Quotes about left
page 9

“I guess all that's left is to love the fire.”

Norman Mailer book Advertisements for Myself

Source: Advertisements for Myself

Love

“When you start with a necessary evil, and then over time the necessity passes away, what's left?”

Matthew Scully (1959) American political writer and speechwriter

Source: Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy

Evil, Time

“Rachel?” came Ivy’s voice from her room. “Where’s my sword?”
“In the foyer where you left it last week when the evangelists were canvassing the neighborhood”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: A Perfect Blood

“A wing or a thigh? Ah, I'm afraid we don't have any thighs left.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

“Love is a battle," said Marie-Claude, still smiling. "And I plan to go on fighting. To the end."
Love is a battle?" said Franz. "Well, I don't feel at all like fighting." And he left.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Love, Smile, Feeling, Fight

“Yes, I read. I have that absurd habit. I like beautiful poems, moving poetry, and all theof that poetry. I am extraordinarily sensitive to those poor, marvelous words left in our dark night by a few men I never knew.”

Louis Aragon (1897–1982) French poet, novelist and editor

Source: Treatise on Style

Men, Beauty, Reading, Night

“When left to its own devices it tends to make me look as if I’ve been set afire.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

“Anne Lamott’s priest friend Tom, how to get through:
"Left foot, right foot, left foot, breathe," he said. "Right foot, left foot, right foot, breathe."
Salon April 25, 2003”

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

“as a child
i suppose
i was not quite
normal.

my happiest times were
when
i was left alone in
the house on a
saturday.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Time, Housing

“To be left behind… or to leave behind. I wonder which hurts more.”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 16

Hurt

“An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left.”

Lawrence Durrell The Avignon Quintet

The Avignon Quintet (1974–1985), Monsieur (1974)
Context: The art of prose governed by syncopated thinking; for thoughts curdle in the heart if not expressed. An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left.

Idea, Bird

“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.”

Ray Bradbury book Zen in the Art of Writing

Source: Zen in the Art of Writing

Way

“Do days exist without calendars? Does time pass when there are no human hands left to wind the clocks?”

Howard Koch (1901–1995) American screenwriter

Source: War Of The Worlds : The Invasion From Mars

Time

“People often ask me where I stand politically. It's not that I disagree with Bush's economic policy or his foreign policy, it's that I believe he was a child of Satan sent here to destroy the planet Earth. Little to the left.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Shock and Awe (2003)

People

“Don't worry. You're safe now. You've got nothing left to steal.”

Joan D. Vinge book Catspaw

Source: Catspaw

“For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps, it was only an echo.”

Lois Lowry book The Giver

Source: The Giver

People, Music, Singing, Time

“Everywhere we go and move on and change, something's lost--something's left behind. You can't ever quite repeat anything, and I've been so yours, here”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

Change

“Did you love well what you very soon left? Come home and take me in your arms and take away this stomach ache, headache, heartache.”

Marilyn Hacker (1942) American writer

Love, Home

“Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought — particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.”

Woody Allen book Side Effects

"The UFO Menace".
Side Effects (1980)

People

“I thought of the wilderness we had left behind us, open to sea and sky, joyous in its plenitude and simplicity, perfect yet vulnerable, unaware of what is coming, defended by nothing, guarded by no one.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Source: Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside

Perfection, Sea

“And my sister, my Lindsey, left me in her memories, where I was meant to be.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

Sister, Memory

“If you limit your choice only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.”

Robert Fritz (1943) American managemetn consultant

Source: The Path of Least Resistance

“Because the rhythm of conversation makes no allowance for dead periods, because the presence of others calls for continuous responses, we are left to regret the inanity of what we say, and the missed opportunity of what we do not.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: How Proust Can Change Your Life

Dead

“They wouldn't tell Scipio how much of the counterfeit cash was left since, as Riccio put it, 'You're a detective now, after all.”

Cornelia Funke book The Thief Lord

Source: The Thief Lord

“Sometimes I think the human heart is just a simple shelf. There is only so much you can pile onto it before something falls off an edge and you are left to pick up the pieces.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Source: House Rules

Thinking, Heart

“You wouldn't have taken Rose to such a place, would you?"

"Of course not, but she is a little girl, and I'm-"

"My life", he interrupted quietly. "You're my entire life. If anything ever happens to you, Holly, there is nothing left for me.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Where Dreams Begin

Life, Girl

“Thousand Moments:
I still remember the day the world took you back & there was never time to thank you for the thousand scattered moments you left behind to watch us while we slept.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

World, Time

“As you say of yourself, I too am an Epicurian. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to William Short (31 October 1819)
1810s
Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“On Elsewhere we fool ourselves into thinking we know what will be just because we know the amount of time we have left. We know this, but we never really know what will be. We never know what will happen…”

Gabrielle Zevin book Elsewhere

Source: Elsewhere

Fools, Thinking, Time

“I don't like having feelings," Eric said coldly, and he left.
That was a tough exit line to top.”

