Quotes about meaning
page 19

“Love doesn't mean anything if you're not willing to make a commitment, and you have to think not only about what you want, but about what he wants. Not just now, but in the future.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Jo, Chapter 23, p. 192
Source: 2009, Safe Haven (2010)

Love, Thinking, Future

“When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Thinking

“There are so many books I mean to read, and things I mean to see.”

Anne Rice book Merrick

Source: Merrick

Books, Reading

“Is he making you happy? I don’t mean some of the time, on rare occasions, not that often, “but the good still outweighs the bad.” Does he make it clear in his actions every day that your happiness is important to him?”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

Time, Happiness

“Be who you like as long as you mean it.”

Alan Cumming (1965) Scottish actor

“Ah," said the magus, understanding at once. "I see that he means to be prepared if he meets him again."
"Surely that's unlikely," said Sounis.
"I don't think unlikely means to him what it does to the rest of us," said the magus.”

Megan Whalen Turner book A Conspiracy of Kings

Source: A Conspiracy of Kings

Understanding, Thinking

“I'll have to admit, he really does have quite a smile. Kind of heart-stopping, especially as it comes out of nowhere.
I mean… you know. If your heart was in the kind of place to be stopped.”

Sophie Kinsella book I've Got Your Number

Source: I've Got Your Number

Smile, Heart

“A family can be the bane of one's existence. A family can also be most of the meaning of one's existence. I don't know whether my family is bane or meaning, but they have surely gone away and left a large hole in my heart.”

Keri Hulme book The Bone People

Source: The Bone People

Family, Heart

“What's with all the running, anyway? I mean, I realize the importance of stamina and all that, but shouldn't I be moving on to something with a little hitting? They're still killing me in group practice.”
"Maybe you should hit harder.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

“It was SHE. Whoever has loved knows all the radiant meaning contained in the three letters of this word ‘she.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Love

“I think we're given multiple chances to meet multiple soulmates. Sure, you could meet a soulmate in highschool. But that doesn't mean if you don't act on it, you'll never meet anyone else. You will, just at a time that's more convenient for you.”

Meg Cabot book How to Be Popular

Source: How to Be Popular

Thinking, Chance, Time

“Listening doesn't mean trying to understand. Anything, however trifling, may be of use one day. What matters is to know something that others don't know you know.”

Umberto Eco book The Prague Cemetery

Source: The Prague Cemetery

Understanding

“I don't like work--no man does--but I like what is in the work--the chance to find yourself. Your own reality--for yourself not for others--what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.”

Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness

Source: Heart of Darkness

Reality, Chance

“Don't you think 'Mark is kind of a weird name for a Shadowhunter?" Julian was saying as Emma approached. "I mean, if you really think about it. It's confusing. 'Put a Mark on me, Mark.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Thinking

“I don’t know how you do it. You aren’t even blond. I mean, maybe a little, but mostly you’re a brunette. I just don’t see guys going for that.”

“Yeah, well, some people are into kinky stuff, I guess.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Heat

People, Guy

“If you’ve found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Variant: Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward.
Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Life

“I invent stories, confront one with another, and by this means I ask questions. The stupidity of people comes from having an answer to everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.”

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature

Wisdom, People, Stupidity, Question

“But in the end it wasn't up to me. The bigs things never are. Birth, I mean, and death. And love. And what love bequeaths to us before we're born.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

Love, Death, Birth

“And even if she says no, and really means yes, then quite frankly she's playing games and isn't worth the price of dinner.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Game

“Tyson dropped the two warriors he was about to tie into a knot and jogged after us. He jumped on the centaur's back.
'Dude!' the centaur groaned, almost buckling under Tyson's weight. 'Do the words "low-carb diet" mean anything to you?”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

“I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative. I believe that to be so obvious and undeniable a fact that I hardly think any hon. Gentleman will question it.”

John Stuart Mill book Considerations on Representative Government

In a Parliamentary debate with the Conservative MP, John Pakington (May 31, 1866). Hansard, vol 183, col 1592. Pakington was referring to Footnote 3 to Chapter 7 of Mill's "Considerations on Representative Government".
Misquoted as "I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it." in "Life of John Stuart Mill" (1889) by W. L. Courtney, p. 147.
This seems to have become paraphrased as "Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." which was a variant published in Quotations for Our Time (1978), edited by Laurence J. Peter.

Stupidity, Question, Thinking, Personality

“Just because someone does not love you as you want, it does not mean that you do not love with all his being.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Love

“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.”

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author

"How To Build A Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1978)

People, Reality

“Void is when there is absolutely nothing there and the nothing is natural, a complete vacuum. But empty - with empty, you are aware of what's supposed to be there. Empty means something is missing.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

Nature

“Hope doesn't mean anything…. Action's the only thing that counts.”

Margaret Peterson Haddix Among the Hidden

Source: Among the Hidden

Hope

“And there is a chance that everything we did was incorrect, but stasis is itself criminal for those with the means to move, and the means to weave communion between people.”

Dave Eggers (1970) memoirist, novelist, short story writer, editor, publisher

Source: You Shall Know Our Velocity!

People, Chance

“I think of you as a friend. I used to think "friend" was just another word… Nothing more, nothing less. But when I met you, I realized what was important was the word's meaning.”

Masashi Kishimoto book Naruto

Source: Naruto, Band 11

Thinking

“A picture means I know where I was every minute. That's why I take pictures. It's a visual diary.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

“What you don't understand you can make mean anything.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Diary

Variant: What we don't understand we can make mean anything.
Source: Diary

Understanding

“Every song has a memory; every song has the ability to make or break your heart, shut down the heart, and open the eyes. But I’m afraid if you look at a thing long enough; it loses all of its meaning”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Memory, Heart

“My pen.’ Funny, I wrote that without noticing. ‘The torch’, ‘the paper’, but ‘my pen’. That shows what writing means to me, I guess. My pen is a pipe from my heart to the paper. It’s about the most important thing I own.”

John Marsden (1950) author

Source: The Dead of Night

Heart

“Just because people throw it out and don't have any use for it, doesn't mean it's garbage.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

People

“Every once in a while you just have to decide to do something very crazy and very right--just to dare yourself to live. I don't mean doing something stupid and destructive--just something fun and good and beautiful.”

Regina Doman (1970) American writer

Source: The Shadow of the Bear

Stupidity, Beauty

“Permanence:
Just because they die, she said, doesn't mean they go away.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

“I am blind and limited. I would be a fool think myself wise. And so, not knowing what the universe means, I can only try to be responsible with the knowledge, the strength, and the time given to me. I must be true to my heart.”

Jim Butcher book Death Masks

Source: Death Masks

Fools, Knowledge, Thinking, Universe

“If you're going to try, go all the way. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe your mind.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Way

“Hebrew word for "charity" tzedakah, simply means "justice" and as this suggests, for Jews, giving to the poor is no optional extra but an essential part of living a just life.”

Peter Singer (1946) Australian philosopher

Source: The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty

Life, Justice, Parting

“What does this mean? It means I get to spend the morning having the hair ripped off my body while Peeta sleeps in.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Sleep

“I frowned. “You mean Set’s got, like, other evil gods on speed dial?”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

God, Evil, Speed

“Oh, yes. I mean to marry him. But not because I want him to give me a life. I want to marry him to share the life I already have. The difference, I think you will find, is a significant one.”

Deanna Raybourn (1968) American writer

Source: Silent on the Moor

Life, Thinking

“Fortitude…. It means fixity of purpose. It means endurance. It means having the strength to live with what constrains you.”

Hilary Mantel book Wolf Hall

Source: Wolf Hall

“In the act of tearing something apart, you lose its meaning.”

Malcolm Gladwell book Blink

Source: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Tear

“Or perhaps all those things you missed upon first glance mean much more than you could ever guess.”

Sara Shepard (1973) Author

Source: Wanted

“My happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.”

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Source: Anthem

Happiness

“Just because you're the enemy of my enemy don't mean you're my friend, Han thought.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Exiled Queen

“Doing the right thing for someone else occasionally means doing something that feels wrong to you.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Feeling

“Faith doesn't mean you never doubt. It only means you never act upon your doubts.”

Orson Scott Card Sarah

Source: Sarah

Faith

“You are healed." Allegra nodded. "You are no longer a Silver Blood." She paused. "But you are no longer a vampire either."
Bliss started. No longer a vampire-but what did that mean? Did it mean she was just human?”

Melissa de la Cruz book The Van Alen Legacy

Source: The Van Alen Legacy

“If you believe you can accomplish everything by "cramming" at the eleventh hour, by all means, don't lift a finger now. But you may think twice about beginning to build your ark once it has already started raining”

Max Brooks book The Zombie Survival Guide

Source: The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

Thinking

“Out of the cacophony of random suffering and chaos that can mark human life, the life artist sees or creates a symphony of meaning and order. A life of wholeness does not depend on what we experience. Wholeness depends on how we experience our lives.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Life, Suffering, Dependency

“Because every time someone finds a new animal, or a new amazing thing on earth, it means we haven't broken everything yet.”

Maria Dahvana Headley (1977) American writer

Source: Magonia

Time, Animals

“Valentine!"
"You mean father. I despise this modern habit of calling one's parents by their names."
"What I want to call you is a hell of a lot more unprintable than your name."
- Clary Fray and Valentine Morgenstern (City of Ashes)”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Hell, Parent

“You must forge your own path for it to mean anything.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

“Remember if people talk behind your back, it only means you are two steps ahead.”

Fannie Flagg book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

People

“It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

The Man Upstairs (1914)
Source: The Man Upstairs and Other Stories

Life, People

“If the last to know he’s an addict is the addict, then maybe the last to know when a man means what he says is the man himself, he reflected.”

Philip K. Dick book A Scanner Darkly

Source: A Scanner Darkly

“Show me a god that does not demand mortal suffering.
Show me a god that celebrates diversity, a celebration that embraces even non-believers, and is not threatened by them.
Show me a god that understands the meaning of peace. In life, not in death.”

Steven Erikson book The Bonehunters

Source: The Bonehunters

Life, Death, God, Peace

“I've seen the meanness of humans till I dont know why God aint put out the sun and gone away.”

Cormac McCarthy book Outer Dark

Source: Outer Dark (1968)

God, Sun

“I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

“… In its original Latin form, sacrifice means to make sacred or to make holy. I wholeheartedly believe that when we are fully engaged in parenting, regardless of how imperfect, vulnerable, and messy it is, we are creating something sacred.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Parent

“You know, the mind is a remarkable thing. Just because you can't see the wound doesn't mean it isn't hurting. It scars all the time, but it heals.”

Jodi Picoult book The Pact

Variant: The mind is a remarcable thing. Just because you can’t see the wound doesn’t mean it isn’t hurting
Source: The Pact

Time, Hurt

“And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery…and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Books

“I mean my characters are more like men than these real men are, see. They’re rough and rude, they got hands and they got bellies. They hate and they lust; break the skin of civilization and you find the ape, roaring and red-handed.”

Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) American author

From a letter to Harold Preece (c. January or February 1928)
Letters

Men, Hate

“Sometimes people say terrible things when they're scared. They don't mean to, but they can't help it. They lash out because if they can see that their words hurt someone else, it makes them feel as if they aren't completely powerless.”

Jonathan Maberry book Dust & Decay

Source: Dust & Decay

People, Feeling, Help, Hurt

“Hold on to your divine blush, your innate rosy magic, or end up brown. Once you're brown, you'll find out you're blue. As blue as indigo. And you know what that means. Indigo. Indigoing. Indigone.”

Tom Robbins book Jitterbug Perfume

Source: Jitterbug Perfume

“Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Tagline on the back cover
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, The Hunger Games (2008)

Death, Hunger, Game

“I’m so sorry that I wasted your time because you really do mean a lot to me and I hope you have a very nice life because I really think you deserve it. I really do. I hope you do, too. Okay, then. Goodbye.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Life, Hope, Thinking, Time

“Calvin:"It says here that 'religion is the opiate of the masses.'… what do you suppose that means?"
Television: "… it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday Pages 1985-1995: An Exhibition Catalogue

Religion

“Respect only has meaning as respect for those with whom I do not agree.”

Karen Armstrong book A History of God

A History of God (1993)
Source: A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

“Time has no meaning in itself unless we choose to give it significance”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

Time

“Libraries really are wonderful. They're better than bookshops, even. I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts.”

Jo Walton book Among Others

Source: Among Others

Books, Heart

“At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Source: A History of Reading

Secret, Books, Universe, Childhood

“We are all created to be miserable, and that we all know it, and all invent means of deceiving each other. And when one sees the truth, what is one to do?”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Truth

“A taste for adventure is by no means a masculine monopoly.”

Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American children's writer

“Anyway, how are you and Ramona doing?'

Uh… you know. Pretty good.'

Have you said the L-Word yet?'

The L-Word? You mean? Lesbian?'
Uh… No. The other L-Word.'

?'

Okay. Uh, It's "love." I wasn't trying to trick you or anything.”

Bryan Lee O'Malley (1979) Artist

Source: Scott Pilgrim, Volume 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together

Love

“Sometimes life is very mean: a person can spend days, weeks, months and years without feeling new. Then, when a door opens - a positive avalanche pours in. One moment, you have nothing, the next, you have more than you can cope with.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Life, Feeling, Personality

“Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.”

Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) Jewish diarist

Source: Lettres De Westerbork

Life, Beauty

“I not only have my secrets, I am my secrets. And you are yours. Our secrets are human secrets, and our trusting each other enough to share them with each other has much to do with the secret of what it means to be human.”

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

Secret

“Is she okay? I mean, no offense, she sounds more mental than I do.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

“One day, you will say it to me again. You will be sober. And you will mean it.”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Chicks Kick Butt

“There’s a lesson in real-life stalking cases that young women can benefit from learning: persistence only proves persistence—it does not prove love. The fact that a romantic pursuer is relentless doesn’t mean you are special—it means he is troubled.”

Gavin de Becker (1954) American engineer

Source: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

Love, Life, Women, Learning

“Nick’s right, you are psychotic. (Talon)
The correct term is sociopathic and yes, I am. But at least I have no delusions about myself. (Zarek)
Meaning? (Talon)
Take your meaning wherever you can find it. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

“Step up to red alert."
Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb."
- Rimmer & Kryten, "Red Dwarf”

Rob Grant (1950) British writer

Change

“The struggle is always worthwhile, if the end be worthwhile and the means honorable; foreknowledge of defeat is not sufficient reason to withdraw from the contest.”

Steven Brust (1955) American fantasy and science fiction author

“Must being in love always mean being in pain?”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: On Love

Love, Pain

“Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Life

“She means well, but she always manages to do the wrong thing. She has a real talent for it.”

Beverly Cleary book Fifteen

Source: Fifteen

“If you have never known the power of God's love, then maybe it is because you have never asked to know it - I mean really asked, expecting an answer.”

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

Source: The Magnificent Defeat (1966)

Love, God

“Adrian! You Used compulsion on that guy. That…. I mean, it's….."

"Awesome? Yeah, I Know”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Guy

“Love means never having to be apart”

James Patterson book Sundays at Tiffany's

Source: Sundays at Tiffany's

Love

“Things without meaning are the most beautiful ones.”

Elena Ferrante book The Story of a New Name

Source: The Story of a New Name

Beauty

“Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights.”

Raymond Chandler book The Big Sleep

Source: The Big Sleep (1939), Chapter 28
Context: I looked down at the chessboard. The move with the knight was wrong. I put it back where I had moved it from. Knights had no meaning in this game. It wasn't a game for knights.

Game

“I have heard an atheist defined as a man who had no invisible means of support.”

John Buchan (1875–1940) British politician

A play on words commonly used referring to vagrants or paupers as having "no visible means of support" financially, speaking to the Law Society of Upper Canada, (21 February 1936); published in Canadian Occasions (1940), p. 201. Buchan's source for this definition remains unknown. The witticism was repeated by Harry Emerson Fosdick in his On Being a Real Person (1943), ch. 1, with due acknowledgement to Buchan, and was again used by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in Look magazine (December 14, 1955). The credit for this line is therefore often wrongly given to Fosdick or to Sheen. Credit has also been given to the conductor Walter Damrosch (1862-1950).
Canadian Occasions (1940)

Support

“You've already decided what you're going to do, and all that's left is to set the wheels in motion. I mean, it's your life. Basically, you gotta go with what you think is right.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Life, Thinking

“Living might mean taking chances, but they're worth taking. Loving might be a mistake. but its worth making”

Reba McEntire (1955) American country music artist and actress

Love, Chance

“I could have. What does this phrase mean? At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have heppened but, didn't. The magic moments go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything.”

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

Variant: At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have happened but didn't. The magic moments
go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything.
Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Change