Quotes about thing
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“A little talent is a good thing to have if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“But I must finally realize that I am subject to these sudden transformations. The thing is that I rarely think; a crowd of small metamorphoses accumulate in me without my noticing it, and then, one fine day, a veritable revolution takes place.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Source: Nausea

Thinking

“Unfortunately this Electric Monk had developed a fault, and had started to believe all kinds of things, more or less at random. It was even beginning to believe things they'd have difficulty believing in Salt Lake City.”

Douglas Adams book Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Source: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

“There is no greater thing you can do with your life and your work than follow your passions – in a way that serves the world and you.”

Richard Branson (1950) English business magnate, investor and philanthropist

Life, World, Way, Passion

“When you find a man you wish to marry, Tessa, remember this: You will know what kind of man he is not by the things he says, but by the things he does.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer … It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.
We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2008, Election victory speech (November 2008)

World, Fear, Dreams, Hope

“When you were six you thought mistress meant to put your shoes on the wrong feet. Now you are older and know it can mean many things, but essentially it means to put your shoes on the wrong feet.”

Lorrie Moore (1957) American writer

Shoe

“I put myself in the way of things happening, and they happened.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Way

“When you can flatten entire cities at a whim, a tendency towards quiet reflection and seeing-things-from-the-other-fellow's-point- of-view is seldom necessary.”

Terry Pratchett book Small Gods

Source: Small Gods

“If you work really hard, and you're kind, amazing things will happen.”

Conan O'Brien (1963) American television show host and comedian

“Didn't help to ponder things that were forever gone. It only made a body restless and fill up with bees, all wanting to sting something.”

Laurie Halse Anderson book Chains

Source: Chains

Bee, Help

“Colon thought Carrot was simple. Carrot often struck people as simple. And he was.
Where people went wrong was thinking that simple meant the same thing as stupid.”

Terry Pratchett book Men at Arms

Source: Men at Arms

People, Stupidity, Thinking

“I am sure there are things that can't be cured by a good bath but I can't think of one.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

Thinking

“It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)

Sadness

“Balance your thoughts with action. — If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 43

Thinking, Time

“Who can ever say the perfect thing to the poet about his poetry?”

Alice Munro (1931) Canadian novelist

Source: Dear Life: Stories

Perfection

“The only thing that would make her jealous would be if I led a parade riding a unicorn while ballerinas sang love songs.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Grip of the Shadow Plague

Love

“Nothing comes from without; all things come from within - from the subconscious”

Neville Goddard (1905–1972) American author and lecturer

Source: Resurrection

“The art of our necessities is strange
That can make vile things precious.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

Art

“What kills us isn't one big thing, but thousands of tiny obligations we can't turn down for fear of disappointing others.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Fear, Disappointment

“I tend to think of the act of photographing, generally speaking, as an adventure. My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.”

Diane Arbus (1923–1971) American photographer and author

Thinking

“The only thing more painful than being an active forgetter is to be an inert rememberer.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Variant: The only thing worse than being sad is for others to know you are sad.
Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Pain

“Young man, the games we play are lessons we learn. The assumptions we make, things we ignore, and things we change make us what we become.”

Terry Pratchett book Dodger

Source: Dodger

Game, Learning, Change

“We tell lies when we are afraid… afraid of what we don't know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger.”

Tad Williams (1957) novelist

Lie, Fear, Thinking, Time

“The breaking of so great a thing should make
A greater crack: the round world
Should have shook lions into civil streets,
And citizens to their dens.”

William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra

Source: Antony and Cleopatra

World

“Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

People, Communication, Loneliness

“No one can draw more out of things, books included, than he already knows. A man has no ears for that to which experience has given him no access.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Books, Drawing

“Maybe when people longed for a thing that bad the longing made them trust in anything that might give it to them.”

Carson McCullers book The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Source: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

People

“Across planes of consciousness, we have to live with the paradox that opposite things can be simultaneously true.”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

“YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.”

Terry Pratchett book Hogfather

Source: Hogfather

Justice, Learning

“Never give up on something you really want. However impossible things seem, there's always a way.”

Sophie Kinsella book Mini Shopaholic

Source: Mini Shopaholic

Way

“Perhaps it would be simpler if you just did what you're told and didn't try to understand things.”

Terry Pratchett book Sourcery

Source: Sourcery

Understanding

“Things that came apart could be put together again, but never exactly the same.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Six Rules of Maybe

“The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

“If there is one point, it's humanity, it's life, the richness of life. The thing is simply to be sensitive.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French photographer

Life

“Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Thinking, Personality

“The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

History

“When you know to laugh and when to look upon things as too absurd to take seriously, the other person is ashamed to carry through even if he was serious about it.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Personality

“Perhaps a man's character was like a tree, and his reputation like its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

As quoted in "Lincoln's Imagination" by Noah Brooks, in Scribner's Monthly (August 1879), p. 586 http://books.google.com/books?id=jOoGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA586 Posthumous attributions Variant: Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Thinking, Tree

“If you really want to possess a woman, you must think like her, and the first thing to do is win over her soul. The rest, that sweet, soft wrapping that steals away your senses and your virtue, is a bonus.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

Soul, Thinking, Sense

“Sometimes things seem so unbearable in the middle of the night, don't they? In the middle of the night, we're all such children.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: Margarettown

Children, Night

“Some things are more precious because they don't last long.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“This week I've been reading a lot and doing little work. That's the way things ought to be. That's surely the road to success.”

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

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

Way, Reading, Success

“Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“Memory is the diary that chronicles things that never happened or couldn't possibly have happened.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Memory

“Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.”

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

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Faith, Knowledge

“No, I'm just a very naughty boy. I do all sorts of bad things. I kick kittens. I make rude gestures at nuns.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Jace to Alec, pg. 311
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)

Boy

“The thing under my bed waiting to grab my ankle isn't real. I know that, and I also know that if I'm careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle.”

Stephen King book Night Shift

Source: Night Shift

Waiting

“It's good to do uncomfortable things. It's weight training for life.”

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

Source: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

Life, Training

“If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 13; Unsourced variant: Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Context: Flow in the living moment. — We are always in a process of becoming and NOTHING is fixed. Have no rigid system in you, and you'll be flexible to change with the ever changing. OPEN yourself and flow, my friend. Flow in the TOTAL OPENNESS OF THE LIVING MOMENT. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo.

Water

“There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Source: Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

World

“But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Wisdom

“I'll bet you anything you like that half an hour after they have met, they will be calling each other sister.
Women only do that when they have called each other a lot of other things first.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

Women, Sister

“I'VE NEVER BEEN VERY SURE ABOUT WHAT IS RIGHT, said Bill Door. I AM NOT SURE THERE IS SUCH A THING AS RIGHT. OR WRONG. JUST PLACES TO STAND.”

Terry Pratchett book Reaper Man

Source: Reaper Man

“Government is good at one thing: It knows how to break your legs, hand you a crutch, and say, "See, if it weren't for the government, you wouldn't be able to walk."”

Harry Browne (1933–2006) American politician and writer

" A solution for the Middle East http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27171," WorldNetDaily (April 11, 2002) 2000s

“It is a long-cherished tradition among a certain type of military thinker that huge casualties are the main thing. If they are on the other side then this is a valuable bonus.”

Terry Pratchett book Jingo

Source: Jingo

“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

As quoted in My Favorite Quotations (1990) by Norman Vincent Peale

Success

“You have come to a stage where you almost have to work on yourself. You know, on finding some tranquility with which to respond to these things, because I realize that the biggest risk that many of us run is beginning to get inured to the horrors.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

“Patience, grasshopper," said Maia. "Good things come to those who wait."
"I always thought that was 'Good things come to those who do the wave,'" said Simon. "No wonder I've been so confused all my life.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Life, Waiting, Patience

“The guy I'd felt such an immediate and deep connection to I'd thought that just maybe there really were such things as soul mates, and had considered, at least for a few brief moments, that he might be mine.”

P. C. Cast book Hunted

Source: Hunted

Guy, Soul

“But in my opinion, all things in nature occur mathematically.”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

Mathematics, Nature

“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

VI, 19
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VI

Thinking

“I just think of things as beautiful or not. Can't you understand? I don't think of good or bad. Just of beautiful or ugly. I think a lot of nice things are ugly and a lot of nasty things are beautiful.”

