Quotes about happening
page 17

“Do you know what happened to the last person who took that tone with me? (Xypher)
Let me guess…Disembowelment. Probably painful. Definitely slow. (Simone)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Chaser

Pain, Personality

“But, in her life, nothing was going to happen. Such was the will of God! The future was a dark corridor, and at the far end the door was bolted.”

Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary

Source: Madame Bovary

Life, God, Future

“Your Dark-Huntress, Danger, called for Acheron and since he’s busy, I was sent to check things out and report back to him on what’s happening. So here I am. Joy, oh joy of my life. (Alexion)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Sins of the Night

Life, Business, Joy

“I'm not here now. This isn't happening. You're just visiting a dream of mine.”

Lisa Kleypas book Dreaming of You

Source: Dreaming of You

Dreams

“And sometimes you do everything right and something bad just happens. It's as simple, and as scary, as that.”

Anna Quindlen (1952) journalist, Novelist

“If what you're asking is how I debated whether or not to love her the answer is I didn't. Not at all. It just happened. I didn't ever question it; by the time I realized what was happening, it was already done.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Love, Question, Time

“If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.”

Peter Singer (1946) Australian philosopher

“Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim gun, and they have not.”

Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) writer

The Modern Traveller (1898)

“No matter what has happened, you're not a pig-boy; you're an Assistant Pig Keeper!”

Lloyd Alexander book The Black Cauldron

Source: The Black Cauldron

Boy

“If I'd learnt one thing from travelling, it was that the way to get things done was to go ahead and do them. Don't talk about going to Borneo. Book a ticket, get a visa, pack a bag, and it just happens.”

Alex Garland book The Beach

Variant: If I'd learnt one thing from travelling, it was that the way to get things done was to go ahead and do them. DOn't talk about going to Borneo. Book a ticket, get a vida, pack a bag, and it just happens.
Source: The Beach

Books, Way, Travel

“My sister had taught me to look at the world that way, as a place that glitters, as a place where the calls of the crickets and the crows and the wind are everyday occurrences that also happen to be magic.”

Cynthia Kadohata book Kira-Kira

Source: Kira-Kira

World, Way, Sister

“No, it happened. And right when your song ended, I knew - just like your mother - I was a goner,' Peeta says.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

“Look behind you: What have you learned?
Look around you: What is happening to others?
Look above you: What does God expect of you?
Look besides you: What resources are available to you?”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

God, Learning

“The tragedy of life, Howard, is not that the beautiful die young, but that they grow old and mean. It will not happen to me.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

Life, Beauty

“Whatever happens, happens to you by you, through you; you are the creator, enjoyer and destroyer of all you perceive.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

“As we encounter new experiences with a mindful and wise attention, we discover that one of three things will happen to our new experience: it will go away, it will stay the same, or it will get more intense. whatever happens does not really matter.”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

Source: A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life

“Each time you happen to me all over again.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

For Wife, love, Cute, Romantic

“Grief is a curious thing, when it happens unexpectedly. It is a Band-aid being ripped away, taking the top layer off a family. And the underbelly of a household is never pretty, ours no exception.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Family

“Sunsets we always liked because they only happen once and go away."
"But, Lena, that's sad."
"No, if the sunset stayed and we got bored, that would be a real sadness.”

Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine

Source: Dandelion Wine

Sadness

“Things were happening around us, but nothing was happening between us.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“Several of the girls at the party had had sex, something which sounded appealing but only if it could happen with blindfolds in a time warp plus amnesia”

Aimee Bender (1969) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Sex, Girl, Time

“I thought the morning would bring change. But I should have known that it doesn't take that long for change to happen - it takes a second. A moment. In a single breath, reality as you know it can simply fall away.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: United We Spy

Reality, Change

“Things do not always happen the way I would have wanted, and it's best that I get used to that.”

Paulo Coelho book Like the Flowing River

Source: Like the Flowing River

Way

“…I've had a bad week."
What's happened?"
Nothing's happened. I've had a bad week in my head, is all.”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

“The art of life is not controlling what happens to us, but using what happens to us”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Life, Art

“It doesn't sound so far-fetched, right? When two people love each other? While a part of me still wants to believe it's possible, I know it's not going to happen”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Love, People, Parting

“Just start the sentence… and see what happens. This is how we write.”

