Quotes about thing
page 85

“Boredom can be a lethal thing on a small island.”

Christopher Moore book Island of the Sequined Love Nun

Source: Island of the Sequined Love Nun

“It's a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

“Can you keep secrets? Can you know a thing and never say it again?”

Dan Brown book The Da Vinci Code

Source: The Da Vinci Code

Secret

“There is not a thing as the wrong place, or the wrong time. We are where we are at the only time we have. Perhaps it's where we're meant to be.”

Shashi Tharoor (1956) Indian politician, diplomat, author

Source: Riot

Time

“Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Source: Wilfrid Cumbermede

“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.”

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

Wisdom

“Every thing in this world exist to wear you down”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach, Volume 21

World

“Words are good for saying what things are, but sometimes they don't function for what things aren't.”

Colum McCann book Let the Great World Spin

Source: Let the Great World Spin

“The British nation is unique in this respect: they are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Speech in the House of Commons, June 10, 1941 "Defence of Crete" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1941/jun/10/defence-of-crete#column_152, in The Churchill War Papers : 1941 (1993), Churchill/Gilbert, Norton, p. 785 <br class="br">The Second World War (1939–1945) <br class="br">Context: I must point out … that the British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst, and like to be told that they are very likely to get much worse in the future and must prepare themselves for further reverses.

People

“Don't ask me any questions. I've seen how things that seek their way find their void instead.”

Federico García Lorca Poet in New York

Source: Poet in New York

Way, Question

“Love - true love - is a precious thing. It is painful, uncomfortable, makes fools of us all, but it is what breathes meaning and color and purpose into our lives.”

Kate Mosse book Sepulchre

Source: Sepulchre

Love, Pain, Fools, Color

“I never say the things I really want to. If I did, I'd have no friends.”

Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host

Source: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

“The next best thing to talking to her is talking about her.”

Graham Greene book The End of the Affair

Source: The End of the Affair

“Nothing good came free. Even love. You paid for all things. And if you were poor, suffering was your currency.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

Love, Suffering

“The present is the only things that has no end.”

Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist

“Redemption, transformation--God how she wanted these things. Every day, every minute. Didn't everyone?”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

God

“Maybe it's good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Thinking

“You wanted to think of yourself as someone who did these kinds of things.
                 You wanted to be in love
                             and he happened to get in the way.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Source: Crush

Love, Way, Thinking

“Time was such an odd thing. One moment you could talk to someone, then suddenly, they were gone.”

Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer

Source: Raven's Strike

Time

“We never choose anything at all. Things happen. Or not.”

Haruki Murakami book The Elephant Vanishes

Source: The Elephant Vanishes

“there is only one thing on my body that's ten inches long, and if you'll recall, the scar is no' it.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: If You Deceive

“There are so many things to be tortured about, sweet pea. So many torturous things in this life. Don't let the man who doesn't love you be one of them.”

Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Variant: There are so many torturous things in this life. Don't let a man who doesn't love you be one of them.
Source: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Love, Life

“You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship. Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

Love, Money, Sense

“Remember this. Hold on to this. This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others. This is the only thing we can do that has any lasting meaning. This is why we're here. To make each other feel safe.”

Andre Agassi book Open. An Autobiography

Source: Open

Feeling, Help, Perfection

“I don't need to kill goats to say things. I CAN talk.”

L.J. Smith book Daughters of Darkness

Source: Daughters of Darkness

“God put me on earth to accomplish certain things. Right now, I’m so far behind, I’ll never die.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

God

“To make great art, you had to expose your soul, and some things should be left safely in the dark.”

Patricia Briggs book Hunting Ground

Source: Hunting Ground

Art, Soul

“The shape of my life is, of course, determined by many things; my background and childhood, my mind and its education, my conscience and its pressures, my heart and its desires.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh book Gift from the Sea

Source: Gift from the Sea (1955)
Context: The shape of my life is, of course, determined by many other things; my background and childhood, my mind and its education, my conscience and its pressures, my heart and its desires. I want to give and take from my children and husband, to share with friends and community, to carry out my obligations to man and to the world, as a woman, as an artist, as a citizen.
But I want first of all — in fact, as an end to these other desires — to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact — to borrow from the languages of the saints — to live "in grace" as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony.
Context: The shape of my life today starts with a family. I have a husband, five children and a home just beyond the suburbs of New York. I have also a craft, writing, and therefore work I want to pursue. The shape of my life is, of course, determined by many other things; my background and childhood, my mind and its education, my conscience and its pressures, my heart and its desires. I want to give and take from my children and husband, to share with friends and community, to carry out my obligations to man and to the world, as a woman, as an artist, as a citizen.
But I want first of all — in fact, as an end to these other desires — to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact — to borrow from the languages of the saints — to live "in grace" as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony. I am seeking perhaps what Socrates asked for in the prayer from Phaedrus when he said, "May the outward and the inward man be at one." I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.

Life, Education, Heart, Childhood

“Maybe when we die, the first thing we’ll say is, 'I know this feeling. I was here before.”

