Quotes about face
page 10

“Voices and faces aren't manifestations
of good or bad.”

Source: Fairest

“Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Patience

“The worms were beautifully drawn, with their nervous systems and reproductive organs shaded in different colors of highlighter, but the artist had also given them big goofy smiling faces. Grotesque but lovable in a cross-eyed way.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 1

Smile, Color, Way

“He shook my dozing soul and threw the cold water of reality in my face, so that life and God and heaven and hell broke into my world with glory and horror. (on CS Lewis)”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Source: Don't Waste Your Life

Life, God, World, Soul

“You would rather face a life without me than to have me choose a life I would not choose for myself.”

John Scalzi (1969) American science fiction writer

Source: The Sagan Diary

Life

“Let's face it. My career is now professional vampire.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“And flash him!” Annabeth’s face reddened. “That came out wrong. But yeah, good idea.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Idea

“It strikes Werner just then as wondrously futile to build splendid buildings, to make music, to sing songs, to print huge books full of colorful birds in the face of the seismic, engulfing indifference of the world - what pretensions humans have!”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

Books, World, Music, Color

“Sometimes we have to step out of our comfort zones. We have to break the rules. And we have to discover the sensuality of fear. We need to face it, challenge it, dance with it.”

Kyra Davis (1950) writer

Fear, Dance

“There it was. Suddenly the strangeness of Quintana of Charyn's face made sense. Because it was a face meant for laughing, but it had never been given a chance. It robbed Phaedra of her breath.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Quintana of Charyn

Sense, Chance

“How do you fight someone smarter than yourself?' Rand Whispered. 'The answer is simple. You make her think that you are sitting down across the table from her, ready to play her game. Then you punch her in the face as hard as you can.”

Brandon Sanderson The Wheel of Time

Source: The Gathering Storm

Game, Thinking, Fight

“I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is void. The void is a mirror. I see my face and feel loathing and horror. My indifference to man has shut me out. I live now in a world of ghosts, a prisoner in my dreams.”

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish filmmaker

Source: The Seventh Seal

World, Dreams, Feeling, Heart

“Just by gazing upon her face…
No matter how weary you are,
you will feel happy,
deep inside your heart,
you will feel a warmth
This is a "piece of joy"
This is all the happiness you need.
Normally, we call this "love"…”

Yoshiki Nakamura (1969) Artist

Source: Skip Beat!, Vol. 11

Love, Feeling, Heart, Joy

“Do you miss Susie?"
Because it was dark, because Ruth was facing away from her, because Ruth was almost a stranger, Lindsey said what she felt.
"More than anyone will ever know.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

“Why do you need to fly so much?” she asked.
“If I don’t, it’ll catch up with me.” The words just came out.
“What will?”
I took my hands from my face, panting. I stared out at the storm.
“Unhappiness.”

Kenneth Oppel book Airborn

Source: Airborn

Flying

“How…” Dalinar said. “You fell into a chasm!”
“I fell face-first, sir,” Kaladin said, “and fortunately, I’m particularly hard-headed.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

“Summer had come to sit on New York's face.”

Tom Robbins Skinny Legs and All

Source: Skinny Legs and All

Summer

“Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Variant: Laila came to believe that of all the hardships a person has to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.
Source: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Waiting, Personality

“All of us show many faces to the world. No one shows her true face all of the time. To do that would be dangerous, for what is seen can also be known.”

Cameron Dokey (1956) American writer

Source: The Wild Orchid: A Retelling of The Ballad of Mulan

World, Time

“I know what they said even if they would not say it to my face. People love to talk. They love to slander you if you have any substance. They say I love nothing but money and the Presbyterian Church and that is why I never married.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 7, pp. 214-215 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

Love, Money, People

“If you are facing a new challenge or being asked to do something that you have never done before don’t be afraid to step out. You have more capability than you think you do but you will never see it unless you place a demand on yourself for more.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Thinking

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.
Never shall I forget that smoke.
Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky.
Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget the nocturnal silence that deprived me for all eternity of the desire to live.
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
Never shall I forget those things, even were I condemned to live as long as God Himself.
Never.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night (1960)

Life, God, Children, Faith

“How many times have I told you not to hit people in the face. You kick them in the body where it doesn't show.”

Janet Evanovich High Five

Source: High Five

People, Time

“What is there possibly left for us to be afraid of, after we have dealt face to face with death and not embraced it? Once I accept the existence of dying as a life process, who can ever have power over me again?”

Audre Lorde book The Cancer Journals

Source: The Cancer Journals

Life, Death

“Scott, if your life had a face, I would punch it. I would punch your life in the face.”

Bryan Lee O'Malley (1979) Artist

Source: Scott Pilgrim, Volume 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together

Life

“Their desire was silent yet magnificent, like a thousand daisies attuning their faces toward the path of the sun.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Virgin Suicides

Source: The Virgin Suicides

Sun

“He looked as though his life had not only passed him by but paused along the way to spit in his face.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

Life, Way

“Listen, Frank Zhang has moves. He's probably gonna turn into a kangaroo and do some marsupial jujitsu on their ugly faces.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“Time talks behind our back. To our face it's friendly and logical, never hesitating to give more of itself. But when we're not looking, it steals our lives and says bad things about us to the parts of us it's stolen”

Jonathan Carroll book A Child Across the Sky

Source: A Child Across the Sky

Time, Parting

“If you ask me if I'm okay again, I'm going to smack myself in the face just to punish you.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Midnight Alley

“He has a song in his heart for me. I hope it is not "Shut Uppa You Face, Whatsa Matta You.”

Louise Rennison (1951–2016) British writer

Source: Stop in the Name of Pants!

Hope, Heart

“Lilt pulled away. "I saw what he was doing, so I cleared a path for him. I helped him do it…" She shook her head, tears tracking the dust off her face, and turned to stare at the fallen tower. "Have we all gone mad to want this?”

Scott Westerfeld book Behemoth

Source: Behemoth

Tear, Help, Madness

“Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;
I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti The House of Life

A Superscription. Compare: "My name is might have been; my name is never was; my name's forgotten", Courtney Love (with Hole), "Celebrity Skin".
Source: The House of Life (1870—1881)

“Child, it's a very bad thing for a woman to face the worst that can happen to her, because after she's faced the worst she can't ever really fear anything again…. Scarlett, always save something to fear— even as you save something to love…”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

Love, Fear

“So," I said. "Seems you're going to be stuck with me for a while."
He smiled. A real smile that lit up his whole face.
"Good”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

Smile

“Please,” Alec said, pulling out his stele. “I can read your face like a very open, very pornographic book. I wish I couldn’t.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Books, Reading

“She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge'.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Guy

“The surgeons' market is imaginary, since there is nothing wrong with women's faces or bodies that social change won't cure; so the surgeons depend for their income on warping female self-perception and multiplying female self-hatred.”

Naomi Wolf book The Beauty Myth

Source: The Beauty Myth

Women, Change, Dependency

“Torn between fear and something that resembled love, she wrestled with questions she never dreamed she would face: How could she leave? Then again, how could she stay?”

Jodi Picoult book Picture Perfect

Source: Picture Perfect

Love, Fear, Dreams, Question

“Prince or commoner, tenor or bass,
Painter or plumber or never-do-well,
Do me a favor and shut your face -
Poets alone should kiss and tell.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Source: The Collected Dorothy Parker

Kiss

“The door swung open and Kate walked in. Her jeans and T-shirt were splattered with blood and she was carrying a severed vampire head. The T-shirt has a smiley face on it.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Gunmetal Magic

“Today,’ said Lymond, ‘if you must know, I don’t like living at all. But that’s just immaturity boggling at the sad face of failure. Tomorrow I’ll be bright as a bedbug again.”

Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001) British writer

Source: The Disorderly Knights

Sadness, Failure

“Sometimes you meet yourself on the road before you have a chance to learn the appropriate greeting. Faced with your own possibilities, the hard part is knowing a speech is not required. All you have to say is yes.”

Pearl Cleage What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

Source: What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

Learning, Chance, Parting

“Art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul.”

