Gretchen > Gretchen's Quotes

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
― George Mallory

“We are never allowed to forget that some books are badly written; we should remember that sometimes they're badly read, too.”
― Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree

“The only queer people are those who don't love anybody.”
― Rita Mae Brown

“What are you waiting for? What are you saving for? Now is all there is.”
― George Balanchine

“I typed becasue I had to. I typed because I was afraid I might disappear." --Edgar Mint”
― Brady Udall, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint

“God is a comedian playing to an audience that is too afraid to laugh.”
― Voltaire

“There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.”
― Bertrand Russell

“If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody come sit next to me.”
― Alice Roosevelt Longworth

“before speaking, notice what motivates your words.”
― Lama Surya Das, Awakening The Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World

“I have a weakness for tough guys who read.”
― Lisa Lutz, The Spellman Files

“Trust was accumulated quickly, due primarily to the brute strength of the man's gentleness, his thereness.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.”
― alice walker, The Color Purple

“I would always rather be happy than dignified.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”
― May Sarton

“All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes -- characters even -- caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you.”
― Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale

“Things happen to you they happen. They dont ask first. They dont require your permission.”
― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

“...if I could give you just one gift ever for the rest of your life it would be this. Confidence. It would be the gift of Confidence. Either that or a scented candle.”
― David Nicholls, One Day

“He seemed wild and dangerous and carefree--well, he would, would'nt he? What were motorcycles and black leather pants if not the uniform of a wild, dangerous and carefree man?”
― Marian Keyes, Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married

“She liked being reminded of butterflies. She remembered being six or seven and crying over the fates of the butterflies in her yard after learning that they lived for only a few days. Her mother had comforted her and told her not to be sad for the butterflies, that just because their lives were short didn't mean they were tragic. Watching them flying in the warm sun among the daisies in their garden, her mother had said to her, see, they have a beautiful life. Alice liked remembering that.”
― Lisa Genova, Still Alice

“A pat on the back to an artist now could one day result in your favorite film, or the cartoon you loved to get stoned watching, or the song that saves your life. Discourage an artist, you get absolutely nothing in return, ever.”
― Kevin Smith

“All the happiness there is in this world comes from thinking about others, and all the suffering comes from preoccupation with yourself.”
― Shantideva

“This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.”
― Stephen King

“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”
― George Bernard Shaw

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books.”
― Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

“You are in charge of your own karma, your own life, your own spiritual path, and your own liberation, just as I am in charge of mine.”
― Lama Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World

“I've also learned that you don't always get to pick the people with whom you travel the journey. You sometimes may think you do, but don't be deceived. And the corollary of that - and this was my real lesson - is that you start to realize that you can love even the people you don't like and must love and help everyone.”
― Lama Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World

“Forgiveness means letting go of the hope for a better past.”
― Lama Surya Das

“You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not.”
― Jodi Picoult, My Sister's Keeper

“I have a problem with people who take the Constitution loosely and the Bible literally.”
― Bill Maher