Quotes about wish
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“It’s tempting to wish for the perfect boss, the perfect parent, or the perfect outfit. But maybe the best any of us can do is not to quit, play the hand we’ve been dealt, and accessorize what we’ve got.”

Candace Bushnell book Sex and the City

Source: Sex and the City

Parent, Perfection

“Who said that every wish would be heard and answered when wished on an evening star? Somebody thought of it and someone believed it, and look what its done so far.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Star

“I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

People, Personality

“If there's a single lesson that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so.”

Lev Grossman The Magicians

Source: The Magicians

Life

“Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: Der blinde Mörder

Dogs, Memory

“More like Cross blew your circuits during one of his sexathons. Still can’t get over that man’s stamina. Wish he’d swing my way and wear me out.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Entwined with You

Way

“Star light, star bright, the first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight. I wish not to cry.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

Star, Light, Cry

“All really nice girls wonder when men don't try to kiss them. They know they shouldn't want them to and they know they must act insulted if they do, but just the same, they wish the men would try.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

Men, Girl, Kiss

“Gradually the magic of the island settled over us as gently and clingingly as pollen. Each day had a tranquillity, a timelessness, about it so that you wished it would never end. But then the dark skin of night would peel off and there would be a fresh day waiting for us, glossy and colourful as a child's transfer and with the same tinge of unreality.”

Gerald Durrell book My Family and Other Animals

Source: My Family and Other Animals (1956)

Waiting, Night

“It may… be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion; but when I see a fellow-creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, that I may say what I know of her character.”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Source: Frankenstein

“Now you know how badly someone wanted you, Charley. Children forget that sometimes. They think of themselves as a burden instead of a wish granted.”

Mitch Albom For One More Day

Source: For One More Day

Children, Thinking, Forgetting

“I wish to live without hate, whim, jealousy, envy, and fear. I wish to be simple, honest, frank, natural.. to face any obstacle and meet every difficulty unabashed and unafraid.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Hate, Fear, Jealousy, Nature

“He wished he had inhabited more of his life, used it better, filled it fuller.”

Anne Tyler The Amateur Marriage

Source: The Amateur Marriage

Life

“I wish the first word I ever said was the word "quote," so right before I die I could say "unquote."”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

When the Leaves Blow Away (2006), I Still Have a Pony (2007)

Quotes

“I disobeyed Ra's wishes, and so he ordered my onw father, Shu-"
"Hang on," I said. "Shoe?"
"S-h-u," she said. "The god of the wind."
"On." I wished these gods had names that wearn't common household objects. "Go on, please.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

God, Shoe

“Akhlys lunged at Percy, and for a split second he thought: Well, hey, I’m just smoke. She can’t touch me, right?
He imagined the Fates up in Olympus, laughing at his wishful thinking: LOL, NOOB!”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Fate, Imagination, Thinking

“The test we must set for ourselves is not to march alone but to march in such a way that others will wish to join us.”

Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978) Vice-President of the USA under Lyndon B. Johnson

Way

“How many times already had I encountered the painful lesson that although we may wish for the barb to be pulled from our flesh, it leaves a welt that doesn't heal?”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Pain, Time

“I used to believe. I used to think that if I wanted it bad enough, wished hard enough, everything would work out the way It was supposed to. Destiny, like Susannah said.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Way, Thinking

“You have to know I wouldn’t wish for a different life," she said. "This life brought me you”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Life

“… sometimes one feels freer speaking to a stranger than to people one knows. Why is that?"
“Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as he wishes to think we are.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind

Source: The Shadow of the Wind

People, Way, Feeling, Thinking

“Open yourself to an encounter with heaven, be as a little child. Release your desire to the winds of the universe. Trust your angels to catch your wish and bring it to you in a delightfully surprising way.”

Doreen Virtue (1958) American writer

Universe, Way, Angels

“It was one of those humid days when the atmosphere gets confused. Sitting on the porch, you could feel it: the air wishing it was water.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

Feeling, Water

“You have bewitched me body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you. And wish from this day forth never to be parted from you.”

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English novelist

For Him, Love, Soul, Parting

“I don't wish to be the symbol of anything. I'm only myself.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Life, Death

“The only difference between a wish and a prayer is that you're at the mercy of the universe for the first, and you've got some help with the second.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

Universe, Help

“Crazy isn't being broken or swallowing a dark secret. It's you or me amplified. If you ever told a lie and enjoyed it. If you ever wished you could be a child forever.”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted

Lie, Secret

“It is the hour to be drunken! To escape being the martyred slaves of time, be ceaselessly drunk. On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

Wine, Time

“The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.”

