Quotes about something
page 26

“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

“I'd learned myself by the age of sixteen that just as girls guarded their virginity, boys guarded something less tangible which they called Themselves.”

Joyce Johnson (1935) American novelist, short story writer, memoirist

Source: Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir

Age, Girl, Boy, Learning

“It's okay," I said soothingly. "You're just getting your stride back. Once you're up to full power, I'll go crack a rib or something so we can test it."
She groaned. "The horrible part is that I don't think you're joking.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Thinking, Parting, Hurtful

“So what are you going to wear to the apocalypse? I’m thinking something sparkly and transfixing.”-Nix”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: MacRieve

Thinking

“Sorry. I have technical difficulties making it through a room without bumping into something. Thank God my clumsiness is only restricted to the ground. I’d probably kill myself diving if I was this bad underwater. (Tory)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

God

“Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple.”

Pete Seeger (1919–2014) American folk singer

Fools

“You've got something to say to me, Seaweed Brain?"
"You'd probably kick my butt."
"You know I'd kick your butt.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“Just because something is unspoken doesn't mean that it disappears.”

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

Source: Incantation

“Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

Source: Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir

Life, Fight

“He hesitated, remembering something Finnikin had said to him on their journey. That somehow, even in the worst of times, the tiniest fragments of good survive. It was the grip in which one held those fragments that counted.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Time

“In a time of destruction, create something.”

Maxine Hong Kingston (1940) Chinese American author

Time, Hope

“Sometimes all it takes is a tiny shift of perspective to see something familiar in a totally new light.”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

Light

“Love, to her, was something hat comes suddenly, like a blinding flash of lightening - a heaven-sent storm hurled into life, uprooting it, sweeping every will before it like a leaf, engulfing all feelings.”

Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary

Source: Madame Bovary

Love, Life, Feeling

“If something happened to me, whose face will be on the front page of the paper begging for me? Is a person worth more because they have someone to grieve for them?”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Personality

“Have you ever wanted something that you knew was bad for you? Something that you ached for so much you could think of nothing else? [Wren]”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Unleash the Night

Thinking

“Something’s died in me,” she goes. “It took a long time for it to do it, but it’s dead. You’ve killed something, just like you’d took an axe to it. Everything is dirt now.”

Raymond Carver book What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

Source: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981)

Time, Dead

“Annabeth?” Percy said again. “You’re planning something. You’ve got thatlook.”
“I don’t have anlook.”
“Yeah, you totally do. Your eyebrows knit together and your lips press together and—”
“Do you have a pen?” she asked him.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“Never lose an opportunity for seeing something beautiful for beauty is God s handwriting.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

God, Beauty

“I want to make a difference with people who want to make a difference, doing something that makes a difference.”

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

People

“And it happened all the time that the compromise between two perfectly rational alternatives was something that made no sense at all.”

Neal Stephenson book Anathem

Source: Anathem

Sense, Time

“There is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe…. The soul of the world is nourished by people's happiness.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

The Old King, p. 22.
Source: The Alchemist (1988)

Happiness, People, Truth, World

“I know I have to stop. We all have to stop. Funny how knowing something's a bad idea doesn't make a difference.”

Sara Ryan (1971) American writer

Source: The Rules for Hearts

Idea

“Damn, Claire. Warn a guy before you do a face-plant on the floor next time. I could have looked all heroic and caught you or something -Shane”

Rachel Caine book Glass Houses

Source: Glass Houses

Guy, Time, Funny

“There is greatness in doing something you hate for the sake of someone you love.”

Shmuley Boteach (1966) American Orthodox rabbi and writer

Love, Hate, Relationship

“There are plenty who regard a wall behind which something is happening as a very curious thing.”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

“We cannot live without the Earth or apart from it, and something is shrivelled in a man's heart when he turns away from it and concerns himself only with the affairs of men”

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896–1953) American novelist

Source: Cross Creek

Men, Heart

“The sweatshirt was big on her and she looked ridiculous. He liked it. And he liked that she was wearing something that carried his scent.”

