Quotes about building
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“If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build, end up building us.”

Jack Canfield (1944) American writer

The Power of Focus: How to Hit Your Business, Personal and Financial Targets with Confidence and Certainty

“We have laboured long to build a heaven, only to find it populated with horrors.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

“I hate it when people let me down, when things are temporary. I think that's why I want to be an architect."
"To build something permanent," I said. "A monument to last a thousand years.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Hate, People, Thinking

“It isn't very pretty to have been made a fool of by one's own feelings,' he said. 'To take childish promises and build a--a castle out of them…”

Winston Graham (1908–2003) British writer

Source: Ross Poldark

Fools, Feeling

“Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Men, Solitude

“The Lord's way builds individual self esteem and develops and heals the dignity of the individual, whereas the world's way depresses the individual's view of himself and causes deep resentment”

Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

World, Way

“I believe in such cartography – to be marked by nature, not just label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books…. All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps.”

Michael Ondaatje book The English Patient

Source: The English Patient

Women, Men, Books, History

“It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war.”

Aristophanés The Birds

Birds (414 BC) Context: Epops: You're mistaken: men of sense often learn from their enemies. Prudence is the best safeguard. This principle cannot be learned from a friend, but an enemy extorts it immediately. It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls and ships of war. And this lesson saves their children, their homes, and their properties. Chorus [leader]: It appears then that it will be better for us to hear what they have to say first; for one may learn something at times even from one's enemies. (tr. Anon. 1812 rev. in Ramage 1864, p. 45 http://books.google.com/books?id=AoUCAAAAQAAJ&pg;=PA45)

War, Learning

“To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages today that determine success--the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history--with a society that provides opportunities for all.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

Happiness, World, History, Birth

“The coffee shop smell was strong enough to build a garage on.”

Raymond Chandler book Farewell, My Lovely

Source: Farewell, My Lovely

Coffee, Strong

“First we build the tools, then they build us.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

“The act of reading is a partnership. The author builds a house, but the reader makes it a home.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Between the Lines

Home, Reading, Housing, Partnership

“We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls.”

Bill Bryson book Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe (1991)

“I'll just tell you what I remember because memory is as close as I've gotten to building my own time machine.”

Samantha Hunt The Invention of Everything Else

Source: The Invention of Everything Else

Memory, Time

“Reading is awesome and flexible and fits around chores and earning money and building the future and whatever else I’m doing that day. My attitude towards reading is entirely Epicurean—reading is pleasure and I pursue it purely because I like it.”

Jo Walton (1964) Welsh Canadian writer

Money, Pleasure, Reading, Future

“Education spending will be most effective if it relies on parental choice & private initiative -- the building blocks of success throughout our society.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Education, Parent, Success

“for 100,000 (dollars), you [can] flatten a house with a wrecking ball. Imagine how much less it [takes] to destroy something than it [does] to build it in the first place.”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

Imagination, Housing

“Nobody had forgotten anything here. In Berlin, you had to wrestle with the past, you had to build on the ruins, inside them. It wasn't like America where we scraped the earth clean, thinking we could start again every time.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Thinking, Time, Past

“We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Speech to the House of Commons (October 28, 1943), on plans for the rebuilding of the Chamber (destroyed by an enemy bomb May 10, 1941), in Never Give In! : The best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches (2003), Hyperion, p. 358 ISBN 1401300561
The Second World War (1939–1945)

“Isn't it kind of silly to think that tearing someone else down builds you up?”

Sean Covey (1964) author; business executive

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide

Thinking, Tear

“Anybody see you come in here?"
Holly thought about it.
"The FBI, CIA, NSA, DEA, M16. Oh, and the EIB."
Foaly frowned. "EIB?"
"Everyone in the building.”

Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl

Variant: Foaly: Anyone see you come in here?
Holly: The FBI, CIA, NSA, DEA, MI6. Oh, and the EIB.
Foaly: The EIB?
Holly: (smirking) Everyone in the building.
Source: Artemis Fowl (2001)

“There are men you build a future with, Dani. And then there are men that you know, going in, that you're only making a memory with. I know the difference
.. Some memories are worth the price. I'll deal with it.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

Men, Memory, Future

“The angel has confided in me that he is going to ask the Lord if he can become Spider-Man. […] The children need heroes, he says. I think he just wants to swing from buildings in tight red jammies.”

Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Children, Angels, Confidence, Thinking

“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”

Anna Quindlen (1952) journalist, Novelist

Children, People, Thinking, Funny

“I look forward to a great future for America, a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose. I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past, and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1963, Speech at Amherst College

Wisdom, Beauty, Nature, Past

“Everyone dies. Everyone leaves. What matters is the things you build together before they go. What matters is the part of them that continues in you when they're gone.”

