Quotes about thing
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“We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Art

“And hope is like love… a ridiculous, wonderful, powerful thing.”

Kate DiCamillo book The Tale of Despereaux

Source: The Tale of Despereaux (2004)

Love, Hope

“I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

World, Beauty, Beauty, Depressing

“She wasn't a person to whom things happen. She did all the happenings.”

Muriel Spark book Aiding and Abetting

Source: Aiding and Abetting

Personality

“To educate the peasantry, three things are needed: schools, schools and schools.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Education, School

“There is no such thing as an evil genius, as evil in it's self is stupidity.”

David Farland (1957) American writer

Source: The Wizard of Ooze

Stupidity, Evil

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

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

Attitude

“Not everything in life can be interpreted metaphorically; that's because things fall out on the way.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

Life, Way

“I don't go in for being sorry for people. For one thing it's insulting. One is only sorry for people if they are sorry for themselves. Self-pity is the biggest stumbling block in our world today.

~Jessop”

Agatha Christie book Destination Unknown

Source: Destination Unknown

People, World

“I’ll take your bet,” he said grimly. “I’m going to win it. And in three months, I’m going to put this back on your finger, and take you to bed, and do things to you that are outlawed in the civilized world.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Devil in Winter

World

“There is no such thing as a hopeless situation. Every single circumstances of your life can change!”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Life, Change

“…the death of my mother was the thing that made me believe the most deeply in my safety: nothing bad could happen to me, I thought. The worst thing already had.”

Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Death

“A thing of nature.
For every Push, there is a Pull. A consequence.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Hero of Ages

Nature

“You only have control over three things in your life-the thoughts you think, the images you visualise, & the actions you take.”

Jack Canfield (1944) American writer

Life, Thinking

“I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out in the end.'In the end'? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.”

Alan Moore book Watchmen

Source: Watchmen

“They think that intelligence is about noticing things are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns)”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (1960) Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader and risk analyst

World, Intelligence, Thinking, Falseness

“Probably the closest things to perfection are the huge absolutely empty holes that astronomers have recently discovered in space. If there's nothing there, how can anything go wrong?”

Richard Brautigan book An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey

Page 15
An Unfortunate Woman: A Journey

Perfection

“Getting fired,’ Tyler says, ‘is the best thing that could happen to any of us. That way, we’d quit treading water and do something with our lives.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Way, Water

“Highs and lows make you feel that things matter, but they're nothing." "So what's something?" "Being reliable is something. Being good.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

William Black talking with Oskar
"A Simple Solution to an Impossible Problem" (p. 297)
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005)
Context: "It's easy to be emotional. You can always make a scene... Highs and lows make you feel that things matter, but they're nothing." "So what's something?" "Being reliable is something. Being good."

Feeling

“I grunted. “She’s not a delicate princess,” I said. “She’s a warrior. Warriors have enemies. Sometimes warriors get hurt.” I felt my jaws clench. “And then their friends even things up.”

Jim Butcher book Skin Game

Source: Skin Game

Hurt, Princess

“The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

New York Times (2 June 1969)

World

“Waiting patiently doesn't suit you. I can see you have a great deal of water in your personality. Water never waits. It changes shape and flows around things, and finds the secret paths no one else has thought about.
[Mameha]”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Secret, Water, Change, Waiting

“It was odd to have something so personal out there in that way, but the good thing about art is that no one necessarily knows what you mean by it anyway.”

Gabrielle Zevin book Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Source: Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

Art, Way, Personality

“Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you.”

Mary Tyler Moore (1936–2017) American actress, television producer

As quoted in The Reader's Digest, Vol. 128 (1986), p. 137; later in Quotable Quotes (1997) by Editors of Reader's Digest

Pain, Courage

“Surprising yourself is a big thing for me—to go somewhere that I don’t even know I’m going.”

Lily Tuck (1938) American writer

“If we don’t allow ourselves to experience joy and love, we will definitely miss out on filling our reservoir with what we need when…. hard things happen.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Love, Joy

“This is exactly what i wanted, as commitments had never really been my thing. And it wasn't like it was hard, either. The only trick was never giving more than you were willing to lose.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

“Keep me preoccupied
Keep me busy, busy, busy
So I won't have to think
I don't want to think
Because it only brings me pain
I just keep running away from
My problems
Keep me busy
Give me a million things to do
So I can keep running away from myself.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Pain, Business, Problem, Thinking

“Looking at him now-even if she hadn't been in love with him, that part of her that was her mother's daugher, that loved every beautiful thing for its beauty alone, would still have wanted him.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Love, Beauty, Parting

“There are things that have to be forgotten if you want to go on living.”

Jim Thompson book The Killer Inside Me

Source: The Killer Inside Me

“I wish they'd had electric guitars in cotton fields back in the good old days. A whole lot of things would've been straightened out.”

Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter

“This is a difference between us: you desire what other people have, while I desire the things I used to have, or think I might have one day.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

People, Thinking

“An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

People, Idea, Thinking

“Men don't get knocked out, or I mean they can fight back against big things. What kills them is erosion; they get nudged into failure. They get slowly scared. […]It's slow. It rots out your guts.”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

Source: The Winter of Our Discontent

Men, Failure, Fight

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

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

“The only thing they had in common was Calypso, and every time Leo thought about that he wanted to punch Percy in the face.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Time

“The only safe thing is to take a chance.”

Elaine May (1932) American screenwriter, film director, actress, and comedian

Chance

“Push it. examine all things intensely and relentlessly.”

