Quotes about total
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“In most cases, we cannot begin to understand what role a seemingly senseless event may have within the totality of the cosmos but recognizing its inevitability within the vastness of the whole can be the beginning of an inner acceptance of what is and thus a realignment with the wholeness of life.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: Stillness Speaks (2003), Ch 10

Life, Understanding

“The wholeness of life becomes fragmented through our thinking. Yet the totality of life has brought this event about. It is part of the web of interconnectedness that is the cosmos. This means whatever is could not be otherwise.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: Stillness Speaks (2003), Ch 10

Life, Thinking, Parting

“To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Happiness

“It's funny how two people can grow up in the same town, go to the same school, have the same friends, and end up so totally different. Family, or lack of it, counts for more than you'd think.”

Sarah Dessen book The Moon and More

Source: The Moon and More

People, School, Family, Thinking

“… I took Advanced PowerPoint last semester. You guys are always misunderestimating me. I'm totally ready to handle the big stuff.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Source: Beauty Queens

Guy

“If it turned out Brandon Stark also likes to dress up as Strwberry Shortcake while playing croquet with his miniture pony collection, I totally wouldn't be surprised anymore.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Runaway

“Dmitri was at a total loss. It was a common reaction for people when I agreed to do something reasonable.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

People, Loss

“We Are The Sum Total Of Our Choices…”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Source: Crimini e misfatti

“It is necessary that the weakness of the powerless is transformed into a force capable of announcing justice. For this to happen, a total denouncement of fatalism is necessary. We are transformative beings and not beings for accommodation.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Justice

“Don't despair: despair suggests you are in total control and know what is coming. You don't - surrender to events with hope.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Hope, Despair

“You can always tell employees of the government by the total vacancy which occupies the space where most other people have faces.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces (1980, posthumous), Ch. 9, p. 226

People

“In this totally dark world, you can't live unless you're needed by someone.”

Hotaru Odagiri Japanese mangaka and illustrator

World

“Look, I asked you here for a reason. Much as I hate to admit it, vampire, we have something in common."
"Totally awesome hair?" Simon suggested.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Hate

“He was the only boy I'd found worth dating in God knows how many schools. I mean, ever since he'd been bitten by a werwulf he'd been rock-steady. The best thing about this totally effed-up situation.”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Source: Jealousy

God, School, Boy

“Total commitment," I said. "You know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway. That takes guts, you know?”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Variant: You have to admit, it's kind of impressive.... Total commitment. You know, the idea of discovering something that, for all intents and purposes, goes against your abilities, and yet still deciding to do it anyway. That takes guts, you know?
Source: Lock and Key

Idea

“If you read one book a week, starting at the age of 5, and live to be 80, you will have read a grand total of 3,900 books, a little over one-tenth of 1 percent of the books currently in print.”

Lewis Buzbee (1957) American writer

Source: The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, a History

Books, Age, Reading

“It was so weird, because usually I was totally nervous talking to guys. But Eli was different. He made me want to say more, not less. Which was maybe not a good thing.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Guy

“You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Motivational, Wise, Deep, Success

“More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”

Woody Allen book Mere Anarchy

"My Speech to the Graduates"
Side Effects (1980)
Variant: Mankind is facing a crossroad - one road leads to despair and utter hopelessness and the other to total extinction - I sincerely hope you graduates choose the right road
Source: Mere Anarchy

Wisdom, History, Time, Despair

“Hell, yes," Dev says, sitting up now. "Don't get me wrong - we're totally going to make the beast with two backs tonight. But if we do it right, it's going to feel like holding hands.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Feeling, Hell

“Youcrazy!" whispered Meggie. "You're a total lunatic!"

But her opinion did not impress Fenoglio in the slightest. "So what? All writers are lunatics!”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkspell

“I just want ambitious teenagers to know it is totally fine to be quite, observant kids. Besides being a delight to your parents, you will find you have plenty of time later to catch up.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Parent, Time

“Total evil.

dang, his principal had been right all along…

he really was demonspawn.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infamous

Evil

“It'd be great to be so famous that if I murder someone, I will never, ever, ever serve any jail time, even if it's totally obvious to everyone that I did it.”

Mindy Kaling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Source: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Time

“Recognizing how totally ignorant you are is the only honest way to deal with people who've been through something traumatic.”

Banana Yoshimoto book The Lake

Source: The Lake

People, Way

“God is the Champion at bringing people from a place of destruction to a place of total victory. As they reach that place of victory they become trophies of his grace. and they are set on the display as a fragrant reminder of God's goodness.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Beauty for Ashes: Receiving Emotional Healing

God, People, Victory

“Quick question. Does this magical skill with gray matter come with a total lack of compunction for your kind, or is it just you who were born without a conscience?

V: I beg your pardon?”

Jessica Bird book Lover Unbound

Source: Lover Unbound

Question

“You're girls!' he shouted as if the fact had totally eluded him until then.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Girl

“Do me a favor."

"Don't lick your seat belt?"

Ash's expression was total confusion. "Huh? where did that randomness come from?”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

“I know how you feel," I said. "You run into something you totally don't get, and it's scary as hell. But once you learn something about it, it gets easier to handle. Knowledge counters fear. It always has.”

Jim Butcher Dead Beat

Source: Dead Beat

Fear, Feeling, Hell, Knowledge

“You are the sum total of everything you've seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot- it's all right there.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“I have a dress fitting to get to at three.' (Simon)
'Cool,' said Kyle, slinging his messenger bag over his shoulder and heading for the door. 'Get them to make you something in red. It's totally your color.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Color

“It's hard to hate my prep team. They're such total idiots." - Katniss.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Variant: Its hard to hate my prep team. They're such total idiots.
Source: The Hunger Games

Hate

“Any system was a straightjacket if you insisted on adhering to it so totally and humorlessly.”

Erica Jong book Fear of Flying

Source: Fear of Flying

“I want to know about my mom. And other stuff. I want to know the whole story, good or bad.”
“Me, too,” said Gazzy. “I want to find my parents so I can tell’m what total scuzzes they are. Like, ‘Hi, mom and dad, you’re such scum!”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Moms, Parent

“Fantasy is totally wide open; all you really have to do is follow the rules you've set. But if you're writing about science, you have to first learn what you're writing about.”

Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) American science fiction writer

Learning, Science

“Guilty feelings about clothes are totally unnecessary. A lot of people earn their living by making clothes, so you should never feel bad.”

Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer

People, Feeling, Clothes

“And you know," Jeanne said, looking down at Sylvia with her hands on her hips, "that's how I want to go. Taking my own way out… and totally pissing everybody off at the end.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Black Dawn

Way

“The idea of having faith in Jesus has come to be totally isolated from being his apprentice and learning how to do what he said.”

Dallas Willard (1935–2013) American philosopher

Source: The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God

Faith, Idea, Learning

“Greatness is best measured by how well an individual responds to the happenings in life that appear to be totally unfair, unreasonable, and undeserved.”

Marvin J. Ashton (1915–1994) Apostle of the LDS Church

Life, Appearance

“In two decades I've lost a total of 789 pounds. I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.”

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…

“You guys are weird," Tori said.
Simon sat on the crate beside me. "That's right. We are totally weird and completely uncool. Your popularity is plummeting just by being near us.”

Kelley Armstrong The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Guy

“The imprint of Miss Hepburn is absolutely, totally present. Like it or not, she will be the most important look of the twentieth century.”

Manolo Blahnik (1942) Spanish fashion designer

“We are a sum total of what we have learned from all who have taught us, both great and small.”

Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister

Source: understanding your potential discovering the hidden you

Learning

“Simply handing over your iPod to a friend, your blind date, or the total stranger sitting next to you on the plane opens you up like a book." (Steven Levy)”

Walter Isaacson book Steve Jobs

Source: Steve Jobs

Books

“A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.”

Lois Wyse (1926–2007) American advertising executive

Life, World, Past, Future

“The city glitters past us with its sharp edges, reminding us of how tiny, how weak, how totally unimportant we are.”

Joe Meno (1974) American writer

Source: Demons in the Spring

Past

“Is it possible to be totally partial?”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“A massage is just like a movie, really relaxing and a total escape, except in a massage you're the star. And you don't miss anything by falling asleep!”

Elizabeth Jane Howard (1923–2014) writer

Source: Mr. Wrong

Star

“Note to self: Rachel Morgan is a totally awesome liar.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

“I am what I am: an individual, unique and different, with a lineal history of an ancestral promptings and urgings, a history of dreams, desires, and of special experiences, of all of which I am the sum total.”

Charlie Chaplin book My Autobiography

Source: My Autobiography (p. 271 Simon and Schuster 1964 edition)

Dreams, History

“One of the liberating effects of science fiction when I was a teenager was precisely its ability to tune me into all sorts of strange data and make me realize that I wasn’t as totally isolated in perceiving the world as being monstrous and crazy”

William Gibson (1948) American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder of the cyberpunk subgenre

World, Science

“Because I was, and I remain, utterly and completely and totally…in love with you.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover at Last

Love

“I’d been to the British museum before. In fact I’ve been in more museums than I like to admit—it makes me sound like a total geek.
[That’s Sadie in the background, yelling I am a total geek. Thanks, Sis. ]”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“Sometimes all it takes is a tiny shift of perspective to see something familiar in a totally new light.”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

Light

“I’m still afraid of being totally honest. I’m more afraid of this than dying.”

Natsuo Kirino book Real World

Source: Real World

“Annabeth?” Percy said again. “You’re planning something. You’ve got thatlook.”
“I don’t have anlook.”
“Yeah, you totally do. Your eyebrows knit together and your lips press together and—”
“Do you have a pen?” she asked him.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“Another dream. Another long-distance call on my phantom party line. No wonder i had steadfastly refused to have dreams for most of my life. So stupid; such pointless, obvious symbols. Totally uncontrollable anxiety soup, hateful, blatant nonsense.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Life, Hate, Stupidity, Dreams

“I'm the kind of person who has to totally commit to whatever I do.”

