Quotes about wish
page 7

“We wish in our country that morality may be substituted for egotism, probity for false honour, principles for usages, duties for good manners, the empire of reason for the tyranny of fashion, a contempt of vice for a contempt of misfortune, pride for insolence, magnanimity for vanity, the love of glory for the love of money, good people for good company, merit for intrigue, genius for wit, truth for tinsel show, the attractions of happiness for the ennui of sensuality, the grandeur of man for the littleness of the great, a people magnanimous, powerful, happy, for a people amiable, frivolous and miserable; in a word, all the virtues and miracles of a Republic instead of all the vices and absurdities of a Monarchy.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Principles to Form the Basis of the Administration of the Republic (February 1794)

Money, Country, Making love, People

“We want, in a word, to fulfil nature’s wishes, to further the destinies of humanity, to keep the promises of philosophy, to absolve providence of the long reign of crime and tyranny. So that France, once illustrious among enslaved countries, eclipsing the glory of all the free peoples that have existed, may become the model for all nations, the terror of oppressors, the consolation of the oppressed, the ornament of the universe; and that in sealing our work with our blood, we may at least glimpse the shining dawn of universal felicity. That is our ambition, that is our goal.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

"On the Principles of Political Morality that Should Guide the National Convention in the Domestic Administration of the Republic" (5 February 1794)

Universe, Nature, People, Country

“Life has improved, and now as never before the doors to a happy and cultured life for all the peoples of our Union stand wide open. We are already enjoying the first fruits of our victory and we see that an unparalleled rise in the standard of living and culture of all the peoples of the Soviet Union awaits us. And in spite of all this, we have not yet seen the last of people who in their blind hatred of the new world are planning the seizure and dismemberment of the Soviet Union. Well, what shall we say to them? It is true that we appeared in the world without the permission of these gentlemen, and undoubtedly against their wishes.... This means that the time has come when the old world must make way for the new.”

Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986) Soviet politician and diplomat

Speech (10 January 1930) as quoted in The Communist International (1936) Vol. 13

Time, Victory, People, Appearance

“A man who makes assertions, or draws conclusions, regarding any given case, ought to be competent to investigate it. He has no right to throw the onus on others, declaring it their duly to prove him right or wrong. His duty is to demonstrate the truth of that which he asserts, or to cease from asserting. The men he calls upon to consider and judge have enough to do with themselves, in the examination, correction, or verification of their own views. The world little knows how many of the thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination; that in the most successful instances not a tenth of the suggestions, the hopes, the wishes, the preliminary conclusions have been realized.”

Michael Faraday book Experimental researches in chemistry and physics

"Observations on Mental Education" (May 6, 1854) a lecture before His Royal Highness The Prince Consort and the Members of the Royal Institution, Lectures on Education (1855) as quoted in Faraday's Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics (1859) p. 486. https://books.google.com/books?id=AUwNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA486

Drawing, Success, Silence, Hope

“Every minute of our life must be lived to the full – whether enjoyed or suffered. We must study, see the good around us, and fight the bad, and not waste time writing to a 90-year-old woman to tell her you wish she’d die. Besides, nature will take care of that.”

Liliana Segre (1930) Italian Holocaust survivor and senator for life

During a seminar at Milan’s IULM University, speaking of the haters; as quoted in "Escort for Liliana Segre following insults and threats" https://www.corriere.it/english/19_novembre_07/escort-for-liliana-segre-following-insults-and-threats-2c3dea64-015f-11ea-bfaf-9602a8f3f6c1.shtml, Corriere.it (7 November 2019).

Study, Time, Bad luck, Suffering

“Hear no evil, and see no evil, abase not thyself, neither sigh and weep. Speak no evil, that thou mayest not hear it spoken unto thee, and magnify not the faults of others that thine own faults may not appear great; and wish not the abasement of anyone, that thine own abasement be not exposed.”

