Quotes about happening
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“The interconnectedness of all things: Buddhists have always known it and physicists now confirm it. Nothing that happens is an isolated event, it only appears to be. The more we judge and label it, the more we isolate it.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: Stillness Speaks (2003), Chapter 10 Suffering and the End of Suffering

Appearance

“Confusion, anger, depression, violence, and conflict arise when humans forget who they are. Yet how easy it is to remember the truth and thus return home: I am not my thoughts, emotions, sense perceptions, and experiences. I am not the content of my life. I am Life. I am the space in which all things happen. I am consciousness. I am the Now. I Am.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: Stillness Speaks (2003), Ch 4

Home, Truth, Anger, Forgetting

“I love and hate technology.
Texting or emailing is one step away from true and real communication.
What happened to people and their communication skills?”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Hate, People, Communication, Love

“A good work of fiction is more real than the stories from which it was derived. Otherwise it has no staying power. It's distilled reality. And some would say "it never happened," but it depends on what you mean by "happened."”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

If it's a pattern that repeats in many, many places, with variation, you can abstract out the central pattern. So the pattern never purely existed in any specific form, but the fact that you pulled a pattern out from all those exemplars means that you've extracted something real. I think the reason that the story of Adam and Eve has been immune to being forgotten is because it says things about the nature of the human condition that are always true.
Other

Dependency, Reality

“They say people in your life are seasons
And anything that happens is for a reason The devil is alive, I feel him breathin'
Claiming money is the key, so keep on dreamin'
And put them lottery tickets just to tease us”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Heard 'Em Say
Lyrics, Late Registration (2005)

Money, People, Season, Life

“The question is not "what's wrong with you?" It's "what happened to you?"”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Question

“We must decide: is life something that is happening to us or something that is happening through us? If we are part of the problem, we can also be part of the solution.”

Neale Donald Walsch (1943) American writer

Problem, Life, Parting

“she tapped her finger and nothing happened and she thought she had lost her magic, but it had only changed and it took her awhile to figure it out.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Change

“If you want to see a man come to his senses, try something like, Do you happen to carry a rubber in your wallet? Did I mention I'm not on the pill?”

Catherine Ryan Hyde (1955) American writer

Source: Pay It Forward

Sense

“People get over love. They can live without it, they can move on. Love can be lost and found again. But that won't happen for me. I won't survive you, Eva.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Variant: As long as you understand the difference. People get over love. They can live without it, they can move on. Love can be lost and found again. But that won't happen for me. I won't survive you, Eva.
Source: Reflected in You

Love, People

“Look, lady, we're not going to go all HUNGER GAMES on each other. Isn't going to happen.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Variant: He forced his fists to unclench. "Look, lady, we're not going to go all Hunger Games on each other. Isn't going to happen.
Source: The Blood of Olympus

Hunger, Game

“All the while, my mind reeled with what had happened.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

“Something bad was about to happen. My wife was being clever again.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

“I reflected that everything happens to a man precisely, precisely now. Centuries of centuries and only in the present do things happen; countless men in the air, on the face of the earth and the sea, and all that really is happening is happening to me...”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

The Garden of Forking Paths (1942), The Garden of Forking Paths
Source: Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings

Men, Sea

“Great stories happen to those who can tell them”

Ira Glass (1959) American radio personality

“It was like something you have dreaded and feared and dodged for years until it seemed like all your life, then despite everything it happened to you and all it was was just pain, all it did was hurt and so it was all over, all finished, all right.”

William Faulkner book Intruder in the Dust

Source: Intruder in the Dust

Life, Pain, Fear, Hurt

“I've seen men die because they were sure that what should not happen, would not.
-Robert Jordan(The eye of the world, Wheel of time)”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Men, World, Time

“At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 18.

Fate, Lie, World

“I knew if I waited around long enough something like this would happen.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Waiting

“What would happen if the autism gene was eliminated from the gene pool?

You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and socializing and not getting anything done.”

Temple Grandin (1947) USA-american doctor of animal science, author, and autism activist

Source: The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's

People

“Just as real events are forgotten, some that never were can be in our memories as if they happened.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Memory

“Like a horse, honey, somebody's gonna break you.'
'Never. Going. To. Happen.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

Horse

“I had to do something," she said. "I couldn't just sit and wait for life to happen to me any longer.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: To Sir Phillip, With Love

Life, Waiting

“Whatever happens tomorrow, we've had today.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Variant: Whatever happens tomorrow, we had today; and I'll always remember it
Source: One Day

“Time," the Captain said, "is not what you think." He sat down next to Eddie. "Dying? Not the end of everything. We think it is. But what happens on earth is only the beginning.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Thinking, Time

“I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

Friendship, For Friend, For Bestfriend

“Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Joy

“This is what happens when nice people are pushed too far. We give too many chances, and so when we've finally had enough, we are well and truly done. When a nice person shuts a door on you, it's shut for good.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: He's Gone

People, Chance, Personality

“You might think you made a new world or a new self, but your old self is always gonna be there, just below the surface, and if something happens, it'll stick its head out and say 'Hi.' You don't seem to realize that. You were made somewhere else.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

World, Thinking

“and then you stopped. And looked at me. And I knew then exactly what was going to happen. You kissed me, yes. But it was not just goodnight. Even then, I could feel the promise in it. The promise that you would kiss me just like that, forever.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

Feeling, Kiss

“I happen to be immature, undisciplined, and self-centered, pretty much a little boy in a man's body, although I'd appreciate it if you didn't quote me on that.

