Quotes about well
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“What problems?" "Well for starters.. you're an evil duck killer.”

Source: The Last Song

“I found that things weren't going well upstairs.
Carter was a crumpled heap of chicken warrior on the slope of the pyramid.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“Do you even really know how vampires are made?'
'Well, when a mommy vampire and a daddy vampire love each other very much…”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Simon, pg. 8
Variant: Well, when a mommy vampire and a daddy vampire love each other very much...
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Fallen Angels (2011)

Love

“He might as well plant an oak in a flower-pot, and expect it to thrive, as imagine he can restore her to vigour in the soil of his shallow cares!”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff (Ch. XIV).
Source: Wuthering Heights (1847)
Context: You talk of her mind being unsettled - how the devil could it be otherwise, in her frightful isolation? And that insipid, paltry creature attending her from duty and humanity! From pity and charity. He might as well plant an oak in a flower-pot, and expect it to thrive, as imagine he can restore her to vigour in the soil of his shallow cares!

Imagination, Flowers

“Everyone says that I have no sense of humor, then I construct a perfectly sound pun around a well-known psychological condition, and it is ignored.”

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

Source: The Lost Colony

Sense

“When life gives you lemons… You might as well shove 'em where the sun don't shine, because you sure as hell aren't ever going to see any lemonade.”

Rob Thurman (1950) American writer

Source: Nightlife

Life, Hell, Sun

“It was such a weird thing how a breakup stretched much wider than you expected. You didn't just lose a person, but their entire world as well.”

Sarah Dessen book The Moon and More

Source: The Moon and More

World, Personality

“I had as well be killed running as die standing”

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman

“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Life

“I'd have to kill Dimitri for real this time and lose any chance I might have to bring back my prince. Damn. It's a good thing I work well under pressure.”

Richelle Mead Blood Promise

Source: Blood Promise

Chance, Time

“Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Life

“But as I have noticed on more than one occaision, life itself is unfair, and there is no complaint department, so we might as well accept things the way they happen, clean up the mess, and move on.”

Jeff Lindsay book Dexter in the Dark

Source: Dexter in the Dark

Life, Way

“My idea of good company, Mr. Eliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.”

Jane Austen book Persuasion

Source: Persuasion

People, Idea

“Art – the one achievement of man which has made the long trip up from all fours seem well advised”

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

Art

“If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of its music will furnish the answer.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Music

“It may be well to repeat here the saying that old men talk of what they have done, young men of what they are doing, and fools of what they expect to do. The Negro race has a rather large share of the last mentioned class.”

Carter G. Woodson book The Mis-Education of the Negro

Source: The Mis-Education of the Negro

Men, Fools

“My prayer is simple my dear one, my dear one. May you never need understand. My prayer is for peacetime, my child, my child. Live it well and this life can be grand.”

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Hawksong

Source: Hawksong

Life, Understanding

“Most of the people I admire, they usually smell funny and don't get out much. It's true. Most of them are either dead or not feeling well.”

Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor

People, Feeling, Dead

“Whatever happened to him?" Silk asked.
"He went swimming in the Nedrane."
"I didn't know that Thulls swam all that well."
"They don't–particularly not with large rocks tied to their feet.”

David Eddings book Queen of Sorcery

Source: Queen of Sorcery

“To be prosperous and happy in life, Henry, it is simple. Pick one woman, pick it well, and surrender.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

Source: The Signature of All Things

Life, Happiness

“We will stand bravely with you!” Malcolm announced. Catarina looked darkly at him, and he quailed. “Well, we will stand bravely near you. Or at least within earshot.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Maia Roberts and Malcolm Fade, pg. 404
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)
Context: We don't have a mouse problem,' said Maia. 'We have a megalomaniac problem.' She looked at Catarina. 'Sebastian's determined to drive wedges between Downworlders and Shadowhunters. Kidnapping the representatives, attacking the Praetor, he won't stop there. All of Downworld will know soon enough what's going on. The question is, where will they stand?'
'We will stand bravely with you!' Malcolm announced. Catarina looked darkly at him, and he quailed. 'Well, we will stand bravely near you. Or at least within earshot.

