Quotes about nothing page 39
“I strive for nothing if not consistency”
Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer
Source: The Final Empire
“Many a serious thinker has been produced in prisons, where we have nothing to do but think.”
Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power
Source: The 48 Laws of Power
“Nothing was quite like it was supposed to be.”
Maureen Johnson book 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Source: 13 Little Blue Envelopes
“Life is nothing if you're not obsessed.”
John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer
“If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.”
Rita Mae Brown (1944) Novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist
“Fate is nothing but the deeds committed in a prior state of existence.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Gena Showalter (1975) American writer
Source: Catch a Mate
Lois McMaster Bujold book Memory
Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Memory (1996)
Context: "You go on. You just go on. There's nothing more to it, and there's no trick to make it easier. You just go on."
"And what do you find on the other side? When you go on?"
"Your life again. What else?"
"Is that a promise?"
"It's an inevitability. No trick. No choice. You just go on."
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) English biologist and comparative anatomist
1860s, Reply to Charles Kingsley (1860)
Context: Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.
Context: Science seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the great truth which is embodied in the Christian conception of entire surrender to the will of God. Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Me and Tupperware, baby. We seal tight. Ain’t nothing going to get out.”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist
Source: Infamous
“His dress told her nothing, but his face told her things which she was glad to know.”
A.A. Milne book Once on a Time
Source: Once on a Time
“Don't forget that everything you deal with is only one thing and nothing else.”
Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist
“Do reasons matter when there's nothing that can be done to change things.”
Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel
Source: Clockwork Angel
“My pain is constant and sharp… this confession has meant nothing”
Bret Easton Ellis book American Psycho
Source: American Psycho
“We will often do anything to pretend that nothing is on our minds.”
John Irving book Trying to Save Piggy Sneed
Source: Trying to Save Piggy Sneed
“The night kept coming on in and there was nothing I could do.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker
Source: The Holy Terrors
Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last
Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Fate's Edge
“having nothing to struggle
against
they have nothing to struggle
for.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist
Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963
“Show the readers everything, tell them nothing.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist
“There is nothing you can do about the past except keep it there.”
Michael Connelly The Brass Verdict
Source: The Brass Verdict
“What if nothing exists and we're all in somebody's dream?”
Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
“In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever in and of itself.”
Chuck Klosterman book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
Source: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour.”
Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer
Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
Wallace Stevens book Harmonium
"The Snow Man"
Harmonium (1923)
Context: p>One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitterOf the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare placeFor the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.</p
“The monsters that rose from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts”
Max Brooks book World War Z
Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
“Gray day. Everything is gray. I watch. But nothing moves today.”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
A.A. Milne book The House at Pooh Corner
Source: The House at Pooh Corner (1928), Chapter Seven.
Context: "Lucky we know the forest so well, or we might get lost," said Rabbit half an hour later, and he gave the careless laugh which you give when you know the Forest so well that you can't get lost.
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you."
“So much magic, Clary thought, and nothing to mend a broken heart”
Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire
Source: City of Heavenly Fire
“Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.”
George Eliot book Impressions of Theophrastus Such
Source: Impressions of Theophrastus Such, Ch, 4 (1879); comparable to. James Russell Lowell 1871: Blessed are they who have nothing to say, and who cannot be persuaded to say it. https://books.google.de/books?id=YRmn-_vXZ58C&pg=PA102&dq=persuaded
“For a woman, there is nothing more erotic than being understood.”
Molly Haskell (1939) American film critic
“Her joy with him was like nothing she had ever experienced. His love for her felt like a miracle.”
Elizabeth Chandler (1954) writer
Source: Evercrossed
Wú Chéng'ēn (1500–1582) Chinese writer
Source: Monkey: A Journey to the West
Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer
Source: Focal Point: A Proven System to Simplify Your Life, Double Your Productivity, and Achieve All Your Goals
“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.”
E.L. Doctorow (1931–2015) novelist, editor, professor
The New York Times (20 October 1985)
“There's nothing like a mission to save the world to liven up a vacation.”
Donita K. Paul (1950) American writer
Source: DragonQuest
“Just because you don't know everything don't mean you know nothing.”
Karen Cushman book The Midwife's Apprentice
Source: The Midwife's Apprentice
“Anyone who hasn't experienced the ecstasy of betrayal knows nothing of ecstasy at all.”
Jean Genet (1910–1986) French novelist, playwright, poet and political activist
Source: Prisoner of Love
“There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it.”
Nihil tam absurde dici potest, quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosophorum.
Marcus Tullius Cicero book De Divinatione
Book II, chapter LVIII, section 119
Cf. René Descartes' "On ne sauroit rien imaginer de si étranger et si peu croyable, qu’il n’ait été dit par quelqu’un des philosophes [One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another]" (Le Discours de la Méthode, Pt. 2)
Variant: There is nothing so ridiculous that some philosopher has not said it.
Source: De Divinatione – On Divination (44 BC)
Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist
Source: Communion: The Female Search for Love
“Why me?' I ask God.
God says nothing.
I laugh and the stars watch.
It's good to be alive.”
Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author
Source: I Am the Messenger
“Hate is nothing when weighed against survival. (Valentine)”
Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes
Source: City of Ashes
“Without nothing, everything would be nothing.”
Dejan Stojanovic book The Sign and Its Children
"While the Sign Sleeps," p. 17
The Sign and Its Children (2000), Sequence: “The Sign and Nothing”