Quotes about whole
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“Harry Dresden: As a whole, people suck, but a person can be extraordinary.”

Source: The Dresden Files, Changes (2010), Chapter 18

“when things break, it's not the actual breaking that prevents them from getting back together again. it's because a little piece gets lost -- the two remaining ends couldn't fit together even if they wanted to. the whole shape has changed.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Change

“And then like a song we'd forgotten was even on the mix, you stepped into the house and my whole life.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

Life, Housing

“Truth does not become more true by virtue of the fact that the entire world agrees with it, nor less so even if the whole world disagrees with it.”

Maimónides book The Guide for the Perplexed

Source: The Guide for the Perplexed

Truth, World

“The dedicated life is the life worth living. You must give with your whole heart.”

Annie Dillard (1945) American writer

Life, Heart

“but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

Life

“The complexity embedded in the different levels of meaning that go along with the words "I love you" ought to be a whole mindfuck of a video game”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Love, Game

“Today I will go to wait for her again, because I cannot help it, because my whole being seems now to be bound up in the being of one so different from myself and yet so exquisitely familiar that I can scarely understand what has happened.”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Historian

Source: La historiadora

Understanding, Waiting, Help

“I take my spirit and I smash my mirrors,
And now the whole world is here for me to see,
Now I'm searching for my love to be.”

Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter

Room Full Of Mirrors
Song lyrics, Rainbow Bridge (1971)
Context: I used to live in a room full of mirrors,
All I could see was me.
Then I take my spirit and I smash my mirrors,
And now the whole world is here for me to see,
Now I'm searching for my love to be.

Love, World, Search

“To understand the world at all, sometimes you could only focus on a tiny bit of it, look very hard at what was close to hand and make it stand in for the whole;”

Donna Tartt book The Goldfinch

Source: The Goldfinch

World, Understanding

“A man is whole only when he takes into account his shadow as well as himself — and what is a man's shadow but his upright astonishment?”

Djuna Barnes book Nightwood

Source: Nightwood (1936), Ch. 6 : Where the Tree Falls

“I think the most significant work we'll do in our whole life, in our whole world is done within the four walls of our home.”

Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker

Life, World, Home, Thinking

“She started walking again. "Are you saying you didn't even want to be with her? Not even just a little?"
He stopped. "How could I want to be with her when I want to be with you? I told you that before this whole thing started.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 1

“The whole world was this symphony, and there was not enough of her to listen.”

Carson McCullers book The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

Source: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

World

“He came third in the state for woodwork,”
Francesca explains. “We actually had to be proud of him for a whole week. Tough times.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: The Piper's Son

Time

“I am a believer in free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Castle in the Air

Source: Castle Series, Castle in the Air (1990), p. 31.
Context: "Maybe," he said, "you should be more careful about whom you let your dog bite."
"Not I!" said Jamal. "I am a believer of free will. If my dog chooses to hate the whole human race except myself, it must be free to do so."

Hate, Dogs

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

The Miracle of Mindfulness (1999)
Context: Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves—slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this actual moment is life.

Drink, Tea

“What on earth have you packed in here? Bricks?" asked Mo as he carried Meggie's book-box out of the house.
You're the one who says books have to be heavy because the whole world's inside them," said Meggie.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Books, World, Housing, Box

“Upon the whole, a contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright

No. 574 (30 July 1714).
The Spectator (1711–1714)

World

“But God will know the slow tread of an old couple’s love for each other, and understand how black shadows make part of its whole.”

Kazuo Ishiguro book The Buried Giant

Source: The Buried Giant

Love, God, Understanding, Parting

“The beautiful feeling after writing a poem is on the whole better even than after sex, and that's saying a lot.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

Beauty, Sex, Feeling

“Nature can't evolve a species that hasn't the will to survive. Individuals might be bred to sacrifice themselves, but the race as a whole can never cease to exist.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Nature

“When the whole world is crazy, it doesn't pay to be sane.”

Terry Goodkind book The Pillars of Creation

Source: The Pillars of Creation

World

“The whole "weak in the knees" thing, which she always thought was just some idiotic expression back from the golden age of idiotic expressions, was real.
-Suite Scarlett”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: Suite Scarlett

Age

“I am like a small creature swallowed whole by a monster, she thought, and the monster feels my tiny little movements inside.”

Shirley Jackson book The Haunting of Hill House

Source: The Haunting of Hill House

Feeling

“Just think! This whole world of ours is only a speck of mildew sprung up on a tiny planet, yet we think we can have something great - thoughts,, actions! They are all but grains of sand”

Leo Tolstoy book Anna Karenina

Source: Anna Karenina

World, Thinking

“If you get hung up on everybody else's hang-ups, then the whole world's going to be nothing more than one huge gallows.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

World

“To take that risk, to offer life and remain alive, open yourself like this and become whole.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Life

“Some words were like that. Whole lives attached to them. Ghosts and lives and ecstasy and sorrow.”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Source: The Bronze Horseman

“I didn't know how… deep love ran, how it was in your blood, not your heart, and how that same blood pumped through your veins your whole life.”