“A lie is an affront to the soul, as well as an insult to the intelligence of the person to whom one lies.”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Source: Something Wonderful

Lie, Soul, Intelligence, Personality

“And that was it; it was so easy for her. My own memories did not even belong to me. But I knew she was wrong. I had seen that comet. I knew it as well as I knew my own face, my own hands. My own heart.”

Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer

Source: Someone Like You

Memory, Heart

“Hell, it is well known, has no fury like a woman who wants her tea and can't get it.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Source: Very Good, Jeeves!

Hell, Tea

“You promised you would protect her Nico said.
He might as well have stabbed me with a rusty dagger. It would've hurt less than reminding me of my promise.”

Rick Riordan book The Titan's Curse

Source: The Titan's Curse

Hurt

“Bury the dead. Say Robinson Crusoe was true to life. Well then Friday buried him. Every Friday buries a Thursday if you come to look at it.”

James Joyce Ulysses

Source: Ulysses

Life, Dead

“Now… well, after what happened in Tartarus, it seemed like Percy had graduated to a totally different level of butt-kickery.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

“It is true that I do not speak as well as I can think. But that is true of most people, as nearly as I can tell.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

People, Thinking

“King Lear: What is your name?
Kent / Caius: Caius.
King Lear: And whence do you hale?
Kent / Caius: From Bonking, Sire.
King Lear: Well, yes, lad as do we all.”

Christopher Moore book Fool

Source: Fool (2009)

“As I'm never going to be old, I'm glad that I never lost my sense of wonder about the world, although I have a hunch it would have happened pretty soon. I loved the world, its beauty and bigness as well as its smallness.”

Douglas Coupland Hey Nostradamus!

Source: Hey Nostradamus!

Love, World, Beauty, Sense

“The point wasn’t that you tried to live forever; the point was that you lived, and did everything you could to live well. The point was the choices you made and the people you loved.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Angels Twice Descending

Love, People

“I know you’re going to find this hard to believe, but for some reason I don’t understand, I actually like you…most of the time. (Simone)
Well, you also love Jesse. Obviously your taste in men leaves a lot to be desired. (Xypher)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Dream Chaser

Love, Men, Understanding, Time

“Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet

Happiness

“Music is well said to be the speech of angels.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

The Opera (1852).
1820s, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855)

Music, Angels

“Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift.”

Maya Angelou book Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

Source: Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

Love, Life, Pleasure, World

“If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

“Earrings are like orgasms. You can never have too many."
" I never thought about it quite that way."
Well, you're a man. " She gave his knee a friendly pat.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Daring to Dream

Way

“My son, what you are attempting – shadow-travel across the world, carrying the statue of Athena – it may well destroy you.’
‘Thanks for the encouragement.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

World, Travel

“What am I supposed to do,
Sit around and wait for you?
Well I can't do that,
And there's no turning back.
I need time to move on,
I need love to feel strong.
Cause I've got time to think it through,
And maybe I'm too good for you!”

Cher (1946) American singer and actress

Love, Feeling, Thinking, Strong

“Well, first you have to be very, very funny. I have realized that it is essential for a boy to be funny. Otherwise, what is the point in a boy?”

Jaclyn Moriarty (1968) Australian writer

Source: The Year of Secret Assignments

Boy

“Sometimes, dear brother, I know so well what I want. I am quite able to do without God, both in my life and in my painting, but what I cannot do without, unwell as I am, is something greater than myself, which is my life, the power to create.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Life, God, Painting

“James had given his heart to this
girl, Magnus thought, and Magnus knew
well enough from Edmund and Will what
it meant when a Herondale gave his heart
away. It was not a gift that could be
returned.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Midnight Heir

Girl, Heart

“The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

“And the memories of all we have loved stay and come back to us in the evening of our life. They are not dead but sleep, and it is well to gather a treasure of them.”

Vincent Van Gogh book The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Source: The Letters of Vincent van Gogh

Love, Life, Sleep, Memory

“Though their life was modest, they believed in eating well.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

Source: Dubliners

Life

“I imagine the earth when I am no more:
Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born,
Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.”

