Quotes about anything
page 18

“There's only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but the second-best.”

Doris Lessing book The Golden Notebook

Anna Wulf
The Golden Notebook (1962)

“I can already feel myself getting fed up with boys and I haven't had anything to do with them yet" - Georgia Nicolson”

Louise Rennison book Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Source: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Feeling, Boy

“You can do anything, but not everything.”

David Allen (1945) American productivity consultant and author

Motivational, Success, Happy, Attitude

“You know how teachers tell you the magic word is 'please'? That's not true. The magic word is 'puke'. It will get you out of class faster than anything else.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Files

Source: The Demigod Files

Teachers

“Anxiety, the next gumption trap, is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong you're afraid to do anything at all. Often this, rather than "laziness," is the real reason you find it hard to get started. This gumption trap of anxiety, which results from over-motivation, can lead to all kinds of errors of excessive fussiness. You fix things that don't need fixing, and chase after imaginary ailments. You jump to wild conclusions and build all kinds of errors into the machine because of your own nervousness. These errors, when made, tend to confirm your original underestimation of yourself. This leads to more errors, which lead to more underestimation, in a self-stoking cycle. The best way to break this cycle, I think, is to work out your anxieties on paper. Read every book and magazine you can on the subject. Your anxiety makes this easy and the more you read the more you calm down.”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 26
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Books, Way, Error, Motivation

“The way anything is developed is through practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice practice and more practice.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Way

“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Men, For Men

“Rabbits live close to death and when death comes closer than usual, thinking about survival leaves little room for anything else.”

Richard Adams book Watership Down

Source: Watership Down

Death, Thinking

“I am so busy doing nothing… that the idea of doing anything - which as you know, always leads to something - cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

Idea, Business

“My heart is broken,” she goes. “It’s turned to a piece of stone. I’m no good. That’s what’s as bad as anything, that I’m no good anymore.”

Raymond Carver book What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Source: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981)

Heart

“But fear of making mistakes can itself become a huge mistake, one that prevents you from living, for life is risky and anything less is already a loss.”

Rebecca Solnit (1961) Author and essayist from United States

Source: A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Life, Fear, Loss

“Sage.” He laughed. “I’m into anything, so long as you’re with me.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

“The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?”

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

Source: Walden and Other Writings

Behavior, Soul, Parting

“We’re not searching for anything except people. We don’t need other worlds. We need mirrors.”

Stanisław Lem book Solaris

Source: Solaris

People, World, Search

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting—a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.”

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

Though attributed to Emerson in Edwards' A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908), p. 37, this quote originates in Politics for the People (1848) by Charles Kingsley.
Misattributed

God, Beauty, Flowers

“It is not good to have TOO MUCH of anything.”

Andrew Clements (1949–2019) American writer

“All it takes,” said Crake, “is the elimination of one generation. One generation of anything. Beetles, trees, microbes, scientists, speakers of French, whatever. Break the link in time between one generation and the next, and it’s game over forever.”

Margaret Atwood book Oryx and Crake

Source: Oryx and Crake

Game, Tree, Time

“You're drunk, and I'm drunk, and I'm just exactly drunk enough to tell you anything you want to know. That's the kind of girl I am. If I like a person, I'll tell them anything they want to know. Just ask me. Go ahead, ask me.”

Dashiell Hammett book Red Harvest

Source: Red Harvest

Girl, Personality

“Did you see a doctor? (Syn)
Yeah. It’ll heal. (Cruel)
Did your mom say anything? (Syn)
Clean the blood out of the carpet before it sets. What could she say? Better me than her. (Cruel)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

Moms

“When I sleep, I dream of you, and when I wake, I long to hold you in my arms. If anything, our time apart has only made me more certain that I want to spend my nights by your side, and my days with your heart.”

