Quotes about figure
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“I was in the shopping mall because that's where I go lately. For the last couple of weeks, I've been going there every day, trying to figure out why people go there. It's kind of a personal project.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

People, Personality

“When someone's wounded, the first order of business is to stop the bleeding. You can figure out later how best to help them heal.”

Jeannette Walls book Half Broke Horses

Source: Half Broke Horses

Business, Help

“I think you're the only person who gets me. When I'm with you, the world doesn't feel like a problem I can't figure out. Please come to the dance, because you're my music.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Source: House Rules

World, Music, Feeling, Problem

“Irony is Fate's most common figure of speech.”

Trevanian book Shibumi

Source: Shibumi

Fate

“True success is figuring out your life and career so you never have to be around jerks.”

John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer

Source: Role Models

Life, Jerk, Success

“She wanted more, more slang, more figures of speech, the bee's knees, the cats pajamas, horse of a different color, dog-tired, she wanted to talk like she was born here, like she never came from anywhere else”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Dogs, Color, Cats, Bee

“Jason looked like her was trying to figure out an equation. "Let me get this straight. Your table ran away… because you polished him with windex.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Diaries

Source: The Demigod Diaries

“Sometimes that mountain you've been climbing is just a grain of sand, and what you've been up there searching for forever, is in your hands. When you figure out love is all that matters after all it sure makes everything else seem so small.”

Carrie Underwood (1983) American country music singer

Love, Search, Mountain

“Wait a minute! Wait a minute! I figured this out.
I know what's wrong with what we've done in Iraq.
We've been following time as it goes forward.
What a classic mistake. Linear time is so pre-9-11.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Time, Waiting

“Here's an easy way to figure out if you're in a cult: If you're wondering whether you're in a cult, the answer is yes.”

Stephen Colbert book I Am America (And So Can You!)

Source: I Am America

Way

“They say the secret of success is being at the right place at the right time, but since you never know when the right time is going to be, I figure the trick is to find the right place and just hang around.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Secret, Time, Success

“you're the gallagher girl. figure it out."- zach”

Ally Carter Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Source: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Girl

“I've concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress genius because we haven't yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935–2018) American teacher, book author

Source: Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling, New Society Publishers (2013) p. xxii

Women, Men, Education, Thinking

“He couldn't figure out if she was immensely well adjusted or seriously messed up.”

Jonathan Franzen book The Corrections

Source: The Corrections

“When you can't figure out what to do, it's time for a nap.”

Mason Cooley (1927–2002) American academic

Time

“He had on a funny T-shirt, as usual. Today's featured acartoon figure running from a giant T. rex, and it read EXERCISE: SOME MOTIVATIONREQUIRED.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Exercises, Reading

“How folks lay claim to a loved one is they give you a name of their own. They figure to label you as their property.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

Love

“Heroes rarely look the way we draw them in our minds: attractive, imposing figures with rippling muscles and strong chins. More times than not they are humble beings, small and flawed. It is only their spirits that are beautiful and strong.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Gift

Beauty, Way, Strong, Time

“If you think that moral reasoning is something we do to figure out the truth, you’ll be constantly frustrated by how foolish, biased, and illogical people become when they disagree with you.”

Jonathan Haidt (1963) American psychologist

Source: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012)

People, Truth, Thinking

“If it looks like a hallway, feels like a hallway, and acts like a hallway—is it important to figure out that it isn’t a hallway?”

Patricia Briggs book Silver Borne

Source: Silver Borne

Feeling

“I figured we'd be too busy running for our lives than for him to make a move anyway. (Dana)”

Jenna Black (1965) American writer

Source: Glimmerglass

Business

“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

“You cannot figure out crazy. Just keep smiling and nodding.”

Ray Garton (1962) American writer

Smile

“I didn't bother to explain about the glitter in my hair. I figured they could think it was a family trait. We all glittered, just like the Cullens in Twilight.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: My Double Life

Family, Thinking

“High school taught me a valuable lesson about glasses: Don't wear them. Contacts have always seemed like too much work, so instead I just squint, figuring that if something is more than ten feet away, I'll just deal with it when I get there.”

David Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Source: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

School

“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

“When I was a fetus, I used to sneak out at night when my mother was sleeping. I figured I should start stealing stuff while I still had no fingerprints.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Sleep, Night

“Maybe it's information the whitecoats never wanted anyone to figure out.' Fang said in the hollow-y voice he used sometimes when things got unusually weird- as opposed to regular weird.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Maximum Ride The Angel Experiment

“I'm a ghost," said the small figure, then added, a little uncertainly, "Boo?”

John Connolly book The Gates

Source: The Gates

“Everytime I look at a zebra, I can't figure out whether it's black with white stripes or white with black stripes, and that frustrates me.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Source: House Rules

“It was silly but incredibly sweet, these people spending so much energy trying to figure me out. The answer: I don't like cherries.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

People

“Hodge sent me to wake you up. Actually, he offered to wake you up himself, but since it's five a. m., I figured you'd be less cranky if you had something nice to look at.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Jace to Clary, pg. 162
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

“I don’t know, Sage. You threw yourself in the line of pepper spray for me. You must like me just a little bit.” “I— I figured it’d be a shame to ruin your pretty face,” I stammered.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

“Sometimes I can't figure designers out. It's as if they flunked human anatomy.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

“Me. A bad boy. For eating boiled peanuts in the graveyard. Go figure.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

Boy

“According to the latest official figures, 43% of all statistics are totally worthless.”

