Quotes about well
page 5

“Pride is all very well, but a sausage is a sausage.”

Terry Pratchett book Men at Arms

Source: Men at Arms

“Well, there are times when one would like to hang the whole human race and finish the farce.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Time

“A dry martini,' he said. 'One. In a deep champagne goblet.'…
Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon-peel. Got it?”

Ian Fleming book Casino Royale

Source: Casino Royale (1953), Ch. 7 : Rouge et Noir
Context: Bond insisted ordering Leiter's Haig-and-Haig "on the rocks" and then he looked carefully at the barman. "A Dry Martini", he said. "One. In a deep champagne goblet." "Oui, monsieur." "Just a moment. Three measures of Gordons, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?" "Certainly, monsieur." The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

“It looked like the sort of book described in library catalogues as 'slightly foxed', although it would be more honest to admit that it looked as though it had been badgered, wolved and possibly beared as well.”

Terry Pratchett book The Light Fantastic

Source: The Light Fantastic

Books

“I’m doing badly, I’m doing well, whichever you prefer.”

Franz Kafka book Letters to Milena

Variant: I’m doing badly, I’m doing well; whichever you prefer.
Source: Letters to Milena

“Wizards and computers get along about as well as flamethrowers and libraries.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

“I own a well-used library card and not much else, though it is true I live in a grand house full of expensive, useless objects.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Housing

“That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Success, Success, Graduation

“If you're skating on thin ice, you might as well dance.”

Anita Shreve (1946–2018) American writer

Source: Where or When

Dance

“It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.”

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

Variant: It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.
Source: Discourse on Method

“Nothing would be done at all, if a man waited till he could do it so well, that no one could find fault with it.”

John Henry Newman (1801–1890) English cleric and cardinal

Lecture IX
Lectures on the Present Position of Catholics in England (1851)

Waiting

“Well, you can think what you want, so long as you remember - no matter how ordinary things seem between us - I'm still here, still in love with you, and care about you more than any other guy, evil or otherwise, ever will.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Love, Guy, Thinking, Evil

“The trick is to teach yourself to read in small sips as well as long swallows.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Reading

“Well, some people say I'm pessimistic because I recognize the eternal cycle of evil. All I say is, look at the history of mankind right up to this moment and what do you find?”

Wole Soyinka (1934) Nigerian writer

People, History, Evil

“You know the way people begin to look like their dogs? Well, we're beginning to look like each other.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

People, Dogs, Way

“I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.”

William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night's Dream

Source: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Love, Hell

“And since you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I, your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of yourself which you yet know not of.”

William Shakespeare Julius Caesar

Source: Julius Caesar

“If you cannot write well, you cannot think well; if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Thinking

“Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.”

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

Men, God, Flying

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature.”

Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator

Source: How to Read a Book: The Classic Bestselling Guide to Reading Books and Accessing Information

Wisdom, Books, Nature, Learning

“Well that was the silliest tea party I ever went to! I am never going back there again!”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Source: Alice in Wonderland

Tea

“I'm not confused. I'm just well mixed.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Variant: I am not confused, I'm just well mixed.

“Romeo: I dreamt a dream tonight.
Mercutio: And so did I.
Romeo: Well, what was yours?
Mercutio: That dreamers often lie.
Romeo: In bed asleep while they do dream things true.”

William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet

Source: Romeo and Juliet

Lie, Dreams

“No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.”

Al Gore (1948) 45th Vice President of the United States

Quotes, Concession speech (2000)
Context: I've seen America in this campaign, and I like what I see. It's worth fighting for and that's a fight I'll never stop. As for the battle that ends tonight, I do believe, as my father once said, that "No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out."

Soul, Loss, Victory

“To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.”

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

A Plea For Free Speech in Boston (10 December 1860), as contained in Words That Changed America https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1461748917, Alex Barnett, Rowman & Littlefield (reprint, 2006), p. 156 <br class="br">1860s

“Well done,' said a voice somewhere behind him. 'Consciousness to sarcasm in five seconds!”

Terry Pratchett book Night Watch

Source: Night Watch

“Remember this well. There are two kind of fights. As long as we place ourselves in battle, we must always know the difference: fights to defend life… and fights to defend pride…”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach, Volume 01

Life, Fight

“The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Optimism, Thinking

“And therefore, — since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days, —
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.”

William Shakespeare Richard III

Source: Richard III

Hate, Pleasure, Lovers

“Often secret desires as well as abilities surface in our dreams.”

P. C. Cast book Hunted

Source: Hunted

Secret, Dreams

“Well, now that we have seen each other," said the unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you.”

Lewis Carroll book Through the Looking-Glass

Source: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

“Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

Thought
Source: One Minute Wisdom (1989)

World

“I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

Way, Animals

“At the Day of Judgement we shall not be asked what we have read but what we have done; not how well we have spoken, but how holily we have lived.”
Certe adveniente die judicii, non quæretur a nobis quid legimus, sed quid fecimus; nec quam bene diximus, sed quam religiose viximus.

