Quotes about most
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“I am all that there is of the most real.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

“The original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us end up hardly living out of it at all. Instead we live out all the other selves, which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather.”

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

Source: Telling Secrets (1991)

World, Weather

“Nowadays silence is looked on as odd and most of my race has forgotten the beauty of meaning much by saying little. Now tongues work all day by themselves with no help from the mind.”

Toni Morrison Love

Source: Love

Beauty, Silence, Help

“Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don't believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

Learning, Reading

“What I’ve loved most after you, is myself: that is, my dignity and that strength which made me superior to other men. That Strength was my life. You’ve broken it with a word, so I must die.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Love, Life, Men

“Those who choose to be servants know the most about being free.”

Janette Oke (1935) Canadian writer

“In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Letter 56 (60), to Hugo Boxel (1674) http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1711&chapter=144218&layout=html&Itemid=27 Source: The Letters Context: When you say that if I deny, that the operations of seeing, hearing, attending, wishing, &c., can be ascribed to God, or that they exist in him in any eminent fashion, you do not know what sort of God mine is; I suspect that you believe there is no greater perfection than such as can be explained by the aforesaid attributes. I am not astonished; for I believe that, if a triangle could speak, it would say, in like manner, that God is eminently triangular, while a circle would say that the divine nature is eminently circular. Thus each would ascribe to God its own attributes, would assume itself to be like God, and look on everything else as ill-shaped. The briefness of a letter and want of time do not allow me to enter into my opinion on the divine nature, or the questions you have propounded. Besides, suggesting difficulties is not the same as producing reasons. That we do many things in the world from conjecture is true, but that our redactions are based on conjecture is false. In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth. A man would perish of hunger and thirst, if he refused to eat or drink, till he had obtained positive proof that food and drink would be good for him. But in philosophic reflection this is not so. On the contrary, we must take care not to admit as true anything, which is only probable. For when one falsity has been let in, infinite others follow. Again, we cannot infer that because sciences of things divine and human are full of controversies and quarrels, therefore their whole subject-matter is uncertain; for there have been many persons so enamoured of contradiction, as to turn into ridicule geometrical axioms.

Life, Truth

“Good art however "immoral" is wholly a thing of virtue. Good art can not be immoral. By good art I mean art that bears true witness, I mean the art that is most precise.”

Ezra Pound (1885–1972) American Imagist poet and critic

Art

“The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you.”

Mary Roach book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Source: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Way, Lying, Time, Dead

“We’re all works in progress, honey. And believe me when I tell you that I’ve had to work harder than most.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Ain't She Sweet

“Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

“There are many sources of spirituality; religion may be the most common, but it is by no means the only. Anything that generates a sense of awe may be a source of spirituality. Science does this in spades.”

Michael Shermer (1954) American science writer

Religion, Sense, Science

“The man who wants you to trust him is the one you must fear the most.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Fear

“You couldn't be romantic if your life depended on it." "You know what's lucky? Most bad guys don't ask you to be romantic on command, so that probably won't matter.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Kiss of Death

Life, Guy, Dependency

“Most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five billion strangers.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“The most important tactic in an argument next to being right is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without an embarrassing loss of face.”

Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American evolutionary biologist

Loss

“But the most important thing is, even if we're apart, I'll always be with you.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

Friendship, Relationship, Graduation, For Friend

“While it is true that most people never see or understand the difference they make, or sometimes only imagine their actions having a tiny effect, every single action a person takes has far-reaching consequences.”

Andy Andrews (1959) author and corporate speaker

Source: The Noticer: Sometimes, All a Person Needs Is a Little Perspective

People, Imagination, Understanding, Personality

“Readers understand that the books celebrate female power. In the romance novel, the woman always wins. With courage, intelligence and gentleness she brings the most dangerous creature on the earth, the human male, to his knees.”

Jayne Ann Krentz (1948) American novelist

Books, Intelligence, Courage, Understanding

“The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

Letter to children (February 1947) http://www.liwfrontiergirl.com/letter.html Context: The Little House books are stories of long ago. The way we live and your schools are much different now, so many changes have made living and learning easier. But the real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.

Happiness, Pleasure, Truth, Courage

“Clouds are poems, and the most moving poems linger on the blackboard so long, written in cursive so lovely, they also exist inside our fingertips. We never really erase them at the end of the lesson.”

