Quotes about still
page 2

Anne Frank photo

“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

15 July 1944; Variant translations:
It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.
I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.
I simply can't build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery, and death...and yet...I think...this cruelty will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl (1942 - 1944)
Context: It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize them!

Richelle Mead photo
Viktor E. Frankl photo
Dita Von Teese photo
Victor Hugo photo
John Cage photo
Audre Lorde photo
Martin Luther photo

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Earliest record is in a circular letter from Hessian Church minister Karl Lotz on 5 October 1944 and modified from a quote by Johanan ben Zakai according to [Landes, Richard Allen, Heaven on Earth: The varieties of the millennial experience, USA, Oxford University Press, 2011, 978-0-19-975359-8, https://books.google.com/books?id=seS-0JTykgoC&pg=PA48, 48]

Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Martin Luther / Disputed
Misattributed

Tim Burton photo
Eckhart Tolle photo

“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

A New Earth (2005)
Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

Jonathan Edwards photo
Muhammad Yunus photo

“All human beings have an innate skill — survival skill. The fact that poor are still alive is a proof of their ability to survive. We do not need to teach them how to survive. They know this already.”

Muhammad Yunus (1940) Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient

Profile at North American Bangladesh Info Center http://www.bongoz.com/people/yunus.html

Suman Pokhrel photo

“In influencing write-ups, words seem to move despite residing still on paper.”

Suman Pokhrel (1967) Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist

<span class="plainlinks"> Foreword, 'Tales of Transformation: English Translation of Tagore's Chitrangada and Chandalika', Lopamudra Banerjee, (2018). https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07DQPD8F4/</span>
From Prose

Ronnie Radke photo

“I feel the madness creeping slowly. Loved by many I'm still lonely.”

Ronnie Radke (1983) American singer

In the song "The Westerner"

Ferdowsi photo

“O my son, thy lips still smell of milk, and thy heart should go out to pleasure. But the days are grave, and Iran looketh unto thee in its danger.”

Translation of Helen Zimmern http://classics.mit.edu/Ferdowsi/kings.5.rustem.html
Shahnameh

Joseph Goebbels photo

“In the newspapers there is insulting and stirring up hatred. Those irresponsible daubers!
The people are on the streets -- rampaging and protesting. The magnates are sitting at the green table and calmly finish their game.
Old Europe is dying.
Well, it's a crazy world! Thrift, Horatio!
As if by a mysterious power one feels compelled to go out onto the streets. The thoughts wander outside to the stage which is portraying a drama of world history -- not an edifying one, but still a drama. It gives the earnest observer a lot to think about.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

In den Zeitungen wird gehetzt und geschimpft. Diese verantwortungslosen Schmieranten!
Das Volk ist auf der Straße, randaliert und demonstriert. Die Herren sitzen am grünen Tisch und spielen seelenruhig ihre Partie zu Ende.
Die alte Europa geht in die Binsen.
Ja, es ist eine tolle Welt! Wirtschaft, Horatio!
Man wird wie von einer geheimnisvollen Macht auf die Straße gezogen. Die Gedanken sind draußen, wo sich ein Stück Weltgeschichte abspielt -- kein erhebendes zwar, aber ein Stück. Der ernsthafte Zuschauer hat viel dabei nachzudenken.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Muhammad Ali photo
Irena Sendler photo

“I am the only person still alive of that rescuing group but I want everyone to know that, while I was coordinating our efforts, we were about twenty to twenty five people. I did not do it alone.”

Irena Sendler (1910–2008) Polish resistance fighter and Holocaust rescuer

Quoted in "The Long Path to Irena Sendler - Mother of the Holocaust Children" http://www.socwork.net/2006/1/historicalportraits/wieler, by Joachim Wieler Social Work & Society, vol. 4 (2006)

Bernard Baruch photo
Michael Jackson photo
George Frideric Handel photo

“Händel is the greatest and ablest of all composers; from him I can still learn.”

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) German, later British Baroque composer

Händel ist der Größte und Fähigste aller Komponisten; von ihm kann ich immer noch lernen.
Beethoven on his deathbed, speaking to Gerhard von Breuning. Published in Friedrich Kerst Beethoven der Mann und der Künstler, wie in seinen Eigenen Words enthüllt no. 111 http://www.bucheralle.org/6C76626D613131/ch35.html; Friedrich Kerst (trans. Henry Edward Krehbiel) Beethoven, the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in his own Words (1964), p. 54.
Criticism

Sitting Bull photo
Claude Monet photo
Genghis Khan photo

“If one must drink, then let one drink thrice a month, for more is bad. If one gets drunk twice a month, it is better; if one gets drunk once a month, that is better still; and if one doesn't drink at all, that is the best of all.”

Genghis Khan (1162–1227) founder and first emperor of the Mongol Empire

As given in Rashid al-Din's Compendium of Chronicles (Jami' al-tawarikh) ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami%27_al-tawarikh) (Can find a translated version on google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=d2SWstj6j3AC&lpg=PA142&ots=8Tn8g77BgR&dq=genghis%20khan%20and%20drinking&pg=PA142#v=onepage&q=genghis%20khan%20and%20drinking&f=false)

Shigeru Miyamoto photo
Helena Bonham Carter photo

“No matter how many modern parts I do, people still refer to me as Mrs. Costume Drama.”

Helena Bonham Carter (1966) British actress

Los Angeles Magazine Vol. 44, No. 11 (November 1999), p. 96 http://www.edward-norton.org/fc/articles/boxinghelena.html

Gianluigi Buffon photo

“In recent times Italy have been in a World Cup final every 12 years and I hope to still be there in 2018.”

Gianluigi Buffon (1978) Italian association football player

Gianluigi Buffon, as quoted in Football Italia (07/07/29)

William Saroyan photo

“In the end, today is forever, yesterday is still today, and tomorrow is already today.”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

My Heart's in the Highlands (1939)

Klaus Meine photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Rasmus Lerdorf photo

“For all the folks getting excited about my quotes. Here is another - Yes, I am a terrible coder, but I am probably still better than you :)”

Rasmus Lerdorf (1968) Danish programmer and creator of PHP

@rasmus http://twitter.com/rasmus/status/12481790397

“You can win the rat race but you're still a rat.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Wall and Piece (2005)

Suman Pokhrel photo

“Every morning
I wake up with the news
of bloodshed.
I feel my body,
desperate to know whether
I’m still alive.”

Suman Pokhrel (1967) Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist

<span class="plainlinks"> Every Morning http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/every-morning-7/</span>
From Poetry

Irena Sendler photo

“I still carry the marks on my body of what those "German supermen" did to me then.”

Irena Sendler (1910–2008) Polish resistance fighter and Holocaust rescuer

Referring to Nazi doctrines that German "Aryans" were a "master-race" of "supermen", as quoted in "Holocaust heroine's survival tale" by Adam Easton in BBC News (3 March 2005)
Context: I still carry the marks on my body of what those "German supermen" did to me then. I was sentenced to death.

Erich Maria Remarque photo

“It is just as much a matter of chance that I am still alive as that I might have been hit.”

Source: All Quiet on the Western Front (1929), Ch. 6
Context: It is just as much a matter of chance that I am still alive as that I might have been hit. In a bomb-proof dugout I might have been smashed to atoms, and in the open survive ten hours' bombardment unscathed. No soldier survives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck.

Sophie Scholl photo

“Are there still people today who never weary of directing all their thinking and all their energy, single-heartedly, to one cause?”

Sophie Scholl (1921–1943) White Rose member

As quoted in Seeking Peace : Notes and Conversations Along the Way (2000) by Johann Christoph Arnold, p. 155
Context: I've been thinking of a story from the Old Testament: Moses stood all day and all night with outstretched arms, praying to God for victory. And whenever he let down his arms, the enemy prevailed over the children of Israel. Are there still people today who never weary of directing all their thinking and all their energy, single-heartedly, to one cause?

Sophie Scholl photo

“I'm still so remote from God that I don't even sense his presence when I pray.”

Sophie Scholl (1921–1943) White Rose member

As quoted in At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl (1987) edited by Inge Jens, translated by J. Maxwell Brownjohn; also in Voices of the Holocaust : Resistors, Liberation, Understanding (1997) by Lorie Jenkins McElroy
Context: I'm still so remote from God that I don't even sense his presence when I pray. Sometimes when I utter God's name, in fact, I feel like sinking into a void. It isn't a frightening or dizzying sensation, it's nothing at all — and that's far more terrible. But prayer is the only remedy for it, and however many devils scurry around inside me, I shall cling to the rope God has thrown me in Jesus Christ, even if my numb hands can no longer feel it.

Kobe Bryant photo
Volodymyr Zelensky photo

“Only one thing remains unchanged: contradictions between nations and states are still resolved not by words, but by missiles. Not by word. But by war.”

Volodymyr Zelensky (1978) 6th President of Ukraine

Zelensky’s speech at the UN General Assembly https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/vistup-prezidenta-ukrayini-volodimira-zelenskogo-na-zagalnih-57477 (25 September 2019)

Ronnie James Dio photo

“You run along the rainbow
And never leave the ground,
Still you don’t know why.”

Ronnie James Dio (1942–2010) American singer

"Sacred Heart" on Sacred Heart (1985)
Lyrics

Post Malone photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo

“Lost touch with my soul…
I had no where to turn…
I had no where to go.
In My Fear,
I Unearthed My Backbone.
In Deep Pain,
I Discovered My Strength.
In My Denial,
I Detected My Durability.
I crashed down, and I tumbled…
But I did not crumble.
I got through all the Anguish…
I was not meant to be broken.
I did Not Vanquish.
I'm Still Here.
I was not meant to be broken.
From the Nightmare
I was never Awoken.
It took all I had in Me.
I was not meant to be broken.
To become the person I was meant to be.
Put through a whole lot of stress.
Entangled in this Mess.
I was not meant to be broken.
They watched as each blow hit.
Oh how I shall never forget.
Hit me harder with a smile on your face.
Wish for me to fall lower
in place.
Rock Bottom is awefully low for Me.
I'll fight you harder
and then you will see…
I was not meant to be broken.
I tried so hard to make you see.
But all you said to me was leave.
I was not meant to be broken.
They say doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the sign of insanity.
You never looked at the results.
You destroyed My Vanity.
Never prepared for the Hell that I would see.
Never taught how to Be Me
in your
Twisted World.
Can't you see?
I was not meant to be broken.
The Green Eyed Monster.
Evil childhood wishes.
Come alive before your eyes
like a Snake that Hisses.
The sad thing is this…and this much I'll say.
They will never come back again the Days
you have Missed.
It could have been sweet.
It should have been bliss.
But instead all I got was a poisoned kiss.
I was not built to break.
I was not meant to be broken.”

José Baroja photo
Frank Zappa photo

“I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer
Thich Nhat Hanh photo

“Letting go gives us freedom, and freedom is the only condition for happiness. If, in our heart, we still cling to anything - anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

Ivo Andrič photo
Isaac Bashevis Singer photo
Anne Frank photo

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Variant: Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.

Julia Quinn photo
Anne Frank photo
Arthur Rimbaud photo

“I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

Source: A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat

Osamu Dazai photo
Sylvia Plath photo

“I write only because
There is a voice within me
That will not be still”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: Letters Home

Wayne W. Dyer photo
Zhuangzi photo
Anne Rice photo
Ramana Maharshi photo
Nassim Nicholas Taleb photo

“What I learned on my own I still remember”

Source: The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

Maya Angelou photo

“You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.”

"Still I Rise" - Full text online at poets.org http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15623
And Still I Rise (1978)

Anne Frank photo

“Sympathy, Love, Fortune… We all have these qualities but still tend to not use them!”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

“With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.”

Max Ehrmann (1872–1945) American writer, poet, and attorney

Source: Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life

Oprah Winfrey photo
Jean-Luc Godard photo
Louis Sachar photo
Oprah Winfrey photo

“I still have my feet on the ground, I just wear better shoes.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist
C.G. Jung photo
D.H. Lawrence photo
Francis of Assisi photo
Markus Zusak photo
Terry Pratchett photo

“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”

Variant: It doesn't stop being magic just because you know how it works.
Source: A Hat Full of Sky

William Shakespeare photo
Hayao Miyazaki photo

“Cut off a wolf's head and it still has the power to bite.”

Hayao Miyazaki (1941) Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka

Source: もののけ姫 [Mononoke hime]

Martin Luther photo
Ramana Maharshi photo
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn photo

“We do not need to go out and find love; rather, we need to be still and let love discover us.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me.”

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

In his letter to Theo, from The Hague, 21 July 1882, http://www.vggallery.com/letters/245_V-T_218.pdf
1880s, 1882
Context: What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart.
That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion.
Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.

William Shakespeare photo
Veronica Franco photo
Hannah Arendt photo
Anne Frank photo

“People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but it doesn't stop you having your own opinions. Even if people are still very young, they shouldn't be prevented from saying what they think.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

2 March 1944
(1942 - 1944)
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

“I love you still,
Against my will.”

Source: Crave

Rabindranath Tagore photo
H.P. Lovecraft photo
Karen Blixen photo
Vladimir Nabokov photo
Carl Sagan photo

“We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.”

Source: Cosmos (1980), p. 193
Context: We embarked on our journey to the stars with a question first framed in the childhood of our species and in each generation asked anew with undiminished wonder: What are the stars? Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.

H.P. Lovecraft photo