Quotes about need
page 30

“Our failure to hear His voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.”

Dallas Willard (1935–2013) American philosopher

Source: Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God

Failure, Thinking

“Sorry, Ms. Terwilliger. I'm flattered that you think I'm such an upstanding person, but I'm already caught up in one epic battle of good versus evil. I don't need another.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Thinking, Evil, Personality

“Some days simply lay on you like stones. Some were fickle as cats, sliding away when you needed comfort, then coming back later when you didn’t want them, jostling at you, stealing your breath.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Cats

“Nick Gautier," he said with a charming, dimpled smile. "Better known as "Nick, get your butt in here, I need you to…" Fill in the blank”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Night Pleasures

Source: Night Pleasures

Smile

“If ever the Time should come, when vain & aspiring Men shall possess the highest Seats in Government, our Country will stand in Need of its experienced Patriots to prevent its Ruin.”

Samuel Adams (1722–1803) American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and political philosopher

Letter to James Warren (24 October 1780) http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2094

Men, Time, Country

“Courage did not come from the need to survive, or from a brute indifference inherited from someone else, but from a driving need for love which no obstacle in this world or the next world will break.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Love, World, Courage, Indifference

“Even needing to get to Angel, we couldn’t forget the basic necessity of eating.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Angels, Forgetting

“I get melancholy if I don't [write]. I need the company of people who don't exist.”

William Trevor (1928–2016) Irish writer

People

“Our lives are not all interconnected. That theory is a crock. Some people truly do not need to be here.”

Bret Easton Ellis (1964) American novelist

People

“It made me realize how I needed to stop punishing her for something she couldn't help […] because sometimes things happen to people and they're not equipped to deal with them.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

People, Help

“YOU DO NOT need to be a victim of worry. Reduced to its simplest form, what is worry? It is simply an unhealthy and destructive mental habit.”

Norman Vincent Peale book The Power of Positive Thinking

Source: The Power of Positive Thinking

“You fixed yourself. You didn’t need me.”

“No, Sydney.” My voice was ragged. “I do need you. You have no idea how much I need you.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Idea

“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”

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

Soul

“She was the stone-faced queen, then and ever after. She had needed the mask to rule, and she had been glad to have it. She wondered if Eugenides was glad of his.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

“Did you strangle the wolf alpha?" Not that she didn't deserve it.
Curran grimaced. "Of course not. I needed information. After I put her face in my mouth, we agreed that it was in her best interests to tell me what I wanted to know.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Wolf

“An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know, and it's knowing how to use the information once you get it.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

The first two sentences of this statement first appear as attributed to France in the 1990s, but the full statement is earlier attributed to William Feather, as quoted in Telephony, Vol. 150 (1956), p. 23 http://books.google.com/books?id=Wm0jAQAAMAAJ&q=%22being+able+to+differentiate+between+what+you+do+know%22&dq=%22being+able+to+differentiate+between+what+you+do+know%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=qYJOU9dAzoXRAYumgcAP&ved=0CMsCEOgBMDQ <br class="br">Misattributed

Education, Memory

“My prayer is simple my dear one, my dear one. May you never need understand. My prayer is for peacetime, my child, my child. Live it well and this life can be grand.”

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Hawksong

Source: Hawksong

Life, Understanding

“I need it! I need it! It's a royal heirloom!"

"Adrian?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you. Come on, we need to go. I'll drive you home."

"No, I can't. Not until we get it. He stole it!”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Home

“Doughboy, we need to talk.”
Doughboy opened his wax eyes. “Finally! You realize how stuffy it is in there? At last you’ve remembered that you need my brilliant guidance.”
“Actually we need to become a coat.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“We may need to focus here.'
'Right. Yes. OK. Turn around.'
'Are you going to throw something at me?'
'What? No, I'm getting out of bed.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

“they say every man needs protection, they say every man must fall.
yet I swear I see my reflection, some place high above this wall….. and someday I shall be released.”

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

“Hide your craziness behind a beautiful smile. That's all you need.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Smile, Beauty

“The animals have no need for speech, why talk when you are a word.”

Margaret Atwood book Surfacing

Source: Surfacing

Animals

“Compassionate people ask for what they need. They say no when they need to, and when they say yes, they mean it. They're compassionate because their boundaries keep them out of resentment.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Rising Strong

People

“I will come to you, my friend, when I no longer need you. Then you will find a palace, not an almshouse.”

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

“I need wings," said Total, still sniffling. "I need mywings. Then things like that wouldn't happen."
Yeah, that was all I needed. Atalking mutant dog.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: School's Out—Forever

Dogs

“Seems to me-" Lee said, feeling for the words, "seems to me the place you fight cruelty is where you find it, and the place you give help is where you see it needed….”

Philip Pullman (1946) English author

Source: His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass / The Subtle Knife / The Amber Spyglass

Feeling, Help, Fight

“Every woman needed a husband, even if he did silence the song in her.”

Khaled Hosseini (1965) novelist

Silence

“Yep, that's me. I know. I know. You're humbled I'm here, feel like throwing rose petals at my feet, blah, blah, blah. No need, though. Just try and think of me as a normal guy
-William”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Pleasure

Guy, Feeling, Thinking

“It’s better to die than to live in the knowledge that you’ve done something that needs forgiveness.”

Andrzej Sapkowski book Blood of Elves

Source: Blood of Elves

Forgiveness, Knowledge

“I muttered a swear word to myself. After I heard Angel cussing like a sailor when she stubbed her toe, my new resolution was to watch my language. All I needed was a six-year-old mutant with a potty mouth”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Angels

“I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesn't try to sleep with someone even if they could have. I need to know these people exist.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

People, Understanding, Sleep

“A compassion swirled form nowhere in the high I was lost in. She needed me. She needed me to accept her for what she was. And when I realized that I had it within myself to give her at least this small part of me, the last of my fear melted away.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Fear, Parting

“Fear is an instinct, like hunger or anger. We need it to help us survive, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. It lets us know whether we should fight or flee.”

David Clement-Davies book The Sight

Source: The Sight

Hunger, Fear, Help, Fight

“We had no choice. Sadness was a dangerous as panthers and bears. the wilderness needs your whole attention.”

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

Sadness

“Gale and I were thrown together by a mutual need to survive. Peeta and I know the other's survival means our own death. How do you side step that?”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Death

“I don't need to kill goats to say things. I CAN talk.”

L.J. Smith book Daughters of Darkness

Source: Daughters of Darkness

“Mattie sat at the table, obsessing, orbiting around herself. She was sick of her worried, hostile mind. It would have killed her long before, she felt, if it hadn't needed the transportation.”

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

Source: Blue Shoe

Hostility

“I'm smiled out, talked out, quipped out, socialized so far from any being, I need the weight of mortal silences to get realized back into myself.”

John Ciardi (1916–1986) American poet, professor, translator

Source: This Strangest Everything

Smile, Silence

“Nature didn't need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

Source: The Uglies Trilogy

Beauty, Nature

“You needed a new pancreas. The one we bought for you frees you from a dangerous dependency.” “Thanks, but I was enjoying that dependency.”

William Gibson book Neuromancer

Source: Neuromancer

Dependency

“There is a big confusion in this country over what we want verses what we need… you need food. You want a chocolate sundae.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Food, Country

“What am I supposed to do,
Sit around and wait for you?
Well I can't do that,
And there's no turning back.
I need time to move on,
I need love to feel strong.
Cause I've got time to think it through,
And maybe I'm too good for you!”

Cher (1946) American singer and actress

Love, Feeling, Thinking, Strong

“Children need close friends to help them grow up, to discover things about themselves and about life. They also need close friends to keep them sane”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Love, Rosie

Life, Children, Help

“What you need is sustained outrage… there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority.”

Molly Ivins (1944–2007) American journalist

“Where to start is the problem, because nothing begins when it begins and nothing's over when it's over, and everything needs a preface: a preface, a postscript, a chart of simultaneous events.”

Margaret Atwood book The Robber Bride

Source: The Robber Bride

Problem

“Sometimes I get the feeling that we're just a bunch of habits. The gestures we repeat over and over, they're just our need to be recognized. Without them, we'd be unidentifiable. We have to reinvent ourselves every minute.”

Nicole Krauss book Man Walks Into a Room

Source: Man Walks Into a Room

Feeling

“We were young, and we had no need for prophecies. Just living was itself an act of prophecy.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

“Balthazar pledged to die defending his royal house of Lumuatere. Finnikin swore to be their protector and guide for as long as he lived. Lucian vowed he would be the light whom they traveled toward in times of need.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Travel, Light, Time, Housing

“Love is not to be found in someone else but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need the other person.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Love, Personality

“We had one gun, one werewolf, one poltergeist, one supercharged spell-caster, one not-so-supercharged spell-caster, and one perfectly useless necromancer, though Liz was quick to remind me that she needed me to relay her words. - Chloe”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

“Miracles are merely events that happen just when they are needed.”

David Gemmell (1948–2006) British author of heroic fantasy

“When the number of factors coming into play in a phenomenological complex is too large, scientific method in most cases fails us. One need only think of the weather, in which case prediction even for a few days ahead is impossible. Nevertheless no one doubts that we are confronted with a causal connection whose causal components are in the main known to us.
Occurrences in this domain are beyond the reach of exact prediction because of the variety of factors in operation, not because of any lack of order in nature.”

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

1940s, Science and Religion (1941)

Nature, Thinking, Weather

“My ego doesn't need soothing. I don't want him soothing anything of mine, including you.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“When you expect the world to end at any moment, you know there is no need to hurry. You take your time, you do your work well.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

World, Time

“Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.”

Mark Buchanan (1961) American physicist

Source: The Holy Wild: Trusting in the Character of God

“I feel like I am floating in plasma
I need a teacher or a lover
I need someone to risk being involved with me.
I am so vain
and I am so masochistic.
How can they coexist?”

Francesca Woodman (1958–1981) American photographer

Feeling, Lovers, Teachers

“Is love this misguided need to have you beside me most of the time? Is love this safety I feel in our silences? Is it this belonging, this completeness?”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Half of a Yellow Sun

Source: Half of a Yellow Sun

Love, Feeling, Silence, Time

“Everyone needs a place. It shouldn't be inside of someone else.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

“Neither refuse to give help when it is needed," Medwyn continued, "nor refuse to accept it when it is offered.”

Lloyd Alexander book The Book of Three

Source: The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968), Book I: The Book of Three (1964), Chapter 13

Help

“Everybody needs a seashell in her bathroom to remind her the ocean is her home.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Home

“There should be a science of discontent. People need hard times to develop psychic muscles. -- Muad'Dib”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

People, Science, Time

“All you need to know is that I have an old enemy pretending to be me. (Acheron)
Why? (Talon)
Well, it obviously isn’t to be nice to me and win over my friends, now is it? (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”

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

Truth, Error, Support

“We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don’ts: we need books, time, and silence. is soon forgotten, butlasts forever.”

Philip Pullman (1946) English author

Books, Silence, Time

“Your hands on a gun butt right now, isn't it? Afraid of me?”
“Just want to make sure I can take care of you.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, in case you need Glock-to-mouth-resuscitation.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Awakened

“Why Paris? Paris needs no reason. Paris is its own reason.”

Maureen Johnson book 13 Little Blue Envelopes

Source: 13 Little Blue Envelopes

“I got a dog-training book. It says Grendel needs mental stimulation, so I tried to train him, but I think he must be retarded.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Books, Dogs, Thinking, Training

“people saw what they wanted to see. They didn't need the Mist to warp their perceptions.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Variant: But Annabeth knew that people saw what they wanted to see. They didn’t need the Mist to warp their perceptions.
Source: The Mark of Athena

People

“I'm not doing anything, and yet I'm also doing the most important thing a man can do: I'm listening to what I needed to hear from myself.”

Paulo Coelho book Like the Flowing River

Source: Like the Flowing River

“Hello?" Isabelle called from the other side. "Simon, is your diva moment over? I need to talk to Jace.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“Some split between the inner world and outer world is common to all behaviour, and the need to bridge the gap is the source of creative behaviour.”

Anthony Storr (1920–2001) English psychiatrist

World

“Searching for nothing
Wondering if I’ll change
I’m trying everything
But everything still stays the same
I thought if I showed you I could fly
Wouldn’t need anyone by my side
I'm running backwards
With broken wings I know I’ll die”

Sully Erna (1968) American musician

Search, Change, Flying

“If you want a thing--truly want it, want it so badly that you need it as you need air to breathe, then unless you die, you will have it. Why not? It has you. There is no escape. What a cruel and terrible thing escape would be if escape were possible”

Octavia E. Butler book Parable of the Talents

Source: Parable of the Talents

“I need words that mean more than they mean, words not just with height and width, but depth and weight and, and other dimensions that I cannot even name.”

Lois McMaster Bujold The Curse of Chalion

Source: The Curse of Chalion

“I was their bar freak, they needed me
to make themselves feel
better.
just like, at times, I needed that
graveyard.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense

Feeling, Time

“Because I miss them. Because I need them. Because I love them.”

Rebecca Wells book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Love

“Human beings are free except when humanity needs them. Maybe humanity needs you. To do something. Maybe humanity needs me—to find out what you're good for. We might both do despicable things, Ender, but if humankind survives, then we were good tools.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

“I used my history degree about twice a year whether I needed to or not.”

Patricia Briggs book River Marked

Source: River Marked

History

“That was all a man needed: hope. It was a lack of hope that discouraged a man.”

Charles Bukowski book Factotum

Source: Factotum (1975), Ch. 29
Context: That was all a man needed: hope. It was a lack of hope that discouraged a man. I remembered my New Orleans days, living on two five-cent candy bars a day for weeks at a time in order to have leisure to write. But starvation, unfortunately, didn't improve art. It only hindered it. A man's soul was rooted in his stomach. A man could write much better after eating a porterhouse steak and drinking a pint of whiskey than he could ever write after eating a nickel candy bar. The myth of the starving artist was a hoax.

Hope, Hope

“You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

Life, Parent

“And when I came in with tears in my eyes, you always knew whether I needed you to hold me or just let me be. I don't know how you knew, but you did, and you made it easier for me.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Tear

“I love things made out of animals. It's just so funny to think of someone saying, "I need a letter opener. I guess I'll have to kill a deer.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

Interview with Robert David Sullivan
Context: "I love things made out of animals," Sedaris says, holding a knife with a hoof for a handle. "It's just so funny to think of someone saying, 'I need a letter opener. I guess I'll have to kill a deer.'"

Love, Thinking, Animals

“Don’t fuss. I love you just as you are, Mercy. I don’t need to swallow you whole, I don’t need to be in your head at all times. I just need to know that you’re there.”

Patricia Briggs book Frost Burned

Source: Frost Burned

Love, Time

“Sometimes I think there are only two instructions we need to follow to develop and deepen our spiritual life: slow down and let go.”

Oriah Mountain Dreamer (1954) Canadian author

Source: The Dance: Moving To the Rhythms of Your True Self

Life, Thinking

“You said go to her, and I let pride stand in my way. You said she needed me, and I didn't believe. You said love her, and I thought it would be easy.”

Francine Rivers (1947) American writer

Source: Redeeming Love