Quotes about people
page 90

“Absorbing the fact that sometimes, people do cut you slack and forgive you and want you anyway.

Sometimes they do. And when they do, even if it's not a happy ending, it is delicious”

E. Lockhart (1967) American writer of novels as E. Lockhart (mainly for teenage girls) and of picture books under real name Emily J…

Source: The Treasure Map of Boys: Noel, Jackson, Finn, Hutch, Gideon—and me, Ruby Oliver

Happiness, Forgiveness

“Solitude is indeed dangerous for a working intelligence. We need to have around us people who think and speak. When we are alone for a long time we people the void with phantoms”

Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer

Source: Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques

Intelligence, Thinking, Solitude, Time

“Normally I hate people who whine all the time, but in your case, it would be okay to complain. Be selfish, say what you want once in a while. It's okay to let yourself be sad." -Kyo talking to Tohru”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 1

Hate, Sadness, Time, Selfishness

“Very few people see their own actions as truly evil,… It is left to their victims to decide what is evil and what is not.”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

Evil

“Neither sugar nor salt tastes particularly good by itself. Each is at its best when used to season other things.

Love is the same way.

Use it to "season" people.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Love, Way, Season

“Truly powerful people don't explain why they want respect. They simply don't engage someone who doesn't give it to them.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

“It’s not manly to hurt others or belittle them. Respect and kindness require more courage because people take advantage of those.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Styxx

Courage, Hurt

“You could tell your soul mate by the light in their eyes, and since the time began, that has been how people have recognized their true love.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

Love, Soul, Light, Time

“People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

History

“And the more she could imagine this island, the less she liked the real world. The more she could imagine the people, the less she liked any real people.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Diary

Source: Diary

World, Imagination

“They say you are not you except in terms of relation to other people. If there weren't any other people there wouldn't be any you because what you do, which is what you are, only has meaning in relation to other people.”

Robert Penn Warren book All the King's Men

Source: All the King's Men

“Fear is a weakness. It makes a person lose her nerve and her cool. It makes people jumpy and organizations nervous, and when that happens, there is always a chance to take advantage.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Fear, Chance, Personality

“It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Truth, Failure

“She had a lot of hugs to give, but not enough people to give them to.”

James Patterson book Sundays at Tiffany's

Source: Sundays at Tiffany's

“One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or a bad one.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Idea

“She wished there was some place where she could go to hum it out loud. Some kind of music was too private to sing in a house cram fall of people. It was funny, too, how lonesome a person could be in a crowded house.”

Carson McCullers book The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Source: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Music, Singing, Housing, Personality

“People are rarely as attractive in reality as they are in the eyes of the people who are in love with them. Which is, I suppose, as it should be.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

Love, Reality

“I like to watch people. Sometimes I ride the subway all day and look at them and listen to them. I just want to figure out who they are and what they want and where they're going.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

“We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.”

Dave Ramsey (1960) American financial advisor

Source: The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness

Money

“… if there´s a beast, maybe he´s just a regular guy with a sin conditon or something. Maybe he just needs some understanding. Maybe we judge people to much by their looks because it´s easier than seeing what´s really important.”

Alex Flinn book Beastly

Source: Beastly

Guy, Understanding

“My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally.”

John Dominic Crossan (1934) American academic

Source: Who Is Jesus? Answers to Your Questions About the Historical Jesus

“That was what people did when they wanted to stop a girl from doing something—they shamed her.”

Jennifer Donnelly (1963) American writer

Source: These Shallow Graves

Girl

“The world is full of people who think different is synonymous with wrong.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

World, Thinking

“People surprise you, Frank, with just how fuckin stupid they are. I mean, do you actually realize how much adult conversation is spent on this fuckin business? Facts treated like they were opinions just for the simple purpose of talking about it longer? Some people might think that's interesting, bub, but I'll tell you. It's romanticizing a goddamn rock by calling it a mountain range to me. People waste a helluva lot of time they could be putting to useful purposes. This is a game. See it and forget about it.”

Richard Ford The Sportswriter

Source: The Sportswriter (1986), p. 104

Stupidity, Mountain, Game, Business

“I'd known enough people for every minute of the day, and yet still didn't have anyone as my two a. m.”

Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“When a demigod like me comes around, bad things happen. Really bad.-Leo

Maybe it's the other way around, Jason suggested. Maybe people with special gifts show up when bad things are happening because that's when they're needed most.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Way

“Spiritual practices help us move from identifying with the ego to identifying with the soul. Old age does that for you too. It spiritualizes people naturally.”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

Age, Soul, Nature, Help

“And that," put in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue — liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Source: Brave New World

Happiness, Secret

“I don't have pet peeves like some people. I have whole kennels of irritation.”

Whoopi Goldberg (1955) American actress

“They're a dark people with a gift for suffering way past their deserving. It's said that without whiskey to soak and soften the world, they'd kill themselves. (Irish)”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

World, Way, Suffering, Past

“An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Source: Andy Warhol, Thirty Are Better Than One

“I believe that more people would be alive today if there were a death penalty.”

Nancy Reagan (1921–2016) actress and first lady of the United States

Death, Penalty

“Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.”

Penn Jillette (1955) American magician

2000s, There Is No God (2005)

God, Memory, Time

“Are you kidding? He's arrogant, sarcastic, likes to intimidate people, and—oh." Okay. Maybe she had a point.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

“I was beginning to see, though, that the unknown wasn't always the greatest thing to fear. The people who know you best can be risker, because the words they say and things they think have the potential to be not only scary but true, as well.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Fear, Thinking

“Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that you want them to understand.”

Frantz Fanon book The Wretched of the Earth

Source: The Wretched of the Earth

Understanding

“The world isn’t that easily turned upside down, Haida replied. It’s people who are turned upside down.”

Haruki Murakami book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

World

“There’s death coming up, and you better understand this:some of the wrong people die. Be ready for it.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Death, Understanding

“I am lonely, yet not everybody will do. I don't know why, some people fill the gaps and others emphasize my loneliness. In reality those who satisfy me are those who simply allow me to live with my ''idea of them.”

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

Idea, Reality, Loneliness

“I wish people weren't so set on being themselves, when that means being a bastard.”

Robertson Davies book The Rebel Angels

Source: The Rebel Angels

“Some people never say those words "I love you".
It's not their style to be so bold.
Some people never say those words "I love you".
But like a child, they're longing to be told.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Something So Right
Song lyrics, There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973)

Love

“The promise of eternal life makes people forsake the life they're given.”

James Frey book The Final Testament of the Holy Bible

Source: The Final Testament of the Holy Bible

Life

“I'm only interested in people engaged in a project of self-transformation.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

“A town so suffocating and small, you tripped over people you hated every day. People who knew things about you. It's the kind of place that leaves a mark.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

Hate

“There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

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

“I adored history, not the dry dates and boring battles, but the stories and the people who populated them.”

Deanna Raybourn (1968) American writer

Source: Silent in the Grave

History

“People who shout joy from the rooftops are often the saddest of all.”

Milan Kundera The Joke

Source: The Joke

Joy

“So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the "burning marl." Old wives' tales! There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is—other people!”

Jean Paul Sartre No Exit

Garcin, Act 1, sc. 5
Variant: So that is what hell is. I would never have believed it. You remember: the fire and brimstone, the torture. Ah! the farce. There is no need for torture: Hell is other people.
Source: No Exit (1944)

Hell

“(I’ve often noticed that people equate “having a sense of humour” with “being an insensitive moron.”)”

Sophie Kinsella book Finding Audrey

Source: Finding Audrey

Sense

“Listen," I told him. "Don't be so tough so early in the morning. I'm sure you've cut plenty of people's throats. I haven't even had my coffee yet.”

Ernest Hemingway book To Have and Have Not

Source: To Have and Have Not

Coffee

“One reads books in order to gain the privilege of living more than one life. People who don't read are trapped in a mine shaft, even if they think the sun is shining.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Life, Books, Thinking, Reading

“Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around us who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future, and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment

Jealousy, Past, Future, Anger

“People are stupid. They will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true.”

Terry Goodkind book Wizard's First Rule

Source: Wizard's First Rule

Lie, Stupidity

“I have noticed that people are dealing too much with the negative, with what is wrong…. Why not try the other way, to look into the patient and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Way

“Im waiting, for what, my kind of people, what kind is that, i can tell my kind of people by their faces, by something in their faces.”