-Bobby Tom”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Heaven, Texas

Quotes, Boy

“Partings are the beginnings of new meetings.

Beginnings happen because there are endings.”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 22

Parting

“Nothing ever happened - Not even this”

Jack Kerouac book Big Sur

Source: Big Sur

“People complain about the bad things that happen to em that they don't deserve but they seldom mention the good. About what they done to deserve them things. I don't recall that I ever give the good Lord all that much cause to smile on me. But he did.”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men (2005)

People, Smile

“He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn't good.”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

Source: Reasons to Live

“For most people, there are only two places in the world. Where they live and their TV set. If a thing happens on television, we have every right to find it fascinating, whatever it is.”

Don DeLillo book White Noise

Source: White Noise

People, World

“Nobody knows how things will turn out, that's why they go ahead and play the game… You give it your all and sometimes amazing things happen, but it's hardly ever what you expect.”

Gennifer Choldenko book Al Capone Does My Shirts

Source: Al Capone Does My Shirts

Hope, Game

“Possibly. Basically, everything that happens in our life is our fault and ours alone. A lot of people go through the same difficulties we went through, and they react completely differently. We looked for the easiest way out: a separate reality.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

Life, People, Way, Reality

“Most of us, even if only for two minutes in our lives, have experienced at some time or another an inexplicable and random sense of complete bliss, unrelated to anything that was happening in the outside world.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

World, Sense, Time

“If I've learned one lesson from all that's happened to me, it's that there is no such thing as the biggest mistake of your existence. There's no such thing as ruining your life. Life's a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”

Sophie Kinsella book The Undomestic Goddess

Source: The Undomestic Goddess

Life, Learning

“But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can't last.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People, World, Time

“A: The soul wanders in the dark, until it finds love. And so, wherever our love goes, there we find our soul.
Q: It always happens?
A: If we're lucky. And if we let ourselves be blind.
Q: Instead of watching out?
A: Instead of always watching out.”

Mary Zimmerman Metamorphoses

Source: Metamorphoses

Love, Soul

“But if something did happen, it happened. Whether it's right or wrong. I accept everything that happens, and that's how I became the person I am now.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Personality

“Sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Katniss, pp. 31-32
Variant: Because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them.
Like me, for instance. Right now.
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire (2009)

People

“Time is what keeps things from happening all at once.”

Ann Brashares The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Source: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Time

“Nothing bad can happen to a writer. Everything is material.”

Philip Roth (1933–2018) American novelist

“Babies were dangerous…
they made you fall in love before you knew
what was happening.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

Love, Baby

“I went over and over everything that had ever happened between us. I couldn’t keep doing it, going back and fourth, holding her close and then pushing her away. It wasn’t right”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

“It was a train wreck happening right in front of me and I couldn't do anything about it, except that not only was I watching, I was also the train.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Blue-Eyed Devil

Training

“Why is this happening to me? Why am I having such a difficult time? One answer is that life is supposed to be difficult! It’s what enables us to grow. Remember, earth is not heaven!”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

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

Life, Time

“His whole future seemed suddenly to be unrolled before him; and passing down its endless emptiness he saw the dwindling figure of a man to whom nothing was ever to happen.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

Future

“If you think about something for long enough,' she explained, `more than likely, that thing will happen.' She tapped her head. `It's all in the mind.”

Jeanette Winterson book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Source: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Thinking

“But I said that you could still want something that is very unlikely to happen.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“I always thought that 'Good things happen to those who do the wave' No wonder I've been so confused”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“This was what could happen to you: you could end up this far from where you thought you were going.”

Wally Lamb book She's Come Undone

Source: She's Come Undone

“You'd be surprised how fast things happen when the right man comes along.”

Danielle Steel book The Wedding

Source: The Wedding

“Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Pt. V : As Far as Thought Can Reach
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)

Time

“It gets tiresome being spoken to as if you are a child, even if you happen to be one.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

“Bad things are not the worst things that an happen to us. NOTHING is the worst thing that can happen to us.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: One

“Make-up? What happened? You look almost female."
"Thanks. You look almost straight.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Natural Born Charmer

“Somehow, something always happens just before things get to the very worst. It is as if Magic did it. If I could only just remember that always. The worse thing never quite comes.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

“Sometimes you have to do things when sad things happen.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Sadness

“It is necessary that the weakness of the powerless is transformed into a force capable of announcing justice. For this to happen, a total denouncement of fatalism is necessary. We are transformative beings and not beings for accommodation.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Justice

“You see I usually find myself among strangers because I drift here and there trying to forget the sad things that happened to me.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Sad, Heartbreaking, Depressing, Hurtful

“Many strange things happen in this world”

Johanna Spyri book Heidi

Source: Heidi

World

“I think it happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. And so you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on. It's perfectly normal.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

Jeremy Marsh, Chapter 7, p. 113
Variant: I think it happens to everyone as they grow up. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you've known forever don't see things the way you do. And so you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on. It's perfectly normal.
Source: 2000s, True Believer (2005)

People, Way, Memory