Quotes about readiness
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“There will always be something to ruin our lives. It all depends on what or which finds us first. You’re always ripe and ready to be taken.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Dependency

“God help me if I ever injure my back," Clayton quipped.
"God help you if you ever turn it," Whitney snapped, "for there'll surely be some heartbroken papa or cuckolded husband ready with a knife--if I don't murder you first.”

Judith McNaught book Whitney, My Love

Source: Whitney, My Love

God, Help

“To live fully, one must be free, but to be free one must give up security. Therefore, to live one must be ready to die. How's that for a paradox?”

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

“Look at your body—
A painted puppet, a poor toy
Of jointed parts ready to collapse,
A diseased and suffering thing
With a head full of false imaginings.”

Thomas Ligotti (1953) American horror author

Description: from the The Dhammapada
Source: The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror (2010)

Disease, Imagination, Suffering, Parting

“Will an hour be enough?”
An hour implied that I needed a lot of help. “I’ll see what I can do,” I said coolly. I was ready in twenty minutes.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

Help

“I think that where you go wrong is that you imagine that your reasons for living ought to fall on you, ready-made from heaven, whereas we have to find them for ourselves.”

Simone de Beauvoir book The Blood of Others

Source: The Blood of Others

Imagination, Thinking

“Even when we were standing in church and I was getting ready to take my vow I can remember wishing that you were standing there instead of him.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me

Source: The Best of Me

“We must be ready to learn from one another, not claiming that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God.”

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

God, Truth, Learning

“Moral wounds have this peculiarity - they may be hidden, but they never close; always painful, always ready to bleed when touched, they remain fresh and open in the heart.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Count of Monte Cristo

Source: The Count of Monte Cristo

Pain, Heart

“Now I know that if you wait until you think you are ready, you'll wait your whole life”

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

Source: Erak's Ransom

Life, Thinking, Waiting

“It's your own fault for being so camera-ready," I tell Gale. If looks could kill.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“Fear is a poison produced by the mind, and courage is the antidote stored always ready in the soul”

Dean Koontz (1945) American author

Fear, Soul, Courage

“Love between two people can last a long time if the people love themselves some, and are ready to give love to another person.”

James Patterson book Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

Source: Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

Love, People, Time, Personality

“Dance with me, Death, I am ready.”

Terry Goodkind book Stone of Tears

Source: Stone of Tears

Death, Dance

“Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.”

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author

Variant: Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.

Men

“All your life you wait, and then it finally comes, and are you ready?”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

Life, Waiting

“I've wanted to go out with you from the first moment I saw you. I just had to wait until you were ready.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Waiting

“Most people are not ready for death, theirs or anybody elses.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship

Death, People

“We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment

Understanding, Knowledge, Reality, Learning

“As long as we're together, I'm ready for anything.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“High school sucks. People who say those were the best years of your life—those people are liars… Who wants the best years of their life to be in high school? High school is something everybody should be ready to lose.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Forever Princess

Life, People, School

“Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea

Variant: But, he thought, I keep them with precision. Only I have no luck anymore. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.
Source: The Old Man and the Sea

“The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait until that other is ready, and it may be a long time before they get off.”

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

Travel, Time, Waiting

“I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak.”

Lillian Hellman (1905–1984) American dramatist and screenwriter

As quoted in Untamed Tongues : Wild Words from Wild Women (1993) by Autumn Stephens, p. 132

People

“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

“Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught,”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

In debate http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1952/nov/04/debate-on-the-address in the House of Commons, 4 Nov 1952 Post-war years (1945–1955) Variant: Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. Context: Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught, but I shall not attempt to foreshadow the proposals which will be brought before the House tomorrow. Today it will be sufficient and appropriate to deal with the obvious difficulties and confusion of the situation as we found it on taking office.

Learning, Personality

“Joel Cairo: You always have a very smooth explanation ready.
Sam Spade: What do you want me to do, learn to stutter?”

Dashiell Hammett book The Maltese Falcon

Source: The Maltese Falcon

Learning

“A God who counts minutes and pennies, a desperate sensual God, who grunts like a pig. A pig with golden wings, who falls and falls, always belly side up, ready for caresses, that’s him, our master. Come, kiss me.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

God, Kiss

“I was getting depressed. My life wasn't going anywhere. I needed something, the flashing of lights, glamour, some damn thing. And here I was, talking to the dead. I finished my first drink. The second was ready.”

Charles Bukowski book Pulp

Source: Pulp

Life, Drink, Light, Dead

“Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

" What I Believe http://www.unz.org/Pub/Forum-1930sep-00133" in The Forum 84 (September 1930), p. 136 1930s Context: Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt. The more stupid the man, the larger his stock of adamantine assurances, the heavier his load of faith.

Men

“In our hearts there is a ruthless dictator, ready to contemplate the misery of a thousand strangers if it will ensure the happiness of the few we love.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

Source: The Heart of the Matter

Love, Happiness, Heart

“I got ready for bed and crawled in. The covers were comfortable and warm, but the pillow was just too weird. It gave me neck cramps, so I put it on the floor and went to sleep without it.
My first big mistake.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Sleep

“Women fall in love when they get to know you. Men are just the opposite. When they finally know you they're ready to leave”

James Salter (1925–2015) American novelist and short-story writer

Source: Dusk and Other Stories

Love, Women, Men

“I'm not through with you yet. Are you prepared to accept your punishment?"
I nodded reluctantly. I wasn't sure what a vampire's punishment might be. But I was ready to find out.
"I sentence you to a thousand kisses," he said.
"Can I begin now?”

Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer

Source: Royal Blood

Kiss

“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Being Peace

“Dances are generally more fun to think about and get ready for than they actually are when you get there.”

E. Lockhart (1967) American writer of novels as E. Lockhart (mainly for teenage girls) and of picture books under real name Emily J…

Source: The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver

Thinking, Dance

“My spirit has pass'd in compassion and determination around the whole earth.
I have look'd for equals and lovers an found them ready for me in all lands,
I think some divine rapport has equalized me with them”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

Source: Leaves of Grass

Lovers, Thinking

“I need to get ready. Ash? Touch the food and I won't take you for a driving lesson tomorrow. Dad? Touch it and I'll maketake him for a driving lesson tomorrow."

Dad backed away from the counter. Ash scowled. I laughed and continued upstairs.”

Kelley Armstrong (1968) Canadian writer

Source: The Rising

Food

“Always expect something to go wrong," he told him. "Believe me, if you're wrong, you're not dissapointed. If you're right, you're ready for it.”

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

Source: Erak's Ransom

“Zsadist: I didn't make up the rules of this scenario
Wrath: You'll die if you go by yourself.
Zsadist: Well… I'm kind of ready to get off the ride.
Phury felt his skin get tight all over.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Awakened

“Love can smack you like a seagull, and pour all over your feet like junkmail. You can't be ready for such a thing any more than salt water taffy gets you ready for the ocean.”

Daniel Handler book Adverbs

Source: Adverbs (2006), Collectively

Love, Water

“We are always getting ready to live, but never living.”

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

12 April 1834 http://books.google.com/books?id=MpNaAAAAMAAJ&q=&quot;We+are+always+getting+ready+to+live+but+never+living&quot;&pg=PA276#v=onepage 1820s, Journals (1822–1863)

“As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you in a book.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Source: The Marquis of Lossie

Books

“Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by "opinions" when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Decision

“The whole summer lay ahead of us-time to rest, time to wait. And when the future comes-no matter what comes with it-I'll be smarter. I'll be stronger. I'll be ready.”

Ally Carter Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Source: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Time, Waiting, Future, Summer

“…… When one loves, one is only too ready to believe one's love returned.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

Source: CliffsNotes on Dumas's The Three Musketeers

Love

“And were an epitaph to be my story I'd have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover's quarrel with the world.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

World, Lovers

“Scott: I don't think I'm ready to be a grown-up.
Kim: I don't think you are either, buddy. But hey, you'll get it. It just takes practice.”

