Quotes about need
page 18

“I always pushed myself. Whenever I felt I needed to stop, I made myself run faster.”

Source: A Place Called Here

“It's nonverbal: I need love. I need the thing that happens when your brain shuts off and your heart turns on. And I know it's around me somewhere, but I just can't feel it.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

Love, Feeling, Heart

“Break the glass, please, and free us from all these damned rules, from needing to find an explanation for everything, from doing only what others approve of.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“You don’t need to control emotion,” he said. “Emotions are natural, like passing weather. Sometimes it’s fear, sometimes sorrow or anger. Emotions are not the problem. The key is to transform the energy of emotion into constructive action.”

Dan Millman book Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Source: Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Fear, Nature, Problem, Weather

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

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

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

Hell

“I, too, am beginning to feel an immense need to become a savage and create a new world.”

August Strindberg (1849–1912) Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter

World, Feeling

“Sin is the result of deep and unmet needs.”

Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from
scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who
have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve
our goals.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

People, Learning, Success

“Everything we need to know is locked up in your head, under those pretty red curls."
Clary reached up to touch her hair protectively. "I dont think-"
"So what are you going to do?" Simon asked sharply. "Cut her head open to get at it?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Thinking

“To an untrained eye, need and love were as easily mistaken for each other as the real master's painting and a forgery.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

Love, Painting

“When a sense of dissatisfaction persists, that means it was placed there by God for one reason only: you need to change everything and move forward.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

God, Sense, Change

“Need some help?' he asked.
'Yes!' I yelled at him 'Help us!'
'What's the magic word?'
'Now!'
'Close enough.”

Michelle Rowen (1971) Canadian writer

Source: Dark Kiss

Help

“Laugh all you want. I know my own worth and don't need to prove it to someone who doesn't know theirs.”

Terry Goodkind Faith of the Fallen

Source: Faith of the Fallen

“It was mortifying to find how strong the habit of idle speech may become in one’s self. One need not always be saying something in this noisy world.”

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909) American novelist, short story writer and poet

Source: The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories

World, Strong

“My earbuds were in, but I wasn't playing music. I needed to hear the world but didn't want the world to know I was listening.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

Variant: I needed to hear the world but didn't want the world to know I was listening.
Source: The Impossible Knife of Memory

World, Music

“There was no answer, except the general answer life gives to all the most complex and insoluble questions. That answer is: one must live for the needs of the day, in other words, become oblivious. To become oblivious in dreams was impossible now, at least till night-time; it was impossible to return to that music sung by carafe-women; and so one had to become oblivious in the dreams of life.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Pt. 1, ch. 2
Source: Anna Karenina (1875–1877; 1878)

Life, Women, Dreams, Music

“We need a Napoleon. An Alexander. Except that Napoleon lost in the end, and Alexander flamed out and died young. We need a Julius Caesar, except that he made himself a dictator, and died for it.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

“When you have wisdom that another person knows that he needs, you give it freely. But when the other person doesn't yet know that he needs your wisdom you keep it to yourself. Food only looks good to a hungry man.”

Orson Scott Card book Xenocide

Source: Xenocide

Wisdom, Food, Personality

“That was the problem with loving people: it made you weak. It made you need them. It made the thought of not having them the worst thing in the world.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Flirt

Source: Flirt

Love, People, World, Problem

“Yes, but you need to learn your maths."
"I don't need to, really. I already know how to count to a hundred. And I'm sure I'll never need ore than a hundred of anything.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Love in the Afternoon

Learning

“And in the end, I lost him. I did it on purpose, the way Garance lost
Baptiste in the crowd. I needed to be alone, I felt. I wanted to be going on alone to my future.”

Susanna Kaysen (1948) American writer

Way, Future

“The cookie maker needs someone to look out for him.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: A Perfect Blood

“And sometimes drunk women aren't raped; they just make stupid choices--and to say we deserve special treatment when we're drunk because we're women, to say we need to be, I find offensive.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

Women, Stupidity

“Just remember that Dumbo didn't need the feather; the magic was in him.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Sometimes we know in our bones what we really need to do, but we're afraid to do it. Taking a chance and stepping beyond the safety of the world we've always known is the only way to grow, though and without risk there is no reward.”

Wil Wheaton (1972) American actor and writer

Source: Just a Geek: Unflinchingly honest tales of the search for life, love, and fulfillment beyond the Starship Enterprise

World, Way, Chance

“(…): Oh, David, I would trust you with my life! Oh, Jonathan, I would sacrifice my own life for your holy mission! (He almost does): (weeping) David, you must return to me! I need you! I cannot do this thing without you!: Lo, I return!”

Cassandra Clare book The Shadowhunter's Codex

Source: The Shadowhunter's Codex

Life

“Indeed, the human mind appeared to suffer from a crippling need to fabricate in the absence of concrete proof.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Mine

Suffering, Appearance

“I said, “I need to hear something that’s going to save my life.”