Ann Beattie (1947) Short story writer, novelist, professor

Source: Walks with Men

Love

“Yet somehow the thing that startled me most, after a week or two had passed, was that I had in fact survived.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

“Most men's awareness doesn't extend past their dinner plates.”

Scott Westerfeld book Leviathan

Source: Leviathan

Men, Past

“Sometimes when family members least deserve love, they need it most. Love is not appropriately expressed in threats, accusations, expressions of disappointment, or retaliation. Real love takes time, patience, help, and continuing performances.”

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

Love, Family, Disappointment, Time

“For that great Love speaks in the most wretched and dirty hearts; only the tone of its voice depends on the echoes of the place in which it sounds.”

George MacDonald book At the Back of the North Wind

Source: At the Back of the North Wind (1871), Chapter 18

Love, Heart, Dependency

“The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Love, Friendship, Happiness, Wealth

“Most people would say that she's beautiful.
-That's because she's been with most people.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

People, Beauty

“Bad enough to be ill, but to feel compelled to deny the very thing that, in its worst and most active state, defines you is agony indeed.”

Sally Brampton (1955–2016) British writer

Source: Shoot the Damn Dog: A Memoir of Depression

Feeling

“Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were written because authors couldn't find anyone to talk to.”

Alain de Botton book The Consolations of Philosophy

Source: The Consolations of Philosophy (2000), Chapter IV, Consolation For Inadequacy, p. 148

Books

“… You're omniscient, right?"
"For the most part, yes."
"Then you have to tell me this ‘cause I have to know. What's at the end of everything?"
He shrugged. "That's easy enough."
"Then tell me."
"The letter G.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Parting

“Most of us tend to belittle all suffering except our own," said Mary. "I think it's fear. We don't want to come too near in case we're sucked in and have to share it.”

Elizabeth Goudge (1900–1984) English fiction writer

Source: The Scent of Water

Fear, Thinking, Suffering

“Perfect love is the most beautiful of all frustrations because it is more than one can express.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Love, Beauty, Perfection

“Is it true, O Christ in heaven, that the highest suffer the most?
That the strongest wander furthest and most hopelessly are lost?
That the mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain?
That the anguish of the singer makes the sweetness of the strain?”

John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet

Pain, Nature, Suffering, Christ

“The most dangerous food is wedding cake.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

Food, Wedding

“The most important part of education — to teach the meaning of to know”

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist

in the scientific sense
The last statement in her notebook
Waiting on God (1950)

Education, Parting

“Everybody breaks sooner or later, Bob. Anyone can drown. Sometimes you see it. Most often, you
don’t because the body protects and the skin hides, so drowning doesn’t look like drowning and some
people scar so nicely. Take it from an expert.”

Ilsa J. Bick (1957) American writer

Source: Drowning Instinct

People

“Loving someone and having them love you back is the most precious thing in the world. It's what made it possible for me to go on…”

Nicholas Sparks book The Rescue

Judy McAden, Chapter 26, p. 314
Source: 2000s, The Rescue (2000)

Love, World

“I had some ambition. I meant everything to be different with me. I thought I had more strength and mastery. But the most terrible obstacles are such as nobody can see except oneself.”

George Eliot book Middlemarch

Source: Middlemarch

“No mother is ever, completely, a child's idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the other way around as well. But despite everything, we didn't do too badly by one another, we did as well as most.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Way, Idea

“My father told me once that the most important thing every man should know is what he would die for.”

Tana French book Faithful Place

Source: Faithful Place

“Most of us are called on to perform tasks far beyond what we believe we can do.”

Lloyd Alexander book The Book of Three

Author's Note
Source: The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968), Book I: The Book of Three (1964)
Context: Most of us are called on to perform tasks far beyond what we believe we can do. Our capabilities seldom match our aspirations, and we are often woefully unprepared. To this extent, we are all Assistant Pig-Keepers at heart.

“Most so called FAILURES are only temporary defeats”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Source: Law of Success: The 21st-Century Edition

Failure

“Most of the laugh tracks on television were recorded in the early 1950’s. These days, most of the people you hear laughing are dead.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 3
Context: The muffled thunder of dialogue comes through the walls, then a chorus of laughter. Then more thunder. Most of the laugh tracks on television were recorded in the early 1950s. These days, most of the people you hear laughing are dead.

