Quotes about making page 59
George Bernard Shaw Mrs. Warren's Profession
Vivie, Act II
Source: 1890s, Mrs. Warren's Profession (1893)
Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches
"Socialism: Caught in the Political Trap", a lecture (c. 1912), published in Red Emma Speaks, Part 1 (1972) edited by Alix Kates Shulman
Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer
Source: The Pill vs. the Springhill Mine Disaster
“If you're going to make a science fiction movie, then have a hover craft chase, for God's sake.”
Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film
Variant: ... and maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves.
Source: Fight Club
“Don't try to be useful. Try to be yourself: that is enough & that makes all the difference.”
Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Uselessness
“Albums that remind me of my childhood happiness make me incredibly sad now.”
Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
“Very little is needed to make a happy life.”
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι
VII, 67
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire
Haymitch to Katniss, p. 384
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire (2009)
David Sedaris book Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Source: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
“The time to make up your mind about people, is never.”
Philip Barry The Philadelphia Story
Source: The Philadelphia Story
Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South african Nobel-winning writer
Interview with Jannika Hurwitt, published in Paris Review, 88 (Summer 1983) 82–127; reprinted in Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, Sixth Series (1984) (the interview took place in two parts: fall 1979/spring 1980)
Michael Thomas Ford (1968) American writer
Source: Suicide Notes
“Isn’t making a smoking section in a restaurant like making a peeing section in a swimming pool?”
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
“If Aphrodite is angry, she might make you fall in love with a toy poodle, or a telephone pole.”
Rick Riordan (1964) American writer
Source: Percy Jackson's Greek Gods
“He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
“Love is blind; but it makes you see the blind man; teetering on the roadside…”
Martin Amis book London Fields
Source: London Fields
Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host
Source: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
“The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with.”
Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes
Source: Eleven Minutes
“Very well, I will marry you if you promise not to make me eat eggplant.”
Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera
Source: Love in the Time of Cholera
“Most men are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer
Quoted in "Anecdotes of the Revd. Percival Stockdale" (1809) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 333, edited by George Birkbeck Hill; also quoted in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, in the Avenged Sevenfold song "Bat Country", and in Kingdom S02E04.
“If we wait until life is in order before making our decision, we'll never make any”
Judith McCoy Miller (1944) American writer
Source: An Uncertain Dream
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy
Speech on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968)
Context: And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
“Rain didn't make things messy. People did that all on their own.”
Barbara Delinsky (1945) American writer
Source: The Secret Between Us
“Nothing is ever perfect. It is what you make of it.”
Emily Giffin Something Borrowed
Source: Something Borrowed
Wahida Clark American writer
Source: Justify My Thug
“She had wailed loudly enough to wake the dead and make them call the cops.”
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Strikes
“Oh, what a day. I will make it a holiday.”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
“Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.”
Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
Katherine Mansfield book Je ne parle pas français
"Je ne parle pas français," http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/mansfield/bliss/bliss.html#francais from Bliss and Other Stories (1920) <br class="br">Variant: I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, and no one who intends to become a writer can afford to indulge in it. <br class="br">Context: I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy, and no one who intends to become a writer can afford to indulge in it. You can't get it into shape; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.
“Life is dangerous. That's what makes it interesting.”
John Twelve Hawks book The Traveler
Source: Fourth Realm Trilogy (2005-2009), The Traveler (2005)
“TV makes it so easy to postpone living for another half hour.”
Bill McKibben (1960) American environmentalist and writer
Source: The Age of Missing Information
“Do things that make you happy within the confines of the legal system.”
Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress
Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding
George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles
Within You Without You, from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Lyrics
“Don't let making a living prevent you from making a life.”
John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach
Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
“Thinking doesn't pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you.”
Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land
Source: Stranger in a Strange Land
“An occasional foray into negative emotions makes feeling normal that much sweeter.”
Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer
Source: Rise of the Evening Star
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer
Texts and Pretexts (1932), p. 270
Context: It is man's intelligence that makes him so often behave more stupidly than the beasts. … Man is impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations. So that when he acts on his theories, he behaves very often like a lunatic. Thus, no animal is clever enough, when there is a drought, to imagine that the rain is being withheld by evil spirits, or as punishment for its transgressions. Therefore you never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion. No horse, for example would kill one of its foals to make the wind change direction. Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, intelligent enough.
“With few words I shall make thee understand my soul.”
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet
