# Bone

    This article is about the rigid organ. For the graphic novel, see Bone (graphic novel)."Bones" redirects here. For the television series, see Bones (TV series).
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the vertebral skeleton. Bones support and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, and also enable mobility. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue. Bones come in a variety of shapes and sizes and have a complex internal and external structure. They are lightweight yet strong and hard, and serve multiple functions. Mineralised osseous tissue or bone tissue, is of two types—cortical and cancellous—and gives it rigidity and a coral-like three-dimensional internal structure. Other types of tissue found in bones include marrow, endosteum, periosteum, nerves, blood vessels, and cartilage. Bone is an active tissue composed of different cells.

## Quotes

* Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.
** Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), p. 113.
* ...consider a man 60 feet high...Giant Pope and Giant Pagan in the illustrated Pilgrim's Progress.... These monsters...weighed 1000 times as much as Christian. Every square inch of a giant bone had to support 10 times the weight borne by a square inch of human bone. As the human thigh-bone breaks under about 10 times the human weight, Pope and Pagan would have broken their thighs every time they took a step."
** J.B.S. Haldane in On Being the Right Size (1926)
* Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.
** Rush Limbaugh as "Jeff Christie" on a top-40 music program in Pittsburgh in the 1970s, quoted in Gehr, Richard (8 October 1990), "Mouth at Work", Newsday, "Recalling a stint as an "insult-radio" DJ in Pittsburgh, he admits feeling guilty about, for example, telling a black listener he could not understand to "take that bone out of your nose and call me back."" ; also in Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (1995-05-01). The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error. New Press. p. 49. ISBN 156584260X. OCLC 31782620. , and Bone Voyage. Snopes.com (2007-09-04).
* A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog when you are just as hungry as the dog.
** Jack London, "Confessions," The Road (New York: Macmillan, 1907).
* To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.
** Mary Oliver, "In Blackwater Woods", American Primitive (1983).

### The Bible

* And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
** Genesis 2:21–25 (KJV).
* A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.
** Proverbs 14:30 (KJV).
* The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
** Proverbs 16:23–24 (KJV).
* Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
** Luke 24:39 (KJV).
* For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
** Ephesians 5:29–30 (KJV).
* I may tell all my bones.
** Psalms, XXII. 17. Cited in: Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 419-23.

### English proverbs

* Hard words break no bones.
** Strauss, Emmanuel (1998). Dictionary of European Proverbs. Routledge. p. 17. ISBN 0415160502.
* Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.
** Manser, Martin H. (2007). The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-8160-6673-5.

### Rudyard Kipling

* A fool there was and he made his prayer (Even as you and I!) To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair We called her the woman who did not care), But the fool he called her his lady fair (Even as you and I!)
** "The Vampire", Stanza 1, in Departmental Ditties and other Verses (1886).
* “Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high “The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die— “The good that ye did for the sake of men in little earth so lone!” And the naked soul of Tomlinson grew white as a rain-washed bone.
** Tomlinson, l. 7–10 (1891).

### William Shakespeare

* Good frend for Jesus sake forbeare To digg the dust encloased heare Blese be the man that spares these stones And curst be he that moves my bones
** Shakespeare's epitaph
* Now for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace.
** King John, Act IV, scene 3, line 148 (1598).
* Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.
** Antony, Julius Caesar, Act III, scene ii (1599).
* Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.
** Ariel, The Tempest, Act I, scene ii (1611).

### Quotes from film

* I will consult the bones!! [disperses bones on ground, pauses for a moment, then whispers discreetly to Willow] …The bones tell me…nothing.
** High Aldwin (played by Billy Barty) in Willow (20 May 1988, screenplay by Bob Dolman, story by George Lucas).
* Through sound and motion, you will be able to paralyze nerves, shatter bones, set fires, suffocate an enemy or burst his organs.
** Paul Atreides (also known as Muad'Dib, played by Kyle MacLachlan) in Dune (14 December 1984, screenplay by David Lynch, based on the novel by Frank Herbert).
* Voilà, ma petite Amélie, vous n'avez pas des os en verre. Vous pouvez vous cogner à la vie. Si vous laissez passer cette chance, alors avec le temps, c'est votre cœur qui va devenir aussi sec et cassant que mon squelette. Alors, allez y, nom d'un chien!
** So, little Amelie, your bones aren't made of glass. You can take life's knocks. If you let this chance go by, eventually your heart will become as dry and brittle as my skeleton. So... Go and get him, for pete's sake!
** Raymond Dufayel (played by Serge Merlin) in Amélie (25 April 2001, written by Guillaume Laurant, story by Guillaume Laurant and Jean-Pierre Jeunet).
* Throw me a frickin' bone here!
** Dr. Evil (played by Mike Myers) to his henchmen in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (2 May 1997, screenplay by Mike Myers).
* Your bones don't break, mine do. That's clear. Your cells react to bacteria and viruses differently than mine. You don't get sick, I do. That's also clear. But for some reason, you and I react the exact same way to water. We swallow it too fast, we choke. We get some in our lungs, we drown. However unreal it may seem, we are connected, you and I. We're on the same curve, just on opposite ends.
** Elijah Price (played by Samuel L. Jackson) to David Dunn (played by Bruce Willis) in Unbreakable (14 November 2000, written by M. Night Shyamalan).
* Evey, please…there is a face beneath this mask, but it's not me. I'm no more that face than I am the muscles beneath it, or the bones beneath them.
** V (played by Hugo Weaving) in V for Vendetta (17 March 2006, screenplay by Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore).

### Quotes from music

* I believe them bones are me Some say we're born into the grave I feel so alone, gonna end up a big ol' pile of them bones
** Alice in Chains, "Them Bones", Dirt (29 September 1992).
* In ancient Rome There was a poem About a dog Who found two bones He picked at one He licked the other He went in circles 'Till he dropped dead
** Devo, "Freedom of Choice", Freedom of Choice (16 May 1980).
* Always had more dogs than bones
** Tom Petty, "Square One", Highway Companion (25 July 2006).
* Your bones got a little machine You're the bone machine
** Pixies, "Bone Machine", Surfer Rosa (21 March 1988).
* Break my body, hold my bones, hold my bones
** Pixies, "Break My Body", Surfer Rosa (21 March 1988).
* Got hair in a girl That flows to her bones And a comb in her pocket If the winds get blown
** Pixies, "No. 13 Baby", Doolittle (18 April 1989).
* We go out in the world and take our chances Fate is just the weight of circumstances That's the way that lady luck dances Roll the bones
** Rush, "Roll The Bones", Roll the Bones (3 September 1991).

## See also

* Bone (graphic novel)
* Bones (TV series)