Quotes about many
page 19

“There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves.”

Source: The Fire Next Time

“The awareness of the damage done by severe mental illness—to the individual himself and to others—and fears that it may return again play a decisive role in many suicides”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Source: Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide

Fear, Decision, Suicide

“Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.”

Jane Smiley (1949) American novelist

Source: Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel

People, Books, Feeling

“Oh yeah, Scooby, it does. You and I have gone round many a day. I’m the reason you keep thinking you’ve had alien abductions. (Caleb)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Thinking

“Every day I wonder how many things I am dead wrong about. -- True North”

Jim Harrison (1937–2016) American novelist, poet, essayist

Dead

“Although many of us may think of ourselves as thinking creatures that feel, biologically we are feeling creatures that think”

Jill Bolte Taylor (1959) American neuroscientist

Source: My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

Feeling, Thinking

“Clary wondered how many boyfriends she'd turned into rats by accident.
-Clary to Isabelle, pg.245”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“But you only get so many do-overs in this life, so many chances to, if not change your past, alter your future.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Life, Change, Chance, Past

“There was also a rumor that later in the day, she walked fully clothed into the Amper River and said something very strange.
Something about a kiss.
Something about a Saumensch.
How many times did she have to say goodbye?”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Kiss, Time, Clothes

“Philosophy? What good is that?” Isn’t it the art of saying nothing with as many words as possible?”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Art

“Huge organizations and me don't get along. They're too inflexible, waste too much time, and have too many stupid people.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

People, Stupidity, Time

“Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.”

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American playwright and novelist

As quoted in "The Notation of the Heart" by Edmund Fuller, in The American Scholar Reader (1960) edited by Hiram Hayden and Betsy Saunders

Love, Dogs

“Living like an empty shell is not really living, no matter how many years it may go on. The heart and flesh of an empty shell give birth to nothing more than the life of an empty shell.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Life, Birth, Heart

“Why can’t the world hear? I ask myself. Within a few moments I ask it many times. Because it doesn’t care, I finally answer, and I know I’m right. It’s like I’ve been chosen. But chosen for what? I ask.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: I Am the Messenger

World, Time

“Rose,” he said, forcibly trying to keep a serious tone, “I can think of many words to describe you, sexy and hot being at the top of the list. You know what’s not on the list? Sane.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Thinking

“There are too many people in the world as it is, but the supply of ancient manuscripts is severely limited.”

Elizabeth Peters Crocodile on the Sandbank

Source: Crocodile on the Sandbank

People, World

“They knew many things but had no idea why. And strangely this made them more, rather than less, certain that they were right.”

Neal Stephenson book Anathem

Part 2, Apert
Source: Anathem (2008)

Idea

“Can I ask you a question?" "I'd be disappointed if you didn't." "How many of those suits do you have? Do you like, send them to the laundry, or throw them out and put on a new one when it gets all gamey?" - Bobby talking to Saint Dane, RR”

D.J. MacHale (1955) American television director and producer

Disappointment, Question

“The man glanced down and made a face. "I see that many pigeons have pooped upon these stairs," he remarked. "I shall remain standing, if that's not too rude.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

“Apparently, he’d killed so many family members that he must have significantly affected the Lore’s population. Doing my part for the environment.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Lothaire

Family, Parting

“Achamian tossed his hands skyward in dismay. “Foolish boy! How many faiths are there? How many competing beliefs? And you would murder another on the slender hope that yours is somehow the only one?”

R. Scott Bakker (1967) Canadian writer

Faith, Hope, Boy

“[I]t is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Source: Northanger Abbey

Happiness

“Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Idea

“I didn't know there were this many math guys," Hale said as they stepped onto the crowded concourse.
Kat cleared her throat.
"And women," he added. "Math women.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

Women, Guy

“To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to the violence of our times.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Time, Help

“I couldn't imagine that I'd ever fall in love again like I had with Gideon. For better or worse, he was my soulmate. The other half of me. In many ways, he was my reflection.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

Love, Way, Imagination

“Don't confine yourself to a select group of friends, often known as a clique. Cliques by definition leave people out. Lock yourself into one, and you'll never know how many terrific friendships you may be missing.”

Jerry Spinelli (1941) American children's writer

Source: Today I Will: A Year of Quotes, Notes, and Promises to Myself

Friendship, People

“So many words get lost. They leave the mouthand lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves. On rainy days you can hear their chorus rushing past.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Courage, Past, Dead

“The bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more. you're all good.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Time

“I told you, computers are like women. If you shout at them or ask them to do too many things at once, they shut down and you won't even get a sniff" pg. 4”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

Women

“If you cannot love me, I will die. Before you came I wanted to die, I have told you many times. It is cruel to have made me want to live only to make my death more bloody.”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

Source: Giovanni's Room

Love, Death, Time

“Her heart had already been broken many times over, and yet she still believed she was destined to meet the man of her life.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Life, Time, Heart

“Some things I loved have vanished. A great many others have been given to me”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

Source: The Woman Destroyed

Love

“One has so many more opinions about what has gone wrong than about what is perfect.”

Nick Hornby book Songbook

Source: 31 Songs

Perfection

“She had perfect features, with her eye, nose, lips, and ears the right size and in right places. That is all it takes to make people beautiful, normal body parts – yet why does nature mess it up so many times?”

Chetan Bhagat book 2 States: The Story of My Marriage

Source: 2 States: The Story of My Marriage

People, Beauty, Nature, Time

“In a few minutes I heard the books' voices: a low, steady, unsupressible hum. I'd heard it many times before. I've always had a finely tuned ear for a library's accumulations of echo and desire. Libraries are anything but hushed.”

Martha Cooley book The Archivist

Source: The Archivist

Books, Time

“taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom, but reading is still the path.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Freedom, Reading

“Not many girls would have used their wits the way you did," the officer observed.”

Carolyn Keene book The Secret of the Old Clock

Source: The Secret of the Old Clock

Way, Girl

“Mama--Mama--I want so many things… I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy…”

Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun

Source: A Raisin in the Sun

“They say that 'Guns don't kill people, people kill people.' Well I think the gun helps. If you just stood there and yelled BANG, I don't think you'd kill too many people.”

Eddie Izzard (1962) British stand-up comedian, actor and writer

People, Thinking, Help

“In those days, we finally chose to walk like giants and hold the world in arms grown strong with love
And there may be many things we forget in the days to come,

But this will not be one of them.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Traveling Light: Stories & Drawings for a Quiet Mind

Love, World, Strong, Forgetting

“but isn't there always
one good thing
to look back on?

think of
how many cups of coffee we
drank together.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way

Coffee, Thinking

“She had fallen in love so many times that she began to suspect she was not falling in love at all, but doing something much more ordinary.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Variant: She had been in love so many times that she began to suspect she was not falling in love, but rather doing something much more ordinary
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Love, Time

“It's my petty fear of personal rejection that allows so many true evils to exist. My cowardice enables atrocities.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Damned

Source: Damned

Fear, Evil, Personality

“Many… have learned that the magnitude of lives is not as to their external displacements, but as to their subjective experiences. The impressionable peasant leads a larger, fuller, more dramatic life than the pachydermatous king.”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Life, Learning

“At this moment, many people have stopped living. They do not become angry, nor cry out; they merely wait for time to pass. They did not accept the challenges of life, so life no longer challenges them”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Life, People, Time, Waiting

“How old are you?” – Nick
“That many zeros and you just get tired of counting.” – Caleb”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

“A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

“Life is a train of moods like a string of beads; and as we pass through them they prove to be many colored lenses, which paint the world their own hue, and each shows us only what lies in its own focus.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Life, World, Color, Mood

“Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn't that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

As quoted in The Films of Barbra Streisand (2001) by Christopher Nickens and Karen Swenson
Variant: Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn't that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.

