Quotes about figure
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“I really agree that Yog-Sothoth is a basically immature conception, & unfitted for really serious literature. The fact is, I have never approached serious literature yet. But I consider the use of actual folk-myths as even more childish than the use of new artificial myths, since in the former one is forced to retain many blatant peurilities & contradictions of experienced which could be subtilised or smoothed over if the supernaturalism were modelled to order for the given case. The only permanently artistic use of Yog-Sothothery, I think, is in symbolic or associative phantasy of the frankly poetic type; in which fixed dream-patterns of the natural organism are given an embodiment & crystallisation... But there is another phase of cosmic phantasy (which may or may not include frank Yog-Sothothery) whose foundations appear to me as better grounded than those of ordinary oneiroscopy; personal limitations regarding the sense of outsideness. I refer to the aesthetic crystallisation of that burning & inextinguishable feeling of mixed wonder & oppression which the sensitive imagination experiences upon scaling itself & its restrictions against the vast & provocative abyss of the unknown. This has always been the chief emotion in my psychology; & whilst it obviously figures less in the psychology of the majority, it is clearly a well-defined & permanent factor from which very few sensitive persons are wholly free.... Reason as we may, we cannot destroy a normal perception of the highly limited & fragmentary nature of our visible world of perception & experience as scaled against the outside abyss of unthinkable galaxies & unplumbed dimensions—an abyss wherein our solar system is the merest dot... The time has come when the normal revolt against time, space, & matter must assume a form not overtly incompatible with what is known of reality—when it must be gratified by images forming supplements rather than contradictions of the visible & measurable universe. And what, if not a form of non-supernatural cosmic art, is to pacify this sense of revolt—as well as gratify the cognate sense of curiosity?”

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author

Letter to Frank Belknap Long (27 February 1931), in Selected Letters III, 1929-1931 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, p. 293
Non-Fiction, Letters, to Frank Belknap Long

World, Dreams, Art, Feeling

“I’ve learned so many things since then. I’ve changed in a way that involves elimination for the sake of evolution. There’s less emphasis on trying to figure things out. It’s about letting things be. I’m focusing on listening to the silence underneath everything. That’s what I try to connect with. I can listen to the silence right here, right now while we’re talking, and it feels so good. I’m in love with the silence.”

Erykah Badu (1971) American neo-soul singer

On how her viewpoint has changed since releasing the album Baduizm in “In Conversation: Erykah Badu” https://www.vulture.com/2018/01/erykah-badu-in-conversation.html in New York Magazine (Jan 2018)

Love, Making love, Way, Feeling

“The rediscovery of Spinoza by the Germans contributed to the shaping of the cultural destinies of the German people for almost two hundred years. Just as at the time of the Reformation no other spiritual force was as potent in German life as the Bible, so during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries no other intellectual force so dominated German life as Spinozism. Spinoza became the magnet to German steel. Except for Immanuel Kant and Herbart, Spinoza attracted every great intellectual figure in Germany during the last two centuries, from the greatest, Goethe, to the purest, Lessing.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

S. M. Melamed, Spinoza and Buddha: Visions of a Dead God (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1933)
M - R

Life, People, Time

“He found him a tall figure, with a slightly flabby body, shining hair and well-trimmed beard. He appeared impressive, well-dressed and his eyes were exceptionally eloquent that drew everyone’s attention. There was deep note of mystery about his eyes…His style of conversation was always accompanied by his smile and too attractive which cast a spell on his addresses…He had a remarkable ability to assess others and immediately found out their mental level and their taste. Likewise, he had an enviable understanding of the context and situation in which he found himself placed.”

Zakir Hussain (politician) (1897–1969) 3rd President of India

Dr. Mujeeb, his friend during their stay in Germany in 1922, p. 75.
About Zakir Hussain, Quest for Truth (1999)

Smile, Understanding, Appearance

“For anyone seeking meaning for his life a figure from Greek mythology comes to mind. It is that of Atlas, bearing with endless perseverance the weight of the heavens on his back.”

