Quotes about thing (10000 quotes, page 66)

“Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Tout existant naît sans raison, se prolonge par faiblesse et meurt par rencontre.
Nausea (1938)

Chance

“We Woosters do not lightly forget. At least, we do - some things - appointments, and people's birthdays, and letters to post, and all that - but not an absolutely bally insult like the above.”

P.G. Wodehouse book The Inimitable Jeeves

Source: The Inimitable Jeeves

People , Birthday , Forgetting

“I'm sure. But it doesn't work with me. for one thing, you won't look me in the eye. As for the other… I don't know. I can just tell.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

“I am suspicious of all the things that the average people believes.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

People

“To Thetis,
Long overdue, I know, but every often the things we most desire come only after much patience and struggle. That is a human truth, I think. Even Peleus knew that.
-Seth”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Blues

Truth , Thinking , Patience

“One doesn’t let her fiancé fight a horde of ghouls by himself. Some things were just not done.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Shifts

Fight

“People don't remember me. Really. It's not a paranoid thing; I just have this habit of slipping through memories. It doesn't bother me all that much, except I guess that's a lie; it does. For some reason, I test very high on forgettability.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

People , Lie , Memory

“Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such authority over us that we forget their earthly origins and accept them as unalterable givens.”

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

Obituary for physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (Nachruf auf Ernst Mach), Physikalische Zeitschrift 17 (1916), p. 101
1910s
Context: How does it happen that a properly endowed natural scientist comes to concern himself with epistemology? Is there not some more valuable work to be done in his specialty? That's what I hear many of my colleagues ask, and I sense it from many more. But I cannot share this sentiment. When I think about the ablest students whom I have encountered in my teaching — that is, those who distinguish themselves by their independence of judgment and not just their quick-wittedness — I can affirm that they had a vigorous interest in epistemology. They happily began discussions about the goals and methods of science, and they showed unequivocally, through tenacious defense of their views, that the subject seemed important to them.
Concepts that have proven useful in ordering things easily achieve such authority over us that we forget their earthly origins and accept them as unalterable givens. [Begriffe, welche sich bei der Ordnung der Dinge als nützlich erwiesen haben, erlangen über uns leicht eine solche Autorität, dass wir ihres irdischen Ursprungs vergessen und sie als unabänderliche Gegebenheiten hinnehmen. ] Thus they might come to be stamped as "necessities of thought," "a priori givens," etc. The path of scientific progress is often made impassable for a long time by such errors. [Der Weg des wissenschaftlichen Fortschritts wird durch solche Irrtümer oft für längere Zeit ungangbar gemacht. ] Therefore it is by no means an idle game if we become practiced in analysing long-held commonplace concepts and showing the circumstances on which their justification and usefulness depend, and how they have grown up, individually, out of the givens of experience. Thus their excessive authority will be broken. They will be removed if they cannot be properly legitimated, corrected if their correlation with given things be far too superfluous, or replaced if a new system can be established that we prefer for whatever reason.

Forgetting

“It is not the same thing to be good and to be kind.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“The things that the novel does not say are necessarily more numerous than those it does say and only a special halo around what is written can give the illusion that you are reading also what is not written.”

Italo Calvino (1923–1985) Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels

Reading

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

“Early on, he'd learned to enjoy simple things, things that couldn't be bought, and he had a hard time understanding people who felt otherwise.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

Source: The Notebook

People , Understanding , Learning , Time

“Most good things come with the risk of something bad.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Blues

“Love is one of the true mysteries,' he said at last. 'The truest and the deepest of all. One thing, Maerad: to love is never wrong. It may be disastrous; it may never be possible; it may be the deepest agony. But it is never wrong.”

Alison Croggon book The Riddle

Source: The Riddle

Love

“Some things can be both real and imaginary at the same time,… some lies can be true,… broken faith may be restored.”

Joanne Harris book Blackberry Wine

Source: Blackberry Wine

Faith , Time

“When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

People

“That's what love is, when your hindsight is 20/20, and you still wouldn't change a thing.”

Jodi Picoult book The Pact

Source: The Pact

Love , Change

“Either things happen for a reason, or they happen for no reason at all. Either one's life is a thread in a glorious tapestry or humanity is just a hopelessly tangled knot.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnWholly

Life

“Never be ashamed of your love," he said gently. "The only thing to be ashamed of is denying your love. That is what makes the shadow grow within your heart; that is the darkening of the Light. And we all have many loves.”

Alison Croggon book The Riddle

Source: The Riddle

Love , Light , Heart

“That's the thing about destiny: It can't be predicted, and it's usually pretty odd.”

Jasper Fforde book The Last Dragonslayer

Source: The Last Dragonslayer

“But by far the worst thing we do to males—by making them feel they have to be hard—is that we leave them with very fragile egos. The harder a man feels compelled to be, the weaker his ego is.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists

Source: We Should All Be Feminists

Feeling

“We can always choose to perceive things differently. We can focus on what's wrong in our life, or we can focus on what's right.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Life

“We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of a mortal body. And that's why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Love , God , Feeling , Joy

“They were careless people… they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made….”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Variant: They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
Source: The Great Gatsby

Money , People

“The mind self-edits. The mind airbrushes. It's a different thing to be inside a body than outside. From outside, you can look, inspect, compare. From inside there is no comparison.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

“We too, must shatter the mirrors. We must look in to ourselves and root out the distortions until that thing which we know in our hearts is perfect and true, stands before us.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

Heart , Perfection

“I am not sad, he would repeat to himself over and over, I am not sad. As if he might one day convince himself. Or fool himself. Or convince others -- The only thing worse than being sad is for others to know that you are sad.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Sad , Sadness , Fools

“It is when people do wrong things wilfully that they are the more likely to do them again.”

George MacDonald book The Princess and the Goblin

Source: The Princess and the Goblin

People

“In the end, just three things matter:

How well we have lived
How well we have loved
How well we have learned to let go”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

Love , Learning

“Sometimes, fewer choices can be a good thing.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Saint Anything

“It took him forever to get to downtown Vancouver although Tony had to admit that saving the world by public transportation was a particularly Canadian way to do things.”

Tanya Huff (1957) Canadian fantasy author

Source: Smoke and Shadows

World , Way

“Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.

Also, here is a green toothbrush tied in a ribbon. It expresses my feelings inadequately.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Feeling

“I had very good eyes once. Though it's another thing to say what I saw. In my experience, it is entirely possible to watch something happen and not to see it at all.”

Anna Funder book All That I Am

Source: All That I Am

“It's just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn't it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.”

John Grogan (1958) American journalist

Source: Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog

Love , People , Dogs

“Raising children is, in a sense, the reason the society exists in the first place. It's the most important thing that happens, and it's the culmination of all the tools and language and social structure that has evolved.”

Michael Crichton book The Lost World

Source: The Lost World

Children , Sense

“The most ordinary things could be made extraordinary.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One

Variant: Even the most ordinary things can be made extraordinary simply by doing it with the right people.
Source: The Lucky One

Friendship

“Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Book IV, ch. 11
War and Peace (1865–1867; 1869)

Love , World , Reality , Happiness

“So up I got in anger,
And took a book I had,
And put a ribbon on my hair
To please a passing lad.
And, "One thing there's no getting by --
I've been a wicked girl," said I;
But if I can't be sorry, why,
I might as well be glad!”

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet

Books , Girl , Anger

“The best thing you can do for your fellow, next to rousing his conscience, is — not to give him things to think about, but to wake things up that are in him; or say, to make him think things for himself.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

The Fantastic Imagination (1893)
Source: A Dish of Orts
Context: A fairytale, a sonata, a gathering storm, a limitless night, seizes you and sweeps you away: do you begin at once to wrestle with it and ask whence its power over you, whither it is carrying you? The law of each is in the mind of its composer; that law makes one man feel this way, another man feel that way. To one the sonata is a world of odour and beauty, to another of soothing only and sweetness. To one, the cloudy rendezvous is a wild dance, with a terror at its heart; to another, a majestic march of heavenly hosts, with Truth in their centre pointing their course, but as yet restraining her voice. The greatest forces lie in the region of the uncomprehended.
I will go farther. The best thing you can do for your fellow, next to rousing his conscience, is — not to give him things to think about, but to wake things up that are in him; or say, to make him think things for himself. The best Nature does for us is to work in us such moods in which thoughts of high import arise. Does any aspect of Nature wake but one thought? Does she ever suggest only one definite thing? Does she make any two men in the same place at the same moment think the same thing? Is she therefore a failure, because she is not definite? Is it nothing that she rouses the something deeper than the understanding — the power that underlies thoughts? Does she not set feeling, and so thinking at work? Would it be better that she did this after one fashion and not after many fashions? Nature is mood-engendering, thought-provoking: such ought the sonata, such ought the fairytale to be.

