Quotes about matter
page 17

“No matter how much bullying they inflict on my body, as long as I have this hope, I can endure any pain.”

Ruth Ozeki book A Tale for the Time Being

Source: A Tale for the Time Being

Pain, Hope

“If you still think you're a young pup then you are, no matter what the calendar says”

John Grogan (1958) American journalist

Source: Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog

Thinking

“I see that there will be no end to imperfection, or to doing things the wrong way. Even if you grow up, no matter how hard you scrub, whatever you do, there will always be some other stain or spot on your face or stupid act, somebody frowning.”

Margaret Atwood book Cat's Eye

Source: Cat's Eye

Stupidity, Way

“No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Women, Effort, Time, Baby

“We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.”

D.H. Lawrence book Lady Chatterley's Lover

Source: Lady Chatterley's Lover

“Men are like that sometimes - if they meet someone and fall in love, it's real, no matter how fast it happened. But if someone falls for a woman they happen to care about, all they do is question the man's intentions.”

Nicholas Sparks book Nights in Rodanthe

Source: Nights in Rodanthe

Love, Men, Question

“Life is so often unfair and painful and love is hard to find and you have to take it whenever and wherever you can get it, no matter how brief it is or how it ends.”

Jenna Blum book Het familieportret

Source: Those Who Save Us

Love, Life, Pain

“As a matter of fact, I think there are more things important in life than "relationships.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Life, Thinking

“The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

Problem, Evil

“My voice speaking is a monkey's mouth making little mouth noises that are carrying agree-upon meaning, and it is meaning that matters. Without the meaning one has only little mouth noises”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Source: The Archaic Revival

“There's one hole in every revolution, large or small. And it's one word long— PEOPLE. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.”

Warren Ellis (1968) English comics and fiction writer

Source: Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street

People, Idea

“If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little - somebody who is obsessed by Making.”

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

“Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It is a long, intricate, intimate dance together and nothing matters more than your own sense of balance and your choice of partner.”

Amy Bloom (1953) Fiction writer, screenwriter, social worker, psychotherapist

Wedding, Marriage, Sense, Dance

“Ideas do matter and do have consequences.”

Nathaniel Branden (1930–2014) Canadian–American psychotherapist and writer

Six Pillars of Self-Esteem

Idea

“Conversation was irrelevant. Only pie mattered.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

“We must be careful with our lives, for Christ's sake, because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

World, Christ

“That's the difference between family and friends. Family is always there, no matter what, even when it's not right next door. Which means that you'll find a way to keep the connection alive. Especially since you realize how important it is.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

Family, Way

“You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Beauty

“And it doesn’t even matter if it’s true or not. What matters is that I feel it, and believe it.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Variant: I feel the universe is telling me something. And it doesn't even matter if it's true or not. What matters is that I feel it, and believe it.
Source: Every Day

Feeling

“The difference between treason and patriotism is only a matter of dates.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

“I remember, no matter how impossible it seemed that any given day would end, it always did. This one would, too.”

Augusten Burroughs book You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

Source: You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

“Was everybody seeing this stuff and acting as though they weren't? Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act?”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted

“Anyway, it doesn't matter how much, how often, or how closely you keep an eye on things because you can't control it. Sometimes things and people just go. Just like that.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

People

“… there are only two things that really matter in life. Literature and love.”

Daphne Kalotay American writer

Source: Russian Winter

Love, Life, Literature

“You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed. People may not notice at the time, but that doesn’t matter. The world has been changed nonetheless.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Levels of Life

People, World, Change, Time

“Reserving judgements is a matter of infinite hope.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Hope

“No matter how bad things get, you can always see the beauty in them. The worse things get, the more you have to make yourself see the magic in order to survive.”

Francesca Lia Block (1962) American children's writer

Source: Pink Smog

Beauty

“You have some queer friends, Dorothy,' she said.

The queerness doesn't matter, so long as they're friends,' was the answer”

L. Frank Baum book The Road to Oz

Source: The Road to Oz

“If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 130.

Star, Light

“It's all right. It doesn't matter what you do. We're dreaming, you know.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Dreams

“It does not matter how long you live, but how well you do it.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

“Ma's still nodding. "You're the one who matters, though. Just you."

I shake my head till it's wobbling because there's no just me.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Source: Room

“Tis a well-known fact that a man is either skilled in matters of loving or matters of war. ’Tis obvious that fighting is your skill.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: In Bed with a Highlander

Love, War, Fight

“Everyone is in pain. No matter where they come from or what you think of them. Sorrow spares no one”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infamous

Pain, Thinking

“No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity.”

Julia Cameron book The Artist's Way

Source: The Artist's Way

Life, Age, Dreams, Art

“There are rocks deep enough in this earth that no matter what the rupture, they will never see the surface.

There is, I think, a fear of love.

There is a fear of love.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

Love, Fear, Thinking

“The best we can do then, in response to our incomprehensible and dangerous world, is to practice holding equilibrium internally - no matter what insanity is transpiring out there.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

World

“I knew right then and there nothing was ever going to change. It wouldn't matter if I was tall or short or fat or thin or absent every day. I was a loser from birth.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

Birth, Change

“Yet, he thought, if I can die saying, "Life is so beautiful," then nothing else is important. If i can believe in myself that much, nothing else matters.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

Life, Beauty

“No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.”

Steven Brust (1955) American fantasy and science fiction author

“It's possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

“It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn't matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over.”

Paulo Coelho book The Zahir

Source: The Zahir

Life, Past

“Thank goodness for the first snow, it was a reminder--no matter how old you became and how much you'd seen, things could still be new if you were willing to believe they still mattered.”

Candace Bushnell Lipstick Jungle

Source: Lipstick Jungle

“No matter how much you consumed, you would not have your fill.”

Jodi Picoult book The Tenth Circle

Source: The Tenth Circle

“Everybody dies. What matters is what you do between now and when it happens to you.”

Orson Scott Card Treasure Box

Source: Treasure Box

“In the minds of great managers, consistent poor performance is not primarily a matter of weakness, stupidity, disobedience, or disrespect. It is a matter of miscasting.”

Marcus Buckingham (1966) British writer

Stupidity

“Above all, she wanted to look as though she had not given the matter a moment's thought, and that would take time.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Time

“You can’t protect yourself. No matter how safe you think you are. No matter how much precaution you take, the rodents always find a way in.’ (Kiara)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

Way, Thinking

“The words that matter always stay.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

“Why did I come here? I thought. Why is it always only a matter of choosing between something bad and something worse?”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.”

Emily Post (1872–1960) American etiquette expert

Feeling

“Blood is thicker than water, my mother had always said when I was growing up, a sentiment I’d often disputed. But it turned out that it didn’t matter whether she was right or wrong. They both flowed out of my cupped palms.”

Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Water

“The behavior of a human being in sexual matters is often a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction in life.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

Source: Sexuality and the Psychology of Love

Life, Behavior

“A good story is a good story no matter who wrote it.”

Anne McCaffrey (1926–2011) American-Irish novelist

“When time passes, it's the people who knew you whom you want to see; they're the ones you can talk to. When enough time passes, what's it matter what they did to you?”

John Irving book The Cider House Rules

Source: The Cider House Rules

People, Time

“You must behave as if return is certain, not a matter of chance", Jem said.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Chance

“Where you come from does matter -- but not nearly as much as where you are headed.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

“It doesn't matter how many times you say it. It'll still be true.'
'And it doesn't matter what you won't let me say, that'll still be true too.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Time

“Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously…. Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them.”

Edwidge Danticat (1969) Novelist, short story writer, memoirist

Life, People, Reading, Parting

“Love isn't how you feel. It's what you do. I've never had a feeling in my life. As a matter of fact, I matter only with earth people.”

Madeleine L'Engle A Wind in the Door

Source: A Wind in the Door

Love, Life, People, Feeling

“The matter with human beans," the BFG went on, "is that they is absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles.”

Roald Dahl The BFG

Source: The BFG (1982)

“What matters deafness of the ear, when the mind hears? The one true deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

“You are ugly now, on the inside, where it matters most, and if you ever lost your good looks, i bet you wouldn't be smart enough to get them back. Kyle Kingsbury, you are beastly.”

Alex Flinn book Beastly

Source: Beastly

“Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.”

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author

"What The Dead Men Say" (1964)

Night

“talk was cheap and useless. Action was what mattered. And me, I was moving. Now, again, always.”

Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“Writing is like breathing, it's possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what.”

