Quotes about people
page 49

“You have not forgotten to remember;
You have remembered to forget.
But people can forget to forget. That is just as important as remembering to remember - and generally more practical.”

Idries Shah book Reflections

Source: Reflections

Forgetting

“I realized that life is so short: Why waste one minute of it worrying what other people think or say about you, or what score you got on some test? Why not believe what you want to believe, and do what you love?”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Love, Life, Thinking

“Isn't it so weird how the number of dead people is increasing even though the Earth stays the same size, so that one day there isn't going to be room to bury anyone anymore?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Dead

“Many people are good at talking about what they are doing, but in fact do little. Others do a lot but don't talk about it; they are the ones who make a community live.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

From books
Source: Jean Vanier, Community And Growth, 1979

Communication

“You can't save people from themselves. You can only try to wake them up.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

“Fear is the loneliest feeling. You can be in a throng of people, but if you're afraid, you're on your own.”

Michelle Paver book Oath Breaker

Source: Oath Breaker

Fear, Feeling

“You don't start at the top if you want to find the story. You start in the middle, because it's the people in the middle who do the actual work in the world.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

World

“I believe in recovery, and as a role model I have the responsibility to let young people know that you can make a mistake and come back from it.”

Ann Richards (1933–2006) American politician

“… Wizard's Fifth Rule: Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.”

Terry Goodkind book Soul of the Fire

Source: Soul of the Fire

Lie

“Of all the things I am not very good at, living in the real world is perhaps the most outstanding. I am constantly filled with wonder at the number of things that other people do without any evident difficulty that are pretty much beyond me.”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Source: I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away

World

“I know there are people who don't read fiction at all, and I find it hard to understand how they can bear to be inside the same head all the time.”

Diane Setterfield (1964) English novelist

Understanding, Time, Reading

“I wanted to tell people, "My depression is acting up today" as an excuse for not seeing them, but I never managed to pull it off.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

“People are so stupid. They think they've got the whole puzzle figured out, but they're really so far off.”

Laurie Faria Stolarz (1972) American writer

Source: Deadly Little Games

Stupidity, Thinking

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss other people. Life's too short to worry about what other people do or don't do. Tend your own backyard, not theirs, because yours is the one you have to live in.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infamous

Life, Idea

“When you use the term minority or minorities
in reference to people, you're telling them that
they're less than somebody else.”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

“Talia: I was brought up to respect older people and peasants… not that you're…

Jack: (clears throat) Quit while you’re ahead

Meryl: Ahead? She just called mom and old peasant.”

Alex Flinn (1966) American children's writer

Source: A Kiss in Time

Moms

“There were people everywhere on the city street, but the stranger could not have been more alone if it were empty.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“We are a society of notoriously unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive, dependent — people who are glad when we have killed the time we are trying so hard to save.”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Source: To Have or to Be? The Nature of the Psyche

Time, Dependency

“Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight.”

Johnny Cash (1932–2003) American singer-songwriter

Fight

“Poor people never, or hardly ever, ask for an explanation of all they have to put up with. They hate one another, and content themselves with that.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

Hate

“Many people don't allow themselves to love… because there are a lot of things at risk a lot of future and a lot of past.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

Love, Past, Future

“You can't always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they are doing now.”

Kate DiCamillo book Because of Winn-Dixie

Source: Because of Winn-Dixie

“What, I should only trust good people? Man, good people get bought and sold every day. Might as well trust somebody evil once in a while, it makes no more or less sense.”

Thomas Pynchon book Inherent Vice

Source: Inherent Vice

Sense, Evil

“This story is for all the slightly broken people out there. I am one of you. You are not alone. You are all beautiful to me.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Beauty

“I don't know if people have gotten ruder or if my tolerance level has declined.”

Tim Gunn (1953) American actor and fashion consultant

“You know, I'm sick and tired of people pointing rifles at me.”

Carrie Vaughn (1973) American writer

Source: Kitty Takes a Holiday

“Did I ever tell you my pet peeve?'

No,' I said.

People who dress up their pets to look like Little Lord Fauntleroys or cowboys, clowns, ballerinas. As if it's not enough just to be a dog or cat or turtle.”

Jerry Spinelli book Love, Stargirl

Source: Love, Stargirl

Dogs, Cats

“Have you ever heard the phrase, it is better to keep your mouth closed and have people wonder if you are stupid than open it and remove all doubt? (Hakim al Harbi)”

Vince Flynn book Pursuit of Honor

Source: Pursuit of Honor

Stupidity, Funny

“Put your foot upon the neck of the fear of criticism by reaching a decision not to worry about what other people think, do, or say.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Fear, Thinking, Decision

“Only poor people are weird. Rich people are eccentric.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Gunmetal Magic

“Do you know what I think about crying? I think some people have to learn to do it. But once you learn, once you know how to really cry, there's nothing quite like it. I feel sorry for those who don't know the trick. It's like whistling or singing.”