Ashleigh Brilliant (1933) American author and cartoonist

“The figure in the doorway ducked; the brick hit the wall, and Luke straightened up and looked at her curiously. I hope when we're married, that's not the way you greet me every day when I come home, he said.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Hope, Way, Home

“finally has figured out there aren't enough quiet little British films around to protect her from the real world”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

World

“She died--this was the way she died;
And when her breath was done,
Took up her simple wardrobe
And started for the sun.
Her little figure at the gate
The angels must have spied,
Since I could never find her
Upon the mortal side.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Source: Selected Poems

Angels, Way, Sun

“How is a person supposed to prepare for what happens tomorrow when there's just no figuring out today?”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Personality

“The corners of his lips curled. “You and your secrets. Ah,, just when I think I’ve solved one mystery about you, up comes another one. I will figure you out one day. Consider yourself warned.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Poison Princess

Secret, Thinking

“If the guy you’re dating doesn’t seem to be completely into you, or you feel the need to start ‘figuring him out,’ please consider the glorious thought that he might just not be that into you. And then free yourself to go find someone that is.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Guy, Feeling

“Workaholics aren't heroes. They don't save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is home because she figured out a faster way”

Jason Fried software entrepreneur

Source: Rework

Way, Home, Motivational

“Hang Mortmain," said Will. "And I mean that literally, of course, but also figuratively.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

“"We work through this together, remember? No shutting me out. No epic sulks."
"I was figuring I could sulk for Idris in the next Olympics."
"You and Alec could go for pair sulking. You'd get the gold."”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Clary Fray and Jace Herondale, pg. 118
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

“Clary - "Look you can date whoever you want and I will totally support you. I am all about support. Support is my middle name."

Simon- "So that's why you never told me your middle name. I figured it was something embarrasing.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Variant: Look, you can date whoever you want and I will totally support you. I am all about support. Support is my middle name.”
“So that’s why you never told me your middle name. I figured it was something embarrassing.
Source: City of Glass

Support

“We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Art

“It’s life. You don’t figure it out. You just climb up on the beast and ride.”

Rebecca Wells book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Life, Motivational, Back To Work

“Stick Boy liked Match Girl,
he liked her a lot.
He liked her cute figure,
he thought she was hot.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Girl, Boy

“So softly Lizzy has to lean over to hear me, I say, 'I can't face the world until I know why I'm here.'
You're kidding me.'
I shake my head vehemently. 'No. I need to figure out my purpose. Until I do, what's the use of getting up?”

Wendy Mass Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Source: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

World

“I looked up to find a slim blond figure standing in the doorway to the kitchen. For a frozen second, I looked at him and he looked at me, and then I screamed and threw my coffee, which hit him square in the groin.”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Hunt the Moon

Coffee

“But I don't have anything left inside of me to figure out where I fit in or what I want. If I want anything, it's to know what's possible to want.”

Amy Tan book The Bonesetter's Daughter

Source: The Bonesetter's Daughter

“Books are like truth serum-- if you don't read, you can't figure out what's real.”

Rodman Philbrick book Freak the Mighty

Source: Freak the Mighty

Truth, Books, Reading

“But the name Magnus Bane made him think of a towering sort of figure, with huge shoulders and formal purple warlock’s robes, calling down fire and lightning. Not Magnus himself, who was more of a cross between a panther and a demented elf.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Thinking

“I'm trying to make some sense out of the phrase "Everything happens for a reason," and I think I've figured out what the reason is - to pissed me off.”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Variant: I’m trying to make some sense out of the phrase “Everything happens for a reason,” and I think I’ve ﬁgured out what the reason is—to piss me off.
Source: Love, Rosie

Thinking, Sense

“Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say.”

Barbara Kingsolver (1955) American author, poet and essayist

People

“Remember this… develop a sense of nostalgia for something, or you'll never figure out what's important.”

Gary Shteyngart Super Sad True Love Story

Source: Super Sad True Love Story

Sense, Nostalgia

“Some people have been unkind. If I say I want to grow as an actress, they look at my figure. If I say I want to develop, to learn my craft, they laugh. Somehow they don't expect me to be serious about my work.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

People, Learning

“I had to take responsibility, even if it meant saying no to an authority figure, because I was the authority on me.”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

“Grover started to sniffle and I figured if I didn't cheer him up he'd either start bawling or chewing up my mattress. He tends to eat household objects whenever he gets upset.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“The only way that I could figure they could improve upon Coca-Cola, one of life's most delightful elixirs, which studies prove will heal the sick and occasionally raise the dead, is to put bourbon in it.”

