Quotes about lack
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“Obedience unites us so closely to God that it in a way transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His.
If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

God, Way

“Unless we form the habit of going to the Bible in bright moments as well as in trouble, we cannot fully respond to its consolations because we lack equilibrium between light and darkness.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Light

“Evil is easy to fight. Lack of wisdom… that is very hard indeed.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Wisdom, Evil, Fight

“Lack of comfort means we are on the threshold of new insights.”

Lawrence M. Krauss (1954) American physicist

“Ah, that we lack the courage of our romantic convictions; and thereby miss the wine of life, forgoing the very thing that makes living worthwhile.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Life, Courage, Wine

“Hard work is only a prison sentence when you lack motivation”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

Motivation

“We did not lack modesty—on the contrary—but something urgently drove us to defy modesty together as immodestly as possible.”

Georges Bataille book Story of the Eye

Source: Story of the Eye

“It's as if every conversation with a woman was a test, and men always failed it, because they always lacked the key to the code and so they never quite understood what the conversation was really about.”

Orson Scott Card Enchantment

Source: Enchantment

Men

“Comfort is beauty muted by heroin. Sadness is beauty drained by lack of it.”

Luke Davies (1962) Australian writer

Source: Candy

Sadness, Beauty

“Lack of certification hardly proves intelligence,” Will muttered.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Variant: I am not a certified idiot—"
"Lack of certification hardly proves intelligence," Will muttered.
Source: Clockwork Princess

Intelligence

“We ordinary people might lack your great speed or your X-Ray vision, Superman, but never underestimate the power of the human mind. We carry the most dangerous weapon on Earth inside these thick skulls of ours.”

Mark Millar book Superman: Red Son

Source: Superman: Red Son

People, Speed

“They thought I suffered from lack of exterior, when I suffered from excess of interior”

Romain Gary book Gros-Câlin

Source: Gros-Câlin

Suffering

“A woman may be beautiful but have poor character. A man may be a business genius, making money left and right, but lack common courtesy, sensitivity, and compassion.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: Waiting and Dating

Money, Beauty, Business

“Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of courage.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Courage

“We have
Not one
In common
No two
Are shaped alike
The third
Because of that eye we lack
In the fourth
Direction there is hope
The fifth Is at the heart
-Orihime Inoue”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach―ブリーチ― 27 [Burīchi 27]

Hope, Heart

“Oppressors always expect the oppressed to extend to them the understanding so lacking in themselves.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Understanding

“What senses do we lack that we cannot see or hear another world all around us?”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

World, Sense

“Somebody," said Jacques, "your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour - and in the oddest places! - for the lack of it.”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

for the lack of it.' Pt. 1, Ch. 3 - p.51
Source: Giovanni's Room (1956)

Love, People

“The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Widely attributed to Shaw, this quotation is actually of unknown origin.
Misattributed
Variant: She had lost the art of conversation, but not, unfortunately, the power of speech.

“A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it … gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Source: (1962), Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, 2002 edition, page 15

People, Thinking, Freedom

“They say rather than cursing the darkness, one should light a candle. They don't mention anything about cursing a lack of candles.”

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

Books, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? (2004)

Light

“Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Freedom

“To know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around. The first product of self-knowledge is humility…”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

Truth, Way, Knowledge

“She lacks confidence, she craves admiration insatiably. She lives on the reflections of herself in the eyes of others. She does not dare to be herself.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Variant: She lacks the core of sureness, she craves admiration insatiably. She lives on reflections of herself in others' eyes. She does not dare to be herself.
Source: Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin

Confidence

“My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Aunt Frances”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

Girl, Courage

“My view is that it is desirable to be both loved and feared; but it is difficult to achieve both and, if one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince

Love, Fear

“A one-eyed man is much more incomplete than a blind man, for he knows what it is that's lacking.”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

“Evil is the moment when I lack the strength to be true to the Good that compels me.”

Alain Badiou (1937) French writer and philosopher

Source: Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil

Evil

“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.”

Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American journalist

Source: Liberty and the news

Communication

“We believe in the wrong things, that's what frustrates me the most. Not the lack of belief, but the belief in the wrong things. You want meaning? Well, the meanings are out there. We're just so damn good at reading them wrong.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Reading

“‎"There’s no such thing as mistakes – only a lack of foresight.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips book It Had to Be You

Source: It Had to Be You

“I always lacked common sense when taken by surprise.”

Anne Brontë book Agnes Grey

Variant: No, thank you, I don't mind the rain,' I said. I always lacked common sense when taken by surprise.
Source: Agnes Grey

Sense

“What bothered me most was their lack of style. I learned early that class is universally admired. Almost any fault, sin or crime is considered more leniently if there's a touch of class involved.”

Frank W. Abagnale (1948) American security consultant, former confidence trickster, check forger, impostor, and escape artist

Source: Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

Learning, Universe

“A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Imagination, Time

“I think you don't grow up until you stop worrying about other people's purposes or lack of them and find the purposes you believe in for yourself.”

Orson Scott Card book Xenocide

Source: Xenocide

People, Thinking

“Will suspected Jem was in fact cleverer than he was himself - but he lacked Will's tendency to assume the absolute worst about people and proceed from there.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

People

“people have character strength but they lack communication skills, and that undoubtedly affects the quality of relationships as well.”

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

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

People, Communication

“Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

Source: The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

Education, Understanding

“Normal: lacking in taste, compassion, understanding, kindness, and ordinary human decency.”

Frank Portman King Dork

Source: King Dork

Understanding

“To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness - though if stupidity is lacking, the others are useless.”

Julian Barnes book Flaubert's Parrot

Source: Flaubert's Parrot

Happiness, Health, Stupidity, Selfishness

“Apparently I lack some particular perversion which today's employer is seeking.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces

“Taking into account the public's regrettable lack of taste, it is incumbent upon you not to fit in.”

Janeane Garofalo (1964) comedian, actress, political activist, writer

Feel This Book, co-authored with Ben Stiller
from "Feel this Book"
Source: Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction
Context: Many people feel that mass acceptance and smooth socialization are desirable life paths for a young adult... Many people are often wrong... Don't bother being nice. Being popular and well liked is not in your best interest. Let me be more clear; if you behave in a manner pleasing to most, then you are probably doing something wrong. The masses have never been arbiters of the sublime, and they often fail to recognize the truly great individual. Taking into account the public's regrettable lack of taste, it is incumbent upon you not to fit in.

“At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Excerpts from the two paragraphs above have sometimes been quoted in abbreviated form: At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality... We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force.
Man and Socialism in Cuba (1965)
Context: At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality. Perhaps it is one of the great dramas of the leader that he or she must combine a passionate spirit with a cold intelligence and make painful decisions without flinching. Our vanguard revolutionaries must idealize this love of the people, of the most sacred causes, and make it one and indivisible. They cannot descend, with small doses of daily affection, to the level where ordinary people put their love into practice.
The leaders of the revolution have children just beginning to talk, who are not learning to call their fathers by name; wives, from whom they have to be separated as part of the general sacrifice of their lives to bring the revolution to its fulfilment; the circle of their friends is limited strictly to the number of fellow revolutionists. There is no life outside of the revolution.
In these circumstances one must have a great deal of humanity and a strong sense of justice and truth in order not to fall into extreme dogmatism and cold scholasticism, into isolation from the masses. We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force.

Love, Feeling, Thinking

“I lack nothing. I only needed myself.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“The highest prize we can receive for creative work is the joy of being creative. Creative effort spent for any other reason than the joy of being in that light filled space, love, god, whatever we want to call it, is lacking in integrity…”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Love, God, Effort, Light

“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

“To lack feeling is to be dead, but to act on every feeling is to be a child.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Feeling, Dead

“I wanted to be a psychological engineer, but we lacked the facilities, so I did the next best thing - I went into politics. It's practically the same thing.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation

Source: Foundation

“Another person's life, observed from the outside, always has a shape and definition that one's own life lacks.”

Pat Barker (1943) British writer

Life, Personality

“People do not lack strength, they lack will.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

People, Deep

“He is annoyed with their lack of interest, their blithe ignorance of the arbitrary genetic lottery that has granted them their privileged lives.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

“The most dangerous flaws are those which are good in moderation," she said. "Evil is easy to fight. Lack of wisdom… that is very hard indeed.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Wisdom, Evil, Fight

“It is clear that the world is purely parodic, in other words, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
Ever since sentences started to circulate in brains devoted to reflection, an effort at total identification has been made, because with the aid of a copula each sentence ties one thing to another; all things would be visibly connected if one could discover at a single glance and in its totality the tracings of Ariadne’s thread leading thought into its own labyrinth.
But the copula of terms is no less irritating than the copulation of bodies. And when I scream I AM THE SUN an integral erection results, because the verb to be is the vehicle of amorous frenzy.
Everyone is aware that life is parodic and that it lacks an interpretation. Thus lead is the parody of gold. Air is the parody of water. The brain is the parody of the equator. Coitus is the parody of crime.”

Georges Bataille book The Solar Anus

The Solar Anus (1927)

Life, World, Effort, Water

“People who make no mistakes lack boldness and the spirit of adventure. They are the brakes on the wheels of progress.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

People

“She wept with shame for her lack of will and with fear for a love she couldn't control.”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Source: Perfect

Love, Fear

“the great lack of parity between husbands and wives has always been spawned by the disproportionate degree of self-sacrifice that women are willing to make on behalf of those they love.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Love, Women

“If a little kid ever asks you just why the sky is blue, you look him or her right in the eye and say, "It's because of quantum effects involving Rayleigh scattering combined with a lack of violet photon receptors in our retinae."”

Philip Plait book Bad Astronomy

Source: Bad Astronomy (2002), p. 47
Source: Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax"

“The enemy of a love is never outside, it's not a man or woman, it's what we lack in ourselves.”

Anaïs Nin book A Spy in the House of Love

Source: A Spy in the House of Love (1954)

Love

“Opinion is usually something which people have when they lack comprehensive information.”

Idries Shah book Reflections

Source: Reflections

People

“In the infinity of life where I am,
All is perfect, whole and complete,
I no longer choose to believe in old limitations and lack, I now choose to begin to see myself
As the Universe sees me --- perfect, whole, and complete.”

Louise L. Hay book You Can Heal Your Life

Source: You Can Heal Your Life

Life, Universe, Perfection

“When the leader lacks confidence, the followers lack commitment.”

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

Source: Developing the Leader Within You

Confidence

“It is a wretched thing that the young men of today are so contriving and so proud of their material posessions. Men with contriving hearts are lacking in duty. Lacking in duty, they will have no self-respect.”

Tsunetomo Yamamoto book Hagakure

Source: Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

Men, Heart

“Some men die for lack of love…some die because of it. Think about it." - Daemon”

Anne Bishop (1955) American fiction writer

Source: Daughter of the Blood

Love, Men, Thinking

“Okay," Claire finally said. "I admit, he has significant ninja qualities."
"Booyah. I will summon the ninja. Oh, and take a lunch break while we burgle."
"You’re going too?"
"Am I not ninja enough? Are you saying that I lack ninja?”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Bite Club

“Being poor is not an indication of potential or worth. It’s a lack of resources.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: A Perfect Blood

“Through the lack of attaching myself to words, my thoughts remain nebulous most of the time. They sketch vague, pleasant shapes and then are swallowed up; I forget them almost immediately.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Variant: Most of the time, because of their failure to fasten on to words, my thoughts remain misty and nebulous. They assume vague, amusing shapes and are then swallowed up: I promptly forget them.
Source: Nausea

Time, Forgetting

“Despite a lack of natural ability, I did have the one element necessary to all early creativity: naïveté, that fabulous quality that keeps you from knowing just how unsuited you are for what you are about to do.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Source: Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life

Nature

“Your favorite volhv showed up half an hour ago, complaining about his lack of sleep and stupid gods. He says he brought his Batman belt.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Gunmetal Magic

God, Stupidity, Sleep

“What she lacks in poetry she makes up for in venom”

Sarra Manning (1950) British writer

“You know you've reached a new plateau of group mediocrity when even a Canadian is alarmed by your lack of individuality.”

Sarah Vowell book Assassination Vacation

Source: Assassination Vacation (2005), p. 144

“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather
it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: John F. Kennedy 1917-63: Chronology-documents-bibliographical aids

“A man’s emotions are what define him, and control is the hallmark of true strength. To lack feeling is to be dead, but to act on every feeling is to be a child.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Feeling, Dead

“The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line. The objection to it is not that it is predominantly painful, but that it is lacking in sense.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Baltimore Evening Sun (9 August 1926)
1920s
Source: A Mencken Chrestomathy

Pain, War, Sense

“We are tied down to a language which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in style.”

Tom Stoppard (1937) British playwright

Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

“As long as we have Netfix, Turner Classic Movies, Amazon, YouTube, and bookstores, there is no excuse ever to lack inspiration.”

Tim Gunn (1953) American actor and fashion consultant

Source: Gunn's Golden Rules: Life's Little Lessons for Making It Work

“This is what it is to love an artist: The moon is always rising above your house. The houses of your neighbors look dull and lacking in moonlight. But he is always going away from you. Inside his head there is always something more beautiful.”

Sarah Ruhl Eurydice

Source: Eurydice

Love, Beauty, Housing

“At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

Lie, Time

“Though the details differ across the world, no known culture lacks some version of the time-consuming, wealth consuming, hostility provoking rituals, the anti-factual, counter-productive fantasies of religion.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

Hostility, World, Religion, Time

“Illusion is Reality's coy lover who cheers him when he is grim. Illusion is cunning to his wisdom of ages, weet oblivion to his knowledge. A bounty to his lack. [Sabine]”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Kiss of a Demon King

Wisdom, Age, Lovers, Knowledge

“The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks.”

Douglas Adams The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

Source: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988), Ch. 14
Context: What was the Sherlock Holmes principle? 'Once you have discounted the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'
I reject that entirely. The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks. How often have you been presented with an apparently rational explanation of something that works in all respects other than one, which is just that it is hopelessly improbable? Your instinct is to say 'Yes, but he or she simply wouldn't do that.

“Probability is not a mere computation of odds on the dice or more complicated variants; it is the acceptance of the lack of certainty in our knowledge and the development of methods for dealing with our ignorance.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (1960) Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader and risk analyst

Source: Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

Knowledge

“Gymn says your fine. He's examined your internal organs and found nothing lacking.”

Donita K. Paul (1950) American writer

Source: DragonSpell

“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

When asked how the world had changed following the September 11, 2001 attacks <br class="br"> Has the world changed? http://books.guardian.co.uk/writersreflections/story/0,1367,567546,00.html, The Guardian (October 11, 2001)

People, Faith, Religion, Confidence