Quotes about nothing
page 26

“Philosophy … is a science, and as such has no articles of faith; accordingly, in it nothing can be assumed as existing except what is either positively given empirically, or demonstrated through indubitable conclusions.”

Arthur Schopenhauer book Parerga and Paralipomena

Vol I
Source: Parerga and Paralipomena (1851)

Faith, Science

“If God has nothing better to do than punish schoolgirls for a bit of tomfoolery, then I've no use for God.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

God

“If only it were so easy to pick up the broken pieces of life, glue them back together, and cover them with paint like nothing had ever happened.”

Patti Callahan Henry American writer

Source: Between The Tides

Life, Painting

“But indeed I would rather have nothing but tea.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Tea

“People think of hearts when they think of love, but a heart is a bloody organ in the body. It doesn't have any emotions. It's like a metaphor for love that has nothing to do with what love actually is.”

E. Lockhart (1967) American writer of novels as E. Lockhart (mainly for teenage girls) and of picture books under real name Emily J…

Source: Fly on the Wall: How One Girl Saw Everything

Love, People, Thinking, Heart

“There is nothing more terrifying than the absoluteness of one who believes he's right.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

“It doesn't seem to matter what we think… The prince will come up here and look at us as if we're barrels in a trader's wagon. And if I'm salt pork and he doesn't care for salt pork, then there's nothing I can do.”

Shannon Hale Princess Academy

Source: Princess Academy

Thinking

“No, see the slide’s too high. He could fall and get a concussion. (Wulf)
Forget that. He could rack himself on the teeter-totter. (Chris)
Teeter-totter nothing. The swings are a choking hazard. Whose idea was it for him to have this? (Urian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Kiss of the Night

Idea, Forgetting

“Honey, we all got to go sometime, reason or no reason. Dyin’s as natural as livin’; man who’s afraid to die is too afraid to live, far as I’ve ever seen. So there’s nothing to do but forget it, that’s all. Seems to me”

Anthony Summers (1942) writer

Source: Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe

Nature, Forgetting

“Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's a day you've had everything to do and you've done it.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

“There was nothing you couldn't do if you wanted it bad enough, and were willing to work hard enough to get it.”

Danielle Steel (1947) American author of romance novels

“[O]ne of the mixed blessings of being twenty and twenty-one and even twenty-three is the conviction that nothing like this, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, has ever happened before.”

Joan Didion book Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Source: Slouching Towards Bethlehem

“Live life when you have it. Life is a splendid gift-there is nothing small about it.”

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Life

“What kind of scholar was I? Or was I a scholar at all? My ignorance was enormous. Beside it my knowledge was nothing. My hunger for learning, not so much to improve my lot as to understand my world, had led me to study and to thought. Reading without thinking is as nothing, for a book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.”

Louis L'Amour book The Walking Drum

Source: The Walking Drum (1984), Ch. 25

Hunger, Books, World, Understanding

“She had never dreamed there could be so much pain in a life when there was nothing physically wrong. She hurt all the time.”

Stephen King book The Shining

Source: The Shining (1977)

Life, Pain, Dreams, Time

“My instructors in science and technology have taught us about how the brain works. It's full of electrical impulses. It's like a computer. If you stimulate one part of the brain with an electrode, it…
- They know nothing.”

Lois Lowry book The Giver

Source: The Giver

Science, Parting

“A giraffe has a black tongue twenty-seven inches long and no vocal cords. A giraffe has nothing to say. He just goes on giraffing.”

Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things

“If you could be either God’s worst enemy or nothing, which would you choose?”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

God

“There is nothing more liberating than having your worst fear realized.”

Conan O'Brien (1963) American television show host and comedian

Fear

“I'm right and you're wrong, I'm big and you're small, and there's nothing you can do about it.”

Roald Dahl book Matilda

Source: Matilda

“It turns out I was right.
But nothing has come of it.”

Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) Polish writer

“None of us could be happy for long, doing nothing.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Happiness

“We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Learning

“The first rose on my rose-tree
Budded, bloomed, and shattered,
During sad days when to me
Nothing mattered.

Grief of grief has drained me clean;
Still it seems a pity
No one saw,—it must have been
Very pretty.”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

Source: Renascence and Other Poems

Sadness, Tree

“The odd thing about this form of communication is you're more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many… somethings. So, thanks.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

Communication

“Nothing is more fatal to happiness than the remembrance of happiness.”

André Gide book The Immoralist

Source: The Immoralist

Happiness

“Imagination means nothing without doing.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Imagination

“I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing.”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff (Ch. XXXIII).
Source: Wuthering Heights (1847)
Context: I get levers and mattocks to demolish the two houses, and train myself to be capable of working like Hercules, and when every thing is ready and in my power, I find the will to lift a slate off either roof has vanished! My old enemies have not beaten me — now would be the precise time to revenge myself on their representatives. I could do it, and none could hinder me; but where is the use? I don't care for striking — I can't take the trouble to raise my hand! That sounds as if I had been labouring the whole time only to exhibit a fine trait of magnanimity. It is far from being the case. I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing.

“nothing is guaranteed…. So don't be afraid. Be alive.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

“I lost nothing I regret losing," Witch said softly. "I am what I want to be.”

Anne Bishop (1955) American fiction writer

Source: Dreams Made Flesh

“Sex means nothing--just the moment of ecstasy, that flares and dies in minutes.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Sex

“Nothing was truly unbearable if you had something to read.”

Jincy Willett American writer

Source: The Writing Class

Reading

“Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Nature

“In Kilanga, people knew nothing of things they might have had - a Frigidaire? a washer-dryer combination? Really, they'd sooner imagine a tree that could pull up its feet and go bake bread. It didn't occur to them to feel sorry for themselves.”

Barbara Kingsolver (1955) American author, poet and essayist

People, Feeling, Imagination, Tree

“Hope. Nothing is more intoxicating.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkdeath

Hope

“In a strange way we were free. We'd reached the end of the line. We had nothing more to lose. Our privacy, our liberty, our dignity: all of this was gone and we were stripped down to the bare bones of our selves.”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted (1994)

Way

“Your principle should be to see everything and say nothing. The world changes so rapidly that if you want to get on you cannot afford to align yourself with any person or point of view.”

Khushwant Singh (1915–2014) Indian novelist and journalist

World, Change, Personality

“When a man sees you are happy with him but you can be just as happy having nothing to do with him, that’s when he won’t want to leave your side. When you are happy, you are sexy.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Happiness

“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

For Men

“It may well be impossible for people who have lived and prospered under a given social system to imagine the point of view of those who feel it offers them nothing, and who can contemplate its destruction without any particular dismay.”

Michel Houellebecq (1956) writer

Source: Submission

People, Feeling, Imagination

“This means nothing,” she said.
“Less than nothing,” he lied.
“I’ll hate myself later.”
“I hate myself now.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Pleasure

Hate

“All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. […] it's the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

Ernest Hemingway book Green Hills of Africa

Part I, Ch. 1
Green Hills of Africa (1935)

Books, Literature

“I don't think I could love you so much if you had nothing to complain of and nothing to regret. I don't like people who have never fallen or stumbled. Their virtue is lifeless and of little value. Life hasn't revealed its beauty to them.”

Borís Pasternak book Doctor Zhivago

Source: Doctor Zhivago

Love, Life, People, Beauty

“He took my hand, made me stand on the branch and asked, "What can you see from here?"
"Nothing" I said,
"Know what I can see? From this distance everything is so bloody perfect".”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Perfection

“Quim," she said, "don't ever try to teach me about good and evil. I've been there, and you've seen nothing but a map.”

Orson Scott Card book Speaker for the Dead

Source: Speaker for the Dead

Evil

“The spoken word is nothing. It hardly lives longer than an insect! Only the written word is eternal. - Balbulus”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkspell

“Nothing had been okay, not for a long time. And every moment that I thought I was getting close, like the one I’d had earlier, seemed to remind the universe that I didn’t deserve that, not yet.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Saint Anything

Universe, Time

“Relax? he repeated incredulously. You're going to fight an armored knight with nothing more than a bow and you tell me to relax?
I'll have one or two arrows as well, you know, Halt told him mildly, and Horace shook his head in disbelief.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Icebound Land

Fight

“Nothing I like to do pays well.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 6, p. 141 : 'Rooster Cogburn' to 'Mattie Ross'

“De tall, dark vun--dere's nothing special about him at all," ter Borcht said dismissively of Fang, who hadn't moved since the doctor had come in.
Well, he's a snappy dresser," I offered. One side of Fang's mouth quirked.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

“I hate the moon. I hate tides and earthquakes and volcanoes. I hate a world where things that have absolutely nothing to do with me can destroy my life and the lives of people I love.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer book Life As We Knew It

Source: Life As We Knew It

Love, Life, Hate, People

“Nothing is ever lost nor can be lost; the body aged, sluggish, cold…. the embers left from earlier fires shall dully flame again”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

Age

“What you dream, you can grow. Someone told me that, but I didn't believe it. I said I had nothing and that people with nothing are unable to dream. But I was wrong.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Green Witch

People, Dreams

“Beckendorf, whose legs were now working fine (nothing like being chased by a huge monster to get your body back in order) shook his head and gasped for breath. “You shouldn’t have turned it on! It’s unstable! After a few years, automatons go wild!”

Rick Riordan book The Demigod Files

Source: The Demigod Files

“Let things be, let yourself be, let everything be and accept it as it is. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

“Trust that man in nothing who has not a conscience in everything.”

Laurence Sterne book The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Book II, Ch. 17.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767)

“The key thing is managed awareness of your role in the world and history. Think too much and you know you are nothing. Think just enough and you know you are small, but important to some. That's the best you can do.”

Dave Eggers book A Hologram for the King

Source: A Hologram for the King

World, History, Thinking

“But maybe you never really had someone, she thought now. Maybe, no matter how much you loved them, they could slip through your fingers like water, and there was nothing you could do about it.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Love, Water

“For you, a thousand times over." Then I turned and ran. It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything alright. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. But I'll take it. With open arms.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

Smile, Time

“Clavo saca clavo.
Nothing sacas nothing, you reply. No one will ever be like her.”

Junot Díaz book This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

“I’ve stopped talking because there’s really nothing left to say and there’s this piercing sort of pain where my heart is. Maybe I’m even having a heart attack, but it doesn’t seem worth mentioning.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Pain, Heart

“A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all.”

Georges Bernanos (1888–1948) French writer

“Apologies mean nothing if you don't mean it.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

Source: The Impossible Knife of Memory

“Miles and years become suddenly invisible when you find yourself back where you started from, as if you've learned nothing and you are once again the person you once were.”

Karen White (1964) American writer

Source: The Memory of Water

Learning, Personality

“How mysterious it is, to be in love. For you can be in love with one who knows nothing of you. Perhpas our greatest happinesses spring from such longings-being in love with one who is oblivious of you.”

Joyce Carol Oates Little Bird of Heaven (1st edition)

Source: Little Bird of Heaven

Love, Happiness, Spring

“There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.”

Tsunetomo Yamamoto book Hagakure

Hagakure (c. 1716)
Source: Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
Context: There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.
Everyone lets the present moment slip by, then looks for it as though he thought it were somewhere else.

Life, Understanding, Success

“It means that there's only one love for everyone who exists. And when you meet that love, you know them. You know you were meant to be together, and nothing can keep you apart.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 2

Love

“How weightless
words are when nothing will do.”

Philip Levine (1928–2015) Poet

Source: Breath

“Life is not easy. We all have problems-even tragedies-to deal with, and luck has nothing to do with it. Bad luck is only the superstitious excuse for those who don't have the wit to deal with the problems of life.”

Joan Lowery Nixon (1927–2003) American children's writer and journalist

Source: In The Face of Danger

Life, Bad luck, Problem

“There is nothing so eternally adhesive as the memory of power.”

Isaac Asimov book I, Robot

“The Evitable Conflict”, p. 189
Source: I, Robot (1950)

Memory

“Don't worry about losing. If it is right, it happens - The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

“This is how the entire course of a life can be changed - by doing nothing.”

Ian McEwan book On Chesil Beach

Page 166.
Source: On Chesil Beach (2007)

Life, Change

“Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”

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

Source: 1960s, Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 1 : A tough mind and a tender heart
Context: The tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crust of legends and myths and sifting the true from the false. The tough-minded individual is astute and discerning. He has a strong austere quality that makes for firmness of purpose and solidness of commitment.
Who doubts that this toughness is one of man's greatest needs? Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Men, Pain, People, Thinking

“Time is not the great teacher. Experience is. A man may live a whole life, but if he never leaves his home to experience that life, he dies knowing nothing. A mere child who has suffered and lived can be the wiser of the two.”

Lynsay Sands Canadian writer

Source: Love Bites

Life, Home, Suffering, Teachers