Bahá'u'lláh book The Hidden Words

The Hidden Words

Appearance, Evil

“In our own times, you see, an emperor came to the city of Rome, where there’s the temple of an emperor, where there’s a fisherman’s tomb. And so that pious and Christian emperor, wishing to beg for health, for salvation from the Lord, did not proceed to the temple of a proud emperor, but to the tomb of a fisherman, where he could imitate that fisherman in humility, so that he, being thus approached, might then obtain something from the Lord, which a haughty emperor would be quite unable to earn.”

Aurelius Augustinus (354–430) early Christian theologian and philosopher

Temporibus enim nostris venit imperator in urbem Romam: ibi est templum imperatoris, ibi est sepulcrum piscatoris. Itaque ille ad deprecandam a Domino salutem imperator pius atque christianus non perrexit ad templum imperatoris superbum, sed ad sepulcrum piscatoris, ubi humilis ipsum piscatorem imitaretur, ut tunc respectus aliquid impetraret a Domino, quod superbiens imperator mereri non posset.
341:4; English from: Newly Discovered Sermons, 1997, Edmund Hill, tr., John E. Rotelle, ed., New City Press, New York, ISBN 1565481038 ISBN 9781565481039p. p. 286.
Sermons

Time, Health

“Exactly as each man, while doing first his duty to his wife and the children within his home, must yet, if he hopes to amount to much, strive mightily in the world outside his home, so our nation, while first of all seeing to its own domestic well-being, must not shrink from playing its part among the great nations without. Our duty may take many forms in the future as it has taken many forms in the past. Nor is it possible to lay down a hard-and-fast rule for all cases. We must ever face the fact of our shifting national needs, of the always-changing opportunities that present themselves. But we may be certain of one thing: whether we wish it or not, we cannot avoid hereafter having duties to do in the face of other nations. All that we can do is to settle whether we shall perform these duties well or ill.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1900s, The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1900), National Duties

Home, Past, Future, Children

“As we were very much pressed for time we were unable to see as much of the jail as we wanted to. We had an impression that we had been shown the brighter side of jail life. Nonetheless, two facts stood out. One was that we had actually seen desirable and radical improvements over the old system prevailing even now in most countries and the second and even more important fact was the mentality of the prison officials, and presumably the higher officials of the government also, in regard to jails. Actual conditions may or may not be good but the general principles laid down for jails are certainly far in advance of anything we had known elsewhere in practice. Anyone with a knowledge of prisons in India and of the barbarous way in which handcuffs, fetters and other punishments are used will appreciate the difference. The governor of the prison in Moscow who took us round was all the time laying stress on the human side of jail life, and how it was their endeavour to keep this in the front and not to make the prisoner feel in any way dehumanised or outcasted. I wish we in India would remember this wholesome principle and practise it in our daily lives even outside jail…. It can be said without a shadow of doubt that to be in a Russian prison is far more preferable than to be a worker in an Indian factory, whose lot is 10 to 11 hours work a day and then to live in a crowded and dark and airless tenement, hardly fit for an animal. The mere fact that there are some prisons like the ones we saw is in itself something for the Soviet Government to be proud of.”

Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian lawyer, statesman, and writer, first Prime Minister of India

Soviet Russia: Some Random Sketches and Impressions (1949)

Time, Country, Animals, Knowledge

“We realized in our hearts that we could not do much till conditions were radically changed-hence our overwhelming desire for independence-and yet the passion for progress filled us and the wish to emulate other countries which had gone so far ahead in many ways. We thought of the United States of America and even of some eastern countries which were forging ahead. But most of all we had the example of the Soviet Union which in two brief decades, full of war and civil strife and in the face of what appeared to be insurmountable difficulties, had made tremendous progress. Some were attracted to communism, others were not, but all were fascinated by the advance of the Soviet Union in education and culture and medical care and physical fitness and in the solution of the problem of nationalities-by the amazing and prodigious effort to create a new world out of the dregs of the old.”

