Quotes about thing
page 49

“For me, Art is the restoration of order. It may discuss all sort of terrible things, but there must be satisfaction at the end. A little bit of hunger, but also satisfaction.”

Toni Morrison (1931–2019) American writer

Interview with Don Swaim (1987)

Hunger, Art

“That without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, moribund.”

Anthony Bourdain book Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook

Source: Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook

Question

“I know we loved each other, but distance can do strange things to people and before I was willing to tell you about it, I wanted to be certain that it would last”

Nicholas Sparks book Nights in Rodanthe

Source: Nights in Rodanthe

Love, People

“Things pass us by. Nobody can catch them. That's the way we live our lives.”

Haruki Murakami book Hear the Wind Sing

Variant: All things pass. None of us can manage to hold on to anything. In that way, we live our lives.
Source: Hear the Wind Sing

Way

“Perhaps the things that break our hearts are the very things that serve to open them.”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Greatness Guide Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class

Heart

“Nine times out of ten, talking is a way of avoiding doing things.”

Patricia C. Wrede Dealing with Dragons

Source: Dealing with Dragons

Way, Time

“Vanity, in a fairy tale, will make you evil. Vanity in the real world will drive you nuts. Vanity makes you say things like “I deserved a better life than this.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Life, World, Evil

“Life’s like that. As we grow and change, some things we’ve experienced before take on new meaning. It’ll happen for the rest of your life.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Life, Change

“The great thing is to last and get your work done and see and hear and learn and understand; and write when there is something that you know; and not before, and not too damned much after.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Understanding, Learning

“It is after all so easy to shatter a story. To break a chain of thought. To ruin a fragment of a dream being carried around carefully like a piece of porcelain. To let it be, to travel with it, as Velutha did, is much the harder thing to do.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Dreams, Travel

“It was impossible to get the Dimitri and Tasha thing out of my head, but at least packing and getting ready made sure I didn't devote 100 percent of my brain power to him. More like 95 percent.”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

“Listen to the trees as they sway in the wind.

Their leaves are telling secrets. Their bark sings songs of olden days as it grows around the trunks. And their roots give names to all things.

Their language has been lost.

But not the gestures.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Secret, Tree, Singing

“Cause hearts are amazing things. They get lots bigger to make room for new people to love alongside the old people you love. -Simi”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Styxx

Love, People, Heart

“But there were worse things than being left.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

“You have no idea how much the last few days have meant to me," I began. "Meeting you has been the best thing that's ever happened to me.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Idea

“… happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you have the courage to release…”

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879)

Happiness, Courage

“It's nonverbal: I need love. I need the thing that happens when your brain shuts off and your heart turns on. And I know it's around me somewhere, but I just can't feel it.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

Love, Feeling, Heart

“I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.”

Naomi Novik book Throne of Jade

Source: Throne of Jade

“Things you did. Things you never did. Things you dreamed. After a long time they run together.”

Richard Ford book Canada

Source: Canada

Dreams, Time

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence…”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

1770s, Boston Massacre trial (1770)
Variant: Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
Source: The Portable John Adams

Passion

“Failure is hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you're successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.”

Po Bronson (1964) American writer

Money, Failure, Success

“love is what moves the world, I've always thought… it is the only thing which allows men and women to stand in a world where gravity always seems to want to pull them down… bring them low… and make them crawl…”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Love, Women, Men, World

“There were some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Marriage Plot

Variant: There are some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things.
Source: The Marriage Plot

Life, Books

“She told the story, however, with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in any thing ridiculous.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from
scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who
have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve
our goals.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

People, Learning, Success

“The answer came to me before I'd even finished asking myself the question. I couldn't be Mason's girlfriend because when I imagined someone holding me and whispering dirty things in my ear, he had a Russian accent.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Imagination, Question

“I feel the only thing you can do about life is to preserve it, by art if you're an artist, by children if you're not.”

Philip Larkin (1922–1985) English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian

Source: Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

Life, Children, Art, Feeling

“Daddy always said you only explained things to the people that actually mattered.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: All These Things I've Done

People

“In this world, there are things you can only do alone, and things you can only do with somebody else. It's important to combine the two in just the right amount.”

Haruki Murakami book After Dark

Source: After Dark

World

“All outward forms of religion are almost useless, and are the causes of endless strife…. Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.”

Beatrix Potter (1866–1943) English children's writer and illustrator

Source: Merry Christmas, Peter Rabbit!

Religion

“Living was a dangerous past-time, and often quite painful—but there was also such joy in living, such beauty, things that one would otherwise never see, never experience, never know. The risk of pain and loss was a part of living.”

Jim Butcher Captain's Fury

Source: Captain's Fury

Pain, Beauty, Loss, Time

“I’m not crazy,” I whispered.
“I know.”
Believe it or not, that’s the most romantic thing Zachary Goode ever told me.”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

“Of all the things I am not very good at, living in the real world is perhaps the most outstanding.”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Source: I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away

World

“Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader's mind---vividly, forcefully…”

Samuel R. Delany (1942) American author, professor and literary critic

Source: About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, and Five Interviews

Error

“Not into older guys, huh?" asked Adrian once we were alone.
"You're imagining things," I said. "Clearly, my stunning beauty has clouded your mind.”

Richelle Mead book Frostbite

Source: Frostbite

Beauty, Guy, Imagination

“Everything a baby does strikes a parent as the most magical thing he/she has ever seen.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Wedding

Source: The Wedding

Parent, Baby

“I've been a police officer for twenty years now and I'll tell you, pretty much every bad thing is life is a result of bad timing, and every good thing is the result of good timing.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Life, Time

“Things that break - be they bones, hearts, or promises - can be put back together but will never really be whole.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Heart, Hurtful

“People have to experience things that terrify them. If they don't, how will they ever come to appreciate safety?”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

People

“Three things trust and cherish well-
The horse on which you ride,
The beast that guards and watches,
And your shield-mate at your side.”

Mercedes Lackey book By the Sword

Source: By the Sword

Horse

“Friends share all things.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, "Pythagoras", Sect. 10

“I know I've done the right thing but I couldn't feel worse about it, and I suppose that is part of what it is to lead.”

Libba Bray book The Sweet Far Thing

Source: The Sweet Far Thing

Feeling, Parting

“Of course it's not okay with me, I'm a teenage boy. As far as I'm concerned, this is the worst thing that's happenedd since I found out why Magnus was banned from Peru" - Jace”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Boy

“… home lies in the things you carry with you everywhere and not the ones that tie you down.”

Pico Iyer (1957) British writer

Source: The Man Within My Head

Home

“Hope is a critical thing. Whithout it, we are nothing. Hope shapes will. The will shapes the world.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

World, Hope

“Love … It’s a nice little trick if you can find it.

We had found it.

But now I knew finding love and holding on to it were not the same thing.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Beauty of Darkness

Love

“When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.”

George Bernard Shaw Back to Methuselah

Source: Back to Methuselah

Truth, Search

“[Percy] kept hoping things would get better for Annabeth and him, but their lives just got more dangerous, as if the Three Fates were up there spinning their futures with barbed wire instead of thread just to see how much two demigods could tolerate.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Fate, Hope, Future

“This is the thing they don't tell you about being a third wheel - it's not like you're the wheel that's added on. You were one of the original two wheels, but suddenly you're not so important anymore. The relationship drives fine without you.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

“The right thing at the wrong time is never the right thing.”

Patti Callahan Henry American writer

Source: Between The Tides

Time

“Is this what family is like: the feeling that everyone’s connected, that with one piece missing, the whole thing’s broken?”

Trenton Lee Stewart The Mysterious Benedict Society

Source: The Mysterious Benedict Society

Family, Feeling, Family

“The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you're right. As one grows old, it is easier still.”

Robert Ludlum book The Bourne Identity

Source: The Bourne Identity

World

“Growth comes through analogy; through seeing how things connect, rather than only seeing how they might be different.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“Those three things - autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward - are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

People, Effort

“I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't. How you hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside.”

Susanna Kaysen (1948) American writer

Smile, Hurt

“Maybe there are some things we were put on this earth not to know.”

Dennis Lehane book Shutter Island

Source: Shutter Island

“The odd thing in this world is that an eager-beaver type, with no original ideas, who mimes those in authority above him right to the last twist of necktie and scrape of chin, always gets noticed. Gets selected. Rises.”

Philip K. Dick book Time Out of Joint

Source: Time Out of Joint

World, Idea

“… if a child waited to speak until all the grown-ups settled down and gave her some room to say her piece, the most important things would never get said.”

