Quotes about matter
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“Some fates are guaranteed, no matter who tries to intervene.”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

Fate

“No matter what we talk about, we are talking about ourselves”

Hugh Prather (1938–2010) American writer

Source: I Touch the Earth, the Earth Touches Me

“It hardly matters why a library is destroyed: every banning, curtailment, shredding, plunder or loot gives rise (at least as a ghostly presence) to a louder, clearer, more durable library of the banned, looted, plundered, shredded or curtailed.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Source: The Library at Night

“The older I get, the more I see how much motivations matter. The Zune was crappy because the people at Microsoft don’t really love music or art the way we do. We won because we personally love music.”

Walter Isaacson book Steve Jobs

Source: Steve Jobs

Love, People, Art, Music

“Long-term relationships--the ones that matter--are all about weathering the peaks and valleys.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Jo, Chapter 33, p. 259
Source: 2009, Safe Haven (2010)

For Wife, Relationship, Weather

“Men seem to be born with a debt they can never pay no matter how hard they try.”

John Steinbeck book Sweet Thursday

Source: Sweet Thursday

Men

“Do you eat chicken because you are familiar with the scientific literature on them and have decided that their suffering doesn't matter, or do you do it because it tastes good?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Eating Animals

Source: Eating Animals

Literature, Suffering

“Doesn't matter if it's personal or professional, a good partnership takes.”

Brian K. Vaughan (1976) American screenwriter, comic book creator

Source: Saga, Vol. 1

Personality, Partnership

“In the end, just three things matter:

How well we have lived
How well we have loved
How well we have learned to let go”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

Love, Learning

“But I kept it to myself--maybe because I didn't think it mattered, but probably because, in a place where everyone knew my story, it was nice to know there was a chapter that only I had read.”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Thinking, Reading

“'There are moments, Jeeves, when one asks oneself, "Do trousers matter?"'
‘The mood will pass, sir.’”

P.G. Wodehouse book The Code of the Woosters

Source: The Code of the Woosters (1938)

Mood

“No matter what dimension you're in, there's a big-headed male trying to take over the world.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Lost Colony

World

“It doesn't matter, anyway, why you like me. Just that you do.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

“It's very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth.”

Reginald Rose Twelve Angry Men

Source: Twelve Angry Men

Truth, Personality

“She grew more and more silent about what really mattered. She curled inside herself like one of those black chimney brushes, the little shellfish you see on the beach, and you touch them, and then go inside and don’t come out.”

Janet Frame (1924–2004) New Zealand author

Source: Owls Do Cry

“Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out”

Martin Scorsese (1942) American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor

“It only takes one mistake and nothing else you ever do will matter. No matter how hard you work or how smart you become, you'll always be known for that one poor choice.”

Chuck Palahniuk Snuff

Source: Snuff

“I made up my mind to keep my feelings to myself since they did not seem to matter to anyone else but me.”

Zora Neale Hurston book Dust Tracks on a Road

Source: Dust Tracks on a Road

Feeling

“what matters most is how well you walk through the fire”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Moving On

“That’s a wonderful story.”

“He was a wonderful man. And when a man is that special, you know it sooner than you think possible. You recognize it instinctively, and you’re certain that no matter what happens, there will never be another one like him.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One

Variant: He was a wonderful man. And when a man is that special, you know it sooner than you think possible. You recognize it instinctively, and you're certain that no matter what happens, there will never be another one like him.
Source: The Lucky One

Thinking

“She would be a new person, she vowed. They said no matter how far a mule travels it can never come back a horse, but she would show them all.”

Junot Díaz book The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Source: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Travel, Horse, Personality

“The love we'd shared always burned within me, no matter how often I told myself to move on, no matter how much the world did think I'd moved on.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Love, World, Thinking

“MIND, n. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Its chief activity consists in the endeavour to ascertain its own nature, the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothing but itself to know itself with.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Secret, Nature

“We must set aside our wishes and give heed to reality. Nobody can accept the truth while hiding from it. When a decision matters, we have to stare at the truth unflinchingly. Only then can we find peace in our choices.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Chasing the Prophecy

Truth, Peace, Reality, Decision

“It ain’t dying I’m talking about, it’s living. I doubt it matters where you die, but it matters where you live.” ~spoken by Augustus McCrae”

Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove

Source: Lonesome Dove

“Everything's plastic, we're all going to die sooner or later, so what does it matter.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

“Dark matter has a gravitation effect on other objects. You can't see it, you can't feel it, but you can watch something being pulled in its direction.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Feeling

“No matter where I was, my compass pointed west. I would always know what time it was in California.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Time

“What is nonsense, and what is not, then, may be merely a matter of perspective.”

Gary Zukav (1942) American writer and revivalist

“You know, bicycling isn't just a matter of balance," I said. "it's a matter of faith. You can keep upright only by moving forward. You have to have your eyes on the goal, not the ground. I'm going to call that the Bicyclist's Philosophy of Life.”

Susan Vreeland (1946–2017) US author

Source: Clara and Mr. Tiffany

Life, Faith

“Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Source: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems

Smile, Question, Universe

“She looked at me, like she was drinking in the fact that I was still here. And I realized I was doing the same thing. The world was collapsing, and the only thing that really mattered to me was that she was alive.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

World, Drink

“No matter what happens, you will always be Pack. Because you have that loyalty and restraint. Not human, not whatever, but Kate. Unique and different, but not separate.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Rises

Loyalty

“No matter how hard we try to ignore it, the mind always knows truth and wants clarity.”

Toni Morrison book God Help the Child

Source: God Help the Child

Truth

“No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.”

Barbara Ehrenreich (1941) American writer and journalist

"Family Values," The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed (1991)

Hell

“Absolutely nothing visible to the eye provides a reason for or even evidence of those terrifying shifts which can in a matter of moments reconstitute a simple path into an extremely complicated one.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

“Two things that matter to me. Emotional resonance and rocket launchers.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

“LIBERTY!
FREEDOM!
DEMOCRACY!
True anyhow no matter how many
Liars use those words.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

Democracy, Freedom

“Beirut is the Elizabeth Taylor of cities: insane, beautiful, falling apart, aging, and forever drama laden. She'll also marry any infatuated suitor who promises to make her life more comfortable, no matter how inappropriate he is.”

Rabih Alameddine book An Unnecessary Woman

Source: An Unnecessary Woman

Life, Age, Beauty

“Travis: I didn’t know they made permanent makeup. I looked like a clown for a month.
Connor: Yeah. They put a curse on me so that no matter what I wore, my clothes were two sizes too small and I felt like a geek.
Travis: You are a geek.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Files

Source: The Demigod Files

Clothes

“For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)

Flying

“All men are a disappointment. No matter what anyone says.”

Candace Bushnell book Summer and the City

Source: Summer and the City

Men, Disappointment

“There are some battles, no matter how much you don’t want to fight them, that you just have to fight. That are worth giving your life for.”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Source: The Bronze Horseman

Life, Fight

“Gold don't come off. What's good stays good no matter how much of a beating it takes.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: NOS4A2

“That’s what I like about sports. No matter if everyone playing the game speaks completely different languages, on the field, or the court, wherever they are playing, the language of moves and passes and scores is all the same. Universal.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Game, Sport, Universe

“I often cried when I got angry; I hated that. Crying just made you look weak, no matter what triggered it.”

Charlaine Harris book All Together Dead

Source: All Together Dead

Hate, Cry

“… foreign policy is a matter of costs and benefits, not theology.”

Fareed Zakaria book The Post-American World

Source: The Post-American World

“If, in the end, you have not chosen Jesus Christ it will not matter what you have chosen.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

Christ

“No matter what challenging situation you may find yourself in, imagine the best outcome of it and feel it! When you do, you will change the circumstances, and you will change the situation into what you want!”

Rhonda Byrne (1951) Australian writer and producer

Feeling, Imagination, Change

“If so, then it was also here where I came to know I can survive what hurts. I believed in my capacity to stand back up and run into the waves again and again, no matter the risk.”

Terry Tempest Williams (1955) American writer

Source: When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice

Hurt

“Many invest wisely in business matters, but fail to invest time and interest in their most valued possessions: their spouses and children.”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

Source: Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well

Children, Business, Time

“Life will defend itself no matter how small it is.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life

“He hadn't loved me well in the end, but he'd loved me well when it mattered.”

Cheryl Strayed (1968) author, memoirist, blogger

Love

“It isn't a matter of black is beautiful as much as it is white is not all that's beautiful.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Beauty

“Never, ever stop believing in magic, no matter how old you get. Because if you keep looking long enough and don't give up, sooner or later you're going to find Mary Poppins.”

Steve Kluger (1952) American writer

Source: My Most Excellent Year

“I was tired of seeing the Graces always depicted as beautiful young things. I think wisdom comes with age and life and pain. And knowing what matters.”

Louise Penny book A Fatal Grace

Source: A Fatal Grace

Life, Wisdom, Pain, Age

“Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese you dingus”

Luis Buñuel (1900–1983) film director

Mon Dernier soupir (My Last Sigh, 1983)

Age

“You'll be alive', he pointed out. 'That's what matters. Enjoy what you have, every little detail of wherever you are. Don't focus on where you aren't.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“What matters most is not who is sitting in the White House, but "who is sitting in" -- and who is marching outside the White House, pushing for change.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Change, Housing

“If you hear how wonderful you are often enough, you begin to believe it, no matter how you try to resist it.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

“Have you ever been torn between two impossibilities and knew in your heart that no matter which way you went or which path you chose that you were doomed to unhappiness?”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: Sweet Addiction

Way, Heart

“In this life, no matter what anyone promises you, what allegiances of love or fealty they swear or what gods they pray to, you will never have more than what you have at this moment.”

