Quotes about few
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“The consumer isn't a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her.”

David Ogilvy book Confessions of an Advertising Man

Source: Confessions of an Advertising Man, p. 96 (Ballantine Books)

Intelligence

“That which doesn’t kill us just requires a few centuries of therapy. (Caleb)
Yeah, and usually a lot of Tylenol. (Nick)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

“Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.”
Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt.

Marcus Tullius Cicero book Laelius de Amicitia

Section 98
See also Esse quam videri
Source: Laelius De Amicitia – Laelius On Friendship (44 BC)

“You think you can say a few words and end us? There is no end, Eva." he flattened me into the side of the car. I was pinned by six feet, two inches of violently aroused male.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

Cars, Thinking

“Reality is, you know, the tip of an iceberg of irrationality that we've managed to drag ourselves up onto for a few panting moments before we slip back into the sea of the unreal.”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Variant: Reality is, you know, the tip of an iceberg of irrationality that we've managed to drag ourselves up onto for a few panting moments before we slip back into the sea of the unreal.

Reality, Sea

“Suppose I lay down on the pavement and you run over me a few times with my own car… just for old times.”

Janet Evanovich book One for the Money

Source: One for the Money

Cars, Time

“Well chaps first I'd like to say a few vile things more or less at random, not only because it is expected of me but also because I enjoy it.”

Donald Barthelme book Snow White

Source: Snow White

“When I was in my twenties and broke, I'd buy books before food. A meal will sustain you for a few hours, a good book will sustain you for life.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Life, Books, Food

“Maybe I am becoming a hermit,
opening the door for only
a few special animals?
Maybe my skull is too crowded
and it has no opening through which
to feed it soup?”

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

Source: The Awful Rowing Toward God

Animals

“Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence”

O. Henry (1862–1910) American short story writer

Source: Selected Stories

“How bitter were
the Prozac pills
of the last
few hundred mornings”

Leonard Cohen book Book of Longing

Source: Book of Longing

“There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch. 2

“She always carried a book, though, in case she needed to read a few pages to avoid unwanted conversation.”

Charles Frazier (1950) American writer

Source: Nightwoods

Books, Reading

“And he would listen, making only a few comments, always sympathetic, so that when I left him I had the distinct impression he had solved everything for me.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

“Seeds must be sown everywhere. Only some will bear fruit. But there would not be the fruit from the few had the many not been sown”

Chaim Potok book My Name Is Asher Lev

Source: My Name Is Asher Lev

“He'd felt like a jack-o-lantern for the past few days, as if his guts had been yanked out with a fork and dumped in a heap while a grinning smile stayed plastered on his face.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Smile, Past

“The human tongue is a beast that few can master.”

Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power

Source: The 48 Laws of Power

“There are many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, and nothing worth killing for.”

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

“We’re on this planet for too short a time. And at the end of the day, what’s more important? Knowing that a few meaningless figures balanced—or knowing that you were the person you wanted to be?”

Sophie Kinsella (1969) British writer

Time, Personality

“The Friday before winter break, my mom packed me an overnight bag and a few deadly weapons and took me to a new boarding school.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

School, Moms, Winter

“Violence requires few ideas, but nonviolence requires imagination.”

Mark Kurlansky (1948) American journalist

1968: The Year That Rocked the World

Imagination, Idea

“Yeah, you were doing a real bang-up job of it. I particularly liked the way you were bruising his fists with your face. A few minutes more and I’m sure your heart would have been on the attack… after it was ripped from your chest. (Kat)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

Way, Heart

“All beings want to be happy, yet so very few know how. It is out of ignorance that any of us cause suffering, for ourselves or for others”

Sharon Salzberg (1952) American writer

Source: Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness

Happiness, Suffering

“You think you can say a few words and end us? There is no end, Eva.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

Thinking

“There are a few absolute no-brainer rules in my world. Real close to the top of this list is: if an Unseelie prince runs from it, I'm going to run from it, too. [said Dani]”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

World

“After a few minutes, it was time for me to leave. I don't know who decides these things. It just happens.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Time

“Contentment and happiness didn't exist in my life for more than a few moments at a time, and they were really only illusionary. There was always something hidden. Lying in wait to spring up and ruin everything.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Life, Happiness, Spring, Lying

“In our hearts there is a ruthless dictator, ready to contemplate the misery of a thousand strangers if it will ensure the happiness of the few we love.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

Source: The Heart of the Matter

Love, Happiness, Heart

“I had a million plans. I knew what I was going to do. I had the next few years of my life all figured out.
But what I didn’t know was that within a few hours all those plans would change. Ms. Know-it-all didn’t quite know it all so much then.”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Love, Rosie

Life, Change

“So go out and live real good and I promise you'll get beat up real bad. But, in a little while after you're dead, you'll be rotted away anyway. It's not gonna matter if you have a few scars. It will matter if you didn't live.”

Rich Mullins (1955–1997) American christian musician

Lufkin, Texas http://www.kidbrothers.net/words/concert-transcripts/lufkin-texas-jul1997-full.html (July 19, 1997) <br class="br">In Concert

Dead

“Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable.”

Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American teacher and writer

Source: Tablets

Books

“The true roll in determing to embrace or reject anything is not whether it have any evil in it but whether it have more of evil than of good. There are few things wholly evil or wholly good.”

Seth Grahame-Smith (1976) US fiction author

Source: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Evil

“I lurched away from the table after a few hours feeling like Elvis in Vegas - fat, drugged, and completely out of it.”

Anthony Bourdain (1956–2018) Chef and food writer

Feeling

“Words are like spices. Too many is worse than too few.”

Joan Aiken (1924–2004) English fiction writer

Source: The Last Slice of Rainbow and Other Stories

“In my youth, it was my good luck to have a few good teachers, men and women, who came into my head and lit a match.”

Yann Martel (1963) Canadian author best known for the book Life of Pi

Women, Men, Youth, Teachers

“Truth is something which can't be told in a few words. Those who simplify the universe only reduce the expansion of its meaning.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Truth, Universe

“I caught Bast’s arm when she was a few steps from the bank.
“Stay away from the water.”
She frowned. “Carter, I’m a cat. I’m not going for a swim. But if you want to summon a river goddess, you really need to do it at the riverbank.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Cats, Water

“Few can claim a single angel who guards them. But you can.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Angels

“There are in life a few moments so beautiful, that even words are a sort of profanity.”

Diana Palmer (1946) American romance novelist

Life, Beauty

“There could be few men whose love for a woman had been written on his face with a knife.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkspell

Love, Men

“Why don't you like Noel Kahn?" Mike's voice made Aria jump. He stood a few feet away from Aria with a carton of orange juice in his hand."He's the man."
Aria groaned. "If you like him so much why don't you go out with him?”

Sara Shepard (1973) Author

“I turned and bumped my head against his chest a few times. It was the nearest hard surface.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Time

“William untucked the covers and stood, making a mental list of everything he'd need for the coming trip. A few blades, serrated and non serrated. A vial of acid. A bone saw. A spiked paddle. A cat-o'-nine-tails. And a bag of Gummy Bears.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Secret

Cats

“It was my friend Frank, a writer in San Francisco, who finally set me straight. When asked about my new look he put down his fork and stared at me for a few moments. "A bow tie announces to the world you can no longer get an erection.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

World

“Then I reckon we got ourselves a good old-fashioned standoff."
…
Nobody moved, or said anything, for the next few moments.
"Old-fashioned standoffs are mighty borin”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: The Faceless Ones

Fashion

“A few nights later, I secretly hope that I might be a genius. Why else can no amount of sleeping pills fell my brain? But in the morning my daughter asks me what a cloud is and I cannot say.”

Jenny Offill book Dept. of Speculation

Source: Dept. of Speculation

Hope, Sleep, Daughters, Night

“Truly amazing, what people can get used to, as long as there are a few compensations.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

People

“Is Hopper celebrating with you?”

“Hopper? Why would—” My mouth snapped shut for a few moments. “Oh. I, uh, kind of forgot about him.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

“And there you have it… if I knew that I could only have a few nights in that man's arms or nothing, I would take those magic nights and use them to keep me warm for the rest of my life.”

Karen Marie Moning book To Tame a Highland Warrior

Source: To Tame a Highland Warrior

Life, Night

“Anybody who doesn't know that politics is crime has got a few screws loose.”

James Ellroy (1948) Novelist, short story writer, essayist, memoirist

“I know very few young people, but it seems to me that they are all possessed with an almost fatal hunger for permanence.”

Evelyn Waugh book Vile Bodies

Source: Vile Bodies

Hunger, People

“Most lead lives at worst so painful, at best so monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, the longing to transcend themselves if only for a few moments, is and has always been one of the principle appetites of the soul.”

Aldous Huxley book The Doors of Perception

Source: The Doors of Perception

Pain, Soul

“These are our few live seasons. Let us live them as purely as we can, in the present.”

Annie Dillard book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Source: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Season

“White Chocolate. Intense, sweet. But not deep. Okay for prom dates or flings, but not to get serious.. Milk chocolates are guys you could date for like a few months, and dark chocolates are for love.”