Orson Scott Card book Children of the Mind

Source: Children of the Mind

Parting

“Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

Strong

“The ruins proclaim the building was beautiful.”

Mohsin Hamid (1971) Pakistani novelist

Beauty

“And I think that's what our world is desperately in need of - lovers, people who are building deep, genuine relationships with fellow strugglers along the way, and who actually know the faces of the people behind the issues they are concerned about.”

Shane Claiborne The Irresistible Revolution

The Irresistible Revolution (2006)
Source: The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

People, World, Way, Lovers

“.

I spent all this time building a relationship. Then one night I left the window open and it started to rust.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Time, Night

“Isabelle with her whip and boots and knives would chop anyone who tried to pen her up in a tower into pieces, build a bridge out of the remains, and walk carelessly to freedom, her hair looking fabulous the entire time.”

Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments

Clary, pg. 149
The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)

Freedom, Time

“He must trust, and he must have faith. And so he builds, because what is building, and rebuilding and rebuilding again, but an act of faith?”

Dave Eggers (1970) memoirist, novelist, short story writer, editor, publisher

Faith

“How to Overthrow the System: brew your own beer; kick in your Tee Vee; kill your own beef; build your own cabin and piss off the front porch whenever you bloody well feel like it.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Feeling, Beer

“She looked up at him with a smile. The smile broke what was left of his resistance--shattered it. He had let the walls down when he'd thought she was gone, and there was no time to build them back up.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Smile, Time

“Fear of vikings build castles.”

Charles Manson (1934–2017) American criminal and musician

Fear

“But she laced her fingers through mine. I remember what she’d told me in New York, about building something permanent, and I thought-just maybe-we were off to a good start.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Variant: I remembered what she'd told me in New York, about building something permanent, and I thought - just maybe - we were off to a good start.
Source: The Last Olympian

“To build community requires vigilant awareness of the work we must continually do to undermine all the socialization that leads us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

Source: Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope

Way, Communication

“Build therefore your own world.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson book Nature

Source: Nature

World

“Everyone builds on other men's failures. There is nothing really original in science. What each man contributes to the sum of knowledge is what counts.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon (1966)
Context: No one really starts anything new, Mrs Nemur. Everyone builds on other men's failures. There is nothing really original in science. What each man contributes to the sum of knowledge is what counts.

Men, Failure, Knowledge, Science

“How was your day?" Morelli asked me. "Oh, you know, the usual. Stole a truck. Blew up a building, and brought seven monkeys home with me.”

Janet Evanovich (1943) Novelist

Home

“The rules of reason build towers that reach past the treetops. The rules of trust build towers that reach past the stars.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Heart of Betrayal

Star, Past

“I hear that you were on a date with Trouble Kelp. Are you two planning on building a bivouac any time soon?”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Atlantis Complex

Time

“I want to build some thing permanent.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“Harry," she said quietly, "I know you must be angry."

I burn things to ash and smash holes in buildings when I'm angry," I said. "I'm a couple of steps past that point right now.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

Past

“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 is a common sentence that knowledge is power; but who hath duly considered or set forth the power of ignorance? Knowledge slowly builds up what ignorance in an hour pulls down.”

George Eliot book Daniel Deronda

Source: Daniel Deronda

Knowledge

“Friends don’t build cages for each other.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

“Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Light

“Remember teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”

Patrick Lencioni (1965) American writer

Source: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

Way, Motivational, Success, Life

“my father asked.“If you build a tower in Lawrenceville, I will smash it, set it on fire, and salt the ground it stood on.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Shifts

“These teenager looks aren't going to last forever, and that there are much better foundation to build a life upon than how attractive you are.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

Life

“Anxiety, the next gumption trap, is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong you're afraid to do anything at all. Often this, rather than "laziness," is the real reason you find it hard to get started. This gumption trap of anxiety, which results from over-motivation, can lead to all kinds of errors of excessive fussiness. You fix things that don't need fixing, and chase after imaginary ailments. You jump to wild conclusions and build all kinds of errors into the machine because of your own nervousness. These errors, when made, tend to confirm your original underestimation of yourself. This leads to more errors, which lead to more underestimation, in a self-stoking cycle. The best way to break this cycle, I think, is to work out your anxieties on paper. Read every book and magazine you can on the subject. Your anxiety makes this easy and the more you read the more you calm down.”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 26
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Books, Way, Error, Motivation

“If he full-out flexed, I would probably faint, or jump off the building.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

“Never depend on those luck moments – they are gifts – but instead always build your own back-up plan.”

