Quotes about something
page 19

“Mike, however, heard nothing at all. Lost in her breathlike touch, he knew only one thing for sure: In the instant their lips first met, there was a flicker of something almost electrical that made him believe the feeling would last forever.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Guardian

Source: The Guardian

Feeling

“Organization is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it’s not all mixed up.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

“Look, I asked you here for a reason. Much as I hate to admit it, vampire, we have something in common."
"Totally awesome hair?" Simon suggested.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Hate

“There's a difference between living and just surviving. Do something you love, and find someone to love who loves that you love what you do.
It is really that simple.
And that hard.”

John Connolly (1968) author

Source: The Infernals

Love

“Once you hear something, you can never return to the time before you heard it.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Time

“100 years ago, buying something you could make was considered wasteful; now making something you could buy is considered wasteful. I am not convinced this is a step in the right direction.”

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (1968) Canadian writer

Source: All Wound Up: The Yarn Harlot Writes for a Spin

“There is an hour of the afternoon when the plain is on the verge of saying something. It never says, or perhaps it says it infinitely, or perhaps we do not understand it, or we understand it and it is untranslatable as music.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Music, Understanding

“If you don't want to do something, don't impose on others”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth — look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Birth, Cry

“If you are thinking about something that happened a long time ago:
Somebody asked you a question and you did not know the answer.
That is my name.”

Richard Brautigan book In Watermelon Sugar

Source: In Watermelon Sugar

Question, Thinking, Time

“in my opinion if you have a secret compartment in your lute case and don't use it to hide things, there is something terribly, terribly wrong with you.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Secret

“Hades took off his helm. His complexion was even paler than usual. He had a bad case of helmet hair. He was sweating and nervous and blinking like he had something in his eyes. "I am Hades," he said in a squeaky voice. "I love you.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Source: Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

Love

“But just because you love something, I added to myself, doesn't mean you'll ever be great. Not if you don't work. Most people stink at the things they love.”

Amy Chua book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Source: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Love, People

“You build a wall to keep something unwanted out … or to hold something precious in.”

Jodi Picoult Perfect Match

Source: Perfect Match

“Cure for writer's block: blow something up(in the story)”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

“If a man smiles all the time, he’s probably selling something that doesn’t work.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Smile, Time, Back To Work

“As long as you find something beautiful, good, and true to believe in and abide by, you have the equivalent of God in your life.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World

Life, God, Beauty

“There are just lots of possibilities in the world… I need to keep my mind open for what could happen and not decide that the world is hopeless if what I want to happen doesn't happen. Because something else great might happen in between.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

World

“Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower.”

Anthony Trollope book Barchester Towers

Source: Barchester Towers

Change

“A lot of parents tell their children that if they want to be an actor, that's fine, but they should do something else first, so they've got something to fall back on. It doesn't work like that, as far as I'm concerned.”

Ewan McGregor (1971) British actor

Children, Parent

“It used to be about trying to do something. Now it's about trying to be someone.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

“I don't know what your damage is, but in case you've failed to notice, we're in a bit of trouble here. Can you focus on something other than trying to get into my pants?" His lips curled. " I can multitask.”

Alexandra Ivy (1961) American novelist

Source: Beyond the Darkness

“I’ll do this to you till there’s something to take the place of your vows—until you see the two of us together as your religion.” (Garreth)”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Pleasure of a Dark Prince

Religion

“But just because you bury something, that doesn't mean it stops existing. Those feelings, they'd been there all along. All that time. I had to just face it.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

Feeling, Time

“Feeling insecure is good for you. It forces you to do something better, drives you to use all your talents.”

Helen Gurley Brown (1922–2012) American author, editor, publisher, and businesswoman

Feeling

“Total commitment," I said. "You know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway. That takes guts, you know?”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Variant: You have to admit, it's kind of impressive.... Total commitment. You know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway. That takes guts, you know?
Source: Lock and Key

Idea

“What I wanted to do seemed simple. I wanted something alive and shocking enough that it could be a morning in somebody's life. The most ordinary morning. Imagine, trying to do that.”

Michael Cunningham book The Hours

Source: The Hours

Life, Imagination

“A poet is not something you become; a poet is something you are.”

Jack Prelutsky (1940) American writer

“Everyone is afraid of something. We fear things because we value them. We fear losing people because we love them. We fear dying because we value being alive. Don't wish you didn't fear anything. All that would mean is that you didn't feel anything.”

Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows

Variant: We fear things because we value them. We fear losing people because we love them. We fear dying because we value being alive. Don’t wish you didn’t fear anything. All that would mean is that you didn’t feel anything.
Source: Lord of Shadows

Love, People, Fear, Feeling

“[M]ost of our daily news is inert, consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but cannot lead to any meaningful action. (68).”

Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic

Source: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

“Each creature had something it excelled at, he supposed. Humans could manage knots easily, and cats could do everything else.”

Jim Butcher book The Aeronaut's Windlass

Source: The Aeronaut's Windlass

Cats

“I think I’ve got something else to help center my life.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Life, Thinking, Help

“Goodbye, Room." I wave up at Skylight. "Say goodbye," I tell Ma. "Goodbye, Room."
Ma says it but on mute.
I look back one more time. It's like a crater, a hole where something happened. Then we go out the door.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Source: Room

Time

“Where loyalty bound creatures together, they became something larger, something new and whole and inexplicable.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Loyalty

“The past can be escaped only by embracing something better.”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Past

“If I see something saggin', baggin', or draggin', I'm gone have it nipped, tucked, or sucked!”

Dolly Parton (1946) American singer-songwriter and actress

“The absence of pain means death, so when something no longer bothers you, you've died to that thing.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Death, Pain

“Losing the possibility of something is the exact same thing as losing hope and without hope nothing can survive.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Hope

“If by the quarter of the twentieth century godliness wasn’t next to something more interesting than cleanliness, it might be time to reevaluate our notions of godliness.”

Tom Robbins (1932) American writer

Time

“I had learned early to assume something dark and lethal hidden at the heart of anything I loved. When I couldn't find it, I responded, bewildered and wary, in the only way I knew how: by planting it there myself.”

Tana French In the Woods

Source: In the Woods

Love, Way, Learning, Heart

“Smile. It gives your face something to do.”

Sue Grafton (1940–2017) American writer

Source: E is for Evidence

Smile

“This is the trap of having something to live for:
Everything else seems lifeless.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

“You must write for yourself, above all. That is your only hope of creating something beautiful.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Beauty, Hope

“i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Understanding

“To Scarlett, there was something breath-taking about Ellen O'Hara, a miracle that lived in the house with her and awed her and charmed and soothed her.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

Housing

“I'll write this all down for you," I said. "I'll put it in a story." I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants--for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Hurt

“This is a cardinal Ya-Ya rule: you must meet each person's eyes while clinking glasses in a toast. Otherwise, the ritual has no meaning, it's just pure show. And that is something the Ya-Yas are not.”

Rebecca Wells book Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Source: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Personality

“He had lived a very long time, and only since he gained Anna had he learned to fear. He’d discovered that he had never been brave before—just indifferent. She had taught him that to be brave, you have to fear losing something.”

Patricia Briggs book Fair Game

Source: Fair Game

Fear, Learning, Time, Indifference

“I would not look upon anger as something foreign to me that I have to fight… I have to deal with my anger with care, with love, with tenderness, with nonviolence.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Being Peace

Love, Fight, Anger

“Because when something happens, she's the person I want to tell. The most basic indicator of love.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

Love, Personality

“Somethings were meant to be and somethings were just meant to be good stories”

Alethea Kontis (1976) American writer

Source: Enchanted

“When mouths close, it’s because there’s something important to be said.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: The Witch Of Portobello

“And at that moment Jude thought something that he would never forgive himself for.
He wished that he had never met any of them.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Forgiveness

“We all must die. There is no better way to do so than in the pursuit of something you love.”

Jim Butcher book Death Masks

Source: Death Masks

Love, Way

“God is always more interested in why we do something than in what we do. Attitudes count more than achievements.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

God

“There was something so best-musical-ever when people screamed and begged for mercy, and she could listen to a good musical all day.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Surrender

People, Music

“And it was too late. No one wants to believe something is too late, but it is always becoming too late, and then it is.”

Elizabeth Strout book The Burgess Boys

Source: The Burgess Boys

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Walter Isaacson book Steve Jobs

Source: Steve Jobs

Way, Thinking, Heart, Hope

“I wasn’t gifted. Mom was wrong. I was just smart and I worked hard. I had fooled myself into thinking that was something important to the rest of the world. Other people were complicit in this ruse. Nobody had told me I was common.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

People, World, Fools, Moms

“You have to work at relationships. You can’t just walk out on them every time something goes wrong.”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

Time

“You’re not a human being until you value something more than the life of your body. And the greater the thing you live and die for the greater you are.”

Orson Scott Card The Worthing Chronicle

Source: The Worthing Chronicle

Life

“There's something about a roof isn't there? It makes you feel like it doesn't matter what's going on below. All of those things that get in the way of your dreams - you're above them. Anything is possible.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Gray Wolf Throne

Dreams, Way, Feeling

“I'm always learning something. Learning never ends.”

Raymond Carver book Cathedral

Source: Cathedral

Learning

“I filled my head with thoughts of the future, of infinite possibly. There's someone out there who will one day find me and fall in love with me and prove that all this waiting actually meant something….”

Perry Moore book Hero

Source: Hero

Love, Waiting, Future

“What was that you were saying just before the food arrived? Something about me… no competition… best thing that ever happened to you…”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Food

“This is pity,” he thought, and then he lifted his head in wonder. He thought that there must be something terribly wrong with a world in which this monstrous feeling is called a virtue.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

World, Feeling

“She didn't know whether she was running away from something or running to something, but she admitted that deep in her heart she wanted to go home.”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Source: Go Ask Alice

Home, Heart

“You ate something yesterday. You sure?"asked Simon
Jace shrugged."Well, I wouldnt swear on a stack of Bibles. I think it was yesterday, though.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Thinking

“There's nothing wrong with being a genius who can fascinate the young. Rather, there's something wrong with the young who can't be fascinated by a genius.”

Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

“And while it is hard enough to take away something that makes a person happy it's even more difficult when it seems like it's the only thing.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Happiness, Personality

“Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.”

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

Source: Autobiographical Notes

“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life. All that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”

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

Life, Happiness

“Life is about growth and change. When you are no longer doing that — that is your whisper; that is your whisper that you are supposed to do something else.”

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

Life, Change

“This you have to understand. There's only one way to hurt a man who's lost everything. Give him back something broken.”

Stephen R. Donaldson The Wounded Land

Source: The Wounded Land (1980)

Way, Understanding, Hurt

“There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else (parents in the case of children, God in the case of adults) has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion (2006), p. 360

Life, God, Children, Parent

“I don't know, there's something about you. Say there's an hourglass: the sand's about to run out. Someone like you can always be counted on to turn the thing over.”

Haruki Murakami book A Wild Sheep Chase

Source: A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel (1982), Chapter 2: Sixteen Steps

“He is always doing something--the very best thing, the thing we ourselves would certainly choose if we knew the end from the beginning. He is at work to bring us to our full glory.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

“Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something is not to your liking, change your liking.”

Rick Steves (1955) US travel writer

Change

“The streets were dark with something more then night.”

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter

Night

“Fiction doesn’t tell us something we don’t know, it tells us something we know but don’t know that we know.”

Walker Percy (1916–1990) Southern philosophical novelist

“Learning is not done to you, it is something you choose to do.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Source: Stop Stealing Dreams

Learning

“I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

“There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

Sleep

“You know, when someone has been crying, something gets left in the air. It's not something you can see or smell, or feel. Or draw. But it's there.”

Gary D. Schmidt book Okay for Now

Source: Okay for Now

Feeling, Drawing, Cry

“You never push a noun against a verb without trying to blow up something.”

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

“But why diminish your soul being run-of-the-mill at something? Mediocrity: now there is ugliness for you. Mediocrity's a hairball coughed up on the Persian carpet of Creation.”

Tom Robbins Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

Source: Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

Soul

“Sometimes fear made you angry. Perhaps after years anger cooled, like a sword taken from a forge. Perhaps in the end you were left with something very cold and very sharp.”

Frances Hardinge book Fly by Night

Source: Fly by Night

Fear, Anger

“I can sympathize with people's pains, but not with their pleasure. There is something curiously boring about somebody else's happiness.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Pain, Happiness, People, Pleasure

“Something brushed his leg, and he gazed down into the face of Pippi Tucker. The theme from Jaws raced through his head.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Match Me If You Can

“This is not something insignificant. This is real. This is happening, and this is ours.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

“You're still in love'
'No I'm not, I'm not She'll always be a part of me, and she's an important person in my life but for the two of us something wasn't working.'
'What element?'
'We never found out”

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

Love, Life, Parting, Personality

“I looked up at the dark sky and prayed to God for a better break in life and a better chance to do something for the little people I loved.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Source: On the Road: the Original Scroll

Love, Life, God, People

“I like the rain before it falls. of course there is no such thing, she said. That's why it's my favorite. Something can still make you happy, can't it, even if it isn't real.”

Jonathan Coe book The Rain Before It Falls

Source: The Rain Before It Falls

Happiness

“What’s the opposite of déjà vu, when you see something that hasn’t happened yet?”

“I don’t know—avant verrais?”

Jasper Fforde book Lost in a Good Book

Source: Lost in a Good Book

“One day,' Orest said, looking at him comically, 'you will say something that is less than practical and sensible, something that is driven by no forethought and nothing but passion, and I will probably collapse with shock.”

Mercedes Lackey book Alta

Source: Alta

Passion

“Why does anybody tell a story? It does indeed have something to do with faith. Faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Faith, Universe

“Don't you like to write letters? I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald (1 July 1925); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker
Context: Write me at the Hotel Quintana, Pamplona, Spain. Or don't you like to write letters. I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something

Way, Feeling

“Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Sleep, Tree, Waiting

“There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.”

Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American writer

Hope, Hope, Powerful

Quotes about something page 19

Quotes about something
page 19