Quotes by American Authors - Page 1997

A good magician’s performance tells a story. Each act should build on the next, becoming ever more engaging to fill the audience with wonder. It’s a bud that unfurls into a flower, meant to woo the audience.
Laura Lam
We both just stood there. I let the breeze brush against my skin, the sun release the tension in my muscles. It was as close as I had felt to God in a long time. "It's like we're praying," Celeste whispered. "Only we're not saying anything.
Nancy N. Rue
Latinos are here to stay. As citizen Raquel, I'm proud to be Latina.
Raquel Welch
Happiness is not a life without pain, but rather a life in which the pain is traded for a worthy price.
Orson Scott Card
How sad it was to realize that sometimes you never got there. That sometimes you lived a whole life skittering across the surface as the years passed, unblessed.
Emma Cline
But in actuality, the assumption that there is no freedom leads to the exact opposite of order in human behavior. If we all really felt we were not free to make our own choices of how to face and deal with the conditions set for us by heredity and environment, we would also feel no responsibility for our behavior. And we would be right. We couldn’t be blamed for action over which we had no control, so we would make no real effort to act responsibly. We would give free rein to our passions on the grounds that whatever we did was part of the cause-and-effect sequence of events preordained by the conditions. Instead of orderly human conduct, there would be chaos. In fact, much of the irresponsible antisocial behavior that characterizes our modern society stems from the fact that many people have studied or otherwise absorbed this scientific doctrine of determinism. As a result, they have unconsciously excused their own behavior as well as that of others on the grounds that it is determined by factors beyond control.
James C. Crumbaugh
I swear that girl was born with a pen in her hand, the moon in her hair, and stars in her soul.
Melody Lee
You eat the wealthy, sir, and it will be your last meal.
J.S.B. Morse
When you refuse to entertain the possibility of a solution because you “know” it will not work, then you have successfully strengthened the problem at hand
Gary Hopkins
Everyday presents a new opportunity to grow and press forward to your success. Stay the course believing that where you are right now doesn't matter, as long as you are moving in the right direction.
Germany Kent
The greatest step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go.
Steve Maraboli
Education is important not because it helps you to get a job, but because it opens the window of the mind through which we can see the beauty of life.
Debasish Mridha
Suddenly, something fluttered down from the nest to rest at Chasmira's feet. She picked it up- A phoenix father.It glistened in the sunlight, and tracing her fingers along its edges, she marveled at its soft and delicate touch.Extending it to Aaron, she said quietly, "They say a phoenix feather is a symbol of everlasting friendship.
Christine E. Schulze
Suffering is normal. Pain is normal, it is part of life... What is its texture, the weight of our suffering? What is its meaning? Begin by touching it, by coming close to it, accepting it: Hello, suffering, I am here with you. I am beside you, one with you, I am you. I am suffering.
A.M. Homes
What we call reality is an agreement that people have arrived at to make life more livable.
Louise Nevelson
Everything in this world is primarily a matter of morals, and only very much later one of politics.
Franz Werfel
At its Greek root, "to believe" simply means "to give one's heart to." Thus, if we can determine what it is we give our heart to, then we will know what it is we believe.
Kathleen Norris
Little kids talk about the strangest things. They really do.
Stephen Chbosky
A man goes away from his home and it is in him to do it. He lies in strange beds in the dark, and the wind is different in the trees. He walks in the street and there are the faces in front of his eyes, but there are no names for the faces. the voices he hears are not the voices he carried away in his ears a long time back when he went away. The voices he hears are loud. they are so loud he does not hear for a long time at a stretch those voices he carried away in his ears. but there comes a minute when it is quiet and he can hear those voices he carried away in his ears a long time back. He can make out what they say, and they say: Come back. They say: Come back, boy. So he comes back.
Robert Penn Warren
We are a day away from making history, and a history towards the breaking of tommorrow.
Anthony Liccione
She would grace his home with her charm and beauty and she would make his bed joyous, all without ever having to shame his hearth with another man's memory of her shamelessness.
Dorothy West
You don't have to be naked to be sexy.
Nicole Kidman
We're not peculiar.""Oh, yes, you are. Don't you realize that in my world my parents are peculiar because they'd never been divorced? Basically because it would have been too much trouble. But you live in a world where not only are your parents not divorced, they appear to love each other
Madeleine L'Engle
Dreams are ideas where the collar has been removed and the leash has been thrown away.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
If I tell Dad he has a problem, he’ll think I hate him. How can I hurt him more? He just lost everything.”Wesley shook his head. “Not everything. He didn’t lose you,” he said. “At least not yet. If you don’t talk to him, he’ll just end up driving you away, and then he will be in far worse pain.
Kody Keplinger
Don't hire anyone you wouldn't want to run into in the hallway at three in the morning.
Tina Fey
The best way to predict your future is to create it.
Abraham Lincoln
The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Logic, when applied to people, fails miserably!
Joseph J. Breunig 3rd
I call upon the leaders of all nations to work for peace, even when the risks seem high. I call upon Christians to pray and work for peace in whatever constructive ways are open to them. I do not believe this is only a political issue; it is a moral one as well.
Billy Graham
Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world.
Roy T. Bennett
When my country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir.
Thomas Paine
There might be nowhere I would be at home. I might always be straddling two worlds, and finding solace in neither.
Eilis O'Neal
I couldn't believe I let him see me like this, unable to fend for myself. I fumed in disgust at my vulnerability. I didn't want Evan to think I needed protecting. I pulled back my torment and let the numb blanket envelop me, pushing away the stirred memories, the noise of the crowd, and the trembling that still lay beneath the surface. I stared at the flames licking at the darkness and everything was lost as I sank deeper into nothingness.
