Quotes about doing
page 68

“No-one chooses me. I do not give anyone that right. I am Karsa Orlong of the Teblor. All choices belong to me.”

Source: Reaper's Gale

“One day if I do go to heaven… I'll look around and say, 'It ain't bad, but it ain't San Francisco.”

Herb Caen (1916–1997) American newspaper columnist

USA Today, February 16, 2001. "Words from the heart', page D4 http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/access/68719547.html?dids=68719547:68719547&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+16%2C+2001&author=&pub=USA+TODAY&desc=Words+from+the+heart&pqatl=google <br class="br">Attributed <br class="br">Context: If I do go to heaven, I'm going to do what every San Franciscan does who goes to heaven. He looks around and says, 'It ain't bad, but it ain't San Francisco.

“What's worse…?
The devil you don't know… or the devil you do?”

Jodi Picoult book Keeping Faith

Source: Keeping Faith

“Wow. What'd he do to deserve that? Rescue orphans from a burning building? If so, you might want to make sure he didn't set the building on fire in the first place.”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

“Approval is overrated… Approval and disapproval alike satisfy those who deliver it more than those who receive it. I don't care for approval, and I don't mind doing without.”

Gregory Maguire (1954) Novelist

“The world is divided into those who screw and those who do not. He distrusted those who did not—when they strayed from the straight and narrow it was something so unusual for them that they bragged about love as if they had just invented it.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Love, World

“If you're going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it.”

Leo Rosten (1908–1997) American writer

“His fists clenched at his sides. 'Damn it! Where's your pride?'
'Pride? It's in my heart, of course.'
'You're letting me demean you!'
She smiled. 'You can't do that. I can only demean myself.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Kiss an Angel

Smile, Heart

“Baby, we have no choice of what color we're born or who our parents are or whether we're rich or poor. What we do have is some choice over what we make of our lives once we're here.”

Mildred D. Taylor book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Source: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Color, Parent, Baby

“People don't do me much good.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

People

“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.”

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

Feeling

“When people are ready to, they change. They never do it before then, and sometimes they die before they get around to it. You can't make them change if they don't want to, just like when they do want to, you can't stop them.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Source: Andy Warhol in His Own Words

People, Change

“Reynie's fce fell. 'It's not funny, Kate.'
For a moment - a fleeting moment - Kate looked desperately sad. 'Well, of course it's not funny, Reynie Muldoon. But what do you want me to do? Cry?”

Trenton Lee Stewart The Mysterious Benedict Society

Source: The Mysterious Benedict Society

Sadness, Cry

“All I ever really want to know is how other people are making it through life - where do they put their body, hour by hour, and how do they cope inside of it.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Variant: All I ever really want to know is how other people are making it through life—where do they put their body, hour by hour, and how do they cope inside of it.
Source: It Chooses You

Life, People

“I want to do something splendid before I go into my castle, something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead. I don't know what, but I'm on the watch for it, and mean to astonish you all some day.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Variant: I want to do something splendid... something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead. I don't know what, but I'm on the watch for it and mean to astonish you all someday.
Source: Little Women

Dead

“Do not wait for the healing to arrive. It will never come. The holes will never leave or be filled with anything at all.

But holes are interesting things.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Source: This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.

Waiting

“Oh, womanly sympathy, love AND food?" I said, laughing. "Don't want a lot, do you?”

Diana Gabaldon book Dragonfly in Amber

Source: Dragonfly in Amber

Love, Food

“I would walk along the quais when I had finished work or when I was trying to think something out. It was easier to think if I was walking and doing something or seeing people doing something that they understood.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast

Source: A Moveable Feast

People, Thinking

“Sometimes it would be nice not to have to do my best. Sometimes it would just be nice not to have a crisis to deal with. - Anita Blake”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Blood Noir

Source: Blood Noir

“There are moments when troubles enter our lives and we can do nothing to avoid them.
But they are there for a reason. Only when we have overcome them will we understand why they were there.”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Understanding

“Because sometimes, a man could do nothing about where he came from, he could only control where he went”

Lora Leigh (1965) American writer

Source: Killer Secrets

“Hello, fear. Thank you for being here. You’re my indication that I’m doing what I need to do.”

Cheryl Strayed (1968) author, memoirist, blogger

Source: Brave Enough

Fear

“We all do foolish things when we are in love. Don't we, your grace?”

Judith McNaught book Whitney, My Love

Source: Whitney, My Love

Love

“It seems you don't approve of the family business Katerina. Or of me. But these chances you take… These things you do… This is a dangerous life to live… alone.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Life, Family, Business, Chance

“I do want to get rich but I never want to do what there is to do to get rich.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Source: Everybody’s Autobiography (1937), Ch. 3

“One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.”

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

Source: A Thousand & One Epigrams: Selected from the Writings of Elbert Hubbard (1911), p. 151

Men

“There are some pains that run too deep for anything to absolve them. The best we can do is pick up the pieces and hope for the strength we need to keep going.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Pain, Hope

“Who’s that?
That’s the King.
Who’s he?
The Duke.
Who’s she?
The Princess.
What do they call you?
The Count.
What does that make me?
Umm…how about the Peasant?
And the name stuck.”

Jordan Sonnenblick (1969) American writer

Source: Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

Princess

“So how do you know him? (Shahara)
I knocked on his door one day and said, ‘Hi, I’m here to rob you. Hope you don’t mind. Oh, and by the way, will you be my friend?’ (Syn)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Fire

Hope, Way

“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Singing, Cry

“I see. Is Jim with you now?”
“Yes, he is. We’re having rough sex. You’re interrupting.
“What are you doing here?”
“Looking for Jim in your bed.”
“He isn’t here.”
“I see that.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Strikes

Sex

“We must all make do with the rags of love we find flapping on the scarecrow of humanity.”

Angela Carter book Nights at the Circus

Source: Nights at the Circus

Love

“It is much easier to be brave if you do not know everything.”

Lois Lowry book Number the Stars

Variant: it is much easier to be brave if you do not know everything
Source: Number the Stars

“Nonsense, do you imagine he has thought as much of you as you have of him?”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Source: Wuthering Heights

Imagination

“He said a bad word. Do you want to know what it was? It started with F. It's not the one you're thinking of, though. To the other one. The one that ends with P. do you want to know what it was? It was troop." She frowned. "Wait that's not a word.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Kingdom of the Wicked

Thinking, Waiting

“Progress is born of doubt and inquiry. The Church never doubts, never inquires. To doubt is heresy, to inquire is to admit that you do not know—the Church does neither.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Source: Thomas Paine From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'

“You can never know about about your own destiny: are the people you meet there to play a part on your oun destiny, or do you exist just to play a role in theirs?”

Libba Bray Going Bovine

Source: Going Bovine

People, Parting

“Sometimes we know who we want to be and what we want to do long… long before we know how to get there.”

Patti Callahan Henry American writer

Source: Between The Tides

Relationship

“There are moments in your life when you see yourself through someone else’s eyes, when your only hope of believing you’re capable of doing something is because someone else believes it for you.”

Marc Acito (1966) American novelist, humorist, screenwriter

Source: How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater

Life, Hope

“Oh, that I do know… Katniss will pick whoever she thinks she can't survive without.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Thinking

“What do you do when you're no longer the hero of your own story?”

Michael Cunningham book By Nightfall

Source: By Nightfall

“You don't want to peak in high school. If you do, the rest of your life is a disaster.”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Source: The Carrie Diaries

Life, School

“People always try to do the right thing.. after they've tried everything else.”

Tyler Perry (1966) American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, producer, author, and songwriter

People

“Very well. What do you do as a mercenary?”
“I specialize in usurping thrones. They call me the kingmaker.” Bragging now?”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dark Desires After Dusk

“Oh, I see,” Poseidon said. “A shame. I quite like blow-fish. I am Poseidon.”
“Poseidon? That’s an interesting name.”
“Yes, I like it. I’ve gone by other names, but I do prefer Poseidon.”
“Like the god of the sea.”
“Very much like that, yes.”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

God, Fish, Sea

“It makes me wonder, Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or forget things? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives? I don't know.”

Markus Zusak book Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Variant: Do we spend most of our days trying to remember or to forget? Do we spend most of our time running towards or away from our lives?
Source: Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Time, Forgetting

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and so they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

As quoted in An Apple for the Teacher: Fundamentals for Instructional Computing (1983) by George H. Culp and Herbert N. Nickles, p. 190; also in Youth Quake: A Manifesto (2002) by Cousin Sam, p. 31

“The cruellest thing you can do to Kerouac is reread him at thirty-eight.”

Hanif Kureishi book The Buddha of Suburbia

Source: The Buddha of Suburbia

“The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Variant: Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.

Life, Past, Future

“Jules: For one, you have a terrifying older brother.
Livvy: I do not have a terryfying older brother.
Jules: That's true. You have two.”

Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows

Source: Lord of Shadows

“Do you believe a man can truly love a woman and constantly betray her? Never mind physically but betray her in his mind, in the very "poetry of his soul". Well, it's not easy but men do it all the time.”

Mario Puzo book Fools Die

Source: Fools Die

Love, Men, Soul, Time

“I can't think again. Not ever again. I don't know if you've ever felt like that. That you wanted to sleep for a thousand years. Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that you do exist. Or something like that.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Thinking, Sleep

“Hey, Dad, you’ve got to taste what we just did. It’s actually good. (Omari)
That is good. What did you two do? (Devyn)
No idea. We just added spices until it didn’t suck anymore. (Omari)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Ice

Idea

“Max?” said the Gasman. “Are those, um, rats?”
Lovely. “Yes, those do appear to be either rats or mice on steroids,” I said briskly, trying not to shriek and climb the walls like a girly-girl.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Love, Girl, Appearance

“Life is boring. People are vengeful. Good things always end. We do so many things and we don’t know why, and if we do find out why, it’s decades later and knowing why doesn’t matter any more.”

Douglas Coupland (1961) Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and graphic designer

Life, People

“Don't show it and don't panic. Do like the ducks; on the surface stay calm, and below it paddle lile hell”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

Hell

“Did you ever fly a kite in bed?
Did you ever walk with ten cats on your head?
Did you ever milk this kind of cow?
Well, we can do it. We know how.
If you never did, you should.
These things are fun and fun is good.”

Dr. Seuss book One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Source: One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Cats, Flying

“Now do you see why war irritates me? It's always the same. A lot of people get killed, but in the end, the whole thing is settled at the conference table. The notion of having the conference first doesn't seem to occur to people.”

David Eddings book Belgarath the Sorcerer

Source: Belgarath the Sorcerer

War, People

“Great. Lookout. I'm a lookout. Another thing to put on my college applications. What do I do if I see someone?"
Val looked back. "I'm not sure, actually.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Valiant

“I can only drive slowly."
"That's all right."
"And I can only do left turns."
Rose ran downstairs, grabbed a road atlas, and ran triumphantly back up again. "Wales is left! Look! It's left all the way!”

Hilary McKay book Saffy's Angel

Source: Saffy's Angel

Way

“I know there's a proverb which that says 'To err is human,' but a human error is nothing to what a computer can do if it tries.”

Agatha Christie book Hallowe'en Party

Source: Hallowe'en Party

Error

“If you don’t have the time to do something right, where are you going to find the time to fix it?”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Time

“Question: When you’re one of the few people who can do something to fix a problem, just how responsible does that make you for it? Answer: It’s how you choose to answer that question that defines you.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

People, Question, Problem

“Why do we embroider everything we say

with special emphasis

when all we really need to do

is simply say what

needs to he said?

Of course

the fact is

that there is very little that needs

to be said.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: sifting through the madness for the word, the line, the way: New Poems

“He tried to learn seductive phrases in all languages, but the only Swedish he had ever really needed was, "Do you serve anything aside from pickled fish?" and "If you wrap me in furs, I can pretend to be your little fuzzy bear.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Runaway Queen

Fish, Learning

“I was needed, but I myself did not need. I had followers, but not allies, and only now do I understand the difference. And it is vast.”

Steven Erikson book House of Chains

Source: House of Chains

Understanding

“And specialness - everyone wants it. But Jesus, is it the most essential thing there is? Most people aren't talented. So what are they supposed to do - kill themselves?”

Meg Wolitzer book The Interestings

Source: The Interestings

People

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer

Dale Carnegie, quoted in Permission to Play : Taking Time to Renew Your Smile (2003) by Jill Murphy Long, p. 69

Success, Motivational, Inspirational, Happy

“The cheesecake was smooth and lush, with the personality of a warm and well-to-do uncle who knows a hundred dirty jokes and will die of sexual exertions in the arms of his mistress.”

Don DeLillo Underworld

Source: Underworld

Personality

“One thing that's clear in the Scriptures is that the nations do not lead people to peace; rather, people lead the nations to peace.”

