Quotes about meaning page 27
“I'm up for it. Whatever it is. As long as it means I'll always be with you.”
Melissa de la Cruz (1971) American writer
Source: Bloody Valentine
“The world is full of ways and means to waste time.”
Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance
Source: Dance Dance Dance
“All that happens means something; nothing you do is ever insignificant.”
Aldous Huxley book Crome Yellow
Source: Crome Yellow
Diana Peterfreund (1979) American writer
Source: Rampant
Guy Debord (1931–1994) French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker and founding member of the Situationist International (SI)
Source: Society of the Spectacle (1967), Ch. 8, sct. 207 (confer Comte de Lautréamont, Poésies II, 1870).
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Variant: A doctor’s door should never be closed, a priest's door should always be open.
Source: Les Misérables
Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)
Jaclyn Moriarty (1968) Australian writer
Source: The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie
“[D]etachment means letting go and nonattachment means simply letting be. (95)”
Stephen Levine (1937–2016) American poet and author
Source: A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last
“You want meaning? Well, the meanings are out there. We're just so damn good at reading them wrong.”
David Levithan (1972) American author and editor
Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
Source: For One More Day
“I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”
Philip Yancey (1949) American writer
Variant: Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.
Source: Disappointment with God: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud
“There is no hurry. Time means nothing
to you.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: The Roominghouse Madrigals: Early Selected Poems, 1946-1966
“Lord, if what I'm doing is wrong, then by all means strike me down. Otherwise set me free.”
Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist
Source: UnWholly
Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel
Variant: Jem shook his head. "You bit de Quincey" he said. "You fool. He's a VAMPIRE"
"I had no choice" said Will " He was choking me"
"I know" Jem said. " But really Will, AGAIN?
Source: Clockwork Angel
“Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.”
Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general
2000s, The Powell Principles (2003)
Source: On Leadership
Melody Carlson (1956) American writer
Source: Damaged: A Violated Trust
“Attraversiamo (meaning "Lets cross over" in Italian)”
Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love
Source: Eat, Pray, Love
“Trust yourself, because as Oprah says, doubt means don't every time”
Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian
Source: It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy
“Alone also means available for someone outstanding.”
Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian
Source: It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy
“When we begin to take our failures non-seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them.”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author
Gena Showalter (1975) American writer
Source: The Darkest Night
“Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truths?”
Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth
Source: The House of Mirth
Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer
Source: How to Save a Life
Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
“I hate it when my leg falls asleep. I know that means it's going to be up all night.”
Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author
“No disease that can be treated by diet should be treated with any other means.”
Maimónides (1138–1204) rabbi, physician, philosopher
Darren Shan (1972) Irish writer of English-language fiction under pen name, real name Darren O'Shaughnessy
Source: Zom-B Underground
“Being present means living without control and always having your needs met.”
Byron Katie (1942) American spiritual writer
Source: On Work And Money
Graham Greene book The End of the Affair
Variant: Insecurity is the worst sense that lovers feel; sometimes the most humdrum desireless marriage seems better. Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust.
Source: The End of the Affair
“I suppose books mean more than people to me anyway”
F. Scott Fitzgerald book Flappers and Philosophers
Source: Flappers and Philosophers
“Shasana means rules someone else imposes on you. Anushasana means rules you impose on yourself.”
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (1956) spiritual leader
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Louise Rennison (1951–2016) British writer
Source: Stop in the Name of Pants!
“Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist
Variant: Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) Austrian-American psychoanalyst
Response to FDA complaint (1954)
Context: Inquiry in the realm of Basic Natural Law is outside the judicial domain of this or ANY OTHER KIND OF SOCIAL ADMINISTRATION ANYWHERE ON THIS GLOBE, IN ANY LAND, NATION, OR REGION.
Man's right to know, to learn, to inquire, to make bona fide errors, to investigate human emotions must, by all means, be safe, if the word FREEDOM should ever be more than an empty political slogan.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)
Context: There is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Ovid, the Latin poet, "I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do." There is something within all of us that causes us to cry out with Plato that the human personality is like a charioteer with two headstrong horses, each wanting to go in different directions. There is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Goethe, "There is enough stuff in me to make both a gentleman and a rogue." There is something within each of us that causes us to cry out with Apostle Paul, "I see and approve the better things of life, but the evil things I do." So somehow the "isness" of our present nature is out of harmony with the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts us. And this simply means this: That within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals. The person who hates you most has some good in him; even the nation that hates you most has some good in it; even the race that hates you most has some good in it. And when you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls "the image of God," you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God’s image there. There is an element of goodness that he can never sluff off. Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude.
“Freedom does not mean license.”
Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst
Philip Pullman book Northern Lights
Source: His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995), Ch. 15 : The Dæmon Cages
Context: Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction.