Quotes about use
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“Inigo Montoya: He's right on top of us. I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using.”

Source: The Princess Bride

“The world, this palpable world, which we were wont to treat with the boredom and disrespect with which we habitually regard places with no sacred association for us, is in truth a holy place, and we did not know it. Venite, adoremus.”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

Truth, World

“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

“If the events of September 11, 2001, have proven anything, it's that the terrorists can attack us, but they can't take away what makes us American -- our freedom, our liberty, our civil rights. No, only Attorney General John Ashcroft can do that.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

Freedom

“Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a new way to stand.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Way, Search, Fight

“Ranger declined the butterscotch pudding, not wanting to disrupt the consistency of his blood sugar level. I had two puddings and coffee, choosing to keep my pancreas at peak performance. Use it or lose it is my philosophy.”

Janet Evanovich Three to Get Deadly

Source: Three to Get Deadly

Coffee

“So when a dragon is directly over you, well, even if you're me and you're kind of used to it, your medulla oblongata is still telling you 'the sky is falling, you're about to die, run like hell.”

Robin McKinley Dragonhaven

Source: Dragonhaven

Hell

“Break the glass, please, and free us from all these damned rules, from needing to find an explanation for everything, from doing only what others approve of.”

Paulo Coelho book By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

Source: By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“i wish the whole world was dead serious about food instead of silly rockets and machines and explosives using everybody's food money to blow their heads off anyway.”

Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums

Source: The Dharma Bums

Money, World, Food, Dead

“All life battles teach us something, even those we lose”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Life

“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

“He saw that no one owned anything really. It's all rented, or borrowed. Our possessions will outlast us, we'll desert them in the end.”

Ian McEwan book Saturday

Source: Saturday

“My ma used to say that crying is good for you. Tears are the path that free your mind of sorrowful thoughts.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Retribution

Tear, Cry

“I watched him, filled with tenderness and ache, wondering what it was that connected us. Was it the wounded places down inside people that sought each other out, that bred a kind of love between them?”

Sue Monk Kidd book The Secret Life of Bees

Source: The Secret Life of Bees

Love, People

“I am convinced that there are genuine and valid levels of perception available with cannabis (and probably with other drugs) which are, through the defects of our society and our educational system, un-available to us without such drugs.”

Lester Grinspoon (1928–2020) American physician

Source: Marihuana Reconsidered

Education

“How do you know about Boy George? (Jesse)
I was in hell, Jesse. What do you think they used to torture me with? Bad pop songs. (Xypher)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Chaser

Boy, Hell, Thinking

“Then a homeless man with a dog approached us and put his hand out. This happens to be something that I have a real problem with: homeless people with pets who approach you for food when they have a perfectly delicious dog standing right there?”

Chelsea Handler book Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

Source: Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

People, Food, Dogs, Problem

“America's political system used to be about the pursuit of happiness. Now More and more of us want to stop chasing it and have it delivered.”

Jonah Goldberg (1969) American political writer and pundit

Source: Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

Happiness

“Go in and get us a shrunken head!”

Ellen Schreiber book Vampire Kisses

Source: Vampire Kisses

“A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us.”

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

Source: Walden, or Life in the Woods

Grass

“All sixteen mentioned her jutting ribs, the insubstantiality of her thighs, and one, who went up to the roof with Lux during a warm winter rain, told us how the basins of her collarbones collected water.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Virgin Suicides

Source: The Virgin Suicides

Water, Winter

“I am concentrating docilely on the question why U. S. restrooms always appear to us as infirmaries for public distress, the place to reagain control.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Question, Appearance

“Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave, and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another along the way.”

Alice Childress (1916–1994) American playwright and author

Life, Way

“It's all your fault, Mother,' said Larry austerely; 'you shouldn't have brought us up to be so selfish.' 'I like that!' exclaimed Mother. 'I never did anything of the sort!' 'Well, we didn't get as selfish as this without some guidance,' said Larry.”

Gerald Durrell book My Family and Other Animals

Source: My Family and Other Animals

Selfishness

“You told us to leave you in the desert, because you planned to start a new life as cactus," Catarina said, her voice flat. "Then you conjured up tiny needles and threw them at us. With pinpoint accuracy.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: What Really Happened in Peru

Life

“It would be better for us to have some doubts in an honest pursuit of truth, than it would be for us to be certain about something that was not true.”

