Quotes about doing
page 59

“What do you think it is?"
"It could be anything from a lawn trimmer to a bomb, for all I know."
"I would never build a lawn trimmer," Myrnin said. "What did the lawn ever do to me?”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Thinking

“Because that's what you do, you stand up for your best friend. And you eat lunch with him and talk with him and share secrets and laugh a lot and go places and do stuff, and when you wake up in the morning, he's the first person you think of.”

Jerry Spinelli book Loser

Source: Loser

Secret, Thinking, Personality

“It is books that are a key to the wide world; if you can't do anything else, read all that you can.”

Jane Hamilton (1957) American novelist

Books, World, Reading

“At that moment I was sure. That I belonged in my skin. That my organs were mine and my eyes were mine and my ears, which could only hear the silence of this night and my faint breathing, were mine, and I loved them and what they could do.”

Dave Eggers (1970) memoirist, novelist, short story writer, editor, publisher

Love, Silence, Night

“What sexual preference do you hope she has?” “Happiness.” Isnt that cool?”

Francesca Lia Block Weetzie Bat

Source: Weetzie Bat

Hope, Happiness

“You've already decided what you're going to do, and all that's left is to set the wheels in motion. I mean, it's your life. Basically, you gotta go with what you think is right.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Life, Thinking

“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

July 14, 1763, p. 121
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol 2

Reading

“Remember… life is short. Each moment you have is precious. Treasure every second. Don't spend them doing anything you don't love.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Queen of Babble Gets Hitched

Love, Life

“then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Love, World, Thinking, Sad

“How do people come up with a date and a time to take life from another man? Who made them God?”

Ernest J. Gaines A Lesson Before Dying

Source: A Lesson Before Dying

Life, God, People, Time

“Entertain me, heroes of Olympus. Give me a reason to do more."

Bacchus to Percy and Jason”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

“Being able to do what you wish is the best thing in the world!”

Shiro Amano (1976) Japanese manga artist

Source: Kingdom Hearts, Vol. 1

World

“I do not seek the good of others as a sanction for my right to exist, nor do I recognize the good of others as a justification for their seizure of my property or their destruction of my life.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Life

“Men become much more attractive when they start looking older. But it doesn't do much for women, though we do have an advantage: make-up.”

Bette Davis (1908–1989) film and television actress from the United States

Women, Men

“Do you know what it's like to run spellcheck for six hours? It's like a party in purgatory. A party in purgatory where all they have to drink is sugar-free Kool-aid, and the only game to play is Monopoly, and none of your friends show up.”

Patrick Rothfuss (1973) American fantasy writer

Game, Drink

“We have been moving along at such a fast pace that we no longer know what we are doing. Now we have to wait until our soul catches up with us.”

Paulo Coelho Maktub

Source: Maktub

Soul, Waiting

“There is an hour of the afternoon when the plain is on the verge of saying something. It never says, or perhaps it says it infinitely, or perhaps we do not understand it, or we understand it and it is untranslatable as music.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Music, Understanding

“If you don't want to do something, don't impose on others”

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

“There is more beauty than our eyes can bear, precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Beauty

“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.”

John Milton book Areopagitica

Source: Areopagitica

Life, Books, Soul, Dead

“I am a recluse at present & do nothing but write & read & read & write”

Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author

Source: The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: Volume 1: 1903-1917

Reading

“Do you know what I love? Life. And romantic love is a distraction that makes staying alive more difficult. " [Sabine]”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Kiss of a Demon King

Love, Life

“It was easy enough to kill yourself in a fit of despair. It was easy enough to play the martyr. It was harder to do nothing. To endure your life. To wait.”

Erica Jong book Fear of Flying

Source: Fear of Flying

Life, Waiting, Despair

“Normally writers do not talk much, because they are saving their conversations for the readers of their book-
those invisible listeners with whom we wish to strike a sympathetic chord.”

