Quotes about anything
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“I'm not doing anything, and yet I'm also doing the most important thing a man can do: I'm listening to what I needed to hear from myself.”

Paulo Coelho book Like the Flowing River

Source: Like the Flowing River

“No, I don't want your money. The world moves less by money than by what you owe people and what they owe you. I don't like to owe anybody anything, so I keep to myself as much on the lending side as I can.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

Money, People, World

“I whispered “I’m not,” even though I was. Not scared of him, but scared of everything I felt. Sometimes it was too much. What I felt for him was bigger than the world, than anything.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

World

“In short, if we wish to see anything sensible done about the situation, we will clearly have to do it ourselves.”

Patricia C. Wrede (1953) author

Source: Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot

“Thought is the greatest of pleasures —pleasure itself is only imagination—have you ever enjoyed anything more than your dreams?”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Pleasure, Dreams, Imagination

“All young people worry about things, it's a natural and inevitable part of growing up, and at the age of sixteen my greatest anxiety in life was that I'd never again achieve anything as good, or pure, or noble, or true, as my O-level results.”

David Nicholls book Starter for Ten

Source: Starter for Ten

Life, People, Age, Nature

“I swear on the Angel.” He ducked his head down, kissed her cheek. “The hell with that.
I swear on us.”
Clary wound her fingers into the sleeve of his T-shirt. “Why us?”
“Because there isn’t anything I believe in more.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Angels, Hell, Kiss

“Telling me I can do anything I want is like pulling the plug out of the bath and then telling the water it can go anywhere it wants. Try it, and see what happens.”

Nick Hornby book A Long Way Down

Source: A Long Way Down

Water

“I can do anything I want, I'm eccentric!”

John Cleese (1939) actor from England

“God give me anything but a good man's pity.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Kiss of a Demon King

God

“Anything worth knowing cannot be understood by the human mind.”

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

“Love knows no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen.”

Tim McGraw (1967) American country singer

Love, Hope

“In all judgements by which we describe anything as beautiful, we allow no one to be of another opinion.”

Immanuel Kant book Critique of Judgment

Source: Critique of Judgment

Beauty

“I like visiting people in prison. I can say whatever I want to them, and they can’t do anything about it.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

People

“Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

World

“She can be anything, Boo told me, and this is what I remember most, her freckled face so solemn, as if she knew she was the first to tell me. And so can you.”

Sarah Dessen book Dreamland

Dreamland (2000)
Source: Wir sehen uns im Traumland

“Human beings are the laziest creatures in the history of creation. We would rather not do anything if we could avoid it.”

LeVar Burton (1957) actor, director

History

“You are always naked when you start writing; you are always as if you had never written anything before; you are always a beginner. Shakespeare wrote without knowing he would become Shakespeare”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

“Anything I cannot thank God for for the sake of Christ, I may not thank God for at all; to do so would be sin…. We cannot rightly acknowledge the gifts of God unless we acknowledge the Mediator for whose sake alone they are given to us.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer book The Cost of Discipleship

Source: The Cost of Discipleship

God, Christ

“Something inside me shuts down and I'm too numb to feel anything. It's like watching complete strangers in another Hunger Games. But I do notice they omit the part where I covered her in flowers.

Right. Because even that smacks of rebellion.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Hunger, Feeling, Game, Flowers

“mercy, I think, doesn't the human race know anything about mercy?”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Thinking

“Okay, this is the wisdom. First, time spent on reconnaissanse is never wasted. Second, almost anything can be improved with the addition of bacon. And finally, there is no problem on Earth that can't be ameliorated by a hot bath and a cup of tea.”

Jasper Fforde (1961) British novelist

Source: Shades of Grey

Wisdom, Problem, Time, Tea

“Don’t waste another day of your life grieving over something that you cannot do anything about. Let God give you a new beginning. Your mistakes are not enough to stop God if you don’t let them.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Life, God

“I've never worked so hard for anything in my life as I have for you.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

Life

“regret is mostly caused by not having
done anything.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

“If faces were different when lit from above or below -- what was a face? What was anything?”

William Golding book Lord of the Flies

Source: Lord of the Flies

“Given enough time, I guess anything can look good. All it has to do is survive.”

David Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Source: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Time

“Closure is a greasy little word which, moreover, describes a nonexistent condition. The truth, Venus, is that nobody gets over anything.”

Martin Amis book House of Meetings

Source: House of Meetings

Truth

“But people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No plot.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

People

“It didn’t seem to matter how much he resented Percy Jackson; Nico would do anything for him. He hated himself for that.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Hate

“A hallucination is a species of reality, as capable of teaching you as a videotape about Kilimanjaro or anything else that falls through your life.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Life, Reality

“I knew what it was to yearn for a life so distant it seemed that it had never been anything more than a dream.”

Alice Hoffman book The Dovekeepers

Source: The Dovekeepers

Life, Dreams, Distant

“It’s hard to communicate anything exactly and that’s why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find.”

Gustave Flaubert book Sentimental Education

Source: Sentimental Education

People, Communication, Perfection

“I would not have traded the delights of my suffering for anything in the world.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores

World, Suffering

“But I'm glad you'll see me as I am. Above all, I wouldn't want people to think that I want to prove anything. I don't want to prove anything, I just want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself. I have that right, haven't I?”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

People, Thinking, Evil

“Work could cure almost anything”

Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast

Source: A Moveable Feast

“Just do something. You might make a mistake, then you can fix it. But if you do nothing, you can't fix anything. And your life might turn out full of regrets.”

Jenny Colgan (1972) British writer

Source: The Little Shop of Happy Ever After

Life

“You loved me as hard as you knew how. I'd give anything to go back and love you better…”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: NOS4A2

Love

“Like when you sit in front of a fire in winter — you are just there in front of the fire. You don't have to be smart or anything. The fire warms you.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Winter

“Amazing how the heart clutches at anything familiar, whimpering Mine! Mine!”

Margaret Atwood book The Year of the Flood

Source: The Year of the Flood

Heart

“You cannot be firmly certain about anything. You can only have enough courage and strength to do what you consider to be right. Maybe it turns out that was wrong, but still you would have done his, and it is most important.”

Irving Stone book Lust for Life

Source: Lust for Life

Courage

“You don't have much faith in people, do you?' asked David. 'I don't have much faith in anything,' Roland replied. 'Not even in myself.”

John Connolly The Book of Lost Things

Source: The Book of Lost Things

People, Faith

“We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

Sadness, Time, Heart

“There are some things worth giving up anything for, even your freedom, and getting rid of your period is definitely one of them.”

Connie Willis (1945) American science fiction writer

Source: Even the Queen: & Other Short Stories

Freedom

“If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives.”

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

Personality

“Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature.”

Philip Pullman His Dark Materials trilogy

Source: His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997), Ch. 15 : Bloodmoss
Context: "You fought for the knife?"
"Yes, but — "
"Then you're a warrior. That's what you are. Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature."
Will knew that the man was speaking the truth. But it wasn't a welcome truth. It was heavy and painful. The man seemed to know that, because he let Will bow his head before he spoke again.
"There are two great powers," the man said, "and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."
"And now those two powers are lining up for battle. And each of them wants that knife of yours more than anything else. You have to choose, boy. We've been guided here, both of us — you with the knife, and me to tell you about it."

Nature

“Jem spoke with enormous care; talking to Will about anything personal was like trying not to startle away a wild animal.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Animals, Personality

“It's all about family [jake]. It was always about family. It will always be that way if I have anything to say about it.”

Fern Michaels (1933) American writer

Source: Up Close and Personal

Family, Way

“Humans generally get out the gist of what they need to say right at the beginning, then spend forever qualifying, contradicting, burnishing or taking important things back. Yor rareley miss anything by cutting most people off after two sentences.”

Richard Ford book The Lay of the Land

Source: The Lay of the Land

People

“To show a longing for anything that one cannot have, for instance, is not a clever position.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

Source: The Signature of All Things

“truth didn’t mean anything without someone to share it with; you could shout truth into the air forever, and spend your life doing it, if someone didn’t come and listen.”

Naomi Novik book Uprooted

Source: Uprooted

Life, Truth

“Live never to be ashamed if anything you say or do is published around the world, even if what is said is not true.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

World

“Why do you think people cheat?," I asked.
"Because they're bored? Because they can? Because they're selfish and think they're entitled to anything they want? Because they don't think they'll get caught?”

Sarah Mlynowski (1977) Novelist

Source: Ten Things We Did

People, Thinking, Cheating, Selfishness

“Manners are especially the need of the plain. The pretty can get away with anything.”

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer

“And really, it wasn’t much good having anything exciting like floods, if you couldn’t share them with somebody.”

A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh

Source: Winnie-the-Pooh

“Crying wouldn't help anything now.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Help, Cry

“Amy felt her phone vibrate. She held it up. It was from Ian.

DON'T ASK THE PRICE OF ANYTHING. DON'T SMILE. DON'T SAY "DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING CHEAPER?" DON'T

Amy shoved the phone back in her pocket. "Just pretend to be Ian," she told Dan.”

Jude Watson book A King's Ransom

Source: A King's Ransom

Smile

“Because when I looked at you across that table at the diner, no one else existed. And whether or not anything happens between you and me, it took meeting you to show me what I was missing.”

Jessica Bird book Covet

Source: Covet

“Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness, possesses you. And in this materialistic age, a great many of us are possessed by our possessions.”

Peace Pilgrim (1908–1981) American non-denominational spiritual teacher

Age

“The whole idea of god is absurd. If anything, '2001' shows that what some people call 'god' is simply an acceptable term for their ignorance. What they don't understand, they call 'god' -Stanley Kubrick, interview, 1963”

Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor

God, People, Idea, Understanding

“He sighed. "I don't think an apology will do, Mercy. Because an apology implies that you wouldn't do it again. And, under the circumstances, you wouldn't do anything differently, would you?

"No.”

Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer

Thinking

“I'm fit and I'm angry, and I'm obviously crazy. Anything could happen.”

Scott Lynch The Lies of Locke Lamora

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“How I feel is that if I wanted anything I'd take it. That's what I've always thought all my life. But it happens that I want you, and so I just haven't room for any other desires.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

Life, Feeling

“You have what I can afford to give. You are a panhandler, begging for anything, and I am the man walking briskly by, tossing a quarter or so into your paper cup. I can afford to give you this. This does not break me.”

Dave Eggers book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Source: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

“I want love to conquer all. But love can't conquer anything. It can't do anything on it's own.
It relies on us to do the conquering on its behalf.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

Love

“Make me into anything, but just love me.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Love

“Sometimes the little times you don't think are anything while they're happening turn out to be what marks a whole period of your life.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Source: 1975, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975), Ch. 7: Time
Context: Sometimes you're invited to a big ball and for months you think about how glamorous and exciting it's going to be. Then you fly to Europe and you go to the ball and when you think back on it a couple of months later what you remember is maybe the car ride to the ball, you can't remember the ball at all. Sometimes the little times you don't think are anything while they're happening turn out to be what marks a whole period of your life. I should have been dreaming for months about the car ride to the ball and getting dressed for the car ride, and buying my ticket to Europe so I could take the car ride. Then, who knows, maybe I could have remembered the ball.

Life, Thinking, Time

“Everything is funnier in retrospect, funnier and prettier and cooler. You can laugh at anything from far enough away.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories (2004)
Source: Stranger than Fiction