„When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.“

Last update June 3, 2021.

Borís Pasternak40

Russian writer 1890 - 1960

— Jessica Bird U.S. novelist 1969

Source: Lover Awakened

„Sometimes your whole life could hinge on a fraction of an inch. Or the beat of nanosecond. Or the knock on a door.
Kind of made a male believe in the divine. It really did.“

— Jessica Bird U.S. novelist 1969

Source: Lover Awakened

Life

„When the devil comes knocking on your door simply say "Jesus, it's for you.“

— Robin Jones Gunn American writer 1955

Source: Sunsets

„When you try to generate ideas, think of yourself as a sales person knocking on a whole subdivision of doors. Some won't open at all, some will open a suspicious crack, and some will slam in your face. But the more doors you knock on, the greater your chances of being invited in.“

— Tim Hurson Creativity theorist, author and speaker 1946

Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking

Idea, Thinking, Chance, Personality

„You can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.“

— Charles Bukowski American writer 1920 - 1994

Life, Death, Light, Learning

„You knock at the door of Reality. You shake your thought wings, loosen your shoulders, and open.“

— Rumi Iranian poet 1207 - 1273

"The Gift of Water" Ch. 18 : The Three Fish, p. 200
The Essential Rumi (1995)

Reality

„Well, the first days are the hardest days, don't you worry anymore. When life looks like Easy Street there is danger at your door.“

— Robert Hunter American musician 1941 - 2019

"Uncle John's Band"
Workingman's Dead (1970)

Life

„I did very little marketing. The key is to make your clients money. If you have a good track record, people will find you and knock on your door. Just make your clients money.“

— Jim Rogers American writer 1942

Interview, February 2005

Money, People

„Everybody has their moment of great opportunity in life. If you happen to miss the one you care about, then everything else becomes eerily easy.“

— Douglas Adams English writer and humorist 1952 - 2001

Source: The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide: Five Complete Novels and One Story

Life

„Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.“

— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882

Misattributed

World

„You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.“

— Alexander Pope eighteenth century English poet 1688 - 1744

Credited as Epigram: An Empty House (1727), or On a Dull Writer; alternately attributed to Jonathan Swift in John Hawkesworth, The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin (1754), p. 265. Compare: "His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home", William Cowper, Conversation, line 303.
Misattributed

Home

„You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come;
Knock as you please, there's nobody at home.“

— Jonathan Swift Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet 1667 - 1745

On a Dull Writer, reported in John Hawkesworth, The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin (1754), p. 265. Alternately attributed to Alexander Pope by Bartlett's Quotations, 10th Edition (1919). Compare: "His wit invites you by his looks to come, But when you knock, it never is at home", William Cowper, Conversation, line 303
Disputed

Home

„Go to your bosom; Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.“

— William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

Source: Measure for Measure

Heart

„Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes and easy smile is your museum.“

— Ansel Adams American photographer and environmentalist 1902 - 1984

Life, World, Smile, Art

„Well some say life
Will beat you down,
And break your heart,
Steal your crown.So it started out
For God-knows-where.
I guess I'll know
When I get there.“

— Tom Petty American musician 1950 - 2017

Learning to Fly
Lyrics, Into The Great Wide Open (1991)

Life, God, Heart

„Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.“

— Frederick Buechner Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian 1926

Source: Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation (1983)

Life, Pain, Way, Heart

„When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.“

— Chinua Achebe Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic 1930 - 2013

Variant: When Suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat left for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool.

Suffering