Quotes about happening
page 13

“What happens when you let an unsatisfactory present go on long enough? It becomes your entire history.”

Louise Erdrich (1954) writer from the United States

Source: The Plague of Doves

History

“… the plan will happen in spite of us, not because of us.”

Melody Beattie (1948) American writer

Source: The Language of Letting Go: Daily Meditations on Codependency

“Things change…things happen…things you can’t even imagine when you’re young and full of hope.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

Hope, Imagination, Change

“The father hesitated only a moment. He felt the vague pain in his chest. If I run, he thought, what will happen? Is Death important? No. Everything that happens before Death is what counts. And we've done fine tonight. Even Death can't spoil it.”

Ray Bradbury book Something Wicked This Way Comes

Source: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Death, Pain

“Art begins… when someone interprets, when someone sees the world through his own eyes. Art happens when what is seen becomes mixed with the inside of the person who is seeing it.”

Chaim Potok book The Gift of Asher Lev

Source: The Gift of Asher Lev

World, Art, Personality

“If something happened to me, whose face will be on the front page of the paper begging for me? Is a person worth more because they have someone to grieve for them?”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Personality

“And it happened all the time that the compromise between two perfectly rational alternatives was something that made no sense at all.”

Neal Stephenson book Anathem

Source: Anathem

Sense, Time

“There are plenty who regard a wall behind which something is happening as a very curious thing.”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

“Certainly there are times in all of our lives when bad things happen, or things don’t turn out as we had hoped. But that’s when we we must a decision that we’re going to be happy inspite of our circumstances.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

Hope, Decision, Time, Happiness

“She just happened to feel like it. Wasn’t that after all, the only reason there was? Had she ever had a less selfish, more complicated reason for doing anything in her life?”

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road

Source: Revolutionary Road

Life, Feeling, Selfishness

“is a futile word. It's about what didn't happen. It belongs in a parallel universe. It belongs in another dimension of space.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

Universe

“.. he continues to cling to the forlorn hope that I will turn into one of those swooning females… and fling myself squeeling at him whenever anything happens. Like all men, he clings to his illusions.”

Elizabeth Peters The Last Camel Died at Noon

Source: The Last Camel Died at Noon

Men, Hope

“One day all of this will be proof, proof that we were here, proof that we loved each other. It’s the guarantee that no matter what happens to us in the future, this time was ours. When”

Jenny Han book Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Source: Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Love, Time, Future

“Bad people succeed and good people fail, but that's not the end of the story. Miracles happen that nobody sees, and among us walk heroes who are never recognized, and people live in loneliness because they cannot believe they are loved.”

Dean Koontz book The Darkest Evening of the Year

Source: The Darkest Evening of the Year

Love, People, Loneliness

“Love can't be forced into existence,(…)It won't come simply because you will it to happen”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Source: Once and Always

Love

“The importance of our connection, what it meant to find each other again, the way it made what happened to us and between us not be a waste, not be for nothing. He would know, he had to know, that not saying good-bye would be the worst end of all.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

Way

“The imporant things in life never happened by accident. But even with those things that were meant to be, sometimes you had to wait awhile and then maybe give them a little nudge.”

Nicholas Evans (1950) British producer and writer

Life, Waiting

“When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you'll be taught how to fly!”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Light, Flying

“It loved to happen.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Love

“Hang in there. It is astonishing how short a time it can take for very wonderful things to happen.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) English-American childrens' playwright and author

Time

“Oh, why does college have to happen to perfectly good people?”

Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle

Source: The Hidden Oracle

People

“That would be like making a pact with Lucifer. (Zarek)
Yes, but I don’t smell like sulfur. And I happen to dress better. Luc always looks like a pimp. (Dionysus)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

“An unread book does nobody any good. Stories happen in the mind of a reader, not among symbols printed on a page.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Books

“I'm resolving to just wing it and see what happens.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

“and he suddenly knew that if she killed herself, he would die. Maybe not immediately, maybe not with the same blinding rush of pain, but it would happen. You couldn't live for very long without a heart.”

Jodi Picoult book The Pact

Variant: The gun slipped on Emily's temple, and he suddenly knew that if she killed herself, he would die. Maybe not immediately, maybe not with the same blinding pain, but it would happen. You couldn't live for very long without a heart.
Source: The Pact

Pain, Heart

“Life Plan:
I asked her what she planned to do with her life & she said she was way beyond that point already. I'm just happy I remember to be there when it happens, she said.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Life, Way, Happiness

“but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Life

“Hop in? Dude, are you out of your ever-loving mind? I can’t touch this. I might leave a fingerprint or something. (Nick)
Oh the horror. Guess I’ll have to trade the piece of junk in and get a new one if that happens. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Love

“However difficult it may be to accept what happens to us, one must understand that moments such as this give us the possibility for radical change in our behavior.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Warrior of the Light

Behavior, Understanding, Change

“A child who does not think about what happens around him and is content with living without wondering whether he lives honestly is like a man who lives from a scoundrel's work and is on the road to being a scoundrel.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader

Martí : Thoughts/Pensamientos (1994)
Context: A child, from the time he can think, should think about all he sees, should suffer for all who cannot live with honesty, should work so that all men can be honest, and should be honest himself. A child who does not think about what happens around him and is content with living without wondering whether he lives honestly is like a man who lives from a scoundrel's work and is on the road to being a scoundrel.

Thinking

“The only thing a cat worries about is what's happening right now. As we tell the kittens, you can only wash one paw at a time.”

Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American children's writer

Source: Time Cat

Cats, Time

“Joy is a mystery because it can happen anywhere, anytime, even under the most unpromising circumstances, even in the midst of suffering, with tears in its eyes….”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Tear, Suffering, Joy

“Everything happens for a reason, Sadie, even bad things.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

“No: What the heck happened?
Or: Why did you go from nearly kissing me to tossing me across your yard and into the patio furniture?”

Alyson Nöel book Dark Flame

Source: Dark Flame

Kiss

“Each of us wages a private battle each day between the grand fantasies we have for ourselves and what actually happens.”

Cathy Guisewite (1950) Cartoonist

“I would not sit waiting for some vague tomorrow, nor for something to happen. One could wait a lifetime, and find nothing at the end of the waiting. I would begin here, I would make something happen.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Sackett's Land (1974), Ch. 4

Waiting

“My two great loves. I think I always knew I would be Belly Fisher one day. I just didn't know it was going to happen like this.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

Love, Thinking

“When you're a child you're the center of everything. Everything happens for you. Other people? They're only ghosts furnished for you to talk to.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

People

“When does a fake Mohawk become a real Mohawk? Who decides? How do you know if it's happened?”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

“He wasn't in a safe little story where wrongs were automatically righted; he was still in the real world, where bad bitter things happened for no reason, and people paid for things that weren't their fault.”

Lev Grossman The Magicians

Source: The Magicians

People, World

“Today I will go to wait for her again, because I cannot help it, because my whole being seems now to be bound up in the being of one so different from myself and yet so exquisitely familiar that I can scarely understand what has happened.”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Historian

Source: La historiadora

Understanding, Waiting, Help

“What happened?" he demanded. "I heard an explosion!"

"Yeah. That was me. I set the boat alight."

"What?"

"I set fire to the boat."

"But we're on the boat!"

"I know.”

Anthony Horowitz book Skeleton Key

Source: Skeleton Key

“I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walking

Source: Walking

“I liked you better when you were this timid little kid. What happened?”
“I started living with you guys.”
“Oh, right.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: The Dead Girls' Dance

Guy

“I came to Party Crashing because accidents happen. People you love will die. Nothing you treasure will last forever. And I need to accept and embrace that fact.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

Love, People

“Sitting and waiting for something to happen was the worst kind of torture.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

Waiting

“Our rational minds can never understand what has happened, but our hearts.. if we can keep them open to God, will find their own intuitive way.”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

God, Way, Understanding, Heart

“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

“Now I know I am an intellectual. I saw Malcolm Muggeridge on the television last night, and I understood nearly every word. It all adds up. A bad home, poor diet, not liking punk. I think I will join the library and see what happens.”

Sue Townsend (1946–2014) English writer and humorist

Home, Thinking, Night

“sometimes the best thing to do is to
pretend it didn't happen”

Candace Bushnell book Summer and the City

Source: Summer and the City

“I didn't want to talk about what happened, so it seemed safest not to talk at all.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

“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

“I always thought it was the saddest and most devastating ending. How you could have these enormous dreams that never get met. How without knowing it you could just make yourself smaller over time. I don't want that to happen to me.”

Meg Wolitzer book The Interestings

Source: The Interestings

Dreams, Time

“I hope something happens. I'm restless as the devil and have a horror of getting fat or falling in love and growing domestic.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book This Side of Paradise

Source: This Side of Paradise

Love, Hope

“As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.”

John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men

Source: Of Mice and Men

“[Kagura is doing laundry and tries to wring out Kyou's shirt causing it to rip in two ]

Kyo Sohma: Tell me what I think just happened didn't just happen

Kagura: My love!

