Quotes about turn
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“Truly, everything in this world depended on time. Time ripened all. If you had time, you succeeded in working the human mud internally and turning it into spirit. Then you did not fear death. If you did not have time, you perished.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Last Temptation of Christ

Source: The Last Temptation of Christ

Death, World, Fear, Time

“Dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, which in turn dehumanizes the oppressed”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 1

“You are only as invincible as your smallest weakness, and those are tiny indeed - the length of a sleeping baby's eyelash, the span of a child's hand. Life turns on a dime, and - it turns out - so does one's conscience.”

Jodi Picoult Perfect Match

Source: Perfect Match

Life, Sleep, Baby

“Madness, mayhem, erotic vandalism, devastation of innumerable souls - while we scream and perish, History licks a finger and turns the page.”

Thomas Ligotti (1953) American horror author

Soul, History, Madness

“As Lacy waited for her turn to speak on Peter's behalf, she thought back to the first time she realized she could hate her own child.”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

Source: Nineteen Minutes

Hate, Time, Waiting

“And mortal terror in a female was Z's favorite turn-on. He got off on it like most males favored crap from Victoria's Secret.”

Jessica Bird book Dark Lover

Source: Dark Lover

Secret

“I love Nudge, Nudge is a great kid, but that motormouth of hers could
have turned Mother Teresa into an ax murderer”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Love

“We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

We Didn't Start the Fire.
Song lyrics, Storm Front (1989)

World, Light, Fight

“Gatsby turned out all right at the end; it is what preyed on Gatsby, what foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams that temporarily closed out my interest in the abortive sorrows and short-winded elations of men.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Men, Dreams

“What came first – the music or the misery? Did I listen to the music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to the music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

Music, Personality

“It's amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.”

Scott Westerfeld book Peeps

Variant: It’s amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.
Source: Peeps

Life, Nature

“For the life of her, she couldn't understand how such an obstinate, boneheaded chauvinist could make her pulse race and her insides turn to jelly.”

Joanne Fluke (1943) writer

Source: Blueberry Muffin Murder

Life, Understanding

“You can't trust water: Even a straight stick turns crooked in it.”

W.C. Fields (1880–1946) actor

Water

“Adrian suddenly made an abrupt turn onto a side street we'd nearly driven past. I jerked upright as he clipped the curb.
"What are you doing? Think about your tires!”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Jerk, Thinking, Past

“It feels like the whole world has turned upside down. There aren't any more rules.

Hey,' I say to Sam, because if the world's gone crazy, then I guess I can do whatever I want. "Guess what? I'm a worker.”

Holly Black book White Cat

Source: White Cat

World, Feeling

“Harper, your song has a sorrowful sound,
Though the tune was written as gay.
Your voice is sad and your hands are slow
And your eye meeting mine turns away.”

Anne McCaffrey book Dragonsong

Source: Dragonsong

Sadness

“We turned at a dozen paces, for love is a duel, and looked at each other for the last time.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Love, Time

“Fine." Magnus stood up. "But," he added, pausing by Alec's chair and leaning in close to him, "you are not trivial."
Alec flushed. "If you say so," he said.
"I say so," said Magnus, and he turned to follow Isabelle out of the room.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“Leo: “I can’t believe I thought you were hot.”
Khione’s face turned red. “Hot? You dare insult me? I am cold, Leo Valdez. Very, very cold.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

“I have accepted fear as part of life – specifically the fear of change… I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back….”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Life, Fear, Change, Heart

“Once he asked me what I thought had turned me gay."
"I hope you told him you were bitten by a gay spider," said Simon.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Hope

“The only time people turned to watch her go by was when she hurtled past them as she fell.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

People, Time, Past

“That's the thing about human life--there is no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would have turned out if any variables had been changed.”

Daniel Keyes book Flowers for Algernon

Source: Flowers for Algernon

Life, Way, Change

“there are robots among us. There are also Magicians among us. I think we take turns playing each role, as a matter of fact. The Magician defines a reality-mesh and the robot lives in it. Grok?”

Robert Anton Wilson (1932–2007) American author and polymath

Thinking, Reality

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

Men, Hope, Thinking

“When she comes
She pulls you close
She breathes in short bursts
Her eyes close
Her head tilts back
Her mouth opens slightly
Her thighs turn to steel, and then melt
She is perfect
And you feel like you are everything.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Source: The Portable Henry Rollins

Feeling, Perfection

“We turn to stories and pictures and music because they show us who and what and why we are.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Music

“He stopped, turned. He cupped his hands around his mouth. ''For you a thousand times over!'' he said. Then he smiled his Hassan smile and disappeared around the corner.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

Smile, Time

“No such thing as a hard woman, Memphis, just soft men. With that, I turned, and the others followed me.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Skin Trade

Source: Skin Trade

Men

“Happy Birthday."
Adrian came to a sudden halt. The words were soft and small, spoken tentatively, but easily discerned by vampire ears. Slowly, he turned around and found Jill Mastrano standing shyly before him.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Adrian's Lost Chapter

Happiness, Birthday

“Enthusiasm is more important than innate ability, it turns out, because the single more important element in developing an expertise is your willingness to practice.”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

“Miss," she gasped, and then her eyes went toWill. She clapped a hand over her mouth, turned, and bolted back into the house.
"Oh, dear," said Tessa.
"I have that effect on women," Will said.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Women, Housing

“Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite.”

