Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist
Speech, quoted in The Times (February 15, 1923).
Other works
Variant: Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.
Quotes about course page 7
Gary Gygax (1938–2008) American writer and game designer
GameSpy interview by Allen Rausch, Pt. 1 (15 August 2004) http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/538/538817p2.html
Leo Tolstoy book Family Happiness
Variant: I want movement, not a calm course of existence. I want excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I feel in myself a superabundance of energy which finds no outlet in our quiet life.
Source: Family Happiness
Christine Feehan American writer
Source: Ruthless Game
Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore
Variant: When someone is trying very hard to get something, they don't. And when they're running away from something as hard as they can, it usually catches up with them.
Source: Kafka on the Shore
Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind
Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 7, “Of Beginnings and the Names of Things” (p. 58)
Context: I have been called Kvothe the Bloodless, Kvothe the Arcane, and Kvothe Kingkiller. I have earned those names. Bought and paid for them.
But I was brought up as Kvothe. My father once told me it meant “to know.”
I have, of course, been called many other things. Most of them uncouth, although very few were unearned.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.
“Of course reading and thinking are important but, my God, food is important too.”
Iris Murdoch book The Sea, the Sea
Source: The Sea, the Sea
Henry, Act II, scene V
Source: The Real Thing (1982)
Context: Buddy Holly was twenty-two. Think of what he might have gone on to achieve. I mean, if Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at twenty-two, the history of music would have been very different. As would the history of aviation, of course.
“Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!”
F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby
Source: The Great Gatsby
“Hey Kaname. Will you let me handle this?
Of course. I need only one Ichijo. You.”
Matsuri Hino Japanese manga artist
Source: Vampire Knight, Vol. 9
“This is how the entire course of a life can be changed - by doing nothing.”
Ian McEwan book On Chesil Beach
Page 166.
Source: On Chesil Beach (2007)
L.J. Smith (1965) American author
Source: Night World, No. 1
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy
Day of Affirmation Address (1966)
Context: The second danger is that of expediency: of those who say that hopes and beliefs must bend before immediate necessities. Of course, if we must act effectively we must deal with the world as it is. We must get things done. But if there was one thing that President Kennedy stood for that touched the most profound feeling of young people around the world, it was the belief that idealism, high aspirations, and deep convictions are not incompatible with the most practical and efficient of programs — that there is no basic inconsistency between ideals and realistic possibilities, no separation between the deepest desires of heart and of mind and the rational application of human effort to human problems. It is not realistic or hardheaded to solve problems and take action unguided by ultimate moral aims and values, although we all know some who claim that it is so. In my judgment, it is thoughtless folly. For it ignores the realities of human faith and of passion and of belief — forces ultimately more powerful than all of the calculations of our economists or of our generals. Of course to adhere to standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.
“She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still”
E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet
“Of course, the liar often imagines that he does no harm as long as his lies go undetected.”
Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist
Source: Lying
Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist
Source: Lover at Last
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer
Source: Point Counter Point (1928), Ch. 26; note: the character Mark Rampion, a writer, painter and fierce critic of modern society, is based on D. H. Lawrence.
Source: The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell
Context: The course of every intellectual, if he pursues his journey long and unflinchingly enough, ends in the obvious, from which the non-intellectuals have never stirred.... The thoroughly contemptible man may have valuable opinions, just as in some ways the admirable man can have detestable opinions.... Many intellectuals, of course, don’t get far enough to reach the obvious again. They remain stuck in a pathetic belief in rationalism and the absolute supremacy of mental values and the entirely conscious will. You’ve got to go further than the nineteenth-century fellows, for example; as far at least as Protagoras and Pyrrho, before you get back to the obvious in which the nonintellectuals have always remained.... these nonintellectuals aren’t the modern canaille who read the picture papers and... are preoccupied with making money... They take the main intellectualist axiom for granted—that there’s an intrinsic superiority in mental, conscious, voluntary life over physical, intuitive, instinctive, emotional life. The whole of modern civilization is based on the idea that the specialized function which gives a man his place in society is more important than the whole man, or rather is the whole man, all the rest being irrelevant or even (since the physical, intuitive, instinctive and emotional part of man doesn’t contribute appreciably to making money or getting on in an industrialized world) positively harmful and detestable.... The nonintellectuals I’m thinking of are very different beings.... There were probably quite a lot of them three thousand years ago. But the combined efforts of Plato and Aristotle, Jesus, Newton and big business have turned their descendants into the modern bourgeoisie and proletariat. The obvious that the intellectual gets back to, if he goes far enough, isn’t of course the same as the obvious of the nonintellectuals. For their obvious is life itself and his recovered obvious is only the idea of that life. Not many can put flesh and blood on the idea and turn it into reality. The intellectuals who, like Rampion, don’t have to return to the obvious, but have always believed in it and lived it, while at the same time leading the life of the spirit, are rarer still.
“Of course it hurts", she grumbled, tipping my head further back. "Life sucks. Get over it”
Sarah Dessen book Keeping the Moon
Source: Keeping the Moon
Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
“Ideas shape the course of history.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) British economist
As quoted in The Peter Plan: A Proposal for Survival (1976) by Laurence J. Peter, p. 97
Attributed
Ally Carter (1974) American writer
Source: United We Spy
“So we'll just let things take their course, and never be sorry.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald book Benediction
Source: Benediction
Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer
Source: Firefly Lane
Jared Diamond (1937) American scientist and author
Source: Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
“I wasn't aiming at the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway.”
Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief
Variant: I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. - Percy Jackson (Lightning Thief)
Source: The Lightning Thief
“Lothaire:Everywhere Lothaire went, people stopped and stared. Of course, then they usually ran.”
Kresley Cole American writer
Source: Dreams of a Dark Warrior
“When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.”
Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant
“Nah. I’m a consultant, of course. Everyone’s favorite nondescript yet well-paid white-collar job.”
Richelle Mead (1976) American writer
Source: Succubus on Top
Gena Showalter (1975) American writer
Source: The Darkest Surrender
Source: Blood Promise
“Screwy," I said. "Is that a medical term?" "Of course.”
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Bites
Source: Gilead
Nicholas Sparks book Dear John
Tim Wheddon, Chapter 20, p. 265
Variant: ... I learned that it's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief... lessens. It may not ever go away completely, but after a while it's not overwhelming.
Source: 2000s, Dear John (2006)
“I have your word?”
“You trust my word?”
“You’re an idealistic fool. Of course.”
Karen Marie Moning (1964) author
Source: Faefever
“Of course I talk to myself. I like a good speaker, and I appreciate an intelligent audience.”
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist
Source: The Ladies of the Corridor
Cassandra Clare book City of Glass
Variant: But you've never drunk fresh blood. Have you?"
Simon raised his eyebrows in response.
"Well, aside from mine, of course," Jace said. "And I'm sure my blood is fan-
Source: City of Glass
“Of course it doesn't make sense." Lady Wendall said. "The rules of society rarely do.”
Patricia C. Wrede (1953) author
Source: Magician's Ward