Quotes about commitment
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“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

“The difference between good and evil men is not found in the acts they are willing to commit—but merely in what name they are willing to commit them in.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Bands of Mourning

Men, Evil

“I believe that it is impossible for two individuals not committed to their own and each other’s well being to sustain a healthy and enduring relationship.”

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

Source: Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life

“Men have committed the greatest crime against women. Insidiously, violently, they have led them to hate women, to be their own enemies, to mobilize their immense strength against themselves, to be the executants of their virile needs.”

Hélène Cixous (1937) French philosopher and writer

Source: The Laugh of the Medusa

Women, Men, Hate

“Hey, for a scythe, cookies, and a chance to commit murder, Kronos could hide his true feelings.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Source: Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

Feeling, Chance

“she committed suicide by putting her extremities down the garbage disposal-first one arm and then, kind of miraculously if you think about it, the other arm.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Thinking, Suicide

“Hammett gave murder back to the kind of people that commit it for reasons, not just to provide a corpse; and with the means at hand, not hand-wrought dueling pistols, curare and tropical fish.”

Raymond Chandler book The Simple Art of Murder

Source: The Simple Art of Murder

People, Fish

“I'm placing you under arrest for murder, conspiracy to commit murder and, I don't know, possibly littering.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

“The worst crime committed by totalitarian mind-sets is that they force their citizens, including their victims, to become complicit in their crimes. Dancing with your jailer, participating in your own execution, that is an act of utmost brutality.”

Azar Nafisi book Reading Lolita in Tehran

Source: Reading Lolita in Tehran

Dance

“Let us destroy, but don't let us pretend that we are commiting an act of virtue.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“she never showed girly weaknesses like cellulite or crushes. she never lingered on injustices committed against her.”

Ann Brashares book The Last Summer

Source: The Last Summer

“If we fall, we don't need self-recrimination or blame or anger - we need a reawakening of our intention and a willingness to re-commit, to be whole-hearted once again.”

Sharon Salzberg (1952) American writer

Heart, Anger

“Coach said. "the quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor".”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Life, Wise

“If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness. (Monseigneur Bienvenu in _Les Miserables_)”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Soul

“I don’t know why we insist on pain when pain is so often easy to eliminate. It’s funny the ways we try to punish ourselves when we feel we’ve committed some crime.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Stay

Pain, Way, Feeling

“men do not suspect faults which they do not commit”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

Men

“You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.”

Marian Wright Edelman (1939) American children's rights activist

Dogs

“Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Love, Faith, Hope, Personality

“But I'm no hero. I had to keep my dirty little secret. The worst sin I committed was holding it in; letting the secret blacken me.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

Secret

“premature design commitment is a design failure mode”

Mary Poppendieck

Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit: An Agile Toolkit

Failure

“We’re Nephilim. Every one of our life’s passages has some mystical component — our births, our deaths, our, marriages, everything has a ceremony and a rune. There is one as well if you wish to become someone’s parabatai. It’s no small commitment.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Life, Death, Marriage, Birth

“The real reason for not committing suicide is because you always know how swell life gets again after the hell is over.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Life, Hell, Suicide

“A person susceptible to "wanderlust" is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.”

Pico Iyer (1957) British writer

Personality

“… love is the sum of our choices, the strength of our commitments, the ties that bind us together.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Love the One You're With

Love

“As long as possible live free and uncommitted. It makes but little difference whether you are committed to a farm or the county jail.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

“Committing suicide so as not to be murdered is the worst reason I've ever heard of to die.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: God-Shaped Hole

Suicide

“Love doesn't mean anything if you're not willing to make a commitment.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Love

“If you get stuck to the committed path then…
this wall has to be..
KNOCKED DOWN!!”

Yoshiki Nakamura (1969) Artist

Source: Skip Beat!, Vol. 02

“Free again, but it's just a feeling; freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose - and commit yourself to what is best for you.”

Paulo Coelho book The Zahir

Variant: Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to choose - and commit myself to - what is best for me.
Source: The Zahir

Feeling, Freedom

“To experience commitment as the loss of options, a type of death, the death of childhood's limitless possibility, of the flattery of choice without duress-this will happen, mark me. Childhood's end.”

David Foster Wallace book The Pale King

Source: The Pale King

Death, Loss, Childhood

“The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.”

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist

Error

“Tantalus made a wild grab, but the marshmallow committed suicide, diving into the flames.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Suicide

“To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Time, Help

“I'm the kind of person who has to totally commit to whatever I do.”

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

Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Personality

“I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling. I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Source: Frankenstein

Feeling, Communication

“… when we are comfortable and inattentive, we run the risk of committing grave injustices absentmindedly.”

Chinua Achebe (1930–2013) Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic

Source: The Education of a British-Protected Child: Essays

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Decision, New Year

“To write poetry and to commit suicide, apparently so contradictory, had really been the same, attempts at escape.”

John Fowles book The Magus

Source: The Magus

Suicide

“I can’t believe this night. I was supposed to be applauded and instead, I’m ruined. I swear to God in heaven if I ever see that man again, I will commit murder. (Tory)
Well, if you need help moving the body, you know where Kim and I live. (Pam)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

God, Help, Night

“None of us alone can save the nation or the world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so. (p. 109)”

Cornel West book Race Matters

Source: Race Matters

World

“They are committing the greatest indignity human beings can inflict on one another: telling people who have suffered excruciating pain and loss that their pain and loss were illusions.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Misattributed <br class="br">Source: Robert McAfee Brown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McAfee_Brown. Preface for the 25th anniversary edition of Night https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_%28book%29. Page v, Bantam Books paperback; 1982 reissue edition.

Pain, People, Suffering, Loss

“However they may have felt when they left they were now committed, they had passed the point of no return.”

Hubert Selby Jr. Requiem for a Dream

Source: Requiem for a Dream

“For children love is a feeling; for adults, it is a decision. Children wait to learn if their love is true by seeing how long it lasts; adults make their love true by never wavering from their commitment.”

Orson Scott Card book Pathfinder

Source: Pathfinder

Love, Children, Feeling, Decision

“Without commitment, you cannot have depth in anything, whether it's a relationship, a business or a hobby.”

Neil Strauss book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Source: The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Business

“Right. Because there’s no bigger sign of commitment than a Halloween dance”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Dance

“Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is a commitment to others. No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause--the cause of liberation.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Love, Fear, Courage

“Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more a
commitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps.”

Abbie Hoffman book Steal This Book

Introduction, p. v.
Source: Steal This Book (1971)
Context: Your body is just one in a mass of cuddly humanity. Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them. The duty of a revolutionary is to make love and that means staying alive and free. That doesn't allow for cop-outs. Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more a commitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps. A revolution in consciousness is an empty high without a revolution in the distribution of power.

Drink

“You cannot force commitment, what you can do…You nudge a little here, inspire a little there, and provide a role model. Your primary influence is the environment you create.”

Peter M. Senge (1947) American scientist

“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

“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

“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

“When the leader lacks confidence, the followers lack commitment.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Source: Developing the Leader Within You

Confidence

“I will not fall for any of the following: alcoholics, workaholics, commitment phobics, people with girlfriends or wives, misogynists, megalomanics, chauvists, emotional fuckwits or freeloaders, perverts.”

Helen Fielding book Bridget Jones's Diary

Source: Bridget Jones's Diary

People, Alcohol

“Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

World, Feeling

“When I first arrived in London, I so quickly tired of being surrounded by so many people that it was only with great difficulty that I refrained from seizing the next unfortunate who crossed my path and committing violent acts upon their person.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

People, Personality

“Each recognized the fact that real commitment could be proven only through the passage of time.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Time

“This is exactly what i wanted, as commitments had never really been my thing. And it wasn't like it was hard, either. The only trick was never giving more than you were willing to lose.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather
it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”

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

Source: John F. Kennedy 1917-63: Chronology-documents-bibliographical aids

“When we commit violence against an infant girl, we call it child abuse; when we commit violence against an infant boy, we call it circumcision.”

Warren Farrell book The Myth of Male Power

Source: The Myth of Male Power (1993), Part II: The Glass Cellars of the disposable sex, p. 221.

Girl, Boy

“If there is no friendship with them [the poor] and no sharing of the life of the poor, then there is no authentic commitment to liberation, because love exists only among equals.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928) Peruvian theologian

Source: A Theology of Liberation

Love, Life, Friendship

“One good reason to only maintain a small circle of friends is that three out of four murders are committed by people who know the victim.”

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

People

“Make small commitments and keep them. Be a light, not a judge. Be a model, not a critic. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”

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

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

Problem, Light, Parting

“And if you don´t commit? I asked. Your choice. But you miss what´s on the other side. What´s on the other side? "Ah" he smiled. "A happiness you cannot find alone”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: Have a Little Faith: a True Story

Happiness, Smile

“Faith is not intelligent understanding, faith is deliberate commitment to a Person where I see no way.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

Faith, Way, Intelligence, Understanding

“I think when men hear that women want a commitment, they think it means commitment to a romantic relationship, but that's not it. It's a commitment to not floating around anywhere. I want a guy who is entrenched in his own life.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Life, Women, Men, Guy

“Paintings are seldom guilty and often framed for crimes they did not commit. Some cover holes-holes in walls, holes in lives. Some make holes-in wallets, holes in hearts… in negative space.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

Heart, Painting

“Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven't committed.”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

“That'd be just what I need: a rash of car thefts across America, committed by dedicated readers.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Cars

“Telling some stories, Miss Leroy says, is committing suicide.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

Suicide

“… history has shown that the most terrible crimes against love have been committed in the name of fanatically defended doctrines.”

Paul Tillich (1886–1965) German-American theologian and philosopher

Source: Dynamics of Faith

Love, History

“People who commit monstrous crimes are not necessarily monsters. If they were, things would be easy. But they aren't and it is one of the experiences of life.”

Bernhard Schlink (1944) German writer

Life, People

“Growing old's like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven't committed.”

Anthony Powell A Dance to the Music of Time

Temporary Kings (1973), ch. 1.
A Dance to the Music of Time (1951-1975)
Variant: Growing old's like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven't committed.

“I'm presently incarcerated. Convicted of a crime I didn't even commit. Hah! "Attempted murder"? Now honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel prize for attempted chemistry? Do they?”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

“The girl is infectious human waste, and she's confused and afraid to commit to the wrong thing and so she won't commit to anything.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Girl

“There's something about seeing a guy's feelings written down, something about him taking that risk and committing that heart to paper, that means so much more than anything he could just say.”

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 Treasure Map of Boys: Noel, Jackson, Finn, Hutch, Gideon—and me, Ruby Oliver

Guy, Feeling, Heart

“People struggle to live, not to commit suicide”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Veronika Decides to Die

People, Suicide

“For a woman the objective is often a committed relationship also known as the destination. For a men roadtrip on the way to the destination is often the more fun.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

Men, Way

“Compassion is not a virtue -- it is a commitment. It's not something we have or don't have -- it's something we choose to practice.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame

“Love & Marriage are about work & Compromise. They're about seeing someone for what he is, being disappointed and deciding to stick around anyway. They're about commitment and comfort, not some kind of sudden, hysterical recognition.”

Ayelet Waldman book Love and Other Impossible Pursuits

Source: Love and Other Impossible Pursuits

Love, Marriage, Disappointment

“Temptation said that we all dream of committing crimes, but that only the unbalanced make that macabre idea a reality.”

Paulo Coelho book The Winner Stands Alone

Source: The Winner Stands Alone

Dreams, Idea, Reality

“The new crimes that the US and Israel were committing in Gaza as 2009 opened do not fit easily into any standard category—except for the category of familiarity.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Source: Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians

“Johnson! Have I committed any illegal actions?'
Johnson checked his watch. 'Not within the last three minutes, sir.”

Genevieve Cogman (1972) novelist and game designer

Source: The Invisible Library

“I have a renewed commitment to elegance, she said, in case you think I'm just spending money for the fun of it.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Money, Thinking

“Our job is not to figure out the 'how'. The 'how' will show up out of the commitment and believe in the 'what”

Jack Canfield (1944) American writer

“Friends don't let friends commit social suicide.”

Sonya Sones book What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know

What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know

Suicide

“A promise is a commitment to do something later, and a vow is a binding commitment to begin doing something now and to continue to do it for the duration of the vow. Some vows, or contracts, are for life; others are for limited periods of time.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: The Purpose and Power of Love & Marriage

Life, Time

“Nothing quite has reality for me till I write it all down--revising and embellishing as I go. I'm always waiting for things to be over so I can get home and commit them to paper.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Home, Reality, Waiting

“In medieval times, if someone displayed the symptoms we now identify as boredom, that person was thought to be committing something called, a 'dangerous form of spiritual alienation' -- a devaluing of the world and its creator.”

Richard Louv (1949) American journalist

World, Time, Personality

“To be a saint is the exception; to be a just person is the rule. Err, stumble, commit sin, but be one of the just.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Personality

“If we commit ourselves to reading thus increasing our knowledge, only God limits how far we can go in this world.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence

God, World, Knowledge, Reading

“How to Commit the Perfect Murder" was an old game in heaven. I always chose the icicle: the weapon melts away.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

Game, Perfection

“If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron”

Spider Robinson (1948) Canadian author

God Is An Iron (1977)
Context: "God is an iron," I said. "Did you know that?"
I turned to look at her and she was staring. She laughed experimentally, stopped when I failed to join in. "And I'm a pair of pants with a hole scorched through the ass?"
"If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron. Or else He's the dumbest designer that ever lived."

God, Personality