Quotes about being
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“Really?"
"No. I'm being ironic. Or is it sarcastic? I can never remember."
"Irony's cleverer, so you're probably being sarcastic.”

Jonathan Stroud book The Screaming Staircase

Source: The Screaming Staircase

“His older self had taught his younger self a language which the older self knew because the younger self, after being taught, grew up to be the older self and was, therefore, capable of teaching.”

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

“It was so much easier to be angry. Being angry made him feel strong, even though-- and this contradiction did nothing to diminish his anger-- he was angry only because his position was so weak.”

Lev Grossman The Magicians

Source: The Magicians

Feeling, Strong, Anger

“But human beings are not machines, and however powerful the pressure to conform, they sometimes are so moved by what they see as injustice that they dare to declare their independence. In that historical possibility lies hope.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Source: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

Hope

“True beauty is not related to what color your hair is or what color your eyes are. 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

Beauty, Color, Beauty

“Relationship Principle 11
It is better to be disliked for being who you are than to be loved for who you are not.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Marry Bitches: A Woman's Guide to Winning Her Man's Heart

Love

“In the end, we should simply imagine a joke; a long joke that's being continually retold in an accent too thick and too strange to ever be completely understood. Life is that joke. The soul is its punchline.”

Tom Robbins Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (2000)

Life, Soul, Imagination

“Falling in love is great but being in love is a disaster”

Mario Puzo (1920–1999) American Novelist

Love

“We always find it difficult to forgive our heroes for being human.”

Frances Hardinge (1973) British children's writer

Source: Well Witched

Forgiveness

“Nothing will stop you being creative more effectively as the fear of making a
mistake.”

John Cleese (1939) actor from England

Fear

“People cain't help being what they are any more than a skunk can help being a skunk. Don't you think if they had their choice they would rather be something else? Sure they would. People are just weak.”

Fannie Flagg book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

People, Thinking, Help

“Sometimes living can be hard, but it's only because we're alive that we can make each other laugh, cry… be happy! In this world, if that's not a reason for being born in this world… I don't know what is!”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Happiness, World, Cry

“Perhaps only those people who are capable of real togetherness have that look of being alone in the world.”

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

People, World

“This is the first adventure I’ve survived without being kidnapped, attacked, knocked unconscious or possessed by evil spirits. A ripped blouse? Ruined skirt? Bad hair? I’d call this progress. ~Jaime Vegas”

Kelley Armstrong book No Humans Involved

Source: No Humans Involved

Evil

“He knew he was being overbearing as hell, but he couldn't help it. He was a bonded male. With his pregnant female. There were few things on the planet more aggressive or dangerous. And those bastards were called hurricanes and tornadoes.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Awakened

Hell, Help

“Calvin: Happiness is being famous for your financial ability to indulge in every kind of excess.
p35”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes
Source: The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes: A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury

Happiness

“Of course the fall semester didn’t start for another eight weeks or so. There was always a chance we were both being overly optimistic in thinking I’d be alive when it rolled around.”

Jenna Black (1965) American writer

Source: Shadowspell

Thinking, Chance

“no one ever got radicalized by being grateful”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

“I am often asked the question How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is By being persuaded to identify with them.”

E.L. Doctorow Ragtime

Source: Ragtime

Question

“Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it'd find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it."

[Q&A with Larry McCaffery,, Summer 1993, Vol. 13.2]”

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

World, Way, Summer

“My mother told me that life isn't always about pleasing yourself and that sometimes you have to do things for the sole benefit of another human being. I completely agreed with her, but reminded her that that was what blow jobs were for.”

Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host

Source: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

Life

“Having a great intellect is no path to being happy.”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist

Happiness

“What the trees can do handsomely-greening and flowering, fading and then the falling of leaves-human beings cannot do with dignity, let alone without pain.”

Martha Gellhorn (1908–1998) journalist from the United States

Pain, Flowers, Tree

“There are worse things than being mad.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

This appears not to be a Kerouac quote. It has not been found in any of Kerouac's published work.
Misattributed

Madness

“Sometimes love means not being able to bear seeing the one you love the way they are, when they’re not what you hoped for them.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

Love, Hope, Way

“Human beings have hope. Not matter how desperate things are, they convince themselves that they can change things for the better."

- John Gregory (Clash of the Demons)”

Joseph Delaney book The Spook's Sacrifice

Source: The Spook's Sacrifice

Hope, Change

“Everyone was a rose but even more complex than a mere flower. Everyone was made up of infinitely layered petals. And everyone had something indescribably precious at the heart of their being.
No one was shallow. Not really.”

Mary Balogh (1944) Welsh-Canadian novelist

Source: A Secret Affair

Flowers, Heart

“The truth is a snare: you cannot have it, without being caught. You cannot have the truth in such a way that you catch it, but only in such a way that it catches you.”

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

Truth, Way

“He knew about being alone. The weather was always cold there.”

