Quotes about many
page 5

“As you go through life's rich tapestry, you realize that most people you meet aren't fit to shine your shoes. It's a sad fact, but it's true. A good friend is someone who'd hide you if you were on the run for murder. How many of them do you know?”

Lemmy Kilmister (1945–2015) British singer-songwriter

Life, People, Sadness, Shoe

“Many a man fails to become a thinker only because his memory is too good.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Human, All Too Human

Mancher wird nur deshalb kein Denker, weil sein Gedächtnis zu gut ist.
II.122
Human, All Too Human (1878)

Memory

“Many of us lead family lives. At most, the members of a family stay together for the duration of a lifetime, often much less. While that fleeting moment of being together still lasts, we should try to remain in perfect harmony with each other, while observing the Dharma as much as possible. Night and day, let us turn our minds toward goodness, love, and compassion.”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

Source: The Hundred Verses of Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most

Love, Family, Perfection, Night

“Houses are like books: so many of them around you, yet you only look at a few and visit or reside in fewer still.”

Milorad Pavić (1929–2009) Serbian writer

Books, Housing

“Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

Source: Discourse on Method

Parting

“How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!”

Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892-1940)

Source: Illuminations: Essays and Reflections

Books

“Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them.”

Umberto Eco book The Name of the Rose

Temi, Adso, i profeti e coloro disposti a morire per la verità, ché di solito fan morire moltissimo con loro, spesso prima di loro, talvolta al posto loro. William of Baskerville http://books.google.com/books?id=XY2vXKsHbzIC&q=&quot;Fear+prophets+adso+and+those+prepared+to+die+for+the+truth+for+as+a+rule+they+make+many+others+die+with+them+often+before+them+at+times+instead+of+them&quot;&pg=PA549#v=onepage Source: The Name of the Rose (1980)

Truth, Fear, Time

“But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”

Bell Hooks book All About Love: New Visions

Source: All About Love: New Visions

Love, Fear, Art, Communication

“I go into solitude so as not to drink out of everybody's cistern. When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think I really think. After a time it always seems as if they want to banish my self from myself and rob me of my soul.”

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

Soul, Drink, Thinking, Solitude

“I wonder who it was defined man as a rational animal. It was the most premature definition ever given. Man is many things, but he is not rational.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings

Animals

“The Girl With Many Eyes
One day in the park
I had quite a surprise.
I met a girl
who had many eyes.

She was really quite pretty
(and also quite shocking!)
and I noticed she had a mouth,
so we ended up talking.

We talked about flowers,
and her poetry classes,
and the problems she'd have
if she ever wore glasses.

It's great to know a girl
who has so many eyes,
but you really get wet
when she breaks down and cries.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Girl, Flowers, Problem

“Being rich is not about how much money you have or how many homes you own; it's the freedom to buy any book you want without looking at the price and wondering if you can afford it.”

John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer

Variant: [W]hat I like best is staying home and reading. Being rich is not about how many homes you own. It’s the freedom to pick up any book you want without looking at the price and wondering whether you can afford it.
Source: Role Models

Money, Books, Home, Freedom

“What does it matter how many lovers you have if none of them gives you the universe?”

Jacques Lacan (1901–1981) French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist

Relationship, Lovers, Universe

“I think reading is a gift. It was a gift that was given to me as a child by many people, and now as an adult and a writer, I'm trying to give a little of it back to others. It's one of the greatest pleasures I know.”

Ann M. Martin (1955) American writer of children's literature

People, Pleasure, Thinking, Reading

“Please, not again what you studied, how long you spent at it, how many books you wrote, what people thought of you - but: what did you learn?”

Idries Shah book Reflections

Source: Reflections

People, Books, Study, Learning

“It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.”

Louis Sachar (1954) American writer of children's books

“The memory has as many moods as the temper, and shifts its scenery like a diorama.”

George Eliot book Middlemarch

Source: Middlemarch

Mood, Memory

“I cannot become modest; too many things burn in me; the old solutions are falling apart; nothing has been done yet with the new ones. So I begin, everywhere at once, as if I had a century ahead of me.”

Elias Canetti (1905–1994) Bulgarian-born Swiss and British jewish modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer

“Life is a game with many rules but no referee. One learns how to play it more by watching it than by consulting any book, including the holy book. Small wonder, then, that so many play dirty, that so few win, that so many lose.”

Joseph Brodsky (1940–1996) Russian and American poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate

Life, Books, Game, Learning

“When there are many worlds
you can choose the one
you walk into each day.”

Jacqueline Woodson book Brown Girl Dreaming

Source: Brown Girl Dreaming

World

“I never said I didn't like kissing you. The problem is too many guys have like kissing you." - Erik Night to Zoey Redbird (Ch 26)”

P. C. Cast book Untamed

Source: Untamed

Guy, Kiss, Problem, Night

“It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

1960s, A Time for Choosing (1964)
Variant: The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.