Haruki Murakami book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Personality

“I make a new discovery that totally blows; dying is the easy part. It's coming back to life that sucks.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

Life, Parting

“Jealousy has the amazing power to illuminate a single person in an intense beam of light, keeping the multitude of others in total darkness.”

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature

Source: Farewell Waltz

Jealousy, Light, Personality

“It's Will," she said. "He's being absolutely ridiculous in the dining room."
Charlotte looked puzzled. "How is this different from him being totally ridiculous in the library or the weapons room or any of the other places he's usually ridiculous?”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

“When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

“Total non-retention has kept my education from being a burden to me.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

Education

“When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted friendship - when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

God, Friendship, Disappointment, Question

“If you think that happiness means total peace, you will never be happy. Peace comes from the acceptance of the part of you that can never be at peace. It will always be in conflict. If you accept that, everything gets a lot better.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Happiness, Peace, Thinking, Parting

“All knowledge, the totality of all questions and all answers, is contained in the dog. If one could but realize this knowledge, if one could but bring it into the light of day, if we dogs would but own that we know infinitely more than we admit to ourselves!”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

"Investigations of a Dog"
The Complete Stories (1971)
Source: The Great Wall of China and Other Stories

Dogs, Question, Knowledge, Light

“When I was four I thought everything in TV was just TV, then I was five and Ma unlied about lots of it being pictures of real and Outside being totally real. Now I’m in Outside but it turns out lots of it isn’t real at all.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Source: Room

“Thank you for caring for my brother."
He took his sunglasses off.
And looked at her with total adoration.”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover

“It is clear that the world is purely parodic, in other words, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
Ever since sentences started to circulate in brains devoted to reflection, an effort at total identification has been made, because with the aid of a copula each sentence ties one thing to another; all things would be visibly connected if one could discover at a single glance and in its totality the tracings of Ariadne’s thread leading thought into its own labyrinth.
But the copula of terms is no less irritating than the copulation of bodies. And when I scream I AM THE SUN an integral erection results, because the verb to be is the vehicle of amorous frenzy.
Everyone is aware that life is parodic and that it lacks an interpretation. Thus lead is the parody of gold. Air is the parody of water. The brain is the parody of the equator. Coitus is the parody of crime.”

Georges Bataille book The Solar Anus

The Solar Anus (1927)

Life, World, Effort, Water

“You were totally unprepared for her.”
“That's for damned sure.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

“I want to be able to see stuff," Iggy said. "Like I used to, when I was little. And I want to be able to totally kick Jeb's butt.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

“The vamp in McMann’s stared at me. I guess he didn’t like the Goth look. Most of them don’t; somehow they think I’m making fun of them.
Which I totally am.”

Rachel Caine book Glass Houses

Source: Glass Houses

Thinking

“I’m not totally mad at you. I’m just sad. You’re all locked up in that little world of yours, and when I try knocking on the door, you just sort of look up for a second and go right back inside.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

World, Sadness, Madness

“According to the latest official figures, 43% of all statistics are totally worthless.”

Ashleigh Brilliant (1933) American author and cartoonist

“A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle."
I really hate this expression. I bet fish would totally want bicycles.”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: Princess on the Brink

Hate, Fish

“Skipping school isn't a crime. It's an infraction. They're totally different.”

Cory Doctorow Little Brother

Source: Little Brother

School

“In a world where everyone struggles to survive whatever the cost, how could one judge those people who decide to die? No one can judge. Each person knows the extent of their own suffering or the total absence of meaning in their lives.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

People, World, Suffering, Personality

“Nick‘s eyes widened as a total state of befuddled huh possessed him. Was he in the
Twilight Zone?”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

“Rose: "Did you hotwire this car? Did you steal this car?"
Dimitri: "You have an interesting set of morals. Breaking out of jail is okay. But steal a car, and you sound totally outraged."
- Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov (Last Sacrifice)”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Cars

“Clary - "Look you can date whoever you want and I will totally support you. I am all about support. Support is my middle name."

Simon- "So that's why you never told me your middle name. I figured it was something embarrasing.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Variant: Look, you can date whoever you want and I will totally support you. I am all about support. Support is my middle name.”
“So that’s why you never told me your middle name. I figured it was something embarrassing.
Source: City of Glass

Support

“It was a sort of love few other people could understand. It was total and it was overwhelming and it could be cruel.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Love, People, Understanding

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

Earl Nightingale book The Strangest Secret

Source: The Strangest Secret

“I couldn’t leave Total behind.”
“Total?” Iggy asked.
“That’s what his card said,” Angel explained.
“Totally a mutant dog who will probably turn on us and kill us in our sleep,” Fang said.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Dogs, Angels, Sleep