Quotes about thing
page 79

“To love with understanding and without understanding. To love blindly, and to folly. To see only what is loveable. To think only of these things. To see the best in everyone around, their virtues rather than their faults. To see Christ in them!”

Dorothy Day (1897–1980) Social activist

Love, Understanding, Thinking, Christ

“What's your hurry?"
Because now is the only time there ever is to do a thing in," said Miss Ophelia.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe book Uncle Tom's Cabin

Source: Uncle Tom's Cabin

Time

“We'd forgive most things if we knew the facts.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

Source: The Heart of the Matter

Forgiveness

“Sometimes the right thing feels all wrong until it is over and done with.”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

Feeling

“History is is filled with brilliant people who wanted to fix things and just made them worse.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 39

People, History

“I was told love should be unconditional. That's the rule, everyone says so. But if love has no boundaries, no limits, no conditions, why should anyone try to do the right thing ever? If I know I am loved no matter what, where is the challenge?”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Love

“My dear, beautiful and imaginative things can be destroyed. Beauty and imagination cannot.”

Alan Moore (1953) English writer primarily known for his work in comic books

Source: Lost Girls, libro 3: Grande y terrible

Beauty, Imagination

“I like that people can just look at you and know that you are taken, that you are mine.” He closed his eyes and laughed. “And yes, I know that sentiment is at the top of the Women’s Liberation Movement’s list of things not to say to a modern woman.”

Patricia Briggs book River Marked

Source: River Marked

Women, People

“You do things and do things and nobody really has a clue.”

John Updike book Rabbit, Run

Source: Rabbit, Run

“Whenever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window.”

Neal Stephenson book Quicksilver

Source: Quicksilver

People, World, Flying

“Do you know that every great thing in the history of art and every beautiful thing in life is actually what you call nasty or has been caused by feelings that you would call nasty? By passion, by love, by hatred, by truth. Do you know that?”

John Fowles book The Collector

Source: The Collector

Love, Life, Truth, Beauty

“Having a baby is painful in order to show how serious a thing life is.”

Lisa See book Shanghai Girls

Source: Shanghai Girls

Life, Pain, Baby

“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Life

“He exhaled loudly and raked a hand through the sable brown hair he always kept stylishly messy. "Look, Rose. You don’t have to keep up with the hard-to-get thing. You’ve already got me.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

“If we have to be cat burglars, I'm going to see what' to steal in the fridge."
We're trying to find evidence she's the poisoner. Just a thought before you start putting random things in your mouth." Ruth shrugged and walked past Val.”

Holly Black (1971) American children's fiction writer

Source: Valiant

Cats, Past

“When things are at their blackest, I say to myself, 'Cheer up, things could be worse.' And sure enough, they get worse.”

Robert Lynn Asprin (1946–2008) American science fiction and fantasy author

“There is no such things as darkness, only a failure to see.”

Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990) English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist

Failure

“Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: Outliers: The Story of Success

“At first, it was hard to sit down and read the things that people were saying. A lot of people would've worked their way up to this position and would've gotten a thick skin over a few years' time. For me, though, all this happened in a few months.”

Carrie Underwood (1983) American country music singer

People, Way, Time, Reading

“I'm going to take off your gag. And if you try to bite me or grab me or anything, I'll hit you with this thing as hard as I can as many times as I can. Understood?”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Time

“All things are true. God's an Astronaut. Oz is Over the Rainbow, and Midian is where the monsters live." - Peloquin”

Clive Barker (1952) author, film director and visual artist

God

“Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way. When it isn't, don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery or simple bad luck.”

Joseph Heller book God Knows

Source: God Knows (1984)

Bad luck, Way

“With a bit of luck, his life was ruined forever. Always thinking that just behind some narrow door in all of his favorite bars, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he’ll never know.”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Life, Men, Thinking

“I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us”

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

Source: The Secret Garden

Sense

“The world's most funniest and easiest thing is to give an advice…”

Chetan Bhagat (1974) Indian author, born 1974

World

“I am the one thing you can never kill. I am Hope.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Hope

“I knew then that Jocelyn would never come back to me, because of you. You are the only thing in the world she ever loved more than she loved me. And because of that she hates me. And because of that, I hate the sight of you”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Love, Hate, World

“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast,
and you miss all you are traveling for.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Travel

“I don't see why human people make such a heavy trip out of sex. It isn't anything complex, it is simply the best thing in life, even better than food.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday

Life, People, Food, Sex

“I know I'm an acquired taste - I'm anchovies. And not everybody wants those hairy little things.”

Tori Amos (1963) American singer

“… and I realized that Garrett was right about one thing- I had flipped.
Completely.”

Wendelin Van Draanen Flipped

Source: Flipped

“Oh, don’t worry. If you didn’t say some stupid things every once in a while, you certainly wouldn’t fit in with this group.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Stupidity

“The nice thing about being a celebrity is that if you bore people they think it's their fault.”

Henry Kissinger (1923–2023) United States Secretary of State

People, Thinking

“What was that?" Jace said. "Sorry, I think I fell asleep for a moment. Do, continue with whatever mesmerizing thing you were saying.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Thinking

“We have become a sloppy bunch of people. We say things we don’t mean. We make promises we don’t keep.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

People

“winners don't do different things, they do things differently”

Shiv Khera (1961) Indian politician

Variant: Winner dont do different but they do differently
Source: You Can Win: A Step by Step Tool for Top Achievers

“To my mind, the only possible pet is a cow. Cows love you. They will listen to your problems and never ask a thing in return. They will be your friends forever. And when you get tired of them, you can kill and eat them. Perfect.”

