Quotes about care
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“Fathers. Mothers. With all their caring and attention. They will f--- you up, every time.”

Source: Snuff

“We're right here on this very spot. Besides, being lost is never a matter of not knowing where you are; it's a matter of not knowing where you aren't - and I don't care at all about where I'm not.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

“If friends disappoint you over and over, that's in large part your own fault. Once someone has shown a tendency to be self-centered, you need to recognize that and take care of yourself; people aren't going to change simply because you want them to.”

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

People, Disappointment, Change, Parting

“The Hero cares not for a wild winter's storm. For it carries him swift on the back of the storm. All may be lost and our hearts may be worn, but a Hero fights forever.”

Cressida Cowell (1966) British writer

Source: How to Twist a Dragon's Tale

Winter, Heart, Fight

“S wonderful! 'S marvelous!
That you should care for me!”

Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) American lyricist

“You should be more careful. You could have broken your neck or as big as you are landed on someone and killed them. (Tory)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

“If there's a thing I've learned in my life it's to not be afraid of the responsibility that comes with caring for other people. What we do for love: those things endure. Even if the people you do them for don't”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Love, Life, People, Learning

“I don't know how to thank you.'
Then I will tell you. There is only one way I care for. Do better, and grow better, and be better.”

George MacDonald book The Princess and Curdie

Source: The Princess and Curdie

Way

“Who cares if you have a girlfriend, anyway?"

"I care" Simon said gloomily. "Pretty soon the only people left without a girlfriend will be me and Wendell the school janitor. And he smells like windex.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Variant: Pretty soon the only people left without a girlfriend will be me and Wendell the school janitor, and he smells like windex."
"At least you know he's still available.
Source: City of Bones

People, School

“I didn't want to leave things the way we had, unresolved,… and tried to tell myself he cared about me enough not to look elsewhere for what I wasn't giving him.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Someone Like You

Way

“Careful. We don't want to learn from this.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Learning

“How terrible it is to have no cares, no longings. I do not fit. I feel too deeply and want too much. As cages go, it is a gilded one, but I shall not live well in it or any cage, for that matter.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Feeling

“Sometimes I wish I could walk around with a HANDLE WITH CARE sign stuck to my forehead.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

“We never choose which words to use, for as long as they mean what they mean to mean, we don’t care if they make sense or nonsense.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

Sense

“I care about you," Simon said. "I always cared about you.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“I would not look upon anger as something foreign to me that I have to fight… I have to deal with my anger with care, with love, with tenderness, with nonviolence.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Being Peace

Love, Fight, Anger

“Be careful dear that you don’t end up as the queen of a lonely kingdom”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Tempt Me at Twilight

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his (sic)patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Disease, Future

“If it means my death, I don't care, because even death will be a sort of freedom.”

Catherine Fisher book Incarceron

Source: Incarceron

Death, Freedom

“A man can spend his whole existence never learning the simple lesson that he has only one life and that if he fails to do what he wants with it, nobody else really cares.--Louis Auchincloss”

Louis Auchincloss (1917–2010) Lawyer, novelist, historian, essayist

Life, Learning

“Strange though it is, Sarov still cares about you. He told me to leave you alone. But I think, this time, I must disobey the general. You are mine! And I intend to make you suffer…"

"Just talking to you makes me suffer," Alex said.”

Anthony Horowitz book Skeleton Key

Source: Skeleton Key

Thinking, Suffering, Time

“I try to avoid having thoughts. They lead to other thoughts, and—if you're not careful—those lead to actions. Actions make you tired. I have this on rather good authority from someone who once read it in a book.”

Brandon Sanderson book Warbreaker

Lightsong the Bold
Warbreaker (2009)

Books, Reading

“Government has no right to hurt a hair on the head of an atheist for his opinions. Let him have a care of his practices.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Letter to John Quincy Adams (16 June 1816). Adams Papers (microfilm), reel 432, Library of Congress. James H. Hutson (ed.), The Founders on Religion: A Book of Quotations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007, p. 20
1810s
Source: The Portable John Adams

Hurt

“Be still:
There is no longer any need of comment.
It was a lucky wind
That blew away his halo with his cares,
A lucky sea that drowned his reputation.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Sea

“Yet how hard most people work for mere dust and ashes and care, taking no thought of growing in knowledge and grace, never having time to get in sight of their own ignorance.”

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

Source: John Muir: His Life and Letters and Other Writings

People, Knowledge, Time

“If you can't take care of me while I'm alive, you have made me dead anyway.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Dead

“Take care, lest you lose a male who'll desire only you - and gain a male who'll desire only others.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Shadow's Claim

“If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.”

Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849) Irish writer

Motivational, Success, Inspirational, Life

“I wanted him to hold me, to take care of me. To make the pain dissolve away. I know that this was part of what had ruined everything but I wanted it once more anyway.”

Francesca Lia Block book Echo

Source: Echo

Pain, Parting

“If I can't feel, if I can't move, if I can't think, and I can't care, then what conceivable point is there in living?”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Source: Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Feeling, Thinking

“It is not only a matter of not caring who knows - it is also a matter of knowing who cares.”

Idries Shah book Reflections

Source: Reflections

“sarcasm and jokes were often the bottle in which clinical depressives sent out their most plangent screams for someone to care and help them.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Help

“Oh-do be careful with that! That's my Buddha hand grenade. Twist the head twice and throw it and anyone within ten yards can say their prayers.”

Anthony Horowitz Alex Rider

Source: Snakehead

“Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Matagorda/The First Fast Draw

Books, Reading, Parting

“You don't even know where I'm going."
"I don't care. I'd like to go anywhere.”

John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America

“I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink to much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does.”

Dashiell Hammett book The Maltese Falcon

Chap. 11, "The Fat Man"
Dialogue between the characters Kasper Gutman (the "fat man") and Sam Spade.
Source: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
Context: "We begin well, sir," the fat man purred … "I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink too much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does. … Well, sir, here's to plain speaking and clear understanding. … You're a close-mouthed man?"
Spade shook his head. "I like to talk."
"Better and better!" the fat man exclaimed. "I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice."

Drink

“Never tell your problems to anyone…20% don't care and the other 80% are glad you have them.”

Lou Holtz (1937) American college football coach, professional football coach, television sports announcer

Problem

“I guess Smart Seth is glad, he said reluctantly. But be careful. Idiot Seth is the guy to watch out for.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Grip of the Shadow Plague

Guy

“I dont care who kissed you first as long as I kiss you last.”

Rachel Vail (1966) American writer

Source: I didn't care who kissed you first as long as I kissed you last."
-George from If We Kiss

Kiss

“We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don't care for.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

“Don't let anyone take care of you. Can you maybe leave that for me to do? I mean, take care of you? Feel free to take care of me in return… because I think I'll need you to do that.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: The Piper's Son

Feeling, Thinking

“Why is there evil in the world? Because sometimes you just wanna fuckin have it, and you don’t care who gets hurt.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

World, Evil, Hurt

“One of the cruelest things you can do to another person is pretend you care about them more than you really do.”

Douglas Coupland (1961) Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and graphic designer

Relationship, Personality

“I don't care what your nose says! The last time you smelled half-blood, it turned out to be a meatloaf sandwich!"
"Meatloaf sandwiches are good! But this is a half-blood scent, I swear. They are on board!"
"Bah, your brain isn't on board!”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Time

“I don't care what you do. As long as you know you belong to me.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“He's going to hurt you," Al said, looking at Pierce. "I can take care of you, teach you to survive. Be there for you, even if you do hate me."
I shivered. "I don't want him," I said, and Al turned away, seeming smaller somehow.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Black Magic Sanction

Hate, Hurt

“Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.”

W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American New Thought author

As quoted in How to Be the Employee Your Company Can't Live Without : 18 Ways to Become Indispensable (2006) by Glenn Shepard

“There's something sad about people going to bed. You can see they don't give a damn whether they're getting what they want out of life or not, you can see they don't even try to understand what we're here for. They just don't care.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

Life, People, Sadness, Understanding

“Who cared whether you could change motor oil when you could snap a rottweiler’s neck in 2.8 seconds? Now there was a practical skill.”

Kelley Armstrong book Stolen

Source: Stolen

Change

“If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

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

Source: The Letters of John and Abigail Adams

Law

“Oh lovers! be careful in those dangerous first days! once you've brought breakfast in bed you'll have to bring it forever, unless you want to be accused of lovelessness and betrayal.”

Milan Kundera book The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Source: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Lovers, Betrayal

“It has always been a happy thought to me that the creek runs on all night, new every minute, whether I wish it or know it or care, as a closed book on a shelf continues to whisper to itself its own inexhaustible tale.”

Annie Dillard book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Source: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Books, Night, Happiness

“We live in a world with so many dangers that we have to be careful whom we trust.”

Anthony Horowitz book Raven's Gate

Source: Raven's Gate

World

“I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature's loveliness.”

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

letter to Mrs. Ezra S. Carr, from Yosemite Valley (7 October 1874); published in William Federic Badè, The Life and Letters of John Muir http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/life/life_and_letters/default.aspx (1924), chapter 11: On Widening Currents <br class="br">1870s <br class="br">Source: Wilderness Essays

People, Nature

“I wish I could care what you do or where you go but I can't… My dear, I don't give a damn.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

“Who cares? If he is good to you? None of us ever find enough kindness in the world, do we?”

Donna Tartt book The Goldfinch

Source: The Goldfinch

World

“Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Love

“Why are terms of endearment always food? Honey, cookie, sugar, pumpkin. Its not like caring about someone is enough to actually sustain you.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Food

“Sociopathy is the inability to process emotional experience, including love and caring, except when such experience can be calculated as a coldly intellectual task.”

Martha Stout (1953) American psychologist

Source: The Sociopath Next Door

Love

“As you care less about what people think of you, you will care more about what others think of themselves.”

Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

People, Thinking

“But I don't care what Megan Fox or Jessica Biel say: There are definite advantages to being the hottest girl on the planet. Number one was that I got paid for it. A lot.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Runaway

Girl

“When we stop caring about what people think, we lose our capacity for connection. When we become defined by what people think, we lose our willingness to be vulnerable.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

People, Thinking

“Care not for want of place; care for thy readiness to fill one. Care not for being unknown, but seek to be worthy of note.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Source: Sayings of Confucius

“Really, I'm trying to care, Artemis, really. But I thought it was all supposed to be over when the fat lady sings. Well, she's singing, but it doesn't appear to be over”

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

Appearance, Singing

“… sometimes you just want the comfort of knowing that somebody really does care about you (even if they show it in peculiar ways).”

Cara Lockwood (1973) American writer

Source: I Do -- But I Don't

Way

“If you stare at the center of the universe, there is coldness there. A blankness. Ultimately, the universe doesn't care about us. Time doesn't care about us. That's why we have to care about each other.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

Universe, Time

“For a second, I'm afraid he's dying. I have to remind myself that I don't care.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“When I first met him, he did not care if a friend did not fit into his world, because at that time his world had not been born yet.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

World, Time

“But what could I do? Be stupid for a while? I wasn't sure I knew how, even after so many years of careful observation.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Stupidity

“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

“The strongest, toughest men all have compassion. They're not heartless and cold. You have to be man enough to have compassion - to care about people and about your children" (217) - John Singleton "Oh Man, I've Become My Father”

Denzel Washington (1954) actor, screenwriter, director, producer

Source: A Hand to Guide Me

Men, Children, People

“Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Marriage, Children, Flowers

“And all people live, not by reason of any care they have for themselves, but by the love for them that is in other people.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Love, People

“One cannot toss ambassadors back like bad fish," said Eugenides. "You treat them with care, or you'll find you've committed an act of war.”

Megan Whalen Turner book A Conspiracy of Kings

Source: A Conspiracy of Kings

War, Fish

“And the moment you care that much, a man has you. He owns a little piece of your soul, and he can beat you to death with it.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Micah

Source: Micah

Death, Soul

“Overcome your guilt. Care, but not too much. Take responsibility, but don't blame yourself. Protect, save, help- but know when to give up. They're precarious ledges to walk. How do I do it?”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Help

“The closest thing to being cared for is to care for someone else.”

Carson McCullers (1917–1967) American writer

Source: The Square Root of Wonderful

“If I didn't care about doing right and didn't feel uncomfortable doing wrong, I should get on capitally.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Feeling

“Gods tend to be selfish. Even when they're helpful, they always have their own motives. That's why you have to be careful about trusting them.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

God, Motivation, Help, Selfishness

“No one cared what she wanted. No one had ever cared. And perhaps, worst of all, no one ever would care.”

Kate DiCamillo (1964) American children's writer

“Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Variant: Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.
Source: Everybody’s Autobiography (1937), Ch.1

“If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Men

“I can learn to live with guilt. I don't care about being good.”

Holly Black book Red Glove

Source: Red Glove

Learning

“Life was going on, and no one but a handful of people cared if I lived or died.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Pale Demon

Life, People

“And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

St. 11.
The Day is Done (1845)

Music, Night

“Where's the use of looking nice, when no one sees me but those cross midgets, and no one cares whether I'm pretty or not?”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“Kindness and a caring mind are two separate qualities. Kindness is manners. It is superficial custom, an acquired practice. Not so the mind. The mind is deeper, stronger, and, I believe, it is far more inconstant.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 16: The Coming of Winter

“Do you know, one of the greatest problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas? Now, thoughts and ideas, that interests me.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Variant: Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas.
Source: Margaret Thatcher

People, Age, Feeling, Idea