Quotes about cost
page 2

“Effective institutions raise the benefits of cooperative solutions or the costs of defection, to use game theoretic terms.”

Douglass C. North (1920–2015) American Economist

Source: Institutions (1990), p. 89

Game

“Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infinitely more advantage, than any victory with all its expence.”

Thomas Paine book Rights of Man

Part Two, Chapter V. Ways and means of improving the condition of Europe, interspersed with miscellaneous observations.
1790s, Rights of Man, Part 2 (1792)

Peace, Victory

“The limit to the size of the firm is set where its costs of organizing a transaction become equal to the cost of carrying it out through the market. This determines what the firm buys, produces, and sells. As the concept of transaction costs is not usually used by economists, it is not surprising that an approach which incorporates it will find some difficulty in getting itself accepted. We can best understand this attitude if we consider not the firm but the market.”

Ronald H. Coase (1910–2013) British economist and author

1960s-1980s, "The Firm, the Market, and the Law" (1988)

Understanding

“Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then have been proved that, among free men, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case, and pay the cost. And then, there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while, I fear, there will be some white ones, unable to forget that, with malignant heart, and deceitful speech, they have strove to hinder it.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Letter to James C. Conkling (1863)

Men, Fear, Peace, Hope

“No man can be a good citizen unless he has a wage more than sufficient to cover the bare cost of living, and hours of labor short enough so after his day’s work is done he will have time and energy to bear his share in the management of the community, to help in carrying the general load.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, The New Nationalism (1910)

Communication, Time, Help

“Personally, I do not believe that our civilization will fall. I think that on the whole we have grown better and not worse. I think that on the whole the future holds more for us than even the great past has held. But, assuredly, the dreams of golden glory in the future will not come true unless, high of heart and strong of hand, by our own mighty deeds we make them come true. We can not afford to develop any one set of qualities, any one set of activities, at the cost of seeing others, equally necessary, atrophied. Neither the military efficiency of the Mongol, the extraordinary business ability of the Phoenician, nor the subtle and polished intellect of the Greek availed to avert destruction.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, The World Movement (1910)

Dreams, Business, Thinking, Strong

“An exploration of the challenges Korea faces in transforming its economy from a government-directed, low-cost producer to an innovative world economic power based on its own scientific and technological development.”

Lewis M. Branscomb (1926) physicist and science policy advisor

Lewis M. Branscomb, Young-Hwan Choi (1996) Korea at the turning point: innovation-based strategies for development

World

“You trust in your own doings to appease God for your sins, and to incline the heart of God to you. Though you are poor, worthless, vile, and polluted, yet you arrogantly take upon you that very work for which the Son of God became man; and in order to which God employed four thousand years in all the great dispensations of His providence, aiming chiefly to make way for Christ's coming to do this work. This is the work that you foolishly think yourselves sufficient for; as though your prayers and performances were excellent enough for this purpose. Consider how vain is the thought which you entertain of yourself. How must such arrogance appear in the sight of Christ, whom it cost so much? It was not to be obtained even by Him, so great and glorious a person, at a cheaper rate than His wading through a sea of blood, and passing through the midst of the furnace of God's wrath.”

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) Christian preacher, philosopher, and theologian

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 541.

God, Way, Thinking, Appearance

“My conception of freedom. — The value of a thing sometimes does not lie in that which one attains by it, but in what one pays for it — what it costs us.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Twilight of the Idols

Variant translation: Liberal institutions straightway cease from being liberal the moment they are soundly established: once this is attained no more grievous and more thorough enemies of freedom exist than liberal institutions.
Expeditions of an Untimely Man, 38
Twilight of the Idols (1888)
Context: My conception of freedom. — The value of a thing sometimes does not lie in that which one attains by it, but in what one pays for it — what it costs us. I give an example. Liberal institutions cease to be liberal as soon as they are attained: later on, there are no worse and no more thorough injurers of freedom than liberal institutions. One knows, indeed, what their ways bring: they undermine the will to power; they level mountain and valley, and call that morality; they make men small, cowardly, and hedonistic [genüsslich] — every time it is the herd animal that triumphs with them. Liberalism: in other words, herd-animalization...

Lie, Freedom

“That story was the only thing I have ever done which cost me absolutely no pains at all.”

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien book Leaf by Niggle

About "Leaf by Niggle", in a letter to Stanley Unwin (18 March 1945)
Context: That story was the only thing I have ever done which cost me absolutely no pains at all. Usually I compose only with great difficulty and endless rewriting. I woke up one day (more than 2 years ago) with that odd thing virtually complete in my head. It took only a few hours to get down, and then copy out.

Pain

“I don't know how to care for the child. But I am dedicated to protecting and nurturing him at any cost! It is the function of the Guardian to protect hybrids and mutants in the vulnerable stage of infancy.”

William S. Burroughs book The Cat Inside

The Cat Inside (1986)
Context: Last night I encountered a dream cat with a very long neck and a body like a human fetus, gray and transluscent. I don't know what it needs or how to provide for it. Another dream years ago of a human child with eyes on stalks. It is very small, but can walk and talk "Don't you want me?" Again, I don't know how to care for the child. But I am dedicated to protecting and nurturing him at any cost! It is the function of the Guardian to protect hybrids and mutants in the vulnerable stage of infancy.

“This freedom of which men speak, for which they fight, seems to some people a perilous thing. It has to be earned at a bitter cost and then — it has to be lived with. For freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Source: You Learn by Living (1960), p. 152
Context: "Anxiety," Kierkegaard said, "is the dizziness of freedom." This freedom of which men speak, for which they fight, seems to some people a perilous thing. It has to be earned at a bitter cost and then — it has to be lived with. For freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.
We must all face and unpalatable fact that we have, too often, a tendency to skim over; we proceed on the assumption that all men want freedom. This is not as true as we would like it to be. Many men and women who are far happier when they have relinquish their freedom, when someone else guides them, makes their decisions for them, takes the responsibility for them and their actions. They don't want to make up their minds. They don't want to stand on their own feet.

Men, People, Freedom, Fight

“It’s true that America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs. And given the costs and risks of intervention, we must always measure our interests against the need for action. But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what’s right.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2011, Address on interventions in Libya (March 2011)
Context: Much of the debate in Washington has put forward a false choice when it comes to Libya. On the one hand, some question why America should intervene at all — even in limited ways — in this distant land. They argue that there are many places in the world where innocent civilians face brutal violence at the hands of their government, and America should not be expected to police the world, particularly when we have so many pressing needs here at home.
It’s true that America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs. And given the costs and risks of intervention, we must always measure our interests against the need for action. But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what’s right. In this particular country — Libya — at this particular moment, we were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale. We had a unique ability to stop that violence: an international mandate for action, a broad coalition prepared to join us, the support of Arab countries, and a plea for help from the Libyan people themselves. We also had the ability to stop Qaddafi’s forces in their tracks without putting American troops on the ground.
To brush aside America’s responsibility as a leader and — more profoundly — our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.

“So while I will never minimize the costs involved in military action, I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2011, Address on interventions in Libya (March 2011)
Context: America has an important strategic interest in preventing Qaddafi from overrunning those who oppose him. A massacre would have driven thousands of additional refugees across Libya’s borders, putting enormous strains on the peaceful — yet fragile — transitions in Egypt and Tunisia. The democratic impulses that are dawning across the region would be eclipsed by the darkest form of dictatorship, as repressive leaders concluded that violence is the best strategy to cling to power. The writ of the United Nations Security Council would have been shown to be little more than empty words, crippling that institution’s future credibility to uphold global peace and security. So while I will never minimize the costs involved in military action, I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America.

Failure

“For generations, the United States of America has played a unique role as an anchor of global security and as an advocate for human freedom. Mindful of the risks and costs of military action, we are naturally reluctant to use force to solve the world’s many challenges. But when our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act. That’s what happened in Libya over the course of these last six weeks.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2011, Address on interventions in Libya (March 2011)

World, Nature, Freedom

“It is always and forever the same struggle: to perceive somehow our own complicity with evil is a horror not to be borne. … much more reassuring to see the world in terms of totally innocent victims and totally evil instigators of the monstrous violence we see all about us. At all costs, never disturb our innocence.”

Arthur Miller (1915–2005) playwright from the United States

"With respect for Her Agony — but with Love" in LIFE magazine (7 February 1964)
Context: It is always and forever the same struggle: to perceive somehow our own complicity with evil is a horror not to be borne. … much more reassuring to see the world in terms of totally innocent victims and totally evil instigators of the monstrous violence we see all about us. At all costs, never disturb our innocence. But what is the most innocent place in any country? Is it not the insane asylum? These people drift through life truly innocent, unable to see into themselves at all. The perfection of innocence, indeed, is madness.