Annie Dillard book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Source: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“It would be one thing if I had been cursed so that everyone I loved would die," said Will. "I could keep myself from loving. To keep others from caring for me--it is an odd, exhausting procedure.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Love

“Perhaps to be able to learn things quickly isn't everything. To be kind is worth a great deal to other people… Lots of clever people have done harm and have been wicked.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

People, Learning

“The thing about plummetting downhill at fifty miles an hour on a snack platter - if you realize it's a bad idea when you're halfway down, it's too late.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

Idea

“There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

World

“I suppose that's one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

Life

“Unholy battered old thing you were, my sunflower O my soul, I loved you then!”

Allen Ginsberg book Howl and Other Poems

Source: Howl and Other Poems

Love, Soul

“So many times it seemed like there were chances to stop things before they started. Or even stop them in midstream. But it was even worse when you knew in that very moment that there was still time to save yourself, and yet you couldn't even budge.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Chance, Time

“It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed, is you.”

Eric Roth (1945) American screenwriter

Source: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Screenplay

Feeling, Home, Change

“To lose love is a terrible thing. But to turn away from it is unbearable. Will you spend the rest of your life replaying it in your head? Wondering if you walked away too soon or too easily? Or if you'll ever love anyone that deeply again?”

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: Winter Garden

Love, Life

“As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Source: The Complete Sherlock Holmes

“Love--the most wonderful and most terrible thing in the world.”

Jorge Amado (1912–2001) Brazilian writer

Source: Gabriela, Clavo y Canela

Love, World

“You know what? You didn't do anything wrong. I did. It's this dumb thing I do. I look into things and see more than I'm supposed to.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

“You know that things aren't going well for you when you can't even tell people the simplest fact about your life, just because they'll presume you're asking them to feel sorry for you.”

Nick Hornby (1957) English novelist

Life, People, Feeling

“The most fatal thing a man can do is try to stand alone.”

Carson McCullers book The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Source: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

“There are only three things that America will be remembered for 2000 years from now when they study this civilization: The Constitution, Jazz music, and Baseball. These are the 3 most beautiful things this culture's ever created.”

Gerald Early (1952) American poet

Beauty, Music, Study

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Way, Motivational, Wise, Deep

“I am proud that I defy your categories. I am proud that I don't fit easily into any box. I am proud of all the things I am and all the things i can be. Question yourself every time you think you only see one thing in me.”

David Levithan book Wide Awake

Source: Wide Awake

Question, Thinking, Time, Box

“You'll see some bad things, but if you didn't see them, they'd still be happening.”

Paula Fox The Slave Dancer

Source: The Slave Dancer

“When I got the chance
I asked them a slew of questions.
They offered to burn me;
it was the only thing they knew.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Question, Chance

“I did it to get what I want. Maybe I should regret that, but I can’t. Sometimes you do the bad thing and hope for the good result.”

Holly Black book Black Heart

Source: Black Heart

Hope

“The decent, strong person had to do decent, strong things like love unlovable people and keep peace even when it wasn't easy.”

Mary Connealy (1956) Author

Source: Doctor in Petticoats (Center Point Christian Romance

Love, People, Peace, Strong

“Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones that I did not.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

Forgiveness

“I'm sorry you don't get it, Mom. Sometimes I don't get why I do the things I do. I just know I wake up every morning and wish I was dead.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

Moms, Dead

“I would want things to be different than they were. The wanting was a wilderness and I had to find my own way out of the woods.”

Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Way

“The little things are important, Mr. Wind-Up Bird”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Bird

“I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

Beauty

“I'm apt to get drunk on words… Ontology: the word about the essence of things; the word about being.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Source: A Circle of Quiet

“They are all I have left—the stars and the memory of the many times I wished upon them. But with all those wishes, I asked for only one thing.

To see him again.

But I will not see him again. I do not see him now.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Source: The Starlight Crystal

Star, Memory, Time

“People in pain don’t always see things as clearly as they should”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

Pain, People

“The path I choose through the maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being--one of many ways--and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon

Way, Understanding, Help

“What is wrong with you?
Many, many things.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“Spiritual realization is theoretically the easiest thing and in practice the most difficult thing there is. It is the easiest because it is enough to think of God. It is the most difficult because human nature is forgetfulness of God.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

Source: Spiritual Perspectives And Human Facts

God, Nature, Thinking, Forgetting

“Here is a list of fearful things:
The jaws of sharks, a vulture's wings,
The rabid bite of the dog's of war,
The voice of one who went before.
But most of all the mirror's gaze,
which counts us out our numbered days.”

Clive Barker Days of Magic, Nights of War

Abarat, Book One
Source: Days of Magic, Nights of War

War, Fear, Dogs

“I'm not really sure which parts of myself are real and which parts are things I've gotten from books.”

Beatrice Sparks (1917–2012) American writer

Variant: …I’d have died without them [books]. Even now I’m not really sure which parts of myself are real and which parts are things I’ve gotten from books.
Source: Go Ask Alice

Books, Parting

“It's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Sense

“I shouldn't have done that," I said.

That was when I kissed him again.

May God forgive me for this and all these things I've done.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: All These Things I've Done

God, Forgiveness, Kiss

“Is this one of those keep-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies-closer things?"
"I though it was keep your friends close so you have someone to drive the car when you sneak over to your enemy's house at night and throw up in his mailbox.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Cars, Housing, Night

“if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

“We are all unkind from time to time. We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it's like chasing clouds.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Variant: We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it's like chasing clouds.
Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Change, Time, Parting

“I may be the type who manages to grab all the pointless things in life but lets the really important things slip away.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories

Life

“You have to forget about what other people say, when you're supposed to die, or when you're supposed to be loving. You have to forget about all these things. You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven.”

Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter

Love, People, Forgetting

“Kate's Speciality: Killing things, with much bloodshed. Talking trash, infuriating authority. Driving Beast Lord crazy.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo