2026 Reading Challenge

Joe Kilmartin > Joe's Quotes

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  • #1
    Charles Dickens
    “All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself. Surely a curious thing. That I should innocently take a bad half-crown of somebody else's manufacture, is reasonable enough; but that I should knowingly reckon the spurious coin of my own make, as good money!”
    ― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
    tags: excuse, pretext, self-delusion
    18 likes

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  • #2
    Mae West
    “I've been rich and I've been poor, and rich is better.”
    ― Mae West
    46 likes

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  • #3
    Rebecca West
    “Art is not a plaything, but a necessity, and its essence, form, is not a decorative adjustment, but a cup into which life can be poured and lifted to the lips and be tasted. If one’s own existence has no form, if its events do not come handily to mind and disclose their significance, we feel about ourselves as if we were reading a bad book.”
    ― Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
    tags: art, life, worth
    6 likes

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  • #4
    John Waters
    “But feeling down can make you feel up if you’re the creative type. The emotional damage may have already been done to you, but stop whining. Use your insanity to get ahead.”
    ― John Waters, Role Models
    30 likes

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  • #5
    Kiersten White
    “I didn't fall in love with you. I walked into love with you, with my eyes wide open, choosing to take every step along the way. I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we'd choose anyway. And I'd choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you and I'd choose you”
    ― Kiersten White, The Chaos of Stars
    1141 likes

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  • #6
    J.M. Barrie
    “Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning. ”
    ― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
    tags: childhood-memory
    2796 likes

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  • #7
    Groucho Marx
    “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”
    ― Groucho Marx, The Essential Groucho: Writings For By And About Groucho Marx
    tags: animals, books, dogs, friends, humor
    37980 likes

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  • #8
    E.B. White
    “If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”
    ― E.B. White
    tags: activism, humor, life, pleasure
    9207 likes

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  • #9
    E.B. White
    “One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.”
    ― E.B. White, Essays of E.B. White
    180 likes

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  • #10
    A.A. Milne
    “Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
    "Pooh!" he whispered.
    "Yes, Piglet?"
    "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you.”
    ― A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner
    tags: friendship, piglet, pooh, reassurance
    19639 likes

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  • #11
    T.H. White
    “I am a failure in the world. I do not rule people, nor deceive them for the sake of power, nor try to swindle their livelihood into my own possession. I say to them: Please go freely on your way, and I will do my best to follow mine. Well then, Maria, although this is not a fashionable way of going on, nor even a successful one, it is a thing which I believe in—that people must not tyrannize, nor try to be great because they are little.”
    ― T.H. White, Mistress Masham's Repose
    5 likes

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  • #12
    Dorothy Parker
    “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.”
    ― Dorothy Parker
    tags: beauty, classic-insult, humor, ugly
    3581 likes

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  • #13
    Dorothy Parker
    “Résumé
    Razors pain you,
    Rivers are damp,
    Acids stain you,
    And drugs cause cramp.
    Guns aren't lawful,
    Nooses give,
    Gas smells awful.
    You might as well live.”
    ― Dorothy Parker, Enough Rope
    tags: dark-humor, humor, suicide
    2225 likes

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  • #14
    Dorothy Parker
    “I hate writing, I love having written.”
    ― Dorothy Parker
    tags: writing, writing-process
    1541 likes

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  • #15
    Dorothy Parker
    “Inventory:

    "Four be the things I am wiser to know:
    Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.
    Four be the things I'd been better without:
    Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.
    Three be the things I shall never attain:
    Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
    Three be the things I shall have till I die:
    Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.”
    ― Dorothy Parker, The Complete Poems of Dorothy Parker
    tags: champagne, contentment, curiosity, doubt, envy, foes, friends, hope, idleness, inventory, knowledge, laughter, life, love, sorrow, sufficienty, superfluity, unattainable, values, wisdom
    1172 likes

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  • #16
    Dorothy Parker
    “They sicken of the calm who know the storm.”
    ― Dorothy Parker, Sunset Gun: Poems
    tags: calm, excitement, storm, women
    888 likes

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  • #17
    Dorothy Parker
    “You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think.”
    ― Dorothy Parker, You Might As Well Live: The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker
    tags: horticulture, puns
    817 likes

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  • #18
    Dorothy Parker
    “This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it."

    [Women Know Everything!]”
    ― Dorothy Parker
    tags: bad-reviews, fancy, raisins, terrible, wordplay
    744 likes

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  • #19
    If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor
    “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”
    ― Dorothy Parker
    tags: achievement, authors, elements-of-style, favors, grammar, happiness, writing, writing-process
    528 likes

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  • #20
    Oscar Wilde
    “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
    ― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan
    tags: inspirational, optimism, perception, pessimism
    46492 likes

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  • #21
    Libba Bray
    “Some mornings, she’d wake and vow, Today, I will get it right. I won’t be such an awful mess of a girl. I won’t lose my temper or make unkind remarks. I won’t go too far with a joke and feel the room go quiet with disapproval. I’ll be good and kind and sensible and patient. The sort everyone loves. But by evening, her good intentions would have unraveled. She’d say the wrong thing or talk a little too loudly. She’d take a dare she shouldn’t, just to be noticed. Perhaps Mabel was right, and she was selfish. But what was the point of living so quietly you made no noise at all? “Oh, Evie, you’re too much,” people said, and it wasn’t complimentary. Yes, she was too much. She felt like too much inside all the time. So why wasn’t she ever enough?”
    ― Libba Bray, The Diviners
    312 likes



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excuse
pretext
self-delusion
art
life
worth
childhood-memory
animals
books
dogs
friends
humor
activism
pleasure
friendship
piglet
pooh
reassurance
beauty
classic-insult
ugly
dark-humor
suicide
writing
writing-process
champagne
contentment
curiosity
doubt
envy
foes
hope
idleness
inventory
knowledge
laughter
love
sorrow
sufficienty
superfluity
unattainable
values
wisdom
calm
excitement
storm
women
horticulture
puns
bad-reviews
fancy
raisins
terrible
wordplay
achievement
authors
elements-of-style
favors
grammar
happiness
inspirational
optimism
perception
pessimism