Quotes about start
page 11

“When politicians start talking about large groups of their fellow Americans as 'enemies,' it's time for a quiet stir of alertness. Polarizing people is a good way to win an election, and also a good way to wreck a country.”

Molly Ivins (1944–2007) American journalist

People, Way, Time, Country

“I was starting to come to grips with the fact that I had created a lot of pain and suffering around me, not just within me.”

Anthony Kiedis book Scar Tissue

Source: Scar Tissue

Pain, Suffering

“I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.”

Julia Child (1921–2004) American chef

Cooking

“This is how you start to get respect, by offering something that you have.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

“This is life. Things get taken away. You will learn to start over many times -- or you will be useless.”

Mitch Albom book The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto

Source: The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto

Life, Learning, Time

“It takes a huge effort to free yourself from memory, but when you succeed, you start to realize that you’re capable of far more than you imagined. You live in this vast body called the Universe, which contains all the solutions and all the problems. Visit your soul; don’t visit your past. The Universe goes through many mutations and carries the past with it. We call each of those mutations a ‘life,’ but just as the cells in your body change and yet you remain the same, so time does not pass, it merely changes.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Life, Soul, Imagination, Problem

“I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our concept of the richness in human capacity.”

Ken Robinson (1950) UK writer

Hope, Future

“Grover started to sniffle and I figured if I didn't cheer him up he'd either start bawling or chewing up my mattress. He tends to eat household objects whenever he gets upset.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“You are not required to start over, but you are required to keep going.”

Gwen Bristow (1903–1980) American author and journalist

“I wanted my life to start - but in those rare moments when it seemed like something might actually change, panic shot through me.”

Curtis Sittenfeld book Prep

Source: Prep

Life, Change

“It is easier to start a war than to end it.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

War

“Where does the family start? It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl - no superior alternative has yet been found.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Love, Family, Girl

“But a risk-free life wasn't much of a life, really, and if she was going to change, she might as well start now.”

Nicholas Sparks book True Believer

Source: True Believer

Life, Change

“When insane things start to arrange themselves in sane patterns around you, you know you got problems.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Problem

“Turning away, I stared at the long road winding off ahead of me.

I sighed. This trip might take awhile.
"Then start walking, Rose," I muttered to myself.

I set off, off to kill the man I loved.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Love

“I'm starting to understand that fear is like cancer - you can beat it back, but if it returns, it can be worse than ever.”

Darren Shan Slawter

Source: Slawter

Fear, Understanding

“Out there things can happen, and frequently do,
To people as brainy and footsy as you.
And when things start to happen, don't worry, don't stew.
Just go right along, you'll start happening too!”

Dr. Seuss Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

People

“Life is a process--just one thing after another. When you lose it, just start again.”

Richard Carlson (1961–2006) Author, psychotherapist and motivational speaker

Source: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and it's all small stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things from Taking Over Your Life

Life

“When you start with a necessary evil, and then over time the necessity passes away, what's left?”

Matthew Scully (1959) American political writer and speechwriter

Source: Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy

Evil, Time

“But I am dead certain--ba-dump-bump-ching--that I'm the first guy to lead an army of spirits in an assault from the spirit-world side… and had them start off screaming, "BOO!”

Jim Butcher book Ghost Story

Source: Ghost Story

World, Guy, Dead

“I read in the newspapers they are going to have 30 minutes of intellectual stuff on television every Monday from 7:30 to 8. to educate America. They couldn't educate America if they started at 6:30.”

Groucho Marx book The Groucho Letters

Source: The Groucho Letters

Education, Reading

“You can't plan for everything or you never get started in the first place.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

“Every luxury must be paid for, and everything is a luxury, starting with being in this world.”

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator

Source: Il mestiere di vivere: Diario 1935-1950

World

“Begin with the end in mind. Start with the end outcome and work backwards to make your dream possible.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Dreams

“Without using the word, everyone started forgiving each other again. Just like that, from the no of all nothingness: you have a big tense mess and out of it comes some joy. It must be magic.”

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

Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Forgiveness, Joy

“Have to sow excellent seeds to have an excellent life. Must start with sowing excellent thoughts.”

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

Life

“Some people are afraid of what they might find if they try to analyze themselves too much. But you have to crawl into your wounds to discover where your fears are. Once the bleeding starts, the cleansing can begin.”

Tori Amos (1963) American singer

People, Fear

“Damn it, MacRieve, if you keep calling me kitten, then I'm going to start calling you something equivalent, like hound dog - and then we'll both be losers.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night

Dogs

“People are only mean when they're threatened, and that's what our culture does… And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is all part of this culture.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Money, God, People, Parting

“He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activities in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they'd have no heart to start at all.”

Cormac McCarthy book All the Pretty Horses

Source: All the Pretty Horses (1992)
Context: He thought he'd be an object of some curiosity but the people he saw only nodded gravely to him and passed on. He carried the bucket back into the store and went down the street to where there was a small cafe and he entered and sat at one of the three small wooden tables. The floor of the cafe was packed mud newly swept and he was the only customer. He stood the rifle against the wall and ordered huevos revueltos and a cup of chocolate and he sat and waited for it to come and then he ate very slowly. The food was rich to his taste and the chocolate was made with canela and he drank it and ordered another and folded a tortilla and ate and watched the horses standing in the square across the street and watched the girls. They'd hung the gazebo with crepe and it looked like a festooned brush-pile. The proprietor showed him great courtesy and brought him fresh tortillas hot from the comal and told him that there was to be a wedding and that it would be a pity if it rained. He inquired where he might be from and showed surprise he'd come so far. He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activities in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they'd have no heart to start at all.

