Quotes about most
page 26

“It was the most amazing feeling in the world. to know that something right happened, and to know that it had happened not through luck or command but simply because it was right.”

David Levithan book Wide Awake

Source: Wide Awake

World, Feeling

“… most of the time we were alone and mixing up our souls ever more and ever more till it would be terribly hard to say good-by.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

Soul, Time

“Most of us remain strangers to ourselves, hiding who we are, and ask other strangers, hiding who they are, to love us.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

Love

“In my experience, the most staunchly held views are based on ignorance or accepted dogma, not carefully considered accumulations of facts. The more you expose the intricacies and realtities of the situation, the less clear-cut things become.”

Mary Roach book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

Source: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks — on your body or on your heart — are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.”

Anthony Bourdain book The Nasty Bits

The Nasty Bits (2006)

Life, World, Beauty, Travel

“It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

Success

“But beauty is about finding the right fit, the most natural fit, To be perfect, you have to feel perfect about yourself --- avoid trying to be something you're not. For a goddess, that's especially hard. We can change so easily.
-Aphrodite”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Beauty, Feeling, Nature, Change

“Religion is a conceited effort to deny the most obvious realities.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Religion, Reality, Effort

“The scar will remain, but it is better for a man to lose both arms than his soul; and these hard years, instead of being lost, may be made the most precious of your lives, if they teach you to rule yourselves.”

Louisa May Alcott book Jo's Boys

Source: Jo's Boys

Soul

“Most non-readers are nothing but an agglomeration of third-hand opinion and blindly received wisdom.”

Tom Bissell (1974) American journalist

Wisdom

“The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Truth, Books, Beauty, Way

“There was no solution, save that universal solution which life gives to all questions, even the most complex and insolvable: One must live in the needs of the day--that is, forget oneself.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Life, Question, Universe, Forgetting

“… but it's your existence I love you for, mainly. Existence seems to me now the most remarkable thing that could ever be imagined.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Love, Imagination

“Let's look on the bright side: we're having an adventure, Fezzik, and most people live and die without being as lucky as we are.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

People

“The most depraved type of human being… (is) the man without a purpose.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Variant: Fransisco, what's the most depraved type of human being?

-The man without purpose.
Source: Atlas Shrugged

“Harry: The most beautiful words in the English language aren't "I love you" but "it's benign."”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Deconstructing Harry (1997)

Love, Beauty

“Sometimes to get what you want the most, you have to do what you want the least.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Variant: well, sometimes to get what you want the most, you have to do what you want the least.
Source: My Sister's Keeper

“The most exciting acting tends to happen in roles you never thought you could play.”

John Lithgow (1945) American character actor, musician, and author

“Afterwards, when Agamemnon would ask him when he would confront the prince of Troy, he would smile his most guileless, maddening smile. “What has Hector ever done to me?”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

Smile

“These days grief seems like walking on a frozen river; most of the time he feels safe enough, but there is always that danger that he will plunge through.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Feeling, Time

“Singin' in the Rain was most excellent if you like movies where people burst into song and tap-dance. Which I do, though not as much as I like movies where people don't.”

E. Lockhart (1967) American writer of novels as E. Lockhart (mainly for teenage girls) and of picture books under real name Emily J…

Source: The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them

People, Dance

“I suppose a lot of teenage girls feel invisible sometimes, like they just disappear. Well, that's me—Cammie the Chameleon. But I'm luckier than most because, at my school, that's considered cool.

I go to a school for spies.”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

School, Feeling, Girl

“I have often thought that the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it came upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive.”

William James The Principles of Psychology

To his wife, Alice Gibbons James (1878)
1920s, The Letters of William James (1920)
Source: The Principles of Psychology
Context: I have often thought that the best way to define a man's character would be to seek out the particular mental or moral attitude in which, when it came upon him, he felt himself most deeply and intensely active and alive. At such moments there is a voice inside which speaks and says: "This is the real me!"

Way

“I spent most of my youth hauling sides of beef and pork to my father's shop. Carrying you is far more enjoyable."

"How sweet," Annabelle mumbled sickly, her eyes closed. "Every woman dreams of being told that she's preferable to a dead cow.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Secrets of a Summer Night

Youth, Dreams, Dead

“Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness.”

Karen Joy Fowler book Sarah Canary

Source: Sarah Canary

People, Madness

“Between shame and shamelessness lies the axis upon which we turn; meteorological conditions at both these poles are of the most extreme, ferocious type. Shamelessness, shame: the roots of violence.”

Salman Rushdie Shame

Source: Shame

“What were you doing with her?" I ask quietly.
"Apart from questioning her about your whereabouts, I was listening to the most intriguing story about my life moonlighting as a kidnapper.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Life, Question

“Things change when someone special comes into your life. Both sides have to give up things. The one thing you don't give up in a good relationship is you--whatever makes you most you. - Jim Olsten (Jane's Grandpa)”

Elizabeth Chandler (1954) writer

Source: I Do

Life, Change

“Who knows what true loneliness is — not the conventional word, but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion.”

Joseph Conrad book Under Western Eyes

Pt. I, ch. 2
Under Western Eyes (1911)

Memory, Loneliness

“I’m in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

As quoted in ‪If Ignorance Is Bliss, Why Aren't There More Happy People? (2009) ‬by John Mitchinson, p. 87

People

“Philosophy ought to question the basic assumptions of the age. Thinking through, critically and carefully, what most of us take for granted is, I believe, the chief task of philosophy, and the task that makes philosophy a worthwhile activity.”

Peter Singer book Animal Liberation

Source: Animal Liberation

Age, Question, Thinking

“The gods' most savage curses come upon us as answers to our own prayers, you know.”

Lois McMaster Bujold The Curse of Chalion

Source: World of the Five Gods series, The Curse of Chalion (2000), p. 94

God

“Even if you forget everything else I want you to always remember that you are a person of value, and you have a friend who loved you enough to give you his most valued possession.”

Bette Greene book Summer of My German Soldier

Source: Summer of My German Soldier

Love, Personality, Forgetting

“I have always been a huge admirer of my own work. I'm one of the funniest and most entertaining writers I know.”

Mel Brooks (1926) American director, writer, actor, and producer

Funny

“His eyes went soft and silver as she spoke. “Zhe shi jie shang, wo shi zui ai ne de,” he whispered.

She understood it. In all the world, you are what I love the most.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love, World

“… and he smiled a lot. The smile did not mean that he was happy. It meant he was stronger than most people, and that he intended to take advantage of it.”

Michael Cadnum (1949) American writer

Source: Flash

Happiness, People, Smile

“It is through weakness and vulnerability that most of us learn empathy and compassion and discover our soul.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Source: God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time

Soul, Learning

“Therefore do not deceive yourself! Of all deceivers fear most yourself!”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Fear

“Indubitably, Magick is one of the subtlest and most difficult of the sciences and arts. There is more opportunity for errors of comprehension, judgement and practice than in any other branch of physics.”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography

Art, Error, Science

“The most violent element in society is ignorance.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

Variant: The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

“Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

We Bereaved (1929)

Life, Pain, World

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return …”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Source: 1970s, Homage to Daniel Shays : Collected Essays (1972), Matters of Fact and Fiction : Essays 1973 - 1976 (1978), p. 280

People, Question

“A carefully cultivated heart will, assisted by the grace of God, foresee, forestall, or transform most of the painful situations before which others stand like helpless children saying “Why?”

Dallas Willard (1935–2013) American philosopher

Source: Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ

God, Pain, Children, Heart

“The first rule of truly living - do the thing you are most afraid of.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

“Everything everyone thinks they know about [Mother Teresa] is false. It must be the single most successful emotional con job of the twentieth century.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Thinking, Success, Falseness

“… please Lady… Do not speak of it. I was young and foolish."
"You most certainly were."
"You are cruel, Evanna.”

Darren Shan book Hunters of the Dusk

Source: Hunters of the Dusk

“Beauty is often spoken of as though it only stirs lust or admiration, but the most beautiful people are so in a way that makes them look like destiny or fate or meaning, the heroes of a remarkable story.”

