Quotes about being
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“I see you, Ben. I always have. You're in my pack."
He pulled away.
"What if being packmates isn't enough for me?”

Kathy Reichs book Code

Source: Code

“writers are desperate people and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

People

“But pain… seems to me an insufficient reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come on regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can you win from life in addition to the pain?”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)

Life, Pain, Question, Time

“Sure, this will probably end up being another in a long line of emotionally crippling misadventures… but let's try to have some fun along the way.”

Brian K. Vaughan (1976) American screenwriter, comic book creator

Way

“… and the great advantage of being a literary woman, was that you could go everywhere and do everything.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady

“Besides, it happens fast for some people and slow for some, accidents or gravity, but we all end up mutilated. Most women know this feeling of being more and more invisible everyday.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Women, People, Feeling

“In a perverse way, I was glad for the stitches, glad it would show, that there would be scars. What was the point in just being hurt on the inside? It should bloody well show.”

Janet Fitch (1955) American writer

Way, Hurt, Heartbreaking

“Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba….”

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

Source: Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century

God

“I've never minded it," he went on. "Being lost, that is. I had always thought one could not truly be lost if one knew one's own heart. But I fear I may be lost without knowing yours.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Fear, Heart

“If life — the craving for which is the very essence of our being — were possessed of any positive intrinsic value, there would be no such thing as boredom at all: mere existence would satisfy us in itself, and we should want for nothing.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Source: The Vanity of Existence

Life

“You remind me of myself ” Bes continued “back when I was a young dwarf. You got a stubborn
streak. When it comes to girl problems you’re clueless.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Girl, Problem

“We save the world by being alive ourselves.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

World

“I want to continue being crazy; living my life the way I dream it, and not the way the other people want it to be.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

Life, People, Dreams, Way

“Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated – in the main, abominably – because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Source: The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985

“People give pain, are callous and insensitive, empty and cruel… but place heals the hurt, soothes the outrage, fills the terrible vacuum that these human beings make.”

Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American author

Pain, People, Hurt

“There is no shame in not knowing something. The shame is in not being willing to learn.”

Alison Croggon (1962) contemporary Australian poet, playwright and fantasy novelist

Source: The Naming

Learning

“Maybe marriage, like life, isn't only about the big moments, whether they be good or bad. Maybe it's all the small things—like being guided slowly forward, surely, day after day—that stretches out to strengthen even the most tenuous bond.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Life, Marriage

“There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being READY to receive it. No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Hope

“At the deepest level people are madder than they want to believe. You will find that they fear being eaten, and are alarmed by their desire to devour others.”

Hanif Kureishi (1954) English playwright, screenwriter, novelist

Source: Something to Tell You

People, Fear

“Being a decent human being will require effort and energy…”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Effort

“I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American aviator and author

Locked Rooms and Open Doors (1974)

Thinking

“My father liked me, when I wasna being an idiot. And he loved me, too -- enough to beat the daylights out of me when I was being an idiot. Jamie Fraser”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Source: Outlander

Love

“My faith is whatever makes me feel good about being alive. If your religion doesn't make you feel good to be alive, what the hell is the point of it?”

Tom Robbins Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Source: Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Faith, Religion, Feeling, Hell

“God, he was probably too young to be this old, but life had a way of being about experience, rather than calendar days.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover at Last

Life, God, Way

“All your life you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye, and when something nudges it into outline it is like being ambushed by a grotesque.”

Tom Stoppard book Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Life, Truth

“I didn't realize we were being watched. We were all being watched”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Stargirl

“A few years ago it dawned on me that everybody past a certain age - regardless of how they look on the outside - pretty much constantly dreams of being able to escape from their lives.”

Douglas Coupland The Gum Thief

Source: The Gum Thief

Age, Dreams, Past

“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

Love, Faith

“The gods that we've made are exactly the gods you'd expect to be made by a species that's about half a chromosome away from being chimpanzee.”

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

Christopher Hitchens vs. Barry Brummett, 04/06/2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjSMmRFHaJM&t=13m50s <br class="br">2010s, 2011

God

“A girl doesn't always want to go out, you know, Mr. Wind-Up Bird. Sometimes she feels like being nasty--like, if the guy's gonna wait, let him really wait.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Guy, Feeling, Girl, Bird

“The goal of being alive is to figure out what it means to be alive.”

Chuck Klosterman book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

Source: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

“Being with Mary was different because… he wasn't the only one who wanted to make love to her.
The beast wanted her, too.
The beast wanted out so it could take her.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Eternal

Source: Lover Eternal

Love, Making love

“Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being?”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

God, Heart

“You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

“I didn’t mind the quiet stretches. It was like we were trying out the idea of being side by side.”

Aimee Bender (1969) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Idea

“Don't be afraid of being scared. To be afraid is a sign of common sense. Only complete idiots are not afraid of anything.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Angel's Game

Source: The Angel's Game

Sense

“A man fell in love with Jeanne, and she tried to love him. But she complained that he uttered such ordinary words, that he could never say the magic phrase which would open her being.”

Anaïs Nin book Under a Glass Bell

Source: Under a Glass Bell

Love

“Poppy: Um, can we cross running water?
James: Sure. And we can walk into people's homes without being invited, and roll in garlic if we don't mind losing friends.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Secret Vampire/Daughters of Darkness/Spellbinder

People, Home, Water

“The art of conversation is the art of hearing as well as of being heard.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

Source: Selected Essays, 1778-1830

Art

“Hello, fear. Thank you for being here. You’re my indication that I’m doing what I need to do.”

Cheryl Strayed (1968) author, memoirist, blogger

Source: Brave Enough

Fear

“I have no plans to call on you, Clarice, the world being more interesting with you in it.”

Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs

Source: The Silence of the Lambs

World

“There was I thinking being a shifter had its upsides. Looks like I was wrong.”

Patricia Briggs book Bone Crossed

Source: Bone Crossed

Thinking

“My God, it can recognise another human being when it's hit over the head with one.”

Laurie R. King book The Beekeeper's Apprentice

Source: The Beekeeper's Apprentice

God

“As it turns out, you can function while your heart is being torn to shreds.”

Jodi Picoult Perfect Match

Source: Perfect Match

Heart

“When they finished laughing they were on their way to being not just friends, but the dearest of friends, the sort of friends whose lives are shaped by the friendship.”

Robin McKinley book Spindle's End

Source: Spindle's End

Friendship, Way

“You guys are weird," Tori said.
Simon sat on the crate beside me. "That's right. We are totally weird and completely uncool. Your popularity is plummeting just by being near us.”

Kelley Armstrong The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Guy

“Evolution brings human beings. Human beings, through a long and painful process, bring humanity.”

Dan Simmons book Hyperion

Source: Endymion (1996), Chapter 44 (p. 449)
Source: Hyperion
Context: “Humanity has evolved—as far as it has evolved,” continued the old priest, “with no thanks to its predecessors or itself. Evolution brings human beings. Human beings, through a long and painful process, bring humanity.”
“Empathy,” Aenea said softly.

Pain

“Eye contact made people think you were being truthful even if you weren't.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: All These Things I've Done

People, Truth, Thinking

“Wha-what?" Her eyes fluttered open.
"Nothing," I shouted. "We're being followed by a slaying machine. Go back to sleep.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Sleep

“I am absolutely convinced that meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain; meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure. And that is why we find ourselves emptied of meaning with our pantries still full.”

Ravi Zacharias (1946) Indian philosopher

Source: Can Man Live Without God

Pain, Pleasure

“Will we ever stop being afraid of nights and death?

When you reach the stars, boy, yes, and live there forever, all the fears will go, and Death himself will die.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Death, Fear, Star, Boy

“If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

God, People, Boy

“Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant.”

Peter F. Drucker book The Essential Drucker

Source: The Essential Drucker

People

“The truth is, we value your company, for want of any other. We have been left so much to our own devices—after a while one welcomes the uncertainty of being left to other people's.”

Tom Stoppard book Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

People, Truth

“What he needed was to find fifty more people like him, who had stopped being themselves without realizing it.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

People

“the poems to come are for you and for me and are not for mostpeople… you and i are human beings; mostpeople are snobs.”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Source: 100 Selected Poems

“Maybe you can keep me from never being happy, but you're not going to stop me from HAVING FUN!”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Happiness

“He said that in a way being loved is like being told you never have to die.”

Timothy Findley book The Wars

Source: The Wars

Love, Way

“[Creationists] make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Often attributed as remarks to the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) (1980)
General sources

Night

“That was the whole point of being special: You existed to make sure everyone else behaved, but that didn't mean YOU had to.”

Scott Westerfeld book Specials

Source: Specials

“I swear, I have no understanding of other human beings.”

E. Lockhart (1967) American writer of novels as E. Lockhart (mainly for teenage girls) and of picture books under real name Emily J…

Source: The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver

Understanding

“I tried being reasonable, but I didn't like it.”

Clint Eastwood (1930) actor and director from the United States

“Light and darkness dancing together, born together, born of each other, neither preceding, neither following, both fully being in joyful rhythm.”

Madeleine L'Engle A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Source: A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Light, Dance

“I envy people who have the capacity to sit with another human being and find them endlessly interesting, I would rather watch TV. Of course this becomes eventually known to the other person.”

Carrie Fisher book Postcards from the Edge

Source: Postcards from the Edge

People, Envy, Personality

“I wish sometimes you had a few bad motives, you might understand a little more about human beings.”

Graham Greene book The Quiet American

Source: The Quiet American

Motivation, Understanding

“Being an author sucks, doesn't it? It's like telling a joke and nobody laughs for two years.”

Scott Westerfeld book Afterworlds

Source: Afterworlds

“Don’t worry about it. We’re used to being told to go screw ourselves. And that’s from the people who actually like us. You should hear what our enemies say. (Nykyrian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

People

“Cold-hearted Elinor! Oh! Worse than cold-hearted! Ashamed of being otherwise.--Marianne Dashwood”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Source: Sense and Sensibility

Heart

“Can't you… I don't. Find a hobby or something?"
"Being charming is my hobby.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

“The vast distances that separate the stars are providential. Beings and worlds are quarantined from one another. The quarantine is lifted only for those with sufficient self-knowledge and judgement to have safely traveled from star to star.”

Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot

Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), p. 398

World, Travel, Star, Knowledge

“Rant would tell people: 'You're a different human being to everybody you meet.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

People

“Unlike a fountain that circulates the same water in an enclosed, perpetually recycling system, a human being circulates thoughts in an unlimited reservoir of self.

Don't limit yourself to being a mere fountain when you contain an ocean.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Water

“Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

Variant: Some stories are so familiar its like going home.

Books, Home, Reading

“Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

On Death and Dying (1969)

Death, Peace, Star, Light

“It isn’t easy being a brilliant inventor, always alone. Always misunderstood. Easy to turn bitter, make horrible mistakes. People are more difficult to work with than machines. And when you break a person, he can’t be fixed.

-Hephaestus”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

People, Personality

“I have been too unhappy, I thought, it cannot last, being so unhappy, it would kill you”

Jean Rhys book Wide Sargasso Sea

Source: Wide Sargasso Sea

“Because', she said, 'your problems are not real problems. You're dating two beautiful girls at once. Think about it. That's like… having rock-star problems.'
'Having rock-star problems may be the closest I ever get to being an actual rock star.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Beauty, Girl, Star, Problem

“Because that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.”

Philip Roth book The Human Stain

Source: The Human Stain

Love, Game, Courage

“There are things in this universe that we cannot control, and then there are the things we can…. Let fate, coincidence, and accident conspire; human beings must act on reason.”

David Guterson book Snow Falling on Cedars

Source: Snow Falling on Cedars

Fate, Universe

“Funny the only two times we use the phrase "seeing someone" are when we are referring to being in a a relationship or getting psychological help.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Stay

Time, Help

“Being vegetarian here also means that we do not consume dairy and egg products, because they are products of the meat industry. If we stop consuming, they will stop producing. Only collective awakening can create enough determination for action.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom

“Every morning upon awakening, I experience a supreme pleasure: that of being Salvador Dalí, and I ask myself, wonderstruck, what prodigious thing will he do today, this Salvador Dalí.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

quote of 1953; as cited in Smithsonian magazine.
Variants:
Every morning when I wake up, I experience an exquisite joy — the joy of being Salvador Dalí — and I ask myself in rapture: What wonderful things is this Salvador Dalí going to accomplish today?
Every morning when I awake, the greatest of joys is mine: that of being Salvador Dalí.
Quotes of Salvador Dali, 1951 - 1960

Pleasure

“Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.”

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

“You're so afraid of being hurt that you attack first. Only those who really care about you will weather the assault of your verbal attacks and stay. The rest will fall away.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

Hurt, Weather