Edward Albee (1928–2016) American playwright

Saturday Review (4 May 1966)

Truth, Reality

“I have so much hate that it has turned into love.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

Source: I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight

Love, Hate

“When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me. She looked toward the door, saw there was no one, then she sat on the side of the bed and leaned over and kissed me.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms

Source: A Farewell to Arms

Love, Kiss

“It was becoming clear to me that I shouldn't bother to get too attached to anything. Turn your back and you lose it. Just like that.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

“She had given birth to me and nursed me and brought me up. She had known me before I knew myself and now she had no say in the matter. Life started out one thing and then suddenly turned a corner and became something else.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

Life, Birth

“His Back was turned to the end of the world and the end of the world was quiet.”

Anne Rice Taltos

Source: Taltos

World

“You can turn painful situations around through laughter. If you can find humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it.”

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

Pain, Laughter

“As he poured carefully, Arrow's head turned toward the sound. The horse made a low grumbling noise in his throat.
"Hold your horses," he said. The he laughed. It seemed absurd to say tat to a horse.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: Erak's Ransom

Horse

“And how did your day go?" I asked Ascanio.
He turned to me, a dreamy look on his pretty face. "We killed things. There was blood. Fountains of blood. And then we had barbecue.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Gifts

“Dear God, Tatiana prayed in bed that night, turning to the wall and pulling the white sheet and the thin brown blanket over herself. If You are there somewhere, please teach me how to hide what I never knew how to show.”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Source: The Bronze Horseman

God, Night

“Life, it turns out, goes on. There is no cosmic rule that grants you immunity from the details just because you have come face-to-face with a catastrophe. The garbage can still overflow, the bills arrive in the mail, telemarketers, interrupt dinner.”

Jodi Picoult Perfect Match

Source: Perfect Match

Life

“It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility.”

Rachel Carson (1907–1964) American marine biologist and conservationist

Source: The Sense of Wonder

Beauty, Sense

“He found himself wanting to write poetry about how her blue eyes were like starlight and her hair like night, because "night" and "starlight" rhymed, but he had a feeling the poem wouldn't turn out that well…”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Feeling, Night

“Don't turn over the rocks if you don't want to see the pale creatures who live under them.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

“The surprise is on the far side."
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
"It better not be another fairy," Seth said.
"What's the matter with fairies?"
"I've already seen about a billion of them and also they turned me into a walrus.”

Brandon Mull Fablehaven

Source: Fablehaven

“That’s why; he’s worried about how his life is turning out, and he’s lonely, and lonely people are the bitterest of them all”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

Life, People

“When every situation which life can offer is turned to the profit of spiritual growth, no situation can really be a bad one.”

Paul Brunton (1898–1981) British philosopher

Life

“When a man takes a mistress, he doesn't turn around and divorce his wife.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

“Turn it off," Ryodan says without even looking at me. "You're distressing Dani. No one distresses Dani but me.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

“At the same time, my anxiety had turned into an anxiety quite lacking in anxiousness. And any anxiety that is not especially anxious is, in the end, an anxiety hardly worth mentioning.”

Haruki Murakami book The Strange Library

Source: The Strange Library

Time

“Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

Source: Night

Children, Forgetting

“For, dear me, why abandon a belief,
Merely because it ceases to be true,
Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt,
It will turn true again, for so it goes.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Source: The Poetry of Robert Frost

“I didn't need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.”

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

Source: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

Life, Understanding, Tree

“The sun, an hour above the horizon, is poised like a bloody egg upon a crest of thunderheads; the light has turned copper: in the eye portentous, in the nose sulphurous, smelling of lightning.”

William Faulkner book As I Lay Dying

Source: As I Lay Dying

Light, Sun

“Ivan tells Anna: "I used to imagine that being embraced by a woman… as something so wonderful that it would make me forget everthing… [But] happiness, it turns out, will be to share with you the burden I can't share with anyone else.”

Vasily Grossman (1905–1964) Soviet writer and journalist who originally trained as an engineer

Source: Everything Flows

Happiness, Imagination, Forgetting

“So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked toward the sun, and walked into the sky.”

Philip Pullman book Northern Lights

Source: The Golden Compass

World, Sun

“I know part of what turns me on so hard, makes me so violent with lust, is that he's dangerous. I fell for the bad guy. I'm crazy about the one who's trouble. The alpha that doesn't play well with others and doesn't take orders from anyone.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

Guy, Parting

“Good luck, boss. Don't let'em turn you into horse meat! (Blackjack)”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

Horse

“… he was like a man who stands upon a hill above the town he had left, yet does not say 'The town is near,' but turns his eyes upon the distant soaring ranges.”

Thomas Wolfe book Look Homeward, Angel

Source: Look Homeward, Angel

Distant

“When the heart is open, it's easier for the mind to be turned toward God.”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

God, Heart

“But the world turns, and even legends change; and somewhere there is a border, and sometime, perhaps, someone will decide to cross it, however well guarded its thorns may be.”

Robin McKinley (1952) American fantasy writer

Source: The Door in the Hedge

World, Change

“A woman's love is quick to turn into a passion for revenge--an obsession that becomes an endless river of blood, flowing on from generation to generation.”

Fumiko Enchi book Masks

Source: Masks

Love, Revenge, Passion

“She took a deep breath, "Last chance. Are you in need of rescuing?"
His expression turned very strange, almost as if she'd struck him, "Yes," he said finally.”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Chance

“What I thought was an end
turned out to be a middle.
What I thought was a brick wall
turned out to be a tunnel.
What I thought was an injustice
turned out to be a color of the sky.”

Tony Hoagland (1953–2018) American writer

Color

“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”

Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist

Time, Personality

“Good writing is remembering detail. Most people want to forget. Don't forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth.”

Paula Danziger (1945–2004) American children's writer

Pain, People, Truth, Forgetting

“Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasise from truth and beauty to comfort and hapiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Mustapha Mond, in Ch. 16
Source: Brave New World (1932)
Context: I'm interested in truth, I like science. But truth's a menace, science is a public danger. As dangerous as it's been beneficent. … It's curious … to read what people in the time of Our Ford used to write about scientific progress. They seemed to imagine that it could go on indefinitely, regardless of everything else. Knowledge was the highest good, truth the supreme value; all the rest was secondary and subordinate. True, ideas were beginning to change even then. Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasise from truth and beauty to comfort and hapiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't. And, of course, whenever the masses seized political power, then it was happiness rather than truth and beauty that mattered. Still, in spite of everything, unrestricted scientific resarch was still permitted. People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were sovereign goods. Right up to the time of the Nine Years' War. That made them change their tune all right. What's the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you? That was when science first began to be controlled — after the Nine Years' War. People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We've gone on controlling ever since. It hasn't been very good for truth, of course. But it's been very good for happiness. One can't have something for nothing. Happiness has got to be paid for.

Happiness, Truth, Beauty, Universe

“Feelings aren't sensible. Sometimes you fall in love with people who don't make sense. And the ones who do make sense turn out to be the wrong ones.”

Danielle Steel book Legacy

Source: Legacy

Love, People, Feeling, Sense

“My friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Life, Beauty, Way

“Endings are beginnings, and beginnings are ours to turn into something good.”

Elizabeth Chandler (1954) writer

Source: Everlasting

“I thought we’d turned a corner. Maybe we did, but we hit a brick wall anyway.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

“I'm not sure anyone's life turns out exactly the way they imagine. All we can do is to try to make the best of it. Even when it seems impossible.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Alex Wheatley, Chapter 25, p. 208
Source: 2009, Safe Haven (2010)

Life, Way, Imagination

“Turn down the porn soundtrack! Trying to concentrate here!-Shane”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

“So I am death" Charlie said then turned to his daughter while buttering his toast.

"This is death toast sweety.”

Christopher Moore book A Dirty Job

Source: A Dirty Job

Death, Daughters

“We may need to focus here.'
'Right. Yes. OK. Turn around.'
'Are you going to throw something at me?'
'What? No, I'm getting out of bed.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

“Think of every single thing that we 'have to' do to get through a day as something that we 'get to' do… before our turn is over.

Everything is a gift.”

Mike Dooley (1961) American writer

Thinking

“Facts are simple and facts are straight.
Facts are lazy and facts are late.
Facts all come with points of view.
Facts don't do what I want them to.
Facts just twist the truth around.
Facts are living turned inside out.”

David Byrne (1952) Scottish alternative rock musician and promoter of world music

Truth

“turn and turn and turn again
you see the what, but not the when
remedy and wrong entwine
and so they form a single vine”

Suzanne Collins Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

Source: Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

“Can you turn so you’re not pressed against me?”

“I could,” he said, his voice amused. “But then you would have to lie on top of me.”

My brain said, “NO.” My body went, “Wheee!”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

Lie

“Wait!" Conrad said. "Did someone… one of my enemies set this fire?"
Nix turned back with a grin. "Unless you'd pissed off some wirring-hungry nutrias, then I'm going with no.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dark Needs at Night's Edge

Waiting

“A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.”

Robert Benchley (1889–1945) American comedian

"Your Boy and His Dog," Liberty magazine, (30 July 1932) <br class="br">Also published in Chips Off the Old Benchley http://books.google.com/books?id=1-gHw9bqQqAC&q=%22A+dog+teaches+a+boy+fidelity+perseverance+and+to+turn+around+three+times+before+lying+down%22&pg=PA94#v=onepage (1949)

Dogs, Boy, Lying, Time

“Our last impression of her as she turned the corner was that smile, flung backward like a handful of flowers.”

Wallace Stegner book Crossing to Safety

Source: Crossing to Safety

Smile, Flowers