Quotes about right
page 27

“Spending time with you just feels… right, somehow. Easy, like the way it's supposed to be. Like it is with my parents. They're just comfortable together, and I remember growing up thinking that one day I wanted to have that, too.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Way, Feeling, Thinking, Parent

“Here's what breaks us: Even though we know better, we still want everything to be all right.”

David Levithan book Love Is the Higher Law

Source: Love Is the Higher Law

“Someone has to ask you a question," George continues meaningly, "before you can answer it. But it's so seldom you find anyone who'll ask the right questions. Most people aren't that much interested….”

Christopher Isherwood book A Single Man

Source: A Single Man

People, Question

“In this whole screwed up town, you're the only thing that's always been right to me," He whispered. "I love you, Claire" said Shane.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Variant: Shane talking to Claire -

"In this whole screwed up town, you're the only thing that's always been right to me," He whispered. "I love you, Claire
Source: Lord of Misrule

Love

“Clarke's First Law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

"Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962)

Perhaps the adjective "elderly" requires definition. In physics, mathematics, and astronautics it means over thirty; in the other disciplines, senile decay is sometimes postponed to the forties. There are, of course, glorious exceptions; but as every researcher just out of college knows, scientists of over fifty are good for nothing but board meetings, and should at all costs be kept out of the laboratory!

"Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination" in Profiles of the Future (1962; as revised in 1973)
On Clarke's Laws

Law

“This is what I wanted. This guy. This life. This me. I was never getting my old life back, and I didn't care. I was happy. I was safe. I was right where I wanted to be.”

Kelley Armstrong The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

Life, Happiness, Guy

“Doesn't seem right, does it? A split second to lose him and a lifetime to grieve over him.”

Tim Bowler book Frozen Fire

Source: Frozen Fire

“But kids don't stay with you if you do it right. It's the one job where, the better you are, the more surely you won't be needed in the long run.”

Barbara Kingsolver Pigs in Heaven

Source: Pigs in Heaven

For Mother

“Adina gave a little shriek. "That fish just swam past my leg! Creepy! Where did it go?"

"To your right! Two o'clock! Get it!"

"You are officially the most bloodthirsty vegetarian ever.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

Fish, Past

“Sometimes you can see things happen right in front of your eyes and still jump to the wrong conclusions.”

Jodi Picoult book Keeping Faith

Source: Keeping Faith

“I shot you, all right," he said, "and you lost something, but you gained something as well. You just don't know it yet. I gained something, too."

What?"

I got to keep my promise. I didn't leave you behind.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

“The boy smiled -- mostly at Amy.
"Sorry, her heart belongs to Ian Kabra," Dan said, except that something in her expression made him realize her heart didn't belong at all to Ian
right now.”

Peter Lerangis book The Viper's Nest

Source: The Viper's Nest

Smile, Boy, Heart

“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man's right to his body, or woman's right to her soul.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

Women, Men, Soul, History

“The man who prays is the one who thinks that god has arranged matters all wrong, but who also thinks that he can instruct god how to put them right.”

Christopher Hitchens Mortality

Source: Mortality

God, Thinking

“Never be afraid of doing the thing you know in your heart is right, even if others don't agree.”

Elizabeth Berg (1948) American novelist

Source: Dream When You're Feeling Blue

Heart

“You can go other places, all right - you can live on the other side of the world, but you can't ever leave home”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Mermaid Chair

Source: The Mermaid Chair

World, Home

“Right. Because there’s no bigger sign of commitment than a Halloween dance”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Dance

“Don't get it right - get it WRITTEN!”

Lee Child (1954) British thriller writer

“I’m not totally mad at you. I’m just sad. You’re all locked up in that little world of yours, and when I try knocking on the door, you just sort of look up for a second and go right back inside.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

World, Sadness, Madness

“Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past — let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”

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

Remarks at "Loyola College Alumni Banquet, Baltimore, Maryland (18 February 1958) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx; Box 899, Senate Speech Files, John F. Kennedy Papers, Pre-Presidential Papers, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library <br class="br">Pre-1960

Past, Future, Despair

“If a little kid ever asks you just why the sky is blue, you look him or her right in the eye and say, "It's because of quantum effects involving Rayleigh scattering combined with a lack of violet photon receptors in our retinae."”

Philip Plait book Bad Astronomy

Source: Bad Astronomy (2002), p. 47
Source: Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax"

“It's not the end of the world at all," he said. "It's only the end for us. The world will go on just the same, only we shan't be in it. I dare say it will get along all right without us.”

Nevil Shute book On the Beach

Source: On the Beach

World

“It serves me right for putting all my eggs in one bastard.”

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

On her abortion, as quoted in You Might as well Live by John Keats (1970)
Source: You Might as Well Live: The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker

“Trust others to do the right thing. If you can't do that, trust yourself to survive what happens.”

Susan Mallery (1950) American author

“Equality before the law is probably forever inattainable. It is a noble ideal, but it can never be realized, for what men value in this world is not rights but privileges.”

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

36
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)

Men, World, Law

“Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching — even when doing the wrong thing is legal.”

Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) American writer and scientist

Presumably a paraphrase of "A peculiar virtue in wildlife ethics is that the hunter ordinarily has no gallery to applaud or disapprove of his conduct" or of "Hunting for sport is an improvement ..." above.
Unlikely to be by Leopold, who knew that ethics involves not only doing the right thing, but also determining the right thing in the face of competing desirable criteria.
Misattributed

Behavior

“Harry," she said quietly, "I know you must be angry."

I burn things to ash and smash holes in buildings when I'm angry," I said. "I'm a couple of steps past that point right now.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

Past

“We do not have an ideal world, such as we would like, where morality is easy because cognition is easy. Where one can do right with no effort because he can detect the obvious.”

Philip K. Dick book The Man in the High Castle

Source: The Man in the High Castle (1962)

World, Effort

“If you're for the right thing, you do it without thinking.”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Thinking

“I'm a vampire, idiot. I don't have x-ray vision." "Some supernatural monster you are, remind me to trade you in for a werewolf, bro. Probably be more useful right now.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Kiss of Death

“Rats have a sense of humor. Rats, in fact think the world is very funny. And they are right, dear reader. They are right.”

Kate DiCamillo book The Tale of Despereaux

Source: The Tale of Despereaux

World, Thinking, Sense

“It is right to seek peace for the dead. You and I both know there is no peace for those who live after.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

Peace, Dead

“Writing turns you into somebody who's always wrong. the illusion that you may get it right someday is the perversity that draws you on. What else could? As pathological phenomena go, it doesn't completely wreck your life.”

Philip Roth (1933–2018) American novelist

Life, Drawing

“I was so anxious to do what is right that I forgot to do whatright.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

“Hard to say what's right when all I wanna do is wrong.”

Prince (1958–2016) American pop, songwriter, musician and actor

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

“When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

People

“The idea of formulated 'rights… comes not from John Locke and Thomas Jefferson… but from the canon law of the Catholic Church.”

Thomas E. Woods Jr. (1972) American academic

Law, Idea

“Does history record any case in which the majority was right?”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

History

“Control in modern times requires more than force, more than law. It requires that a population dangerously concentrated in cities and factories, whose lives are filled with cause for rebellion, be taught that all is right as it is.”

Howard Zinn book A People's History of the United States

Source: A People's History of the United States

Law, Time

“I am starting a collection of only right-hand gloves. It’s ever so bourgeois to have two.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

“[T]he time your friends need you is when they’re wrong, Jean Louise. They don’t need you when they’re right”

Harper Lee book Go Set a Watchman

Source: Go Set a Watchman

Time

“Whatever you may be missing right now - a person, a place, a feeling, maybe you are injured and missing running - whatever it is, have peace and take heart - remember that any goodbye makes room for a hello.”

Kristin Armstrong (1973) American road bicycle racer

Peace, Feeling, Heart, Personality

“We can always choose to perceive things differently. We can focus on what's wrong in our life, or we can focus on what's right.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Life

“Who's Myrnin?"
Claire controlled an urge to roll her eyes. "Badass crazy vampire scientist who's my boss."
"You realize no part of that sentence made sense, right?”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Sense, Parting

“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right…The United States has never developed an aristocracy really disinterested or an intelligentsia really intelligent. Its history is simply a record of vacillations between two gangs of frauds.”

