Quotes about wrong
page 8

“Writing turns you into somebody who's always wrong. The illusion that you may get it right someday is the perversity that draws you on.”

Philip Roth book American Pastoral

Source: American Pastoral

Drawing

“The Beast Lord way: often wrong but never in doubt.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Way

“I wasn’t gifted. Mom was wrong. I was just smart and I worked hard. I had fooled myself into thinking that was something important to the rest of the world. Other people were complicit in this ruse. Nobody had told me I was common.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

People, World, Fools, Moms

“You have to work at relationships. You can’t just walk out on them every time something goes wrong.”

Nick Hornby book High Fidelity

Source: High Fidelity

Time

“A human being can be good or bad or right or wrong, maybe. But how can you say a person is illegal? You just can't. That's all there is to it.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Bean Trees

Source: The Bean Trees

Personality

“Leo: I'm almost out of gas! Woah, that came out wrong. I meant the burning kind!”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

“This is pity,” he thought, and then he lifted his head in wonder. He thought that there must be something terribly wrong with a world in which this monstrous feeling is called a virtue.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

World, Feeling

“There's nothing wrong with being a genius who can fascinate the young. Rather, there's something wrong with the young who can't be fascinated by a genius.”

Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

“I mean, to me, freaking out is different. More of a running away, not telling anyone what's wrong, slowly simmering until you burst kind of thing.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

“When there are no consequences, being wrong is simply a diversion.”

Ian McEwan Saturday

Source: Saturday

“To cut off the confusion and accept an answer just because it's too scary not to have an answer is a good way to get the wrong answer.”

Janet Jackson book True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself

Source: True You: A Journey to Finding and Loving Yourself

Way

“Time is the clarity for seeing right and wrong.”

Alan Lightman book Einstein's Dreams

Source: Einstein's Dreams

Time

“Horses were never wrong. They always did what they did for a reason, and it was up to you to figure it out.”

Jeannette Walls book Half Broke Horses

Source: Half Broke Horses

Horse

“Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you're probably watching the wrong channel.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

World, Cry

“For some things there are no wrong seasons. Which is what I dream of for me.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Source: A Thousand Mornings

Dreams, Season

“She was, in other words, the kind of girl who made the rest of us look bad, and whenever she glanced my way, I couldn't help but feel guilty, even though I hadn't done anything wrong.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

Way, Feeling, Girl, Help

“Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Sleep, Tree, Waiting

“The longer I live, the more I realize that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time!”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Pain, Time

“They told us not to wish in the first place, not to aspire, not to try; to be quiet, to play nice, to shoot low and aspire not at all. They are always wrong. Follow your dreams. Make your wishes. Create the future. And above all, believe in yourself. That is the lesson of Babylon 5.”

J. Michael Straczynski (1954) American writer and television producer

From the Babylon 5 Calendar (1998).

Dreams, Future

“I spend the rest of the afternoon trying to explain to Zoe one of the very saddest notions in love and life: sometimes the timing is wrong--and sometimes you realize the heart of the matter way to late in the game.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Baby Proof

Love, Life, Way, Game

“Hell, yes," Dev says, sitting up now. "Don't get me wrong - we're totally going to make the beast with two backs tonight. But if we do it right, it's going to feel like holding hands.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Feeling, Hell

“Cease being intimidated by the argument that a right action is impossible because it does not yield maximum profits, or that a wrong action is to be condoned because it pays.”

Aldo Leopold book A Sand County Almanac

"The Ecological Conscience" [1947]; Published in The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays by Aldo Leopold, Susan L. Flader and J. Baird Callicott (eds.) 1991, p. 346.
1940s
Source: A Sand County Almanac
Context: The direction is clear, and the first step is to throw your weight around on matters of right and wrong in land-use. Cease being intimidated by the argument that a right action is impossible because it does not yield maximum profits, or that a wrong action is to be condoned because it pays. That philosophy is dead in human relations, and its funeral in land-relations is overdue.

“Sane is rich and powerful. Insane is wrong and poor and weak. The rich are free, the poor are put in cages. Res Ipsa Loquitur, amen. Mahalo.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Source: Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century

“The train is roaring toward you and the villain is twirling his moustache and you're fussing that he's tied you to the tracks with the wrong kind of rope.”

Robin McKinley book Sunshine

Source: Sunshine

Training

“Simon didn’t think Meg really wanted to know how to eviscerate a rabbit. He could be wrong about that, but he just couldn’t picture Meg pouncing on a bunny and ripping it open with her teeth.
Maybe if he tried harder to picture it?”

Anne Bishop book Written in Red

Source: Written in Red

Thinking

“Love- the infatuation kind- 'he's so handsome, she's so beautiful'- that can shrivel. As soon as something goes wrong, that kind of love can fly out the window.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Love, Beauty, Flying

“Failure is hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you're successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.”

Po Bronson (1964) American writer

Money, Failure, Success

“Nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the ocean wouldn't cure.”

Ross Macdonald book The Drowning Pool

The Moving Target (1949)
Source: The Drowning Pool

“As citizens, we must prevent wrongdoing because the world in which we all live, wrong-doer, wrong sufferer and spectator, is at stake.”

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist

World, Suffering

“Passion I hate, and spirit does me wrong. Let us love gently.”

Charles Baudelaire book Les Fleurs du mal

Source: Les Fleurs du Mal

Love, Hate, Passion

“Watching you walk out of my life does not make me bitter or cynical about love. But rather makes me realize that if I wanted so much to be with the wrong person, how beautiful it will be when the right person comes along.”

Nicholas Sparks book Dear John

Source: Dear John

Love, Life, Beauty, Personality

“But she's wrong about hell. You don't have to wait until you're dead to get there.”

Susan Beth Pfeffer book Life As We Knew It

Source: Life As We Knew It

Hell, Waiting, Dead

“If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.”

Ken Robinson (1950) UK writer

Source: The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

“The right thing at the wrong time is never the right thing.”

Patti Callahan Henry American writer

Source: Between The Tides

Time

“I used to think the worst feeling in the world is losing someone you love. But I was wrong the worst feeling in the world is the moment that you realize you've lost yourself.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Love, World, Feeling, Thinking

“Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Love, Law, Country

“Extremes to the right and to the left of any political dispute are always wrong.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

“Oh, mercy. If it catches you in the wrong frame of mind, the King James Bible can make you want to drink poison in no uncertain terms.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Poisonwood Bible

Source: The Poisonwood Bible

Drink

“I thought again how you could never really know what you were seeing with just a glance, in motion, passing by. Good or bad, right or wrong. There was always so much more.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

“A weed is just a flower growing in the wrong place”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: Perfect

Flowers

“Divorce isn't such a tragedy. A tragedy's staying in an unhappy marriage, teaching your children the wrong things about love. Nobody ever died of divorce.”

Jennifer Weiner (1970) American writer

Source: Fly Away Home

Love, Marriage, Children

“What's wrong with my proposition?" Poirot rose. "If you will forgive me for being personal-I do not like your face, M. Ratchett.”

Agatha Christie book Murder on the Orient Express

Source: Murder on the Orient Express

Forgiveness, Personality

“(J)ust because your version of normal isn't the same as someone else's version doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you.”

John Boyne book The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket

Source: The Terrible Thing That Happened to Barnaby Brocket

“It was a kiss made in lonely dreams. A kiss that took its time. A kiss that felt so right she couldn't remember all the reasons it was wrong.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: This Heart of Mine

Dreams, Kiss, Time

“There's nothing wrong with being a large mammal.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

“Of course I'm ambitious. What's wrong with that? Otherwise you sleep all day.”

Ringo Starr (1940) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Sleep

“If a man says something in the woods and there are no women there, is he still wrong?”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Women

“That was a long time ago, but it's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

1
Variant: It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out.
Source: The Kite Runner (2003)

Way, Learning, Time, Past

“Looking for Mr. Right leads to desperation, because there is no Mr. Right. There is no Mr. Right, because there is no Mr. Wrong. There is whoever is in front of us and the perfect lessons to be learned from that person.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Learning, Personality, Perfection

“The most serious mistakes are not being made as a result of wrong answers.
The true dangerous thing is asking the wrong question.”

Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant

Question

“If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for… but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.”

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love

Source: Time Enough for Love

Parting

“The multitude is always in the wrong.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

“When you are committed to doing what’s right, you are sowing seeds for God’s blessings. You will never go wrong by taking the high road and doing more that is required.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

God

“Meg! I love you! I want to marry you!"
"That's weird," she said without stopping. "Only six weeks ago, you were telling me all about how Lucy broke your heart."
"I was wrong. Lucy broke my brain.”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (1948) American writer

Source: Call Me Irresistible

Love, Heart

“Because my spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.”

A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh

Source: Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), Chapter Six - Pooh.

“Who really can face the future? All you can do is project from the past, even when the past shows that such projections are often wrong. And who really can forget the past? What else is there to know?”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Past, Future, Forgetting

“Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry: Worry never fixes anything.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Training

“Let's do it. Monkeys are always funny. You pretty much can't go wrong with a monkey, right? Hi paused. Well unless that monkey wants you dead, or does needle drugs or something. Then it's wrong, and a bad monkey.”

Kathy Reichs Virals

Source: Virals

Dead

“If something is wrong, it matters not if a thousand men are for it; you must still oppose it. If something is just, no amount of popular outcry should stay you from your course.”

Terry Goodkind book Naked Empire

Source: Naked Empire

Men

“If I didn't care about doing right and didn't feel uncomfortable doing wrong, I should get on capitally.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Feeling

“I was no hero. The dearest wishes of my heart were for safety and tranquility. The world was a perilous place, wrong for the likes of me.”

Gail Carson Levine The Two Princesses of Bamarre

Source: The Two Princesses of Bamarre

World, Heart

“Daddy always said the only thing worth begging for was your life, but maybe he was wrong. Maybe sometimes your love is a little bit worth begging for, too.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: All These Things I've Done

Love, Life

“Whatever goes wrong can be used to your advantage, providing it goes wrong enough.”

Tom Robbins Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

“If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see.”

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

Men

“He says this is war. There is no shame in war. Tell him he's wrong. War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

War, Peace, Time

“Amelie had on black pants, a black zip-up hoodie, andrunning shoes.
So wrong.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Carpe Corpus

Shoe

“And only weaklings… who lack courage and the power to feel they're right when the whole world says they're wrong, ever lose.”

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

World, Feeling, Courage

“We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

Love, People, Light, Heart

“the boldest form of dissent they can manage. Silence. Which says we do not agree. We do not condone. All of this is wrong.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Silence

“Sometimes I feel like I’m actually on the wrong planet. It’s great when I’m in my garden, but the minute I go out the gate I think, ‘What the hell am I doing here?”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Feeling, Hell, Thinking

“And flash him!” Annabeth’s face reddened. “That came out wrong. But yeah, good idea.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Idea

“For in other ways a woman is full of fear, defenseless, dreads the sight of cold steel; but, when once she is wronged in the matter of love, no other soul can hold so many thoughts of blood.”

Euripidés Medea

Source: Medea

Love, Fear, Way, Soul

“The meaning of life has not much to do with good and evil, right and wrong, duty, honor, country, or any of that.

It has to do with cutting the right deal.”

Nelson DeMille (1943) American writer

Life, Evil, Country

“I may be the wrong person for my life.”

Thomas McGuane (1939) American novelist

Life, Personality

“If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.”

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

“Tolerating a wrong attitude toward another person causes you to follow the spirit of the devil, no matter how saintly you are.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

Personality

“Someone's parents have been singing entirely the wrong sort of songs.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind

Parent, Singing

“Deep down inside, my heart knew the score.
And I know that Haven was wrong.
It's not always a case of one loving more than the other.
When two people are truly meant to be, they love equally.
Differently - but still equal.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Night Star

Love, People, Heart

“Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (p. 377)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: I no longer feel any allegiance to these monsters called human beings, despite being one myself. I think that Peeta was onto something about us destroying one another and letting some decent species take over. Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children’s lives to settle its differences.

Children

“I can't hate people that much. Don't get me wrong. I want to murder every last Keeper I can find. But that's not hate. That's vengeance.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

Hate, People