Rebecca Donovan
I believe that this world, as we know it, will come to an end . . . This is not fanciful imagination but the clear and repeated testimony of the Bible.
Billy Graham
He used both hands when he made the bear. Imagine a bear proceeding from the hands of God.
N. Scott Momaday
Art was the first casualty of the Socialist and Communist revolutions of the 20th Century. Socialists killed the independent thinkers first.
A.E. Samaan
My ancestors wandered lost in the wilderness for forty years because even in biblical times men would not stop to ask directions.
Elayne Boosler
Can anything be called an achievement if it does not simultaneously enhance the life of someone other than the one who has done the achieving?
Craig D. Lounsbrough
She just eyed them coolly, as if they were nothing to her, as if their nothingness surprised and slightly repelled her.
Anne Ursu
It was a defeat, resorting to crude threats in a game of subtlety, but sometimes one must sacrifice a battle to win the war.
Mark Lawrence
…so that’s why I’m pleased to announce my endorsement of Sarah Palin for President in 2016: because you know that whoever gets elected is going to fuck you over. So why not vote for somebody that you actually want to get fucked by?
Phillip Andrew Bennett Low
When a woman who has much to say says nothing, her silence can be deafening.
Margaret Landon
The sad truth is, John and I and the kids only took Route 66 once on our trips to Disneyland. Our family, like the rest of America, succumbed to the lure of faster highways, more direct routes, higher speed limits. We forgot about taking the slow way. It makes you wonder if something inside us knows that our lives are going to pass faster than we could ever realize. So we run around like chickens about to lose our heads. Which makes our little two- or three-week vacations with our families more important than ever... As for the time that elapsed between those vacations, that’s another thing altogether. It seems to have all passed breathlessly, like some extended whisper of days, months, years, decades. (pp.39-40)
Michael Zadoorian
I’m here not because I am supposed to be here, or because I’m trapped here, but because I’d rather be with you than anywhere else in the world.
Richard Bach
In a very real way, one writes a story to find out what happens in it. Before it is written it sits in the mind like a piece of overheard gossip or a bit of intriguing tattle. The story process is like taking up such a piece of gossip, hunting down the people actually involved, questioning them, finding out what really occurred, and visiting pertinent locations. As with gossip, you can't be too surprised if important things turn up that were left out of the first-heard version entirely; or if points initially made much of turn out to have been distorted, or simply not to have happened at all.
Samuel R. Delany
Having experimented in both poetry and prose, I can say that the two are such loaded words. But neither are quite as weighted as the word “poet”. I think some people can write poetry their whole lives, and never truly BE a “poet”. Whereas I see poets in the wanderers I encounter, the baristas who serve me, and the truckers I, so, love to talk to.To be a poet in my humble opinion is to be a muse of the human experience. I love that I love the idea, that anything can be poetry, it can’t be defined. It’s a feeling, like punk rock. I’m not one for form or structure. I say if your words are visceral and honest, it’s poetry. If you see the beauty of the world and humanity, and you preach it, you’re a poet.
Mallory Smart
Peace is the number one beautiful ornament you can wear, I really believe that. They say you should always wear a smile, but I don't believe that you should "always" wear a smile, seriously, you're going to look stupid! But peace, you should always carry peace within you, its the most beautifying thing you could ever have or do. Peace makes your heart beautiful and it makes you look beautiful, too. You want to have perfect physical posture when you stand, sit, and walk, and peace is the perfect posture of the soul, really. Try perfect posture outside as well as inside. Peace creates grace and grace gives peace.
C. JoyBell C.
If we look back into history for the character of present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practised it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England, blamed persecution in the Roman church, but practised it against the Puritans: these found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here and in New En
Benjamin Franklin
This fire that we call Loving is too strong for human minds. But just right for human souls.
Aberjhani
In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.
Mark Twain
Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots.
Frank A. Clark
Solitude is the house of peace.
T.F. Hodge
I honor you for every timethis year you:got back upvibrated highershined your lightand loved and elevatedbeyond—the call of duty.
Lalah Delia
So many wish for magic so many beg for fame, but if you could manifest anything you want life would be a boring game.
Stanley Victor Paskavich
Spoil me differently! Spoil me with your love, honesty, and commitment. Spoil me with respect, honor, and appreciation. Spoil me with engaging conversations. Spoil me with your attentiveness. Spoil me by being kind, understanding, and genuine. Spoil me with laughter and let’s create memorable memories together. Spoil me by giving me your heart wholeheartedly. Spoil me baby, and I vow to do the same. Material things are okay, but nothing compares to knowing and feeling that you’re genuinely loved. Any man can buy a woman gifts, but it takes a special King to love his Queen properly.
Stephanie Lahart
We break our huddle and Eight immediately transforms into one of his massive avatars. His handsome features melt away, replaced by the snarling face and golden mane of a lion. He grows to about twelve feet, ten arms sprouting out of his sides, each of them tipped with razor-sharp claws. Nine whistles through his teeth.'Now we're talking,' Nine says. 'One of your parents must've been a chimæra. Probably your mom.
Pittacus Lore
School prepares you for the real world... which also bites.
Jim Benton
You know, I'm really starting to hate the insect life around here. Next time, remind me to bring a can of Off!
Julie Kagawa
The nature of yearning is urgent so as to guarantee evolution, change.
Darrell Calkins