Quotes about being
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“Why do people who are good at families have to be smug and assume it is the only way to live. … Why can’t they be blamed for being bad at promiscuity?”

Hanif Kureishi (1954) English playwright, screenwriter, novelist

People, Family, Way

“Being negative only makes a difficult journey more difficult. You may be given a cactus, but you don't have to sit on it.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Approval Addiction: Overcoming Your Need to Please Everyone

“once I falsely hoped to meet the beings who, pardoning my outward form, would love me for the excellent qualities which I was capable of unfolding.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer

Love, Hope, Falseness

“We are not Human Beings experiencing spiritual lives, we are spiritual beings experiencing human lives.”

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

“I know this will come as a shock to you, Mr. Goldwyn, but in all history, which has held billions and billions of human beings, not a single one ever had a happy ending.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Source: The Portable Dorothy Parker

Happiness, History

“I think i'm just breathing, that's all. And there's a difference between breathing and being alive.”

John Boyne book The Absolutist

Source: The Absolutist

Thinking

“Being alive is sign of strength!”

Hiro Mashima (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: フェアリーテイル 31 講談社キャラクターズA [Fearī Teiru 31 Special Edition DVD Bundle]

“If one is not to get into a rage sometimes, what is the good of being friends?”

George Eliot book Middlemarch

Source: Middlemarch

Rage

“Being President is like being the groundskeeper in a cemetery: there are a lot of people under you, but none of them are listening.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

People

“Otherwise, as Dylan says, if you're not busy being born, you're busy dying.”

Walter Isaacson book Steve Jobs

Source: Steve Jobs

Business

“I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.”

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Anthem (1937)

“I wanted you to thank you for being my friend and letting me play a part in your story.”

Christopher Pike book The Last Vampire

Source: The Last Vampire

Parting

“The words emerge from her body without her realizing it, as if she were being visited by the memory of a language long forsaken.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

Source: Summer Rain

Memory

“One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Life, Happiness, Joy

“Mortal fear is as crucial a thing to our lives as love. It cuts to the core of our being and shows us what we are. Will you step back and cover your eyes? Or will you have the strength to walk to the precipice and look out?”

Marisha Pessl (1977) American writer

Source: Night Film

Love, Fear

“And I envied her that she had chosen her work herself and was doing what she wanted to do. I don't suppose I had any idea what I 'wanted' and so I was chosen, not choosing. There's glory and honor in being chosen. But not much room for free will.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Idea, Envy

“The art of being a warrior is to balance the wonder and the terror of being alive.”

Carlos Castaneda (1925–1998) Peruvian-American author

Art

“Hiding from the truth was worse than being lied to.”

Scott Westerfeld book Afterworlds

Source: Afterworlds

Truth

“Don't let it worry you, not being able to speak,'Dustfinger had often told her. 'People tend not to listen anyway, right?”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkspell

People

“Nothing is worse than being alone on the evening of the day when one's cow has exploded.”

Dean Koontz Odd Thomas

Source: Odd Thomas

“It's in being read that a book becomes a book, and in each of a million different readings a book become one of a million different books…”

Mohsin Hamid book How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

Source: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia

Books, Reading

“The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Animals

“This is making me crazy. I hate relying on other people to save me, I hate being clingy, I hate it, and every time you show up, I lean on you. - Matilda Scarlet Veronica Betty Vilma Goodnight”

Jennifer Crusie (1949) American writer

Source: Faking It

Hate, People, Time

“If a man isn't being nice when you're out, all you have to do is remain polite and then go home early.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

Home

“The challenge with being an initiator of projects is that you are never, ever done.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

“He also knew that rivals are best unmanned by being ignored.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany

“Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of the unknown. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality. Dying is like being born: just a change”

Isabel Allende book The House of the Spirits

Variant: Just as when we come into the world, when we die we are afraid of the unknown. But the fear is something from within us that has nothing to do with reality. Dying is like being born: just a change.
Source: The House of the Spirits

World, Fear, Reality, Change

“I am looking for the human who admits his flaws
Who shocks the adversary
By being kinder not stronger
What would that be like?
We don't even know”

Naomi Shihab Nye (1952) American writer

Source: Honeybee: Poems Short Prose

“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Feeling, Cats

“Death didn't bother me much. Strong Christian and all that. Method of death did. Being eaten alive. One of my top three ways not to go out.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book The Laughing Corpse

Source: The Laughing Corpse

Death, Way, Strong

“What the semicolon's anxious supporters fret about is the tendency of contemporary writers to use a dash instead of a semicolon and thus precipitate the end of the world. Are they being alarmist?”