Lewis Grizzard (1946–1994) American journalist

Life, Way, Study, Dead

“Now, I figured that the built-up gas in most boys' locker rooms was enough to cause an explosion, so I wasn't surprised when the flaming dodgeball ignited a huge WHOOOOOOOM!”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Boy

“We have to figure this out, Jackson, so leash the lust.”
His chin went up as he stared down at her. “Woman, you ask the impossible.”
“Do it anyway!”

Lori Foster (1958) American writer

Source: Savor the Danger

“Someone, I was beginning to suspect, had a bit of a gangster complex.
It wasn't really very hard to figure out who. I mean, I was guessing it wasn't Christopher's aunt Jackie.”

Meg Cabot book Being Nikki

Source: Being Nikki

“The pain was so deep and so raw. There were days I would have died just to forget. The problem was, I couldn't figure out how to get her out of my mind. How do you kill that kind of pain?”

Ted Dekker book Kiss

Source: Kiss

Pain, Problem, Forgetting

“It took me years to figure out that upset was upset, and tumultuousness was not the same thing as passion. Love isn't drama.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Secret Life of Prince Charming

Love, Passion

“Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to raise, kill, and eat animals the way we do.”

Michael Pollan book The Omnivore's Dilemma

Source: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: The Penguin Press, 2006), p. 333.
Context: The industrialization — and brutalization — of animals in America is a relatively new, evitable, and local phenomenon: No other country raises and slaughters its food animals quite as intensively or as brutally as we do. No other people in history has lived at quite so great a remove from the animals they eat. Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to raise, kill, and eat animals the way we do.

Way, Animals

“If you could figure out how to live with family then you'd gone a long way toward finding your peace.”

Ben Fountain book Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Source: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

Family, Peace, Way

“I wouldn't touch a hot dog unless you put a condom on it! You realize that the job of a hot dog is to use parts of the animal that the Chinese can't figure out how to make into a belt?”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

I'm Swiss (2005)

Dogs, Animals, Parting

“Things are so hard to figure out when you live from day to day in this feverish and silly world.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Source: On the Road: The Original Scroll

World

“The witty woman is a tragic figure in American life. Wit destroys eroticism and eroticism destroys wit, so women must choose between taking lovers and taking no prisoners.”

Florence King (1936–2016) American writer

Life, Women, Lovers

“The job of every generation is to discover the flaws of the one that came before it. That's part of growing up, figuring out all the ways your parents and their friends are broken.”

Justine Larbalestier (1967) Australian young-adult fiction author

Source: Zombies Vs. Unicorns

Way, Parent, Parting

“Watching him with one eye, she wondered if men ever figured out that they were more appealing when they were pursuing their own work than when they were pursuing a woman.”

Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow

Source: The Sparrow

Men

“That's when you know for sure somebody loves you. They figure out what you need and they give it to you -- without you asking.”

Adriana Trigiani (1970) American film director

Source: Very Valentine

Love

“What is hell? Hell is oneself.
Hell is alone, the other figures in it
Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from
And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.”

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

Hell

“Our job is not to figure out the 'how'. The 'how' will show up out of the commitment and believe in the 'what”

Jack Canfield (1944) American writer

“The human mind works at low efficiency. Twenty percent is the figure usually given. When, momentarily, there is a flash of greater power, it is termed a hunch, or insight, or intuition.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation and Empire

Source: Foundation and Empire

“Live your life the way you want. You'll figure it out.”

John Grisham (1955) American lawyer, politician, and author

Life, Way

“If we experience any failures or setbacks, we do not forget them because they offend our self-esteem. Instead we reflect on them deeply, trying to figure out what went wrong and discern whether there are any patterns to our mistakes.”

Robert Greene book Mastery

Source: Mastery

Failure, Forgetting

“There was no warning, not even a knock. The door flew open, and he forgot his present aches and pains in anticipation of what lay in store. The figure that stood in the door was not that of an enemy. It was worse. It was his mother.”

Elizabeth Peters The Ape Who Guards the Balance

Source: The Ape Who Guards the Balance

Pain

“Nor would anybody suspect. If was one thing all people took for granted, was conviction that if you feed honest figures into a computer, honest figures come out. Never doubted it myself till I met a computer with a sense of humor.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress

Source: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

People, Sense

“I would never be popular. I didn't want to be; I liked being shy. I'd never be the smartest or the hottest or the happiest. By eighth grade you start to figure out your limits.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

“Addicts, as a group, generally score far above average o intelligence tests.
Why?
You tell me.
I guess maybe we're smart enough to have figured out how shitty things are and we decide addiction is the only way to deal with it.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

Way, Intelligence

“I mean, say that you figure that everything is senseless, then it can't be quite senseless because you are aware that it's senseless and your awareness of senselessness almost gives it sense. You
know what I mean?”

Charles Bukowski book Pulp

Source: Pulp

Sense

“sup? i'm working. on what? my suicide note. i can't figure out how to end it. lol”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Suicide

“It begins in delight and ends in wisdom. The figure is the same for love.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

The Figure a Poem Makes (1939)
Variant: A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
Context: It should be of the pleasure of a poem itself to tell how it can. The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom. The figure is the same for love.

Love, Wisdom