Daniel Wallace (1959) American author

Truth

“I used to think that it was better to have too much than too little, but now I think if the too much was never supposed to be yours, you should just take what is yours and give the rest back.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: The Book of Tomorrow

Thinking

“I'm not the hero, Mac. Never have been. Never will be. Let us be perfectly clear: I'm not the antihero, either, so quit waiting to discover my hidden potential. There's nothing to redeem me.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

Waiting

“Passion I hate, and spirit does me wrong. Let us love gently.”

Charles Baudelaire book Les Fleurs du mal

Source: Les Fleurs du Mal

Love, Hate, Passion

“Goddamn it, do it yourself. You’re five hundred years old and you can’t use a telephone? Read the directions. What are you, an immortal idiot?”

Anne Rice book The Queen of the Damned

Source: The Queen of the Damned

Reading

“We can be cruelest to those who remind us of ourselves.” “Ty”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

“Need some help?' he asked.
'Yes!' I yelled at him 'Help us!'
'What's the magic word?'
'Now!'
'Close enough.”

Michelle Rowen (1971) Canadian writer

Source: Dark Kiss

Help

“That word again. Happy. It’s a curse. The pursuit of happiness makes us deeply unhappy. It’s a trap. Before anything else happened, there was me in bed, thinking of who you used to be.
I don’t want you to think I forgot.”

David Levithan book Every You, Every Me

Source: Every You, Every Me

Happiness, Thinking

“I suppose a cry does us all good at times-clears the air as other rain does.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

Time, Cry

“Then you're a bigger fool than I thought. Since when has any man ever been worthy of the woman he loved? It's only by God's grace that they love us in spite of ourselves.”

Teresa Medeiros (1962) American writer

Source: The Bride and the Beast

Love, God, Fools

“Everyone we've lost, we'll find. Or they'll find us.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

“It was only after her death that I realized who she was: the apparently magical force at the center of our family who'd kept us all invisibly spinning in the powerful orbit around her.”

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, Family

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter - to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Light, Future

“We do not want to be beginners [at prayer]. but let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything but beginners, all our life!”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Life

“Professor Henry Higgins: There even are places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!”

Alan Jay Lerner (1918–1986) lyricist and librettist from the United States

Source: My Fair Lady

“Veins practically popping out of his neck, the jerk leaned out his window and yelled a bunch of swear words, including a new one I tucked away in my brain for future use, if necessary.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Jerk, Future

“What is important is the story. Because when we are all dust and teeth and kicked-up bits of skin - when we're dancing with our own skeletons - our words might be all that's left of us.”

Alexandra Fuller (1969) Zimbabwean writer

Source: Scribbling the Cat

Dance

“We were given the Scriptures to humble us into realizing that God is right, and the rest of us are just guessing.”

Rich Mullins (1955–1997) American christian musician

Lufkin, Texas http://www.kidbrothers.net/words/concert-transcripts/lufkin-texas-jul1997-full.html (July 19, 1997) <br class="br">In Concert <br class="br">Context: It starts off so beautifully and then at the end of that Psalm, the last verse of that Psalm is “How very blessed is the man who dashes the little one’s heads against the rocks.” This is not the sort of scripture you read at a pro-life meeting. But it’s in there none the less. Which is the thing about the Bible that’s why it always cracks me up when people say ‘Well in Dududududududududududududu it says’ you kinda go ‘Wow it says a lot of things in there.’ Proof texting is a very dangerous thing. I think if we were given the scriptures it was not so that we could prove that we were right about everything. If we were given the scriptures it was to humble us into realizing that God is right and the rest of us are just guessing. Which is what makes them so much fun to read, especially if you are not a fundamentalist.

