“To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
1930s, The Conquest of Happiness (1930)
Quotes about thing page 20
Arthur Miller book Death of a Salesman
Linda
Death of a Salesman (1949)
Context: I don't say he's a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person.
Janette Oke (1935) Canadian writer
Source: Love Comes Softly
“Things fall apart;
the center cannot hold…”
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
Source: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats
“Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.”
George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian
“I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules.”
Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
“Things always seem to end before they start”
Lou Reed (1942–2013) American musician
Source: Pass Thru Fire: The Collected Lyrics
“The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Genius is finding the invisible link between things.”
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor
“Pleasure is the only thing one should live for, nothing ages like happiness.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
“Be what I think? But I think of being so many things!”
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
Source: Fernando Pessoa and Co.: Selected Poems
“Life is heavier than the weight of all things.”
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer
“Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
“The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business.”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer
“I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.”
Lou Holtz (1937) American college football coach, professional football coach, television sports announcer
“Being disappointed is one thing and being discouraged is something else.”
Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie
Variant: Being disappointed is one thing and being discouraged is something else. I am disappointed but I am not discouraged.
Source: The Glass Menagerie
“In all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator
“The consolation of imaginary things is not imaginary consolation.”
Roger Scruton (1944–2020) English philosopher
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer
Variant translation: Names and attributes must be accommodated to the essence of things, and not the essence to the names, because things came first, and their names subsequently.
Other quotes
Source: As quoted in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957) by Stillman Drake, p. 92
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
Peter F. Drucker book The Essential Drucker
Misattributed
Variant: Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.
Source: The Essential Drucker
“In our deepest moments we say the most inadequate things.”
Edna O'Brien (1930) Novelist, memoirist, biographer, playwright, poet and short story writer
Source: A Fanatic Heart
Ann Brashares book Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood
Source: Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood
Lord Goring, Act I
Variant: The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.
Source: An Ideal Husband (1895)
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer
Humanity
One Minute Wisdom (1989)
Context: Much advance publicity was made for the address the Master would deliver on The Destruction of the World and a large crowd gathered at the monastery grounds to hear him.
The address was over in less than a minute. All he said was:
"These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness and worship without awareness."
“What you want, my lad, and what you're going to get are two very
different things.”
P.G. Wodehouse book Right Ho, Jeeves
Source: Right Ho, Jeeves
“The one thing worse than an enemy is a friend turned false.”
Philip Reeve book Here Lies Arthur
Source: Here Lies Arthur
Thomas à Kempis book The Imitation of Christ
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 545.
Source: The Imitation of Christ
Context: Simplicity and purity are the two wings by which a man is lifted above all earthly things. Simplicity is in the intention — purity in the affection. Simplicity tends to God,— purity apprehends and tastes Him.
Henry Beston (1888–1968) American writer
Robert Browning (1812–1889) English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era
Source: Robert Browning's Poetry
“Success is relative. It is what we make of the mess we have made of things.”
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author
“Into every empty corner, into all forgotten things and nooks, Nature struggles to pour life.”
Henry Beston (1888–1968) American writer
“To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees.”
Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher
Unsourced
“The only thing you've got in this world is what you can sell.”
Arthur Miller book Death of a Salesman
Source: Death of a Salesman
“Knowledge would be fatal. It is the uncertainty that charms one. A mist makes things wonderful.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor
Playboy interview, May 1971
Context: There's a lot of things great about life. But I think tomorrow is the most important thing. Comes in to us at midnight very clean, ya know. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.
“I really don't advise a woman who wants to have things her own way to get married”
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
From a personal conversation, quoted from memory by Maxim Gorky in "V.I. Lenin" (1924) http://www.marxists.org/archive/gorky-maxim/1924/01/x01.htm <!-- first edition --> <br class="br">Attributions <br class="br">Context: I know of nothing better than the Appassionata and could listen to it every day. What astonishing, superhuman music! It always makes me proud, perhaps with a childish naiveté, to think that people can work such miracles! … But I can’t listen to music very often, it affects my nerves. I want to say sweet, silly things, and pat the little heads of people who, living in a filthy hell, can create such beauty. These days, one can’t pat anyone on the head nowadays, they might bite your hand off. Hence, you have to beat people's little heads, beat mercilessly, although ideally we are against doing any violence to people. Hm — what a devillishly difficult job!