Quotes about nothing
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“Perhaps its inevitable, perhaps one has to choose between being nothing at all and impersonating what one is.”

Source: The Age of Reason

“None of those other things makes a difference. Love is the strongest thing in the world, you know. Nothing can touch it. Nothing comes close. If we love each other we're safe from it all. Love is the biggest thing there is.”

David Guterson book Snow Falling on Cedars

Source: Snow Falling on Cedars

Love, World

“I am wary of the whole dreary deadening structured mess we have built into such a glittering top-heavy structure that there is nothing left to see but the glitter, and the brute routines of maintaining it.”

John D. MacDonald (1916–1986) writer from the United States

Travis McGee series, The Deep Blue Good-by (1964)
Source: The Deep Blue Good-By
Context: I am wary of a lot of things, such as plastic credit cards, payroll deductions, insurance programs, retirement benefits, savings accounts, Green Stamps, time clocks, newspapers, mortgages, sermons, miracle fabrics, deodorants, check lists, time payments, political parties, lending libraries, television, actresses, junior chambers of commerce, pageants, progress, and manifest destiny. I am wary of the whole dreary deadening structured mess we have built into such a glittering top-heavy structure that there is nothing left to see but the glitter, and the brute routines of maintaining it.

“The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind
about nothing -- to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

“But sometimes you lose. Nothing you can do but admit it.
-Eli”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

“Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours, and nothing is fabulous any more.”

Roald Dahl (1916–1990) British novelist, short story writer, poet, fighter pilot and screenwriter

World

“Without animals, there would be no humanity. In a world of just people, people will mean nothing…”

Chuck Palahniuk book Haunted

Source: Haunted

People, World, Animals

“I flip ahead in the textbook. There's an interesting chapter about acid rain. Nothing about sex. We aren't scheduled to learn about that until eleventh grade.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Sex, Learning

“When you sit face to face with someone who is pleasant, respectful, and polite, you have hard time reminding yourself that nothing he says is true/sincere.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Time, Sincerity

“My attraction had been immediate and profound. And it had nothing to do with the way he looked. My attraction was to what resided between his lines.”

Augusten Burroughs book You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

Source: You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas

Way

“The past was gone. Nothing could change what had already been. Looking back at it, letting its wounds fester, indulging in regret was just a different, slower way to die. The living moved forward.”

Jim Butcher Captain's Fury

Source: Captain's Fury

Way, Change, Past

“There's nothing wrong with stretching the truth. We stretch taffy, and that just makes it more delicious.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Truth

“There is nothing that you can do to me that my own craziness doesn't do to me smarter and faster and better.”

Joanne Greenberg book I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Source: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

“The real trick in life is to want nothing, and to succeed in getting it.

- Karla”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Life

“There is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure - it is, after all, what everybody does all the time.”

Susanna Clarke book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Source: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

World, Failure, Time

“Nothing is as contagious as enthusiasm. It is the real allegory of the myth of Orpheus; it moves stones, and charms brutes. It is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

Truth, Victory, Sincerity

“The elegance is as physical, as moral quality that has nothing common with the clothing. You can see a countrywoman more elegant than one so called elegant woman.”

Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer

Clothes

“There's nothing like a shovel full of dirt to encourage literacy.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin

“Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.”

Ken Follett book The Pillars of the Earth

Source: The Pillars of the Earth

God, Faith, Success, Faith

“The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

Problem, Evil

“In truth, nothing was the same. She forgot about the stars… and taking notice of the sea. She was no longer filled with all the curiosities of the world and didn’t take much notice of anything… other than how heavy… and awkward the bottle had become.”

Oliver Jeffers (1977) British writer and illustrator

Source: The Heart and the Bottle

Truth, World, Star, Sea

“He smiles at me, and I am suddenly seventeen again - the year I realize that love doesn't follow the rules, the year I understood that nothing is worth having so much as something unattainable”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Love, Smile

“There are people who have too much space between their ears, and given the time, do nothing but free fall forever inside their head. It's a spooky thing to be left alone inside an angry innerverse.”

James St. James (1966) American writer

People, Time

“All is vanity, nothing is fair.”

William Makepeace Thackeray Vanity Fair

Source: Vanity Fair

“What brothers say to tease their sisters has nothing to do with what they really think of them.”

Esther M. Friesner (1951) American writer

Source: Nobody's Princess

Thinking, Sister

“Nothing written for pay is worth printing. Only what has been written against the market.”

Ezra Pound (1885–1972) American Imagist poet and critic

“I know what it's like to squander all your hours and all your tears and all your heart on something which turns out to be nothing. Don't waste your time.”

Sophie Kinsella book Twenties Girl

Source: Twenties Girl

Tear, Time, Heart

“The more I study men, the more I realize that they are nothing in the world but boys grown too big to be spankable.”

Jean Webster book Dear Enemy

Source: Dear Enemy

Men, World, Boy, Study

“I go back to my room and lie under the covers, trying not to think of Gale and thinking of nothing else.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Lie, Thinking

“Marriage is not a ritual or an end. It is a long, intricate, intimate dance together and nothing matters more than your own sense of balance and your choice of partner.”

Amy Bloom (1953) Fiction writer, screenwriter, social worker, psychotherapist

Marriage, Sense, Dance, Wedding

“Sleep late, have fun, get wild, drink whiskey and drive fast on empty streets with nothing in mind but falling in love and not getting arrested.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Love, Drink, Sleep

“Nothing will work unless you do.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“The heart of an Irishman is nothing but his imagination”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Imagination, Heart

“If truth is what you seek, then the examined life will only take you on a long ride to the limits of solitude and leave you by the side of the road with your truth and nothing else.”