Hyman George Rickover (1900–1986) United States admiral

Atlas, resolutely bearing his burden and accepting his responsibility that gives us the example we seek. To seek out and accept responsibility; to persevere; to be committed to excellence; to be creative and courageous; to be unrelenting in the pursuit of intellectual development; to maintain high standards of ethics and morality; and to bring these basic principles of existence to bear through active participation in life — these are some of my ideas on the goals which must be met to achieve meaning and purpose in life.
And finally, the man who knows his purpose in life accepts praise humbly. He knows whatsoever talents we has were given him by the Lord and that these talents must be developed and used. In this way man renders thanks for the Lord's gift — and finds meaning in his life.
Thoughts on Man's Purpose in Life (1974)

Life, Perseverance

“You have to figure it out you have to be mom and a professional athlete. There’s a lot of athletes going to Tokyo that are also fellow mom athletes and I’m excited to catch up with them and kind of just represent all the moms, soccer moms united.”

Alex Morgan (1989) American soccer player

"‘Soccer Mom’ Alex Morgan Back And Looking For Gold In Tokyo" https://www.teamusa.org/News/2021/July/08/Soccer-Mom-Alex-Morgan-Back-And-Looking-For-Gold-In-Tokyo (July 8, 2021)

Moms

“Don’t Care (If I tell you say I don’t care)
But if you leave me (Don’t Care)
I will follow another (Don’t Care)
Don’t Care (If I tell you say I don’t care)
But if you leave me (Don’t Care)
I will follow another (Don’t Care)

Oh yeah, Baby don’t forget that time we spend together, even though the breakup don tee like one year, get her body shaking like a jelly thing Some days look like the style I wanna Figure out”

Dc Themmie

Source: Song Don't Care

Time, Baby, Forgetting

“My life does not lack flavour nor colour. It is like a hit show. It has a very interesting cast but I still can't figure out the plot.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Life

“To come up with the idea that you can bargain with the future is the major idea of humankind. We suffer. What do we do about it? We figure out how to bargain with the future. And we minimize suffering in that manner.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifi5KkXig3s "Biblical Series IV: Adam and Eve: Self-Consciousness, Evil, and Death"

Idea, Suffering, Future

“For not one of us asserts that “God partakes of form or colour.” Nor does He even partake of “motion,” because He stands firm, and His nature is permanent, and He invites the righteous man also to do the same, saying: “But as for thee, stand thou here by Me.” And if certain expressions indicate a kind of motion, as it were, on His part, such as this, “They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,” we must understand them in this way, that it is by sinners that God is understood as moving, or as we understand the “sleep” of God, which is taken in a figurative sense, or His “anger,” or any other similar attribute. But “God does not partake even of substance.””

Origen book Contra Celsum

Against Celsus, Book 6, Chapter 64

God, Way, Understanding, Nature

“she tapped her finger and nothing happened and she thought she had lost her magic, but it had only changed and it took her awhile to figure it out.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Change

“The mystery of death, the riddle of how you could speak to someone and see them every day and then never again, was so impossible to fathom that of course we kept trying to figure it out, even when we were unconscious.”

Francine Prose (1947) American writer

Source: Goldengrove

Death

“People are so stupid. They think they've got the whole puzzle figured out, but they're really so far off.”

Laurie Faria Stolarz (1972) American writer

Source: Deadly Little Games

People, Stupidity, Thinking

“Things weren’t the same with us, not right away, and maybe not ever. We were growing up. We were still figuring out how to be in each other’s lives without being everything to each other.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

“I have never yet figured out what to do about good advice that you get, and that you know right away would help you, but that you cannot follow.”

Holly Lisle (1960) American writer

Source: The Silver Door

Help

“I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone.”

Bjarne Stroustrup (1950) Danish computer scientist, creator of C++

On his homepage http://www.stroustrup.com/bs_faq.html#really-say-that, Bjarne Stroustrup states that he did say the above sentence, but also adds "I very much doubt that the sentiment is original." Bjarne Stroustrup's FAQ: Did you really say that?, 2007-11-15 http://www.stroustrup.com/bs_faq.html#really-say-that,

“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Bean Trees

Animal Dreams.
Animal Dreams (1990)
Variant: The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.
Source: The Bean Trees

Life, Hope

“If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it. It sounds trivial and obvious, but if you unpack the idea it has extraordinary power.”

Scott Adams (1957) cartoonist, writer

Source: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

Idea, Success

“Secret Notes:
He wrote secret notes to people he hadn't met yet. Some of them aren't even born, he said, but we live in a strange neighborhood & they will need help figuring things out & I won't always be around to explain it to them.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

People, Secret, Help

“His whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

Future

“I feel like I'm playing chess underwater. The pieces keep floating away. I don't know where things are. I can't figure out tomorrow.”

