Quotes about measure
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“We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with the emphasis on "good" rather than on "time"….”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

“Between hell now, and hell later, Sassenach," he said, his speech measured and precise, "I will take later, every time.”

Diana Gabaldon book Dragonfly in Amber

Source: Dragonfly in Amber

Hell, Time

“If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for… but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.”

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love

Source: Time Enough for Love

Parting

“Greed is not defined by what something costs; it is measured by what it costs you. If anything costs you your faith or your family, the price is too high. Such is the point Jesus makes in the parable of the portfolio.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: When God Whispers Your Name

Family, Faith

“Man is manifestly not the measure of all things. This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Source: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

Universe

“That if desperate times call for desperate measures, then I'm free to act as desperately as I wish.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Time

“The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.”

George Bernard Shaw Man and Superman

Source: 1900s, Man and Superman (1903), p. 37

Time

“the depth of a person's character is not measured by his or her physical strength, but by the depth of his or her nobility.”

Frank E. Peretti (1951) American writer

Personality

“I refused to believe that love could take any other form than mine: I measured love by the extent of my jealousy, and by that standard of course she could not love me at all.”

Graham Greene book The End of the Affair

Source: The End of the Affair

Love, Jealousy

“Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

Fear, Suffering, Time

“Her throat ached: adoration, heartbreak, in equal measure. “Kiss me,” she said. “Please.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Kiss

“Greatness is best measured by how well an individual responds to the happenings in life that appear to be totally unfair, unreasonable, and undeserved.”

Marvin J. Ashton (1915–1994) Apostle of the LDS Church

Life, Appearance

“The quantity of civilization is measured by the quality of imagination.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Imagination

“Control your temper. Remember, you can measure the size of a person by what makes him or her angry.”

Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People

Variant: you can measure the size of a person by what makes him or her angry
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Personality

“A lake is a landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

Beauty, Nature

“Status ought not to be measured by a woman's ability to attract and snare a man.”

Germaine Greer book The Female Eunuch

Source: The Female Eunuch

“Before you measure the years, you measure the days.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

“Love is not to be proven or measured… It exists, and that is enough.”

Jorge Amado (1912–2001) Brazilian writer

Source: Gabriela, Clavo y Canela

Love

“The infinite wonders of the universe are revealed to us in exact measure as we are capable of receiving them. The keenness of our vision depends not on how much we can see, but on how much we feel.”

Helen Keller book The World I Live In

Source: The World I Live In

Feeling, Universe, Dependency

“I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Wall and Piece (2007)

“Passing time isn't a steady thing. People try to measure it, but some days seem to have years packed into them, and others pass in the blink of an eye. Some days matter, and others don't.”

Blue Balliett book The Calder Game

Source: The Calder Game

People, Time

“For all the compasses in the world, there's only one direction, and time is its only measure.”

Tom Stoppard book Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Source: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

World, Time

“The lifetime of a human being is measured by decades, the lifetime of the Sun is a hundred million times longer. Compared to a star, we are like mayflies, fleeting ephemeral creatures who live out their lives in the course of a single day.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

Star, Time, Sun

“You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.”

Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Failure, Success

“To know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around. The first product of self-knowledge is humility…”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

Truth, Way, Knowledge

“The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnWholly

Suffering

“You promised me I could measure your… particular abilities."
"Promised?" Kaladin asked. "I don't remember a promise."
"You grunted”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

“Measure the hate you feel now, and the shame. That quantity is your capacity also to love and to feel joy and to have compassion.”

Joanne Greenberg book I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Source: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Love, Hate, Feeling, Joy

“Our lives can't be measured by our final years, of this I am sure.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

“In increments both measurable and not, our childhood is stolen from us -- not always in one momentous event but often in a series of small robberies, which add up to the same loss.”

John Irving book Until I Find You

Source: Until I Find You

Loss, Childhood

“We have a saying that time has no single measure, that time can be like frost or lightning or a tear or siege or storm or sunset, or even like a rock.”

James Clavell book Shōgun

Source: Shōgun

Tear, Time

“Why no. I’m too conceited. If you want to call it that. I don’t make
comparisons. I never think of myself in relation to anyone else. I just refuse
to measure myself as part of anything. I’m an utter egotist.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Thinking, Parting

“War is an absolute failure of imagination, scientific and political. That a war can be represented as helping a people to 'feel good' about themselves, or their country, is a measure of that failure.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

War, People, Feeling, Imagination

“You can take your Law," she said in a measured tone, "and shove it right up your-”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Law

“The best measure of a man's honesty isn't his income tax return. It's the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

As quoted in The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners (2004) by Geoff Tibballs, p. 264
2000s and attributed from posthumous publications

“If you were Queen of pleasure
And I were King of pain
We'd hunt down Love together,
Pluck out his flying-feather,
And teach his feet a measure,
And find his mouth a rein;
If you were Queen of pleasure
And I were King of pain.”

