Quotes about naming
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“Achilles weeps. He cradles me, and will not eat, nor speak a word other than my name.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

“You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Parent

“The oldest emotion in the world may be that of being moved; but to describe it-just to name it-must have been like trying to catch something invisible.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

World

“You were in my arms for the first time, and you said my name, 'Tristan.'
I answered you: 'Isolde.'
Isolde. The world became a word.”

Jeanette Winterson book Lighthousekeeping

Source: Lighthousekeeping

World, Time

“I have named you queen.
There are taller than you, taller.
There are purer than you, purer.
There are lovelier than you, lovelier.
But you are the queen.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

“People who really appreciated animals always asked their names.”

Lilian Jackson Braun book The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern

Source: The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern

People, Animals

“Humility is my table, respect is my garment, empathy is my food and curiosity is my drink. As for love, it has a thousand names and is by my side at every window.”

Tariq Ramadan (1962) Swiss muslim scholar

Source: The Quest for Meaning: Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism

Love, Food, Drink

“It's never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn't hurt you.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Pt.1, ch.11
Atticus Finch
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Thinking, Hurt, Personality

“Sometimes when I'm alone, I take the pearl from where it lives in my pocket and try to remember the boy with the bread, the strong arms that warded off nightmares on the train, the kisses in the arena. To make myself put a name to the thing I've lost. But what's the use? It's gone. He's gone. Whatever existed between us is gone. All that's left is my promise to kill Snow. I tell myself this ten times a day.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (p. 195)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)

Boy, Kiss, Strong, Time

“Do you know what it means to be loved by Death?… Do you know what it means to have Death know your name?”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

Love, Death

“Researchers from Britain's Keele University have found that swearing after an injury may help alleviate pain. Evidently, the pain that you feel is inversely proportional to the number of middle names you give Jesus.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Pain, Feeling, Universe, Help

“Not that my regularly scheduled life was so great, but it beat getting judged unworthy by twelve bearded guys named Erik.”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Life, Guy

“Every student, Shadowhunter and mundane alike, knew the name Herondale. It was Jace’s last name. It was the name of heroes.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Lost Herondale

“My name is Stephen Leeds, and I am perfectly sane. My hallucinations, however, are all quite mad.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: Legion

Madness

“What’s your name, then?
”Tessa looked at him in disbelief. “What’s my name?”
“Don’t you know it?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Variant: Tessa looked at him in disbelief. "what's my name?"

"don't you know it?
Source: Clockwork Angel

“I have neither curiosity, interest, pain nor pleasure, in anything, good or evil, they can say of me. I feel only a slight disgust, and a sort of wonder that they presume to write my name.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

Pain, Pleasure, Feeling, Evil

“Do you know my dog's name?
[…]
"It is from an ancient word, kerberos. It means 'spotted.'"

I blinked. "You're a genuine Greek god. You're the Lord of the Underworld. And… you named your dog *Spot*?”

Jim Butcher book Skin Game

Source: Skin Game

God, Dogs

“One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.”

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"

Source: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter VII: "Instinct", page 244 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=262&itemID=F373&viewtype=image <br class="br">Source: The Origin of Species

Law

“Life is not a matter of creating a special name for ourselves, but of uncovering the name we have always had.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self

Life

“As for monkeys, I would have five, and they would be named: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, Do Pretty Much Whatever The Hell You Want, and Expensive Attorney.”

Tad Williams (1957) novelist

Hell, Evil

“He had tattooed all of the names of the men he had killed on his body… unfortunately he had run out of room.”

Anthony Horowitz book Scorpia Rising

Source: Scorpia Rising

Men, Tattoo

“If someone's ungrateful and you tell him he's ungrateful, okay, you've called him a name. You haven't solved anything.”

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

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

“His eyes were eggs of unstable crystal, vibrating with a frequency whose name was rain and the sound of trains, suddenly sprouting a humming forest of hair-fine glass spines.”

William Gibson book Neuromancer

Source: Neuromancer

Training

“You all right, man?'
This should be my name. I could be like a super hero: You All Right Man.
Ah…' I stumble.
Don't bug Craig,' Ronny is like. 'He's in the Craig zone. He's Craig-ing out.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

“I guessed his name was Face of Horror. I wondered how long it had taken his mom to think of that. Bob? No. Sam? No. How about Face of Horror?”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Moms, Thinking

“The Eskimo has fifty-two names for snow because it is important to them; there ought to be as many for love.”

Margaret Atwood book Surfacing

Surfacing (1972) p. 107 <br class="br">The premise for this quote is now known to be a linguistic myth stemming from the early 20th century work of Franz Boas. This quote by Atwood has been cited as an example of the perpetuation of this myth https://books.google.ca/books/about/White_Lies_about_the_Inuit.html?id=i-osjdNH3g8C. <br class="br">Variant: The Eskimos had 52 names for snow because it was important to them; there ought to be as many for love.

Love

“When I break into the clearing, she's on the ground, hopelessly entangled in a net. She just has the time to reach her hand through the mesh and say my name before the spear enters her body.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Time

“I believe in such cartography – to be marked by nature, not just label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books…. All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps.”

Michael Ondaatje book The English Patient

Source: The English Patient

Women, Men, Books, History

“Sticks and stones can break your bones, but names can kill you.”

Philip G. Zimbardo book The Lucifer Effect

Source: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

“If you're going into a very dark place, then you should take a bright light, and shine it on everything. If you don't want to see, why in God's name would you dare the dark at all?”

Stephen King book Full Dark, No Stars

Source: Full Dark, No Stars

God, Light

“Only you," he said, so softly I could barely hear him. "To worship ye with my body, give ye all the service of my hands. To give ye my name, and all my heart and soul with it. Only you. Because ye will not let me lie--and yet ye love me.”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

Love, Lie, Soul, Heart

“Magnus's eyes went back to Alec. They were gold-green, as unreadable as the eyes of the cat he held on his lap. "Not my favorite topic, Smedley."
"Simon", said Simon. "If I'm going to die for you all, the least you could do is remember my name.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Cats

“They want to be tied up, I tie them up. They want to be spanked, I spank them. They want to be called names, I call them names. But try and drink a little of their blood, and they scream like babies. What about my needs?”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Drink, Baby

“Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame; Each to his passion; what's in a name?”

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–1885) Novelist, poet, writer, activist

Passion, Bee

“Just because you didn't put a name to something did not mean it wasn't there.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

“Great to know that I'm in love with a girl with a cool name."
"It's Taylor's middle name”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Love, Girl

“I can't believe you know someone named Freaky Pete," said Simon.
"I know alot of people," said Luke. "Not that Freaky Pete is strictly people, but I'm hardly one to talk.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

People

“I wanted you to stop.” “I was encouraged by you breathlessly moaning my name.” I spun on my foot. “I wasn’t moaning your name. I was shrieking in alarm.” “That was the sexiest throaty shrieking I’ve ever heard.” “You need to get out more.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

“That suit has gone to your head."
"It's not the suit, buttercup."
"I don't do pet names."
"Do you do werewolves?"
"Okay, I'm not talking to you anymore.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Clean Sweep

“Naruto: I bet you're dying to know my name!
Gaara: I couldn't care less.”

Masashi Kishimoto book Naruto

“Names have power.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

“You can curse the dead or pray for them, but don't expect them to do a thing for you. They're far too interested in watching us, to see what in heaven's name we will do next.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Dead

“Someday I'd change my name to Shut Up and save everybody a lot of time.”

Jonathan Lethem Motherless Brooklyn

Source: Motherless Brooklyn

Change, Time

“It was a year for the ages, like 79, like 1346, to name just a few. Forget the scythe, Goddamn it, I needed a broom or a mop. And I needed a vacation.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Age, Forgetting

“If Jesus came back and saw what was being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.”

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

Source: Hannah and Her Sisters

“Hallowed be thy name, oh Lord -- and shotgun do your stuff”

Joe R. Lansdale (1951) American novelist, short story writer, martial arts instructor

“Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)
Context: Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest external horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.
Context: For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest external horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.