Ruskin Bond (1934) British Indian writer

Books

“Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book Report to Greco

Report to Greco (1965)

Beauty, Forgiveness

“What is it with you and girls, Adrian, dear? Why do they either mean nothing to you or everything? It's always an extreme."
"Because I don't do things in halves, mom. Especially when it comes to love.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

Love, Girl, Moms

“When you have your health, you have everything. When you do not have your health, nothing else matters at all.”

Augusten Burroughs book Dry

Source: Dry

Health

“He sat a long time and he thought about his life and how little of it he could ever have foreseen and he wondered for all his will and all his intent how much of it was his doing.”

Cormac McCarthy book Cities of the Plain

Source: Cities of the Plain

Life, Time

“When you hurt people, they begin to love you less. That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Love, People, Hurt

“As long as there is a 'you' doing or not-doing, thinking or not-thinking, 'meditating' or 'not-meditating' you are no closer to home than the day you were born.”

Wei Wu Wei (1895–1986) writer

Home, Thinking

“It's not Cowardly to make a choice about what you want your life to be. Choosing what's right for you, maybe that's the bravest thing you can do.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Angels Twice Descending

Life

“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

“I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to be who I really am. And I'm going to figure out what that is.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Howard Thurman (1899–1981) American writer

As quoted in Violence Unveiled (1996) by Gil Bailie, p. xv
Variant: Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Source: The Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman: A Visionary for Our Time

People, World

“Everything I do is going to contain the message that men who are going to be comfortable with powerful women are going to be more powerful men”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Women, Men

“My insides don't match up with my outsides. -Do anyone's inside and outsides match up? -I don't know. I'm only me. -Maybe that's what a person's personality is: the difference between the inside and the outside.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Oskar during a visit to his therapist, Dr. Fein
"Happiness, Happiness" (p. 201)
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005)
Context: "I feel too much. That's what's going on." "Do you think one can feel too much? Or just feel the wrong ways? "My insides don't match up with my outsides." "Do anyone's inside and outsides match up?" "I don't know. I'm only me." "Maybe that's what a person's personality is: the difference between the inside and the outside." "But it's worse for me." "I wonder if everyone thinks it's worse for him." "Probably. But it really is worse for me."

Personality

“If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do all the rest have to drown too?”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“the constant shower of the sun's mane
erases the footprints on thin ice
do not fear deception for the world lies atop deception

~Toushiro Hitsugaya”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

World, Fear, Sun

“A lot of parents tell their children that if they want to be an actor, that's fine, but they should do something else first, so they've got something to fall back on. It doesn't work like that, as far as I'm concerned.”

Ewan McGregor (1971) British actor

Children, Parent

“When I was crossing the border into Canada, they asked if I had any firearms with me. I said, "Well, what do you need?”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“It used to be about trying to do something. Now it's about trying to be someone.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

“It's always better to be doing.”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Lirael

“If you're are paralyzed with fear it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Fear

“What are you guys doing? If you anted me to take a shower, all you had to do was pay me ten bucks, like you usually do”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Angel

Guy

“Oh my gods, when do you not sport wood? There are bathrooms in the back, so go burp the worm or whatever.--Regin”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

God, Sport

“I use the grotesque the way I do because people are deaf and dumb and need help to see and hear.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

People, Way, Help

“Stop it.
Do not feel safe with him. The Stockholm Syndrome is not your friend.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Unbound

Source: Lover Unbound

Feeling

“And what greater might do we possess as human beings than our capacity to question and to learn?”

Ann Druyan (1949) American author and producer

Question, Learning

“Why do people move? What makes them uproot and leave everything they've known for a great unknown beyond the horizon?… The answer is the same the world over: people move in the hope of a better life.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life, People, World, Hope

“One doesn't generally look into mirrors when one is especially angry; one has better things to do, like pace the floor or throw things.”

Robin McKinley book The Blue Sword

Source: The Blue Sword

“People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

Positive Thinking Every Day : An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year (1993), "April 13"
Earlier variant: People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. And those who have learned to have a realistic, nonegotistical belief in themselves, who possess a deep and sound self-confidence, are assets to mankind, too, for they transmit their dynamic quality to those lacking it.
‪You Can If You Think You Can‬ (1987), p. 84

Success, Depressing, People, Secret

“I’ll do this to you till there’s something to take the place of your vows—until you see the two of us together as your religion.” (Garreth)”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Pleasure of a Dark Prince

Religion

“Feeling insecure is good for you. It forces you to do something better, drives you to use all your talents.”

Helen Gurley Brown (1922–2012) American author, editor, publisher, and businesswoman

Feeling

“Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Ian put in. "Just fridge yourselves, as Jonah says."
"Dude," Dan said. "Do you mean?"
"Precisely. Just what I said.”

Jude Watson book A King's Ransom

Source: A King's Ransom

Hope

“Total commitment," I said. "You know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway. That takes guts, you know?”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Variant: You have to admit, it's kind of impressive.... Total commitment. You know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway. That takes guts, you know?
Source: Lock and Key

Idea

“What I wanted to do seemed simple. I wanted something alive and shocking enough that it could be a morning in somebody's life. The most ordinary morning. Imagine, trying to do that.”

Michael Cunningham book The Hours

Source: The Hours

Life, Imagination

“You can do this" I murmured. "You are my brother. I love you. All the embarrassing bits, all the annoying bits, which I imagine is most of you--a thousand Zias might run away from you if they knew the truth. But I won't. I'll still be here.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Love, Truth, Imagination

“Why? Why would you do that?”
"You have your way of dealing with jealousy and I have mine.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Jealousy, Way

“No one should know his entire fate. It's too dangerous and too depressing. Just keep going, do your best, and hope it's good enough. That's all any of us can do.”

Rick Riordan book Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes

Source: Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes

Fate, Hope

“Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).”

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

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

Knowledge

“Work hard, do the best you can, don't ever lose faith in yourself and take no notice of what other people say about you.”

Noel Coward (1899–1973) English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer

People, Faith

“Each creature had something it excelled at, he supposed. Humans could manage knots easily, and cats could do everything else.”

Jim Butcher book The Aeronaut's Windlass

Source: The Aeronaut's Windlass

Cats

“Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. book Strength to Love

This passage contains some phrases King later used in "Where Do We Go From Here?" (1967) which has a section below. 1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957) Variant: Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. Source: Mentioned in "Out of Osama's Death, a Fake Quotation Is Born" by Megan McArdle, The Atlantic (May 2011) http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/out-of-osamas-death-a-fake-quotation-is-born/238220/, and widely distributed on twitter http://twitter.com/#!/jmadly/status/65314784136011776 as a quote of King, after the death of Osama bin Laden, the first sentence is one written by Jessica Dovey http://i.imgur.com/cqtjw.jpg on her Facebook page, which became improperly combined by others with genuine statements of King, whom she quoted, and which occur in Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 5 : Loving your enemies, and in Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? (1967), p. 62. For the full story see "Anatomy of a Fake Quotation" by Megan McArdle, The Atlantic (May 3, 2011) http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/anatomy-of-a-fake-quotation/238257/ and for the Facebook version of the quote see Did Martin Luther King, Jr. say that “I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy”? at skeptics.stackexchange.com http://skeptics.stackexchange.com. Context: Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. Context: Let us move now from the practical how to the theoretical why: Why should we love our enemies? The first reason is fairly obvious. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says "love your enemies," he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies-or else? The chain reaction of evil-Hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars-must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. Context: I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Peaceful, Love, Hate, Star

“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

“Why? Because pride is a strange thing, and because generosity deserves generosity in return. But mostly because it felt like the right thing to do, and that is reason enough.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

“I lived like a man who wanted to die but who had no courage to do it himself.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

Courage

“Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much, that they never find it necessary to use more than half.”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Source: Northanger Abbey

Women, Understanding, Nature, Thinking

“Wisdom is doing now what you are going to be happy with later on”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Wisdom, Happiness

“Derek? Derek!-Chole
Chole! what are you doing out here? i said we will check it out later. key word WE-Derek
oh, yeah I decided to come out on my own. thats why i was calling your name repeatively- Chole”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

“If we do not fill our mind with prayer, it will fill itself with anxieties, worries, temptations, resentments, and unwelcome memories.”