John Fowles book The Collector

Source: The Collector

Beauty, Understanding, Thinking

“Now he found out a new thing--namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.”

Mark Twain book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Variant: To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.
Source: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), Ch. 22.

World, Way

“That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it.”

Mark Twain book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

People, Way

“All great things must first wear terrifying and monstrous masks in order to inscribe themselves on the hearts of humanity.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Heart

“Every woman wants to be first to someone sometime in her life and that desire is the explanation for many strange things women do.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Life, Women

“Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess it.”

Antonio Machado (1875–1939) Spanish poet

Dreams

“Real life is not quite as it is in stories. In the old tales, bad things happen, and when the tale has unfolded and come to its triumphant conclusion, it is as if the bad things had never been. Life is not as simple as that, not quite.”

Juliet Marillier book Daughter of the Forest

Source: Daughter of the Forest

Life

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”

Terry Pratchett book Diggers

The Nome Trilogy (1989 - 1990)
Variant: The problem with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and putting things in it.
Source: Diggers (1990)

People, Funny

“So next time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell him that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking (2010)

Time

“Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Variant: One of the great secrets of life. Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense and discover too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

People, Sense

“The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it.”

Blaise Pascal Pensées

Variant: Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it.
Source: Pensées

“Green in nature is one thing, green in literature another. Nature and letters seem to have a natural antipathy; bring them together and they tear each other to pieces.”

Virginia Woolf book Orlando: A Biography

Source: Orlando

Literature, Nature, Tear

“The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

Interview for KFRC RKO Radio (8 December 1980)

“The only things one can admire at length are those one admires without knowing why.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

“People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.”

Edmund Hillary (1919–2008) New Zealand mountaineer

Though widely attributed to Hillary on the internet, this appears to have originated as a quote about him in a Rolex advertisement.
Disputed

People, Powerful

“Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

Mark Twain book The Innocents Abroad

Vol. II, Conclusion http://books.google.com/books?id=f4EwNleAjJAC&q=%22Travel+is+fatal+to+prejudice+bigotry+and+narrow-mindedness+and+many+of+our+people+need+it+sorely+on+these+accounts+Broad+wholesome+charitable+views+of+men+and+things+cannot+be+acquired+by+vegetating+in+one+little+corner+of+the+earth+all+one's+lifetime%22&pg=PA333#v=onepage Source: The Innocents Abroad (1869) Context: Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

Men

“Words are only painted fire, a look is the fire itself. She gave that look, and carried it away to the treasury of heaven, where all things that are divine belong.”

Mark Twain book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Source: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Painting

“I know it is a bad thing to break a promise, but I think now that it is a worse thing to let a promise break you.”

Jennifer Donnelly A Northern Light

Source: A Northern Light

Thinking

“People only get married when they've no other option, out of panic or desperation or so as not to lose someone they couldn't bear to lose. It's always the most conventional things that contain the largest measure of madness.”

Javier Marías (1951) Spanish writer

La gente sólo se casa cuando no tiene más remedio, por pánico o porque anda desesperada o para no perder a alguien a quien no soporta perder. Siempre hay mucha chaladura en lo que parece más convencional.
Source: Corazón tan blanco [A Heart So White] (1992), p. 121

People, Madness

“One of the most poisonous of all Satan’s whispers is simply, “Things will never change.” That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. To keep desire alive and flourishing, we must renew our vision for what lies ahead. Things will not always be like this. Jesus has promised to “make all things new.” Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers, which does not mean “we have no clue so don’t even try to imagine,” but rather, you cannot outdream God. Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation. We will need imagination, which is to say, we will need hope.”

John Eldredge

Source: The Sacred Romance Drawing Closer To The Heart Of God

God, Lie, Hope, Imagination

“Ah, that shows you the power of music, that magician of magician, who lifts his wand and says his mysterious word and all things real pass away and the phantoms of your mind walk before you clothed in flesh.”

Mark Twain book Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

Source: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

Music, Clothes

“We read fine things but never feel them to the full until we have gone the same steps as the author.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to John Hamilton Reynolds (May 3, 1818)
Letters (1817–1820)
Context: Axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved upon our pulses: we read fine things but never feel them to the full until we have gone the same steps as the author.

Feeling, Reading