Quotes about doing
page 93

“One thing only do I know for certain and that is that man's judgments of value follow directly his wishes for happiness-that, accordingly, they are an attempt to support his illusions with arguments. [p.111]”

Sigmund Freud book Civilization and Its Discontents

Source: Civilization and Its Discontents

Support, Happiness

“Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Men

“Don’t leave your relationships to chance. Pray for godly people to come into your life with whom you can connect. Don’t force relationships to happen. Pray for them to happen. Then when they do, nurture them with prayer.”

Stormie Omartian (1942) American writer

Source: The Power of a Praying® Woman

Life, People, Chance

“And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn't crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again…”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Cry

“A great many men are mad, and no one knows it. They do not know it themselves”

Agatha Christie The Secret Adversary

Source: The Secret Adversary

Men, Madness

“We all do what we can, and it has to be good enough, and if it isn't good enough, it has to do.”

Stephen King book The Dead Zone

Source: The Dead Zone 1979

“So that is the design process or the creative process. Start with a problem, forget the problem, the problem reveals itself or the solution reveals itself and then you reevaulate it. This is what you are doing all the time.”

Paul Rand (1914–1996) American graphic designer

Problem, Time, Forgetting

“We need those who pray constantly to compensate for those who do not pray at all.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“There are lots of guys out there who write a better prose line than I do and who have a better understanding of what people are really like and what humanity is supposed to mean – hell, I know that.”

Stephen King book Misery

Source: Misery

People, Guy, Hell, Understanding

“The mace prodded
Will in the back again. That little habit was starting to annoy him and he was tempted to take the weapon from the sergeant major and do a little prodding of his own.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Sorcerer in the North

“Life's one great lesson was: Do not care. Not caring was a person's real protection.”

Francine Pascal Fearless

Source: Fearless

Life, Personality

“Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

People, World

“All you have to do is desire it, and if you desire it enough and understand why -- really know -- it will come.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

Understanding

“You do not know the first note of the music that moves me.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Music

“Vane passed the mashed potatoes across Bride to Fury, who stared at them with a fierce frown "What are these?" he asked.
"Potatoes," Vane told him.
"What did they do to them?”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Night Play

“Sometimes I believe… Sometimes I really do believe.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

“You do not mess with the special investigators.”

Lee Child book Bad Luck and Trouble

Source: Bad Luck and Trouble

“You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

Harper Lee (1926–2016) American author

Positive

“When you are on the dancefloor, there is nothing to do but dance.”

Umberto Eco book The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

Source: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

Dance

“I suppose it’s comfort, perhaps a sense of self-control, doing worse things to yourself than the world will ever dare inflict.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Tell-All

Source: Tell-All

World, Sense

“Those who preach god, need god
Those who preach peace do not have peace
Those who preach love do not have love”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966

Love, God, Peace

“Saying you like "Piano Man" doesn't mean you like Billy Joel; it means you're willing to go to a piano bar if there's nothing else to do”

Chuck Klosterman (1972) Author, Columnist

“I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it.”

Elizabeth Peters (1927–2013) American author and egyptologist

Appearance

“It was completely fifth garde and completely silly and I loved it, because he wasn't afraid to be silly. It was like kissing him first - I could do whatever I wanted and not have to worry what he'd think of me.”

Kelley Armstrong The Gathering

Source: The Gathering

Love, Kiss, Thinking

“The new crimes that the US and Israel were committing in Gaza as 2009 opened do not fit easily into any standard category—except for the category of familiarity.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Source: Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians

“Keep looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so just because you might not like what you find.”

Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general

Appearance

“Single Mind:
If I love you with all my heart, she said, what will you give me? & then she stopped & said I didn't have to answer that because she was going to do it anyway.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Love, Heart

“The best musicians transpose consciousness into sound; painters do the same for color and shape.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Color

“What else do I have to offer? Nothing happens to me anymore. That’s the reality of getting old, and I guess that’s really the crux of the matter. I’m not ready to be old yet.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

Reality

“Unable to do away with love, the Church found a way to decontaminate it by creating marriage.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

Ne pouvant supprimer l'amour, l'Église a voulu au moins le désinfecter, et elle a fait le mariage.
Journaux intimes (1864–1867; published 1887), Mon cœur mis à nu (1864)

Love, Marriage, Way

“Feelings are facts. Look straight at 'em and deal with 'em. Work it through, as honestly as you can. If God is anything like a middle-class white chick from the suburbs, which I admit is a long shot, it's what you do about what you feel that matters.”

Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow

Source: The Sparrow

God, Feeling

“…there’s nothing in the world more fun than doing something you’re good at.”

Clive Barker book Galilee

Source: Galilee

World

“That was the only decision there was once upon a time: what to do with the night.”

Harry Crews (1935–2012) Novelist, short story writer, essayist

Source: A Feast of Snakes

Decision, Time, Night

“there are three kinds of people in the world: those who don't know and don't know they don't know; those who don't know and do know they don't know; and those who know and know how much they still don't know.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

People, World

“I do regard her as one who is too modest for the world in general to be aware of half her accomplishments, and too highly accomplished for modesty to be natural of any other woman.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

World, Nature

“Not only do I not know what's going on, I wouldn't know what to do about it if I did.”

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

“I don't know. I do think, half of what we call madness is just some poor slob dealing with pain by a strategy that annoys the people around him.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Mirror Dance

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Mirror Dance (1994)

Pain, People, Thinking, Madness

“A man's weaknesses may intrude on his faith but they do not diminish it.”

Robert Ludlum book The Bourne Ultimatum

Source: The Bourne Ultimatum

Faith

“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.”

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

For Men

“Smoking had become my favorite thing in the world to do. It was like having instant comfort, no matter where or when.”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

World

“He looked blank. “He’s the one who’s been doing the magic against us?”

“Duh,” I said.

“Doona be ‘duh’ing me, lass,” he growled, his burr thickening.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Faefever

“When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America

People, Law

“We don't go to the ocean for anything as simple as happiness, do we? We
go there to feel alive. Like life, the ocean holds chance and change, grief and terror and beauty. It promises mortality, not peace.”

Eileen Wilks Tempting Danger

Source: Tempting Danger

Life, Peace, Beauty, Feeling

“This is what those who haven’t crossed the tropic of grief often fail to understand: the fact that someone is dead may mean that they are not alive, but doesn’t mean that they do not exist.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Levels of Life

Understanding, Dead

“Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me a chance to do my best.”

Karen Blixen (1885–1962) Danish writer

Source: Babette's Feast and Other Anecdotes of Destiny

World, Chance, Heart, Cry

“Many of us have made our world so familiar that we do not see it anymore. An interesting question to ask yourself at night is, What did I really see this day?”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

World, Question, Night

“For he will do
As he do do
And there's no doing anything about it!”

T.S. Eliot book Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

Source: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats

“Heaven might shine bright, but so do flames.”

Neal Shusterman book Everwild

Source: Everwild

“There is one thing, Emma, which a man can always do if he chooses, and that is his duty; not by manoeuvring and finessing, but by vigour and resolution. - Mr. Knightley”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

“Say the word. Say the word and I won't go.

Say the word, Qhuinn. Do it and I'll spend the night with you.

Better yet, why don't you just kiss me”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Mine

Kiss, Night

“Hey, Mikey? You get her hurt and I'll end you."
"You let anything happen to Eve and I'll do the same," Michael said. He'd just finished kissing Eve, too. "While you're at it, don't get yourself killed, either, bro."
"Ditto. And don't kiss me.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Kiss, Hurt

“A wise man once said that we can't make anyone feel or do anything. We can throw things into the wind, but it's up to each person to decide how they want to react, where they want to stand when things fall.”

Jonathan Maberry book Dust & Decay

Source: Dust & Decay

Feeling, Personality

“Soon after I began working for the Professor, I realized that he talked about numbers whenever he was unsure of what to say or do. Numbers were also his way of reaching out to the world. They were safe, a source of comfort.”

Yōko Ogawa book The Housekeeper and the Professor

Source: The Housekeeper and the Professor

World, Way

“Birds sing even when the world is filled with sadness. I don't know why people can't do the same thing.”

Michael Gilbert (1912–2006) Author

Source: Perfected Sinfulness

People, World, Sadness, Bird

“The secret of happiness is not doing what we like but in liking what we do.”

J.M. Coetzee (1940) South African writer

Secret, Happiness

“But most dragons seem to have interesting personalities--besides probably having quite good reasons for what they do, if only one could understand them”

Diana Wynne Jones book Fire and Hemlock

Source: Fire and Hemlock

Understanding, Personality

“magic persists without us
no matter what we may do to try to spoil it”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Pleasures of the Damned

“Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today’s jobs with yesterday’s tools!”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Age, Parting

“Never trouble another for what you can do yourself”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

“And ordering me around is exactly the wrong way to make me do what you want.”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Source: Betrayals

Way

“It was bewildering and humbling to keep discovering how many brave things people can fail to talk themselves out of doing.”

