Quotes about being
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“The world is bigger than you know, and scarier than you might imagine. The only currency worth anything is being true to yourself, and the only goal worth seeking is finding out who you truly are.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

World, Imagination

“Being loved is a good thing. A grand thing. The best damned thing of all.”

Lori Wilde (1958) American writer

Source: High Stakes Seduction

Love

“Really, being a librarian is a much more dangerous job than you realize.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

“Tom has a theory that homosexuals and single women in their thirties have natural bonding: both being accustomed to disappointing their parents and being treated as freaks by society.”

Helen Fielding book Bridget Jones's Diary

Source: Bridget Jones's Diary

Women, Disappointment, Nature, Parent

“What you're blaming yourself for is being who you are. And that's no one's fault and nothing you can change.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Change

“I think being a mother is the cruelest thing in the world.”

Nella Larsen (1891–1964) Novelist, librarian, nurse

Source: The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and the Stories

World, Thinking

“Everyone has things they're afraid of. It's part of being human.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Parting

“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will.”

Eric Metaxas (1963) American journalist

Source: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

God, Courage

“Hi, Mom…Yes, I know my heart rate’s dangerously elevated. That sound? I’m being shot at, Ma. Gotta go now. Love you much. Hugs and kisses. (Devyn)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Ice

Love, Moms, Kiss, Heart

“…when the person beside you is making you alert and keen and the idea of being with anyone else is not imaginable…”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Source: An Object of Beauty

Imagination, Idea, Personality

“Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.”

William James book The Varieties of Religious Experience

Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience

Life, Knowledge

“When we fall in love, we hope - both egotistically and altruistically - that we shall be finally, truly seen: judged and approved. Of course, love does not always bring approval: being seen may just as well lead to a thumbs-down and a season in hell.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Nothing to Be Frightened Of

Love, Hope, Hell, Season

“Dont worry, Roza, I'm not afraid. I'll take whatever heat they give me over being with you. It's worth it.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“A Chinese poet many centuries ago noticed that to re-create something in words is like being alive twice.”

Frances Mayes book Under the Tuscan Sun

Source: Under the Tuscan Sun

“Lonely people tend, rather, to be lonely because they decline to bear the psychic costs of being around other humans. They are allergic to people. People affect them too strongly.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Source: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

People

“Reading is like looking through several windows which open to an infinite landscape…. For me life without reading would be like being in prison, it would be as if my spirit were in a straightjacket; life would be a very dark and narrow place.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

Life, Reading

“Whatever storm was brewing, I'd find it and fight it. If it was the price of being with Curran, then I would pay it. He was worth it.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Fight

“… there’s also nothing noble about being fearless. How much do you wanna bet the last man standing in a battle is usually the biggest fool of all?” - Paul Hudson”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

Fools

“It was a delightful visit;-perfect, in being much too short.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Perfection

“Repressively, Lymond himself answered. “I dislike being discussed as if I were a disease. Nobody ‘got’ me,” he said.”

Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001) British writer

Source: The Game of Kings

Disease

“If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“Everything was fine, and she had the rare, new sensation of being exactly where she wanted to be.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

“The problem with being clever, Serene thought with a sigh, is that everyone assumes you're always planning something.”

Brandon Sanderson Elantris

Source: Elantris

Problem

“It's actually a rather romantic and dramatic story --- one I would eagerly tell you, except for the fact that I recently forgot it, based on it being far too long and having not enough decapitations.”

Brandon Sanderson book Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia

Source: Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia

“Believe me, when my ‘personal endowments’ are being discussed, I always pay attention.” ~ Cam Rohan”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Mine Till Midnight

Personality

“Sincerity and gravity, in Magnus's opinion, were highly overrated, as was being forced to relive unpleasant memories. He would much rather be amused and amusing.”

Cassandra Clare The Bane Chronicles

Source: The Bane Chronicles

Memory, Sincerity

“Being able to embrace contradictions is a sign of intelligence.
Or insanity.”

Richard Kadrey (1957) San Francisco-based novelist, freelance writer, and photographer

Source: Butcher Bird

Intelligence

“Man selects only for his own good: Nature only for that of the being which she tends.”

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

Source: The Origin of Species

Nature

“Perhaps the world progresses not by maturing, but by being in a permanent state of adolescence, of thrilled discovery.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Levels of Life

World

“Mother used to say it meant Christopher was a nice name because it was a story about being kind and helpful, but I do not want my name to mean a story about being kind and helpful. I want my name to mean me.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Help

“Retire to the center of your being, which is calmness.”

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship

“As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don't think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, 'I'm probably no better than you, but I'm certainly your equal.”

Harper Lee (1926–2016) American author

Truth, Thinking

“The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.”

