1. "Your Honor, Blumberg rang out, every dog must have his day! And he got perhaps the first standing ovation ever given in New York City night court."
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Andrew Vachss, Flood
2. "Gentlemen, welcome to the world of reality—there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth—actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested."
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David Foster Wallace, The Pale King
3. "The author relates that Mickey Mantle did not expect to play one day and showed up extremely hung over. He was nevertheless called on to pitch and smashed a towering home run to an enthusiastic ovation. He related to his teammates, "Those people don't know how tough that was."
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Jim Bouton, Ball Four
4. "enough. Standing for an ovation at a baseball game is not enough. To do right by our veterans—to recognize their value to our society and fulfill our solemn obligation to those who volunteered to protect the rest of us—we first have to understand what they have accomplished and what they offer our nation."
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Howard Schultz, For Love of Country: What Our Veterans Can Teach Us About Citizenship
5. "You didn't always need to be the dazzler, the firecracker, the one who cracked everyone up, or made everyone want to sleep with you, or be the one who wrote and starred in the play that got the standing ovation. You could cease to be obsessed with the idea of being interesting."
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Meg Wolitzer, The Interestings
6. "The clitoris not only applauds when a women flaunts her mastery; it will give a standing ovation. In the multiple orgasm, we see the finest evidence that our lady Klitoris helps those who help themselves. It may take many minutes to reach the first summit, but once there the lusty mountaineer finds wings awaiting her. She does noy need to scramble back to the ground before scaling the next peak, but can glide like a raptor on currents of joy."
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Natalie Angier, Woman: An Intimate Geography
7. "But, she knew, you didn’t have to marry your soulmate, and you didn’t even have to marry an Interesting. You didn’t always need to be the dazzler, the firecracker, the one who cracked everyone up, or made everyone want to sleep with you, or be the one who wrote and starred in the play that got the standing ovation. You could cease to be obsessed with the idea of being interesting."
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Meg Wolitzer, The Interestings
8. "But, she knew, you didn’t have to marry your soulmate, and you didn’t even have to marry an Interesting. You didn’t always need to be the dazzler, the firecracker, the one who cracked everyone up, or made everyone want to sleep with you, or be the one who wrote and starred in the play that got the standing ovation. You could cease to be obsessed with the idea of being interesting. Anyway, she knew, the definition could change; it had changed, for her."
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Meg Wolitzer, The Interestings
9. "As a final indignity for the defeated warrior, Vice President Nixon had to preside over the roll call of the Electoral College. This is the first time in 100 years that a candidate for the presidency announced the result of an election in which he was defeated, he told the assembled members of Congress. I do not think we could have a more striking and eloquent example of the stability of our constitutional system. He got a standing ovation."
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Nancy Gibbs, The Presidents Club
10. "talking about real life. The thought of not acting pressed on me like a terror. Can we really trust people to love us just as we are? Nobody steps onto a stage and gets a standing ovation for being human. You have to sing or dance or something. I think that’s the difference between being loved and making people clap, though. Love can’t be earned, it can only be given. And it can only be exchanged by people who are completely true with each other."
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Donald Miller, Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Acquiring a Taste for True Intimacy