Success, Hate, People, Way

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.”

Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) Television journalist

People, Thinking

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Not found in James's writings. Earliest similar cite is to Episcopal Methodist Bishop W. F. Oldham in 1906. Quote Investigator https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/05/10/merely/. A related quote is in James's 1907 book, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking: "Our minds thus grow in spots; and like grease-spots, the spots spread. But we let them spread as little as possible: we keep unaltered as much of our old knowledge, as many of our old prejudices and beliefs, as we can. We patch and tinker more than we renew. The novelty soaks in; it stains the ancient mass; but it is also tinged by what absorbs it." <br class="br">Misattributed

People, Thinking

“There are many differences between a baby and an I-Pod. And one of the biggest is, no ones going to mug you for your baby.”

Nick Hornby book Slam

Source: Slam

Baby

“While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“There are too many books I haven’t read, too many places I haven’t seen, too many memories I haven’t kept long enough.”

Irwin Shaw (1913–1984) American politician

Variant: There are too many books I haven't read, too many places I haven't seen, too many memories I haven't kept long enough

Books, Memory, Reading

“Cery: So, Hem, tell me why I shouldn't see how many holes I need to make before you start leaking money?”

Trudi Canavan book The High Lord

Source: The High Lord

Money

“Today is today. But there are many tomorrows”

Dan Brown book The Da Vinci Code

Source: The Da Vinci Code

“[Harry] had always suffered from a vague restlessness, a longing for adventure that she told herself severely was the result of reading too many novels when she was a small child.”

Robin McKinley book The Blue Sword

Source: The Blue Sword

Suffering, Reading

“Scarecrows weren't meant to scare the crows, they were meant to scare the corn. It was enough to give a person nightmares. Otherwise, why would so many horror movies have cornfields in them?”

Laura Ruby American writer

Source: Bone Gap

Personality

“Well, normally I’m against big things. I think the world is going to be saved by millions of small things. Too many things can go wrong when they get big.” — Pete Seeger (on how he felt about attending his big 90th birthday bash last year)”

Pete Seeger (1919–2014) American folk singer

World, Birthday, Thinking

“We are not long-term beings. Not heroes of romances in many volumes. For one gesture, for one word alone, we shall make the effort. We openly admit: our creations will be temporary. We shall have this as our aim: a gesture.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Tree of Codes

Source: Tree of Codes

Effort

“There are so many more important things to worry about than how you're perceived by strangers.”

Dennis Lehane (1965) Novelist

“They were not half living, or quarter living. They were simply so many bags of bones in which sparks of life fluttered faintly.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild

Life

“Fate isn’t one straight road…there are forks in it, many different routes to different ends. We have the free will to choose the path.”

Dean Koontz Odd Thomas

Source: Odd Thomas

Fate

“people see so many movies that when they finally see one not so bad as the others, they think it's great. an Academy Award means that you don't stink quite as much as your cousin.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Last Night of the Earth Poems

People, Thinking

“The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes – ah, that is where the art resides.”

Artur Schnabel (1882–1951) Austrian pianist

Quoted in the Chicago Daily News, June 11, 1958.

Art

“I am known by many names, but you may call me… Tim.”

Graham Chapman (1941–1989) English comedian, writer and actor

Source: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Book): Mønti Pythøn Ik Den Hølie Gräilen

“… there are only some many times you can utter "It does not hurt" before it begins to hurt even more than the hurt.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Time, Hurt

“There are in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, are the seed from which spring healing flowers and balm for the desolate and the distressed.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe book Uncle Tom's Cabin

Source: Uncle Tom's Cabin

World, Hope, Soul, Spring

“Silence & smile are two powerful tools. Smile is the way to solve many problems & Silence is the way to avoid many problems.”