Rebecca Solnit (1961) Author and essayist from United States

Source: A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Fate, People, Beauty, Way

“What I saw wasn't a ghost. It was simply--myself. I can never forget how terrified I was that night, and whenever I remember it, this thought always springs to mind: that the most frightening thing in the world is our own self. What do you think?”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories

World, Spring, Thinking, Night

“I’m about to make a wild, extreme, and severe relationship rule: the word “busy” is a load of crap and is most often used by assholes.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Business

“Agad bowed to the Fairy Queen. 'You are most wise, your majesty. Some imagine the difference between heaven and hell to be a matter of geography. Not so. The difference is much more evident in the individuals who dwell there.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Keys to the Demon Prison

Imagination, Hell

“Despite his cynical exterior, he had a good heart-and Lissa owned most of it.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Heart

“Aha! So I’m not crazy.”
“You are most definitely crazy,” Derek said. “But in a deranged, endearing way.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Rises

Way

“and a rather controversial one for birth control that had nevertheless quickly become the most often used rune in the lexicon.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Birth

“The most sophisticated people I know - inside they are all children.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Children, People

“The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

World

“So I buy it. The most perfect little cardigan in the world. People will call me the Girl in the Gray Cardigan. I’ll be able to live in it. Really, it’s an investment.”

Sophie Kinsella book The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic

Source: Confessions of a Shopaholic

People, World, Girl, Perfection

“Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

"Gzowski on FM".
Conversations with Robertson Davies (1989)

People, Courageous

“Most People have a desire to look for the exception instead of the desire to become exceptional.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

People

“I think dogs are the most amazing creatures;
they give unconditional love.
For me they are the role model for being alive.”

Gilda Radner (1946–1989) American comedian

Love, Dogs, Thinking

“I find that those men who are personally most polite to women, who call them angels and all that, cherish in secret the greatest contempt for them.”

Germaine Greer book The Female Eunuch

Source: The Female Eunuch

Women, Men, Secret, Angels

“Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Source: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

Support, Universe, Personality

“People leave traces of themselves where they feel most comfortable, most worthwhile.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

People, Feeling

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.”

Laurie Colwin (1944–1992) Novelist, short story writer, food writer

Wisdom, Past, Cooking

“Anya, the minor goddess of Anarchy? A woman who had more balls than most men—because she’d cut them off the guys stupid enough to get in her way and kept them as souvenirs.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Seduction

Men, Stupidity, Way, Guy

“My people have been wearing green glasses on their eyes for so long that most of them think this really is an Emerald City.”

L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Source: Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

People, Thinking

“The most identifying trait of humanity is our abilty to be inhumane to one another.”

Dean Koontz Odd Thomas

Variant: .. the most identifying trait of humanity is our ability to be inhumane to one another.
Source: Odd Thomas

“Wherever they might be they always remember that the past was a lie, that memory has no return, that every spring gone by could never be recovered, and that the wildest and most tenacious love was an ephemeral truth in the end.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Love, Truth, Lie, Spring

“I loved most when his eyelashes twitched and he blinked, and suddenly happiness was there inside his eyes. Unmistakable. Like a single word printed on a clean white page.”

Augusten Burroughs book You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

Source: You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

Love, Happiness

“Life is a banquet and most poor s. o. b.'s are starving to death." Auntie Mame”

Patrick Dennis (1921–1976) Novelist

Source: Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade

Life, Death

“It can be… difficult to to learn how the world truly is, to see it in its true shape and form… most human beings never do. Most could not bear it.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

World, Learning

“Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles.”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

Selfishness

“Contrary to what you might think, I don't spend every waking hour thinking about boys."
"Just most waking hours?”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Boy, Thinking

“The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Quote from Tiny Surrealism: Salvador Dalí and the Aesthetics of the Small, Roger Rothman, 2012 UNP-Nebraska.
Quotes of Salvador Dali, Miscellaneous

Memory, Falseness

“Waiting silently is the hardest thing of all. I was dying to talk to Jim and about Jim. But the things that we feel most deeply we ought to learn to be silent about, at least until we have talked them over thoroughly with God.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Source: Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Love Life Under Christ's Control

God, Feeling, Learning, Waiting

“They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

Problem

“Besides, it happens fast for some people and slow for some, accidents or gravity, but we all end up mutilated. Most women know this feeling of being more and more invisible everyday.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Women, People, Feeling

“In addition to my other numerous acquaintances, I have one more intimate confidant… My depression is the most faithful mistress I have known — no wonder, then, that I return the love.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Source: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life

Love, Faith, Confidence, Depressing

“A manwhat he has passion about,” Breeze said. “I’ve found that if you give up what you want most for what youyou should want more, you’ll just end up miserable.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Hero of Ages

Passion

“People who think God is on their side are capable of the most inhumane acts. (Petrov)”

Vince Flynn Consent to Kill

Source: Consent to Kill

God, People, Thinking

“Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated – in the main, abominably – because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Source: The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985

“Maybe marriage, like life, isn't only about the big moments, whether they be good or bad. Maybe it's all the small things—like being guided slowly forward, surely, day after day—that stretches out to strengthen even the most tenuous bond.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Life, Marriage

“I'm 38 and I'm single and I'm having my most intense and gratifying relationship with a dog. But we all learn about love in different ways, and this way happens to be mine.”

Caroline Knapp (1959–2002) American writer

Source: Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs

Love, Dogs, Way, Learning

“Most conservatives also believe in the death penalty, but not abortion, which proves they like to procrastinate.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

Source: I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight

Death, Penalty

“It is when our hearts are stirred that we become most aware of what they contain.”

Andy Stanley (1958) American Christian minister

Source: It Came from Within!: The Shocking Truth of What Lurks in the Heart

Heart

“We ordinary people might lack your great speed or your X-Ray vision, Superman, but never underestimate the power of the human mind. We carry the most dangerous weapon on Earth inside these thick skulls of ours.”

Mark Millar book Superman: Red Son

Source: Superman: Red Son

People, Speed

“Most men fear getting laughed at or humiliated by a romantic prospect while most women fear rape and death.”

Gavin de Becker (1954) American engineer

Source: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

Death, Women, Men, Fear

“Most of all, I want you to know without a doubt that I've got your back. And your front. And your sides. I've got all of you and I'm not letting go.”

Maya Banks (1964) Author

Source: Fever

“If he'd learned one thing while he'd been away, it was that loneliness is the most taboo subject in the world. Forget sex or politics or religion. Or even failure. Loneliness is what clears out a room.”

Douglas Coupland book Miss Wyoming

Source: Miss Wyoming

World, Religion, Sex, Failure

“Why are those who are notoriously undisciplined and unmoral also most contemptuous of religion and morality? They are trying to solace their own unhappy lives by pulling the happy down to their own abysmal depths.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Source: Seven Words of Jesus and Mary: Lessons from Cana and Calvary

Happiness, Religion

“A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Source: La volgarità in letteratura

Age, Chance

“Remember that the most important thing is to try and love other people as much as they love you.”

David Sedaris book Holidays on Ice

Source: Holidays on Ice

Love, People

“You will see that the things you desire most are the very things that bring you the greatest sorrow.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Source: Phantom

“Heinous fuckery most foul!”

Christopher Moore book Fool

Source: Pocket (Black Fool)

“To most Christians, the Bible is like a software license. Nobody actually reads it. They just scroll to the bottom and click 'I agree'.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Reading

“To the real artist in humanity, what are called bad manners are often the most picturesque and significant of all.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

“The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Life, Feeling, Success, Future

“To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Grass, Beauty, Peaceful

“What Strider thinks of himself "He was too intense, too jaded, too warped and too… everything for most women to take for long. But so what. He was made of awesome. Anyone who couldn't see that wasn't smart enough to be with him, anyway.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Secret

Women, Thinking

“Happiness is making the most of what you have, and riches is making the most of what you've got.”

Rosamunde Pilcher book The Shell Seekers

Source: The Shell Seekers

Happiness

“Some of the most relaxing weekends I have ever enjoyed were those I spent quietly with a sense of all work to date completed, and an absorbing mystery.”

Aung San Suu Kyi book Letters from Burma

Source: Letters from Burma

Sense

Quotes about most page 26

Quotes about most
page 26