Quotes about doing page 8

“George looked at her for a long moment. Finally he replied, "And why do you find it so hard to think someone might like you and want to do things for you?”

Tamora Pierce book Alanna: The First Adventure

Source: Alanna: The First Adventure

Thinking

“Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.”

Sylvia Plath Ariel

"Lady Lazarus" http://www.angelfire.com/tn/plath/lady.html Source: Ariel (1965)

Art, Feeling, Hell

“The most common one-liner in the Bible is, "Do not be afraid." Someone counted, and it occurs 365 times.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

Time

“A man who wants the truth becomes a scientist; a man who wants to give free play to his subjectivity may become a writer; but what should a man do who wants something in between?”

Robert Musil book The Man Without Qualities

Source: The Man Without Qualities

Truth

“What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

Intelligence

“An oppressed class which does not strive to learn to use arms, to acquire arms, only deserves to be treated like slaves. We cannot, unless we have become bourgeois pacifists or opportunists, forget that we are living in a class society from which there is no way out, nor can there be, save through the class struggle. In every class society, whether based on slavery, serfdom, or, as at present, wage-labor, the oppressor class is always armed. Not only the modern standing army, but even the modern militia - and even in the most democratic bourgeois republics, Switzerland, for instance - represent the bourgeoisie armed against the proletariat. That is such an elementary truth that it is hardly necessary to dwell upon it. Suffice it to point to the use of troops against strikers in all capitalist countries.
A bourgeoisie armed against the proletariat is one of the biggest fundamental and cardinal facts of modern capitalist society. And in face of this fact, revolutionary Social-Democrats are urged to “demand” “disarmament”! That is tantamount of complete abandonment of the class-struggle point of view, to renunciation of all thought of revolution. Our slogan must be: arming of the proletariat to defeat, expropriate and disarm the bourgeoisie. These are the only tactics possible for a revolutionary class, tactics that follow logically from, and are dictated by, the whole objective development of capitalist militarism. Only after the proletariat has disarmed the bourgeoisie will it be able, without betraying its world-historic mission, to consign all armaments to the scrap-heap. And the proletariat will undoubtedly do this, but only when this condition has been fulfilled, certainly not before.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

Source: The Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution

Truth, World, Way, Learning

“Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

Beauty, Peaceful, Beauty, Housing

“When I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on.”

George Orwell book Homage to Catalonia

Source: Homage to Catalonia (1938)
Context: I have no particular love for the idealised "worker" as he appears in the bourgeois Communist's mind, but when I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on.

Nature

“The ruling power is always faced with the question, ‘In such and such circumstances, what would you do?’, whereas the opposition is not obliged to take responsibility or make any real decisions.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Question, Decision

“The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today's work superbly well.”

William Osler (1849–1919) Canadian pathologist, physician, educator, bibliophile, historian, author, cofounder of Johns Hopkins Hospi…

As quoted in Lifetime Speaker's Encyclopedia (1962) by Jacob Morton Braude, p. 575.

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist

God, People

“Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”

Newt Gingrich (1943) Professor, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

Back To Work, Perseverance, Motivational

“I don’t see myself being special; I just see myself having more responsibilities than the next man. People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

“i think thats one of the problems with the world today, nobody knows who they are. everyone is running around looking for an identity, or trying to borrow one, only they dont know it. they actually think they know who they are and hat they are? theyre just a bunch of schleppers… who have no idea what a search for personal truth and identity really is, which would be alright if they didn't get in your way, but they insist that they know everything and that if you dont live their way then youre not living properly and they want to take your space away… they actually want to somehow get into your space and live in it and change it or destroy it… they just cant believe that you know what you are doing and that you are happy and content with it. you see thats the problem right there. if they could see that then they wouldnt have to feel threatened and feel that they have to destroy you before you destroy them. they just cant get it through their philistine heads that you are happy where you are and dont want to have anything to do with them. my space is mine and thats enough for me.”

Hubert Selby Jr. Requiem for a Dream

Source: Requiem for a Dream

Truth, World, Way, Feeling

“Please do not understand me too quickly.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Understanding

“Three things are necessary for man to be saved: knowledge of what is to be believed, knowledge of what is to be desired, and knowledge of what is to be done.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Two Precepts of Charity (1273)
Sermons on the Ten Commandments (Collationes in decem praeceptes, c. 1273), Prologue (opening sentence)
Variant translation: Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.
Original: (la) Tria sunt homini necessaria ad salutem: scilicit scientia credendorum, scientia desiderandorum, et scientia operandorum.