Thomas à Kempis book The Imitation of Christ

Book I, ch. 3; this is part of a longer passage:
A humble knowledge of oneself is a surer road to God than a deep searching of the sciences. Yet learning itself is not to be blamed, or is the simple knowledge of anything whatsoever to be despised, for true learning is good in itself and ordained by God; but a good conscience and a holy life are always to be preferred. But because many are more eager to acquire much learning than to live well, they often go astray, and bear little or no fruit. If only such people were as diligent in the uprooting of vices and the panting of virtues as they are in the debating of problems, there would not be so many evils and scandals among the people, nor such laxity in communities. At the Day of Judgement, we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done; not how eloquently we have spoken, but how holily we have lived. Tell me, where are now all those Masters and Doctors whom you knew so well in their lifetime in the full flower of their learning? Other men now sit in their seats, and they are hardly ever called to mind. In their lifetime they seemed of great account, but now no one speaks of them.
[Humili tui cognitio, certior viam est ad Deum, quam profunda scientiae inquisitio. Non est culpanda scientia, aut quelibet simplex rei notitia, quae bona est in se considerata, et a Deo ordinat: sed preferenda est semper bona conscientia, et virtuosa vita. Quia vero plures magis student scire, quam bene vivere: ideo saepe errant, et pene nullum, vel modicum fructum ferunt. O si tanta adhiberent diligentiam ad extirpanda vitia, et virtute inferendas, sicuti ad movenda questiones: non fierent tanta mala et scandala in populo nec tanta dissolutio in cenobiis ! Certe, adveniente die judicii, non quaeretur a nobis: quid legimus, sed quid fecimus: nec quam bene diximus, sed quam religiose viximus. Dic mihi: Ubi sunt modo omnes illi Domini et Magistri, quos bene novisti, dum adhuc viverent et studiis florerent? Iam eorum praebendas alii possident: et nescio, utrum de eis recogitent. In vita sua aliquid esse videbantur, et modo de illis tacetur.]
Book I, ch. 3.
Source: The Imitation of Christ (c. 1418)

Reading

“Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“I'm not stupid, stupid. Leave this whole thing in my extremely capable and well-manicured hands. I'll call you later with an update. Bye!”

P. C. Cast book Burned

Source: Burned

Stupidity

“I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way.”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Source: Sense and Sensibility

Happiness, Way, Happy

“Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Dance

“Let me try once more," Milo said in an effort to explain. "In other words--"
"You mean you have other words?" cried the bird happily. "Well, by all means, use them. You're certainly not doing very well with the ones you have now.”

Norton Juster book The Phantom Tollbooth

Source: The Phantom Tollbooth

Bird, Effort

“Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42 (1996), p. 281
Attributed from posthumous publications

“I’m thinking only of my illness and my health, though both, the first as well as the second, are you.”

Franz Kafka book Letters to Milena

Source: Letters to Milena

Health, Thinking

“When you dance with the devil, it might as well be a devil who can give you your own corner of hell to rule.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Bullet

Source: Bullet

Hell, Dance

“It was quite impossible to describe.

Here is what it looked like.

It looked like a piano sounds shortly after being dropped down a well. It tasted yellow, and it felt Paisley. It smelled like the total eclipse of the moon.”

Terry Pratchett book Sourcery

Source: Sourcery

“It is perhaps well enough that the people of the Nation do not know or understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Misattributed

People, Understanding

“Love removes the world for you, and just as surely when it's going well as when it's going badly.”

Alice Munro (1931) Canadian novelist

Source: The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose

Love, World

“A visiting pastor at our church in Plains once told a story about a priest from New Orleans. Father Flanagan’s parish lay in the central part of the city, close to many taverns. One night he was walking down the street and saw a drunk thrown out of a pub. The man landed in the gutter, and Father Flanagan quickly recognized him as one of his parishioners, a fellow named Mike. Father Flanagan shook the dazed man and said, “Mike!” Mike opened his eyes and Father Flanagan said, “You’re in trouble. If there is anything I can do for you, please tell me what it is.ℍ “Well, Father,” Mike replied, “I hope you’ll pray for me.” “Yes,” the priest answered, “I’ll pray for you right now.” He knelt down in the gutter and prayed, “Father, please have mercy on this drunken man.ℍ At this, a startled Mike woke up fully and said, “Father, please don’t tell God I’m drunk.ℍ Sometimes we don’t feel much of a personal relationship between God and ourselves, as though we have a secret life full of failures and sins that God knows nothing about. We want to involve God only when we plan to give thanks or when we’re in trouble and need help. But the rest of our lives, we’d rather keep to ourselves.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Source: Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President

Life, God, Secret, Hope

“A celebrity is any well-known TV or movie star who looks like he spends more than two hours working on his hair.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Star

“It is foolish to wish for beauty. Sensible people never either desire it for themselves or care about it in others. If the mind be but well cultivated, and the heart well disposed, no one ever cares for the exterior.”

Anne Brontë book Agnes Grey

Source: Agnes Grey

People, Beauty, Heart

“The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

“Last hopeless chances have got to work. Nothing makes sense otherwise. You might as well not be alive.”

