Quotes about happening (6022 quotes, page 3)

“Women have the right to freely choose and to say yes or no. Everyone should be personally responsible for what happens in life.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Source: Sex, Art and American Culture : New Essays (1992), The Rape Debate, Continued, p. 59
Context: I am being vilified by feminists for merely having a common-sense attitude about rape. I loathe this thing about date rape. Have twelve tequilas at a fraternity party and a guy asks you to go up to his room, and then you're surprised when he assaults you? Most women want to be seduced or lured. The more you study literature and art, the more you see it. Listen to Don Giovanni. Read The Faerie Queene. Pursuit and seduction are the essence of sexuality. It’s part of the sizzle. Girls hurl themselves at guitarists, right down to the lowest bar band here. The guys are strutting. If you live in rock and roll, as I do, you see the reality of sex, of male lust and women being aroused by male lust. It attracts women. It doesn't repel them. Women have the right to freely choose and to say yes or no. Everyone should be personally responsible for what happens in life. I see the sexual impulse as egotistical and dominating, and therefore I have no problem understanding rape. Women have to understand this correctly and they'll protect themselves better. If a real rape occurs, it's got to go to the police. The business of having a campus grievance committee decide whether or not a rape is committed is an outrageous infringement of civil liberties. Today, on an Ivy League campus, if a guy tells a girl she's got great tits, she can charge him with sexual harassment. Chickenshit stuff. Is this what strong women do?

Life , Women , Personality

“If one harbours anywhere in one's mind a nationalistic loyalty or hatred, certain facts, although in a sense known to be true, are inadmissible. Here are just a few examples. I list below five types of nationalist, and against each I append a fact which it is impossible for that type of nationalist to accept, even in his secret thoughts:
: BRITISH TORY. Britain will come out of this war with reduced power and prestige.
: COMMUNIST. If she had not been aided by Britain and America, Russia would have been defeated by Germany.
: IRISH NATIONALIST. Eire can only remain independent because of British protection.
: TROTSKYIST. The Stalin regime is accepted by the Russian masses.
: PACIFIST. Those who "abjure" violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf.
All of these facts are grossly obvious if one's emotions do not happen to be involved: but to the kind of person named in each case they are also intolerable, and so they have to be denied, and false theories constructed upon their denial. I come back to the astonishing failure of military prediction in the present war. It is, I think, true to say that the intelligentsia have been more wrong about the progress of the war than the common people, and that they were more swayed by partisan feelings. The average intellectual of the Left believed, for instance, that the war was lost in 1940, that the Germans were bound to overrun Egypt in 1942, that the Japanese would never be driven out of the lands they had conquered, and that the Anglo-American bombing offensive was making no impression on Germany. He could believe these things because his hatred for the British ruling class forbade him to admit that British plans could succeed. There is no limit to the follies that can be swallowed if one is under the influence of feelings of this kind. I have heard it confidently stated, for instance, that the American troops had been brought to Europe not to fight the Germans but to crush an English revolution. One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Notes on Nationalism (1945)

War , People , Secret , Fools

“It just happened. I like to sing, and well, I just started singing and folks just started listening.”

Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor

Pop Chronicles, Show 7 - The All American Boy: Enter Elvis and the rock-a-billies. Part 1 http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19754/m1/; C. Robert Jennings, " Elvis Lives! http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/155809300.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Feb+18%2C+1968&author=Jennings%2C+C+Robert&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+%281923-Current+File%29&edition=&startpage=M28&desc=ELVIS+LIVES%21", 1968-Feb-18, L.A. Times Magazine, p. M28.
Context: It just happened. I like to sing, and well, I just started singing and folks just started listening. I can't tell folks that I worked and learned and studied, and overcame disappointments, because I didn't.

Singing

“Nothing happens by chance, my friend… No such thing as luck.”

