Quotes about shorts
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Wendy Mass Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Variant: Life is short, have dessert first.
Source: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

“It's good to see you, little one." He (Uncle Eddie) scanned her short skirt. "I only wish I were not seeing quite so much of you.”

Ally Carter book Heist Society

Source: Heist Society

“The life given us, by nature is short; but the memory of a well-spent life is eternal.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Life, Nature, Memory

“In Mosca’s experience, a ‘long story’ was always a short story someone did not want to tell.”

Frances Hardinge book Fly by Night

Source: Fly by Night

“Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life…”

Elizabeth Goudge book Green Dolphin Street

Source: Green Dolphin Street

Life, Bird, Tree, Time

“Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.”

Will Self (1961) English writer and journalist

Idea, Memory

“You know. Life's short. If you don't try new things, you'll never know what you're best at. And you can only make time for new things by quitting the things you know don't work for you.”

Meg Cabot book Teen Idol

Source: Teen Idol

Life, Time

“Life is short. If you doubt me, ask a butterfly. Their average life span is a mere five to fourteen days.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: The Funny Thing Is...

Life

“Ah, Los Angeles! Dust and fog of your lonely streets. I am no longer lonely. Just you wait, all of you ghosts of this room, just you wait, because it will happen yet, and that Camilla, she can have her Sammy in the desert, with his cheap short stories and stinking prose, but wait until she has a taste of me, because it will happen, as sure as there's a God in heaven.”

John Fante book Ask the Dust

Source: Ask the Dust (1939)

God, Angels, Waiting

“He's one fry short of a Happy Meal.”

Rush Limbaugh (1951) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, author, and television personality

Happiness

“[Shorter variant:] In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.”

Benjamin Graham (1894–1976) American investor

Quoted and attributed to Graham in Warren Buffett's 1993 letter to investors. https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1993.html<br>The statement is not found in any of Graham's publications or lecture transcripts, and when asked, Buffett could not provide a reference. https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=77840 <br class="br">Disputed

“An idealist believes the short run doesn’t count. A cynic believes the long run doesn’t matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.”

Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist

Reader’s Digest (May 1979)

“Life can seem short or life can seem long, depending on how you live it.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Life, Dependency

“She wore a short skirt and a tight sweater and her figure described a set of parabolas that could cause cardiac arrest in a yak.”

Woody Allen book Getting Even

Source: Getting Even

“It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out
of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a
short cut that way, but it has been known to fail.”

Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd

Love, Marriage, People, Way

“Life is short.. Live to the fullest..”

John Grisham book The Runaway Jury

Source: The Runaway Jury

Life

“I got the sneaking suspicion that the vampire was a couple of Peeps short of an Easter basket.”

Jim Butcher Proven Guilty

Source: Proven Guilty

“The second was some rather bad poetry, but it was short, and I forced my way through by gritting my teeth and occasionally closing one eye so as not to damage the entirety of my brain.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Way

“Desjardins was literally fuming. His tattered robes still smoked from battle. (Carter says I shouldn’t mention that his pink boxer shorts were showing, but they were!)”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“Only a short time ago, I learned that people laughed at me. Now I can see that unknowingly I joined them in laughing at myself. That hurts the most.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon

People, Learning, Time, Hurt

“He leaned down and whispered to me: No matter how thin you get, no matter how short you cut your hair, it's still going to be you underneath. And he let go of my arm and walked back down the hall.”

Marya Hornbacher book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Source: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

“A good speech is like a woman's skirt: short enough to hold your attention, long enough to cover the subject”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

“Even the longest con was never more than an assortment of moments that were in themselves very very short.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Uncommon Criminals

“Also, when on a campaign to convince a stranger that you aren't a few fries short of a Happy Meal, throwing around phrases like "tangentially Swedish" is not the best way to go.”

Maureen Johnson book Let It Snow

Source: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances

Happiness, Way

“I want nothing from love, in short, but love.”

Colette book The Vagabond

Source: The Vagabond

Love

“You see, to tall men I'm a midget, and to short men I'm a giant; to the skinny ones I'm a fat man, and to the fat ones I'm a thin man.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

Men

“Will gave a short laugh. He was in gear as if he had just come from the practice room, and his hair curled damply against his temples. He was not looking at Tessa, but she had grown used to that. Will hardly ever looked at her unless he had to.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“Lula's borderline too much of a good thing in lots of ways. It isn't exactly that Lula is fat; it's more that she's too short for her weight and her clothes are too small for the volume of flesh she carries.”

Janet Evanovich Plum Lucky

Source: Plum Lucky

Way, Clothes

“(to Foaly) Captain Short's life is in danger, so push the button before I climb that tower and push it with your face!”

Eoin Colfer Artemis Fowl

Source: Artemis Fowl

Life

“She was a thin woman in a mustard-yellow suit, with a yellowish complexion, short-cropped rusty red hair, and a stiff posture. She reminded Reynie of a giant walking pencil.”

Trenton Lee Stewart (1970) Novelist

“Long human words (the longer the better) were easy, unmistakable, and rarely changed their meanings… but short words were slippery, unpredictable, changing their meanings without any pattern.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Change

“When you walk a dog on a short leash, she's close enough to bite you.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

Dogs

“Life is nasty, brutish, and short”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

The First Part, Chapter 13, p. 62.
Leviathan (1651)
Variant: And the life of man solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.
Context: Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.

Life

“What is there to forgive?… Ignore forgive and concentrate on living. Life for you is short; far too short to allow small jealousies to infringe on the happiness which can be yours only for the briefest of times.”

Jasper Fforde book The Eyre Affair

Source: The Eyre Affair

Life, Happiness, Jealousy, Forgiveness

“Why does it have to be like this?' I asked bitterly. 'Why does life have to be so short, with all the good things passing quickly. Is it worth living at all?”

Joseph Delaney (1945) British writer

Source: Night of the Soul Stealer

Life

“Doubt is to certainty as neurosis is to psychosis. The neurotic is in doubt and has fears about persons and things; the psychotic has convictions and makes claims about them. In short, the neurotic has problems, the psychotic has solutions.”

Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian psychiatrist

Fear, Problem, Personality

“In short, over the last ten years the Negro decided to straighten his back up, realizing that a man cannot ride your back unless it is bent.”

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

1960s, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

“Do not work primarily for money; do your duty to patients first and let the money follow; our life is short, we don't live twice; the whirlwind will pick up the leaves and spin them, but then it will drop them and they will form a pile.”

John Hersey book Hiroshima

Source: Hiroshima

Life, Money

“I can offer you my life, but it is a short life; I can offer you my heart, though I have no idea how many more beats it shall sustain”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Life, Idea, Heart

“Life it too short to deal with crazy people.”

Karen E. Quinones Miller (1958) American writer

Life, People

“Mocking a woman is like drinking too much wine. It may be fun for a short time, but the hangover is hell.”

Brandon Sanderson book Warbreaker

Source: Warbreaker

Hell, Drink, Wine, Time

“If there was one truth Evie had learned in her short life, it was that forgiveness was easier to seek than permission. She didn’t plan to ask for either one.”

Libba Bray book The Diviners

Source: The Diviners

Life, Truth, Forgiveness, Learning

“Life is short, but it is wide. Genevieve Whitman taught me that.”

Rebecca Wells (1952) American writer

Variant: life is short but it is wide. this too shall pass.
Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood

Life

“So if the punks come here, they’re going to dance with the devil and get the short end of the horn. (Zarek)
No one better than my Zarek to rip someone’s head off. You two should get along famously. (Astrid)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Warrior

Dance

“Why not? Life is short, life is dull, life is full of pain - and this is a chance for something special.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Source: Unknown Book 7074565

Life, Pain, Chance

“Life is short, and wisdom long to learn.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Life, Wisdom, Learning

“Tall, aren't you?" she said.
"I didn't mean to be."
Her eyes rounded. She was puzzled. She was thinking. I could see, even on that short acquaintance, that thinking was always going to be a bother to her.”

Raymond Chandler book The Big Sleep

Source: The Big Sleep

Thinking

“For a short time, I hated them. But when you think about it, what good does that do? It takes so much to hold on to hate—you lose your grip on what's important, you know?”

Harlan Coben book Caught

Source: Caught

Hate, Thinking, Time

“The answer of course, is that the clock isn't meant to measure earthly time, but the time of the soul. Redemption and condemnation time. For the soul, each instant is always a minute short of judgment.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Soul, Time

“As they went by Assail, the male was watching them. "Jesus, he really is blind"
Wrath pulled up short and unsheathed his dagger, pointed it directly into the guys face. "But my hearing is just fine”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Reborn

Guy

“This is my one and only life, and it is a great and terrible and short and endless thing, and none of us come out of it alive”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Variant: Life... It's a great and terrible and short and endless thing. None of us come out of it alive.

Life

“My arms are too short to box with God.”

Johnny Cash (1932–2003) American singer-songwriter

God, Box

“Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation – the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Crack-Up

Source: Quoted, The Crack-Up (1936)
Context: Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation – the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.

History, Intelligence, Idea, Time

“She was good at playing abstract confusion in the same way that a midget is good at being short.”

Clive James (1939–2019) Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist

Way

“Hang in there. It is astonishing how short a time it can take for very wonderful things to happen.”

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

Time

“Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with these gone from his thoughts, he lived a long fine life indeed.”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970)

Life, Fear, Anger

“Let's not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. Remember "Life is too short to be little".”

Dale Carnegie book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Source: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Life, Forgetting

“I am going to marry my novels and have little short stories for children.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Kerouac, as quoted by Allen Ginsberg in The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice (2006), page 250.