Terry Pratchett book Guards! Guards!

Source: Guards! Guards!

Sense, Chance

“If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”

George Orwell (1903–1950) English author and journalist

Attributed to Orwell by John H. Bunzel, president of San Jose State University, as reported in Phyllis Schlafly, The Power of the Positive Woman (1977), p. 151; but not found in Orwell's works or in reports contemporaneous with his life. Possibly a paraphrase of Orwell's description of the rationale behind Newspeak in 1984.
Disputed

People, Thinking

“Only someone who (like the Intuitionist) denies that the concepts and axioms of classical set theory have any meaning could be satisfied with such a solution, not someone who believes them to describe some well-determined reality. For in reality Cantor's conjecture must be either true or false, and its undecidability from the axioms as known today can only mean that these axioms do not contain a complete description of reality.”

Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics

Reality, Falseness

“Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well.”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

“Well, at heart I knew she'd never be a normal woman. And I didn't want her to be one, because what I loved in her were the indomitable and unpredictable aspects of her personality”

Mario Vargas Llosa book The Bad Girl

Source: Travesuras de la niña mala

Love, Heart, Personality

“There are those who reason well, but they are greatly outnumbered by those who reason badly.”

Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) Italian mathematician, physicist, philosopher and astronomer

“I realize full well how hard it must be to go on living alone in a place from which someone has left you, but there is nothing so cruel in this world as the desolation of having nothing to hope for.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

World, Hope

“Deep at the center of my being there is an infinite well of love.”

Louise L. Hay book You Can Heal Your Life

Source: You Can Heal Your Life

Love

“WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEART OF MEN?

The Death of Rats looked up from the feast of the potato. SQUEAK, he said.

Death waved a hand dismissively. WELL, YES, OBVIOUSLY ME, he said. I JUST WONDERED IF THERE WAS ANYONE ELSE.”

Terry Pratchett book The Truth

Source: The Truth

Death, Men, Evil, Heart

“There have been times, lately, when I dearly wished that I could change the past. Well, I can’t, but I can change the present, so that when it becomes the past it will turn out to be a past worth having.”

Terry Pratchett book I Shall Wear Midnight

Source: I Shall Wear Midnight

Change, Time, Past

“It is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting can't be done. A person ignorant of the possibility of failure can be a half-brick in the path of the bicycle of history.”

Terry Pratchett book Equal Rites

Source: Equal Rites

History, Failure, Success, Personality

“Grover murmured, "Well, Percy, what have we learned today?"
That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls over sticks?"
No," Grover told me. "We've learned that your plans really, really bite!”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

Dogs, Learning

“It all sounds rather naive and sentimental to be talking about children laughing and dancing and singing together when we all know perfectly well that what children do in real life is snarl and take drugs.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Life, Children, Singing, Dance

“He seems to have declared war on the King’s English as well as on the English king.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Source: His Last Bow: 8 Stories

War

“If, while at the piano, you attempt to form little melodies, that is very well; but if they come into your mind of themselves, when you are not practising, you may be still more pleased; for the internal organ of music is then roused in you. The fingers must do what the head desires; not the contrary.”

Robert Schumann (1810–1856) German composer, aesthete and influential music critic

Music

“Oh! I'm stupid as well as insane.”

Tamora Pierce In the Hand of the Goddess

Source: In the Hand of the Goddess

Stupidity

“We cannae just rush in, ye ken."
"Point o' order, Big Man. Yejust rush in. Wejust rush in."
"Aye, Big Yan, point well made. But ye gotta knowye're just gonna rush in. Ye cannae just rush in. It looks bad, havin' to rush oout again straight awa'.”

Terry Pratchett book The Wee Free Men

Source: The Wee Free Men

“It is becoming a bad dream-- in the daytime as well as at night. I see him nearly all the time and can't get at him, I mustn't show anything, must remain gay while I'm really in despair.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

Dreams, Time, Despair, Night

“… it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting can't be done.”

Terry Pratchett book Equal Rites

Source: Equal Rites

Success

“Some idiotic things are well worth doing.”

Richard Ford book Independence Day

Source: Independence Day

“"I don't want to seem always to be criticizing your methods of voice production, Jeeves," I said, "but I must inform you that that 'Well, sir' of yours is in many respects fully as unpleasant as your 'Indeed, sir?'”

P.G. Wodehouse book Right Ho, Jeeves

Like the latter, it seems to be tinged with a definite scepticism. It suggests a lack of faith in my vision. The impression I retain after hearing you shoot it at me a couple of times is that you consider me to be talking through the back of my neck, and that only a feudal sense of what is fitting restrains you from substituting for it the words 'Says you!'"
Source: Right Ho, Jeeves (1934)

“Cause when a guy does something stupid once, well that’s because he’s a guy. But if he does the same stupid thing twice, that’s usually to impress some girl.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Stupidity, Guy, Girl

“The blood of love welled up in my heart with a slow pain.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

1950-07-17 http://books.guardian.co.uk/firstchapters/story/0,6761,222716,00.html <br class="br">The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (2000) <br class="br">Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Love, Pain, Heart