Quotes about thing
page 80

“Love is the easiest thing there is. It's the layers of doubt, fear, and expectation that make it complicated.”

Luanne Rice (1955) American author

Source: Beach Girls

Love, Fear

“Is this some manly bonding thing I can't be a part of? Are you getting matching haircuts?”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Parting

“It is not the diamonds or the birds, the people or the potatoes; it is not any of the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done. It is the way love gets done despite every catastrophe.”

Daniel Handler book Adverbs

Source: Adverbs (2006), Truly
Context: If you follow the diamond in my mother's ring from Africa to Germany to California to Arizona to Wisconsin, in the heel of a grandmother, in the beak of a magpie, in the gravel of the path, in someone else's novel, in the center of the earth where the volcanoes are from, you would forget the miracle, the reason diamonds end up in people's fingers in the first place. it is not the diamonds or the birds, the people or the potatoes, it is not any of the nouns. The miracle is the adverbs, the way things are done. It is the way love gets done despite every catastrophe.

Love, People, Way, Bird

“We all wind up drawn to what we're afraid of, drawn to try to find a way to make ourselves safe from a thing by crawling inside of it, by loving it, by becoming it.”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Love, Way

“Being the best was as equal to being in the middle, which was equal to being the worst. All were merely a state of being. It was how a person felt in that state and why they were in that state that was the important thing.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Gift

Personality

“… all things speak, in their way, don't they?”

Shannon Hale The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

Way

“Things go away to return, brightened for the passage”

A.R. Ammons (1926–2001) American poet

Source: Sphere: The Form of a Motion

“Don’t you see?” I said. “He could change every detail, but he couldn’t change her.” “But why?” His obtuseness frustrated me. “Because he was in love with her!” I said. “Because, to him, she was the only thing that was real.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Love, Change

“Everybody has something, that one thing they must do to feel happy. I think this is yours, and I want you to be happy. You don’t have to do it, but it’s here if you choose to come back to it.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

Happiness, Feeling, Thinking

“The tricky thing about mazes is that you don't know if you've chosen the right path until the very end. If it turns out you were wrong, it's usually too late to go back and start again. That's the problem with mazes.”

Haruki Murakami book The Strange Library

Source: The Strange Library

Problem

“Sometimes no length of string is long enough to say the thing that needs to be said. In such cases all the string can do, in whatever its form, is conduct a person's silence.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Silence, Personality

“I never said most of the things I said.”

Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American baseball player, manager, coach

“The thing’s hollow—it goes on forever—and—oh my God!”

Arthur C. Clarke book 2001: A Space Odyssey

Source: 2001: A Space Odyssey

God

“I must be overtired', Buttercup managed. 'The excitement and all.'
'Rest then', her mother cautioned. 'Terrible things can happen when you're overtired. I was overtired the night your father proposed.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Night

“College is the best thing that can ever happen to you," my father used to say, and he was right, for it was there that I discovered drugs, drinking, and smoking..”

David Sedaris Naked

Source: Naked

Drink

“Freedom isn't just about voting and marrying and kissing on the street, although all of these things are important. Freedom is also about what you will allow yourself to do.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

Kiss, Freedom

“The thing that's between us is fascination, and the fascination resides in our being alike. Whether you're a man or a woman, the fascination resides in finding out that we're alike.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

“Leave it to a man to mess things up”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Between the Lines

“Everybody told me this 'girl on the piano' thing was never going to work.”

Tori Amos (1963) American singer

Girl

“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”

Anatole France (1844–1924) French writer

Si 50 millions de personnes disent une bêtise, c'est quand même une bêtise. As quoted in Listening and Speaking : A Guide to Effective Oral Communication https://books.google.com/books?redir_esc=y&hl=es&id=0CcWYwjwyRgC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=foolish (1954) by Ralph G. Nichols and Thomas R. Lewis, p. 74 Also misattributed to Bertrand Russell, by Laurence J. Peter, in The Peter Prescription : How To Make Things Go Right (1976), but he subsequently attributed to France in Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977). Derived variant: If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie. W. Somerset Maugham, A Writer's Notebook (1949), entry for 1901 Variant: If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

People

“Neither worse then or better is a thing made by being praised.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

“You have to accept that sometimes that's how things happen in this world. People's opinions, their feelings, they go one way, then the other. It just so happens you grew up at a certain point in this process.”