Jawaharlal Nehru book The Discovery of India

The Discovery of India (1946)

Country, War, Heart, Communication

“Full Asian men are disgustingly ugly and white girls would never go for you. You’re just butthurt that you were born as an asian piece of shit, so you lash out by linking these fake pictures. You even admit that you wish you were half white. You’ll never be half-white and you’ll never fulfill your dream of marrying a white woman. I suggest you jump off a bridge.”

Elliot Rodger (1991–2014) American spree killer

As quoted in Josh Glasstetter, "Elliot Rodger, Isla Vista Shooting Suspect, Posted Racist Messages on Misogynistic Website", Hatewatch (May 24, 2014)
Bodybuilding.com, PUAhate and ForeverAlone posts

Girl, Dreams, Men

“Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing – fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things. In this world we can now begin a little to understand things, and a little to master them by the help of science, which has forced its way step by step against the Christian religion, against the churches, and against the opposition of all the old precepts. Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the churches in all these centuries have made it.”

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

"Fear, the Foundation of Religion"
1920s, Why I Am Not a Christian (1927)

Religion, Understanding, Making love, Support

“Remember it is essential to reach ever more of our folk with the message of racial survival. I wish you all the very best. You are dealing with pure, malignant evil, with devils incarnate. You will be targeted by the Federals, as their goal is your extinction. They will demonize you and your beliefs to deflect attention away from their own crimes. Go to the struggle with absolute defiance and accept what the Norns decree in likewise manner.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

page ?
Fanatacism Of Desperation

Evil

“Thus, while the refugee serfs only wished to be free to develop and assert those conditions of existence which were already there, and hence, in the end, only arrived at free labour, the proletarians, if they are to assert themselves as individuals, will have to abolish the very condition of their existence hitherto (which has, moreover, been that of all society up to the present), namely, labour. Thus they find themselves directly opposed to the form in which, hitherto, the individuals, of which society consists, have given themselves collective expression, that is, the State. In order, therefore, to assert themselves as individuals, they must overthrow the State.”

Karl Marx book The German Ideology

"Communism. The Production of the Form of Intercourse Itself",
The Marx-Engels Reader
The German Ideology (1845/46)

“I have not become one who bears malice to any Muslims, nor one who wishes evil or misfortune for him. Indeed what you dislike about unity is better for you than what you like about division. I see what is better for you, better than you see for yourselves. Therefore do not oppose my commands and do not reject my judgement. May God forgive both me and you, and may He guide me and you to that in which there is love and satisfaction.”

Hasan ibn Ali (624–669) Shia Imam

Religious-based Quotes

Forgiveness, God, Love, Making love

“Through art then, one finally establishes contact with reality: that is the great discovery. Here all is play and invention; there is no solid foothold from which to launch the projectiles which will pierce the miasma of folly, ignorance and greed. The world has not to be put in order: the world is order incarnate. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order, to know what is the world order in contradistinction to the wishful-thinking orders which we seek to impose on one another. The power which we long to possess, in order to establish the good, the true and the beautiful, would prove to be, if we could have it, but the means of destroying one another. It is fortunate that we are powerless.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Source: Miller, H. (1969). “Creation,” The Henry Miller Reader. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation. p.33.

Beauty, Art, Thinking, Reality

“I do not wish to be a king; I am not anxious to be rich; I decline military command; I detest fornication; I am not impelled by an insatiable love of gain to go to sea; I do not contend for chaplets; I am free from a mad thirst for fame; I despise death; I am superior to every kind of disease; grief does not consume my soul.”

Tatian (120–180) Syrian writer

Original: (la) Regnare nolo: ditescere non libet: prae turam recuso, scortationem odi: navigare ob insatiabilem avaritiam non cupio: de coronis consequendis non dimico: liber sum ab insana gloria cupiditate: mortem contemno: guovis morbi genere superior sum: maror animum non peredit.
Source: Address to the Greeks, Chapter XI, as translated by J. E. Ryland

Soul, Love, Making love, Madness

“The Eternal has his designs from all eternity. If prayer is in accord with his immutable wishes, it is quite useless to ask of him what he has resolved to do. If one prays to him to do the contrary of what he has resolved, it is praying that he be weak, frivolous, inconstant; it is believing that he is thus, it is to mock him. Either you ask him a just thing, in which case he must do it, the thing being done without your praying to him for it, and so to entreat him is then to distrust him; or the thing is unjust, and then you insult him. You are worthy or unworthy of the grace you implore: if worthy, he knows it better than you; if unworthy, you commit another crime by requesting what is undeserved.
In a word, we only pray to God because we have made him in our image. We treat him like a pasha, like a sultan whom one may provoke or appease.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

"Prayers" (1770)
Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1770–1774)
Original: (fr) L’Éternel a ses desseins de toute éternité. Si la prière est d’accord avec ses volontés immuables, il est très inutile de lui demander ce qu’il a résolu de faire. Si on le prie de faire le contraire de ce qu’il a résolu, c’est le prier d’être faible, léger, inconstant; c’est croire qu’il soit tel, c’est se moquer de lui. Ou vous lui demandez une chose juste; en ce cas il la doit, et elle se fera sans qu’on l’en prie; c’est même se défier de lui que lui faire instance ou la chose est injuste, et alors on l’outrage. Vous êtes digne ou indigne de la grâce que vous implorez: si digne, il le sait mieux que vous; si indigne, on commet un crime de plus en demandant ce qu’on ne mérite pas.
En un mot, nous ne faisons des prières à Dieu que parce que nous l’avons fait à notre image. Nous le traitons comme un bacha, comme un sultan qu’on peut irriter ou apaiser.

God

“Tis true, I profess myself a Votary to Love — I acknowledge that a Lady is in the Case — and further I confess, that this Lady is known to you. — Yes Madam, as well as she is to one, who is too sensible of her Charms to deny the Power, whose Influence he feels and must ever Submit to. I feel the force of her amiable beauties in the recollection of a thousand tender passages that I coud wish to obliterate, till I am bid to revive them. — but experience alas! sadly reminds me how Impossible this is. — and evinces an Opinion which I have long entertaind, that there is a Destiny, which has the Sovereign controul of our Actions — not to be resisted by the strongest efforts of Human Nature.
You have drawn me my dear Madam, or rather have I drawn myself, into an honest confession of a Simple Fact — misconstrue not my meaning — ’tis obvious — doubt it not, nor expose it, — the World has no business to know the object of my Love, declard in this manner to — you when I want to conceal it — One thing, above all things in this World I wish to know, and only one person of your Acquaintance can solve me that, or guess my meaning.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

but adieu to this, till happier times, if I ever shall see them.<br><br> Letter to https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-06-02-0013#GEWN-02-06-02-0013-fn-0002 Mrs. George William Fairfax (Sally Cary Fairfax) (12 September 1758) <br class="br">1750s

Business, Personality, Beauty, Nature

“Faith seems to me wholly lost, and hope dead; for it seems to me that I have and hold in certainty that which I believed and hoped at other times. I no longer see union, for I know nothing more and can see nothing more than him alone without me. I do not know where the I is, nor do I seek it, nor do I wish to know or be cognizant of it.”

Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510) Italian author and nurse

Faith, Time, Hope, Dead

“If you wish to build a ship, do not divide the men into teams and send them to the forest to cut wood. Instead, teach them to long for the vast and endless sea.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944) French writer and aviator

Disputed

Sea, Relation ships, Men

“Separation and division is not a natural state, it is an unhealed state. That which we push away strives to be integrated again regardless of how much we wish that it would just go away.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Nature

“My more risky or avant garde music is not that well known to a wider audience, but I wish it was.”

Ennio Morricone (1928–2020) Italian composer, orchestrator and conductor

Music

“Transphobia and antitrans statements should not be treated as just another viewpoint that we should be free to express at the happy table of diversity. There cannot be a dialogue when some at the table are in effect (or intent on) arguing for the elimination of others at the table. When you have “dialogue or debate” with those who wish to eliminate you from the conversation (because they do not recognize what is necessary for your survival, or because they don’t even think your existence is possible), then “dialogue and debate” becomes a technique of elimination. A refusal to have some dialogues and some debates is thus a key tactic for survival.”

Sara Ahmed (1969) Australian and British academic

Source: "An Affinity of Hammers" (2016), p. 31

Happiness, Thinking

“The measure of fame that I have is kind of like micro fame, relative to a certain kind of community of people. It’s awful. It’s horrible. I wouldn’t wish fame on my worst enemy.”

Natalie Wynn (1988) YouTube personality

ContraPoints Talks Twitter, TERFs, and Tasting the 'Ideal Beer' https://oct.co/essays/natalie-wynn-contrapoints-interview, Interview for October, November 11, 2020 <br class="br">Interviews

People, Communication

“We often convince ourselves that we cannot change, that we cannot overcome the circumstances of our lives. That is simply not true. You have been blessed with immeasurable power to make positive changes in your life.
But you can't just wish it, you can't just hope it, you can't just want it… you have to LIVE it, BE it, DO it.”

Steve Maraboli (1975)

“A person must have lost his mind to believe in God. The product of either fear or weakness, this abominable phantom, Eugenie, is useless for the system of the earth, It would even be infallibly harmful. You see, its will, which must be just, could never ally itself with the injustice essential to the laws of nature. It would constantly have to wish for goodness, which nature desires only as compensation for the evil that serves its laws. It would have to act continuously, and nature, one of whose laws is that perpetual motion, could only rival and perpetually resist it.”

Marquis de Sade Philosophy in the Bedroom

First Dialogue, Delmonce
Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)

God, Law, Personality, Nature

“Never wish life were easier, wish that you were better.”

Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American motivational speaker

Life

“People may hate you for being different and not living by society's standards, but deep down, they wish they had the courage to do the same.”

Kevin Hart (1979) American comedian, actor and producer

“Unity is the great goal toward which humanity moves irresistibly. But it becomes fatal, destructive of the intelligence, the dignity, the well-being of individuals and peoples whenever it is formed without regard to liberty, either by violent means or under the authority of any theological, metaphysical, political, or even economic idea. That patriotism which tends toward unity without regard to liberty is an evil patriotism, always disastrous to the popular and real interests of the country it claims to exalt and serve. Often, without wishing to be so, it is a friend of reaction – an enemy of the revolution, i.e., the emancipation of nations and men.”

Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876) Russian revolutionary, philosopher, and theorist of collectivist anarchism

Reasoned Proposal to the Central Committee of the League for Peace and Freedom (1867)

Country, Idea, Intelligence, People

“Rights are, then, the fruits of the law, and of the law alone. There are no rights without law—no rights contrary to the law—no rights anterior to the law. Before the existence of laws there may be reasons for wishing that there were laws—and doubtless such reasons cannot be wanting, and those of the strongest kind;—but a reason for wishing that we possessed a right, does not constitute a right. To confound the existence of a reason for wishing that we possessed a right, with the existence of the right itself, is to confound the existence of a want with the means of relieving it. It is the same as if one should say, everybody is subject to hunger, therefore everybody has something to eat.”

Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British philosopher, jurist, and social reformer

Pannomial Fragments (c. 1831), quoted in The Works of Jeremy Bentham, Vol. III (1838), p. 221

Hunger, Law

“When a person loves another very much, she greatly wished to meet that person. Why then should I be afraid of death? Death brings us to God.”