Jerry Spinelli Smiles to Go

Source: Smiles to Go

Feeling

“It's not about having things figured out, or about communicating with other people, trying to make them understand what you understand. It's about a chicken dinner at a drive-in. A soft pillow. Things that don't need explaining.”

Ann Beattie (1947) Short story writer, novelist, professor

Source: Walks with Men

People, Communication, Understanding

“Well, because sometimes you love someone but they might not be the right
person for you. That takes some time to figure out”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Baby Proof

Love, Time, Personality

“So, tomorrow, I’m leaving. And I’m not going to let that happen again with anyone else. I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to be who I really am. And I’m going to figure out what that is.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“You’re all so obsessed with other worlds, you’re so convinced that this one is crap and everywhere else is great, but you’ve never bothered to figure out what’s going on here!”

Lev Grossman The Magician King

Source: The Magician King

World

“You figured that the only way I'd be happy is if I did the things you thought would be best for me.”

Jodi Picoult book Picture Perfect

Source: Picture Perfect

Happiness, Way

“Figure out what is real for you. No use leaning on someone else's story all your life.”

Shannon Hale book Austenland

Source: Austenland

Life

“I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to be who I really am. And I'm going to figure out what that is.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Women's dieting has become what Yale psychologist Judith Rodin calls a 'normative obsession,' a never-ending passion play given international coverage out of all proportion to the health risks associated with obesity, and using emotive language that does not figure even in discussions of alcohol or tobacco abuse. […] Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women's history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.”

Naomi Wolf book The Beauty Myth

Source: The Beauty Myth (1991), Chapter 6 : 'Hunger', p. 187

Women, Health, Alcohol, Beauty

“In twentieth-century Old Earth, a fast food chain took dead cow meat, fried it in grease, added carcinogens, wrapped it in petroleum-based foam, and sold nine hundred billion units. Human beings. Go figure.”

Dan Simmons book Hyperion

Source: Hyperion

Food, Dead

“Thanks to you, Gabs, we just figured out a half dozen ways not to rob the Henley.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

Way

“Maybe you had to leave in order to miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Variant: Maybe you had to leave in order to really miss a place; maybe you had to travel to figure out how beloved your starting point was.
Source: Handle with Care

Travel

“Nico studied his face – his sea-green eyes, his grin, his ruffled black hair. Somehow Percy Jackson seemed like a regular guy now, not a mythical figure. Not someone to idolize or crush on.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Guy, Study, Sea

“Horses were never wrong. They always did what they did for a reason, and it was up to you to figure it out.”

Jeannette Walls book Half Broke Horses

Source: Half Broke Horses

Horse

“I won’t tell you how I managed to break in, since I don’t want the authorities figuring out, but let’s just say that if you’re going to make a gate, make sure it reaches all the way to the ground.”

Meg Cabot book Shadowland

Source: Shadowland

Way

“The problem isn't finding out where you are gonna go-its figuring out what you are gonna do once you get there that is! (Jamie Sullivan)”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

Problem

“Jill was tall and slim, like most Moroi. With that figure came a modest chest. Angeline's chest… was not so modest.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

“He shook his head again. 'I just can't figure out why anyone in his right head would bother these Virgin River women.'

'Yeah. Makes no sense.' Jack said.”

Robyn Carr American writer

Source: Shelter Mountain

Women, Sense

“So,” I said at last, staring at my hands. “How’s, uh, your car?”

“I left it out on the street. Figured it’ll be fine there while I’m gone.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Cars

“I shall go on shining as a brilliantly meaningless figure in a meaningless world.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

World

“I (Percy) set Nico on guard duty with Beckendorf and the Stoll brothers, figuring he'd be safely out of the way.
…
"What's happening?" Nico demanded, trying to climb up next to me.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Way

“You and your name-dropping. 'I knew Michael'. 'I knew Sammael'. 'The angel Gabriel did my hair'. It's likewith biblical figures.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Angels

“I was in my bed trying to figure out why sometimes you can wake up and go back to sleep and other times you can't”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Sleep, Time

“I did not tell Fat this, but technically he had become a Buddha. It did not seem to me like a good idea to let him know. After all, if you are a Buddha you should be able to figure it out for yourself.”

