Quotes about people
page 84

“But a man is not forgotten, as long as there are two people left under the sky. One, to tell the story; the other, to hear it.”

Diana Gabaldon book Drums of Autumn

Source: Drums of Autumn

“You cannot shame or belittle people into changing their behaviors.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Behavior, Change

“It's good to suffer. Dont complain. Bear, bow, accept - and be grateful that God has made you suffer. For this makes you better than the people who are laughing and happy.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

God, Happiness, Suffering

“She said the reason that love is so painful is that it always amounts to two people wanting more than two people can give.”

Edna O'Brien (1930) Novelist, memoirist, biographer, playwright, poet and short story writer

Source: Saints and Sinners

Love, Pain

“I have always been aware of how I break.
I know what kind of situations will break me.
I know what kind of people will do it.
I know how much it will hurt.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

Hurt

“Sometimes you are aware when your great moments are happening, and sometimes they rise from the past. Perhaps it's the same with people.”

James Salter (1925–2015) American novelist and short-story writer

Source: Burning the Days: Recollection

Past

“You can only control your own actions. Not other people’s reactions.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Something Blue

“It is in our relations with other people that we gain a sense of ourselves; it's that, pretty much, that makes relations with other people unbearable.”

Michel Houellebecq book Platform

Source: Platform

Sense

“Finding your passion isn't just about careers and money. It's about finding your authentic self. The one you've buried beneath other people's needs.”

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: Distant Shores

Money, Passion

“I also know there are timeless waters, endless seas, and lots of people in this world whose names don't matter to anyone but themselves. I look up at the sky and I see you there.”

Edwidge Danticat Krik? Krak!

Source: Krik? Krak!

World, Water, Sea

“people who enjoy waving flags don't deserve to have one.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

sic
Cut It Out (2004)
Source: Wall and Piece

“That's what literature is. It's the people who went before us, tapping out messages from the past, from beyond the grave, trying to tell us about life and death! Listen to them!”

Connie Willis Passage

Source: Passage

Life, Death, Literature, Past

“People want to ignore what they can't understand. They're looking for logic at any cost.”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

Understanding

“You Americans, always peering under people's beds to look for communism.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Half of a Yellow Sun

Source: Half of a Yellow Sun

Communication

“You'd be surprised how many people in the modern age no longer fear zombies as much as teletubies.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Warrior

Age, Fear

“One can be in love with several people at the same time, feel the sorrow with each, and not betray any of them.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Love, Feeling, Time

“Don’t listen to what people say; watch what they do.”

Steven D. Levitt book Think Like a Freak

Source: Think Like a Freak

“He supposed that even in Hell, people got an occasional sip of water, if only so they could appreciate the full horror of unrequited thirst when it set in again.”

Stephen King book Full Dark, No Stars

Source: Full Dark, No Stars

Hell, Water

“I want my people to be protected, strong, and not to be driven into corners until they either become killers or are killed!”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale

Strong

“Ahenny (adj.) - The way people stand when examining other people's bookshelves.”

Douglas Adams book The Meaning of Liff

Source: The Deeper Meaning of Liff

Way

“For reasons of my own I take note of the way people act when they’re around mirrors.”

Helen Oyeyemi book Boy, Snow, Bird

Source: Boy, Snow, Bird

Way

“Kids are perfect people till grownups get their hands on them.”

John Irving (1942) American novelist and screenwriter

Perfection

“It would be a terrible mistake to go through life thinking that people are the sum total of what you see.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

This Is Where I Leave You (2009), 2014-January-15 http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/This_Is_Where_I_Leave_You.html?id=3jVps2Z9LQcC, <br class="br">Source: This is Where I Leave You

Life, Thinking

“I really believe there are some people who hate to contemplate the happiness of others.”

Eleanor Hibbert (1906–1993) English novelist

Source: Victoria Victorious: The Story of Queen Victoria

Hate, Happiness

“Almost every sinful action ever committed can be traced back to a selfish motive. It is a trait we hate in other people but justify in ourselves.”

Stephen Kendrick book The Love Dare

Source: The Love Dare

Hate, Motivation, Selfishness

“… for music alone can abolish differences
of language or culture between two people and invoke something indestructible within them.”

Irène Némirovsky (1903–1942) French novelist who died at the age of 39 in Auschwitz

Source: Suite Française

Music

“I'm sorry," he says. "I don't usually like people. So when I do, part of me is really amused and the other part refuses to believe it's happening.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

Parting

“Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Idea

“truth is that which makes a people certain, clear, and strong.”

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German philosopher

Truth, Strong

“the price of creation
is never
too high.

the price of living
with other people
always
is.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“How strange to have the power to literally transform yourself into other people, and yet be so unable to put yourself in their place.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“Don't argue for other people's weaknesses. Don't argue for your own. When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, and learn from it / immediately.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

Learning

“And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

“Ghosts don't haunt us. That's not how it works. They're present among us because we won't let go of them."

"I don't believe in ghosts," I said, faintly.

"Some people can't see the color red. That doesn't mean it isn't there," she replied.”

Sue Grafton (1940–2017) American writer

Source: M is for Malice

Color

“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”

Don Marquis (1878–1937) American writer

As quoted in The Volta Review (1934), p. 574 http://books.google.de/books?id=qWE4AQAAIAAJ&q=hate, Clifton Fadiman: The American Treasury 1455-1955 (New York 1955) p. 997 http://books.google.de/books?id=PEQ4AAAAIAAJ&q=really+make+them and Hugh Rawson, Margaret Miner: The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations (2006) p. 431 #5 http://books.google.de/books?id=whg05Z4Nwo0C&pg=PA431&dq=mehitabel from archy and mehitabel (1927) <br class="br">Variant: If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.

Love, Hate, Thinking

“Donald Rumsfeld. Love him or hate him, you've gotta admit: a lot of people hate him.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Love, Hate

“Maybe everyone is just trying to protect me by lying to me. I don’t care. I’m sick of people lying to me for my own good. Because really it’s mostly for their own good. Lie to Katniss about the rebellion so she doesn’t do anything crazy.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (p. 118)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)

Lie, Lying

“To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Love, Life, Feeling, Heart Touching

“It's strange the times people choose to be generous.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Time

“Lots of people talk to animals… Not very many listen though… that's the problem.”

Benjamin Hoff book The Tao of Pooh

Source: The Tao of Pooh

Problem, Animals

“It is unusual,” said Cristina, “for a revolution to call for fewer rights for people, not more.”

Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows

Source: Lord of Shadows

“When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you got two new people. Maybe that means — hell, it's complicated.”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), unplaced by chapter

Hell, Change

“But wouldn't it be lovely to watch two people fall in love?”

Anne Bishop (1955) American fiction writer

Source: The Shadow Queen

Love

“He learned that when people are very poor they still have something to give and the impulse to give it.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Learning

“People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It'shard.”

Sue Monk Kidd (1948) Novelist

Forgiveness

“Clevinger had a mind, and Lieutenant Scheisskoph had noticed that people with minds tended to get pretty smart at times.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

Time

“I've often noticed" Fiona said, "that when people say, 'This can't happen in this day and age', they say it because it is happening.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Fire and Hemlock

Source: Fire and Hemlock

Age

“To know what people really think, pay attention to what they do, rather than what they say.”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

Thinking

“The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

As quoted in The New Speaker's Treasury of Wit and Wisdom (1958) edited by Herbert Victor Prochnow <br class="br">As quoted at page 212 in The Pocket Book of Quips and Quotes http://books.google.de/books?id=jcIWpJdFBkEC&pg=PA212&dq=The+world+is+full+of+willing+people,+some+willing+to+work,+the+rest+willing+to+let+them.&hl=de&sa=X&ei=R9LOUe3UL8mctAbO0oDQCg&ved=0CGwQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=The%20world%20is%20full%20of%20willing%20people%2C%20some%20willing%20to%20work%2C%20the%20rest%20willing%20to%20let%20them.&f=false (1996) by Rajendra Pillai, Copyright 1996 The Saint Paul Society Bombay, 2nd Print 1999 <br class="br">1950s

World

“I love the people,' I said. 'I have room in me for love, and for ever so many little lives.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Love

“Is it advisable to spread out all the conveniences of culture before people to whom a few steps up a stair to a library is a sufficient deterrent from reading?”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Reading

“And pity--people who inspire it in you are actually very powerful people. To get someone else to take care of you, to feel sorry for you--that takes a lot of strength, smarts, manipulation. Very powerful people.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Secret Life of Prince Charming

Feeling

“The only time people turned to watch her go by was when she hurtled past them as she fell.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Time, Past

“Many people will find this book disrespectful. There is nothing amusing about being dead, they will say. Ah, but there is.”

Mary Roach book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Source: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Books, Dead

“This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won't wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be.”

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

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Thinking, Heart, Personality

“What was the point in such loneliness among people. At least if you were by yourself, you had a good reason to be lonely.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Loneliness

“If Sara had been a boy and lived a few centuries ago, her father used to say, 'she would have gone about the country with her sword drawn, rescuing and defending everyone in distress. She always wants to fight when she sees people in trouble.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

Boy, Fight, Country

“Modern morality and manners suppress all natural instincts, keep people ignorant of the facts of nature and make them fighting drunk on bogey tales.”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography
Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1929), Ch. 57.
Context: Modern morality and manners suppress all natural instincts, keep people ignorant of the facts of nature and make them fighting drunk on bogey tales. … Knowing nothing and fearing everything, they rant and rave and riot like so many maniacs. The subject does not matter. Any idea which gives them an excuse of getting excited will serve. They look for a victim to chivy, and howl him down, and finally lynch him in a sheer storm of sexual frenzy which they honestly imagine to be moral indignation, patriotic passion or some equally avowable emotion. It may be an innocent Negro, a Jew like Leo Frank, a harmless half-witted German; a Christ-like idealist of the type of Debs, an enthusiastic reformer like Emma Goldman or even a doctor whose views displease the Medial Trust.

Nature, Fight

“Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money. I save it, so I will have enough, when the time comes.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 19 (p. 109)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Money, Way, Time

“I wanted to know what happened when two people felt it. Would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone's joy seemed to double it?”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Way, Feeling, Joy, Hurt

“I knew I would hate my best memory because it would prove that people could fake love or that love could end or worst of all, love was not powerful enough to change a life.”

Mona Simpson (1957) American novelist

Love, Life, Hate, Memory

“She is no longer a person in his life; instead, she is a person that other people will remind him of.”

David Levithan book Are We There Yet?

Source: Are We There Yet?

Life, Personality

“There are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world and those who don't.”

Robert Benchley (1889–1945) American comedian

Vanity Fair (February 1920)
Variant: There may be said to be two classes of people in the world; those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not.
Context: There may be said to be two classes of people in the world; those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not. Both classes are extremely unpleasant to meet socially, leaving practically no one in the world whom one cares very much to know.

World

“Maybe this is a characteristic of happy people. An ability to be entertained by the world.”

Clare Morrall (1952) British writer

Source: The Language Of Others

Happiness, World