Nicholas Sparks book Nights in Rodanthe

Paul Flanner, Chapter 16, p. 188
Source: 2000s, Nights in Rodanthe (2002)

Dreams, Sleep, Time, Heart

“It is possible to avoid pain? Yes, but you'll never learn anything. Is it possible to know something without ever having experiencing it? Yes, but it will never truly be part of you.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Pain, Learning, Parting

“All the words are not enough to get anything said.”

Yiannis Ritsos (1909–1990) Greek poet

“I have friends. I want more from you than that. I’m a selfish guy, Jane. If I can’t be your lover, if I can’t have all of you, then I don’t want anything.”

Rachel Gibson (1961) American writer

Source: See Jane Score

Guy, Lovers, Selfishness

“Mistress, I have never asked anything of you in my servitude. But now, I beg you this: do not make me keep passing these adolescent sentiments back and forth all night.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Shadow Heir

Night

“Just as I had long suspected, a person didn't really need math for anything anyway. Maybe some people did. Some limited people.”

Augusten Burroughs Possible Side Effects

Source: Possible Side Effects

People, Personality

“She had a lively, playful disposition that delighted in anything ridiculous.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“We never sit anything out. We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”

Ray Bradbury book Zen in the Art of Writing

Variant: We never sit anything out. We are cups, quietly and constantly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
Source: Zen in the Art of Writing (1990) 
Context: From now on I hope always to educate myself as best I can. But lacking this, in future I will relaxedly turn back to my secret mind to see what it has observed when I thought I was sitting this one out. We never sit anything out. We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

Beauty

“Harmless as a setting dove," he agreed. "I'm too hungry to be a threat to anything but breakfast. Let a stray bannock come within reach, though, and I'll no answer for the consequences.”

Diana Gabaldon (1952) American author

“I spent the afternoon musing on Life. If you come to think of it, what a queer thing Life is! So unlike anything else, don't you know, if you see what I mean.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Life, Thinking

“Welcome everything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

“You can boast about anything if it's all you have. Maybe the less you have, the more you are required to boast.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

“Softly, Magnus said, "Aku cinta kamu."
"What does that mean?"
Magnus disentangled himself from Alec's grip. "It means I love you. Not that that changes anything.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Love, Change

“Remember me with joy, for this is how I always thought of you. That is what I want, more than anything. I want you to smile when you think of me. And in your smile, I will live forever”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

Smile, Thinking, Joy

“Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.”

Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist

“To me, reason is as spiritual as anything else, the beauty of reason seems to me indelible and ineffable and numinous… the spirit is after all the same word we use to describe… essence”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist

Beauty

“You're always in the kitchen," Alianora said when she poked her head through the door a moment later. "Or the library. Don't you ever do anything but cook and read?”

Patricia C. Wrede Dealing with Dragons

Source: Dealing with Dragons

Reading, Cooking

“You could say anything you wanted to someone you thought you were never going to see again.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“A nun I know once told me she kept begging God to take her character defects away from her. After years of this prayer, God finally got back to her: I'm not going to take anything away from you, you have to give it to Me.”

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

Source: Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers

God

“People say to write about what you know. I'm here to tell you, no one wants to read that, cos you don't know anything. So write about something you don't know. And don't be scared, ever.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

People, Reading

“Probably the closest things to perfection are the huge absolutely empty holes that astronomers have recently discovered in space. If there's nothing there, how can anything go wrong?”

Richard Brautigan book An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey

Page 15
An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey

Perfection

“I left her there crying as I walked toward the gate. A piece of my soul had died when Dimitri had fallen. Turning my back on her now, I felt another piece die as well. Soon there wouldn't be anything left inside me.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Soul, Cry

“If I have gained anything over these months, it is the knowledge there is no starting over- only living with the mistakes you've made.”

Jodi Picoult Perfect Match

Source: Perfect Match

Knowledge

“Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Context: You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self.
Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them.

