Quotes about saving
page 6

“What did it matter to me? Did I think that by making you rational about one thing, I could make you rational about everything? Maybe. Or maybe I just wanted to save you from your fears”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Fear, Thinking

“God wants us to know we are saved, for saved people are dangerous people, willing to face off with the world, unafraid of the consequences since they know that, whatever happens, they will have eternal life.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: Max on Life: Answers and Insights to Your Most Important Questions

Life, God, People, World

“Fear can't hurt you," she said. "When it washes over you, give it no power. It's a snake with no venom. Remember that. That knowledge can save you.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: The Name of the Star

Fear, Knowledge, Hurt

“Someday I'd change my name to Shut Up and save everybody a lot of time.”

Jonathan Lethem Motherless Brooklyn

Source: Motherless Brooklyn

Change, Time

“The advantage to being a wicked bastard is that everyone pesters the Lord on your behalf; if volume of prayers from my saintly enemies means anything, I'll be saved when the Archbishop of Canterbury is damned. It's a comforting thought.”

George MacDonald Fraser Flashman at the Charge

Source: Flashman at the Charge

“The Beatles saved the world from boredom.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

World

“Wait."
"So what am I supposed to do now?"

"You know, Jin, I would have saved myself from five hundred years' imprisonment beneath a mountain of rock had I only realized how good it is to be a monkey."

(222-223)”

Gene Luen Yang American Born Chinese

Source: American Born Chinese

Mountain, Waiting

“There's no point in saving the world if it means losing the moon.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker

World

“Love [is] supposed to move mountains, to make the world go round, to be all you need, but it [falls] apart at the deatils. It [can't] save a single person.”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

Love, World, Mountain, Personality

“save our emotional responses for real life.”

Ted Chiang (1967) American science fiction writer

Arrival

Life

“Sometimes a man and a woman reach a crossroads and linger there, reluctant to take either way, knowing the wrong choice will mean the end… and knowing there’s so much worth saving.”

Stephen King book 11/22/63

Source: 11/22/63

Way

“I choose my battles, Dresden. Not you." She looked up at me calmly. "Let me put this in terms that will get through your skull: My friend is going to save a child from monsters. I'm going with him. That's what friends do, Harry.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

“I’m Angelina,” she says. “Are you here to save us?” I can see a tiny spark of hope awaken in her eyes.
“You’re right, Angelina - I’m here to save you.”
“Can you? Really?”
“I’ll try,” I say and the girl smiles.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: I Am the Messenger

Smile, Hope, Girl

“Becoming vegan is the most important and direct change we can immediately make to save the planet and its species.”

Chris Hedges (1956) American journalist

Change

“Really, when I think it over, literature has only one excuse for existing; it saves the person who makes it from the disgustingness of life.”

Joris-Karl Huysmans book Là-Bas

Source: Là-Bas

Life, Literature, Thinking, Personality

“She wasn't in love but she would love him, if that would save her.”

Joyce Carol Oates Black Water

Source: Black Water

Love

“We are all more intelligent than we are capable, and awareness of the insanity of love has never saved anyone from the disease.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: On Love

Love, Disease, Intelligence

“Lord Peter Wimsey: I always have a quotation for everything - it saves original thinking.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book Have His Carcase

Variant: Lord Peter Wimsey: A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.
Source: Have His Carcase (1932)

Thinking

“What are you waiting for? What are you saving for? Now is all there is.”

George Balanchine (1904–1983) Georgian choreographer, dancer and ballet master (1904-1983)

Waiting

“These things you did were like prayers; you did them and you hoped they would save you. And for the most part they did. Or something did; you could tell by the fact that you were still alive.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Hope, Parting

“Please! Don't all leave. Somebody has to do it, don't you see? Somebody has to save the world…”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

World

“I've been waiting a long time for a quest, seaweed brain," she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

World, Time, Waiting, Personality

“Clary," he said. "You saved my life."
"I stabbed you. With a massive sword. You caught on fire."
His lips twitched imperceptibly. "Okay," he said. "So maybe our problems aren't like other couples.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Variant: I stabbed you. With a massive sword. You caught on fire."
His lips twitched, almost imperceptibly. "Okay, so maybe our problems aren't like other couples.
Source: City of Lost Souls

Life, Problem

“That's why we're going to disrupt the lunch," she (Kat) said.

"You know," Angus said, "I've got a little C-four that I've been saving for a rainy--"

"We're not blowing up my company, Angus," Hale said.

"Righto. Carry on, Kitty.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Perfect Scoundrels

“you know festus means happy in Latin right? You want us to go save the world on Happy the dragon?"
-Jason to Leo in the lost hero”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Happiness, World

“We're not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Source: The Power of Myth (book), p.183
Context: Moyers: Unlike heroes such as Prometheus or Jesus, we're not going on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves.
Campbell: But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there's no doubt about it. The world without spirit is a wasteland. People have the notion of saving the world by shifting things around, changing the rules, and who's on top, and so forth. No, no! Any world is a valid world if it's alive. The thing to do is to bring life to it, and the only way to do that is to find in your own case where the life is and become alive yourself.

World, Personality

“Yes," said Will, "you two don't seem to have much in common, save for a penchant for demon women and evil.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Women, Evil

“my 6 foot goddess
makes me laugh
the laughter of the mutilated
who still need
love…

she has saved me
from everything that is
not here”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Love, Laughter

“Some people say, 'Save yourself and you save your ways.' I say, 'Be yourself and you save your soul.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Incantation

People, Way, Soul

“Art has always been the raft onto which we climb to save our sanity. I don't see a different purpose for it now.”

Dorothea Tanning (1910–2012) American artist

Art

“I know nothing of god or the devil. I have never learned a secret nor found a cure that would damn or save my soul.”

Anne Rice (1941) American writer

God, Secret, Soul, Learning

“My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
so much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who age after age, perversely,
with no extraordinary power,
reconstitute the world.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

Age, World, Heart

“It is your duty in life to save your dream.”

Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) Italian painter and sculptor

Life, Dreams

“Any fool can spend money. But to earn it and save it and defer gratification—then you learn to value it differently.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

Money, Fools, Learning

“A sip of wine, a cigarette,
And then it’s time to go.
I tidied up the kitchenette;
I tuned the old banjo.
I’m wanted at the traffic-jam.
They’re saving me a seat.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Wine, Time

“I forgive you," I said. I said what I had to. I would die by pieces to save myself from real death.”

Alice Sebold book Lucky

Source: Lucky

Death, Forgiveness

“It is not an act of bravery to try to save your own village. It is an instinct to protect what you possess. Bravery is when you step in to help when you have nothing to lose.”

Gail Tsukiyama The Samurai's Garden

Source: The Samurai's Garden

Help

“Monsters don't die. They just dissipate into smoke and dust, which saves heroes a lot of trouble cleaning up after a fight.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Fight

“Well, normally I’m against big things. I think the world is going to be saved by millions of small things. Too many things can go wrong when they get big.” — Pete Seeger (on how he felt about attending his big 90th birthday bash last year)”

Pete Seeger (1919–2014) American folk singer

World, Birthday, Thinking

“Literature is the safe and traditional vehicle through which we learn about the world and pass on values from on generation to the next. Books save lives.”

Laurie Anderson (1947) American musician

Books, World, Literature, Learning

“Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Daily Telegram #1172, Will Rogers Sees No Value In All The Time We Save (28 April 1930)
Daily telegrams

Life, Time, Funny, Happy

“I didn't wash today. I wasn't dirty. If I'm not dirty, I don't wash. Some weeks I don't have to shower at all. I just groom my three basic areas: teeth, hair, and asshole. And to save time, I use the same brush.”

George Carlin book Brain Droppings

Source: Brain Droppings

Time

“When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.”

