Quotes about form
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“Romantic poses aside, let us recognize that "falling in love"… is an inferior state of mind, a form of transitory imbecility.”

José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist

Love

“Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form.”

Robert Bringhurst The Elements of Typographic Style

Source: The Elements of Typographic Style

“Only one form of contagion travels faster than a virus. And that's fear.”

Dan Brown book Inferno

Source: Inferno

Fear, Travel

“In forming an estimate of sins, we are often imposed upon by imagining that the more hidden the less heinous they are.”

John Calvin book Institutes of the Christian Religion

Source: Institutes of the Christian Religion

Imagination

“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

Source: The Collected Works

History

“There is a curious thing that happens with the passage of time: a calcification of character… Change isn't always for the worst; the shell that forms around a piece of sand looks to some people like an irritation, and to others, like a pearl.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

People, Change, Time

“Imagination is a very high sort of seeing, which does not come by study, but by the intellect being where and what it sees, by sharing the path, or circuits of things through forms, and so making them translucid to others.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Imagination, Study

“And he thinks that if his soul had a form, this is what it would be. A baby sleeping in his arms.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

Soul, Thinking, Sleep, Baby

“If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms.”

Octavio Paz (1914–1998) Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature

André Breton or the Quest of the Beginning
Source: Alternating Current (1967)
Context: If we are a metaphor of the universe, the human couple is the metaphor par excellence, the point of intersection of all forces and the seed of all forms. The couple is time recaptured, the return to the time before time.

Universe

“Something that you feel will find its own form.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Feeling

“God, he suddenly understood, was love in its purest form, and in these last months with his children, he had felt His touch as surely as he had heard the music spilling from Ronnie's hands.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

Love, God, Children, Music

“Half-man, half-beast, all nightmare. The shapeshifter warrior form.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

“The important people in our lives leave imprints. They may stay or go in the physical realm, but they are always there in your heart, because they helped form your heart. There's no getting over that.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

People, Help, Heart

“I am absolutely convinced that meaninglessness does not come form being weary of pain; meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure.”

Ravi Zacharias (1946) Indian philosopher

Source: Can Man Live Without God

Pain, Pleasure

“In struggling against anguish one never produces serenity; the struggle against anguish only produces new forms of anguish.”

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist

“Puns are the highest form of literature.”

Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980) British filmmaker

Dick Cavett Show (8 June 1972).

Literature, Funny

“It is within our power not to make a judgement about something, and so not disturb our minds; for nothing in itself possesses the power to form our judgements.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

“MIND, n. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Its chief activity consists in the endeavour to ascertain its own nature, the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothing but itself to know itself with.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Secret, Nature

“Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest form of cowardice.”

Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British journalist

Fear

“She watched his lips forming the words, at the same time she heard them under her skin, under her winter coat, so near and full of warmth that she felt herself go hot.”

Jhumpa Lahiri book Interpreter of Maladies

Source: Interpreter of Maladies

Winter, Time

“That millions of people share the same forms of mental pathology does not make these people sane.”

Erich Fromm The Sane Society

Source: The Sane Society

People

“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Despair

“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…”

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

1770s, Declaration of Independence (1776)
Context: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Life, Happiness, People

“I'm almost there, almost to the barricade, when I thinks she hears me. Because for just a moment, she catches sight of me, her lips form my name.

And that's when the rest of the parachutes go off.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Thinking

“Bad form, Regin! Wrong car."
Immediately after, the house shook again. "Oh, much better!" Nix assured them. "That was Bowen's!”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night

Cars, Housing

“Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.”

Agnes de Mille (1905–1993) American dancer and choreographer

“Think of yourselves as a hand. Each of you is a finger, and without the others you're useless. Alone, a finger can't grasp, or control, or form a fist. You are nothing on your own, and everything together.”

Karen Traviss British science fiction author

Thinking

“There was hope in him, and soon perhaps the outline of his journey would take form.”

Carson McCullers book The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Source: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Hope

“We'll meet you here. Hopefully everyone will be in human form." A wry smile. "Though I'll warn you, he's not a whole lot more pleasant that way. At least as a wolf, he can't talk.”

Kelley Armstrong (1968) Canadian writer

Source: The Rising

Smile, Way, Wolf

“Keep true to the rare music in your heart, to the marvelous and unique form that is and shall always be nothing else but you. Keep to that and you can do no wrong, which I realize is easier said than done.”

Mark Z. Danielewski (1965) Novelist

Music, Heart

“When two or more people agree on an issue, I form on the other side.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

People

“The demon bared its greenish fangs. "This is my true form. An ugly surprise for you, I suppose."
"I daresay it's an improvement," said Will. "You weren't much to look at before, and at least the horns are dramatic.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.”

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

Dreams, Reality

“It is less mortifying to believe one's self unpopular than insignificant, and vanity prefers to assume that indifference is a latent form of unfriendliness.”

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American novelist, short story writer, designer

Indifference

“I need to be silent for a while, worlds are forming in my heart.”

Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) German theologian

World, Heart

“Love is the most difficult and dangerous form of courage. Courage is the most desperate, admirable and noble kind of love.”

Delmore Schwartz (1913–1966) American poet

Source: Last and Lost Poems

Love, Courage

“I was the basest of readers. All I wanted was my own world, and myself in it, given back to me in artful shapes and accessible form.”

Ian McEwan book Sweet Tooth

Source: Sweet Tooth

World, Art

“People don't need love. What they need is success in one form or another. It can be love but it needn't be.”

Charles Bukowski book Factotum

Source: Factotum (1975), Ch. 52

Love, People, Success

“She was experiencing the same odd happiness and odd sadness as then. The sadness meant: We are at the last station. The happiness meant: We are together. The sadness was form, the happiness content. Happiness filled the space of sadness.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Happiness, Sadness

“We must never shed tears
That is the life form’s defeat and if we give into the emotions then it only becomes proof of our inability to control it.”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Life, Tear

“One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper pattern at the right moment.”

Hart Crane (1899–1932) American writer

“One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Source: Brave New World

Suffering

“Spontaneous combustion IS a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

“Books: a beautifully browsable invention that needs no electricity and exists in a readable form no matter what happens.”

Nicholson Baker (1957) Novelist, essayist, non-fiction writer

Books

“Noght o word spak he more than was nede,
And that was seyd in forme and reverence,
And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence.
Souninge in moral vertu was his speche,
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue, l. 305 - 310
Source: The Canterbury Tales
Context: Of studie took he most cure and most hede.
Noght o word spak he more than was nede,
And that was seyd in forme and reverence,
And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence.
Souninge in moral vertu was his speche,
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.

“Our own heart, and not other men's opinions, forms our true honor.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

Men, Heart

“Happy will the house be in which the relationships are formed from character.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Happiness, Housing

“It has been discovered that with a dull urban population, all formed under a mechanical system of State education, a suggestion or command, however senseless and unreasoned, will be obeyed if it be sufficiently repeated.”

Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) writer

Source: An Essay on the Restoration of Property

Education

“… I discovered life sometimes has a way of giving you what you need, but not in the form you expect.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Life, Way

“Words form the thread on which we string our experiences.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

“We never know how high we are till we are called to rise. Then if we are true to form our statures touch the skies.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

Source: Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson

“That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

God, Idea, Universe

“In the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty -six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society.”

John Grogan (1958) American journalist

Source: Bad Dogs Have More Fun: Selected Writings on Family, Animals, and Life from The Philadelphia Inquirer

“They hadn’t counted on the highly controlled jabberjay having the brains to adapt to the wild, to pass on its genetic code, to thrive in a new form. They hadn’t anticipated its will to live.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

“Who? Who is but the form following the function of what, and what I am is a man in a mask.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

“Like every child, I adored her. Until I formed a brain and got to know her.”

Augusten Burroughs Possible Side Effects

Source: Possible Side Effects

“Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them's making a poop, the other one's carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

Life, Dogs

“Democracy is the most vile form of government.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Democracy

“If I ever form a clan, we'll be the anti-cheerleaders and walk under the bleacher forming mild acts of mayhem.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

“She discovered with great delight that one does not love one's children just because they are one's children but because of the friendship formed while raising them.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Love, Friendship, Children

“Finally, the scariest thing about abuse of any shape or form, is, in my opinion, not the abuse itself, but that if it continues it can begin to feel commonplace and eventually acceptable.”

Alan Cumming (1965) Scottish actor

Source: Not My Father's Son

Feeling

“Good words," I replied. "But deeds must prove it also; and after he is well, remember you don't forget resolutions formed in the hour of fear.”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Source: Wuthering Heights

Fear, Forgetting

“When air is charged with emotions, an attempt to teach is often perceived as a form of judgment and rejection.”

Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“At any rate, let us love for a while, for a year or so, you and me. That's a form of divine drunkenness that we can all try. There are only diamonds in the whole world, diamonds and perhaps the shabby gift of disillusion.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

"The Diamond As Big As The Ritz"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)

Love, World

“The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

Source: Desert Solitaire

Love, Life, Flowers, Freedom

“I've reached the age where bruises are formed from failures within rather than accidents without.”

Nicole Krauss book Great House

Source: Great House

Age, Failure

“The bastard form of mass culture is humiliated repetition: content, ideological schema, the blurring of contradictions—these are repeated, but the superficial forms are varied: always new books, new programs, new films, news items, but always the same meaning.”

Roland Barthes (1915–1980) French philosopher, critic and literary theorist

La forme bâtarde de la culture de masse est la répétition honteuse: on répète les contenus, les schèmes idéologiques, le gommage des contradictions, mais on varie les formes superficielles: toujours des livres, des émissions, des films nouveaux, des faits divers, mais toujours le même sens.
"Modern," in The Pleasure of the Text (1975)

Books

“An image of thought called philosophy has been formed historically and it effectively stops people from thinking.”

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

Source: Dialogues II

People, Thinking

“Check out that one at the end. He's taken the form of a footstool. Weird… but somehow I like his style."

"That is a footstool.”

Jonathan Stroud book The Golem's Eye

Source: The Golem's Eye

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Books, Reading, Help

“We're all put to the test… but it never comes in the form or at the point we would prefer, does it?”

David Mamet (1947) American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director

“Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn (1944) American academic

Source: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

Wisdom, Understanding, Time, Patience

“… she starched and ironed her face, forming it into just what people wanted to see…”

Zora Neale Hurston book Their Eyes Were Watching God

Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God

People

“NASA scientists have discovered a new form of life,
unfortunately, it won't date them either.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Life

“Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,
Can words or music reach
The stillness…”

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

Music, Silence, Time

“in crowded rooms they would form words with their lips for each other's eyes”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

“I'm not an abstractionist. I'm not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.”

Mark Rothko (1903–1970) American painter

1950's <br class="br">Source: Conversations with Artists, Selden Rodman, New York Devin-Adair 1957. p. 93.; reprinted as 'Notes from a conversation with Selden Rodman, 1956', in Writings on Art: Mark Rothko (2006) ed. Miguel López-Remiro p. 119 books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=ZdYLk3m2TN4C&pg=PA119 <br class="br">Context: I am not an abstractionist... I am not interested in the relationships of color or form or anything else... I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on — and the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures show that I communicate those basic human emotions... The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point!

Color