Quotes about meaning
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“Mother used to say it meant Christopher was a nice name because it was a story about being kind and helpful, but I do not want my name to mean a story about being kind and helpful. I want my name to mean me.”

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

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

Help

“What a tragic realm this is, he reflected. Those down here are prisoners, and the ultimate tragedy is that they don't know it; they think they are free because they have never been free, and do not understand what it means.”

Philip K. Dick The Divine Invasion

Source: The Divine Invasion

Understanding, Thinking

“But I still has enough longing for that concept that I didn't want to dispel it completely. Meaning: I didn't want to tell Lily that I felt we'd all been duped by Plato and the idea of a soul mate. Just in case it turned out that she was mine.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Soul, Idea

“Truth is something which can't be told in a few words. Those who simplify the universe only reduce the expansion of its meaning.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Truth, Universe

“You mean you have to be epic already, for it to make you more epic?”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

“I don't think I can do it alone," I said. I had a feeling thewasn't really meant to be cast alone: as if truth didn't mean anything without someone to share it with.”

Naomi Novik book Uprooted

Source: Uprooted

Truth, Feeling, Thinking

“Just because you can't see them and you can't hear them, that doesn't mean they're not here.”

Graham Masterton (1946) British writer

Source: The Devil in Gray

“Do you work for the government, any government?”
"I pay taxes, which means I work for the government, part of the time. Yes.”

Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American speculative fiction writer

Source: My Name is Legion

Time, Parting

“The story is one that you and I will construct together in your memory. If the story means anything to you at all, then when you remember it afterward, think of it, not as something I created, but rather as something that we made together.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Thinking, Memory

“Love means knowing when to let go.”

Tony Parsons book Man and Boy

Source: Man and Boy

Love

“The most decisive actions of our life — I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future — are, more often than not, unconsidered.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Les Faux Monnayeurs (1925), Pt. 3, ch. 16

Life, Decision, Future

“If somebody had said last week that I'd be in… involved… with a human, I'd have knocked his head off. I mean, after howls of derisive laughter. But.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 1

Laughter

“Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Letter to Besso's family (March 1955) following the death of Michele Besso, as quoted in Disturbing the Universe (1979) by Freeman Dyson Ch. 17 "A Distant Mirror", p. 193 Sometimes misquoted as "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." 1950s Variant: "He has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. For us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubborn illusion." Quoted in Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson (2008), p. 540 http://books.google.com/books?id=cdxWNE7NY6QC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA540#v=onepage&q&f=false. Variant: "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That signifies nothing. For us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." Quoted in Albert Einstein: The Miracle Mind by Tabatha Yeatts (2007), p. 116 http://books.google.com/books?id=XiyyVYvQBKQC&lpg=PP1&pg=PT114#v=onepage&q&f=false. Variant: "In quitting this strange world he has once again preceded me by a little. That doesn't mean anything. For those of us who believe in physics, this separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however tenacious." Quoted in The Structure of Physics by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1985), p. 288 http://books.google.com/books?id=DeexONN0zDgC&lpg=PR2&pg=PA288#v=onepage&q&f=false. Variant: "Now he has departed a little ahead of me from this quaint world. This means nothing. For us faithful physicists, the separation between past, present, and future has only the meaning of an illusion, though a persistent one." Quoted in Einstein and Religion by Max Jammer (2002), p. 161 http://books.google.com/books?id=TnCc1f1C25IC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA161#v=onepage&q&f=false. Variant: "Now he has preceded me by a little bit in his departure from this strange world as well. This means nothing. For those of us who believe in physics, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however tenacious this illusion may be." Quoted in Einstein: A Biography by Jürgen Neff (2007), p. 402 http://books.google.com/books?id=B8K6n177ZwcC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA402#v=onepage&q&f=false

People, World, Past, Future

“Grief reconfigures time, its length, its texture, its function: one day means no more than the next, so why have they been picked out and given separate names?”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Levels of Life

Time

“When someone gives you offense, it doesn't mean you have to take it.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

“Actions that sometimes seem mean aren’t. Rather they are done by the ones we love in order to protect us without our knowing it. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Love

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: Firefly Lane

People, Thinking

“The difference between raman and varelse is not in the creature judged, but in the creature judging. When we declare an alien species to be raman, it does not mean that they have passed a threshold of moral maturity. It means that we have.”

Orson Scott Card book Speaker for the Dead

Source: Speaker for the Dead

“Yes, wolf, I see all. And by all, I mean some.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: MacRieve

Wolf

“The real me lives in words, not in what words mean.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

“I don't feel that way anymore," Nico muttered. "I mean… I gave up on Percy. I was young and impressionable, and I-I don't…”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Way, Feeling

“Charming villains have always had a decided social advantage over well-meaning people who chew with their mouths open.”