George Bernard Shaw Back to Methuselah

The She-Ancient, in Pt. V
Source: 1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
Context: Art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul. But we who are older use neither glass mirrors nor works of art. We have a direct sense of life. When you gain that you will put aside your mirrors and statues, your toys and your dolls.

Dreams, Art, Soul

“It occurred to me that I was standing face to face with the hero of a love story nearly as dramatic as my own.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Love

“…I finally understood what true love really meant. …that love meant that you care for another person's happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

John Tyree, Epilogue, p. 275
Source: 2000s, Dear John (2006)

Love, Pain, Personality, Happiness

“Sebastian lay a few feet away from her, on his back. There was a great blackened hole across the front of his chest. He turned his head toward her, his face taut and white with pain, and her heart contracted.
His eyes were green.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Pain, Heart

“Leap out the window, my inner Tigress cried. You aren't ready to face such a powerful Tiger. I frowned. I thought a true Tigress never backed down from a fight. Don't you know anything? When she's in heat, she avoids everything male. Now run!”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Animal Instincts

Fight

“He turned to face her again, his late-pretty composure crumbling. "But you're…"

"Pretty? Think again." She smiled. "I'm Tally Youngbood. My mind is very ugly. And I'm taking your car.”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

Smile, Cars, Thinking

“He was poor, yet always appeared to be giving something away; a stranger, yet everyone was his friend; no longer young, but as happy-hearted as a boy; plain and peculiar, yet his face looked beautiful to many.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Beauty, Boy, Appearance, Heart

“Come now, don't make such a funeral face. It isn't dying that's sad; it's living when you're not happy.”

Octave Mirbeau book The Torture Garden

Variant: “It isn’t dying that’s sad. It’s living when you’re not happy.”
Source: Le Jardin des supplices

Sadness, Happiness

“It's settled, then," Grace said. She turned back to Nick. "Take the Jag to the car wash and for heaven's sake clean the McDonald's Happy Meal boxes out of it."

"Hey," Nick said, his face offended. "That's a low blow. Those boxes are collectibles.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Night Play

Cars, Box, Happiness

“Put your badass faces on and follow me.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“We look into each other's eyes as we shake. His are still full of death and horror, but in them I see my face reflected, and inside my tiny eyes inside his, I think I see some hope.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Death, Hope, Thinking

“Hey,” he said softly. He moved closer to the bars, pressing his face between them. “I always said you were jailbait, but this is ridiculous.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: The Dead Girls' Dance

“Look at him. The face of a bad angel and eyes like the night sky in Hell. He's very pretty, and vampires like that. I can't say I mind either.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Angels, Hell, Night

“It was one of the few things he had to believe in, the possibility of beauty when faced with the reality of so much ugliness.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Last Stand of the New York Institute

Beauty, Reality

“Courage is strength in the face of knowledge of what is to be feared or hoped. Wisdom is prudent strength.”

Atul Gawande book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Source: Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End

Wisdom, Fear, Hope, Courage

“Because that is when you love somebody - when you see them being game in the face of the worst. Not courageous. Not heroic. Just game.”

Philip Roth book The Human Stain

Source: The Human Stain

Love, Game, Courage

“Step follows step,
Hope follows Courage,
Set your face towards danger,
Set your heart on victory.”

Gail Carson Levine The Two Princesses of Bamarre

Source: The Two Princesses of Bamarre

Hope, Courage, Victory, Heart

“… we are custodians of deep and ancient thresholds. In the human face you see that potential and the miracle of undying possibility.”

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

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

“What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Section 89
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)

People

“I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

Spring, Kiss

“I am a sassenach, after all,” I said, seeing it. He touched my face briefly with a rueful smile. “Aye, mo duinne. But you’re my sassenach.”

Diana Gabaldon book Dragonfly in Amber

Source: Dragonfly in Amber

Smile

“I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer (1934), Chapter Four, Pappin
Context: I am a free man-and I need my freedom. I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion. I need sunshine and paving tones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself with only the music of my heart for company. What do you want of me? When I have something to say, I put it in print. When I have something to give, I give it. Your prying curiosity turns my stomach! Your compliments humiliate me. Your tea poisons me! I owe nothing to anyone, I would've responsible to God alone-if he exited!

Music, Heart, Despair