Quotes about thinking
page 34

“I think I’ll just go take a shower,” I said.
It wasn’t until Samuel stiffened that I remembered I’d just come out of the shower. So much for playing normal.”

Patricia Briggs book Iron Kissed

Source: Iron Kissed

“I don't think it's going to work out. Winning… won't help in any case. Because… she came here with me. - Peeta Mellark”

Suzanne Collins (1962) American television writer and novelist

Caesar Flickerman and Peeta Mellark, p. 138
The Hunger Games trilogy, The Hunger Games (2008)
Context: "So, here's what you do. You win, you go home. She can‘t turn you down then, eh?" says Caesar encouragingly.
"I don't think it‘s going to work out. Winning... won‘t help in my case," says Peeta.
"Why ever not?" says Caesar, mystified. Peeta blushes beet red and stammers out. "Because... because... she came here with me."

Help

“My mother always said 'Don't bother other people.' I think that's good advice.”

Amy Sedaris (1961) American comedian

Source: I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence

People

“Many people think that happiness comes from having more power or more money.”

François Lelord book Hector and the Search for Happiness

Source: Hector and the Search for Happiness

Money, Happiness, People

“Stories took twists and turns down fairy-tale paths or down very human everyday ones. You think you’re at the end of the book, and it’s only the end of a chapter.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Story of Us

Books

“I don't think we should base so much on weight, muscles, and a good hair day, but when it happens, it's nice. It really is.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“I just think it's bad when a boy looks at a girl and thinks that the way he sees the girl is better than the girl actually is.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Way, Girl, Boy

“He doesn't know what to make of me," Mat said softly.
"How very uncommon. I can't think of anyone else who has reacted that way to you, Mat.”

Robert Jordan The Wheel of Time

Source: A Memory of Light

Way

“Those who think they know it all have no way of finding out they don't..”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

Way

“If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others.”

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author

Universe

“Clarabelle laughed like she'd just heard the funniest thing ever. "Of course you HOPE you won't die, Valkyrie! Who would HOPE to die? That's just SILLY! But you probably WILL die, that's what I'm saying. Don't you think so?”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: The Faceless Ones

Hope

“What lingered after them was not life, which always overcomes natural death, but the most trivial list of mundane facts: a clock ticking on a wall, a room dim at noon, and the outrageousness of a human being thinking only of herself.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Virgin Suicides

Source: The Virgin Suicides

Life, Death, Nature

“You make a good point,' Fletcher conceded. 'See, there's a reason why you're the girl and I'm the boy. You think about things while I…'
'Don't?'
'Exactly,' he said happily.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

Girl, Boy

“It's good to keep changing your mind. It shows you're thinking. I'll only stop changing my mind when I'm dead. And maybe not even then.”

John Marsden (1950) author

Source: Darkness, Be My Friend

Change, Dead

“I think that maybe forgiveness is like change - it comes in small steps. (256)”

Mary E. Pearson book The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Source: The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Forgiveness, Change

“What makes a Malazan soldier so dangerous? They’re allowed to think.”

Steven Erikson book Deadhouse Gates

Source: Deadhouse Gates

“If only we could see in advance all the harm that can come from the good we think we are doing.”

Luigi Pirandello Six Characters in Search of an Author

Source: Six Characters in Search of an Author

“Simon didn’t think Meg really wanted to know how to eviscerate a rabbit. He could be wrong about that, but he just couldn’t picture Meg pouncing on a bunny and ripping it open with her teeth.
Maybe if he tried harder to picture it?”

Anne Bishop book Written in Red

Source: Written in Red

“I have finished To Kill a Mockingbird. It is now my favorite book of all time, but then again, I always think that until I read another book.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Books, Time, Reading

“I think she is growing up, and so begins to dream dreams, and have hopes and fears and fidgets, without knowing why or being able to explain them.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Fear, Dreams, Hope

“I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything.”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Sense, Country

“I didn't know what to think about first: me seeing Claude naked, Claude seeing me naked, or the whole fact that we were related and naked in the same room.
(Sookie Stackhouse, Dead in the Family)”

Charlaine Harris Dead in the Family

Source: Dead in the Family

Family, Dead

“Maybe I want a black eye. Did you think of that?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“If I can't feel, if I can't move, if I can't think, and I can't care, then what conceivable point is there in living?”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Source: Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Feeling

“Do you think I don't want him to be gone more than you do? I do. Because I need to know that I can still breathe properly when he's not around. If something happens to him, I have to know that I won't fall apart…”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“Tsornin's nostrils showed red, but his ears were as alert as ever, and occasionally he would rub his nose gently against the nape of her neck, just in case she was momentarily not thinking about him.”

