Quotes about thing
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“Be present in all things and thankful for all things.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“Things work out the way they're meant to”

Source: No Greater Love

“For a moment the garden, the noise, the stentch of blood and demon, vanished away, and he was alone in a soundless place with only Tessa. He wanted to run to her, wrap her in his arms. Protect her.

But it was Jem's place to do those things, not his.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“Capital Letters Were Always The Best Way Of Dealing With Things You Didn't Have A Good Answer To.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Way

“He had the feeling that everything he saw was a broken-off piece of some giant blank thing that he had forgotten had happened to him.”

Flannery O’Connor book Wise Blood

Source: Wise Blood

Feeling

“Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Knox College commencement address http://www.knox.edu/colbert.xml (3 June 2006) <br class="br">Context: Don’t be afraid to be a fool. Remember, you cannot be both young and wise. Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don’t learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us. Cynics always say no. But saying yes begins things. Saying yes is how things grow. Saying yes leads to knowledge. "Yes" is for young people. So for as long as you have the strength to, say yes.

Wisdom, Peaceful

“There was just a moment when things weren't quite the same, weren't quite as they had always been through the long friendship”

Lois Lowry book The Giver

Source: The Giver

Friendship

“Ender understood more than she said. Manipulation of gravity was one thing; deception by the officers was another; but the most important message was this: the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Truth

“The funny thing about mundies is how obsessed with magic they are for a bunch of people who don't even know what the word means.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

People

“Doing the right thing because you love someone sucks sometimes.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Love

“I don't have to tell you it goes without saying there are some things better left unsaid. I think that speaks for itself. The less said about it the better.”

George Carlin book Brain Droppings

Source: Brain Droppings

Thinking

“Why'd you want to sing about sad things?" Candy had asked him.
"Because any fool can be happy," he'd said to her.
"It takes a man with real heart"
—he'd made a fist and laid it against his chest—
"to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep.”

Clive Barker Days of Magic, Nights of War

Source: Days of Magic, Nights of War

Happiness, Sadness, Beauty, Fools

“When you own nothing, it's easy to let things go.”

Jerry Spinelli book Milkweed

Source: Milkweed

“Back in the time when life was easy, the Internet would have told me what I needed to know. The great thing about the Internet was it didn't care why you were asking.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer (1948) American writer

Source: This World We Live In

Life, Time

“The preface? Why would he waste time with the preface? Skip the preface and move on to the meat of the thing!”

Kenneth Oppel (1967) Canadian children's writer

Source: This Dark Endeavor

Time

“It gets harder all the time, Bev Shaw once said. Harder, yet easier. One gets used to things getting harder; one ceases to be surprised that what used to be hard as hard can be grows harder yet.”

J.M. Coetzee book Disgrace

Source: Disgrace

Time

“The only thing missing in any situation is that in which you are not giving”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

“When I was twelve, a fortune teller told me that my one true love would die young and leave me all alone.. Everyone said she was a fraud, that she was just making it up.. I’d really like to know why the hell a person would make up a thing like that.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: God-Shaped Hole

Love, Hell, Fraud, Personality

“Poetry is not the most important thing in life… I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.”

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Welsh poet and writer

Life, Lie, Reading

“If you give people tools, and they use their natural abilities and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

People, Way, Nature

“I thought about all the things I was suddenly able to do—like fight with a sword and summon a magical shell of armor. Those were not things I covered in home school.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

School, Home, Fight

“We photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds. My stories are a way of shutting my eyes.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

Way

“Something good will come of all things yet”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

“Love can smack you like a seagull, and pour all over your feet like junkmail. You can't be ready for such a thing any more than salt water taffy gets you ready for the ocean.”

Daniel Handler book Adverbs

Source: Adverbs (2006), Collectively

Love, Water

“No one gives up on something until it turns on them, whether or not that thing is real or unreal.”

Thomas Ligotti book Teatro Grottesco

Source: Teatro Grottesco

“Things didn't turn out the way they were supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Variant: Things didn't turn out the way they're supposed to, but what can you do? You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.
Source: Life of Pi

Life, Way

“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

People, Art, Sense, Parting

“I've learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Children, Parent, Learning

“She wondered if she was doomed to be one of those people who spend their lives trying things.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

People

“Memories are small prayers to God, if we believed in that sort of thing.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

God, Memory

“Time wasn't a thing you could divide easily; there was no defined middle or beginning or end. I could pretend to leave the past behind, but it would not leave me.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Time, Past

“Political activism is seductive because it seems to offer the possibility that one can improve society, make things better, without going through the personal ordeal of rearranging one's perceptions and transforming one's self.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker

Personality

“In order not to suffer, you had to renounce love. It was like putting out your own eyes in order not to see the bad things in life.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

Love, Life, Suffering

“Lots of things are mysteries. But that doesn't mean there isn't an answer to them. It's just that scientists haven't found the answer yet.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“You're trying to be tricky. What's morality?"
"It's the difference between what's right and what you can rationalize."
"Must be a human thing."
"Exactly.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

“We all have our la-la-la song. The thing we do when the world isn't singing a nice tune to us. We sing our own nice tune to drown out ugly.”

Rita Williams-Garcia book One Crazy Summer

Source: One Crazy Summer

World, Singing

“There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn’t fool with booze until he’s fifty; then he’s a damn fool if he doesn’t.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Fools

“The thing about mountains is that you have to keep on climbing them, and that it's always hard, but there's a view from top every time when you finally get there.”

Nancy Garden book Annie on My Mind

Source: Annie on My Mind

Mountain, Time

“Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever, he said.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Source: The Road

“.

"Most times, when I'm having sex, I'd rather be reading."
This was, I admit, a strange thing to say on a second date.
I guess I was just giving you a warning.
"Most times when I'm reading," you said, "I'd rather be having sex".”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Sex, Time, Reading

“Things we cannot solve, we must survive.”

Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015) American Mormon leader

“It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, for our consideration and application of these things, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.”

Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic

Letter to H.G. Wells (10 July 1915).

Life, Beauty, Art

“The only thing that makes one an artist is making art. And that requires the precise opposite of hanging out; a deeply lonely and unglamorous task of tolerating oneself long enough to push something out.”

David Rakoff (1964–2012) writer

Source: Half Empty

Art

“Two lost things that had survived the seas and arrived on a coastline. What did they do? They implanted themselves in the sand and grew into trees and lined the beaches. Sometimes a lot can come of being all washed up. You can really grow.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Book of Tomorrow

Tree, Sea

“The journey is the thing.”

Homér Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey

“The simple things come back to us. They rest for a moment by our ribcages then suddenly reach in and twist our hearts a notch backward.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

Heart

“You're probably wondering what's going to happen to you. That's easy. The same thing is going to happen to you that has happened to every other human being who has ever lived. You're going to die. We all die. That's just how it is.”

Ernest Cline book Ready Player One

Source: Ready Player One

“To do that would mean, not merely to be defeated, but to acknowledge defeat- and the difference between these two things is what keeps the world going.”

Upton Sinclair book The Jungle

Source: The Jungle

World

“Were I to fall in love, indeed, it would be a different thing; but I have never been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

Love, Way, Nature, Thinking

“In order to acquire a growing and lasting respect in society, it is a good thing, if you possess great talent, to give, early in your youth, a very hard kick to the right shin of the society that you love. After that, be a snob.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Love, Youth

“Everyone has their weak spot. The one thing that, despite your best efforts, will always bring you to your knees, regardless of how strong you are otherwise.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Effort, Strong

“So many old and lovely things are stored in the world's attic because we don't want them around us and we don't dare throw them out.”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

Source: The Winter of Our Discontent

Love, World

“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Time, Back To Work

“The hardest thing about writing is writing.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

“It's funny, don't you think, how time seems to do a lot of things? It flies, it tells, and worst of all, it runs out.”

Markus Zusak book Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Source: Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Thinking, Time

“How is it that I'd nearly been smothered to death, and yet I could sit there and notice things like my stepbrother's abdominal muscles a few minutes later?”

Meg Cabot book Shadowland

Source: Shadowland

Death

“Observation: I can't see a thing. Conclusion: Dinosaurs.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

“In a calm, clear voice, she suggested that the wyrsa in question could do several highly improbable, athletically difficult and possibly biologically impractical things involving its own mother, a few household implements, and a dead fish.”

Mercedes Lackey (1950) American novelist and short story writer

Source: The Silver Gryphon

Question, Fish, Dead

“I was tired of seeing the Graces always depicted as beautiful young things. I think wisdom comes with age and life and pain. And knowing what matters.”

Louise Penny book A Fatal Grace

Source: A Fatal Grace

Life, Wisdom, Pain, Age

“Most people's problems would be solved if they would only give more things a chance.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

People, Problem, Chance

“The things that go unsaid are often the things that eat at you--whether because you didn't get to have your say, or because the other person never got to hear you and really wanted to.”

Celeste Ng book Everything I Never Told You: A Novel

Source: Everything I Never Told You

Personality

“I once wrestled with an angel. He won, but I learned a few things.”

Arturo Pérez-Reverte (1951) Spanish writer and journalist

Angels, Learning

“All things are possible.”

Libba Bray book Rebel Angels

Source: Rebel Angels

“It is better to look suffering straight in the eye, acknowledge and respect it’s presence, and then get busy as soon as possible focusing on things we choose to focus on.”

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934) Hungarian American psychologist

Business, Suffering

“It is a queer and fantastic world. Why can't people have what they want? The things were all there to content everybody; yet everybody has got the wrong thing. Perhaps you can make head or tail of it; it is beyond me.”

Ford Madox Ford book The Good Soldier

Part Four, Ch. V (pp. 237-238)
Source: The Good Soldier (1915)
Context: It is a queer and fantastic world. Why can't people have what they want? The things were all there to content everybody; yet everybody has got the wrong thing. Perhaps you can make head or tail of it; it is beyond me.
Is there any terrestrial paradise where, amidst the whispering of the olive-leaves, people can be with whom they like and have what they like and take their ease in shadows and in coolness? Or are all men's lives like the lives of us good people — like the lives of the Ashburnhams, of the Dowells, of the Ruffords — broken, tumultuous, agonized, and unromantic lives, periods punctuated by screams, by imbecilities, by deaths, by agonies? Who the devil knows?

People, World

“Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element, like wind or fire. Darkness is its own kingdom; it moves to its own laws, and many living things dwell in it.”

Patricia A. McKillip book Harpist in the Wind

Source: Harpist in the Wind

Law, Night

“The only thing that made me, or any of us, special was that no one in the whole of history would ever see the universe exactly the same way any other of us saw it.”

Grant Morrison (1960) writer

Source: Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human

Way, History, Universe

“The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world all to themselves.”

Roald Dahl The BFG

Source: The BFG

World, Sleep, Night

“As infants, our first victory comes in grasping some bit of the world, usually our mother's fingers. Later we discover that the world, and the things of the world, are grasping us, and have been all along.”

Stephen King book Just After Sunset

Source: Just After Sunset

World, Victory

“We are the Edema Ruh, and the thing we value most every man possesses. You can tell us your story.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

“The world is shaped by two things — stories told and the memories they leave behind.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: Dreams of the Compass Rose

World, Memory

“That was the thing to remember about all monsters, They love to frighten
people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run.”

Jeannette Walls (1960) American writer and journalist

Love, People

“You have to live to really know things, my love”

Dan Simmons book Hyperion

Source: Hyperion

Love

“The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

“My happiness has to come from within myself or it is too fragile a thing to be of any use to me and too much of a burden to benefit any of my loved ones.”

Mary Balogh (1944) Welsh-Canadian novelist

Source: First Comes Marriage

Love, Happiness

“Learning is not the accumulation of knowledge, but rather, one thing only: understanding”

Donna Jo Napoli (1948) American children's writer and linguist

Understanding, Knowledge, Learning

“I don’t know why I ever helped you.”
“Because you like broken things.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Variant: I don't know why I ever helped you."
"You like broken things.
Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Help

“We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can't do without.”

Jerome K. Jerome book Three Men in a Boat

Source: Three Men in a Boat

Thinking

“I spent the afternoon musing on Life. If you come to think of it, what a queer thing Life is! So unlike anything else, don't you know, if you see what I mean.”

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

Life, Thinking

“The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough of is love.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Love

“Breaking things is a specialty of everyone in Fairy Tail”

Hiro Mashima (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Fairy Tail, Vol. 12

“UncondiTional love is a beauTiful Thing. JusT be sure To
give iT after your conditions have been meT :P”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

Love, Beauty

“You are human, you will make mistakes, and it’s one of the most beautiful things about being human, but you must learn from your mistakes, otherwise your life will have a lot of unnecessary pain.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Magic

Source: The Magic

Life, Pain, Beauty, Learning

“The pearls weren't really white, they were a warm oyster beige, with little knots in between so if they broke, you only lost one. I wished my life could be like that, knotted up so that even if something broke, the whole thing wouldn't come apart.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Life

“He pushed her in. And then he pulled her out. All her life, Lydia would remember one thing. All his life, Nath would remember another.”

Celeste Ng book Everything I Never Told You: A Novel

Source: Everything I Never Told You

Life

“And by and by Christopher Robin came to the end of things, and he was silent, and he sat there, looking out over the world, just wishing it wouldn't stop.”

A.A. Milne book The House at Pooh Corner

Source: The House at Pooh Corner

World

“Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women (1868), Ch. 40 : The Valley Of The Shadow
Source: Little Women Book Two Book: Good Wives

Love

“To the people who are upset about their hard-earned tax money going to things they don’t like: welcome to the f*cking club. Reimburse me for the Iraq war and oil subsidies, and diaphragms are on me!”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Money, War, People

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Variant: The more that you read,
The more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
The more places you’ll go.
Source: I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (1978)

Learning, Reading

“There comes a time in every life when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your heart.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Life, World, Time, Heart