Quotes about right
page 32

Source: An Essay on Man

“And I just want to tell you, at some point it doesn’t matter who was right and who was wrong. At some point, being
angry is just another bad habit, like smoking, and you keep poisoning
yourself without thinking about it.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Thinking

“You don’t have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt with. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you’re holding and my dear one, you and I have been granted a mighty generous one.”

Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Source: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Hell

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

World, Way

“That's what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

Education, Law

“We make messes of our lives, but every now and then, we manage to do something that's exactly right. The challenge is figuring out which is which.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

“Be normal, now. Right now. Because you are. Because you can be.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

“Too much of anything is bad, but too much Champagne is just right.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

New Year

“Maybe the Merlin was right. Maybe its better to look stupid but strong, than it is to look smart but weak, I don't know. I'm not sure I want to believe that the world stage bears that strong a resemblance to high school.”

Jim Butcher Turn Coat

Source: Turn Coat

Stupidity, World, School, Strong

“When you get your,'Who am I?', question right, all of your,'What should I do?' questions tend to take care of themselves”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

Question

“So many versions of just one memory, and yet none of them were right or wrong. Instead, they were all pieces. Only when fitted together, edge to edge, could they even begin to tell the whole story.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Memory

“Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.”

Jonathan Swift book Les Voyages de Gulliver

Source: Gulliver's Travels

“Want me to warm up the sauce?”
“Do we do that? I mean, it’s in a jar, right? Can’t you just dump it over the pasta?”
“Well, you can, but it tastes better if you warm it up.”
“Oh.” Eve sighed. “This is complicated. No wonder I never cook.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: The Dead Girls' Dance

Cooking

“I wanted to tell him so. Find the right words, string them together in the ideal way, knowing that here they would have the best chance of sounding perfect.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Way, Chance, Perfection

“His right ear still held both studs, and I wondered who had the missing earring. I would have asked, but was afraid he’d tell me Ivy had it.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: A Fistful of Charms

“You are the reason why he exists on this earth. You don't have the right to abandon him just because he's inconvenient or has trouble in school.”

Michael Crichton book Next

Source: Next

School

“Art and life are subjective. Not everybody's gonna dig what I dig, but I reserve the right to dig it.”

Whoopi Goldberg (1955) American actress

Life, Art

“Love is like liquor, the drunker and more impotent you are, the stronger and smarter you think yourself and the surer you are of your rights.”

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

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

Love, Thinking

“I ask one thing: I ask the right to hope and suffer as I do now."
Vronsky”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Ana Karenina

Hope, Suffering

“It is unusual,” said Cristina, “for a revolution to call for fewer rights for people, not more.”

Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows

Source: Lord of Shadows

People

“I'm right there, swimming the river of hardships but I know how to swim…”

Jack Kerouac book Desolation Angels

Source: Desolation Angels

“Alec shrugged "Look who's talking. 'Oh, I love her. Oh, she's my sister. Oh why, why, why--"
Jace threw a handful of dead leaves at Alec, making him splutter.
Isabelle was laughing. "You know he's right, Jace.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Love, Sister, Dead

“The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun.”

P.G. Wodehouse book The Adventures of Sally

Source: The Adventures of Sally (1922)

Sport, Dependency

“What about you? Are you happiest and saddest right now that you've ever been?" "Of course I am." "Why?" "Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Cute

“Procrastination is not Laziness", I tell him. "It is fear. Call it by its right name, and forgive yourself.”

Julia Cameron (1948) American writer

Source: The Prosperous Heart

Fear, Forgiveness

“The educated ones leave, the ones with the potential to right the wrongs. They leave the weak behind. The tyrants continue to reign because the weak cannot resist. Do you not see that it is a cycle? Who will break that cycle?”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Purple Hibiscus

Source: Purple Hibiscus

Education

“if you put your trust in God, you’ll be all right in the end.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

God

“Choose to be kind over being right and you'll be right everytime.”

Richard Carlson (1961–2006) Author, psychotherapist and motivational speaker

Variant: Choose being kind over being right and you'll be right every time.

“Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant, and this white waitress came up to me and said: “We don’t serve colored people here.” I said: “That’s all right, I don’t eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.””

Dick Gregory (1932–2017) American comedian, social activist, social critic, writer, and entrepreneur

Nigger: An Autobiography (1964)

People, Color, Time

“Don't get it right, get it written.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

“You lose the world for a glance? Of course you do. That is what the world is for: to lose under the right circunstances.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Levels of Life

World

“Bottom line, Eliza— you’re my home and my family, and I don’t want to lose you.
I could lose everything else, and as long as I still had you and a guitar I know I’d be all right. Do you get what I’m saying?”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

Family, Home

“But unfriendly is usually one of those things you pick up on right away. You know, like B. O. There's no hiding it if it's there.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

“The freedom of speech of private individuals includes the right to not agree, not to listen, and not to finance one's own antagonists.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism

Freedom

“I reserve the right to love many different people at once, and to change my prince often.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Love, People, Change

“I will protect even those I hate,” Kaladin whispered through bloody lips. “So long as it is right.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Hate

“Everything is true,' he said. 'Everything anybody has ever thought.'

'Will you be all right?'

'I'll be all right,' he said, and thought, And I'm going to die. Both those are true, too.”

Philip K. Dick book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Source: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

“Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.”

Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer

Books, Time, Reading

“If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

God, Beauty, Soul, Strong

“I hate clowns. I've mentioned that, right?”

D.J. MacHale (1955) American television director and producer

Hate

“.

In the end, we both want the right thing to happen, the right person to win, the right idea to prevail. We have no faith that it will, but still we want it. Neither of us has given up on anything.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Faith, Idea, Personality

“Hey, does my stupidity give you the right to bruise a tender heart?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm bruising a heart made of Play-Doh.”

Elizabeth Chandler (1954) writer

Source: Legacy of Lies & Don't Tell

Stupidity, Heart

“Things changed, people changed, and the world went rolling along right outside the window.”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

People, World, Change

“Well," said Apollo with a brave smile. "You were right, my dear. You had everything under control! Let's go see if we boiled anyone important, shall we?”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Smile

“Good men don't become legends," he said quietly.
"Good men don't need to become legends." She opened her eyes, looking up at him. "They just do what's right anyway.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Well of Ascension

Men

“I've been going a long time now
along the way I've learned some things.

You have to make the good times yourself
take the little times and make them into big times
and save the times that are all right
for the ones that aren't so good.”

Rod McKuen (1933–2015) American poet, songwriter, composer, and singer

Source: Listen to the Warm

Way, Learning, Time

“And by golly, love sure was a battlefield. Benatar was right about that.”

Charlaine Harris book Club Dead

Source: Club Dead

Love

“Right before the explosions begin, I find a star.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Star

“It's hard to be the one always waiting. I mean, there's something to be said for the hero who charges off to battle, but when you get right down to it there's a whole story in who's left behind.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Waiting

“Sometimes wrong numbers are the right numbers”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Time of My Life

“Koga:"You got a problem with that muttface?"
Inuyasha: Did you just call me a mutt?"
Koga:"No, you're right. That would be an insult to canines.”

Rumiko Takahashi (1957) manga artist

Problem

“She said, "As long as we're with each other--"
"We know we're in exactly the right place," he finished.”

Jean Ferris (1939–2015) American children's writer

Source: Once Upon a Marigold

“But the moment our eyes meet, I'm right back under his spell, a helpless hunk of steel to his irresistible magnet.”

Alyson Nöel book Evermore

Source: Evermore

“He almosted smiled. "There you go again. Why? Why do yo keep helping me?"
There were a million answers on my lips, everything from It's the right thing to do to I don't know. Instead, I said, "Because I want to.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Smile, Help

“People will want you to behave a certain way, to make a certain choice because it reinforces the way they see the world… But you have to do what's right for you.”

Jennifer Weiner (1970) American writer

Source: Fly Away Home

People, World, Way

“I would like to go for a ride with you, have you take me to stand before a river in the dark where hundreds of lightning bugs blink this code in sequence: right here, nowhere else! Right now, never again!”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

Source: Tumble Home: A Novella and Short Stories

“… guilt leads to righteous action, but rarely is it the right action.”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

“Truth is as free as the air and we all have the right to breathe as deeply of it as we wish. It cannot be held back in the palm of any one man.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Beauty of Darkness

Truth

“And Isi always listened, never told Enna she had been foolish, never said hollow things like 'You'll be all right.'… Isi saw Enna's struggle and her sadness, and she understood.”

