Quotes about thought
page 23

“How strange! I thought, though everybody hated and despised each other, they could not avoid loving me.”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Source: Wuthering Heights

Love, Hate

“I thought… that we could at least talk about books.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Books

“I will not waste time on second thoughts. My life will not be an apology. It will be a statement.”

Andy Andrews (1959) author and corporate speaker

Source: The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success

Life, Time

“We may say we're looking for love, following dreams, chasing the dollar, but aren't we just looking for a place where we belong? A place where our thoughts, feelings, and fears are understood? - Ridley Jones”

Lisa Unger book Beautiful Lies

Source: Beautiful Lies

Love, Fear, Dreams, Feeling

“We are not trapped by our thoughts. What we generally do, however, is create thoughts that trap us.” (p.162)”

Joshua David Stone (1953–2005) American writer

Source: A Beginner's Guide to the Path of Ascension (The Ascension Series)

“It's always awkward when someone doesn't realize you're joking and devotes thought time to what you've said. Double that when the person is wearing tinfoil.”

Maureen Johnson book Let It Snow

Source: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances

Time, Personality

“Every one of us is the sum total of his own thoughts”

Earl Nightingale book The Strangest Secret

Source: The Strangest Secret

“She thought: at this moment, the glass stem between his fingers feels just like the one between mine. We have this much in common.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Feeling

“When I saw you fall…"
"You thought, 'Wow, she's a loser.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

“So the hours are pretty good then?' he resumed.
The Vogon stared down at him as sluggish thoughts moiled around in the murky depths.
Yeah,' he said, 'but now you come to mention it, most of the actual minutes are pretty lousy.”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“Quickly, Holly," said Artemis urgently. "Follow those bubbles."

Holly opened the throttle. "Now there's an order I never thought I'd hear from you.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Atlantis Complex

“I’ve always thought you are what you are and you shouldn’t pretend to be anyone else. But Oliver used to correct me and explain that you are whoever it is you’re pretending to be.”

Julian Barnes book Talking It Over

Source: Talking It Over

“Remember me with joy, for this is how I always thought of you. That is what I want, more than anything. I want you to smile when you think of me. And in your smile, I will live forever”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

Smile, Thinking, Joy

“Sooner or later everything you thought you'd left behind comes around again. For good or ill, it comes around again.”

Stephen King Insomnia

Source: Insomnia

“It was odd, (Tessa thought), what brought out tenderness in people.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

People

“The devil frequently fills our thoughts with great schemes, so that instead of putting our hands to what work we can do to serve our Lord, we may rest satisfied with wishing to perform impossibilities.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

Source: Interior Castle

“What child unable to sleep on a warm summer night hasn't thought he saw Peter Pan's sailing ship in the sky? I will teach you to see that ship.”

Roberto Cotroneo (1961) Italian journalist and writer

Sleep, Summer, Night

“I thought the most beautiful thing in the world must be shadow.”

Sylvia Plath book The Bell Jar

Source: The Bell Jar

World, Beauty, Beauty, Depressing

“Which of us can resist the temptation of being thought indispensable?”

Margaret Atwood book The Penelopiad

Source: The Penelopiad

“You could say anything you wanted to someone you thought you were never going to see again.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“That was courage, Keller thought. Not doing something without being afraid, but doing something even though you were afraid.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Witchlight

Courage

“Young lady," Silk said urbanely, "I think you'd be amazed at how little Polgara's concerned about who you are."
"Polgara?" Ce'Nedra faltered. "Polgara? I thought you said that she was your sister."
"I lied," Silk confessed. "It's a vice a have.”

David Eddings book Queen of Sorcery

Source: Queen of Sorcery

Thinking, Sister

“Stick Boy liked Match Girl,
he liked her a lot.
He liked her cute figure,
he thought she was hot.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Girl, Boy

“The theologian who labors without joy is not a theologian at all. Sulky faces, morose thoughts and boring ways of speaking are intolerable in this field.”

Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Protestant theologian

Way, Joy

“…the death of my mother was the thing that made me believe the most deeply in my safety: nothing bad could happen to me, I thought. The worst thing already had.”

Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Death

“My first thoughts after waking are – and always have been – of you.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Wedding

Source: The Wedding

“You only have control over three things in your life-the thoughts you think, the images you visualise, & the actions you take.”

