Quotes about the world
page 63

“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!

People, Water, Sea

“America is the greatest, freest, and most decent society in existence. It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism. This country, once an experiment unique in the world, is now the last best hope for the world.”

Dinesh D'Souza (1961) Indian-American political commentator, filmmaker, author

Source: Books, What's So Great About America (2003), Ch. 6: America the Beautiful

Hope, Country

“Love is such a magic thing. It can make you feel like your floating in the clouds without a trouble in the world.”

Lois Gladys Leppard (1924–2008) American writer

Source: Mandie and the Courtroom Battle

Love, Feeling

“We’ve known for a long time that it was no longer possible to overturn this world, nor reshape it, nor head off its dangerous headlong rush. There’s been only one possible resistance: to not take it seriously.”

Milan Kundera book The Festival of Insignificance

Source: The Festival of Insignificance

Time

“I
think that the
world should be full of cats and full of rain, that's all, just
cats and
rain, rain and cats, very nice, good
night.”

Charles Bukowski book Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

Source: Betting on the Muse: Poems and Stories

Cats, Thinking, Night

“Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Source: Letters of John Keats

Pain, School, Soul, Intelligence

“Thirstily he set it to his lips, and as its cool refreshment began to soothe his throat, he thanked Heaven that in a world of much evil there was still so good a thing as ale.”

Rafael Sabatini (1875–1950) Italian writer

Source: Fortune's Fool

Evil

“It feels like the whole world has turned upside down. There aren't any more rules.

Hey,' I say to Sam, because if the world's gone crazy, then I guess I can do whatever I want. "Guess what? I'm a worker.”

Holly Black book White Cat

Source: White Cat

Feeling

“How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Source: Marilyn: Her Life In Own Words

For women

“How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and shirt size?”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

“Rather he consoled himself with the fact that, in the real world, when he looked closely into the darkness he might find the presence of a light, damaged and bruised, but a little light all the same.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

Light

“One day, tens of millions of years from now, someone will find me rusted into the mud of a world they have never seen, and when they crumble me between their fingers, it will be you they find.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

“To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.”

Frantz Fanon book Black Skin, White Masks

Source: Black Skin, White Masks (1952), pp. 38

“If a person continues to see giants, it means he is still looking at the world through the eyes of a child.”

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

Personality

“Open your eyes now. I will. One moment. Has all vanished since? If I open and am for ever in the black adiaphane. I will see if I can see.
See now. There all the time without you: and ever shall be, world without end.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

Time

“In this world only the paranoid survive.”

Dean Koontz book Midnight

Source: Midnight

“But the very fact that this world is so challenging is exactly why you sometimes must reach out of its jurisdiction for help, appealing to a higher authority in order to find your comfort.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Help

“There's not much you need to know about the world. Except how to use a sword and trust very few.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

“Are you mad? (Artemis)
Yes, I am. Mad at this world where we are nothing to the gods. Mad at the Fates who put us here for no purpose except to toy with us for their petty amusement. I wish all of the gods were dead and gone. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

God, Fate, Madness, Dead

“Sometimes you need to lie make the world go around”

Koushun Takami book Battle Royale

Source: Battle Royale

Lie

“I can tell we’re going to get along like Batman and the Joker. (Fang)
Just remember one thing, world. I’m the best friend you’ll ever have or the last enemy you’ll ever make. (Thorn)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Bad Moon Rising

“Learning how to discipline your speech is a way of preventing your energies from spilling out of you through the rupture of your mouth, exhausting you and filling the world with words, words, words instead of serenity, peace and bliss.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Peace, Way, Learning

“I'd kind of expected that kids who knew about the Real World wouldn't act like jock dipwads. Guess I was wrong.”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Source: Betrayals

“The power of death signifies that this real world can only have a neutral image of life, that life's intimacy does not reveal it's dazzling consumption until the moment it gives out.”

Georges Bataille (1897–1962) French intellectual and literary figure

Source: Theory of Religion

Life, Death

“I know I'm not going to be able to change the world, but I think it's important to try to make a difference”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

Thinking, Change

“Don't assume the world evolved in the order in which you discovered it.”

Raymond E. Feist (1945) Novelist

“I wonder can I carry on with the speed of the world without you in it.”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach―ブリーチ― 49 [Burīchi 49]

Speed

“If a person holds no ambitions in this world, he suffers unknowingly. If a person holds ambitions, he suffers knowingly, but very slowly.”

Alan Lightman book Einstein's Dreams

Source: Einstein's Dreams

Suffering, Personality

“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

People

“I guess we're even, Sadie. First, Walt and I rushed off to save you in London. Then, you and Walt rushed off to save me. The only one who got shafted on both deals was Walt. Poor guy gets hauled all over the world pulling us out of trouble”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Guy

“What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the World.”

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

God

“I wonder how the foreign policies of the United States would look if we wiped out the national boundaries of the world, at least in our minds, and thought of all children everywhere as our own.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Children

“That was the thing about being on the inside: the world was just going on, even when it seemed like time for you had stopped for good.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Time

“I'm happy to tell you there is very little in this world that I believe in.”

George Carlin book Brain Droppings

Source: Brain Droppings

Happiness

“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.

People

“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, People

“When I work, I'm just translating the world around me in what seems to be straightforward terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that's not familiar. But I'm not trying to manipulate reality. This is just what I see and hear.”

Don DeLillo (1936) American novelist, playwright and essayist

Reality

“Groucho: You know I think you're the most beautiful woman in the world?
Woman: Really?
Groucho: No, but I don't mind lying if it gets me somewhere.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Beauty, Lying, Thinking

“Is he… is Dimitri a Strigoi?"
Mason hesitated only a moment, like he was afraid to answer me, and then—he nodded.
My heart shattered. My world shattered.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Heart

“I want to live happily in a world I don't understand.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Source: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012), p. 4
Source: Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder

Understanding

“ice contains no future, just the past, sealed away. As if they're alive, everything in the world is sealed up inside, clear and distinct. Ice can preserve all kinds of things that way- cleanly, clearly. That's the essence of ice, the role it plays.”

Haruki Murakami book Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Way, Past, Future

“It was good, really, that this external world still existed, if only as a place of refuge.”

Patrick Süskind (1949) German writer and screenwriter

Source: Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer

“Don't compare yourself with anyone in this world… if you do so, you are insulting yourself.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

“The idealists and visionaries, foolish enough to throw caution to the winds and express their ardor and faith in some supreme deed, have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

Faith

“No one is born fully-formed: it is through self-experience in the world that we become what we are.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

“One of the most beautiful gifts in the world is the gift of encouragement. When someone encourages you, that person helps you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong

Beauty, Help, Personality

“Conquer yourself rather than the world.”

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

“Every man believes to some extent that the world began when he was born and, at the moment of leaving it, suffers at having to let the Universe remain unfinished.”

Maurice Druon (1918–2009) French writer

Source: El rey de hierro

Suffering, Universe

“Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies, actually. No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world.”

Michel Houellebecq (1956) writer

Source: H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life

Love, Life, Universe, Reading

“The scariest thing in the world is thinking someone you love is going to die.”

Jodi Picoult book Lone Wolf

Source: Lone Wolf

Love, Thinking

“The world in your mind is as real as the world outside of it.”

Melissa de la Cruz book The Van Alen Legacy

Source: The Van Alen Legacy

“You lose the world for a glance? Of course you do. That is what the world is for: to lose under the right circunstances.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Levels of Life

“In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present - I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

“The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Way

“You're all the world to me. Whenever i can't see you… I die a little.”

Yasmina Khadra (1955) Algerian writer

Source: The Attack

“A boy may be as disagreeable as he pleases, but when a girl refuses to crap sunshine on command, the world mutters darkly about her moods.”

Scott Lynch book The Republic of Thieves

Source: The Republic of Thieves

Girl, Boy, Mood

“We didn't make the world. All we have to do is live in it.”

Stephen R. Donaldson book Lord Foul's Bane

Source: Lord Foul's Bane

“Horror jolts me when I look at one of you and see a pair of beautiful eyes that make me think your mind might contain a world that could hold me as the bolts shake loose and fly from my frame.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: Solipsist

Beauty, Thinking, Flying

“For nonconformity the world will whip you with its displeasure.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“I don’t want to speak too disparagingly of my generation (actually I do, we had a chance to change the world but opted for the Home Shopping Network Instead)…”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Home, Change, Chance

“What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

People, Business, Thinking

“The world could be fixed of its problems if every child understood the necessity of their existence.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

Problem

“You can never really know someone completely. That’s why it’s the most terrifying thing in the world, really—taking someone on faith, hoping they’ll take you on faith too. It’s such a precarious balance, It’s a wonder we do it at all. And yet..”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Faith, Hope

“Meanwhile the 3 a. m. drunks of the world would lay in their beds, trying in vain to sleep, and deserving that rest, if they could find it.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Sleep

“Everything was for tomorrow, but tomorrow never came. The present was only a bridge and on this bridge they are still groaning, as the world groans, and not one idiot ever thinks of blowing up the bridge.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Thinking

“Things changed, people changed, and the world went rolling along right outside the window.”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

People, Change

“I’m not a bad person. I haven’t killed anyone. I (rarely) lie. I don’t kick little puppies. So why do people look at me as if the world would be a better place without me?”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Oh My Goth

People, Lie, Personality

“I spin worlds where we could be together. I dream you. For me, imagination and desire are very close.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Dreams, Imagination

“A little snark, properly directed, can change the world.”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

Change

“How beautiful is forgetting! What relief it would be for the world to lose some of its contents.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Tree of Codes

Source: Tree of Codes

Beauty, Forgetting

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

As quoted in "The Ragamuffin Legacy" https://relevantmagazine.com/god/practical-faith/ragamuffin-legacy (16 April 2013), by Ben Simpson, Relevant Magazine <br class="br">1990s

“We are coming up on the Sumerian apokalypsi–. (Artemis)
I don’t think they use that word. (Kat)
Who cares what word they use? End of the world is end of the world regardless of whatever term you use for it! (Artemis)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

Thinking