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator

Women, People, Books, Imagination

“When you expect the world to end at any moment, you know there is no need to hurry. You take your time, you do your work well.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

World, Time

“It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, "Wait on time."”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

"Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution", sermon at the National Cathedral, 31 March 1968, published in A Testament of Hope (1986)
1960s
Source: A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches

People, Silence, Time, Waiting

“All you need to know is that I have an old enemy pretending to be me. (Acheron)
Why? (Talon)
Well, it obviously isn’t to be nice to me and win over my friends, now is it? (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Night Embrace

Source: Night Embrace

“How can one be well… when one suffers morally?”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

Suffering

“Poison!" Grover yelped. "Don't let those things touch you or…"
"Or we'll die?" I guessed.
"Well… after you shrivel slowly to dust, yes."
"Let's avoid the swords," I decided.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

“Guess we're going north," Dev said slowly.
"Everyone, follow Lassie. Timmy's in the well.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: No Mercy

“Well, what I mean is that I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding, if I could be one without having a husband.”

Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd

Wedding

“And we will cause it to be well-made, this Sacrifice. You, young and never loving; I, old and never loved. Such a Song the Sea will never have seen.”

Diane Duane book Deep Wizardry

Source: Deep Wizardry

Love, Sea

“I wanted for the moments in my life to follow each other and order themselves like those of a life remembered. It would be just as well to try to catch time by the tail.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Nausea (1938)
Source: Nausea, The Wall and Other Stories

Life, Time

“In matters of the heart as well, a certain level of negativity and suspicion is universally recommended. You may try to project a thoroughly positive outlook in order to attract a potential boyfriend, but you are also advised to Google him.”

Barbara Ehrenreich (1941) American writer and journalist

Universe, Heart

“We are our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.”

Tom Robbins book Still Life with Woodpecker

Source: Still Life with Woodpecker

“Sebastian: YOU'RE Ragnor Fell the warlock?
Magnus: Well, I'm certainly not Ragnor Fell the exotic dancer”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Variant: Well, I'm certainly not Ragnor Fell the exotic dancer.
Source: City of Glass

“Well, I live a double life. Tonight, I'll escort you to dinner. Then I have to rush home and finish my calculus homework.'
'You're not joking, are you?'
'I never joke about calculus homework.”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Life, Home

“They're betting on how long I'll live!" I burst out. "They're not my friends!"

"Well, try and pretend!" snaps Effie. Then she composes herself and beams at me. "See, like this. I'm smiling at you even though you're aggravating me.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Smile

“Oh, yeah?" Leo growled. "Well, maybe you got the smoke, buddy, but I've got the fire.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“Sookie," Eric said. I didn't think he'd heard a word. "Yield to me."
Well, that was pretty direct.”

Charlaine Harris book Living Dead in Dallas

Source: Living Dead in Dallas

Thinking

“Nothing is ever quite right, is it, after a parent dies? No matter how well things go, something always feels slightly off…”

Jenna Blum book Het familieportret

Source: Those Who Save Us

Feeling, Parent

“Inertia iseasy—don't fix what's not broken. Leave well enough alone. So we end up accepting whatbroken, mistaking complaining for action, procrastinating for deliberation.”

Justina Chen (1968) American writer

Source: North of Beautiful

“… when we say we're looking for a spiritual adviser, we're really looking for someone to tell us what to do with our bodies. Decisions of the flesh. We forget to learn from pleasure as well as pain.”

Anne Michaels book Fugitive Pieces

Source: Fugitive Pieces

Pain, Pleasure, Decision, Learning

“We came here for a small, informal meeting. We find you've turned it into a circus. Well, if you're going to have a circus, you've got to have elephants.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

“Leo frowned at the giant's spire. "Can't we blow it up or something?"
"Without me, you do not have the power," Hera said. "You might as well try to destroy a mountain."
"Done that once today," Jason said.”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Mountain

“If you're going to kick authority in the teeth, you might as well use two feet.”

Keith Richards (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones

Source: Keith Richards: In His Own Words

“I shouldn't precisely have chosen madness if there had been any choice, but once such a thing has taken hold of you, you can't very well get out of it.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Madness

“Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.”

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

The portion after the second semicolon is widely paraphrased or misquoted. Two examples are "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" and "There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong."
1910s
Source: "The Divine Afflatus" in New York Evening Mail (16 November 1917); later published in Prejudices: Second Series (1920) and A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)

Problem, Time

“As you see, it is not that I don't know my own mind, I know it very well but only up to a certain point in the matter. I know perfectly well what the question is. It's the answer I want.”

