Quotes about doing
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“Should I pull on a shirt?" he asked with hint of amusement. I WILL NOT BLUSH. "No." He'd be doing the world a favor if he never wore a shirt again, but I wasn't going to tell him that part. "You're fine.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Alice in Zombieland

World, Parting

“A kiss isn't terminal."
"It is the way you do it.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Genuine Lies

Way, Kiss

“But grief makes a monster out of us sometimes… and sometimes you say and do things to the people you love that you can't forgive yourself for.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Love, People, Forgiveness

“We fumed and screamed in our mountain nook, mad drunken Americans in the mighty land. We were on the roof of America and all we could do was yell, I guess--across the night…”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Mountain, Madness, Night

“She was feeling the pressure of the world outside and she wanted to see him and feel his presence beside her and be reassured that she was doing the right thing after all.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

World, Feeling

“We do not know what things look like.
We know what things are like. It must be a very limiting thing, this seeing. -Aunt Beast”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Source: A Wrinkle in Time

“If you're just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television's electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall. See what blows, and how far. Just an idea.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Idea

“I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions.”

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

Thinking

“Is it right,” Jutta says, “to do something only because everyone else is doing it?”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

“So Mr. Bass why do you think you should become an Usher?" asked the interviewer. Chuck smiled.

Because I'm Chuck Bass.”

Cecily von Ziegesar (1970) American writer

Source: Would I Lie to You

Smile, Thinking

“Therefore do not deceive yourself! Of all deceivers fear most yourself!”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Fear

“No one can create negativity or stress within you. Only you can do that by virtue of how you process your world.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

World

“Impossible things are really rough to do, you know.”

Brandon Sanderson Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens

Source: Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens

“But she's a redhead, so she's probably evil, even at her tender age."

"I thought you liked redheads."

"I do. What's your point?”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Source: Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art

Age, Evil

“Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

We Bereaved (1929)

Life, Pain, World

“I flipped back through the pad of paper while I thought about what Stephen Hawking would do next.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”

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

Life

“If there is one person I do despise more than another, it is the man who does not think exactly the same on all topics as I do.”

Jerome K. Jerome book Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

"On Eating and Drinking".
Source: Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
Context: Foolish people — when I say "foolish people" in this contemptuous way I mean people who entertain different opinions to mine. If there is one person I do despise more than another, it is the man who does not think exactly the same on all topics as I do.

Thinking, Personality

“The first rule of truly living - do the thing you are most afraid of.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

“Live and let live, do not judge, take life as it comes and deal with it, everything will be okay.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

Life

“When the day shall come, that we do part," he said softly, and turned to look at me, "if my last words are not 'I love you'—ye'll ken it was because I didna have time.”

Diana Gabaldon book The Fiery Cross

Variant: When the day shall come that we do part," he said softly, and turned to look at me, "if my last words are not 'I love you'-ye'll ken it was because I didna have time.
Source: The Fiery Cross

Love, Time, Parting

“You're going to pass something down no matter what you do or if you do nothing. Even if you let yourself go fallow, the weeds will grow and the brambles. Something will grow.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

“… please Lady… Do not speak of it. I was young and foolish."
"You most certainly were."
"You are cruel, Evanna.”

Darren Shan book Hunters of the Dusk

Source: Hunters of the Dusk

“Never do yourself, what you can con professionals into doing for you.”

Lois McMaster Bujold (1949) Science Fiction and fantasy author from the USA

“One of the things that we were trying to do with this show was the complexities of relationships and love. There is both passion and longing and a bittersweet quality to it that is a part of life.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Source: Tim Burton's Corpse Bride: An Invitation to the Wedding

Love, Life, Passion, Parting

“A monster. You and your friends, all of you. Pretty monsters. It's a stage all girls go through. If you're lucky you get through it without doing any permanent damage to yourself or anyone else.”

Kelly Link (1969) American writer

Girl

“What I saw wasn't a ghost. It was simply--myself. I can never forget how terrified I was that night, and whenever I remember it, this thought always springs to mind: that the most frightening thing in the world is our own self. What do you think?”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories

World, Spring, Thinking, Night

“How do you fight someone smarter than yourself?' Rand Whispered. 'The answer is simple. You make her think that you are sitting down across the table from her, ready to play her game. Then you punch her in the face as hard as you can.”

Brandon Sanderson The Wheel of Time

Source: The Gathering Storm

Game, Thinking, Fight

“Anyone not paranoid in this world must be crazy…. Speaking of paranoia, it's true that I do not know exactly who my enemies are. But that of course is exactly why I'm paranoid.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Source: Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

World

“Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic?… Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Thinking, Parting, Hurt

“What kind of wedding do you want?"
"The one with a groom.”

Jude Deveraux (1947) American writer

Source: True Love

Wedding

“I should not have to flirt with someone while I'm trying to threaten someone else with a gun; it was too hard to do both.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Flirt

Source: Flirt

“I'd rather cut my throat," she said.
An intriguing thought. But I can do it so much more enjoyably.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

“The fact is, you don't love me, and you haven't destroyed me. You don't have what it takes to do that.”

