Quotes about matter
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Source: La sombra del viento (The Shadow of the Wind) (2001)
Source: My Uncle Oswald (1979)
“It doesn’t matter what you say you believe - it only matters what you do.”
Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Source: Journal of a Solitude
Source: Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Rhunon
Source: Eldest (2005)
Mrs Dalloway (1925)
Source: Mrs. Dalloway
Context: What she loved was this, here, now, in front of her; the fat lady in the cab. Did it matter then, she asked herself, walking towards Bond Street, did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely; all this must go on without her; did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely? but that somehow in the streets of London, on the ebb and flow of things, here there, she survived. Peter survived, lived in each other, she being part, she was positive, of the trees at home; of the house there, ugly, rambling all to bits and pieces as it was; part of people she had never met; being laid out like a mist between the people she knew best, who lifted her on their branches as she had seen the trees lift the mist, but it spread ever so far, her life, herself.
Source: The Noticer: Sometimes, All a Person Needs Is a Little Perspective
Source: The Indigo Spell
Source: The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom
1910s, Address to the Knights of Columbus (1915)
Context: I appeal to history. Among the generals of Washington in the Revolutionary War were Greene, Putnam, and Lee, who were of English descent; Wayne and Sullivan, who were of Irish descent; Marion, who was of French descent; Schuyler, who was of Dutch descent, and Muhlenberg and Herkimer, who were of German descent. But they were all of them Americans and nothing else, just as much as Washington. Carroll of Carrollton was a Catholic; Hancock a Protestant; Jefferson was heterodox from the standpoint of any orthodox creed; but these and all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence stood on an equality of duty and right and liberty, as Americans and nothing else.
Context: The line of cleavage drawn on principle and conduct in public affairs is never in any healthy community identical with the line of cleavage between creed and creed or between class and class. On the contrary, where the community life is healthy, these lines of cleavage almost always run nearly at right angles to one another. It is eminently necessary to all of us that we should have able and honest public officials in the nation, in the city, in the state. If we make a serious and resolute effort to get such officials of the right kind, men who shall not only be honest but shall be able and shall take the right view of public questions, we will find as a matter of fact that the men we thus choose will be drawn from the professors of every creed and from among men who do not adhere to any creed.
Source: On the Heights of Despair (1934)
Context: Everything is possible, and yet nothing is. All is permitted, and yet again, nothing. No matter which way we go, it is no better than any other. It is all the same whether you achieve something or not, have faith or not, just as it’s all the same whether you cry or remain silent. There is an explanation for everything, and yet there is none. Everything is both real and unreal, normal and absurd, splendid and insipid. There is nothing worth more than anything else, nor any idea better than any other. Why grow sad from one’s sadness and delight in one’s joy? What does it matter whether our tears come from pleasure or pain? Love your unhappiness and hate your happiness, mix everything up, scramble it all! Be a snowflake dancing in the air, a flower floating downstream! Have courage when you don’t need to, and be a coward when you must be brave! Who knows? You may still be a winner! And if you lose, does it really matter? Is there anything to win in this world? All gain is loss, all loss is gain. Why always expect a definite stance, clear ideas, meaningful words? I feel as if I should spout fire in response to all the questions which were ever put, or not put, to me.
Source: Managing the Non-Profit Organization: Principles and Practices
Source: Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy
Quotes, Concession speech (2000)
Context: I've seen America in this campaign, and I like what I see. It's worth fighting for and that's a fight I'll never stop. As for the battle that ends tonight, I do believe, as my father once said, that "No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out."
“People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.”
Source: As I Lay Dying (1930)
“No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.”
Variant : The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in tradition and surrounded by a halo. When we have a choice, we must avoid bringing torment and injury into the life of another, even the lowliest creature; to do so is to renounce our manhood and shoulder a guilt which nothing justifies.
As quoted in Becoming Vegan : The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-based Diet (2000) by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina, p. 261
Source: The Spiritual Life (1947), p. 305; also in The Animal World of Albert Schweitzer (1950), p. 179
“What does it matter how many lovers you have if none of them gives you the universe?”
Source: Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream
“All that matters is what we do for each other.”
“Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.”
Source: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Earliest source located is the book Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists by Robert Jungk (1958), p. 249, which says that Einstein made the comment during "a walk with Ernst Straus, a young mathematician acting as his scientific assistant at Princeton."
Variant: "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity." From A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking (2005), p. 144 http://books.google.com/books?id=4Y0ZBW19n_YC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA144#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Earlier, Straus recalled the German version of the quote in Helle Zeit, Dunkle Zeit: In Memoriam Albert Einstein (1956) edited by Carl Seelig<!-- Zurich: Europa Verlag -->, p. 71. There the quote was given as Ja, so muß man seine Zeit zwischen der Politik und unseren Gleichungen teilen. Aber unsere Gleichungen sind mir doch viel wichtiger; denn die Politik ist für die Gegenwart da, aber solch eine Gleichung is etwas für die Ewigkeit.
Attributed in posthumous publications
Context: Yes, we now have to divide up our time like that, between politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.
“I told myself no matter what she did i would not let the b**** take me down”
Source: A Child Called "It"
“No matter how much suffering you went through, you never wanted to let go of those memories.”
“It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you.”
"The Heart of a Mouse"
Source: The Witches (1983)
“No matter how much you hate or how much you suffer, you can't bring the dead back to life”
“Let me be, was all I wanted. Be what I am, no matter how I am.”
Source: Stand Still Like the Hummingbird
“No matter what a woman looks like, if she's confident, she's sexy”
Source: Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
“Sometimes life is merely a matter of coffee and whatever intimacy a cup of coffee affords.”
“What does it matter where my body happens to be?' he said. 'My mind goes on working all the same.”
“April: Sky Dance”, p. 32-33.
A Sand County Almanac, 1949, "April: Come High Water," "April: Draba," "April: Bur Oak," & "April:Sky Dance"
Source: A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
Source: Much Ado About Nothing
Source: The Shadow of the Wind
“What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.”
Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
Source: What Happened to Goodbye
“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.”
Source: The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
“Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting how charming someone is.”
“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.”
“Always believe in yourself. Do this and no matter where you are, you will have nothing to fear.”
Post-Presidency, Nobel lecture (2002)
Source: The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture
“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”
“Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.”
1950s
Context: In matters concerning truth and justice there can be no distinction between big problems and small; for the general principles which determine the conduct of men are indivisible. Whoever is careless with truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.
(1955) as quoted in Albert Einstein: Historical and Cultural Perspectives (1997) ed. , p. 388, from The Centennial Symposium in Jerusalem (1979)
Source: Witches Abroad
Variant: I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda… I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.
Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), p. 400
Context: I've had enough of someone else's propaganda. I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against. I'm a human being first and foremost, and as such I am for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.