Richard Bach book Nothing by Chance

Nothing by Chance: A Gypsy Pilot's Adventures in Modern America (1969)
Context: Nothing happens by chance, my friend... No such thing as luck. A meaning behind every little thing, and such a meaning behind this. Part for you, part for me, we may not see it all real clear right now, but we will, before long.

Chance

“This business of making people conscious of what is happening outside their own small circle is one of the major problems of our time, and a new literary technique will have to be evolved to meet it.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

"As I Please," The Tribune (17 January 1947)
"As I Please" (1943–1947)
Context: This business of making people conscious of what is happening outside their own small circle is one of the major problems of our time, and a new literary technique will have to be evolved to meet it. Considering that the people of this country are not having a very comfortable time, you can't perhaps, blame them for being somewhat callous about suffering elsewhere, but the remarkable thing is the extent to which they manage to be unaware of it. Tales of starvation, ruined cities, concentration camps, mass deportations, homeless refugees, persecuted Jews — all this is received with a sort of incurious surprise, as though such things had never been heard of but at the same time were not particularly interesting. The now-familiar photographs of skeleton-like children make very little impression. As time goes on and the horrors pile up, the mind seems to secrete a sort of self-protecting ignorance which needs a harder and harder shock to pierce it, just as the body will become immunised to a drug and require bigger and bigger doses.

People , Business , Problem , Time

“What do you mean we walked around dressed like girls? We walked around in our own clothes they just happened to be dresses.”

Billie Joe Armstrong (1972) American singer and guitarist

Girl , Clothes

“Put your head down and work hard. Never wait for things to happen, make them happen for yourself through hard graft and not giving up.”

Gordon Ramsay (1966) British chef, writer and TV presenter

Making love , Waiting

“A new scientific truth does not generally triumph by persuading its opponents and getting them to admit their errors, but rather by its opponents gradually dying out and giving way to a new generation that is raised on it. … An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth.”

Max Planck (1858–1947) German theoretical physicist

Eine neue wissenschaftliche Wahrheit pflegt sich nicht in der Weise durchzusetzen, daß ihre Gegner überzeugt werden und sich als belehrt erklären, sondern vielmehr dadurch, daß ihre Gegner allmählich aussterben und daß die heranwachsende Generation von vornherein mit der Wahrheit vertraut gemacht ist. … Eine neue große wissenschaftliche Idee pflegt sich nicht in der Weise durchzusetzen, daß ihre Gegner allmählich überzeugt und bekehrt werden — daß aus einem Saulus ein Paulus wird, ist eine große Seltenheit —, sondern vielmehr in der Weise, dass die Gegner allmählich aussterben und daß die heranwachsende Generation von vornherein mit der Idee vertraut gemacht wird. Auch hier heißt es wieder: Wer die Jugend hat, der hat die Zukunft.
Wissenschaftliche Selbstbiographie. Mit einem Bildnis und der von Max von Laue gehaltenen Traueransprache. Johann Ambrosius Barth Verlag (Leipzig 1948), p. 22, in Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, (1949), as translated by F. Gaynor, pp. 33–34, 97 (as cited in T. S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions). Translation revised by Eric Weinberger.

Making love , Future , Truth , Youth

“Nothing important happened today.”

George III of the United Kingdom (1738–1820) King of Great Britain and King of Ireland

It is widely believed that George III wrote this in his diary on July 4, 1776, the day the American Revolution began. In fact, this was made up by the scriptwriters of the series The X Files, as George III did not write a diary.
Misattributed

“The people were divided into the persecuted and those who persecuted them. That wild beast, which lives in man and does not dare to show itself until the barriers of law and custom have been removed, was now set free. The signal was given, the barriers were down. As has so often happened in the history of man, permission was tacitly granted for acts of violence and plunder, even for murder, if they were carried out in the name of higher interests, according to established rules, and against a limited number of men of a particular type and belief. A man who saw clearly and with open eyes and was then living could see how this miracle took place and how the whole of a society could, in a single day, be transformed. In a few minutes the business quarter, based on centuries of tradition, was wiped out. It is true that there had always been concealed enmities and jealousies and religious intolerance, coarseness and cruelty, but there had also been courage and fellowship and a feeling for measure and order, which restrained all these instincts within the limits of the supportable and, in the end, calmed them down and submitted them to the general interest of life in common. Men who had been leaders in the commercial quarter for forty years vanished overnight as if they had all died suddenly, together with the habits, customs and institutions which they represented.”