Shane Claiborne (1975) American activist

Source: Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals

People, Peace

“When one is trying to do something beyond his known powers it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends are at their best in moments of defeat.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“It's all very well to put the government in the hands of the perfect man, but what do you do when the perfect man gets a bellyache?”

David Eddings book Belgarath the Sorcerer

Source: Belgarath the Sorcerer

Perfection

“Culture carries no privilege to exist. Cultures do not have value simply because they are. Some cultures, the world is better off without.”

Terry Goodkind (1948) American novelist

World

“You refuse to own yourself, you permit others to do it for you”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

“No use dwelling on the past. What you do tomorrow and the next day and the day after that is what matters.”

Kieran Scott (1974) American writer

Source: She's So Dead to Us

Past

“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Variant: Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.

Freedom

“I think you’re beautiful, the only beautiful person I’ve ever seen. I love your voice and everything to do with you, down to your clothes or the room you are sitting in. I adore you.”

E.M. Forster book Maurice

Source: Maurice

Love, Beauty, Thinking, Personality

“Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Books

“I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools. I like a twist of meaning. I endure.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Variant: I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools.
Source: We Were Liars

Fools, Suffering

“Few things are sadder than encountering a person who knows exactly what he should do, yet cannot muster enough energy to do it. "He who desires but acts not," wrote Blake with his accustomed vigor, "Breeds pestilence.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934) Hungarian American psychologist

Source: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Personality

“There is nothing I dislike more in the world than people who care more about ideology than they do about people.”

Jon Ronson book So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Source: So You've Been Publicly Shamed

People, World

“Beckendorf walked up with his helmet under his arm. 'She likes you, man.'
'Sure,' I muttered. 'She likes me for target practice.'
'Nah, they always do that. A girl starts trying to kill you, you know she's into you.
'Makes a lot of sense.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Files

Source: The Demigod Files

Girl, Sense

“I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for people.”

Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) film, stage, and television actress

People

“Pea was aware suddenly of how fragile her heart was, how much darkness was inside it, fighting, always, with the light. She did not like the rat. She would neverlike the rat, but she knew what she must do to save her own heart.”

Kate DiCamillo book The Tale of Despereaux

Source: The Tale of Despereaux

Light, Heart, Fight

“Now all you can do is wait. It must be hard for you, but there is a right time for everything. Like the ebb and flow of tides. No one can do anything to change them. When it is time to wait, you must wait.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Change, Time, Waiting

“I've always said to myself that if a little pocket calculator can do it why shouldn't I?”

Roald Dahl book Matilda

Source: Matilda

“There are so many people we could become, and we leave such a trail of bodies through our teens and twenties that it's hard to tell which one is us. How many versions do we abandon over the years?”

Dan Chaon (1964) American writer

Source: Among the Missing

People

“Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.”

Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) American businessman and philanthropist

Future

“Now and then, in this workaday world, things do happen in the delightful storybook fashion, and what a comfort that is.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

World, Fashion

“Potential," I said, "doesn't mean a thing. You've got to do it. Almost every baby in a crib has more potential than I have.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

Baby

“We are so used to releasing words. We don't know what to do with them if they stay.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“Using your own time to make someone else’s life better is, like, the nicest thing you can do for anybody.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

Life, Time

“A slave cannot be freed, save he do it himself. Nor can you enslave a free man; the very most you can do is kill him!”

Robert A. Heinlein book Double Star

Source: Double Star

“The thing about a hero, is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, he's going to keep trying to do right and make up for what's gone before, just because that's who he is.”

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

Light

“Roger speaking to Brianna:
It's too important. You don't forget having a dad."
You do remember your father?"
No. I remember yours.”

Diana Gabaldon (1952) American author

Source: An Echo in the Bone

Forgetting

“Why do you want to be on The Real World?
-Because I want everyone to witness my youth

Why?
-Isn't it gorgeous?”

Dave Eggers book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Source: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Youth, World

“Would you stop thinking about what everyone wants. Stop thinking
about what I want, what he wants, what your parents want. What do you want?”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Thinking, Parent

“The great task of life is to learn the will of the Lord and then do it.”

Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Life, Learning

“Do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Parade interview http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2007/edition_09-23-2007/AStephen_Colbert (23 September 2007) <br class="br">Variant: You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid. <br class="br">Context: Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid.

Time

“Nothing nice you ever do for anyone is for no reason.”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: 11 Birthdays

Quotes about doing page 68

Quotes about doing
page 68