“A visiting pastor at our church in Plains once told a story about a priest from New Orleans. Father Flanagan’s parish lay in the central part of the city, close to many taverns. One night he was walking down the street and saw a drunk thrown out of a pub. The man landed in the gutter, and Father Flanagan quickly recognized him as one of his parishioners, a fellow named Mike. Father Flanagan shook the dazed man and said, “Mike!” Mike opened his eyes and Father Flanagan said, “You’re in trouble. If there is anything I can do for you, please tell me what it is.ℍ “Well, Father,” Mike replied, “I hope you’ll pray for me.” “Yes,” the priest answered, “I’ll pray for you right now.” He knelt down in the gutter and prayed, “Father, please have mercy on this drunken man.ℍ At this, a startled Mike woke up fully and said, “Father, please don’t tell God I’m drunk.ℍ Sometimes we don’t feel much of a personal relationship between God and ourselves, as though we have a secret life full of failures and sins that God knows nothing about. We want to involve God only when we plan to give thanks or when we’re in trouble and need help. But the rest of our lives, we’d rather keep to ourselves.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Source: Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President

Life, God, Secret, Hope

“I have never been aware before how many faces there are. There are quantities of human beings, but there are many more faces, for each person has several.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

Personality

“One must speak in such a way that although someone else, or many others, or an infinite number of people have said it before, it seems as though you said it first.”

Juan Ramón Jimenéz (1881–1958) Spanish poet

Source: The Complete Perfectionist

People, Way

“So many people are shut up tight inside themselves like boxes, yet they would open up, unfolding quite wonderfully, if only you were interested in them."

()”

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

Source: Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: Short Stories, Prose and Diary Excerpts

People, Box

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer … It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.
We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2008, Election victory speech (November 2008)

World, Fear, Dreams, Hope

“When you were six you thought mistress meant to put your shoes on the wrong feet. Now you are older and know it can mean many things, but essentially it means to put your shoes on the wrong feet.”

Lorrie Moore (1957) American writer

Shoe

“How can you be so many women to so many strange people, oh you strange girl?”

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

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Women, People, Girl

“Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a treeful of monkeys on nitrous oxide.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

People, Intelligence, Time

“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”

William Shakespeare As You Like It

Jaques, Act II, scene vii.
Variant: All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.
Source: As You Like It (1599–1600)

For Men, Women, Men, Age

“In his early twenties, a man started collecting paintings, many of which later became famous: Picasso, Van Gogh, and others. Over the decades he amassed a wonderful collection. Eventually, the man’s beloved son was drafted into the military and sent to Vietnam, where he died while trying to save his friend. About a month after the war ended, a young man knocked on the devastated father’s door. “Sir,” he said, “I know that you like great art, and I have brought you something not very great.” Inside the package, the father found a portrait of his son. With tears running down his cheeks, the father said, “I want to pay you for this.ℍ “No,” the young man replied, “he saved my life. You don’t owe me anything.ℍ The father cherished the painting and put it in the center of his collection. Whenever people came to visit, he made them look at it. When the man died, his art collection went up for sale. A large crowd of enthusiastic collectors gathered. First up for sale was the amateur portrait. A wave of displeasure rippled through the crowd. “Let’s forget about that painting!” one said. “We want to bid on the valuable ones,” said another. Despite many loud complaints, the auctioneer insisted on starting with the portrait. Finally, the deceased man’s gardener said, “I’ll bid ten dollars.ℍ Hearing no further bids, the auctioneer called out, “Sold for ten dollars!” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But then the auctioneer said, “And that concludes the auction.” Furious gasps shook the room. The auctioneer explained, “Let me read the stipulation in the will: “Sell the portrait of my son first, and whoever buys it gets the entire art collection. Whoever takes my son gets everything.ℍ It’s the same way with God Almighty. Whoever takes his Son gets everything.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Source: Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President

Life, God, War, People

“O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!”

William Shakespeare The Tempest

Source: The Tempest

People, World

“How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

When You Are Old http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1756/, st. 1–3 The Rose (1893) Source: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats Context: p>When you are old and gray and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face.And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.</p

Love, Beauty, Soul, Change

“There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

World

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

Books, Wine

“You have come to a stage where you almost have to work on yourself. You know, on finding some tranquility with which to respond to these things, because I realize that the biggest risk that many of us run is beginning to get inured to the horrors.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

“Running toward danger is foolhardy…. But so is closing your eyes to it. Many perils become less dangerous once you understand their potential hazards.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Rise of the Evening Star

Understanding

“Every woman wants to be first to someone sometime in her life and that desire is the explanation for many strange things women do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Life, Women

“History sometimes reproduces, at a distance of many years, the same combinations of circumstances that generate great achievements. But nothing ever repeats itself in exactly the same way.”