“Blow the dust off the clock. Your watches are behind the times. Throw open the heavy curtains which are so dear to you — you do not even suspect that the day has already dawned outside.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Letter to the Secretariat of the Soviet Writers’ Union (12 November 1969) as translated in Solzhenitsyn: A Documentary Record (1970) edited by Leopold Labedz (1970) “Expulsion".

Time

“As a matter of fact," the other voice went on, "if you do tie her up from time to time, or whip her just a little, and she begins to like it, that’s no good either. You have to get past the pleasure stage, until you reach the stage of tears.”

Pauline Réage book Story of O

Source: Story of O

Pleasure, Tear, Time, Past

“Love isn’t something you have, it’s something you do.”

Nick Carter (1980) singer from the United States

“Two drowning people can't save each other. All they can do is drag each other down.”

Carsten Jensen (1952) Danish author and political columnist

Source: We, the Drowned

“To escape responsibility for violence we imagine it is enough to pledge never to be the first to do violence. But no one ever sees himself as casting the first stone. Even the most violent persons believe that they are always reacting to a violence committed in the first instance by someone else.”

René Girard (1923–2015) French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science

Source: The One by Whom Scandal Comes

Imagination, Personality

“If you do not worship God, you worship something, and nine times out of ten it will be yourself. You have a duty to worship God, not because He will be imperfect and unhappy if you do not, but because you will be imperfect and unhappy.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

God, Time

“What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes, if he is a painter, or ears if he is a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he is a poet, or even, if he is a boxer, just his muscles? Far from it: at the same time he is also a political being, constantly aware of the heartbreaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. How could it be possible to feel no interest in other people, and with a cool indifference to detach yourself from the very life which they bring to you so abundantly? No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

Life, War, People, World

“Works of art make rules but rules do not make works of art.”

Claude Debussy (1862–1918) French composer

As quoted in Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought (1992) by John Paynter, p. 590
Unsourced variant: Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art.

Art

“The biggest problem is the moment you say "spirituality," somebody starts talking about God, someone else about mukti, someone else about nirvana and someone else about the Ultimate. They are all already up there. You cannot do anything with people who are already up there. If somebody is down here, you can do something with them. You can only take a step if your feet are on the ground, isn't it? The moment you talk about God, you are not here anymore; you know it all. You can only start a journey from where you are. You cannot start a journey from where you are not. If you are willing to come down to where you are, then we can see what the next step is. If you are already on the third step to heaven, what can I do with you?”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Source: Of Mystics & Mistakes

God, People, Problem

“Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Correspondence, Letters to Mademoiselle Leroyer de Chantepie
Variant: Do not read as children do to enjoy themselves, or, as the ambitious do to educate themselves. No, read to live.
Context: Do not read as children do to enjoy themselves, or, as the ambitious do to educate themselves. No, read to live. (June 1857)

Deep, Children, Reading

“She says it has nothing to do with what you look like, or what you have. It has only to do with what you think of and what you do.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Variant: She says it has nothing to do with what you look like, or what you have. It has only to do with what you think of, and what you do.
Source: A Little Princess

Thinking

“Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

As quoted in The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners (2004) edited by Geoff Tibballs, p. 299
General sources

Cute, People, Thinking, Funny

“Why is the truth, it would seem, revealed to some and not to others? Is there a special organ for receiving revelation from God? Yes, though usually we close it and do not let it open up: God’s revelation is given to something called a loving heart.”

Seraphim Rose (1934–1982) American Orthodox writer and saint

Source: God's Revelation to the Human Heart

Love, God, Truth, Heart

“I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY”

George Orwell book 1984

1984
Variant: I understand HOW: I do not understand WHY.

Understanding

“If the problem can be solved why worry? If the problem cannot be solved worrying will do you no good.”

Šantidéva (685–763) 8th-century Indian Buddhist monk and scholar

Problem

“Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech.”

William Shakespeare All's Well That Ends Well

Source: All's Well That Ends Well

Love, Life, Silence

“While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary.”

Chinua Achebe book Anthills of the Savannah

Source: Anthills of the Savannah

World, Forgetting

“But we know that people are complicated and have a mixture of flaws and talents and sins. So why do we pretend that we don’t?”

Jon Ronson book So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Source: So You've Been Publicly Shamed

“Dogs are my favorite role models. I want to work like a dog, doing what I was born to do with joy and purpose. I want to play like a dog, with total, jolly abandon. I want to love like a dog, with unabashed devotion and complete lack of concern about what people do for a living, how much money they have, or how much they weigh. The fact that we still live with dogs, even when we don't have to herd or hunt our dinner, gives me hope for humans and canines alike.”

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

Love, Money, People, Dogs

“When you fall in love, the natural thing to do is give yourself to it. That's what I think. It's just a form of sincerity.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Love, Nature, Thinking, Sincerity

“Indeed I have always been of the opinion that hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing to do.”

Oscar Wilde book The Happy Prince and Other Tales

" The Remarkable Rocket http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/179/". The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) Variant: Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing whatever to do.

People, Funny

“His friends said, "Why do you have that ugly thing hanging there?" and Bull said, "I like it because it's ugly." All his life was in that line.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”

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

Variant: The world is dangerous, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

People, World, Evil

“The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

"Why I Write," Gangrel (Summer 1946)

Art

“Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work. 'The kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared' (Luther).”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Life, God, People, Peace

“Love can often be misguided and do as much harm as good, but respect can do only good. It assumes that the other person's stature is as large as one's own, his rights as reasonable, his needs as important.”

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

Source: You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life

Love, Personality

“If a man, having lashed two hulls together, is crossing a river, and an empty boat happens along and bumps into him, no matter how hot-tempered the man may be, he will not get angry. But if there should be someone in the other boat, then he will shout out to haul this way or veer that. If his first shout is unheeded, he will shout again, and if that is not heard, he will shout a third time, this time with a torrent of curses following. In the first instance, he wasn't angry; now in the second he is. Earlier he faced emptiness, now he faces occupancy. If a man could succeed in making himself empty, and in that way wander through the world, then who could do him harm?”

Zhuangzi (-369–-286 BC) classic Chinese philosopher

World, Way, Time

“We are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

“Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. …Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? — Every, every minute?”

Thornton Wilder Our Town

"Emily Webb"
Our Town (1938)
Context: I can't. I can't go on. It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another. I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back — up the hill — to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths... and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.... Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? — Every, every minute?... I'm ready to go back... I should have listened to you. That's all human beings are! Just blind people.

“Only the right name gives beings and things their reality. A wrong name makes everything unreal. That's what lies do.”

Michael Ende book The Neverending Story

Source: The Neverending Story

Reality

“Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Change

“When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter very much, do they?”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

Star

“… I will exile my thoughts if they think of you again, and I will rip my lips out if they say your name once more. Now if you do exist, I will tell you my final word in life or in death, I tell you goodbye.”

Knut Hamsun book Hunger

Source: Hunger

Life, Death, Thinking

“I'm not going to limit myself just because people won't accept the fact that I can do something else.”

Dolly Parton (1946) American singer-songwriter and actress

“Any one can get angry — that is easy — or give or spend money; but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for every one, nor is it easy.”

Aristotle book Nicomachean Ethics

Book II, 1109a.27.
Variant translation: Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.
As quoted in The Child: At Home and School (1944) by Edith M. Leonard, Lillian E. Miles, and Catherine S. Van der Kar, p. 203
Nicomachean Ethics

Money, Way, Motivation, Time

“Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual; you have an obligation to be one. You cannot make any useful contribution in life unless you do this.”

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

“Duty makes us do things well, but love makes us do them beautifully.”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker

Ziglar has often used this saying, but it originates with Phillips Brooks, as quoted in ‪Primary Education‬ (1916) by Elizabeth Peabody.
Misattributed

“And perhaps there is a limit to the grieving that the human heart can do. As when one adds salt to a tumbler of water, there comes a point where simply no more will be absorbed.”

Sarah Waters book The Little Stranger

Source: The Little Stranger

Heartbreaking, Moving On, Water, Heart

“Under loves heavy burden do I sink.
--Romeo”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

Michael E. Porter (1947) American engineer and economist

Source: What is strategy?, 1996, p. 70

“I'm a teacher. A teacher is someone who leads. There is no magic here. I do not walk on water. I do not part the sea. I just love children.”

Marva Collins (1936–2015) American schoolteacher

Love, Children, Teachers, Water

“Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else.”

Hans-Hermann Hoppe (1949) Austrian school economist and libertarian anarcho-capitalist philosopher

"Reflections on State and War" (2 December 2006) http://www.lewrockwell.com/hoppe/hoppe17.html

Democracy, History, Communication, Idea

“If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

love

“Don’t do it. Don’t love me.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women