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

Personality

“Seems to be a deep instinct in human beings for making everything compulsory that isn't forbidden.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Source: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

“The effect of this cannot be understood without being there. The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you.”

Jeff VanderMeer book Annihilation

Source: Annihilation

Beauty, Change

“Imagination is a very high sort of seeing, which does not come by study, but by the intellect being where and what it sees, by sharing the path, or circuits of things through forms, and so making them translucid to others.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Imagination, Study

“Truth is a risky proposition. It's the nature of mediocre human beings to believe that lies are necessary, that they serve a purpose, that truth is subversive, that candor is dangerous, that the very scaffold of communal life is supported by lies.”

Anne Rice The Wolf Gift

Source: The Wolf Gift

Life, Truth, Communication, Support

“Liz cleared her throat. "Isn't there a more polite term we're supposed to use nowadays? Like…. little person, or vertically challenged, or-"
"I'm not going to call myself the god of vertically challenged people," Bes grumbled. "I'm a dwarf!”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

God, People, Personality

“No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

Source: The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), Part One, Chapter III

“The shame of being a man - is there any better reason to write?”

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

“And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being loved is intolerable to many.”

Carson McCullers (1917–1967) American writer

Source: The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories

Love, Truth, Secret, Way

“Who runs a combination?" Keith asked. "With the cat shelter being the primary function? Only people who want to kill you with an axe and then put you in the garden and build a shed on you, that's who.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: The Last Little Blue Envelope

People, Cats

“It isn’t about being at the same school or the same town or even the same room. It’s about being together. Love is a choice you make.”

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: Night Road

Love, School

“It was hard to know what was worse: him being with her and all her sisters, or him being with none of them because his heart was held by another.

-Cormia”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Enshrined

Sister, Heart

“I'm telling you, I wanted to. But I was trapped. You of all people should know what it's like being caught between groups”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

People

“Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge. It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being.”

Carl Sagan book The Demon-Haunted World

Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Religion, Way, Business, Knowledge

“I am not sad, he would repeat to himself over and over, I am not sad. As if he might one day convince himself. Or fool himself. Or convince others -- The only thing worse than being sad is for others to know that you are sad.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Sadness, Fools, Sad

“Rose pictured him standing at the boundary of the Ogletree house in that enormous fur cape, with a giant sword sticking over his shoulder, roaring at the top of his lungs and then being upset that nobody came out, and laughed.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: On the Edge

Housing

“Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever.”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted

Lie, Secret

“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.

Love is a friendship set to music.”

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

Love, Life, Friendship, Music

“Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.”

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools

Life

“I've since discovered that many human beings need no supernatural mentoring to commit acts of savagery; some people are devils in their own right, their telltale horns having grown inward to facilitate their disguise.”

Dean Koontz Odd Thomas

Source: Odd Thomas

People

“In avoiding specific goals he had avoided specific limitations. For the time being the world, life itself, could be his chosen field.”

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road

Source: Revolutionary Road

Life, World, Time

“It is the hour to be drunken! To escape being the martyred slaves of time, be ceaselessly drunk. On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

Wine, Time

“It is at despair at not being able to be noble and beautiful by natural means that we have made up our faces so strangely.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

Beauty, Nature, Despair

“Start taking bad decisions and it will take you to a place where others only dream of being.”

Paul Arden (1940–2008) writer

Source: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

Dreams, Decision

“Imagine the amazing good fortune of the generation that gets to see the end of the world. This is as marvelous as being there in the beginning.”

Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) French sociologist and philosopher

World, Imagination

“I am absolutely convinced that meaninglessness does not come form being weary of pain; meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure.”

Ravi Zacharias (1946) Indian philosopher

Source: Can Man Live Without God

Pain, Pleasure

“I fell in love with you," he said, "because you were one of the bravest people I've ever known. So how could I ask you to stop being brave just because I loved you?”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Love, People

“Then from far away across the world he smelled good things to eat, so he gave up being king of the wild things.”

Maurice Sendak book Where the Wild Things Are

Source: Where the Wild Things Are

World

“About the nature of human beings. I discovered that confronted by temptation, we will always fall. Given the right circumstances, every human being on this earth would be willing to commit evil.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Nature, Evil

“It’s a depressing habit you have of loving to sneeze and of eating apples as if they were juicier for you and being the first one to exclaim how good the movie is. You depress people. We like apples too.”

Leonard Cohen book Beautiful Losers

Source: Beautiful Losers

Love, People

“It stands to reason that anyone who learns to live well will die well. The skills are the same: being present in the moment, and humble, and brave, and keeping a sense of humor. (361)”

Victoria Moran (1950) American writer

Source: Younger by the Day: 365 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Body and Revitalize Your Spirit

Sense, Learning

“The good thing about being explosive is that no one can beat you.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

“Frank gave Leo a confused smile- like he couldn't decide whether to gloat or to thank Leo for being a doofus- but he cheerfully let Hazel drag him along.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Smile

“The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Pain, Future

“I felt beautiful but also interrupted. I wasn't used to being so complicated.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Beauty

“I understand too well the dreadful act
I'm going to commit, but my judgement
can't check my anger, and that incites
the greatest evils human beings do.”