Thomas Ligotti (1953) American horror author

Source: The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

Life, Truth, Solitude

“What kind of life have you lived little one? Where fair has anything to do with it? Life and death just are. Fair has nothing to do with it.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Life, Death

“Make no mistake, those who write long books have nothing to say.
Of course those who write short books have even less to say.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Books

“Gymn says your fine. He's examined your internal organs and found nothing lacking.”

Donita K. Paul (1950) American writer

Source: DragonSpell

“On Wednesday, when the sky is blue,
and I have nothing else to do,
I sometimes wonder if it's true
That who is what and what is who."
- Winnie-the-Pooh”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

“The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Life

“Everything alters me, but nothing changes me.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Change

“There are no guarantees. But there is also nothing to fear. We come from oblivion when we are born. We return to oblivion when we die. The astonishing thing is this period of in-between.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Fear

“Dreams weigh nothing. - Marie Antoinette”

Kathryn Lasky (1944) American children's writer

Source: Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles, Austria - France, 1769

Dreams

“We told him to get on with it. We liked wasting time, but almost nothing was more annoying than having our wasted time wasted on something not worth wasting it on.”

Joshua Ferris (1974) American author

Time

“Nothing happened today. And if anything did, I’d rather not talk about it, because I didn’t understand it.”

Roberto Bolaño book The Savage Detectives

Source: The Savage Detectives

Understanding

“Eeek,” Shane said. Nothing. Right, Amazon princess, I got the point.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Last Breath

Princess

“nothing grieves more deeply or pathetically than one half of a great love that isn’t meant to be.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

Love

“The scariest part of forever is that nothing is.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Story of Us

Parting

“It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.”

Sam Harris Letter to a Christian Nation

Source: Letter to a Christian Nation

People, Faith, Time

“She doesn't speak, and I say nothing more. We just stare at each other, letting the tears roll down our cheeks. That's what tears are for, after all. A way for the soul to bleed.”

Cody McFadyen (1968) Cody McFadyen

Source: Shadow Man

Way, Soul, Tear

“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

“One thing I've learnt recently: how to think nothing. Here's the trick: don't have any interest in the world around you, don't have any hope for the future, and be warm.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

World, Hope, Thinking, Future

“Don't forget that everything you deal with is only one thing and nothing else……. above all dont forget to follow your destiny through to its conclusion”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist

Forgetting

“Nothing is written stone, child. Even if it were, the stones can be shattered”

Melanie Rawn book Dragon Prince

Source: Dragon Prince

“If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. If what you had found was only a moment of light, like the explosion of a star, you would find nothing on your return.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 130.

Star, Light

“When in doubt, say nothing and move on.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Rendezvous with Rama

Source: Rendezvous with Rama

“These young men and women, longing to socialize their democracy, are animated by certain hopes which may be thus loosely formulated; that if in a democratic country nothing can be permanently achieved save through the masses of the people, it will be impossible to establish a higher political life than the people themselves crave; that it is difficult to see how the notion of a higher civic life can be fostered save through common intercourse; that the blessings which we associate with a life of refinement and cultivation can be made universal and must be made universal if they are to be permanent; that the good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.”

Jane Addams (1860–1935) pioneer settlement social worker

"The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements" http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/addams6.htm; this piece by Jane Addams was first published in 1892 and later appeared as chapter six of Twenty Years at Hull House (1910) <br class="br">Context: These young people accomplish little toward the solution of this social problem, and bear the brunt of being cultivated into unnourished, oversensitive lives. They have been shut off from the common labor by which they live which is a great source of moral and physical health. They feel a fatal want of harmony between their theory and their lives, a lack of coördination between thought and action. I think it is hard for us to realize how seriously many of them are taking to the notion of human brotherhood, how eagerly they long to give tangible expression to the democratic ideal. These young men and women, longing to socialize their democracy, are animated by certain hopes which may be thus loosely formulated; that if in a democratic country nothing can be permanently achieved save through the masses of the people, it will be impossible to establish a higher political life than the people themselves crave; that it is difficult to see how the notion of a higher civic life can be fostered save through common intercourse; that the blessings which we associate with a life of refinement and cultivation can be made universal and must be made universal if they are to be permanent; that the good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating in mid-air, until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.

Life, Women, Men, People

“Nothing is more deadly than a deserted, waiting street.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Waiting

“There's nothing honerable in a man who hides behind a blue woman's hanky.”

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

Source: Erak's Ransom

“It was the old New York way of taking life "without effusion of blood": the way of people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage, and who considered that nothing was more ill-bred than "scenes," except the behaviour of those who gave rise to them.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence (1920), Ch. 33

Life, People, Disease, Way

“Rose: "Wow. You beat up your dad. I mean, that's really horrible… what happened. But, wow. You really are a god."…
Dimitri: "What?"
Rose: "Uh, nothing.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Variant: Wow." I hadn't thought Dimitri could be any cooler, but I was wrong. "You beat up your dad. I mean, that's really horrible... what happened. But, wow. You really are a god."
He blinked. "What?"
"Uh, nothing.
Source: Vampire Academy

God

“That's your response to everything: drink?"
"No, that's my response to nothing.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Drink