Quotes about thing
page 47

“I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.”

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

“What sense did the world make? Where was God, the Bloody Fool? Did He have no notion of fair and unfair? Couldn't He read a simple balance sheet? He would have been sacked long ago if He were managing a corporation, the things he allowed to happen…”

Rohinton Mistry A Fine Balance

Source: A Fine Balance

God, World, Fools, Sense

“The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.”

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Source: The Money Game

“It's a good thing I'm a reasonably patient woman. Otherwise, I might have to kill you.”

Lora Leigh (1965) American writer

Source: Wicked Pleasure

“It's just the way things are. And you can't dwell on what might have been. You have to look at what is.”

Sophie Kinsella book Twenties Girl

Source: Twenties Girl

Way

“This was the last thing I expected. You destroy my life and then feed me some inspiratonal philosophy.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Life

“Hadn't one of my all-time favorite reveries been to become a cranky hermit, live unperturbed in my house, and have things brought to me like a monarch or tribal lord?”

Laurie Notaro American writer

Time, Housing

“Being able to do what you wish is the best thing in the world!”

Shiro Amano (1976) Japanese manga artist

Source: Kingdom Hearts, Vol. 1

World

“That's the thing with handmade items. They still have the person's mark on them, and when you hold them, you feel less alone.”

Aimee Bender (1969) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Color Master: Stories

Feeling, Personality

“I like flaws. I think they make things interesting.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Thinking

“I could have. What does this phrase mean? At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have heppened but, didn't. The magic moments go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Variant: At any given moment in our lives, there are certain things that could have happened but didn't. The magic moments
go unrecognized, and then suddenly, the hand of destiny changes everything.
Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Change

“(Egypt) is a great place for contrasts: splendid things gleam in the dust.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

Source: Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour

“How I'd love to get away from here and be someone else for a while in a place where no one knows or expects certain things from me.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Love

“if you think of a relationship as a living entity, I guess it's one thing if the missing two percent is, like, a fingernail. But when it's the heart, that's a whole different ball of wax.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Thinking, Heart

“The only things you can truly love after such a short time are ice cream flavors and comfortable shoes.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: My Unfair Godmother

Love, Shoe, Time

“For a few minutes, everything is so cute that the mind reels…. And then, believe it or not, things get worse. So I shot myself.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

“Astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food, and rest.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

Food

“That's what came from having romance in your soul. You believe in things like love at first sight and perfect presents.”

Dorothy Koomson book My Best Friend's Girl

Source: My Best Friend's Girl

Love, Soul, Perfection

“There is more beauty than our eyes can bear, precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Beauty

“For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.”

John Milton book Areopagitica

Source: Areopagitica

Life, Books, Soul, Dead

“The sorrow was so large it threatened to tear through my skin. When he died, all things swift and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

Beauty, Tear

“If you could only tell them that living and spending isn't the same thing! But it's no good. If only they were educated toinstead of earn and spend, they could manage very happily…”

D.H. Lawrence book Lady Chatterley's Lover

Source: Lady Chatterley's Lover

Education

“He was the only boy I'd found worth dating in God knows how many schools. I mean, ever since he'd been bitten by a werwulf he'd been rock-steady. The best thing about this totally effed-up situation.”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Source: Jealousy

God, School, Boy

“It is a much more straightforward thing to be a dog, and a dog's love, once given, is not reconsidered.”

Robin McKinley Deerskin

Source: Deerskin

Love, Dogs

“What is it with you and girls, Adrian, dear? Why do they either mean nothing to you or everything? It's always an extreme."
"Because I don't do things in halves, mom. Especially when it comes to love.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

Love, Girl, Moms

“I have not yet lost a feeling of wonder, and of delight, that the delicate motion should reside in all the things around us, revealing itself only to him who looks for it.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Feeling

“The scariest thing of all is never knowing what you're suddenly going to believe.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: Challenger Deep

“Auri stood, and in the circle of her golden hair she grinned and brought the weight of her desire down full upon the world.
And all things shook. And all things knew her will. And all things bent to please her.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

World

“I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Courageous

“The wacky thing about those bad guys is that you can't count on them to be obvious. They forget to wax their mustaches and goatees, leave their horns at home, send their black hats to the dry cleaner's. They're funny like that.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: White Night

Guy, Home, Forgetting

“in my opinion if you have a secret compartment in your lute case and don't use it to hide things, there is something terribly, terribly wrong with you.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Secret

“In my experience, there are two things that no one will admit to: having no sense of humor and being susceptible to flattery.”

Margaret George book The Memoirs of Cleopatra

Source: The Memoirs of Cleopatra

Sense

“It's not Cowardly to make a choice about what you want your life to be. Choosing what's right for you, maybe that's the bravest thing you can do.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Angels Twice Descending

Life

“When you put your hands and mind and heart into the knowing of a thing… there is no room in you for fear.”

Patricia A. McKillip (1948) American fantasy writer

Fear, Heart

“Instead of agonizing about the things you can't change, why don't you try working on the things you can change”

Jordan Sonnenblick (1969) American writer

Source: Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

Change

“If there's a thing I've learned in my life it's to not be afraid of the responsibility that comes with caring for other people. What we do for love: those things endure. Even if the people you do them for don't”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Love, Life, People, Learning

“But just because you love something, I added to myself, doesn't mean you'll ever be great. Not if you don't work. Most people stink at the things they love.”

Amy Chua book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Source: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

Love, People

“Things usually make sense in time, and even bad decisions have their own kind of correctness.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Decision, Sense, Time

“I'll tell you one thing, though. It's a terrible thing to be a disappointment to a good woman.”

Richard Russo (1949) American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter

Disappointment

“If men were equal in America, all these Poles and English and Czechs and blacks, then they were equal everywhere, and there was really no such thing as foreigner; there were only free men and slaves.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Source: The Killer Angels

Men

“My Emma, does not every thing serve to prove more and more the beauty of truth and sincerity in all our dealings with each other?”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Truth, Beauty, Sincerity

“Things are going round and round in my head--or maybe my head is going round and round in things.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Howl's Moving Castle

Source: Howl's Moving Castle

“I think the truly natural things are dreams, which nature can't touch with decay.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Dreams, Nature, Thinking

“Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way.”

Celeste Ng book Little Fires Everywhere

Source: Little Fires Everywhere

People, Way

“Isn’t it funny to think that this magnificent piece of matter is in a state of decay? Really, can you think of any other living thing that looks this glorious as it’s dying?”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

Thinking

“Maybe we're standing like coins on the edge?"
Allie considered this. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, we might be able to shake things up a little, and find a way to come up heads."
"Or tails," suggested Allie.
"What are youabout?" said Lief.
"Life and death.”

Neal Shusterman book Everlost

Source: Everlost

Life, Death, Way

“Love is like the sea. It's a moving thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from the shore it meets, and it's different with every shore.”

Zora Neale Hurston book Their Eyes Were Watching God

Variant: Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin’ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.
Source: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Love, Sea

“I'm restless. Things are calling me away. My hair is being pulled by the stars again.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Variant: I’m restless. Things are calling me away. My hair is being pulled by the stars again.

Star

“I didn't want to leave things the way we had, unresolved,… and tried to tell myself he cared about me enough not to look elsewhere for what I wasn't giving him.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Someone Like You

Way

“… knows that ice cream is worth the trouble of being cold. Like all things virtuous, you have to suffer to gain the reward.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Rithmatist

Suffering

“They wanted to come in after the pounds", explained Pooh, "so I let them. It's the best way to write poetry, letting things come.”

A.A. Milne book The House at Pooh Corner

Source: The House at Pooh Corner (1928)

Way

“To be lost in spiritlessness is the most terrible thing of all.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Faith

“One doesn't generally look into mirrors when one is especially angry; one has better things to do, like pace the floor or throw things.”

Robin McKinley book The Blue Sword

Source: The Blue Sword

“People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

Positive Thinking Every Day : An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year (1993), "April 13"
Earlier variant: People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. And those who have learned to have a realistic, nonegotistical belief in themselves, who possess a deep and sound self-confidence, are assets to mankind, too, for they transmit their dynamic quality to those lacking it.
‪You Can If You Think You Can‬ (1987), p. 84

People, Secret, Thinking, Success

“Melbourne, I always knew you'd need to learn about this kind of thing. I 'd just kind of hoped you'd learn it on a real guy.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Hope, Guy, Learning

“Pleasing things: finding a large number of tales that one has not read before. Or acquiring the second volume of a tale whose first volume one has enjoyed. But often it is a disappointment.”

Sei Shonagon book The Pillow Book

Source: The Pillow Book

Disappointment, Reading

“Everyone is afraid of something. We fear things because we value them. We fear losing people because we love them. We fear dying because we value being alive. Don't wish you didn't fear anything. All that would mean is that you didn't feel anything.”

Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows

Variant: We fear things because we value them. We fear losing people because we love them. We fear dying because we value being alive. Don’t wish you didn’t fear anything. All that would mean is that you didn’t feel anything.
Source: Lord of Shadows

Love, People, Fear, Feeling

“That's the trouble with loving a wild thing: You're always left watching the door.”

Edith Pattou book East

Source: East

Love

“The things that go wrong often make the best memories.”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Memory

“I don't say anything and he casually leans against my desk, picking up the novel that's sitting there.

"It's bullshit," he tells me, flicking through it. "There's no such thing as Atticus Finch."

I shrug. "It'd be nice if there was, though.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“and if we can change
things that have
already happened

if those planes can fly in
uneasy formation

if that splinter moon
can blow away the shadows

then anything,
anything at all.”

Jaclyn Moriarty (1968) Australian writer

Source: The Ghosts of Ashbury High

Change, Flying

“Why? Because pride is a strange thing, and because generosity deserves generosity in return. But mostly because it felt like the right thing to do, and that is reason enough.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

“Fear's greatest weapon is its ability to blind one to anything. In its presence, we forget there are others to consider, things to save besides ourselves.”

Jonathan Carroll book Bones of the Moon

Source: Bones of the Moon

Fear, Forgetting

“From this new and intimate perspective, she learned a simple, obvious thing she had always known, and everyone knew; that a person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn, not easily mended.”

Ian McEwan book Atonement

Source: Atonement

Learning, Personality

“At that moment, she cannot think of a more reckless, irrational thing than choosing to become a parent.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

Thinking, Parent

“The absence of pain means death, so when something no longer bothers you, you've died to that thing.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Death, Pain

“Yes, he is a man, so genetically he's engineered to be dense about many things, but he's not stupid.”

Katie MacAlister (1964) Author

Source: Hard Day's Knight

Stupidity

“Things men have made with wakened hands, and put soft life into
are awake through years with transferred touch, and go on glowing
for long years.
And for this reason, some old things are lovely
warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Love, Life, Men

“Losing the possibility of something is the exact same thing as losing hope and without hope nothing can survive.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Hope

“Thank God for the things that I do not own.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

God

“There are a lot of things a person with two hands couldn't steal," Eddis said.
"So?"
"If it's impossible to steal them with two hands, it's no more impossible to steal them with one. Steal peace, Eugenides. Steal me some time.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

Peace, Time, Personality

“Come to think of it, an Aes Sedai would probably follow a man off a cliff, too, if only to explain to him - in detail - all the things he was doing incorrectly in the way he went about killing himself.”

Robert Jordan The Wheel of Time

Source: A Memory of Light

Way, Thinking

“The whole point of getting things done is knowing what to leave undone”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

“Your mouth is the best thing that ever happened to my mouth. -Zane Cutter”

Cherry Adair (1951) South African-American writer

Source: Undertow

“Can you honestly love a dishonest thing?”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

Source: The Winter of Our Discontent

Love

“Harry Dresden: Many things are not as they seem: The worst things in life never are.”

Jim Butcher book White Night

Source: The Dresden Files, White Night (2007), Chapter 1, Opening line

Life

“Because that's the thing about mean people: They make you think that the world will never work, that there are divides that you will fall into if you approach. It takes a whole lot of good people to fill in the breach created by a single mean one.”

David Levithan book Wide Awake

Source: Wide Awake

People, World, Thinking

“There are a million things one might do with a block of wood. But what do you think might happen if someone, just once, believed in it?”

Suzanne Weyn book Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Source: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Thinking

“I could have been a great many things.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Variant: I should have been a great many things, Mr Mayor
Source: Little Women

“Tell my brother to remember his heart in all things. That is where his honor and his destiny will be found. Tell him.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Heart

“Death! Strange that there should be such a word, and such a thing, and we ever forget it; that one should be living, warm and beautiful, full of hopes, desires and wants, one day, and the next be gone, utterly gone, and forever!”

Harriet Beecher Stowe book Uncle Tom's Cabin

Source: Uncle Tom's Cabin

Death, Beauty, Hope, Forgetting

“It is the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. Without them life is safe, but not worth bothering with.”

Stephen Fry book Moab Is My Washpot

Referencing Oscar Wilde from the preface of "The Picture of Dorian Gray"; "All art is quite useless".
1990s, Moab is My Washpot (autobiography, 1997)
Source: Moab Is My Washpot
Context: … but love, like all art, as Oscar said, it's quite useless. It is the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. Without them life is safe but not worth bothering with.

Love, Life, Beauty, Art

“Die, my dear? Why that's the last thing I'll do!”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Last words[citation needed]
Lord Palmerston had similar last words in 1865: "Die, my dear doctor! That's the last thing I shall do!"[citation needed]
Source: The Essential Groucho: Writings by, for, and about Groucho Marx