball, whether my score is 0 or 200, and I never visualize the possibility of anybody getting me out.

—Bradman, Sir Don(ald George)

Find out where the ball is, get there; hit it.

—Ranjitsinhji, Prince

Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body, and stamp no character on the mind.

—Jefferson,Thomas

So that is marriage, Lily thought, a man and a woman looking at a girl throwing a ball.

—Woolf, (Adeline) Virginia ne¤  e Stephen

  It cannot reasonably be doubted, but a little miss, dressed in a new gown for a dancing-school ball, receives as complete enjoyment as the greatest orator, who triumphs in the splendour of his eloquence, while he governs the passions and resolutions of a numerous assembly.

—Humboldt, Alexander, Baron von

The history of a battle is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may recollect all the little events of which the great result is the battle won or lost; but no individual can recollect the order in which, or the exact moment at which, they occurred, which makes all the difference.

—Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of

The Master: records prove the title good: Yet figures fail you, for they cannot say How many men whose names you never knew Are proud to tell their sons they saw you play. They share the sunlight of your summer day Of thirty years; and they, with you, recall How, through those well-wrought centuries, your hand Reshaped the history of bat and ball.

—Aristotle

Yet, when confinement's lingering hour was done, Our sport, our studies, and our souls were one: Together we impell'd the flying ball; Together waited in our tutor's hall; Together join'd in cricket's manly toil.

—Rochdale

Football is like a religion to me. I worship the ball, and I treat it like a god. Too many players thinkof a football as something to kick.They should be taught to caress it and to treat it like a precious gem.

—Pele¤   pseudonym of  Edson Arantes do Nascimento

Bodyline was devised to stifle Bradman's batting genius. They said I was a'killer with the ball', without taking into account that Bradman, with the bat, was the greatest killer of all.

—Larwood, Harold

Turner looks a bit shakyand unsteady, but I think he's going to bat onöone ball left!

—Johnston, Brian

Play ball! Means something more than runs Or pitches thudding into gloves! Remember through the summer suns This is the game your country loves.

—Rice, Grantland

For a long time we dreamed of a real leather ball, and at last my brother had one for his birthday. The feel of the leather, the stitching round it, the faint gold letters stamped upon it, the touch of the seam, the smell of it, all affected me so deeply that I still have that ache of beauty when I hold a cricket ball.

—Uttley, Alison

It quickly swelled into the shape of a gigantic question mark, the middle of which was a vivid crimson, and as this thunderhead-like column billowed upward through the sky, she could see a red ball of fire at its core.

—Agawa, Hiroyuki

Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness, up into one ball: And tear our pleasures with rough strife, Through the iron gates of life. Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.

—Marvell, Andrew

Wake! for the Ruddy Ball has taken flight That scatters the slow Wicket of the Night; And the swift Batsman of the Dawn has driven Against the Star-spiked Rails a fiery smite. See Fitzgerald 324:82.

—Thompson, Francis

Thesecret of managing a ball club istokeepthefiveguys who hate you away from the five who are undecided.

—Stengel, Casey (Charles Dillon)

If it be true That light is in the soul, She all in every part; why was the sight To such a tender ball as th'eye confin'd?

—Milton,John

   Even on the mornings when I creak out of bed, I still get pumped up about hitting that silly little white ball.

—Zoeller, Fuzzy

The British'Sphere of Influence'öthe cricket ball.

—Anonymous

There'snoskill involved.Just goup thereand swing atthe ball.

—DiMaggio,Joe (Joseph Paul)

How little, mark! that portion of the ball, Where, faint at best, the beams of science fall.

—Pope, Alexander

This stone commemorates the exploit of William Webb Ellis, who, with a fine disregard for therules of football as played in his time, first took the ball in his arms and ran with it, thus originating the distinctive feature of the Rugby game.1823.

—Anonymous

To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet is so much paper and ink. For a shilling the Bruddersford United AFC offered you Conflict and Art.

—Priestley,J(ohn) B(oynton)

If you're in the penalty area and aren't sure what to do with the ball, just stick it inthenet, and we'll discuss your options afterwards.

—Shankly, Bill (William)

I gave you the end of the golden string; Only wind it into a ball, It will lead you in at Heaven's gate, Built in Jerusalem's wall.

—Blake,William