Julia Cameron (1948) American writer

Source: The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life

Learning

“No matter how long or how difficult, we will undo whatever that Moroi boy has done to you."

I managed a wavering smile, tasting blood in my mouth. "You sure about that, Dad? Because he's doneto me.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Smile, Boy

“Because that was what you did with family when you'd been worried about them, you grabbed them and held on to them and told them how much they'd pissed you off, and it was okay, because no matter how angry you got, they still belonged to you.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Family

“No matter what, expect the unexpected. And whenever possible BE the unexpected.”

Lynda Barry (1956) Cartoonist

Source: Cruddy

“In the end, the end of a life only matters to friends, family, and other folks you used to know. For everyone else, it's just another end.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Life, Family

“Mind over matter, will make the Pooh unfatter.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

“I need you to know that no matter what happens, it was worth it to me. Being with you, loving you. It was all worth it.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

Love

“Magnus did not take such suffering lightly, but even mortals did not die of broken hearts. No matter how cruel Grace had been, he told himself, James would heal. Even though he was a Herondale.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Midnight Heir

Suffering, Heart

“it's gonna hurt because it matters.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Hurt

“Some bridges you crossed on your own, no matter who drove you to the edge”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Motivational, Art

“Night was a very different matter. It was dense, thicker than the very walls, and it was empty, so black, so immense that within it you could brush against appalling things and feel roaming and prowling around a strange, mysterious horror.”

Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer

Source: The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, Part One

Feeling, Night

“He certainly seems like the perfect guy but none of that matters if he's not the perfect guy for you.”

Lauren Weisberger book Un anello da Tiffany

Source: Chasing Harry Winston

Guy, Perfection

“It doesn't matter. I have books, new books, and I can bear anything as long as there are books.”

Jo Walton book Among Others

Source: Among Others

Books

“There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

The Bridge Across Forever (1984)
Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

Learning

“Travel is never a matter of money but of courage”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Money, Travel, Courage

“What else do I have to offer? Nothing happens to me anymore. That’s the reality of getting old, and I guess that’s really the crux of the matter. I’m not ready to be old yet.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

Reality

“Feelings are facts. Look straight at 'em and deal with 'em. Work it through, as honestly as you can. If God is anything like a middle-class white chick from the suburbs, which I admit is a long shot, it's what you do about what you feel that matters.”

Mary Doria Russell The Sparrow

Source: The Sparrow

God, Feeling

“There are lots of things we never understand, no matter how many years we put on, no matter how much experience we accumulate.”

Haruki Murakami book The Elephant Vanishes

Source: The Elephant Vanishes

Understanding

“Smoking had become my favorite thing in the world to do. It was like having instant comfort, no matter where or when.”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

World

“And suddenly, just like that, hope became knowledge. I was going to win. It was just a matter of when.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

Hope, Knowledge

“magic persists without us
no matter what we may do to try to spoil it”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Pleasures of the Damned

“…I said everything that matters… Don't take my advice. Or anyone's advice. Trust yourself. For good or for bad, happy or unhappy, it's your life, and what you do with it has always been entirely up to you.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me

Evelyn Collier, Chapter 15, p. 223
Source: 2009, The Best of Me (2011)

Life, Happiness

“And that leaves me with the belief that miracles, no matter how inexplicable or unbelievable, are real and can occur without regard to the natural order of things.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Nature

“You matter.”

La Jill Hunt

The Point Of It All

“Kiss me," I said. "Before you say anything else, just kiss me and hold me and tell me it was worth it, no matter what happens.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Heart of Betrayal

Kiss

“Life's got to be lived, no matter how long or short. You got to take what comes.”

Natalie Babbitt book Tuck Everlasting

Source: Tuck Everlasting

Life

“My heart is warm with friends I make,
And better friends I'll not be knowing,
Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take,
No matter where it's going.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

"Travel", st. 3, Second April, 1921
Source: The Selected Poetry

Heart, Training

“Death really did not matter to him but life did, and therefore the sensation he felt when they gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), p. 119
Context: In the shattered schoolhouse where for the first time he had felt the security of power, a few feet from the room where he had come to know the uncertainty of love, Arcadio found the formality of death ridiculous. Death really did not matter to him but life did and therefore the sensation he felt when they gave their decision was not a feeling of fear but of nostalgia. He did not speak until they asked him for his last request.

Life, Death, Fear, Feeling