Gregory Maguire book A Lion Among Men

Source: A Lion Among Men

Weather

“Chosen motherhood is the real liberation. The choice to have a child makes the whole experience of motherhood different, and the choice to be generative in other ways can at last be made, and is being made by many women now, without guilt.”

Betty Friedan book The Feminine Mystique

Source: The Feminine Mystique

Women, Way

“Your unique creative talents and abilities are flowing through you and are being expressed in deeply satisfying ways. Your creativity is always in demand.”

Louise L. Hay (1926–2017) American writer

Way

“I don't care if my love is requited or not, because being with you and the very thought of you makes me happy. The point I'm trying to make is that you are loved because I love you, Adam. Please, don't do it. Please, don't jump because I need you.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: How to Fall in Love

Love, Happiness

“How do I explain a life that has lasted for billions of years? It is almost as if I must start with an apology for being alive when everyone I once knew is dead.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Source: The Starlight Crystal

Life, Dead

“One remedy for the fear of not being loved is to remember how good it feels to love someone. If you're feeling unloved and you want to feel better, go love someone, and see what happens.”

Dossie Easton (1944) American author and family therapist

Source: The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities

Love, Fear, Feeling

“Why are we being chased by evil espresso drinks?!”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Drink, Evil

“Hmmm. Someone has a high opinion of himself. Comes with being royalty, I suppose. Like funny hats and a fondness for beheadings.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

“This thing about looking for someone less different… It only really worked, he realized, if you were convinced that being you wasn't so bad in the first place.”

Nick Hornby About a Boy

Source: About a Boy

“I love Greek Mythology, wish there was a TV series, like being human or smallville, but with the series based around Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Holla Mayne!”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Love

“I think the most important thing in the world is being brave. I'd rathe be brave than beautiful. Hell, I'd settle for acting brave.”

Amy Bloom (1953) Fiction writer, screenwriter, social worker, psychotherapist

World, Beauty, Hell, Thinking

“Starved for affection, terrified of abandonment, I began to wonder if sex was really just an excuse to look deeply into another human being's eyes.”

Douglas Coupland book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture

Generation X (1991)
Source: Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture

Sex

“I’m not interested in being polite. It’s false.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

Falseness

“I like being myself. Myself and nasty.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Source: Brave New World

“He liked fishing and seemed to take pride in being able to like such a stupid occupation.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Stupidity, Fish

“Being a hero means ignoring how silly you feel.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Fire and Hemlock

Source: Fire and Hemlock

Feeling

“A good conversation is the only human equivalent: the realizing that decent points are being made and understood, that irony is in play, and elaboration, and that a dull and obvious remark would be almost physically hurtful.”

Christopher Hitchens Mortality

Source: Mortality

Hurt

“There's only one thing that will make them stop hating you. And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Hate

“The obvious," Noah goes on, a little out of breath, "being that he is probably some super secret assassin or something. And I'm not as tough as I look."
"That's OK," I tell him. "I'm way tougher than you look.”

Ally Carter book All Fall Down

Source: All Fall Down

Secret, Way

“If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Pain, Girl

“There is within every human being a deep well of thinking over which a heavy iron lid is kept clamped.”

Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941) writer

Thinking

“I wish people weren't so set on being themselves, when that means being a bastard.”

Robertson Davies book The Rebel Angels

Source: The Rebel Angels

People

“No offense but I don't relish being someone's science experiment. Been there, done that, and sold the T-shirt for profit. (Sebastian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dragonswan

Science

“One of the poets, whose name I cannot recall, has a passage, which I am unable at the moment to remember, in one of his works, which for the time being has slipped my mind, which hits off admirably this age-old situation.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Age, Time

“Today, not starting is far, far worse than being wrong. If you start, you've got a shot at evolving and adjusting to turn your wrong into a right. But if you don't start, you never get a chance.”

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

Source: Poke the Box

Chance

“Being Jem, Tessa reflected, must be a great deal like being the owner of a thouroughbred dog that liked to bite your guests. You had to have a hand on his collar constantly.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Dogs

“She had borne so long this cruelty of belonging to him and not being claimed by him.”

D.H. Lawrence book Sons and Lovers

Source: Sons and Lovers

“Let us remember that animals are not mere resources for human consumption. They are splendid beings in their own right, who have evolved alongside us as co-inheritors of all the beauty and abundance of life on this planet”

Marc Bekoff (1945) American biologist

Source: Animals Matter: A Biologist Explains Why We Should Treat Animals with Compassion and Respect

Life, Beauty, Animals

“It's my duty as a human being to be pissed off”

Eric Bogosian (1953) actor, playwright, monologist, novelist

Source: subUrbia

“(I’ve often noticed that people equate “having a sense of humour” with “being an insensitive moron.”)”

Sophie Kinsella book Finding Audrey

Source: Finding Audrey

People, Sense

“But I know human nature, my friend, and I tell you that, suddenly confronted with the possibility of being tried for murder, the most innocent person will lose his head and do the most absurd things.”