Way, Help

“Until one comes who is mightier,
The one sprung from misery,
The one who was weak,
The one who was hunted,
The one marked with claw and vine,
The one named in secret,
The one called Jezelia.”

Mary E. Pearson book The Kiss of Deception

Source: The Kiss of Deception

Secret

“My lips are just forming his name when his fingers lock around my throat.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“Are you a princess? I said & she said I'm much more than a princess, but you don't have a name for it yet here on earth.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Princess

“My name is David Charleston.
I kill people with super powers.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: Firefight

People

“If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: Essays, Letters and Miscellanies

Men, God

“The sound of my name in his voice stopped me in midturn. I don't know how the hell he did it, but whenever he said my name, it cut through all other distractions and made me pause, as if he'd clenched me to him and kissed me.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Hell, Kiss

“An object is not so attached to its name that we cannot find another one that would suit it better.”

René Magritte (1898–1967) Belgian surrealist artist

“Strygalldwir is my name. Conjure with it and I will eat your heart and liver."

"Conjure with it? I can't even pronounce it, and my cirrhosis would give you indigestion.”

Roger Zelazny book The Guns of Avalon

Source: The Guns of Avalon

Heart

“My chest hurts… It hurts. The sound of his name is like a knife in my heart.”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Heart, Hurt

“Poetry, the best of it, is lunar and is concerned with the essential insanities. Journalism is solar (there are numerous newspapers named The Sun, none called The Moon) and is devoted to the inessential.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker

Sun

“If you can not answer a man's argument, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

“Confound my genteel upbringing! I could not think of any name foul enough to call him.”

Nancy Springer (1948) American author of fantasy, young adult literature, mystery, and science fiction

Source: The Case of the Left-Handed Lady

Thinking

“Our love was born
outside the walls,
in the wind,
in the night,
in the earth,
and that's why the clay and the flower,
the mud and the roots
know your name.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Love, Flowers, Night

“The pounding music, the cheers, the admiration work their way into my blood, and I can’t suppress my excitement. Cinna has given me a great advantage. No one will forget me. Not my look, not my name. Katniss. The girl who was on fire.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Music, Way, Girl, Forgetting

“The names of persons and living creatures demand respect, because when we speak to them we touch their heart and become a part of thier life force.”

Isabel Allende book The Stories of Eva Luna

Source: The Stories of Eva Luna

Life, Heart, Parting, Personality

“I'm going to be so normal that when people look up normal in the dictionary, my name will be there.”

Wendy Mass A Mango-Shaped Space

Source: A Mango-Shaped Space

People

“When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of Hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay.”

Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017) British science fiction author

Quoted in the Manchester Guardian (31 December 1977), and Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations (1988) https://web.archive.org/web/20000709051930/http://www.bartleby.com/63/90/4790.html edited by James B. Simpson; Says Who?: A Guide To The Quotations Of The Century (1988) by Jonathon Green, p. 17 http://books.google.com/books?id=xUwOAQAAMAAJ&q=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&dq=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KZO4U_WwFJSlqAaquoKoCg&ved=0CK0BEOgBMBk and The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1989), p. 45 http://books.google.com/books?id=bs0J36MpieIC&pg=PA45&dq=%22When+childhood+dies,+its+corpses+are+called+adults%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KZO4U_WwFJSlqAaquoKoCg&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22When%20childhood%20dies%2C%20its%20corpses%20are%20called%20adults%22&f=false

Love, Children, Hell, Childhood

“In the end we had the pieces of the puzzle, but no matter how we put them together, gaps remained, oddly shaped emptinesses mapped by what surrounded them, like countries we couldn't name.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Virgin Suicides

Source: The Virgin Suicides

Country

“Because that was some mega tense awkwardness, a real 'Hello my name is Ever and I'll be your next stalker' kind of moment…”

Alyson Nöel book Evermore

Source: Evermore

“Let me tell something, seeing your name and psychiatric ward on the same piece of paper isn't the best way to start your day.”

Michael Thomas Ford (1968) American writer

Source: Suicide Notes

Way

“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Money, Future

“Every name is real. That's the nature of names.”

Jerry Spinelli book Stargirl

Source: Stargirl

Nature

“The Good Fight is the one that we fight in the name of our dreams.”

Paulo Coelho book The Pilgrimage

Source: The Pilgrimage

Dreams, Fight

“Let his name be cleared and everyone else adjust their thinking. He had put in time, now they must do the work. His business was simple. Find Cecilia and love her, marry her and live without shame.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Love, Business, Thinking, Time

“All was shattered, and all but memory lost, and one memory above all others, of him who brought the Shadow and the Breaking of the World. And him they named Dragon.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

World, Memory

“Yup, believe it: I was born on March 28, yet my name is April.”

Sarah Mlynowski (1977) Novelist

Source: Ten Things We Did

“And enough for me that when my hand touched your shoulder, you leaned on me; and when you felt me slip away, you called my name.”

Orson Scott Card book Children of the Mind

Source: Children of the Mind

“they walked with a pedatory grace…. one of them ripped off their hood and said, "my name is Tally Youngblood and is a special circumstance"….”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

“So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So… get on your way!”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Way, Mountain, Waiting

“Your name's longer'n you are.”

Harper Lee (1926–2016) American author

“If you look at it from any other side, it looks like a pile of enormous deer droppings, but Chiron wouldn't let us call the place the Poop Pile, especially after it had been named for Zeus, who doesn't have much of a sense of humor.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Sense

“Everyone thinks I named my cat Mango because of his orange eyes, but that's not the case. I named him Mango because the sounds of his purrs and his wheezes and his meows are all various shades of yellow-orange.”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Cats, Thinking

“You are safe," he said firmly. "You have my name and my family, my clan, and if necessary, the protection of my body as well. The man willna lay hands on ye again, while I live.”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Source: Outlander

Family

“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

God

“How folks lay claim to a loved one is they give you a name of their own. They figure to label you as their property.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

Love

“I am known by many names, but you may call me… Tim.”

Graham Chapman (1941–1989) English comedian, writer and actor

Source: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Book): Mønti Pythøn Ik Den Hølie Gräilen

“To love is to undress our names.”

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

Love

“The phone rang in the comm. center. Ian consulted the monitor. "It's Dan." He pressed a button. "Kabra here."
Dan's voice crackled through the attic. "Don't say it like that," he complained. "Your name still gives me heartburn.”

Gordon Korman book The Medusa Plot

Source: The Medusa Plot

“God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

God, Books

“The news just came in from the County of Keck
That a very small bug by the name of Van Vleck
Is yawning so wide you can look down his neck.
This may not seem very important, I know, but it
Is, so I'm bothering telling you so.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

“All she heard next of the strange conversation behind the sofa was Mrs. Pendragon saying something about sending Twinkle (or was his name Howl?) to bed without supper and Twinkle daring her to 'jutht TRY it.”

Diana Wynne Jones House of Many Ways

Source: House of Many Ways

“God created me—and you—to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion—namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life.”

John Piper (1946) American writer

Source: Don't Waste Your Life

Life, God, Passion

“Suicide is not a blot on anyone’s name; it is a tragedy”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Source: Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide

Suicide

“My name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. My home is District 12. I was in the Hunger Games. I escaped. The Capitol hates me……..”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (pp. 8)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: My Name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old. My home is District 12. I was in The Hunger Games. I escaped. The Capitol hates me. Peeta was taken prisoner. He is thought to be dead. Most likely he is dead. It is probably best if he is dead...

Hunger, Hate, Home, Game

“I'd had years of practise looking dumb when people threw out Greek names I didn't know. It's a skill of mine. Annabeth keeps telling me to read a book of Greek myths, but I don't see the need. It's easier just to have folks explain stuff.”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Diaries

Variant: Cacus.” I’d had years of practice looking dumb when people threw out Greek names I didn’t know. It’s a skill of mine. Annabeth keeps telling me to read a book of Greek myths, but I don’t see the need. It’s easier just to have folks explain stuff.
Source: The Demigod Diaries

People, Books, Reading