Charlaine Harris book Club Dead

Source: Club Dead

Feeling

“As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

Source: 1920s, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), p. 1

Travel, Home, Knowledge

“I have a theory that every time you make an important choice, the part of you left behind continues the other life you could have had.”

Jeanette Winterson book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Source: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Life, Time, Parting

“All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right,
An emptiness above--

Know that you aren't alone.
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all your years.”

Vikram Seth (1952) Indian writer

Love, World, Tear, Sleep

“I think we're made up of all these different pieces and every time someone goes, you're left with less of yourself.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

Thinking, Time

“Nico was devastatingly alone. He’d lost his big sister Bianca. He’d pushed away all other demigods who’d tried to get close to him. His experiences at Camp Half-Blood, in the Labyrinth and in Tartarus had left him scarred, afraid to trust anyone.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Sister

“Game shows are designed to make us feel better about the random, useless facts that are all we have left of our education.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Education, Feeling, Game

“A choir is made up of many voices, including yours and mine. If one by one all go silent then all that will be left are the soloists.

Don’t let a loud few determine the nature of the sound. It makes for poor harmony and diminishes the song.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Nature

“Beat him until there’s no skin left on his back. If he passes out, wake him and beat him again. (Father)
Love you, too, Father. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Love

“I have no place left to live but in my own heart.”

Anne Enright The Gathering

Source: The Gathering

Heart

“The things that break your heart when you think there`s nothing left to break”

Meg Rosoff book How I Live Now

Source: How I Live Now

Thinking, Heart

“Honey, I liked the Harry Potter movies, too, but that doesn’t mean I ran out and got a Dark Mark tattooed onto my left forearm like you did.”

Jim Butcher (1971) American author

Source: Blood Lite

Tattoo

“There's hope left in these dusty chords. There's a song left in our rusty hearts. We are torn and frayed but love remains.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

Love, Hope, Heart

“The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.”

Franz Kafka book The Metamorphosis

Source: The Metamorphosis

Home

“The wisdom to quit is all we have left.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Wisdom

“I love Virginians because Virginians are all snobs and I like snobs. A snob has to spend so much time being a snob that he has little time left to meddle with you.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Love, Time

“Zee said, grumpily, “Liebling, this is not a good idea.”
“Zee,” I told him, “I am completely out of good ideas and am doing my best with the bad ones I have left.”

Patricia Briggs book Frost Burned

Source: Frost Burned

Idea

“I think the canary left some feathers in there after you ate it.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Thinking

“But I intend to enjoy the weeks I have left with you to the fullest. Because I know from my study of the philosophy of time, whatever is going to happen in the future is already unavoidable.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Queen of Babble Gets Hitched

Study, Time, Future

“One little Indian left all alone, he went out and hanged himself and then there were none.”

Agatha Christie And Then There Were None

Source: And Then There Were None

“Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, you have provided a spark that, left unattended, may grow to an inferno that destroys Panem.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

President Snow, p. 23
Variant: Katniss Everdeen, you have caused a spark, wich left unattended, may cause a spark that could cause a whole rebelion
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire (2009)

Girl

“She has been hanging on to the hope of him for so long that she doesn't realize there isn't anything left to hope for.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

Hope

“Frankly, our ancestors don't seem much to brag about. I mean, look at the state they left us in, with the wars, the broken planet. Clearly, they didn't care about what would happen to the people who came after them.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

War, People

“We're already separated that's official but there's still a window of hope left open that perhaps someday we could give things another try.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Hope

“You have left me so long to struggle against death, alone, that I feel and see only death! I feel like death!”

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) English novelist and poet

Death, Feeling

“I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non-being, and I accepted it. It didn't make for an interesting person. I didn't want to be interesting, it was too hard. What I really wanted was only a soft, hazy space to live in, and to be left alone.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women (1978)
Context: I was drawn to all the wrong things: I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn't have a god, politics, ideas, ideals. I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non-being, and I accepted it. I didn't make for an interesting person. I didn't want to be interesting, it was too hard. What I really wanted was only a soft, hazy space to live in, and to be left alone. On the other hand, when I got drunk I screamed, went crazy, got all out of hand. One kind of behavior didn't fit the other. I didn't care.

Personality

“Thousands of years ago the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burnt at the stake he'd taught his brothers to light, but he left them a gift they had not conceived and he lifted darkness from the face of the Earth.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Light

“On this road there are no godspoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

Men, World

“Am I a man? To want you so badly that nothing else matters? To see you, and know I would sacrifice honor or family or life itself to lie wi' you, even though ye'd left me?”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

Life, Lie, Family

“If things don’t seem right, try going left.” – Chloe Traeger”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: Head Over Heels

“And her sleep was too long and deep for that:so deep that she left her normal reality behind.”

Haruki Murakami book After Dark

Source: After Dark

Reality, Sleep

“Time cannot be packaged and ribboned and left under trees for christmas morning. Time can't be given. But it can be shared”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Gift

Tree, Time, Christmas

“A memory is what is left when something happens and does not completely unhappen.”

Edward de Bono (1933) Maltese physician

Memory

“Why could you not have left me as I was, in the sea of being?"

"Because the world has need of your humility, your piety, your great teaching and your Machiavellian scheming.”

Roger Zelazny Lord of Light

Source: Lord of Light

World, Sea

“But love may have to be left off the exam. Most of us will never learn.”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Love, Learning

“I've learned that you know your husband still loves you when there are two brownies left and he takes the smaller one.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Love, Learning

“People could bear so much, but Simon did not know how much of the original you was left when the world had twisted you into a whole different shape.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Bitter of Tongue

People, World

“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clear air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their own country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste. And so that never again can we have the chance to see ourselves single, separate, vertical and individual in the world, part of the environment of trees and rocks and soil, brother to the other animals, part of the natural world and competent to belong in it. … We need wilderness preserved — as much of it as is still left, and as many kinds — because it was the challenge against which our character as a people was formed. The reminder and the reassurance that it is still there is good for our spiritual health even if we never once in ten years set foot in it.”

Wallace Stegner (1909–1993) American historian, writer, and environmentalist

Wilderness Letter http://wilderness.org/bios/former-council-members/wallace-stegner (1960) <br class="br">Source: The Sound of Mountain Water

People, Health, Books, World

“If our life is poured out in useless words, we will never hear anything, never become anything, and in the end, because we have said everything before we had anything to say, we shall be left speechless at the moment of our greatest decision.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Source: Thoughts in Solitude

Life, Decision

“What's any artist, but the dregs of his work? the human shambles that follows it around. What's left of the man when the work's done but a shambles of apology.”

William Gaddis book The Recognitions

Source: The Recognitions

“One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what's left when you've failed at everything else.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

“Maybe they didn't want you to realize that every civilization has its weakness. There's always one thing we depend on. And if someone takes it away all that's left is some story in a history class.”

Scott Westerfeld book Uglies

Source: Uglies

History, Dependency

“People who don't have much get ugly about giving up the little they have left.”

Andrew Vachss (1942) American writer and lawyer

People

“The death of God left the angels in a strange position.”

Donald Barthelme (1931–1989) American writer, editor, and professor

Death, God, Angels

“This was full when I left. Demon, did you eat some of my toothpaste?”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Demon from the Dark

“You're one third bad intentions, one third pure avarice, and one eighth sawdust. What's left, I'll credit, must be brains.”

Scott Lynch The Lies of Locke Lamora

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

“So you just… left?'

Zach huffed. 'All the cool kids are doing it.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

“… I know all about myself now, I know. You've told me so often. You haven't left me one rag of illusion to clothe myself in.”

Jean Rhys book Good Morning, Midnight

Source: Good Morning, Midnight

Clothes

“Sometimes there is only one thing left to say, P. S. I Love You….”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: P.S. I Love You

Love

“It hurts when they're gone. And it doesn't matter if it's slow or fast, whether it's a long drawn-out disease or an unexpected accident. When they're gone the world turns upside down and you're left holding on, trying not to fall off.”

Walter Mosley (1952) American writer

Source: Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore

World, Disease, Hurt

“When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left!”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes (2003), p. 9.
Context: When we meet someone and fall in love, we have a sense that the whole universe is on our side. And yet if something goes wrong, there is nothing left! How is it possible for the beauty that was there only minutes before to vanish so quickly? Life moves very fast. It rushes from heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.

Love, Sense, Universe

“By then I knew that everything good and bad left an emptiness when it stopped. But if it was bad, the emptiness filled up by itself. If it was good you could only fill it by finding something better.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast

Source: A Moveable Feast

“We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

"We ReaI CooI" , The Bean Eaters (1960)
The "We"—you're supposed to stop after the "We" and think about their validity, and of course there's no way for you to tell whether it should be said softly or not, I suppose, but I say it rather softly because I want to represent their basic uncertainty, which they don't bother to question every day, of course.
"An Interview with Gwendolyn Brooks", Contemporary Literature 11:1 (Winter 1970)
The WEs in "We Real Cool" are tiny, wispy, weakly argumentative "Kilroy-is-here" announcements. The boys have no accented sense of themselves, yet they are aware of a semi-defined personal importance. Say the "We" softly.
Report from Part One (1972)
Source: Selected Poems

School, Singing

“Of course I loved you, you saved my life. I wish you hadn’t I wish you hadn’t I wish you’d left me alone.”

Sarah Kane book 4.48 Psychosis

Source: 4.48 Psychosis

Love, Life