Quotes about people
page 68

“Are people drawn to each other because of the stories they carry inside?”

Source: The Ice Queen

“If more people were screamin', I could relax.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

“You never read Spider-Man? Accepting your true identity means understanding that you are a stranger to this world. A freak, ostracized by the very people you want to help.”

Ted Dekker book Saint

Source: Saint

World, Understanding, Reading, Help

“From a distance, it makes perfect sense that the people and the things you think will save you are the very ones that have the power to disappoint you most bitterly, but up close it can hit you as a bewildering surprise.”

Tom Perrotta (1961) American novelist and screenwriter

Source: Joe College

Disappointment, Thinking, Sense, Perfection

“Some people say "if we split up, we can cover more ground"-with blood”

Seth Grahame-Smith (1976) US fiction author

Source: How to Survive a Horror Movie

“There is no normal. I've never met a normal person. The concept is flawed. It implies that there is only one way people are supposed to be, and that can't possible be true. Human experience is far too varied.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: The Madness Underneath

Way, Personality

“Now what is history? It is the centuries of systematic explorations of the riddle of death, with a view to overcoming death. That’s why people discover mathematical infinity and electromagnetic waves, that’s why they write symphonies..”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Death, History, Mathematics

“While the Clave disapproves of trespassers, oddly they take an even darker view of beheading and skinning people. They're peculiar that way.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Way

“If all people became ghosts my social life would be so over"
- Suze Simon in the Mediator”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Life

“He shrugged. "The same as any other. It's a way to make people feel better about themselves. Everyone likes feeling special. Being part of an elite group is a way to do that."
"But you weren't part of it?"
"No need. I already know I'm special.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Way, Feeling, Parting

“I tried to manipulate and control people and I harbored resentment. I wanted to be forgiven but I wouldn't forgive others.”

Lauryn Hill (1975) American singer, rapper, songwriter, record producer, actress

Forgiveness

“My bones are ringing the way sometimes people say their ears are ringing, I'm so tired.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Way

“There are some times… when the love for people is strong and warm like a sorrow.”

John Steinbeck book To a God Unknown

Source: To a God Unknown

Love, Strong, Time

“I think people make their own faces, as they grow.”

Enid Blyton book The Naughtiest Girl Again

Source: The Naughtiest Girl Again

Thinking

“Animals are born who they are, accept it, and that is that. They live with greater peace than people do.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Peace, Animals, Wise

“There are five people you meet in heaven," the Blue Man suddenly said. "Each of us was in your life for a reason. You may not have known the reason at the time, and that is what heaven is for. For understanding your life on earth.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)

Life, Understanding, Time

“The best thing about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Change

“Stories only happen to people who can tell them.”

Allan Gurganus (1947) American novelist and story writer

Variant: Know something, sugar? Stories only happen to people who can tell them.

“People want nothing but mirrors around them. To reflect them while they’re reflecting too… Reflections of reflections and echoes of echoes. No beginning and no end. No center and no purpose.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“You can't trust machines. You can't trust people.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

“Never ask people about your work.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“Finally, you had to measure yourself by other people - there really was nothing else. every now and then, quite unintentionally, someone taught you something about yourself.”

Ian McEwan (1948) British author

“Poor people wait a lot. Welfare, unemployment lines, laundromats, phone booths, emergency rooms, jails, etc.”

Lucia Berlin (1936–2004) American writer

Source: A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories

Waiting

“People do not lack strength, they lack will.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Deep

“If you think that moral reasoning is something we do to figure out the truth, you’ll be constantly frustrated by how foolish, biased, and illogical people become when they disagree with you.”

Jonathan Haidt (1963) American psychologist

Source: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012)

Truth, Thinking

“How wonderful to know someone who was bad and dishonorable and a cheat and a liar, when all the world was filled with people who would not lie to save their souls and who would rather starve than do a dishonorable deed!”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

Lie, World, Soul, Cheating

“I think most people live in fiction… That's how you keep your fragile body intact.”

Haruki Murakami book Sputnik Sweetheart

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

Thinking

“Secrets are more powerful when people know you've got them.”

E. Lockhart book The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Source: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Secret

“Look, I know you meant well creating the world and all, but how could you let it get away from you like this? How come you couldn't stick with your original idea of paradise? People's lives were a mess.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

World, Idea

“Some people are boys longer than others.”