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

222
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
Source: Minority Report

Democracy, History, Intelligence, Fraud

“When you are right, you cannot be too radical; When you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Why We Can't Wait (1964)
Context: Someone once wrote: "When you are right, you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative." The Negro knows he is right.

“I've since discovered that many human beings need no supernatural mentoring to commit acts of savagery; some people are devils in their own right, their telltale horns having grown inward to facilitate their disguise.”

Dean Koontz Odd Thomas

Source: Odd Thomas

People

“How can you pass laws about things that nobody knows?"
"They do it all the time," says Hayden. "That's what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

Education, Law, Time

“Percy: "Hey, why do pegasi gallop as they fly, anyway?"

Blackjack: "Why do humans swing their arms as they walk? I dunno, boss. It just feels right.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Variant: Why do you need to gallop while you fly?"
"Why do humans have to sway their arms while they walk? I dunno boss, but it just feels right.
Source: The Last Olympian

Feeling, Flying

“Roy remembered the time he and his father had a talk about fighting. 'It's important to stand up for what's right,' Mr. Eberhardt had said, 'but sometimes there's a fine line between courage and stupidity.”

Carl Hiaasen book Hoot

Source: Hoot

Stupidity, Courage, Time, Fight

“Nothing is more important than that you see and love the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hem you in and come at you in so many ways.”

Neal Stephenson book Anathem

Part 2, Apert; Orolo to Raz
Source: Anathem (2008)

Love, Beauty, Way

“There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

33 min 20 sec
Source: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), Heaven and Hell [Episode 4]
Context: There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That's perfectly alright; it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.
Context: There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That's perfectly alright; it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny. The worst aspect of the Velikovsky affair is not that many of his ideas were wrong or silly or in gross contradiction to the facts; rather, the worst aspect is that some scientists attempted to suppress Velikovsky's ideas. The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge and there is no place for it in the endeavor of science. We do not know beforehand where fundamental insights will arise from about our mysterious and lovely solar system, and the history of our study of the solar system shows clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources.

Science

“Americans Will Always Do the Right Thing — After Exhausting All the Alternatives.”

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

This is a modification of a March 1967 quote by Israeli politician Abba Eban who said, "Men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other resources." Eban used various versions of this quote over the years. In 1979 he said, "My experience teaches me this: Men and nations do act wisely when they have exhausted all the other possibilities." http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/ <br class="br">In a 1970 Congressional hearing, a version of the quote first referenced Americans. It was attributed to an unnamed Irishman. "And indeed, we often know how to do things by the philosophy that was expounded by another Irishman I know. He said that you can depend on Americans to do the right thing when they have exhausted every other possibility." http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/ <br class="br">The earliest known attribution of the quote to Churchill occurred in 1980. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/ <br class="br">Misattributed

“I hung up.
It was a step in the right direction, but it didn't go far enough. I ought to have locked the door and hid under the desk.”

Raymond Chandler book The Little Sister

Source: The Little Sister (1949), chapter 1

“About the nature of human beings. I discovered that confronted by temptation, we will always fall. Given the right circumstances, every human being on this earth would be willing to commit evil.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Nature, Evil

“There is a simple way to package information that, under the right circumstances, can make it irresistible. All you have to do is find it.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Way

“I lean over and put my good ear to his lips, which tickle me as he whispers. "Remember, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me any time you like it.”

Suzanne Collins (1962) American television writer and novelist

Love, Kiss, Time

“Impulsively, I lean forward and kiss him, stopping his word. This is probably overdue anyway since he’s right, we are supposed to be madly in love.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Love, Kiss

“But it's not enough to know right from wrong. You need the strength to do what's right, even when what you want most in the world is the wrong thing.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Exiled Queen

World

“I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

Statement before his fight with George Foreman (31 March 1973)

Life, People

“You may have the worst timing since Napoleon decided the dead of winter was the right moment to invade Russia.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Winter, Time, Dead

“If a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong it can be done without; and a good man will find a way.”

