Quotes by American Authors - Page 3308

Quincy and Fisher walked through all this in silence. Silence was the most common stock-in-trade between them, and the portfolio of their friendship was thick with it. So, without words, they stepped across the streets, their feet pressing the pavement with the same sounds, their toes turned just so; they knew what life was like at each other's side. Sometimes he would speak, or she would, small offerings on the altar of their joint survival.
Beth Brower
In the midst of happiness or despairin sorrow or in joyin pleasure or in pain:Do what is right and you will be at peace.
Jess Rothenberg
Good books often answer questions you didn't even know you wanted to ask
Will Schwalbe
I just want you, to be mine, forever. I want a piece of you no one else has ever had, and I want you to own my heart forever.
Ashley Beale
Good God, Keith.""Yes, I've talked to Him too and I'm still waiting on his Guidance...
John Grisham
He in whom the love of repose predominates will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political party he meets — most likely his father's. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nonfiction at its best is like fashioning a cabinet. It can never be a sculpture. It can be elegant and very beautiful, but it can never be sculpture. Captive to facts - or predetermined form - it cannot fly.
Peter Matthiessen
If you cannot be open-minded, then you do not possess your ideas, your ideas possess you.
Bryant McGill
Bodily vigor is good, and vigor of intellect is even better, but far above both is character. It is true, of course, that a genius may, on certain lines, do more than a brave and manly fellow who is not a genius; and so, in sports, vast physical strength may overcome weakness, even though the puny body may have in it the heart of a lion. But, in the long run, in the great battle of life, no brilliancy of intellect, no perfection of bodily development, will count when weighed in the balance against that assemblage of virtues, active and passive, of moral qualities, which we group together under the name of character; and if between any two contestants, even in college sport or in college work, the difference in character on the right side is as great as the difference of intellect or strength the other way, it is the character side that will win.
Theodore Roosevelt
When you're my size in the pros fear is a sign that you're not stupid.
Jerry Levias
No one does anything uncharacteristic of who they are.
Richard Bach
It is a great mystery to me how the problems of others seem like simple arithmetic while my own appear as complicated as a calculus equation.
Richelle E. Goodrich
What other people think is important to them. What you think has great importance to you.
Debasish Mridha
...if we consider the difference between William Henry Jackson packing in his cameras by mule, and the person stepping out of his car to take a picture with an Instamatic, it becomes clear how some of our space has vanished; if the time it takes to cross space is a way by which we define it, then to arrive at a view of space 'in no time' is to have denied its reality.
Robert Adams
But if you live your life without feeling and compassion for your fellowman—you are as an animal—'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth' & happiness & peace of mind is not attained by living thus.
Truman Capote
I found that things are always easier when I do them with love.
Debasish Mridha
This concept upends the way most people think about their subjective experienceof life. We tend to place a lot of emphasis on our circumstances, assuming that whathappens to us (or fails to happen) determines how we feel. From this perspective, thesmall-scale details of how you spend your day aren’t that important, because whatmatters are the large-scale outcomes, such as whether or not you get a promotion ormove to that nicer apartment. According to Gallagher, decades of research contradictthis understanding. Our brains instead construct our worldview based on what we payattention to. If you focus on a cancer diagnosis, you and your life become unhappy anddark, but if you focus instead on an evening martini, you and your life become morepleasant—even though the circumstances in both scenarios are the same. As Gallaghersummarizes: “Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum ofwhat you focus on.
Cal Newport
How many words are you having trouble with, sir?""Just the ones that I've highlighted.""I count at least a dozen, and I haven't gotten out of the first paragraph.""That's as far as I got, too. I'm not sure you and I speak the same language.
Howard Tayler
A disastrous flaw in our design is that the heart always defies the brain.
Piper Payne
It is important for people to know that no matter what lies in their past, they can overcome the dark side and press on to a brighter world.
Dave Pelzer
God asks no man whether he will accept life. This is not the choice. You must take it. The only question is how.
Henry Ward Beecher
Confidence is not arrogance.
Sheila Renee Parker
When all that hate energy was focused on me it was transformed into a fantastic energy. It was supporting me. If you are centered and you can transform all this energy that comes in it will help you. If you believe it is going to kill you it will kill you.
Yoko Ono
Education is that process by which thought is opened out of the soul, and, associated with outward . . . things, is reflected back upon itself, and thus made conscious of its reality and shape. It is Self-Realization. As a means, therefore, of educating the soul out of itself, and mirroring forth its ideas, the external world offers the materials. This is the dim glass in which the senses are first called to display the soul, until, aided by the keener state of imagination . . . it separates those outward types of itself from their sensual connection, in its own bright mirror recognizes again itself, as a distinctive object in space and time, but out of it in existence, and painting itself upon these, as emblems of its inner and super-sensual life which no outward thing can fully portray. . . . A language is to be instituted between [the child’s] spirit and the surrounding scene of things in which he dwells. . . . He who is seeking to know himself, should be ever seeking himself in external things, and by so doing will he be best able to find, and explore his inmost light.
Amos Bronson Alcott
Ask yourself this question: Of this had been a white child found dead in a black neighborhood, would they be knocking on every door? 'Yes, sir.' Searching high and low? 'Yes, indeed.' It this had been a white child, would they paint him as a sinner and not a saint? 'Lord, no...
Ravi Howard
Never pursue happiness, just be happy.
Debasish Mridha
By now, it is probably very late at night, and you have stayed up to read this book when you should have gone to sleep. If this is the case, then I commend you for falling into my trap. It is a writer's greatest pleasure to hear that someone was kept up until the unholy hours of the morning reading one of his books. It goes back to authors being terrible people who delight in the suffering of others. Plus, we get a kickback from the caffeine industry...
Brandon Sanderson
We gathered up the kids and sat up on the hill. We had no time to get our chickens and no time to get our horses out of the corral. The water came in and smacked against the corral and broke the horses' legs. The drowned, and the chickens drowned. We sat on the hill and we cried. These are the stories we tell about the river," said [Ladona] Brave Bull Allard. The granddaughter of Chief Brave Bull, she told her story at a Missouri River symposium in Bismark, North Dakota, in the fall of 2003.Before The Flood, her Standing Rock Sioux Tribe lived in a Garden of Eden, where nature provided all their needs. "In the summer, we would plant huge gardens because the land was fertile," she recalled. We had all our potatoes and squash. We canned all the berries that grew along the river. Now we don't have the plants and the medicine they used to make.
Bill Lambrecht
MADDIE: Change is good. It’s not always easy, but it’s good. And it’s time I made a few changes.
Ruby Dixon
One thing we knew for certain- despite all our certainties, it was very difficult to guess what one individual was thinking at any given moment.
Joshua Ferris
Facing your fears robs them of their power
Mark Burnett
. . . I could't get lost in the story, not the way you need to be, to become somebody else.
Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
We must be courageous yet humble and do what is right not what will make you popular,
Debasish Mridha
Opportunity is present is wreckage as much as it is in that which is wonderful. It’s not so much how it comes to us, but what we do with it.
Craig D. Lounsbrough
We're only three class sessions in and I'm already behind? And to hear it from him? This buttoned-up Bible-thumper I can't get out of my head?
Christina Lauren
I always win.
Brittany Noel Bostic
If you're male, and you're Christian and living in America, your father is your model for God. And sometimes you find your father in your career.
Chuck Palahniuk
A lot of men wonder what a woman wants. The answer is power. There are many ways to get it, but the easiest way is to tear other girls down. Any girl can play that game, but there's no way to win, except not to play at all.
Mara Wilson
Sabbath, in the first instance, is not about worship. It is about work stoppage. It is about withdrawal from the anxiety system of Pharaoh, the refusal to let one’s life be defined by production and consumption and the endless pursuit of private well-being.
Walter Brueggemann
Let us be cautious in making assertions and critical in examining them, but tolerant in permitting linguistic forms.[Carnap’s famous plea for tolerance to which W.V. Quine took exception.]
Rudolf Carnap
I've never met a person, I don't care what his condition, in whom I could not see possibilities. I don't care how much a man may consider himself a failure. I believe in him, for he can change the thing that is wrong in his life any time he is ready and prepared to do it. Whenever he develops the desire he can take away from his life the thing that is defeating it. The capacity for reformation and change lies within.
Preston Bradley
In spite of what most assume, it is surprisingly tough to make the mind and body work together as a unit.
H.E. Davey
First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
It is a full-time job to cope with alien elements from both interpersonal sources and societal influences.
Lisa Firestone
What needs to be cleansed and refreshed in your life? What yucky stuff has created a stagnant and negative environment that muddies your waters and depletes your energy? Be willing to stir things up and make it messy for a short while so you may enjoy more clarity ad vibrancy for a long while.
Susan C.Young
21. Take in a great breath of air and then blow it out. Contained in that single breath were at least three nitrogen atoms that were breathed by every human being who ever lived, including Jesus Christ, William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill, and every president of the United States. This illustrates the fact that everything we do affects other people, positively or negatively. That’s why it is foolish to say, “Do your own thing if it doesn’t hurt anybody else.” Everything we do affects other people.
James C. Dobson
Creativity adds signature or aesthetic that elevates passion to purpose and fancy to enchantment.
Pearl Zhu
my 6 foot goddessmakes me laughthe laughter of the mutilatedwho still needlove...she has saved mefrom everything that isnot here
Charles Bukowski
Be the winner in your life!
Tae Yun Kim
one blow in anger [would] kill, probably, a child from aged two to eight. Those over eight would take two blows to kill.
Patricia Highsmith
Food allergy is one of the least diagnosed and most prevalent causes of symptoms, especially depression.
Sherry A. Rogers
People who are afraid of the truth never find it.
Amy Harmon
Remember: It costs nothing to encourage an artist, and the potential benefits are staggering. A pat on the back to an artist now could one day result in your favorite film, or the cartoon you love to get stoned watching, or the song that saves your life. Discourage an artist, you get absolutely nothing in return, ever.
Kevin Smith
It is obvious that politics would gain much in prestige if the money-raising campaign were conducted candidly and publicly, like the campaigns for the war funds. Charity drives might be made excellent models for political funds drives. The elimination of the little black bag element in politics would raise the entire prestige of politics in America, and the public interest would be infinitely greater if the actual participation occurred earlier and more constructively in the campaign.
Edward L. Bernays
Curiosity is the main energy...
Robert Rauschenberg
Looking at the elementary schoolers in their colorful T-shirts from various day camps, Percy felt a twinge of sadness. He should be at Camp Half-Blood right now, settling into his cabin for the summer, teaching sword-fighting lessons in the arena, playing pranks on the other counselors. These kids had no idea just how crazy a summer camp could be.
Rick Riordan
My only armor is my belief that life has meaning...
Dean Koontz
We can’t help the way we’re born. We can’t help what we are, only what life we choose to make for ourselves
Leigh Bardugo
There is one other error in the Gondsman's line of resoning, I believe, on ap urely emotional level. If machines replace achievement, then to what will people aspire? And who are we, truly, without such goals? Beware the engineers of society, I say, who would make everyone in all the world equal. Opportunity should be equal, must be equal, but achievement must remain individual.
R.A. Salvatore
A singer who refused to sing, a friend who wasn't her friend, someone who was hers and yet would never be hers. Kestrel looked away from Arin. She swore to herself that she would never look back
Marie Rutkoski