Bill Bryson (1951) American author

Love, Problem, Perfection

“When I looked at you, my life made sense. Even the bad things made sense. They were necessary to make you possible.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

Life, Sense

“On a sunny Tuesday - for it seems so many awful things happen on a Tuesday - six astronauts and one schoolteacher attempted to pierce the sky. Instead they touched the stars.”

Neal Shusterman book Everwild

Source: Everwild

Star

“the only thing i knew how to do was to keep on keeping on”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Tangled Up In Blue
Variant: The only thing I knew how to do was to keep on keepin' on like a bird that flew...

“I say “Out” to every negative thought that comes to my mind. No person, place, or thing has any power over me, for I am the only thinker in my mind. I create my own reality and everyone in it.”

Louise L. Hay (1926–2017) American writer

Reality, Personality

“There are only two things you can do when you're dressed like Barbie Does Bondage; you can be embarrassed or you can be aggressive. Guess what my choice was.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book The Killing Dance

Source: The Killing Dance

“A common man marvels at uncommon things. A wise man marvels at the commonplace.”

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

“Shopping is a woman thing. It's a contact sport like football. Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

Death, Women, Sport, Football

“Are you sure, Gray?'
He lifted his eyes. 'No… I'm not. I'm not sure of a damn thing.' He slipped his hands free of the monsignor's and peeled the battery off the phone, cutting the last ring in half. 'But that doesn't mean I won't act.”

James Rollins book The Judas Strain

Source: The Judas Strain

“Since all things are God, in all things thou seest just so much of God as thy capacity affordeth thee.”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Source: The Vision and the Voice: With Commentary and Other Papers

God

“He prefers not to ruin things with any more questions. What it is is what it is.”

Markus Zusak (1975) Australian author

Source: I Am the Messenger

Question

“Try a thing you haven't done three times. Once to get over the fear of doing it. Twice to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Fear, Learning, Time

“So this is how a person can come to despise himself-knowing he's doing the wrong thing and not being able to stop.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon

Personality

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Source: Endymion: A Poetic Romance

Beauty, Joy

“Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.”

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German poet, playwright, theatre director

Weil die Dinge sind, wie sie sind, werden die Dinge nicht so bleiben wie sie sind.
As quoted in Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1976) by John Gordon Burke and Ned Kehde, p. 224, also in The Book of Positive Quotations (2007) by John Cook, p. 390

Way

“The thing everyone should realize is that the key to happiness is being happy for yourself and yourself.”

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

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

Happiness, Happy

“That the last two letters in her name were the first two in his, a silly thing he never mentioned to her but caused him to believe that they were bound together.”

Jhumpa Lahiri book Unaccustomed Earth

Source: Unaccustomed Earth

“Things come in three major degrees in the human experience, I think. There's good, bad, and terrible. And as you go down into progressive darkness towards terrible, it gets harder and harder to make subdivisions.”

Stephen King book Different Seasons

Source: Different Seasons

Thinking

“I've found, in my own writing, that a little hatred, keenly directed, is a useful thing.”

Alice Walker book In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose

Source: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose

“If you've ever had that feeling of loneliness, of being an outsider, it never quite leaves you. You can be happy or successful or whatever, but that thing still stays within you.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Happiness, Feeling, Success, Loneliness

“When it comes to God's existence, I'm not an atheist and I'm not an agnostic- I'm an acrostic, the whole thing puzzles me.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Books, Brain Droppings (1997)

God

“Curiosity is the one thing invincible in Nature.”

Freya Stark (1893–1993) British explorer and writer

Nature

“We stigmatize mistakes. And we're now running national educational systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make -- and the result is that we are educating people out of their creative capacities.”

Ken Robinson (1950) UK writer

People, Education

“Why do people want to talk to each other? I mean, what are the things people always want to find out about other people?”

Shirley Jackson book The Haunting of Hill House

Source: The Haunting of Hill House

People

“… and yet isn't it always the inappropriate thing, the thing that doesn't quite work, that's oddly the dearest?”

Donna Tartt book The Goldfinch

Source: The Goldfinch

“As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen (1988)

Suffering

“All the things she planned to feel, the way she planned to look and seem, the appropriate things she planned to say. None of them came to pass.”

Ann Brashares (1967) American children's writer

Way, Feeling

“The world has a soul and whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of many things.”

Paulo Coelho book The Alchemist

Variant: I learned that the world has a soul, and that whoever understands that soul can also understand the language of things.
Source: The Alchemist

World, Soul, Understanding

“What’s your favorite place to visit?” He absently answered, “Wherever you are.”
“Bowen, five things about you can’t all be about me.”
But you’re the only good thing that I’ve got.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Wicked Deeds on a Winter's Night

“If there’s one thing I never do, it’s stop.”

Kristin Hannah book The Nightingale

Source: The Nightingale

“The full cosmos consists of the physical stuffconsciousness. Take away consciousness and it's only dust; add consciousness and you get things, ideas, and time.”

Neal Stephenson book Anathem

Source: Anathem

Idea, Time