Elizabeth Bowen book A World of Love

Source: A World of Love

Love, Valentine's Day

“You cannot save every fallen bird," said Woosley, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms. "Even the handsome ones." "One will do," said Magnus, and, as Will was no longer within his sight, he let the front door fall shut.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Bird

“All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Way, Parting, Madness

“None of us alone can save the nation or the world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so. (p. 109)”

Cornel West book Race Matters

Source: Race Matters

World

“From a distance, it makes perfect sense that the people and the things you think will save you are the very ones that have the power to disappoint you most bitterly, but up close it can hit you as a bewildering surprise.”

Tom Perrotta (1961) American novelist and screenwriter

Source: Joe College

People, Disappointment, Thinking, Sense

“How wonderful to know someone who was bad and dishonorable and a cheat and a liar, when all the world was filled with people who would not lie to save their souls and who would rather starve than do a dishonorable deed!”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

People, Lie, World, Soul

“Maybe everyone is just waiting for someone else to save them.”

Margaret Peterson Haddix Among the Brave

Source: Among the Brave

Waiting

“This is the biggest mistake I could think would save me. I wanted to give up the idea that I had any control. Shake things up. To be saved by chaos. To see if I could cope, I wanted to force myself to grow again. To explode my comfort zone.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

Idea, Thinking

“… it is by our actions that we are destroyed or saved. The choice is ours.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: The Dream Hunter

“Bailing out people who made ill-advised mortgages makes no more sense that bailing out people who lost their life savings in Las Vegas casinos.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Life, People, Sense

“I recognise Santangelo's dad, who saves police brutality for when he gets to his son.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“She had made the choice for him - in a moment of flight and panic, but she had made it - not realizing that her Jace would rather die than be like this, and that she'd been not so much saving his life as damning him to an existence he would despise.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Life

“How could she tell him that we come to love those who save us?”

Jenna Blum book Het familieportret

Source: Those Who Save Us

Love

“If we can believe in the Gnostic gospel of Thomas, old Uncle Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth will save you. If you don't bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth can destroy you.”

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

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

“You fell in love with someone because of the tilt of his smile, or because he could make you laugh, or in this case, because he made you believe that you were the only one who could save him.”

Jodi Picoult book Picture Perfect

Source: Picture Perfect

Love, Smile

“You go shake your foundations, Will. I think it's about time I saved myself.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Saving Francesca

Thinking, Time

“There are two ways to slide easily through life; to believe everything or doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking.”

Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish scientist and philosopher

Life, Way, Thinking

“You saved me," I said. Nathaniel put his hands on either side of my face. "I had to," he said. "So you could save me back.”

Jodi Picoult Perfect Match

Source: Perfect Match

“Miss Erstwhile: “It is such a relief, Mr. Nobley, to already know that you find this exercise vulgar and your partner unworthy. It saves us the idle chitchat.”
Mr. Nobley: “And yet you chat away.”

Shannon Hale book Austenland

Source: Austenland

Exercises

“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1940s

Thinking, Change

“It took him forever to get to downtown Vancouver although Tony had to admit that saving the world by public transportation was a particularly Canadian way to do things.”

Tanya Huff (1957) Canadian fantasy author

Source: Smoke and Shadows

World, Way

“Tell the world what scares you most. Save the world with some advice from the future.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

World, Future

“Now sod off back to your own world, you motherless scum, and save your threats for those who care.”

Darren Shan book Lord Loss

Source: Lord Loss

World

“Bonnie, believe in me. I’ll save you.

I remember how to fly.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Nightfall

Flying

“There is only one reason I did not go down in flames over the Angers, and that is because I knew I had Julie in the back. Would never have had the presence of mind to put that fire out if I hadn't been trying to save her life.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Life, Anger

“Sometimes it is the smallest thing that saves us: the weather growing cold, a child's smile, and a cup of excellent coffee.”

Jonathan Carroll (1949) novelist, short story writer

Smile, Coffee, Weather

“What you remember saves you.”

W.S. Merwin (1927–2019) American poet

“She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen.”

Zora Neale Hurston book Their Eyes Were Watching God

Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Feeling

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men (2005)

Bad luck

“Workaholics aren't heroes. They don't save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is home because she figured out a faster way”

Jason Fried software entrepreneur

Source: Rework

Way, Home, Motivational

“This is how we court girls in America. We grab them and kiss them. And if they don't like it, we do it again, harder and longer, until they surrender. It saves us hours of witty repartee.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: A Wallflower Christmas

Girl, Kiss

“Sometimes lying was the better part of valor and the only way to save a man’s butt.”

Christine Feehan American writer

Source: Wild Rain

Way, Lying, Parting

“There is an oath upon her," he said to Arch, and I realized dimly that he was still speaking in Gaelic, though I understood him clearly. "She may not kill, save it is for mercy or her life. It is myself who kills for her.”

Diana Gabaldon book A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Source: A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Life

“You can't save everyone, though God knows you try.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

God

“I know that homes burn and that you should think what to save before they start to. Not because, in the heat of it, everything looks as valuable as everything else. But, because nothing looks worth the bother, not even your life.”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

Source: The Collected Stories

Life, Home, Thinking

“My inventory of people who can save me is down to just me.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

People

“What well-bred woman would refuse her heart to a man who had just saved her life? Not one; and gratitude is a short cut which speedily leads to love.”

Théophile Gautier book Mademoiselle de Maupin

Source: Mademoiselle de Maupin

Love, Life, Heart, Gratitude

“We have to save the world," I reminded him.
He reached for me. "The world can wait. I can't.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

World, Waiting

“Saving the world is only a hobby. Most of the time I do nothing.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Source: Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

World, Time

“Save me, Shahara. Save me from the lonely nights that never end. (Syn)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of Fire

Night

“Authority, when first detecting chaos at its heels, will entertain the vilest schemes to save its orderly facade.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

“I couldn't help thinking about my dream, with Annabeth crumpled and lifeless in Luke's arms. Here I was rescuing baby monsters, but I couldn't save my friend.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Dreams, Thinking, Help, Baby

“You seemed so desperate, like you might drown if someone didn't save you.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

“Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.”

Marian Wright Edelman (1939) American children's rights activist

Money, Soul, Sleep, Help

“She was saved from prettiness by the intensity of her gaze.”

Paul Bowles book The Sheltering Sky

Source: The Sheltering Sky

“Say you’ll marry me when I come back or, before God, I won’t go. I’ll stay around here and play a guitar under your window every night and sing at the top of my voice and compromise you, so you’ll have to marry me to save your reputation.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

God, Singing, Night

“Death is forever. Death is nothing. But to save a life, that’s everything.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Life, Death

“I became a firefighter because I wanted to save people. But I should have been more specific. I should have named names.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

People

“So many times it seemed like there were chances to stop things before they started. Or even stop them in midstream. But it was even worse when you knew in that very moment that there was still time to save yourself, and yet you couldn't even budge.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Chance, Time

“Yes," I said "You were saved by a girl. Horrible, isn't it?"
He slid out and looked down at my bare legs. "Not just a girl, but a half-naked one. Now that's hot. If I'm still unconscious, don't wake me, okay?”

Kelley Armstrong (1968) Canadian writer

Source: The Calling

Girl

“Let us save what remains: not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident.”

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

Letter to a Mr. Hazard (18 February 1791) published in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1853), Vol. 2, edited by Henry Augustine Washington, p. 211
1790s
Context: I learn with great satisfaction that you are about committing to the press the valuable historical and State papers you have been so long collecting. Time and accident are committing daily havoc on the originals deposited in our public offices. The late war has done the work of centuries in this business. The last cannot be recovered, but let us save what remains; not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident.

Time