Quotes about meaning
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“People will believe anything if it means they can go on with their lives and not have to think too hard about it.”

Source: The Diviners

“If a coin comes down heads, that means that the possibility of its coming down tails has collapsed. Until that moment the two possibilities were equal.
But on another world, it does come down tails. And when that happens, the two worlds split apart.”

Philip Pullman book Northern Lights

Source: The Golden Compass

World

“I hope this means you'll quit asking me to kill you. It gives me indigestion.”

Patricia Briggs book Cry Wolf

Source: Cry Wolf

Hope

“This was always the problem with my mother and me, I suddenly realized. There were so many things we thought we agreed on, but anythign can have two meanings. Like sides of a coin, it just matters how it falls.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Problem

“Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

Love, Art

“And after a while… I mean how do you choose? Who gets to live? Part of life is that… well, some people have to die.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Life, People, Parting

“To be truthful i am not entirely sure what people mean when they talk of happiness. There are moments of joy and laughter, the comfort of friendship, but enduring happiness? If it exists i have not found it”

David Gemmell (1948–2006) British author of heroic fantasy

Friendship, People, Truth, Laughter

“You look wonderful", Jason said.
"No compliments, Jason. I'm uncomfortable enough in the lingerie."
"Then by all means take it off.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Narcissus in Chains

Source: Narcissus in Chains

“How rude. Many who have gazed upon me have compared the experience to gazing
at the radiance of the sun."
Jem still had his eyes closed. "If they mean it gives you a headache, they aren't wrong.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Sun

“When someone has been mean to you, why would you want to be good to them?' 'You wouldn't want to. That's what makes it hard. You do it anyway. Being good is hard. Much harder than being bad.”

Jeanne DuPrau The People of Sparks

Source: The People of Sparks

“Imagine that human existence is defined by an Ache: the Ache of our not being, each of us, the center of the universe; of our desires forever outnumbering our means of satisfying them.”

Jonathan Franzen book How to Be Alone

Source: How to Be Alone

Imagination, Universe

“Then I get it, what it means. At least, for me. District 12 only has three existing victors to choose from. Two male. One female…
I am going back into the arena.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

“We have become a sloppy bunch of people. We say things we don’t mean. We make promises we don’t keep.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

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

People

“In everyone there sleeps
A sense of life lived according to love.
To some it means the difference they could make
By loving others, but across most it sweeps,
As all they might have done had they been loved.
That nothing cures.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Love, Life, Sense, Sleep

“The rule is: don’t use commas like a stupid person. I mean it.”

Lynne Truss (1955) British writer

Source: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

Stupidity, Personality

“I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures; and if such a creature can sentence me to hell for not so calling him, to hell I will go.”

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) British philosopher and political economist

Source: An examination of Sir William Hamilton's philosophy, and of the principal philosophical questions discussed in his writings

Hell

“Are you sure, Gray?'
He lifted his eyes. 'No… I'm not. I'm not sure of a damn thing.' He slipped his hands free of the monsignor's and peeled the battery off the phone, cutting the last ring in half. 'But that doesn't mean I won't act.”

James Rollins book The Judas Strain

Source: The Judas Strain

“A tall, straight-bodied, and by no means ill-favored young Highlander at close range is breath-taking.”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Source: Outlander

“She said, 'Believe it or not, I used to be idealistic.' I asked her what 'idealistic' meant. 'It means you live by what you think is right.' 'You don't do that anymore?' 'There are questions I don't ask anymore.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

Question, Thinking

“The freedom to do your best means nothing unless you are willing to do your best.”

Colin Powell (1937) Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general

Freedom

“Why do people want to talk to each other? I mean, what are the things people always want to find out about other people?”

Shirley Jackson book The Haunting of Hill House

Source: The Haunting of Hill House

People

“dealing with any man means dealing with multiple personalities.”

Rick Riordan book The Serpent's Shadow

Source: The Serpent's Shadow

Personality

“you'll see, jane,' he promised her. 'you'll forget me, and it won't hurt tomorrow. besides, you said it yourself: love means you cαn never be apart. so we'll never be apart, jane, becαuse i love you so much. i'll always, always love you.”

James Patterson book Sundays at Tiffany's

Source: Sundays at Tiffany's

Love, Hurt, Forgetting

“Nick cleared his throat. “Do not … and I mean do … not … take this the wrong way, okay?” He wrapped his arms around Ash and hugged him. “I will always be your brother,” he whispered in Ash’s ear. “And I won’t ever hate you.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Inferno

Hate, Way

“Nakata's empty inside… Do you know what it means to be completely empty? Being empty is like a vacant house. An unlocked, vacant house. Anybody can come in, anytime they want. That's what scares me the most”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Housing

“The underlying point held; experience as well as common sense indicated that the most reliable method of avoiding self-extinction was not to equip oneself with the means to accomplish it in the first place.”

Iain Banks book Consider Phlebas

Source: Culture series, Consider Phlebas (1987), Chapter 4 “Temple of Light” (p. 96).

Sense

“When someone is mean to me, I just make them a victim in my next book.”

Mary Higgins Clark (1927–2020) Novelist, writer

Books

“Better be," Eve said. She mock-bit at his finger. "I could totally date somebody else, you know."
"And I could rent out your room."
"And I could put your game console on eBay."
"Hey," Shane protested. "Now you're just being mean.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Lord of Misrule

Game

“There are bad things in the world. There's no getting away from that. But that doesn't mean nothing can be done about them. You can't abandon life just because it's scary, and just because sometimes you get hurt.”

Jim Butcher Turn Coat

Source: Turn Coat

Life, World, Hurt

“Gone had come to mean something different, in a way that is hadn’t used to. Something permanent.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Way

“The worse I am, the more I need God. I can't shut myself out from His mercy. That is what it would mean; starting a life with you, without Him.”

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer

Source: Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder

Life, God

“In my heart I know the truth, but my mind cannot accept the reality of what this all means.”

Loung Ung (1970) American academic

Source: First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

Truth, Reality, Heart

“God wants you to have a good life, a life filled with love, joy, peace, and fulfillment. That doesn’t mean it will always be easy, but it does mean that it will always be good.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

Love, Life, God, Peace

“If the statue engulfs people in fire, we should send Leo.’
‘I love you too, man.’
‘You know what I mean. You’re immune. Or, heck, give me some of those nice water grenades and I’ll go. Ares and I have tangled before.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Love, People, Water

“Words have weight, something once said cannot be unsaid. Meaning is like a stone dropped into a pool; the ripples will spread and you cannot know what back they wash against.”

Philippa Gregory book The Constant Princess

Source: The Constant Princess

“One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

As quoted in Successful Aging : A Conference Report (1974) by Eric Pfeiffer, p. 142
Attributed

Love, Life, Friendship

“Dancing is just discovery, discovery, discovery — what it all means…”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

New York Times interview (1985)

Dance

“Love in your mind produces love in your life. This is the meaning of heaven.
Fear in your mind produces fear in your life. This is the meaning of hell.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

Love, Life, Fear, Hell

“the search for meaning is really the search for the lost chord. When the lost chord is discovered by humankind, the discord in the world will be healed and the symphony of the universe will come into complete harmony with itself.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

World, Search, Universe

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.”

Aldous Huxley book Ends and Means

"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" in Adonis and the Alphabet (1956); later in Collected Essays (1959), p. 293
Source: Ends and Means

“You know, when most girls say they want a big rock, they don't mean, you know, literally a big rock."
"Very amusing, my sarcastic friend. It's not a rock, precisely. All Shadowhunters have a witchlight rune-stone.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Girl

“Love is a joint experience between two persons -- but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved.”

Carson McCullers (1917–1967) American writer

Source: The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories

Wedding, Love, People, Personality

“I mean that it's all right to go to bed with an asshole but don't ever have a baby with one.”

David Gilmour (1946) guitarist, singer, best known as a member of Pink Floyd

Source: The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and Son

Baby

“I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all mean are created free and equal.”

Seth Grahame-Smith (1976) US fiction author

Source: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Hope

“Think of love as a state of grace not as a means to anything… but an end in itself.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Variant: It had to teach her to think of love as a state of grace: not the means to anything but the alpha and omega, an end it itself.
Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Love, Thinking

“Life has no meaning, the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Life

“I read that speaking in front of a crowd is the number-one fear in America. I found that amazing. Number two was death. Number two! That means that, if you're ever at a funeral, you'd rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

I'm Telling You for the Last Time (1998)

Death, Fear, Reading

“By all means, avoid words—threats, complaints, justification, narratives, reframing, attempts to win arguments, supplications; avoid words!”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb book The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

“Being human means losing everything we love best in the world," she murmured as she released me. "But would you ask to be anything else?”

Alice Hoffman book The Dovekeepers

Source: The Dovekeepers

Love, World

“You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear thorough the search.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Art, Search

“Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste. It's what everything else isn't.”

Theodore Roethke (1908–1963) American poet

Poetry and Craft (1965)
Source: On Poetry and Craft: Selected Prose

Art

“Evil doesn't die. It never dies. It just takes on a new face, a new name. Just because we've been touched by it once, it doesn't mean we're immune to ever being hurt again. Lightning can strike twice.”

Tess Gerritsen book The Surgeon

Source: The Surgeon

Evil, Hurt

“The Apache don't have a word for love," he said.
"Know what they both say at the marriage? The squaw-taking ceremony?"
"Tell me."
"Varlebena. It means forever. That's all they say.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Hondo

Love, Marriage

“A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind.”

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

1960s, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence (1967)
Context: A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am not speaking of that force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.

Love, Reality, Loyalty