Quotes about thing
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“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?”

William Golding book Lord of the Flies

Source: Lord of the Flies

Thinking, Parting

“I have always been accused of taking the things I love - football, of course, but also books and records - much too seriously, and I do feel a kind of anger when I hear a bad record, or when someone is lukewarm about a book that means a lot to me.”

Nick Hornby Fever Pitch

Source: Fever Pitch

Love, Books, Feeling, Football

“I’m ALIVE. Thinking about it, noticing it, is new. You do things and don’t watch. Then all of a sudden you look and see what you’re doing and it’s the first time, really.”

Ray Bradbury book Dandelion Wine

Source: Dandelion Wine

Thinking, Time

“So that plan worked out well.'

Skulduggery, your entire plan consisted of, and I quote, "Let's get up close and then see what happens."'

All the same,' he said, 'I think the whole thing worked out rather beautifully.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Playing with Fire

Quotes, Thinking

“It's first owner… well, things didn't turn out too well for her. Her name was Helena.'
Piper let that sink in. "Wait, you mean the Helena? Helena of Troy?'
Annabeth nodded.
"And it's just sitting in your toolshed?”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Waiting

“There doesn't need to be a God for me. There's something in people that's spiritual, that's godlike. I don't feel like doing things just because people say things, but I also don't really know if it's better to just not believe in anything, either.”

Angelina Jolie (1975) American actress, film director, and screenwriter

God, People, Feeling

“Experience is not worth the getting. It's not a thing that happens pleasantly to a passive you--it's a wall that an active you runs up against.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

“How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them.”

Barbara Kingsolver book Prodigal Summer

Source: Prodigal Summer

Love, Life, Business

“Love is finding that the things you like best about yourself are not in you at all, but in the person who completes you”

Orson Scott Card Sarah

Source: Sarah

Love, Personality

“I admit it: above all things, I fear absurdity.”

Salman Rushdie book Midnight's Children

Source: Midnight's Children

Fear

“The other possibility was that there was no right thing to say, that the choice wasn't between right and wrong but between wrong, more wrong, and as wrong as you can get.”

Richard Russo Empire Falls

Source: Empire Falls

“There are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.”

James Baldwin book Nobody Knows My Name

Source: Nobody Knows My Name

People

“I know what it's like when the things you believe make you feel like you're on the outside looking in.”

Jodi Picoult Change of Heart

Source: Change of Heart

Feeling

“Billions of things are going on in this world. You can think about it all you want, but life is still going to keep on happening.”

Michael Singer (1945) American landscape architect

Source: The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself

Life, World, Thinking

“Right now everything looks so strange to me, as if I don't belong here. It's me that's out of place. And the worst thing is that I feel there's somewhere I do belong, but I just can't find it.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: The Awakening

Feeling

“It's okay to accept things from people. It doesn't make you weak or helpless.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

People

“We have two American flags always: one for the rich and one for the poor. When the rich fly it means that things are under control; when the poor fly it means danger, revolution, anarchy.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Flying

“The girl is infectious human waste, and she's confused and afraid to commit to the wrong thing and so she won't commit to anything.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

Girl

“What's important is that a story changes every time you say it out loud. When you put it on paper, it can never change. But the more times you tell it, the more changes will occur. A story is a living thing; it moves and shifts”

Pat Conroy South of Broad

Source: South of Broad

Change, Time

“The only time you seem honest is when you’re insulting someone!”
“The only honest things I can say to you are insults.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Time

“The point is you keep going. You want to. So all the things that make you want to are the point.”

Nick Hornby About a Boy

Source: About a Boy

“There's something else there as well, something entirely her own. An ability to look into the confusing mess of life and see things for what they are.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Life

“Do you remember the things you were worrying about a year ago? How did they work out? Didn't you waste a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them? Didn't most of them turn out all right after all?”

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer

“Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn (1944) American academic

Source: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

Wisdom, Understanding, Time, Patience

“She was not sorry. And if it was the wine telling her that, then she would tell the wine the same thing tomorrow. She was not sorry.”

Mary Balogh (1944) Welsh-Canadian novelist

Source: Slightly Wicked

Wine

“I'm dealing with a lot of scary things. I think you have to react to them. And you either laugh at them or you go insane.”

