Quotes about worth (2216 quotes, page 2)

“You must really begin to harden yourself to the idea of being worth looking at.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Idea

“The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.”

C.G. Jung book Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Source: Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933), p. 67
Context: For it all depends on how we look at things, and not on how they are in themselves. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.

Life

“I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

At the dedication of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California http://www.planbproductions.com/postnobills/reagan1.html (4 November 1991), the inscription on Reagan's tomb
Post-presidency (1989–2004)

Life , Heart

“Your cause of sorrow must not be measured by his worth, for then it hath no end.”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet

Source: Macbeth: Playgoer's Edition

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”

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

As quoted in Stepping Stones : The Complete Bible Narratives (1941)
Disputed

Education , Knowledge

“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.”

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

Third letter on sunspots (December 1612) to Mark Wesler (1558 - 1614), as quoted in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957) by Stillman Drake, p. 134 - 135; Italian text online at Liber Liber http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/g/galilei/lettere/html/lett08c.htm, also from IntraText http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ITA0188/_PQ.HTM.
Variant translation: In questions of science the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
As quoted in Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men (1859) by François Arago, as translated by Baden Powell, Robert Grant, and William Fairbairn, p. 365
Other quotes
Variant: In the sciences, the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man.
Context: for in the sciences the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man. Besides, the modern observations deprive all former writers of any authority, since if they had seen what we see, they would have judged as we judge.

Question , Science

“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Life

“Anything worth doing, is worth overdoing.”

Nikki Sixx (1958) American musician

Source: The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star

“There is only one dream worth having…to live while you are alive, and die only when you are dead.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

From a speech entitled Come September http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/politics/comeSeptember.pdf.
Speeches
Source: The Cost of Living

Dreams , Dead

“Vashet: “I will admit, I’ve never had a studen offer himself up for a vicious beating in order to prove he’s worth my time.”
Kvothe: “That was nothing. Once I jumped off a roof.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Time

“Peter would think her sentimental. So she was. For she had come to feel that it was the only thing worth saying – what one felt. Cleverness was silly. One must say simply what one felt.”

Virginia Woolf book Mrs Dalloway

Mrs Dalloway (1925)
Source: Mrs. Dalloway
Context: But to go deeper, beneath what people said (and these judgements, how superficial, how fragmentary they are!) in her own mind now, what did it mean to her, this thing she called life? Oh, it was very queer. Here was So-and-so in South Kensington; some one up in Bayswater; and somebody else, say, in Mayfair. And she felt quiet continuously a sense of their existence and she felt what a waste; and she felt what a pity; and she felt if only they could be brought together; so she did it. And it was an offering; to combine, to create; but to whom?
An offering for the sake of offering, perhaps. Anyhow, it was her gift. Nothing else had she of the slightest importance; could not think, write, even play the piano. She muddled Armenians and Turks; loved success; hated discomfort; must be liked; talked oceans of nonsense: and to this day, ask her what the Equator was, and she did not know.
All the same, that one day should follow another; Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; that one should wake up in the morning; see the sky; walk in the park; meet Hugh Whitbread; then suddenly in came Peter; then these roses; it was enough. After that, how unbelievable death was! — that it must end; and no one in the whole world would know how she had loved it all.

Feeling , Thinking

“To know what life is worth you have to risk it once in a while.”

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

Source: No Exit and Three Other Plays

Life

“Does a rake deserve to possess anything of worth, since he chases everything in skirts and then imagines he can successfully hide his shame by slandering [women in general]?”

Christine de Pizan (1365–1430) Italian French late medieval author

Source: Der Sendbrief vom Liebesgott / The Letter of the God of Love

Women , Imagination

“Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”

Mick Jagger (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones

“I think you judge yourself too severely, a quality that always distinguishes people of true worth.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Angel's Game

Source: The Angel's Game

People , Thinking

“No art or learning is to be pursued halfheartedly," His Highness replied, "…and any art worth learning will certainly reward more or less generously the effort made to study it.”