Jeannette Walls (1960) American writer and journalist

Love

“Do you miss Susie?"
Because it was dark, because Ruth was facing away from her, because Ruth was almost a stranger, Lindsey said what she felt.
"More than anyone will ever know.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

“Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Feeling

“I have one problem, I don’t hate people. They disgust me and I want to get away from them. I do not have hatred. I have an escape mechanism.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Hate, People, Problem

“It is better to believe than to disbelieve; in doing you bring everything to the realm of possibility.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“There are dead stars that still shine because their light is trapped in time. Where do I stand in this light, which does not strictly exist?”

Don DeLillo book Cosmopolis

Source: Cosmopolis

Star, Light, Time, Dead

“Thus, from admiration of one wise and innocent child, and from a misheard remark, the process that not even Aristotle could codify was triggered.
Where do you get your ideas?
I purposely mishear things.”

Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) American writer

Idea

“Do you love me Hero?" His pale green eyes were full of torment. "Do you love me like I love you?”

Elizabeth Hoyt (1970) American writer

Source: Notorious Pleasures

Love

“I changed the world; the world changed me.
Everything you do comes back to you. When you affect a situation, you are also affected.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

World, Change

“Why do you need to fly so much?” she asked.
“If I don’t, it’ll catch up with me.” The words just came out.
“What will?”
I took my hands from my face, panting. I stared out at the storm.
“Unhappiness.”

Kenneth Oppel book Airborn

Source: Airborn

Flying

“Don't let what your parents do disappoint you.”

Richard Ford (1944) American novelist and short story writer

Disappointment, Parent

“Come now, my child, if we were planning to harm you, do you think we'd be lurking here beside the path in the very darkest part of the forest?”

Kenneth Patchen (1911–1972) American writer and poet

Thinking, Parting

“You can con God and get away with it, Granny said, if you do so with charm and wit. If you live your life with imagination and verve, God will play along just to see what outrageously entertaining thing you'll do next.”

Dean Koontz Odd Thomas

Source: Odd Thomas

Life, God, Imagination

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed, but our power to do so is increased.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Variant: That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.

Nature, Change

“Don't get pissy with me leech." With a glare, Carrow pressed her print to his torque. "Even tapped out, I can still do a love spell to make you fall in love--with the sun.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

Love, Sun

“Perhaps it is impossible for a person who does no good not to do harm.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe book Uncle Tom's Cabin

Source: Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Ch. 28.

Personality

“Not my favourite topic, Smedley."
"Simon," said Simon. "if I'm going to die for you all, the least you could do is remember my name."………

"Alright, everybody. Get over here. Sheldon's had an idea."
"Who's Sheldon?" Said Isabelle.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Idea

“Why, Mr Stevens, why, why, why do you always have to pretend?”

Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day

Source: The Remains of the Day

“Dubh is do?" I was incredulous. It was no wonder I hadn't been able to find the stupid word. "Should I be
calling pubs poos?"
"Dubh is Gaelic, Ms. Lane. Pub is not.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Stupidity

“Everywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my good—only they were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merry-go-round. At what point do we stop?”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Source: Invisible Man (1952), Chapter 23.

“We are missing Michael.
But we do know we had him, and we are the world.”

Maya Angelou book Letter to My Daughter

We Had Him (2009)
Source: Letter to My Daughter

World

“The idea of having faith in Jesus has come to be totally isolated from being his apprentice and learning how to do what he said.”

Dallas Willard (1935–2013) American philosopher

Source: The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God

Faith, Idea, Learning

“If you want to be proud of yourself, then do things in which you can take pride”

Karen Horney (1885–1952) American-German psychoanalyst

Source: Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Towards Self-Realization

“Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance - the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Sadness, Time

“Make sure, as often as possible, you are doing something you’d be happy to die doing.”

Matt Haig (1975) British writer

Source: The Humans

Happiness

“The meaning of life has not much to do with good and evil, right and wrong, duty, honor, country, or any of that.

It has to do with cutting the right deal.”

Nelson DeMille (1943) American writer

Life, Evil, Country

“There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes

Time

“We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.”

Tom Stoppard book Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

“Why bother inflicting enormous pain on yourself when sooner or later Life would certainly get around to doing it for you?”

Jeff Lindsay (1952) American playwright and crime novelist Jeffry P. Freundlich

Source: Dexter By Design

Life, Pain

“I never do anything I don't want to do. Nor does anyone, but in my case I am always aware of it.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“Careful, boy,” rumbled Gwyn. “You have your Laws and we have ours. The difference is only that we do not pretend ours are not cruel.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Law, Boy

“I'm boasting of my… skills, and I would prefer to do it without interruption.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“We learn to do by doing.”

Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Learning

“Happiness is pretty simple: someone to love, something to do, something to look forward to.”

Rita Mae Brown (1944) Novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Source: Hiss of Death

Love, Happiness

“It's all right to be afraid. You just don't let it stop you from doing your job.”

Jim Butcher book Fool Moon

Source: Fool Moon

“And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.
Get involved in what God is doing — because it's already blessed.”

Bono (1960) Irish rock musician, singer of U2

National Prayer Breakfast (2006)
Context: A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it... I have a family, please look after them... I have this crazy idea...
And this wise man said: stop.
He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.
Get involved in what God is doing — because it's already blessed.

God