Robin McKinley book The Blue Sword

Source: The Blue Sword

“Confound you handsome young fellows! You think of having it all your own way in the world. You don't understand women. They don't admire you half so much as you admire yourselves.”

George Eliot book Middlemarch

Source: Middlemarch

Women, World, Way, Understanding

“Most everything you think you know about me is nothing more than memories.”

Haruki Murakami book A Wild Sheep Chase

Source: A Wild Sheep Chase

Memory

“Maybe the fear is that
we are less than
we think we are,
when the
actuality of it
is that we are much much more.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn (1944) American academic

Source: Arriving at Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness

Fear

“It was one of the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn't think about my life at all.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Life

“It's the thinking that gets you killed.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

“I think we can all agree that sleeping around is a great way to meet people.”

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

People, Way, Sleep

“If it's not exactly like you thought it would be, you think it's a failure. What about the spectrum of colors in between.”

Sara Evans (1971) American country singer and songwriter

Source: Softly and Tenderly

Color, Failure

“How do you know about Boy George? (Jesse)
I was in hell, Jesse. What do you think they used to torture me with? Bad pop songs. (Xypher)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Chaser

Boy, Hell

“I hate clowns. You can't see what they're thinking.”

Geraldine McCaughrean book Peter Pan in Scarlet

Source: Peter Pan in Scarlet

Hate

“When you think about it, most of the good ideas came along to make sin a whole lot easier.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: Horns

Idea

“So do you think it's true what they say? About girls liking bastards?'
'He's not a bastard. He's an idiot.'
'Do girls like idiots then?”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Girl

“Love may not lead where we think or hope, but regardless of outcome it should be a call to seriousness and truth. If it is not that - if it is not moral in its effect - then love is no more than an exaggerated form of pleasure.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Levels of Life

Love, Pleasure, Truth, Hope

“Pretending to be 'normal' is a lot harder than you think.”

Sue Grafton (1940–2017) American writer

Source: F is for Fugitive

“Let's stay young forever. Young, stupid, and pretty. Sounds like a plan, don't you think?”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: All These Things I've Done

Stupidity

“Everything we need to know is locked up in your head, under those pretty red curls."
Clary reached up to touch her hair protectively. "I dont think-"
"So what are you going to do?" Simon asked sharply. "Cut her head open to get at it?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“Is a woman a thinking unit at all, or a fraction always wanting its integer?”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

“I used to think that it was better to have too much than too little, but now I think if the too much was never supposed to be yours, you should just take what is yours and give the rest back.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Book of Tomorrow

“I think we got in more trouble with Aunt Tasha,ʺ said Christian. ʺShe was kind of pissed off that we didnʹt tell her what was going on. I think she probably wanted to blow up the statues herself.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“It doesn't matter what people thinks of you as long as you know that your heart and head are in the right place.”

Steve Kluger book Almost Like Being in Love

Source: Almost Like Being in Love

People, Heart

“I was seducing shepherdesses when you weren't a twinkle in your great-grandcestor's eyes. I think I know what I'm doing.”

Jim Butcher book Storm Front

Source: Storm Front

“That word again. Happy. It’s a curse. The pursuit of happiness makes us deeply unhappy. It’s a trap. Before anything else happened, there was me in bed, thinking of who you used to be.
I don’t want you to think I forgot.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

Happiness

“Promise me, Amelie, that you’ll crucify me with silver before you allow me to fall in love.”

“I hardly think there’s any chance of that,” Amelie said. "I doubt you have the capacity.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Love, Chance

“You could be the Mega Mage of wizards. You could rule Minionfire.
Do you really think so?'
Yeah, but you'd have to make a deal with the wood elves.'
I don't like the wood elves.'
They're okay. They're misunderstood.”

Janet Evanovich (1943) Novelist

“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.”

Edward O. Wilson (1929) American biologist

Source: Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998), p. 294.

Wisdom, People, World, Time

“I wake up wating you. I fall asleep wanting you. I watch a magnificent sunrise and can think only of sharing it with you. I glimpse a piece of amver and see your eyes. Jillian, I've caught a disease, and the fever abates only when I'm near you.”

Karen Marie Moning book To Tame a Highland Warrior

Source: To Tame a Highland Warrior

Disease

“It is far more comforting to think God listened and said no, than to think that nobody’s out there.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

God

“I believe it, Chronicler found himself thinking. Before it was just a story, but now I can believe it. This is the face of a man who has killed an angel.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Angels

“Did you really think I was too fragile to know what Deryn was?"

"Fragile?" Volger looked about. "I hadn't thought so, but now I find you brooding in a bathroom. This doesn't speak well of your sturdiness.”