Bryan Lee O'Malley (1979) Artist

Source: Scott Pilgrim, Volume 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour

Thinking

“if you stay still, earth buries you, ready or not.”

Annie Dillard (1945) American writer

Source: For the Time Being

“It's been said that love finds you when you're ready.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Love

“If you choose to go looking for something, you'd better be ready for whatever it is you find. Because it may not be what you've been expecting.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Variant: If you choose to be looking for something, you'd better be ready for whatever it is you are find. Because it may not be what you've been expecting.
Source: Vanishing Acts

“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

“And so we go.' It's my way of saying that I'm prepared for the next adventure. The next chapter. The next challenge. Whatever comes my way, I'm ready for it. Because that truly is the way it was meant to be…”

D.J. MacHale The Soldiers of Halla

Source: The Soldiers of Halla

Way

“I felt myself trapped in line for a ride I was not nearly ready for, looking back but moving forward in the only direction I could go.”

Elizabeth Berg (1948) American novelist

Source: The Year of Pleasures

“To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no birth in our lifetime.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology (1968)

Hope, Birth, Hope

“Sometimes I arrive just when God's ready to have somone click the shutter.”

Ansel Adams (1902–1984) American photographer and environmentalist

God

“You're an Apprentice! You're not ready to think!"
Gilan and Halt.
The Ruins of Gorlan.”

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

Variant: You're an apprentice, you're not ready to think yet.
-Ranger's Apprentice

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

“We'll never be ready. So I guess that means we're as ready as we'll ever be.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnWholly

“Donʹt worry now about what you canʹt change. Rest when you can so youʹll be ready for tomorrowʹs battles”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Change

“Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession - their ignorance.”

Hendrik Willem van Loon (1882–1944) Dutch-American historian, journalist and author

“What else do I have to offer? Nothing happens to me anymore. That’s the reality of getting old, and I guess that’s really the crux of the matter. I’m not ready to be old yet.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

Reality

“You're never ready for what you have to do. You just do it. That makes you ready.”

Flora Rheta Schreiber (1918–1988) American journalist

Source: Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities

“People talk about nature as a mother, but to me she's always been Medea, ready and willing to slaughter her children.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ill Wind

Children, People, Nature

“Sophos turned red, and I wondered about the circulation of his blood; maybe his body kept an extra supply of it in his head, ready for blushing.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Thief

Source: The Thief

“Emptying the ashtrays was very expressive of myself. I just lump everything in a great heap which I have labeled ‘the past,’ and having thus emptied this deep reservoir that was once myself, I am ready to continue.”

Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948) Novelist, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald

Past

“It is better to live ready than to get ready!”

Smith Wigglesworth (1859–1947) British evangelist

“Sometimes a wind comes up, blows you off course. You’re not ready for it, but if you’re lucky, you end up in a more interesting place than you’d planned.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: The Calhouns: Suzanna & Megan

“But I know this. We're ready to move forward again in our way. Together or apart, no matter how far apart, we live in one another. We go on together.”

Ann Brashares book Sisterhood Everlasting

Source: Sisterhood Everlasting

Way

“To every rule there is an exception—and an idiot ready to demonstrate it. Don't be the one!”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

“How can I forgive if you are not ready to give up that which caused you to stumble?”

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni book The Mistress of Spices

Source: The Mistress of Spices

Forgiveness

“Tell no man anything, for no man listens
Yet hold thy lips ready to speak.”

Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American writer and editor

“Ready for a new life”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Life

“As for myself, I always willingly acknowledge my own self as the principal cause of every good and of every evil which may befall me; therefore I have always found myself capable of being my own pupil, and ready to love my teacher.”

Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice

Memoirs (trans. Machen 1894), book 1, Preface http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/casanova/c33m/preface2.html Referenced Source: Geschichte Meines Lebens

Love, Teachers, Evil