Riley's quotes

(showing 1-50 of 1,102)

"You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children."
— Madeleine L'Engle

tags: books, children, difficult, grown-ups, write, writers, writing
2,990 people liked it

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader."
— Robert Frost

tags: reading, writing
541 people liked it

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein."
— H. Jackson Brown Jr.

401 people liked it

"Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for."
— Alice Walker

tags: art, bad, good, writing
87 people liked it

"Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?"
— Kurt Vonnegut

tags: censorship, freedom, writersblock, writing
111 people liked it

"So what? All writers are lunatics!"
— Cornelia Funke (Inkspell)

tags: humor, writing
238 people liked it

"I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paper work."
— Peter Devries

tags: writers, writing
20 people liked it

"Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one."
— Flannery O'Connor

36 people liked it

"My favourite piece of information is that Branwell Brontë, brother of Emily and Charlotte, died standing up leaning against a mantle piece, in order to prove it could be done.

This is not quite true, in fact. My absolute favourite piece of information is the fact that young sloths are so inept that they frequently grab their own arms and legs instead of tree limbs, and fall out of trees.

However, this is not relevant to what is currently on my mind because it concerns sloths, whereas the Branwell Brontë piece of information concerns writers and feeling like death and doing things to prove they can be done, all of which are pertinent to my current situation to a degree that is, frankly, spooky."
— Douglas Adams (The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time)

tags: death, writers, writing
44 people liked it

"A public library is the most democratic thing in the world. What can be found there has undone dictators and tyrants: demagogues can persecute writers and tell them what to write as much as they like, but they cannot vanish what has been written in the past, though they try often enough...People who love literature have at least part of their minds immune from indoctrination. If you read, you can learn to think for yourself."
— Doris Lessing

20 people liked it

"A great writer reveals the truth even when he or she does not wish to."
— Tom Bissell

tags: truth, writers, writing
28 people liked it

"Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing."
— Margaret Chittenden

tags: brainstorm, chittenden, crazy, margaret, room, writers
15 people liked it

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
— Maya Angelou

tags: life
11,005 people liked it

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
— Maya Angelou

tags: angelou, maya
4,864 people liked it

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."
— Maya Angelou

tags: inspirational, writing
1,652 people liked it

"The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them."
— Maya Angelou

tags: people
845 people liked it

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."
— Maya Angelou

tags: inspirational
1,376 people liked it

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."
— Maya Angelou

469 people liked it

"I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights."
— Maya Angelou

tags: people
461 people liked it

""My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style" "
— Maya Angelou

257 people liked it

"There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth."
— Maya Angelou

tags: truth
148 people liked it

"Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art."
— Maya Angelou

135 people liked it

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."
— Maya Angelou

tags: books, inspirational, library
212 people liked it

"Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away."
— Robert Maynard Hutchins

tags: exercise, humor, laziness
5,815 people liked it

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
— Mark Twain

tags: action, actions, disappointed, disappointment, discover, dream, dreams, explore, sail
7,546 people liked it

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
— Mark Twain

tags: education
3,071 people liked it

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
— Mark Twain

tags: humor
1,996 people liked it

"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said 'I don't know'."
— Mark Twain

tags: humor, knowledge
1,443 people liked it

"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."
— Mark Twain

tags: books, truth
1,098 people liked it

"Go to heaven for the climate and hell for the company."
— Mark Twain

tags: christian, humor, philosophy, theology
1,918 people liked it

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."
— Mark Twain

tags: literacy
5,999 people liked it

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
— Mark Twain

tags: individuality, majority, minority, pause, reflect, wisdom
6,064 people liked it

"You can't shake hands with a clenched fist."
— Indira Ghandi

46 people liked it

"Be the change that you wish to see in the world."
— Mahatma Gandhi

tags: action, change, inspirational, philosophy, wish
11,315 people liked it

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
— Mahatma Gandhi

tags: carpe-diem, education, inspirational, learning
7,911 people liked it

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win."
— Mahatma Gandhi

tags: conflict, fighting, inspirational, trial
1,293 people liked it

"Where there is love there is life."
— Mahatma Gandhi

tags: life, love
1,092 people liked it

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes."
— Mahatma Gandhi

tags: freedom, humanity, mistakes
603 people liked it

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
— Mahatma Gandhi

tags: animals, ethics, gandhi, morals
238 people liked it

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
— Mahatma Gandhi

tags: anti-christian, christ, christianity, christians, jesus
925 people liked it

"7 DEADLY SINS

Wealth without work

Pleasure without conscience

Science without humanity

Knowledge without character

Politics without principle

Commerce without morality

Worship without sacrifice."
— Mahatma Gandhi

tags: character, commerce, conscience, happiness, humanity, knowledge, money, morality, pleasure, politics, principle, sacrifice, science, sin, sins, wealth, work, worship
833 people liked it

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
— Mahatma Gandhi

tags: discovery, identity, self-discovery, service
253 people liked it

"I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent"
— Mahatma Gandhi

tags: evil, violence
122 people liked it

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss

tags: be-yourself, confidence, individuality, those-who-matter
17,841 people liked it

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth."
— Mark Twain

tags: dance, heaven, hurt, inspirational, life, love, sing
15,762 people liked it

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
— Dr. Seuss

tags: cry, crying, experience, happiness, joy, life, optimism, sadness, smile, smiling
14,429 people liked it

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
— Albert Einstein

tags: einstein, human, humor, infinity, nature, philosophy, science, stupidity, universe
11,805 people liked it

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."
— Eleanor Roosevelt

tags: confidence, inspirational, wisdom
10,227 people liked it

"Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
— Albert Camus

tags: friends, friendship
9,247 people liked it