Quotes about likeness
page 11

“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.”

John Green book Looking for Alaska

Miles "Pudge" Halter about Alaska Young, p. 88
Looking for Alaska (2005)

People, Lie, Sex, Courage

“Be praised, my Lord, through all your creatures, especially through my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day; and you give light through him. And he is beautiful and radiant in all his splendor! Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.”

Francis of Assisi Canticle of the Sun

Canticle of the Sun

Beauty, Light, Sun

“No experience has been too unimportant, and the smallest event unfolds like a fate, and fate itself is like a wonderful, wide fabric in which every thread is guided by an infinitely tender hand and laid alongside another thread and is held and supported by a hundred others.”

Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet

Letter Three (23 April 1903)
Letters to a Young Poet (1934)

Fate, Support

“Was there no sword, nothing with which to batter down these walls, this protection, this begetting of children and living behind curtains, and becoming daily more involved and committed, with books and pictures? Better burn one’s life out like Louis, desiring perfection; or like Rhoda leave us, flying past us to the desert; or choose one out of millions and one only like Neville; better be like Susan and love and hate the heat of the sun or the frost-bitten grass; or be like Jinny, honest, an animal. All had their rapture; their common feeling with death; something that stood them in stead. Thus I visited each of my friends in turn, trying, with fumbling fingers, to prise open their locked caskets. I went from one to the other holding my sorrow — no, not my sorrow but the incomprehensible nature of this our life — for their inspection. Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends, I to my own heart, I to seek among phrases and fragments something unbroken — I to whom there is not beauty enough in moon or tree; to whom the touch of one person with another is all, yet who cannot grasp even that, who am so imperfect, so weak, so unspeakably lonely. There I sat.”

Virginia Woolf book The Waves

Bernard, section IX
The Waves (1931)

Love, Life, Death, Hate

“Love is like a boxing match; at the start everyone’s looking and feeling good; halfway through, there are swollen faces and bruises; at the end both sides require stitches.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

2015

Love, Making love, Feeling, Box

“You can play a role in the shaping of tomorrow’s world by asking yourself questions like, “What kind of world do I want to live in?” and “What does democracy mean to me?””

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

There are many other options of organization for the future than those typically discussed today... In order to accomplish this task one must be free of bias and nationalism, and reflect those qualities in the design of policies. How would you approach that? This is a difficult project requiring input from many disciplines.
Source: Designing the Future (2007), p. 6-7

World, Democracy, Question

“The women's movement is like other political movements in one important way. Every political movement is committed to the belie that there are certain kinds of pain that people should not have to endure. They are unnecessary. They are gratuitous. They are not part of the God-given order. They are not biologically inevitable. They are acts of human will. They are acts done by some human beings to other human beings.”

Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) Feminist writer

"Feminism: An Agenda" (1983)
Letters from a War Zone: Writings 1976-1987

Women, God, Pain, People

“I don't think we have a right to take the people who raised us, who made us strong and healthy, and toss them away like a can of beer.”

Harvey Milk (1930–1978) American politician who became a martyr in the gay community

On supporting the elderly, who he called the most oppressed group in America. From Flashback: Meet San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9iYasWREzE, NBC News, November 27, 2018, taken from a report in 1978, and Forty years after his death, Harvey Milk's legacy still lives on https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/forty-years-after-his-death-harvey-milk-s-legacy-still-n940356, NBC News, November 27, 2018.

People, Beer, Thinking, Strong

“Once I got into space, I was feeling very comfortable in the universe. I felt like I had a right to be anywhere in this universe, that I belonged here as much as any speck of stardust, any comet, any planet.”

Mae Jemison (1956) American doctor and NASA astronaut

Then & Now: Dr. Mae Jemison http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/01/07/cnn25.tan.jemison/, CNN, 19 June 2005

Feeling, Universe

“Feminism to me is not man-hating, it’s just being like "we deserve the same opportunities."”

Dua Lipa (1995) English singer and songwriter

“You hear so much about all these strong important men who have changed the world, even in history and the story of mankind, somehow the fucking story starts with: ‘Well, the man did this.’<br><br> Dua Lipa Talks Feminism And Body Image In The January Issue Of British Vogue, Vogue, 2018-12-04 https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/dua-lipa-on-feminism-and-body-image,

Hate

“A pessimistic book is most likely to bring some solace to those who already have those views but who feel alone or pathological as a result. They may gain some comfort from recognizing that there are others who share their views and that these views are supported by good arguments.”

David Benatar (1966) South African philosopher

Source: The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (2017), Introduction, p. 14

Books, Feeling, Support

“As humans, it is likely we shall periodically deviate from virtue as temptation continually lurks in the shadows and taunts us to succumb. Most digressions are minor and do not disrupt our lives unless we decide to live two of them.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1988

“The pursuit of success is marked by numerous characteristics; including, perseverance, commitment, education, and wisdom, to name a few. The road to failure can also be described with countless personality traits, including, unreliable, indolence, ignorance, and ineptitude.
However, during my thirty years as an administrator I have witnessed the most significant rationale for failure that cannot be described in a single word. It is a characteristic some people possess, often referred to by psychologists as the, need-to-be-liked-syndrome. Unfortunately, for some, their existence is predicated upon pleasing others, and seeking approval and recognition. They have become an inmate or prisoner to the thoughts and opinions of others.
In other words, they lack self-value, and therefore must receive it from others. When you do not value yourself, then it will be difficult to obtain joy and contentment in one’s life. Remember; you have worth and value.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1997

Life, Wisdom, People, Education

“The Universe is continuously emerging as a fresh creation at every moment. All point to this same, extraordinary insight. The Universe is not static, nor is its continuation assured. Instead, the Universe is like a cosmic hologram that is being continuously upheld and renewed at every instant.14 A universal encouragement found across the world’s wisdom traditions is to live in the ‘NOW.’ This core insight has a clear basis in physics: The present moment is the place of direct connection with the entire Universe as it arises continuously. Each moment is a fresh formation of the Universe, emerging seamlessly and flawlessly.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: Non Duality

“Aboard the enigmatic horizon,
all is visible and all elusive,
all are staying and all disappear,
but more deep than human mind,
beyond the fall of stars,
there are hidden tears
that overflow like waves,
living in the core of life
hidden treasures of sensibility.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: An ocean of souls

“In a town like London there are always plenty of not quite certifiable lunatics walking the streets, and they tend to gravitate towards bookshops, because a bookshop is one of the few places where you can hang about for a long time without spending any money.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Source: “Bookshop Memories” in Fortnightly (November 1936)

Money, Time

“Folk like you always lay the blame on somebody else. If I'd listened to talk like that, I'd've let myself get killed by my own people months ago.”

Tamora Pierce (1954) American writer of fantasy novels for children

Veralidaine "Daine" Sarrasri

People

“Music is like magic. There's a certain feeling you get when you real and you spit and people are feelin' your shit."”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Till I Collapse"
2000s, The Eminem Show (2002)

People, Music, Feeling

“Relationships, like an exquisite garden do not thrive on granite. Find the valley where the bright foliage permeates the landscape; this is where you plant the flowers.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1982

Flowers

“Politicians should wear sponsor jackets like Nascar drivers, then we know who owns them.”

Robin Williams (1951–2014) American actor and stand-up comedian

“Lazines is just like a bed if you lay on it, you would think you have everything at your disposal.But you are building poverty at a fastest rate”

Dr. Manuel

Thinking

“We have spent these last years disciplining anyone who disagrees with our line on divorce, on birth control, on being gay. While our planet was being destroyed, while inequality grew like a cancer. We worried whether it was alright to speak the Mass in Latin, whether girls should be allowed to be altar servers. We built walls around us, and all…”

Pope Francis (1936) 266th Pope of the Catholic Church

Source: Movie The Two Popes, Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis

Girl, Birth

“It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife.”

Alanis Morissette (1974) Canadian-American singer-songwriter

"Ironic"
Jagged Little Pill (1995)

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer. I should expect to find — this is a guess which I have not sufficient knowledge to verify — that the German, Russian and Italian languages have all deteriorated in the last ten or fifteen years, as a result of dictatorship.
But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation even among people who should and do know better.”

George Orwell book Politics and the English Language

Politics and the English Language (1946)

Bad luck, People, Age, Knowledge

“Economics is just like managing your household.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Source: movie The Iron Lady

“What does an enamored butterfly say? «Feels like I have humans in my stomach.»”

Teodor Burnar

Feeling

“Writing is just like making love - you can't do it whenever.”

Teodor Burnar

Love, Making love

“Life is like a sewer — what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.”

Tom Lehrer (1928) American singer-songwriter and mathematician

It's always seemed to me that this is precisely the sort of dynamic, positive thinking that we so desperately need today in these trying times of crisis and universal brouhaha.
Introduction to "We Will All Go Together When We Go"
An Evening (Wasted) With Tom Lehrer (1959)

Life, Dependency, Motivational, Success

“Lead how you like to be led.”

Isaac Mashman (2000) businessman, speaker

“We like to be out in nature so much because it has no opinion about us.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Nature

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”

Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism

Thinking, Joy

“Money is important, but I didn't get carried away because ... I remember what it was like not to have the basics. However, I am glad that I was able to fulfill my childhood dreams.”

Robert Lewandowski (1988) Polish association football player

"Trzeba czasem zdjąć zbroję. Wywiad z Robertem Lewandowskim" https://twojstyl.pl/artykul/trzeba-czasem-zdjac-zbroje-robert-lewndowski,aid,824 (August 25, 2020)

Money, Dreams, Childhood

“The world hates a hypocrite. You cannot want a safe, secure, moral environment for White children, then act like you had no idea what the word noble means.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Drugs and Governments
Focus Fourteen

Hate, Children, World, Idea

“What will you gain by knowing facts? —I would rather know the principles than facts. Because facts are changeable like the wind and can’t be relied upon!”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“People are beautifully made just like flowers in the garden!”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People, Flowers

“To my enemies I appear like a madman, to my admirers like a sage and to those who do not know me, I simply appear like a stranger in front of their senses.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Sense, Appearance

“You must know yourself first instead of following blindly like sheep.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“I'm not a warmonger. And I’m not a pacifist either. But I like peace.”

Joseph Kabila (1971) President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2001 up to 2018.

As quoted in "For Congo’s Leader, Middling Reviews" https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/world/africa/04kabila.html?hpw (4 April 2009), by Jeffrey Gettleman, The New York Times

Peace

“Your organization is not a praying institution. It's a fighting institution. It's an educational institution along industrial lines. Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!”

Mary Harris Jones (1837–1930) Irish-born American labor and community organizer

Source: Autobiography of Mother Jones

Education, Hell, Fight, Dead

“If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn't have went down like it did. [...] There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, 'OK, we're going to land somewhere safely, don't worry.’”

Mark Wahlberg (1971) American actor, television producer and rap musician

Source: Mark on the September 11 attacks in a 2012 interview

“It just happened. I like to sing, and well, I just started singing and folks just started listening. I can't tell folks that I worked and learned and studied, and overcame disappointments, because I didn't.”

Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor

Source: Pop Chronicles, Show 7 – The All American Boy: Enter Elvis and the rock-a-billies. Part 1 http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19754/m1/; C. Robert Jennings, " Elvis Lives! http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/155809300.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Feb+18%2C+1968&author=Jennings%2C+C+Robert&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+%281923-Current+File%29&edition=&startpage=M28&desc=ELVIS+LIVES%21", 1968-Feb-18, L.A. Times Magazine, p. M28.

Disappointment, Study, Learning, Singing

“I act like shit don't faze me
Inside it drives me crazy
My insecurities could eat me alive
But then I see my baby
Suddenly I'm not crazy
It all makes sense when I look into her eyes”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Hailie's Song"
2000s, The Eminem Show (2002)

Sense, Baby

“I have lost a bit of my sight, much of my hearing. At conferences, I can't see the presentations and can't hear well. But I think more now than when I when I was twenty. The body can do whatever it likes. I am not the body: I am the mind.”

Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909–2012) Italian neurologist

Source: In an interview with Paolo Giordano, 100 anni di futuro, Wired, n. 1, marzo 2009. <br class="br">Source: Cited by Elisabetta Intini, Addio alla signora della scienza, le sue frasi più belle http://www.focus.it/scienza/addio-alla-signora-della-scienza-le-sue-frasi-piu-belle, Focus.it, 31 dicembre 2012. <br class="br">Source: Cited in Addio Rita Levi Montalcini, le frasi più belle di un genio gentile http://www.vanityfair.it/news/italia/12/12/30/rita-levi-montalcini-morta-frasi, VanityFair.it, 30 dicembre 2012.

Thinking

“There is a Point where one cannot handle the building weight of one's Troubles
and
like a Stick that snaps.
We are all human, not robots.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

“One who possesses significant low self-esteem, is more likely to betray you.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1981

“Business is a lot like tennis - those who don´t serve well end up loosing.”

Unknown author

Business

“Wow, it´s like a creeping death””

Cliff Burton (1962–1986) American musician, member of Metallica

Source: Mientras estaban viendo la película de los 10 mandamientos, a los demás les gustó la frase y se pusieron a componer la canción

Death

“Heaven must be just like this”

Tom DeLonge (1975) American rock musician

da I-Empire)

“I've got high standards when it comes to boys. As my dad says, all girls should! I'm from the South - Tennessee, to be exact - and down there, we're all about southern hospitality. I know that if I like a guy, he better be nice, and above all, my dad has to approve of him!”

Miley Cyrus (1992) American actor and singer-songwriter

Guy, Girl, Boy

“One world was not enough for two like me and you.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

World

“I'm sick of this. Call me what you like, say I'm without honor, I don't care. I'm not getting on any more horses to whack you people with a stick.”

Tamora Pierce Squire

Source: Squire

People, Horse

“And now, my poor old woman, why are you crying so bitterly? It is autumn. The leaves are falling from the trees like burning tears- the wind howls. Why must you mimic them?”

Mervyn Peake book Titus Groan

Source: Titus Groan

Autumn, Tear, Tree, Cry

“Keep moving. Don't get bogged down. Don't think about the bad stuff. Smile and joke even when you don't feel like it. Especially when you don't feel like it.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Smile, Feeling, Thinking

“It was sad, like those businessmen who came to work in serious clothes but wore colorful ties in a mad, desperate attempt to show there was a free spirit in there somewhere.”

Terry Pratchett book Making Money

Source: Making Money

Sadness, Color, Madness, Clothes

“Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
and I eat men like air.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

"Lady Lazarus"
Ariel (1965)
Variant: p>Herr God, Herr Lucifer,
Beware.
Beware.Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.</p
Source: Ariel: The Restored Edition

Men

“A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.”

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds

193
Stray Birds (1916)

“That's how I always want to remember my time with you. Like a pure white light, breathtaking to behold.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Light, Time

“Life is like a long ride to nowhere in particular.”

Nikki Sixx (1958) American musician

Source: The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star

Life

“Truly thou art damned, like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Source: As You Like It

Art

“Wait, do they even know I'm coming with you?"
"No. But they like surprises. Almost always.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

Waiting

“Would you like to know the great drama of my life? It is that I have put my genius into my life… I have put only my talent into my works.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Life

“Dogs are gonna take over the world. It's a known fact for those who believe it, kinda like the Bible.”

Green Day

World, Dogs

“No story sits by itself. Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like stones beneath a river.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)

“Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

"Mindful"
Why I Wake Early (2004)

Light

“You look at me, you look at me closely, each time closer and then we play cyclops, we look at each other closer each time and our eyes grow, they grow closer, they overlap and the cyclops look at each other, breathing confusion, their mouths find each other and fight warmly, biting with their lips, resting their tongues lightly on their teeth, playing in their caverns where the heavy air comes and goes with the scent of an old perfume and silence. Then my hands want to hide in your hair, slowly stroke the depth of your hair while we kiss with mouths full of flowers or fish, of living movements, of dark fragrance. And if we bite each other, the pain is sweet, and if we drown in a short and terrible surge of breath, that instant death is beauty. And there is a single saliva and a single flavour of ripe fruit, and I can feel you shiver against me like a moon on the water.”

Julio Cortázar (1914–1984) Argentinian writer

Death, Pain, Beauty, Feeling

“Your friend's poetry is terrible," he said.
Clary blinked, caught momentarily off guard. "What?"
"I said his poetry was terrible. It sounds like he ate a dictionary and started vomiting up words at random.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“I want you any way I can get you. Not because you’re beautiful or clever or kind or adorable, although devil knows you’re all those things. I want you because there’s no one else like you, and I don’t ever want to start a day without seeing you.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Tempt Me at Twilight

Beauty, Way

“The future is there," Cayce hears herself say, "looking back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become. And from where they are, the past behind us will look nothing at all like the past we imagine behind us now.”

William Gibson book Pattern Recognition

Source: Pattern Recognition

Imagination, Sense, Past, Future

“as small as a world and as large as alone
For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Variant: For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It's always our self we find in the sea.
Source: 100 Selected Poems

World, Sea

“Han Solo: Wonderful girl. Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her.”

George Lucas (1944) American film producer

Girl

“Because I’m an English ninja,” Tanith replied. “We’re just like regular ninjas, except we wear leather and flirt more.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Trick or Treat

“Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?”

Erich Maria Remarque book All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul to the corpse of a French man he has just killed, Ch. 9
Source: All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
Context: I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony — Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?

Death, Fear, Forgiveness

“It's a good thing to turn your mind upside down now and then, like an hour-glass, to let the particles run the other way.”

Christopher Morley book The Haunted Bookshop

The Haunted Bookshop (1919)

Way

“In the increasingly convincing darkness
The words become palpable, like a fruit
That is too beautiful to eat.”

John Ashbery (1927–2017) poet from the United States

Beauty

“Moderation is a fatal thing, Lady Hunstanton. Nothing succeeds like excess.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Lord Illingworth, Act III
A Woman of No Importance (1893)

“Not just beautiful, though--the stars are like the trees in the forest, alive and breathing. And they're watching me.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore (2002), Chapter 15
Context: Now I know exactly how dangerous the forest can be. And I hope I never forget it. Just like Crow said, the world's filled with things I don't know about. All the plants and trees there, for instance. I'd never imagined that trees could be so weird and unearthly. I mean, the only plants I've ever really seen or touched till now are the city kind -neatly trimmed and cared-for bushes and trees. But the ones here -the ones living here -are totally different. They have a physical power, their breath grazing any humans who might chance by, their gaze zeroing in on the intruder like they've spotted their prey. Like they have some dark, prehistoric, magical powers. Like deep-sea creatures rule the ocean depths, in the forest trees reign supreme. If it wanted to, the forest could reject me-or swallow me up whole. A healthy amount of fear and respect might be a good idea.

Beauty, Star, Tree

“Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.”

Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own

Source: A Room of One's Own (1929), Ch. 3, pp. 43-44
Context: Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible; Shakespeare's plays, for instance, seem to hang there complete by themselves. But when the web is pulled askew, hooked up at the edge, torn in the middle, one remembers that these webs are not spun in midair by incorporeal creatures, but are the work of suffering human beings, and are attached to the grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in.

Life

“Approved attributes and their relation to face make every man his own jailer; this is a fundamental social constraint even though each man may like his cell.”

Erving Goffman (1922–1982) Sociologist, writer, academic

Erving Goffman (1967: 10), as cited in: Trevino (2003,, p. 37).
1950s-1960s

“The individual, man as a man, man as a brain, if you like, interests me more than what he makes, because I've noticed that most artists only repeat themselves.”

Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) French painter and sculptor

“The future is what matters — because one never reaches it, but always stays in the present — like the White Queen who had to run like the wind to remain in the same spot.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Future

“Only when the last tree has been cut down and the last river has dried up will man realize that reciting red Indian proverbs makes you sound like a fucking Muppet.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Source: Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall (2001)

Tree

“He would have liked to know that somebody wanted to keep him alive, that someone remembered him. He used to say that we exist as long as somebody remembers us.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

“Absurdity is what I like most in life, and there's humor in struggling in ignorance. If you saw a man repeatedly running into a wall until he was a bloody pulp, after a while it would make you laugh because it becomes absurd.”

David Lynch (1946) American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor

Life

“It was my first big chance, but here I was, sitting back and letting it run through my fingers like so much water.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Water, Chance

“I don't know if this is true to you but for me
sometimes it gets so bad
that anything else
say like
looking at a bird on an overhead
power line
seems as great as a Beethoven symphony.
then you forget it and you're back
again.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: Bone Palace Ballet

Bird, Forgetting

“Time goes faster the more hollow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that don’t stop at your station.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Time, Past, Training

“Things are not as easily understood nor as expressible as people usually would like us to believe. Most happenings are beyond expression; they exist where a word has never intruded.”

Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet

Source: Letters to a Young Poet

People

“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Part III: Man and Himself, Ch. 16: Ideas Which Have Become Obsolete, p. 158
Source: 1950s, New Hopes for a Changing World (1951)

Stupidity, Democracy, Nature, Thinking

“What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.”

Doris Lessing book The Golden Notebook

Anna Wulf, in "Free Women: 2"
Source: The Golden Notebook (1962)
Context: It seems to me like this. It's not a terrible thing — I mean, it may be terrible, but it's not damaging, it's not poisoning, to do without something one really wants. It's not bad to say: My work is not what I really want, I'm capable of doing something bigger. Or I'm a person who needs love, and I'm doing without it. What's terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is the first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.

Love