Quotes about most
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“The things that are most precious to us are sometimes the most secret.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Perfect Scoundrels

“The most decisive actions of our life — I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future — are, more often than not, unconsidered.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Les Faux Monnayeurs (1925), Pt. 3, ch. 16

Life, Decision, Future

“It's a good thing most people bleed on the inside or this would be a gory, blood-smeared earth.”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Source: Go Ask Alice

People

“If there's something you really want to believe, that's what you should question the most.”

Penn Jillette (1955) American magician

Question

“I hated to leave her and I hated to
be near her,
because she made me remember what I wanted most to forget.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Hate, Forgetting

“Nobody dares to solve the problems-because the solution might contradict your philosophy, and for most people clinging to beliefs is more important than succeeding in the world.”

Michael Crichton book State of Fear

Source: State of Fear

People, World, Problem

“most of all, I learned that it's possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there's been a lifetime of disappointment between them.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Wedding

Wilson Lewis, Epilogue, p. 262-263
Variant: But most of all, I learned that it’s possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there’s been a lifetime of disappointment between them.
Source: 2000s, The Wedding (2003)
Context: The events of the past year have taught me much about myself, and a few universal truths. I learned, for instance, that while wounds can be inflicted easily upon those we love, it's often much more difficult to heal them. Yet the process of healing those wounds provided the richest experience of my life, leading me to believe that while I've often overestimated what I could accomplish in a day, I had underestimated what I could do in a year. But most of all, I learned that it's possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there's been a lifetime of disappointment between them.

Love, People, Disappointment, Learning

“You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. You see what is, where most people see what they expect.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

People

“The thing I am most afraid of is love. When you say you love someone you are giving them license to hurt you.”

Dorothy Koomson (1971) British writer

Source: The Rose Petal Beach

Love, Hurt

“To Thetis,
Long overdue, I know, but every often the things we most desire come only after much patience and struggle. That is a human truth, I think. Even Peleus knew that.
-Seth”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Blues

Truth, Thinking, Patience

“The bravest and most noble are not those who take up arms, but those who are decent despite everything; who improve what it is in their power to improve, but do not imagine themselves to be saviours. In their humble struggle is true heroism.”

Theodore Dalrymple (1949) English doctor and writer

Imagination

“Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.”

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

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Money, People, Funny, Back To Work

“Most good things come with the risk of something bad.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Blues

“The simplest questions are the most profound.
Where were you born?
Where is your home?
Where are you going?
What are you doing?
Think about these once in awhile, and watch your answers change.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)

Home, Question, Thinking, Change

“No one would have ever guessed that seven of the world's most talented teenagers were coming to the Henley that day for an entirely different sort of lesson.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

World

“Valkyrie, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your friend is most likely dead.”
“Of course he’s dead. He’s a skeleton.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Dark Days

Hate, Dead

“I've made the most important discovery of my life. It's only in the mysterious equation of love that any logic or reasons can be found.”

Sylvia Nasar book A Beautiful Mind

Source: A Beautiful Mind

Love, Life

“Percy is the most powerful demigod I've ever met. No offense to you guys but it's true.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Guy

“The most Beautiful people are the ones that don't look like one race or even one sex”

Francesca Lia Block (1962) American children's writer

People, Beauty, Sex

“In the world of business, the people who are most successful are those who are doing what they love.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Love, People, World, Business

“You can call it innocence, or you can call it gullibility, but Celia made the most common mistake of the good-hearted: she assumed that everyone else was just like her.”

Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin

Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Heart

“Most people are lucky to have even one great love in their life. You have found two.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Love, Life, People

“I look hot and, most of all, skinny. I love the day after throwing up. I felt like a feather.”

Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host

Source: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

Love

“Tell the world what scares you most. Save the world with some advice from the future.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

World, Future

“It's just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn't it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.”

John Grogan (1958) American journalist

Source: Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog

Love, People, Dogs

“Raising children is, in a sense, the reason the society exists in the first place. It's the most important thing that happens, and it's the culmination of all the tools and language and social structure that has evolved.”

Michael Crichton book The Lost World

Source: The Lost World

Children, Sense

“The most ordinary things could be made extraordinary.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One

Variant: Even the most ordinary things can be made extraordinary simply by doing it with the right people.
Source: The Lucky One

Friendship

“You are the finest, loveliest, tenderest, and most beautiful person I have ever known—and even that is an understatement.”

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

Beauty, Personality, Missing You, Good Night

“The things she most wanted to tell him would lose their meaning the moment she put them into words.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

“We always see our worst selves. Our most vulnerable selves. We need someone else to get close enough to tell us we’re wrong. Someone we trust.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

“The very people you trusted most could become like strangers in their longing…”

Lynne Reid Banks (1929) British writer

Source: The Secret of the Indian

People

“Love is the one thing in this world that you should never have to go through alone… For unreciprocated love is the most soul crushing experience you will ever go through.”

Ben Mitchell (1978) New Zealand actor

Love, World, Soul

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in”

Morrie Schwartz (1916–1995) American sociologist

Source: Morrie: In His Own Words

Love, Life, Learning, Deep

“Treasures:
The most important thing you leave behind is the stuff that turns into treasures when children find it.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Children

“Most men have no purpose but to exist, Abraham; to pass quietly through history as minor characters upon a stage they cannot even see”

Seth Grahame-Smith (1976) US fiction author

Source: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Men, History

“It answers the question that was tormenting you: my love, you are not 'one thing in my life' - not even the most important - because my life no longer belongs to me because… you are always me.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Love, Life, Question

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)

Love, Life, Learning, Deep

“Most people call it The Book of the Dead,” he told me. “Rich Egyptians were always buried with a copy, so they could have directions through the Duat to the Land of the Dead. It’s like an Idiot’s Guide to the Afterlife.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

People, Books, Dead

“Nothing?" Favonius cried. "The one you care for most… plunged into Tartarus, and you still will not allow the truth?"

Suddenly Jason felt like he was eavedropping.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Truth

“Therapist’s dilemma: those who need help the most, run the farthest from it.”

Jonathan Kellerman (1949) novelist, psychologist

Source: Time Bomb

Help

“… the older I get, the more I believe that if love is to be judged by most of its visible effects, it looks more like hatred than friendship.”

Paul Hoffman book The Left Hand of God

Source: The Left Hand of God

Love, Friendship

“To be kissed on the lips by your husband is the most decadent thing.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Kiss

“But it's not enough to know right from wrong. You need the strength to do what's right, even when what you want most in the world is the wrong thing.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Exiled Queen

World

“The most sensible thing to do to people you hate is to drink their brandy.”

Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) British-American actress

Source: A View of the Harbour

Hate, People, Drink

“The most painful state of being is remembering the future, particularly the one you'll never have.”

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

Pain, Future

“Stories," he'd said, his voice low and almost husky, "we are made up of stories. And even the ones that seem the most like lies can be our deepest hidden truths.”

Jane Yolen book Briar Rose

Source: Briar Rose

Truth

“Most lead lives at worst so painful, at best so monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, the longing to transcend themselves if only for a few moments, is and has always been one of the principle appetites of the soul.”

Aldous Huxley book The Doors of Perception

Source: The Doors of Perception

Pain, Soul

“My ability to persuade my wife to marry me [was] quite my most brilliant achievement …”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

As cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 511,
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Context: My ability to persuade my wife to marry me [was] quite my most brilliant achievement … Of course, it would have been impossible for any ordinary man to have got through what I had to go through in peace and war without the devoted aid of what we call, in England, one’s better half.

“Experience can dull. With most men experience is a series of mistakes; the more experience you have the less you know.”

Charles Bukowski book Notes of a Dirty Old Man

Source: Notes of a Dirty Old Man

Men

“The truth is that most of life will unfold in accordance with forces far outside your control, regardless of what your mind says about it.”

Michael Singer (1945) American landscape architect

Source: The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

Life, Truth

“A man with no philosophy in him is the most inauspicious and unprofitable of all possible social mates.”

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

“The human being is a most curious creature. He thinks he has got one
soul, and he has got dozens.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Soul, Thinking

“I'm Galladon, from the sovereign realm of Duladel.
I'm most recently from Elantris, land of sludge, insanity, and eternal perdition. Nice to meet you.”

Brandon Sanderson Elantris

Source: Elantris

“what matters most is how well you walk through the fire”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Moving On

“Those who hate most fervently must have once loved deeply; those who want to deny the world must have once embraced what they now set on fire.”

Kurt Tucholský (1890–1935) German-Jewish journalist, satirist and writer

Love, Hate, World

“Always remember that the most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness, but stability.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Marriage, Happiness

“The parties with the most gain never show up on the battlefield.”

Naomi Klein (1970) Canadian author and activist

Source: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (2007)

“It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

“The Buddhists say there are 121 states of consciousness. Of these, only three involve misery or suffering. Most of us spend our time moving back and forth between these three.”

Jenny Offill book Dept. of Speculation

Source: Dept. of Speculation

Suffering, Time

“When we are most alone is when we embrace another's loneliness.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Time Keeper

Loneliness

“The scariest, most terrifying thing that I fear?"
Yes."
My Imagination."
I thought you were going to say "Fear, itself."
Then you have a small imagination."
Roland and Eddie”

Stephen King The Dark Tower

Source: The Dark Tower

Fear, Imagination

“To try to understand another human being, to grapple for his ultimate depths, that is the most dangerous of human endeavors.”

Irving Stone book The Agony and the Ecstasy

Source: The Agony and the Ecstasy

Understanding

“It‘s funny how, when things seem the darkest, moments of beauty present themselves in the most unexpected places.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Dreamfever

Beauty

“Yawns are not the only infectious things out there besides germs.

Giggles can spread from person to person.

So can blushing.

But maybe the most powerful infectious thing is the act of speaking the truth.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Truth, Personality

“This is what happens. You tell your friends your most personal secrets, and they use them against you.”

Sophie Kinsella book Shopaholic Ties the Knot

Source: Shopaholic Ties the Knot

Secret, Personality

“My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.”

Elmore Leonard (1925–2013) American novelist and screenwriter

Source: Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing

Parting

“My mind has been the most discontented and restless one that ever was put into a body too small for it.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

“Everybody's afraid of love, because love is what hurts the most.”

Sharon Shinn book Archangel

Source: Archangel

Love, Hurt

“The real alchemy consists in being able to turn gold back again into something else; and that's the secret that most of your friends have lost.”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

Secret

“most people are perfectly afraid of silence”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

People, Silence

“I think the most un-American thing you can say is, “You can't say that.””

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

As quoted in The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Democrats (2006) by Martin Higgins, p. 171, and The Nastiest Things Ever Said About Republicans (2006) by Martin Higgins, p. 204

Thinking

“There was a lot they didn’t tell you about death, she had discovered, and one of the biggies was how long it took the ones you loved most to die in your heart.”

Stephen King book Lisey's Story

Source: Lisey's Story

Love, Death, Heart