Quotes about anything
page 2

“A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

“I once took a ride to the beach in L. A., and all along the shore there were all these so-called jazz places. And I saw these college guys and session players playing this fusion Muzak stuff. It was just a lot of notes, and the more notes they played, the more it kept them from expressing anything. So I came back home and got out my Zeppelin albums.”

Jeff Buckley (1966–1997) American singer, guitarist and songwriter

О музыке

Guy, Home

“If your head tells you one thing and your heart tells you another, before you do anything, you should first decide whether you have a better head or a better heart.”

Marilyn vos Savant (1946) US American magazine columnist, author and lecturer

As quoted in Loose Cannons: Devastating Dish from the World's Wildest Women (1998) by Autumn Stephens, p. 270

Heart

“Doesn't anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?”

Kurt Vonnegut book A Man Without a Country

A Man Without a Country (2005)

Health, School

“The soul that desires God to surrender himself to it entirely must surrender itself entirely to him without keeping anything for itself.”

John of the Cross (1542–1591) Spanish mystic and Roman Catholic saint

The Sayings of Light and Love

God, Soul

“If there is anything beautiful other than absolute beauty, that can only be beautiful as far as it partakes of absolute beauty—and this I should say of everything. …by beauty all things become beautiful. …by greatness only great things become great and greater and greater, and by smallness the less becomes less.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

Plato, Phaedo

Beauty

“Off-Off-Broadway is absolutely necessary. It doesn't have to be sanctioned by the state, subsidized or anything. The plank and the passion is what it's about.”

Al Pacino (1940) American film and stage actor and director

Producing Off-Off-Broadway] (2007)

Passion

“Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.”

Douglas Adams book The Salmon of Doubt

The Salmon of Doubt (2002)

World, Way, Nature, Parting

“The PSP will not be able to display anything that you cannot do on a current system.”

Shigeru Miyamoto (1952) Japanese video game designer and producer

Source: USA Today

“You don't learn anything in school. It's just a waste of time. You lug around books and all and do homework. They give too much homework. You shouldn't be doing homework. Nobody's interested in it. The teachers are stupid. They shouldn't have any women in there. They don't know how to teach. And they shouldn't make anyone go to school. You don't want to go, you don't go, that's all. It's ridiculous. I don't remember one thing I learned in school. I don't listen to weakies. My two and a half years in Erasmus High I wasted. I didn't like the whole thing. You have to mix with all those stupid kids. The teachers are even stupider than the kids. They talk down to the kids. Half of them are crazy. If they'd have let me, I would have quit before I was sixteen.”

Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer

1960s, Portrait of a Genius As a Young Chess Master (1961)

Women, Books, Stupidity, School

“The Satanist shuns terms such as "hope" and "prayer" as they are indicative of apprehension. If we hope and pray for something to come about, we will not act in a positive way which will make it happen. The Satanist, realizing that anything he gets is of his own doing, takes command of the situation instead of praying to God for it to happen. Positive thinking and positive action add up to results. […] Just as the Satanist does not pray to God for assistance, he does not pray for forgiveness for his wrong doings. The Satanist knows that praying does no good, confessing to another human being, like himself, accomplishes even less - and is, furthermore, degrading.”

Anton LaVey book The Satanic Bible

The Satanic Bible (1969)

God, Hope, Way, Forgiveness

“Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.”

Jean De La Fontaine (1621–1695) French poet, fabulist and writer.

L'homme est ainsi bâti: Quand un sujet l'enflamme
L'impossibilité disparaît à son âme.
Book VIII (1678-1679), fable 25.
Fables (1668–1679)

Soul

“If there was anything her short life had taught her, it was that a person must be tough. Otherwise, you were had.”

Katherine Paterson book The Great Gilly Hopkins

Gilly Hopkins
The Great Gilly Hopkins (1978)

Life, Personality

“May the men who hold the destiny of peoples in their hands, studiously avoid anything that might cause the present situation to deteriorate and become even more dangerous. May they take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul: "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." These words are valid not only for individuals, but for nations as well. May these nations, in their efforts to maintain peace, do their utmost to give the spirit time to grow and to act.”

Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher

The Problem of Peace (1954)

Men, People, Peace, Effort

“Let us get rid of the idea of power from law altogether. Call law tabulation of facts, expression of facts, or what you will; anything rather than suppose that it either explains or compels.”

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Suggestions for Thought : Selections and Commentaries (1994), edited by Michael D. Calabria and Janet A. MacRae, p. 41
Context: Newton's law is nothing but the statistics of gravitation, it has no power whatever.
Let us get rid of the idea of power from law altogether. Call law tabulation of facts, expression of facts, or what you will; anything rather than suppose that it either explains or compels.

