Quotes by American Authors - Page 1948

I'm sorry about the screaming. I thought you were him.
Christina Dodd
I never speak from a place of perfection, for I have mastered no Spiritual matter, or worldly either, I speak only because I am seeking with all my Soul to consistently improve and progress, to be a bit more worthy this second than I was the last, And only desire to share my travels and ponderings, for as I share, even more is learned. Please take none of my words as judgement, for I am and never have been in a position to judge. Still a reminder... I have mastered none, I am still learning...It's good to have goals.
Raymond D. Longoria Jr.
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,tThe lady of situations.Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,tAnd here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,tWhich is blank, is something he carries on his back,tWhich I am forbidden to see. I do not findtThe Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
Robert McCammon
To be psychologically healthy, we have to believe that what we do has some effect on what happens to us. Even if the perception of control is delusional, it usually leads to more productive action than believing that what we do makes no difference.
Albert J. Bernstein
Loving someone can be hard at times. You risk a lot when you love - your heart and soul, at the least. Love is the most important and most rewarding investment you can make in another person.
J.E.B. Spredemann
. . .from their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.
Maurice Sendak
The book is not an object on the table; it is an event in the reader's mind. It's a process, through which an idea in my mind triggers an idea, more-or-less corresponding, in yours. The words on the page are merely the means to that end, a think-by-numbers set, a bottled daydream. The book, therefore, is only finished when someone reads it. - Sidelines
Lois McMaster Bujold
I think you’re wrong,” she said. “I don’t think humans were supposed to die out during the Infection. And I think those of us who survived have a duty to protect the next generation. We’re starting over, Justin. We’re rebuilding the world. And this time, we’re going to make it even better.” ~ Carly Daniels
Lissa Bryan
No one rejoices more in revenge than women, wrote Juvenal. Women do most delight in revenge, wrote Sir Thomas Browne. Sweet is revenge, especially to women, wrote Lord Byron. And I say, I wonder why, boys. I wonder why.
Siri Hustvedt
Being passionately curious about things give us the desire to want to learn, to explore and to seek opportunities to set goals and accomplish great things. It allows us to dream.
Ellen J. Barrier
Mirthfulness is in the mind and you cannot get it out. It is just as good in its place as conscience or veneration.
Henry Ward Beecher
As for the belief that humanity is mostly good, Secular humanism, when in that alignment, always presumes the existence of a higher power, or some god-like influence on man. Because it then becomes the belief that people are generally good and should be protected from the wiles of religion, as though this dark, vague and ignorant force once fell from the heavens, latched onto the purer hearts and minds of men and women, and, in all its forms, controlled and polluted the whole of human history. He says, 'When we defeat religion, humanity will be free.' But, if he were duly consistent, if he were really at all as secular as he claims, he might as well admit to what is actually an underlying brand of nihilistic cynicism: 'When we defeat humans, humanity will be free.
Criss Jami
Darling, if I think of all I miss now, I will go crazy. I should not think of that. I only want to think of all that I still have, and then I am rich. Your spirit is always around me, in your diary, our letters, all the things you got for our household. How proud we were of that! And the nearly six years! O God, I thank you for those years. If I never had met you, I would now not have all the sorrow; but I would have missed these riches -- and do these years not abundantly balance the lonely years I face without you?
Diet Eman
Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a new way to stand.
Oprah Winfrey
Without imagination, there would be no creativity. Without creativity, there would be nothing.
Aneta Cruz
My mother, who is a pianist and a fine artist, purchased a piano for me. Twice. This was back when I was a small girl. Pianos, of course, came complete with the quintessential piano teacher who whacked my hand with a stick each time I struck the wrong key. I learned a few pieces, yes, but eventually my pen compelled me to write too much and the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind compelled me to climb trees too often. Sorry mom. Coincidentally, books come from trees and flipping the pages sounds like wind through leaves... hhhmmmm... I guess I’m still just climbing trees now, but in a different way!
