Quotes about feelings
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“I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed.”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Thinking

“I hope you feel better today. Please ring me at work if you are dead.”

Jaclyn Moriarty book Feeling Sorry for Celia

Source: Feeling Sorry for Celia

Hope, Dead

“Lord, I feel so small sometimes in this great big old world.
Yeah, I know there are more important things.
But don't forget to remember me.”

Carrie Underwood (1983) American country music singer

World, Forgetting

“He caught me to him and cupped my cheek in one hand. “I want to keep feeling the way I feel when I’m with you. Just tell me what I have to do.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Way

“Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

Source: I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight

Life, Thinking

“I would not know how I am supposed to feel about many stories if not for the fact that the TV news personalities make sad faces for sad stories and happy faces for happy stories.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Happiness, Sadness, Personality

“People do strange things sometimes, when they feel hopeless.”

Danielle Steel (1947) American author of romance novels

People

“Why do you do these things to yourself? Not just what you did to the window, but the way you talked to Clary. What are you punishing yourself for? You can't help how you feel.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Way, Help

“It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands,' he answered. 'Kiss me again; and don’t let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer—but yours! How can I?”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Source: Wuthering Heights

Love, Forgiveness, Kiss

“Something that you feel will find its own form.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

“I am like a person whose hands were kept numb, without sensation from the first moment of awareness - until one day the ability to feel is forced into them. And I say "Look! I have no hands!" But the people all around me say: "What are hands?”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

People, Personality

“That’s when this warm feeling buzzes through you and you smile to yourself, knowing God’s watching you, knowing that He knows you’re trying to be strong to please Him.”

Randa Abdel-Fattah (1979) contemporary Australian writer of novels for young adults

Source: Does My Head Look Big In This?

God, Smile, Strong

“I don't feel that way anymore," Nico muttered. "I mean… I gave up on Percy. I was young and impressionable, and I-I don't…”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Way

“Sometimes it feels like I'm thinking against the wind.”

Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator

Thinking

“It might do wonders for your marriage,” Amelia continued. “It’s lovely to talk to your husband after you’ve been to bed together. They just lie there feeling grateful and say yes to everything.” - Amelia to Poppy”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Tempt Me at Twilight

Love, Marriage, Lie

“Angels have very nasty tempers. Especially when they’re feeling righteous.”

Clive Barker book Mister B. Gone

Source: Mister B. Gone

Angels

“Love is not to be found in someone else, but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need the other person. The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Love, Sense, Universe, Personality

“I didn't want to see her because it would make me feel better. I came because without her, it's hard to remember who I am…”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

“I've got mixed feelings about poetry cause done well poetry is fantastic. But not many people are capable of doing it well. I think you should have some kind of license to perform poetry. A poetic license perhaps.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

People, Thinking

“Whatever you may be missing right now - a person, a place, a feeling, maybe you are injured and missing running - whatever it is, have peace and take heart - remember that any goodbye makes room for a hello.”

Kristin Armstrong (1973) American road bicycle racer

Peace, Heart, Personality

“But by far the worst thing we do to males—by making them feel they have to be hard—is that we leave them with very fragile egos. The harder a man feels compelled to be, the weaker his ego is.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists

Source: We Should All Be Feminists

“We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of a mortal body. And that's why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Love, God, Joy

“The human faculties of perception, judgment, discriminative feeling, mental activity, and even moral preference, are exercised only in making a choice. He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice.”

John Stuart Mill book On Liberty

Source: On Liberty

Exercises

“How was I supposed to know what’s real and what’s not? It feels like I’m the only one who doesn’t know the difference.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

“Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.

Also, here is a green toothbrush tied in a ribbon. It expresses my feelings inadequately.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

“Percy: "Hey, why do pegasi gallop as they fly, anyway?"

Blackjack: "Why do humans swing their arms as they walk? I dunno, boss. It just feels right.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Variant: Why do you need to gallop while you fly?"
"Why do humans have to sway their arms while they walk? I dunno boss, but it just feels right.
Source: The Last Olympian

Flying

“He was someone whom everyone admired and liked but whom nobody knew. He was like a book that you could feel good holding, that you could talk about without ever having read, that you could recommend.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Books, Reading

“The days and nights come apart. I feel them corroding at the seams.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: I Am the Messenger

Night

“He had won but he didn't feel like a winner.”

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road

Source: Revolutionary Road

“I hate Dr Phil. Dr Phil told me to express my feelings, so I'm expressing them.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Hate

“Leo didn't usually think of the ukulele as a sad instrument. (Pathetic, sure. But not sad.) Yet the tune Apollo strummed was so melancholy it broke Leo's feels.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Sadness, Thinking

“Skepticism has become a virtue. Cynicism and demand for proof has become enlightened thought. Is it any wonder that humans now feel more depressed and defeated than they have at any point in human history?”

