Quotes about thinking
page 41

“Sometimes, I think Bill forgets that I am sixteen. But I am very happy that he does.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Happiness, Forgetting

“When I think of you, and you are not there, I see you in my mind's eye always with a book in your hand.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Books

“Nobody ever completely means what they say. Even when they think they're telling the truth, there's always something hidden behind their words.”

Orson Scott Card book Shadow of the Giant

Source: Shadow of the Giant

Truth

“Darkness… When everything that you know and love… is taken from you so harshly… all you can think about is anger, hatred, and even revenge… and no one can save you.”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

Love, Revenge, Anger, Sad

“They think they're normal, because they all do the same thing. Well, I'm going to pretend that I have drunk from the same well as them.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decide Morir - Tapa Azul

“I don’t know what I’m doing in the next five minutes and she has the next ten years figured out. I’ll worry about making it out of ninth grade alive. Then I’ll think about a career path.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

“Tatia: I think its too big to fit”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Source: The Bronze Horseman

“Dieting fooled you into thinking you could control your life.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot

Source: The Marriage Plot

Life, Fools

“I think, therefore I am.”

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

Je pense, donc je suis.
Le Discours de la Méthode (1637)
Variant: I think, therefore I am.

“In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

People, World, Problem, Perfection

“Where did I get the nerve to think I could handle American teenagers? Ignorance. That's where I got the nerve.”

Frank McCourt (1930–2009) Irish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer

“But Mary-Lynnette was thinking. Of course she'd like to find somebody who would accept her completely, who would share everything with her.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 1

“On an incredibly simplistic level, you can think of depression as occurring when your cortex thinks an abstract thought and manages to convince the rest of the brain that this is as real as a physical stressor.”

Robert M. Sapolsky book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

Source: Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

“An awful realization that I have been fooling myself all my life thinking there was a next thing to do to keep the show going and actually I'm just a sick clown and so is everybody else…”

Jack Kerouac book Big Sur

Source: Big Sur

Life, Fools

“Men are selfish and don't think about anything else but them self." pg. 45”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Men, Selfishness

“I often think of death.
True.
Suicide is a reasonable option.
True.
My sins are unpardonable.
I stare at the question.
My sins are unpardonable.
I stare at the question.
My sins are unpardonable.
I leave it blank.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

Death, Question, Suicide

“That's the thing about being the product of happily marries parents, You grow up thinking the fairy tale is real, and more than that, you think you're entitled to live it. So far, though, it wasn't working out as planned.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Choice

Source: The Choice

Parent

“There is no man living who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can do.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

“Julian: “Wikipedia knows about everything. It might be run by warlocks.”
Emma: “You think that’s what they do all day in the Spiral Labyrinth? Run Wikipedia?”
Julian: “I admit it seems like a letdown.”

Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows

Source: Lord of Shadows

“The difference between you and God is that God doesn't think He's you.”

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

God

“I do not think much of ages. People are people. What does it matter how old or young they are? It is a category, and I do not like categories. It is a sort of pigeonhole or a label.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Lonesome Gods

People, Age

“a man doesn't prove he's a man by getting an erection. He's only a real man if he can pleasure a woman. And if he can pleasure a prostitute, he'll think he's the best lover on the block" -Nyah”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Pleasure, Lovers

“I can pick a lock. How do you think I got into my parents' liquor cabinet in middle school?”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

School, Parent

“Love you,” Maya says. “Yes, she keeps saying that,” A. J. says. “I warned her about giving love that hasn’t yet been earned, but honestly, I think it’s the influence of that insidious Elmo. He loves everyone, you know?”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Love

“My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
'Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.
'What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
'I never know what you are thinking. Think.”

T.S. Eliot book The Waste Land

Source: The Waste Land

Night

“When you think that you lost everything you find out you can always lose a little more.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

“You can tell by the way the girls whisper about him when he walks by in school that they want him. It makes me jealous but not for the reason people would think. Good hunting partners are hard to find.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

People, School, Way, Girl

“maturity meant thinking about risk long before you pondered the reward, and that success and happiness in life were as much about avoiding mistakes as making your mark into the world.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

Lexie Darnell, Chapter 13, p. 205
Source: 2000s, True Believer (2005)
Context: In her new, more mature incarnation, she embraced the idea that maturity meant thinking about risk long before you pondered the reward, and that success and happiness in life were as much about avoiding mistakes as making your mark in the world.

Life, Happiness, World, Success

“She thought I was… soulful, by which I think she means that I don't say much and I always look vaguely pissed off.”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

Soul

“I'm crazy," said Ender. "But I think I'm OK.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

“I just think some women aren't made to be mothers. And some women aren't made to be daughters.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

Women, Daughters

“I think you have every right to cherry-pick when it comes to moving your spirit and finding peace in God. You take whatever works from wherever you can find it, and you keep moving toward the light.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

God, Peace, Light

“You can be merry with the king, you can share a joke with him. But as Thomas More used to say, it's like sporting with a tamed lion. You tousle its mane and pull its ears, but all the time you're thinking, those claws, those claws, those claws.”

Hilary Mantel Bring Up the Bodies

Source: Bring Up the Bodies

Sport, Time

“Life doesn't often turn out the way we think it will, does it?”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

Life, Way

“A cloak of invisibility? This is a highly sensitive piece of field equipment. What does he think? Some warlock pulled it out of his armpit?”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Lost Colony

“We grown-up people think that we appreciate music, but if we realized the sense that an infant has brought with it of appreciating sound and rhythm, we would never boast of knowing music. The infant is music itself.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) Indian Sufi

People, Music, Sense

“I'll run one day. Run for my life. To be free and think for myself… I'll run to be emancipated.”

Melina Marchetta book Looking for Alibrandi

Source: Looking for Alibrandi

Life

“I can’t think. I can’t work or sleep. My body aches for you. I can make you want me again. Let me try.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Sleep

“Don't think you can persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity.”

Thomas Harris Red Dragon

Source: Red Dragon

“What are you thinking?"
"Just how different everything down there is now, you know, now that I can see."
"Everything down there is exactly the same," he said. "You're the one that's different.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“I think one should be antagonistic to one's underlings. It keeps them on their toes.
~Soi Fon”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

“I think that where you go wrong is that you imagine that your reasons for living ought to fall on you, ready-made from heaven, whereas we have to find them for ourselves.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Blood of Others

Source: The Blood of Others

Imagination

“One more thing."
"What."
"I think we're dating now." As V barked out a laugh, the cop shrugged. "Come on…. I got you naked. You wore a damn corset. And don't get me started about the sponge bath afterward."
"Fucker."
"To the end.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Unleashed

“I think sex with him might undo my essential cellular cohesion.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Faefever

Sex

“Metaphor is one of a group of problem-solving medicines known as figures of speech which are normally used to treat literal thinking and other diseases.”

Grant Morrison book The Filth

Source: The Filth

Disease, Problem

“He snorted. “He thinks killing a day-old hydra has made him a hero.” None of the songs had ever mentioned the Vandalus Hydra being one day old: it diminished the story more than a little.”

Naomi Novik book Uprooted

Source: Uprooted

“What did it matter to me? Did I think that by making you rational about one thing, I could make you rational about everything? Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to save you from your fears”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Fear

“It's hard loving those who don't much like themselves: "If you're so great, why would you think I'm so great.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Love

“I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

“I think about you more and more, but I don't waste my time - or yours - thinking about who you were before I knew you.”

John Irving book The Cider House Rules

Source: The Cider House Rules

Time

“Some people still think knowledge is power.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby

People, Knowledge

“I keep thinking that if I could just unzip my skin, step out of this body, then I would see who I really am.“ She nods her head slowly. „What do you think you‘d look like?” “Smaller, for a start.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

“Think of Shakespeare and Melville and you think of thunder, lightning, wind. They all knew the joy of creating in large or small forms, on unlimited or restricted canvases. These are the children of the gods.”

Ray Bradbury book Zen in the Art of Writing

Source: Zen in the Art of Writing

God, Children, Joy

“Thinking I'm a moron gives people something to feel smug about," Charles Wallace said. "Why should I disillusion them?”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Source: A Wrinkle in Time

People, Feeling

“In Ramadan, you should eat less and think more.”

Tariq Ramadan (1962) Swiss muslim scholar

“For the moment I can think of nothing— except that I am a sentient being stabbed by the miracle of these waters that reflect a forgotten world.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer

World, Water

“When you have a good romance, find ways to make their lives miserable and hellish… Do you think 'Titanic' would have been so popular if they had both lived? Not a prayer.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Way

“It's a funny thing… but people mostly have it backward. They think they live by what they want. But really, what guides them is what they're afraid of. What they don't want.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

People

“You think we're dancing?"

"That's all we've ever done.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Dance

“I think he's jealous.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

“And then, despite everything, I smiled and looked at the note and knew that spring would come —it always does. so I stared out that cold window, watching my breath collect on the glass, trying not to think about my life after the thaw.”

Ally Carter book Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Source: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Life, Smile, Spring

“I am ignoring you. In fact, I think you are a figment of my imagination.”

Bruce Coville (1950) American writer

Source: Dark Whispers

Imagination

“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Hays translation
The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.
V, 16
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book V

Color, Soul

“Did they think I would throw a tantrum?”
“Baby, you’re not the tantrum type. You are the scary-smile-and-stabbing type.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Shifts

Smile, Baby

“That’s all I think about these days. Must be because I have so much time to kill every day. When you don’t have anything to do, your thoughts get really, really far out-so far out
you can’t follow them all the way to the end.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Way, Time

“I think different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery. (Steve Jobs)”

Walter Isaacson book Steve Jobs

Source: Steve Jobs

Religion, Housing

“Do you think everybody misses somebody? Like I miss my mama?” “Mmmm-hmmm,” said Gloria. She closed her eyes. “I believe, sometimes, that the whole world has an aching heart.”

Kate DiCamillo book Because of Winn-Dixie

Source: Because of Winn-Dixie

World, Heart

“I cannot think of a better way to spread the faith. No thundering from a pulpit, no condemnation from bad churches, no peer pressure, just a book of scripture quietly waiting to say hello, as gentle and powerful as a little girl's kiss on your cheek.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 73, p. 230

Books, Faith, Way, Girl

“If you can't think of what to write, tough luck; write anyway. If you can think of lots more when you've finished the three pages, don't write it; it'll be that much easier to get going next day.”

Philip Pullman (1946) English author

“My worst character flaw that I'm conscious of is that I tend to think my way into circles instead of resolving anything. It's paralyzing and boring for people around me.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

People, Way

“Since I became a novelist I have discovered that I am biased. Either I think a new novel is worse than mine and I don’t like it, or I suspect it is better than my novels and I don’t like it.”

Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist

“Just when we think we have a system,… the system collapses. Just when we know our way around, we get lost. Just when we think we know what's coming next, everything changes.”

Anthony Doerr (1973) American writer

Source: Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World

Way, Change

“The nicest thing about feeling happy is that you think you'll never be unhappy again.”

Manuel Puig (1932–1990) Argentine author and screenwriter

Source: Kiss of the Spider Woman and Two Other Plays

Happiness, Feeling

“I'll think about you everyday. Part of me is scared that there'll come a time when you don't feel the same way, that you'll somehow forget about what we shared, so this is what I want to do forever.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Way, Feeling, Time, Parting

“Yeah, and Mr. Cuddles is a jealous sort. He doesn’t share us well. (Geary)
Does this mean I’ll have to fight him? (Arik)
You’d never win. Mr. Cuddles cheats. You think he’s just a pushover teddy bear, but he’s vicious, I tell you. Vicious. (Geary)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: The Dream Hunter

Fight, Cheating

“It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer "universal health care."”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Random Thought
2000s, Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays (2006)
Source: Knowledge And Decisions

People, Health, Universe

“I don't know. Just because someone's pretty doesn't mean she's decent. Or vice versa. I'm not into appearances. I like flaws, I think they make things interesting.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Appearance

“Have you ever heard of the theory of relativity?"
Artemis blinked. "Is this a joke? I have traveled through time, Doctor. I think I know a little something about relativity.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Last Guardian

Travel, Time

“Riding the train gives him too much time to think, he has decided. Too much thinking can ruin you.”

Judith Guest Ordinary People

Source: Ordinary People

Time, Training

“Man never thinks himself happy, but when he enjoys those things which others want or desire.”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

Happiness

“People who think dying is the worst thing don't know a thing about life.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Variant: Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn't know a thing about life.
Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

Life, People

“You know, the New Testament is pretty old. I think they should call them the Old Testament and the Most Recent Testament.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day. That was the business of hiding a Jew.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Variant: Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.
Source: The Book Thief

Smile, Imagination, Business

“What’s the difference between spending your life trying to be invisible, or pretending to be the person you think everyone wants you to be? Either way, you’re faking.”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

Life, Way, Personality

“1. Your heart starts hurting when you think about him.”

Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist

Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 13

Heart, Hurt

“Well, perhaps; but I begin to think there are better things than being comfortable.”

George MacDonald book At the Back of the North Wind

Source: At the Back of the North Wind

“What? You don't think he's cute?"
"I didn't really notice."
"How can you not notice when a guy is cute?" Melody stared at her in disbelief.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Guy

“and all I could think was that I would like to spend every morning for the rest of my life waking up beside her”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Life

“I don't think you tell someone you love them because you expect something. I think you tell them because you have something to give.”

Nora Roberts book Bed of Roses

Source: Bed of Roses

Love

“It's bullshit to think of friendship and romance as being different. They're not. They're just variations of the same love. Variations of the same desire to be close.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Variant: It's b******* to think of friendship and romance being different. They're not. They're just variations of the same love. Variatons of the same desire to be close.
Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Love, Friendship

“Don't think there are no second chances.

Life always offers you a SECOND CHANCE…

It's called TOMORROW”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Life, Chance, New Year

“People who think they know everything are annoying to those of us who do.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: Get A Clue

People