Valerio Massimo Manfredi (1943) Italian writer and archaeologist

Source: Alexander: Child of a Dream

Way, History

“In my view, philanthropy goes against the grain; therefore it generates a lot of hypocrisy and many paradoxes. Here are some examples: Philanthropy is supposed to be devoted to the benefit of others, but philanthropists are primarily concerned with their own benefit; philanthropy is supposed to help people, yet it often makes people dependent and turns them into objects of charity; applicants tell foundations what they want to hear, then proceed to do what the applicant wants to do.”

George Soros (1930) Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

People, Help, Dependency

“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste it's fragrance on the desert air.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Flowers

“Of course, it is very important to be sober when you take an exam. Many worthwhile careers in the street-cleansing, fruit-picking and subway-guitar-playing industries have been founded on a lack of understanding of this simple fact.”

Terry Pratchett book Moving Pictures

Source: Moving Pictures

Understanding

“For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.”

Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own

Source: A Room of One's Own

People, Birth, Thinking

“Perhaps depression is caused by asking oneself too many unanswerable questions.”

Miriam Toews (1964) Canadian writer known for novels set in the Mennonite community

Source: Swing Low

Depressing, Question

“Think of many things. Never place your happiness in one person's power. Be just to yourself.”

Vikram Seth A Suitable Boy

Source: A Suitable Boy

Thinking, Personality, Happiness

“"I don't want to seem always to be criticizing your methods of voice production, Jeeves," I said, "but I must inform you that that 'Well, sir' of yours is in many respects fully as unpleasant as your 'Indeed, sir?'”

P.G. Wodehouse book Right Ho, Jeeves

Like the latter, it seems to be tinged with a definite scepticism. It suggests a lack of faith in my vision. The impression I retain after hearing you shoot it at me a couple of times is that you consider me to be talking through the back of my neck, and that only a feudal sense of what is fitting restrains you from substituting for it the words 'Says you!'"
Source: Right Ho, Jeeves (1934)

“I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copybooks; and I make so many beginnings there never will be an end. (Jo March)”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“You can never, never have too many books”

Drew Barrymore (1975) American actress, director and producer

Books

“A person can be lonely even if he is loved by many people, because he is still not the "One and Only" to anyone.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

29 December 1943
The Diary of a Young Girl (1942 - 1944)
Variant: You can be lonely even when you're loved by many people, since you're still not anybody's "one and only".
Source: Cliffs Notes on Frank's The Diary of Anne Frank

Love, People, Personality

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Funny

“Your criticism sounds to me as if you have read too many critical books and are too smart in an artificial, destructive, and very limited way.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

Books, Way, Reading

“And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.”

John Betjeman (1906–1984) English poet, writer and broadcaster

Source: Selected Poems

“To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness.”

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

People, Effort, Personality, Happiness

“Too many things are occurring for even a big heart to hold.”

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

Heart

“Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was that they escaped teething.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“Reality' is a word with many meanings.”

Peter Brook (1925) English theatre and film director and innovator

Source: The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate

Goodbye, Reality

“Like many isolated people, they were wrapped up in themselves and not too interested in the world outside.”

V.S. Naipaul A Bend in the River

Source: A Bend in the River

People, World

“I think 2-D animation disappeared from Disney because they made so many uninteresting films. They became very conservative in the way they created them. It's too bad. I thought 2-D and 3-D could coexist happily.”

Hayao Miyazaki (1941) Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka

Way, Thinking, Animals

“That's what you want to do? Then nothing beats a trial but a failure. Give it everything you've got. I've told you many times, 'Cant do is like Dont Care.' Neither of them have a home.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Home, Failure, Time

“When did you become a woman?"-Hatori
How dare you ask that after you have seen me naked so many times…"-Yuki
GASP! No it cant be! Yuki-kun, does that mean…" fan club girls
NO! He's my doctor…"Yuki”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 2

Girl, Time

“Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude. Pharisees — that is to say, friars.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.

Stupidity, Falseness

“When faced with a decision, many people say they are waiting for God. But I understand, in most cases, God is waiting for me.”

Andy Andrews (1959) author and corporate speaker

God, People, Understanding, Decision

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), p. 1

Distant

“There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream -- whatever that dream might be.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

Heartbreaking, Sad, Love, Dreams

“I have need of angels. Enough hell has swallowed me for too many years. But finally understand this--I have burned up one hundred thousand human lives already, from the strength of my pain.”

Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre director

Source: Lettres à Génica Athanasiou

Pain, Angels, Hell, Understanding

“Love is an emotion experienced by the many and enjoyed by the few.”

