Quotes about keep
page 15

“He wanted to pay her; he thought women ought to be paid for keeping men from dying or going out of their minds.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

Women, Men

“You can keep it a secret…. But secrets have their own weight, and it can be a very heavy one.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Secret

“It was getting hard to keep all the things I didn't know inside me.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“Thank you," she whispered, "for keeping yourself alive, soldier."
"You're welcome," he whispered back.”

Paullina Simons book Tatiana and Alexander

Source: Tatiana and Alexander

“It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

“Jealousy has the amazing power to illuminate a single person in an intense beam of light, keeping the multitude of others in total darkness.”

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature

Source: Farewell Waltz

Jealousy, Light, Personality

“I held a jewel in my fingers
And went to sleep.
The day was warm, and winds were prosy;
I said: "'T will keep."

I woke and chid my honest fingers,—
The gem was gone;
And now an amethyst remembrance
Is all I own.”

Emily Dickinson book The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Source: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Sleep

“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

May 24, 2005 http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050524-3.html <br class="br">2000s, 2005

Truth

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

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

God, Way, Understanding, Heart

“Time keeps on… slippin'… slippin'… slippin' into the future.”

Jessica Bird book Covet

Source: Covet

Time, Future

“Jace: 'I don't like keeping her in the dark.'
Sebastian: 'We'll tell her in a week. What difference does a week make?'
Jace: 'Two weeks ago you were dead.'
Sebastian: 'Well, I wasn't suggestingweeks. That would be insane.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Variant: I don’t like keeping her in the dark,” Jace said.
“We’ll tell her in a week. What difference does a week make?”
Jace gave him a look. “Two weeks ago you were dead.”
“Well, I wasn’t suggesting two weeks,” said Sebastian. “That would be insane.
Source: City of Lost Souls

Dead

“You are always in my thoughts. When you were little, I knew your whereabouts at any given moment. Now that you are… off on your own, I still always know where you are, because I keep you in my heart.”

Elizabeth Berg (1948) American novelist

Heart

“No matter how you spend your life, your wit will defend you more often than a sword. Keep it sharp!”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 40, “On the Horns” (p. 290)
Context: Any student of mine must be able to defend his ideas against an attack. No matter how you spend your life, your wit will defend you more often than a sword. Keep it sharp!

Life

“For every hand extended another lies in wait. Keep your eye on that one girl… anticipate.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Girl, Waiting

“Just pity him, my boy. Tomorrow we'll be on our way, but he'll have to keep his own disagreeable company until the day he dies.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Way, Boy

“When you are crazy you learn to keep quiet.”

Philip K. Dick book VALIS

VALIS

Learning

“The 'what should be' never did exist, but people keep trying to live up to it. There is no 'what should be,' there is only what is.”

Lenny Bruce (1925–1966) comedian and social critic

People

“I must keep my head and not give in to desire, for desire is what causes women to drown.”

Alice Hoffman book The Dovekeepers

Source: The Dovekeepers

Women

“If you need to conceal your true nature to get in the door, understand that you'll probably have to conceal your true nature to keep that job.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Source: Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Understanding, Nature

“It is not true that women cannot keep secrets. Where they love, they can be trusted to death and beyond, against all sense and reason. It is their weakness, and their great strength.”

Mary Stewart book The Hollow Hills

Source: The Hollow Hills

Love, Death, Women, Secret

“It is clear that the books owned the shop rather than the other way about. Everywhere they had run wild and taken possession of their habitat, breeding and multiplying, and clearly lacking any strong hand to keep them down.”

Agatha Christie book The Clocks

Source: The Clocks

Books, Way, Strong

“Maybe the lesson is: Know when to brag and when to keep your mouth shut. Or: Sometimes life isn’t fair, even if you are as gifted as Athena. Or maybe: Don’t give away free tapestries.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Source: Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

Life

“Take my hands,” Alec said. “And take my strength too. Whatever of it you can use to— to keep yourself going.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“The death of something living is the price of our own survival, and we pay it again and again. We have no choice. It is the one solemn promise every life on earth is born and bound to keep.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Life, Death

“i still have no way to survive but to keep writing one line, one more line, one more line…”

Yukio Mishima (1925–1970) Japanese author

Way

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;!”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

Source: If: A Father's Advice to His Son

Men

“But I suppose there's a lot to see everywhere, if only you keep your eyes open.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

“Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Love, Art, Way, Understanding

“I believe it doesn't matter what it is, as long as you can find something concrete to keep you busy while you are living your meaningless life.”

Ruth Ozeki book A Tale for the Time Being

Source: A Tale for the Time Being

Life, Business

“adj.
It has always been my habit, ever since junior high school, to ask that question:
“What are you thinking?”
It is always an act of desperation, and I keep on asking, even though I know it will never work the way I want it to.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

School, Way, Question, Thinking

“I think most people live in fiction… That's how you keep your fragile body intact.”

Haruki Murakami book Sputnik Sweetheart

Source: Sputnik Sweetheart

People, Thinking

“Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.”

Lucille Ball (1911–1989) American actress and businesswoman

Variant: It doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optismism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself

Life, Faith, Way, Optimism

“Looks like what drives me crazy
Don't have no effect on you--
But I'm gonna keep on at it
Till it drives you crazy, too.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

Source: Selected Poems

“Losing you is most difficult for me, but the nature of my love for you is what matters. If it distorts into half-truth, then perhaps it is better not to love you. I must keep my mind but loose you.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 38, Escape

Love, Truth, Nature

“Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead”

Stephen King book Under the Dome

Source: Under the Dome

Secret, Dead

“Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

Spring

“Keeping it short and to the point is essential, otherwise he won’t hear a single word.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl-A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

“The Hermit was known to be pretty sniffy about disciples who returned in failure. There was a wall of the institute layered with their skins- an ingenious display that encouraged vigor in his students, as well as nicely keeping out the drafts.”

Jonathan Stroud book Ptolemy's Gate

Source: Ptolemy's Gate

Failure

“Said the river: imagine everything you can imagine, then keep on going.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Imagination

“No miles of level desert, no jagged mountain heights, no sea of endless blue
Neither words nor tears, nor silent fears
will keep me from coming back to you.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Again the Magic

Fear, Mountain, Tear, Sea

“I'd had years of practise looking dumb when people threw out Greek names I didn't know. It's a skill of mine. Annabeth keeps telling me to read a book of Greek myths, but I don't see the need. It's easier just to have folks explain stuff.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Diaries

Variant: Cacus.” I’d had years of practice looking dumb when people threw out Greek names I didn’t know. It’s a skill of mine. Annabeth keeps telling me to read a book of Greek myths, but I don’t see the need. It’s easier just to have folks explain stuff.
Source: The Demigod Diaries

People, Books, Reading

“We fell into silence, both of us keeping our own secrets of what we'd suffered in the other's absence. I wondered if we were trying to protect each other or simply didn't want to admit to our own fears and weaknesses.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

Secret, Fear, Silence, Suffering

“As she left my room I knew I should shut up. But you know when you should shut up because you really should just shut up… but you keep on and on anyway? Well, I had that.”

Louise Rennison book Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Source: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

“If you want to keep your memories, you first have to live them.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Memory

“I was running from one problem or place to another, with no time left to study, or sleep, or just breathe. I felt pulled in all directions, fighting to keep all these obligations circling in the air above me. It was only a matter of time before something fell.”

Sarah Dessen book Dreamland

Source: Dreamland (2000)

Problem, Sleep, Study, Time

“You're a leader. It's your job to keep your passion hot. Do whatever you have to do, read whatever you have to read, go wherever you have to go to stay fired up. And don't apologize to anybody.”

Bill Hybels (1951) American writer

Source: Courageous Leadership

Passion, Reading

“Sweet pea?'" Alec said.
"I was just trying it out."
Alec shook his head. "No."
Magnus shrugged. "I'll keep at it.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“When I turned two I was really anxious, because I'd doubled my age in a year.
I thought, if this keeps up, by the time I'm six I'll be ninety.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Age, Time

“Just think how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies alone in bed, and how many unhappy dreams it keeps warm.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Variant: But sleep? On a night like this? What an idea! Just think of how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies alone in bed, and how many unhappy dreams it keeps warm.
Source: The Complete Stories

Dreams, Thinking

“Secrets had an immense attraction to him, because he never could keep one, and he enjoyed the sort of unhallowed thrill he experienced when he went and told another animal, after having faithfully promised not to.”

Kenneth Grahame book The Wind in the Willows

Source: The Wind in the Willows

Secret, Animals

“You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.”

Jonathan Maberry book Rot & Ruin

Source: Rot & Ruin

“Frank held up the Chinese handcuffs. “Keep it simple.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

“Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.”

Andy Rooney (1919–2011) writer, humorist, television personality

“If A is success in life, then A = x + y + z. Work is x, play is y and z is keeping your mouth shut.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Said to Samuel J Woolf, Berlin, Summer 1929. Cited with additional notes in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice and Freeman Dyson, Princeton UP (2010) p 230
1920s
Variant: If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

Success, Life, Success

“Just because I don't deserve her doesn't mean I won't fight to keep her.”

