Quotes about try
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“I try not to remember the life that I didn’t want to lose but lost and have to remember”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstacies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude.”

Aldous Huxley book The Doors of Perception

Page 159
The Doors of Perception (1954)

Lovers, Nature, Solitude, Suffering

“Nights were the worst. I'd try to get some sleep, only to be thrown out of bed and dragged out into the compound for another game of "Let's whack Bobby in the dark!" - Bobby Pendragon, RoZ”

D.J. MacHale book The Rivers of Zadaa

Source: The Rivers of Zadaa

Game, Sleep, Night

“Anubis frowned. He locked his very nice eyes with mine.
“You’re not dead.”
“No,” I said. “Though we’re trying awfully hard.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Dead

“sometimes words are not big enough to contain all the feelings you are trying to pour into them.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

Feeling

“Don’t ask me any more questions, Keller. I’m just going to lie to you and I’d rather not have the stress of trying to remember what lie I handed you. (Alexion)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Sins of the Night

Lie, Question

“I come from a family of screamers. If they are trying to express any emotion or idea beyond pass the salt, it comes in shrieks.”

Elizabeth Wurtzel book Prozac Nation

Source: Prozac Nation

Family, Idea

“Now she and I sit together in her room and eat chocolate, and I tell her that in a very long time when we both to go heaven, we should try to get chairs next to each other, close to the dessert table.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith

Time

“Instead of agonizing about the things you can't change, why don't you try working on the things you can change”

Jordan Sonnenblick (1969) American writer

Source: Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

Change

“We should try to be the parents of our future rather than the offspring of our past.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

Parent, Past, Future

“What?" Simon looked alarmed. "I'm not really sleeping with your mom, you know. I was just trying to get your attention. Not that your mom isn't a very attractive woman, for her age.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Simon, pg. 7
Variant: Simon!" Clary shouted, and seized his arm.
"What?" Simon looked alarmed.
"I'm not really sleeping with your mom, you know. I was just trying to get your attention. Not that your mom isn't a very attractive woman, for her age.
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

Age, Moms, Sleep

“It used to be about trying to do something. Now it's about trying to be someone.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

“I don't know what your damage is, but in case you've failed to notice, we're in a bit of trouble here. Can you focus on something other than trying to get into my pants?" His lips curled. " I can multitask.”

Alexandra Ivy (1961) American novelist

Source: Beyond the Darkness

“What I wanted to do seemed simple. I wanted something alive and shocking enough that it could be a morning in somebody's life. The most ordinary morning. Imagine, trying to do that.”

Michael Cunningham book The Hours

Source: The Hours

Life, Imagination

“Before you look for validation in others, try and find it in yourself”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

“He wanted to shake her until every one of her chattering teeth hit the ground. "What the hell are you trying to say? Why did she choose me?"
Jodie eyed him warily. "Because she thinks you're stupid.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips book Nobody's Baby But Mine

Source: Nobody's Baby But Mine

Stupidity, Hell, Thinking

“Please, don't torture me with cliches. If you're going to try to intimidate me, have the courtesy to go away for a while, acquire a better education, improve your vocabulary, and come back with some fresh metaphors.”

Dean Koontz (1945) American author

Education

“I am an instrument in the shape/ of a woman trying to translate pulsations/ into images for the relief of the body/ and the reconstruction of the mind.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

Source: The Fact of a Doorframe: Poems Selected and New, 1950-1984

“There were drinks and food in full force, and some Moroi guy had a guitar out and was trying to impress girls with his musical skills—which were nonexistent. In fact, his music was so awful that he might have discovered a new way to kill Strigoi.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Food, Music, Way, Guy

“You can't live your life to suit other people. The harder you try, the more restrictions they'll put on you just for the fun of seeing you jump through their hoops.”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Source: Paradise

Life, People

“Everyone wanted to be the best. Best student. Best servant. Best Christian. They got caught up in it, pressing and pushing until they forgot whom it was they were trying to please.”

Francine Rivers book The Atonement Child

Source: The Atonement Child

“… there are people who try to look as if they are doing a good and thorough job, and then there are the people who actually damn well do it, for its own sake.”

John D. MacDonald book Free Fall in Crimson

Source: Free Fall in Crimson

People

“I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Source: A Little Princess

Princess

“So I'll do that, and I'll do my best and if my best isn't good enough, at least I will have done everything I could, everything that is in me. I don't have to try to be someone else, someone I could never be.”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Abhorsen

“When your're both finished trying to frighten each other away with the sordidness of your pasts, can you help me, please?”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

Past, Help

“One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this: ‘To rise above little things’.”

John Burroughs (1837–1921) American naturalist and essayist

New Year

“Kill you all!" The clown was laughing and screaming. "Try to stop me and I'll kill you all! Drive you crazy and then kill you all! You can't stop me!”

Stephen King book It

Source: It

“The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it… try to fake three laughs in an hour -- ha ha ha ha ha -- they'll take you away, man. You can't.”

Lenny Bruce (1925–1966) comedian and social critic

Art, Laughter

“You cannot repress anger or love, or avoid feeling them, and you should not try.”

Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power

Source: The 48 Laws of Power

Love, Feeling, Anger

“I try to avoid having thoughts. They lead to other thoughts, and—if you're not careful—those lead to actions. Actions make you tired. I have this on rather good authority from someone who once read it in a book.”

Brandon Sanderson book Warbreaker

Lightsong the Bold
Warbreaker (2009)

Books, Reading

“Will you give the girl to me?" she said. "Will you let me try?"
He nodded, dizzy with relief. "Please, Willo. Please. Save her. It doesn't matter… what happens to me.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Gray Wolf Throne

Girl

“I suppose you should her it from me that I met your mother" he smiled a litte sadly. "well… When I say met I mean one time I tried to kill her."
"Do me a favor" Zach's voice was low and dark and dangerous. "Next time don't just try”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

Smile, Time

“Try to remember the moment when all the stupid innocent things you thought about life and love, all the things you thought mattered, all the things you though were true… try to remember when they all turned out to be lies. —Kyle”

Chad Kultgen (1976) American writer

Source: The Lie

Love, Life, Stupidity

“You never push a noun against a verb without trying to blow up something.”

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

“Ale: Are you manipulating me again?
T. C.: Try not to fall for it. I dare you.”

Steve Kluger (1952) American writer

“The happiness of one's own heart alone cannot satisfy the soul; one must try to include, as necessary to one's happiness, the happiness of others.”

Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship

Happiness, Soul, Heart

“You surround yourself with your pain or you avoid it and let it find you when you are trying to do other things”

Ann Brashares book The Last Summer

Source: The Last Summer

Pain

“If you are going to try, go all the way or don't even start. If you follow it you will be alive with the gods. It is the only good fight there is.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

God, Way, Fight

“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“By the way, I saved Moiraine. Chew on that as you try to decide which of the two of us is winning."
-Mat”

Robert Jordan The Wheel of Time

Source: A Memory of Light

Way

“Far too many people are looking for the right person, instead of trying to be the right person.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

People, Personality, Relationship

“I remember a friend many years ago who had taped a sign to his refrigerator: There's a dream dreaming us. If you try to think about what that means it makes your mind silly, but that silliness is good.”

Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer

Source: Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life

Dreams, Thinking

“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

“What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can.”

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

Variant: What people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can.

People

“I’ll try to be around and about. But if I’m not, then you know that I’m behind your eyelids, and I’ll meet you there”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

“They told us not to wish in the first place, not to aspire, not to try; to be quiet, to play nice, to shoot low and aspire not at all. They are always wrong. Follow your dreams. Make your wishes. Create the future. And above all, believe in yourself. That is the lesson of Babylon 5.”

J. Michael Straczynski (1954) American writer and television producer

From the Babylon 5 Calendar (1998).

Dreams, Future

“Maturity: knowing where you're crazy, trying to warn others of the fact and striving to keep yourself under control.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

“A sad smile crossed her face, and I knew right then what she was trying to tell me. Her eyes never left mine as she finally said the words that numbed my soul.
I'm dying, Landon.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

Sadness, Smile, Soul

“The main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

World, Cry

“Trying is always enough.”

Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer

Source: Dragon Bones

“It’s easy to plant a seed and sprinkle it with water, but once the sun scorches the ground, and the earth soaks up all the moisture, you’re left with nothing but a thirsty little flower trying desperately to make it out of the dirt.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: God-Shaped Hole

Flowers, Water, Sun

“I squeeze my eyes shut and try to reach for him across the hundreds and hundreds of miles, to send my thoughts into his mind, to let him know he is not alone. But he is. And I can't help him.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

Help

“I spend the rest of the afternoon trying to explain to Zoe one of the very saddest notions in love and life: sometimes the timing is wrong--and sometimes you realize the heart of the matter way to late in the game.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Baby Proof

Love, Life, Way, Game

“Oh. "So the best way to fight you is to strip naked and attack?"
His eyes flashed with a wicked light. "Yes. You should try it and see what happens.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

Way, Light, Fight

“That without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, moribund.”

Anthony Bourdain book Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook

Source: Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook

Question

“Zerbrowski said, "Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try."
It took me a second to realize that he had just quoted Star Wars to me. It made me smile, and in that moment I loved him, just for that.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Kiss the Dead

Source: Kiss the Dead

Love, War, Smile, Quotes

“There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Five Orange Pips

Source: The Five Orange Pips

Way, Weather, Forgetting

“What is the point of trying to put down on paper emotions that are too complex, too huge, too overwhelming to be confined by an alphabet?

Love isn't the only word that fails.

Hate does, too.”

Jodi Picoult book The Storyteller

Source: The Storyteller

Love, Hate

“There are many ways to be free. One of them is to transcend reality by imagination, as I try to do.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Way, Imagination, Reality

“It is only when we stand up, with all our failings and sufferings, and try to support others rather than withdraw into ourselves, that we can fully live the life of community.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

Source: Community And Growth

Life, Communication, Support, Suffering

“Always try to be modest, and be proud of it!”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“The main affliction of our modern civilization is that we don’t know how to handle the suffering inside us and we try to cover it up with all kinds of consumption.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

Affliction, Suffering

“Try to say nothing negative about anybody.
a) for three days
b) for forty-five days
c) for three months

See what happens to your life.”

Yoko Ono (1933) Japanese artist, author, and peace activist

Life

“I (Percy) set Nico on guard duty with Beckendorf and the Stoll brothers, figuring he'd be safely out of the way.
…
"What's happening?" Nico demanded, trying to climb up next to me.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Way

“Try to live so that you can always tell the truth.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Truth

“Marriage is a big word for all guys,” Shane said. “You know that. It’s kind of an allergy. We get itchy and sweaty just trying to spell it, much less do it.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Last Breath

Marriage, Guy

“Unpleasant?" he finished for her.
"Only on the days when my adoptive mother tosses me out of the house with instructions never to darken her door again. Usually, I'm remarkably good-natured. Try me on any day that doesn't end in y.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Nature, Housing

“The Mollusks—generous hosts when they weren’t trying to kill you.”

Dave Barry book Peter and the Starcatchers

Source: Peter and the Starcatchers

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe. -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

Universe

“He wrote on a piece of paper with his pencil.
Psychosis: out of touch with reality.
Since then, I have been trying to find out what reality is, so that I can touch it.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Reality

“If you go to your death rather than do everything you might to prevent what is happening, you are merely committing suicide and trying to make yourself feel better about it. That is the act of a coward. It is beneath contempt.”

Jim Butcher Dead Beat

Source: Dead Beat

Death, Feeling, Suicide

“Me and Ma have a deal, we're going to try everything one time so we know what we like.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Source: Room

Time

“I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't. How you hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside.”

Susanna Kaysen (1948) American writer

Smile, Hurt

“People say the truth hurts. Hell no, it hurts even more if you do a whole bunch of foolishness to try and avoid it.”

Tyler Perry (1966) American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, producer, author, and songwriter

People, Truth, Hell, Hurt

“The essence of wisdom is to know when to be doing, and when it's useless even to try”

Mary Stewart book The Last Enchantment

Source: The Last Enchantment

Wisdom

“I want to punish them. I want that punishment to be so hard, so vicious that the next who takes their place wets himself at the mere thought of trying to fight me.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Fight

“I pull my lower lip all the way in between my teeth. If I try hard enough, maybe I can gobble my whole self this way…. I didn't try hard enough to swallow myself.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Way

“I was in my bed trying to figure out why sometimes you can wake up and go back to sleep and other times you can't”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Sleep, Time

“I didn’t write that song to try and win you over, or to steal you away from him. I wrote it because I knew I never could.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

“Cynicism is not realistic and tough. It's unrealistic and kind of cowardly because it means you don't have to try. ---in Good Housekeeping”

Peggy Noonan (1950) American author and journalist

“Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Learning, Hurtful

“Trying to reason with an addict was like trying to blow out a lightbulb.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

“I felt a splinter of guilt wedge into my heart. Charlotte had hurt me; in return, I'd hurt Rob. Maybe that's what we do to the people we love: take shots in the dark and realize too late we've wounded the people we're trying to protect.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Love, People, Heart, Hurt

“If you are not trying to hold on to time, you are not so afraid of losing it.”

Suzanne Collins book Gregor the Overlander

Source: Gregor the Overlander

Time

“The irony of the process of thought control: the more energy you put into trying to control your ideas and what you think about, the more your ideas end up controlling you.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Source: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Idea, Thinking

“Takes a lot of tries before you hit perfection." He paused to reconsider that. "Well, except for my parents. They got it on the first try." (Adrian)”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Parent, Perfection

“The ghost of a smile flickered across his lips. ‘You’re always the voice of reason. Just try listening to yourself once in a while.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Smile

“I'm just enjoying my life. I suggest you try it.”

Tyler Perry (1966) American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, producer, author, and songwriter

Life

“It's like picking up an unfamiliar piece of sheet music & starting to stumble through it, only to realize it is a melody you'd once learned by heart, one you can play without even trying.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Music, Learning, Heart

“Have you noticed that whatever sport you're trying to learn, some earnest person is always telling you to keep your knees bent?”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Sport, Learning, Personality

“There's something sad about people going to bed. You can see they don't give a damn whether they're getting what they want out of life or not, you can see they don't even try to understand what we're here for. They just don't care.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

Life, People, Sadness, Understanding

“The rat was merely trying to sleep. Believe me, pup, if I had wanted to kill you we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” said Ripred.”

Suzanne Collins (1962) American television writer and novelist

Sleep

“I know it's important to do more than just complain when there's something you don't like. You need to try to do something about it, or you're nothing but a whiner.”

Jean Ferris (1939–2015) American children's writer

Source: Twice Upon a Marigold

“And Finally I put down the last and the best advice I knew, on growing older. 'Stand up straight and try not to get fat.”

Diana Gabaldon book Voyager

Source: Voyager

“You never know just what you can do until you try.”

Joseph Delaney (1945) British writer

Source: Revenge of the Witch

“Well, I try my best to be just like I am,
But everybody wants you to be just like them,
They sing while you slave and I just get bored”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, The Essential Bob Dylan (2000), Maggie's Farm
Variant: Well I tried my best to be just like I am, but everybody wants you to be just like them

Singing