Lynne Truss (1955) British writer

Source: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

World, Support

“For most of us, I think it's easier to admit doing wrong than being stupid.”

Stephen King book 11/22/63

Source: 11/22/63

Stupidity, Thinking

“Now you're just being silly. He's a mercenary- he's not going to go about penning love letters, and really, what would he write? 'Anna… love you… grrr?'" Olivia to Annalia”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: If You Dare

Love

“In the phrase ' human being,' the word 'being' is much more important than the word 'human.”

Karen Joy Fowler book We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

Source: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

“Part of me aches at the thought of her being so close yet so untouchable.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Parting, Sad, Heartbreaking

“The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”

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

Education

“Silence before being born, silence after death: life is nothing but noise between two unfathomable silences.”

Isabel Allende book Paula

Source: Paula

Life, Death, Silence

“There's a big difference between being alone and being lonely. And I'm guessing that once you've discovered this distinction you can't go back to solitary confinement without serious emotional repercussions.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

“Never miss an opportunity to show your love, especially to those close to you, because we are always at our most cautious with them for fear of being hurt.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra

Love, Fear, Hurt

“If the rest of them can survive only by destroying us, then why should we wish them to survive?… Nothing can make it moral to destroy the best. One can't be punished for being good. One can't be penalized for ability.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“Bravest thing about people is how they go on loving mortal beings after finding out there's such a thing as dying.”

Anne Tyler book The Tin Can Tree

Source: The Tin Can Tree

Love, People

“The oldest emotion in the world may be that of being moved; but to describe it-just to name it-must have been like trying to catch something invisible.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

World

“Most of the change we think we see in life
Is due to truths being in and out of favor.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

"The Black Cottage" (1914)
1910s

Life, Truth, Thinking, Change

“It felt like being a child again, though it was not. Being a child is like nothing. It's only being. Later, when we think about it, we make it into youth.”

China Miéville Embassytown

Source: Embassytown (2011), Chapter "Formerly, 2"

Youth, Thinking

“Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

"Economy and Pleasure".
What Are People For? (1990)

Justice, Law

“I'm not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels, I'm afraid of what real human beings to do other real human beings.”

Walter Jon Williams (1953) American fiction writer

“Ah, well, being conflicted means you can live a shallow life without copping to be a shallow person.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

Life, Personality

“But Rose? While I'm fine with you two dating and being happy, please try not to brake his heartmuch when the time comes.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Variant: While I'm fine with you two dating and being happy, please try not to break his heart too much when the time comes.
Source: Spirit Bound

Happiness, Time

“How real is any of the past, being every moment revalued to make the present possible…”

William Gaddis book The Recognitions

Source: The Recognitions

Past

“I took the life of the woman I was supposed to call mother in the process of being born… in order to become the world's strongest shinobi… an incarnation of sand was implanted inside of me…”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

Life, World

“We must laugh and cry, enjoy and suffer, in a word, vibrate to our full capacity … I think that’s what being really human means.”

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

Thinking, Suffering, Cry

“Being at ease with himself put him at ease with the world.”

John Steinbeck book Cannery Row

Source: Cannery Row

World

“She got tired of herself. She got tired of not being able to say what she wanted or do what she wanted or even want what she wanted.”

Ann Brashares The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Source: The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

“If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

Dreams

“Love is deceitful and sublime. In its truest form, it brings out the best in all beings. At its worse, It's a tool used to manipulate and ruin any one who is stupid enough to hold it. Don't be stupid.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Love, Stupidity

“[O]ne of the mixed blessings of being twenty and twenty-one and even twenty-three is the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, has ever happened before.”

Joan Didion book Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Source: Slouching Towards Bethlehem

“I wanted to tell her that being loved is a talent too, that it takes as much guts and as much work as loving; that some people, for whatever reason, never learn the knack”

Tana French book The Likeness

Source: The Likeness

Love, People, Learning

“For us there is no valid definition of socialism other than the abolition of the exploitation of one human being by another.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Afro-Asian Conference (1965)
Context: For us there is no valid definition of socialism other than the abolition of the exploitation of one human being by another. As long as this has not been achieved, if we think we are in the stage of building socialism but instead of ending exploitation the work of suppressing it comes to a halt — or worse, is reversed — then we cannot even speak of building socialism.

“The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest down through my body out along my arms and legs to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me the kisses have the opposite effect of making my need greater.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Kiss

“The lifetime of a human being is measured by decades, the lifetime of the Sun is a hundred million times longer. Compared to a star, we are like mayflies, fleeting ephemeral creatures who live out their lives in the course of a single day.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

Star, Time, Sun

“I was overpowered by being in the world, by other people and their lives I couldn’t lead, their jobs I couldn’t do - overpowered even by jobs I would never want or need to do.”