Jincy Willett American writer

Source: The Writing Class

“Now get some clothes on before the women around here are driven into a frenzy."
He gave me a mournful look. "I'm afraid that'll happen with or without clothes, my dear.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Iron Crowned

Women, Clothes

“Because this is what happens when you try to run from the past. It just doesn’t catch up, it overtakes … blotting out the future.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Past, Future

“The unexpected has happened so continually in my life that it has ceased to deserve the name.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Stark Munro Letters

Source: The Stark Munro Letters

Life

“Oh, I'm starting to cry again. That's what happens when you think about life being fair. And I can't explain why it isn't… I don't think it's something anybody knows.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Life, Thinking, Cry

“If a coin comes down heads, that means that the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that moment the two possibilities were equal.
But on another world, it does come down tails. And when that happens, the two worlds split apart.”

Philip Pullman book Northern Lights

Source: The Golden Compass

World

“My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Attributed

Life

“Whenever something great happens, you’re always kind of poised for the universe to correct itself.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Universe

“If anything happens, Marcus will save you. Won't you, Marcus? Hale asked, looking up at the man, who nodded.

It would be an honor, Miss.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

“Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen everyday.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Source: Life's Little Instruction Book: 511 Suggestions, Observations, and Reminders on How to Live a Happy and Rewarding Life

“You can't be so frightened of what might happen that you are unwilling to act.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: Steelheart

“Something did happen to me somewhere that robbed me of confidence and courage and left me with a fear of discovery and change and a positive dread of everything unknown that may occur.”

Joseph Heller book Something Happened

Source: Something Happened

Fear, Confidence, Courage, Change

“At first, it was hard to sit down and read the things that people were saying. A lot of people would've worked their way up to this position and would've gotten a thick skin over a few years' time. For me, though, all this happened in a few months.”

Carrie Underwood (1983) American country music singer

People, Way, Time, Reading

“we attract what is happening in our lives”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

“No way they could threaten him, not even with Amelie; he'd already given Amelie the finger on the way out of Morganville and he clearly wasn’t worried about her coming after him— or, if so, what would happen when she did.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Way

“He was marrying my girl, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I just had to watch it happen, because he was my brother, because I promised..”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

Girl

“On a sunny Tuesday - for it seems so many awful things happen on a Tuesday - six astronauts and one schoolteacher attempted to pierce the sky. Instead they touched the stars.”

Neal Shusterman book Everwild

Source: Everwild

Star

“It's not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.”

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

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

Hurt

“First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.”

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer

“There are a few moments in your life when you are truly and completely happy, and you remember to give thanks. Even as it happens you are nostalgic for the moment, you are tucking it away in your scrapbook.”

David Benioff (1970) writer

Source: When the Nines Roll Over and Other Stories

Life, Happiness

“Often, I get the feeling that the story is really happening somewhere and all I'm doing is trying to work out the best way to tell it.”

Garth Nix (1963) Australian fantasy writer

Way, Feeling

“The Republic is a dream.
Nothing happens unless first a dream.”

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American writer and editor

"Washington Monument by Night" in Slabs of the Sunburnt West (1922)
Variant: Nothing happens unless first we dream.
Source: The Complete Poems

Dreams

“There is a strange moment in time, after something horrible happens, when you know it's true, but you haven't told anyone yet.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Time

“No one ever found out what was happening inside me. How the pain was eating me away. No one ever came to my rescue, or stood up for me.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

Pain

“i was joking with isabelle about vampires right before it happened. just trying to make her laugh, you know? what freaks out jewish vanpires? silver stars of david? chopped liver? check for eighteen dollars?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Star

“Being productive. Ugh. It's such a human concept. It implies you have limited time (LOL) and have to work hard to make something happen (double LOL).”