Don DeLillo book White Noise

Source: White Noise

Feeling

“when you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”

A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh

Source: The House at Pooh Corner (1928), Chapter Six - "In which Pooh invents a new game and Eeyore joins in".
Source: Winnie-the-Pooh

People, Thinking

“It's always the people who don't want things who get them.”

Candace Bushnell book One Fifth Avenue

Source: One Fifth Avenue

People

“as I said, I believe in fate. Things happen as they are meant to be. We just have to recognize our destiny.”

Edward Rutherfurd (1948) British writer

Source: Russka: the Novel of Russia

Fate

“How unladylike of you to mention such a thing.”

Melina Marchetta Finnikin of the Rock

Source: Finnikin of the Rock

“There is nothing to make you like other human beings so much as doing things for them.”

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) American folklorist, novelist, short story writer

“I love to do the things the censors won't pass.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Variant: I love to do the things the censors won't pass.

Love

“Siobhan says that if you raise one eyebrow it can means lots of different things. It can mean 'I want to do sex with you' and it can also mean 'I think what you just said was very stupid.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: El curioso incidente del perro a medianoche

Stupidity, Sex, Thinking

“When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness.”

Bob Hope (1903–2003) American comedian, actor, singer and dancer

Happiness, Past, Christmas, Christmas

“That was the thing about being alone, in theory or in principle. Whatever happened-good, bad, or anywhere in between-it was always, if nothing else, all your own.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

“Learning to stop sweating the small stuff involves deciding what things to engage in and what things to ignore. From a certain perspective, life can be described as a series of mistakes, one right after another with a little space in between.”

Richard Carlson (1961–2006) Author, psychotherapist and motivational speaker

Life, Learning

“Three things see no end-
A flower blighted ere it bloomed,
A message that was wasted,
And a journey that was doomed.”

Mercedes Lackey book By the Sword

Source: By the Sword

Flowers

“People who know other people’s secrets can’t afford to do things that impair their ability to control their mouths.”

Patricia Briggs book Bone Crossed

Source: Bone Crossed

People, Secret

“What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately.”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

Source: The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), unplaced by chapter

Gauge, Reading

“Children need close friends to help them grow up, to discover things about themselves and about life. They also need close friends to keep them sane”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Love, Rosie

Life, Children, Help

“That's the thing about life; everything feels so permanent, but you can disappear in an instant.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Life, Feeling

“Why is it, she wondered now, that boys get to do things and be things and girls only get to watch?”

Jennifer Donnelly (1963) American writer

Source: These Shallow Graves

Girl, Boy

“If something takes too long, something happens to you. You become all and only the thing you want and nothing else, for you have paid too much for it, too much in wanting and too much in waiting and too much in getting.”

Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989) American poet, novelist, and literary critic

Waiting

“The worst thing to do is to die while reading LIFE magazine.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Life, Reading

“I have moments like that alot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

Universe

“The greatest beauty is organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty of the universe.”

Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) American poet

Life, Beauty, Universe

“The only thing that separates us from the animals… is we have pornography.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

Animals

“Houses are full of things that gather dust”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Housing

“I'm sorry for my inability to let unimportant things go, for my inability to hold on to the important things.”

Jonathan Safran Foer (1977) Novelist

“There is no such thing as an average human being. If you have a normal brain, you are superior.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

“… I'll continue to see things as a child. It's not so far to fall.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

“It's the one thing we never quite get over: that we contain our own future.”

Barbara Kingsolver (1955) American author, poet and essayist

Future

“You’re presumptuous and arrogant and a whole lot of other things if you think I’ve changed my mind.”
“You see, that’s just it.” There he was again, moving into my space. “I think you like the ‘other things.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Thinking, Change

“It's remarkable how we go on year after year, doing the same old things. We get tired and bored, and ask when they'll come for us”

Yasunari Kawabata book The Sound of the Mountain

Source: The Sound of the Mountain

“the first quality of an honest man is contempt for religion, which would have us afraid of the most natural thing in the world, which is death; and would have us hate the one beautiful thing destiny has given us, which is life.”

Umberto Eco book The Island of the Day Before

Source: The Island of the Day Before

Life, Death, Hate, World

“I went to the zoo once and saw this thing they call an anteater. That was quite enough for me.”

Thomas Pynchon (1937) American novelist

“The weapons an author has at her disposal are flawed. There are words that feel shapeless and overused. Love, for example. I could write the word love a thousand times and it would mean a thousand different things to different readers.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

Love, Feeling, Time

“The only two important things in life are real love and being at peace with yourself.”

Jonathan Carroll book Sleeping in Flame

Source: Sleeping in Flame

Love, Life, Peace

“But that's how life is. You never know how it's going to turn out, and you can't plan for everything. You just have to do your best dealing with things as they come and hope people forgive you when you make a mistake.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: My Unfair Godmother

Life, People, Hope, Forgiveness

“It had to be one of the weirdest things in the universe that Lissa had never come close to suspecting my feelings for Dimitri but that Adrian had figured it out.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Feeling, Universe

“A sex symbol becomes a thing. I hate being a thing.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Comment on her sex symbol status, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40
Context: That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather it be sex than some of the things we've got symbols of... I just hate to be a thing.

Hate, Sex