Murasaki Shikibu book The Tale of Genji

Source: Tale of Genji, Ch. 17: Eawase (trans. Royall Tyler)
Source: The Tale of Genji

Art , Effort , Study , Learning

“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.”

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) Mexican painter

Laughter , Light

“Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Democracy

“No boy is worth crying over, and the one who is won't make you cry.”

Sarah Kane (1971–1999) playwright from England

Boy , Cry

“Nothing in the world is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

People , World , Housing

“For a friend with an understanding heart is worth no less than a brother.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

VIII. 585–586 (tr. G. H. Palmer).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Source: The Odyssey

Understanding , Heart

“It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone, but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching.”

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

Travel

“Youth is the only thing worth having.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Youth

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Back To Work

“If you don't make a few ememies now and then, you're a coward-or worse. Besides, it as worth it to see his reaction. Oh, he was angry!
- Angela to Eragon”

Christopher Paolini book Inheritance

Source: Inheritance

“the worst part about being lied to is knowing you werent worth the truth”

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

Truth , Parting

“True happiness
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth and choice.”

Ben Jonson Cynthia's Revels

Cynthia's Revels (1600), Act III, scene ii

Happy , Happiness

“I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.

I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.

I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond, that character—not wealth or power or position—is of supreme worth.

I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.

I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individual's highest fulfillment, greatest happiness and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.

I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.”

John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American business magnate and philanthropist

Love , Life , God , Hate

“So she was considering in her own mind… whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up & picking the daisies…”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Pleasure

“No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

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

Back To Work , Life , Chance

“I can tell you that you will have your hearts broken more by the people you love than by the people you hate. But you must still dare to love. The rewards are worth far more than the risks.”

Margaret Peterson Haddix book Into the Gauntlet

Source: Into the Gauntlet

Love , Hate , People , Heart

“It is easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is one who will smile,
When everything goes dead wrong.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author and poet

For Men , Life , Smile , Dead

“For it all depends on how we look at things, and not on how they are in themselves. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.”

C.G. Jung book Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Source: Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933), p. 67

Life , Dependency

“Moments of kindness and reconciliation are worth having, even if the parting has to come sooner or later.”

Alice Munro (1931) Canadian novelist

Parting

“Human intelligence was more trouble than it was worth. It was more destructive than creative, more confusing than revealing, more discouraging than satisfying, more spiteful than charitable.”

Michael Crichton book The Andromeda Strain

Source: The Andromeda Strain

Intelligence

“If a thing's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. (Lazarus Long)”

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love

Variant: Take big bites. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
Source: Time Enough for Love

“Kennedy was not impressed by military objections. The Bay of Pigs had taught the President to distrust the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “The first advice I’m going to give my successor,” he once said to his journalist friend Ben Bradlee, “is to watch the generals and to avoid feeling that because they were military men their opinions on military matters were worth a damn.”4 During the missile crisis Kennedy courteously and consistently rejected the Joint Chiefs’ bellicose recommendations. “These brass hats have one great advantage in their favor,” he said. “If we…do what they want us to do, none of us will be alive later to tell them that they were wrong.”5”

Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy

Source: Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Men , Feeling

“The only book that is worth writing is the one we don’t have the courage or strength to write. The book that hurts us (we who are writing), that makes us tremble, redden, bleed”

Hélène Cixous (1937) French philosopher and writer

Books , Courage , Hurt

“Ask yourself a question: Is my attitude worth catching?”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker

Question

“It is possibly worth mentioning at this point that Mr. Young thought that paparazzi was a kind of Italian linoleum.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

“Some people say great God come from the sky take away everything and make everybody feel high, but if you know what life is worth, you will look for yours on earth.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

Get Up, Stand Up (cowritten with Peter Tosh), from the album Burnin (1973)
Song lyrics

Life , God , People , Feeling

“And, like the great damned souls, I shall always feel that thinking is worth more than living.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

Feeling , Soul , Thinking

“Pray don't talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else. And that makes me quite nervous.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

People , Feeling , Weather

“But you can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.”

Adeline Yen Mah (1937) Author and physician

Source: Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter

“Lest I keep my complacent way I must remember somewhere out there a person died for me today. As long as there must be war, I ask and I must answer was I worth dying for?”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

War , Way , Personality

“Surround yourself with people who make you happy. People who make you laugh, who help you when you’re in need. People who genuinely care. They are the ones worth keeping in your life. Everyone else is just passing through”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

Attributed to Karl Marx, a composer with the same name.
Misattributed

Life , People , Help , Happiness

“Yet, even amidst the hatred and carnage, life is still worth living. It is possible for wonderful encounters and beautiful things to exist.”

Hayao Miyazaki (1941) Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka

Life , Beauty

“It's not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren't doing it.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

“Aesthetics have substantial political consequences. How one views oneself as beautiful or not beautiful or desirable or not desirable has deep consequences in terms of one’s feelings of self-worth and one’s capacity to be a political agent.”

Cornel West (1953) African-American philosopher and political/civil rights activist

Source: Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life

Beauty , Feeling

“It is sound judgment to put on a bold face and play your hand for a hundred times what it is worth; forty-nine times out of fifty nobody dares to call it, and you roll in the chips.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Time

“nothing that is worth knowing can be taught”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“[Thine] face is not worth sunburning.”

William Shakespeare Henry V

Source: Henry V

“The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn't sure it was worth all the effort.”

Terry Pratchett book The Light Fantastic

Source: The Light Fantastic

Effort , Sun

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing”

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

1900s, A Square Deal (1903)
Context: Among ourselves we differ in many qualities of body, head, and heart; we are unequally developed, mentally as well as physically. But each of us has the right to ask that he shall be protected from wrong-doing as he does his work and carries his burden through life. No man needs sympathy because he has to work, because he has a burden to carry. Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing; and this is a prize open to every man, for there can be no better worth doing than that done to keep in health and comfort and with reasonable advantages those immediately dependent upon the husband, the father, or the son. There is no room in our healthy American life for the mere idler, for the man or the woman whose object it is throughout life to shirk the duties which life ought to bring. Life can mean nothing worth meaning, unless its prime aim is the doing of duty, the achievement of results worth achieving.

Business , Powerful , Back To Work , Life

“The danger of an adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

“[Citing a familiar "American joke":] In Boston they ask, How much does he know? In New York, How much is he worth? In Philadelphia, Who were his parents?”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

"What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us?" http://www.mtwain.com/What_Paul_Bourget_Thinks_of_Us/0.html, in How to Tell a Story and Other Essays (1897)

Parent

“But when a woman decides to sleep with a man, there is no wall she will not scale, no fortress she will not destroy, no moral consideration she will not ignore at its very root: there is no God worth worrying about.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

God , Sleep

“He couldn’t see why people made such a fuss about people eating their silly old fruit anyway, but life would be a lot less fun if they didn’t. And there was never an apple, in Adam’s opinion, that wasn’t worth the trouble you got into for eating it.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Life , People

“If you believe that life is worth living then your belief will create the fact.”

Arthur Miller (1915–2005) playwright from the United States

Wise , Positive , Life

“What's the earth
With all its art, verse, music, worth —
Compared with love, found, gained, and kept?”

Robert Browning (1812–1889) English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era

Love , Art , Music

“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

“After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.”

Arthur Miller book Death of a Salesman

Willy
Death of a Salesman (1949)
Source: Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Training , Dead

“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

“Worth dying for. Worth killing for. Worth going to hell for. Amen.”

Frank Miller book The Hard Goodbye

Source: The Hard Goodbye

Hell

“At your absolute best, you still won't be good enough for the wrong person. At your worst, you'll still be worth it to the right person.”

Karen Salmansohn American writer

Personality

“When the fight begins within himself,
A man's worth something.”