Ivo Andrič book The Bridge on the Drina

Source: The Bridge on the Drina (1945), Ch. 22

Courage , Law , History , Business

“I tried out that Buckethead guy. I met with him and asked him to work with me but only if he got rid of the fucking bucket. So I came back a bit later and he's wearing this green fucking Martian's-hat thing. I said, 'Look, just be yourself!' He told me his name was Brian, so I said that's what I'd call him. He says, 'No one calls me Brian except my mother.' So I said, 'Pretend I'm your mum then!' I haven't even got out of the room and I'm already playing fucking mind games with the guy. What happens if one day he's gone and there's a note saying, 'I've been beamed up?”

Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter

[Laughs] Don't get me wrong, he's a great player. He plays like a motherfucker!
Revolver interview; as quoted in "Ozzy Osbourne "Says Ex-GUNS N' ROSES Guitarist Buckethead Auditioned For His Solo Band" http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/ozzy-osbourne-says-ex-guns-n-roses-guitarist-buckethead-auditioned-for-his-solo-band/, Blabbermouth.net, January 5, 2005

Game , Guy

“The role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas. The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen.”

Simon Sinek (1973) British/American author and motivational speaker

Source: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Idea

“Every flower and insect, every bird, and all the creatures that live upon the land and swim within the rivers and seas, are part of the Tree of Life. You are connected to the whole of life. Whatever happens to the myriad forms of life in the world around you, has a direct affect on you”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: Universal consciousness

“Dawn meet the light,
and the twillight the moon
all are mirages
on labyrinth of mind,
ever since time waking.
Do you think that our existence
makes any difference
to this vast universe?
Did we just happen
or were we meant to happen?
In the universal scheme of things,
we stand nowhere.
We may manage to survive in it,
but we have no control upon it,
except in the little space and time
that we create for ourselves.
We are little possibilities
in the endless probabilities of the universe.”

Alexis Karpouzos book An Ocean of souls

“It isn't what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it's what we say to ourselves about what happens.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

Suffering

“Mistake is something that happens to everyone in life.”

Rahul verma (Rv) (2004)

Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58354436-one-fourth-journey-of-rvalllplay?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=CHbCZWH9VO&rank=1

Life

“No revolution happens before its time. It cannot be rushed. When the circumstances are right, it cannot be stopped. It can, however, be directed or misdirected.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Revolution by Number

Time

“There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about.”

Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011) American artist

Art

“It just happened. I like to sing, and well, I just started singing and folks just started listening. I can't tell folks that I worked and learned and studied, and overcame disappointments, because I didn't.”

Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor

Source: Pop Chronicles, Show 7 – The All American Boy: Enter Elvis and the rock-a-billies. Part 1 http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19754/m1/; C. Robert Jennings, " Elvis Lives! http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/155809300.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Feb+18%2C+1968&author=Jennings%2C+C+Robert&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+%281923-Current+File%29&edition=&startpage=M28&desc=ELVIS+LIVES%21", 1968-Feb-18, L.A. Times Magazine, p. M28.

Singing , Study , Learning , Disappointment

“I don't need anyone else's approval.
If I happen to have admirers, well that is just a plus.
I don't require other's opinion of me.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

“What is the purpose of our lives?
Life's purpose is to be happy.
We have no guarantee what will happen in the future, but we live in hope.
This is what keeps us trying and going.
If we can't enjoy the simple things in life;
We are missing the meaning of life.
Don't give up.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Happiness , Future , Hope , Life

“Sometimes the Worst things that happen in our lives,
put us directly on the Path to the
Best things that will ever happen to us.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today. It's been that way all this year. It's been that way so many times. All of war is that way.”

Ernest Hemingway book For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)

War , Way , Time , Dependency

“There isn't a way things should be. There's just what happens, and what we do.”

Terry Pratchett book A Hat Full of Sky

Source: A Hat Full of Sky

Way

“Always remember that when a man goes out of the room, he leaves everything in it behind… When a woman goes out she carries everything that happened in the room along with her.”

Alice Munro book Too Much Happiness

Source: "Too Much Happiness", in Too Much Happiness (2009)

“Things are not as easily understood nor as expressible as people usually would like us to believe. Most happenings are beyond expression; they exist where a word has never intruded.”

Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet

Source: Letters to a Young Poet

People

“what has happened to us has happened to everyone or only us; if to everyone, then it's no novelty, and if only to us, then it won't be understood.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Way , Thinking

“Madness is the emergency exit. You can just step outside, and close the door on all those dreadful things that happened. You can lock them away…forever."
The Joker”

Alan Moore book Batman: The Killing Joke

Source: Batman: The Killing Joke

Madness

“There are black zones of shadow close to our daily paths, and now and then some evil soul breaks a passage through. When this happens the man who knows must strike before reckoning the consequences.”

H.P. Lovecraft book The Thing on the Doorstep

Fiction
Source: "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1937), first published in Weird Tales

Soul , Evil

“Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that happen to a man.”

Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Marxist revolutionary from Russia

Trotzky's Diary in Exile — 1935 (1958)

Age

“You'd think, 'What if I make a mistake today, I'll regret it'. I don’t believe in regret, I feel everything leads us to where we are and we have to just jump forward, mean well, commit and just see what happens.”

Angelina Jolie (1975) American actress, film director, and screenwriter

Feeling , Thinking

“Every moment there are a million miracles happening around you: a flower blossoming, a bird tweeting, a bee humming, a raindrop falling, a snowflake wafting along the clear evening air. There is magic everywhere. If you learn how to live it, life is nothing short of a daily miracle.”

Sadhguru book Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Source: Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Life , Flowers , Bird , Learning

“No boundary, no burden. This is the turnaround in human consciousness that needs to take place. Once this happens, it is not that the cosmos begins to happen your way. Instead, what you are becomes cosmic. This is not transcendence; this is homecoming.”

Sadhguru book Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Source: Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Way

“How many things have to happen to you before something occurs to you?”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Wise

“When you are a child you are yourself and you know and see everything prophetically. And then suddenly something happens and you stop being yourself; you become what others force you to be. You lose your wisdom and your soul.”

Jean Rhys (1890–1979) novelist from Dominica

Source: After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie

Wisdom , Soul

“I've had a very sheltered life. What can happen to you if you stay home writing all day?”

R.L. Stine (1943) American writer and producer

Life , Home

“Resilience is not what happens to you. It’s how you react to, respond to, and recover from what happens to you.”

Jeffrey Gitomer (1946) American writer

“The impossible cannot have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.”

Agatha Christie book Murder on the Orient Express

Hercule Poirot
Source: Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

Appearance

“That's what happens when people reach old age; nobody remembers they've been bastards too.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Prisoner of Heaven

Source: The Prisoner of Heaven

People , Age

“So here is my story, may it bring
Some smiles and a tear or so,
It happened once upon a time,
Far away, and long ago,
Outside the night wind keens and wails,
Come listen to me, the Teller of Tales!”

Brian Jacques book Lord Brocktree

Source: Lord Brocktree

Smile , Tear , Time , Night

“But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark -- that sort of make everything else seem -- unimportant.”

Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) American playwright

“Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts or happenings. It consist mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever flowing through one's head.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Life

“The trouble with emergencies is," she said, "that I always put on my finest underwear and then nothing happens.”