Scott Westerfeld book Goliath

Source: Goliath

“I used to think the worst feeling in the world is losing someone you love. But I was wrong the worst feeling in the world is the moment that you realize you've lost yourself.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Love, World, Feeling

“I think that maybe if women and children were in charge we would get somewhere.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

Women, Children

“I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman's feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge of.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

Feeling, Sport, Suffering

“It is human nature to think wisely and to act in an absurd fashion.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

Il est dans la nature humaine de penser sagement et d'agir d'une façon absurde. <br class="br"> Le livre de mon ami http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_Livre_de_Pierre_-_Premi%C3%A8res_conqu%C3%AAtes#II._La_Dame_en_blanc (1885): Le livre de Pierre, part I, ch. II: La dame en blanc

Fashion, Nature

“When you get everything you wanted, I think maybe you do have to be a little grateful for the people who got you there… whether or not they thought they were doing you any favors at the time.”

Jennifer Weiner (1970) American writer

People, Time

“But far more numerous was the herd of such,
Who think too little, and who talk too much.”

John Dryden Absalom and Achitophel

Pt. I, lines 532–533. Compare Matthew Prior, Upon a Passage in the Scaligerana, "They always talk who never think".
Source: Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

“To tell you the truth I love Sam. It's not a movie kind of love either. I just look at her sometimes and I think she is the prettiest and nicest person in the whole world.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Love, Truth, World, Personality

“I think I may be in love with you, Sophie," said Will. "Marriage could be in the cards.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Love, Marriage

“I do not think you are in any danger of starving," Maximus said. "The surgeon said only two weeks ago that you are too fat."

"The devil!" Berkley said indignantly, sitting up; and Maximus snorted in amusement at having provoked him.”

Naomi Novik book His Majesty's Dragon

Source: His Majesty's Dragon

“People think about who they are in the stillest hour of the night. I carry this thought, the child's
mystery and terror of this thought, I feel this immensity in my soul every second of my life.”

Don DeLillo book Cosmopolis

Source: Cosmopolis

Life, People, Feeling, Soul

“Let no one think of me that I am humble or weak or passive; let them understand I am of a different kind: dangerous to my enemies, loyal to my friends. To such a life glory belongs.”

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Source: Medea and Other Plays: Medea / Alcestis / The Children of Heracles / Hippolytus

Life, Understanding

“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.”

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher

Source: 1910s, An Introduction to Mathematics (1911), ch. 5. 
Context: It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them. Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle — they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments.

“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.”

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

People

“Want a Coke?” Abra asked. “Sugar solves lots of problems, that’s what I think.”

Stephen King book Doctor Sleep

Source: Doctor Sleep

Problem

“But why think about that when all the golden lands ahead of you and all kinds of unforseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Variant: Why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?
Source: On the Road

Waiting

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Doin' It Again, Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics (1990)
Context: I know that. Some people don't want you to mention certain things. Some people don't want you to say this, some people don't want you to say that. Some people think if you mention some things they might happen. Some people are really fucking stupid. Did you ever notice that, how many stupid people you run into during the day? Goddamn there's a lot of stupid bastards walking around. Carry a pad and pencil with you, you'll wind up with thirty or forty names by the end of the day. Think about this; think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of 'em are stupider than that.

Stupidity, Personality, Funny

“In another time and place, she might have felt differently, but thinking along those lines was pointless now.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

Source: True Believer

Time

“Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don't think an artist can ever be happy.”

Georges Simenon (1903–1989) Belgian writer

Interviewed in Paris Review, Summer 1955; reprinted in Malcolm Cowley (ed.) Writers at Work (New York: Viking Press, 1959) p. 146.

Happiness

“I think the only answer is to live life to the fullest while you can and collect memories like fools collect money. Because in the end, that's all you have - happy memories.”

Sarah Strohmeyer (1950) American writer

Source: Kindred Spirits

Life, Money, Happiness, Fools

“You're only a man! You've not our gifts! I can tell you! Why, a woman can think of a hundred different things at once, all them contradictory!”

Georgette Heyer (1902–1974) British historical romance and detective fiction novelist

Source: Powder And Patch

“I do not think I have any uncharitable prejudice against the rattlesnake, still, I should not like to be one.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

“Stupid rock gods!” Leo yelled from the helm. “That’s thetime I’ve had to replace that mast! You think they grow on trees?”
Nico frowned. “Mastsfrom trees.”
“That’s not the point!”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

God, Stupidity, Tree

“I close my eyes, thinking that there is nothing like an embrace after an absence, nothing like fitting my face into the curve of his shoulder and filling my lungs with the scent of him.”

Jodi Picoult book Keeping Faith

Variant: simply-quotes Follow

I close my eyes, thinking that there is nothing like an embrace after an absence, nothing like fitting my face into the curve of his shoulder and filling my lungs with the scent of him.
Source: Keeping Faith