Patricia Briggs book Iron Kissed

Source: Iron Kissed

Boy

“I'm drawn to people who look different. I'm not exploiting. I'm not making fun of them. I'm drawn to them.”

Amy Sedaris (1961) American comedian

“People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Wise

“Someday you'll find someone special again. People who've been in love once usually do. It's in their nature.”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

Love, Nature

“High school sucks. People who say those were the best years of your life—those people are liars… Who wants the best years of their life to be in high school? High school is something everybody should be ready to lose.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Forever Princess

Life, School

“Sometimes I think children are the worst people alive. And even if they're not—even if some smiling toddler is as pure as Evian—it's only a matter of time.”

Chuck Klosterman (1972) Author, Columnist

Children, Smile, Thinking, Time

“Maybe that's what real friendship is -- getting so used to people that you need to be annoyed by them.”

Libba Bray Going Bovine

Source: Going Bovine

Friendship

“I think when we make choices—for
each choice is individual of the choices we have made before—we must examine not
only our reasons for making them but what result they will have, and whether good people will be hurt by our decisions.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Thinking, Decision, Hurt

“Particularly beautiful people were like particularly funny-looking people, though. Once you know them you mostly forgot about it.”

Ann Brashares The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Source: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Beauty

“People are wonderful one at a time. Each one of them has an entire hologram of the universe somewhere within them.”

George Carlin book Last Words

Source: Last Words

Universe, Time

“They are committing the greatest indignity human beings can inflict on one another: telling people who have suffered excruciating pain and loss that their pain and loss were illusions.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Misattributed <br class="br">Source: Robert McAfee Brown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McAfee_Brown. Preface for the 25th anniversary edition of Night https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_%28book%29. Page v, Bantam Books paperback; 1982 reissue edition.

Pain, Suffering, Loss

“You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Source: Alice in Wonderland: Based on the Motion Picture Directed by Tim Burton

Secret

“People will tell you most of the story… and I’ve learned that the part they neglect to tell you is often the most important part. People hide the truth because they’re afraid.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Truth, Learning, Parting

“Do you want to understand how to swim, or do you want to jump in and start swimming? Only people who are afraid of the water want to understand it. Other people jump in and get wet.”

Michael Crichton book Sphere

Source: Sphere

Understanding, Water

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely
rearranging their prejudices.”

David Bohm (1917–1992) American theoretical physicist

Thinking

“You know anything about investigative work?"
"Sure. Annoy the people involved until the guilt party tries to make you go away.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bites

“It’s good to see your friends happy, isn’t it? (Nick)
How would I know? I have no friends. People basically suck and all friends will screw you over in the end. Take my word for it. (Savitar)
Then why am I here? (Nick)
Hell if I know. (Savitar)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Unleash the Night

Happiness, Hell

“Some people got vicious Dobermans. I got a shaved attack poodle in a black sweater. His tough, spawn-of-hell image had taken a fatal blow, but at least he would be warm.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

Hell

“People in general would rather die than forgive. It'shard. If God said in plain language. "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Variant: People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It'shard. If God said in plain language, "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.
Source: The Secret Life of Bees

God, Forgiveness

“Two people rarely see the same thing.”

Agatha Christie book Murder on the links

Source: The Murder on the Links

“Parents aren’t the people you come from. They’re the people you want to be, when you grow up.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Variant: Parents aren't the people you come from. They're the people you want to be, when you grow up.
Source: Handle with Care

Parent, For Parents

“People fear anyone who differs from what is considered normal, and in a small town the idea of normal can be as narrow as the streets.”

Elizabeth Chandler (1954) writer

Source: The Back Door of Midnight

Fear, Idea

“I'd had years of practise looking dumb when people threw out Greek names I didn't know. It's a skill of mine. Annabeth keeps telling me to read a book of Greek myths, but I don't see the need. It's easier just to have folks explain stuff.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Diaries

Variant: Cacus.” I’d had years of practice looking dumb when people threw out Greek names I didn’t know. It’s a skill of mine. Annabeth keeps telling me to read a book of Greek myths, but I don’t see the need. It’s easier just to have folks explain stuff.
Source: The Demigod Diaries

Books, Reading

“I loved when Bush came out and said, "We are losing the war against drugs." You know what that implies? There's a war being fought, and the people on drugs are winning it.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Just for Laughs Comedy Festival (1990)

Love, War

“I didn't really see why people should look at me. Plenty of people looked queerer than I did.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

“The difference between stupid and intelligent people – and this is true whether or not they are well-educated – is that intelligent people can handle subtlety.”

