Quotes about the world
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“Our waking life's desire to shape the world to our convenience invites all manner of paradox and difficulty.”

Cormac McCarthy book Cities of the Plain

Source: Cities of the Plain (1998)

“A good book is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility what human nature is of what happens in the world. It's a creator of inwardness.”

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

Books, Education, Nature, Sense

“The whole drama of the world is such tragedy that I am weary of the spectacle.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

“The rich world likes and wishes to believe that someone, somewhere, is doing something for the Third World. For this reason, it does not inquire too closely into the motives or practices of anyone who fulfills, however vicariously, this mandate.”

Christopher Hitchens book The Missionary Position

Source: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice

Motivation

“Everything in the world needs kindness, child. [Ryssa]”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

“If you are going to impose your will on the world, you must have control over what you believe.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

“There's no app for a bourbon buzz on a warm day in a cool, dark bar. The world will always want a drink.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Drink

“Did I do anything wrong today," he said, "or has the world always been like this and I've been too wrapped up in myself to notice?”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Since the world has changed so much, the same values don't lead to the same choices anymore.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Eating Animals

Source: Eating Animals

Change

“isn’t life a kind of corruption? A child is born, and the world sets in upon it. Taking things from it, stuffing things into it.”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

Life

“This is Graceland. Home of the most famous musician in the world.”
“Michael Jackson lived here?”
“No, dummy,” Carter said. “Elvis Presley.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Home

“He was wearing a look that she found odd and compelling - that amusement that didn’t seem to pass beyond the surface of his features, as he found everything in the world both infinitely funny and infinitely tragic all at the same time.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Time

“The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply, 'Create silence'.”

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

Life, Disease, Silence

“He'd half meant to speak but those eyes had altered the world forever in the space of a heartbeat.”

Cormac McCarthy book All the Pretty Horses

Source: All the Pretty Horses

“[I]sn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be part of it?”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

Source: Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder

Sadness, Spring, Parting

“the world is neither meaningful, nor absurd. it quite simply is, and that, in any case, is what is so remarkable about it.”

Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922–2008) 1922-2008 French agricultural engineer, filmmaker and writer

“A world that was crowded with people could still be a very lonely place.”

Jodi Picoult Plain Truth

Source: Plain Truth

People

“You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book (Lady Chatterley, for instance), or you take a trip, or you talk with Richard, and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death.”

Anaïs Nin book The Diary of Anaïs Nin

The Diary of Anaïs Nin , Volume One 1931-1934
Diary entries (1914 - 1974)

Death, Children, Pleasure, Books

“It's not me but the world that's deranged.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

“Fairy tales had been her first experience of the magical universe, and more than once she had wondered why people ended up distancing themselves from that world, knowing the immense joy that childhood had brought to their lives.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

People, Universe, Joy, Childhood

“This was the time in her life that she fell upon books as the only door out of her cell. They became half her world.”

Michael Ondaatje book The English Patient

Source: The English Patient

Life, Books, Time

“When you have too much faith in something, it's bound to hurt you. Too much faith in anything will suck you dry. In this way, all the world is a vampire.”

Poppy Z. Brite (1967) Novelist, short story writer, food writer

Faith, Way, Hurt

“In my mind, the sexiest thing in the world is the feeling that you’re wanted.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Feeling

“Most of us all walk around as if we're sleepwalking. We really don't experience the world fully, because we're half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Thinking

“people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

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

People, Thinking, Sense, Change

“If only these walls could talk…the world would know just how hard it is to tell the truth in a story in which everyone’s a liar.”

Gregg Olsen (1959) American writer

Source: Envy

Truth

“None of those other things makes a difference. Love is the strongest thing in the world, you know. Nothing can touch it. Nothing comes close. If we love each other we're safe from it all. Love is the biggest thing there is.”

David Guterson book Snow Falling on Cedars

Source: Snow Falling on Cedars

Love

“Imagine how they would have mocked you if you proclaimed, 'Not only is the world a sphere, but there is an invisible, mystical force that holds everything to its surface'!”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

Imagination

“How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself.”

Gore Vidal book Julian

Source: 1960s, Julian (1964), Chapter 1, Libanius to Priscus, Antioch March 380

Books, Time

“Love is a fire/It burns everyone/It disfigures everyone/It is the world's excuse for being ugly.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Love

“There are a lot of black-hearted, mean-spirited bastards in the world. It's important that we hold them to acount. But always remember thatmight be the most black-hearted and mean-spirited in the lot, so hold yourself the most accountable of all.”

Darren Shan (1972) Irish writer of English-language fiction under pen name, real name Darren O'Shaughnessy

Source: Zom-B Underground

Heart

“You never know when, and you never know who, but someday a stranger will burst through the door of your life and transform it utterly. The world will be turned upside down, and you will be happier for it.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Nothing but Shadows

Life

“There wasn't enough gratitude in the world for a server who kept drinks coming at a time like this.”

Jennifer Crusie book Bet Me

Source: Bet Me

Drink, Time, Gratitude

“Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours, and nothing is fabulous any more.”

Roald Dahl (1916–1990) British novelist, short story writer, poet, fighter pilot and screenwriter

“Without animals, there would be no humanity. In a world of just people, people will mean nothing…”

Chuck Palahniuk book Haunted

Source: Haunted

People, Animals

“Logos and branding are so important. In a big part of the world, people cannot read French or English--but are great in remembering signs”

Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer

People, Reading, Parting

“My Sin City heroes are knights in dirty, blood-caked armor. They bring justice to a world that gives them no medals, no praise, no reward.”

Frank Miller (1957) American writer, artist, film director

"Frank Miller: I Stole From The Best!" COMICDOM interview (22 January 2006), edited by Dimitris Sakaridis http://www.comicdom.gr/interviews.php?id=17&lang=en <br class="br">Context: My Sin City heroes are knights in dirty, blood-caked armor. They bring justice to a world that gives them no medals, no praise, no reward. That world, that city, often kills them for their brave service.

Justice

“you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

Heart

“For the world slows and the stars falter, and all that remains is you…”

Sharon Shinn book Archangel

Source: Archangel

Star

“When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View

Love, Life, Thinking

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Lie

“Keep on rockin' in the free world.”

Neil Young (1945) Canadian singer-songwriter

“After a cruel childhood, one must reinvent oneself. Then reimagine the world.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Childhood

“In our world, I rank music somewhere between hair ribbons and rainbows in terms of usefulness. At least a rainbow gives you a tip about the weather.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Music, Weather

“loving people live in a loving world. hostile people live in a hostile world. same world.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Love, Hostility, People, Deep

“It is not that the girl is unfit for everything, it is that she is not of this world.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Of Love and Other Demons

Source: Of Love and Other Demons

Girl

“There is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure - it is, after all, what everybody does all the time.”

Susanna Clarke book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Source: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Failure, Time

“The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are right, while those who believe with certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice.”

Saul D. Alinsky (1909–1972) American community organizer and writer

Source: Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals

Pain, Light

“It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.”

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

Source: The World As I See It

“In truth, nothing was the same. She forgot about the stars… and taking notice of the sea. She was no longer filled with all the curiosities of the world and didn’t take much notice of anything… other than how heavy… and awkward the bottle had become.”

Oliver Jeffers (1977) British writer and illustrator

Source: The Heart and the Bottle

Truth, Star, Sea

“n the world, those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

“Heroes save worlds," Clary said. "They don't destroy them.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“As one, they leap, laughing, and that is where we leave them - mouths open, arms spread wide, fingers splayed to take in the whole world, bodies flying high in defiance of gravity, as if they will never fall.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

Flying

“To do more for the world than the world does for you - that is success.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Source: Ford News, March 1926

Success

“He thought there was no hope for him. Me? I can't imagine a world without hope.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Hope, Imagination

“The way through the world
Is more difficult to find than the way beyond it.”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Way

“This world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease.”

Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy

Life, Youth, Imagination, Courage

“This is the world. Half of it is lit by the sun and the other half remains in darkness. It is the same with life. There is good and bad and it's our duty to remain in the light, be good.”

Anita Nair (1966) Indian writer

Life, Light, Sun

“The world is like a broken wrist that healed the wrong way, and will never be the same again.”

Frances Hardinge book Fly by Night

Source: Fly by Night

Way

“To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed-plot of all other virtues.”

John Locke (1632–1704) English philosopher and physician

Letter to Anthony Collins (29 October 1703) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1726#lf0128-09_head_098

Love, Truth, Parting, Perfection

“What’s the world’s greatest lie?” the boy asked. “It’s this: that at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That’s the world’s greatest lie.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Fate, Lie, Boy

“You want us to fly off to save the world on Happy The Dragon?”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Happiness, Flying

“I love you because all the loves in the world are like different rivers flowing into the same lake where they meet and are transformed into a single love that becomes rain and blesses the earth.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Love

“Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

“I don't know how to live in the world as a Shadowhunter without Will. I don't think i even want to. I am still a parabatai, but my other half is gone.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Thinking

“The more I study men, the more I realize that they are nothing in the world but boys grown too big to be spankable.”

Jean Webster book Dear Enemy

Source: Dear Enemy

Men, Boy, Study

“People around the world were moving from one place to another. No one was staying.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

People

“In my paranoid world every storekeeper thinks I’m stealing, every man thinks I’m a prostitute or a lesbian, every woman thinks I’m a lesbian or arrogant, and every child and animal sees the real me and it is evil.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: It Chooses You

Thinking, Evil, Animals

“A bud is a flower-to-be. A flower in waiting. Waiting for just the right warmth and care to open up. It's a little fist of love waiting to unfold and be seen by the world. And that's you.”

Christopher Paul Curtis book Bud, Not Buddy

Source: Bud, Not Buddy

Love, Flowers, Waiting

“What good was owning the world when he’d have no choice except to defend himself against every person in it? Personally, he’d rather be a beggar with one true friend than a prince surrounded by two-faced assassins.’ (Aiden)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Upon the Midnight Clear

Personality

“We must be careful with our lives, for Christ's sake, because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Christ

“You know how some people, when they're together, they somehow make you feel more hopeful? Make you feel like the world is not the insane place it really is?”

Rebecca Wells book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

People, Hope, Feeling

“Was I the only woman in the world who, at my age - and after a lifetime of quite rampant independence - still did not quite feel grown up?”

Dodie Smith (1896–1990) English novelist and playwright

Source: The Town in Bloom

Age, Feeling

“Bessie?” I looked down at the bull serpent. “But… he’s too cute. He couldn’t destroy the world.”
-Percy Jackson”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“In this world of ours, the sparrow must live like a hawk if he is to fly at all.”

Hayao Miyazaki (1941) Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka

Flying

“God's plan is not to abandon this world, the world which he said was "very good." Rather, he intends to remake it. And when he does he will raise all his people to new bodily life to live in it. That is the promise of the Christian gospel.”

N.T. Wright (1948) Anglican bishop

Source: Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

Life, God, People

“Be careful with the world, or the next time we meet, it might get ugly.”

Scott Westerfeld book Specials

Source: Specials

Time

“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, Hope, Idea, Personality

“Whether you be man or woman you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.”

James Allen (1864–1912) British philosophical writer

Courage

“The man who believes that the secrets of the world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down.”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Blood Meridian (1985)
Source: Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West
Context: The judge tilted his great head. The man who believes that the secrets of this world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the tapestry will by the decision alone have taken charge of the world and it is only by such taking charge that he will effect a way to dictate the terms of his own fate.

Secret, Fear

“But I knew the truth and that's why I was so sad. Every moment before this one depends on this one. Everything in the history of the world can be proven wrong in one moment.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Truth, Sadness, History, Dependency