Quotes about might
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“We have an hour before we have to leave," Cray said. "So I thought I might tell you a little about myself. I thought it might pass the time."

"I'm not really all that interested," Alex said.”

Anthony Horowitz book Eagle Strike

Source: Eagle Strike

Time

“I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.”

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

The Blood of Others [Le sang des autres] (1946)
General sources

Life, Freedom

“If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Love, Wedding, For Her, For Him

“when the phone rings
I too would like to hear words
that might ease
some of this.”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

“And always, I could see that, despite his weakness for her or because of it, he seemed uncatchable, as if he might slip away at any moment.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

“The secret of good cooking is, first, having a love of it… If you’re convinced that cooking is drudgery, you’re never going to be good at it, and you might as well warm up something frozen.”

James Beard (1903–1985) American chef

Love, Secret, Cooking

“You might as well learn right now, you two, that the poorest guide you can have in life is what people will say.”

Maud Hart Lovelace book Heaven to Betsy

Source: Heaven to Betsy

Life, People, Learning

“Sophie did not care to think how Howl might react if Fanny woke him by stabbing him with her parasol.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Howl's Moving Castle

Source: Howl's Moving Castle

Thinking

“I've always been told my presence brightened up any room. One might think that went doubly for dank underground cell." (Jace)”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Thinking

“I shall never marry, Atticus."
"Why?"
"I might have children.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Children

“Why are you still wearing…?" Aya began. "Oh, that's not smart plastic? You're really an ugly?"
David rolled his eyes and Shay said quietly, "David's never had any surge at all. But I wouldn't use the word ugly… Tally might eat you.”

Scott Westerfeld book Extras

Source: Extras

“I secretly wondered if Dimitri's problem might be that he was jealous. He hadn't pulled Lissa aside to yell at her. The thought made me slightly happy, but then I remembered my earlier curiosity about why Dimitri had even wandered by.”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

Happiness, Problem

“Never be afraid to tell me anything,” he whispered against her hair. “No matter how ashamed you might feel. I’ll never judge you, Rachel. I love you.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: The Darkest Hour

Love, Feeling

“I'm about to commence four years of obeying the cause of a bruiser on a horse. I refuse to put down what might be the last book I see for months.”

Tamora Pierce (1954) American writer of fantasy novels for children

Books, Horse

“People are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren’t getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope… with all of their might.”

Stephen R. Covey book The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

Source: The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness

People

“I think in a moment of weakness, you might surprise yourself.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Mine Till Midnight

Thinking

“Never stop smiling not even when you're sad, someone might fall in love with your smile.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Love, Sadness, Smile

“Try as we might to postpone them, days of reckoning inevitably arrive.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Keys to the Demon Prison

“However small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance was there.”

Roald Dahl book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Chance

“If you don't explain it all to me, I might strangle somebody." Of course, Raphael might like that…”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

“Jason's fingers itched to draw his sword. He'd met plenty of scary demigods, but he was starting to realize that Nico di Angelo--as pale and gaunt as he looked--might be more than he could handle.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Drawing

“And when I saw him[my father] lying dead in a pool of his own blood, I knew then that I hadn't stopped believing in God. I'd just stopped believing God cared. There might be a God, Clary, and there might be not. Either way, we're on our own.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Variant: I knew then that I hadn't stopped believing in God. I'd just stopped believing God cared. There might be a God, Clary, and there might not, but I don't think it matters. Either way we're on our own.
Source: City of Bones

God, Way, Lying, Dead

“You might get lucky and die in some corner.
~Soi Fon”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

“Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is.”

Barbara Bush (1925–2018) former First Lady of the United States

Variant: Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is.

Sex, Forgetting

“Easy there," Zach said when I stumbled into him. "Now's probably not the time to get handsy. You might want to control yourself.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

Time

“You might not believe it… but you make the world a better place when you smile.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Guardian

Variant: The world is a better place when you smile
Source: The Guardian

World, Smile

“A god who is capable of sending intelligible signals to millions of people simultaneously, and of receiving messages from all of them simultaneously, cannot be, whatever else he might be, simple. Such Bandwidth!”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

God, People, Intelligence

“Well, because sometimes you love someone but they might not be the right
person for you. That takes some time to figure out”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Baby Proof

Love, Time, Personality

“Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.”

Earl Nightingale (1921–1989) American motivational speaker

Fear, Way, Time

“What you forget when you're planning a hijack by yourself is somewhere along the line, you might need to neglect your hostages just long enough so you can use the bathroom.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Forgetting

“I really believe that if I were not a writer, not a creator, not an experimenter, I might have been a very faithful wife.”

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

Source: Henry and June: From "A Journal of Love"--The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin

Faith

“If one cannot learn from the mistakes of others, one might as well become a Democrat.”

Esther M. Friesner (1951) American writer

Source: My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding

Learning

“Not a frog, I hope?” he asked…She shook her head. “No. And if it was I wouldn’t kiss it, I promise you. I might kiss a prince if I could be sure he’d turn into a frog, but not the other way around.”

Eva Ibbotson book A Song for Summer

Source: A Song for Summer

Hope, Way, Kiss

“Whereas I, even now, persist in believing that these black marks on white paper bear the greatest significance, that if I keep writing I might be able to catch the rainbow of consciousness in a jar.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

“Obeying the rules might be smart, but it's not as nearly as much fun.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: Simply Irresistible

“if you'd teach me to swear in russian, i might have a new appreciation for it”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

“Yes!" Narissus unslung his bow and grabbed an arrow from his dusty quiver. "The first one who get that bronze, I will like youas much as I like me. I might even kiss you, right after I kiss my reflection!"

"Oh my gods!" the nymphs squealed.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

God, Kiss

“You try as a parent. You love beyond reason. You fight beyond endurance. You hope beyond despair.
You never think, until the very last moment, that it still might not be enough.”

Lisa Gardner (1956) American author

Source: Live to Tell

Love, Hope, Thinking, Parent

“No matter what you do it's bound to be a waste of time in the end so you might as well go mad.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Time, Madness

“So it's true. You can walk in sunlight. I thought perhaps it might have worn off."
"If I feel the urge to burst into flames, I'll let you know.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Feeling

“I thought, "Well if I'm gonna react might as well overreact!”

Alan Moore (1953) English writer primarily known for his work in comic books

“Newton's Third Law of Conversation, if it existed, would hold that every statement implies an equal and opposite statement. To say that I'd turned the offer down raised the possibility that I might not have done.”

Hugh Laurie book The Gun Seller

Source: The Gun Seller

Law

“Living might mean taking chances, but they're worth taking. Loving might be a mistake. but its worth making”

Reba McEntire (1955) American country music artist and actress

Love, Chance

“It's a good thing I'm a reasonably patient woman. Otherwise, I might have to kill you.”

Lora Leigh (1965) American writer

Source: Wicked Pleasure

“It's just the way things are. And you can't dwell on what might have been. You have to look at what is.”

Sophie Kinsella book Twenties Girl

Source: Twenties Girl

Way

“I held the feeling in my heart; the urge to discuss it died out. There was all the time in the world. In the endless repetition of other nights, other mornings, this moment, too, might become a dream.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen

World, Dreams, Feeling, Time

“Miss Hayes, have you stopped to consider that you might have this all backward? That in fact you are my fantasy?”

Shannon Hale book Austenland

Source: Austenland

“When you've never gotten love from someone, you don't know what it might look like if it ever does appear. You look for it in everything: any bright light overhead could be a star.”

Sarah Dessen book The Moon and More

Source: The Moon and More

Love, Star, Light, Appearance

“I… understand how a parent might hit a child- it's because you can look into their eyes and see a reflection of yourself that you wish you hadn't.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Understanding, Parent

“I might as well enquire,” replied she, “why with so evident a design of offending and insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your will, against your reason, and even against your character?”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“There are just lots of possibilities in the world… I need to keep my mind open for what could happen and not decide that the world is hopeless if what I want to happen doesn't happen. Because something else great might happen in between.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

World

“Maybe we're standing like coins on the edge?"
Allie considered this. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, we might be able to shake things up a little, and find a way to come up heads."
"Or tails," suggested Allie.
"What are youabout?" said Lief.
"Life and death.”

Neal Shusterman book Everlost

Source: Everlost

Life, Death, Way

“Dig deep into its communitarian ethos and it reads more like an America that might have been, an America fervently devoted to the quaint goals of working together and getting along. Of course, this America does exist. It's called Canada.”

Sarah Vowell The Wordy Shipmates

Source: The Wordy Shipmates

Reading

“What is, is, and what might have been could never have existed.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

Source: Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“And what greater might do we possess as human beings than our capacity to question and to learn?”

Ann Druyan (1949) American author and producer

Question, Learning

“You can do this" I murmured. "You are my brother. I love you. All the embarrassing bits, all the annoying bits, which I imagine is most of you--a thousand Zias might run away from you if they knew the truth. But I won't. I'll still be here.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Love, Truth, Imagination

“I daresay Freddy might not be a great hand at slaying dragons- but one has not the smallest need of a man who can kill dragons!”

Georgette Heyer book Cotillion

Source: Cotillion

“We might be on the same page, but I wasn't happy about reading it.”

Charlaine Harris book Dead Reckoning

Source: Dead Reckoning

Happiness, Reading

“There were drinks and food in full force, and some Moroi guy had a guitar out and was trying to impress girls with his musical skills—which were nonexistent. In fact, his music was so awful that he might have discovered a new way to kill Strigoi.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Food, Music, Way, Guy

“Do you think…"
He raised his eyebrows. "Do I think what?"
"That Valentine might have drowned?"
"Never believe the bad guy is dead until you see a body," said Simon. "That just leads to unhappiness and surprise ambushes.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Guy, Thinking, Dead

“If by the quarter of the twentieth century godliness wasn’t next to something more interesting than cleanliness, it might be time to reevaluate our notions of godliness.”

Tom Robbins (1932) American writer

Time

“There are a million things one might do with a block of wood. But what do you think might happen if someone, just once, believed in it?”

Suzanne Weyn book Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Source: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Thinking

“I never thought there might be one like you out there. Unaware, untrained.
Unbelievable. You have no idea what you are, do you?”
“Crazy?”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Idea

“CPR dummy looked like him and had clearly been stabbed. Repeatedly. In the groin. He thought she might have used the dummy for target practice, and tried not to be offended. Key word: tried.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Secret

“Might not hurt you to pick up a book, just as an experiment."

Whatever. I looked up the definition for 'nerd' in the dictionary. Know what it said?"

"I bet you'll tell me."

" 'If you're reading this, you are one.' "

You're a riot.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Grip of the Shadow Plague

Books, Reading, Hurt

“The woman is the home. That's where she used to be, and that's where she still is. You might ask me, What if a man tries to be part of the home -- will the woman let him? I answer yes. Because the he becomes one of the children.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

Children, Home, Parting

“He did not say that because he knew that if you said a good thing it might not happen.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea

Source: The Old Man and the Sea

“When we're all alone, it might be to frightening to bear… but we're all right beside each other. We've got our friends close by! Now, there's nothing to fear! Because we're not alone!!!”

Hiro Mashima (1977) Japanese manga artist

Fear

“People who write fiction, if they had not taken it up, might have become very successful liars.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

People, Success

“I know that big people don't like questions from children. They can ask all the questions they like, How's school? Are you a good boy? Did you say your prayers? but if you ask them did they say their prayers you might be hit on the head.”

Frank McCourt book Angela's Ashes

Source: Angela's Ashes (1996)

Children, People, School, Boy

“Don't talk. Kill it."
That might be the sweetest thing a woman's ever said to me on a first date.”

Richard Kadrey (1957) San Francisco-based novelist, freelance writer, and photographer

Source: Kill the Dead

“I’ve always found that the better the book I’m reading, the smarter I feel, or, at least, the more able I am to imagine that I might, someday, become smarter.”

Francine Prose (1947) American writer

Source: Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

Books, Feeling, Imagination, Reading

“Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.”

George Eliot book Middlemarch

Source: Middlemarch (1871), Chapter 1 (misprinted as "Some people did" in some editions, such as Penguin Signet Classics).

