Quotes about being page 27
“There sat I, a faded being, under faded leaves.”
Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author
Source: Diaries of Franz Kafka
Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth
Source: The Phantom Tollbooth
“Tis very strange Men should be so fond of being thought wickeder than they are.”
Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) English trader, writer and journalist
A System of Magick (1726).
Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor
Interview All Songs Considered, NPR, May 20, 2008
“True beauty is about who you are as a human being, your principles, your moral compass.”
Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress
Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding
“How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.”
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis
Letter to his fiancée Martha Bernays (27 June 1882); published in Letters of Sigmund Freud 1873-1939 (1961), 10-12
1880s
“Being able to do what you wish is the best thing in the world!”
Shiro Amano (1976) Japanese manga artist
Source: Kingdom Hearts, Vol. 1
“I am a flawed human being - a far more flawed human being than you
realize.”
Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood
Source: Norwegian Wood
“What a strange development of patriotism that turns a thinking being into a loyal machine!”
Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches
“I'm restless. Things are calling me away. My hair is being pulled by the stars again.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Variant: I’m restless. Things are calling me away. My hair is being pulled by the stars again.
Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“And what greater might do we possess as human beings than our capacity to question and to learn?”
Ann Druyan (1949) American author and producer
Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows
Variant: We fear things because we value them. We fear losing people because we love them. We fear dying because we value being alive. Don’t wish you didn’t fear anything. All that would mean is that you didn’t feel anything.
Source: Lord of Shadows
“There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.”
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) French painter and sculptor
1951 - 1968, The Creative Act', 1957
Context: Let us consider two important factors, the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on one hand, and on the other the spectator who later becomes the posterity; to all appearances the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing.
David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist
Source: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life
“The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.”
Leo Rosten (1908–1997) American writer
“Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author
“You're never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true.”
Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer
Variant: You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
“One cannot be deeply responsive to the world without being saddened very often.”
Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst
ABC TV (25 May 1958)
“Captain, I think you have a problem with your brain being missing.”
Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film
Robert McKee (1941) American academic specialised in seminars for screenwriters
Source: Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
“What happened between those two beings? Nothing. They were adoring one another.”
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Source: Les Misérables
“The only way to find true happiness is to risk being completely cut open.”
Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters
Source: Invisible Monsters
Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
“We are ever capable of change and ever capable of being our better selves”
Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess
Source: Clockwork Princess
“Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive.”
Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter
As quoted in Seven Words to the Cross (1979) by Ellsworth Kalas, page 93
Context: Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything.
“The poets are in the vanguard of a changed conception of Being.”
Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German philosopher
“When there are no consequences, being wrong is simply a diversion.”
Ian McEwan book Saturday
Source: Saturday
Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Variant: Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, as if it weren't a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was.
Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
“Man, being reasonable, must get drunk; the best of life is but intoxication.”
George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
“The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
“Once you lose that sense of wonder at being alive, you're pretty much on the way out…”
David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger
“It is all just the universe doing its stuff, and we are the stuff it is being done to.”
Julian Barnes (1946) English writer
Source: Levels of Life
“There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer
As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1979) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 524
As quoted in ...
“Here's a hot tip: Most girls don't like being stalked.”
Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels
Source: City of Fallen Angels
“So scared of getting older, I'm only good at being young.”
John Mayer (1977) guitarist and singer/songwriter
“I can't eat and I can't sleep. I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human, you know?”
Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story
Variant: I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human.
Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story
“To be poor without murmuring is difficult. To be rich without being proud is easy.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Source: The Analects of Confucius
“Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.”
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist
Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American feminist, writer, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer
“Being oppressed means the absence of choices”
Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist
Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist
Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Aldo Leopold book A Sand County Almanac
"The Ecological Conscience" [1947]; Published in The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays by Aldo Leopold, Susan L. Flader and J. Baird Callicott (eds.) 1991, p. 346.
1940s
Source: A Sand County Almanac
Context: The direction is clear, and the first step is to throw your weight around on matters of right and wrong in land-use. Cease being intimidated by the argument that a right action is impossible because it does not yield maximum profits, or that a wrong action is to be condoned because it pays. That philosophy is dead in human relations, and its funeral in land-relations is overdue.