Children

“Love itself became the object of her love. She loved herself in love, she loved loving love, as love loves loving, and was able, in that way, to reconcile herself with a world that fell so short of what she would have hoped for.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Love, World, Hope, Way

“He was a gentle and sensitive soul, and therefore had a short temper, which is why he went straight after everything with an ax…”

Bohumil Hrabal book I Served the King of England

Source: I Served the King of England

Soul

“Let us not cease to do the utmost, that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments. Though we fall short, our labour is not lost if this day surpasses the preceding one.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Page 23.
Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life (1551)

Way, Despair

“To do what you imply would require nothing short of divine intervention. You must change man, not systems.”

Rafael Sabatini book Scaramouche

Source: Scaramouche

Change

“Keeping it short and to the point is essential, otherwise he won’t hear a single word.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl-A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

“If a book is well written, I always find it too short.”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Variant: [I]f a book is well written, I always find it too short.
Source: Sense and Sensibility

Books

“We’re on this planet for too short a time. And at the end of the day, what’s more important? Knowing that a few meaningless figures balanced—or knowing that you were the person you wanted to be?”

Sophie Kinsella (1969) British writer

Time, Personality

“Clary," Jace said again. "You know: short, redheaded, bad temper.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“Happy. Just in my swim shorts, barefooted, wild-haired, in the red fire dark, singing, swigging wine, spitting, jumping, running -- that's the way to live. All alone and free in the soft sands of the beach….”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Source: The Dharma Bums

Happiness, Way, Wine, Singing

“Sleep is perhaps the only among life's great pleasures which need not be of short duration.”

Roger Zelazny Knight of Shadows

Source: Knight of Shadows

Life, Pleasure, Sleep

“life is too short for fake butter or fake people.”

Karen Salmansohn American writer

Life, People

“In short, heroism means doing the right thing regardless of the consequences.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: A World Without Heroes

“Think of the universal substance, of which thou has a very small portion; and of universal time, of which a short and indivisible interval has been assigned to thee; and of that which is fixed by destiny, and how small a part of it thou art”

Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Ancient Rome

Source: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Art, Thinking, Universe, Time

“people who say its a long story, mean it's a stupid short one that they are too embarrassed and couldn't be bothered to tell”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Love, Rosie

People, Stupidity

“It was a delightful visit;-perfect, in being much too short.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Perfection

“Society is commonly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old musty cheese that we are.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

Time

“I'm not short," Daisy muttered. "Short women are never mysterious, or elegant, or pursued by handsome men. And they're always treated like children. I refuse to be short.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Secrets of a Summer Night

Women, Men, Children

“The ability to discipline yourself to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy greater rewards in the long term, is the indispensable prerequisite for success.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Success

“Life was so short; so many beautiful things slipped away.”

Kate DiCamillo The Magician's Elephant

Source: The Magician's Elephant

Life, Beauty

“You're a Dark-Hunter."
He kissed her lightly on the lips. "What I am is a man in love with a woman. I want you, Amanda. For the rest of my blessedly short mortal life. I want to wake at dawn with you in my arms and watch our children play and fight.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Night Pleasures

Source: Night Pleasures

Love, Life, Children, Kiss

“What is the sound of one hand clapping? What is the weight of a single grain of sand? The answer is equal to my interest in the message you are about to leave so make it short. -- Mitch Hertzog's voice mail message.”

Meg Cabot book Boy Meets Girl

Source: Boy Meets Girl

“Your Grandpa was a boxer in his youth. Sexiest thing I'd ever seen, let me tell you. He wore these short little shorts, and was always dripping in sweat." There goes my appetite.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Alice in Zombieland

Youth

“I’ll keep it short and sweet - Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

Friendship, Family, Religion, Business

“You can call me Agent Mickelson,' he told me with a smile. 'What about you? Is Max short for something? Maxine?'
'No, Dean. It's just Max.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: School's Out—Forever

Smile

“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

“Ha!' said the tall man drily. 'He was in high luck. Rich old uncles who die are in shockingly short supply.”

Susanna Clarke book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Source: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

“There is a quickness of perception in some, a nicety in the discernment of character, a natural penetration, in short, which no experience in others can equal…”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

Nature

“good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.”

Donald J. Trump book Trump: The Art of the Deal

Source: Trump: The Art of the Deal

“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

“It's so dark," she said lamely.

"You want me to hold your hand?"

Clary put both her hands behind her back like a small child.

"Don't talk down to me."

"Well, I could hardly talk up to you. You're too short.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“Life is short. Short, and not about anything except what you can touch and what touches you.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Life

“I'm a godmother, that's a great thing to be, a godmother. She calls me god for short, that's cute, I taught her that.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Ellen DeGeneres, My Point...And I Do Have One

God

“Noght o word spak he more than was nede,
And that was seyd in forme and reverence,
And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence.
Souninge in moral vertu was his speche,
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue, l. 305 - 310
Source: The Canterbury Tales
Context: Of studie took he most cure and most hede.
Noght o word spak he more than was nede,
And that was seyd in forme and reverence,
And short and quik, and ful of hy sentence.
Souninge in moral vertu was his speche,
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.