C. JoyBell C.
The necklace, Marcos,” she said firmly, leveling the gun at his heart once more. “I’ll take it now.” “It’s not here, querida. You waste your time.”Francesca lowered the gun to point at his groin. “Killing you would be too good. Perhaps I will simply have to deprive the female world of your ability to make love ever again. I am quite a good shot, I assure you.” She’d learned out of necessity. And though she never wanted to harm another human being, she had no compunction about making this man think she would do so if it meant she could save Jacques.His voice dropped to a growl. A hateful, angry growl. “You won’t get away with this. Whoever you are, Frankie, I will find you. I will find you and make you wish you’d never met me.”Her heart flipped in her chest. She ignored it. “I already wish that. Now give me the jewel before you lose the ability to ever have children.”Bitterness twisted inside her as she said those words. Ironic to threaten someone with something she would never wish on another soul. But she had to be hard, cold, ruthless – just like he was.He stared at her in impotent fury, his jaw grinding, his beautiful black eyes flashing daggers at her. Very slowly, he reached up with one hand and slipped his bowtie free of its knot. Then he jerked it loose and let it fall.
Lynn Raye Harris
Stop wasting your time looking for the key to happiness… the door is open and unlocked… just walk through it.
Steve Maraboli
it always sound scarier when a hollerer talk soft.
Kathryn Stockett
That’s some list you have there, little girl.” He placed the crumpled half sheet of paper on the counter next to one of her knees and finally took off his sunglasses. His deep brown irises pegged her with more intensity than she’d seen in weeks.Biting her lip, drew his attention and then he focused on her eyes again.“Did you like it, Sir?
Jennifer Kacey
The greatest of all capabilities of a human being is to become born again.
J.R. Rim
Now that I think I know what I'm doing, I'm scared. Before this, I just didn't know any better.
Lee Marvin
He knew that he wielded magic as well as iron, and yet looked away from it, and made himself fables to explain his own presence in the world, and sought gods who might be more powerful than himself. It would be very comfortable if there were someone more powerful than himself, on this Road, on this particular morning, someone to guide him, even someone to blame....
C.J. Cherryh
You...are...a...fridge...with wings,' Fang ground out, punching an Eraser hard with every word. 'We're...freaking...ballet...dancers.
James Patterson
Write a page a day and you'll have a complete novel in year.
Harry Whittington
He wondered what life had in store for them.And for once, he couldn’t wait to find out.
Jennifer Kacey
He knew what she wanted, and he wanted it, too; he was ready, but not, despite her gorgeousness, with Tiglah. Tiglah was not worth losing his ability to touch a unicorn.
Madeleine L'Engle
I am forever grateful for not knowing—What would have been. WHAT WILL BE holds none of those bittersweet pangs and it is lit w joy.
Erica Goros
The human story is one of continual branching movement, out of Africa to every corner of the globe. When people talk of blood and soil, as if their ancestors sprung fully formed from the earth of a particular place, it involves a kind of forgetting.(Hari Kunzru)
Carolina De Robertis
The real rain dance is when the rain dances.
Marty Rubin
One of the most terrifying questions of all might be, ‘Will I unleash myself to live before death unleashes me from the ability to be unleashed?’ And in retrospect, maybe it’s not the question that’s terrifying. Maybe what’s terrifying is the answer.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
As humans, reality for us is largely based on other people's perceptions. If there's 20 bodies in your crawl space but you haven't been caught yet, you tell yourself you're still a birthday clown, and that's how you keep doing it.
Dan Harmon
one day Satan himself visits, along with his great-grandmother—who is, not surprisingly, a total fucking bitch.
David Rakoff
There may be arrogance – and the laziness of someone who is indefatigable when doing what he enjoys, but only when doing that.
George F. Will
When you put down the good things you ought to have done and leave out the bad things you did do - well that's memoirs.
Will Rogers
Lollipops and raindropsSunflowers and sun-kissed daisiesRolling surf and raging seaSailing ships and submarinesOld Glory and “purple mountain’s majesty”Screaming guitar and lilting rhymeFlight of fancy and high-steppin’ dancesSet free my mind to wander…Imagine the ant’s marching journeys.Fly, in my mind’s eye, on butterfly wings.Roam the distant depths of space.Unfurl tall sails and cross the ocean.Pictures made just to enthrallCreating images from my truthPainting hopes and dreams on my canvasCapturing, through my lens, the ephemeralLet me ruminate ‘pon sensual darkness…Tremble o’er Hollywood’s fluttering Gothics…Ride the edge of my seat with the hero…Weep with the heroine’s desperation.Yet… more than all these things…Give me words spun out masterfully…Terms set out in meter and rhyme…Phrases bent to rattle the soul…Prose that always miraculously inspires me!The trill runs up my spine, as I recall…A touch… a caress…a whispered kiss…Ebony eyes embracing my soul…Two souls united in beat of hearts.A butterfly flutter in my wombMy lover’s wonder o’er my swellingThe testament of our love given lifeNewly laid in my lover’s armsLuminous, sweet ebony eyesJust so much like his father’sA gaze of wonder and contentmentFrom my babe at mother’s breastWords of the Divine set down for meFaith, Hope, Love, and CharityGrace, Mercy, and undeserved Salvation“My Shepherd will supply my need”These are the things that inspire me.
D. Denise Dianaty
She smiled, and said, “Take care that the voice of God and the Devil sound one in the same in the desert. Trust your instincts. You were not put on this earth to be naïve, blindly optimistic, or passive; you are here to be vigilant, to survive.
M.B. Dallocchio
I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty.
George Burns
Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking.
Wallace Stevens
Knowledge can be powerful. But it can only be beautiful if there is more to it. If it is guided by something greater than the simple desire to enhance the potency of the mind.
Gina Marinello-Sweeney
The one undeniable benefit of having spent some time in the closet is that it nurtures a talent that you can fall back on any time: lying convincingly. Sometimes I worried that queer kids in the twenty-first century coming out at twelve, or even younger, would never develop that valuable skill.
Bob Smith
Hope is the flower of life.
Debasish Mridha
History did not demand Yossarian's premature demise, justice could be satisfied without it, progress did not hinge upon it, victory did not depend on it. That men would die was a matter of necessity; WHICH men would die, though, was a matter of circumstance, and Yossarian was willing to be the victim of anything but circumstance. But that was war. Just about all he could find in its favor was that it paid well and liberated children from the pernicious influence of their parents.
Joseph Heller
Life roars at us when it wants or needs us to change. Ultimately, change means trans formation, a shifting from one form to another that involves the magic of creation. The trouble with entrenched oppositions is that each side becomes increasingly one-sided and single minded and unable to grow or meaningfully change. In the blindness of fear and the willfulness of abstract beliefs, people forget or reject the unseen yet essential unity that underlies all the oppositions in life.
Michael Meade
If one bite fills you, you don't need two.
Marty Rubin
Eliminate the tyranny of magic from mankind.
Terry Goodkind
The way of the consumerist culture is to spend so much energy chasing happiness that it has none left to be happy.
Criss Jami
Christmas is God being relentless to the point that He would die in that relentlessness.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
The heart can never break if you believe love never dies.
Kate McGahan
Most of us operate from a narrower frame of reference than that of which we are capable, failing to transcend the influence of our particular culture, our particular set of parents and our particular childhood experience upon our understanding. It is no wonder, then, that the world of humanity is so full of conflict. We have a situation in which human beings, who must deal with each other, have vastly different views as to the nature of reality, yet each one believes his or her own view to be the correct one since it is based on the microcosm of personal experience. And to make matters worse, most of us are not even fully aware of our own world views, much less the uniqueness of the experience from which they are derived.
M. Scott Peck
That’s the way Chris lives, warning everyone who gets close of the lightning that may strike. Never touch anything, never make a mark. But Anatole can’t live that way. The world’s too lonely a place: he has to touch things, he has to put his arms around them.
Paul Russell
The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing.
Ernest Hemingway
Unless a man has trained himself for his chance the chance will only make him ridiculous.
William Matthews
I delight to come to my bearings,—not walk in procession with pomp and parade, in a conspicuous place, but to walk even with the Builder of the universe, if I may,—not to live in this restless, nervous, bustling, trivial Nineteenth Century, but stand or sit thoughtfully while it goes by. What are men celebrating? They are all on a committee of arrangements, and hourly expect a speech from somebody. God is only the president of the day, and Webster is his orator. I love to weigh, to settle, to gravitate toward that which most strongly and rightfully attracts me;—not hang by the beam of the scale and try to weigh less,—not suppose a case, but take the case that is
Henry David Thoreau
What's the rush, honey? We have all the time in the world.
Taylor Jenkins Reid
If you can't say something good about someone sit right here by me.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth
When I said these words, all the heat in my body seemed to rise to my face. I felt I might float up into the air, just like a piece of ash from a fire.
Arthur Golden
Real happiness is cheap enough yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit.
Hosea Ballou
when all of life becomes crowded with profound and weighty matters, making time to engage in trivial things becomes an even greater priority.
Galen Beckett
The missing piece in his stomach hurt so much-and eventually he stopped thinking about the Theorem and wondered only how something that isn't there can hurt you.
John Green