Bear Grylls (1974) Chief Scout, adventurer, author

Source: Mud, Sweat and Tears

Dependency

“You must not for one instant give up the effort to build new lives for yourselves.”

Daisaku Ikeda (1928) Japanese writer

Effort

“The rich and powerful always seem to prefer the tops of buildings. Hasn't anyone ever explained to them that higher just means you have farther to fall? -- Anita Blake”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

“When I can feel you breathing into me i, like a stone gargoyle
atop some crumbling building,
spring to life
a resuscitated
angel.”

Saul Williams (1972) American singer, musician, poet, writer, and actor

Source: , said the shotgun to the head.

Life, Angels, Feeling, Spring

“You destroy buildings, fight monsters openly in the streets of the city, work with the police, show up in newspapers, advertise in the phone book, and ride zombie dinosaurs down Michigan Avenue, and think that you work in the shadows? Be reasonable.”

Jim Butcher book Skin Game

Source: Skin Game

Books, Thinking, Fight

“Love is not an equation… It is not a contract, and it's not a happy ending. It is the slate under the chalk and the ground buildings rise from and the oxygen in the air.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

Love, Happiness

“Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun.”

Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948) Soviet-American dancer, choreographer, and actor born in Letonia, Soviet Union

“No. Real love takes time to build. What you feel is just infatuation. (Geary)
But it doesn’t feel temporary. (Arik)
It never does at its onset. It’s only in hindsight that we realize the difference between infatuation and love. (Geary)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: The Dream Hunter

Love, Feeling, Time

“Go away, the old buildings said. There is no place for you here. You are not wanted. We have secrets.”

Harper Lee book Go Set a Watchman

Source: Go Set a Watchman

Secret

“Those who don't build must burn. It's as old as history and juvenile delinquents.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Variant: Those who don't build must burn.
Source: Fahrenheit 451

History

“Surprise me, Atlantean. Attack. This isn’t a dance party. (Takeshi)
You know, this isn’t building my confidence. In fact, I think I’m just going to lie here for a bit and take in some sun. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Lie, Confidence, Thinking, Sun

“My dear, I think of you always and at night I build myself a warm nest of things I remember and float in your sweetness till morning.”

Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948) Novelist, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald

Thinking, Night

“A bird may love a fish but where would they build a home together?”

Joseph Stein (1912–2010) American playwright

Source: Fiddler on the Roof

Love, Home, Bird, Fish

“You said your mom is the goddess of balance," I reminded him. "The minor gods deserve better, Ethan, but total destruction isn't balance. Kronos doesn't build. He only destroys.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

God, Moms

“You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself. (Quoted by C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity)”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Quotes

“If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door”

Milton Berle (1908–2002) American comedian and actor

Variant: If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.

Inspirational, Graduation

“It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Time

“If you love what you do and are willing to do what it takes, it's within your reach. And it'll be worth every minute you spend alone at night, thinking and thinking about what it is you want to design or build. It'll be worth it, I promise.”

Steve Wozniak book iWoz

Source: iWoz (2006), p. 300

Love, Thinking, Night

“"And then what?" said her Dæmon sleepily "build what?"
"The Republic of Heaven."”

Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass

Lyra and Pan in Ch. 38 : The Botanic Garden (closing words)
Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000)

“Let's scope the place out," he suggested, heading around the side of the building, "and be careful in the bushes."
"Why?" Amy asked.
"This is South Africa, dude," Dan replied. "Where cobras come from. And not the hot ones, like Ian.”

Peter Lerangis book The Viper's Nest

Source: The Viper's Nest

“Memory is a part of the present. It builds us up inside; it knits our bones to our muscles and keeps our hearts pumping. It is memory that reminds our bodies to work, and memory that reminds our spirits to work to: it keeps us who we are.~Candle”

Gregory Maguire book Son of a Witch

Source: Son of a Witch

Memory, Heart, Parting

“I long ago abandoned myself to a blind lust for the written word. Literature is my sandbox. In it I play, build my forts and castles, spend glorious time.”

Rabih Alameddine book An Unnecessary Woman

Source: An Unnecessary Woman

Literature, Time

“Dad: Honey, have you seen my glasses? I can"t find them.
Mom: I haven't seen them.
Calvin: (with glasses, to Dad) Calvin, go do something you hate! Being miserable builds character!”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons

Hate, Moms

“Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.”

Katherine Mansfield book Je ne parle pas français

"Je ne parle pas français," http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/mansfield/bliss/bliss.html#francais from Bliss and Other Stories (1920) Variant: I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, and no one who intends to become a writer can afford to indulge in it. Context: I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, and no one who intends to become a writer can afford to indulge in it. You can't get it into shape; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.

Life