Quotes about left
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“Maybe memories should be left the way they are.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“The human race tends to remember the abuses to which it has been subjected rather than the endearments. What's left of kisses? Wounds, however, leave scars.”

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German poet, playwright, theatre director

Kiss

“Home is so sad. It stays as it was left, / Shaped to the comfort of the last to go / As if to win them back”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Sadness, Home

“If you meet a woman of whatever complexion who sails her life with strength and grace and assurance, talk to her! And what you will find is that there has been a suffering, that at some time she has left herself for hanging dead.”

Sena Jeter Naslund (1942) American writer

Source: Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer

Life, Suffering, Time, Dead

“There was a time when I believed I was the redeemed one, the boy borne safely home on the ebb of whatever freak tide carried Peter and Jamie away. Not any more. In ways too dark and crucial to be called metaphorical, I never left that wood.”

Tana French In the Woods

Source: In the Woods

Way, Home, Boy, Time

“My mother said I broke her heart… but it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little, but it's all we have left in this place. It is the very last inch of us… but within that inch we are free.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

Heart, Selfishness

“People don't want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

People, Problem

“… whether he stayed or left, whether they walked the same path or not. They could live on opposite sides of the world, and she would still be his.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Mine Till Midnight

World

“Gregori strutted toward the door. "I'm too sexy for my cape, too sexy for my fangs. Too sexy." He whirled in a circle, then struck a disco pose with a hand pointing at the ceiling. "Too sexy!" He left with a flourish of his cape.”

Kerrelyn Sparks (1955) American writer

Source: How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire

“Fate gives all of us three teachers, three friends, three enemies, and three great loves in our lives. But these twelve are always disguised, and we can never know which one is which until we’ve loved them, left them, or fought them.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Love, Fate, Teachers

“These people picked you up and played with you and then left you lying in the rain”

Janet Fitch (1955) American writer

Source: Paint it Black

People, Lying

“I open a paperclip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this. A whimper, a peep? I draw little window cracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Suicide, Help, Hurt, Drawing

“The world today is ruled by harassed politicians absorbed in getting into office or turning out the other man so that not much room is left for debating the great issues on their merits”

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

World

“There's one tiny little gap in the universe left, just about to close. And it takes a lot of power to send this projection. I'm in orbit around a supernova. I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye.”

Russell T. Davies (1963) Screenwriter, former executive producer of Doctor Who

Source: Doctor Who: The Shooting Scripts

Universe, Sun

“My son Asclepius had become the god of medicine by the time he was fifteen, and I couldn’t have been happier for him. It left me time for my other interests. Besides, it’s every god’s dream to have a child who grows up to be a doctor.”

Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle

Source: The Hidden Oracle

God, Dreams, Time

“Wait!" he yelled.
I didn't turn around, I walked faster. Then I heard him slam his fist on the hood of his car. I almost stopped.
Maybe I would have if he'd followed me. But he didn't. He got in his car and he left, just like he said he would.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Cars, Waiting

“Wounds are like water set to boil – they heal best left unwatched…”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Water

“Youth is still where you left it, and that's where it should stay. Anything that was worth taking on life's journey, you'll already have taken with you.”

Sophie Kinsella book Wedding Night

Source: Wedding Night

Life, Youth

“How can I find the words? Poets have taken them all and left me with nothing to say or do"
"Except to teach me for the first time what they meant.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book Busman's Honeymoon

Source: Busman's Honeymoon

Time

“I've come to believe errors, especially written errors, are often the only markers left by a solitary life: to sacrifice them is to lose the angles of personality, the riddle of a soul. In this case a very old soul. A very old riddle.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Life, Error, Soul, Personality

“I know you. I know this isn't you. And even if it is, I still love you. As much as I always have. You will always be mine. I will always love you, I promised you that when you left, and it's true now.”

Melissa de la Cruz (1971) American writer

Source: Gates of Paradise

Love

“Season of Joy:
She asked me when the season of joy was supposed to end & I said I didn't really think there was an exact date, so we left the tree up till June that year.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Thinking, Tree, Joy, Season

“I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“Armenia is dying, but it will survive. The little blood that is left is precious blood that will give birth to a heroic generation. A nation that does not want to die, does not die. April 9, 1916 Sorbonne”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

Birth

“She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it.”

Jean Rhys (1890–1979) novelist from Dominica

Life

“No one gets left behind, remember?”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

“It's another sin. Worse than all the other ones, which are immediate, violent and hot… It's the eighth deadly sin. The one God left out, Hope.”

Jennifer Donnelly A Northern Light

Source: A Northern Light

God, Hope

“Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 10, sc. 2
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

Thinking

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) Abolitionist, author

Source: Little Foxes (1865), Ch. 3.
Source: Little Foxes: Or, the Insignificant Little Habits Which Mar Domestic Happiness

Tear, Sad, Depressing, Hurtful

“The moon sets and the eastern sky lightens, the hem of night pulling away, taking stars with it one by one until only two are left.”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

Star, Night

“Of all the priceless objects left behind, this is what we rescue. These artifacts. Memory cues. Useless souvenirs. Nothing you could auction. The scars left from happiness.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Diary

Source: Diary

Happiness, Memory

“It's always hard when you've known a person a long time and then you have to recognise that you have nothing left in common but your memories.”

Eva Heller book Beim nächsten Mann wird alles anders

Source: Beim nächsten Mann wird alles anders

Memory, Time, Personality

“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) English poet

" Inversnaid http://www.bartleby.com/122/33.html, lines 13-16 <br class="br">Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1918) <br class="br">Source: Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Complete Poems

World

“You left me."
Not realizing until I've said my final good-bye and closed the door behind me, that he's not referring to the past.
He's prophesying our future.”

Alyson Nöel book Blue Moon

Source: Blue Moon

Past, Future

“I pointed to the wound. "It's missing," I said.

My grandmother smiled, and that was all it took for me to stop seeing the scar, and to recognize her again. "Yes," she said. "But see how much of me is left?”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

Smile

“People don't have fortunes left them in that style nowadays; men have to work and women to marry for money. It's a dreadfully unjust world.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

Women, Men, Money, People

“Remember that you and I made this journey together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.”

Jhumpa Lahiri book The Namesake

Variant: Remember it always. Remember that you and I made this journey and went together to a place where there was nowhere left to go.
Source: The Namesake

“There is, in fact, an incredible freedom in having nothing left to lose.”

Marya Hornbacher book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Source: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Freedom

“The warlock's gaze, on the flames, was remote and distant, as if he were looking back into the past. Simon couldn't help but remember what Magnus had said to him once, about living forever:
Someday you and I will be the only two left.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Distant, Past, Help

“The closet door is open for me, where I left it, since I left it open, it has graciously stayed open.”

Allen Ginsberg book Howl and Other Poems

Source: Howl and Other Poems

“I left parts of myself everywhere,
The way absent-minded people leave
Gloves and umbrellas
Whose colors are sad from dispensing so much bad luck”

Charles Simic (1938) American poet

Bad luck, People, Sadness, Color

“I can smell you, Ms. Lane," he said, even more softly. "The only blood on you is from your veins, not your womb."
My head whipped to the left and I stared at him. Ok, that was one of the more disturbing things he'd ever said to me.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Faefever

“I have to tell you it was the first time even after all these years of expecting my own death that i truly knew what it meant to die because with you gone there was nothing left for me to live for.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Viscount Who Loved Me

Death, Time

“People left him alone. And that was all he wanted.”

Patrick Süskind (1949) German writer and screenwriter

Source: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

People

“I don't have to tell you it goes without saying there are some things better left unsaid. I think that speaks for itself. The less said about it the better.”

George Carlin book Brain Droppings

Source: Brain Droppings

Thinking

“They lived and laughed and loved and left.”

James Joyce book Finnegans Wake

Source: Finnegans Wake

Love

“t was almost disappointing because it seemed when stress and madness were eliminated from my daily life there wasn't much left you could depend on.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

Life, Disappointment, Dependency, Madness

“We have some nachos left.” Carlos motioned to a plate on the table. “But I don’t suppose you’re interested.”
“I already ate.” Ian sat at the end of the table.
“Anyone we know?” Carlos’s amber eyes twinkled. “Ouch.” He glared at Toni.”

Kerrelyn Sparks (1955) American writer

Source: All I Want for Christmas is a Vampire

“He had followed the trail left by a dead man. It was only now that he realized it might lead only to a grave.”

Anthony Horowitz book Stormbreaker

Source: Stormbreaker

Dead

“I can't afford to spend my time with anyone - there's only enough left for myself”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon

Time

“The left-handed are precious; they take places which are inconvenient for the rest.”

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

“Where did you live before you came here?" I asked.
"The moon," he said smoothly. "We left because the place had no atmosphere.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

Source: The Impossible Knife of Memory

“I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

From an interview for Italian television (RAI) (10 March 1986) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106223 <br class="br">Second term as Prime Minister <br class="br">Context: In my work, you get used to criticisms. Of course you do, because there are a lot of people trying to get you down, but I always cheer up immensely if one is particularly wounding because I think well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left. That is why my father always taught me: never worry about anyone who attacks you personally; it means their arguments carry no weight and they know it.

Thinking, Personality

“When any civilization is dust and ashes," he said, "art is all that's left over. Images, words, music. Imaginative structures. Meaning—human meaning, that is—is defined by them. You have to admit that.”

Margaret Atwood book Oryx and Crake

Source: Oryx and Crake

Art, Music, Imagination

“I hear a guttural sound followed by a weak sigh and look back at the bodies.
"I'm going to kill the kid," Barrons says faintly.
Ryodan makes a burbling sound like a bloody laugh. I don't think he even has the parts left to laugh with. "Get in line.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

Thinking, Parting

“I stuff my mouth with old fabric and scream until there are no sounds left under my skin.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

“There comes a time in every life when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your heart.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Life, World, Time, Heart

“Sooner or later everything you thought you'd left behind comes around again. For good or ill, it comes around again.”