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic

Love, Pain, Pleasure, Flying

“Life is not measured by the breathes you take, but by the moments that take your breathe away.”

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

Life

“All that was required to measure the planet was a man with a stick and a brain. In other words, couple an intellect with some experimental apparatus and almost anything seems achievable.”

Simon Singh (1964) British author

Source: Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe

“Don't measure the size of the mountain; talk to the One who can move it.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Mountain

“I read somewhere… how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong, but to feel strong… to measure yourself at least once.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Life, Feeling, Strong, Reading

“You have to look at what you have right in front of you, at what it could be, and stop measuring it against what you've lost.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

“A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Source: Awaken the Giant Within (1992), p. 49
Source: Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement

Decision

“… But he believed that every great love was in some measure a terrible mistake.”

Michael Chabon A Model World and Other Stories

Source: A Model World and Other Stories

Love

“But you see, the measure of hell you're able to endure is the measure of your love.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Love, Hell

“We live in a primitive time—don’t we, Will?—neither savage nor wise. Half measures are the curse of it. Any rational society would either kill me or give me my books.”

Thomas Harris Red Dragon

Source: Red Dragon

Books, Time

“It is youth’s felicity as well as its insufficiency that it can never live in the present, but must always be measuring up the day against its own radiantly imagined future”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Source: The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, and Other Stories

Youth, Imagination, Future

“The strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them.”

Gene Roddenberry (1921–1991) American television screenwriter and producer

Shown at the end of the episode "Scorched Earth", no. 14 in the 3rd season of Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict, first aired on February 7, 2000.

War, Fight

“The answer of course, is that the clock isn't meant to measure earthly time, but the time of the soul. Redemption and condemnation time. For the soul, each instant is always a minute short of judgment.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Soul, Time

“It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly use false standards of measurement — that they seek power, success and wealth for themselves and admire them in others, and that they underestimate what is of true value in life.”

Sigmund Freud book Civilization and Its Discontents

Man kann sich des Eindrucks nicht erwehren, daß die Menschen gemeinhin mit falschen Maßstäben messen, Macht, Erfolg und Reichtum für sich anstreben und bei anderen bewundern, die wahren Werte des Lebens aber unterschätzen.
Source: 1920s, Civilization and Its Discontents (1929), Ch. 1, as translated by James Strachey, p.25

Life, People, Success, Falseness

“the story of any one of us is in some measure the story of us all”

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

“You have to look at what you have right in front of you, at what it could be, and stop measuring it against what you've lost. I know this to be wise and true, just as I know that pretty much no one can do it.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

This Is Where I Leave You (2009), 2014-January-15 http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/This_Is_Where_I_Leave_You.html?id=3jVps2Z9LQcC, <br class="br">Source: This is Where I Leave You

“I could have lied. I could have fought. But desperate times call for desperate measures, so I took a chance and called upon a Gallagher Girl's weapon of last resort. I flirted”

Ally Carter book Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Source: Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover

Girl, Chance, Time

“To complain that man measures God by his own experience is a waste of time; man measures everything by his own experience; he has no other yardstick.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book The Mind of the Maker

Source: The Mind of the Maker

God, Time

“and he would probably not agree with my conviction that a sense of humor is the main measure of sanity. But who can say for sure? Humor is a very private thing.”

Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

Source: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

Sense

“In the measurement world, you set a goal and strive for it. In the universe of possibility, you set the context and let life unfold.”

Benjamin Zander (1939) English conductor

Source: The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

Life, World, Universe

“When considering a man's motives, remember you must not measure his wheat with your bushel. He may not be using the same standard at all.”

Robin Hobb book Assassin's Apprentice

Source: Assassin's Apprentice

Motivation

“When I express my opinions it is so as to reveal the measure of my sight not the measure of the thing.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

“All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Way, Parting, Madness

“Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.”

John Betjeman (1906–1984) English poet, writer and broadcaster

Childhood

“A man's worth isn't measured by a bank register or diploma… It's about integrity”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Letter

“We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Secret, Universe, Personality

“Finally, you had to measure yourself by other people - there really was nothing else. every now and then, quite unintentionally, someone taught you something about yourself.”

Ian McEwan (1948) British author

People

“Before you came into my life, I believed that God had abandoned me. Now I know that He has blessed me beyond measure.

~Sir Bannor”

Teresa Medeiros (1962) American writer

Source: Charming the Prince

Life, God

“Men," he began his address to the officers, measuring his pauses carefully. "You're American officers. The officers of no other army in the world can make that statement. Think about it.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

Men, World, Thinking

“Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness.
Listen to it carefully.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Selfishness

“I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Source: 100 Love Sonnets

“As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it.”

Václav Havel book Disturbing the Peace

Source: Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 1 : Growing Up "Outside", p. 11

World

“When you are measuring life, you are not living it.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)
Variant: When you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
Source: The Time Keeper

Life

“Did you know that a jiffy is an actual measurement of time? It’s a sixtieth of a second.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Malcolm Fade and Bat Velasquez, pg. 465
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)
Context: "'How do you people stand snow?' he demanded.
"'You people'?" Bat bristled. 'Do you mean werewolves?'
'I mean East Coasters,' said Malcolm. 'Who would have weather if they could avoid it? Snow, hail, rain. I'd move to Los Angeles in a jiffy. Did you know that a jiffy is an actual measurement of time? It's a sixtieth of a second. You can't do anything in a jiffy, not really.'"

Time

“Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Women, Men, Truth

“I am beginning to measure myself in strength, not pounds. Sometimes in smiles.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

Smile

“If you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span.”

Ernest Hemingway book For Whom the Bell Tolls

Source: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Life

“Like every writer, he measured the virtues of other writers by their performance, and asked that they measure him by what he conjectured or planned.”

Jorge Luis Borges book Ficciones

"The Secret Miracle"; Variant: Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he envisaged or planned.
Source: Ficciones (1944)

“We note our place with bookmarkers
That measure what we've lost.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Source: Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits

“There's something wrong with a mother who washes out a measuring cup with soap and water after she's only measured water in it.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

Water

“By things so achingly small are lives measured and marred.”

Guy Gavriel Kay book Tigana

Source: Tigana

“Loss could be used as a measure of beauty in a woman.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

Beauty, Loss

“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)
Source: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems
Context: Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all: —
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.

Life, Coffee

“Rule One, boy: shoot first then ask questions
Rulw Two, Double tap just for good measure. Better safe then sorry. -Bubba”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Boy, Question

“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Rising Strong

Courage

“The measure of mindfulness, the touchstone for sanity in this society, is our level of productivity, our attention to responsibility, our ability to plain and simple hold down a job.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

“I guess I'll never measure up to anyone's expectations. I surely don't measure up to what I'd like to be.”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Source: Go Ask Alice

“Demonic activity levels? Do they have a device that measures whether the demons inside the house are doing power yoga?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Simon to Clary, pg. 340
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

Housing

“You can't measure time the way you measure the distance between two points.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Way, Time

“The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success and failure.”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

Failure, Success

“A Gallagher Girl's real grades don’t come in pass or fail—they're measured in life or death.”

Ally Carter Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Source: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Life, Death, Girl

“Living was okay, but it wasn't the breaths people took that measured a life. It was the moments that took those breaths away that mattered the most. And Dev did that every time he looked at her. Naked or not.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: No Mercy

Life, People, Time

“Was it possible to measure what the heart felt?”

Rachel Hawthorne (1950) American author

Source: Full Moon

Heart

“I have long held the opinion that the amount of noise that anyone can bear undisturbed stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity and therefore be regarded as a pretty fair measure of it.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

“I can see now that it’s the little things, the small efforts, that keep a relationship going. And I know now too that in some small measure I have the power to hurt him and also the power to make it better.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

Effort, Hurt

“I mean, like most guys, you carry around this girl in your head, who is exactly who you want her to be. The person you think you will love the most. And every girl you are with gets measured against this girl in your head.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Love, Guy, Girl, Thinking

“I used to measure the heavens, now I measure the shadows of Earth.
Although my mind was heaven-bound, the shadow of my body lies here.”

Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer

Epitaph he composed for himself a few months before he died, as quoted in Calculusː Multivariable (2006) by Steven G. Krantz and Brian E. Blank. p. 126
Unsourced variant: I used to measure the Heavens, now I measure the shadows of Earth. The mind belonged to Heaven, the body's shadow lies here.

“The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with correctness, this surely is the ideal.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Source: 1920s, Collected Essays and Reviews (1920), Ch. 11 - Clifford's Lectures and Essays" (1879)

Passion

“One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike—and yet it is the most precious thing we have.”

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

Letter to Hans Muehsam (9 July 1951), Einstein Archives 38-408, quoted in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (2010) by Alice Calaprice, p. 404 http://books.google.com/books?id=G_iziBAPXtEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA404#v=onepage&q&f=false <br class="br">1950s

Life, Reality, Learning, Science