Anne Rice book Memnoch the Devil

Source: Memnoch the Devil

Feeling, Thinking, Learning, Singing

“I don't do alcohol. Or other people's boyfriends. And don't you forget it.”

Meg Cabot book Airhead

Source: Airhead

Alcohol, Forgetting

“People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.”

J. Michael Straczynski (1954) American writer and television producer

Time, Past

“Why are people born? Why do they die? Why do they want to spend so much of the intervening time wearing digital watches?”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Source: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Time

“It's funny how two people can grow up in the same town, go to the same school, have the same friends, and end up so totally different. Family, or lack of it, counts for more than you'd think.”

Sarah Dessen book The Moon and More

Source: The Moon and More

School, Family, Thinking

“I am not impressed with what people own. But I’m impressed with what they achieve. I’m proud to be a physician. Always strive to be the best in your field…. Don’t chase money. If you are the best in your field, money will find you.”

Thomas J. Stanley (1944–2015) American businessman

Source: The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of Americas Wealthy

Money

“What would happen if the autism gene was eliminated from the gene pool?

You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and socializing and not getting anything done.”

Temple Grandin (1947) USA-american doctor of animal science, author, and autism activist

Source: The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's

“I know he was desperate. That makes people do all kinds of crazy things.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“Most beautiful, good things were done by women people scorn.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Women, Beauty

“People like you to be something, preferably what they are.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

“Never assume. Never make plans. Keep doing the press-ups and deep knee bends: you'll need all your strength and flexibility when your life suddenly implodes. Maybe it won't — some people do lead enchanted lives — but odds are that it will. Some time.”

Robin McKinley (1952) American fantasy writer

Life, Time

“I'm so misunderstood that people misunderstand me even when I tell them I'm misunderstood.”

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

“I care more about the people in books than the people I see every day.”

Jo Walton book Among Others

Source: Among Others

Books

“It is the absence of facts that frightens people: the gap you open, into which they pour their fears, fantasies, desires.”

Hilary Mantel book Wolf Hall

Source: Wolf Hall

Fear

“When others demand that we become the people they want us to be, they force us to destroy the person we really are. It's a subtle kind of murder… the most loving parents and relatives commit this murder with smiles on their faces.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Love, Smile, Parent, Personality

“Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear.”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Fear, Feeling, Success

“If you stare long enough at anything, you will start to find similarities. The word “coincidence” exists in order to stop people from seeing meaning where none exists.”

Chuck Klosterman Eating the Dinosaur

Source: Eating the Dinosaur

“I am always trying to 'preserve' things by getting other people to read what I have written, and feel what I felt.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Source: Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

Feeling, Reading

“You can always win points; winning people’s respect is a lot more important.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Outcasts

“Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

“When people went on vacation, they shed their home skins, thought they could be a new person.”

Aimee Friedman (1979) American writer

Source: Sea Change

Home, Personality

“You’re barely one step up from the Australopithecines, aren’t you? (Acheron)
Hey, be respectful when you say that, snot nose. Haven’t you seen the commercials? Us cavemen are very sensitive people. (Savitar)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

“In my childhood diary I wrote: “I have decided that it is better not to love anyone, because when you love people, then you have to be separated from them, and that hurts too much.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

Love, Childhood, Hurt

“Wallowing was for elephants, depressing people and depressing elephants”

Cassandra Clare The Bane Chronicles

Source: The Bane Chronicles

“People are more complicated than the masks they wear in society.”

Robert Greene book The Art of Seduction

Source: The Art of Seduction

“People are meant to go through life two by two. 'Tain't natural to be lonesome.”

Thornton Wilder Our Town

"Mrs. Gibbs"
Source: Our Town (1938)

Life, Nature

“There are too many ideas and things and people. Too many directions to go. I was starting to believe the reason it matters to care passionately about something, is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size.”