Zelda Fitzgerald book Save Me the Waltz

Source: Save Me the Waltz

“I had an accident."

"That seemes to happen a lot."

"It wasn't my fault."

"It never is."

"I just have bad luck."

"Or you're just trouble."

"You got a problem with that?"

"No problem at all."

"Oh my God! Are you going to help or not?”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

God , Bad luck , Problem , Help

“Unhappy am I because this has happened to me.- Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Pain , Fear , Future , Happiness

“Why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from
Birth must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient.”

Malcolm X book The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Life , Birth , Understanding , Personality

“Be yourself. Be true to that, to your heart. Patience. See what happens if you step back instead of bounding forward.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Heart , Patience

“We are not what happened to us,
we are what we wish to become.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

“You may not like what's happening, but just accept it, and let's try to live together. Even if you feel angry, let's be patient and endure, let's try to live together. I've realized that this is the only way forward.”

Hayao Miyazaki (1941) Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka

Way , Feeling

“What will happen will happen and I won't waste my time worrying.”

Christopher Paolini book Brisingr

Source: Brisingr

Time

“One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. By the time the mind is able to comprehend what has happened, the wounds of the heart are already too deep.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Feeling , Understanding , Time , Heart

“I'm like everyone else—I see the world in terms of what I would like to see happen, not what actually does.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

World

“Nothing happens, and nothing happens, and then everything happens.”

Fay Weldon (1931) English author, essayist and playwright

Life Force (1992) Source: [Kakutani, Michiko, 1992-02-07, Books of The Times; Fallout From a Multitude of Liaisons, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/07/books/books-of-the-times-fallout-from-a-multitude-of-liaisons.html, New York Times, 2020-02-12]

“When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Source: Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (2010), p. 210.
Context: For many years I believed that I remembered helping my grandfather drink his whisky toddy when I was six weeks old, but I do not tell about that any more, now; I am grown old, and my memory is not as active as it used to be. When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying, now, and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the latter. It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it.

“No clowns were funny. That was the whole purpose of a clown. People laughed at clowns, but only out of nervousness. The point of clowns was that, after watching them, anything else that happened seemed enjoyable.”

Terry Pratchett book Men at Arms

Source: Men at Arms

People

“But let me tell you this: sometimes at night, when I look up at the stars, an see the whole sky jus laid out there, don't you think I ain't rememberin it all. I still got dreams like anybody else, an ever so often, I am thinkin about how things might of been. An then, all of a sudden, I'm forty, fifty, sixty years ole, you know?
Well, so what? I may be a idiot, but most of the time, anyway, I tried to do the right thing-- an dreams is jus dreams, ain't they? So whatever else has happened, I am figgerin this: I can always look back an say, at least I ain't led no hum-drum life.
You know what I mean?”

Winston Groom Forrest Gump

Source: Forrest Gump

Life , Dreams , Star , Thinking

“The seasons do not push one another; neither do clouds race the wind across the sky. All things happen in their own good time.”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Time , Season

“D’you know what happens when you hurt people?’ Ammu said. ‘When you hurt people, they begin to love you less. That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Love , People , Hurt

“Occasionally he stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

On Stanley Baldwin, as cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), Ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 322 ISBN 1586486381
Also quoted by Kay Halle in Irrepressible Churchill: A Treasury of Winston Churchill's Wit http://books.google.com/books?id=b0MTAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Occasionally+he+stumbled+over+the+truth+but+hastily+picked+himself+up+and+hurried+on+as+if+nothing+had+happened%22&pg=PA133#v=onepage (1966).
The 1930s
Variant: Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

Truth

“Things may happen and often do to people as brainy and footsy as you”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

People

“Granny Weatherwax was not a good loser. From her point of view, losing was something that happened to other people.”

Terry Pratchett book Witches Abroad

Source: Witches Abroad

People

“It is folly to say you know what is happening to other people. Only they know, if they exist. They have their own Universes of their own eyes and ears.”