Judith Martin (1938) American etiquette expert

People

“It all means more than I can tell you. So you must not judge what I know by what I find words for.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

“I fell, you see. Trod on my abbot, Father Habit. Oh, dear! I mean…”

Brian Jacques Redwall

Variant: Err, sorry Father Abbot. I tripped y'see. Trod on my Abbot, Father Habit. Oh dear, I mean....
Source: Redwall

“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.

Love is a friendship set to music.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Love, Life, Friendship, Music

“We are cruel enough without meaning to be.”

John Updike book Rabbit Is Rich

Source: Rabbit Is Rich

“Hey. What is it that famous person said? 'It'll all work out in the end, and if it doesn't, that means it's not the end yet'?”

Lauren Myracle (1969) American children's writer

Source: Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks

Personality

“So I have tried to make it clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends.”

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

Source: Letter from the Birmingham Jail

“The things she most wanted to tell him would lose their meaning the moment she put them into words.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

“It is at despair at not being able to be noble and beautiful by natural means that we have made up our faces so strangely.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

Beauty, Nature, Despair

“Just because an apple falls one hundred times out of a hundred does not mean it will fall on the hundred and first.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

Time

“Harry Dresden: Paranoid? Probably. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face.”

Jim Butcher book Storm Front

Source: The Dresden Files, Storm Front (2000), Chapter 1

“What's the good news?
-Pardon?
-You said the bad news is we're going the wrong way.
-There isn't any good news. Just because there's bad news doesn't mean there's good news, too.”

David Benioff book City of Thieves

Source: City of Thieves

Way

“changing horses doesn't mean the ride'll get any better!”

Eric Jerome Dickey (1961) American author

Source: Liar's Game

Change, Horse

“What does fighting crime mean, exactly? Does it mean upholding the law when a woman shoplifts to feed her children, or does it mean struggling to uncover the ones who, quite legally, have brought about her poverty?”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

Children, Law, Fight

“Don't look pleased with yourself. When Will says 'enterprising, ' he means 'morally deficient. '" "No, I mean enterprising, " said Will. "When I mean morally deficient, I say, 'Now, that's something I would have done.”

Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments

Variant: When Will says 'enterprising', he means 'morally deficient.'"
"No, I mean enterprising," said Will. "When I mean morally deficient, I say, 'Now, that's something I would have done.
Source: The Mortal Instruments

“You work three jobs? Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that."

To a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

“But just because you bury something, that doesn’t mean it stops existing.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

“The trees like lungs filling with air
My sister, the mean one, pulling my hair”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Virgin Suicides

Source: The Virgin Suicides

Sister, Tree

“Being in command means making tough decisions. Not being in command means shutting up and doing what you're told.
--Artemis Fowl”

Eoin Colfer book The Artemis Fowl Files

Source: The Artemis Fowl Files

Decision

“Cary rocked back on his heels and twirled one index finger around another in a sign meaning, wrapped around your finger., I thought, since he was wrapped around my heart.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Heart

“In a kinder world," he whispered, "one I promise you I've seen, men and women flirt and dance and love with only the fear of what it would mean without the other in their lives.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

Love, Women, Men, World

“Just because a person isn't talking about something doesn't mean it's not on their mind. Often, in fact, it's why they won't speak of it.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Saint Anything

Personality

“Just because life is hard and always ends in a bad way doesn't mean that all stories have to. Even if that's what they tell us in school and the New York Book Review.”

James Patterson book Sundays at Tiffany's

Source: Sundays at Tiffany's

Life, Books, School, Way

“Just because something’s damaged doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be treated with respect”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

“Just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist.”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time (1962)

Understanding

“Just because you refuse to acknowledge something, refuse to look at it or think about it, doesn’t mean it’s not there, that it doesn’t affect you and the choices you make in your life.”

Rachel Gibson (1961) American writer

Source: Tangled Up In You

Life, Thinking

“Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word, not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the blood to flow orderly in our veins.”

Maya Angelou book Mom & Me & Mom

Source: Mom & Me & Mom

Love, Star, Strong

“Perfectionism means that you try not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Life

“This is not a good time, Miss Implant." Roman felt Jean-Luc jabbing him in the back with his walking stick. "Uh, Porky. No, I mean--" Damn, what the hell was her name?”

Kerrelyn Sparks (1955) American writer

Source: How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire

Hell, Time

“What can fingerprints mean when they’re not necessarily yours?”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

“It was a nice day, and I don't mean that it was sunny either. It was humid and not too cool, like winter was getting annoyed with itself and wanted it to be spring just as much as everyone else.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Spring, Winter

“In a world where everyone struggles to survive whatever the cost, how could one judge those people who decide to die? No one can judge. Each person knows the extent of their own suffering or the total absence of meaning in their lives.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

People, World, Suffering, Personality

“You're never rude,' she said, smiling, 'and I think it's good to be touchy sometimes. It means you care.”

Mohsin Hamid book The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Source: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Smile, Thinking

“Just because he has black fingernails doesn't mean he's a monster-that's how you've defended yourself for years.”

Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer

Source: Dance with a Vampire

“You mean a bad heel?" I said. "Couldn't I just, like, wear something besides sandals? No offense."
-Percy”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“What do you mean fainted?
Took a dive, kissed the pavement. Swooned like a southern belle after her first kiss. Had a dreadful case of the vapors.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Kiss

“I warn you that when the princes of this world start loving you it means they are going to grind you up into battle sausage.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

[6]
Source: Journey to the End of the Night (1932)

Love, World

“When we have found all the mysteries and lost all the meaning, we will be alone, on an empty shore.”

Tom Stoppard Arcadia

Source: Arcadia

“Hang Mortmain," said Will. "And I mean that literally, of course, but also figuratively.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

“So how on earth can I bring a child into the world, knowing that such sorrow lies ahead, that it is such a large part of what it means to be human?
I'm not sure. That's my answer: I'm not sure.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

World, Parting

“Oh, this beast? It's… perspicacious loris. 'Perspicacious' meaning 'wise or canny'."
"Get stuffed," Bovril said, then giggled.
"And it insults people," Telsa said. "How peculiar.”

Scott Westerfeld book Goliath

Source: Goliath

People

“Growing up is a trap," snapped Dr. Robbins. "When they tell you to shut up, they mean stop talking. When they tell you to grow up, they mean stop growing. Reach a nice level plateau and settle there, predictable and unchanging, no longer a threat.”

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

“I make mistakes. That's what I do. I
speak without thinking, I act without
knowing. I drink so much that I can
barely walk… I'm a fantastic lover
though, and an amazing friend. God
knows I mean well.”

Candace Bushnell (1958) American author

God, Lovers, Drink, Thinking

“You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.”

Walt Whitman Song of Myself

Source: Song of Myself

Health, Search, Waiting

“It's not fair."

"It's not. But then, that's the game. It makes life great. The fact that it ends when we don't want it to. The ending gives it meaning.”

Marisha Pessl (1977) American writer

Source: Night Film

Life, Game

“Maybe in the general scheme of things he couldn't find any meaning in life, but on a smaller scale it was okay. Not always, but a lot of the time.”

Etgar Keret (1967) Israeli and polish writer and screenwriter

Source: The Girl on the Fridge

Life, Time

“Don’t let the past ruin your future. (Acheron)
Meaning what, oh great Yoda? (Kyrian)
You take care of the kid. I’ll take care of your patrol tonight. I could use the target practice. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Past, Future

“Everybody has strange things that mean things to them. You couldn't help it.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Garden of Eden

Source: The Garden of Eden

Help

“Now, invite me in, before I lose my temperature.’

‘Temper, you mean.’

‘No, temperature. It’s getting chilly.”

Steven Erikson book Toll the Hounds

Source: Toll the Hounds

“Truth and trust are the means by which civilization holds off barbarism.”

Mercedes Lackey book Alta

Source: Alta

Truth

“Words never mean what we want them to mean.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated (2002)

“Let me be mad, then, by all means! mad with the madness of Absinthe, the wildest, most luxurious madness in the world! Vive la folie! Vive l'amour! Vive l'animalisme! Vive le Diable!”

Marie Corelli (1855–1924) British writer

Source: Wormwood: A Drama of Paris

World, Madness

“Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Life

“The funny thing about mundies is how obsessed with magic they are for a bunch of people who don't even know what the word means.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

People

“Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Heartbreaking, Inspirational, Courageous, love

“I have a meanness inside of me, real as an organ.”

Gillian Flynn book Dark Places

Source: Dark Places

“Lots of things are mysteries. But that doesn't mean there isn't an answer to them. It's just that scientists haven't found the answer yet.”

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

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

“But what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you. I love you. With all my heart, I love you.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

Love, Hope, Understanding, Kiss

“Ignorance is not bliss. Bliss is knowing the full meaning of what you have been given.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

“But there are certain meanings that are lost forever the moment they are explained in words.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

IQ84 (2009-2010)
Variant: It is not that the meaning cannot be explained. But there are certain meanings that are lost forever the moment they are explained in words.
Source: 1Q84

“To do that would mean, not merely to be defeated, but to acknowledge defeat- and the difference between these two things is what keeps the world going.”

Upton Sinclair book The Jungle

Source: The Jungle

World

“The rich and powerful always seem to prefer the tops of buildings. Hasn't anyone ever explained to them that higher just means you have farther to fall? -- Anita Blake”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

“How you're still always trapped.

How your head is the cave, your eyes the cave mouth. How you live inside your head and only see what you want. How you only watch the shadows and make up your own meaning.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Diary

Source: Diary

“I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

From an interview for Italian television (RAI) (10 March 1986) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106223 Second term as Prime Minister Context: In my work, you get used to criticisms. Of course you do, because there are a lot of people trying to get you down, but I always cheer up immensely if one is particularly wounding because I think well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left. That is why my father always taught me: never worry about anyone who attacks you personally; it means their arguments carry no weight and they know it.

Thinking, Personality