E. Lockhart (1967) American writer of novels as E. Lockhart (mainly for teenage girls) and of picture books under real name Emily J…

Love, Guy

“Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince

Men, Nature, Training

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Facebook post, 4/8/15

“I've looked at the world for quite a few years now and I've found that if I don't laugh, I'll probably end up crying."
- Prince Kheldar of Drasnia”

David Eddings (1931–2009) American novelist

Source: Demon Lord of Karanda

World, Cry

“I remember that I'm invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Source: Invisible Man

World, Sleep

“I laid my hand on top of theirs, and all I could think was, Is this how revolutions begin? Not with a proclamation or a riot, but with a few people in a room somewhere with their hands clasped and a purpose.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Bullet

Source: Bullet

People, Thinking

“One of the few downsides to being awakened is that we no longer require sleep; therefore we also no longer dream. It's a shame, because if I could dream, I know I'd dream about you.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Dreams, Sleep

“How is it that I'd nearly been smothered to death, and yet I could sit there and notice things like my stepbrother's abdominal muscles a few minutes later?”

Meg Cabot book Shadowland

Source: Shadowland

Death

“In a calm, clear voice, she suggested that the wyrsa in question could do several highly improbable, athletically difficult and possibly biologically impractical things involving its own mother, a few household implements, and a dead fish.”

Mercedes Lackey (1950) American novelist and short story writer

Source: The Silver Gryphon

Question, Fish, Dead

“It was a sort of love few other people could understand. It was total and it was overwhelming and it could be cruel.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Love, People, Understanding

“I once wrestled with an angel. He won, but I learned a few things.”

Arturo Pérez-Reverte (1951) Spanish writer and journalist

Angels, Learning

“The problem with every story is you tell it after the fact. Every play-by-play description on the radio, the home runs and strikeouts, even that's delayed a few minutes. Even live television is postponed a couple seconds. Even Sound and light can only go so fast.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 1

Home, Problem, Light

“Nico’s anger turned as cold and dark as his blade. He’d been morphed into a few plants himself, and he didn’t appreciate it. He hated people like Bryce Lawrence, who inflicted pain just for fun.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Pain, Hate, People, Anger

“Fine. Seer knows best, even if he is nuts. Maybe I can stand to wait a few more… whoa. What the hell happened to my car?
-Melissa”

Scott Westerfeld book Blue Noon

Source: Blue Noon

Cars, Hell, Waiting

“It was sometimes inconvenient to have the gold-green, slit-pupilled eyes of a cat, but this was usually easily hidden with a small glamour, and if not, well, there were quite a few ladies-and men-who didn't find it a drawback.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: What Really Happened in Peru

Men, Cats

“Plutarch rushes to reassure me. "Oh, no, Katniss. Not your wedding. Finnick and Annie's. All you need to do is show up and pretend to be happy for them."
"That's one of the few things I won't have to pretend, Plutarch," I tell him.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Happiness, Wedding

“Here's to the few who forgive what you do, and the fewer who don't even care”

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

Forgiveness

“In those first few hours officially single again the world seems like it expands, suddenly bigger and more vast now that you have to get through it alone.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

World

“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.”

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

Letter to Alexander Donald (7 February 1788)
1780s
Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Books, World, Family

“I had always felt that mittens were a few steps back on the evolutionary scale-- why, I wondered, would we want to make ourselves into a less agile version of lobster.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets with in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”

Jonathan Swift The Battle of the Books and Other Short Pieces

Source: The Battle of the Books and Other Short Pieces

World

“I’ve lived a long time,” Magnus said. “So many years, and no, it doesn’t feel like enough. I won’t lie and say it does. I want to live on—partly because of you, Alec. I have never wanted to live so much as I have these past few months, with you.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Lie, Feeling, Time, Past

“A leader is one who, out of madness or goodness, volunteers to take upon himself the woe of the people. There are few men so foolish, hence the erratic quality of leadership in the world.”

John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic

"They Thought They Were Better" in TIME magazine (21 July 1980) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924295,00.html

Men, People, World, Madness

“If we're going to the Silent City, you might want to get dressed. I mean, I appreciate the bra-and-panties look, but I don't know if the Silent Brothers will. There are only a few of the left, and I don't want them to die of excitement.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“We spent all those years talking about stuff we had in common, and the last few months noticing all the ways we were different and it broke both of our hearts.”

Nick Hornby (1957) English novelist

Way, Heart

“There will be boys who will tell you you're beautiful, but only a few will see you.”

Laura Ruby American writer

Source: Bone Gap

Beauty, Boy

“The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything.”

Walter Bagehot (1826–1877) British journalist, businessman, and essayist

Shakespeare
Literary Studies (1879)
Context: The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.

People, Books

“He’d pleasured Hera and a few thousand others, and when
Hera learned about those thousand others…heads had rolled.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Kiss

Pleasure, Learning

“When you discard arrogance, complexity, and a few other things that get in the way, sooner or later you discover that simple, childlike, and mysterious secret known to those of the Uncarved Block: Life is Fun.”

Benjamin Hoff book The Tao of Pooh

The Tao of Who?
Source: The Tao of Pooh (1982)

Life, Secret, Way

“You are the best person I've met in years, and if I'd met you in a year's time, or maybe even a few months, I know we could be happy together, but I can't give you what you need.”

Jane Green (1968) British writer

Source: Mr. Maybe