Quotes about import
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“Second, and far more important: tuck your chin. You're going to get hurt, so expect it and be ready. You may as well see it coming.”

Elizabeth Haydon book Rhapsody: Child of Blood

Source: Rhapsody: Child of Blood

Hurt

“I think of myself as an intelligent, sensitive human being with the soul of a clown which always forces me to blow it at the most important moments.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Soul, Intelligence, Thinking

“The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

Home, Soul

“Being the best was as equal to being in the middle, which was equal to being the worst. All were merely a state of being. It was how a person felt in that state and why they were in that state that was the important thing.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Gift

Personality

“Sometimes questions are more important than answers.”

Nancy Willard (1936–2017) American writer

Question

“Freedom isn't just about voting and marrying and kissing on the street, although all of these things are important. Freedom is also about what you will allow yourself to do.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

Kiss, Freedom

“Before I speak, I have something important to say.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

“In a time of social fragmentation, vulgarity becomes a way of life. To be shocking becomes more important - and often more profitable - than to be civil or creative or truly original.”

Al Gore (1948) 45th Vice President of the United States

Life, Way, Time

“There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind - you are the one who hears it.”

Michael Singer (1945) American landscape architect

Source: The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

“My most important problem was destroying the lines of demarcation that separate what seems real from what seems fantastic.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Problem

“Let you alone! That’s all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

World, Way

“Religion humanizes this universe, makes us feel important and loved. We are not animals governed by uncontrollable drives, animals that die for no apparent reason, but creatures made in the image of supreme being”

Robert Greene book The Art of Seduction

Source: The Art of Seduction

Love, Religion, Feeling, Universe

“The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don't know.”

Barbara Kingsolver book The Lacuna

Source: The Lacuna

Personality

“The only important elements in any society are the artistic and the criminal, because they alone, by questioning the society’s values, can force it to change.”

Samuel R. Delany book Empire Star

Source: Empire Star (1966), p. 190

Question, Change

“They have accepted me as an individual, as a personality, as an entity. I belong! I am important! I am somebody!”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Source: Go Ask Alice

Personality

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Courage, Courageous

“If there's a God out there, then i would hope he has more important things to attend to than my drinking scotch or eating pork.”

Khaled Hosseini (1965) novelist

Source: The Kite Runner: A Portrait of the Marc Forster Film

God, Hope, Drink

“I know I'm not going to be able to change the world, but I think it's important to try to make a difference”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

World, Thinking, Change

“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

Letter (6 September 1910) to his father, John Coolidge, who had been elected to the Vermont State Senate; in Your Son Calvin Coolidge, as cited in Silent Cal’s Almanack: The Homespun Wit and Wisdom of Vermont's Calvin Coolidge (2011), Ed. David Pietrusza, Bookbrewer, "Legislation".
1910s, Letter to John Coolidge (1910)

“Enthusiasm is more important than innate ability, it turns out, because the single more important element in developing an expertise is your willingness to practice.”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

“I have important business to get to. I plan to sulk all afternoon, followed, perhaps, by an evening of Byronic brooding and a nighttime of dissipation.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Business

“Well," said Apollo with a brave smile. "You were right, my dear. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Smile

“Keeping up the appearance of having all your marbles is hard work, but important.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

Appearance

“… the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.”

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

Reality

“What's really important is to simplify. The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous. If you strive for simplicity, you are more likely to reach the viewer.”

William Albert Allard (1937) Photographer

“Repetition is important in the training not only of animals but also of humans." Yann Martel in Life of Pi, Page 25”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life, Animals, Training

“The most important story we'll ever write in life is our own—not with ink, but with our daily choices.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Life

“When we really want to go for something better, we shall smash the old. Until then, any sort of proposal, or making proposals, is no more than a tiresome game for self-important people.”

D.H. Lawrence book Women in Love

Source: Women in Love

People, Game

“What an odd thing a diary is: the things you omit are more important than those you put in.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

Source: The Woman Destroyed

“What's really important here," I whispered loudly to myself,"is not the big things other people have thought up, but the small things you, yourself have”

Haruki Murakami book Sputnik Sweetheart

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

People

“What is the most important thing one learns in school? Self-esteem, support, and friendship.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: Pieces of White Shell

Friendship, School, Support, Learning

“There is no dignity
quite so impressive,
and no independence
quite so important,
as living within your means.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

“What are the three most important rules of the chemist?"

This I knew from Ben. "Label clearly. Measure twice. Eat elsewhere.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

“There’s a reason we are drawn to the light. A reason why we fear darkness. It’s important to be terrified and unnerved about certain things. That way we will choose another path. The path that leads us to truth and love.”

Ted Dekker (1962) American writer

Love, Truth, Fear, Way

“None of us are either all good or all bad – we’re all somewhere in between – but there comes a moment in each life when we take an important step, either toward the light or toward the dark…”

Joseph Delaney (1945) British writer

Source: Attack of the Fiend

Life, Light

“The truth of some promises is not as important as whether or not you can believe in them, with all your heart.”

Michael Chabon (1963) Novelist, short story writer, essayist

Truth, Heart

“Your most important task as a leader is to teach people how to think and ask the right questions so that the world doesn't go to hell if you take a day off.”

Jeffrey Pfeffer (1946) American academic

People, World, Hell, Question

“Could you fall in love with her if she wasn't smarter than you? I mean, she may not be smarter than you. But isn't it important for you to think she is smarter than you in order to fall in love? Think now.”

Michael Ondaatje book The English Patient

Source: The English Patient

Love, Thinking

“The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock—shock is a worn-out word—but astonish.”

Terry Southern (1924–1995) American author

“When you have a strongly held belief, don't you think it's important to express that belief accurately?”

Michael Crichton book State of Fear

Source: State of Fear

Thinking

“Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important it finds homes for us everywhere.”

Jean Rhys (1890–1979) novelist from Dominica

Home, Reading

“I think being a woman is like being Irish… Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the same.”

Iris Murdoch book The Red and the Green

The Red and the Green (1965), ch. 2, p. 30.

Thinking

“Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

History

“First, you know, a new theory is attacked as absurd; then it is admitted to be true, but obvious and insignificant; finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Lecture VI, Pragmatism's Conception of Truth
1900s, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907)

“Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.”

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

“It is more important to be free than to be happy.”

Tom Robbins (1932) American writer

Happiness

“It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of those privileges.”

Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor

Source: Up From Slavery: An Autobiography

Law, Exercises

“There's a gift in your lap and it's beautifully wrapped and it's not your birthday. You feel wonderful, you feel like somebody knows you're alive, you feel fear because it could be a bomb, because you think you're that important.”

Aimee Bender (1969) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt

Fear, Feeling, Birthday, Thinking

“The two most important phrases in the human language are "If only" and "Maybe someday". Our past mistakes and our unrequited longings. The things we regret and the things we yearn for. That's what makes us who we are.”

Will Ferguson (1964) Canadian writer, especially humor about Canada

Source: Happiness

Past

“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”

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

Soul

“If this is love, no thanks. I don’t want any part of it. When I’m older, I’m just going to do my own thing. If I like a boy, fine, I’ll date him, but I’m not going to sit at home and cry over him. I cry over important things.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

Love, Home, Boy, Parting

“I know I can walk through the world, along the shore or under the trees, with my mind filled with things of little importance, in full self-attendance. A condition I can't really call being alive.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: A Thousand Mornings

World, Tree

“The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Love

“An empty shell. Those were the first words that sprang to mind….. Something incredibly important -.. - had disappeared from Miu for good. Leaving behind not life, but its absence”

Haruki Murakami book Sputnik Sweetheart

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

Life

“Beauty isn't worth thinking about; what's important is your mind. You don't want a fifty-dollar haircut on a fifty-cent head. ~Garrison Keillor”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Beauty, Thinking

“I'm sorry for my inability to let unimportant things go, for my inability to hold on to the important things.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

“How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

“The only two important things in life are real love and being at peace with yourself.”

Jonathan Carroll book Sleeping in Flame

Source: Sleeping in Flame

Love, Life, Peace

“He who writes carelessly confesses thereby at the very outset that he does not attach much importance to his own thoughts.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

“All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.”

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

Source: Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“I felt how important the simplest things were, like feeling proud, finding something funny, stretching yourself, retreating into yourself.”

Banana Yoshimoto book The Lake

Source: The Lake

Feeling

“My mother always says people should be able to take care of themselves, even if they're rich and important.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

People

“I think the highest and lowest points are the important ones. Anything else is just… in between.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Thinking

“I'm not doing anything, and yet I'm also doing the most important thing a man can do: I'm listening to what I needed to hear from myself.”

Paulo Coelho book Like the Flowing River

Source: Like the Flowing River

“It is by not always thinking of yourself, if you can manage it, that you might somehow be happy. Until you can make room in your life for someone as important to you as yourself, you will always be searching and lost….”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Life, Happiness, Search, Thinking

“Firsts were important. But I was pretty sure lasts were even more important.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

“But it is important to know this, to know your roots. To know where you started as a person. If not, your own life seems unreal to you.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

Life, Personality

“Who you are contributes to your poetry in a number of important ways, but you shouldn't identify with your poems so closely that when they are cut, you're the one that bleeds.”

Dorianne Laux (1952) American poet

Source: The Poet's Companion: A Guide To The Pleasures Of Writing Poetry

Way

“When tough times come, it is particularly important to offset them with much gentle softness. Be a pillow.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Time

“There is for a man two things in life that are very important, head and shoulders above everything else. Find work you like, and find someone to live with you like. Very few people get both.”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Life, People

“The most important rule there is, the Wizard's Sixth Rule: the only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason.”

Terry Goodkind Faith of the Fallen

Source: Faith of the Fallen

“While none of the work we do is very important, it is important that we do a great deal of it.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

“We all know we're going to die; what's important is the kind of men and women we are in the face of this.”

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

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

Women, Men

“A very important thing is not to make up your mind that you are any one thing.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

“But if something was really important, fate made sure it somehow came back to you and gave you another chance.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Fate, Chance

“The truth is more important than the facts.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

Truth, Wise

“In order for one to learn the important lessons of life, one must first overcome a fear each day.”

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

Life, Fear, Learning

“But by this time I was acutely conscious of the gap between law and justice. I knew that the letter of the law was not as important as who held the power in any real-life situation.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Source: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

Life, Justice, Law, Time

“You cannot be firmly certain about anything. You can only have enough courage and strength to do what you consider to be right. Maybe it turns out that was wrong, but still you would have done his, and it is most important.”

Irving Stone book Lust for Life

Source: Lust for Life

Courage

“It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known but to question it.”

Jacob Bronowski The Ascent of Man

Episode 11: "Knowledge or Certainty"
Source: The Ascent of Man (1973)
Context: The symbol of the University is the iron statue outside the Rathskeller of a barefoot goose girl that every student kisses at graduation. The University is a Mecca to which students come with something less than perfect faith. It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known but to question it.

Question, Study

“The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.”

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

Success, Success