Thinking

“How can you pass laws about things that nobody knows?"
"They do it all the time," says Hayden. "That's what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

Education , Law , Time

“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear (2011), Chapter 43, “The Flickering Way” (p. 318)

Wise , Men , Fear , Sea

“The things she most wanted to tell him would lose their meaning the moment she put them into words.”

Haruki Murakami book 1Q84

Source: 1Q84

“The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

The Analects, The Great Learning
Context: The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.
Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.
From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides.

Family , Knowledge , Heart , Personality

“Sometimes small things can become very large, indeed.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“If you had to pack your whole life into a suitcase-not just the practical things, like clothing, but the memories of the people you had lost and the girl you had once been-what would you take?”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

Life , People , Girl , Memory

“Love is the one thing in this world that you should never have to go through alone… For unreciprocated love is the most soul crushing experience you will ever go through.”

Ben Mitchell (1978) New Zealand actor

Love , World , Soul

“You think this is going to work? This peaceful summit thing?”
“Sure,” I said. After a second, I added, “Probably.”
“Probably?”
“Maybe,” I said.
“We’re down to maybe now?”
I shrugged. “We’ll see.”

Jim Butcher book Cold Days

Source: Cold Days

Peace , Thinking

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in”

Morrie Schwartz (1916–1995) American sociologist

Source: Morrie: In His Own Words

Deep , love , Relationship , Cute

“Treasures:
The most important thing you leave behind is the stuff that turns into treasures when children find it.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Children

“Sometimes I am afraid for people like you who have to know things. Your kind will dig and hunt and worry at it until one day you will find what is hidden, waiting for you.”

Isobelle Carmody book Obernewtyn

Source: Obernewtyn

People , Waiting

“Americans Will Always Do the Right Thing — After Exhausting All the Alternatives.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

This is a modification of a March 1967 quote by Israeli politician Abba Eban who said, "Men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other resources." Eban used various versions of this quote over the years. In 1979 he said, "My experience teaches me this: Men and nations do act wisely when they have exhausted all the other possibilities." http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/
In a 1970 Congressional hearing, a version of the quote first referenced Americans. It was attributed to an unnamed Irishman. "And indeed, we often know how to do things by the philosophy that was expounded by another Irishman I know. He said that you can depend on Americans to do the right thing when they have exhausted every other possibility." http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/
The earliest known attribution of the quote to Churchill occurred in 1980. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/
Misattributed

“Happiness is a mysterious thing, to be found somewhere between too little and too much.”

Ruskin Bond (1934) British Indian writer

Source: A Book of Simple Living

Happiness

“It answers the question that was tormenting you: my love, you are not 'one thing in my life' - not even the most important - because my life no longer belongs to me because… you are always me.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Love , Life , Question

“Then from far away across the world he smelled good things to eat, so he gave up being king of the wild things.”

Maurice Sendak book Where the Wild Things Are

Source: Where the Wild Things Are

World

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)

Deep , love , Relationship , Cute

“He slowed down a bit more. "Gaia, how do you know these things?" She shrugged. "I'm smart." "And modest, too." "Modesty is a waste of time," she pronounced. "I'll keep that in mind.”

Francine Pascal Fearless

Source: Fearless

Time

“Oh… It's a thing.”

James Rollins (1961) American writer

Source: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

“The good thing about being explosive is that no one can beat you.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Source: Unwind

“It's very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth.”

Reginald Rose Twelve Angry Men

Source: Twelve Angry Men

Truth , Personality

“I'm doing one of three things: I'm writing. I'm staring out the window. Or I'm writhing on the floor.”

Thomas Harris (1940) American author and screenwriter

“To be kissed on the lips by your husband is the most decadent thing.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Kiss

“I'm a romantic; a sentimental person thinks things will last, a romantic person hopes against hope that they won't.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book This Side of Paradise

Source: This Side of Paradise

Hope , Thinking , Personality

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”

René Descartes book Principles of Philosophy

Original Latin: Veritatem inquirenti, semel in vita de omnibus, quantum fieri potest, esse dubitandum
Variant translation: If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.
Principles of Philosophy (1644)
Variant: In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life, to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.

Life , Truth

“If you can find one good thing to say about her I'll turn vegetarian!”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: The Night of the Solstice

“But it's not enough to know right from wrong. You need the strength to do what's right, even when what you want most in the world is the wrong thing.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Exiled Queen

World

“By things so achingly small are lives measured and marred.”

Guy Gavriel Kay book Tigana

Source: Tigana

“And so a person can never promise to love someone forever because you never know what might come up, what terrible thing the person you love might do.”

Anita Shreve (1946–2018) American writer

Source: Testimony

Love , Personality

“I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

Statement before his fight with George Foreman (31 March 1973)

Life , People

“Her eyes winded. "I'm becoming addicted to you?."
He raised an eyebrow. "You say it like it's a bad thing.”

Michelle Rowen (1971) Canadian writer

Source: The Demon in Me

“The most sensible thing to do to people you hate is to drink their brandy.”

Elizabeth Taylor (1932–2011) British-American actress

Source: A View of the Harbour

Hate , People , Drink

“It's a funny thing about looking for things. If you hunt for a needle in a haystack you don't find it. If you don't give a darn whether you ever see the needle or not it runs into you the first time you lean against the stack.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Source: The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories

Time

“If a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong it can be done without; and a good man will find a way.”

Anna Sewell book Black Beauty

Source: Black Beauty

Way

“All the bright precious things fade so fast, and they don't come back.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

“Emma turned to him, bottom lip trembling. “For me?”
“Always for you. All things for you. He coughed into his fist “All your own.”

Kresley Cole book A Hunger Like No Other

Source: A Hunger Like No Other

“There is only one thing I fear now-love. For I have seen it and I have felt it and I know that it is love, not death, that undoes us.”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

Love , Death , Fear

“Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry onto a vastness--how can I not dwell on this brief, cramped view of things? This peephole is all I've got!”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Life

“Darkness does this. It finds all the places you are hiding in. It finds all the things you are holding onto tightly and makes you let go.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Queen of Everything

“I'm sorry' I said again. Whenever someone tells you something said, it's the only thing you can think to say, even if you're already said it before.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

Thinking

“Life was so short; so many beautiful things slipped away.”

Kate DiCamillo The Magician's Elephant

Source: The Magician's Elephant

Life , Beauty

“Dreaming carries no risks. The dangerous thing is trying to transform your dreams into reality.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra

Dreams , Reality

“But love, I've come to understand, is more than three words mumbled before bedtime. Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Wedding

Wilson Lewis, Chapter 4, p. 63
Source: 2000s, The Wedding (2003)

Love , Understanding

“The problem is, hope is the thing that can’t be reined in by rules or pinned down by bitter experience. It’s a blessing and curse.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: Flamecaster

Hope , Problem

“Are these things really better than the things I already have? Or am I just trained to be dissatisfied with what I have now?”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby

Training

“No,' he said, 'memory's a poor thing to have. It's your own real hair and mouth and arms and eyes and hands I want. I didn't know I could ever love anything so much…”

Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass

Source: The Amber Spyglass

Love , Memory

“It was surprising that you could spend hours in the middle of the night pretending things were okay, and know in thirty seconds of daylight that simply wasn't so”

Gillian Flynn book Dark Places

Source: Dark Places

Night

“Some people will tell you werewolves can only shapechange under a full moon, but people also say there's no such things as ghosts.”

Patricia Briggs book Moon Called

Source: Moon Called

People

“Make whatever decision you wish but never forget one thing: all of you are much better than you believed. Take advantage of the chance that tragedy has given you; not everyone is capable of doing so”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Decision , Chance , Forgetting

“Love is sustained by action, a pattern of devotion in the things we do for each other every day.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Wedding

Source: The Wedding

For Wife , Love

“It was the time of year, the time of day, for a small insistent sadness to pass into the texture of things. Dusk, silence, iron chill. Something lonely in the bone.”

Don DeLillo book White Noise

Source: White Noise

Sadness , Silence , Time

“If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Life , Personality

“Always remember that the most important thing in a good marriage is not happiness, but stability.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

Marriage , Happiness

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness”

John Keats Endymion

Bk. I, l. 1
Endymion (1818)
Context: A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Beauty , Beauty , Joy