Quotes about down
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“What's so hard about that first sentence is that you're stuck with it. Everything else is going to flow out of that sentence. And by the time you've laid down the first two sentences, your options are all gone.”

Joan Didion (1934) American writer

Time

“That was other thing I hated about kids; they always said the exact things that deep down you already knew, would never admit, and most certainly never wanted to hear.”

Cecelia Ahern book A Place Called Here

Source: A Place Called Here

Hate

“Instead of chopping yourself down to fit the world, chop the world down to fit yourself.”

D.H. Lawrence book Women in Love

Source: Women in Love

World

“All it takes is a second and your whole life can get turned upside down.”

Jodi Picoult Salem Falls

Source: Salem Falls

Life

“At least," she said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland."
"Not necissarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character… Would you slow down? Or speed up?”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Death, Change, Speed

“She was truly a beautiful girl. I could feel a small polished stone sinking through the darkest waters of my heart. All those deep convoluted channels and passageways, and yet she managed to toss her pebble right down to the bottom of it all.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

Beauty, Feeling, Girl, Water

“let you down
let you go
let you die”

Travis Thrasher

Solitary

“Why do you think there's only a single stairway to heaven, but an entire highway to hell? Because it's a lot easier to slide down then climb up, and it takes a whole lot less energy to boot.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Inferno

Hell, Thinking

“Your pretty empire took so long to build, now, with a snap of history's fingers, down it goes.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

History

“For many of us, the curtain had just come down on childhood.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Childhood

“If your ceiling should fall down, then you have lost a room, but gained a courtyard. Think of it that way.”

Alexander McCall Smith book The Right Attitude to Rain

Source: The Right Attitude to Rain

Way, Thinking

“Troy's deformities lay deep down from a woman's vision, whilst his embellishments were upon the very surface; thus contrasting with homely Oak, whose defects were patent to the blindest, and whose virtues were as metals in a mine.”

Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd

Home

“Gazzy: (Hugging himself and jumping up and down) "I'm brilliant! I'm a genius! I can blow up the world!"
Max: (Raises her eyebrows)
Gazzy: "Not that I would want to, of course," (coughs)”

James Patterson book Maximum Ride

Source: Max

World

“seven wonders of the world
and I have to ask for an eighth
fill a bottle with some prayers
and spend them on hope
create an easy route
just so I can complicate
send my heart down that
slippery slope”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

World, Hope, Heart

“I believe that children in this country need a more robust literary diet than they are getting…. I will never talk down to, or draw down to, children.”

Barbara Cooney (1917–2000) American writer and illustrator of children's books

Children, Drawing, Country

“The rain that fell on the city runs down the dark gutters and empties into the sea without even soaking the ground”

Haruki Murakami book Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

Source: Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche

Sea

“The only sea I saw Was the seesaw sea With you riding on it. Lie down, lie easy. Let me shipwreck in your thighs.”

Dylan Thomas book Under Milk Wood

Source: Under Milk Wood

Lie, Sea

“Hush little baby, Dont you cry, Dont cut your arms, Dont say goodbye. Put down that razor, Put down that light, It maybe hard but, You'll win this fight.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Light, Fight, Baby, Cry

“She wore her sexuality with an older woman's ease, and not like an awkward purse, never knowing how to hold it, where to hang it, or when to just put it down.”

Zadie Smith (1975) British writer

“He bent down to her; their mouths met again, and the shock of sensation was so strong, so overpowering, that she shut her eyes against it as if she could hide in the darkness. He murmured and gathered her against him.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Strong

“later down the road of life, i made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land.”

Jimmy Buffett book A Pirate Looks at Fifty

Source: A Pirate Looks at Fifty

Life, Water

“It began as research. I wrote of silences, of nights, I scribbled the indescribable. I tied down the vertigo.”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

Silence, Night

“For the first time I realize how perilous peace can be. I appreciate the tightrope that my grandfather has spent his whole life trying to walk. And now, more than ever, I grow terrified that I'm going to make us all fall down.”

Ally Carter book All Fall Down

Source: All Fall Down

Life, Peace, Time

“I’ll put it out there: I am scarred by the nostalgic indicipherability of my own desires; I an engulfed by the intimidating unknown, pushed through darkness and dragged down by the irretrievable past sweetness of my memories.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

Source: Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters

Memory, Past

“A year ago,' I said, 'you wouldn’t have asked this of me.'
'A year ago,' he answered, 'you wouldn’t have hesitated to drink.'
I crossed to the desk and tossed it down.”

Charlaine Harris Dead in the Family

Source: Dead in the Family

Drink

“She wants to drink that man too, and then she can forget forever the cheap wine that you gulp down and that makes you feel drunk, but always leaves you with a headache and an empty space in your soul.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Feeling, Soul, Drink, Wine

“She felt herself needing more and more sleep. When she awoke in the morning, she thought of when she might lie down again - and when she would sleep. She started going to the movies.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

Lie, Sleep

“Good and evil are merely opposite sides of a coin. Get tossed in the air enough, it's easy to come down on the wrong side.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Dreamfever

Evil

“The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest down through my body out along my arms and legs to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me the kisses have the opposite effect of making my need greater.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Kiss

“We are each of an unsocial, taciturn disposition, unwilling to speak, unless we expect to say something that will amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the eclat of a proverb.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“Come on," I said, taking his hand. Clutching the afghan with the other hand, he trailed down the hall after me, a snow white giant in tiny red underwear.”

Charlaine Harris book Dead to the World

Source: Dead to the World

“I've read that if an avalanche buries you and you're lying there underneath all that snow, you can't tell which way is up or down. You want to dig yourself out but pick the wrong way, and you dig yourself to your own demise.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

Way, Lying, Reading

“I avoid looking down at my body, not so much because it’s shameful or immodest but because I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

“The dog has seldom been successful in pulling Man up to its level of sagacity, but Man has frequently dragged the dog down to his.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

"An Introduction", The Fireside Book of Dog Stories (Simon and Schuster, 1943); reprinted in Thurber's Dogs (1955)
From other writings

Dogs, Success

“You have to sleep sometime. (Xypher)
So do you. (Julian)
Down, boys, down. Please, I just want to be free before I get testosterone poisoning. (Simone)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Chaser

Boy, Sleep

“Maybe this is not a come-down-from-the-ledge story. But I tell it with the thought that the woman on the ledge will ask herself a question, the question that occurred to that man in Bogota. He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn't good?”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

The Man in Bogota

Question

“For your own good, for the good of your family and your future, grow a backbone. When something is wrong, stand up and say it is wrong, and don't back down.”

Dave Ramsey (1960) American financial advisor

Source: The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness

Family, Future

“But love, like the sun that it is, sets afire and melts everything. what greed and privilege to build up over whole centuries the indignation of a pious spirit, with its natural following of oppressed souls, will cast down with a single shove.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Love, Soul, Nature, Sun

“Sometime years before, I had dragged an old bean bag chair to that place. I watched Zach sink onto it, and then he pulled me down to lean against him. I felt his arms go around me, holding me tight.
I was safe.
I was warm.
I was home.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: United We Spy

Home

“[Gold] gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

People

“You look like a Goth factory exploded all over you!" he called as she ran down the hall.
"Love you, too, jackass!”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Love

“… When it was finished, the scaled dragon looked around and as the thing spotted V, a growl rippled up to the bleachers, then ended in a snort. "You finished, big guy?" Va called down. "FYI, goalpost over there would work righteous as a toothpick.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Revealed

Source: Lover Revealed

Guy

“In a strange way we were free. We'd reached the end of the line. We had nothing more to lose. Our privacy, our liberty, our dignity: all of this was gone and we were stripped down to the bare bones of our selves.”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted (1994)

Way

“Everyone is happier if they have someone else to look down on, as well as someone to look up to, especially if they resent both.”

Christopher Moore book A Dirty Job

Source: A Dirty Job

“The journey I'm taking is inside me. Just like blood travels down veins, what I'm seeing is my inner self and what seems threatening is just the echo of the fear in my heart.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Fear, Travel, Heart

“It was all I could do to not knock him down right there in front of Asher and climb on him. If I stunned him with a frying pan first, he might not struggle too much.…”

Cate Tiernan (1961) American novelist

Source: Immortal Beloved

“So tomorrow we disappear into the unknown. This account I am transmitting down the river by canoe, and it may be our last word to those who are interested in our fate.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Lost World

Source: The Lost World

Fate

“Now I lay me down to sleep my bomb proof cellar's good and deep but if I'm killed before I wake remember god it's for your sake amen.”

Dalton Trumbo book Johnny Got His Gun

Source: Johnny Got His Gun

God, Sleep

“the loss pressed down on her chest and came up into her throat. it was a fine cry -- loud and long -- but it had no bottom and no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.”

Toni Morrison book Sula

Source: Sula

Loss, Cry

“And than suddenly he was there, charging down the hallway like death in a cowboy duster.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Death

“Let faith oust fact; let fancy oust memory; I look deep down and do believe.”

Herman Melville book Moby-Dick

Source: Moby-Dick

Faith, Memory

“What if the puzzle of the world was a shape you didn't fit into? And the only way to survive was to mutilate yourself, carve away your corners, sand yourself down, modify yourself to fit? How come we haven't been able to change the puzzle instead?”

Jodi Picoult book Small Great Things

Source: Small Great Things

World, Way, Change

“Where did you get that?" Jace looked down and saw that the spider demon's poison had eaten a hole in his shirt, leaving a good deal of his left shoulder bare.
"The shirt? At Macy's Winter sale.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Winter

“that's it - hundreds of texts and conversations, thousands upon thousands of words spoken and sent, all boiled down into a single line. is that what relationships become?”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“You many have noticed I have a temper… but when I calmed down, I realized that this world, blighted and imperfect as it is, would be better with you in it.”

Jasper Fforde (1961) British novelist

Source: Shades of Grey

World

“yes, Wagner and the storm intermix with the wine as nights like this run up my wrists and up into my head and back down into the gut”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: You Get So Alone At Times That It Just Makes Sense

Wine, Night

“I shan't ever understand your willingness to lie down and die," Felicity bars. "If you won't at least try to fight, I have no sympathy for you.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Lie, Understanding, Fight

“And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning 'That path leads ever down into stagnation.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

“Of course, they're not clowning aroundto make me laugh. They're doing their best to live verylives, and they just happen to fall down sometimes. I think that's cool.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Thinking

“I sell dreams, small comforts, sweet harmless temptations to bring down a multitude of saints crashing among the hazels and nougatines”

Joanne Harris book Chocolat

Source: Chocolat

Dreams

“Although there are times I'd give anything to have her back, I'm glad she went first. Losing her was like being cleft down the middle. It was the moment it all ended for me, and I wouldn't have wanted her to go through that.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

Time

“I hate it when people let me down, when things are temporary. I think that's why I want to be an architect."
"To build something permanent," I said. "A monument to last a thousand years.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Hate, People, Thinking

“The laws of physics is the canvas God laid down on which to paint his masterpiece”

Dan Brown book Angels & Demons

Source: Angels & Demons

God, Law, Painting

“So much of the language of love was like that: you devoured someone with your eyes, you drank in the sight of him, you swallowed him whole. Love was substance, broken down and beating through your bloodstream.”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

Love

“A photo says, you were happy, and I wanted to catch that. A photo says, you were so important to me that I put down everything else to come watch.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Happiness, Photo

“I don't know why it's called "getting lost." Even when you turn down the wrong street, when you find yourself at the dead end of a chain-link fence or a road that turnd to sand, you are somewhere. It just isn't where you expected to be.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

Dead

“Cowards are nice, they're interesting, they're gentle, they wouldn't think of shooting down people in a parade from a tower. They want to live, so they can see their kids. They're very brave.”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

Madness in the Family (1988)
Source: Madness in the Family: Stories

People, Thinking

“My problems are like waves - just as one disappears with a snarl and a hiss there’s another shaping up to knock me down.”

Fiona Wood (1958) British–Australian physician and plastic surgeon

Source: Six Impossible Things

Problem

“One minute you're munching on a faerie plum the next minute you're running naked down Madison Avenue with antlers on your head. Not,' he added hastily, 'that this has ever happened to me.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Jace to Clary, pg. 192
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)
Context: "Don't order any of the faerie food," said Jace, looking at her over the top of his menu. "It tends to make humans a little crazy. One minute you're munching a faerie plum, the next minute you're running naked down Madison Avenue with antlers on your head. Not," he added hastily, "that this has ever happened to me."