Josephine Bakhita (1868–1947) Italian saint and former slave

Quoted in "Goodness and missionary zeal", The Holy See https://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010112_bakhita_en.html.

God, Personality, Love, Death

“I wish I could be the best smile you carry engraved inside your heart.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Vorrei poter essere il sorriso migliore che porti inciso dentro il tuo cuore.
Source: prevale.net

Smile, Heart

“He who steals a little steals with the same wish as he who steals much, but with less power.”

Plato (-427–-347 BC) Classical Greek philosopher

“Just as every tree starts as a seed and the baby an embryo. Your plans must follow the same steps if you truly wish to see them successful at the end.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Baby, Tree, Success

“The more you expect, the more you become a slave and chained down by your desires of wishing more for yourself.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“What is the purpose of throwing aside and leaving behind all the corporeal things down on Earth if your only wish is to receive the same things in heaven?”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“You must create your own path if you wish to become successful in life. Meaning, you must seek for success where you believe it can't be found and not where many individuals claim it's found.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Success, Life

“The main wish of the introvert is to avoid friends as well as enemies.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“You're like the sun. You give me a new hope to live every day, like a new ray of sun. Your love infuses energy in me. Your shining face removes the darkness of my life and I wish that my life always shines like your smile. You are sunshine and you have become essential to my life.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Sun, Smile, Hope, Love

“I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.”

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

Source: 1860s, Letter to Horace Greeley (1862)

Personality, Men

“We've always been under sanctions. Even under all those sanctions we have made the growth thus far, so I am not afraid.… If you wish to lift the sanctions then lift them, or if you wish to impose sanctions then impose them. I do not care. We will improve our economy further no matter what.”

Kim Il-sung (1912–1994) President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Source: Remarks to Jimmy Carter (June 1994), as recalled during his final policy meeting and shown in the KCTV documentary The Year 1994

“The greatest and noblest conceptions have no image wrought plainly for human vision, which he who wishes to satisfy the mind of the inquirer can apply to some one of his senses and by mere exhibition satisfy the mind. We must therefore endeavor by practice to acquire the power of giving and understanding a rational definition of each one of them; for immaterial things, which are the noblest and greatest, can be exhibited by reason only, and it is for their sake that all we are saying is said. But it is always easier to practice in small matters than in greater ones.”

Plato book Statesman

285e-286b
Statesman

Understanding, Sense

“May you be ordinary, as the poet once wished the new-born baby.”

Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

Baby

“There has to be a balance, Vin," Elend said. "Somehow, we'll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be." He sighed. "But for now," he said, nodding to the side, "we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Hero of Ages

“To those of you who seek lost objects of history, I wish you the best of luck. They're out there, and they're whispering.”

Clive Cussler (1931) Novelist

Source: The Sea Hunters

History

“When I saw my wife again standing by the tracks as the train came in by the piled logs at the station, I wished I had died before I had ever loved anyone but her.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Moveable Feast

Source: A Moveable Feast

Love, Training

“One should not seek those who do not wish to be found.”

Melissa de la Cruz book Masquerade

Source: Masquerade

“What I'm certain I don't want is to find myself someday in a new century, an old bitter woman looking back, wishing that right now I'd had more nerve.”

Charles Frazier book Cold Mountain

Source: Cold Mountain

“I must’ve wished for you so hard and so often you had no choice but to come true.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

For Him, For Boyfriend

“But no. There is a difference between the truth and what we wish were true.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Source: The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Truth

“Who becomes you? No one. No one should become me. When I die, I don't want my body or soul inhabited. I wouldn't wish me on anyone.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

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

Soul

“Some things you cannot wish away or think away. They become part of you when you remember them.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Incantation

Thinking, Parting

“No matter who you are, there is some part of you that always wishes you were someone else.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Parting

“Keep your language. Love its sounds, its modulation, its rhythm. But try to march together with men of different languages, remote from your own, who wish like you for a more just and human world.”

Helder Camara (1909–1999) Brazilian Catholic priest, archbishop of Olinda and Recife

Source: Spiral Of Violence

Love, Men, World

“You can want and want and want, but if he doesn't want you back… you might as well wish the sky were red.”

Sophie Kinsella book Twenties Girl

Source: Twenties Girl

“I went to bed feeling melancholy, wishing I could have
poured out all my fears and insecurities to my mom. Wasn’t
that what normal mothers and daughters did?”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Fear, Feeling, Moms, Daughters

“I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone.”

Bjarne Stroustrup (1950) Danish computer scientist, creator of C++

On his homepage http://www.stroustrup.com/bs_faq.html#really-say-that, Bjarne Stroustrup states that he did say the above sentence, but also adds "I very much doubt that the sentiment is original." Bjarne Stroustrup's FAQ: Did you really say that?, 2007-11-15 http://www.stroustrup.com/bs_faq.html#really-say-that,

“I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

The Blood of Others [Le sang des autres] (1946)
General sources

Life, Freedom

“Do you have a death wish?" he asked. Will grinned at him.
I'm just relying on your judgment," he replied. "I can't keep track of everything in my head.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Battle for Skandia

Death

“A wish is just words. Belief is the catalyst. It's what sets that wish into motion.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Off the Page

“As I said, I wish I could say it was easy. It wasn't, but it wasn't hard either. But without a strong reason or purpose, anything in life is hard.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Source: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Life, Strong

“Then, Holden, the little Fang gang kid, came out of nowhere with an apparent death wish. He raced directly toward the maniac with the gun shrieking something that sounded like”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Death

“He wished she knew his impressions, but he would as soon as thought of carrying an odour in a net as of attempting to convey the intangibles of his feeling in the coarse meshes of language. So he remained silent.”

Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd

Feeling

“He wished he could reassure his mother: a man wants many things in life, but when one of them is also the right thing, he would be a fool not to choose it.”

Jess Walter book Beautiful Ruins

Source: Beautiful Ruins

Life, Fools

“I wish she was dead,' he says. 'I wish they were all dead and we were, too. It would be best.”

Suzanne Collins (1962) American television writer and novelist

Dead

“We wish we could show you the world as it sleeps. Then you'd never have any doubt about how similar, how trusting, how astounding and vulnerable we all are.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Two Boys Kissing

World, Sleep

“I wished she’d never stop squeezing me. I wished I could spend the rest of my life as a child, being slightly crushed by someone who loved me.”

Gail Carson Levine Ella Enchanted

Source: Ella Enchanted

Love, Life

“I wish I was invisible to him, to everyone.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

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

“The crow wished everything was black, the Owl, that everything was white.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

“The stairs ended. I wished I knew the jackass who’d made the staircase so short. I’d throw him down the damn steps so he could count them with his head.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

“This is where the evening splits in half, Henry, love or death. Grab an end, pull hard, and make a wish.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Source: Crush

Love, Death

“They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds.”

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

Perfection

“I wish I could tell him I understand: the higher you raise your hopes, the farther you have to fall.”

Jodi Picoult book Second Glance

Source: Second Glance

Hope, Understanding

“I've never been in love. I will die without knowing what it feels like to need to see one person's face when you go to sleep at night, to crave seeing it when you wake up. I wish I knew.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

Love, Feeling, Sleep, Personality

“If you can't laugh when things go bad--laugh and put on a little carnival--then you're either dead or wishing you were.”

Stephen King book Under the Dome

Source: Under the Dome

Dead

“He touched her face, gently, with the back of his hand. 'you disappear so completely into your head sometimes.' he said. 'i wish i could follow you.'
you do, she wanted to say, you live in my head all the time”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Time

“i wish i were someone else, even though i know i'll never, ever be able to get away from what i've done and what's been done to me.”

