Quotes about going
page 41

“Maybe the only thing I can definitely say about is this: That’s life. Maybe the only thing we can do is accept it, without really knowing what’s going on.”

Haruki Murakami book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Life

“The past is weird. I mean, does it really exist? It feels like it exists, but where is it? And if it did exists, but doesn’t now, then where did it go?”

Ruth Ozeki book A Tale for the Time Being

Source: A Tale for the Time Being

Feeling, Past

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast

Epigraph
Source: A Moveable Feast (1964)

Life

“And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Deep, Happy, Goodbye, Cute

“Well, normally I’m against big things. I think the world is going to be saved by millions of small things. Too many things can go wrong when they get big.” — Pete Seeger (on how he felt about attending his big 90th birthday bash last year)”

Pete Seeger (1919–2014) American folk singer

World, Birthday, Thinking

“I’m not going to die because I failed as someone else. I’m going to succeed as myself.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

And I'm gonna stay here and rock the mike until the next Korean-American, fag hag, shit starter, girl comic, trash talker comes up and takes my place!
From Her Tours and CDs, I'm The One That I Want Tour

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”

A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh

Source: Winnie-the-Pooh

“This is what is meant by last words: they are keys to unlock the afterlife. They're not last words but passwords, and as soon as they're spoken you can go.”

Daniel Wallace book Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions

Source: Big Fish

“Why worry about minor little details like clean air, clean water, safe ports and the safety net when Jesus is going to give the world an "Extreme Makeover: Planet Edition" right after he finishes putting Satan in his place once and for all?”

Arianna Huffington (1950) Greek-American author and syndicated columnist

World, Water

“People tend to stick to their own size group because it's easier on the neck. Unless they are romantically involved, in which case the size difference is sexy. It means: I am willing to go the distance for you.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

People

“Here," she said. "This is for you."
"I didn't really get you anything," I sputtered. "I mean, I didn't know that you were going to be here, and--"
"Don't worry. It's your embarrassment at not having the thought that counts.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“… he had a way of taking your hand which made it clear he'd have to be the one to let go."

From Alice Hoffman's "Local Girls", pg.102.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Local Girls

Way, Girl

“I smiled. "So this horse is your nephew, Sam?"
She glared at me. "Let's not go there."
"How did your dad father a horse?"
Blitzen coughed. "Actually, Loki was Sleipnir's mother."
"What--?"
"Let'snot go there," Sam warned.”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Smile, Horse

“I am going to marry my novels and have little short stories for children.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Kerouac, as quoted by Allen Ginsberg in The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice (2006), page 250.

Children

“I agree with you. Now let’s put on our big-girl panties and go convince Mr. Always Right that he’s seriously wrong.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Queen of Zombie Hearts

Girl

“And of course you wouldn't be going alone,' Will said impatiently. 'I would go with you. I wouldn't let anything happen to you.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“She told me to try not to go to college with a boyfriend. She said she didn"t want me to be the girl crying on the phone with her boyfriend and saying no to things instead of yes”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Girl, Cry

“Whenever you go on a trip to visit foreign lands or distant places, remember that they are all someone's home and backyard.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Home, Distant

“I can feel Peeta press his forehead into my temple and he asks, 'So now that you've got me, what are you going to do with me?' I turn into him. 'Put you somewhere you can't get hurt.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Romantic, Feeling, Hurt

“If you ask me a question I don't know, I'm not going to answer.”

Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American baseball player, manager, coach

What Time Is It? You Mean Now?: Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All, Simon and Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0743244532, p. 101.
Yogiisms

Question

“I never wear flats. My shoes are so high that sometimes when I step out of them, people look around in confusion and ask, "Where'd she go?" and I have to say, "I'm down here.”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

People, Shoe

“Don't talk for five minutes, there's a good chap! I've a strange feeling come over me--almost as if I were going to think!”

Aleister Crowley book Moonchild

Source: Moonchild

Feeling, Thinking

“Any man who thinks he is going to be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him should take a close look at the American Indian.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Possibly said by Hugh Allen, printed in Reader's Digest (Jan. 1967)
Misattributed

Thinking, Happiness

“And then we’ll all go off to sweet life, ‘cause now is the time and we all know time!”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Life, Time

“That’s the way it is with dreams. They scratch at your door. You see them through the peep hole: a stray dream looking for a home. You think it might go away if you ignore it. Wrong. It’s still there when you open the door, smiling. Wagging its tail.”

Monique Duval (1924–2014) Canadian journalist

Smile, Dreams, Way, Home

“In the corner store we pulled fat bottles of water from the shelves. No one thinks it's weird that we have to buy clean water, and that's how I know we're going to hell.”

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer

Hell, Thinking, Water

“We go to the past to lay the blame - since the past can't argue. We go to our past selves to account for our present miseries.”

Glen Duncan (1965) British writer

Source: Love Remains

Past

“… you spend a much larger part of your life being old, not young. Rules change along the way. The first things to go are those things you thought were eternal.”

Douglas Coupland (1961) Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and graphic designer

Life, Way, Change, Parting

“I loved the way he kissed me, as if he had to, as if he’d go crazy if he didn’t and had nearly waited too”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Variant: I loved the way he kissed me, as if he had to, as if he'd go crazy if he didn't and had nearly waited too long.
Source: Bared to You

Love, Way, Kiss, Waiting

“It would be Carol, in a thousand cities, a thousand houses, in foreign lands where they would go together, in heaven and in hell.”

Patricia Highsmith book The Price of Salt

Source: The Price of Salt

Hell, Housing

“Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Change

“Take my hands,” Alec said. “And take my strength too. Whatever of it you can use to— to keep yourself going.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“Right," she said, "We're going to the Land of the Dead and I shouldn't think negative.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

Thinking, Dead

“You just go on your nerve.”

Frank O'Hara (1926–1966) American poet, art critic and writer

“You can't go back; I can't go back either, but we can go on.”

Christine Feehan book Dark Destiny

Source: Dark Destiny

“Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire - in the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I be anxious about an atom?”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

World, Star, Dead

“So," Annabeth said, "are you going to argue about me coming along?"
"Nah. You'd just beat me up." Percy said.
She managed a laugh, which was good to hear”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“When I say,, I don't mean,. I don't mean,. I don't mean,.
I want us to go back down to that root.
I want you to be the one who loves me.
I want to be the one who loves you.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Love

“It was the in-between time, before day leaves and night comes, a time I’ve never been partial to because of the sadness that lingers in the space between going and coming.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Sadness, Time, Night

“Isabelle!" he called again. "Let down your raven hair!'
"Oh my God," Clary muttered. "There was something in that blood Raphael gave you, wasn't there? I'm going to kill him.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

God

“Fashion is about going ahead, not about memory.”

Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer

Fashion, Memory

“If you're going to say what you want to say, you're going to hear what you don't want to hear.”

Roberto Bolaño book The Insufferable Gaucho

Source: The Insufferable Gaucho

“Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments. Though we fall short, our labour is not lost if this day surpasses the preceding one.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Page 23.
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life (1551)

Way, Despair

“He sat up, going still. “Am I wearing a wife-beater, Lizvetta?” He gaped down. “Oh, come on!”

Lothaire”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Lothaire

“Sometimes a b. f. f makes you go W. T. F but without them we'd all be a little less richer in our lives.”

Cecily von Ziegesar (1970) American writer

Source: You're the One That I Want

“What’s going on? (Astrid)
Not much. Some invincible asshole is trying to kill me. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

“If you love something let it go.. if it comes back its yours”

James Patterson book Maximum Ride

Source: Max

For Him, For Boyfriend, Love

“I love you John Tyree, and I'm going to hold you to the promise you once made me. If you come back, I'll marry you. If you break your promise, you'll break my heart.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Love, Heart

“Don't leave me."
"Leave you? I'm going to marry you.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

“… and you drink a little too much and try a little too hard. And you go home to a cold bed and think, 'That was fine'. And your life is a long line of fine.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Variant: You drink a little too much and try a little too hard. And you go home to a cold bed and think, That was fine. And your life is a long line of fine.
Source: Gone Girl

Life, Home, Drink, Thinking

“I'm warning you, that jacket is sexy. The Institute could go up in sexy, sexy flames.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“Marissa, " he mumbled, taking her hand. "Don't want to see you drink so much?" Wait, not really what he'd been going for. "Ah… don't you to see me drink so much… want."

Whatever. God… he was so confused.~Butch”

Jessica Bird book Lover Revealed

Source: Lover Revealed

God, Drink, Waiting

“Jane," I said quietly.
She opened her eyes, she had been far away in prayer.
"Yes, Mary? Forgive me, I was praying."
"If you go on flirting with the king with those sickly little smiles, one of us Boleyns is going to scratch your eyes out.”

Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl

Source: The Other Boleyn Girl

Smile, Forgiveness

“Anger is not bitterness. Bitterness can go on eating at a man's heart and mind forever. Anger spends itself in its own time.”

Madeleine L'Engle A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Source: A Swiftly Tilting Planet

Time, Heart, Anger

“Look, Sage. I don't know much about chemistry or computer hacking or photosynthery, but this is something I've got a lot of experience with." I think he mean photosynthesis, but I didn't correct him. "Use my knowledge. Don't let it go to waste.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Knowledge, Thinking

“And although she was sometimes dissatisfied with herself, she felt unable to go beyond her own limitations. Books were safer.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

Books

“[D]on’t cling to your self-righteous suffering, let it go…. Nothing is too good to be true, let yourself be forgiven. To the degree you insist that you must suffer, you insist on the suffering of others as well. (90)”

Stephen Levine (1937–2016) American poet and author

Source: A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last

Suffering

“They were always on the move. But in truth said bull we are all going nowhere”

Kate DiCamillo book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Source: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Truth

“You know anything about investigative work?"
"Sure. Annoy the people involved until the guilt party tries to make you go away.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bites

People

“Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.”

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

Accepting Edward MacDowell Medal, New York Times (26 August 1981)

“Just curious how much I'm going for these days," Leo said. "I mean, I can understand not being as pricey as Percy or Jason, maybe… but am I worth, like, two Franks, or three Franks?”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Understanding

“Oh Lestat, you deserved everything that's ever happened to you. You better not die. You might actually go to hell.”

Anne Rice book The Vampire Lestat

Source: The Vampire Lestat

Hell

“Said the river: imagine everything you can imagine, then keep on going.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Imagination

“People in general would rather die than forgive. It'shard. If God said in plain language. "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Variant: People, in general, would rather die than forgive. It'shard. If God said in plain language, "I'm giving you a choice, forgive or die," a lot of people would go ahead and order their coffin.
Source: The Secret Life of Bees

God, People, Forgiveness

“Every new book I read comes to be a part of that overall and unitary book that is the sum of my readings… if you need little to set the imagination going, I require even less: the promise of reading is enough.”

Italo Calvino (1923–1985) Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels

Source: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler

Books, Imagination, Reading, Parting

“Percy grunted. “Believe me, some days I regret the choice. Oh, you want to turn down our offer? Okay, fine! ZAP! Lose your memory! Go to Tartarus!”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Memory

“Ah, life is a gate, a way, a path to Paradise anyway, why not live for fun and joy and love or some sort of girl by a fireside, why not go to your desire and LAUGH…”

Jack Kerouac book Big Sur

Big Sur (1962)

Love, Life, Way, Girl

“it doesn't matter if Prince Charles falls off his horse
or that the hummingbird is so seldom
seen
or that we are too senseless to go
insane.

coffee. give us more of that NOTHING
coffee.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

Coffee, Horse

“There's no beauty without poignancy and there's no poignancy without the feeling that it's going, men, names, books, houses--bound for dust--mortal”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

Men, Books, Beauty, Feeling

“Mom?" Mother turned to Grandmother.
"What?"
"She's going to lunch with her kidnapper!"
"Take a picture for me," Grandma said.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

Moms, Grandma

“The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

44 min 50 sec
Source: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), Blues For a Red Planet [Episode 5]
Context: The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together. Information distilled over 4 billion years of biological evolution. Incidentally, all the organisms on the Earth are made essentially of that stuff. An eyedropper full of that liquid could be used to make a caterpillar or a petunia if only we knew how to put the components together.

Beauty, Beauty, Way

“If you have felt hopeless, hold on! Wonderful changes are going to happen in your life as you begin to live it on purpose.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Life, Change

“I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and say to myself "well, that's not going to happen”

Rita Rudner (1953) American comedian

Way, Science, Reading

“We can retreat and retreat and let ourselves get backed into corners forever,” she’d said once. “Or we can go out and meet the enemy at the time
and place we choose. Not them.”

Okay, Tasha, I thought. Let’s see if your advice gets me killed.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Time

“Over and over I feel as if my characters know who they are, and what happens to them, and where they have been and where they will go, and what they are capable of doing, but they need me to write it down for them because their handwriting is so bad.”

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

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Feeling

“It's going to be a lot of work, Gideon," Eva warned him.

"I'm not afraid of work." He was touching me restlessly as if it were as necessary to him as breathing. "I'm only afraid of losing you.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

“You're a leader. It's your job to keep your passion hot. Do whatever you have to do, read whatever you have to read, go wherever you have to go to stay fired up. And don't apologize to anybody.”

Bill Hybels (1951) American writer

Source: Courageous Leadership

Passion, Reading

“If you get hung up on everybody else's hang-ups, then the whole world's going to be nothing more than one huge gallows.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

World

“This person, this self, this me, finally, was made somewhere else. Everything had come from somewhere else, and it would all go somewhere else. I was nothing but a pathway for the person known as me.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Personality

“If we ruin the earth, there is no place else to go”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

“I'm going to tell you a secret. Our lives are shaped by the future, not by the past. Once you decide how you want your life to be, all you need to do is live into that future.”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall

Life, Secret, Past, Future

“Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist

Earliest citation found in Google Books is from 1993 https://books.google.com/books?id=bdTko5oHTd4C&pg=PA25&dq=%22give+up+the+good+to+go+for+the+great%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH2e_QivXLAhUps4MKHdf0A9wQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%22give%20up%20the%20good%20to%20go%20for%20the%20great%22&f=false, where it is attributed to country-music singer Kenny Rogers. Not found attributed to Rockefeller until 2006 https://books.google.com/books?id=F7OGT9WTiPQC&pg=PA24&dq=%22give+up+the+good%22+%22go+for+the+great%22+rockefeller&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw_rb9ivXLAhXrmoMKHbgHBqkQ6wEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=%22give%20up%20the%20good%22%20%22go%20for%20the%20great%22%20rockefeller&f=false. <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

Success, Leadership, Life, Business

“So passed the seasons then, so they pass now, and so they will pass in time to come, while we come and go like leaves of the tree that fall and are soon forgotten.”

Howard Pyle book The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Source: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Tree, Time, Season

“Sometimes you have to go somewhere else to appreciate what we have here.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Dragon Heir

“All the energy of their frustration and fear going into their laughter.”

Hubert Selby Jr. Requiem for a Dream

Source: Requiem for a Dream

Fear, Laughter

“Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable.”

Wendy Wasserstein (1950–2006) American playwright

Graduation

“She had to go," said Rose.
"It was because of her angel," said Indigo.
"And because of Granddad," added Caddy.
"And because of her nose stud."
"And because her name isn't on the color chart."
"She's lonely," said Rose. "That's why.”

Hilary McKay book Saffy's Angel

Source: Saffy's Angel

Angels, Color

“I'm trying to think of a witty comeback, when Boggs says brusquely, “Well, don't expect us to be too impressed. We just saw Finnick Odair in his underwear.” I decide to go ahead and like Boggs.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Thinking

“You don't want to let go, but don't want to be hurt, either. It's not a great place to be but what can I tell you?”

Junot Díaz book This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

Hurt

“Some people have a thick skin and you don't. Your heart is really open and that is going to cause pain, but that is an appropriate response to this world.”

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

Source: Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope, and Repair

Pain, People, World, Heart

“I’m going. But before I do, let me congratulate all of you on your stupidity. (Fury)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dead After Dark

Stupidity

“The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

Letter to children (February 1947) http://www.liwfrontiergirl.com/letter.html <br class="br">Context: The Little House books are stories of long ago. The way we live and your schools are much different now, so many changes have made living and learning easier. But the real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.

Pleasure, Truth, Courage, Change