Robert Browning Men and Women

"Bishop Blougram's Apology".
Men and Women (1855)

Fight

“Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat. In our mad rush for progress and modern improvements let's be sure we take along with us all the old-fashioned things worth while.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

Source: A Family Collection: Life on the Farm and in the Country, Making a Home; the Ways of the World, a Woman's Role

Fashion , Madness

“Obscurity and a competence—that is the life that is best worth living.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Source: Notebook

Life

“Some idiotic things are well worth doing.”

Richard Ford book Independence Day

Source: Independence Day

“Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.”

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

Life , History

“I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.”

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

“Some risks are worth taking, even if it means losing a life.”

Rick Riordan book The Throne of Fire

Source: The Throne of Fire

Life

“As far as I can tell, the only thing worth looking at in most museums of art is all the schoolgirls on day trips with the art department.”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Existencilism (2002)

Art

“It's only worth staying in bed if you're young and in good company.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Angel's Game

Source: The Angel's Game

“Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.”

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy

"Is Life Worth Living?"
Variant: Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
Source: 1890s, The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Inspirational , Depressing , For Men , Life

“Better say nothing at all. Language is worth a thousand pounds a word!”

Lewis Carroll book Through the Looking-Glass

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

“a fully belly is little worth where the mind is starved.”

Mark Twain book The Prince and the Pauper

Source: The Prince and the Pauper

“Put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it."

(, 1964)”

Colette (1873–1954) 1873-1954 French novelist: wrote Gigi

“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”

Arthur Miller The Crucible

Source: The Crucible (1953)
Context: Danforth: Do you mean to deny this confession when you are free?
Proctor: I mean to deny nothing!
Danforth: Then explain to me, Mr. Proctor, why you will not let —
Proctor: [With the cry of his whole soul] Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!

Life , Lie , Soul

“You never know the worth of water until the well is dry.”

Sharon Creech Walk Two Moons

Source: Walk Two Moons

Water

“anyone who’s worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm.”

Virginia Woolf book Jacob's Room

Variant: But then anyone who's worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm.
Source: Jacob's Room

Mood , Reading

“And life changes. Maybe just a little, maybe a lot. And at some point, it just isn't worth the fight to fix it.”

Jeffery Deaver (1950) novelist, journalist, lawyer

Life , Change , Fight

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“Never pretend that the things you haven't got are not worth having.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

Source: The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume Two: 1920-1924

“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Source: The Soul of Man Under Socialism, and Selected Critical Prose

“Love's scary, and sometimes it's transient. But it's worth the risks and the nerves. It's even worth the pain.”

Nora Roberts Vision in White

Source: Vision in White

Love , Pain

“There is nothing worth living for, unless it is worth dying for.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

“All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

“When I am king they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books, for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved.”

Mark Twain book The Prince and the Pauper

Source: The Prince and the Pauper

Books

“Only a man's character is the real criterion of worth.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

22 August 1944
My Day (1935–1962)
Source: You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life

For Men

“But what's worth more than gold?"

"Practically everything. You, for example. Gold is heavy. Your weight in gold is not very much gold at all. Aren't you worth more than that?”

Terry Pratchett book Making Money

Source: Making Money

“To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.”

Anthony Bourdain book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

Kitchen Confidential (2000)
Source: Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Context: Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It's healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I've worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold. Oh, I'll accommodate them, I'll rummage around for something to feed them, for a 'vegetarian plate', if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine. (p. 70).

Life

“You are not worth the dust which the rude wind blows in your face”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Source: King Lear

“Lies will flow from my lips, but there may perhaps be some truth mixed up with them; it is for you to seek out this truth and to decide whether any part of it is worth keeping.”

Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own

Source: A Room of One's Own

Truth , Parting

“All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.”

Margaret Atwood book The Blind Assassin

Source: The Blind Assassin (2000)
Context: All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel. …Think about it. There's escaping from the wolves, fighting the wolves, capturing the wolves, taming the wolves. Being thrown to the wolves, or throwing others to the wolves so the wolves will eat them instead of you. Running with the wolf pack. Turning into a wolf. Best of all, turning into the head wolf. No other decent stories exist.