God

“There comes a precious moment in all of our lives when we are tapped on the shoulder and offered the opportunity to do something very special that is unique to us and our abilities, what a tragedy it would be if we are not ready or willing.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

“the pain we suffer is a way to make us appreciate what comes next.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The First Phone Call from Heaven

Pain, Way, Suffering

“Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

Books, Art, Way, Personality

“I used to think the worst feeling in the world is losing someone you love. But I was wrong the worst feeling in the world is the moment that you realize you've lost yourself.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Love, World, Feeling, Thinking

“That which we manifest is before us.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Maybe we all just wanted someone to believe in. That's all each of us wanted, and it should be so simple, but it never was simple.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Six Rules of Maybe

“I don't trust society to protect us, I have no intention of placing my fate in the hands of men whose only qualification is that they managed to con a block of people to vote for them.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

Men, Fate, People

“Meg's high-heeled slippers were dreadfully tight, and hurt her, though she would not own it; and Jo's nineteen hair-pins all seemed stuck straight into her head, which was not exactly comfortable; but, dear me, let us be elegant or die.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Hurt

“Rule number one of the wizarding business. Never let them see you sweat. People expect us to know things. It can be a big advantage. Don’t screw it up by looking like you’re as confused as everyone else. Bad for the image.”

Jim Butcher Proven Guilty

Source: Proven Guilty

People, Business

“I hope some historian will confirm that I was the first cartoonist to use the word 'booger' in a newspaper comic strip.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book

Hope

“Let us sacrifice one day to gain perhaps a whole life.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Life

“We want to make good time, but for us now this is measured with the emphasis on "good" rather than on "time"….”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Time

“trust your heart but use your head”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: Gentle Warrior

Heart

“To give preference to the life of a being simply because that being is a member of our species would put us in the same position as racists who give preference to those who are members of their race.”

Peter Singer book Practical Ethics

Peter Singer - The Genius of Darwin: The Uncut Interviews - Richard Dawkins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYYNY2oKVWU, 2009. <br class="br">Source: Practical Ethics <br class="br">Context: Speciesism is an attitude of prejudice towards beings because they're not members of our species, so just as racism means that you're prejudiced against beings who are not members of your race and sexism means you're prejudiced against people of the other sex. So we humans tend to be speciesist in we think that any being that is a member of the species homo sapien just automatically has a higher moral status and is more important than any being that is a member of any other species, irrespective of the actual characteristics of those beings.

Life

“Not seeing people permits us to imagine them with every perfection.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

People, Imagination, Perfection

“Tragedy is when someone ends up dead. Everything else is just a bump in the road. For the record, that was something Daddy used to say.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: All These Things I've Done

Dead

“What a delighted fascination it is, to stand aside and watch our dearest friend perform on stage without us.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“We're all blessed and we're all blighted, Chief Inspector," said Finney. "Everyday each of us does our sums. The question is, what do we count?”

Louise Penny (1958) Canadian woman writer

Source: A Rule Against Murder

Question

“If God did not intend for us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat?”

John Cleese (1939) actor from England

As quoted in W.T.F.? : (What Is Wrong With Tom Faerie?)‎ (2006) by H. M. Leathem

God, Animals, Funny

“Because I'm selfish. I'm a coward. I'm the kind of girl who, when she might actually be of use, would run to stay alive and leave those who couldn't follow to suffer and die.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Girl, Suffering, Selfishness

“It’s what we chase but never find. It is the mystery of our lives, the understanding that even when we have everything we want it is one day to leave us. It’s the something unseen, the lurking devastation, the darkness that gives our lives dimension.”

Marisha Pessl (1977) American writer

Source: Night Film

Understanding

“Grief and disappointment are like hate: they make men ugly with self-pity and bitterness. And how selfish they make us too.”

Graham Greene (1904–1991) English writer, playwright and literary critic

Men, Hate, Disappointment, Selfishness

“What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.”

B.F. Skinner Walden Two

Source: Walden Two

Love

“Constellations shine with light that was emitted aeons ago, and I wait for something to come to me, words that a poet might use to illuminate life's mysteries. But there is nothing.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Wedding

Source: The Wedding

Life, Light, Waiting

“Let us have the luxury of silence.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Silence

“I was twenty then. What the hell, I used to say, take your time, Bandini. You got ten years to write a book, so take it easy, get out and learn about life, walk the streets. That’s your trouble: your ignorance of life.”

John Fante book Ask the Dust

Source: Ask the Dust

Life, Books, Hell, Learning

“If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

"The Beauty of Life," a lecture before the Birmingham Society of Arts and School of Design (19 February 1880), later published in Hopes and Fears for Art: Five Lectures Delivered in Birmingham, London, and Nottingham, 1878 - 1881 (1882).

Beauty, Housing