Learning, Future

“According to Plato, we don't learn anything. Our soul has lived so many lives that we know everything. Teachers and education can only remind us of what we already know.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Diary

Source: Diary

Education, Soul, Learning, Teachers

“Because the world isn’t divided into the special and the ordinary. Everyone has the potential to be extraordinary. As long as you have a soul and free will, you can be anything, do anything, choose anything”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Variant: Because the world isn’t divided into the special and the ordinary. Everyone has the potential to be extraordinary. As long as you have a soul and free will, you can be anything, do anything, choose anything.
Source: City of Heavenly Fire

World, Soul

“The mind of man is capable of anything.”

Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness

Source: Heart of Darkness

For Men

“I shouldn't believe anything I say, if I were you-and that includes what I just told you.”

Jasper Fforde book The Eyre Affair

Source: The Eyre Affair

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

Books, Reading

“Doing what you're supposed to do is always boring. I can't imagine anything worse than being required to have fun.”

Scott Westerfeld book Uglies

Source: Uglies

Imagination

“I don't think anyone ever gets over anything in life; they merely get used to it.”

Douglas Coupland (1961) Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and graphic designer

Life, Thinking

“She wanted something to happen - something, anything: she did not know what.”

Kate Chopin (1850–1904) American author

“Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

“You know what? You didn't do anything wrong. I did. It's this dumb thing I do. I look into things and see more than I'm supposed to.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't do anything but think about him. At night I dream of him, all day I wait to see him, and when I do see him my heart turns over and I think I will faint with desire.”

Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl

Source: The Other Boleyn Girl

Dreams, Thinking, Sleep, Waiting

“When he wanted, he could radiate charm and sincerity, but I often wonder in these later days if anything about him was as it seemed. I think now he was a man fighting constantly to escape the bars of an invisible cage.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

Thinking, Fight, Sincerity

“An easy life doesn't teach us anything. In the end it's the learning that matters: what we've learned and how we've grown”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: One

Life, Learning

“Never do anything that you don’t want to have to explain to 9-1-1 personnel.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: The Sweetest Thing

“If you keep a gun in your purse, you get killed, because no woman can find anything in her purse in under twelve minutes. It's a rule.”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

“Anything, anything would be better than this agony of mind, this creeping pain that gnaws and fumbles and caresses one and never hurts quite enough.”

Jean Paul Sartre No Exit

Source: No Exit

Pain, Hurt

“Every time someone puts an objection to me, I want to say: 'OK, OK, let's go on to something else.' Objections have never contributed anything.”

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

Time

“A woman can't do anything about her appearance. Either she's pretty or she isn't. But her character is quite another matter.”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: The Prize

Appearance

“You're a magnet for mess. I've never seen anything like it.
Lula to Stephanie”

Janet Evanovich Twelve Sharp

Source: Twelve Sharp

“A woman, especially if she has the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey (1817)
Works, Northanger Abbey

“The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything.”

Walter Bagehot (1826–1877) British journalist, businessman, and essayist

Shakespeare
Literary Studies (1879)
Context: The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.

People, Books

“None of it meant anything, and all of it was important.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

“it's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Way

“Do you honestly want credit because you didn’t do anything to a helpless female?”
“No! Yes. No, damn it—”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dark Desires After Dusk

“I had discovered that there was something more painful than falling in love with someone who hasn't fallen for you; hurting that person-hurting him and not being able to do anything about it.”

Elizabeth Chandler (1954) writer

Source: Legacy of Lies & Don't Tell

Love, Pain, Hurt, Personality

“Never think you've seen the last of anything.”

Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American author

Thinking

“Anything is grand if it's done on a large enough scale.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

“Ironically no one ever wants to hear what I have to say about anything. They usually argue with me to the point I want to put them through a wall. Hopefully you won’t be so dense. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Chaser

“‎Sincerity is the biggest part of selling anything -- including the Christian plan of salvation.”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

Parting, Sincerity

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him will believeth in anything. - Hitchens 3:16”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Love, God, World

“You have to let other people be right' was his answer to their insults. 'It consoles them for not being anything else.”