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

Waiting

“It’s not so much that nothing means
anything but more that it keeps meaning
nothing.
there’s no release, just gurus and self-
appointed gods and hucksters.
the more people say, the less there is to say.
even the best books are dry sawdust.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

God, Books

“As soon as one identifies, challenges and overcomes illegitimate power, he or she is an anarchist. Most people are anarchists.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Noam Chomsky interviewed by Zeit Campus;
Quotes 2010s, 2011
Context: [ZEIT Campus: You often say you are an anarchist. What do you mean by that? ] Chomsky: Students should challenge authorities and join a long anarchist tradition. [ZEIT Campus: “Challenge authorities” – a liberal or a moderate leftist could accept that invitation. ] Chomsky: As soon as one identifies, challenges and overcomes illegitimate power, he or she is an anarchist. Most people are anarchists. What they call themselves doesn’t matter to me. [ZEIT Campus: Who or what must challenge today’s student generation? ] Chomsky: This world is full of suffering, distress, violence and catastrophes. Students must decide: does something concern you or not? I say: look around, analyze the problems, ask yourself what you can do and set out on the work!

“You know what a storyteller is, don't you? It's a person that has a good memory who hopes other people don't.”

Sandra Dallas American writer

Hope, Memory, Personality

“One sad thing about this world is that the acts that take the most out of you are usually the ones that people will never know about.

(from 'Celestial Navigation')”

Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist

World, Sadness

“I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totallylife. It's more important to confirm the least sincere. The clouds get enough attention as it is…”

Frank O'Hara (1926–1966) American poet, art critic and writer

Grass, Sincerity

“It was as if the normal veil that separated two people had melted.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 2

“It's been my experience that people who make proclamations about themselves are usually the opposite of what they claim to be.”

Chelsea Handler book Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

Source: Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

“it's impossible to remain angry or blame other people for problems in your life when you are saying, "I am responsible”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Source: Reinvention: How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life

Life, Problem

“So much of language is unspoken. So much of language is compromised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words. People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

Communication

“This is politics. People in power never have to play by the same rules.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

“There were not many people who could say that their education had been paid for with cigarettes.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Education

“great writers are indecent people
they live unfairly
saving the best part for paper.

good human beings save the world
so that bastards like me can keep creating art,
become immortal.
if you read this after I am dead
it means I made it.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

World, Art, Reading, Parting

“A lot of people like to do certain things, but they're not
that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like
to do, until you find something that you actually seem to be
extremely good at. It can be anything.”

George Lucas (1944) American film producer

“It is these black clothes," said Strange. "I am like a leftover piece of funeral, condemned to walk about the Town, frightening people into thinking of their own mortality.”

Susanna Clarke book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Source: Jonathan Strange y el señor Norrell

Thinking, Clothes

“My aim is to agitate and disturb people. I'm not selling bread; I'm selling yeast.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

“Only two kinds of people drink their coffee black: cops and serial killers.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Binds

Coffee, Drink

“People are going to judge you all the time no matter what you do… Don't worry about other people. Worry about you.”

Jacqueline Woodson (1963) American writer

Source: The Dear One

Time

“Paths are so much clearer when people stop looking at what everyone else is doing and instead concentrate on themselves
~Gabe”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

“People think I'm a miserable sod but it's only because I get asked such bloody miserable questions.”

Nick Cave (1957) Australian musician

Question, Thinking

“Categorizing is necessary for humans, but it becomes pathological when the category is seen as definitive, preventing people from considering the fuzziness of boundaries, let alone revising their categories.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (1960) Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader and risk analyst

Source: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2007), p.15

“A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back — but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you.”

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

Reported in Dick Richards, The Art of Winning Commitment : 10 Ways Leaders Can Engage Minds, Hearts, And Spirits (2004), p. 11.

Waiting

“Those people who recognise that imagination is reality's master, we call sages, and those who act upon it, we call artists.”

Tom Robbins Skinny Legs and All

Skinny Legs and All (1990)
Context: ... she recreated the mountains not as she had originally seen them but as she eventually chose to perceive them, not only a capacity to observe the world but a capacity to alter his or her observation of it — which, in the end, is the capacity to alter the world, itself. Those people who recognise that imagination is reality's master, we call "sages," and those who act upon it, we call "artists."

Imagination, Reality

“Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

Music

“As Emmanuel, Cardinal Suhard says, "To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Source: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

Life, God, Way, Sense