Quotes about exception page 6
Martha Stout (1953) American psychologist
Source: The Sociopath Next Door
“There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception.”
James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright
“It was like a bad movie, except he didn't actually twirl his mustache.”
Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes
Jace to Clary, pg. 122
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)
“Most men go through life unchallenged, except at the final moment.”
Frank Herbert book God Emperor of Dune
Source: God Emperor of Dune
Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965) playwright and writer
Source: To Be Young, Gifted and Black (1969), p. 137
“Everyone has a hidden agenda. Except me!”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer
Jacques Lacan (1901–1981) French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist
Source: The Seminar of Jacques Lacan: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
Source: The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
“Grudges seldom hurt anyone except the one bearing them.”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist
Source: One Silent Night
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Variant: To accomplish excellence or anything outstanding, you must listen to that whisper which is heard by you alone.
“When you're in a rut, you have to question everything except your ability to get out of it.”
Twyla Tharp (1941) American choreographer
Source: The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life
“Most People have a desire to look for the exception instead of the desire to become exceptional.”
John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor
“They use everything about the hog except the squeal.”
Upton Sinclair book The Jungle
Source: The Jungle
“Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance”
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author
“We do survive every moment, after all, except the last one.”
John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic
“Nothing makes us more vulnerable than loneliness except greed.”
Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs
Source: The Silence of the Lambs
“There comes… a longing never to travel again except on foot.”
Wendell Berry (1934) author
Source: Remembering
“Surgeons can cut out everything except cause.”
Herbert M. Shelton (1895–1985) American medical writer
“Scarcely anything in literature is worth a damn except what is written between the lines.”
Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter
“A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.”
Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer
“… and there was nothing to do except to wait and to hurt.”
Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
“All people are born alike… except Republicans and Democrats.”
Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian
“Don't push me
I've got a corner at my back
I've nowhere to go except over you.”
Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter
Source: See A Grown Man Cry/Now Watch Him Die
Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes
Maia to Simon, pg. 50
Variant: A werewolf. Like everyone else here. Except you, and the asshole. And the asshole's sister.
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)
“Death steals everything except our stories.”
Jim Harrison (1937–2016) American novelist, poet, essayist
Source: In Search of Small Gods
“For the most part people are not curious except about themselves.”
John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent
Source: The Winter of Our Discontent
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis
Source: Letters of Sigmund Freud, 1873-1939
“Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist
“She had that rare virtue of never existing completely except for that opportune moment”
Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude
Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude
“I only want to write. And there's no college for that except life.”
Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle
Source: I Capture the Castle
“There is nothing to fear except the power you give to your own demons.”
Sally Gardner book The Red Necklace
Source: The Red Necklace
“He never felt lonliness except when he was happy.”
Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged
Source: Atlas Shrugged
“Let's face it - with a few exceptions, nobody likes anybody.”
David Lubar book Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
Source: Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
Maud Hart Lovelace book Heaven to Betsy
Source: Heaven to Betsy
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
As quoted in "Literary Censorship in England" in Current Opinion, Vol. 55, No. 5 (November 1913), p. 378; this has sometimes appeared on the internet in paraphrased form as "Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads"
1910s
Context: Any public committee man who tries to pack the moral cards in the interest of his own notions is guilty of corruption and impertinence. The business of a public library is not to supply the public with the books the committee thinks good for the public, but to supply the public with the books the public wants. … Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody can read. But as the ratepayer is mostly a coward and a fool in these difficult matters, and the committee is quite sure that it can succeed where the Roman Catholic Church has made its index expurgatorius the laughing-stock of the world, censorship will rage until it reduces itself to absurdity; and even then the best books will be in danger still.
“The Simi is environmentally sound. Eat everything except for hooves”
Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil
Source: Dance with the Devil
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.”
Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul
Italo Calvino (1923–1985) Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels
Source: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
“She wanted nothing that he could offer her, except perhaps his absence.”
Clive Barker book The Hellbound Heart
Source: The Hellbound Heart
“That's great. Except for the fact that it's completely unimportant.”
Rick Riordan The Maze of Bones
Source: The Maze of Bones
“And things were back to normal except we were just friends.”
Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Jaclyn Moriarty (1968) Australian writer
Source: The Year of Secret Assignments