Dan Brown book Angels & Demons

Source: Angels & Demons

History

“Foaly: Confidence is ignorance. If you're feeling cocky, it's because there's something you don't know.”

Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl

Source: Artemis Fowl (2001)

Confidence

“The snowflake never needs to feel responsible for the avalanche.”

Jon Ronson book So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Source: So You've Been Publicly Shamed

“Everything else you see and experience in this world is effect, and that includes your feelings. The cause is always your thoughts.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

World

“I made up my mind to keep my feelings to myself since they did not seem to matter to anyone else but me.”

Zora Neale Hurston book Dust Tracks on a Road

Source: Dust Tracks on a Road

“I could see no reason for being sad. It´s just that it makes me unhappy not to feel happy.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

Happiness, Sadness

“When people looked at him they had the feeling of being shut out. He did not shut them out. He shut himself in.”

Jeanette Winterson book Lighthousekeeping

Source: Lighthousekeeping

People

“Turn the goddam music up! My heart feels like an alligator!”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Music, Heart

“Schuyler put a gentle hand on Abbadon's feathered extensions, feeling the majestic power underneath their silky weight. She had been frightened once, to see him in this light, but now that she saw his terrifying face, she found it beautiful.”

Melissa de la Cruz book Misguided Angel

Source: Misguided Angel

Beauty, Light

“The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.”

Erich Fromm book The Art of Loving

Source: The Art of Loving

“Sometimes when she looks at him that way he finds himself almost blushing; a feeling so strange he almost doesn’t recognize it. Jace Wayland doesn’t blush.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Way

“This was the start of a period that blurs as I try to recall it. Incidents seem to cascade and merge. Events become feelings, fellings become events. Head and heart are contrary historians.”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Source: Stargirl

Heart

“Books make me feel safe. Books make me feel normal.”

Gary Paulsen (1939) American writer and musher

Books

“And then, when he’s been underwater so long I feel certain he’s drowned, his head pops up right next to me and I start. “Don’t do that,” I say. “What? Come up or stay under?” he says. “Either. Neither. Whatever”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

“There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.”

George Eliot book The Mill on the Floss

The Mill on the Floss (1860)

Fear, Music

“He says he’s lonely, horribly lonely because of this love he feels for her. She says she’s lonely too. She doesn’t say why.”

Marguerite Duras book The Lover

Source: The Lover

Love

“In general, I feel if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.”

John Rogers Searle (1932) American philosopher

Understanding

“I feel I'm doing what I should've done a lifetime ago.
For a little while I'm not afraid.
Maybe it's because I'm doing the right thing at last.
Maybe it's because I've done a rash thing and don't want to look the coward to you.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

“Lying here and looking up at the stars like this, it makes me feel like I’m lying on a planet. It’s so wide. So infinite
-Belly Conklin”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

Star, Lying

“Me, feeling. What a concept.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

“Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy your loneliness says that you've sinned.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

"Sisters of Mercy"
Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
Context: Yes, you who must leave everything that you cannot control,
It begins with your family, and soon it comes round to your soul.
Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy your loneliness says that you've sinned.

Thinking, Loneliness

“She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen.”

Zora Neale Hurston book Their Eyes Were Watching God

Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God

“Dark matter has a gravitation effect on other objects. You can't see it, you can't feel it, but you can watch something being pulled in its direction.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

“If the guy you’re dating doesn’t seem to be completely into you, or you feel the need to start ‘figuring him out,’ please consider the glorious thought that he might just not be that into you. And then free yourself to go find someone that is.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Guy

“all I feel sure of are questions.”

Anthony Doerr (1973) American writer

About Grace

Question

“I feel a sense of responsibility," said Jordan.
"And where is this feeling located? In your pants, perhaps?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Sense

“I’m me, and at the same time not me. That’s what it felt like. A very still, quiet feeling.”

Haruki Murakami book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Time

“In a certain state of mind, all trace of feeling is banished. Whenever I remain silent in a certain way, I don't love you, have you noticed that?”

Marguerite Duras book The Ravishing of Lol Stein

Source: The Ravishing of Lol Stein

Love, Way

“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Reading

“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you feel that it all happened to you and after which it all belongs to you.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

A Letter from Cuba (1934)
Context: All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.
Context: All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.

Books, Reading

“All his life he would hold this moment as exemplary of what love was. It was not wanting anything more, nor was it expecting people to exceed what they had just accomplished; it was simply feeling so complete.”

John Irving book A Widow for One Year

Source: A Widow for One Year

Love, Life, People

“It's not always necessary to be strong, but to feel strong.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Strong

“I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (p. 390; closing words of the epilogue)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: I'll tell them how I survive it. I'll tell them that on bad mornings, it feels impossible to take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away. That's when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I've seen someone do. It's like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years.
But there are much worse games to play.

Pleasure

“The depth of the feeling continued to surprise and threaten me, but each time it hit again and I bore it… I would discover that it hadn't washed me away.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Time

“Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

which attitude certainly has a great deal to support it. On the other hand, it is only because the world looks on his talent with such a frightening indifference that the artist is compelled to make his talent important. So that any writer, looking back over even so short a span of time as I am here forced to assess, finds that the things which hurt him and the things which helped him cannot be divorced from each other; he could be helped in a certain way only because he was hurt in a certain way; and his help is simply to be enabled to move from one conundrum to the next — one is tempted to say that he moves from one disaster to the next.
Autobiographical Notes (1952)

World

“Writing is really a way of thinking--not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

Way, Thinking

“If you're crazy, there's two things you can do to make yourself feel better: One is to get yourself cured. The other is to make everyone you have to deal with crazy.”

Alan Dean Foster (1946) American fiction writer

“It is impossible to bring more into your life if you are feeling ungrateful about what you have. Why? Because the thoughts and feelings you emit as you feel ungrateful are all negative emotions.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Life

“There's only one thing more important… and that is, after you've done what you set out to do, to feel that it's been worth doing.”

James Hilton Random Harvest

Source: Random Harvest

“Earth will be safe when we feel in us enough safety.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Call Me by My True Names: The Collected Poems

“You must do right before you feel good.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

“Most people think everybody feels about them much more violently than they actually do; they think other people's opinions of them swing through great arcs of approval or disapproval.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book Tender Is the Night

Source: Tender Is the Night

People, Thinking

“How does it feel, MacKayla? You have a piece of me in your mouth. Would you like another?”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Faefever

“Yes, I know," "And I love to hear you say it, Louis. I need to hear you say it. I don't think anyone will ever say it quite like you do. Come on, say it again. I'm a perfect devil. Tell me how bad I am. It makes me feel so good!”

Anne Rice book The Queen of the Damned

Source: The Queen of the Damned

Love, Thinking, Perfection

“I can already feel myself getting fed up with boys and I haven't had anything to do with them yet" - Georgia Nicolson”

Louise Rennison book Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Source: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Boy

“News of Daniel's disappearance does not alarm me as it might have done a week ago. Given recent events, very little alarms me as it might have done a week ago. I feel as if my supply of alarm has been exhausted, at least temporarily.”

Patricia C. Wrede (1953) author

Source: The Mislaid Magician: or Ten Years After

“There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.”

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"

Pain, Happiness, Pleasure, Animals

“It interests me how we find ways to feel superior to another person, another group of people. It happens everywhere, and all the time. Whatever we call it, I think it’s the lowest part of who we are, this need to find someone else to put down.”

Elizabeth Strout (1956) American writer

Source: My Name is Lucy Barton

People, Way, Thinking, Time

“You know you love someone when you cannot put into words how they make you feel.”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

Love

“Because sometimes you just feel sad and you can't explain it.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Sadness

“Did it never strike your mind that what every woman says, some women may feel?”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Women

“You can know the whole world and still feel lost in it.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

World

“What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.”

Andre Agassi (1970) US tennis player

“Like a word on a page that you’ve printed and read a million times, that suddenly looks strange or wrong, foreign. And you feel scared for a second, like you’ve lost something, even if you’re not sure what it is.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Time, Reading

“I am sure that if the devil existed, he would want us to feel very sorry for him.”

Martha Stout (1953) American psychologist

Source: The Sociopath Next Door

“Not really, but after that I think about how I could kill him while he slept if I really wanted to, and then I feel better.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Thinking

“Let me love you, but don't love me back. Do love me and let me hate you for a while. Let me feel like I have some control, because I know I never do.”

Ann Brashares (1967) American children's writer

Love, Hate

“Although I am a typical loner in daily life, my consciousness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has preserved me from feeling isolated.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

"My Credo", a speech to the German League of Human Rights, Berlin (Autumn 1932), as published in Einstein: A Life in Science (1994) by Michael White and John Gribbin, p. 262.
1930s

Life, Truth, Justice, Beauty

“There is a time in a boy’s life when the sweetness is pounded out of him; and tenderness, and the ability to show what he feels, is gone.”

Norah Vincent (1968) American journalist

Life, Boy, Time

“Why do I feel like something's missing in my life without them and they don't feel the same about me?”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

Life