Quotes about thing
page 76

“I wondered again why the right thing always seemed to be met with so much resistance, when you'd think it would be the easier path. You had to fight to be virtuous…”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Someone Like You (1998)

Thinking, Fight

“I need you like - like light. You're light, all right - like a flame to a moth. I told you once that you shouldn't mess with forbidden things - I should have taken my own advice.”

L.J. Smith The Forbidden Game

Source: The Forbidden Game

Light

“Ever dumb thing I ever done in my life there was a decision I made before that got me into it. It was never the dumb thing. It was always some choice I'd made before it.”

Cormac McCarthy book All the Pretty Horses

Source: All the Pretty Horses

Life, Decision

“Sometimes it’s like people are a million times more beautiful to you in your mind. It’s like you see them through a special lens — but maybe if it’s how you see them, that’s how they really are. It’s like the whole tree falling in the forest thing.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: The Summer I Turned Pretty

People, Beauty, Tree, Time

“There are so many ways to go wrong. All we've got are metaphors, and they're never exactly right. You can never just Say. The. Thing.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Way

“What," I said, "is that a crime here or something? Like only buying one thing at the Gas/Gro?”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

“If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

“… no one can do a thing about feelings, they exist and there's no way to censor them. We can reproach ourselves for some action, for a remark, but not for a feeling, quite simply because we have no control at all over it.”

Milan Kundera book Identity

Source: Identity

Way, Feeling

“God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Source: A Wrinkle in Time

God, World

“Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you’re good, bad things can still happen. And if you’re bad, you can still be lucky.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Life, Mathematics, Problem

“The most irritating thing about cliches, I decided, was how frequently they were true.”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

“There is no such thing as unlimited trust. At some point, all beings with free will can, and will, betray you when you're no longer pursuing the same goals.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Unknown

“Nothing quite has reality for me till I write it all down--revising and embellishing as I go. I'm always waiting for things to be over so I can get home and commit them to paper.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Home, Reality, Waiting

“Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see possibilities -- always see them, for they're always there.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

“Sweet is the lore which nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Misshapes the beauteous forms of things;
—We murder to dissect.”

William Wordsworth book Lyrical Ballads

Source: Lyrical Ballads

Nature

“A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked, don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. You go naked until you die”

Nikki Giovanni (1943) American writer and academic

People

“I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Hate, People, Imagination, Girl

“The trouble with organizing a thing is that pretty soon folks get to paying more attention to the organization than to what they're organized for.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

“We're already separated that's official but there's still a window of hope left open that perhaps someday we could give things another try.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Hope

“The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea

Source: Gift from the Sea (1955), Ch. 2; part of this statement has often been paraphrased: "The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere."
Context: I find I am shedding hypocrisy in human relationships. What a rest that will be! The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. I have shed my mask.

Life

“There is not a fragment in all nature, for every relative fragment of one thing is a full harmonious unit in itself.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

Source: A Thousand-Mile Walk To the Gulf, 1916, chapter 7: A Sojourn in Cubapage 168, omits the "all". This is a typo: see 1916 edition page 164
Source: The Wilderness World of John Muir

Nature

“We really wanted to know all the unknowable things about each other and how we were the same and how we were different, if we even were, maybe nobody is.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

“The only thing more unthinkable than leaving was staying; the only thing more impossible than staying was leaving.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

“I liked things better when I didn't understand them.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Understanding

“Women know things that men will never know. We keep the best secrets. We tell the best stories.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Incantation

Women, Men, Secret

“That’s the thing about spies. Most of the secrets we keep are from each other.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: United We Spy

Secret

“Percy, lesser beings do many horrible things in the name of the gods. That does not mean we gods approve. The way our sons and daughters act in our names… well, it usually says more about THEM than it does about us.”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

God, Way, Daughters

“Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.”

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

Faith, Hope, Faith

“If it's the lack of forbidden you're worried about. You could still forbid me to do things."
"What kind of things?"
She felt him smile against her mouth. "Things like this.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Smile

“Sometimes, you get things right the first time. Others, the second. But the third time, they say, is the charm.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Time

“The nicest thing about the rain is that it always stops. Eventually.”

A.A. Milne (1882–1956) British author

“The greatest thing is to have someone who loves you and—and to love in return.”

Winston Graham (1908–2003) British writer

Source: Ross Poldark

Love

“I have no enemies. I dont permit such a thing.”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men

“For there are two possible reactions to social ostracism - either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. The last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma.”

John Steinbeck book Cannery Row

Source: Cannery Row

World

“The thing to do when one feels sure that he has said or done the right thing and is condemned, is to stand still and keep quiet. If he is right, time will show it.”

Booker T. Washington book Up from Slavery

Source: Up from Slavery

Feeling, Time

“Texting, even browsing the Internet - all these things can attract monsters.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

“Acceptance means no complaining, and happiness means no complaining about the things over which you can do nothing.”

Wayne W. Dyer book Your Erroneous Zones

Source: Your Erroneous Zones

Happiness

“1lb beefstak, with
1pt bitter beer
every 6 hours.
1 ten-mile walk every morning.
1 bed at 11 sharp every night.
And don't stuff your head with things you don't understand.”

Jerome K. Jerome book Three Men in a Boat

Source: Three Men in a Boat

Beer, Understanding, Night

“… yelling doesn't make a thing any more possible.”

Angie Sage book Queste

Source: Queste

“I've learned that it doesn't matter how your husband squeezes the toothpaste, the important thing is how he squeezes you.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940) American writer

Learning

“… if you expect people to try to do things your way, you're going to have to give some hints as to what that way is.”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

Source: Water for Elephants

People, Way

“The most dangerous thing about an academic education is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract thinking instead of simply paying attention to what’s going on in front of me.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Source: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

Education, Thinking

“… he did not want me to seek the whys, because there are some things that happen for which we can formulate no whys, for which whys simply do not exist and, perhaps, are not necessary.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Purple Hibiscus

Source: Purple Hibiscus

“Every poem holds the unspeakable inside it. The unsayable… The thing that you can't really say because it's too complicated. It's too complex for us. Every poem has that silence deep in the center of it.”

Marie Howe (1950) American writer

Silence

“I'm in a constant process of thinking about things.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

Thinking

“Interesting things did seem to happen, but always to somebody else.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Howl's Moving Castle

Source: Howl's Moving Castle

“Nico di Angelo has warned them: the House of Hades would stir their worst memories, make them see things and hear things from the past Their ghosts would become restless.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Memory, Past, Housing

“Luxury is not a necessity to me, but beautiful and good things are.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Beauty

“If things don’t seem right, try going left.” – Chloe Traeger”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: Head Over Heels

“Henceforth I will look upon all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars.”

Og Mandino book The Greatest Salesman in the World

Source: The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968), Ch. 9 : The Scroll Marked II, p. 59.
Context: Henceforth I will look upon all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness because it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness because it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards because they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles because they are my challenge.
I will greet this day with love in my heart.

Love, Way, Star, Light

“Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

“You don't have to do this."
"I think I do," Julian said. "I remember making a vow to that affect."
"Whither thou goest, i will go, whatever stupid thing you do, i shall do also'." Emma said. "Was that the vow?”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Stupidity, Thinking

“Interesting things happen in the dark…sometimes.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

“The only thing that gets me high is the musky scent of my enemy's fear”

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

Fear

“I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damn things.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

"The Little Hours" in Here Lies (1939)
Source: Here Lies: The Collected Stories of Dorothy Parker

Beauty

“Blay was the closest thing to an angel Qhuinn had ever come near.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Enshrined

Angels

“Knowledge, like all things, is best in moderation," intoned the Will. "Knowing everything means you don't need to think, and that is very dangerous.”

Garth Nix book Lady Friday

Source: Lady Friday

Knowledge, Thinking

“A baby has brains, but it doesn't know much. Experience is the only thing that brings knowledge, and the longer you are on earth the more experience you are sure to get.”

L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Source: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Knowledge, Baby

“What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get in the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that's not true at all. The real world is a much darker and deeper place than this, and much of it is occupied by jellyfish and things.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

World, Thinking, Parting

“As it was, things went from bad to worse, as they often will when amateurs are involved in an activity that they perform in bad temper – or in a hurry.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany

“There is a comfort in the strength of love; 'Twill make a thing endurable, which else would overset the brain, or break the heart.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Love, Heart

“If we seek something, that same thing is seeking us.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Source: Aleph

“It's a good thing you and your pills weren't around a few hundred years ago or there never would have been a Vermeer or a Caravaggio. You'd have drugged "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "The Taking of Christ" right the hell out of them.”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

Girl, Hell, Christ

“No great thing is created suddenly.”

Stephen King book Doctor Sleep

Source: Doctor Sleep

“… One thing you learn when you've lived as long as I have-people aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I'm pleased to be in the light.”

Neal Shusterman book Unwind

Variant: One thing yo learn when you've lived as long as I have-people aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I'm pleased to be in the light.
Source: Unwind

People, Light, Learning

“A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist