picking fish out of clover

Bella shows us the view from our room. when she speaks her voice is an orgy of accents. "My stepfather is the arr-she-tekk," she tells us. "He designed the windows so you feel the water. You will see," she says, "the house is cool." Her vowels and consonants are all off — trying to understand her is like picking fish out of the clover and goats from the ocean.

— Melissa Bank, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

get up off your knowledge

Pull the trigger. Get up off your knowledge and do something with your life. Lives move by trends and momentum. If you begin to do different things, whether that means exercising, giving your feelings a voice, going back to school, praying, or applying for a new job, your actions will gain momentum. You'll meet new people; new possibilities will occur to you. Soon enough, you'll discover that your life is no longer the same song, seven-thousandth verse. You'll realize that those old sayings have long lives because they're true: "You can't get a hit if you're not swinging"; "You don't catch a fish if you don't put your hook in the water." This law is about getting you to swing the bat, or cast your line. It's about putting some verbs in your sentences and action in your life.

— P. McGraw