Quotes about exception
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“We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet; and amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog has made an alliance with us.”

Max DePree (1924–2017) American businessman and writer

Life, Dogs, Chance

“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

“Except for the people who were there that one day they discovered the polio vaccine, being part of history is rarely a good idea. History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between.”

Sarah Vowell book Assassination Vacation

Source: Assassination Vacation (2005), p. 208

War, People, History, Idea

“Study nothing except in the knowledge that you already knew it. Worship nothing except in adoration of your true self. And fear nothing except in the certainty that you are your enemy's begetter and its only hope of healing.”

Clive Barker book Imajica

Source: Imajica

Fear, Hope, Knowledge, Study

“People think they know the mystery of living in your skin. They don't. There's no one who knows except the person who carts it around her own self.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

People, Thinking, Personality

“nothing can save
you
except
writing.
it keeps the walls
from
failing.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“As a recluse I couldn't bear traffic. It had nothing to do with jealousy, I simply disliked people, crowds, anywhere, except at my readings. People diminished me, they sucked me dry.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

People, Jealousy, Reading

“live out where the real winds blow—to sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whisky, and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind except falling in love and not getting arrested… Res ipsa loquitur. Let the good times roll.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

1980s, Generation of Swine (1988)
Context: Maybe there is no Heaven. Or maybe this is all pure gibberish — a product of the demented imagination of a lazy drunken hillbilly with a heart full of hate who has found a way to live out where the real winds blow — to sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whisky, and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind except falling in love and not getting arrested...
Res ipsa loquitur. Let the good times roll.

Love, Drink, Sleep, Time

“Every artist is linked to a mistake with which he has a particular intimacy. All art draws its origin from an exceptional fault, each work is the implementation of this original fault, from which comes a risky plenitude and new light.”

Maurice Blanchot (1907–2003) French writer, philosopher, and literary theorist

Art, Light, Drawing

“To be a saint is the exception; to be a just person is the rule. Err, stumble, commit sin, but be one of the just.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Personality

“Really? Are you going to ask him to be your partner?" Isabelle asked. "It's like cotillion, this partners business, except with killing."
"So, exactly like a cotillion," said Simon.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Business

“That's the way it goes. Some things happen and some things don't. This one is obviously just wasn't meant to be. Except deep down… I still believe it was.”

Sophie Kinsella book The Undomestic Goddess

Source: The Undomestic Goddess

Way

“I sit on a man's back, choking him, and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by any means possible, except getting off his back.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Writings on Civil Disobedience and Nonviolence (1886)
Source: What Then Must We Do?

“He sighed and then focused his eyes right on me. It was like drowning, drowning in seas of green. There was nothing in the world except for those eyes.
"I want to kiss you, Rose," he said softly. "And I want you to want me too.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

World, Kiss, Sea

“To every rule there is an exception—and an idiot ready to demonstrate it. Don't be the one!”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“My children are so rarely happy. I… I would like to see you be an exception.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Children, Happiness

“But I'm going to try to tell the truth. Except for the parts I'm leaving out, because there's still stuff I'm just not going to tell you. Get used to it.”

Robin McKinley Dragonhaven

Source: Dragonhaven

Truth, Parting

“Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

Of Seditions and Troubles
Essays (1625)
Source: The Essays

Money

“Fame you'll be famous, as famous as can be, with everyone watching you win on TV, Except when they don't because sometimes they won't..”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

“There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Men, Evil

“And I began to let him go. Hour by hour. Days into months. It was a physical sensation, like letting out the string of a kite. Except that the string was coming from my center.”

Augusten Burroughs book You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

Source: You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

“We've finally given liberals a war against fundamentalism, and they don't want to fight it. They would, except it would put them on the same side as the United States.”

Ann Coulter (1961) author, political commentator

War, Fight

“Look to nothing, not even for a moment except to reason.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

“Believe nothing of me
except that I felt your beauty
more closely than my own.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Source: The Spice Box of Earth

Beauty

“Nothing stands still, except in our memory.”

Philippa Pearce book Tom's Midnight Garden

Source: Tom's Midnight Garden

Memory

“Grief is a curious thing, when it happens unexpectedly. It is a Band-aid being ripped away, taking the top layer off a family. And the underbelly of a household is never pretty, ours no exception.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Family

“I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Laughter

“What else is there to do in college except drink beer or slit one's wrists?”

Bret Easton Ellis The Rules of Attraction

Source: The Rules of Attraction

Drink, Beer

“Do people always act this way around you? (Kiara)
You should have seen the reactions when I wore a League uniform. Those were actually comical. Except for the ones who lost control of their bowels. Then it was just messy. (Nykyrian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

People, Way

“Nothing can hurt you except sin; nothing can grieve me except sin; nothing can defeat you except sin. Therefore, be on your guard, my Mansoul.”

John Bunyan book The Holy War

Source: The Holy War

Hurt

“I always think everything is going to last forever, but nothing ever does. In fact nothing exists longer than an instant except the thing that we hold in memory”

Sam Savage book Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife

Source: Firmin

Thinking, Memory

“We think about mortality so little, these days, except to flail hysterically at it with trendy forms of exercise and high-fiber cereals and nicotine patches.”

Tana French In the Woods

Source: In the Woods

Exercises, Thinking

“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.”

Adam Smith book The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Section I, Chap. I.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part I

Pleasure, Nature, Selfishness, Happiness

“There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Fear, Music, Feeling

“My boy, that was a TV show. I used a stunt double. I always use a stunt double. Except in love scenes. I insist on doing those myself.”

William Shatner (1931) Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, author, and film director

Love, Boy

“It doesn't hurt. Nothing hurts except the small smiles and blushes that flash across the room like tiny sparrows.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Smile, Hurt

“I've found you can ignore half of what Dox tells you and not miss much-except for maybe they occasional complaint that you're spending too much.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

“Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Love, Hope, Tear, Cry

“The culture of Rome just doesn't match the culture of Yoga, not as far as I can see. In fact, I've decided that Rome and Yoga don't have anything in common at all. Except for the way they both kind of remind you of the word toga.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Way

“There's not much you need to know about the world. Except how to use a sword and trust very few.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

World

“Are you mad? (Artemis)
Yes, I am. Mad at this world where we are nothing to the gods. Mad at the Fates who put us here for no purpose except to toy with us for their petty amusement. I wish all of the gods were dead and gone. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

God, Fate, World, Madness

“Evil is an act, not an appetite. How many haven't wanted to slash the throat of some boor across the dining room table? Present company excepted of course. Everyone has the appetite. If you give in to it, it, that act is evil. The appetite is normal.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Evil

“What we call Life is a condition of the soul. And the soul must improve in happiness and wisdom, except by its own fault. These tears in our eyes, these faintings of the flesh, will not hinder such improvement.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

Life, Wisdom, Soul, Tear

“I was studying the sky like I was an astronomer, except it was daytime and I didn't have a telescope, so I was just an idiot.”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Study

“Michael has never cried during a Broadway show. Except in that scene where Tarzan's ape father is brutally murdered.

And that was only because he was laughing so hard.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Princess Mia

“There is no future without a past, because what is to be cannot be imagined except as a form of repetition.”

Siri Hustvedt book The Summer Without Men

Source: The Summer Without Men

Imagination, Past, Future

“You sit at a desk twelve hours a day and you have nothing to show for it except some numbers that won't exist or be remembered in a week. You're leaving no evidence you lived. There's no proof.”

Dave Eggers book The Circle

Source: The Circle

“Only then does he realize what he has done to Mirabelle, how wanting a square inch of her and not all of her has damaged them both, and how he cannot justify his actions except that, well, it was life.”

Steve Martin book Shopgirl

Source: Shopgirl

Life

“The exception is more interesting than the rule. The rule proves nothing; the exception proves everything. In the exception the power of real life breaks through the crust of a mechanism that has become torpid by repetition.”

Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) German jurist, political theorist and professor of law

Source: Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty

Life

“This novel is fiction, except for the parts that aren't.”

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer

Parting

“He crouched at the car window and looked in. 'What a lovely family you have. What a charming family. They're all lovely. Except for that one.' His finger jabbed the glass. 'That one's a bit ugly.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

Love, Family, Cars

“Things seemed to go back and forth between reality and imagination--except that it was all reality.”

Gary Paulsen book Hatchet

Source: Hatchet

Imagination, Reality

“But you’re human, aren’t you? (Kat)
I’m human, except when I first wake up in the morning. Even I don’t want to be around myself then. (Kish)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

“Victories and defeats form part of everyone's life - everyone, that is, except cowards, as you call them, because they never lose or win.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Life, Victory, Parting

“I had nothing to fear from my father.
Except his disappointment.
Which was no small thing.”

Barbara Delinsky (1945) American writer

Source: Escape

Fear, Disappointment

“Yes, men are pigs. Except your brother, of course. He's actually a decent human being. Almost a woman.

-Jillian's mother”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Catch a Mate

Men

“I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Source: The Complete Essays

People

“Mine," he said.

Adam's eyes narrowed. "I don't think so. She is mine."

It would have been flattering, I thought, except that at least one of them was talking about dinner and I wasn't certain about the other.”

Patricia Briggs book Moon Called

Source: Moon Called

Thinking

“I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Source: The Complete Essays

Understanding

“What if evil doesn't really exist? What if evil is something dreamed up by man, and there is nothing to struggle against except out own limitations? The constant battle between our will, our desires, and our choices?”

Libba Bray book Rebel Angels

Source: Rebel Angels

Dreams, Evil

“And books which told me everything about the wasp, except why.”

Dylan Thomas book A Child's Christmas in Wales

Source: A Child's Christmas in Wales

Books

“Come on outside when youʹre done,ʺ I told her. ʺItʹs like the barbecue of the damned. Except… thereʹs no grill.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“Hobbies of any kind are boring except to people who have the same hobby. This is also true of religion, although you will not find me saying so in print.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

People, Religion

“There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers.”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Source: Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics

Life

“With the exception of dessert, food is food.”

Janet Evanovich Two for the Dough

Source: Two for the Dough

Food

“We fall from womb to tomb, from one blackness and toward another, remembering little of the one and knowing nothing of the other… except through faith.”

Stephen King book Danse Macabre

Source: Danse Macabre

Faith

“This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question.”

Orson Scott Card book Speaker for the Dead

Source: Speaker for the Dead

Question, Thinking

“You never get mad,” she said when their server left the table. “Except at me.”
“That’s not true,” he said tightly. “Torie can get me going.”
“Torie doesn’t count. You were obviously her mother in a previous life.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Call Me Irresistible

Life, Madness

“My pet, the world can forgive practically anything except people who mind their own business" - Rhett Butler”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

People, World, Forgiveness, Business

“All things are inconstant except the faith in the soul, which changes all things and fills their inconstancy with light, but though I seem to be driven out of my country as a misbeliever I have found no man yet with a faith like mine.”

James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish novelist and poet

Letter to Augusta Gregory (22 November 1902), from James Joyce by Richard Ellmann (1959) [Oxford University Press, 1983 edition, <small> ISBN 0-195-03381-7</small>] (p. 107)

Faith, Soul, Light, Change

“Human beings are free except when humanity needs them. Maybe humanity needs you. To do something. Maybe humanity needs me—to find out what you're good for. We might both do despicable things, Ender, but if humankind survives, then we were good tools.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game