Euripidés Medea

Source: Medea

Understanding, Evil, Anger

“I enjoy the fun of failure. It's fun to fail, I kept repeating. It's part of being ambitious; it's part of being creative. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Failure, Parting

“For the first time I could remember, I felt weak, woozy and stupid— like a human-being. Like a very small and helpless human-being.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Stupidity, Time

“I haven’t the slightest interest in being happy. I prefer to live life passionately, which is dangerous because you never know what might happen next.”

Paulo Coelho book Adultery

Source: Adultery

Life, Happiness, Passion

“The human being is a most curious creature. He thinks he has got one
soul, and he has got dozens.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Soul, Thinking

“Being in command means making tough decisions. Not being in command means shutting up and doing what you're told.
--Artemis Fowl”

Eoin Colfer book The Artemis Fowl Files

Source: The Artemis Fowl Files

Decision

“I am not fond of the idea of my shrubberies being always approachable.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

Idea

“Being like everybody is the same as being nobody.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

“People don't resist change. They resist being changed.”

Peter M. Senge (1947) American scientist

People, Change

“I could see no reason for being sad. It´s just that it makes me unhappy not to feel happy.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Mandarins

Source: The Mandarins

Happiness, Sadness, Feeling

“When people looked at him they had the feeling of being shut out. He did not shut them out. He shut himself in.”

Jeanette Winterson book Lighthousekeeping

Source: Lighthousekeeping

People, Feeling

“A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

Love, Learning, Personality, Heart Touching

“But life isn’t about learning to forgive those who have hurt you or forgetting your past. It’s about learning to forgive yourself for being human and making mistakes.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Time Untime

Life, Forgiveness, Learning, Past

“Perfectionism means that you try not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.”

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

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

Life

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Source: The Constitution of the United States of America

People

“This is my doctrine: Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself. Keep your mind open to the influences of nature. Receive new thoughts with hospitality. Let us advance.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Source: The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child

Nature

“MIND, n. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Its chief activity consists in the endeavour to ascertain its own nature, the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothing but itself to know itself with.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Secret, Nature

“To try to understand another human being, to grapple for his ultimate depths, that is the most dangerous of human endeavors.”

Irving Stone book The Agony and the Ecstasy

Source: The Agony and the Ecstasy

Understanding

“Dark matter has a gravitation effect on other objects. You can't see it, you can't feel it, but you can watch something being pulled in its direction.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Feeling

“One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination.”

Sam Levenson (1911–1980) American journalist

Way, Imagination

“You are an infinite spiritual being having a temporary human experience.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

“The Whole World:
My favorite thing
is being your lap
while we sit there
together & love
the whole world.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Love, World

“The real alchemy consists in being able to turn gold back again into something else; and that's the secret that most of your friends have lost.”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

Secret

“Sometimes you couldn’t face the sadness of being forgotten until you felt the comfort of being remembered again.”

Ann Brashares book The Last Summer

Source: The Last Summer

Sadness

“Dear Jack,

I love you, too.

And I think I know the secret to a long and happy marriage— just choose someone you can't live without.

For me, that would be you.

So if you insist on being traditional…

Yes.

—Ella”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

Love, Marriage, Happiness, Secret

“By telling you anything at all I'm at least believing in you, I believe you're there, I believe you into being. Because I'm telling you this story I will your existence. I tell, therefore you are.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 41 (p. 268)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“Thou art my father, thou my author, thou my being gav'st me; whom should I obey but thee, whom follow?”

John Milton book Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Art

“One learns that the world, though made, is yet being made. That this is still the morning of creation. That mountains, long conceived, are now being born, brought to light by the glaciers, channels traced for coming rivers, basins hollowed for lakes.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

"Alaska Glaciers: Graphic Description of the Yosemite of the Far Northwest", San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin (part 5 of 11 part series "Notes of a Naturalist") dated 7 September 1879, published 27 September 1879; reprinted as "Baird Glacier" in Letters from Alaska, edited by Robert Engberg and Bruce Merrell (University of Wisconsin Press, 1993), pages 28-32 (at page 31); modified slightly and reprinted in Travels in Alaska http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/travels_in_alaska/ (1915), chapter 5, A Cruise in the Cassiar <br class="br">First lines of the documentary film series " The National Parks: America's Best Idea http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/" by Ken Burns. <br class="br">1910s

World, Mountain, Light, Learning