People

“She didn't like the fact that she had reduced a man – no matter how evil he might be—to a drooling idiot.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Evil

“Believing everything she read
In the daily news,
(No in-between to choose)
She thought that only
One side won,
Not that BOTH
Might lose.”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

Reading

“Why, I can't help wondering, is God thought to need such ferocious
defence? One might have supposed him amply capable of looking
after himself.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

God, Help

“only through new words
might new worlds
be called
into order”

Saul Williams (1972) American singer, musician, poet, writer, and actor

Source: , said the shotgun to the head.

World

“Then I realized that we all think we might be terrible people. But we only reveal this before we ask someone to love us. It is a kind of undressing.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: The First Bad Man

Love, People, Thinking

“It's just that I'm fifteen, and I have this crazy idea I might actually have a life in front of me. I don't see how it's going to do me much good to believe that the world is over and this is just an epilogue.”

Jonathan Maberry book Rot & Ruin

Source: Rot & Ruin

Life, World, Idea

“The silence grew deeper, so deep that if you listened carefully you might very well catch the sound of the earth revolving on its axis.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Silence

“Anyone who wants to help me doesn't. Anyone who wants to kill me might. Anyone who wants to love me better not.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: Eye Scream

Love, Help

“Ignorance is not stupidity, but it might as well be.”

Lois McMaster Bujold The Curse of Chalion

Source: World of the Five Gods series, The Curse of Chalion (2000), p. 316

Stupidity

“Whoever we are here, we might be princesses somewhere else. Or writers. Or scientists. Or presidents. Or whatever the hell we want to be that everyone else says we can't.”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Source: The Carrie Diaries

Hell, Princess

“You might even provide a Heaven for them. We need You for that. Hell we can make for ourselves.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 30 (pp. 194-195)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Context: (She is reciting the Lord’s prayer) Now we come to forgiveness. Don’t worry about forgiving me right now. There are more important things. For instance: keep the others safe, if they are safe. Don’t let them suffer too much. If they have to die, let it be fast. You might even provide a Heaven for them. We need You for that. Hell we can make for ourselves.

Hell

“The hardest memories are the pieces of what might have been.”

Deborah Smith (1955) writer of romance and women's fiction

Memory

“Someday she might replace whatever of her had gone away by some prosthetic device, a dress of a certain color, a phrase in a letter, another lover.”

Thomas Pynchon book The Crying of Lot 49

Source: The Crying of Lot 49

Color, Lovers

“Are you afraid of the good you might do?”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Deep

“Unpredictable as a hungry lion, he might be feared by everyone else, but he never ripped out my throat, only licked me, and, if his tongue was a little rough sometimes, it was worth it to walk beside the king of the jungle.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

Fear

“For a second I thought I might actually be alive,” I said, looking at Nick’s unshaven face. “Now I know— I’ve gone to Hell and you’re my nursemaid.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bites

Hell

“The last I saw of Count Dracula was his kissing his hand to me, with a red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

Smile, Hell, Kiss, Light

“I might have to drink the blood of animals to stay alive, but I would never feast on one of my own kind, no matter what Mr. Crepsley said, or hows much my belly growled.”

Darren Shan book The Vampire's Assistant

Source: The Vampire's Assistant

Drink, Animals

“Always sleep with one eye open. Never take anything for granted. Your best friends might just be your enemies.”

Sara Shepard The Lying Game

Source: The Lying Game

Sleep

“What is important is the story. Because when we are all dust and teeth and kicked-up bits of skin - when we're dancing with our own skeletons - our words might be all that's left of us.”

Alexandra Fuller (1969) Zimbabwean writer

Source: Scribbling the Cat

Dance

“If you go to your death rather than do everything you might to prevent what is happening, you are merely committing suicide and trying to make yourself feel better about it. That is the act of a coward. It is beneath contempt.”

Jim Butcher Dead Beat

Source: Dead Beat

Death, Feeling, Suicide

“Growth comes through analogy; through seeing how things connect, rather than only seeing how they might be different.”

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

“Men might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

1850s, West India Emancipation (1857)
Context: Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. [... ] Men might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.

Men, World