Douglas Adams book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Source: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

People , Universe

“I think real forgiveness is a gift someone has to earn, and I don’t even have to worry about Kalona asking for my forgiveness unless he’s worthy of even considering it, and I just don’t see that happening.”

P. C. Cast book Awakened

Source: Awakened

Forgiveness , Thinking

“Remembrance restores possibility to the past, making what happened incomplete and completing what never was. Remembrance is neither what happened nor what did not happen but, rather, their potentialization, their becoming possible once again.”

Giorgio Agamben (1942) Italian philosopher

Source: Potentialities: Collected Essays in Philosophy

Past

“The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.”

Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850) French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly

“I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Variant: I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

Life

“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Source: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

Way , Boy , Hell , Fish

“Things just happen, one after another. They don't care who knows. But… ah, history is different. History has to be observed. Otherwise it's not history. It's just… well, things happening one after another.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

History

“You don't know what can happen tomorrow. Life is like a novel, isn't it? It's filled with suspense. You never know what's going to happen until you turn the page.”

Sidney Sheldon (1917–2007) American writer

Variant: Life is like a novel. It's filled with suspense. You have no idea what is going to happen until you turn the page.

Life

“It is essential to happiness that our way of living should spring from our own deep impulses and not from the accidental tastes and desires of those who happen to be our neighbors, or even our relations.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Way , Spring , Happiness

“New lesson, class. Most monsters will vaporize when sliced with a celestial bronze sword. This change is perfectly normal, and will happen to you right now if you don't BACK OFF!" - Percy”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Change

“Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

Life

“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.”

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

Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner (1992)
Source: Beyond Words: Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith

World , Beauty

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“Which is why I am writing this book. To think. To understand. It just happens to be the way I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Books , Way , Feeling , Understanding

“I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

“Do not start. Do not blush. Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen. Sometimes women do like women.”

Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own

Source: A Room of One's Own

Women

“Then I said something. I said, Suppose, just suppose, nothing had ever happened. Suppose this was for the first time. Just suppose. It doesn't hurt to suppose. Say none of the other had ever happened. You know what I mean? Then what? I said.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

Source: Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories

Time , Hurt

“Then I thought, boy, isn't that just typical? You wait and wait and wait for something, and then when it happens, you feel sad.”

Sharon Creech book Absolutely Normal Chaos

Source: Absolutely Normal Chaos

Sadness , Feeling , Boy , Waiting

“Life can't be all that bad,' i'd think from time to time. 'Whatever happens, i can always take a long walk along the Bosphorus.”

Orhan Pamuk book Istanbul: Memories and the City

Source: Istanbul: Memories and the City

Life , Thinking , Time

“Change can be weird or even queer. But change has to happen for things to grow--for us to grow. And change isn't so bad when you're not in it alone.”

P. C. Cast book Burned

Source: Burned

Change

“Life has many ways of testing a person's will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen all at once.”

Paulo Coelho book The Winner Stands Alone

Source: The Winner Stands Alone

Motivational , Success , Deep , Inspirational

“I place this day, my life, my loved ones, my work in the Lord's hands. There is no harm in the Lord's hands, only good. Whatever happens, whatever results, if I am in the Lord's hands it is the Lord's will and it is good.”

Norman Vincent Peale book The Power of Positive Thinking

Source: The Power of Positive Thinking

Love , Life

“Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: The Personal Notebooks Of Thomas Hardy

“People work too hard to figure out the meaning of their lives. Why me, why now. The truth is, sometimes things don't happen to you for a reason. Sometimes it's just about being in the right place at the right time for someone else.”

Jodi Picoult book Second Glance

Source: Second Glance

People , Truth , Time

“But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

Washington's formal acceptance of command of the Army (16 June 1775), quoted in The Writings of George Washington : Life of Washington (1837) edited by Jared Sparks, p. 141
1770s

Thinking , Sincerity