Charlie Kaufman (1958) American screenwriter

Source: Adaptation.: The Shooting Script

World, Idea, Passion

“I told him that I did not believe that they could burn people in our age, that humanity would never tolerate it…”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night

Age

“I've always thought there are two ways of getting what you wanted in life. Forcing people to give it to you, or making them want to give it to you.”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Source: The Carrie Diaries

Life, Way

“Mrs. Hopewell had no bad qualities of her own but she was able to use other people's in such a constructive way that she never felt the lack.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories

Way

“People are like moths. First they are ugly and awkward, until they break out of their shell and become a beautiful butterfly.”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer

Beauty

“This is what happens when nice people are pushed too far. We give too many chances, and so when we've finally had enough, we are well and truly done. When a nice person shuts a door on you, it's shut for good.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: He's Gone

Chance, Personality

“I don’t know,” Call said. He was starting to worry that there weren’t any good guys. Just people with longer or shorter Evil Overlord lists.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: The Copper Gauntlet

Guy, Evil

“I can’t believe I’m mated to someone who’s allergic to me. (Ravyn)
You? I’m the one who should be having a hissy. How do I introduce you to people? Hi, this is my…what? Significant other? Mate? Pet? (Susan)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dark Side of the Moon

“I honestly believe that people of my generation despise authenticity, mostly because they're all so envious of it.”

Chuck Klosterman book Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Source: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

“I've always been drawn to tormented people full of contradictions.”

Antonio Tabucchi (1943–2012) writer and literary scholar

“Most people have two emergency modes. Fight and Flight. But Conner always knew he had three. Fight, Flight, and Screw Up Royally.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

Fight

“There was a time when people accepted magical experiences as natural. There were no priests then, and no one went chasing after the secrets of the occult.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Secret, Nature, Time

“In Madeleine's face was a stupidity Mitchell had never seen before. It was the stupidity of all normal people. It was the stupidity of the fortunate and the beautiful, of everybody who got what they wanted in life and so remained unremarkable.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot

Source: The Marriage Plot

Life, Stupidity, Beauty

“Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.”

Aristophanés (-448–-386 BC) Athenian playwright of Old Comedy

Life, Law

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”

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

Essays
Source: Kenyon College Commencement Speech, April 21, 2005, published as This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life.

Way, Effort, Freedom

“When I look up, I see people cashing in. I don't see heaven or saints or angels. I see people cashing in on every decent impulse and every human tragedy.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

Angels

“Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

“This is fusion, when two people become one. They are so close and so well suited to each other that they blend together. They merge and can't live without each other after that.”

Danielle Steel (1947) American author of romance novels

“All our days are marked with/
unexpected/
affronts--some/
disastrous, others/
less so/
but the process is/
wearing and/
continuous./
Attrition rules./
Most give/
way/
leaving/
empty spaces/
where people should/
be.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Way

“And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

Way, Memory

“One the next corner stood a cinder block restaurant with a hand-painted sign that read CHICKEN & WAFFLES. There was a queue of twenty people outside.
“You Americans have the strangest taste. What planet is this?”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Reading, Painting

“It’s hard to be wrongfully accused, but it’s worse when the people looking down on you are clods who have never read a book or traveled more than twenty miles from the place they were born.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Variant: It’s hard to be wrongfully accused, but it’s worse when the people looking down on you are clods who have never read a book or traveled more than twenty miles from the place they were born.
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 8, “Thieves, Heretics, and Whores” (p. 63)

Books, Travel, Reading

“When you stay too long in the same place, things and people go to pot on you, they rot and start stinking for your special benefit.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

“I don't expect you to understand anything I'm telling you. But I know you will remember this — that nothing good ever ends. If it did, there would be no people in the world — no life at all, anywhere. And the world is full of people and full of wonderful life.”

William Saroyan book The Human Comedy

Source: The Human Comedy (1943)
Context: Death is not an easy thing for anyone to understand, least of all a child, but every life shall one day end. But as long as we are alive, as long as we are together, as long as two of us are left, and remember him, nothing in the world can take him from us. His body can be taken, but not him. You shall know your father better as you grow and know yourself better. He is not dead, because you are alive. Time and accident, illness and weariness took his body, but already you have given it back to him, younger and more eager than ever. I don't expect you to understand anything I'm telling you. But I know you will remember this — that nothing good ever ends. If it did, there would be no people in the world — no life at all, anywhere. And the world is full of people and full of wonderful life.

Life, World, Understanding

“One of the terrible fallacies of contemporary psychotherapy is that if people would just say how they felt, a lot of problems could be solved.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

Problem

“In other people's company I felt I was dull, gloomy, unwelcome, at once bored and boring…”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

“When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.”

Stephen Jay Gould book An Urchin in the Storm

"The Quack Detector", p. 245
An Urchin in the Storm (1987)
Context: [A]s we discern a fine line between crank and genius, so also (and unfortunately) we must acknowledge an equally graded trajectory from crank to demagogue. When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown.

Hope, Learning

“Good people don’t make fewer mistakes, they’re just better at apologizing.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Here I Am

Source: Here I Am

“The truth was, I wasn't sure. But I wanted to keep believing people could change, and it was certainly easier to do so when you were in the midst of it.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Truth, Change