Neal Stephenson (1959) American science fiction writer

Source: The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Stupidity, Education, Intelligence

“Every two people cause and intersection. Every person alters the world.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

World, Personality

“Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Happiness, Spring

“Smiling with pleasure, they went through their memories, not sad, old people's memories, but poetic, youthful ones, those impressions from the very distant past where dream merges with reality, and they laughed softly, rejoicing at something.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

Pleasure, Youth, Sadness, Smile

“Ironically enough, the only people who can hold up indefinitely under the stress of modern war are psychotics. Individual insanity is immune to the consequences of collective insanity.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World Revisited

Source: Brave New World Revisited

War

“The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I'm against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

As quoted in The Harper Book of Quotations (1993) edited by Robert I. Fitzhenry, p. 419
Undated

“Insane people are always sure they're just fine. It's only the sane people who are willing to admit they're crazy.”

Nora Ephron book Heartburn

Nora Ephron, Heartburn (1983), as reported in What a piece of work is man!: Camp's unfamiliar quotations from 2000 B.C. to the present (1989), p. 320.

“Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books.”

Julian Barnes book Flaubert's Parrot

Source: Flaubert's Parrot

Life, Books

“When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Behavior, Feeling, Hurt

“The truth is messy. It's raw and uncomfortable. You can't blame people for preferring lies.”

Holly Black book Red Glove

Source: Red Glove

Truth

“Bailing out people who made ill-advised mortgages makes no more sense that bailing out people who lost their life savings in Las Vegas casinos.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Life, Sense

“I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real
adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

Source: Dubliners

Home

“Why do people always expect authors to answer questions? I am an author because I want to ask questions. If I had answers, I'd be a politician.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

As quoted in The Writer's Quotation Book : A Literary Companion (1980) by James Charlton, p. 44

Question

“And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

Thinking

“Perhaps all our troubles - all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can't overcome - began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way.”

Christopher McDougall (1962) American journalist and writer

Source: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

Way, Nature

“I'd far rather leave a thought behind me than a child. Other people can have children.”

E.M. Forster book A Passage to India

Source: A Passage to India

Children

“We're constantly being told what other people think we are, and that's why it is so important to know yourself.”

Sarah McLachlan (1968) Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter

Thinking

“Resignation is what kills people. Once they've rejected resignation, humans gain the privilege of making humanity their footpath.”

Kohta Hirano (1973) Japanese manga artist

“The people who must never have power are the humorless. To impossible certainties of rectitude they ally tedium and uniformity.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Source: Arguably: Selected Essays

“Let me tell you this: if you meet a loner, no matter what they tell you, it's not because they enjoy solitude. It's because they have tried to blend into the world before, and people continue to disappoint them.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper (2004)

World, Disappointment, Solitude

“Lydia was the kind of friend whom people referred to as a 'party favor' -- always fun to be around but she doesn't have any patience for suffering unless it's her own.”

Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host

Source: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

Suffering, Patience

“Libraries change lives. They are the soul of a people.”

Diane Ackerman (1948) Author, poet, naturalist

Soul, Change

“I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak.”

Lillian Hellman (1905–1984) American dramatist and screenwriter

As quoted in Untamed Tongues : Wild Words from Wild Women (1993) by Autumn Stephens, p. 132

“But I'm not here just to make records and money. I'm here to say something and to touch other people, sometimes in a cry of desperation: "Do you know this feeling?”

Keith Richards book Life

Source: Life

Money, Feeling, Cry

“Some people have a thick skin and you don't. Your heart is really open and that is going to cause pain, but that is an appropriate response to this world.”

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

Source: Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope, and Repair

Pain, World, Heart

“Happy people are rarely interesting.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: My Fair Godmother

Happiness

“Why do people spend their time being sad when they could be happy?”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Happiness, Sadness, Time

“An en is a karmic bond lasting a lifetime. Nowadays many people seem to believe their lives are entirely a matter of choice; but in my day we viewed ourselves as pieces of clay that forever show the fingerprints of everyone who has touched them.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

“I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.”

Borís Pasternak book Doctor Zhivago

Variant: I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and it isn't of much value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.
Source: Doctor Zhivago

Life, Beauty

“Which path do you intend to take, Nell?' said the Constable, sounding very interested. 'Conformity or rebellion?'
Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded - they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity.”

Neal Stephenson (1959) American science fiction writer

Source: The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Way