Anne Bishop book Written in Red

Source: Written in Red

“Scars speak for you. They say you're strong, and you've survived something that might have killed others.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: A Mad Zombie Party

Strong

“He was looking at her from behind the smiling that wasn't smiling but was something you were not supposed to see beyond.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Smile

“The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know.

If you care about something enough, it's going to make you cry. But you have to use it. Use your tears. Use your pain. Use your fear. Get mad.”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Pain, World, Fear, Tear

“When you want something bad, you'll tell yourself a thousand lies.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

“There was something about Jace, though, that made her want to push him, crack that shell of cynicism and make him admit her believed something, felt something, cared about anythinng at all.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?”

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

“I guess, really thinking about it, I always assumed when you missed someone, it was tangible… something real you could grab and hold on to, but it's a not-there feeling.”

Norma Fox Mazer (1931–2009) American children's writer

Source: After the Rain

Feeling, Thinking

“I did learn something about insanity while I was down there. People go crazy, not because they are crazy, but because it's the best available option at the time.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: All These Things I've Done

People, Learning, Time

“To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so, is something worse.”

John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)

Letter to William Eustis http://books.google.com/books?id=S088AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA319 (22 June 1809), published in Writings of John Quincy, Adams (1914), The Macmillan company. <br class="br">Variant: All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

Men

“Maybe I was being too picky. Maybe I didn't want to be close to anyone. Maybe I'd just be the type who couldn't feel love all the way or something. I couldn't tell what was wrong, but what was wrong was that it just wasn't right.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Secret Life of Prince Charming

Love, Way, Feeling

“when your time came, it came, and that was that. You might say something smart on your way out, but you might just as easily say something stupid.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Stupidity, Way, Time

“We do not exist for the sake of something else. We exist for the sake of ourselves.”

Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971) Japanese Buddhist missionary

Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice

“Clearly she was expected to say something, but panic at having to speak stole the thoughts from her head.”

Shannon Hale The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

“There was an electric anger in his gaze, and a sort of challenge that made Simon long to hit him with something heavy. Like a pickup truck.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Anger

“Well isn’t that one thing you’re all the more wise for? Age has taught
you something. It seems to me that you know the big secret. That nobody
knows what’s going on”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Love, Rosie

Secret, Age

“I have something that I call my Golden Rule. It goes something like this: "Do unto others twenty-five percent better than you expect them to do unto you."”

Linus Pauling (1901–1994) American scientist

… The twenty-five percent is for error.
Pauling's reply to an audience question about his ethical system, following his lecture circa 1961 at Monterey Peninsula College, in Monterey, California.
1990s

Error

“The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day.”

Idries Shah (1924–1996) writer and Sufi teacher

Source: Sufi Thought and Action

“You don't need to change one hair. One freckle. One little toe. And if its me thats made you feel you should do this.. then there's something wrong with me. -Luke Brandon”

Sophie Kinsella book Mini Shopaholic

Source: Mini Shopaholic

Feeling, Change

“The day is ending. It's time for something that was beautiful to turn into something else that is beautiful. Now, Let go.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Beauty, Time

“Prayers are answered in one of four ways,” she said. “Yes. No. I have
something else in mind. And…”
She paused long enough for my impatience to show. “And what’s the
fourth answer?”
“Wait,” she said.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Bumped

Way, Waiting

“Jo's ambition was to do something very splendid; what it was she had no idea, as yet, but left it for time to tell her…”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Idea, Time

“Typical" Kisten said, his eyes dramatically sad. "Try to do something nice for a person, cheer her up, and what do I get? Abused and robbed.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Every Which Way But Dead

Sadness, Personality

“When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you'll be taught how to fly!”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Light, Flying

“Let me tell something, seeing your name and psychiatric ward on the same piece of paper isn't the best way to start your day.”

Michael Thomas Ford (1968) American writer

Source: Suicide Notes

Way

“It's always something.”

Gilda Radner (1946–1989) American comedian

“Look, I need to tell you something,' I continued. The words came stumbling out of me. 'I couldnt stand it if… I dont want you to---'
Percy?' she said. 'You look like you're going to be sick.'
And that's how I felt.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“Did you eat something that didn't agree with you?" asked Bernard. The Savage nodded. "I ate civilization.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Source: Brave New World

“Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.”

Cal Newport (1982) American computer scientist

Source: So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love

Passion

“In my case, literature is a kind of revenge. It's something that gives me what real life can't give me - all the adventures, all the suffering. All the experiences I can only live in the imagination, literature completes.”

Mario Vargas Llosa (1936) Peruvian writer, politician, journalist, and essayist

Life, Imagination, Literature, Revenge

“I marmaladed a slice of toast with something of a flourish and I don't suppose I have ever come much closer to saying 'Tra la la' as I did the lathering for I was feeling in mid season form this morning.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Feeling, Season

“Everybody's got something. In the end, what choice does one really have but to understand that truth, to really take it in, and then shop for groceries, get a haircut, do one's work; get on with the business of one's life.

That's the hope, anyway.”

David Rakoff (1964–2012) writer

Source: Half Empty

Life, Truth, Hope, Understanding

“I guess I should have forgotten about it ages ago, but forgetting isn't something I'm very good at.”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

Age, Forgetting

“One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.”

Julia Child My Life in France

Source: My Life in France

Pleasure, Secret, Learning, Cooking

“I could never pretend something I didn't feel. I could never make love if I didn't love, and if I loved I could no more hide the fact than change the color of my eyes.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Source: My Story

Love, Making love, Color, Feeling

“Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.”

Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms

75
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)

“Hop in? Dude, are you out of your ever-loving mind? I can’t touch this. I might leave a fingerprint or something. (Nick)
Oh the horror. Guess I’ll have to trade the piece of junk in and get a new one if that happens. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

Love

“Parents were invented to make children happy by giving them something to ignore.”

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet

Happiness, Children, Parent

“She had fallen in love so many times that she began to suspect she was not falling in love at all, but doing something much more ordinary.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Variant: She had been in love so many times that she began to suspect she was not falling in love, but rather doing something much more ordinary
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Love, Time

“When you had to do something, you had to do it. And eventually, if you were lucky, you did it well.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

“Then how about one kiss?' he said with a sexy grin. 'Something to remember me by?'

'I’ll give you something to remember me by,' I said. The back of my head.' I pushed past him and escaped through the door to freedom.”

Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer

Source: The Coffin Club

Kiss, Freedom, Past

“A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

“Hazel frowned. "Why that one?"

"You don't see the ghost?" Frank asked.

"Ghost?" Nico asked.

Okay… if Frank was seeing a ghost that the Underworld kids couldn't see, something was definitely wrong.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“Will looked as if he were being asked to believe in something impossible—snow in summertime, a London winter without rain.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Winter

“Bob Here's where I ask why don't you spend your time doing something safer and more boring. Like maybe administering suppositories to rabid gorillas.”

Jim Butcher book Summer Knight

Source: The Dresden Files, Summer Knight (2002), Chapter 10

Time

“You are more likely to learn something by finding surprises in your own behavior than by hearing surprising facts about people in general.”

Daniel Kahneman book Thinking, Fast and Slow

Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow

People, Behavior, Learning

“There was something awesome in the thought of the solitary mortal standing by the open window and summoning in from the gloom outside the spirits of the nether world.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

World

“The best way is not to fight it, just go. Don't be trying all the time to fix things. What you run from only stays with you longer. When you fight something, you only make it stronger.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Way, Time, Fight

“I would not sit waiting for some vague tomorrow, nor for something to happen. One could wait a lifetime, and find nothing at the end of the waiting. I would begin here, I would make something happen.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Sackett's Land (1974), Ch. 4

Waiting

“When someone tells you something big, it's like you're taking money from them, and there's no way it will ever go back to being the way it was. You have to take responsibility for listening.”

Banana Yoshimoto book The Lake

Source: The Lake

Money, Way

“Kat, who sat beside us, shouted, "Rewind that!" and threw popcorn at the screen. "Mr. Holland's expression was all, like, oh, no, I'm going to need to my balls reattached, and Cole's was all, you're about to lose something else, sucka.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Through the Zombie Glass

“When you love something, you have to make sure it loves you back, or you'll bring about no end of trouble chasing it.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Love

“I've never owned a telescope, but it's something I'm thinking of looking into.”

George Carlin book Brain Droppings

Source: Brain Droppings

Thinking

“There is still a difference between something and nothing, but it is purely geometrical and there is nothing behind the geometry.”

Martin Gardner (1914–2010) recreational mathematician and philosopher

The Mathematical Magic Show (1978)

“You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Love, Money, People, Motivational

“Nature is God's first missionary. Where there is no Bible there are sparkling stars. Where there are not preachers there are spring times…
If a person has nothing but nature, then nature is enough to reveal something about God.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

God, Star, Spring, Nature

“Any time there's something so ridiculously dangerous that no rational human being would try it, they send for me.' --Garion”

David Eddings book King of the Murgos

Source: King of the Murgos

Time

“It was a lame excuse, and I knew that wasn't the reason he was canceling. If he wanted to avoid me, I would have preferred he made up something about how he and the other guardians had to up Moroi security or practice top-secret ninja moves.”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

Secret

“True' and 'false' are the evasions of people who never want to arrive at a decision. Truth is something without end.”

Robert Musil book The Man Without Qualities

Source: The Man Without Qualities

People, Truth, Decision, Falseness

“The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”

Gaylord Nelson (1916–2005) American politician

Future

“I don't know why I started writing. I don't know why anybody does it. Maybe they're bored, or failures at something else.”

Cormac McCarthy (1933) American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter

Failure

“If you don’t have a dog--at least one--there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Life, Dogs

“Anger, Tessa thought, was satisfying in its own way, when you gave in to it. There was something gratifying about shouting in a blind rage until your words ran out.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Way, Rage, Anger

“A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something he can see and feel.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Feeling

“Death is something we shouldn't fear because, while we are, death isn't, and when death is, we aren't.”

Antonio Machado (1875–1939) Spanish poet

Death, Fear

“You people with hearts,' he said once, 'have something to guide you, and need never do wrong; but I have no heart, and so I must be very careful.”

L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Source: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

People, Heart

“Everything I learned in my life, I learned because I decided to try something new.”

David Lynch (1946) American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor

Life, Learning

“His body rigid with terror as he waited for the savages to something horrible to him—bash his head with clubs, or stab him with spears, or…
…or tap him on the shoulder.”

Dave Barry book Peter and the Starcatchers

Source: Peter and the Starcatchers

Waiting

“I thought it'd be something cooler, like a van with 'Death to Demons' painted on the outside, or...”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Simon to Jace, pg. 132
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

Death, Painting

“Sitting and waiting for something to happen was the worst kind of torture.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

Waiting

“… your mind was seizing on something to try to make sense of the emotion… Can you see the power emotion has to distort our outlook? Makes you wonder, did you have a bad day, or did you make it a bad day?”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Rise of the Evening Star

Sense

“I didn't call you because I'm tired of you only wanting me around when you need something. I'm tired of watching you be in love with someone else - someone, incidentally, who will never love you back. Not the way I do.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Variant: No." Magnus strode toward him. "I didn't call you because I'm tired of you only wanting me around when you need something. I'm tired of watching you be in love with someone else-someone, incidentally, who will never love you back. Not the way I do.
Source: City of Glass

Love, Way

“Now to me, Edith looks like something that would eat her young.”

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

Source: The Collected Dorothy Parker

“If you think of something, do it.

Plenty of people often think, “I’d like to do this, or that.”

Lydia Davis (1947) American writer

People, Thinking

Quotes about something page 26

Quotes about something
page 26