“People always call it luck when you’ve acted more sensibly than they have.”
Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist
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Quotes
Amartya Sen (1933) Indian economist
Source: The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity
“Birthdays could be such a bummer when you were older than the country you lived in.”
Lynsay Sands Canadian writer
Source: A Quick Bite
“People with lost personalities will suffer a great deal more than those with lost virginities.”
Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer
Source: Saving Francesca
“Say what you will, 'tis better to be left than never to have been loved.”
William Congreve The Way of the World
Act II, scene i. Precedent for Alfred Tennyson's more famous: "'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all"
The Way of the World (1700)
“It is much easier to make good men wise, than to make bad men good.”
Henry Fielding book The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
Source: The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
“Better to be the failure who nobly strived than the success who never really had to.”
Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer
Source: Firstborn
“Women are amazing creatures-sweet, soft, gentle, and far more savage than we are.”
Robert A. Heinlein book The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Source: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
“I'm retiring because there are more pleasant things to do than beat up people.”
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
As quoted in Secrets of Power Persuasion for Salespeople (2003) by Roger Dawson , p. 192
“I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun.”
Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist
Variant: I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
“I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.”
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet
“God understands that part of us which is more than what we think we are.”
Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer
“It sometimes happens that a woman is handsomer at twenty-nine than she was ten years before.”
Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist
“When trust is lost, traumatized people feel that they belong more to the dead than to the living.”
Judith Lewis Herman (1942) American psychiatrist
Source: Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
“Without madness what is man
more than the healthy beast,
corpse adjourned that procreates?”
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
Poem "D. Sebastião", verses 8-10
Message
Original: Sem a loucura que é o homem
Mais que a besta sadia,
Cadáver adiado que procria?
Source: Poems of Fernando Pessoa