Alessandro Baricco (1958) Italian writer

Source: Ocean Sea: Love, Murder & Betrayal in Almayer Inn

Question

“The truth is the last thing that matters,' she said. 'And you can believe one thing of the truth and me: I keep it well hidden, inside my heart.”

Philippa Gregory book The Virgin's Lover

Source: The Virgin's Lover

Truth, Heart

“The better you learn to take care of yourself, the less you settle for being around people who can't or won't treat you as well as you're accustomed.”

Curtis Sittenfeld (1975) Novelist, short story writer

People, Learning

“Anyone who calls it "sexual intercourse" can't possibly be interested in actually doing it. You might as well announce you're ready for lunch by proclaiming, "I'd like to do some masticating and enzyme secreting.”

Allan Sherman (1924–1973) American comedian

Secret

“A man is not entitled to be called a father merely because he once had a well-timed spasm of the loins.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Marrying Winterborne

Time

“I looked out the window for other passengers in love with their drivers, but we were well disguised, we pretended boredom and prayed for traffic.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

Source: No One Belongs Here More Than You

Love

“It was beautiful Eric, who desired me, who was hungry for me, in a world that often let me know it could do very well without me.”

Charlaine Harris book Dead to the World

Source: Dead to the World

World, Beauty

“To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of 26 and 18 is to do pretty well”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Source: Northanger Abbey

Happiness, Age, Perfection

“It's not your fate to be well treated," Ignatius cried. "You're an overt masochist. Nice treatment will confuse and destroy you.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces

Fate

“All my life, I thought of love as some kind of voluntary enslavement. Well, that's a lie: freedom only exists when love is present. The person who gives him or herself wholly, the person who feels freest, is the person who loves most wholeheartedly.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Love, Life, Lie, Feeling

“Oh, very well, do you want to know why I really think you should keep a journal?"
She nodded.
"Because someday you're going to grow into yourself, and you will be as beautiful as you already are smart.”

Julia Quinn book The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever

Source: The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever

Beauty, Thinking

“Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.”

Harold Bloom (1930–2019) American literary critic and scholar

Pleasure, Solitude, Reading

“A man's plumbing is like his mind: simple, very few surprises. You ladies, on the other hand… well, God put a lot of thought in making you.”

Khaled Hosseini (1965) novelist

God

“You don't call Acheron 'babe.' (Valerius)
You don't call Acheron 'babe' because… well, that's just sick. But I call him 'babe' all the time. (Tabitha)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Seize the Night

Time

“As long as she is alive and well and happy in this world, I will find a way to be happy as well, even if it is not beside her”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Happiness, World, Way

“In every bit of honest writing in the world … there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

Journal entry (1938), quoted in the Introduction to a 1994 edition of Of Mice and Men by Susan Shillinglaw, p. vii
Context: In every bit of honest writing in the world … there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.

Love, Men, Hate, World

“To be in love
Is to touch with a lighter hand.
In yourself you stretch, you are well.”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

"To Be In Love"
Variant: To be in love
Is to touch with a lighter hand.
Source: Selected Poems

Love

“Fight only in direst need
Not for lust or petty greed
Honor those that do give birth
Respect them well for their full worth”

Anne McCaffrey book Dragon Harper

Source: Dragon Harper

Birth, Fight

“It isn't whether you do it well or ill, it's that you do it all.”

Gregory Maguire book Son of a Witch

Source: Son of a Witch

“I supposed if you were going to make a career of breaking laws, you might as well know them.”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

Law

“You…you need to move on,” I managed. Yes, that was a sound reason. “You need to find someone else. You know I don’t—that I can’t. Well, you know. You’re wasting your time with me.”

He remained firm. “It’s my time to waste.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Time

“The three saddest things are the ill wanting to be well, the poor wanting to be rich, and the constant traveler saying 'anywhere but here'.”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

Travel

“But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either, which is infamous, or, which is imbecile.”

Patrick O'Brian book Master and Commander

Source: Master and Commander (1970)
Context: “But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, or my country is always right, which is imbecile.”