Philip K. Dick book VALIS

Source: VALIS

Idea

“The way Leo figured it, he spent more time crashing than he did flying. If there was a rewards card for frequent crashers, he'd be, like, double platinum level.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Way, Time, Flying

“First you find out what you have, Dad would say. Then you figure out how to make it work for what you need, 'cause you don't get what you want. You get just what you have and no more.”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Source: Betrayals

“Be kind. It's worthwhile to make an effort to learn about other people and figure out what you might have in common with them.”

Viggo Mortensen (1958) American actor

People, Effort, Learning

“Sakura: Never figured you for the artistic type.
Sai: Looks can be decieving.”

Masashi Kishimoto book Naruto

Source: Naruto, Vol. 32: The Search for Sasuke

“there is no reason to constantly attempt to figure everything out.”

Michael Singer (1945) American landscape architect

Source: The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

“I have filled 3 Mead notebooks trying to figure out whether it was Them or Just Me.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Source: A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

“I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking. Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

People, World, Thinking, Sense

“People who ask confidently get more than those who are hesitant and uncertain. When you've figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness and confidence.”

Jack Canfield (1944) American writer

People, Confidence

“you got to figure out which end of the needle you’re gon be, the one that’s fastened to the thread or the end that pierces the cloth.”

Sue Monk Kidd (1948) Novelist

Source: The Invention of Wings

Clothes

“Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Books, Reading

“I buy wine according to the bottle design. After I get down the first glass it all tastes okay to me so I figure you go for something classy to look at on the table”

Janet Evanovich (1943) Novelist

Source: Smokin' Seventeen

Wine

“He could cheat on me and he would never tell me, and he would think less and less of me for not figuring it out. He would see me across the breakfast table, innocently slurping cereal, and know that I am a fool, and how can anyone respect a fool?”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Fools, Thinking, Cheating

“Maybe it was that nearly everyone else was dead and she felt a little bit dead too, but she figured that even a vampire deserved to be saved. Maybe she ought to leave him, but she wasn't going to.”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Dead

“I’m lost. And it’s my own fault. It’s about time I figured out that I can’t ask people to keep me found.”

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

People, Time

“Though, if you think about it, hostile, dethroned pseudodeities probably make disagreeable neighbors. You'll have to figure out something to do with him.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Hostility, Thinking

“I finally figured out that not every crisis can be managed. As much as we want to keep ourselves safe, we can't protect ourselves from everything. If we want to embrace life, we also have to embrace chaos.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Breathing Room

Life

“But I always worked harder when I was up against something, or when someone assumed I couldn't succeed. That's what drove me, all those nights studying. The fact that so many figured I couldn't do it.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Study, Night

“She wore a short skirt and a tight sweater and her figure described a set of parabolas that could cause cardiac arrest in a yak.”

Woody Allen book Getting Even

Source: Getting Even

“The goal of being alive is to figure out what it means to be alive.”

Chuck Klosterman book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

Source: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

“Suppose something goes wrong? Suppose you need a big full-figure woman like me to help straighten things out?"
Lula”

Janet Evanovich Four to Score

Source: Four to Score

Help

“In your walks about London you will sometimes see bent, haggard figures that look as if they had recently been caught in some powerful machinery. They are those fellows who got mixed up with Catsmeat when he was meaning well.”

P.G. Wodehouse book The Mating Season

Source: The Mating Season

“I have no more idea now of who I am than I did before. But at least I know that. And I'm starting to figure out who I want to be.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

Idea

“It is a do-it-yourself era: health care, real estate, police investigation. Go online and f*ing figure it out for yourself because everyone’s overworked and understaffed.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Health

“I think I've been rather reasonable about this whole situation."
"How do you figure?"
"They are still breathing, aren't they?”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Thinking

“Sorry. Was it awful?”
“Being a rat? No. First it was disorienting. I was suddenly at ankle-level with everyone. I thought I'd drunk a shrinking potion, but I couldn't figure out why I had this urge to chew used gum wrappers.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“Getting what you want is just as difficult as not getting what you want. Because then you have to figure out what to do with it instead of figuring out what to do without it.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“We are not simply in the universe, we are part of it. We are born from it. One might even say we have been empowered by the universe to figure itself out — and we have only just begun.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson book Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

2000s
Source: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Context: Yes, the universe had a beginning. Yes, the universe continues to evolve. And yes, every one of our body's atoms is traceable to the big bang and to the thermonuclear furnace within high-mass stars. We are not simply in the universe, we are part of it. We are born from it. One might even say we have been empowered by the universe to figure itself out — and we have only just begun.