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

The Analects, The Great Learning
Context: The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.
Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.
From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides.

Family, Knowledge, Heart, Personality

“I love pity parties. I wish I'd brought hats" - Christian”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Love

“Hiding here, are you? That’s awkward.” “Why?” “Because I had intended to hide here myself.” “You may hide here with me, if you wish.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

“I wanted to run after him, but remembered that it is ridiculous to run after one's wife's lover in one's socks; and I did not wish to be ridiculous but terrible.”

Leo Tolstoy book The Kreutzer Sonata

Source: The Kreutzer Sonata

Lovers

“We were restless for ages… After a while I heard an owl hooting and calmed myself by thinking of it flying over the dark fields – and then I remembered it would be pouncing on mice. I love owls, but I wish God had made them vegetarian.”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Love, God, Age, Thinking

“I wanted to hold happiness in reserve, like a bottle of champagne. I postponed it because I was afraid, because I overvalued it, and then I didn't want to use it up, because what do you wish for then?”

Curtis Sittenfeld (1975) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Man of My Dreams

Happiness

“She has mischievious moments when she wishes she could get him alone on a desert island…”

George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion

Source: Pygmalion

“I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.”

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) American folklorist, novelist, short story writer

Way, Search, Reality

“Make whatever decision you wish but never forget one thing: all of you are much better than you believed. Take advantage of the chance that tragedy has given you; not everyone is capable of doing so”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Decision, Chance, Forgetting

“If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Life, Personality

“I wish I’d done everything on Earth with you.”

Baz Luhrmann (1962) Australian film director, screenwriter and producer

“If, someday, Julian should be reborn, she wished him well.”

L.J. Smith The Forbidden Game

Source: The Forbidden Game

“We must set aside our wishes and give heed to reality. Nobody can accept the truth while hiding from it. When a decision matters, we have to stare at the truth unflinchingly. Only then can we find peace in our choices.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Chasing the Prophecy

Truth, Peace, Reality, Decision

“You should never wish for wishful thinking.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Thinking

“I had a desire to see something besides my own shores, if only to be content to return to them someday. If I wish to live in my native land and love her, it should not be out of ignorance.”

Margaret George (1943) American writer

Source: Mary Queen of Scotland and The Isles

Love

“If wishes were horses, even beggars would ride. (Dark-Hunter)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Sins of the Night

Horse

“I wish you would be more true to your demographic profile. Life is confusing enough.”

Tony Kushner Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Source: Angels in America

Life

“I've wished for things and never really had the chance… It's time to stop dreaming and do something about it. You've got to know what you want, then… go.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Six Rules of Maybe

Dreams, Chance, Time

“I’ll keep it short and sweet - Family. Religion. Friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.”

Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist

Friendship, Family, Religion, Business

“I am Envy… I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned.”

Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) English dramatist, poet and translator

Books, Reading, Envy

“The essence in obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as an instrument for carrying out another person's wishes and he therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his actions.”

Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) Social psychologist

Source: Obedience to Authority

Personality

“… no one who has passed through the storm has ever regretted the journey. No one stands here and wishes to go back to the other side.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

“I wish I could just project everything on the paper”

Patti Smith Just Kids

Source: Just Kids

“… the devil doesn't come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns. He comes as everything you've ever wished for…”

Tucker Max book Assholes Finish First

Source: Assholes Finish First

“All the suffering there is in this world arises from wishing our self to be happy. All the happiness there is in this world arises from wishing others to be happy.”

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

World, Suffering, Happiness

“When it's raining like this," said Naoko, "it feels as if we're the only ones in the world. I wish it would just keep raining so the three of us could stay together.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

World, Feeling

“Him that I love, I wish to be
Free —
Even from me.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American aviator and author

"Even—" (1966)

Love

“All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Source: Writings: Autobiography/Notes on the State of Virginia/Public & Private Papers/Addresses/Letters

Truth, World, Fear

“Wishes cannot be summoned up or kept away at will. They come from deeper within us than good or bad intentions. And they spring up unannounced.”

Michael Ende book The Neverending Story

Source: The Neverending Story

Spring

“I wish to God,” said Gideon with mild exasperation, “that you’d talk—just once—in prose like other people.”

Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001) British writer

Source: The Game of Kings

God, People

“I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws.”

