Quotes about need
page 31

“I've sucked way too much cement for this year. Bad juju rising off them city sidewalks. I need to babble with a brook or two, inhale starlight, make friends with some trees.”

Tom Robbins Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Source: Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates

Way, Tree

“Every man has his destiny. But who needs to go to a fortune-teller to find it? Do I go to a chef to find out if I'm hungry?”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

“God know that a mother need fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul.”

Phyllis McGinley (1905–1978) writer and poet

God, Soul, Courage, Patience

“But that was Isabelle — if there was a boy around and blame that needed to be pinned on someone, Isabelle would pin it on him”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Boy

“If there were ever any half-bloods who needed to worry about that, it
was Thalia and me. I wondered if maybe I should've sent Poseidon that seashell pattern tie
for Father's Day after all.
--Percy Jackson”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Happiness

“Infantile love follows the principle: "I love because I am loved."
Mature love follows the principle: "I am loved because I love."
Immature love says: "I love you because I need you."
Mature love says: "I need you because I love you.”

Erich Fromm book The Art of Loving

Source: The Art of Loving

Love

“They found me at the kitchen table. Derek said, "There's something we need to tell you," and from the look on Andrew's face, I think he expected Derek to say he'd gotten me pregnant.”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

Thinking

“Fight only in direst need
Not for lust or petty greed
Honor those that do give birth
Respect them well for their full worth”

Anne McCaffrey book Dragon Harper

Source: Dragon Harper

Birth, Fight

“What the advertiser needs to know is not what is right about the product but what is wrong about the buyer.”

Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic

Source: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

“We need myths that will identify the individual not with his local group but with the planet.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth

“Okay. But I'm just going to be out there - having a tea party with her cats or whatever it is she has in mind. You need me? You yell. You want to leave? We go. I'll get you out of here, no matter what.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Cats, Tea

“I didn't need to be rescued."
"Sorry, but my sword outranks your…" she glanced at my hand, "sock puppet.”

Kelley Armstrong book No Humans Involved

Source: No Humans Involved

“She lived for others, her heart tuned to their anguish and their needs.”

Dean Koontz book From the Corner of His Eye

Source: From the Corner of His Eye

Heart

“You…you need to move on,” I managed. Yes, that was a sound reason. “You need to find someone else. You know I don’t—that I can’t. Well, you know. You’re wasting your time with me.”

He remained firm. “It’s my time to waste.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Time

“Sometimes the things you're convinced you don't want turn out to be the thing you need the most in this world.”

Malorie Blackman book Boys Don't Cry

Source: Boys Don't Cry

World

“we are not here just because we have nowhere else; we need nowhere else, because we have the Institute, and those who are in it are our family.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Family

“She needed to talk, she needed to cry, she needed to vent all her frustrations and disappointments.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: P.S. I Love You

Disappointment, Cry

“This man has conquered the world! What have you done?"
The philosopher replied without an instant's hesitation, "I have conquered the need to conquer the world.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great

World

“If you focus on the risks, they'll multiply in your mind and eventually paralyze you. You want to focus on the task, instead, on doing what needs to be done.”

Barry Eisler (1963) American writer

“Mother's love is peace. It need not be acquired, it need not be deserved.”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Love, Peace, Mother's Day, For Parents

“We live in a community of people not so that we can suppress and dominate eachother or make each other miserable but so that we can better and more reliably satisfy all life's healthy needs.”

Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) Austrian-American psychoanalyst

Source: Children of the Future: On the Prevention of Sexual Pathology

Life, People, Communication

“The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
Context: But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime — the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

Love, Truth, World, Christ

“Nico realized he was still leaning against Will. He pushed him away and stood on his own two feet.
‘I’ll do what I need to.’
Will rolled his eyes. ‘Fine, Death Boy. If you want to get yourself killed –’
‘Do not call me Death Boy!”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Death, Boy

“Humans generally get out the gist of what they need to say right at the beginning, then spend forever qualifying, contradicting, burnishing or taking important things back. Yor rareley miss anything by cutting most people off after two sentences.”

Richard Ford book The Lay of the Land

Source: The Lay of the Land

People

“God, sometimes you just don't come through. Do you need a woman to look after you?”

Tori Amos (1963) American singer

"God".
Songs
Source: A Tori Amos Collection: Tales of a Librarian

God

“No matter how much we know in any area there are always new things to learn and things we have previously learned that we need to be refreshed in.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind

Learning

“I don't feel the need to explain my actions to her. I don't clarify, I don't doubt, I don't worry. I don't tell her everything, not anymore, but I tell her more than anyone else, by far. I tell her as much as I can.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Feeling

“Manners are especially the need of the plain. The pretty can get away with anything.”

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer

“You leave old habits behind by starting out with the thought, 'I release the need for this in my life'.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Life

“What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss and Peeta (p. 388; closing words of the main text)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.
So after, when he whispers, "You love me. Real or not real?"
I tell him, "Real."

Life, Spring, Loss

“Akri hides from no one. He don’t need to. Anyone hurt my akri, I eat them. (Simi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Hurt

“This left me alone to solve the coffee problem - a sort of catch-22, as in order to think straight I need caffeine, and in order to make that happen I need to think straight.”

David Sedaris When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Source: When You Are Engulfed in Flames

Coffee, Problem, Thinking

“What is this obsession people have with books? They put them in their houses like they're trophies. What do you need it for after you read it?”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

People, Books, Reading, Housing

“I don't care if my love is requited or not, because being with you and the very thought of you makes me happy. The point I'm trying to make is that you are loved because I love you, Adam. Please, don't do it. Please, don't jump because I need you.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: How to Fall in Love

Love, Happiness

“It’s a yes then? (Arik)
No. I thought I’d walk through hell to reclaim you and carry your baby just for the heck of it. Who needs marriage. (Geary)
I do! (Arik)
Good. I can let you live another day. (Geary)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: The Dream Hunter

Marriage, Hell, Baby

“The glue of mutual need that bonded us so tightly together for all those years is melting away. Dark patches, not light, show in the spaces between us.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Light

“Solitude is indeed dangerous for a working intelligence. We need to have around us people who think and speak. When we are alone for a long time we people the void with phantoms”

Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer

Source: Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques

People, Intelligence, Thinking, Solitude

“We all need to have dreams. The question is, does the dream control you or do you control the dream?”

Robin Jones Gunn (1955) American writer

Source: Surprise Endings

Dreams, Question

“All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Source: On the Road: the Original Scroll

“On the other hand, I think cats have Asperger's. Like me, they're very smart. And like me, sometimes they simply need to be left alone.”

Jodi Picoult book House Rules

Source: House Rules

Cats, Thinking

“We men of study, whose heads are in our books, have need to be straightly looked after! We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The Scarlet Letter

Source: The Scarlet Letter

Men, Books, Dreams, Sleep

“I will think of you every time I need to be reminded that there is beauty and goodness in the world.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

World, Beauty, Thinking, Time

“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

Hate

“We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.”

Dave Ramsey (1960) American financial advisor

Source: The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness

Money, People

“… if there´s a beast, maybe he´s just a regular guy with a sin conditon or something. Maybe he just needs some understanding. Maybe we judge people to much by their looks because it´s easier than seeing what´s really important.”

Alex Flinn book Beastly

Source: Beastly

People, Guy, Understanding

“I don't wanna need you because I can't have you.”

Clint Eastwood (1930) actor and director from the United States

“We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always needing to be born.”

Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) German theologian

As quoted in Christianity (1995) by Joe Jenkins, p. 27

God

“When a demigod like me comes around, bad things happen. Really bad.-Leo

Maybe it's the other way around, Jason suggested. Maybe people with special gifts show up when bad things are happening because that's when they're needed most.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

People, Way

“We need faith and the mind of the Lord Jesus to recognize something of lasting value in even our most ordinary tasks.”

Philip Yancey (1949) American writer

Faith

“I hadn't realized how much I'd been needing to meet someone I might be able to say everything to.”

Elizabeth Berg (1948) American novelist

Source: Talk Before Sleep

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Source: The Complete Poems

Truth, Beauty, Beauty

“An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Source: Andy Warhol, Thirty Are Better Than One

People

“Magnus snapped his fingers again, menacingly. "Get up."
"Or you'll be the next one to go up in smoke," said Simon with relish.
"There's no need to clarify my finger snap. The implication was clear in the snap itself."”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Magnus and Simon, pg. 137
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)

“It's not the gods
But our own hearts
We need to fear.
The evil starts
Against all odds
Not there but here.”

Vikram Seth (1952) Indian writer

Source: Arion and the Dolphin

God, Fear, Evil, Heart

“You need somebody to stand up for you. You're the little guy, you just don't realize it yet. The Commonwealth has all the aces, and you don't even know you're playing cards.”

Lisa Scottoline (1955) American writer

Source: Every Fifteen Minutes

Guy

“So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the "burning marl." Old wives' tales! There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is—other people!”

Jean Paul Sartre No Exit

Garcin, Act 1, sc. 5
Variant: So that is what hell is. I would never have believed it. You remember: the fire and brimstone, the torture. Ah! the farce. There is no need for torture: Hell is other people.
Source: No Exit (1944)

People, Hell

“Love potions? For Will Herondale? T’aint my way to turn down payment, but any man who looks like you has got no need of love potions, and that’s a fact.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Love, Way