Quotes about something
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“Something good will come of all things yet”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

“It's surprising how often history is decided by something as trival as bad shellfish.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Battle for Skandia

History

“It is possible to avoid pain? Yes, but you'll never learn anything. Is it possible to know something without ever having experiencing it? Yes, but it will never truly be part of you.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

Pain, Learning, Parting

“No one gives up on something until it turns on them, whether or not that thing is real or unreal.”

Thomas Ligotti book Teatro Grottesco

Source: Teatro Grottesco

“Only human beings can look directly at something, have all the information they need to make an accurate prediction, perhaps even momentarily make the accurate prediction, and then say that it isn't so.”

Gavin de Becker (1954) American engineer

Source: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

“If the world is ending, a woman will want time to fix her hair. If the world's ending, a woman will take time to to tell a man something he's done wrong.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Matrim Cauthon
(15 October 1994)
Source: The Wheel of time series by Robert Jordan

World, Time

“We have to be able to criticize what we love,
Say what we have to say,
'Cause if you're not trying to make something better,
Then as far as I can tell, you are just in the way.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

What If No One's Watching
Song lyrics

Love, Way

“… there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.”

Eleanor H. Porter book Pollyanna

Source: Pollyanna

“She was no longer a slow dreamer watching the flowers grow. She was a warrior now. Warriors need something to fight for though, beside their lives, because otherwise their lives will not be worth it.”

Francesca Lia Block (1962) American children's writer

Source: The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold

Flowers, Fight

“One day, you're going to learn something that can't be explained with science. And when that happens, your life's going to change in ways you can't imagine.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

Doris McClellan, Chapter 3, p. 54
Source: 2000s, True Believer (2005)

Life, Way, Imagination, Learning

“Censors never go after books unless kids already like them. I don’t even think they know to go after books until they know that children are interested in reading this book, therefore there must be something in it that’s wrong.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

Children, Books, Thinking, Reading

“The only thing that makes one an artist is making art. And that requires the precise opposite of hanging out; a deeply lonely and unglamorous task of tolerating oneself long enough to push something out.”

David Rakoff (1964–2012) writer

Source: Half Empty

Art

“Your being born makes your parents God. You owe them your life, and they can control you. Then puberty makes you Satan, just because you want something better.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Life, God, Parent

“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.”

Václav Havel book Disturbing the Peace

Source: Disturbing the Peace (1986), Ch. 5 : The Politics of Hope
Variant translation or similar statement: Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.
Context: Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Hope, Sense, Hope

“You've been doing something bad since the moment you met me, lass.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: The Dark Highlander

“Art is the reason I get up in the morning, but the definition ends there. It doesn't seem fair that I'm living for something I can't even define.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Out of Habit
Song lyrics
Variant: Art is why I get up in the morning; my definition ends there.
You know it doesn't seem fair,
That I'm living for something I can't even define.
And there you are right there, in the mean time.

Art

“there's something nice about knowing that i'm not the only one who doesn't quite fit the part.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Parting

“Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element, like wind or fire. Darkness is its own kingdom; it moves to its own laws, and many living things dwell in it.”

Patricia A. McKillip book Harpist in the Wind

Source: Harpist in the Wind

Law, Night

“Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese you dingus”

Luis Buñuel (1900–1983) film director

Mon Dernier soupir (My Last Sigh, 1983)

Age

“Patience is only a virtue when there is something worth waiting for.”

Lauren Willig (1977) American author

Source: The Masque of the Black Tulip

Waiting, Patience

“The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life — and one is as good as the other.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald (4 September 1929); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker

Life, Books, Parting

“People have reasons for what they do, Beatrice. And even if those reasons can't be justified, that doesn't make them bad people, just flawed. You have to remember," she said, "someone or something has hurt them too.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: God-Shaped Hole

People, Hurt

“Buy what you don’t have yet, or what you really want, which can be mixed with what you already own. Buy only because something excites you, not just for the simple act of shopping.”

Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer

“sometimes there are reasons for our fears that we can’t
quite explain. Sometimes it’s just something we feel in our bones, something we know to be true, but
would sound foolish to anyone else.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Viscount Who Loved Me

Fear, Feeling

“I can't go underground for a year, ten years, my whole life, waiting for freedom to be handed to me. Freedom is something you have to take for yourself.”

Cory Doctorow Little Brother

Source: Little Brother

Life, Freedom, Waiting

“A person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing you to grow. Without them, it sleeps- seldom to awaken. The sleeper must awaken.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

Sleep, Personality

“The pearls weren't really white, they were a warm oyster beige, with little knots in between so if they broke, you only lost one. I wished my life could be like that, knotted up so that even if something broke, the whole thing wouldn't come apart.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Life

“I turned the pages so fast. And I suppose I was, in my mindless way, looking for a something, version of myself, a heroine I could slip inside as one might a pair of favourite shoes.”

Ian McEwan book Sweet Tooth

Source: Sweet Tooth

Shoe, Way

“I finally learned that it was all right to say something wasn’t working for me when it wasn’t working. The world doesn’t come crashing down when you speak the truth.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Secret Life of Prince Charming

Truth, World, Learning

“The problem with having so many people call me by nicknames was that when someone called me by my actual name, it usually meant something serious was happening.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

People, Problem

“Then something occurred to me.
"Get closer," I told Blackjack.
He whinnied in protest.
"Just within shouting distance," I said. "I need to talk to the statue."
Now I'm sure you've lost it, boss, Blackjack said”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“Everything in life has some good in it. And when something awful happens, the goodness stands out even more--it's sad, but that's the truth.”

Banana Yoshimoto book The Lake

Source: The Lake

Life, Truth, Sadness

“I am dying a thousand cruel and unusual deaths as fifty pairs of eyes take me in, size me up like something that should be hanging over a fireplace in a gentleman's den.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Death

“anytime you catch folks lying, they scared of something!”

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) American folklorist, novelist, short story writer

Source: Folklore, Memoirs, and Other Writings

Lying

“He looked down and did something quite out of character for him: he took hold of Shmuel's tiny hand in his and squeezed it tightly.
"You're my best friend, Shmuel," he said. "My best friend for life.”

John Boyne (1971) Irish novelist, author of children's and youth fiction

Source: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Life

“Everything I've ever done that's valuable is something I was afraid to try.”

Amy Chua book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Source: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

“On soft Spring nights I'll stand in the yard under the stars - Something good will come out of all things yet - And it will be golden and eternal just like that - There's no need to say another word.”

Jack Kerouac book Big Sur

Source: Big Sur

Star, Spring, Night

“I never meant it," he was saying.
"Never meant it to happen. Can't stand it,
seeing her suffer. Must do something, do something… What do I do? What can I do…?”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Ghost Town

Suffering

“We're all born lost, aren't we? We're all born separated from God - over and over life makes sure to inform us of this - and yet we're all real: we have names, we have lives. We mean something. We must.”

Douglas Coupland Hey Nostradamus!

Source: Hey Nostradamus!

Life, God

“That was courage, Keller thought. Not doing something without being afraid, but doing something even though you were afraid.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Witchlight

Courage

“You will tell me what you know now," he said.

"Or?"

He said nothing, so I elaborated. "See, this kind of threat usually has an 'or' attached to it. Or an 'and'. 'Tell me and I'll allow you to live' or something like that.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bites

“I had no idea what I wanted, only that I wanted something, which is the worst kind of wanting.”

David Levithan book Love Is the Higher Law

Source: Love Is the Higher Law

Idea

“People say to write about what you know. I'm here to tell you, no one wants to read that, cos you don't know anything. So write about something you don't know. And don't be scared, ever.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

People, Reading

“I'll give you something to remember ME by… The back of my head!”

Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer

Source: The Coffin Club

“Would like to join me? (Astrid)
I think I’d look strange in a bikini. (Zarek)
Was that a joke? Can it be you made a real joke? (Astrid)
Yeah, I must be possessed or something. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Thinking

“Was life nothing more than a storm that constantly washed away what had been there only a moment before, and left behind something barren and unrecognizable?”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Life

“Getting fired,’ Tyler says, ‘is the best thing that could happen to any of us. That way, we’d quit treading water and do something with our lives.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Way, Water

“If you want something, you don't wait for the world to deal it out for you. You take it.”

Poppy Z. Brite Lost Souls

Source: Lost Souls

World, Waiting

“Highs and lows make you feel that things matter, but they're nothing." "So what's something?" "Being reliable is something. Being good.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

William Black talking with Oskar
"A Simple Solution to an Impossible Problem" (p. 297)
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005)
Context: "It's easy to be emotional. You can always make a scene... Highs and lows make you feel that things matter, but they're nothing." "So what's something?" "Being reliable is something. Being good."

Feeling