Rob Sheffield (1966) American music journalist

Source: Love Is a Mix Tape

People

“Hey No one makes me do anything. Not my family. Not your family… not even you.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Family

“Let us cry for the, by all means, if by doing so we learn how to avoid spilling any more. Let us cry for the, and remember how, and where, and why, we spilt it. Much wisdom is learnt through tears, but none by forgetting our lessons.”

María Amparo Ruiz de Burton (1832–1895) Mexican-American writer

Source: The Squatter and the Don

Wisdom, Tear, Learning, Cry

“I said, names aren't important," he repeated. There was a silence between them for some seconds, then the Ranger said: "Do you know what is important?"
Will shook his head.
"Supper is important!”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Ruins of Gorlan

Silence

“What the really great artists do is they're entirely themselves. They're entirely themselves, they've got their own vision, they have their own way of fracturing reality, and if it's authentic and true, you will feel it in your nerve endings.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Way, Feeling, Reality

“Revolutionaries do not make revolutions! The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and when they can pick it up. Armed uprising by itself has never yet led to revolution.”

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist

" Thoughts on Politics and Revolution: A Commentary http://books.google.com/books?id=iMIPAQAAMAAJ&q=&quot;Revolutionaries+do+not+make+revolutions+The+revolutionaries+are+those+who+know+when+power+is+lying+in+the+street+and+when+they+can+pick+it+up+Armed&quot;". <br class="br">Crises of the Republic (1969)

Lying

“I don't talk to myself because I'm crazy."
"No?"
"I do it because I'm awesome.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

“Do you normally turn up in gentlemen's bedrooms in the middle of the night? If I'd known that, I would have campaigned harder to make sure Charlotte let you stay.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Night

“Most people are blind to magic. They move through a blank and empty world. They’re bored with their lives, and there’s nothing they can do about it. They’re eaten alive by longing, and they’re dead before they die.”

Lev Grossman The Magicians

Source: The Magicians

People, World, Dead

“Things that really, really hurt are the right things to do.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Hurt

“What are you doing in Nicky's room, Rachel? Oooh! He summoned you to the west coast, didn't he? Did you kill him? Good for you taking care of that little problem? I should give you a bunny!" - Algaliarept”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Black Magic Sanction

Problem

“And put me down right this minute or I'll scream bloody murder, then do the job for real!"

"I already hid all the electrical appliances, and I'm not taking a shower without locking you in the closet first.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips book Nobody's Baby But Mine

Source: Nobody's Baby But Mine

“It’s really hard to do nothing totally. Even just sitting here, like this, our bodies are churning, our minds are chattering. There’s a whole commotion going on inside us.”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Source: Stargirl

“God has privileged us in Christ Jesus to live above the ordinary human plane of life. Those who want to be ordinary and live on a lower plane can do so, but as for me, I will not.”

Smith Wigglesworth (1859–1947) British evangelist

Life, God, Christ

“Do you ever sit back and wonder what it all means? Whether this is it or if there's something greater out there? Or if you were meant for something better?”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

“I could shove this swizzle stick through his heart, Min thought. She would'nt do it, of course. The stick was plastic and not nearly pointed enough on the end.”

Jennifer Crusie book Bet Me

Source: Bet Me

Heart

“It isn't that we do what we want. It's that we're allowed to want at all.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

“How do you forget something? You just walk away from it, those who are still alive. There are so few clearings in our hearts and minds, so few places where something can't grow on top of whatever happened to us before, and this is love too.”

Daniel Handler book Adverbs

Source: Adverbs

Love, Heart, Forgetting

“Ben yanked Hi sideways as spikes snapped from the wall…Once again, only Ben’s reflexes had saved him. “Please stop doing that!” Ben barked. “Please keep doing that!” Hi warbled.”

Kathy Reichs book Seizure

Source: Seizure

“You Keep Using the Word Help. I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means”

Rick Riordan book The Hammer of Thor

Source: The Hammer of Thor

Thinking, Help

“Do you love him?"
How would I know?"
You'd know.”

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: Firefly Lane

Love

“At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole god-damned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Ham On Rye (1982)
Source: Ham on Rye
Context: The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole goddamned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves. I had no interests. I had no interest in anything. I had no idea how I was going to escape. At least the others had some taste for life. They seemed to understand something that I didn't understand. Maybe I was lacking. It was possible. I often felt inferior. I just wanted to get away from them. But there was no place to go.

God, People, Age, Way

“…I said everything that matters… Don't take my advice. Or anyone's advice. Trust yourself. For good or for bad, happy or unhappy, it's your life, and what you do with it has always been entirely up to you.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me

Evelyn Collier, Chapter 15, p. 223
Source: 2009, The Best of Me (2011)

Life, Happiness