Quotes about still
page 18

“When I was a fetus, I used to sneak out at night when my mother was sleeping. I figured I should start stealing stuff while I still had no fingerprints.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Sleep, Night

“And when you'd finished running you'd be thousands of miles away from people who love you and your problem would still be there except you'd have nobody to help you.”

Melina Marchetta book Looking for Alibrandi

Source: Looking for Alibrandi

Love, People, Problem, Help

“How much of this truth can I bear to see and still live
unblinded?
How much of this pain
can I use?”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Pain, Truth

“A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all.”

Rita Mae Brown (1944) Novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

“… whether he stayed or left, whether they walked the same path or not. They could live on opposite sides of the world, and she would still be his.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Mine Till Midnight

World

“Sometimes you can see things happen right in front of your eyes and still jump to the wrong conclusions.”

Jodi Picoult book Keeping Faith

Source: Keeping Faith

“If you were drifting with a thousand other people, could you really still say you were lost?”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

People

“There are many great authors of the past who have survived centuries of oblivion and neglect, but it is still an open question whether they will be able to survive an entertaining version of what they have to say.”

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist

Question, Past

“But I still has enough longing for that concept that I didn't want to dispel it completely. Meaning: I didn't want to tell Lily that I felt we'd all been duped by Plato and the idea of a soul mate. Just in case it turned out that she was mine.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Soul, Idea

“That's how life feels to me. Everyone is doing it; everyone knows how. To live and be who they are and find a place, find a moment. I'm still waiting.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: How to Save a Life

Life, Feeling, Waiting

“Now the Sirens have a still more fatal weapon than their song, namely their silence… Someone might possibly have escaped from their singing; but from their silence, certainly never.”

Franz Kafka book The Silence of the Sirens

"The Silence of the Sirens" (October 1917)

Silence, Singing

“Youth is still where you left it, and that's where it should stay. Anything that was worth taking on life's journey, you'll already have taken with you.”

Sophie Kinsella book Wedding Night

Source: Wedding Night

Life, Youth

“A truth that no one knows is still the truth.”

Sharon Shinn (1957) American science fiction writer

Source: Jenna Starborn

Truth, Hurtful

“How still,
How strangely still
The water is today,
It is not good
For water
To be so still that way.

~ "Sea Calm”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

Way, Water, Sea

“He found himself still with too many questions and not enough answers.”

Stephen King book The Long Walk

Source: The Long Walk

Question

“It's best to give while your hand is still warm.”

Philip Roth book Everyman

Source: Everyman

“Desi, babe. Still playing your little games, I see. Now why don't you be a good Daimon and show yourself to me? (Kyrian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Night Pleasures

Source: Night Pleasures

Game

“I know you. I know this isn't you. And even if it is, I still love you. As much as I always have. You will always be mine. I will always love you, I promised you that when you left, and it's true now.”

Melissa de la Cruz (1971) American writer

Source: Gates of Paradise

Love

“No person, trying to take responsibility for her or his identity, should have to be so alone. There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

Source: Sources

Personality

“The beginning of wisdom, as they say. When you're seventeen you know everything. When you're twenty-seven if you still know everything you're still seventeen.”

Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine

Source: Dandelion Wine (1957), p. 142
Context: “I don’t know,” he admitted.
“Well.” She started pouring tea. “To start things off, what do you think of the world?”
“I don’t know anything.”
“The beginning of wisdom, as they say. When you’re seventeen you know everything. When you’re twenty-seven if you still know everything you’re still seventeen.”
“You seem to have learned quite a lot over the years.”
“It is the privilege of old people to seem to know everything. But it’s an act and a mask, like every other act and mask. Between ourselves, we old ones wink at each other and smile, saying, How do you like my mask, my act, my certainty? Isn’t life a play? Don’t I play it well?”
They both laughed quietly.

Wisdom

“While my insides may be rotten, I still like a good reason to kill someone. It has to be either business, personal, or out of sheer boredom.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: The Maleficent Seven: From the World of Skulduggery Pleasant

Business, Personality

“It’s okay,” said Alec. “I once walked in on you and Isabelle. I guess turnabout’s fair play.” He frowned. “Although you two were in my room at the time, so actually I think you still owe me.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Born to Endless Night

Thinking, Time

“At first it upset me to realize how many people are, at heart, selfish. Now I take that in stride, but people's loneliness still gets to me.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: Just One Wish

People, Heart, Loneliness, Selfishness

“I still felt like I might hurl, and I thought about how awful that would be in midair.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

“That's what love is, when your hindsight is 20/20, and you still wouldn't change a thing.”

Jodi Picoult book The Pact

Source: The Pact

Love, Change

“She and I were still friends, but not best friends, not like we used to be. But we were still friends. She'd known me my whole life. It's hard to throw away history. It was like you were throwing away a part of yourself.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: The Summer I Turned Pretty

Life, History, Parting

“In November, the trees are standing all sticks and bones. Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers. They know it is time to be still.”

Cynthia Rylant (1954) American author of children's books and librarian

Source: In November

Love, Tree, Time

“When I go around and speak on campuses,
I still don't get young men standing up and saying,
How can I combine career and family?”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Men, Family

“For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him.”

Emma Donoghue (1969) Irish novelist, playwright, short-story writer and historian

Source: Slammerkin

People, Books, Reading

“I opened myself to you only to be skinned alive. The more vulnerable I became, the faster and more deft your knife. Knowing what was happening, still I stayed and let you carve more. That's how much I loved you. That's how much.”

Rabih Alameddine (1959) Lebanese-American painter and writer.

Source: I, The Divine: A Novel in First Chapters

Love

“Nothing?" Favonius cried. "The one you care for most… plunged into Tartarus, and you still will not allow the truth?"

Suddenly Jason felt like he was eavedropping.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Truth

“Your problem, Werner,” says Frederick, “is that you still believe you own your life.”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

Life, Problem

“What miracle is this? This giant tree.
It stands ten thousand feet high
But doesn't reach the ground. Still it stands.
Its roots must hold the sky.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Tree

“The still point in a turning world.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

World

“I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.”

Julia Child (1921–2004) American chef

“I have been so long master
that I would be master still, or at least that none other
should be master of me.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

“It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

“We needed to become world-famous soon, while there was still that kind of world to be famous in…”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

World

“No lake so still but it has its wave.
No circle so perfect but that it has its blur.
I would change things for you if I could; As I can't you must take them as they are.”

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

Change, Perfection

“No one can confidently say that he will still be living tomorrow.”

Euripidés Alcestis

Source: Alcestis (438 BC), l. 783-4

Confidence

“Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heart.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love, Dreams, Heart, Goodbye

“Simon was still trying to work out how Shadowhunter government and also Shadowhunter family trees worked. They all seemed to be related to each other and it was very disturbing.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy

Family, Tree

“I’m me, and at the same time not me. That’s what it felt like. A very still, quiet feeling.”

Haruki Murakami book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Feeling, Time

“Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure
I’d face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good.”

A.E. Housman book A Shropshire Lad

No. 62, st. 3.
Source: A Shropshire Lad (1896)

World, Chance, Sun, Training

“What a psalm the storm was singing, and how fresh the smell of the washed earth and leaves, and how sweet the still small voices of the storm!”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

Source: Stickeen

Singing

“She looked at me, like she was drinking in the fact that I was still here. And I realized I was doing the same thing. The world was collapsing, and the only thing that really mattered to me was that she was alive.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

World, Drink

“Come on, let's get you a drink. How's your love life, anyway?

Oh God. Why can't married people understand that this is no longer a polite question to ask? We wouldn't rush up to them and roar, "How's your marriage going? Still have sex?”

Helen Fielding book Bridget Jones's Diary

Source: Bridget Jones's Diary

Love, Life, God, Marriage

“One learns that the world, though made, is yet being made. That this is still the morning of creation. That mountains, long conceived, are now being born, brought to light by the glaciers, channels traced for coming rivers, basins hollowed for lakes.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

"Alaska Glaciers: Graphic Description of the Yosemite of the Far Northwest", San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin (part 5 of 11 part series "Notes of a Naturalist") dated 7 September 1879, published 27 September 1879; reprinted as "Baird Glacier" in Letters from Alaska, edited by Robert Engberg and Bruce Merrell (University of Wisconsin Press, 1993), pages 28-32 (at page 31); modified slightly and reprinted in Travels in Alaska http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/travels_in_alaska/ (1915), chapter 5, A Cruise in the Cassiar <br class="br">First lines of the documentary film series " The National Parks: America's Best Idea http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/" by Ken Burns. <br class="br">1910s

World, Mountain, Light, Learning

“Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Ballads and Other Poems

Source: Ballads and Other Poems

Life, Fate, Sadness, Sun

“When something needs to be ironed I put it in the ironing basket. If a year goes by and the item is still in the basket I throw the item away. This is a good system since eventually I end up only with clothes that don’t need ironing.”

Janet Evanovich Three to Get Deadly

Source: Three to Get Deadly

Clothes

“Stunned and still not suffering. Swollen with care and anxiety and still not suffering. Useless, old and full of grief, but still not suffering.”

Leonard Cohen book Book of Longing

Source: Book of Longing

Suffering

“This much is certain, that we have no theological right to set any sort of limits to the loving-kindness of God which has appeared in Jesus Christ. Our theological duty is to see and understand it as being still greater than we had seen before.”

Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Protestant theologian

Source: The Humanity of God

Love, God, Understanding, Appearance

“Memory has a heavy backspin, yet it’s still impossible to land exactly where we took off.”

Colum McCann Zoli

Source: Zoli

Memory

“I heard you went to Ireland… I haven't seen it in many years. Is it still green then, and beautiful?

Wet as a bath sponge and mud to the knees but, aye, it was green enough.”

Diana Gabaldon book The Scottish Prisoner

Source: The Scottish Prisoner

Beauty

“You can know the whole world and still feel lost in it.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

World, Feeling

“I hate reality but it's still the best place to get a good steak.”

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

Hate, Reality

“But I think this: that whatever prices I've paid, whatever sorrows I shoulder, well, I have blessings, too. Not just my family now, but the others-the ones who have died… They're with me still. They're here…”

Wally Lamb book She's Come Undone

Source: She's Come Undone

Family, Thinking

“How is it possible for me to be so miserable and embarrassed and humiliated and beaten an function still talk and smile and concentrate?”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Source: Go Ask Alice

Smile

“I am always amazed by people who know something is wrong but still insist on ignoring it, as if that will somehow make it go away. They spare themselves the confrontation, but end up boiling in resentment anyway.”

David Levithan book Every Day

Source: Every Day

People

“Thinking that it would console him, she took a piece of charcoal and erased the innumerable loves that he still owed her for, and she voluntarily brought up her own most solitary sadnesses so as not to leave him alone in his weeping.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Love, Sadness, Thinking

“Their house had real hard-cover books in it, and you often saw them lying open on the sofa, the words still warm from being read.”

David Sedaris book Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Variant: Their house had real hardcover books in it, and you often saw them lying open on the sofa, the words still warm from being read.
Source: Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Books, Lying, Reading, Housing

“There is an oath upon her," he said to Arch, and I realized dimly that he was still speaking in Gaelic, though I understood him clearly. "She may not kill, save it is for mercy or her life. It is myself who kills for her.”

Diana Gabaldon book A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Source: A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Life