Quotes about trouble
page 5

“If I had a view like this to look down on every day, I would have the energy and inspiration to conquer the world. The trouble is, when you most need such a view, no one gives it to you.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

World

“That's the trouble with the world. We all despise ourselves.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker

World

“I stared at him (Dionysus). "You're… you're married? But I thought you got in trouble for chasing a wood nymph-”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

“God writes a lot of comedy, Donna; the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Happy to be Here (1983), p. 259
Source: Happy to Be Here

God

“Perhaps all our troubles - all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can't overcome - began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way.”

Christopher McDougall (1962) American journalist and writer

Source: Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

People, Way, Nature

“Most neuroses and some psychoses can be traced to the unnecessary and unhealthy habit of daily wallowing in the troubles and sins of five billion strangers.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

“Sometimes I think all the trouble in the world is caused by men. If there were no men, women would always be happy. ~Carrie”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Source: The Carrie Diaries

Women, Men, World, Thinking

“Whenever you look back and say, "If," you know you're in trouble. There's no such thing as "if." The only thing that counts is what really happened.”

D.J. MacHale book The Merchant of Death

Variant: Whenever you look back and say "if" you know you're in trouble. There is no such thing as "if". The only thing that matters is what really happened.
Source: The Merchant of Death

“Jesus promised his disciples three things—that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy, and in constant trouble.”

William Barclay (1907–1978) Church of Scotland minister and academic

Source: The Gospel of Luke

Happiness

“The faster I write the better my output. If I'm going slow, I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.”

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) Novelist, screenwriter

“Friends show their love in times of trouble.”

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Inspirational, Friendship, Powerful, For Friend

“I didn’t mean now,” he protested. “I’m not going to raise the child. I’m having enough trouble with Rachel.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: A Perfect Blood

“… nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should.”

Julia Child My Life in France

Source: My Life in France

Way

“A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. It’s only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: Do the Work

Heart

“It was strange, I reflected, as we went out into the golden evening of the Byzantine streets, that even in the weirdest circumstances, the most troubling episodes of one’s life, the greatest divides from home and familiarity, there were these moments of undeniable joy.”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Historian

Source: The Historian (2005), Ch. 37

Life, Home, Joy

“Sir Impey Biggs: Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.”

Dorothy L. Sayers book Clouds of Witness

Source: Clouds of Witness (1926)

Time

“I sure do miss that woman. Smart. Funny. Sweet. She never gave me a moment's trouble."

"Gosh, I'm sorry about that. I knew it was boring between you two, but not that bad.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Call Me Irresistible

“I hear that you were on a date with Trouble Kelp. Are you two planning on building a bivouac any time soon?”

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

Source: The Atlantis Complex

Time

“May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions.”

Joey Adams (1911–1999) American comedian, newspaper columnist

New Year

Stevie Smith (1902–1971) poet, novelist, illustrator, performer

Source: Selected Poems

Love

“It may help us, in those times of trouble, to remember that love is not only about relationship, it is also an affair of the soul.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

Source: Care of the Soul: Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life

Love, Soul, Time, Help

“Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Religion, Way

“The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Way

“You can't beat women anyhow and that if you are wise or dislike trouble and uproar you don't even try to.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Women

“Take a leap of faith and see that these troubled waters have no power over you unless you give it to them, and even then they lie.”

Ted Dekker (1962) American writer

Source: Water Walker: The Full Story

Lie, Faith, Water

“Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure
I’d face it as a wise man would,
And train for ill and not for good.”

A.E. Housman book A Shropshire Lad

No. 62, st. 3.
Source: A Shropshire Lad (1896)

World, Chance, Sun, Training

“Adventure is just a romantic name for trouble. It sounds swell when you write about it, but it's hell when you meet it face to face in a dark and lonely place.”

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

Hell

“The trouble with you, dear, is that you think an angel of the Lord as a creature with wings, whereas he is probably a scruffy little man with a bowler hat.”

Josephine Tey book The Franchise Affair

Source: The Franchise Affair

Angels, Thinking

“They say when trouble comes close ranks, and so the white people did.”

Jean Rhys book Wide Sargasso Sea

Source: Wide Sargasso Sea

People

“Life is full of troubles and vexations, that one must either rise above it by means of corrected thoughts, or leave it.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Life

“The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Communication

“To anyone who took the trouble to look, I was plainly visible, but when people are expecting to see nothing, that is usually what they see.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

People

“This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Family, Family, Hurt

“When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.”

Cory Doctorow (1971) Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author

“What do girls do who haven't any mothers to help them through their troubles?”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

Girl, Help

“Brian Andreas Promise #1:
Promises to Myself #1: I will tell the truth unless I get confused & I think I could get in real trouble if someone found out, in which case, I will lie as convincingly as possible for as long as I feel the need.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Truth, Lie, Feeling, Thinking

“Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Heart

“Dempseys are never in trouble. We just have stretches of life that are more interesting than others.”

Jennifer Crusie (1949) American writer

Source: Faking It

Life

“Fezzik's in trouble, bubble bubble,
His brain is just not in the pink,
His mind is rubble, rub-a-dub double,
Because everyone needs him to think.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Thinking

“The trouble with most of us is that we'd rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”

Norman Vincent Peale book The Power of Positive Thinking

Variant: The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism
Source: The Power of Positive Thinking

“I am in trouble here. This woman is not right.”

Stephen King book Misery

Source: Misery

“Is it him?” Dad asked. “Did he get you into trouble?”
“Not me,” Shane said. “I’ve just got that kind of face.”

Rachel Caine book Glass Houses

Source: Glass Houses

“Such a small thing to cause so much trouble.”

Patricia Briggs book Silver Borne

Source: Silver Borne

“Right now I'd like all my troubles to stand in front of me in a straight line, and one by one I'd give each a black eye.”

Shannon Hale The Goose Girl

Source: The Goose Girl

“Talent is liquified trouble.”

Frank Gehry (1929) Canadian-American (b.1929)

“… some people aren't worth the trouble of being kind to, because they have neither the brains nor the power to make something for themselves out of your kindness.”

Rob Sheffield (1966) American music journalist

Source: Love Is a Mix Tape

People

“I like the truth, even when it does trouble me.”

Juliet Marillier book Wildwood Dancing

Source: Wildwood Dancing

Truth

“Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is.”

John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men

Source: Of Mice and Men

Guy

“Leo dropped into the pool and approched the cage. "Hola, Tia. Little bit of trouble?"
She [Hera] crossed her arms and sighed in exasperation. "Don't inspect me like I'm one of your machines, Leo Valdez. Get me out of here!”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

“I know the police cause you trouble
They cause trouble everywhere
But when you die and go to heaven
You find no policeman there”

Woody Guthrie (1912–1967) American singer-songwriter and folk musician

“My troubles are all over, and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my friends under the apple trees.”

Anna Sewell book Black Beauty

Source: Black Beauty

Home, Tree

“One pretty woman means fun at the dance. Two pretty women mean trouble in the house. Three pretty women mean run for the hills.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Matrim Cauthon
(15 October 1991)

Women, Dance, Housing

“In terms of evolutionary history, it was only yesterday that men learned to walk around on two legs and get in trouble thinking complicated thoughts. So don't worry, you'll burn out.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Men, History, Thinking, Learning

“The kind of eyes that jumped from a woman's dreams right into her morning and made trouble in the marriage bed.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Marriage, Dreams

“Rachel, what do you do? Put an ad in the paper for trouble?
(Glenn)”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Black Magic Sanction

“I have been a believer in the magic of language since, at a very early age, I discovered that some words got me into trouble and others got me out.”

Katherine Dunn (1945–2016) American novelist, journalist, poet

Age

“The trouble with these people is that their cities have never been bombed and their mothers have never been told to shut up.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

People

“Their Maker, she said, gives them the sky to carry because they are strong. These people do not know who they are, but if you see a lot of trouble in your life, it is because you were chosen to carry part of the sky on your head. -pg. 25”

Edwidge Danticat (1969) Novelist, short story writer, memoirist

Life, People, Strong, Parting

“He was impossibly gorgeous. I had trouble taking it in at times”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Time

“I won’t snatch, harm, or scare to death people with you or use checking up on you as an excuse to cause trouble. You’re worse than my mother, Rachel.”
“Mine, too,” Jenks muttered.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: White Witch, Black Curse

Death, People

“Trouble is just like love, after all; it comes in unannounced and takes over before you've had a chance to reconsider, or even to think.”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

Love, Thinking, Chance

“Not causing trouble, not touching anything, fixing the primus.”

Mikhail Bulgakov book The Master and Margarita

Source: The Master and Margarita

“There was a species of middle pretty who smiled at everything: happy smile, disappointed smile, you're-in-trouble smile.”

Scott Westerfeld (1963) American science fiction writer

Smile, Disappointment, Happiness

“When your feelings build up and harden and die inside, then you're in big trouble.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Feeling

“The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text.”

Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist

Source: Postscript to the Name of the Rose

“Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.”

Nelson Algren book A Walk on the Wild Side

In jail, Cross-Country Kline to Dove Linkhorn.
Source: A Walk on the Wild Side (1956)
Context: But blow wise to this, buddy, blow wise to this: Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. Never let nobody talk you into shaking another man's jolt. And never you cop another man's plea. I've tried 'em all and I know. They don't work. / Life is hard by the yard, son. But you don't have to do it by the yard. By the inch it's a cinch. And money can't buy everything. For example: poverty.

Moms, Sleep

“when however small a measure of jealousy is mixed with misunderstanding, there is always going to be trouble.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

Source: A Prayer for Owen Meany

Jealousy

“You could say I'm on the troubleshooting squad."
"Troubleshooting?"
He put a hand on the back of his waistband. "I see trouble and I shoot it.”

Karen Chance American writer

Source: Hunt the Moon

“Not everything's perfect, especially in the beginning. And its all right to have a little bit of regret every once in a while. It's when you feel it all the time and can't do anything about it… that's when you get into trouble”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Feeling, Time, Perfection

“The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

“Never trouble another for what you can do yourself”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

“Funny, how one good cookie could calm the mind and even elevate a troubled soul.”

Dean Koontz book False Memory

Source: False Memory

Soul

“Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Variant: Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.

Life, Education, Change

“Man has gone long enough, or even too long, without being man enough to face the simple truth that the trouble with Man is Man.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

"The Trouble with Man is Man", The New Yorker; reprinted in Lanterns & Lances (1961).
From Lanterns and Lances‎

Truth

“The trouble with organizing a thing is that pretty soon folks get to paying more attention to the organization than to what they're organized for.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

“Are you suggesting that the gods have trouble acting together, young lady?" Dionysus asked.

Yes, Lord Dionysus."

Mr. D nodded. "Just checking. You're right, of course. Carry on.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

God

“When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

The Second World War, Volume II : Their Finest Hour (1949) Chapter 8 (September Tensions).
Post-war years (1945–1955)

Deep, Happy, Life

“A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course of victory.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Victory

“The trouble with fiction… is that it makes too much sense. Reality never makes sense.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

"John Rivers" in The Genius and the Goddess (1955)
Source: The Genius And The Goddess

Reality, Sense

“The world is Trouble… and Grace. That is all there is.”

Gary D. Schmidt (1957) American writer

Source: Trouble

World

“Lena was an introvert. She knew she had trouble connecting with people. She always felt like her looks were fake bait, seeming to offer a bridge to people, which she couldn't easily cross.”

Ann Brashares The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Source: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

People

“He [Nico] regarded Jason, as if waiting for an attack. 'If the others found out-'
'If the others found out,' Jason said, 'You'd have that many more people to back you up, and to unleash the fury of the gods on anybody who gives you trouble.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

God, People, Waiting

“I won’t lie to you—it was hilarious. Yes, we were in trouble, yes, this was a disaster, and so one and so forth, but I have to say, seeing those upturned faces, the looks, was bout the best thing that happened to us since we’d come to New York.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Lie

“As long as you have not grasped that you have to die to grow, you are a troubled guest on the dark earth.”

Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer and philosopher

Attributed to Eliade in The Little Book of Romanian Wisdom (2011) edited by Diana Doroftei and Matthew Cross, this appears to be a translation of the last line of the poem "The Holy Longing" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which, as translated by Robert Bly reads: And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow, you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.
Misattributed

“The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Source: The Complete Essays

World, Question, Parting

“There are two questions that we have to ask ourselves. The 1st is " Where am I going?" and the 2nd is "Who will go with me?"
If you ever get these questions in the wrong order, you are in trouble.”

Howard Thurman (1899–1981) American writer

Question

“My troubles are over, and I am finally home.”

Anna Sewell (1820–1878) English novelist

Home

“I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Hate

“I don't see any reason why I should look for someone who never took the trouble to love me.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Love

“Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Clothes

“…. A goodlookin horse is like a goodlookin woman, he said. They’re always more trouble than what they’re worth. What a man needs is just one that will get the job done.”

Cormac McCarthy book All the Pretty Horses

Source: All the Pretty Horses (1992)

Horse

“You don't realize that you're intelligent until it gets you into trouble.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Interview with Julius Lester, "James Baldwin: Reflections of a Maverick" in The New York Times (27 May 1984)
Variant: You don't realize that you're intelligent until it gets you into trouble.

Intelligence