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

Source: Attributed in posthumous publications, Einstein and the Poet (1983), p. 132
Variant transcription from "Death of a Genius" in Life Magazine: "I cannot accept any concept of God based on the fear of life or the fear of death, or blind faith. I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him I would be a liar."
Context: About God, I cannot accept any concept based on the authority of the Church. As long as I can remember, I have resented mass indoctrination. I do not believe in the fear of life, in the fear of death, in blind faith. I cannot prove to you that there is no personal God, but if I were to speak of him, I would be a liar. I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil. My God created laws that take care of that. His universe is not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws.

God, Law, Thinking, Universe

“Heaven forbid! -- That would be the greatest misfortune of all! -- To find a man agreeable whom one is determined to hate! -- Do not wish me such an evil.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Hate, Evil

“The pearls weren't really white, they were a warm oyster beige, with little knots in between so if they broke, you only lost one. I wished my life could be like that, knotted up so that even if something broke, the whole thing wouldn't come apart.”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Life

“And by and by Christopher Robin came to the end of things, and he was silent, and he sat there, looking out over the world, just wishing it wouldn't stop.”

A.A. Milne book The House at Pooh Corner

Source: The House at Pooh Corner

World

“The spirit of complaint is born out of an unwillingness to trust God with today.
Like the Israelites, it means you are spending your time looking back toward Egypt or wishing for the future all the while missing what God is doing right now.”

Priscilla Shirer (1974) American writer

God, Time, Future

“Mac reflected on the Unseelie King and his concubine:

He’d loved her for all time
After he’d believed she was gone
Sunshine to his ice.
Frost to her fever.
I wished them forever. The Unseelie King was gone.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Love, Time

“The devil frequently fills our thoughts with great schemes, so that instead of putting our hands to what work we can do to serve our Lord, we may rest satisfied with wishing to perform impossibilities.”

Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) Roman Catholic saint

Source: Interior Castle

“Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Peaceful, Friendship, Peace

“It is odd how, when you have a secret belief of your own which you do not wish to acknowledge, the voicing of it by someone else will rouse you to a fury of denial.”

Agatha Christie book The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Source: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Secret

“Well, I didn't need them.
I didn't need anyone. I was Lola Rose.
I just wished I looked more like my idea of Lola Rose.”

Jacqueline Wilson book Lola Rose

Source: Lola Rose

Idea

“Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

As quoted by Josiah Quincy III, in Looking Toward Sunset : From Sources Old and New, Original and Selected (1865) by Lydia Maria Francis Child, p. 431
Attributed

Exercises, Horse

“My greatest wish -- other than salvation -- was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One I could read again and again, with new eyes and a fresh understanding each time.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Books, Understanding, Time, Reading

“I wish they'd had electric guitars in cotton fields back in the good old days. A whole lot of things would've been straightened out.”

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

“It seems to me that if you wish to apply laws to us, it were only reasonable to consult us on them, and from what you have read to me about Parliament, I do not think any dragons are invited to go there”

Naomi Novik book His Majesty's Dragon

Source: His Majesty's Dragon

Law, Thinking, Reading

“In all the institutions I try to be present and accountable for all I do and leave undone. I know that eventually I shall have to be present and accountable n the presence of God. I do not wish to be found wanting.”

Maya Angelou book Letter to My Daughter

Source: Letter to My Daughter

God

“There's a lot of ugly things in this world, son. I wish I could keep 'em all away from you. That's never possible.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Source: To Kill a Mockingbird

World

“An essentially private man who wished his total indifference to public notice to be universally recognized.”

Tom Stoppard Travesties

Carr, Act I
Source: Travesties (1974)

Universe, Indifference

“Say what you will about the south, but in North Carolina a hot dog is free to swing anyway it wishes.”

David Sedaris book Me Talk Pretty One Day

Source: Me Talk Pretty One Day

Dogs

“Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by "opinions" when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Decision

“I'm sorry you don't get it, Mom. Sometimes I don't get why I do the things I do. I just know I wake up every morning and wish I was dead.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

Moms, Dead

“They are all I have left—the stars and the memory of the many times I wished upon them. But with all those wishes, I asked for only one thing.

To see him again.

But I will not see him again. I do not see him now.”

Christopher Pike (1954) American author Kevin Christopher McFadden

Source: The Starlight Crystal

Star, Memory, Time

“We are all unkind from time to time. We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it's like chasing clouds.”

Libba Bray A Great and Terrible Beauty

Variant: We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it's like chasing clouds.
Source: A Great and Terrible Beauty

Change, Time, Parting