Quotes about meaning
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“Siobhan says that if you raise one eyebrow it can means lots of different things. It can mean 'I want to do sex with you' and it can also mean 'I think what you just said was very stupid.”

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

Source: El curioso incidente del perro a medianoche

Stupidity, Sex, Thinking

“Books are cool, but knowledge without mileage doesn't mean anything to me.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Books, Knowledge

“you can't know the meaning of the lesson until class is over!”

Pearl Cleage What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

Source: What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”

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

Peaceful, Peace, Distant

“What does all this mean finally, I kept asking like a college kid. Why does it make me want to cry? Maybe it’s that we are all outsiders, we are all making our own unusual way through a wilderness of
normality that is just a myth.”

Anne Rice Exit to Eden

Source: Exit to Eden

Way, Cry

“Just because it's fiction doesn't mean it's any less true.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Between the Lines

“It is so hard trying to say what you mean.”

Elizabeth Wein book Rose Under Fire

Source: Rose Under Fire

“She was a do-gooder, which means that all the ill she did, she did without realizing it.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

“I mean, if I went 'round saying I was an emperor, just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!”

Graham Chapman (1941–1989) English comedian, writer and actor

Source: Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Screenplay

“We may have a perfectly adequate way of doing something, but that does not mean there cannot be a better way. So we set out to find an alternative way. This is the basis of any improvement that is not fault correction or problem solving.”

Edward de Bono (1933) Maltese physician

Source: Six Thinking Hats Revised Edition

Way, Problem

“The weapons an author has at her disposal are flawed. There are words that feel shapeless and overused. Love, for example. I could write the word love a thousand times and it would mean a thousand different things to different readers.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

Love, Feeling, Time

“I guess we often get the deep blues, both of us, and wonder what it all means- the people, the buildings, the day by day things, the waste of time, of ourselves.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

People, Time

“It was not the brutality of what occurred next that changed my mind and brought home to me the full meaning of fear. It was the brilliance of it.”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Historian

Source: The Historian

Fear, Home, Change

“Maybe it’s just in America, but it seems that if you’re passionate about something, it freaks people out. You’re considered bizarre or eccentric. To me, it just means you know who you are.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

People, Passion

“Are we going to New Orleans?"

"No", she said, backing out of the spot. "We're going to West Virginia."

"I assume by 'West Virginia,' you actually mean 'Hawaii,'" I said. "Or some place equally exciting.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“So,’ Nico said, ‘since we’re going to be spending at least a year seeing each other at camp, I think I should clear the air.’ Percy’s smile wavered. ‘What do you mean?”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Smile, Thinking

“Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made. That is not the sort of belief that indicates real faith.”

Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms

48
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)

Faith

“I'm afraid of time. I mean, I'm afraid of not having enough time. Not enough time to understand people, how they really are, or to be understood myself.”

Ann Brashares The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Source: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

People, Understanding, Time

“me: you know what sucks about love?
o. w. g.: what?
me: that it's so tied to the truth.

I know it sucks, but in a way, it's good…. Love and truth being tied together, I mean. They make each other possible, you know?”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Love, Truth, Way

“Well, what I mean is that I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding, if I could be one without having a husband.”

Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd

Wedding

“Why, the little Voice inside my head, of course. You mean you don't have one? I did.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

“Is Adrian here?”
“Who?”
“Adrian. Tall. Brown hair. Green eyes.”
She frowned. “Do you mean Jet?”
“I … I’m not sure. Does he smoke like a chimney?”
The girl nodded sagely. “Yup. You must mean Jet.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Girl

“Because you may think a bed is a peaceful thing, Sir, and to you it may mean rest and comfort and a good night's sleep. But it isn't so for everyone; and there are many dangerous things that may take place in a bed.”

Margaret Atwood book Alias Grace

Source: Alias Grace

Peace, Thinking, Sleep, Night

“Just because i know how to change a guys oil doesn't mean i want to spend the rest of my life on my back, staring up his undercarriage.”

Janet Evanovich (1943) Novelist

Source: Metro Girl

Life, Guy, Change

“Hey!” I said, indignation filling me. “I’m immortal! Doesn’t that mean I won’t get saggy boobs and gray hair? Because if it doesn’t mean that, I want a refund—”

Katie MacAlister (1964) Author

Source: Holy Smokes

“When a sinister person means to be your enemy, they always start by trying to become your friend.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

Attributed

Personality

“Mooner was walking around laying his hands on the cars, divining karma. "this is it", he said, standing by a small khaki-colored jeep."this car has protective qualities"
You mean like a guardian angel?"
I mean, like, it has seatbelts”

Janet Evanovich book Hot Six

Source: Hot Six

Angels, Cars, Color

“Jessamine flushed. "I do. I mean, I did not. I mean--ugh! Charlotte, Will's being vexing."
"And the sun has come up in the east," said Jem, to no one in particular.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Sun

“I need words that mean more than they mean, words not just with height and width, but depth and weight and, and other dimensions that I cannot even name.”

Lois McMaster Bujold The Curse of Chalion

Source: The Curse of Chalion

“The rain is a necessary prelude to beautiful weather. So even if your heart is in downpour right now it only means it will become exceptionally beautiful in time.”

Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist

Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 5

Beauty, Time, Heart, Weather

“Just because a poet said something didn’t mean it was true, only that it sounded good.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

“Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you're any wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”

Edward R. Murrow (1908–1965) Television journalist

Variant: Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.

World

“Life's not black-and-white. Sometimes the ends justifies the means.”

Emily Giffin Something Borrowed

Source: Something Borrowed

Life

“Shotgun!" announced Clary as Jace came back around the side of the van.
Alec grabbed for his bow, strapped across his back. "Where?"
"She means she wants the front seat," said Jace, pushing wet hair out of his eyes.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“You're still alive. And that means you'll love and be loved… and in the end, nothing else really matters.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me

Source: The Best of Me

Love

“It is the experiences, the memories, the great triumphant joy of living to the fullest extent in which real meaning is found. God it's great to be alive! Thank you. Thank you.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

God, Memory, Joy

“Sometimes being an adult means doing the right thing, even if it's not what you want.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

“Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe certainly isn't going to supply it. Always be a moving target. Live. Live. Live.”

Lois McMaster Bujold (1949) Science Fiction and fantasy author from the USA

Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)
Source: Cordelia's Honor
Context: Welcome to Barrayar, son. Here you go: have a world of wealth and poverty, wrenching change and rooted history. Have a birth; have two. Have a name. Miles means "soldier," but don't let the power of suggestion overwhelm you. Have a twisted form in a society that loathes and fears the mutations that have been its deepest agony. Have a title, wealth, power, and all the hatred and envy they will draw. Have your body ripped apart and re-arranged. Inherit an array of friends and enemies you never made. Have a grandfather from hell. Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe certainly isn't going to supply it. Always be a moving target. Live. Live. Live.

Pain, Universe, Joy

“I didn't mean to come here…
And I didn't mean to stay…
It's just where the sea wind blew me
One accidental day…”

Cressida Cowell (1966) British writer

Sea

“It's only a game if there is an absence of meaning. And we've already gone too far for that.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Game

“A heart's a heart, in a child or a man. You are tougher than you feel right now. Your roots are deep, your canopy's spread wide. You're going to show everyone what it means to be a king.”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

Feeling, Heart

“I mean she's Cleopatra… shouldn't she and Antony have known better? They were so different…"
"Variety is the spice of life"
"And from a thousand miles apart"
"Absence makes the heart grow fonder”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Life, Heart

“Choosing a path means having to miss out on others”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

“Have you ever been lonely? No, neither have I. Solitary, yes. Alone, certainly. But lonely means minding about being on your own. I've never minded about it.”

Sebastian Faulks book Engleby

Source: Engleby

“Just because you start out as one thing, it doesn't mean you can't grow into something else.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

“I want to give a really BAD party. I mean it. I want to give a party where there’s a brawl and seductions and people going home with their feelings hurt and women passed out in the cabinet de toilette. You wait and see.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book Tender Is the Night

Source: Tender Is the Night

Women, People, Feeling, Home

“Then tell them we've all got meanness in us… But tell them we have some good in us too. And the only thing worth living for is the good. That's why we've got to make sure we pass it on.”

Billie Letts book Where the Heart Is

Variant: ... tell them that we have some good in us, too. And the only thing worth living for is the good. That’s why we’ve got to make sure we pass it on.
Source: Where the Heart Is

“Girls are weird, and I don't mean that offensively. I just can't put it any other way.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Way, Girl

“Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destory?”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Life, Death

“To be able to forget means sanity.”

Jack London book The Star Rover

Source: The Star Rover

Forgetting

“True love means that you care for another person's happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Love, Pain, Personality, Happiness

“For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Problem

“Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san. Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal. We have no word for 'love' as I understand you to mean it. Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need.”

James Clavell book Shōgun

Source: Shōgun

Love, Understanding, Loyalty

“For the happy man prayer is only a jumble of words, until the day when sorrow comes to explain to him the sublime language by means of which he speaks to God.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

God, Happiness

“Good people protect people they love even if that means that pretending that everything is okay.”

Ron McLarty book The Memory of Running

Source: The Memory of Running

Love, People

“We had a terrible start… doesn’t mean we can’t have a better ending.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Heart of Betrayal

“This is me.’" He handed her the precious scrap of paper. ‘Call me or I’ll call you, but one of us will call, yes? What I mean is it’s not a competition. You don’t lose if you phone first.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

“Whaddaya mean 'old maids,' ha? The term is 'unclaimed treasure,' buddy, 'unclaimed treasure!”

Laurie Notaro American writer

Source: Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood

“What I mean is sometimes, for an artist, chronic pain can be a gift.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

Pain

“But people will do anything rather than admit that their lives have no meaning. No use, that is. No plot.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

People

“Just because you fall once, doesn't mean you're fall at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always trust yourself, because if you don't then who will??”

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

“Just because you've seen something doesn't mean you'll stop looking. There's always something you didn't see before.”

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

Source: Time Cat

“Just because something's damaged doesn't mean it shouldn't be treated with respect.'

'Ad,' Wallace said, 'it's a coffee table, not an orphan.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Coffee

“Perhaps that is what it means to be a father- to teach your child to live without you. If so, no one was a greater father than I.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love (2005), P. 164

“Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away. Getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Memory

“Being free means "being free for the other," because the other has bound me to him. Only in relationship with the other am I free”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Creation and Fall Temptation: Two Biblical Studies

“Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

love, Valentine's Day, Wedding, For Him

“creative entitlement simply means believing that you are allowed to be here, and that—merely by being here—you are allowed to have a voice and a vision of your own.”

Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

“Percy blinked. “So your brother is a winged horse. But you’re also my half brother, which means all the flying horses in the world are my…You know what? Lets’ forget it.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

World, Horse, Flying, Forgetting

“Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (2002), Ch. 2 : I'm Not an Accident
Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

Life, God, Hope

“This is what it means to live on. When granted hope, a person uses it as fuel, as a guidepost to life. It is impossible to live without hope.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

Life, Hope, Personality

“Pay attention to where you are going because without meaning you might get nowhere.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others… not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Letters and Papers from Prison

Men, Help, Christ

“But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either, which is infamous, or, which is imbecile.”

Patrick O'Brian book Master and Commander

Source: Master and Commander (1970)
Context: “But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile.”

“The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it much.”

Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-British writer

Source: Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer

“The whole thing of what I’ve been trying,” you said, “is that you’re different, and you keep asking about the other girls, but what I mean is that I don’t think about them, because of the way you are.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

Way, Girl, Thinking

“All we have to do is understand that we're all here for a reason and to commit ourselves to that. Then we can laugh at our sufferings, large and small and walk fearlessly, aware that each step has meaning”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: The Witch Of Portobello

Understanding, Suffering

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

Thomasina. Then we will dance. Is this a waltz?”

Tom Stoppard Arcadia

Act II
Source: Arcadia (1993)

Dance

“truth didn’t mean anything without someone to share it with; you could shout truth into the air forever, and spend your life doing it, if someone didn’t come and listen.”

Naomi Novik book Uprooted

Source: Uprooted

Life, Truth

“Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Know what I mean?”

Graham Chapman (1941–1989) English comedian, writer and actor

“Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn't mean the circus has left town.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

“I do not mean to seem indelicate or ungrateful," said Linette Owens, "but are you a dangerous lunatic?”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale

“Sometimes love means not being able to bear seeing the one you love the way they are, when they’re not what you hoped for them.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

Love, Hope, Way

“Love means leaving yourself vulnerable, knowing that there is someone to catch you when you fall. ~ Mercy”

Patricia Briggs book Night Broken

Source: Night Broken

Love

“What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss and Peeta (p. 388; closing words of the main text)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.
So after, when he whispers, "You love me. Real or not real?"
I tell him, "Real."

Life, Spring, Loss