Elizabeth Hoyt (1970) American writer

Source: To Seduce a Sinner

Fight

“You keep running and one day when you stop running your going to fall, and I'm going to be there to catch you.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

“People who keep stiff upper lips find that it's damn hard to smile.”

Judith Guest Ordinary People

Source: Ordinary People

Cute, People, Smile

“… Chicago divided your heart. Leaving you loving the joint for keeps. Yet knowing it never can love you.”

Nelson Algren (1909–1981) American novelist, short story writer

Source: Chicago: City on the Make

Love, Heart

“I feel ashamed now that I tried to take my life. It is such a precious thing. I had no one to talk me out of my despair and that was a mistake. You need to keep people close. You need to give them access to your heart.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

Life, People, Feeling, Heart

“You cannot figure out crazy. Just keep smiling and nodding.”

Ray Garton (1962) American writer

Smile

“I know too well how dangerous hope can be, how it grows and sometimes dies, taking its host with it. It's more powerful than anything Dr. Fibs keeps in his labs, more precious than all the secrets inside Sublevel Two.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

Secret, Hope

“TELEPHONE n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Personality

“I don't know what's wrong with me. It's like all I can do is keep writing this gibberish to keep from breaking apart.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Meanwhile, life keeps moving forward. The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when?”

Richard Carlson (1961–2006) Author, psychotherapist and motivational speaker

Life, Truth, Time, Happiness

“Our dreams are our own, and only we can know the effort required to keep them alive.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Dreams, Effort

“Let go of me or slow down," she demanded as she tried to keep pace with him.
He slowed down. "I swear to God, you try the patience of a saint."
"You aren't a saint, Brodick, no matter what your mother might have told you.”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: Ransom

God, Patience

“Let's face it, she can't have simply disappeared… can she?"
Horace shrugged. "That's what I keep telling myself," he said morosley. "But somehow it looks as if she has.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Battle for Skandia

“Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Life, Knowledge

“The Master said, “A true teacher is one who, keeping the past alive, is also able to understand the present.”
(Analects 2.11)”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Understanding, Teachers, Past

“Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

Parting

“Maybe… because for the first time… there was a chance I could keep him,” I say.
“So now that you've got me, what are you going to do with me?”
“Put you somewhere you can't get hurt.”
And when he kisses me, people in the room actually sigh.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

People, Kiss, Chance, Time

“The house of Life doesn’t trust our family, especially after what Dad and Mom did. Amos said we were raised apart for a reason, so we wouldn’t trigger each other’s magic.”
“Bloody awful reason to keep us apart,” I muttered.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Life, Family, Moms, Housing

“I shot you, all right," he said, "and you lost something, but you gained something as well. You just don't know it yet. I gained something, too."

What?"

I got to keep my promise. I didn't leave you behind.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

“I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.”

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

Fools

“I want to keep feeling the way I feel when I'm with you. Just tell me what I have to do. And give me some room to screw up. I've never done this before. There's a learning curve.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Way, Feeling, Learning

“Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people’s stuff.”

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

People

“Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

Motivational, Attitude, Success, Inspirational

“Jem" I have an assignmation in Soho this evening with a certain attractive someone.

Tessa: Goodness. If you keep seeing Six-Fingered Nigel like this, he'll expect you to declare your intentions.
Jem choked on his tea.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Tea

“Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Trademarked closing lines in The Writer's Almanac http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/ <br class="br">Source: Good Poems

Goodbye

“He caught me to him and cupped my cheek in one hand. “I want to keep feeling the way I feel when I’m with you. Just tell me what I have to do.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Way, Feeling

“Honey, a man can't keep his gun in a cookie jar. It just isn't done.”

Janet Evanovich (1943) Novelist

“Avoid teams at all cost. Keep your circle small. Never join a group that has a name.”

George Carlin When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

Source: When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

“What deity in the realms of dementia, what rabid god decocted out of the smoking lobes of hydrophobia could have devised a keeping place for souls so poor as is this flesh. This mawky worm-bent tabernacle.”

Cormac McCarthy book Suttree

page 130
Source: Suttree (1979)
Context: Put away these frozenjawed primates and their annals of ways beset and ultimate dark. What deity in the realms of dementia, what rabid god decocted out of the smoking lobes of hydrophobia could have devised a keeping place for souls so poor as in this flesh. This mawky wormbent tabernacle.

God, Soul