Shannon Hale Enna Burning

Source: Enna Burning

Sadness

“To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.”

Bono (1960) Irish rock musician, singer of U2

“There are some things in this world you rely on, like a sure bet. And when they let you down, shifting from where you've carefully placed them, it shakes your faith, right where you stand.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Someone Like You (1998)

World, Faith

“And therefor," said Magnus "We must go."
Will blinked at him. "Go where?"
"Don't worry about that right now, my love."
Will blinked again. "Pardon?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Love

“My mother would take the Band-Aid off, clean the wound, and say, “Things that are covered don’t heal well.” Mother was right. Things that are covered do not heal well.”

T.D. Jakes (1957) American bishop

Source: Healing the Wounds of the Past

“strange, there's so much religion in the world, but only enough to make us fight over who is right, not enough to make us love one another.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

Love, World, Religion, Fight

“… hear rumors and go digging for the painful truth beneath the lovely lies. You believe you have a right to these things, but you don't. When someone tells you a piece of their life, they're giving you a gift, not granting you your due.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Love, Life, Pain, Truth

“Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.”

Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971) Japanese Buddhist missionary

Wherever You Are, Enlightenment Is There (page127)
Not Always So, practicing the true spirit of Zen (2002)

Reality, Perfection

“I may not agree with what you have to say but I will fight you to the death for the right to fight you to the death.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Death, Fight

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don't know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

On being informed that Faulkner had said that Hemingway "had never been known to use a word that might send the reader to the dictionary." Pt. 1, Ch. 4
Papa Hemingway (1966)

Thinking

“All right you bloody Scottish bastard, lets see how stubborn you really are.”

Diana Gabaldon book Outlander

Source: Outlander

“There is some relationship between the hunger for truth and the search for the right words. This struggle may be ultimately indefinable and even undecidable, but one damn well knows it when one sees it.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Hunger, Truth, Search

“She understood what it was like to stand right in front of people you loved, even though they could not see you.”

Jodi Picoult book Second Glance

Source: Second Glance

Love, People

“Knowing the right questions is better than knowing all the right answers" Caleb from Pretty Little Liars (TV Show)”

Sara Shepard (1973) Author

Question

“Please, sit down," Sharon said with another hair toss. I made a mental note to practice doing that in a mirror the next time I saw one. it seemed a useful skill, right up there with roundhouse kicks.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Time

“We have a Bill of Rights. What we need is a Bill of Responsibilities.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

“Your most important task as a leader is to teach people how to think and ask the right questions so that the world doesn't go to hell if you take a day off.”

Jeffrey Pfeffer (1946) American academic

People, World, Hell, Question

“When were you going to tell me?"
He demanded. "Tell you what? That you can be a real asshole? How about right now.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: The King

“Don't look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just dance.”

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

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Dance, Motivational, Success, Inspirational

“Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!”

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

Thinking

“It was one of those moments where you saved me, you made me laugh at just the right time.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Time

“Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.”

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

“I speak only of myself since I do not wish to convince, I have no right to drag others into my river, I oblige no one to follow me and everybody practices his art in his own way."

- Tristan Tzara "Dada Manifesto 1918”

Tristan Tzara (1896–1963) Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist

1910s, Dada Manifesto', 1918
Context: Dada; knowledge of all the means rejected up until now... Dada; abolition of logic, which is the dance of those impotent to create: Dada; of every social hierarchy and equation set up for the sake of values by our valets: Dada; every object, all objects, sentiments, obscurities, apparitions and the precise clash of parallel lines are weapons for the fight: Dada; abolition of memory: Dada; abolition of archaeology: Dada; abolition of prophets: Dada; abolition of the future: Dada; absolute and unquestionable faith in every god that is the immediate product of spontaneity:* Dada; elegant and unprejudiced leap from a harmony to the other sphere... Freedom: Dada Dada Dada, a roaring of tense colors, and interlacing of opposites and of all contradictions, grotesques, inconsistencies: LIFE.

Art, Way