Quotes about nothing
page 29

“I'd like a drink. I desire to forget life. Life is a hideous invention by somebody I don't know. It doesn't last, and it's good for nothing. You break your neck simply living.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Life, Drink, Forgetting

“And what would they be scared of? There's nothing to fear in a perfect world, is there?”

Catherine Fisher (1957) Welsh children's writer

World, Fear, Perfection

“As long as I was alive, I was something. That was just how it was. But somewhere along the way it all changed. Living turned me into nothing.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Way, Change

“He should accept me as I am!” says the woman who is too nice.
Accept you? Oh no, sister. Slap yourself. He should want you
madly. Acceptance has nothing to do with it. He accepts a
doormat. But he desires his dreamgirl.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

Sister

“They spent their time doing nothing… they let intimacy fuse them.”

Jean Genet book Our Lady of the Flowers

Source: Our Lady of the Flowers

Time

“People want nothing but mirrors around them. To reflect them while they’re reflecting too… Reflections of reflections and echoes of echoes. No beginning and no end. No center and no purpose.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

People

“Finally, you had to measure yourself by other people - there really was nothing else. every now and then, quite unintentionally, someone taught you something about yourself.”

Ian McEwan (1948) British author

People

“Looking back, I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was too. But better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all.”

Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author

Journal entry (July 1922), published in The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927)

Imagination

“To do what you imply would require nothing short of divine intervention. You must change man, not systems.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Source: Scaramouche

Change

“This is my story; I promise to leave nothing out.
First you will smile, and then you will cry - don't say you haven't been warned.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Variant: First you will smile, and then you will cry -- don't say you haven't been warned.
Source: A Walk to Remember

Smile, Cry

“Anger is the most impotent of passions. It effects nothing it goes about, and hurts the one who is possessed by it more than the one against whom it is directed.”

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American writer and editor

Passion, Hurt, Anger

“If you added it up, without her there was nothing--but with her even the simplest of gestures of walking a bird dog in the desert, or selecting the ingredients for a meal for two rather than one took on an ineffable charm.

(from the novella,)”

Jim Harrison (1937–2016) American novelist, poet, essayist

Source: Legends of the Fall

Dogs, Bird

“Ah, nothing is too late
Till the tired heart shall cease to palpitate.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

St. 24. <br class="br"> Morituri Salutamus http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/longfellow/19229 (1875)

Heart

“[D]on’t cling to your self-righteous suffering, let it go…. Nothing is too good to be true, let yourself be forgiven. To the degree you insist that you must suffer, you insist on the suffering of others as well. (90)”

Stephen Levine (1937–2016) American poet and author

Source: A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last

Suffering

“I done learned my mistake and learned to do what's right by it. You still trying to get something for nothing. Life don't owe you nothing. You owe it to yourself.
- Troy”

August Wilson Fences

Source: Fences

Life, Learning

“A brain with no heart and no reasoning… well, nothing is more meaningless.”

Melissa de la Cruz book Masquerade

Source: Masquerade

Heart

“Nothing is changed, except
there was a moment when

the wolf, the mongering wolf
who stands outside the self

lay lightly down, and slept.”

Maxine Kumin (1925–2014) American poet and author

Wolf, Change

“it doesn't matter if Prince Charles falls off his horse
or that the hummingbird is so seldom
seen
or that we are too senseless to go
insane.

coffee. give us more of that NOTHING
coffee.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

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

Coffee, Horse

“And he was not old enough to talk and say nothing at the same time.”

William Faulkner book Light in August

Source: Light in August

Time

“There are many things worth living for, a few things worth dying for, and nothing worth killing for.”

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

“Roza." his voice had that same wonderful lowness, the same accent… it was all just colder. "You forgot my first lesson: Don't hesitate."
I just barely saw his fist striking out toward my head… and then I saw nothing at all.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you.”

Mary Roach book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Source: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Way, Lying, Time, Dead

“If you get hung up on everybody else's hang-ups, then the whole world's going to be nothing more than one huge gallows.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

World

“This person, this self, this me, finally, was made somewhere else. Everything had come from somewhere else, and it would all go somewhere else. I was nothing but a pathway for the person known as me.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Personality

“Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“I wipe away my tears and nod, because the pain in my leg is nothing compare to the one in my heart.”

Wendelin Van Draanen (1965) American writer

Source: The Running Dream

Pain, Tear, Heart

“Enlightenment is not an attainment, it is a realization. And when you wake up, everything changes and nothing changes.”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Source: Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives

Change

“They adore you beacause they think you offer up your friendship and ask for nothing in return. But that's not true-' He took a deep breath. 'You do ask for something. You ask that we never expect you to need us.”

Kamila Shamsie (1973) Pakistani writer

Source: Kartography

Friendship, Thinking

“Nothing good is a miracle, nothing lovely is a dream.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Love, Dreams

“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) French artist and painter

Heart, Motivational, Back To Work

“Maryse sighed."Nothing conclusive. If only the dead could talk, eh, Lucian?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Dead

“When the heart craved something so forcefully, then reason became nothing but helpless observer.”

Cornelia Funke (1958) author

Source: Fearless

Heart

“We are all human; therefore, nothing human can be alien to us.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“I believe in everything; nothing is sacred. I believe in nothing; everything is sacred. Ha Ha Ho Ho Hee Hee.”

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

“You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.”

Jonathan Maberry book Rot & Ruin

Source: Rot & Ruin

“Try to be one of those on whom nothing is lost.”

Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic

Source: The Art of Fiction

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.”

Helen Keller book Optimism

Optimism (1903)
Variant: Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement

Faith, Hope, Optimism, Motivational

“Should-haves solve nothing. It's the next thing to happen that needs thinking about.”

Alexandra Ripley (1934–2004) American writer

Thinking

“Alexander smoked and watched her from his tree stump bench. What are you doing? she would ask him.

Nothing, he would reply. Nothing but growing my pain into madness.”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Source: The Bronze Horseman

Pain, Tree, Madness

“I love you, man. You rule! Thanks for the food. It touches me deep in my tender place. (Sway)
I don’t want to know nothing about your tender place, you freak. (Devyn)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Ice

Love, Food

“Better than nothing is not good enough for you!”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

“Forgiving's a choice you make—a gift you give to somebody even if they don't deserve it. It costs nothing, but it makes you feel rich for giving it away.”

Lurlene McDaniel (1944) American writer

Source: When Happily Ever After Ends

Feeling, Forgiveness

“If you were to open up a baby's head - and I am not for a moment suggesting that you should - you would find nothing but an enormous drool gland.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Baby

“Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

Letter, written in collaboration with John Gay, to William Fortescue (23 September 1725).
A similar remark was made in a letter to John Gay (16 October 1727): "I have many years magnify'd in my own mind, and repeated to you a ninth Beatitude, added to the eight in the Scripture: Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed."
Variant: Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.
Context: "Blessed is the man who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed" was the ninth Beatitude which a man of wit (who, like a man of wit, was a long time in gaol) added to the eighth.

Disappointment

“If there is something comforting - religious, if you want - about paranoia, there is still also anti-paranoia, where nothing is connected to anything, a condition not many of us can bear for long.”

Thomas Pynchon book Gravity's Rainbow

Source: Gravity's Rainbow

“There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing.”

Lorraine Hansberry A Raisin in the Sun

Mama, Act III
A Raisin in the Sun (1959)
Context: There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don't mean for yourself and for the family 'cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he's been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning — because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so. When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.

Love, Learning

“I can connect
Nothing with nothing”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

“I need a new friend. I need a friend, period. Not a true friend, nothing close or share clothes or sleepover giggle giggle yak yak. Just a pseudo-friend, disposable friend. Friend as accessory. Just so I don't feel or look so stupid.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Stupidity, Feeling, Clothes

“If I had a hundred kingdoms, I would trade them all for you, my dearest love. I
was nothing until you.”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Source: Until You

Love

“Family is everything. Family comes first. It's not what I expected it to be, but nothing ever is.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

http://www.familyquotes4u.com/2009/03/family-quotes-page-8.html <br class="br">(In Brilla Mare Ariake ads).

Family

“When people have tried everything and have discovered that nothing works, they will tend to revert to what they know best—which will often be the tribe, the totem, or the taboo.”

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

People

“The distance is nothing when one has a motive.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Motivation

“If he'd been any other boy, and this was any other world, I would have kissed him. Nothing could have stopped me.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

World, Boy, Kiss

“Human will is the strongest will ever created. There are those who are born to succeed and those who are determined to succeed. The former fall into it, and the latter pursue it at all costs. They won’t be denied. Nothing daunts them.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

“It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.”

Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American journalist

A Preface to Morals (1929)

Wisdom, Music, Understanding

“Something, like nothing, happens anywhere.”

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

“Conclusion 2:
There's nothing more demonic than two bored twins.
~Signed Tamaki”

Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist

Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 2

“Writing has nothing to do with meaning. It has to do with landsurveying and cartography, including the mapping of countries yet to come.”

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

Country

“I can alter my life by altering my attitude. He who would have nothing to do with thorns must never attempt to gather flowers.”

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

Life, Flowers

“In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth. For nothing is more precious than the life force and may the love of that force guide you as you go.”

Patti Smith (1946) American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist

Source: Early Work, 1970-1979

Love, Life, Dreams, Art

“In eight years not a day has gone by when she hasn’t thought of him. She misses him and she wants him back. I want my best friend back, she thinks, because without him nothing is good and nothing is right.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Thinking

“Ever, if I’ve learned nothing else in my six hundred years of living, it’s that people hate change almost as much as they hate for their beliefs to be challenged.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Night Star

Hate, People, Learning, Change

“Almost nothing need be said when you have eyes.”

Tarjei Vesaas book The Boat in the Evening

Source: The Boat in the Evening

“Everyone builds on other men's failures. There is nothing really original in science. What each man contributes to the sum of knowledge is what counts.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon (1966)
Context: No one really starts anything new, Mrs Nemur. Everyone builds on other men's failures. There is nothing really original in science. What each man contributes to the sum of knowledge is what counts.

Men, Failure, Knowledge, Science