Quotes about call
page 14

“This is pity,” he thought, and then he lifted his head in wonder. He thought that there must be something terribly wrong with a world in which this monstrous feeling is called a virtue.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

World, Feeling

“Everybody has a vocation to some form of life-work. However, behind that call (and deeper than any call), everybody has a vocation to be a person to be fully and deeply human in Christ Jesus.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives

Life, Christ, Personality

“I don’t know what they are called, the spaces between seconds– but I think of you always in those intervals.”

Salvador Plascencia The People of Paper

Source: The People of Paper

Missing You, Good Night, Thinking

“But our wounds are part of who we are… and there is nothing left to chance…. And pain's the pen that writes the songs…. That call us forth to dance”

Michael Card (1957) singer, songwriter, author, composer, Radio Host

Pain, Chance, Dance, Parting

“John Matthew was her well of soul, as the symphaths called it, or her pyrocant, to the vampires. Her essential weakness.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Avenged

Soul

“No one had ever called me unnatural before, except for the time I put ketchup on a taco. But seriously, we'd been out of salsa, so what else was I supposed to do?”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Time

“You know what we call pedestrians in Morganville? Mobile bloodbanks.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Midnight Alley

“Why do they call me misanthrope? Because They hate me, not I them.”

George Gordon Byron Don Juan

Source: Don Juan

Hate

“When called by a panther,
Don't anther.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

"The Panther"
Many Long Years Ago (1945)

“You're dropping the bow hand as you release," he called, although Halt certainly wasn't.
His mentor looked around, saw him, and replied pithily, "I believe your grandmother needs lessons in sucking eggs.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: Halt's Peril

“A family of ten children will be always called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number.”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Source: Northanger Abbey

Children, Family

“Most of those we call heroes only did what they had to do.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Siuan Sanche
(15 October 1991)

“only through new words
might new worlds
be called
into order”

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

Source: , said the shotgun to the head.

World

“I say, thirteen is too many dogs for good mental health. Five is pretty much the limit. More than five dogs and you forfeit your right to call yourself entirely sane.
Even if the dogs are small.”

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

Health, Dogs

“You may believe you're an excellent rider," he called, "but there are a score of Temujai back there who actually are.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Battle for Skandia

“Words are like eggs dropped from great heights. You could no more call them back then ignore the mess they left when they fell.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

“Being a child at home alone in the summer is a high-risk occupation. If you call your mother at work thirteen times an hour, she can hurt you.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

Home, Time, Summer, Hurt

“He shall fall down into a pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of reason.”

Aleister Crowley book The Book of the Law

Source: The Book of the Law

Dogs

“To call that writing, madam, is an insult to quills and ink across the world.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: To Catch an Heiress

World

“There are such things as ghosts. People everywhere have always known that. And we believe in them every bit as much as Homer did. Only now, we call them by different names. Memory. The unconscious.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

People, Memory

“And the dreams so rich in color. How else would death call you? Waking in the cold dawn it all turned to ash instantly. Like certain ancient frescoes entombed for centuries suddenly exposed to the day.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

Death, Dreams, Color

“People of little understanding are most apt to be angry when their sense is called into question.”

Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) English writer and printer

Attitude, People, Understanding, Question

“One can no more keep the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. For a sailor, this is called the tide; in the case of the guilty it is called remorse. God stirs up the soul as well as the ocean.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

God, Soul, Idea, Sea

“I don't mind being called a liar. I am. I am a marvelous liar. But I hate being called a liar when I´m telling the perfect truth.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Hate, Truth, Perfection

“The moon was a sharply defined crescent and the sky was perfectly clear. The stars shone with such fierce, contained brilliance that it seemed absurd to call the night dark.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Star, Night

“I could call my wandering thoughts together. I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

Source: Dubliners

Life, Patience

“Hell’s bells. I don’t call him the Fist of God as a pet name, folks.”

Jim Butcher book Small Favor

Source: Small Favor

God, Hell

“Are we, like, having a conversation?"
"Did you just, like, ask me for advice and listen with an open mind? If so, then yes, I would call this a conversation”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

“His Grace was at her side, and lifted her down from the chair.
"My enfant," he said, "duchesses do not dance on chairs, nor do they call their brothers 'imbécile'."
Léonie's twinkled irrepressibly.
"I do," she said firmly.”