Katherine Hannigan Ida B.

Source: Ida B.

Waiting

“That was the problem with loving people: it made you weak. It made you need them. It made the thought of not having them the worst thing in the world.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Flirt

Source: Flirt

Love, People, World, Problem

“You know a great many things in dreams, often despite the evidence of your eyes. You just know them.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Dreams

“Rule number one of the wizarding business. Never let them see you sweat. People expect us to know things. It can be a big advantage. Don’t screw it up by looking like you’re as confused as everyone else. Bad for the image.”

Jim Butcher Proven Guilty

Source: Proven Guilty

People, Business

“Well, people got attatched. Once you cut the umbilical cord they attatched to the other things. Sight, sound, sex, money, mirages, mothers, masturbation, murder, and Monday morning hangovers.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Money, People, Sex

“As we all know, too much of any divine thing is destruction”

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

“When a man, however passively, becomes an obstacle to the fulfillment of a woman's desires, he becomes an odious thing in her eyes, - or will, given time enough.”

Theodore Dreiser book Sister Carrie

Source: Sister Carrie

Time

“Simon bristled. She wasn’t his Isabelle, not anymore. He wondered if she ever truly had been. Isabelle didn’t seem like the type of girl to belong to someone. It was one of the things he liked best about her.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Lost Herondale

Girl

“Death is not such a bad thing. What would be a bad thing would be living without challenges. Without knowing defeat, we cannot know what victory is. There is no life without death.”

Patricia Briggs book River Marked

Source: River Marked

Life, Death, Victory

“You hate change. I hate it too. But things can't stay the same- and that's well, for when nothing changes in your life, it's as good as being dead”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Hero of Ages

Life, Hate, Change, Dead

“When you want to know how things really work, study them when they're coming apart.”

William Gibson book Zero History

Source: Zero History

Study

“Fanatics can justify practically any atrocity to themselves. The more untenable their position becomes, the harder they hold to it, and the worse the things they are willing to do to support it.”

Mercedes Lackey (1950) American novelist and short story writer

Source: Changes

Support

“It was so risky and so scary, and yet at the same time, so beautiful. Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Truth, Beauty, Time, Fight

“No matter how bad things get, you've got to go on living, even if it kills you.”

Sholem Aleichem (1859–1916) Yiddish author and playwright

“When things were very bad his soul just crawled behind his heart and curled up and went to sleep”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Source: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Soul, Sleep, Heart

“That was the hard thing about grief, and the grieving. They spoke another language, and the words we knew always fell short of what we wanted them to say.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

“You're only a man! You've not our gifts! I can tell you! Why, a woman can think of a hundred different things at once, all them contradictory!”

Georgette Heyer (1902–1974) British historical romance and detective fiction novelist

Source: Powder And Patch

Thinking

“Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you.”

Chuck Klosterman book Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Source: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Love, Art

“I don't understand it any more than you do, but one thing I've learned is that you don't have to understand things for them to be.”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Source: A Wrinkle in Time

Understanding, Learning

“Divorce isn't such a tragedy. A tragedy's staying in an unhappy marriage, teaching your children the wrong things about love. Nobody ever died of divorce.”

Jennifer Weiner (1970) American writer

Source: Fly Away Home

Love, Marriage, Children

“Librarians! Librarians always know how to find out things. That was their job even before the Internet.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer (1948) American writer

Source: This World We Live In

“(…): Oh, David, I would trust you with my life! Oh, Jonathan, I would sacrifice my own life for your holy mission! (He almost does): (weeping) David, you must return to me! I need you! I cannot do this thing without you!: Lo, I return!”

Cassandra Clare book The Shadowhunter's Codex

Source: The Shadowhunter's Codex

Life

“Things have a way of settling back.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

Way

“The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Men, Truth, Study

“It’d be a poor kind of world where there was just one explanation for things. ---Rhiow”

Diane Duane book To Visit the Queen

Source: To Visit the Queen

World

“Striving for social justice is the most valuable thing to do in life.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Misattributed <br class="br">Source: This appears to originate in April 2014 with an unsourced entry in picturequotes: http://www.picturequotes.com/striving-quotes <br><br><br>Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Albert Einstein / Misattributed

Life, Justice