Iris Johansen (1938) Novelist

For Men, Smile, Way, Problem

“It all counts,' Adam said again. 'And the bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more, you're all good.-pg 325 Along for the Ride”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Time

“And as to you life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths, / No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before.”

Walt Whitman Song of Myself

Source: Song of Myself

Life, Death, Time

“I don't get it,' Caroline said, bemused. 'She's the only one with wings. Why is that?'
There were so many questions in life. You couldn't ever have all the answers. But I knew this one.
It's so she can fly,' I said. Then I started to run.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Life, Question, Flying

“There are many ways a self-respecting (not to mention sane) teenage girl might react to having a teenage boy suddenly in her bedroom in the middle of the night.
Hit.
Panic.
Flail.
Freeze.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

Way, Girl, Boy, Night

“Many times in life I've regretted the things I've said without thinking. But I've never regretted the things I said nearly as much as the words I left unspoken.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Life, Thinking, Time

“How well I know with what burning intensity you live. You have experienced many lives already, including several you have shared with me- full rich lives from birth to death, and you just have to have these rest periods in between.”

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

Death, Birth

“There's so many problems in our world, so much negativity. Don't worry about the darkness — turn on the light and the darkness automatically goes.”

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

On the Alex Jones Radio show, as quoted in "David Lynch Questions 9/11 On National U.S. Radio" in Prison Planet (25 January 2007)
Source: Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
Context: There's so many problems in our world, so much negativity. Don't worry about the darkness — turn on the light and the darkness automatically goes. Ramp up the light of unity within — help do that for yourself, help do that for the world and then we're really doing something, we're doing something that brings that light of unity.

World, Problem, Light

“There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar (1963), Ch. 2

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely
rearranging their prejudices.”

David Bohm (1917–1992) American theoretical physicist

People, Thinking

“God writes a lot of comedy, Donna; the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Happy to be Here (1983), p. 259
Source: Happy to Be Here

God

“Every poem is a coat of arms. It must be deciphered. How much blood, how many tears in exchange for these axes, these muzzles, these unicorns, these torches, these towers, these martlets, these seedlings of stars and these fields of blue!”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

Star, Tear

“I had learned this lesson so many times
before. It was the great inner truth that
didn't require the support of logic. Every
time I loved, I lost, and I was diminished.
I wondered how much of me would be left
after tomorrow.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

Love, Truth, Support, Learning

“Seeds must be sown everywhere. Only some will bear fruit. But there would not be the fruit from the few had the many not been sown”

Chaim Potok book My Name Is Asher Lev

Source: My Name Is Asher Lev

“There are many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, and nothing worth killing for.”

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

“In so doing, the idea forces itself upon him that religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis, and he is optimistic enough to suppose that mankind will surmount this neurotic phase, just as so many children grow out of their similar neurosis.”

Sigmund Freud book The Future of an Illusion

Source: 1920s, The Future of an Illusion (1927), Ch. 10

Children, Religion, Idea, Childhood

“There are many sources of spirituality; religion may be the most common, but it is by no means the only. Anything that generates a sense of awe may be a source of spirituality. Science does this in spades.”

Michael Shermer (1954) American science writer

Religion, Sense, Science

“And I began to feel sorry for myself; for so many years, my drawer full of memories had held the same old stories.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Feeling, Memory

“The letter I received said you had need of my particular talents, but I must confess that I have so many talents that I am not sure which one you require.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: What Really Happened in Peru

“Just think how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies alone in bed, and how many unhappy dreams it keeps warm.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Variant: But sleep? On a night like this? What an idea! Just think of how many thoughts a blanket smothers while one lies alone in bed, and how many unhappy dreams it keeps warm.
Source: The Complete Stories

Dreams, Thinking

“An en is a karmic bond lasting a lifetime. Nowadays many people seem to believe their lives are entirely a matter of choice; but in my day we viewed ourselves as pieces of clay that forever show the fingerprints of everyone who has touched them.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

People