Quotes about opening
page 10

“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few.”

Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971) Japanese Buddhist missionary

“We couldn't imagine the emptiness of a creature who put a razor to her wrists and opened her veins, the emptiness and the calm.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Virgin Suicides

Source: The Virgin Suicides

Imagination

“What are you going to have?” he asked.
“A nervous breakdown,” she muttered and opened her menu.
So we’ll tell the waitress to make that a double, he thought.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Beauty and the Black Sheep (The Moorehouse Legacy, #1)

“Open your eyes, train your ears, use your head. If a mind you have, then use it while you can.”

Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

Training

“Knowledge was not meant to be locked behind doors. It breathes best in the open air where all men can inhale its essence.”

Louis L'Amour The Haunted Mesa

Source: The Haunted Mesa

Men, Knowledge

“And it's a pity too that I've no right to open your letters. I hope you don't get many, or my conscience will give me no peace.”

Diana Wynne Jones Charmed Life

Source: Charmed Life

Peace, Hope

“As one, they leap, laughing, and that is where we leave them - mouths open, arms spread wide, fingers splayed to take in the whole world, bodies flying high in defiance of gravity, as if they will never fall.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

World, Flying

“His heart was like a sensitive plant, that opens for a moment in the sunshine, but curls up and shrinks into itself at the slightest touch of the finger, or the lightest breath of wind.”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. IV : The Party; Gilbert Markham about Frederick Lawrence

Heart

“We live, we love. These are the choices we are given, to open doors or to close them. It is all we have, and it is enough”

Karen White (1964) American writer

Source: The Time Between

Love

“A bud is a flower-to-be. A flower in waiting. Waiting for just the right warmth and care to open up. It's a little fist of love waiting to unfold and be seen by the world. And that's you.”

Christopher Paul Curtis book Bud, Not Buddy

Source: Bud, Not Buddy

Love, World, Flowers, Waiting

“A wine shop was open and I went in for some coffee. It smelled of early morning, of swept dust, spoons in coffee-glasses and the wet circles left by wine glasses.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms

Source: A Farewell to Arms

Coffee, Wine

“Sharing truth is not the kind of gift that comes in wrapping paper - ripped open once and, there, you're done. No, this is a gift that must be unfolded.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

Truth

“When we give ourselves in love we become our most vulnerable. We are never safe. We become open to disappointment and hurt.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

Source: Loving Each Other

Love, Disappointment, Hurt

“If your eyes weren't open, you wouldn't know the difference between dreaming and waking.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Dreams

“Be an opener of doors”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“Blake said that the body was the soul's prison unless the five senses are fully developed and open. He considered the senses the 'windows of the soul.' When sex involves all the senses intensely, it can be like a mystical experience.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Sex, Soul, Sense

“We understood one another better before ever I opened my mouth”

Patrick O'Brian (1914–2000) English novelist

“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Happiness, Deep, Attitude

“Laughter opens your heart and soothes your soul. No one should ever take life so seriously that they forget to laugh at themselves.”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams Reaching Your Destiny

Life, Soul, Laughter, Heart

“And once we reach the city, my stylist will dictate my look for the opening ceremonies tonight anyway. I just hope I get one who doesn't think nudity is the last word in fashion.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Hope, Fashion, Thinking

“A stupid person can make only certain, limited types of errors; the mistakes open to a clever fellow are far broader.”

Steven Brust book Iorich

Source: Iorich (2010), p. 172  <br class="br">Context: A stupid person can make only certain, limited types of errors; the mistakes open to a clever fellow are far broader. But to the one who knows how smart he is compared to everyone else, the possibilities for true idiocy are boundless.

Stupidity, Error, Personality

“I could no more have stopped myself from feeling that sadness than you could stop yourself from smelling an apple that has been cut open on the table before you.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Sadness, Feeling

“Outside the open window
The morning air is all awash with angels.”

Richard Wilbur (1921–2017) American poet

Love Calls Us To The Things Of This World
Source: Collected Poems, 1943-2004
Context: The eyes open to a cry of pulleys,
And spirited from sleep, the astounded soul
Hangs for a moment bodiless and simple
As false dawn.
Outside the open window
The morning air is all awash with angels.

Angels

“The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.”

Edward Abbey book Desert Solitaire

Source: Desert Solitaire

Love, Life, Flowers, Freedom

“The problem I have with all this religion stuff is that I can't relate to it. I think most people got into 'cos it gave them something to do on a Sunday, but since all the shops are now open it isn't required as much.”

Karl Pilkington (1972) English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer

Source: An Idiot Abroad: The Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington

People, Religion, Problem, Thinking

“A generous heart is always open, always ready to receive our going and coming. In the midst of such love we need never fear abandonment. This is the most precious gift true love offers - the experience of knowing we always belong.”

Bell Hooks book All About Love: New Visions

Source: All About Love: New Visions

Love, Fear, Heart

“Afoot and lighthearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

World

“Her heart was heavy because it was open, and so things filled it, and so things rushed out of it, but still the heart kept beating, tough and frighteningly powerful and meaning to shrug off the rest of her and continue on its own.”

Helen Oyeyemi (1984) British author

Source: Mr. Fox

Heart

“My grandfather always says that's what books are for," Ashoke said, using the opportunity to open the volume in his hands. “To travel without moving an inch.”

Jhumpa Lahiri book The Namesake

Source: The Namesake, (2003) p. 16.

Books, Travel

“[Public] libraries should be open to all—except the censor.”

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

“You fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Fish

“Caddy got the box and set it on the floor and opened it. It was full of stars. When I was still, they were still. When I moved, they glinted and sparkled. I hushed.”

William Faulkner book The Sound and the Fury

Source: The Sound and the Fury

Star, Box

“I was having a wonderful time and the whole world opened up before me because I had no dreams.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

World, Dreams, Time

“What she was finding also was how one book led to another, doors kept opening wherever she turned and the days weren't long enough for the reading she wanted to do.”

Alan Bennett book The Uncommon Reader

Source: The Uncommon Reader

Books, Reading

“Well, sometime Mr —— git on me pretty hard. I have to talk to Old Maker. But he my husband. I shrug my shoulders. This life soon be over, I say. Heaven last all ways.

You ought to bash Mr —— head open, she say. Think bout heaven later.”

Alice Walker book The Color Purple

Source: The Color Purple

Life, Way, Thinking

“I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.”

Christopher Isherwood book Goodbye to Berlin

Source: "Berlin Diary" (1930) from Goodbye to Berlin (1939)

Thinking

“The longer I live the more I mistrust
theatricality, the false glamour cast
by performance, the more I know its poverty beside
the truths we are salvaging from
the splitting-open of our lives.

-from "Transcendental Etude”

Adrienne Rich book The Dream of a Common Language

Source: The Dream of a Common Language

Truth, Falseness

“I am a camera, with its shutter open. Someday, all of this will be developed, printed, fixed.”

Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) English novelist

“One of the hardest tasks as a human being is knowing when to keep an open mind, and when not to.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Stay

“The door slammed open. Vivenna jumped, putting a hand to her chest.

Vasher walked in. 'Start reaching for that sword when you're startled,' he said. 'There's little reason to grab your shirt, unless you're planning to rip it off.”

Brandon Sanderson book Warbreaker

Source: Warbreaker

“She enjoys rain for its wetness, winter for its cold, summer for its heat. She loves rainbows as much for fading as for their brilliance. It is easy for her, she opens her heart and accepts everything.”

Morgan Llywelyn book Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish

Source: Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish

Love, Winter, Heart, Summer

“Words betrayed her: beautiful butterflies in her mind; dead moths when she opened her mouth for their release into the world.”

Glen Duncan book I, Lucifer

Source: I, Lucifer

World, Beauty, Dead

“Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

"The Sick Chamber," The New Monthly Magazine (August 1830), reprinted in Essays of William Hazlitt, selected and edited by Frank Carr (London, 1889)
Source: Essays of William Hazlitt: Selected and Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Frank Carr

Secret, Books, Soul

“I thought of the wilderness we had left behind us, open to sea and sky, joyous in its plenitude and simplicity, perfect yet vulnerable, unaware of what is coming, defended by nothing, guarded by no one.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Source: Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside

Perfection, Sea

“This must be what an addict feels like, I think,
trying to fight the pull of one last, quick read. My fingers itch toward the binding, and finally, with a sigh of regret, I just grab the book and open it, hungrily reading the story.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Between the Lines

Books, Feeling, Thinking, Reading

“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.
:This quote, often attributed to Jomo Kenyatta, was first written in a fiction play published by holocaust doubter Rolf Hochhuth, in his controversial The Deputy, a Christian tragedy (1964), Grove Press, p. 144. No reference to any historical or original source was given. Other citations are found in books written by critics of religion, such as Christos Tzanetakos's "The Life and Work of an Atheist Pioneer", iUniverse; and Jack Huberman's "Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound" (2008), 175. No references are given.
: In Desmond Tutu: A Biography (2004) by Steven Gish, p. 101; is clarified Tutu used it as a joke which was not of him.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Misattributed

Life, Books, Religion, Quotes

“Every body is a book of blood;
Wherever we're opened, we're red.”

Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist

Clive Barker's Books of Blood
Source: Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three

Books

“the mind is its own beautiful prisoner.
Mind looked long at the sticky moon
opening in dusk her new wings

then decently hanged himself, one afternoon.

The last thing he saw was you
naked amid unnaked things…”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Beauty

“Science is based on experiment, on a willingness to challenge old dogma, on an openness to see the universe as it really is. Accordingly, science sometimes requires courage - at the very least the courage to question the conventional wisdom.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Wisdom, Courage, Question, Universe

“Once lay down the rule that the job comes first and you throw that job open to every individual, man or woman, fat or thin, tall or short, ugly or beautiful, who is able to do that job better than the rest of the world.”

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer

Source: Are Women Human? Astute and Witty Essays on the Role of Women in Society

World, Beauty

“Open the book. (The gilt rubs off the edges of the pages and pollinates the fingertips.)”

Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) American poet

Books

“If nature has made you a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart. And though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849–1924) English-American childrens' playwright and author

Nature, Time, Heart

“The principal mark of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new frontiers.”

Arthur Koestler (1905–1983) Hungarian-British author and journalist

Perfection

“Favorite Places:
I'm not that good at being a tourist because I'm always looking at the way the light shines in your hair or the way your dress opens to the wind & my favorite places in the world are places filled with you.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

World, Way, Light

“Forgiveness does not require us to close our eyes but rather to truly open them.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Gift

Forgiveness

“Fate, at first so amenable, so reasonable, so open to negotiation, ends up by exacting a cruel revenge for happiness.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

Fate, Happiness, Revenge

“Every beginning, after all, is nothing but a sequel, and the book of events is always open in the middle.”

Wisława Szymborska (1923–2012) Polish writer

Books

“The fall of one regime does not bring in a utopia. Rather, it opens the way for hard work and long efforts to build more just social, economic, and political relationships and the eradication of other forms of injustices and oppression.”

Gene Sharp book From Dictatorship to Democracy

Source: From Dictatorship to Democracy

Way, Effort

“Books are keys that open many doors.”

James Rollins (1961) American writer

Books

“The kitchen was just as empty, even the refrigerator gone, the chairs, the table--the kitchen cabinets stood open, their bare shelves reminder her of a nursery rhyme. She cleared her throat. "What would demons," she said, "want with our microwave?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“And suddenly solitude fell across his heart like a dusty reflection. He closed his eyes. The dark doors within him opened and he entered. The next performance in the theater of Grenouille's soul was beginning.”

Patrick Süskind (1949) German writer and screenwriter

Source: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Soul, Solitude, Heart

“The new crimes that the US and Israel were committing in Gaza as 2009 opened do not fit easily into any standard category—except for the category of familiarity.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Source: Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians

“Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes all the pressure off the second.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Letter to Sydney Cox (3 January 1937), quoted in Robert Frost : The Trial By Existence (1960) by Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, p. 351, and Robert Frost and Sidney Cox: Forty Years of Friendship (1981) by William Richard Evans, p. 223
General sources
Context: Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes all the pressure off the second. My mouth is sealed for the duration of my stay here. I'm not even going to write letters around to explain to collectors my not having had any Christmas card this year. I'm not going to explain anything personal any more.

Housing

“And how could anyone consent to give up the smell of open books, old or new?”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Swan Thieves

Source: The Swan Thieves

Books

“the moment you don't feel like praying, get on your knees. And the moment you don't feel like reading your bible, you'd better get that Book open.”

Lori Wick American writer

Source: Where the Wild Rose Blooms

Books, Feeling, Reading

“I had only to open my bedroom window, and blue air, love, and flowers entered with her”.”

