Quotes about nothing
page 27

“Look. If I touch you with this hand, I can remember touching you, but I can't prove I ever did. If reality is nothing more than what is in our mind… then what is the difference between this world and a dream?”

Kaori Ozaki (1976) Japanese mangaka

Source: Immortal Rain, Vol. 1

World, Dreams, Reality

“For the moment I can think of nothing— except that I am a sentient being stabbed by the miracle of these waters that reflect a forgotten world.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

Source: Tropic of Cancer

World, Thinking, Water

“Ah! there is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Emma (1815)
Works, Emma

Home

“That's what birthdays were. Days when you found out where you stood. Who was on your side and who wasn't. Nothing to do with how old you were.”

Rupert Thomson (1955) British writer

Source: The Five Gates of Hell

Birthday

“For if we're destroyed, the knowledge is dead… We're nothing more than dust jackets for books… so many pages to a person…”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Books, Knowledge, Personality, Dead

“Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Music, Passion, Time, Clothes

“You're nothing if you're not special.”

Anthony Horowitz book Point Blanc

Source: Point Blank

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Source: Ralph Waldo Emerson on Self Reliance

Peace, Peaceful

“Cheops' Law: Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.”

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love

Source: Time Enough for Love

Law

“Now, five years is nothing in a man's life except when he is very young and very old…

- Wang Lung”

Pearl S. Buck book The Good Earth

Source: The Good Earth

Life

“No one can live with nothing.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

“There was a DJ who stayed up for eleven days straight, the longest recorded period of time anyone has ever gone without sleep, and he started playing nothing by Phil Collins, and that's how they knew it was time to call the ambulance.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Sleep, Time

“The passion of laughter is nothing else but a sudden glory arising from sudden conception of some eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmities of others, or with our own formerly…”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic Pt. I Human Nature (1640) Ch. 9
Source: Leviathan

Laughter, Passion

“There is nothing wrong withmistakes, but one should always makeones. mistakes is a hallmark of dim consciousness.”

Dave Sim (1956) Canadian cartoonist, creator of Cerebus

“I wept because I was re-experiencing the enthusiasm of my childhood; I was once again a child, and nothing in the world could cause me harm.”

Paulo Coelho book The Pilgrimage

Source: The Pilgrimage

World, Childhood

“I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly, as the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands. I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.”

Sylvia Plath Ariel

Source: Ariel

Peace, Lying, Light, Learning

“When we can do nothing else, we can still love, without expecting any reward or change or gratitude.”

Paulo Coelho book Like the Flowing River

Source: Like the Flowing River

Love, Change, Gratitude

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

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

Source: The Second World War: Alone

Tear

“But neither of us knows, because a fight's worth nothing if you know from the start that you're going to win it.”

Markus Zusak book Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Source: Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Fight

“what's the matter?" he asked
"nothing"
"what do you want me to do for you?"
"i want you to be old. ten years older. twenty years older"
what she meant was: i want you to be weak. as weak as i am.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“Maybe getting around in life was nothing but map-reading. A skill that required practice. A key to unlock where you wanted to go. A legend to show where you were.”

Justina Chen (1968) American writer

Source: North of Beautiful

Life, Reading

“Maybe we're all in somebody's dream. Maybe everything's a dream, and nothing else.”

David Almond book My Name Is Mina

Source: My Name Is Mina

Dreams

“It's so much easier to convince yourself you're madly in love with someone when you know nothing about him.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Second Helpings

Love

“… even the most independent people sometimes needed help. And if I'd learned nothing else from my life thus far, it was that you don't always end up where you think you're going.”

Margaret Peterson Haddix book Just Ella

Source: Just Ella

Life, People, Thinking, Learning

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring — it was peace.”

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature

As quoted in The Canine Hiker's Bible (2000) by Doug Gelbert, p. 8

Jealousy, Peace, Dogs, Evil

“In that moment, he chose Greek. He threw in his lot with Camp Half-Blood-and the horses changed. The storm clouds inside burned away, leaving nothing but red dust and shimmering heat, like mirages on the Sahara.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Change, Horse

“Nothing bears out in practice what it promises incipiently.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany

“Nothing is more intolerable than to have admit to yourself your own errors.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

Error

“You say I started out with practically nothing, but that isn't correct. We all start with all there is, it's how we use it that makes things possible.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

“It was so nice just to live in the moment, to enjoy holding him so closely, to pretend for a little while that they were merely two young people in love and nothing else.”

Melissa de la Cruz book The Van Alen Legacy

Source: The Van Alen Legacy

Love, People

“Honestly, do these people have nothing better to do than engage in stupid mindless speculation about people they don't know?”

Sophie Kinsella book Can You Keep a Secret?