Jim Butcher book Death Masks

Source: Death Masks

Thinking

“sometimes it’s okay to cheat on things - but don’t ever cheat on people. because once you start, it’s very hard to stop. you find out how easy it is to do.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

People, Cheating

“It's frightening when things you love appear suddenly changed from what you have always known.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Love, Appearance, Change

“That is the freakiest thing that ever happened to me.” I nodded toward the mess. “And if you knew my life, you’d realize just how freaky that is.”

Patricia Briggs book Frost Burned

Source: Frost Burned

Life

“Rain didn't make things messy. People did that all on their own.”

Barbara Delinsky (1945) American writer

Source: The Secret Between Us

People

“Plus her mom was so awesome. She was strict about some things—don’t leave your socks lying around—but so not strict about other things, like calling the cops about my bullet wound.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Lying, Moms

“The great thing about fiction is that you can start off by telling the truth, then start making stuff up like crazy whenever you feel like it.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Truth, Feeling

“This earthly life is a battle,' said Ma. 'If it isn't one thing to contend with, it's another. It always has been so, and it always will be. The sooner you make up your mind to that, the better off you are, and more thankful for your pleasures.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder book Little Town on the Prairie

Source: Little Town on the Prairie

Life, Pleasure

“There is no such thing as a weird human being. It's just that some people require more understanding than others.”

Tom Robbins book Another Roadside Attraction

Another Roadside Attraction (1971)

People, Understanding

“Life, Enza decided, is not about what you get, but what is taken from you. It's in the things we lose that we discover what we most treasure.”

Adriana Trigiani (1970) American film director

Source: The Shoemaker's Wife

Life

“Friendship is something in the soul. It is a thing one feels. It is not a return for something.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

Source: The Heart of the Matter

Friendship, Feeling, Soul

“Courage, like so many other things, was not something one did or didn't have; it was a decision, a choice.”

Linda Lael Miller (1949) American writer

Source: The Creed Legacy

Courage, Decision

“Is that it?”
“No. That’s a wall.”
“It could be disguised.”
“You’re not very good at looking for things, are you?”
“I’m good at looking for walls. Look, I found another one.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Kingdom of the Wicked

“Things are sweeter when they're lost. I know--because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it it turned to dust in my hand.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned

Source: The Beautiful and Damned

“I don't want to care. If I care about things, it'll just be worse, it'll just be another thing to worry about. It's less painful if I don't care.”

Bret Easton Ellis book Less Than Zero

Source: Less Than Zero

Pain, Sad

“And the Earth had no name. The gods know themselves and have no need of names. It is man who names all things, even gods.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Thief

Source: The Thief

God

“But there was one other thing that the grown-ups also knew, and it was this: that however small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.”

Roald Dahl book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Chance

“Though there are things beyond our understanding, for the most part we are the architects of our own unhappiness.”

Yasmina Khadra book What the Day Owes the Night

Source: Ce que le jour doit à la nuit

Understanding, Parting

“I thought of the things that had happened to me over the years, and of how little I had made happen.”

Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

“One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline…. But also every single day a kid needs a break.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Children

“A jewel's just a rock put under enourmous heat and pressure. Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

People, Thinking

“Do things that make you happy within the confines of the legal system.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

Happiness

“Instinct is a marvelous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored.”

Agatha Christie book The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Source: The Mysterious Affair at Styles

“Swans sing before they die— 't were no bad thing
Should certain persons die before they sing.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

Singing, Personality

“It was the heaviest thing I'd ever felt, as if I were being crushed under a thousand trucks. I wanted to black out from the pain, but I breathed deeply.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Pain

“There are worse things than a lie and there are better things than the truth!”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

Truth, Lie

“Anger can keep you warm at night, and wounded pride can spur a man to wondrous things.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Anger, Night

“Underground. Which I hate. Like mines and tunnels and 13. Underground, where I dread dying, which is stupid because even if I die aboveground, the next thing they'll do is bury me underground anyway.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Hate, Stupidity

“As long as you do things for God, you are a Hall of Famer in heaven's list.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

God, Faith

“Go and get your things,' he said. 'Dreams mean work.”

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

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Dreams, Back To Work

“I remember you saying that growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change. I guess that means I've grown up now…”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Variant: I've screwed everything up royally. I remember you saying that growing up happens when you start having things you look back on and wish you could change.
Source: City of Ashes

Change

“Do the right thing by whoever crosses your path. Those coincidental people are your people.”

Maxine Hong Kingston book Tripmaster Monkey

Source: Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book

People

“There is, though, nothing that prepares us for the worst things in our life. There is nothing you can do to stop the shock, or buffer the pain.”