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) French artist and painter

Love, Flowers

“It took teams of LEP warlocks to slow down time for a few hours; the magic required to open a door to the tunnel was stupendous. It would be easier to shoot down the moon.
Opal tapped this into her notepad.
Reminder. Shoot down the moon? Viable?”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Time Paradox

Time

“Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes? But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool out of you that you will know yourself for one, and begin to be wise.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Source: Lilith A and Lilith, 1896: A Duplex

Fools, Business, Universe

“Here I came to the very edge where nothing at all needs saying… and every day on the balcony of the sea wings open fire is born and everything is blue again like morning.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Sea

“The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.”

Franz Kafka book The Metamorphosis

Source: The Metamorphosis

Home

“You need something to open up a new door, to show you something you seen before but overlooked a hundred times or more”

Bob Dylan book Writings and Drawings

Source: Writings and Drawings

Time

“Travel opens your mind as few other things do.”

Libba Bray book Rebel Angels

Source: Rebel Angels

Travel

“And books, they offer one hope -- that a whole universe might open up from between the covers, and falling into that universe, one is saved.”

Anne Rice book Blackwood Farm

Source: Blackwood Farm (2002)
Context: "No, but one can feel desperate at any age, don't you think? The young are eternally desperate," he said frankly. "And books, they offer one hope – that a whole universe might open up from between the covers, and falling into that universe, one is saved.

Books, Hope, Universe

“I don't-" I shake my head. (…)
"What? What were you going to say?" This is another trick of shrinks. They never let you stop in midthought. If you open your mouth, they want to know exactly what you had the intention of saying.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

“Your mind creates your reality. If you expect nothing, you open up the universe to give you options. If you expect the worst, you usually get it.”

James Patterson book Maximum Ride

Source: Max

Reality, Universe

“Books fall open, you fall in. When you climb out again, you're a bit larger than you used to be.”

Gregory Maguire (1954) Novelist

Books

“Honest, open questions are countercultural”

Parker J. Palmer

A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life

Question

“Hazel!” he yelled. “That box! Open it!”
She hesitated, then saw the box he meant. Te label read WARNING. DO NOT OPEN.
“Open it!” Leo yelled again.”

Rick Riordan The Mark of Athena

Source: The Mark of Athena

Reading, Box

“We're already separated that's official but there's still a window of hope left open that perhaps someday we could give things another try.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Hope

“Once I opened my mind to the concept of a greater power, I never struggled with it. Everywhere I went, I felt and saw the existence of a creative intelligence in this universe, of a loving power larger than myself in nature, in people, everywhere.”

Anthony Kiedis book Scar Tissue

Source: Scar Tissue

Love, People, Intelligence, Nature

“A kind of light spread out from her. And everything changed color. And the world opened out. And a day was good to awaken to. And there were no limits to anything. And the people of the world were good and handsome. And I was not afraid any more.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

People, World, Color, Light

“Knowing that wishes don’t always come about in the way that we think, but if you believe and keep your mind open, there’s a really good chance they will manifest in some way.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Night Star

Way, Thinking, Chance

“Keep your mind too open, and you never know what might walk in.”

Simon R. Green (1955) British writer

Source: Drinking Midnight Wine

“Another door swung open, and another guard appeared, this time with Gabrielle, who wore a black catsuit and rappelling harness.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

Appearance, Time

“There was no warning, not even a knock. The door flew open, and he forgot his present aches and pains in anticipation of what lay in store. The figure that stood in the door was not that of an enemy. It was worse. It was his mother.”

Elizabeth Peters The Ape Who Guards the Balance

Source: The Ape Who Guards the Balance

Pain

“He had the effect on her of a window being thrown open and fresh air and sunlight being let in”

Elizabeth von Arnim book Vera

Source: Vera

“I went down to the 24-hour grocery. When I got there, the guy was locking the front door. I said, 'Hey, the sign says you’re open 24 hours. He said, 'Yes, but not in a row.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Guy

“By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

The Enemies of Reason, "The Irrational Health Service" [1.02], 20 August 2007, timecode 00:13:05"ff"
The Enemies of Reason (August 2007)
Variant: We should be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brain falls out.

Funny

“People ask, How did you get in there? What they really want to know is if they are likely to end up in there as well. I can't answer the real question. All I can tell them is, It's easy. Most people pass over incrementally, making a series of perforations in the membrane between here and there until an opening exists. And who can resist an opening?”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted (1994)

People, Question

“The world cracks open for those willing to take a risk.”

Frances Mayes (1940) American university professor and writer

Source: A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller

World