Life, God, Truth, Heart

“If you start the day reading the obituaries, you live your day a little differently.”

David Levithan book Love Is the Higher Law

Source: Love Is the Higher Law

Reading

“To change one’s life:
1. Start immediately.
2. Do it flamboyantly.
3. No exceptions.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Life, Change

“Ivory's the kind of girl who gets drunk and immediately starts slurring. I have a lot of friends like that, and I think it's because it makes me look 'more together.”

Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host

Source: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

Girl, Thinking

“The saddest part of a broken heart
Isn't the ending so much as the start
The tragedy starts from the very first spark
Losing your mind for the sake of your heart”

Raymond E. Feist (1945) Novelist

Heart, Parting

“One must fight to get to the top, especially if one starts at the bottom.”

Franz Kafka book The Castle

Source: The Castle (1926)

Fight

“Me and my needs were driving my mother away. Me and my needs retreated to my closet, disappeared into fairy tales. I started making up a world where my needs wouldn´t exist at all.”

Marya Hornbacher book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Source: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

World

“sometimes it’s okay to cheat on things - but don’t ever cheat on people. because once you start, it’s very hard to stop. you find out how easy it is to do.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

People, Cheating

“The great thing about fiction is that you can start off by telling the truth, then start making stuff up like crazy whenever you feel like it.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Truth, Feeling

“When you start to live outside yourself, it's all dangerous.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Garden of Eden

Source: The Garden of Eden

“Today will never happen again. Don't waste it with a false start or no start at all.”

Og Mandino (1923–1996) American author

Falseness

“Women who disapprove of men - and there's plenty to disapprove of - should remember how we started out, and how far we had to travel.”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

Women, Men, Travel

“I remember you saying that growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change. I guess that means I've grown up now…”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Variant: I've screwed everything up royally. I remember you saying that growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change.
Source: City of Ashes

Change

“The door slammed open. Vivenna jumped, putting a hand to her chest.

Vasher walked in. 'Start reaching for that sword when you're startled,' he said. 'There's little reason to grab your shirt, unless you're planning to rip it off.”

Brandon Sanderson book Warbreaker

Source: Warbreaker

“So where do you start when you want to start your life again?”

Douglas Coupland Hey Nostradamus!

Source: Hey Nostradamus!

Life

“She wondered if it was her stupid mother, the goddess of love, messing with her thoughts. If Piper started getting urges to read fashion magazines, she was going to have to find Aphrodite and smack her.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Love, Stupidity, Fashion, Reading

“I will start out this evening with an assertion: fantasy is a place where it rains.”

Italo Calvino (1923–1985) Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels

Source: Six Memos For The Next Millennium

“The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts”

Andrei Tarkovsky book Sculpting in Time

On being told that his film Stalker should be faster and more dynamic by officials at Goskino.
Sculpting in Time (1989)

Time

“So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Life

“Give me a few minutes.”
“You have time.” He sat in the grass.
“Are you just going to sit there and watch me?”
“Yes. Watching pretty peasant girls is what we poor little rich boys do best.”
“Peasant?”
He shrugged. “You started the name calling.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: On the Edge

Girl, Boy, Grass, Time

“The end of the world started when a pegasus landed on the hood of my car.
Up until then I was having a great afternoon.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Variant: The end of the world started when a Pegasus landed on the hood of my car.
Source: The Last Olympian

World, Cars

“I start to think there really is no cure for depression, that happiness is an ongoing battle, and I wonder if it isn't one I'll have to fight for as long as I live. I wonder if it's worth it.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

Happiness, Thinking, Fight

“Blay’s head whipped around to his mate. “Really? You asked my dad?” Qhuinn nodded, then started to smile like a mother fucker. “It’s my one and only shot. So I wanted to follow protocol.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover at Last

Smile

“With false names, on the right nets, they could be anybody. Old men, middle-aged women, anybody, as long as they were careful about the way they wrote. All that anyone would see were the words, their ideas. Every citizen started equal, on the nets.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Women, Men, Age, Way

“She started off, walking fast, as if the speed of her steps could give form to the things she felt.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Speed

“And when things start to happen, don't worry, don't stew.
Just go right along, you'll start happening too!”

Dr. Seuss Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)
Context: Out there things can happen, and frequently do,
To people as brainy and footsy as you.
And when things start to happen, don't worry, don't stew.
Just go right along, you'll start happening too!

“So that is the design process or the creative process. Start with a problem, forget the problem, the problem reveals itself or the solution reveals itself and then you reevaulate it. This is what you are doing all the time.”

Paul Rand (1914–1996) American graphic designer

Problem, Time, Forgetting

“The mace prodded
Will in the back again. That little habit was starting to annoy him and he was tempted to take the weapon from the sergeant major and do a little prodding of his own.”

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

Source: The Sorcerer in the North

“The words that strike us are those that awake an echo in a zone we have already made our own—the place where we live—and the vibration enables us to find fresh starting points within ourselves.”

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator

This Business of Living (1935-1950)
Source: Il mestiere di vivere: Diario 1935-1950
Context: When we read, we are not looking for new ideas, but to see our own thoughts given the seal of confirmation on the printed page. The words that strike us are those that awake an echo in a zone we have already made our own—the place where we live—and the vibration enables us to find fresh starting points within ourselves.