Law, Idea

“How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.”

Alan Watts (1915–1973) British philosopher, writer and speaker

Page 138
The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (1966)

God, Music

“I now know that anything sweet, really sweet, that I have was nothing that I planned.”

Sandra Bullock (1964) American actress and producer

On her three step-children with husband Jesse G. James
Parade interview (2009)
Context: I now know that anything sweet, really sweet, that I have was nothing that I planned. If you don't have kids and animals, you don't truly know what real life is about.

“No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography (1932) page 168
Context: No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other.

Housing

“Money doesn’t mean anything to me. I’ve made a lot of money, but I want to enjoy lie and not stress myself building my bank account. I give lots away and live simply, mostly out of a suitcase in hotels. We all know that good health is much more important.”

Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician

Money, Lie, Health

“I was just telling myself to do nothing more and nothing less, and just telling myself to breathe because in that moment I literally felt like I was going to puke, I was so nervous. My normal is good enough, so I don't do anything more or anything less, I just have to do what I normally do.”

Sunisa Lee (2003) American artistic gymnast; first Hmong American Olympic gold medalist

"Suni Lee talks gold medal win, 'cherished' backyard balance beam she trained on as a kid" in Today (30 July 2021) https://www.today.com/news/suni-lee-talks-gold-medal-win-i-still-can-t-t226952

“The optimist will never say that he's unemployed. But he will claim that he has full freedom to do anything he wants. He can choose whether to make money or waste his VALUABLE time.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Money, Freedom, Time

“You cannot define anything that is beyond your sight and imagination.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Imagination

“When we are uncomfortable or anything unpleasant happens, we look to take refuge in something. Usually, we turn to food, alcohol, sex, drugs, money, power, or relationships. But none of these things give us the lasting protection or satisfaction you're looking for. When you understand you can't find lasting happiness in Samsara, then the desire to find true refuge becomes strong. In Buddhism, we take refuge in the three jewels — the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The Buddha is like the doctor who understands your disease and knows how to treat it; the Dharma, his teachings, is the medicine he prescribes; and the Sangha is the spiritual community that helps you to take the medicine. To take refuge is to finally seek protection from suffering in a way that can really help you. When we think about the ultimate nature of reality and what causes us to suffer — this is the true meaning of refuge.”

Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician

Source: Discovering Buddhism, 2004 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=226w04QMPzQ

Communication, Understanding, Nature, Thinking

“The 80's and 90's were incredibly glorious!
It was all about glamour and fabulocity…
I would never change it for anything…amazing fetes every night…I am very fortunate to have been a big part of it all.
"I was a thread in the weaved quilt of an Era…"”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Night, Parting, Change

“And now - this is the most important thing. We will not give up anything. And we will fight for every meter of our land, for every person.”

Volodymyr Zelensky (1978) 6th President of Ukraine

2022, "We will not give up anything. And we will fight for every meter of our land" (30 March 2022)

Personality, Fight

“You don't understand anything until you learn it more than one way.”

Marvin Minsky (1927–2016) American cognitive scientist

In Managing an Information Security and Privacy Awareness and Training Program (2005) by Rebecca Herold, p. 101

Way, Understanding, Learning

“Almost anything that consoles us is a fake.”

Iris Murdoch book The Sovereignty of Good

The Sovereignty of Good (1970) p. 59.

“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

Happy, Peaceful, Freedom, Heart

“Never Explain Anything”

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author

“Don't mind anything anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady (1881), Ch. XXIII.

“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Variant: I wish you would tell me your secret. To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Youth, World, Exercises

“Books loved anyone who opened them, they gave you secruity and friendship and didn't ask for anything in return; they never went away, never, not even when you treated them badly.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Love, Friendship, Books

“All novels are, or should be, written for both men and women to read, and I am at loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Preface, 2nd edition (22 July 1848)
Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)
Context: I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are, or should be, written for both men and women to read, and I am at loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.

Women, Men, Loss, Reading

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Reading

“Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretense, has always been and always will be the last resort of the boob and the bigot.”

Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature

Time

“The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Heart

“Never say anything that doesn't improve on silence.”

Richard Yates A Good School

Source: A Good School

Silence

“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist

Women, World, Feeling, Thinking

“I don't do anything with my life except romanticize and decay with indecision.”

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) American poet

Source: The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice: First Journals and Poems 1937-1952

Life, Indecision

“You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.”

