Quotes about ideas and thoughts
page 13

“But our idea is that the wolves should be fed and the sheep kept safe.”

Source: War and Peace

“Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

Thinking, Universe

“I'm always so glad I have no idea what you're vacantly chatting about," said Jace. It fills me with a sense of peace and well-being.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Peace, Sense

“What baffles me is the comfort people find in the idea that somebody dealt this mess. Blind and meaningless chance seems to me so much more congenial - or at least less horrible. Prove to me that there is a God and I will really begin to despair.”

Peter de Vries (1910–1993) American editor and novelist

Source: The Blood of the Lamb

God, People, Chance, Despair

“Sure, it was your idea and your fly, but he caught the big fish. Remember, fairness is a human idea largely unknown in nature.”

John Gierach (1946) American sportswriter

Source: Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury

Nature, Fish, Flying

“I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature's only idea seems to be to make them machines for the production of incessant noise.”

Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White

Source: The Woman in White

Children, Nature

“When you're a writer, the question people always ask you is, "Where do you get your ideas?" Writers hate this question. It's like asking Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen, "Where do you get your leeches?" You don't get ideas. Ideas get you.”

Connie Willis (1945) American science fiction writer

Hate, People, Question

“Andrea: "…. I think a dog is a great idea. I just never pictured you with a mutant poodle.”
Kate: “He isn’t a poodle. He’s a Doberman mix."
Andrea: “Aha. Keep telling yourself that.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

Dogs, Thinking

“There was beauty in the idea of freedom, but it was an illusion. Every human heart was chained by love.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Love, Beauty, Freedom, Heart

“Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truths?”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

Truth

“Throughout history, people with new ideas—who think differently and try to change things—have always been called troublemakers.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

People, History, Thinking, Change

“The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

“If we humans are good at anything, it’s thinking we’ve got a terrific idea and going for it without acknowledging the potential consequences or our own ignorance.”

David Suzuki (1936) Canadian popular scientist and environmental activist

Thinking

“Man is not a circle with a single center; he is an ellipse with two focii. Facts are one, ideas are the other.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“"I've got a sort of idea," said Pooh at last, "but I don't suppose it's a very good one."
"I don't suppose it is either," said Eeyore.”

A.A. Milne book The House at Pooh Corner

Source: The House at Pooh Corner (1928), Chapter Six.

“I can offer you my life, though it is a short life. I can offer you my heart, though I have no idea how many beats it shall sustain. But I love you enough to hope the rest of my life-whatever its length-happy, by spending it with you.-Jem.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Love, Life, Happiness, Hope

“He was not bone and feather but a perfect idea of freedom and flight, limited by nothing at all”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Freedom, Perfection

“I'm afraid to hope but I can't help it, and the idea of hoping in this most hopeless of all places makes me want to cry.”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Source: Go Ask Alice

Hope, Help, Cry

“Rest, nature, books, music…such is my idea of happiness.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Happiness, Books, Music, Nature

“That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

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

God, Universe

“What do they do to students at the University who eavesdrop?” Bast asked curiously.
“I haven’t the slightest idea. I was never caught. I think making you sit and listen to the rest of my story should be punishment enough.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Thinking, Universe

“Have you any idea how many children it takes to turn off one light in the kitchen Three. It takes one to say What light and two more to say I didn't turn it on.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

Children, Light

“There's one hole in every revolution, large or small. And it's one word long— PEOPLE. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.”

Warren Ellis (1968) English comics and fiction writer

Source: Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street

People

“It's alright to feel fear, but sometimes a very bad idea to show it.”

Stephen King book Wizard and Glass

Source: Wizard and Glass

Fear, Feeling

“Ideas do matter and do have consequences.”

Nathaniel Branden (1930–2014) Canadian–American psychotherapist and writer

Six Pillars of Self-Esteem

“The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Behavior

“There's a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality.”

Clint Eastwood (1930) actor and director from the United States

Source: Wild Open Spaces: Why We Love Westerns

Hate, Soul, Lying

“Did you think to kill me? There's no flesh or blood within this cloak to kill. There is only an idea. Ideas are bulletproof.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Variant: There's no flesh or blood within this cloak to kill. There's only an idea. Ideas are bulletproof.
Source: V for Vendetta (1989)

Thinking

“I have tried to be a man of letters in love with ideas in order to be a wiser and more loving person, hoping to leave the world just a little better than I found it.”

Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist

Source: The Cornel West Reader

Love, World, Hope, Personality

“When I wake up, my pillow’s cold and damp with tears. But tears for what? I have no idea.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Tear

“There are some men who are consoled by the idea that there are women less attractive than their wives; and others who are haunted by the knowledge that there are more attractive.”

John Fowles book The French Lieutenant's Woman

Source: The French Lieutenant's Woman

Women, Men, Knowledge

“Don't be afraid of silly ideas.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

Source: It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be

“There is no significant idea which cannot be explained to an intelligent twelve year old boy in fifteen minutes.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Intelligence, Boy

“New tastes are like new ideas, young man -- the older you get, the more difficult they are for you to stomach.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

“He's nuts" Bianca said
"We need to jump off this cliff" i said
"Oh nice idea!! Your nuts too”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“Repressive societies always seemed to understand the danger of "wrong" ideas.”

Octavia E. Butler book Kindred

Source: Kindred

Understanding

“She wondered why she’d ever thought trusting someone who wore that much eyeliner was a good idea.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“having too many ideas is not always a good thing.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

Source: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

“The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Source: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

World

“An idea is like a cold germ: sooner or later someone always catches it.”

Stephen King book Under the Dome

Source: Under the Dome

“It's a mistake, you know. You have no idea what you'll be exposed to… the obscenities and lewd comments, the lecherous gazes, the groping and pinching… and that's just my house. Imagine what it would be like here.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Devil in Winter

Imagination, Housing

“You have no idea about presents or what they mean. The last
present you gave me was a stick.”
“You wanted a weapon.”
“It was a stick.”
“It had a bow on it.”
“It was a stick.”
“I thought you liked the stick. You laughed.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Kingdom of the Wicked

“There will be no mass-based feminist movement as long as feminist ideas are understood only by a well-educated few.”

Bell Hooks book Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

(1984)
Source: Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center

Education

“Ah, good conversation - there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

“Money is just an idea.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Money

“Something was making him nibble at the edge of stale ideas as if his sturdy physical egotism no longer nourished his peremptory heart.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Heart

“Jack Kerouac was cool because he had no idea he was.”

Dennis Miller (1953) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actor

“He has no idea how beautiful the ordinary becomes once it disappears.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

Beauty

“I’m living in separate universes, and I have no idea where I actually belong.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Universe

“She's talking about herself in the third person because the idea of being who she is, of acknowledging that she is herself, is more than her pride can take.”

Sarah Kane (1971–1999) playwright from England

Personality

“An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left.”

Lawrence Durrell The Avignon Quintet

The Avignon Quintet (1974–1985), Monsieur (1974)
Context: The art of prose governed by syncopated thinking; for thoughts curdle in the heart if not expressed. An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left.

Bird

“We should care for each other more than we care for ideas, or else we will end up killing each other.”

Louis De Bernières (1954) English novelist

Source: Corelli's Mandolin

“Maxilan, darling." Locke raised one eyebrow and smiled. "I knew you were driven, but I had no idea you could smoulder. Come, take me now! Jean won't mind; he'll avert his eyes like a gentleman.”

Scott Lynch book Red Seas Under Red Skies

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Smile

“She stopped at the desk and held up a can for his view. "This looks like an ordinary hairspray can, right?"
"Of course." he said though he had no idea what hairspray was.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Heart of the Dragon

“It is a bad idea to live too long. Few carry it off well.”

Charles Frazier book Thirteen Moons

Source: Thirteen Moons

“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.”

Samuel P. Huntington (1927–2008) American political scientist

Source: The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996), Ch. 2 : Civilizations in History and Today, § 10 : Relations Among Civilizations, p. 51

World, Religion, Forgetting

“When one steals a flying balloon and animates it to fly over Paris, one should, ideally, have some idea how said balloon normally works.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Runaway Queen

Animals, Flying

“The big reason why folks leave a small town,' Rant used to say, 'is so they can moon over the idea of going back. And the reason they stay put is so they can moon about getting out.'

Rant meant that no one is happy, anywhere.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

Happiness

“You see mother, you had no life of your own. They have no idea. One has only a life of one's own.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Life

“sometimes we have absolutely no idea where we are, we need the smallest clue to show us where to begin.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Book of Tomorrow

“History, if it has taught us anything at all, has taught us that the strange ideas we deride today will one day be our celebrated truths.”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

Truth, History

“The lesson I was learning involved the idea that I could feel compassion for people without acting on it.”

Melody Beattie (1948) American writer

Source: Beyond Codependency: And Getting Better All the Time

People, Feeling, Learning

“Who does ever get what they want? It doesn’t seem to happen to many of us if any at all. It’s always two people bumping against each other blindly, acting out old ideas and dreams and mistaken understandings.”

Kent Haruf (1943–2014) Novelist

Source: Our Souls at Night

People, Dreams, Understanding

“Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is to make us feel small. But if that's their purpose, they can keep their paltry icons. We need only look up if we wish to feel small.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Source: The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (2006)

God, Religion, Feeling

“The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives. It is within this light that we form those ideas by which we pursue our magic and make it realized. This is poetry as illumination, for it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are, until the poem, nameless and formless-about to be birthed, but already felt. That distillation of experience from which true poetry springs births thought as dream births concept, as feeling births idea, as knowledge births (precedes) understanding.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

"Poetry is Not a Luxury"
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

Dreams, Hope, Feeling, Spring

“If those in charge of our society — politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television — can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991): "American Ideology" http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/AmericanIdeology_DI.html <br class="br">Context: If those in charge of our society — politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television — can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.

“Ideas that require people to reorganize their picture of the world provoke hostility.”

James Gleick book Chaos: Making a New Science

Source: Chaos: Making a New Science

Hostility, People, World

“The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

"Shadows from the Big Woods", p. 223
The Journey Home (1977)

“Ideas come from everything”

Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) British filmmaker

“With false names, on the right nets, they could be anybody. Old men, middle-aged women, anybody, as long as they were careful about the way they wrote. All that anyone would see were the words, their ideas. Every citizen started equal, on the nets.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Women, Men, Age, Way

“When I encounter a sunrise, a painting, a woman, or an idea that makes my heart bound like a young calf, then I know I am standing in front of happiness.”

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer

Happiness, Heart, Painting

“Jace is in love with the idea of dying,” said Isabelle.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Love

“The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths to be eternal and immutable.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Truth, Science

“Temptation said that we all dream of committing crimes, but that only the unbalanced make that macabre idea a reality.”

Paulo Coelho book The Winner Stands Alone

Source: The Winner Stands Alone

Dreams, Reality

“Part of the appeal of the fantastic is taking ridiculous ideas very seriously and pretending they're not absurd.”

China Miéville (1972) English writer

Parting

“Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.”

Napoleon Hill book Think and Grow Rich

Source: Think and Grow Rich (1938), p. 54

“He looked at the silver pocketknife in his hand. An idea came to him – possibly the stupidest, craziest idea he’d had since he thought, Hey, I’ll get Percy to swim in the River Styx! He’ll love me for that!”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Love

“Except for the people who were there that one day they discovered the polio vaccine, being part of history is rarely a good idea. History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between.”

Sarah Vowell book Assassination Vacation

Source: Assassination Vacation (2005), p. 208

War, People, History, Nature

“There is no idea so bad that it cannot be made to look brilliant with the proper application of fonts and color.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

Source: Dilbert's Guide to the Rest of Your Life: Dispatches from Cubicleland

Color

“What gave you this idea of an imperfect god?'

'I don't know. It seems quite feasible to me. That is the only god I could imagine believing in, a god whose passion is not a redemption, who saves nothing, fulfills no purpose--a god who simply is.”

Stanisław Lem book Solaris

Source: Solaris

God, Imagination, Passion

“Religion is based on the idea that God is an imbecile.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

God, Religion

“What were you going to do with it?” McCain asked.

"I just thought it might come in useful.”

"Were you planning to attack me?”

"No. But that’s a good idea.”

Anthony Horowitz book Crocodile Tears

Source: Crocodile Tears

“Zee said, grumpily, “Liebling, this is not a good idea.”
“Zee,” I told him, “I am completely out of good ideas and am doing my best with the bad ones I have left.”

Patricia Briggs book Frost Burned

Source: Frost Burned

“If a man can possess a woman sexually -really possess- he won't need to control her ideas, her opinions, her clothes, her friends, even her other lovers.”

Toni Bentley (1958) Australian writer

Lovers, Clothes

“It was a crazy idea. But, as usual, that’s all Percy had.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you have only one idea.”

Alain (1868–1951) French philosopher

Propos sur le Religion no. 74 (1938), under the pen name Alain. <br class="br">Alternate translation: “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it's the only one we have.” IZQuotes https://izquotes.com/quote/%C3%A9mile-chartier/nothing-is-more-dangerous-than-an-idea-when-you-have-only-one-idea-390165 (retrieved 10/30/18).

“Will smirked, clearly pleased at the effect he was having. "I've no idea. I lost consciousness about then. I was having a lovely dream about a young woman who had mislaid all her clothes…”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Love, Dreams, Clothes

“He had an idea that even when beaten he could steal a little victory by laughing at defeat.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Victory

“As soon as the engagement was announced, the Pack Clans converged and shot the idea of a quiet ceremony out of the water and then kept firing at it until it stopped convulsing and died.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Water

“It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not
to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is
against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit.”

George Sheehan Irish footballer

Understanding, Learning

“Get over here. Sheldon's had an idea."
"Who's Sheldon?", said Isabelle.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“There are moments in every girl’s life that are bigger than we know at the time. When you look back, you say, that was one of those life-changing,
fork-in-the-road moments and I didn’t even see it coming. I had no idea.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

Life, Girl, Change, Time

“Despite serious reservations, I had to forgive Finnick for his role in the conspiracy that landed me here. He, at least has some idea of what I'm going through. And it takes too much energy to stay angry with someone who cries so much.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Forgiveness

“One day, she’d find a way to live her life to the fullest. She was sure of it. She just had no idea how she would manage it.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: On the Edge

Life, Way

“The thing is to understand myself: the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. That is what I now recognize as the most important thing.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Truth, Understanding

“We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it).”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Life, Change

“Thatʹs a dangerous look,ʺ said Dimitri, giving me a brief glance before returning his eyes to the road.
ʺWhat look?ʺ I asked innocently.
ʺThe one that says you just got some idea.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Variant: That's a dangerous look," said Dimitri, giving me a brief glance before returning his eyes to the road.
"What look?" I asked innocently.
"The one that says you just got some idea."
"I didn't just get an idea. I got aidea.
Source: Last Sacrifice

“I can always tell when you're thinking about food. You forget to be the Serious Wolf and you get this dreamy look in your eyes. You know, most people would think you were thinking about a girl. They have no idea that her name is bacon.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Stars

People, Food, Girl, Thinking