Quotes about number
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“Love is the greatest corrupter ever known and has been the numbers one downfall of mankind since the first creation.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Shadows

Love

“QUINN; You always look after Number One, don't you?
ASH; Doesn't everybody?”

L.J. Smith book Daughters of Darkness

Source: Daughters of Darkness

“Look out for number one and try not to step in number two.”

Rodney Dangerfield (1921–2004) American actor and comedian

“Don't you wish you had a job like mine? All you have to do is think up a certain number of words! Plus, you can repeat words! And they don't even have to be true!”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Thinking

“The three most harmful negative emotions are anger, guilt, and fear. And anger is number one. It is also the strongest and most dangerous of all passions.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Living Beyond Your Feelings: Controlling Emotions So They Don't Control You

Fear, Passion, Anger

“I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

Life, Time

“To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson book Experience

1840s, Essays: Second Series (1844), Experience

Wisdom

“One of the Georges - I forget which - once said that a certain number of hours' sleep each night - I cannot recall at the moment how many - made a man something which for the time being has slipped my memory.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Source: Mike and Psmith

Sleep, Memory, Time, Night

“Let's sum up: an unknown number of enemies with unknown capabilities, supported by a gang of madmen, packs of attack animals, and superhumanly intelligent pocket change.”

Jim Butcher (1971) American author

Intelligence, Support, Change, Animals

“Look, let me put it this way: with me, you’re number one and there isn’t even a number two.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

Way

“Dogs make sense. They understand hierarchy and the need to cooperate. They come when you call them. A cat though—a cat will take your number and get back to you. Maybe. If he’s in a good mood.”

Eileen Wilks Mortal Danger

Source: Mortal Danger

Dogs, Cats, Mood, Understanding

“The bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more. you're all good.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Time

“Best-selling horror fiction is indeed necessarily conservative because it must entertain a large number of readers. It’s like network television. I’m your local cable access station.”

Thomas Ligotti (1953) American horror author

“One is too small a number to achieve greatness.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

“In a population of hundreds of millions, such a small number of people is a mere drop in the bucket… but enough drops can make any bucket overflow”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnDivided

People

“Perhaps the depth of love can be calibrated by the number of different selves that are actively involved in a given relationship.”

Carl Sagan book Contact

Source: Contact

Love

“I thought research would be more glamorous, somehow. I'd give the librarian a secret code word and he'd give me the one book I needed and whisper the necessary page numbers. Like a speakeasy. With books.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

Secret, Books

“What do such machines really do? They increase the number of things we can do without thinking. Things we do without thinking-there’s the real danger.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

Thinking

“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.”

Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power

Source: The 48 Laws of Power

Time

“It all counts,' Adam said again. 'And the bottom line is, what defines you isn't how many times you crash, but the number of times you get back on the bike. As long as it's one more, you're all good.-pg 325 Along for the Ride”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Time

“Sure I loved him - too much. And he loved me, only not enough. I just want someone who thinks I'm number one in his life. I'm not willing to accept emotional scraps anymore.”

Amy Tan The Hundred Secret Senses

Source: The Hundred Secret Senses

Love, Life, Thinking

“We knew our days were numbered. We had fouled up our lives and we were getting ready for a shake-up.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

Source: Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories

“Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were written because authors couldn't find anyone to talk to.”

Alain de Botton book The Consolations of Philosophy

Source: The Consolations of Philosophy (2000), Chapter IV, Consolation For Inadequacy, p. 148

Books

“The serial number of a human specimen is the face, that accidental and unrepeatable combination of features. It reflects neither character nor soul, nor what we call the self. The face is only the serial number of a specimen”

Milan Kundera book Immortality

Source: Immortality

Soul

“She would consider each day a miracle - which indeed it is, when you consider the number of unexpected things that could happen in each second of our fragile existences.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

“The two horsewomen of the apocalypse still win, despite their dwindling numbers.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: The Piper's Son

“As you can see, there are quite a number of things taught in school that one has to unlearn or at least correct.”

Ambeth R. Ocampo book Rizal Without the Overcoat

Source: Rizal Without the Overcoat

School

“Usually the people I do know are sufficient to spawn any number of nightmares without inventing any.”

Patricia Briggs book River Marked

Source: River Marked

People

“You said I was your number-one pick."
"And you are. In our hearts. Alphabetically, though, Dusk comes before you.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: The Maleficent Seven: From the World of Skulduggery Pleasant

Heart

“I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Books

“42 is a nice number that you can take home and introduce to your family.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Family, Home

“Rules and Things Number 63: Never, Ever Say Something Bad About Someone You Don't Know--Especially When You're Around a Bunch of Strangers. You Never Can Tell Who Might Be Kin to That Person or Who Might Be a Lip-Flapping, Big-Mouth Spy.”

Christopher Paul Curtis book Bud, Not Buddy

Source: Bud, Not Buddy

Personality

“We tend to think human knowledge as progressive; because we know more and more, our parents and grandparents are back numbers. But a contrary theory is possible - that we simply recognize different things at different times and in different ways.”

Robertson Davies book The Rebel Angels

Source: The Rebel Angels

Way, Knowledge, Thinking, Parent

“Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.”

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

Literature, Question

“I am no poet. I do not love words for the sake of words. I love words for what they can accomplish. Similarly, I am no arithmetician. Numbers that speak only of numbers are of little interest to me.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Love

“Great," I said. "Another conference call. I havegot to start blocking your number.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“Here is a list of fearful things:
The jaws of sharks, a vulture's wings,
The rabid bite of the dog's of war,
The voice of one who went before.
But most of all the mirror's gaze,
which counts us out our numbered days.”

Clive Barker Days of Magic, Nights of War

Abarat, Book One
Source: Days of Magic, Nights of War

War, Fear, Dogs

“You have to be odd to be number one”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

“Date etiquette lesson number two: Don't die. Go on living.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Dance Dance Dance

“I thought there was a good chance the fridge was possessed. It was subtle about it, but I had its number. I knew its ways. Oh yes.”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Hunt the Moon

Way, Chance

“It’s clearly a budget. It’s got lots of numbers in it.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

“Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Life, Thinking, Time

“Three is the number of those who do holy work;

Two is the number of those who do lover's work;

One is the number of those who do perfect evil

Or perfect good.”

Clive Barker book Abarat

Source: Abarat

Lovers, Evil, Perfection

“You can kill time in a number of ways but it always depends on the kind of time you're fighting: some time is unkillable, immortal”

Martin Amis book Money

Source: Money

Way, Time, Fight, Dependency

“and I get refill number three or four and the wine is making my bones loose and it's giving my hair a red sheen and my breasts are blooming and my eyes feel sultry and wise and the dress is water.”

Aimee Bender (1969) Novelist, short story writer

Feeling, Water, Wine

“Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol 2

Wine, Tea

“Asking the head I have now to explain its own thinking is as pointless as dialing your own telephone number on your own telephone: Either way, you get an engaged signal. Or your own answer message, if you have that kind of phone system.”

Nick Hornby book A Long Way Down

Source: A Long Way Down

Way, Thinking

“Rule number four for me as a writer? Plotlines are like sharks: They either keep moving or they die. ~J. R. Ward”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: The Black Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider's Guide

“It goes without saying that a civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence.”

Sigmund Freud book The Future of an Illusion

Es braucht nicht gesagt zu werden, daß eine Kultur, welche eine so große Zahl von Teilnehmern unbefriedigt läßt und zur Auflehnung treibt, weder Aussicht hat, sich dauernd zu erhalten, noch es verdient.
Source: 1920s, The Future of an Illusion (1927)

“Our object must be to bring our territory into harmony with the numbers of our population.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

“I'm the most important person in the lives of almost everyone I know and a good number of the people I've never even met.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

People, Personality

“Soon after I began working for the Professor, I realized that he talked about numbers whenever he was unsure of what to say or do. Numbers were also his way of reaching out to the world. They were safe, a source of comfort.”

Yōko Ogawa book The Housekeeper and the Professor

Source: The Housekeeper and the Professor

World, Way

“A man may plant a tree for a number of reasons. Perhaps he likes trees. Perhaps he wants shelter. Or perhaps he knows that someday he may need the firewood.”

Joanne Harris book Runemarks

Source: Runemarks

Tree

“The power of human thought grows exponentially with the number of minds that share that thought.”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

“As a child, my number one best friend was the librarian in my grade school. I actually believed all those books belonged to her.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

Books, School

“Although I'm sure there are plenty of tall, gorgeous, life-of-the-party guys who are also true to their wives, I happen to believe that a disproportionate number of them are cheaters.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Baby Proof

Life, Guy

“You can measure the happiness of a marriage by the number of scars that each partner carries on their tongues, earned from years of biting back angry words.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Marriage, Happiness, Relationship

“Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number —
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you —
Ye are many — they are few.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

St. 91
(1819)
Source: The Masque of Anarchy: Written on Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester

Sleep

“Being Number Two Sucks.”

Andre Agassi (1970) US tennis player

“Ford!" he said, "there's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script forthey've worked out.”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“my friends don't seem to be friends at all but people whose phone numbers I haven't lost.”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

People

“Seven, Richie thought. That's the magic number. There has to be seven of us. That's the way it's supposed to be.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It

Way

“I imagine you come across a number of people who are disconcerted by the difference between what you do feel and what they fancy you ought to feel. It is fatal to pay the smallest attention to them.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book Gaudy Night

Source: Gaudy Night

People, Feeling, Imagination

“I read that speaking in front of a crowd is the number-one fear in America. I found that amazing. Number two was death. Number two! That means that, if you're ever at a funeral, you'd rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy.”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

I'm Telling You for the Last Time (1998)

Death, Fear, Reading

“Mrs. Ewing was a short woman who accepted the obligation borne by so many short women to make up in vivacity what they lack in number of inches from the ground.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Source: Men, Women And Dogs

Women

“War is life multiplied by some number that no one has ever heard of.”

Sebastian Junger (1962) American author, journalist and documentarian

Source: War

Life, War

“I can't drive."
"I'm going to teach you," he'd said confidently.
At the end of the lesson, he'd declared her the most aggressive and dangerous driver he'd ever encountered.
Which meant… number one! (Sabine)”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Kiss of a Demon King

Confidence

“You sit at a desk twelve hours a day and you have nothing to show for it except some numbers that won't exist or be remembered in a week. You're leaving no evidence you lived. There's no proof.”

Dave Eggers book The Circle

Source: The Circle

“Sometimes wrong numbers are the right numbers”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Time of My Life

“I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.”

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)

Intelligence, Personality

“Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

Cartoon caption, The New Yorker (5 June 1937); "Word Dance--Part One", A Thurber Carnival (1960)
Cartoon captions
Source: Collecting Himself: James Thurber On Writing And Writers, Humor And Himself