Kazuo Ishiguro book Never Let Me Go

Source: Never Let Me Go

People, World, Way, Feeling

“The worth of things can't be measured by what they cost but by what the cost you to get it, that if anything costs you your faith or your family, then the price is too high, and that there are some things that will never wear out.”

Bob Dylan book Chronicles: Volume One

Source: Chronicles: Volume One

Family, Faith

“There should be a place where only the things you want to happen, happen”

Maurice Sendak book Where the Wild Things Are

Source: Where the Wild Things Are

“Shopping is actually very similar to farming a field. You can't keep buying the same thing, you have to have a bit of variety. Otherwise you get bored and stop enjoying yourself.”

Sophie Kinsella book The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic

Source: Confessions of a Shopaholic

“As Dostoevski said: 'Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.”

Dorothy Day (1897–1980) Social activist

Love, Dreams

“I am that last, that
final thing, the body
in a white sheet listening”

Li-Young Lee (1957) American writer

“You can't go around… licking things that come out of a water treatment plant. That's just… unsanitary.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Black Dawn

Water

“Theoretically the planet could suddenly crack in half, leaving me on one side and you on the other side, forever and tragically parted, but I’m not worried about that, either. Some things,” Jace said”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Parting

“Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to talk French. One of the things which Gertrude Butterwick had impressed on Monty Bodkin when he left for his holiday on the Riviera was that he must be sure to practise his French, and Gertrude’s word was law. So now, though he knew that it was going to make his nose tickle, he said:
‘Er, garçon.’
‘M’sieur?’
‘Er, garçon, esker-vous avez un spot de l’encre et une piece de papier—note papier, vous savez—et une envelope et une plume.’
The strain was too great. Monty relapsed into his native tongue.
‘I want to write a letter,’ he said. And having, like all lovers, rather a tendency to share his romance with the world, he would probably have added ‘to the sweetest girl on earth’, had not the waiter already bounded off like a retriever, to return a few moments later with the fixings.
‘V’la, sir! Zere you are, sir,’ said the waiter. He was engaged to a girl in Paris who had told him that when on the Riviera he must be sure to practise his English. ‘Eenk—pin—pipper—enveloppe—and a liddle bit of bloddin-pipper.’
‘Oh, merci,’ said Monty, well pleased at this efficiency. ‘Thanks. Right-ho.’
‘Right-ho, m’sieur,’ said the waiter.”

P.G. Wodehouse book The Luck of the Bodkins

Source: The Luck of the Bodkins (1935)

World, Law, Girl, Lovers

“Sometimes life has a cruel sense of humor, giving you the thing you always wanted at the worst time possible.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Sugar Daddy

Life, Sense, Time, Heartbreaking

“it is a serious thing // just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: Red Bird

World, Good Morning

“They say when you're about to die, you see your entire life flash before your eyes.
They lied.
The only thing Nick Gautier could see flashing was Kyrian Hunter's vampire fangs.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

Life

“If things go badly for me tonight, I want you to stay with Mr. Wynter; he will pay you a decent wage.”

“Will he make me bathe?”

“No, he will debate the matter with you until you decide to wash.”

“Ah. One of those.”

Eoin Colfer book Airman

Source: Airman

“Things refuse to be mismanaged for long.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“No. This is right. I feel it. I am the Catalyst, and I came to change all things. Prophets become warriors, dragons hunt as wolves.
Fitz in Assassin's Quest”

Robin Hobb book Assassin's Quest

Source: Assassin's Quest

Feeling, Change

“Men all do about the same thing when they wake up.”

John Steinbeck book Cannery Row

Source: Cannery Row

Men

“I don't want to hear any words like that while I'm here. Scout, you'll get in trouble if you go around saying things like that. You want to grow up to be a lady, don't you?'

I said not particularly.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

Scouting

“A man thinks that by mouthing hard words he understands hard things.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Understanding, Thinking

“And the things you can’t remember tell the things you can forget, that history puts a saint in every dream.”

Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor

"Time", Rain Dogs (1985).

Dreams, History, Forgetting

“Punch a man on the nose, kick an old man downstairs, shoot somebody or any old thing like that, that’s my job. But argue with women in love—no thank you!”

Mikhail Bulgakov book The Master and Margarita

Source: The Master and Margarita

Love, Women

“I'm gonna be percy Jackson when I grow up," she told Hazel solemnly.
Hazel Smiled and ruffled her hair. "That's a good thing to be, Julia."
"Although," Frank said. "Frank Zhang would be good too.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

Smile

“He gave her an indulgent look. "I'll forgive these rash words for now." She sputtered, "Let's talk about who should be forgiving who."
"Whom," he corrected.
"Shut up! I'm in the right here. Remember all those things you did to me?”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Lothaire

Forgiveness

“Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

People, Thinking, Time, For Team

“Six hundred and forty fish later, the only thing I know is everything you love will die. The first time you meet someone special, you can count on them one day being dead and in the ground.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Survivor

Source: Survivor

Love, Fish, Time, Dead

“But to admire a strong person
and to live under that strong person’s thumb are
two different things.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Strong, Personality

“My dear young cousin, if there's one thing I've learned over the eons, it's that you can't give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Family, Learning, Family

“Listen to me, Cammie. There are things in this life…in this world…There are things that you don’t want to remember.” - Rachel Morgan”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

Life, World

“Pet names are a persistant remnant of childhood, a reminder that life is not always so serious, so formal, so complicated. They are a reminder, too, that one is not all things to all people.”

Jhumpa Lahiri book The Namesake

Source: The Namesake

Life, People, Childhood

“Pain comes at me and I take it, chew it for a few minutes, and spit it back out. It's just not my thing anymore.”

Dave Eggers book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Source: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Pain

“I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it.”

W.C. Fields (1880–1946) actor

Drink, Fish, Water

“… It's hard to make changes. Things get so comfortable and you don't want to move. Maybe it would do you good to be a little uncomfortable for a while, and do something different…”

Danielle Steel book Legacy

Source: Legacy

Change

“Her laughter was a shiny thing, like pewter flung high in the air.”

Pat Conroy book Beach Music

Source: Beach Music

Laughter

“We give all we have, lives, property, safety, skill… we fight, we die, for a simple thing. Only that a man can stand up.”

Esther Forbes book Johnny Tremain

Source: Johnny Tremain

Fight

“Here's the thing about broken hearts. You can always survive them. Always. No matter how deep the hurt, the capacity to heal and move on is even stronger.”

Susan Wiggs (1958) American writer

Source: Summer at Willow Lake

Heart, Hurt

“There are things we want, and things we may have…. Sanity lies in knowing the difference.”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Death's Mistress

“If we do something over and over, it becomes normal. If we see the same thing over and over, it becomes normal.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie We Should All Be Feminists

Source: We Should All Be Feminists

“But if everything was always smooth and perfect, you'd get too used to that, you know? You have to have a little bit of disorganization now and then. Otherwise, you'll never really enjoy it when things go right.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

Perfection

“Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.”

Yogi Berra (1925–2015) American baseball player, manager, coach

Parent

“The first thing which I can record concerning myself is, that I was born. These are wonderful words. This life, to which neither time nor eternity can bring diminution - this everlasting living soul, began. My mind loses itself in these depths.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Life, Soul, Time

“The world is full of good people who do bad things!”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

People, World

“bad things, like good things don't happen any more often than they ought to by chance. the universe has no mind, no feelings, and no personality, so it doesn't do things in order to either hurt or please you. bad things happen because things happen.”

Richard Dawkins book The Magic of Reality

Source: The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True

Feeling, Universe, Chance, Hurt

“There are not a hundred people in America who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions of people who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church — which is, of course, quite a different thing.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Foreword to Radio Replies Vol. 1, (1938) page ix
Variant: There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church.

Hate, People