World, Evil

“And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost.”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

Never Give All The Heart http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1545/ In The Seven Woods (1904) Context: Never give all the heart, for love Will hardly seem worth thinking of To passionate women if it seem Certain, and they never dream That it fades out from kiss to kiss; For everything that's lovely is but a brief, dreamy, kind of delight. O never give the heart outright, For they, for all smooth lips can say, Have given their hearts up to the play. And who could play it well enough If deaf and dumb and blind with love? He that made this knows all the cost, For he gave all his heart and lost.

Love, Heart

“To put an end to the quiet, to break it up and disperse it, to pretend at any cost that it isn't there. Ah, but it is; it is there, in spite of everything, at the back of everything.”

Aldous Huxley book Antic Hay

Antic Hay (1923)
Context: There are quiet places also in the mind', he said meditatively. 'But we build bandstands and factories on them. Deliberately — to put a stop to the quietness. … All the thoughts, all the preoccupations in my head — round and round, continually What's it for? What's it all for? To put an end to the quiet, to break it up and disperse it, to pretend at any cost that it isn't there. Ah, but it is; it is there, in spite of everything, at the back of everything. Lying awake at night — not restlessly, but serenely, waiting for sleep — the quiet re-establishes itself, piece by piece; all the broken bits … we've been so busily dispersing all day long. It re-establishes itself, an inward quiet, like the outward quiet of grass and trees. It fills one, it grows — a crystal quiet, a growing, expanding crystal. It grows, it becomes more perfect; it is beautiful and terrifying … For one's alone in the crystal, and there's no support from the outside, there is nothing external and important, nothing external and trivial to pull oneself up by or stand on … There is nothing to laugh at or feel enthusiast about. But the quiet grows and grows. Beautifully and unbearably. And at last you are conscious of something approaching; it is almost a faint sound of footsteps. Something inexpressively lovely and wonderful advances through the crystal, nearer, nearer. And, oh, inexpressively terrifying. For if it were to touch you, if it were to seize you and engulf you, you'd die; all the regular, habitual daily part of you would die … one would have to begin living arduously in the quiet, arduously in some strange, unheard of manner.

“Real leadership creates the conditions and coalitions for others to step up as well; to work with allies and partners so that they bear their share of the burden and pay their share of the costs; and to see that the principles of justice and human dignity are upheld by all.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2011, Address on interventions in Libya (March 2011)
Context: As Commander-in-Chief, I have no greater responsibility than keeping this country safe. And no decision weighs on me more than when to deploy our men and women in uniform. I’ve made it clear that I will never hesitate to use our military swiftly, decisively, and unilaterally when necessary to defend our people, our homeland, our allies and our core interests. That's why we’re going after al Qaeda wherever they seek a foothold. That is why we continue to fight in Afghanistan, even as we have ended our combat mission in Iraq and removed more than 100,000 troops from that country.
There will be times, though, when our safety is not directly threatened, but our interests and our values are. Sometimes, the course of history poses challenges that threaten our common humanity and our common security — responding to natural disasters, for example; or preventing genocide and keeping the peace; ensuring regional security, and maintaining the flow of commerce. These may not be America’s problems alone, but they are important to us. They’re problems worth solving. And in these circumstances, we know that the United States, as the world’s most powerful nation, will often be called upon to help.
In such cases, we should not be afraid to act — but the burden of action should not be America’s alone. As we have in Libya, our task is instead to mobilize the international community for collective action. Because contrary to the claims of some, American leadership is not simply a matter of going it alone and bearing all of the burden ourselves. Real leadership creates the conditions and coalitions for others to step up as well; to work with allies and partners so that they bear their share of the burden and pay their share of the costs; and to see that the principles of justice and human dignity are upheld by all.

Justice

“I do not want any “yes- man„ around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.”

Samuel Goldwyn (1879–1974) American film producer (1879-1974).

Truth, Funny

“Simplicity is a great way to build something that works well without costing too much.”