Stephen King Insomnia

Source: Insomnia

“I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Statement written weeks before his death in 1994, as quoted in "Unseen Bill Hicks Clip" in Esquire (3 February 2014) https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/film/news/a5661/unseen-bill-hicks-clip/

Love, Truth, Laughter

“… If you'd like to go back in there and try kicking him, I recommend aiming upward and a bit to the left”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

“This is what daughters did. They left, and came home later with lives of their own.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Home, Daughters

“Was life nothing more than a storm that constantly washed away what had been there only a moment before, and left behind something barren and unrecognizable?”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Life

“I left her there crying as I walked toward the gate. A piece of my soul had died when Dimitri had fallen. Turning my back on her now, I felt another piece die as well. Soon there wouldn't be anything left inside me.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Soul, Cry

“Christopher discovered that you dealt with obnoxious masters and most older boys the way you dealt with governesses: you quite politely told them the truth in the way they wanted to hear it, so that they thought they had won and left you in peace.”

Diana Wynne Jones book The Lives of Christopher Chant

Source: The Lives of Christopher Chant

Truth, Peace, Way, Boy

“The only permanent solution to your problems is to go inside and let go of the part of you that seems to have so many problems with reality. Once you do that, you'll be clear enough to deal with what's left.”

Michael Singer (1945) American landscape architect

Source: The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

Problem, Reality, Parting

“If we're going to the Silent City, you might want to get dressed. I mean, I appreciate the bra-and-panties look, but I don't know if the Silent Brothers will. There are only a few of the left, and I don't want them to die of excitement.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“I love the life you've always made so sweet for me and I'd regret it if I had to die.'
'Do you mean to say that if I left you---'
'I'd die, yes.'
'Then you love me?”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Love, Life

“They are all I have left—the stars and the memory of the many times I wished upon them. But with all those wishes, I asked for only one thing.

To see him again.

But I will not see him again. I do not see him now.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Source: The Starlight Crystal

Star, Memory, Time

“The path I choose through the maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being--one of many ways--and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon

Way, Understanding, Help

“Here are the shadows left behind by a thousand moments, a thousand moods, of needs traced here on the wall by men who are gone. Here is the record of their being here.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Men, Mood

“The past is never where you think you left it.”

Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist

Thinking, Past

“Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. The bridge was being repaired: she went right through the Danger sign. The car fell a hundred feet into the ravine, smashing through the treetops feathery with new leaves, then burst into flames and rolled down into the shallow creek at the bottom. Chunks of the bridge fell on top of it. Nothing much was left but charred smithereens.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin (2000) first lines

War, Cars, Sister

“Freedom's just another word for "nothing left to lose".”

Kris Kristofferson (1936) American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and film actor

Song lyrics, Me and Bobby McGee (1969)
Variant: Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
Nothing ain't worth nothing but it's free

Freedom

“What the hell is this?” Desandra asked
“This is Cuddles. She's a mammoth donkey.”
Derek grinned, leaning on the fence. “Do you have any self-respect left?”
“Nope.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Hell

“Life is too precious to be left to chance”

Walter Moers The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear

Source: The 13½ Lives of Captain Bluebear

Life, Chance

“What are you? (Zarek)
I’m a nymph. (Astrid)
I hope you just left an important syllable off that word, princess. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Hope, Princess

“You suffer the blow, but you capitalize on the opportunity left in its wake.”

Michael J. Fox (1961) Canadian-American actor

Source: Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist

Suffering

“But I don't have anything left inside of me to figure out where I fit in or what I want. If I want anything, it's to know what's possible to want.”

Amy Tan book The Bonesetter's Daughter

Source: The Bonesetter's Daughter

“My suffering left me sad and gloomy.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 1, p. 3

Sadness, Suffering

“I am wary of the whole dreary deadening structured mess we have built into such a glittering top-heavy structure that there is nothing left to see but the glitter, and the brute routines of maintaining it.”

John D. MacDonald (1916–1986) writer from the United States

Travis McGee series, The Deep Blue Good-by (1964)
Source: The Deep Blue Good-By
Context: I am wary of a lot of things, such as plastic credit cards, payroll deductions, insurance programs, retirement benefits, savings accounts, Green Stamps, time clocks, newspapers, mortgages, sermons, miracle fabrics, deodorants, check lists, time payments, political parties, lending libraries, television, actresses, junior chambers of commerce, pageants, progress, and manifest destiny. I am wary of the whole dreary deadening structured mess we have built into such a glittering top-heavy structure that there is nothing left to see but the glitter, and the brute routines of maintaining it.

“The present changes the past. Looking back you do not find what you left behind.”

Kiran Desai book The Inheritance of Loss

Source: The Inheritance of Loss

Change, Past

“The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

Problem, Evil

“It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse." Page 316”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: It’s important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse.
Source: Life of Pi

Life, Heart

“Now I no longer wish to be loved, beautiful, happy or successful. I want one thing and one thing only - to be left alone.”

Jean Rhys book Good Morning, Midnight

Source: Good Morning, Midnight

Love, Happiness, Beauty, Success

“There are people who have too much space between their ears, and given the time, do nothing but free fall forever inside their head. It's a spooky thing to be left alone inside an angry innerverse.”

James St. James (1966) American writer

People, Time