Georgette Heyer book These Old Shades

Source: These Old Shades

Dance

“Love may not lead where we think or hope, but regardless of outcome it should be a call to seriousness and truth. If it is not that - if it is not moral in its effect - then love is no more than an exaggerated form of pleasure.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Levels of Life

Love, Pleasure, Truth, Hope

“Absoballylutely top hole, wot. A and B the C of D I'd say… Above and Beyond the Call of Duty.”

Brian Jacques (1939–2011) British fiction writer known for Redwall animal fantasy novels

Source: Taggerung

“Misery loves company, and madness calls it forth.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love, Madness

“Myth is what we call other people's religion.”

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

People, Religion

“It’s called mind over matter. If we don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” When a bit of me hurts, I always mind.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Variant: It's called mind over matter. If we don't mind, it doesn't matter.
Source: Room (novel) (2010)

Hurt

“What I actually want to call you is a hell of a lot more unprintable than your name”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Hell

“Feel free to call me by my first name: Master.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Feeling

“In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull; if you talk, you are thought impertinent and arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

Source: Selected Essays, 1778-1830

Question

“Who are you, gaijin? What do you know about honor?'
'I'm called Chocho,' Will said…
'Chocho?' Arisaka shouted, goaded beyond control. 'Butterfly? Then die, Butterfly!”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

“My Aunt Dahlia has a carrying voice… If all other sources of income failed, she could make a good living calling the cattle home across the Sands of Dee.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Very Good, Jeeves

Very Good, Jeeves (1930)

Home

“Each moment of our life, we either invoke or destroy our dreams. We call upon it to become a fact, or we cancel our previous instructions.”

Stuart Wilde (1946–2013) English writer

Life, Dreams

“Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. MONSTER.”

Walter Dean Myers book Monster

Source: Monster

Life, Feeling

“People who call themselves supporters of Israel are actually supporters of its moral degeneration and ultimate destruction.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

People, Support

“No name-calling truly bites deep unless, in some dark part of us, we believe it. If we are confident enough then it is just noise.”

Laurell K. Hamilton A Stroke of Midnight

Source: A Stroke of Midnight

Confidence, Parting

“Are you an idiot, or an idiot?' Gargarin hissed.

'The first one. I really resent being called the second.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

“Yeah, I’m thinking it’s a reunion or, since it is our classmates, a collection of idiots. Let’s call it a meese. Like geese, only with morons. (Caleb)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Thinking

“When I was your age, television was called books.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Books, Age

“Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

The Taming of the Screw (1983)

Drink

“Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first call promising.”

Cyril Connolly book Enemies of Promise

Source: Enemies of Promise (1938), Part 2: The Charlock’s Shade, Ch. 13: The Poppies (p. 109-110)
Context: Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first call promising.
Young writers if they are to mature require a period of between three and seven years in which to live down their promise. Promise is like the mediaeval hangman who after settling the noose, pushed his victim off the platform and jumped on his back, his weight acting a drop while his jockeying arms prevented the unfortunate from loosening the rope. When he judged him dead he dropped to the ground.

God

“It is easy to live for others; everybody does. I call on you to live for yourselves.”

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

May 3, 1845
1820s, Journals (1822–1863)

“My idea of good company… is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.'
'You are mistaken,' said he gently, 'that is not good company, that is the best.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

People, Idea

“Sunrise

What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Way, Happiness

“Joe" I said. "It's Stephanie."
"Does this involve death?"
"Not yet."
"Does this involve sex?"
"Not yet."
"I can't imagine why else you'd be calling me.”

Janet Evanovich Four to Score

Source: Four to Score

Death, Sex, Imagination

“We stay this way until twilight colours the window and the hour calls me home”

David Levithan Boy Meets Boy

Source: Boy Meets Boy

Way, Home

“And a new philosophy emerged called quantum physics, which suggest that the individual’s function is to inform and be informed. You really exist only when you’re in a field sharing and exchanging information. You create the realities you inhabit.”

Timothy Leary (1920–1996) American psychologist

Source: Chaos & Cyber Culture

Reality

“Do not cry for me, Azrael. Do not waste your tears. You made your decision. And this is mine. Sacrifice seems to be my destiny. A funny thing for a selfish man, isn't it? They always called me weak back then…”

Melissa de la Cruz book The Van Alen Legacy

Source: The Van Alen Legacy

Decision, Tear, Cry, Selfishness

“Nick, space. Now. (Acheron)
Go, Nick, fetch. Here, boy, here. You should let me borrow one of those leather collars you wear and give me a tag with Kyrian’s number on it. ‘In case of loss, call my owner.’ (Nick)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: The Dream Hunter

Boy, Loss

“But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.”

George Eliot book Middlemarch

Source: Middlemarch (1871)

Hope, Pain, Hope, Despair

“Some day I'm gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.”

Miles Davis (1926–1991) American jazz musician

“Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people; they're just acquaintances.”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

People, Books

“You never let things go unanswered for too long. Emails. Phone calls. Questions. As if you know the waiting is the hardest part for me.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Question, Waiting, Parting

“Then love knew it was called love.
And when I lifted my eyes to your name,
suddenly your heart showed me my way”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Source: Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada; Cien sonetos de amor

Love, Way, Heart

“I think that this scene is upsetting because it calls us beyond fact into the vast world of imagination, and imagination is a word of many dimensions.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Acceptance Speech for the Margaret Edwards Award (1998)
Source: A Circle of Quiet
Context: In Kenneth Grahame's beautiful book, The Wind In The Willows, Mole and Rat go to the holy island of the great god, Pan. It is a superb piece of religious writing, but because it has gone beyond fact, it is deeply upsetting and untruthful to some people. If a story is not specified as being Christian, it is not Christian. But that is not so.
I think that this scene is upsetting because it calls us beyond fact into the vast world of imagination, and imagination is a word of many dimensions.

World, Imagination, Thinking

“India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay.”

Shashi Tharoor (1956) Indian politician, diplomat, author

World Policy Journal, "Reflections", Volume XXI, No 2, Summer 2004 Available Online https://web.archive.org/web/20080616055809/http://www.worldpolicy.org:80/journal/articles/wpj04-2/Tharoor.html <br class="br">2000s

People, History, Country

“That if desperate times call for desperate measures, then I'm free to act as desperately as I wish.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Time

“it's back to school time. or as home-schoolers call it, stay-where-you-are time.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

School, Home, Time

“good call. A second drag and your next stop's the wastepaper basket - and not to toss your kleenex, true.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Reborn

“I am only interested in the views of two people: one is called Bresson and one called Bergman.”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

After the Goskino representative explains that he is trying to give the point of view of the audience.
Sculpting in Time (1989)

People

“The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.”

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

"The Black Boy Looks at the White Boy" in Esquire (May 1961); republished in Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son (1961)

Knowledge

“She preferred imaginary heroes to real ones, because when tired of them, the former could be shut up in the tin kitchen till called for, and the latter were less manageable.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“I was tanned, happy, and blowing a kiss to Cary, who’d playacted the role of a highfashion
photographer by calling out ridiculous encouragements.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Kiss, Happiness

“We never know how high we are
Till we are called to rise;
And then, if we are true to plan,
Our statures touch the skies.

The heroism we recite
Would be a daily thing,
Did not ourselves the cubits warp
For fear to be a king.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Fear

“So many objects, so many memories. Each was being labelled and packed away in bags just as it was in her mind. To be stored in an area that would sometime be called upon to teach and help in future life.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: P.S. I Love You

Life, Memory, Future, Help

“Do not seek revenge and call it justice.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Justice, Revenge

“Few places in this world are more dangerous than home. Fear not, therefore, to try the mountain passes. They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you free, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action.”

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

Source: 1890s, The Mountains of California (1894), chapter 5: The Passes 
Context: Accidents in the mountains are less common than in the lowlands, and these mountain mansions are decent, delightful, even divine, places to die in, compared with the doleful chambers of civilization. Few places in this world are more dangerous than home. Fear not, therefore, to try the mountain-passes. They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you free, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action. Even the sick should try these so-called dangerous passes, because for every unfortunate they kill, they cure a thousand.