Scott Hahn (1957) American theologian

Source: Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots

Memory

“To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.”

John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer

Happiness

“When man resolved to imitate walking, he invented the wheel, which does not look like a leg. In doing this, he was practicing surrealism without knowing it.”

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918) French poet

“Friend is a very small word,
A little sound we make,
For one who is true, one who will do,
Great deeds for friendship's sake.”

Brian Jacques book The Bellmaker

Source: The Bellmaker

Friendship

“We're artists too, but we do a good job hiding it, don't we?”

Roberto Bolaño book The Savage Detectives

Source: The Savage Detectives

“By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea

Gift from the Sea (1955)

Time

“I don't like this," he said. I don't like knowing you can't forgive me, Claire. Please, I said I was sorry, what do you want me to do? Beg? I will. I'll get on my knees right here if you want.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Fall of Night

Forgiveness

“Let's replace "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" with "Do unto others, after they show you they are worthy.”

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

“Inez? I'm sorry I bit you," he said with sincere regret, and then inspiration made him add, "Bastien made me do it.”

Lynsay Sands Canadian writer

Source: Vampires are Forever

Sincerity

“Thank God for the things that I do not own.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

God

“Toil on, son, and do not lose heart or hope. Let nothing you dismay. You are not utterly forsaken. I, too, am here--here in the darkness waiting, here attentive, here approving of your labor and your dream.”

Thomas Wolfe book You Can't Go Home Again

Source: You Can't Go Home Again

Dreams, Hope, Waiting, Heart

“Do you think…"
He raised his eyebrows. "Do I think what?"
"That Valentine might have drowned?"
"Never believe the bad guy is dead until you see a body," said Simon. "That just leads to unhappiness and surprise ambushes.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Guy, Thinking, Dead

“Come to think of it, an Aes Sedai would probably follow a man off a cliff, too, if only to explain to him - in detail - all the things he was doing incorrectly in the way he went about killing himself.”

Robert Jordan The Wheel of Time

Source: A Memory of Light

Way, Thinking

“The coffee arrives, and we backslide into what lawyers do best---talking about other lawyers.”

John Grisham book The Rainmaker

Source: The Rainmaker

Coffee

“There are a million things one might do with a block of wood. But what do you think might happen if someone, just once, believed in it?”

Suzanne Weyn book Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Source: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Thinking

“Smile. It gives your face something to do.”

Sue Grafton (1940–2017) American writer

Source: E is for Evidence

Smile

“You must never behave as if your life belongs to a man. Do you hear me?” Aunty Ifeka said. “Your life belongs to you and you alone.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Half of a Yellow Sun

Source: Half of a Yellow Sun

Life

“I know indeed what evil I intend to do, but stronger than all my afterthoughts is my fury, fury that brings upon mortals the greatest evils.”

Euripidés Medea

Source: Medea

Evil

“Relationships evolve, just like people do. Just because you know someone doesn't mean you know everything about them.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Saint Anything

People

“What are you, a baby? Jeez, if you’re going to kill humans, the least you could do is learn to die with some dignity. (Wulf)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Kiss of the Night

Learning, Baby

“If You don't give readers what they want, they'll be mad at you. If you give them what they do want, they'll be even more mad at you.”

Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments

Source: The Mortal Instruments

Madness

“I never thought there might be one like you out there. Unaware, untrained.
Unbelievable. You have no idea what you are, do you?”
“Crazy?”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Idea

“Die, my dear? Why that's the last thing I'll do!”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Last words[citation needed]
Lord Palmerston had similar last words in 1865: "Die, my dear doctor! That's the last thing I shall do!"[citation needed]
Source: The Essential Groucho: Writings by, for, and about Groucho Marx