Richard Branson (1950) English business magnate, investor and philanthropist

Way

“The years since the mid-1970s have been the most frustrating in the history of particle physics. We are paying the price of our own success: theory has advanced so far that further progress will require the study of processes at energies far beyond the reach of existing facilities. In order to break our of this impasse, physicists began in 1982 to develop plans for a scientific project of unprecedented size and cost, known as the Superconducting Super Collider.”

Steven Weinberg (1933) American theoretical physicist

page 4, 2nd edition https://books.google.com/books?id=Qd0MEtsBr7oC&pg=PA4 Dreams of a Final Theory (1992; 2nd edition 1994)

Study, History, Success

“We should always be braced to defend justice against injustice at all costs. For once injustice becomes tolerable, then our liberties shall be dismantled. RJ Intindola – (Gandolfo) – 1975 *”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

Justice

“Though we have achieved considerable success in our policy of increasing production and maintaining full employment, this has been accompanied by constant pressure for higher wages resulting in higher prices. We have not yet found out how we can maintain full employment in combination with stable or decreasing costs and prices.”

Stafford Cripps (1889–1952) British politician

Memorandum, 'The Dollar Situation: Forthcoming Discussions with U.S.A. and Canada' (4 July 1949), quoted in Correlli Barnett, The Lost Victory: British Dreams, British Realities: 1945–1950 (London: Pan, 1996), p. 353
Chancellor of the Exchequer

Success

“Soviet Russia has been behaving internationally very much as a satisfied Power, avoiding all trouble, and trying to keep peace at all costs. This is the opposite of a revolutionary policy which would aim at fomenting revolution in other countries. It is a national policy of building up socialism in a single country and avoiding all complications outside. Necessarily, this results in compromises with imperialist and capitalist Powers. But the essential socialist basis of Soviet economy continues, and the success of this is itself the most powerful argument in favour of socialism.”

Jawaharlal Nehru book Glimpses of World History

Glimpses of World History (1949)

Peace, Success, Country

“Human beings free of debt, insecurity, and fear become much more amiable. With no one out to sell anyone anything or to deprive another of possessions or money, the basis for unhealthy human aggression is outgrown. People no longer are burdened by the nagging concerns that consume so much attention such as mortgages, health care costs, education fees, fire insurance, economic recession or depression, the loss of jobs, and taxes. With the elimination of these burdens and the removal of the conditions that create feelings of envy, greed, and competition, people’s lives would be far more meaningful.”

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

Source: The Best That Money Can't Buy: Beyond Politics, Poverty, & War (2002), p. 76

Money, Loss, Fear, People

“You could attach prices to ideas. Some cost a lot some little. … And how do you pay for ideas? I believe: with courage.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 60e

Idea, Courage

“Costs do not exist to be calculated. Costs exist to be reduced.”

Taiichi Ohno (1912–1990) Japanese businessman and engineer

Taiichi Ohnos Workplace Management: Special 100th Birthday Edition: Special 100th Birthday Edition (ed. McGraw Hill Professional, 2012), ISBN 9780071808019

“I also knew the formula that expresses the energy distribution in the normal spectrum. A theoretical interpretation therefore had to be found at any cost, no matter how high. It was clear to me that classical physics could offer no solution to this problem, and would have meant that all energy would eventually transfer from matter to radiation. ...This approach was opened to me by maintaining the two laws of thermodynamics. The two laws, it seems to me, must be upheld under all circumstances. For the rest, I was ready to sacrifice every one of my previous convictions about physical laws. ...[One] finds that the continuous loss of energy into radiation can be prevented by assuming that energy is forced at the outset to remain together in certain quanta. This was purely a formal assumption and I really did not give it much thought except that no matter what the cost, I must bring about a positive result.”

Max Planck (1858–1947) German theoretical physicist

Letter to Robert W. Wood (October 7, 1931) in Archive for the History of Quantum Physics, Microfilm 66, 5, as cited in Thomas S. Kuhn, Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity, 1894–1912 (1978) pp. 132, 288. Translation of the entire letter, which is follow above is in Armin Hermann, Frühgeschiche der Quantentheorie (1899–1913) Mosbach/Baden: Physik Verlag (1969), transl. Claude W. Nash, p. 23 of the translation; and also in M. S. Longair,Theoretical Concepts in Physics(Cambridge and NewYork: Cambridge University Press, 1984), ch. 6–12, p. 222. All as quoted/cited by Clayton A. Gearhart, "Planck, the Quantum, and the Historians" http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.613.4262&rep=rep1&type=pdf, Physics in Perspective, 4 (2002) 170-215.

