Quotes about need
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“Extreme poverty is not only a condition of unsatisfied material needs. It is often accompanied by a degrading state of powerlessness.”

Peter Singer (1946) Australian philosopher

Source: The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty

“Yes, you need a passport to prove to the world that you exist. The people at passport control, they cannot look at you and see you are a person. No! They have to look at a little photograph of you. Then they believe you exist.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot

Source: The Marriage Plot

People, World, Personality

“Children need boundaries, so they can know how far they have to go to get beyond them.”

Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) film, stage, and television actress

Children

“Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

When asked how the world had changed following the September 11, 2001 attacks <br class="br"> Has the world changed? http://books.guardian.co.uk/writersreflections/story/0,1367,567546,00.html, The Guardian (October 11, 2001)

People, Faith, Religion, Confidence

“You should have had the decency to die when you needed to."
“Sorry,” I admitted. “I’ve been going through a bit of a rebellious streak. I swear it’s almost over.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: United We Spy

“I turned and faced the Olympians.
"We need a shroud," I announced, my voice cracking. "A shroud for the son of Hermes.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“We may not get what we want, when we want. But with a bit of perseverance and a lot of patience, we can get what we need.”

Sarah Strohmeyer (1950) American writer

Source: Sweet Love

Patience, Perseverance

“He's nuts" Bianca said
"We need to jump off this cliff" i said
"Oh nice idea!! Your nuts too”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Idea

“Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done.”

Andy Rooney (1919–2011) writer, humorist, television personality

“Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories.”

Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass

Source: His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass (2000), Ch. 32 : Morning
Context: One of the ghosts — an old woman — beckoned, urging her to come close.
Then she spoke, and Mary heard her say:
"Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories."
That was all, and then she was gone. It was one of those moments when we suddenly recall a dream that we’ve unaccountably forgotten, and back in a flood comes all the emotion we felt in our sleep. It was the dream she’d tried to describe to Atal, the night picture; but as Mary tried to find it again, it dissolved and drifted apart, just as these presences did in the open air. The dream was gone.
All that was left was the sweetness of that feeling, and the injunction to tell them stories.

Truth

“That is the trick of good government. To make folk desire to live in such a way that there is no need for its intervention.”

Robin Hobb book Assassin's Apprentice

Source: Assassin's Apprentice

Way

“What you did tonight was clever,” Wit said. “You turned an attack into a promise. The wisest of men know that to render an insult powerless, you often need only to embrace it.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Men

“Giving generously in romantic relationships, and in all other bonds, means recognizing when the other person needs our attention. Attention is an important resource.”

Bell Hooks book All About Love: New Visions

Source: All About Love: New Visions

Personality

“You've got passion to kill but you need to find passion to live.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: Steelheart

Passion

“We are all flawed, my dear. Every one of us. And believe me, we've all made mistakes. You've just got to take a good hard look at yourself, change what needs to be changed, and move one, pet.”

Lauren Myracle book Let It Snow

Source: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances

Change

“Three things no one has ever said about me:

You make it look so easy.

You are very mysterious.

You need to take yourself more seriously.”

Jenny Offill book Dept. of Speculation

Source: Dept. of Speculation

“I do not need a reason to be angry with God.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

God

“I just thought you'd like to know I can read. You got anything needs readin' I can do it.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Reading

“Philosophers can debate the meaning of life, but you need a Lord who can declare the meaning of life.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear

Life

“There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

Peace, Silence

“In life, you need either inspiration or desperation.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Life

“A need for revenge can burn long and hot. Especially if every glance in a mirror reinforces it.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Revenge

“Everything I need to know… I learned in kindergarten.”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Learning

“I need you to be happy. I need one of us to be happy.”

Holly Black book Red Glove

Source: Red Glove

Happiness

“Sometimes, as much as writing saves one’s own life, you cannot imagine how it will save another’s. This is another reason why it is important to do the work, over and over again. It is food, the kind a soul needs.”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Life, Food, Soul, Imagination

“Coming to my rescue?'
'Of course. It's what we do. I rescue you; you rescue me. We just take turns whenever the other needs it.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

“This should tell you everything you need to know about guys. They only go after what they know they can get. We girls, on the other hand, aim really high. We take a leap…”

Adriana Trigiani (1970) American film director

Source: Viola in Reel Life

Guy, Girl

“Jesus tends to his people individually. He personally sees to our needs. We all receive Jesus' touch. We experience his care.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: Experiencing the Heart of Jesus: Knowing His Heart, Feeling His Love

People, Personality

“I still feel the need of some imperishable bliss.”

Wallace Stevens book Harmonium

Source: Harmonium

Feeling

“You need to be prepared to move.”
“Why?” I sat up and looked out the windshield, straight into a raging sandstorm. “Oh…”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Rage

“It wasn't torpor that kept her - she was often restless to the point of irritability. She simply liked to feel that she was prevented from leaving, that she was needed.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Feeling

“There are many reasons why novelists write but they all have one thing in common a need to create an alternative world.”

John Fowles (1926–2005) British writer

World

“Part of the beauty of love was that you didn’t need to explain it to anyone else. You couldto explain. With love, apparently you didn’t necessarily feel the need to explain anything at all.”

Meg Wolitzer book The Interestings

Source: The Interestings

Love, Beauty, Feeling, Parting

“What kills a relationship between two people is precisely the lack of challenge, the feeling that nothing is new anymore. We need to continue to be a surprise for each other.”

Paulo Coelho book Adultery

Source: Adultery

People, Feeling

“You never want to look in a mirror," Lula said. "Men love mirrors. They look at themselves doing the deed and they see Rex the Wonder Horse. Women look at themselves and think they need to renew their membership at the gym.”

Janet Evanovich book Seven Up

Source: Seven Up

Love, Women, Men, Thinking

“A generous heart is always open, always ready to receive our going and coming. In the midst of such love we need never fear abandonment. This is the most precious gift true love offers - the experience of knowing we always belong.”

Bell Hooks book All About Love: New Visions

Source: All About Love: New Visions

Love, Fear, Heart

“I know I don't need him, but I think I want him.”

Charles Frazier book Cold Mountain

Source: Cold Mountain

Thinking

“I give myself a good cry if I need it, but then I concentrate on all good things still in my life.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Life, Cry

“Very little is needed to make a happy life.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι
VII, 67
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII

Life, Happiness, Motivational, Wise

“Kat had been picking things up since her third birthday, when Hamish and Angus's father took them all to the circus because he needed to "borrow" an elephant.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

Birthday

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Books, Reading, Help

“Don't wish me happiness — I don't expect to be happy; it's gotten beyond that, somehow. Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor — I will need them all.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea

Letter to Corliss Lamont on her engagement (1928)
Bring Me a Unicorn (1971)
Source: Gift from the Sea

Happiness, Courage, Sense

“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Happiness, Happy, Cute

“You don't need a reason to forgive… If you want to go on with someone, that is what you do.”

Melissa Bank (1961) American writer

Forgiveness

“[Y]ou possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing.”

Aristophanés The Knights

Source: The Knights

Nature

“And girls need cold anger. They need the cold simmer, the ceaseless grudge, the talent to avoid forgiveness, the side stepping of compromise. They need to know when they say something that they will never back down, ever, ever.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Girl, Forgiveness, Anger

“I felt lethal, on the verge of frenzy. My nightly bloodlust overflowed into my days and I had to leave the city. My mask of sanity was a victim of impending slippage. This was the bone season for me and I needed a vacation.”

Bret Easton Ellis book American Psycho

Source: American Psycho

Season

“Women need a reason for having sex, men just need a place”

Billy Graham (1918–2018) American Christian evangelist

Women, Men, Sex

“And also, there are so many times when you need to make a quick escape, but humans don't have their own wings, or not yet, anyway, so what about a birdseed shirt?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Time

“… a book need never die and should not be killed; books were the immortal part of man.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Farnham's Freehold

Source: Farnham's Freehold

Books, Parting

“Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture, so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Feeling, Autumn, Light

“We're going' Anne said firmly.
So soon?' Percy pleaded. 'But stars come out at night.'
Then they fade at dawn', Anne replied. 'This star needs to veil herself in darkness.”

Philippa Gregory book The Other Boleyn Girl

Source: The Other Boleyn Girl

Star, Night

“That is beautiful which is produced by the inner need, which springs from the soul.”

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) Russian painter

Source: Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Beauty, Soul, Spring

“There doesn't need to be a God for me. There's something in people that's spiritual, that's godlike. I don't feel like doing things just because people say things, but I also don't really know if it's better to just not believe in anything, either.”

Angelina Jolie (1975) American actress, film director, and screenwriter

God, People, Feeling

“I don't need my head examined, but where were you when I married my second husband. Sheesh.”

Lisa Scottoline (1955) American writer

Source: Every Fifteen Minutes

“If you need to talk about your childhood, you’re safe with me. If you need to break into a million pieces, I’m right here, Lev. I’ll find them all, I’m good at details, and I’ll put you back together. You’re safe here.”

Christine Feehan American writer

Source: Water Bound

Childhood

“Ask yourself: 'Do I feel the need to laminate?' Then teaching is for you.”

Gordon Korman (1963) Canadian American children's writer

Feeling

“Me and my needs were driving my mother away. Me and my needs retreated to my closet, disappeared into fairy tales. I started making up a world where my needs wouldn´t exist at all.”

Marya Hornbacher book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Source: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

World

“We need to remember that we are all created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“Do you have spies in Clan Heavy?”
“I have spies everywhere.”
I looked at Andrea, who was hoarding bacon on her plate.
“She had tea with Mahon’s wife.” Andrea said.
Aunt B looked at her. “You and I need to work on your air of mystery.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Rises

Tea

“I needed to temper (my dad's) enthusiasm a bit (about attending Princeton), and so I announced that I would be majoring in patricide… My mom was actually jealous.”

David Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Source: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Moms

“If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Way, Personality

“Just because it's a bad job doesn't mean I need to do it badly.”

Hugh Laurie book The Gun Seller

Source: The Gun Seller

“And the Earth had no name. The gods know themselves and have no need of names. It is man who names all things, even gods.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Thief

Source: The Thief

God

“Even the most powerful woman needs a place to unwind.”

Barbara Taylor Bradford (1933) British author

Source: Being Elizabeth

“One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline…. But also every single day a kid needs a break.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Children

“A house is a compressed territory where our basic needs can be fulfilled close by and safely.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Housing

“When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote in a letter to Theo van Gogh, from Arles, c. Saturday, 29 September 1888; as cited in An Examined Faith : Social Context and Religious Commitment (1991) by James Luther Adams and George K. Beach, p. 259
1880s, 1888

Religion, Star, Painting

“Too many people seem to believe that silence was a void that needed to be filled, even if nothing important was said.”

Nicholas Sparks book Nights in Rodanthe

Source: Nights in Rodanthe

People, Silence

“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But since no one was listening, everything must be said again.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

“I'm a candle flame that sways in currents of air you can't see. You need to be the one who steadies me to burn.”

Nadine Gordimer book The House Gun

Source: The House Gun

“You don't need a search warrant to go through someone's trash. Seriously. Once it hits the curb it is totally fair game-you an look it up.”

Ally Carter Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Source: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Search, Game

“There was a single blue line of crayon drawn across every wall in the house. What does it mean? I asked. A pirate needs the sight of the sea, he said and then he pulled his eye patch down and turned and sailed away.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Source: Story People: Selected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas

Housing, Sea

“Your powers drain you too much,' [Percy] noted.
[Nico] nodded sleepily. 'With great power… comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

This I Believe (1951)
Context: I believe in human beings, but my faith is without sentimentality. I know that in environments of uncertainty, fear, and hunger, the human being is dwarfed and shaped without his being aware of it, just as the plant struggling under a stone does not know its own condition. Only when the stone is removed can it spring up freely into the light. But the power to spring up is inherent, and only death puts an end to it. I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.

Faith, Feeling, Faith

“On the plus side, if he ever had to fight through a roomful of adolescent girls, he only needed to blink (his velvet brown eyes framed in embarassingly long lashes) a few times, and they would all faint.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Girl, Time, Fight