Quotes by American Authors - Page 2626

Maybe that's why I'd been chosen to become the first female Reaper in history. I think the boys had been losing too many souls.
Tish Thawer
We wish to learn all the curious, outlandish ways of all the different countries, so that we can "show off" and astonish people when we get home. We wish to excite the envy of our untraveled friends with our strange foreign fashions which we can't shake off.
Mark Twain
I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals. I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.
A. Whitney Brown
Don’t sell based on inventory. Inventory based on who you want to sell.
Richie Norton
Worldly ambition inhibits true learning. Ask me. I know. A young man in a hurry is nearly uneducable: He knows what he wants and where he’s headed; when it comes to looking back or entertaining heretical thoughts, he has neither the time nor the inclination. All that counts is that he is going somewhere. Only as ambition wanes does education become a possibility.
Andrew J. Bacevich
I've learned that the universe doesn't care what our motives are, only our actions. So we should do things that will bring about good, even if there is an element of selfishness involved. Like the kids at my school might join the Key Club or Future Buisness Leaders of America, because it's a social thing and looks good on their record, not because they really want to volunteer at the nursing home. But the people at the nursing home still benefit from it, so it's better that the kids do it than not do it. And if they never did it, then they wouldn't find out that they actually liked it.
Wendy Mass
How much of assumed national and personal character comes from the fact that we have never truly known need to the point of having our character tested? Willing conscientious objectors underwent controlled starvation and confirmed how quickly it impacts the initiative and generosity we like to think of as "American" characteristics.
Nathaniel Philbrick
All we are, all we can be, are the stories we tell," he says, and he is talking as if he is talking only to me. "Long after we are gone, our words will be all that is left, and who is to say what really happened or even what reality is? Our stories, our fiction, our words will be as close to truth as can be. And no one can take that away from you.
Nora Raleigh Baskin
Leowin: Don't worry Luthiel. 'Truth's existence never depended upon belief.
Robert Fanney
No demigod can heal your heart."Aphrodite to Reyna, at Charleston
Rick Riordan
She dressed in bohemian clothes, penned novels, panted, and yearned to roam forgotten corners of the world. She was habitually defiant and fearless, and when she felt controlled, as she often did, she could be irresistibly willfull. Mostly, she was bored silly by the vanilla sort boys who trailed her around, and by the stodgy set in Miami Beach.
Laura Hillenbrand
Anyone can be tough for a season. It takes a special kind of human to rise to life's challenges for a lifetime.
Chris Matakas
Walking in ignorance is a choice for those who find reality too hard to face.
T.F. Hodge
It doesn't mean anything;It doesn't change anything,Except the way I see myself,And it's not supposed to do that.I shouldn't feel this way;I should cry this way,But I kind of do.Yeah, I kind of do.
Margo T. Rose
We did all the tourist crap, but I just wanted to sit in a cafe and watch people
Sara Shepard
He could never care about you. He sees you in the same way they see all of us: ruthless, cruel and power hungry." He laughed callously. "I guess we're about to prove them right.
Heather James
You're not Forsaken. You're Chosen for Purpose.
Vanessa Richardson
I wanted to hug him, tell him it was gonna be alright. Tell him I'm not as fragile as I look. But I can't hug him. I can't even hold his hand. I can't tell him it's gonna be alright, because it’s not; not as long as he's dead and I'm alive.
Janae Mitchell
The physical threat posed by climate change represents a crisis that is not only material but also profoundly spiritual at its core because it challenges us to think seriously about the future of the human race and what it means to be a human being.
Grace Lee Boggs
Earthly nature may be parsimonious, but the human mind is prodigal, itself an anomaly that in its wealth of error as well as of insight is exceptional, utterly unique as far as we know, properly an object of wonder.
Marilynne Robinson
What can we learn from women like Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday that we may not be able to learn from Ida B. Wells, Anna Julia Cooper, and Mary Church Terrell? If we were beginning to appreciate the blasphemies of fictionalized blues women - especially their outrageous politics of sexuality - and the knowledge that might be gleaned from their lives about the possibilities of transforming gender relations within black communities, perhaps we also could benefit from a look at the artistic contributions of the original blues women.
Angela Y. Davis
I travel back in time, falling back into what I know for certain, the historical data I cling to in order to not go mad, not assume I made a suicidal and well-informed error in marrying this man.
Suzanne Finnamore
People do get hypnotized by the hard choices and stop looking at the alternatives. The will to be stupid is a powerful force
Lois McMaster Bujold
You are the only author of your book that matters.
Suzette R. Hinton
joking and laughing as they headed off to their new life
Markee Anderson
Be aware of the company you keep. You'd be surprised how easily they rub off on you. You don't want to attract the wrong influence.
Amaka Imani Nkosazana
But even the longest day wears to sunset.
Marion Zimmer Bradley
...how much did pride count in the ebullition of passions in his breast?
Edith Wharton
You said you were allowed to lose it,' some part of her reminded herself. 'Not yet, not yet.
Holly Black
Vidalia, open those eyes and look at me. As with all things, we do this together, Darlin'.
Julia Mills
I don't see,' I said, 'how people stand being old. Your insides all dry up. When you're young you're so self-reliant. You don't even need much religion.
Sylvia Plath
I was born for this moment in Earth's history and if you believe you are a lightworker, so were you.
Eileen Anglin
The future you have, tomorrow, won't be the same future you had, yesterday.
Chuck Palahniuk
Listening to Leonard, Madeleine felt impoverished by her happy childhood. She never wondered why she acted the way she did, or what effect her parents had had on her personality. Being fortunate had dulled her powers of observation.
Jeffrey Eugenides
Mr Reichman was brilliant and very good at what he did, but he was still a man, and men rarely knew what decisions a woman had or hadn't made.
Charlotte Rogan
Keep your focus on the things you can actually control. Choosing to center on anything else will either stop you in your tracks or significantly slow you down.
Sherene McHenry
So it ever must be in the conflicting scenes of life, in the long, weary march, each one walks alone. We may have many friends, love, kindness, sympathy and charity, to smooth our pathway in everyday life, but in the tragedies and triumphs of human experience, each mortal stands alone.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The actual language of life is not the charts and graphs and stuff we map out to feel smart. The hidden language we are speaking is really about negotiating the feeling God used to give us.
Donald Miller
Many of us are slaves to our minds. Our own mind is our worst enemy. We try to focus, and our mind wanders off. We try to keep stress at bay, but anxiety keeps us awake at night. We try to be good to the people we love, but then we forget them and put ourselves first. And when we want to change our life, we dive into spiritual practice and expect quick results, only to lose focus after the honeymoon has worn off. We return to our state of bewilderment. We're left feeling helpless and discouraged. It seems we all agree that training the body through exercise, diet, and relaxation is a good idea, but why don't we think about training our minds?
Sakyong Mipham
What are you doing extra? That's what counts. That's when you're working hard - when you're going above and over what's expected of you" (102). - Tony Gonzalez, "The Giant Within
Denzel Washington
The meaning of good and bad of better and worse is simply helping or hurting.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
SE Self Execution the act will always be greater than the pain.
Stanley Victor Paskavich
If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom, we need only observe it in election times.
Mark Twain
I do not know if all cops are poets, but I know that all cops carry guns with triggers.
Ralph Ellison
Politicians and low profiles rarely went together.
Marshall Thornton
Pride is instilled. It's what we carry with us every day of our lives.
Nancy Arroyo Ruffin
An authentic and genuine life grows like a sturdy tree. And like a tree, it grows slowly. Every time you make a different and better decision, it grows a little. Every time you choose to do the right thing, even when nobody would find out otherwise, it grows a little. Every time you act with compassion, relinquish your right to strike back, take a courageous stand, admit fault or accept responsibility, it grows a little.
Steve Goodier
If one bad thing befell me, I immediately linked it to every bad thing that had happened in the last week or might happen in the coming week. And when I became sad, I was prone to wallow in grief, piling up my woes and sprawling on them like a dragon on a hoard.
Robin Hobb
I have learned to accept the fact that I will make mistakes at nearly every turn, but that those mistakes can be softened if I am honest about who I am to my girls.
Liane Holliday Willey
The summer kings are gods, and we are finally, in the end, just men.
Alaya Dawn Johnson
Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to.
Mitch Albom
It seems to me it's not genetic gifts for tolerating stress or resisting pain that take individuals through extraordinary feats of endurance. When it comes to the most daring of Earth's expeditions, success always seems to come down to four factors:One: Physical preparation. Training. You are truly the only thing you have complete control over. No stone unturned.Two: Know everything possible about the elements, the obstacles. Knowledge is power.Three. Surround yourself with brilliant and honorable people. Four. Unshakeable faith. Go so far as defiance. Refuse to accept limitations and mediocrity. I won't let anybody tell me I can't touch the stars because I just might get there. And I will surely never get there if I don't keep trying.
Diana Nyad
[…] I have a date this afternoon." "Oh, Lord." Jake closed his eyes. "Who are you going to destroy now?""I beg your pardon?""The hotel would appreciate it if you'd just throw back the men you don't like without maiming them.""I haven't maimed anyone.""You almost drowned Lance, you scared Peter into heart palpitations, you stabbed Donald with a fork, and you hit Brad over the head with a bottle." Jake shook his head. "And they still ask you out.
Jennifer Crusie
Opportunity does not waste time with those who are unprepared.
Idowu Koyenikan
Mom, I feel good. This dress makes me feel like someone I didn't know I could be. I've never owned anything like it. But if when you see this - when you see me- you think it's a pity, that it's a shame I didn't lose a few, then screw you, Mom. Try harder.
Julie Murphy
He thinks himself rather an exceptional young man, thoroughly sophisticated, well adjusted to his environment, and somewhat more significant than any one else he knows.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Probably one of the most surprising discoveries I've made while studying the Bible is that God does not condone religion. It's a consistent theme throughout scripture. Religion is man's external effort to please God. But God doesn't care about all my efforts to get it right. He wants more, something far greater.
Chris Hodges
Each suburban wife struggles with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night- she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question-- 'Is this all?
Betty Friedan
One's character is set at an early age. The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life. I hate to see you swim out so far you can't swim back.
Wendelin Van Draanen
Anger ... it's a paralyzing emotion ... you can't get anything done. People sort of think it's an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don't think it's any of that — it's helpless ... it's absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers ... and anger doesn't provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever."[Interview with CBS radio host Don Swaim, September 15, 1987.]
Toni Morrison