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: On Mystic Lake

Love, Life, Heart

“It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it has pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater. Next to the train line, footprints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice.
As you may expect, someone has died.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Way, Tree, Training

“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.”

Roger A. Caras (1928–2001) American photographer

For Mother, Life, Dogs

“This whole earth in which we inhabit is but a point is space.”

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

“Yoga allows you to rediscover a sense of wholeness in your life, where you do not feel like you are constantly trying to fit broken pieces together.”

B.K.S. Iyengar (1918–2014) Indian yoga teacher and scholar

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, p.xiv

Life, Feeling, Sense

“How could he find perfection in such an average day? Then I realized this was the whole point.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Perfection

“Major Major had lied, and it was good. He was not really surprised that it was good, for he had observed that people who did lie were, on the whole, more resourceful and ambitious and successful than people who did not lie.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22

People, Lie, Success

“The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.”

Zhuangzi (-369–-286 BC) classic Chinese philosopher

World, Mountain

“If you can win over your mind, you can win over the whole world.”

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (1956) spiritual leader

Peaceful, World

“Perhaps I’ve been rushing my whole entire life, jumping into things headfirst without thinking them through. Running through the days without noticing the minutes.”

Cecelia Ahern book Thanks for the Memories

Source: Thanks for the Memories

Life, Thinking

“A single feat of daring can alter the whole conception of what is possible.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

Source: The Heart of the Matter

“Let every man shovel out his own snow, and the whole city will be passable," said Gamache. Seeing Beauvoir's puzzled expression he added, "Emerson."

"Lake and Palmer?"

"Ralph and Waldo.”

Louise Penny book A Fatal Grace

Source: A Fatal Grace

“It’s just a mild disagreement, Papa. Remi has this whole need to breathe in and out, which annoys me. If he would just stop breathing, I’d be fine. (Aimee)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Bad Moon Rising

“You have my whole heart. You always did. You're the best guy. You always were.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road

Variant: You have my whole heart. You always did.
Source: The Road

Guy, Heart

“In this whole screwed up town, you're the only thing that's always been right to me," He whispered. "I love you, Claire" said Shane.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Variant: Shane talking to Claire -

"In this whole screwed up town, you're the only thing that's always been right to me," He whispered. "I love you, Claire
Source: Lord of Misrule

Love

“Sometimes I think my whole life has been about holding on to you.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

Life, Thinking

“Acting like you don’t care is a whole lot easier when you don’t care”

Ally Carter Out of Sight, Out of Time

Source: Out of Sight, Out of Time

“If our faith is strong, we’ll go to heaven, and we’ll understand the whole thing when we get there. As if life were a joke, and heaven the place where the cosmic punchline is finally explained to us.”

Stephen King book Revival

Source: Revival

Life, Faith, Understanding, Strong

“Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it's beauty.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Beauty, Beauty, Nature

“The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.”

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

Personality

“Visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies! gone down the American river! Dreams! adorations! illumnations! religions! the whole boatload of sensitive bullshit!”

Allen Ginsberg book Howl and Other Poems

Source: Howl and Other Poems

Religion, Dreams

“The most decisive actions of our life — I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future — are, more often than not, unconsidered.”

André Gide (1869–1951) French novelist and essayist

Les Faux Monnayeurs (1925), Pt. 3, ch. 16

Life, Decision, Future

“Will stared down at his hands. "My whole life wrecked, destroyed…"

"You're seventeen," Magnus said. "You can't have wrecked a life you've barely lived.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Life

“Everybody sounds stoned, because they're e-mailing people the whole time they're talking to you.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

People, Time

“He shook his head and squeezed my hand tight. "You are my courage, as I am your conscience," he whispered, "You are my heart-- I am your compassion. We are neither of us whole, alone. Do ye not know that, Sassenach?" --Jamie”

Diana Gabaldon book Drums of Autumn

Variant: You are my courage, as I am your conscience," he whispered. "You are my heart---and I your compassion. We are neither of us whole, alone. Do ye not know that, Sassenach?
Source: Drums of Autumn

Courage, Heart

“Where would I find enough leather
To cover the entire surface of the earth?
But with leather soles beneath my feet,
It’s as if the whole world has been covered.”

Šantidéva (685–763) 8th-century Indian Buddhist monk and scholar

§ 5.13
Bodhicaryavatara, A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life
Context: Where would there be leather enough to cover the entire world? With just the leather of my sandals, it is as if the whole world were covered. Likewise, I am unable to restrain external phenomena, but I shall restrain my own mind. What need is there to restrain anything else?

World

“If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place.”

Margaret Mead (1901–1978) American anthropologist

Source: 1930s, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935), p. 322
Context: Historically our own culture has relied for the creation of rich and contrasting values upon many artificial distinctions, the most striking of which is sex. It will not be by the mere abolition of these distinctions that society will develop patterns in which individual gifts are given place instead of being forced into an ill-fitting mould. If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.