André Gide book The Immoralist

Source: The Immoralist

People

“Don't love anything that can be taken away.”

Ron Rash book Serena

Source: Serena

Love

“Why is it," he said, one time, at the subway entrance, "I feel I've known you so many years?"
"Because I like you," she said, "and I don't want anything from you.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Feeling, Time, Relationship

“A big enough artist, I say, can eat anything, must eat everything and then alchemize it. Only the feeble writer is afraid of expansion.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

“Sorry," [Hamlet] said, rubbing his temples. "I don't know what came over me. All of a sudden I had this overwhelming desire to talk for a very long time without actually doing anything.”

Jasper Fforde book Something Rotten

Source: Something Rotten

Time

“Rose never would have done anything like that,' he countered. He paused to reconsider, and I could've sworn there was a hint of a smile there. 'Well at least not in such a public setting.'- Dimitri Belikov”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Smile

“But I don't have anything left inside of me to figure out where I fit in or what I want. If I want anything, it's to know what's possible to want.”

Amy Tan book The Bonesetter's Daughter

Source: The Bonesetter's Daughter

“A man who drinks too much on occasion is still the same man as he was sober. An alcoholic, a real alcoholic, is not the same man at all. You can't predict anything about him for sure except that he will be someone you never met before.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Alcohol, Drink

“Life is short. Short, and not about anything except what you can touch and what touches you.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Life

“If we humans are good at anything, it’s thinking we’ve got a terrific idea and going for it without acknowledging the potential consequences or our own ignorance.”

David Suzuki (1936) Canadian popular scientist and environmental activist

Idea, Thinking

“Don't leave yet," he said, his voice hoarse. "Let me do something. Let me feed you. Hold you. Rub your shoulders. Change your oil. Anything, please.”

Robyn Carr American writer

Source: Sunrise Point

Change

“Being afraid you'll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything.”

John Irving book The Cider House Rules

Source: The Cider House Rules

“As Estha stirred the thick jam he thought Two Thoughts and the Two Thoughts he thought were these:
a) Anything can happen to anyone.
and
b) It is best to be prepared.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

“Remembering is just an invention of the mind… It means that if you want to, you can remember anything, whether it happened or not… You don't need a time machine if you can remember.”

Rodman Philbrick book Freak the Mighty

Source: Freak the Mighty

Time

“Did I do anything wrong today," he said, "or has the world always been like this and I've been too wrapped up in myself to notice?”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

World

“Life needed a fast forward button. Because there were days you just don't want to live through, not again, but they kept coming around and you were powerless to stop time or speed it up or do anything to keep from having to face it.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

Life, Time, Speed

“Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

“And though the coldness I have always felt leaves me, the numbness doesn't and probably never will. this relationship will probably lead to nothing… this didn't change anything. I imagine her smelling clean, like tea…”

Bret Easton Ellis book American Psycho

Source: American Psycho

Imagination, Change, Tea

“When you have too much faith in something, it's bound to hurt you. Too much faith in anything will suck you dry. In this way, all the world is a vampire.”

Poppy Z. Brite (1967) Novelist, short story writer, food writer

World, Faith, Way, Hurt

“young or old, good or bad, I don't think anything dies as slow and as hard as a writer.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Last Night of the Earth Poems

Thinking

“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.”

Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971) Japanese Buddhist missionary

“Though the funny thing about never being asked for anything is that after a while you start to feel like maybe you don’t have anything worth giving.”

Lev Grossman The Magician King

Source: The Magician King

Feeling

“No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Source: The Art of Literature

“Human beings can't see anything without wanting to destroy it. That's original sin. And I'm going to destroy it. Death is going to die.”

Philip Pullman book Northern Lights

Variant: Human beings can’t see anything without wanting to destroy it, Lyra. That’s original sin.
Source: His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995), Ch. 21 : Lord Asriel's Welcome

Death