Quotes about help
page 11

“I like the cover," he said. "Don't Panic. It's the first helpful or intelligible thing anybody's said to me all day.”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“And when you'd finished running you'd be thousands of miles away from people who love you and your problem would still be there except you'd have nobody to help you.”

Melina Marchetta book Looking for Alibrandi

Source: Looking for Alibrandi

Love, People, Problem

“Help me give up my addiction to Hope.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Damned

Source: Damned

Hope

“I open a paperclip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this. A whimper, a peep? I draw little window cracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Suicide, Hurt, Drawing, Cry

“Boys always get the best eyelashes; it's like some kind of cosmic law. And half-breed kids get some kind of extra help there from genetics, too.”

Lilith Saintcrow book Strange Angels

Source: Strange Angels

Law, Boy

“Mother used to say it meant Christopher was a nice name because it was a story about being kind and helpful, but I do not want my name to mean a story about being kind and helpful. I want my name to mean me.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“No amount of prayer or meditation can do what helping others can do.”

Meher Baba (1894–1969) Indian mystic

“Here are the values that I stand for: honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

People, Way

“… you have to learn where your pain is. You have to burrow down and find the wound, and if the burden of it is too terrible to shoulder, you have to shout it out; you have to shout for help… And then finally, the way through grief is grieving.”

Jane Hamilton (1957) American novelist

Pain, Way, Learning

“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, Feeling

“It may help us, in those times of trouble, to remember that love is not only about relationship, it is also an affair of the soul.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

Source: Care of the Soul: Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life

Love, Soul, Time

“The only difference between a wish and a prayer is that you're at the mercy of the universe for the first, and you've got some help with the second.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

Universe

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief' is the best any of us can do really, but thank God it is enough.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Source: The Magnificent Defeat (1966)

God

“I pray. I go to mass. I even remember to respect my elders and help little old ladies across the street. What the hell did I do to deserve this?”

Lora Leigh (1965) American writer

Source: Wild Card

Hell

“I know I can do it," Todd Downey said, helping himself to another ear of corn from the steaming bowl. "I'm sure that in time her death will be a mystery, even to me.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: Two Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden

Death, Time

“The important people in our lives leave imprints. They may stay or go in the physical realm, but they are always there in your heart, because they helped form your heart. There's no getting over that.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

People, Heart

“I was heading to Nebraska. Now there's a sentence you don't want to say too often if you can possibly help it.”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Source: The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America

“GO FOR HIS EYES! OR BITE HIM ON THE NOSE! DRAGON NOSES ARE VERY SENSITIVE!"
Oh, very helpful, Camicazi, very helpful… thought Hiccup. What if he doesn't obligingly hold me up to his nose? What if the only part I get close to is the TEETH?”

Cressida Cowell book How to Break a Dragon's Heart

Source: How to Break a Dragon's Heart

Parting

“Therapist’s dilemma: those who need help the most, run the farthest from it.”

Jonathan Kellerman (1949) novelist, psychologist

Source: Time Bomb

“Is it wrong to trust in a beautiful lie if it helps you get through life?”

Miriam Toews book A Complicated Kindness

Source: A Complicated Kindness

Life, Lie, Beauty

“And I have no desire to get ugly,
But I cannot help mentioning that the door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

Good Intentions (1942), Seeing Eye to Eye is Believing

“You must not know too much or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and watercraft; a certain free-margin, or even vagueness - ignorance, credulity - helps your enjoyment of these things.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

Flowers, Bird, Tree

“Friends help each other when they are… you know… going up international hit men and stuff.”

Ally Carter book All Fall Down

Source: All Fall Down

Men

“I just don't believe in helping people who are going to torture me. Though I don't see any bamboo slivers. How can you possibly torture someone without bamboo slivers?”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Circus of the Damned

Source: Circus of the Damned

People

“The warlock's gaze, on the flames, was remote and distant, as if he were looking back into the past. Simon couldn't help but remember what Magnus had said to him once, about living forever:
Someday you and I will be the only two left.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Distant, Past

“I thought they were helping me. I was so full of trust in them that I felt grateful as they carried me in the air. Only when they threw me overboard did I begin to have doubts.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

“We cannibals must help these Christians.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale

“All right, the pendulum isn’t working. Sometimes you need an accelerant to help it.” – Death
“Like gasoline?” – Nick
“Yes, Nick. We’re going to set the book and your pendulum on fire and then use them ’cause we’re just that intelligent.” – Death”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

Death, Books, Intelligence

“Some people have written that my writing has helped them go on.
It has helped me too. The writing, the roses, the 9 cats.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship

People, Cats

“Did you run any of this by Curran?”
“I told him I was about to do something idiotic and dangerous, and he told me to go ahead and let him know if he could help in any way.”
“I don’t understand your relationship.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Binds

Way, Understanding

“Seeing a murder on television can … help work off one’s antagonisms. And if you haven’t any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.”

Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) British filmmaker

National Observer (15 August 1966).

“[T]o really try to be informed and literate today is to feel stupid nearly all the time, and to need help.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Source: The Best American Essays 2007

Stupidity, Feeling, Time

“Everybody has strange things that mean things to them. You couldn't help it.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Garden of Eden

Source: The Garden of Eden

“Seriously? You won’t help me?”
“Help yourself get killed? No, I won’t.”

Dave Barry book Peter and the Starcatchers

Source: Peter and the Starcatchers

“We hang out, we help one another, we tell one another our worst fears and biggest secrets, and then just like real sisters, we listen and don't judge.”

Adriana Trigiani (1970) American film director

Source: Viola in Reel Life

Secret, Fear, Sister

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, I've Been to the Mountaintop (1968)
Context: I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the day of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?".

Question

“Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did.”

James Baldwin book Sonny's Blues

Source: Sonny's Blues

Freedom

“She tried to remind herself that beauty was only skin deep, but that didn't offer any helpful excuses when she was berating herself for never knowing what to say to people. There was nothing more depressing than an ugly girl with no personality.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: Romancing Mister Bridgerton

People, Beauty, Girl, Personality

“I don’t know why I ever helped you.”
“Because you like broken things.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Variant: I don't know why I ever helped you."
"You like broken things.
Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“I couldn't help thinking about my dream, with Annabeth crumpled and lifeless in Luke's arms. Here I was rescuing baby monsters, but I couldn't save my friend.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Dreams, Thinking, Baby

“In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.”

Ernst Fischer (1899–1972) Austrian literature historian, publicist and writer

Truth, World, Faith, Art

“Feast, and your halls are crowded
Fast, and the world goes by
Succeed and give, and it helps you live
But no man can help you die”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author and poet

World

“Goodbye. Thanks for your help… I… I'll miss you. -Rose to Mason”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

“Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.”

Marian Wright Edelman (1939) American children's rights activist

Money, Soul, Sleep, Night

“Why are you being so mean?"
"Friends tell friends the truth."
"yeah, but not to hurt, to help.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

Truth, Hurt

“Besides, it's the first gift that's always the hardest to pay back. I wouldn't even have been here to do it if you hadn't helped me then.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

“It's not a problem. There are people out there with much worse problems than mine."-Cynthia
"Doesn't make yours any more fun to bear."-Liza
"No. But it does help with the self-pity."- Cynthia”

Jennifer Crusie book Bet Me

Source: Bet Me

People, Problem

“What do girls do who haven't any mothers to help them through their troubles?”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

Girl

“Bless people when they revile you. Think how much good they are doing by helping to stamp out the false ego.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

People, Thinking, Falseness

“I want to help you to grow as beautiful as God meant you to be when He thought of you first.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

God, Beauty

“I need something, Wax. A place to look. You always did the thinking.”
“Yes, having a brain helps with that, surprisingly.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Alloy of Law

Thinking

“Percy," my mom said. "I give you my blessing."
"Be safe brother!" Tyson pleaded.
"Enchiladas!" Grover said. I wasn't sure where that came from, but it didn't seem to help much.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Moms

“remember that every fire will burn itself out, even without your help.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

“6. You want to help him.”

Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist

Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 13

“We are all brothers and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive. (pg. 39)”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night

Fate, Way, Suffering

“You say you need help. Help for what? You have everything needed for the extravagant journey that is your life.”

Carlos Castaneda book Journey to Ixtlan

Variant: You have everything needed for the extravagant journey that is your life.
Source: Journey to Ixtlan

Life

“The path I choose through the maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being--one of many ways--and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon

Way, Understanding

“Take some books and read; that’s an immense help; and books are always good company if you have the right sort.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Books, Reading

“Nah. I got it. Just try not to stake Jean-Luc again if you meet up with him. (Acheron)
I can’t help it. All you fanged people look alike in the dark. (Tabitha)
Yeah. I know what you mean. All you soul-full people look alike to us, too. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Seize the Night

People, Soul

“Leaders lead when they take positions, when they connect with their tribes, and when they help the tribe connect to itself.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Source: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

“I thought about the relentless thought-processing, soul-devouring machine that is my brain, and wondered how on earth I was ever going to master it. Then I remembered that line from Jaws and couldn't help smiling: 'We're gonna need a bigger boat.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Smile, Soul

“Solutions to problems often come from knowing when to ask for help.”

Buck Brannaman (1962) Horse trainer

Problem

“She says that what you did was a cry for help."

"It was," I say. "That's why I was yelling 'Heeeelp!' I don't really go in for subtlety.”

Holly Black book White Cat

Source: White Cat

Cry

“When I pictured myself, it was always like just an outline in a coloring book, with the inside not yet completed. All the standard features were there. but the colors, the zigzags and plaids, the bits and pieces that made up me, Halley, weren't yet in place. Scarlett's vibrant reds and golds helped some, but I was still waiting.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Someone Like You (1998)

Books, Color, Waiting

“Everyone needs help. That's the human condition.”

Max Allan Collins (1948) writer

Source: Jump Cut

“Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

As quoted in The Lost Art of General Management (2004) by Rob Waite, p. 96
Context: Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others.
Unsuccessful people are always asking, "What's in it for me?”

People, Success