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer

As quoted in The #1 New York Times Bestseller (1992) by John Bear, p. 93
General sources

Change, Night

“Anything worth doing, is worth doing right.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

“What all good teachers have in common, however, is that they set high standards for their students and do not settle for anything less.”

Marva Collins (1936–2015) American schoolteacher

Source: Marva Collins' Way

Teachers

“Everyone is in favour of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

"The Coalmining Situation", Speech to the House of Commons (October 13, 1943) <br class="br">The Second World War (1939–1945) <br class="br">Source: Google books link https://books.google.com/books?id=hc8pAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT373&lpg=PT373&dq=%22if+anyone+says+anything+back+that+is+an+outrage%22&source=bl&ots=vQG7eKCVNO&sig=FgGJGUVc7MSNY3-hyQrYpC8tiOY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFEQ6AEwDWoVChMI-J-rpoiWyQIVF9tjCh2cLAel#v=onepage&q=%22if%20anyone%20says%20anything%20back%20that%20is%20an%20outrage%22&f=false

People, Idea

“If we know exactly where we're going, exactly how to get there, and exactly what we'll see along the way, we won't learn anything.”

M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American psychiatrist

Way, Learning

“What God intended for you goes far beyond anything you can imagine.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

God, Imagination

“If any female feels she need anything beyond herself to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power to be self-defining, her agency.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

Source: Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

Feeling

“Veganism is not about giving anything up or losing anything; it is about gaining the peace within yourself that comes from embracing nonviolence and refusing to participate in the exploitation of the vulnerable”

Gary L. Francione (1954) American legal scholar

Peace

“i think thats one of the problems with the world today, nobody knows who they are. everyone is running around looking for an identity, or trying to borrow one, only they dont know it. they actually think they know who they are and hat they are? theyre just a bunch of schleppers… who have no idea what a search for personal truth and identity really is, which would be alright if they didn't get in your way, but they insist that they know everything and that if you dont live their way then youre not living properly and they want to take your space away… they actually want to somehow get into your space and live in it and change it or destroy it… they just cant believe that you know what you are doing and that you are happy and content with it. you see thats the problem right there. if they could see that then they wouldnt have to feel threatened and feel that they have to destroy you before you destroy them. they just cant get it through their philistine heads that you are happy where you are and dont want to have anything to do with them. my space is mine and thats enough for me.”

Hubert Selby Jr. Requiem for a Dream

Source: Requiem for a Dream

Truth, World, Way, Feeling

“The biggest problem is the moment you say "spirituality," somebody starts talking about God, someone else about mukti, someone else about nirvana and someone else about the Ultimate. They are all already up there. You cannot do anything with people who are already up there. If somebody is down here, you can do something with them. You can only take a step if your feet are on the ground, isn't it? The moment you talk about God, you are not here anymore; you know it all. You can only start a journey from where you are. You cannot start a journey from where you are not. If you are willing to come down to where you are, then we can see what the next step is. If you are already on the third step to heaven, what can I do with you?”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Source: Of Mystics & Mistakes

God, People, Problem

“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies. If he only shows in his work that he has searched, and re-searched, for the way to put over lies, he would never accomplish anything.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

Source: 1920s, "Picasso Speaks" (1923), p. 315.

Truth, Lie, Art, Way

“The more sensitive you are, the more certain you are to be brutalized, develop scabs, never evolve. Never allow yourself to feel anything, because you always feel to much.”

Marlon Brando (1924–2004) American screen and stage actor

Feeling

“Anything you can settle with money is cheap.”

Erich Maria Remarque (1898–1970) German novelist

Source: Arch of Triumph: A Novel of a Man Without a Country

Money

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Variant: The world is dangerous, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

People, World, Evil

“[…] you can get anything in this world if you genuinely don't want it.”

George Orwell book Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Source: Keep the Aspidistra Flying

World

“We are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

“Something stopped me in school a little bit. Anything that I'm not interested in, I can't even feign interest.”

Quentin Tarantino (1963) American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor

School

“Freedom of the Press,
if it means anything at all,
means the freedom
to criticize and oppose”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Freedom

“Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else.”

Hans-Hermann Hoppe (1949) Austrian school economist and libertarian anarcho-capitalist philosopher

"Reflections on State and War" (2 December 2006) http://www.lewrockwell.com/hoppe/hoppe17.html

Democracy, History, Communication, Idea

“If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

love

“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”

Robert B. Cialdini (1945) American social psychologist

Source: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Sad, Heartbreaking, Love, Way

“You have made a place in my heart where I thought there was no room for anything else. You have made flowers grow where I cultivated dust and stones. Remember this, on this journey you insist on making. If you die, I will not survive you long.”

Robert Jordan The Shadow Rising

al'Lan Mandragoran to Nynaeve al'Meara
(15 September 1992)
Source: The Shadow Rising

Flowers, Heart

“Time was passing like a hand waving from a train I wanted to be on. I hope you never think about anything as much as I think about you.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), p. 224

Hope, Thinking, Time, Training

“Anything can happen in life, especially nothing.”

Michel Houellebecq book Platform

Source: Platform

Life

“I can't think of anything to write about, I'm just walking around here between the lines, under the light of your eyes, in the breadth of your mouth as in a beautiful happy day, which remains beautiful and happy, even when the head is sick and tired.”

Franz Kafka book Letters to Milena

Source: Letters to Milena

Beauty, Thinking, Light, Happiness

“It does help to actually realize that however stunning the person who is, you know, fluttering eyelashes at you, she doesn't do anything to match up to your wife.”

Colin Firth (1960) English actor

Help, Personality

“She was, if anything, on the plain side, at least not the type to attract men wherever she went. But there was something in her face that was meant for me alone. Everytime we met, I took a good look at her. And loved what I saw.”

Haruki Murakami book South of the Border, West of the Sun

Source: South of the Border, West of the Sun

Love, Men

“And yet, just for a moment, what almost frightening power had sounded in that cry from only a few hundred throats! Why was it that they could never shout like that about anything that mattered?”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Cry

“It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.”

Viktor E. Frankl book Man's Search for Meaning

Source: Man's Search for Meaning

“I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

World, Personality

“Anything that you resent and strongly react to in another is also in you.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

“The stars are a free show; it don’t cost anything to use your eyes”

George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London

Source: Down and Out in Paris and London

Star

“Every day, sincerely and without phoniness, Lou demonstrated by his actions how very vital it is - more than anything else - to understand and appreciate the people who work with you…. Do your job well, learn your job well, but always remember that the people you work with are your most valuable asset. Embrace them. Honor them. Respect them" (206) "Prescriptions for Success" by John Schuerholz”

Denzel Washington (1954) actor, screenwriter, director, producer

Source: A Hand to Guide Me

People, Understanding, Learning, Success

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Hope, Appearance

“Some people are like Slinkies. They aren't really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to my face when I push them down a flight of stairs.”

Patricia Briggs book Iron Kissed

Source: Iron Kissed

People, Smile

“If anything happens, I'm going to pin you to my back and never let you off."
I love you too."
- Saphira and Eragon”

Christopher Paolini book Eragon

Source: Saphira to Eragon: "If anything happens, I’m going to pin you to my back and never let you off.
Eragon: I love you too.
Saphira: Then I will bind you all the tighter.

Love

“Never do anything for anyone who can just as well do it themself”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

“If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

Source: The Integration of the Personality (1939), p. 285

For Parents, Change

“I've reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die. The world will keep on turning without me, I can't do anything to change events anyway.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

World, Change

“What is the worth of anything we do? The worth is in the act. Your worth halts when you surrender the will to change and experience life”

Christopher Paolini book Eragon

Source: Eragon

Life, Change

“History is important. If you don't know history it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way of checking up on it.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Way, History

“The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

As quoted by Jacob A. Riis in Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen (1904), chapter XVI A Young Men's Hero http://www.bartleby.com/206/16.html <br class="br">1900s

“Anything new, anything worth doing, can't be recognized.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

“In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Speech to members of the National Union of Townswomen’s Guilds, delivered at the Royal Albert Hall (May 20, 1965) ; as quoted in Why Women Should Rule the World, HarperCollins (2008), Dee Dee Myers, p. 227 : ISBN 0061140406, 9780061140402 . The Margaret Thatcher Foundation http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/101374 gives the following additional information : MT spoke on the theme ‘Woman – No Longer a Satellite.’ The Evening News report of this speech is the origin of a phrase often attributed to her : ‘In politics, ... (etc., as above).’ <br class="br">Backbench MP

For women

“Anything that just costs money is cheap.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

Money

“If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is a grass in the beginning.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Powerful, People, Thinking, Grass

“This instinctive repulsion which tradespeople inspire in men of sensitive feeling is one of the very rare consolations for being so impoverished which are given to those of us who don’t sell anything to anybody.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

Men, Feeling

“I’m tired, can’t think of anything and want only to lay my face in your lap, feel your hand on my head and remain like that through all eternity.”

Franz Kafka book Letters to Milena

Source: Letters to Milena

Feeling, Thinking

“To worry is to become accessible, unwittingly accessible. And once you worry you cling to anything out of desperation; and once you cling you are bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whoever or whatever you are clinging to.”