Source: Can You Keep a Secret?

People, Stupidity

“I'm for the individual as opposed to the corporation. The way it is the individual is the underdog, and with all the things a corporation has going for them the individual comes out banged on her head. The artist is nothing. It's really tragic.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Way

“You can do anything when it's not real.
When it is real, nothing breaks your fall. Nothing gets between you and the ground.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: Getting the Girl

“…and you smile back and try not to think about the fact that you have nothing, absolutely nothing, to say to each other.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Smile, Thinking

“I have never known what to tell anybody. Except that it is better to do something than nothing, even if the cost is great.”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Abhorsen

“Nothing tastes as good as looking good feels.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

Feeling

“Men best show their character in trifles, where they are not on their guard. It is in the simplest habits, that we often see the boundless egotism which pays no regard to the feelings of others and denies nothing to itself.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Men, Feeling

“Don't dare a person who has nothing else left to lose.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Variant: You shouldn't dare a person who doesn't have anything left to lose.
Source: Kiss an Angel

Personality

“There is nothing in the dark that isn't there when the lights are on.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

Light

“I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

God, Soul

“Nothing is ever finished and done with in this world. You may think a seed was finished and done with when it falls like a dead thing into the earth; but when it puts forth leaves and flowers next spring you see your mistake.”

Elizabeth Goudge book The Little White Horse

Source: The Little White Horse

World, Spring, Flowers, Thinking

“I lie on the floor, washed by nothing and hanging on. I cry at night. I am afraid of hearing voices, or a voice. I have come to the edge, of the land. I could get pushed over.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Source: CAT'S EYE.

Lie, Cry, Night

“Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Imagination, Star, Tree

“He gave her a bright fake smile; so much of life was a putting off of unhappiness for another time. Nothing was ever lost by delay. He had a dim idea that perhaps if one delayed long enough, things were taken out of one's hands altogether by death.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

Source: The Heart of the Matter

Life, Death, Smile, Idea

“Policeman: "A hermit eh? Then why's your table set for four?"

Groucho: "That's nothing. My alarm clock is set for eight.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

“If you're born in a cubicle and grow up in a corridor, and work in a cell, and vacation in a crowded sun-room, then coming up into the open with nothing but sky over you might just give you a nervous breakdown.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation

Source: Foundation

Sun

“DeWitt: Loneliness leads to nothing good, only detachment. And sometimes the people who most need to reach out are the people least capable of it.”

Jane Espenson (1964) American television writer and producer

People, Loneliness

“It's a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love.”

Graham Greene book The End of the Affair

Source: The End of the Affair

Love, God, Parent

“… he said, with sort of a little derisive smile, "How can you walk down the street with all this stuff going on inside you?" I said, "I don't know how you can walk down the street with nothing going on inside you.”

Nelson Algren (1909–1981) American novelist, short story writer

Smile

“Perhaps loneliness had nothing to do with place or circumstance; perhaps it was in you; yourself. Perhaps, wherever you were, you took your little circle of loneliness with you…”

Mary Stewart book Nine Coaches Waiting

Source: Nine Coaches Waiting

Loneliness

“Which is worse: Hell or nothing?”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Hell

“Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.”

Philip Larkin book High Windows

Source: High Windows

Sun

“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

“Success on the outside means nothing unless you also have success within.”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams Reaching Your Destiny

Success

“Maybe all the schemes of the devil were nothing compared to what man could think up.”

Joe Hill (1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World

Source: Horns

Thinking

“Really? And what curse befalls the Adams of the world?"
Ann opens her mouth and, presumably thinking of nothing to say, closes it again.
It is Felicity who answers, eyes steely. "They are weak to temptation. And we are their temptresses.”

Libba Bray book Rebel Angels

Source: Rebel Angels

World, Thinking

“Nothing is more impotent than an unread library.”

John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer

Source: Role Models

“Nothing is slower than the true birth of a man.”

Marguerite Yourcenar book Memoirs of Hadrian

Rien n'est plus lent que la véritable naissance d'un homme.
Source: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951), p. 258

Birth

“I just want to let you know that when I look into my future, I see nothing but you.” That’s what Chaz had whispered in my ear at some point during the wedding last night.

Then he’d whispered. “And you’re not even wearing Spanx.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Wedding, Future, Night

“There is nothing wrong with compromising, even if you are compromising almost everything.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), p. 175

“It was good, and nothing good is truly lost. It stays part of a person, becomes part of their character. So part of you goes everywhere with me. And part of me is yours, forever”

Rosamunde Pilcher book The Shell Seekers

Source: The Shell Seekers

Parting, Personality

“Our story is never written in isolation. We do not act in a one-man play. We can do nothing that does not affect other people, no matter how loudly we say, "It's my own business.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Source: Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

People, Business

“When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.”

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

Variant: When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.

“Nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything.”

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Hope

“The stairs aren't challenging enough anymore?" he asked.

Antonio laughed. "Challenge has nothing to do with it, Jer. I'd say it's the big bad wolf huffing and puffing at her door up there.”

Kelley Armstrong book Bitten

Source: Bitten

Wolf

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Learning, Business

“When they ran up to him, Percy said, 'Hey,' like they were just meeting for lunch or something.

'You're alive!' Frank marveled.

Percy frowned. 'The fall? That was nothing. I fell twice that far from the St. Louis Arch.'

'You didHazel asked.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“Who said anything about slicing you up?… I just wanted to carve a little Z on your forehead-- nothing serious.”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

“You spoke the truth, Percy Jackson. You are nothing like… like Hercules. I am honored that you carry this sword.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Truth

“In nature, nothing is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways and they're still beautiful.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

Beauty, Way, Nature, Tree

“But what if your obsession has nothing to do with drugs or thrills or money? What if what you want most in the world is to recapture the way life was a week, a month, a year ago-and you are willing to do whatever it takes?”

Jodi Picoult Perfect Match

Source: Perfect Match

Life, Money, World, Way

“There's nothing unusual about love.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Variant: sometimes there's nothing to say
about
death.
Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last

Love

“Virtual reality has nothing on Calvin.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

Reality

“Fantasy and science fiction can be literal as well as allegorical and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a monster like a giant squid for what it is, as well as searching for metaphor.”

China Miéville (1972) English writer

Search, Science

“Nothing is more appealing than a handsome man who is also uncertain of himself.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Guilty Pleasures

Source: Guilty Pleasures

“You don't have to be afraid of looking into my face. We've done nothing to each other that time will not erase.”

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

Time

“… nothing ever happens quickly (except when it does). Nothing is ever, ever easy (except when it is). And, most of all, nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan (except in the movies).”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

“When one is nothing, one invents. It fills a void.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

“Philosophy? What good is that?” Isn’t it the art of saying nothing with as many words as possible?”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Art

“Compassionate love may be strong. It sobs, it burns, then it wipes away its tears – and it does nothing.”

Alexander Herzen (1812–1870) Russian author

Love, Tear, Strong

“Living like an empty shell is not really living, no matter how many years it may go on. The heart and flesh of an empty shell give birth to nothing more than the life of an empty shell.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Life, Birth, Heart

“Altogether, if I'd been looking at nothing but the media all these years, I would be a much more discouraged person-especially given the notion that only conflict is news, and that objectivity means being evenhandedly negative.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Source: My Life on the Road

Personality

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Life, Men, Children, Nature

“She wanted nothing that he could offer her, except perhaps his absence.”

Clive Barker book The Hellbound Heart

Source: The Hellbound Heart

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Men

“It could be worse,' Passini said respectfully. "There is nothing worse than war."
Defeat is worse."
I do not believe it," Passini said still respectfully. "What is defeat? You go home.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms

Source: A Farewell to Arms

War, Home

“Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die”

Bashō Matsuo (1644–1694) Japanese poet

Cry

“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”

Ansel Adams (1902–1984) American photographer and environmentalist

“No, nothing can change my world
--Ichigo Kurosaki, Black Moon Rising”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

World, Change

“I repent me of the ignorance wherein I ever said that God made man out of nothing: there is no nothing out of which to make anything; God is all in all, and he made us out of himself.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Source: Wind from the Stars

God

“You have to be willing to get happy about nothing.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Happiness

“In truth, Freud sees nothing and understands nothing.”

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

Source: A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

Truth, Understanding

“I guess nothing puts a damper on a one-night stand as much as your friend pointing out all the opportunities where you might have been killed.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Night

“These were everyday sounds magnified by darkness. And darkness was nothing - it was not a substance, it was not a presence, it was no more than an absence of light.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Light

“Nothing's worse than saying goodbye. It's a little like dying.”

Marjane Satrapi (1969) Artist

Variant: Saying goodbye is a little like dying.
Source: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

“It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Source: Everybody’s Autobiography (1937), Ch. 2

Time

“When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer book The Cost of Discipleship

Source: The Cost of Discipleship

Life, Faith

“Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

Source: Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir

Life, Fight

“I can't praise a young lady who is alive only when people are admiring her, but as soon as she is left alone, collapses and finds nothing to her taste--one who is all for show and has no resources in herself”

Leo Tolstoy book Family Happiness

Source: Family Happiness

People

“It was good and nothing good is ever lost.”

Rosamunde Pilcher book The Shell Seekers

Source: The Shell Seekers

Quotes about nothing page 27

Quotes about nothing
page 27