James Frey book The Final Testament of the Holy Bible

Source: The Final Testament of the Holy Bible

Life, Pain

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.”

Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) Jewish diarist

“The first thing you have to know about writing is that it is something you must do everyday. There are two reasons for this rule: Getting the work done and connecting with your unconscious mind.”

Walter Mosley (1952) American writer

“This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Variant: And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.
Source: East of Eden (1952)
Context: And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about.
Context: Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in art, in music, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.
And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning blows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken.
And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for it is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost.

World, Freedom, Fight

“I began to learn the importance of lifting things up and looking underneath.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Secret Life of Prince Charming

Learning

“Wars are often waged not because of what we believe, but because of the things we want others to believe.”

Neal Shusterman book Everfound

Source: Everfound

War

“Out here, you find out that the city fools you about how things really work.”

Scott Westerfeld book Uglies

Source: Uglies

Fools

“There were a thousand secrets in her eyes, a thousand wounds. A lifetime of distrust and betrayal. Isolation. How did one overcome such things?”

Christine Feehan book Mind Game

Source: Mind Game

Secret, Betrayal

“And I said to myself that he was the first thing that I had ever missed in my life.”

Charles Bukowski book Hollywood

Source: Hollywood

Life

“The saddest thing about love, Joe, is that not only the love cannot last forever, but even the heartbreak is soon forgotten.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Love, Heartbreaking

“There is only one good thing in life, and that is love. And how you misunderstand it! how you spoil it! You treat it as something solemn like a sacrament, or something to be bought, like a dress.”

Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer

"The Love of Long Ago"

Love, Life

“Waiting and hoping is a hard thing to do when you've already been waiting and hoping for almost as long as you can bear it.”

Jenny Nimmo (1944) British author of children's books

Source: Charlie Bone and the Time Twister

Hope, Waiting

“Dad," I said hesitantly, "I wish you could be there for me even when I'm doing the wrong thing. I wish you could love me even when I'm screwing up.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Blue-Eyed Devil

Love

“Interestingly, according to modern astronomers, space is finite. This is a very comforting thought — particularly for people who can never remember where they have left things.”

Woody Allen book Side Effects

"The UFO Menace".
Side Effects (1980)

People

“Only the strongest are put through the fire,' Josiah said. 'And the forge creates things of great strength and beauty.'
'Then I shall be truly glorious by the time my tenure ends.”

Sharon Shinn book Archangel

Source: Archangel

Beauty, Time

“So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Variant: So many things are possible as long as you don't know they're impossible.
Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

“If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person. It's how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

Learning, Personality, Life

“There is no such thing as a perfect drawing, especially if you're ametur.”

Mark Crilley (1966) Comic artist

Source: Miki Falls, Volume 3: Autumn

Drawing, Perfection

“We always live at the time we live and not at some other time, and only by extracting at each present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same thing in the future.”

John Dewey book Experience and Education

Source: Experience and Education

Time, Future

“The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

“Absolutely not. I'm an expert in procrastination, but the last thing I want you to think is that I'm incompetent, too. Because I'm actually pretty good at what I do." -Jo”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Thinking

“So is it just human nature to believe that things happen for a reason - to find some shred of meaning even in the worst experiences?”

Christina Baker Kline (1964) American writer

Source: Orphan Train

Nature

“On a night without moon or stars you can't see a thing, but you can imagine anything.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Imagination, Star, Night

“Even If you're doing the same thing over & over, U need to discover something new, fantastic & unbelievable that went unnoticed the time before.”

Paulo Coelho book The Winner Stands Alone

Source: The Winner Stands Alone

Time

“His books were the closest thing he had to furniture and he lived in them the way other men live in easy chairs.”

Laura Hillenbrand book Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Source: Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Men, Books, Way

“In the Kamigata area, they have a sort of tiered lunchbox they use for a single day when flower viewing. Upon returning, they throw them away, trampling them underfoot. The end is important in all things.”

Tsunetomo Yamamoto book Hagakure

Source: Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

Flowers

“Mini-Hedge would stomp around on Buford’s top, randomly saying things like “CUT THAT OUT!” “I’M GONNA KILL YOU!” and the ever-popular “PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Clothes

“I grasped two things: I wasn't as happy as I could be, and my life wasnt going to change unless I made it change.”

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

Life, Happiness, Change