Quotes about thinking
page 47

“And I think now that fate is shaped half by expectation, half by inattention. But somehow, when you lose something you love, faith takes over.
-Rose”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club

Love, Fate, Faith

“Michael smiled at me a little. “You’re a good man, Harry. But you’re making the same mistake Nicodemus always has—and the same one Karrin did.” “What mistake?” “You all think the critical word in the phrase ‘Sword of Faith’ is ‘sword.”

Jim Butcher book Skin Game

Source: Skin Game

Faith, Smile

“I've got mixed feelings about poetry cause done well poetry is fantastic. But not many people are capable of doing it well. I think you should have some kind of license to perform poetry. A poetic license perhaps.”

Craig Ferguson (1962) Scottish-born American television host, stand-up comedian, writer, actor, director, author, producer and voice a…

People, Feeling

“Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.”

Robert Frost Fire and Ice

"Fire and Ice" (1923)
General sources

Hate, World

“I don’t know why it is that I have always been happier thinking of somewhere I have been or wanted to go, than where I am at the time. I find it difficult to be happy in the present.”

Pat Conroy book Beach Music

Source: Beach Music

Happiness, Time

“Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.”

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

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

Men

“There is a moral obligation, I think, not to ally oneself with power against the powerless.”

Chinua Achebe (1930–2013) Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic

Source: There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra

“…but all day long I would be training myself to think, to understand, to criticize, to know myself; I was seeking for the absolute truth: this preoccupation did not exactly encourage polite conversation.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

Source: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

Truth, Understanding, Training

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”

John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Pt. 1
Travels With Charley: In Search of America (1962)
Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Marriage, Way

“I've been thinking Hobbes"
"On a weekend?"
"Well, it wasn't on purpose”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

“I know life is hard, I think everyone knows that in their hearts, but why dos it have to be cruel, as well? Why does it have to bite?”

Stephen King book 11/22/63

Source: 11/22/63

Life, Heart

“You seem to think you have a choice," Cam said. "But you have it backwards. Love chooses you. The shadow moves as the sun commands.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Married By Morning

Love, Sun

“Akkarin: I watched the first woman I loved die. I dont think I can survive losing the second.
Sonea: I love you too.”

Trudi Canavan book The High Lord

Source: The High Lord

Love

“The best thing you can do for your fellow, next to rousing his conscience, is — not to give him things to think about, but to wake things up that are in him; or say, to make him think things for himself.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

The Fantastic Imagination (1893)
Source: A Dish of Orts
Context: A fairytale, a sonata, a gathering storm, a limitless night, seizes you and sweeps you away: do you begin at once to wrestle with it and ask whence its power over you, whither it is carrying you? The law of each is in the mind of its composer; that law makes one man feel this way, another man feel that way. To one the sonata is a world of odour and beauty, to another of soothing only and sweetness. To one, the cloudy rendezvous is a wild dance, with a terror at its heart; to another, a majestic march of heavenly hosts, with Truth in their centre pointing their course, but as yet restraining her voice. The greatest forces lie in the region of the uncomprehended.
I will go farther. The best thing you can do for your fellow, next to rousing his conscience, is — not to give him things to think about, but to wake things up that are in him; or say, to make him think things for himself. The best Nature does for us is to work in us such moods in which thoughts of high import arise. Does any aspect of Nature wake but one thought? Does she ever suggest only one definite thing? Does she make any two men in the same place at the same moment think the same thing? Is she therefore a failure, because she is not definite? Is it nothing that she rouses the something deeper than the understanding — the power that underlies thoughts? Does she not set feeling, and so thinking at work? Would it be better that she did this after one fashion and not after many fashions? Nature is mood-engendering, thought-provoking: such ought the sonata, such ought the fairytale to be.

“You mustn't think of the Universe as a wilderness. It hasn't been that for billions of years," he said. "Think of it more as….. cultivated.”

Carl Sagan book Contact

Source: Contact

Universe

“When you're thinking, please remember this: excessive pride is a familiar sin, but a man may just as easily frustrate the will of God through excessive humility.”

Ken Follett book The Pillars of the Earth

Source: The Pillars of the Earth

God

“But I kept it to myself--maybe because I didn't think it mattered, but probably because, in a place where everyone knew my story, it was nice to know there was a chapter that only I had read.”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Reading

“I think piracy is a bit like drinking. You want to stay out all night doing it, you pay the price the next day.”

Scott Lynch book Red Seas Under Red Skies

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Drink, Night

“You think this is going to work? This peaceful summit thing?”
“Sure,” I said. After a second, I added, “Probably.”
“Probably?”
“Maybe,” I said.
“We’re down to maybe now?”
I shrugged. “We’ll see.”

Jim Butcher book Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

Peace

“I am not going to think about it. It was ugly, but it’s over, and I’m not going to think about it.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

“Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 10, sc. 2
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

“Military guys are rarely as smart as they think they are, and they've never gotten over the fact that civilians run the military.”

Maureen Dowd (1952) American journalist

Guy

“Jesus! Did I SAY that? Or just think it? Was I talking? Did they hear me? I glanced over at my attorney, but he seemed oblivious…”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

“It’s good for you to think of this, son. Ponder. Worry. Stay up nights, frightened for the casualties of your ideology. It will do you good to realize the price of fighting.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: Steelheart

Fight, Night

“People who say not to speak ill of the dead are hypocrites, because you can take it ot the bank they're thinking ill.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: High Noon

People, Dead

“His whole body shakes with the strain as he tries to lift something he knows he can't lift, something everybody knows he can't lift.

But, for just a second, when we hear the cement grind at our feet, we think, by golly, he might do it.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

“The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.”

Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator

Source: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

Personality

“Daniel?"
"Yes."
"Did you ever think we were meant not to be together?"
"No. We are meant to be together. We are just meant to want it very badly.”

Ann Brashares book My Name is Memory

Source: My Name Is Memory

“We do not at present educate people to think but, rather, to have opinions, and that is something altogether different.”

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

People, Education

“Leo didn't usually think of the ukulele as a sad instrument. (Pathetic, sure. But not sad.) Yet the tune Apollo strummed was so melancholy it broke Leo's feels.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Sadness, Feeling

“You ever think about this? Every year you live, you pass the anniversary of your death. Now you don't know what day it is, of course.”

Billie Letts book Where the Heart Is

Source: Where the Heart Is

Death

“You are now, and you do become, what you think about.”

Earl Nightingale book The Strangest Secret

Source: The Strangest Secret

“I’m a hick,” I recall saying to him. “No,” Harrison answered. “You think you’re less than you are. You’re a smart hick.” And then, “You have the eyes of a doe and the balls of a samurai.”

Carrie Fisher book The Princess Diarist

Source: The Princess Diarist

“This boy thinks I am not of his species, that I am some other kind of creature, one that can be crushed under the weight of a phone book.

The pain is not great, but the symbolism is disagreeable.”

Dave Eggers book What Is the What

Source: What Is the What

Pain, Books, Boy

“I'm a romantic; a sentimental person thinks things will last, a romantic person hopes against hope that they won't.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book This Side of Paradise

Source: This Side of Paradise

Hope, Personality

“We were restless for ages… After a while I heard an owl hooting and calmed myself by thinking of it flying over the dark fields – and then I remembered it would be pouncing on mice. I love owls, but I wish God had made them vegetarian.”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Love, God, Age, Flying

“I was starting to think I was making up memories, just to have answers.
Our brain does that sometimes.
Or at least mine does.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

Memory

“Wait. You think I'm going to die? That's why you slept with me?”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Waiting

“Mouse sandwiches and open graves?" Meredith arched an elegant eyebrow. "I think you're getting Stephen King mixed up with Lewis Carroll.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Dark Reunion

“Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resigns his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.”

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

Civil Disobedience (1849)
Source: Civil Disobedience and Other Essays
Context: Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.
Context: To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience? — in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.

Men

“Oh, what a tangled web do parents weave
When they think that their children are naive.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

"Baby, What Makes the Sky Blue?"

Children, Parent

“The human being is a most curious creature. He thinks he has got one
soul, and he has got dozens.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Soul

“I missed him so much I would sometimes turn to tell him something before I forgot he was gone. In spite of all that, and all the emotion boiling around inside me, all I could think of to say was: “You’re blue.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been.”

Michael Cunningham book The Hours

Source: The Hours

People

“I'm sorry' I said again. Whenever someone tells you something said, it's the only thing you can think to say, even if you're already said it before.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

“She refused to think of Neil, brave and quiet, whose reward for a heroic rescue was to be slowly devoured by strange cave balloons.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

“You would think such a day would tremble to begin…”

Thomas Harris book Hannibal

Source: Hannibal

“All I think of ever is that I love you.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

Love, Anniversary, For Wife

“…the amount of maintenance involving hair is genuinely overwhelming. Sometimes I think that not having to worry about your hair anymore is the secret upside of death.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

Source: I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

Death, Secret

“Sometimes when you're young, you have moments of such happiness, you think you're living on someplace magical, like Atlantis must have been. Then we grow up and our hearts break into two.”

Stephen King book Hearts in Atlantis

Source: Hearts in Atlantis

Happiness, Heart

“Just because you refuse to acknowledge something, refuse to look at it or think about it, doesn’t mean it’s not there, that it doesn’t affect you and the choices you make in your life.”

Rachel Gibson (1961) American writer

Source: Tangled Up In You

Life

“That’s a wonderful story.”

“He was a wonderful man. And when a man is that special, you know it sooner than you think possible. You recognize it instinctively, and you’re certain that no matter what happens, there will never be another one like him.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One

Variant: He was a wonderful man. And when a man is that special, you know it sooner than you think possible. You recognize it instinctively, and you're certain that no matter what happens, there will never be another one like him.
Source: The Lucky One

“I know all about the facts of life, and I don't think much of them.”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Life

“I'm sure you think that I don't understand what you're going through, but I do. It's just that sometimes, our future is dictated by what we are, opposed to what we want.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Understanding, Future

“The love we'd shared always burned within me, no matter how often I told myself to move on, no matter how much the world did think I'd moved on.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Love, World

“Why should I believe any of this?'
It happens that fast.
I say, because I think I like you.
Marla says, 'Not love?'
This is a cheesy enough moment, I say. Don't push it.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

Love

“Every time we start thinking we're the center of the universe, the universe turns around and says with a slightly distracted air, 'I'm sorry. What'd you say your name was again?”

Margaret Maron book Bootlegger's Daughter

Source: Bootlegger's Daughter

Universe, Time

“Think and wonder, wonder and think.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

“The parts of me that used to think I was different or smarter or whatever, almost made me die.”

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

Parting

“Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul”

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

Source: The Bob Dylan Scrapbook: 1956-1966

Death, Money, Soul, Forgiveness

“You should never wish for wishful thinking.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“You may think there is a lot wrong with you, but there is also a lot right with you.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

“The whole campfire idea freaked Piper out. It made her think of that huge purple bonfire in the dreams, and her father tied to a stake.
What she got instead was almost as terrifying: a sing-along.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Dreams, Idea, Singing

“Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy your loneliness says that you've sinned.”

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

"Sisters of Mercy"
Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
Context: Yes, you who must leave everything that you cannot control,
It begins with your family, and soon it comes round to your soul.
Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy your loneliness says that you've sinned.

Feeling, Loneliness

“I think only once in your life do you find someone that you say, "Hey, this is the person I want to spend the rest of my time on this earth with." And if you miss it, or walk away from it, or even maybe, blink - it's gone.”

Jacqueline Woodson (1963) American writer

Source: If You Come Softly

Life, Time, Personality

“The corners of his lips curled. “You and your secrets. Ah,, just when I think I’ve solved one mystery about you, up comes another one. I will figure you out one day. Consider yourself warned.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Poison Princess

Secret

“Oh, my dear! I’m afraid you’ve mistaken
me for someone else! My name is Rhea Silvia. I was the mother to Romulus and Remus, thousands of years ago. But you’re so kind to think I look as young as the 1950s.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

“When I tell her what I’m thinking and she tells me what she’s thinking, our each ideas jumping into the other’s head, like coulouring blue crayon on top of yellow that makes green.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Source: Room

Idea

“There is nothing for her beyond those gates," Gavriel said. "Do you think to bring her along like a talisman to remind you of your humanity? Or do you think sharing your damnation will lighten the burden of it?”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

“I want you forever, Kate. I want to grow old and have you here in my arms. I want children. I've wanted you for so long. I don't think that's about to change.”

Christine Feehan American writer

Source: The Twilight Before Christmas

Children, Change

“You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

Truth, Exercises

“… You can only subject people to anguish who have a conscience. You can only punish people who have hopes to frustrate or attachments to sever; who worry what you think of them. You can really only punish people who are already a little bit good.”

Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin

Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin

People, Hope

“Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.”

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

Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale

Sleep

“I think the only way to get through this life is laughing hard and constantly, mostly at myself.”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

Life, Way

“If you dont respect me what must you think of yourself?”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men

“I am thinking,’ he remarked quietly, ’whether I shall add to the disorder in this room, by scattering your brains about the fireplace.”

Wilkie Collins book The Woman in White

Source: The Woman in White

“You're never rude,' she said, smiling, 'and I think it's good to be touchy sometimes. It means you care.”

Mohsin Hamid book The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Source: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Smile

“Everyone will think I'm ugly."
Tik Tok smiled. "That's true. But we are a small village. We have narrow tastes. There's no telling who else in the world would think you're beautiful.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

World, Smile, Beauty

“I don't want everyone to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did.”

Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic

People

“Oh, I never kid about Artemis. I promised her I’d sit here and do nothing, so here I am doing nothing. Much like a really tall, bored guard dog. Personally, I’d rather be throwing myself onto an electric fence- be about the same, I think. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

Dogs, Personality

“We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways.”

Robertson Davies book The Rebel Angels

Source: The Rebel Angels

Way, Knowledge, Parent, Time

“Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine.”

Kathleen Norris (1880–1966) American writer

Way, Imagination, Change

“It made me think that everything was about to arrive - the moment when you know all and everything is decided forever.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

“Dear Jack,

I love you, too.

And I think I know the secret to a long and happy marriage— just choose someone you can't live without.

For me, that would be you.

So if you insist on being traditional…

Yes.

—Ella”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

Love, Marriage, Happiness, Secret

“Just when you think you've hit rock bottom, you realize you're standing on another trapdoor.”

Marisha Pessl (1977) American writer

Source: Night Film

“Writing is really a way of thinking--not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

Way, Feeling

“I think the most un-American thing you can say is, “You can't say that.””

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

As quoted in The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Democrats (2006) by Martin Higgins, p. 171, and The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Republicans (2006) by Martin Higgins, p. 204