People, Dead

“Reading has always been the largest and most irreplaceable pleasure for Vincent; reading about other people's successes and failures, joys and sufferings seemed to bury his own failures.”

Irving Stone book Lust for Life

Source: Lust for Life

People, Pleasure, Failure, Suffering

“People you knew when you were teenagers, the ones who saw your stupidest haircut and the most embarrassing things you've done in your life, and they still cared about you after all that: they're not replaceable, you know?”

Tana French book Broken Harbour

Source: Broken Harbour

Life, People

“Cleopatra stood at one of the most dangerous intersections in history; that of women and power. Clever women, Euripides had warned hundreds of years earlier, were dangerous.”

Stacy Schiff (1961) American female Author, Pulitzer Prize winner

Source: Cleopatra: A Life

Women, History

“It is the bliss of childhood that we are being warped most when we know it the least.”

William Gaddis book The Recognitions

Source: The Recognitions

Childhood

“The finest fury is the most controlled.”

Christopher Hitchens book Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

Source: Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

“But then, he thought, most politicians are small and shabby, the sort of people who have been bullied at school.

That's why they become politicians.”

Anthony Horowitz book Skeleton Key

Source: Skeleton Key

People, School

“Destiny is usually just around the corner. Like a thief, a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Home

“When you are young, there are many things which appear dull and lifeless. But as you get older, you will find these are the very things that are most important to you.”

Kazuo Ishiguro book An Artist of the Floating World

Source: An Artist of the Floating World

Appearance

“You will come to know things that can only be known with the wisdom of age and the grace of years. Most of those things will have to do with forgiveness.”

Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Source: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Wisdom, Age, Forgiveness

“Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Personality

“Most of humanity, he said, have eyes that are so caked shut with the dust of deception they will never see the truth, no matter who tries to help them.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Truth, Help

“I am not eccentric. It's just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of catfish.”

Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) British poet

People

“I can smell you,” he groaned against her ear as he ran his fangs up her throat. “The most beautiful thing in the world—except for your taste.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: The King

World, Beauty

“For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging

Faith, Courage, Christ

“Success is a function of persistence and doggedness and the willingness to work hard for twenty-two minutes to make sense of something that most people would give up on after thirty seconds.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

People, Sense, Success

“Rue, who when you ask her what she loves most in the world, replies, of all things, “Music.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Love, World, Music

“It was at once a miracle and the most natural thing in the world.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen

World, Nature

“Someone has to ask you a question," George continues meaningly, "before you can answer it. But it's so seldom you find anyone who'll ask the right questions. Most people aren't that much interested….”

Christopher Isherwood book A Single Man

Source: A Single Man

People, Question

“She's… just a girl, you know. Like most girls: something and nothing.”

Clive Barker book Abarat

Source: Abarat

Girl

“This is perhaps the most noble aim of poetry, to attach ourselves to the world around us, to turn desire into love, to embrace, finally what always evades us, what is beyond, but what is always there – the unspoken, the spirit, the soul.”

Octavio Paz (1914–1998) Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature

Source: The Other Voice: Essays on Modern Poetry

Love, World, Soul

“That's the most stupid expression in the world. 'I fell in love'—as if you had no choice. There's a moment, there's always a moment; I can do this, I can give in to this or I can resist it. I don't know when your moment was but I bet there was one.”

Patrick Marber Closer

Source: Closer

Love, Stupidity, World

“The one man you most want to sleep with may be the worst choice of all.”

Tess Gerritsen book Body Double

Source: Body Double

Sleep

“Writing the last page of the first draft is the most enjoyable moment in writing. It's one of the most enjoyable moments in life, period.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Life

“Fear is the most basic emotion we have. Fear is primal. Fear sells.”

Max Brooks book World War Z

Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Fear

“I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

People, Way

“It was strange, I reflected, as we went out into the golden evening of the Byzantine streets, that even in the weirdest circumstances, the most troubling episodes of one’s life, the greatest divides from home and familiarity, there were these moments of undeniable joy.”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Historian

Source: The Historian (2005), Ch. 37

Life, Home, Joy

“Let us be honest: most of us rather like our cats to have a streak of wickedness. I should not feel quite easy in the company of any cat that walked around the house with a saintly expression.”

Beverley Nichols (1898–1983) Author, playwright, journalist, composer

Source: Beverley Nichols' Cats' A Z

Feeling, Cats, Housing

“He meant the Kingdom was over, the Kingdom of Heaven, it was all finished. We shouldn’t live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.”

Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass

Lyra to Pan in Ch. 38 : The Botanic Garden
Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000)
Context: "I remember. He meant the Kingdom was over, the Kingdom of Heaven, it was all finished. We shouldn’t live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place."
"He said we had to build something…"
"That’s why we needed our full life, Pan... we wouldn’t have been able to build it. No one could if they put themselves first. We have to be all those difficult things like cheerful and kind and curious and patient, and we’ve got to study and think and work hard, all of us, in all our different worlds, and then we’ll build…"

Life, World

“Ravens are the birds I'll miss most when I die. If only the darkness into which we must look were composed of the black light of their limber intelligence. If only we did not have to die at all. Instead, become ravens.”

Louise Erdrich (1954) writer from the United States

Source: The Painted Drum

Intelligence, Bird, Light

“You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands - your own.”

Mark Victor Hansen (1948) American writer

Dreams, Thinking, Future, Personality

“Adina gave a little shriek. "That fish just swam past my leg! Creepy! Where did it go?"

"To your right! Two o'clock! Get it!"

"You are officially the most bloodthirsty vegetarian ever.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

Fish, Past

“The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all.”

Pablo Casals (1876–1973) Catalan cellist and conductor

Perfection

“Some people bring out the worst in you, others bring out the best, and then there are those remarkably rare, addictive ones who just bring out the most. Of everything.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

People

“May you walk a lighted path. May you fight for truth - your truth, not someone else's - and may you understand, above all things, that you are the most important concept, theory, and philosophy I have ever known.”

Marisha Pessl Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Source: Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Truth, Understanding, Light, Fight

“Statistics show that most mortals sell their souls for five reasons: sex, money, power, revenge, and love. In that order.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Blues

Love, Money, Sex, Soul

“One of the most difficult things he'd ever done was turn away and leave her standing in the shadows.”

Rachel Gibson (1961) American writer

Source: I'm In No Mood For Love

“.. the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: We commonly say in the trade that the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.
Source: Life of Pi

Animals

“The heart, like the mind, has a memory.
And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Memory, Heart

“The problem with most genre fantasy is that it's not nearly fantastic enough. It's escapist, but it can't escape.”

China Miéville (1972) English writer

Problem

“Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Men, Sense

“The vamp in McMann’s stared at me. I guess he didn’t like the Goth look. Most of them don’t; somehow they think I’m making fun of them.
Which I totally am.”

Rachel Caine book Glass Houses

Source: Glass Houses

Thinking

“Questioning the ostensibly unquestionable premises of our way of life is arguably the most urgent of services we owe our fellow humans and ourselves.”

Zygmunt Bauman book Globalizace: důsledky pro člověka

Source: Globalization: The Human Consequences

Life, Way, Question

“I comfort myself with the reflection that your wife will possibly be able to curb your desire--I admit, a natural one for the most part--to exterminate your fellows.”

Georgette Heyer book Devil's Cub

Source: Devil's Cub

Nature, Parting

“Will looked up in apparent relief when Charlotte and Tessa came in. "Will," Charlotte said, "You remember Miss Gray?"
"My recollection of her," said Will, "is most vivid indeed.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“Because most Christians want it both ways. They want to be able to proudly declare they are believers in the Bible and yet simply ignore those parts they find too difficult or too inconvenient to believe.”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

Way, Parting

“People learned to live with the
most unimaginable things.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

People, Learning

“Confront a corpse at least once. The absolute absence of life is the most disturbing and challenging confrontation you will ever have.
David Bowie”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Life

“A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Soul, Tear, Personality, love

“Good sense is the most equitably distributed of all things because no matter how much or little a person has, everyone feels so abundantly provided with good sense that he feels no desire for more than he already possesses.”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

Feeling, Sense, Personality

“Most of the time I don't have much fun. The rest of the time I don't have any fun at all.”

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

Time

“For if there is ever a moment when we are most vulnerable, it’s when we’re closest to the idea of the attained desire, and thus farthest from ourselves, which is when we’ll tread through any flame.”

Chang-rae Lee (1965) Novelist

Source: On Such a Full Sea

Idea

“Disinterested love for all living creatures, the most noble attribute of man.”

Charles Darwin book The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

volume I, chapter III: "Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals — continued", page 105 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=118&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image The Descent of Man (1871)

Love