Andrew Solomon book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Source: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

People, World

“The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most.”

Thomas Merton book The Seven Storey Mountain

Source: The Seven Storey Mountain (1948)
Context: Indeed, the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers the most: and his suffering comes to him from things so little and so trivial that one can say that it is no longer objective at all. It is his own existence, his own being, that is at once the subject and the source of his pain, and his very existence and consciousness is his greatest torture.

Fear, Suffering, Hurt

“I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.”

Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) film, stage, and television actress

Positive

“I promise you, no one judges me more harshly than I do myself; I caused a brilliant wreckage. Some say I fell from grace; they’re being kind. I didn’t fall – I dove.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Mermaid Chair

Source: The Mermaid Chair

“It's like going back to being a child again. Someone to bathe you. Someone to lift you. Someone to wipe you. We all know how to be a child. It's inside all of us. For me, It's just remembering how to enjoy it.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

“What would Jesus, or any human being who isn't an asshole, do?”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

“Women are more attuned to feelings than men are, and if they’re not being truthful, more often than not it’s because they think truth might hurt your feelings. But it doesn’t mean they don’t love you.”

Nicholas Sparks book At First Sight

Mayor Gherkin, Chapter 8, p. 120
Source: 2000s, At First Sight (2005)
Context: ... but what I eventually came to understand was that if a woman truly loves you, you can't always expect her to tell the truth. You see, women are more attuned to feelings than men are, and if they're not being truthful, more often than not it's because they think the truth might hurt your feelings. But it doesn't mean they don't love you.

Love, Women, Men, Truth

“If you insist on trying to get yourself killed, I insist on being the one who chooses what you wear while you recover”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Luke Garroway, Clary Fray, and Jocelyn Fray, pg. 221-222
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)
Context: Clary looked down at herself. She was wearing a pair of flannel pajamas, too short in the leg and tight in the chest, with fire trucks on them.
Luke raised an eyebrow. 'I think those were mine when I was a kid.'
'You can't seriously tell me there wasn't anything else you could have put me in.'
'If you insist on trying to get yourself killed, I insist on being the one who chooses what you wear while you recover,' Jocelyn said with a tiny smirk.
'The pajamas of vengeance,' Clary muttered.

“Being brave and self-confident doesn't necessarily start inside… It starts with the rest of the world, and it leads back to you.”

Sarah Dessen book Keeping the Moon

Variant: Being self-confident doesn't necessarily start inside. It starts with the rest of the world and leads back to you.
Source: Keeping the Moon

World, Confidence, Self-confidence

“Because Father said clocks slay time. He said time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.”

William Faulkner book The Sound and the Fury

Variant: Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.
Source: The Sound and the Fury (1929)

Life, Time, Dead

“I know that I brought this all on myself. I know that I deserve this. I'd do anything not to be this way. I'd do anything to make it up to everyone. And to not have to see a psychiatrist, who explains to me about being "passive aggressive.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Way

“Only one way to win when you're being chased by someone bigger and tougher than you. Turn straight around, punch their teeth out, and hope the gods are fond of you.”

Scott Lynch book Red Seas Under Red Skies

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

God, Hope, Way

“…there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time.”

John Irving book A Widow for One Year

Source: A Widow for One Year

Time

“Being defiant can be a good thing sometimes," Aunty Ifeoma said. "Defiance is like marijuana - it is not a bad thing when it is used right.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Purple Hibiscus

Source: Purple Hibiscus

Marijuana

“There’s no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated.”

Scott Lynch The Lies of Locke Lamora

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006), Chapter 4 “At the Court of Capa Barsavi” section 5 (p. 219)

Freedom

“The real writer is one who really writes. Talent is an invention like phlogiston after the fact of fire. Work is its own cure. You have to like it better than being loved.”

Marge Piercy (1936) American novelist and poet

Love

“When did we stop being people, being human?”

Malorie Blackman book Knife Edge

Source: Knife Edge

People

“To participate requires self-discipline and trust and courage, because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, as my friend Dale puts it, How alive am I willing to be?”

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

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Courage, Business

“What’s the point of being a magician if you can’t wave your wand and make the people you care about feel better?”

Rick Riordan book The Serpent's Shadow

Source: The Serpent's Shadow

People, Feeling

“You know what they say: When people start burning books they'll soon burn human beings.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

People, Books

“One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.”

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"

Source: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter VII: "Instinct", page 244 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=262&itemID=F373&viewtype=image <br class="br">Source: The Origin of Species

Law