George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American drama critic and magazine editor

love, Cute, Romantic, For Her

“Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

People

“Our fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night. Primitive folk, gathered at a cave mouth round a fire, do not fear night; they fear, rather, the energies and creatures to whom night gives power; we of the age of the machines, having delivered ourselves of nocturnal enemies, now have a dislike of night itself. With lights and ever more lights, we drive the holiness and beauty of night back to the forests and the sea; the little villages, the crossroads even, will have none of it. Are modern folk, perhaps, afraid of night? Do they fear that vast serenity, the mystery of infinite space, the austerity of stars? Having made themselves at home in a civilization obsessed with power, which explains its whole world in terms of energy, do they fear at night for their dull acquiescence and the pattern of their beliefs? Be the answer what it will, to-day's civilization is full of people who have not the slightest notion of the character or the poetry of night, who have never even seen night. Yet to live thus, to know only artificial night, is as absurd and evil as to know only artificial day.”

Henry Beston (1888–1968) American writer

Source: The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod

People, Age, World, Fear

“Too many kings can ruin an army”

Homér Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey

“A baseball bat could not have hit me harder than that smile did. I was sixteen years old. In that time, how many thousands of smiles had been aimed at me? so why did this one feel like the first?”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Source: Stargirl

Smile, Feeling, Time

“I killed her once and died for her many times”

Ann Brashares book My Name is Memory

Source: My Name Is Memory

Time

“I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth.”

Ovid Metamorphoses

Source: Metamorphoses

Birthday, Youth, Birthday

“The art of avoiding extremes is an art that is drawn on the canvas of maturity and painted with the abstract strokes of many experiences.”

T.D. Jakes (1957) American bishop

Source: The Lady, Her Lover, and Her Lord

Art, Painting

“Man is many things, but he is not rational.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Now I become myself. It’s taken time, many years and places.”

May Sarton (1912–1995) American poet, novelist, and memoirist

Time

“I have seen so many extraordinary things, nothing seems extraordinary any more”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

“Ain’t many guys travel around together,” he mused. “I don’t know why. Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”

John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men

Source: Of Mice and Men

World, Travel, Guy

“And as for Gussie Fink-Nottle, many an experienced undertaker would have been deceived by his appearance and started embalming him on sight.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Right Ho, Jeeves

Right Ho, Jeeves (1934)

Appearance

“I have always thought that if women's hair posed so many problems, God would certainly have made us bald.”

Marjane Satrapi (1969) Artist

Source: The Complete Persepolis

Women, God, Problem

“Take the Kama Sutra. How many people died from the Kama Sutra, as opposed to the Bible? Who wins?”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Late Night Special BBC (1993); the American version this documentary was presented on A&E Biography.

People

“Many a man is given what is intended for another, but no man is given another's fate.”

Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) Norwegian writer

Source: The Wife

Fate

“Everyone quoted it, it was full of so many words that they could not understand.”

Oscar Wilde book The Happy Prince

Source: The Happy Prince

Quotes, Understanding

“Everything stated or expressed by man is a note in the margin of a completely erased text. From what's in the note we can extract the gist of what must have been in the text, but there's always a doubt, and the possible meanings are many.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Fools

“NAUGHTY AND NICE? said Death. BUT IT'S EASY TO BE NICE IF YOU'RE RICH. IS THIS FAIR?
Albert wanted to argue. He wanted to say, Really? In that case, how come so many of the rich buggers is bastards? And being poor don't mean being naughty, neither.”

Terry Pratchett book Hogfather

Source: Hogfather

Death

“his mysterious resources had awakened in her a curiosity that was difficult to resist, but she had never imagined that curiosity was one of the many masks of love.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Love, Imagination

“She was learning, quite late, what many people around her appeared to have known since childhood: that life can be perfectly satisfying without major achievements.”

Alice Munro book Too Much Happiness

Source: "Too Much Happiness", in Too Much Happiness (2009)

Life, People, Learning, Appearance

“But [Everett] and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Dreams

“I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that.”

Malcolm X book The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Imagination

“We reached for each other, and I thought of how many nights I had lain awake loving him in silence.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

Love, Silence, Night

“It is so shocking to find out how many people do not believe that they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

People, Learning

“Dogs do not have many advantages over people, but one of them is extremely important: euthanasia is not forbidden by law in their case; animals have the right to a merciful death.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Death, People, Law, Dogs

“Rose, oh pure contradiction, desire,
To be no one's sleep under so many
Lids.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

Rose, oh reiner Widerspruch, Lust,
Niemandes Schlaf zu sein unter soviel
Lidern.
Rilke wrote his own epitaph sometime before October 27, 1925. He requested that it be inscribed on his gravestone. This was fifteen months before his death. (Translation: John J.L.Mood)
Source: The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke

Sleep

“It was amazing how many friends you could make by being bad at things, provided you were bad enough to be funny.”

Terry Pratchett book Reaper Man

Source: Reaper Man