Rick Riordan book The Dark Prophecy

Source: The Dark Prophecy

Time

“The heart wants what it wants, Dolp. You don't plan on making your life complicated, it just happens, and you don"t do it on purpose, and you don't do it to hurt people who love you. It just turns out that way sometimes.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Narcissus in Chains

Source: Narcissus in Chains

Love, Life, People, Way

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”

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

Attributed to Emerson in The Gift of Depression : Twenty-one Inspirational Stories Sharing Experience, Strength, and Hope (2001) by John F. Brown, p. 56, no prior occurrence of this a statement has been located; it seems to be derived from one which occurs in The Alchemist (1988) by Paulo Coelho, p. 22: When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.
Misattributed

Decision, Universe

“I must be overtired', Buttercup managed. 'The excitement and all.'
'Rest then', her mother cautioned. 'Terrible things can happen when you're overtired. I was overtired the night your father proposed.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Night

“College is the best thing that can ever happen to you," my father used to say, and he was right, for it was there that I discovered drugs, drinking, and smoking..”

David Sedaris Naked

Source: Naked

Drink

“You have to accept that sometimes that's how things happen in this world. People's opinions, their feelings, they go one way, then the other. It just so happens you grew up at a certain point in this process.”

Kazuo Ishiguro book Never Let Me Go

Source: Never Let Me Go

People, World, Way, Feeling

“There should be a place where only the things you want to happen, happen”

Maurice Sendak book Where the Wild Things Are

Source: Where the Wild Things Are

“remembering is a great invention of the mind, and if you try hard enough you can remember anything, whether it really happened or not.”

Rodman Philbrick book Freak the Mighty

Source: Freak the Mighty

“It must be, I thought, one of the race's most persistent and comforting hallucinations to trust that "it can't happen here" -- that one's own time and place is beyond cataclysm.”

John Wyndham book The Day of the Triffids

Source: The Day of the Triffids

Time

“If you never noticed, it never happened.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: 1Q84 BOOK 1

“Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.”

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

Source: Lectures on Philosophy

Feeling, Understanding, Personality

“More is happening out there than we are aware of.
It is possibly due to some unknown direful circumstance.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

“It happened again this afternoon. Just the way it did that other night. We were talking--talking about how to protect her, actually--and then, suddenly, I looked at her and it was as if I'd found an entire universe in her eyes.”

Cate Tiernan (1961) American novelist

Source: Awakening

Way, Universe, Night

“the truth about forever is that it is happening right now”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Truth

“Nothing in this world happens without a reason. That we are all exactly where we are supposed to be, and that the pieces of the puzzle have a tendency to come together when you least expect it.”

Jane Green (1968) British writer

Source: The Beach House

World

“bad things, like good things don't happen any more often than they ought to by chance. the universe has no mind, no feelings, and no personality, so it doesn't do things in order to either hurt or please you. bad things happen because things happen.”

Richard Dawkins book The Magic of Reality

Source: The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True

Feeling, Universe, Chance, Hurt

“History is not a procession of illustrious people. It's about what happens to a people. Millions of anonymous people is what history is about.”

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

People, History

“Whenever you made a choice, especially one you'd been resisting, it always affected everything else, some in big ways, like a tremor beneath your feet, others in so tiny a shift you hardly noticed a change at all. But it was happening.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Way, Change

“What happened to you? (Sin)
Was mistaken for a punching bag again. But what the hell, I’m used to it. (Xypher)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Devil May Cry

Hell

“I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

Truth, Waiting

“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees (2002)

World, Nature

“Healthy striving is about striving for internal goals, and wanting to be our best selves. Perfectionism is not motivated internally. Perfectionism is about what people will think. And you do not see effective leaders in corporations sitting on an email for three hours to make sure it’s worded just perfectly. You don’t. They have work to get done.. You don’t see elite athletes letting themselves be discouraged by a bad workout or a single bad performance. It happens all the time. They’re accustomed to winning, they’re accustomed to losing. Once perfectionism becomes the goal, they’re out of the sport.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Washington Post, October 2012 http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/exhaustion-is-not-a-status-symbol/2012/10/02/19d27aa8-0cba-11e2-bb5e-492c0d30bff6_story_2.html <br class="br">Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