Universe, Parting

“If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

“And she finds it difficult to believe—that a person would love her even when she isn't trying. Trying to figure out what other people need, trying to be worthy.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Love, People, Personality

“I figure if Eve could get us into this mess, I could get us out. After all, God really likes to see a go-getter.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

God

“But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.

Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Sea

“I’M PRETTY GOOD at multitasking, so I figured I could flee in terror and argue at the same time.”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Time

“I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this.

[, New York Times, April 19, 1992]”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Time

“Harry Dresden: The noise was deafening, and no one could have heard me anyway as I let out my own battle cry, which I figured was worth a shot. What the hell. "I don't believe in faeries!"”

Jim Butcher book Summer Knight

Source: The Dresden Files, Summer Knight (2002), Chapter 31

Hell, Cry

“But I still couldn't figure out what it all meant. The more I found out, the less I understood.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“Jamie: You know what I figured out today?
Landon: What?
Jamie: Maybe God has a bigger plan for me than I had for myself. Like this journey never ends. Like you were sent to me because I'm sick. To help me through all this. You're my angel.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Variant: Maybe God has a bigger plan for me that i had for myself,
likes, this journey never ends,
likes, you were sent to me because I'm sick, to help me through all this,
you're my angel!
Source: A Walk to Remember

God, Angels, Help

“Survive first. Figure out crayon drawing of destiny later.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Variant: Survive today. Figure out crayon drawing of destiny later.
Source: The Lost Hero

Drawing

“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer.”

Barbara Kingsolver (1955) American author, poet and essayist

People

“I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.”

Rita Mae Brown (1944) Novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

“I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

World

“I feel half faded away like some figure in the background of an old picture.”

Iris Murdoch book A Severed Head

Source: A Severed Head

Feeling

“Transition is always a relief. Destination means death to me. If I could figure out a way to remain forever in transition, in the disconnected and unfamiliar, I could remain in a state of perpetual freedom.”

David Wojnarowicz (1954–1992) American painter, photographer, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and AIDS activist

Source: Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration

Death, Way, Freedom

“Fine" I said icily. "I'll do this. but i want it noted that I'm doing this against my will."

"I think we already figured that out, Miss Hathaway.”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

Thinking

“I don’t know what I’m doing in the next five minutes and she has the next ten years figured out. I’ll worry about making it out of ninth grade alive. Then I’ll think about a career path.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Thinking

“The tail of Emily Windsnap"everyone has a secret. mines alittle different. i figured out i am a mermaid.”

Liz Kessler book The Tail of Emily Windsnap

Source: The Tail of Emily Windsnap

Secret

“Metaphor is one of a group of problem-solving medicines known as figures of speech which are normally used to treat literal thinking and other diseases.”

Grant Morrison book The Filth

Source: The Filth

Disease, Problem, Thinking

“Later he saw Jesus move from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark where he might be walking on the water and not know it and then suddenly know it and drown.”

Flannery O’Connor book Wise Blood

Source: Wise Blood

Tree, Water

“Like a cartoon world, where the figures are flat and outlined in black, jerking through some kind of goofy story that might be real funny if it weren't for the cartoon figures being real guys…”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

World, Jerk, Guy

“Didn't you ever have a father yourself? You don't want him for a reason. You want him because he's your father.' So I figured it's because I never had a father that I don't want one now. A person can't miss something she never had.”

Rebecca Stead book When You Reach Me

Source: When You Reach Me

Personality

“I sometimes wonder if it is just me, or if there are other women who figure out where they are supposed to be by going nowhere.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Women

“One serial killer sends me a human head in a box, and I get all spooked; Go figure.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Skin Trade

Source: Skin Trade

Box

“I am both happy and sad at the same time, and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Variant: So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.
Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Happiness, Sadness, Time

“One of the very first things I figured out about life… is that it's better to be a hopeful person than a cynical, grumpy one, because you have to live in the same world either way, and if you're hopeful, you have more fun.”

Barbara Kingsolver (1955) American author, poet and essayist

Life, World, Hope, Way

“In the end, you should always do the right thing, even if it's hard. I know that might not help you and that the right thing isn't always so easy to figure out.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

Help