Agatha Christie book Murder on the Orient Express

Source: Murder on the Orient Express

Nature, Personality

“He has that look, like I am being unreasonable, like he is so sure I am being unreasonable that I wonder if I am.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

“So, in a way, my name being drawn in the reaping was a real piece of luck," says Peeta.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Way

“The good thing about being old, is you don’t have to worry about dying young.”

Stephen King book Doctor Sleep

Source: Doctor Sleep

“I am prone to envy. It is one of my three default emotions, the others being greed and rage. I have also experienced compassion and generosity, but only fleetingly and usually while drunk, so I have little memory.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Memory, Rage, Envy

“Getting angry over something that won't change is like seeing what happens if you hit your hand with a hammer over and over again, and being surprised each time when it hurts. So you might as well stop doing it.”

Mercedes Lackey (1950) American novelist and short story writer

Source: Beauty and the Werewolf

Change, Time, Hurt

“I don't want to go on being a root in the dark,
vacillating, stretched out, shivering with sleep,
downward, in the soaked guts of the earth,
absorbing and thinking, eating each day.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Thinking, Sleep

“Instead of expecting all and being lowered into despair each time I get less, I expect nothing now and, occasionally, I get a little, and am more than a little happy.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

Happiness, Time, Despair

“I really look at my childhood as being one giant rusty tuna can that I continue to recycle in many different shapes.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Childhood

“It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love… You can't own a human being.”

Toni Morrison book Song of Solomon

Source: Song of Solomon

Love

“Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

“All his life he had wanted to be known by just one person. That’s what love was, he decided. Love was being known.”

Justin Cronin book The City of Mirrors

Source: The City of Mirrors

Love, Life, Personality

“To leave, after all, was not the same as being left.”

Anita Shreve book The Pilot's Wife

Source: The Pilot's Wife

“great writers are indecent people
they live unfairly
saving the best part for paper.

good human beings save the world
so that bastards like me can keep creating art,
become immortal.
if you read this after I am dead
it means I made it.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

People, World, Art, Reading

“Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Way, Lovers

“The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him — that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.”

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

Pearls of Wisdom

God

“Being active every day makes it easier to hear that inner voice.”

Haruki Murakami book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

“So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game to find a way to say that life has just begun.”

John Mayer (1977) guitarist and singer/songwriter

Source: Continuum: Music by John Mayer

Life, Way, Game

“That's what being eccentric means--being natural.”

Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965) playwright and writer

Nature

“… morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

"The Reasons for My Involvement in the Peace Movement" (1972) http://www.shalomctr.org/node/61; later included in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity (1996) <br class="br">Context: There is immense silent agony in the world, and the task of man is to be a voice for the plundered poor, to prevent the desecration of the soul and the violation of our dream of honesty.<br>The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the Prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.

Feeling, Suffering, Evil, Indifference

“Even from far away, I could see people being chased by hellhounds, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or listen to opera music.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

People, Music

“All human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes.”

Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) American businessman and philanthropist

“As Emmanuel, Cardinal Suhard says, "To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Source: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

Life, God, People, Way

“Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's real rebellion.”

Alice Cooper (1948) American rock singer, songwriter and musician

Drink, Beer

“Self-esteem comes from being able to define the world in your own terms and refusing to abide by the judgments of others.”

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

World

“There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a fairly good time.”

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American novelist, short story writer, designer

Source: Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction

Happiness, Way, Time

“I only share when I have no unmet needs that I'm trying to fill. I firmly believe that being vulnerable with a larger audience is only a good idea if the healing is tied to the sharing, not to the expectations I might have for the response I get.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Idea

“I get a kick out of being an outsider constantly. It allows me to be creative. I don't like anything in the mainstream and they don't like me.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

“So, if this does end up being my last letter, please believe that things are good with me, and even when they're not, they will be soon enough.
And I will believe the same about you.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Variant: please believe that things are good with me, and even when they're not, they will be soon enough. And i will always believe the same about you.
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“I had been simply treating water, settling on surviving and avoiding pain rather than being actively involved in seeking out life.”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Source: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Life, Pain, Water

“Being afraid something is true is accepting the possibility. Accepting the possibility is the first step to believing.”

Terry Goodkind book Wizard's First Rule

Source: Wizard's First Rule

“He remained heartbroken, which meant one of two things: either his love was pure and true and earthshakingly significant; or he was addicted to feeling forlorn, he liked being heartbroken.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot

Source: The Marriage Plot

Love, Feeling

“You learn to write by writing, and by reading and thinking about how writers have created their characters and invented their stories. If you are not a reader, don't even think about being a writer.”

Jean M. Auel (1936) Novelist

Thinking, Learning, Reading

“You are a divine being. You matter, you count. You come from realms of unimaginable power and light, and you will return to those realms.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Light

“I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.”

Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) writer

As quoted in Lifetime Speaker's Encyclopedia (1962) edited by Jacob Morton Braude, p. 829
As quoted in Traveling for Her: An Inspirational Guide (2008) by Amber Israelsen, p. 2
Variant: I have wandered all my life, and I have traveled; the difference between the two is this — we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

Life, Travel