Re: Selecting songs from a jukebox.”

Michael Chabon book Wonder Boys

Source: Wonder Boys

Life

“Don't let anyone take care of you. Can you maybe leave that for me to do? I mean, take care of you? Feel free to take care of me in return… because I think I'll need you to do that.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: The Piper's Son

Feeling, Thinking

“I invited myself. Thought this table needed some class.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

“There is a longing for a return to a time without the need for choices, free of the regret at the inevitable loss that all choice (however wonderful) has entailed.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: On Love

Loss, Time

“They don't really pay attention to me, except when they need my blood or something. I wouldn't even be alive, if it wasn't for Kate being sick.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

“Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”

Bertolt Brecht book Life of Galileo

Scene 12, p. 115
Variant translations: Pity the country that needs heroes.
Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes
Source: Andrea: Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero.
Galileo: No, Andrea: Unhappy is the land that needs a hero. [Unglücklich das Land, das Helden nötig hat. ]

“He has no right to threaten my boyfriends. I'm eighteen. An adult. I don't need his help. I can threaten my boyfriends myself.”

Richelle Mead book Spirit Bound

Source: Spirit Bound

Help

“Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's very beautiful. But what would they nourish their intimate talk with? However contemptible the world may be, they still need it to be able to talk together.”

Milan Kundera book Identity

Pg 82
Identity (1998)

Love, People, World, Beauty

“You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Question, Personality

“He sometimes wondered if she had become involved with him just so that she could cry in someone's arms. Maybe she can't cry alone, and that's why she needs me.”

Haruki Murakami book Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Cry

“Yeah, well, I guess I feel like all of us misfits need to hang together. At least that way we don't swing along. (Tabitha)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Seize the Night

Way, Feeling

“She knew that even pain can be confessed, but to confess happiness is to stand naked, delivered to the witness, yet they could let each other see it without the need of protection.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Pain, Happiness

“I read once that you need two things to be happy: any two of health, money, and love. You can cover the absense of one with the other two… But now I realized this was unmitigated bullshit, because health and money did not compare with love at all.”

Max Barry book Machine Man

Source: Machine Man

Love, Money, Happiness, Health

“If one's actions are honest, one does not need the predated confidence of others.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Confidence

“I need to write. It keeps me focused for long enough to complete thoughts. To let each train of thought run to its conclusion and let a new one begin. It keeps me thinking. I’m afraid that if I stop writing I’ll stop thinking and start feeling.”

Carrie Fisher book The Princess Diarist

Source: The Princess Diarist

Feeling, Thinking, Training

“A well-thought-out story doesn’t need to resemble real life. Life itself tries with all its might to resemble a well-crafted story.”

Isaac Babel (1894–1940) Russian language journalist, playwright, literary translator, and short story writer

Life

“Quit being so hard on yourself. We are what we are; we love what we love. We don't need to justify it to anyone… not even to ourselves.”

Scott Lynch book The Republic of Thieves

Source: The Republic of Thieves

Love

“I know it's important to do more than just complain when there's something you don't like. You need to try to do something about it, or you're nothing but a whiner.”

Jean Ferris (1939–2015) American children's writer

Source: Twice Upon a Marigold

“This is to assuage our conscience, darling" she would explain to Blanca. "But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need charity; they need justice.”

Isabel Allende book The House of the Spirits

Source: The House of the Spirits

Justice, Help

“These are the multiple shadows because there were a lot of things she walked away from without a word of explanation when she was younger & she still thinks about them more than she needs to.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Trusting Soul

Thinking

“If it would benefit you, I would kill every wolf here. But there are things that you need to do -- and interfering with that is not protecting, not in my book. The best way for me to protect you is to encourage you to be able to protect yourself.”

Patricia Briggs book Hunting Ground

Source: Hunting Ground

Books, Way, Wolf

“When you don't know where you're going, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to have more than you need.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

“I need a boy who thinks with his big head, not his little one. Since they do not exist, I have fashioned my own.”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

Boy, Fashion, Thinking

“You need to know things the others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself.”

Don DeLillo Point Omega

Source: Point Omega

“First you find out what you have, Dad would say. Then you figure out how to make it work for what you need, 'cause you don't get what you want. You get just what you have and no more.”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Source: Betrayals

“What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Silence

“I glanced up to see Liz and smiled. "Thank you."

"I just went along for the ride. After that happened-" She waved at Derek. "You know how blind people need Seeing Eye dogs? Well, apparently werewolves could really use Opening Door poltergeists.”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

People, Smile, Dogs

“… we all must admit that everything is fine and there's no need in the world to worry, and in fact we should realize what it would mean to us to UNDERSTAND that we're not REALLY worried about ANYTHING.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

World, Understanding

“Even friends need private spaces, if only within the depths of their own souls, where no one else is allowed to intrude.”

Mary Balogh (1944) Welsh-Canadian novelist

Source: Simply Magic

Soul

“I needed to know that there was such a thing as love and that it brought smiles and joy in its wake.”

Elie Wiesel book Dawn

Source: Dawn

Love, Smile, Joy

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.”

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

Reading

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people, some of the time, but you can fool yourself anytime you need to badly enough.”

Hilari Bell book Navohar

Source: Navohar

People, Fools, Time

“It is not theft, properly speaking, to take secretly and use another's property in a case of extreme need: because that which he takes for the support of his life becomes his own property by reason of that need”

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

Life, Support

“A small lie needs a bodyguard of bigger lies to protect it.”

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

Lie

“You know, he told me once, completely exasperated, you've got one glass of water inside your head, with all the tears for a lifetime. If you waste them over nothing, then you won't be able to cry for real when you need to.”

Jodi Picoult book Lone Wolf

Source: Lone Wolf

Tear, Water, Cry

“As usual no one's ever around when you need them.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

“Even if I'm following the path my parents set, I need to take my own dreams and beliefs with me.”

Natsumi Ando (1970) Manga artist

Source: Kitchen Princess, Vol. 05

Dreams, Parent

“Nobody knows you as well as our spouse. And that means no one will be quicker to recognize a change when you deliberately start sacrificing your wants and wishes to make sure his or her needs are met.”

Stephen Kendrick book The Love Dare

Source: The Love Dare

Change

“A house with old furniture has no need of ghosts to be haunted.”

Hope Mirrlees book Lud-in-the-Mist

Source: Lud-in-the-Mist

Housing

“We may need to ready ourselves to repel boarders.” “With what? One stiletto and hurtful insinuations about their mothers?”

Scott Lynch book Red Seas Under Red Skies

Source: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Hurt

“When you interrupt, you've stopped listening. People need to be heard.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

People

“What's going on?" he asked, looking from face to face. "I was having a good dream."
"I need you," said Lisa.
"I hear that from women a lot.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Women, Dreams

“See fantasy is what people want, but reality is what they need. And I just retired from the fantasy part.”

Lauryn Hill (1975) American singer, rapper, songwriter, record producer, actress

People, Reality, Parting

“You need to screw up to learn. You need to experience to create greatness.”

Laurie Faria Stolarz (1972) American writer

Source: Deadly Little Secret

Learning

“Remember laughter. You'll need it even in the blessed isles of Ever After.”

James Thurber book The 13 Clocks

Source: The 13 Clocks

Laughter

“Never make a decision when you need to pee.”

Leonard Cohen book Beautiful Losers

Source: Beautiful Losers

Decision

“The problem is simply finding the right person. Ask Plato. Just make sure she finishes your thoughts and you finish hers. That's all you need.”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Swan Thieves

Source: The Swan Thieves

Problem, Personality

“Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds, I am not a sacrifice on their altars.”

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Anthem (1937)

“["The Devil in the Dark"] impressed me because it presented the idea, unusual in science fiction thennow, that something weird, and even dangerous, need not be malevolent. That is a lesson that many of today's politicians have yet to learn.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

Idea, Learning, Science

“dissonance, n.

Nights when I need to sleep and you can't. Days when I want to talk to you and you won't. Hours when every noise you make interferes with my silence. Weeks when there is a buzzing in the air, and we both pretend we don't here it.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Sleep, Silence, Night

“We need to defend the interests of those whom we've never met and never will.”

Jeffrey D. Sachs (1954) American economist

“If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.”

John Steinbeck book The Grapes of Wrath

Variant: If you're in trouble or hurt or need–go to poor people. They're the only ones that'll help–the only ones.
Source: The Grapes of Wrath

People, Help, Hurt, Hurtful

“Nearly unable to bear the thought of how much he needed her quiet strength, he closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the cold glass.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“In order to love people usefully you need to be focused on them and not yourself.”

Richard Templar (1950–2006) selfhelp author

Love, People

“I think that everything he did, feeding the poor, giving money to friends in need, it was all a way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner (2003)

Money, Way, Thinking

“I tried to dredge up the same reaction other girls had around Marcus, but nothing happened. No matter how hard I tried, I just didn't have that same attraction His hair was too blond, I decided. And his eyes needed a little more green.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Girl

“You sure you don't need your Prince Charming to come and save you?
Sure, do you have one handy?
Oh, I think I could scrounge one up somewhere. As often as I have to rescue you.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Variant: You sure you don't need your Prince Charming to come and save you?"
The knot in my stomach evaporated. My Prince Charming huh. "Sure, do you have one handy?
Source: Magic Slays

Thinking

“HOBBES:
Virtue needs some cheaper thrills.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist