Quotes about nothing
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“There is nothing frightening about an eternal dreamless sleep. Surely it is better than eternal torment in Hell and eternal boredom in Heaven.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Hell, Sleep

“Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh.
-An-mei”

Amy Tan The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club

Way

“There’s so much gray to every story—nothing is so black and white.”

Lisa Ling (1973) American journalist, television presenter, and author

“When I begin to doubt my ability to work the word, I simply read another writer and know I have nothing to worry about. My contest is only with myself, to do it right, with power, and force, and delight, and gamble.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Reading

“Have you ever wanted something that you knew was bad for you? Something that you ached for so much you could think of nothing else? [Wren]”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Unleash the Night

Thinking

“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

“Don’t ever make the mistake of telling God that you have nothing to offer. That simply is not true. God does not create any junk.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: The Purpose and Power of Love & Marriage

God

“Nothing is permanent but change.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Change

“What if nothing exists and we're all in somebody's dream? Or what's worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists?”

Woody Allen Without Feathers

from the play "God".
Without Feathers (1975)

Dreams, Guy

“My doctrine is this, that if we see
cruelty or wrong that we have the
power to stop, and do nothing, we
make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”

Anna Sewell book Black Beauty

Source: Black Beauty (1877), Ch. XXXVIII, p. 192

“Nothing proves the man-made character of religion as obviously as the sick mind that designed hell.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Source: god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Religion, Hell

Sharon Shinn (1957) American science fiction writer

Source: Jenna Starborn

Love

“Nothing is insoluble. Nothing is hopeless. Not while there's life.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

Life

“We shall be everything to each other. Nothing else shall be of any consequence.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

“I'd rather eat nothing than eat a carrot.”

Marian Keyes Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married

Source: Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married

“I have nothing now but praise for my life. I'm not unhappy. I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can't stop them. They leave me and I love them more…”

Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) American illustrator and writer of children's books

Love, Life, People, Cry

“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”

Calvin Trillin (1935) American journalist

Family, Mother's Day, For Mother

“Relax, Jailbait," said Avery. "A drunken kiss is nothing compared to a drunken fall. God knows I've kissed plenty of guys drunk."
"And yet, I remain unkissed tonight," mused Adrian.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

God, Guy, Kiss

“You must remember that the common criminal will always join the armed forces for, if nothing else, regular meals and expert training in the use of guns.”

Warren Ellis book Aetheric Mechanics

Source: Aetheric Mechanics

Training

“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced”

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

Law

“It's over when you decide it's over," Norah says. "When you call it a night. The rest is just a matter of where the sun is in the sky. That has nothing to do with us.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Sun, Night

“I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing”

Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer

Pleasure

“There were some things that only time could cure. Evil men could be destroyed, but nothing could be done with good men who were deluded.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Childhood's End

Guardian Angel, p. 220
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)
Source: Childhood's End

Men, Evil, Time

“I often think," she said, "that there is nothing so bad as parting with one's friends. One seems to forlorn without them.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Thinking, Parting

“Yes, it's crazy. Love is either crazy or it's nothing at all.”

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

Source: Life is Elsewhere

Love

“Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after the feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows and deprives the soul both of hope and fear.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Source: Frankenstein

Pain, Fear, Hope, Feeling

“Papa was a man with silver eyes, not dead ones.
Papa was an accordion!
But his bellows were all empty.
Nothing went in and nothing came out.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Dead, For Father

“There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Children, People, Feeling

“My dear, it is a great strength to have faced the worst and to have *felt* it a feature of beauty. Nothing ever after can shake one.”

Olaf Stapledon book Odd John

Source: Odd John

Beauty

“Nothing is impossible to a determined woman.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

Source: Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott

“Those who have nothing have only their discipline.”

Alain Badiou (1937) French writer and philosopher

“One thing about which fish know exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would enable them to perceive the element they live in.”

Marshall McLuhan book War and Peace in the Global Village

Source: War and Peace in the Global Village

Fish, Water

“The importance of our connection, what it meant to find each other again, the way it made what happened to us and between us not be a waste, not be for nothing. He would know, he had to know, that not saying good-bye would be the worst end of all.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

Way

“Sleep is not on good terms with broken hearts. It will have nothing to do with them.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Sleep, Heart

“… we must be a beacon of hope, because if you tell people there's nothing they can do, they will do worse than nothing.”

Margaret Atwood book The Year of the Flood

Source: The Year of the Flood

People, Hope

“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country. ~ Horace in Odes, Book 3, Ode 2, Line 13, as translated in The Works of Horace by J. C. Elgood
Notes on the Next War (1935)

War, Dogs, Country

“Nothing,' wrote Tolstoy, 'can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Life, People, Beauty

“Love has nothing to do with what you're looking at and everything to do with who's looking.”

Jodi Picoult book Small Great Things

Source: Small Great Things

Love

“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

“You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way".”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Way, Freedom

“Please, trust me, I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Variant: I most definitely can be cheerful. I can be amiable. Agreeable. Affable. And that's only the A's. Just don't ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.
Source: The Book Thief

“Goodbye, Hari, my love. Remember always--all you did for me.”

-I did nothing for you.”

-You loved me and your love made me--human.”

Isaac Asimov book Forward the Foundation

Source: Forward the Foundation

Love

“But all I could think of was how when nothing made sense and hadn't for ages, you just have to grab onto anything you feel sure of.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Age, Feeling, Thinking, Sense

“You can hide memories, but you can’t erase the history that produced them.” Sara looked directly into his eyes. “If nothing else, you need to remember that. You can’t erase history, or change it. It would be like destroying yourself.”

Haruki Murakami book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

History, Memory, Change

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

1760s, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)
Source: The Works Of John Adams, Second President Of The United States
Context: Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers. Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees, of the people; and if the cause, the interest, and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute other and better agents, attorneys and trustees.

People, Understanding, Nature, Knowledge

“Nothing is as obnoxious as other people's luck.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

People

“… Despite the mayhem that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let go.”

John Boyne (1971) Irish novelist, author of children's and youth fiction

Variant: And then the room went very dark and somehow, despite the chaos that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let it go.
Source: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

World

“I know nothing of god or the devil. I have never learned a secret nor found a cure that would damn or save my soul.”

Anne Rice (1941) American writer

God, Secret, Soul, Learning

“These girls want nothing to do with last season's clothes.”

Lisi Harrison book The Clique

Source: The Clique

Girl, Clothes, Season

“Nothing got inside the head without becoming pictures.”

Jonathan Franzen book The Corrections

Source: The Corrections

“When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Hope, Feeling, Sense, Hope

“I am stronger than depression and I am braver than loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Loneliness, Cute, Romantic, For Her

“It was all a matter of control. And Choice.
Nothing more, nothing less”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

“As gentle a man as he was, as tender as was his heart, there was nothing weak about Michael Hosea. He was the strongest-minded man Joseph had ever met. A Man like Noah. A Man like the Shepherd-king David. A man after God's own heart.”

Francine Rivers (1947) American writer

Source: Redeeming Love

God, Heart

“There's nothing better than cake but more cake.”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

“She had never experienced the pain of unsatisfied desire before. It hurt. It hurt like nothing she'd ever felt, and there seemed to be no remedy.”

Lisa Kleypas book Dreaming of You

Source: Dreaming of You

Pain, Hurt

“At the time I thought what I had with you and your mother was better than nothing. But if you can't tell the truth to the people you care about the most, eventually you stop being able to tell the truth to yourself.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

People, Truth, Time

“Nothing binds you except your thoughts; nothing limits you except your fear; and nothing controls you except your beliefs.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Fear

“The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.”

George Eliot (1819–1880) English novelist, journalist and translator

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 563

Life, Angels, Past

“Holding hands, for example, is a way to remember how it feels to say nothing together.”

Nicole Krauss (1974) American novelist

Way, Feeling

“When it seems you have nothing at all to live for, death is not especially frightening.”

Chris Bohjalian book The Sandcastle Girls

Source: The Sandcastle Girls

Death

“Every good writer I know needs to go into some deep, quiet place to do work that is fully imagined. And what the Internet brings is lots of vulgar data. It is the antithesis of the imagination. It leaves nothing to the imagination.”

Jonathan Franzen (1959) novelist

Imagination

“The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

“I would not sit waiting for some vague tomorrow, nor for something to happen. One could wait a lifetime, and find nothing at the end of the waiting. I would begin here, I would make something happen.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Sackett's Land (1974), Ch. 4

Waiting

“To try is to risk failure, but risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

Living, Loving, and Learning (1982)
Variant: Risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
Source: Living Loving and Learning
Context: To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

Life, Failure, Courageous

“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”

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

Truth, Error

“He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor hear her voice touch his ear. He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

Source: Dubliners

Feeling, Waiting, Night

“A home filled with nothing but yourself. It's heavy, that lightness. It's crushing, that emptiness.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Source: The Tent

Home, Light

“There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.”

Martin Gardner (1914–2010) recreational mathematician and philosopher

The Mathematical Magic Show (1978)

“Nature is God's first missionary. Where there is no Bible there are sparkling stars. Where there are not preachers there are spring times…
If a person has nothing but nature, then nature is enough to reveal something about God.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

God, Star, Spring, Nature

“We accept reality so readily - perhaps because we sense that nothing is real.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Reality, Sense

“Memory plays tricks. Memory is another word for story, and nothing is more unreliable.”

Ann-Marie MacDonald book Fall on Your Knees

Source: Fall on Your Knees

Memory

“Nothing can prevent your picture from coming into concrete form except the same power which gave it birth – yourself.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Birth

“It is not an act of bravery to try to save your own village. It is an instinct to protect what you possess. Bravery is when you step in to help when you have nothing to lose.”

Gail Tsukiyama The Samurai's Garden

Source: The Samurai's Garden

Help

“No human being, when you understand his desires, is worthless. No one's life is nothing. Even the most evil of men and women, if you understand their hearts, had some generous act that redeems them, at least a little, from their sins.”

Orson Scott Card book Speaker for the Dead

Source: Speaker for the Dead

Life, Women, Men, Understanding

“There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Book III, Ch. 13
Attributed
Source: The Complete Essays

Music, Learning, Time, Dance

“It isn't an easy thing to give your loyalty to someone you don't know, especially when that person chooses to reveal nothing of himself.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Personality, Loyalty

“For a human being, nothing comes naturally,” said Grumman. “We have to learn everything we do.”

Philip Pullman book The Subtle Knife

Stanislaus Grumman to Lee Scoresby in Ch. 14 : Alamo Gulch
Source: His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)

Nature, Learning

“Nothing that lived and breathed was truly objective—even in a vacuum, even if all that possessed the brain was a self-immolating desire for the truth.”

Jeff VanderMeer book Annihilation

Source: Annihilation

Truth

“I came to Party Crashing because accidents happen. People you love will die. Nothing you treasure will last forever. And I need to accept and embrace that fact.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Rant

Source: Rant

Love, People

“There is nothing more uncommon than common sense.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

Anonymous saying, dating back at least to its citation in Natural Theology (1836) by Thomas Chalmers, Bk. II, Ch. III : On the Strength of the Evidences for a God in the Phenomena of Visible and External Nature, § 15, where the author states: "It has been said that there is nothing more uncommon than common sense."; it has since become misattributed to particular people, including Frank Lloyd Wright.
Misattributed

Sense