Anna Sewell book Black Beauty

Source: Black Beauty

Way

“We shared the smile of recognizing ourselves in each other, how many imposters do I have? Do we all make the same mistakes, or has one of us gotten it right, or even just a bit less wrong, am I the imposter?”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Smile

“I was horribly bookish, to the point of coming right out and saying it, which I knew was not socially acceptable. I particularly loved the adjective bookish, which I found other people used about as often as ramrod or chum or teetotaler.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Love, People

“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Source: The Constitution of the United States of America

People

“It was civil disobedience that won them their civil rights.”

Tariq Ali (1943) British Pakistani writer, journalist, and historian

Source: The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad

“And then, when he’s been underwater so long I feel certain he’s drowned, his head pops up right next to me and I start. “Don’t do that,” I say. “What? Come up or stay under?” he says. “Either. Neither. Whatever”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Feeling

“This is my doctrine: Give every other human being every right you claim for yourself. Keep your mind open to the influences of nature. Receive new thoughts with hospitality. Let us advance.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Source: The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child

Nature

“[S]he believed that the Buddhists were right–that if you want, you will suffer; if you love, you will grieve. (68)”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Crooked Little Heart

Love, Suffering

“I feel I'm doing what I should've done a lifetime ago.
For a little while I'm not afraid.
Maybe it's because I'm doing the right thing at last.
Maybe it's because I've done a rash thing and don't want to look the coward to you.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Feeling

“Sometimes, people can go missing right before our very eyes. Sometimes, people can discover you, even though they've been looking at you the entire time. Sometimes, we lose sight of ourselves when we're not paying enough attention.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

People, Time

“I look at my homely sketch. It doesn't need anything. Even through the river in my eyes I can see that. It isn't perfect and that makes it just right.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Home, Perfection

“You may think there is a lot wrong with you, but there is also a lot right with you.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

Thinking

“Did your mom ever tell you, ‘If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything’? She was right–and talking nicely also applies when you’re talking to yourself, even inside your head. (339)”

Victoria Moran (1950) American writer

Source: Younger by the Day: 365 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Body and Revitalize Your Spirit

Moms

“I'm not Stubborn; I'm right!”

James Patterson book Maximum Ride

Source: Max

“Why bother? I was right all along: the second you make yourself vulnerable to someone, they start drawing blood.”

Poppy Z. Brite (1967) Novelist, short story writer, food writer

Drawing

“Tyler lies back and asks, "If Marilyn Monroe were alive right now, what would she be doing?"

I say, goodnight.

The headliner hangs down in shreds from the ceiling and Tyler says, "Clawing at the lid of her coffin.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

“Yes, I'm too mad to punish you right now. We'll talk about it when we get home. Go brush your teeth, comb your hair, put on dry clothes, and get the guns. We're going to Wal-Mart.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: On the Edge

Home, Madness, Clothes

“Without pain, there would be no suffering. Without suffering, we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life.”

Angelina Jolie (1975) American actress, film director, and screenwriter

Life, Pain, Way, Suffering

“You must do right before you feel good.”

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

Feeling

“If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill.”

Henry B. Eyring (1933) American Mormon leader

“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

“This much is certain, that we have no theological right to set any sort of limits to the loving-kindness of God which has appeared in Jesus Christ. Our theological duty is to see and understand it as being still greater than we had seen before.”

Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Protestant theologian

Source: The Humanity of God

Love, God, Understanding, Appearance

“Hon, when someone's a true friend, there's no need to miss 'em." She patted her chest. "'Cause they're always right here.”

Kirby Larson book Hattie Big Sky

Source: Hattie Big Sky

“Everybody has to start somewhere. You have your whole future ahead of you. Perfection doesn't happen right away.”

Haruki Murakami book Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

Future, Perfection

“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

1770s, Declaration of Independence (1776)
Context: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Life, Happiness, People

“Filters are for cigarrettes and coffee," Simon muttered under his breath as they went inside. "Two things I could use right now, incidentally.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Coffee

“… Next time you're faced with a choice, do the right thing. It hurts everyone less in the long run.”

Wendelin Van Draanen Flipped

Source: Flipped

Time, Hurt