Problem, Loss, Law

“Stand up for what you believe in even if it means you stand alone. Speak the truth even if your voice shakes. Never regret doing the right thing no matter what the cost may be.”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

“Thou, O God, sellest us all benefits, at the cost of our toil....”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

God

“The so-called “innocents” are still wearing the skins of sheep to cover their evil intentions. Thus, we must avoid flatterers at any cost, so as not to become their victims.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Evil

“I feel so empowered. I refuse to allow Negative people, situations, energy, environments and the whole
Misery loves Company"scenarios to allow themselves to permeate my air tight Positivity Bubble…it is far superior to avoid Negativity at all cost!
It is Highly Toxic!”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

People, Love, Feeling

“You know why my spirit's callin'
Darkness can't take light from me
Haven't you gone far enough?
Sacrificed the ones you love
Gave up on your sanity
Like some twisted fantasy
What would I say to everything?
Your actions cost everything.”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Never Abandon Your Family
Lyrics, Donda (2021)

Light, Love

“To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness”

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

Happiness

“Each Javelin round costs $80,000, and the idea that it's fired by a guy who doesn't make that in a year at a guy who doesn't make that in a lifetime is somehow so outrageous it almost makes the war seem winnable.”

Sebastian Junger (1962) American author, journalist and documentarian

Source: War

War, Guy, Idea

“Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Source: 1980s–1990s, Knowledge and Decisions (1980; 1996), Ch. 5 : Political Trade-Offs

Freedom

“Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes. Of all the so-called natural human rights that have ever been invented, liberty is least likely to be cheap and is never free of cost.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Starship Troopers

Source: Starship Troopers

Nature

“That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

[C]'est la vraie générosité ; vous donnez tout et rien ne semble jamais vous coûter.
All Men are Mortal (1946)

Positive, Feeling

“It’s better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a tremendous cost.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Evil

“Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.”

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

Motivation, Freedom, Loss, Help

“Happiest day of my life when my dad made him human. (Devyn)
Happy for you, bonebag…It cost me my girlfriend. (Vik)
It was a lamp, Vik, not a girlfriend. (Devyn)
I really loved that lamp. She lit up my entire world. (Vik)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Ice

Love, Life, World, Happiness

“Everyone loves something for nothing… even if it costs everything.”

Stephen King book Needful Things

Source: Needful Things

Love

“Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without vicory there is no survival.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Victory

“True feeling justifies whatever it may cost.”

May Sarton (1912–1995) American poet, novelist, and memoirist

Feeling

“The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

“You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.”

Bob Hope (1903–2003) American comedian, actor, singer and dancer

Birthday

“The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.”

Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) German theologian

“Greed is not defined by what something costs; it is measured by what it costs you. If anything costs you your faith or your family, the price is too high. Such is the point Jesus makes in the parable of the portfolio.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: When God Whispers Your Name

Family, Faith

“This was the Great Romance. To love at any cost.”

Ted Dekker (1962) American writer

Source: Black: The Birth of Evil

Love

“There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

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

“Metaphors. This was the cost of making out with an artist.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

“It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.”

Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) American economist of the Austrian School, libertarian political theorist, and historian

“I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American aviator and author

Locked Rooms and Open Doors (1974)

Thinking

“That's beautiful,' Valkyrie said, looking at it.

Isn't it? This necklace has cost two very fine men their lives. At times, I wear it in tribute to their sacrifice. Other times, I wear it because it goes with this skirt.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Playing with Fire

Men, Beauty, Time

“We all make mistakes at some time in our lives, some more than others. It is only when the cost is counted in human lives that people really take notice.”

Jasper Fforde book The Eyre Affair

Source: The Eyre Affair

People, Time

“She had wild eyes, slightly insane. She also carried an overload of compassion that was real enough and which obviously cost her something.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

“It costs nothing to ask wise advice from a good friend.”

George S. Clason book The Richest Man in Babylon

Source: The Richest Man in Babylon

“There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have, and think they have enough-a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and requires no sacrifice-which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

Thinking

“Is it a wart?" said Malcolm. "I can cure that, but it'll cost you."

"Why does everyone always think it's a wart?”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Thinking

“Never invest yourself in anything so deeply that its failure could cost you your happiness.”

Ian Caldwell book The Rule of Four

Source: The Rule of Four

Failure, Happiness

“If I had learned anything in my life about love, it was that they were tenous things that could end at any moment. Caution was essential-but not at the cost of risking your life”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Love, Life, Learning

“Friends don't count the cost of favors.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Danse Macabre

Source: Danse Macabre

“There was a reason for the cost of those perfectly plain black dresses.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Source: The Portable Dorothy Parker

“There comes a turning point in intense physical struggle where one abandons oneself to a profligate usage of strength and bodily resource, ignoring the costs until the struggle is over. Women find this point in childbirth; men in battle.”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Source: Outlander

Women, Men

“Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.”

John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)

Attributed in The Rebirth of a Nation : With a Bill of Rights for America's Third Century (1978) by Robert S. Minor, p. 10; this is a paraphrase of a statement by his father John Adams in a letter to his mother Abigail Adams (27 April 1777): "Posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it".
Misattributed

Hope, Freedom

“Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst, and cold.”

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

Hunger

“I have never known what to tell anybody. Except that it is better to do something than nothing, even if the cost is great.”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Abhorsen

“When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Variant: When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.

“I can see his pain, see it in the way he runs his fingers through his hair, over and over, and I understand what it costs him to hide it all.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Pain, Way, Understanding

“Technology to wipe out truth is now available. Not everybody can afford it but it's available. When the cost comes down, look out!”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Truth

“Keep it kickwriting at all costs too, that is, write only what kicks you and keeps you overtime awake from sheer mad joy.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Joy, Madness

“The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion… and the price demanded for the most precious of all things in life is life itself - ultimate cost for perfect value.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Starship Troopers

Source: Starship Troopers

Life, Money, Perfection

“Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing.”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

“Maybe the definition of home is the place where you are never forgiven. So you may always belong there, bound by guilt. And maybe the cost of belonging is worth it.”

Gregory Maguire (1954) Novelist

Home

“Forgiving's a choice you make—a gift you give to somebody even if they don't deserve it. It costs nothing, but it makes you feel rich for giving it away.”

Lurlene McDaniel (1944) American writer

Source: When Happily Ever After Ends

Feeling, Forgiveness

“Human will is the strongest will ever created. There are those who are born to succeed and those who are determined to succeed. The former fall into it, and the latter pursue it at all costs. They won’t be denied. Nothing daunts them.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

“Lonely people tend, rather, to be lonely because they decline to bear the psychic costs of being around other humans. They are allergic to people. People affect them too strongly.”

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

Source: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

People

“Avoid teams at all cost. Keep your circle small. Never join a group that has a name.”

George Carlin When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

Source: When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

“I never confuse the cost of something with its value”

Robin Hobb book The Mad Ship

Source: The Mad Ship

“Both looked back then on the wild revelry… and they lamented that it had cost them so much of their lives to find the paradise of shared solitude.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Solitude

“In a world where everyone struggles to survive whatever the cost, how could one judge those people who decide to die? No one can judge. Each person knows the extent of their own suffering or the total absence of meaning in their lives.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

People, World, Suffering, Personality

“Sometimes it’s worth lingering on the journey for a while before getting to the destination."

Metaphors. This was the cost of making out with an artist.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

“Grace is free only because the giver himself has borne the cost.”

Philip Yancey book What's So Amazing About Grace?

Source: What's So Amazing About Grace?

“… foreign policy is a matter of costs and benefits, not theology.”

Fareed Zakaria book The Post-American World

Source: The Post-American World

“Before a man's forty, girls cost nothing. After that you have to pay money, or tell a story. Of the two, it's the story that hurts most. Anyway I'm not forty yet.”

Ian Fleming book Diamonds Are Forever

Source: Diamonds Are Forever

Money, Girl, Hurt

“It costs me never a stab nor squirm

To tread by chance upon a worm.

"Aha, my little dear," I say,

"Your clan will pay me back some day."”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

First printed in New Yorker, (9 April 1927) p. 31
Sunset Gun (1927)

Chance

“The cost of sanity in this society, is a certain level of alienation”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

“Posterity! you will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”

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

1770s
Source: Letter to Abigail Adams (27 April 1777), published as Letter CXI in Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife (1841) edited by Charles Francis Adams, p. 218

Pain, Hope, Freedom