David Levithan book Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Source: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

“The atheist view is correspondingly life-affirming and life-enhancing, while at the same time never being tainted with self-delusion, wishful thinking, or the whingeing self-pity of those who feel that life owes them something.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

Life, Feeling, Thinking, Time

“Beneath the makeup and behind the smile I am just a girl who wishes for the world.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

World, Smile, Girl

“For now, I only wish to make a simple acknowledgement of the woman who held the power just before me.
Of all of us who touched it, I feel she was the most worthy.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Hero of Ages

Feeling

“You always think that a bolt of lightning is going to strike and your parents will magically change into the people you wish they were, or back into the people they used to be.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

Source: I Remember Nothing: and Other Reflections

People, Thinking, Parent, Change

“I wish our love was right now.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Fourth Comings

Love

“I wished I could be alone in my room, with my books, away from these people.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

People, Books

“Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.”

Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer

Contributions of Jane Wagner

Failure

“Bob Dole revealed he is one of the test subjects for Viagra. He said on Larry King, 'I wish I had bought stock in it.' Only a Republican would think the best part of Viagra is the fact that you could make money off of it.”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

Money, Thinking, Parting

“Life gives to all the choice. You can satisfy yourself with mediocrity if you wish. You can be common, ordinary, dull, colorless, or yyou can channel your life so that it will be clean, vibrant, useful, progressive, colorful, and rich.”

Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Life, Color

“I wish that I could love someone so much that I would die from it.”

Jamaica Kincaid Lucy

Source: Lucy

Love

“It is my wish that you may have at better and freer life than I have had. Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience; this was what upheld me in time of misery.”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

Life, Money, Children, Time

“I wish I could write a beautiful book to break those hearts that are soon to cease to exist: a book of faith and small neat worlds and of people who live by the philosophies of popular songs.”

Zelda Fitzgerald (1900–1948) Novelist, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald

People, Books, World, Faith

“Let those who wish have their respectability- I wanted freedom, freedom to indulge in whatever caprice struck my fancy, freedom to search in the farthermost corners of the earth for the beautiful, the joyous, and the romantic.”

Richard Halliburton (1900–1939) American writer

The Royal Road to Romance (1925).
Context: Youth -- nothing else worth having in the world... and I had youth, the transitory, the fugitive, now, completely and abundantly. Yet what was I going to do with it? Certainly not squander its gold on the commonplace quest for riches and respectability, and then secretly lament the price that had to be paid for these futile ideals. Let those who wish have their respectability -- I wanted freedom, freedom to indulge in whatever caprice struck my fancy, freedom to search in the farthermost corners of the earth for the beautiful, the joyous and the romantic.

Beauty, Search, Freedom

“Being able to do what you wish is the best thing in the world!”

Shiro Amano (1976) Japanese manga artist

Source: Kingdom Hearts, Vol. 1

World

“Normally writers do not talk much, because they are saving their conversations for the readers of their book-
those invisible listeners with whom we wish to strike a sympathetic chord.”

Ruskin Bond (1934) British Indian writer

Books

“I… understand how a parent might hit a child- it's because you can look into their eyes and see a reflection of yourself that you wish you hadn't.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Understanding, Parent

“Some pain shouldn't be wished away so easily. It had to be dealt with, even embraced.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Pain

“Don't wish,"said Rain, "don't start. Wishing only…”

Gregory Maguire Out of Oz

Source: Out of Oz

“Everyone is afraid of something. We fear things because we value them. We fear losing people because we love them. We fear dying because we value being alive. Don't wish you didn't fear anything. All that would mean is that you didn't feel anything.”

Cassandra Clare book Lord of Shadows

Variant: We fear things because we value them. We fear losing people because we love them. We fear dying because we value being alive. Don’t wish you didn’t fear anything. All that would mean is that you didn’t feel anything.
Source: Lord of Shadows

Love, People, Fear, Feeling