People, Motivation, Thinking, Sport

“When someone asks you, A penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

“That we have some history together that hasn’t happened yet.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

History

“The problem with being nuts, she thought, is that you don't always feel as if you're nuts. Sometimes, in fact, you feel perfectly sane, and there just happens to be a trailer-shaped dragon crouching in the lot next door.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Feeling, Problem

“It happens; incompetence is rewarded more often than not.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

“The truth is I'm getting old, I said. We already are old, she said with a sigh. What happens is that you don't feel it on the inside, but from the outside everybody can see it.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Truth, Feeling

“It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

World, Funny

“You must not be unkind, especially when it happens that you're right.”

William Saroyan book The Human Comedy

Source: The Human Comedy

“What happens when we get back?
I don't know. I guess we try and forget.
I don't want to forget.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Forgetting

“Someday, we’ll run into each other again, I know it.
Maybe I’ll be older and smarter and just plain better. If that happens,
that’s when I’ll deserve you. But now, at this moment, you can’t hook
your boat to mine, because I’m liable to sink us both.”

Gabrielle Zevin book Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Source: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

“If you don't like the scene you're in, if you're unhappy, if you're lonely, if you don't feel that things are happening, change your scene. Paint a new backdrop.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

Feeling, Change, Painting

“Faith is the courage to live your life as if everything that happens does so for your highest good and learning. Like it or not.”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Source: Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior

Life, Faith, Courage, Learning

“I'm not going anywhere without you. We're swimming to China together. And if the worst happens, I'm dying with you before I'm living without you.”

Ann Brashares book My Name is Memory

Source: My Name Is Memory

“It just happened. As though a moment comes when it's both necessary and natural to make a decision that has long since been made.”

Georges Simenon (1903–1989) Belgian writer

Nature, Decision

“Dreams? If only they had been! But I don't need dreams, Doctor, that's why I hardly have them—because I have this life instead. With me it all happens in broad daylight!”

Philip Roth book Portnoy's Complaint

Source: Portnoy's Complaint (1969)

Life, Dreams

“Sometimes you are aware when your great moments are happening, and sometimes they rise from the past. Perhaps it's the same with people.”

James Salter (1925–2015) American novelist and short-story writer

Source: Burning the Days: Recollection

People, Past

“See, lady, that's what happens to snow in Texas. It- freaking- melts.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: Thats what happens to Snow in Texas, lady. It freaking MELTS!!" Leo Valdez- The Lost Hero

“She whispered, 'C'etait la Verite?' Was that Verity? Or perhaps she just meant, Was that the truth? Was it true? Did any of it really happen? Were the last three hours real? 'Yes,' I whispered back. 'Oui. C'etait la verite.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Truth

“Well,” Naomi said cheerfully, “what’s the worst that can happen?” They were silent, considering that, because there were just so many possibilities. But in the end, it was a better idea than Facebook.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Last Breath

Idea

“That first love. And the first one who breaks your heart. For me, they just happen to be the same person.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Love, Heart, Personality

“Isabelle!” Simon called. “Stop throwing clothes at me! Just because you’re a Shadowhunter and I’m a vampire doesn’t mean we can never happen. Our love is forbidden like the love of a shark and a—and a shark hunter. But that’s what makes it special.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Love, Clothes

“Don't give up before the miracle happens.”

Fannie Flagg (1944) American actress, comedian and author

Source: I Still Dream About You

“I'm sorry," he says. "I don't usually like people. So when I do, part of me is really amused and the other part refuses to believe it's happening.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

People, Parting

“The truth is that nobody is owed an apology for anything. Apologies are lovely when they happen. But they change nothing. They do not reverse actions or correct damage. They are merely nice to hear.”

Augusten Burroughs (1965) American writer

Source: This Is How: Proven Aid in Overcoming Shyness, Molestation, Fatness, Spinsterhood, Grief, Disease, Lushery, Decrepitude & More. For Young and Old Alike.

Love, Truth, Change