Kyo Sohma: My shirt!”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Love, Thinking

“Nino has something that's eating him inside, like Lila, and it's a gift and a suffering; they aren't content, they never give in, they fear what is happening around them.”

Elena Ferrante book My Brilliant Friend

Source: My Brilliant Friend

Fear, Suffering

“She'd expected some backlash; it happened every time she shared her strength. But she hadn't anticipated so much raw anguish from Nico di Angelo… If this was only a portion of Nico’s pain… how could he bear it?”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Pain, Time

“Logic is a way of saying that anything which didn't happen yesterday won't happen tomorrow.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Glory Road

Glory Road (1963)
Context: Logic is a feeble reed, friend. "Logic" proved that airplanes can't fly and that H-bombs won't work and that stones don't fall out of the sky. Logic is a way of saying that anything which didn't happen yesterday won't happen tomorrow.

Way

“Gratitude isn't a tool to manipulate the universe or God. It's a way to acknowledge our faith that everything happens for a reason even if we don't know what that reason is. ~Melody Beattie, 52 Weeks of Conscious Contact, pg. 34.”

Melody Beattie (1948) American writer

Source: 52 Weeks of Conscious Contact

God, Faith, Way, Universe

“The Warrior of the Light is a believer.

Because he believes in miracles, miracles begin to happen. Because he is sure that his thoughts can change his life, his life begins to change. Because he is certain that he will find love, love appears.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Warrior of the Light

Love, Life, Light, Appearance

“Stories only happen to people who can tell them.”

Allan Gurganus (1947) American novelist and story writer

Variant: Know something, sugar? Stories only happen to people who can tell them.

People

“Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Life

“What happens in the heart, simply happens”

Ted Hughes (1930–1998) English poet and children's writer

Heart

“This is what happens when you live in dreams, he thought: you dream this and you dream that and you sleep right through your life.”

Jess Walter book Beautiful Ruins

Source: Beautiful Ruins

Life, Dreams, Sleep

“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

“Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don't believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

Learning, Reading

“If you happen to pass by 84 Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me? I owe it so much.”

Helene Hanff book 84, Charing Cross Road

Source: 84, Charing Cross Road

Kiss

“Things do not happen, we must make them happen”

Margaret George book The Memoirs of Cleopatra

Source: The Memoirs of Cleopatra

“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

“Everything is funny as long as it is happening to Somebody Else.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

The Illiterate Digest (1924)

Funny

“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

“The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you.”

Mary Roach book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Source: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Way, Lying, Time, Dead

“History isn't what happened, history is just what historians tell us.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: A History of the World in 10½ Chapters

History

“I wanted real adventures to happen to myself. But real
adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who remain at home: they must be sought abroad.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

Source: Dubliners

People, Home

“Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“It doesn't matter how anything happens.”

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

Variant: It doesn't matter what you do because it's going to happen anyway.
Source: The Favorite Game

“When I was little, I had this science book. There was a section on 'What would happen to the world if there was no friction?' Answer: 'Everything on earth would fly into space from the centrifugal force of revolution.' That was my mood.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

Books, World, Mood, Science

“As it turned out, hell wasn't watching the people you love get hurt; it was coming in during the second act, when it was already too late to stop it from happening.”

Jodi Picoult book The Tenth Circle

Source: The Tenth Circle

Love, People, Hell, Hurt

“Phryne was getting out of the car. Dot closed her eyes. Miss Fisher was about to happen to someone again.”

Kerry Greenwood (1954) Australian crime writer

Source: Dead Man's Chest

Cars

“Are you, are you coming to the tree?
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here.
No stranger would let it be if we met up
At midnight in the hanging tree.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Tree

“You can’t concentrate on doing anything if you are thinking, “What’s gonna happen if it doesn’t go right?”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Thinking

“Should-haves solve nothing. It's the next thing to happen that needs thinking about.”

Alexandra Ripley (1934–2004) American writer

Thinking

“It's funny how you can think you know someone pretty well, and then something happens or they do something that makes you understand that you didn't really know them at all.”

Wendelin Van Draanen (1965) American writer

Source: Sammy Keyes And the Dead Giveaway

Understanding, Thinking

“Whenever you look back and say, "If," you know you're in trouble. There's no such thing as "if." The only thing that counts is what really happened.”

D.J. MacHale book The Merchant of Death

Variant: Whenever you look back and say "if" you know you're in trouble. There is no such thing as "if". The only thing that matters is what really happened.
Source: The Merchant of Death