Carlos Castaneda book Journey to Ixtlan

Source: Journey to Ixtlan

“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”

Kristin Hannah book The Nightingale

Source: The Nightingale

Love, Life, War, Learning

“Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly--until you can learn to do it well.”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker

Learning

“You already know when I'm writing, so don't be surprised if it's short and dry, because I'm too hungry to write anything fat”

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer

As quoted in his letter to Jan Bialoblocki, written in Zelazowa Wola and dated back to December 24th 1826[citation needed]

“Records are always made to be broken no matter what they are. Anybody can do anything that they set their mind to.”

Michael Phelps (1985) American swimmer

Upon winning his eighth straight Gold medal and having set his eighth straight Olympic record, as well as his seventh world record, in his eight events in the 2008 Olympic Games, 17 August 2008. (Source: [Phelps wins historic eighth gold medal, CNN, http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SPORT/08/17/phelps.history.eight.golds/])

“Do not grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

"Unmarked boxes" /Ode#1937
Disputed, The Essential Rumi (1995)

Sad

“When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, O my friends, to punish them; and I would have you to trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue; or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing — then reprove them, as I have reproved you, for not caring about that for which they ought to care, and thinking that they are something when they are really nothing. And if you do this, I and my sons will have received justice at your hands.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

41e–42a
Plato, Apology

Justice, Thinking

“The “end of a world” never is and never can be anything but the end of an illusion.”

René Guénon book The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times

The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times (1945)

World

“Any corporation selling us products on the basis of anything other than utility should be revoked and shut down. Any corporation that at this time of fast-diminishing resources designs products that have in-built doomsday devices, planned obsolescence, should be shut down. All this glamour and clamor and blagging and skanking has to end.”

Russell Brand book Revolution

Revolution (2014)

Time

“Hunger reduces one to an utterly spineless, brainless condition, more like the after-effects of influenza than anything else. It is as though all one's blood had been pumped out and lukewarm water substituted.”

George Orwell book Down and Out in Paris and London

Source: Down and out in Paris and London (1933), Ch. 7

Hunger, Water

“Who is like the wise man? Who knows the solution to a problem? A man’s wisdom lights up his face and softens his stern appearance. I say: “Obey the king’s orders out of regard for the oath to God. Do not rush to depart from his presence. Do not take a stand for anything bad; for he can do whatever he pleases, because the word of the king is absolute; who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?”

Solomon (-990–-931 BC) king of Israel and the son of David

Ecclesiastes 8:1-4 http://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/nwt/books/ecclesiastes/8/, NWT

Wisdom, God, Problem, Light

“The sport is more important than anything. More important than any of the people in it. Of course I say what I think. I always have, even if it upsets people like Ecclestone and Balestre. Why should I be afraid of them? The fans aren't here to see politicians and manipulators. They're here to see me. I am very secure in my feelings about racing. I make a lot of money from it, but one thing I can tell you for sure: if the money disappeared overnight, I would still be in racing, because I love it. The entrepreneurs would be gone.”

Gilles Villeneuve (1950–1982) Canadian racecar driver

Interview during the driver's strike at the 1982 South African Grand Prix, Donaldson, pg. 297

Love, Money, People, Feeling

“Over the years I kept everything and anything from stuff and things that I came across during my life in trade, if they had emotional value to me. Always the simple goods and tools, from the farmers, the blacksmith, the carpenter, the baker and so on. I loved those things most in which I saw reflected the struggle for life very clearly.... old used up shoes, trousers, jackets, hats and children's vests, which I found in the rags, often patched up endlessly.”

Jopie Huisman (1922–2000) Dutch painter

translation, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
version in original Dutch / citaat van Jopie Huisman, in het Nederlands: Door de jaren heen heb ik van alles en nog wat bewaard aan dingen en voorwerpen die ik in mijn leven in de handel tegenkwam, als ze gevoelswaarde voor me hadden. Altijd eenvoudig gebruiksgoed en gereedschap van de boer, de smid, de timmerman, de bakker enzovoorts. Dingen waarin ik de strijd om het bestaan het duidelijkst weerspiegeld zag vond ik het mooist.. ..afgetrapte oude schoenen, broeken, jassen, hoeden en kindervestjes, die ik in de vodden vond, vaak tot in den treure versteld en opgelapt.
Source: Jopie de Verteller' (2010) - postumous, p. 19

Love, Life, Children, Shoe

Quotes about anything page 2

Quotes about anything
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