Jack Canfield (1944) American writer

Life, Thinking

“You can hold a secret, hold it so far in that it drives nearly every thought and every move you make- your very heartbeat, almost.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Six Rules of Maybe

Secret

“Perhaps we can win, he thought. But there will be no happy ending”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Last Guardian

Happiness

“Christopher discovered that you dealt with obnoxious masters and most older boys the way you dealt with governesses: you quite politely told them the truth in the way they wanted to hear it, so that they thought they had won and left you in peace.”

Diana Wynne Jones book The Lives of Christopher Chant

Source: The Lives of Christopher Chant

Truth, Peace, Way, Boy

“Everything's much too big here,' thought Moominmamma. 'Or perhaps I'm too small.”

Tove Jansson book Moominpappa at Sea

Source: Moominpappa at Sea

“He was uncomplicated and upbeat and easy. At one point, I might have thought these traits made him a simpleton, but now I think they just translate to happiness.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Baby Proof

Happiness, Thinking

“To know and feel all this and not have the words to express it makes a human a grave of his own thoughts.”

John Donne (1572–1631) English poet

Feeling

“Waiting patiently doesn't suit you. I can see you have a great deal of water in your personality. Water never waits. It changes shape and flows around things, and finds the secret paths no one else has thought about.
[Mameha]”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Secret, Water, Change, Waiting

“I thought, There goes my lord, whom I was born to follow. I have found a King.
And, I said to myself, looking after him as he walked away, I will have him, if I die for it.”

Mary Renault book The Persian Boy

Source: The Persian Boy

“Most people were heartless about turtles because a turtle’s heart will beat for hours after it has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea

Source: The Old Man and the Sea

People, Heart

“I want to help you to grow as beautiful as God meant you to be when He thought of you first.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

God, Beauty, Help

“The only thing they had in common was Calypso, and every time Leo thought about that he wanted to punch Percy in the face.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Time

“Alexander, my nights, my days, my every thought. You will fall away from me in just a while, won’t you, and I’ll be whole again, and I will go on and feel for someone else, the way everybody does.

But my innocence is gone forever.”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Source: The Bronze Horseman

Way, Feeling, Night

“Blay said roughly,"I'm still in love with him"
Saxton dropped his eyes and brushed at the top of his thigh, as if there might have been a tiny piece of lint there. " I know. You thought you weren't?”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Reborn

Love

“Most of the upper management of I. S. were undead. I always thought it was because the job was easier if you didn't have a soul.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Dead Witch Walking

Soul

“Reyna had always thought of Jason Grace as the all-American boy. Thalia looked more like the girl who robbed all-American boys at knifepoint in an alley.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Girl, Boy

“Have you tried this shrimp? It's freaking amazing.

Would you get away from me? I hate you.

You're so moody. Just because I kidnapped you and tried to force you to be my girlfriend. I thought you would be over that by now.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Runaway

Hate

“Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass.”

Ferdinand de Saussure book Course in General Linguistics

Source: Cours de linguistique générale (1916), p. 111-112
Source: Course in General Linguistics
Context: Psychologically our thought-apart from its expression in words-is only a shapeless and indistinct mass. Philosophers and linguists have always agreed in recognizing that without the help of signs we would be unable to make a clear-cut, consistent distinction between two ideas. Without language, thought is a vague, uncharted nebula. here are no pre-existing ideas, and nothing is distinct before the appearance of language.

“Not an ugly color, Nanny thought. Just not a human color.”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Color

“Oh my God, I thought. I’m rooming with the Sydney Sage of re-education.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

God, Education

“I thought you were dead."
Magnus smiled crookedly. "What, from that scratch?" He glanced down at the reddening jacket in Alec's hand. "Okay, a deep scratch. Like, from a really, really big cat.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Smile, Cats, Dead

“Come with me."
"Come with you? To Pandemonium? To the Void? And here I thought that my invitation to summer in New Jersey was the worst I had ever received.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Rise of the Hotel Dumort

Summer

“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”

Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

“You could give us a hand instead of staring into space like a constipated camel," Terry Tarsal rudley broke into Marcia's spinning thoughts.”

Angie Sage book Queste

Source: Queste

“There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is California.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Science

“That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Chapter 30 (pp. 192-193)
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
Context: I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before. You do that first, in your head, and then you make it real.

“Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere.”

Isabelle Eberhardt (1877–1904) Swiss explorer and author

Source: The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt

Life, Sun

“If we actually thought about every decision we made, we'd be paralyzed… You have to decide which decisions you're actually going to make, and then you have to let the rest of them go.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Decision

“It is a time of quiet joy, the sunny morning. When the glittery dew is on the mallow weeds, each leaf holds a jewel which is beautiful if not valuable. This is no time for hurry or for bustle. Thoughts are slow and deep and golden in the morning.”

John Steinbeck book Tortilla Flat

Source: Tortilla Flat

Beauty, Time, Joy

“God, I needed you," he murmured. "I can't even tell you how many times I thought about this. The funny thing is, I don't need you any less now. I think I need you more."
~Shane~”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Carpe Corpus

God, Thinking, Time

“I thought, it's a shame that we have to live, but it's a tragedy that we get to live only one life, because if I'd had two lives, I would have spent one of them with her.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Life

“Piper!” Frank yelled. “Counter those empousai! We need some chaos.”

“Thought you’d never ask.” She started catcalling at the female demons: “Your makeup is smeared! Your friend called you ugly! That one is making a face behind your back!”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“I thought there was a good chance the fridge was possessed. It was subtle about it, but I had its number. I knew its ways. Oh yes.”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Hunt the Moon

Way, Chance

“Must manage your thought life daily and then you can manage your life.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Life

“A thought is a substace, producing the thing that is imagined by the thought.”

Wallace D. Wattles (1860–1911) American writer

Imagination

“I thought about the relentless thought-processing, soul-devouring machine that is my brain, and wondered how on earth I was ever going to master it. Then I remembered that line from Jaws and couldn't help smiling: 'We're gonna need a bigger boat.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Smile, Soul, Help

“In silence the three of them looked at the sunset and thought about God.”

Maud Hart Lovelace book Betsy-Tacy and Tib

Source: Betsy-Tacy and Tib

God, Silence

“During this time we've been apart, it's you I've thought of when I'm at my weakest, and you who have pulled me through.”

Sarah Dessen book Dreamland

Source: Dreamland (2000)

Time

“I am burdened with what the Buddhists call the 'monkey mind' -- the thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit and howl.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

“The purpose of the poetry is not to dazzle us with an astonishing thought, but to make one moment of existence unforgettable and worthy of unbearable nostalgia.”

Milan Kundera book Immortality

Source: Immortality

Nostalgia

“There's so much nonsense about human inconstancy and the transience of all emotions. I've always thought that a feeling which changes never existed in the first place.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Feeling, Change

“I thought he wanted it, anyway," I say.
"Not like this," Haymitch says. "He wanted it to be real.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

“Except, now that I don’t have a car, I can’t really make good on my birthday promise.”

Sydney thought about it for several moments. “Well. I’ve got a car.”

An hour later, I vowed I’d never make fun of that Mazda again.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Cars, Birthday

“But what would they have said to their Liaison?, Vlad thought”

Anne Bishop book Written in Red

Source: Written in Red

“You want to take me to a movie?" I asked.
"Well, not really," he said. "What I really want is for you to be my girlfriend. But I thought saying that might scare you off.”

Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

“And why is it, thought Lara, that my fate is to see everything and take it all so much to heart?”

Borís Pasternak (1890–1960) Russian writer

Fate, Heart

“It's odd how different a house feels when one is alone in it. It makes it easier to think rather private thoughts…”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Feeling, Thinking, Housing

“I thought about it for awhile, hiding it from the rest of my mind. But I didn't ruin my birthday by secretly thinking about it too hard”

Richard Brautigan book Trout Fishing in America

Source: Trout Fishing in America

Birthday, Thinking

“Poetry should… should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance".”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to John Taylor (February 27, 1818)
Letters (1817–1820)
Context: In Poetry I have a few axioms, and you will see how far I am from their centre. I think Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity — it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance — Its touches of Beauty should never be halfway thereby making the reader breathless instead of content: the rise, the progress, the setting of imagery should like the Sun come natural to him — shine over him and set soberly although in magnificence leaving him in the luxury of twilight — but it is easier to think what Poetry should be than to write it — and this leads me on to another axiom. That if Poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.

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