Richard Kadrey (1957) San Francisco-based novelist, freelance writer, and photographer

Love, Life, God

“Because my mum and dad brought me up to believe that people are different but equal. And that I should treat everyone, no matter who, with the same respect I'd like to be shown.”

Malorie Blackman book Knife Edge

Source: Knife Edge

People

“Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don't abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book."

(Acceptance speech,, November 17, 2010)”

Patti Smith (1946) American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist

Books, World, Beauty

“The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter.”

Sigmund Freud book The Interpretation of Dreams

Source: The Interpretation of Dreams

Dreams, Soul, Nature

“Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make it so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, or drop a jar of applesauce.”

Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer

Love, Life

“Your truth may not look like mine, but that is not what matters. What matters is this: You can look at a scar and see hurt, or you can look at a scar and see healing.”

Sheri Reynolds (1967) American writer

Source: A Gracious Plenty

Truth, Hurt

“Highs and lows make you feel that things matter, but they're nothing." "So what's something?" "Being reliable is something. Being good.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

William Black talking with Oskar
"A Simple Solution to an Impossible Problem" (p. 297)
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005)
Context: "It's easy to be emotional. You can always make a scene... Highs and lows make you feel that things matter, but they're nothing." "So what's something?" "Being reliable is something. Being good."

Feeling

“But all the time-no matter what she was doing-there was music.”

Carson McCullers (1917–1967) American writer

Music, Time

“Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.”

T.S. Eliot book Four Quartets

Source: Four Quartets

Love

“It didn't matter if I got bitten by a dog or I ripped my pants on the fence post or I poked myself in the eye with a tree branch that I was crawling over, it was all about the shortcut. My whole life I took the shortcut, and I ended up lost.”

Anthony Kiedis book Scar Tissue

Source: Scar Tissue

Life, Dogs, Tree

“I don't know. When I was born there was a nurse taking care of me."
"What's the matter? Couldn't the nurse take care of herself?" "Sure she could. I just found that out too late.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

“No matter where you are, you're always a bit on your own, always an outsider.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Goodbye Tsugumi

Source: Goodbye Tsugumi (1989)

“It's the wanting to know that makes us matter.”

Tom Stoppard Arcadia

Hannah, Act II.
Source: Arcadia (1993)

“It may be that DMT makes us able to perceive what the physicist call "dark matter" - the 95 per cent of the universe's mass that is known to exist but that at present remains invisible to our senses and instruments.”

Graham Hancock (1950) British writer and journalist

Sense, Universe

“An easy life doesn't teach us anything. In the end it's the learning that matters: what we've learned and how we've grown”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: One

Life, Learning

“…I learned that it's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief…lessens. It may not ever go away completely, but after a while it's not overwhelming.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Tim Wheddon, Chapter 20, p. 265
Source: 2000s, Dear John (2006)

Time

“A woman can't do anything about her appearance. Either she's pretty or she isn't. But her character is quite another matter.”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: The Prize

Appearance

“The whole problem with people is they don't know what matters and what doesn't.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

People, Problem

“The point is, it didn’t really matter what the book was about. It was what it meant that was important.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Books

“If I held a revolver to your head, James, and pulled the trigger, would it really matter if I did not know that there were not bullets in the chambers?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“The whole summer lay ahead of us-time to rest, time to wait. And when the future comes-no matter what comes with it-I'll be smarter. I'll be stronger. I'll be ready.”

Ally Carter Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Source: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Time, Waiting, Future, Summer

“Maybe it doesn't matter that life never blossomed into something larger than itself.”

Zadie Smith book NW

Source: NW

Life

“I have become convinced that God thoroughly enjoys fixing and saving things that are broken. That means that no matter how hurt and defeated you feel, no matter how badly you have been damaged, God can repair you. God can give anyone a second chance.”

Melody Carlson (1956) American writer

Source: Damaged: A Violated Trust

God, Feeling, Chance, Hurt

“It doesn’t matter what temperature a room is, it’s always room temperature.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“Above all, life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference”

Robert Frank (1924–2019) American photographer and filmmaker

Robert Frank, "Statement, 1958"; republished in: Vicki Goldberg. Photography in Print: Writings from 1816 to the Present https://books.google.nl/books?id=U3qXOp1iT6QC&pg=PA401, 1981, p. 401 <br class="br">Variant: Life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference and it is important to see what is invisible to others. <br class="br">Context: I have been frequently accused of deliberately twisting subject matter to my point of view. Above all, I know that life for a photographer cannot be a matter of indifference. Opinion often consists of a kind of criticism. But criticism can come out of love. It is important to see what is invisible to others — perhaps the look of hope or the look of sadness. Also, it is always the instantaneous reaction to oneself that produces a photograph.<br>My photographs are not planned or composed in advance, and I do not anticipate that the onlooker will share my viewpoint. However, I feel that if my photograph leaves an image on his mind, something has been accomplished.

Life, Indifference

“You hold in your hand an invitation: to remember the transforming power of forgiveness and loving kindness. To remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible.”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

Love, Peace, Forgiveness, Heart