World, Fear, Home, Mountain

“Was there ever a more horrible blasphemy than the statement that all the knowledge of God is confined to this or that book? How dare men call God infinite, and yet try to compress Him within the covers of a little book!”

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

Source: Raja-Yoga

Men, God, Books, Knowledge

“My name is Jimmy,
but my friends just call me
the hideous penguin boy.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Source: The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories

Boy

“He well knew his mind's natural tendency to be endlessly on a thousand subjects at once, to flit from this to that and to the next thing to no particular purpose--indeed, he called it his "butterfly mind.”

Eric Metaxas (1963) American journalist

Source: Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery

Nature

“It is a little-known fact about covert operations that you will spend a lot of time with people you can’t really trust. They may be traitors and liars. We call them assets or informants. But mostly, in those days, I called him Zach.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

People, Time

“I thought you might need a ride.'

'The headmaster's office called me a car.'

He shrugged, indifferent but amused. 'And here I am in a submarine.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

Cars, Indifference

“Especially if he called meagain.”

Meg Cabot book Reunion

Source: Reunion

“He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself. He stayed inside for more than two weeks. Then he nibbled a hole in the cocoon, pushed his way out and…

he was a beautiful butterfly!”

Eric Carle book The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Source: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Beauty, Way, Housing

“It was calling me, that button," he offered as his excuse. "I couldn't resist." -MULCH DIGGUMS ON A HIGHLY PRESS-ABLE BUTTON-”

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

“I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Thinking

“Okay…' I hurried on. 'But why me?'
'You're a girl,' Lockwood called. 'Aren't you supposed to be more sensitive?'
'To emotions, yes. To nuances of human behavior. Not necessarily to secret passages in a wall.'
'Oh, it's much the same thing.”

Jonathan Stroud book The Screaming Staircase

Source: The Screaming Staircase

Secret, Behavior, Girl

“There are accepted revolutions, revolutions which are called revolutions; there are refused revolutions, which are called riots.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“I am the dragon, and you call me insane.”

Thomas Harris Red Dragon

Source: Red Dragon

“There's a boy who they call Pony! He's always acting gross and horny! He thinks he's got a lot down there, but he sure wears tiny underwear!”

Cecily von Ziegesar The It Girl

Source: The It Girl

Boy, Thinking

“God knows the mess we’re in when He calls us. His light shines greater through “cracked pots” than it does through those who have it all together.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

God, Light

“Just by gazing upon her face…
No matter how weary you are,
you will feel happy,
deep inside your heart,
you will feel a warmth
This is a "piece of joy"
This is all the happiness you need.
Normally, we call this "love"…”

Yoshiki Nakamura (1969) Artist

Source: Skip Beat!, Vol. 11

Love, Feeling, Heart, Joy

“Great necessities call forth great leaders.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

This seems to first appear in Why Leaders Can't Lead : The Unconscious Conspiracy Continues (1989) by Warren G. Bennis, p. 159, where it is cited as being from a letter to Thomas Jefferson, but it might be a misquote of "Great necessities call out great virtues" stated in a letter to her son John Quincy Adams (19 January 1780)
Disputed

“I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.”

Rebecca West (1892–1983) British feminist and author

"Mr. Chesterton in Hysterics," in The Clarion, (14 November 1913), re-published in The Young Rebecca: Writings of Rebecca West, 1911-17 (1982), p. 219.
Variant: I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.
Source: Young Rebecca: Writings, 1911-1917

People

“Dubh is do?" I was incredulous. It was no wonder I hadn't been able to find the stupid word. "Should I be
calling pubs poos?"
"Dubh is Gaelic, Ms. Lane. Pub is not.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Stupidity

“Don't blame us," said my mother. "We didn't blow up half of Court, steal a dozen cars, call out a murderer in the middle of a crowd, or get our teenage friend crowned queen."

"Actually," said Abe, "Iblow up half of Court.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Cars

“Since you won't give me your names I'll call you Thing One and Thing Two.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Hit List

Source: Hit List